“Heard from mum and dad recently?” I asked my sister, Hyunah, with a mouthful of rice as I sat next to her on the small sofa. She was watching CSI: New York – her favourite show. I thought it was a stupid and unrealistic show, but didn’t complain. I liked spending time with her, even if it meant just sitting next to her whilst she watched the TV intensely.

She shook her head, eyes never moving from the screen. She sat with her knees up in front of her, chin resting on her and her arms wrapped around her legs in the foetal position. Her long brown hair was shoved into a messy bun on the top of her head and she wore grey sweat pants and a t-shirt with some boy band on it.

“I wonder where they are.” I pondered out loud, taking another mouthful of rice.

“As long as they’re alive, I don’t really care.”

Hyunah had been bitter towards our parents ever since they upped and away 6 years ago. All they said to her was that they’d be back in a couple of months and to make sure she looked after me. They never came back until a year and a half later – and even then it was only for a week. They told us they’d bought a house down in Busan where their largest restaurant was but they were still travelling round the country keeping check on the rest of the restaurants in the chain. They sent us money every month but only just enough to cover the basics of food and utilities. The rest of our money was hard earned by Hyunah and me.

She was now 24 and had been with her boyfriend, Jaehyun, since she was 19. She worked as a Gym instructor at the local fitness centre where she met Jaehyun and although it wasn’t amazing money, she enjoyed it and it kept her fit. Otherwise she’d do exactly what she was doing now, sitting on the sofa watching the TV eating chocolate and crisps every day. ‘You should join the gym’ she’d suggest to me ‘it’d be good for you’ I would then remind her that I did just as much exercise (if not more) as a dancer. We often got into silly arguments about whose job was healthier and more intense but it always turned into fits of giggles. She was fun to be around, but sometimes she would get low, and go into a minor state of depression. There was nothing I could do to help her in those times. Only Jaehyun knew what it took to get her back to her normal self. He once summarised that it was probably the ‘loss’ of our parents that did it to her, and the pressure of taking responsibility for me until I grew old enough to look after myself. I felt guilty, but there was nothing I could do.

Suddenly my phone started ringing in my pocket. I quickly put my bowl of rice on the floor and dug my phone out of the depths of my jeans. “Yoboseyo?”

“Hey Junhyung it’s Doojoon.”

“Hey man, what’s up?”

Doo Joon had been my best friend since I was 6 years and never once had he faltered to be the most amazing person I had ever known. He was caring, outgoing, fun, sensitive and a lady killer. He had supported me throughout my whole life and was the Hyung I relied on most.

“We’ve got a group of undergraduates from Seoul Uni coming in tomorrow to look around the place and sample some classes. Wanna do it with me?”

“Yeah, sounds great man. What’re they studying?”

“Applied music, I think. So they should be pretty cool.” He replied. “Might be a couple of cute girls if we’re lucky.” He laughed.

“Score! Come in normal time?”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

I hung up and picked up my rice again.

Hyunah turned to look at me, giving me a look as if to say ‘well…?’

“What?”

“Who was that?”

“Only Joon.”

“What did he want?”

“Why do you want to know?” I raised my eyebrow.

“Hey, I just wanna know!” She laughed.

“He wanted to know if I’m pregnant.”

“.” She punched my elbow, knocking half of my rice on the floor. “Yah! You idiot, you better clean that up!”

“Hey that was totally your fault!”

“You should have just told me what he wanted straight.”

I crossed my arms and pouted.

“Hahahaa, don’t get all pouty with me, mister. I’m older than you.”

I stuck my tongue out and got up to clean the rice off the floor, knowing my sister was far too lazy to do it herself. God knows how she kept her job.

***

Entering the CUBE building the following morning as usual I spotted Doo Joon swiping his staff card through the barriers to get in. “Hyung!” I shouted to get his attention. He turned around and waved at me. I ran to him, swiped my card and high fived him. “Alright?”

“Sure am. Ready for today?”

“Not really sure what to expect but of course I am.” I beamed. I was actually looking forward to meeting and showing round the group of students. Anything different from my usual schedule was a refreshing relief to the routine.

“Awesome. Let’s go get ready.”

Once changed into our dance gear, consisting of sweat pants, a wife beater and sneakers, we headed out to the lobby to wait for the group we were showing round.

“Do you know their schedule?”

“Here.” He handed me a piece of paper with a timetable drawn up on it which presumably what the students were following for the day.

Your hosts for the day are our professional dance instructors, Yoon Doo Joon and Yong Jun Hyung. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to ask.

10:00 – Welcome talk.

10.30 – Tour around CUBE Entertainment building.

12:00 – lunch in main cafeteria.

13:00 – Sample singing class.

14:30 – Sample acting class.

15:30 – Break.

16:00 – Sample dance class.

17:30 – End of day talk.

“They should be here any minute.” He stated.

After a couple of minutes, a group of around 8 students who looked around 20/21 years old entered the building looking rather confused. They each had the same piece of paper in their hand as I had just looked at so we assumed that this was our cue to welcome them.

Doo Joon took the lead and walked towards them confidently with a large smile on his face. “Seoul University Applied Music?” he asked brightly.

A few of them nodded nervously.

“Great! My name is Yoon Doo Joon and this,” indicating to me, “is Yong Jun Hyung. We’ll be your guides today. If you have any questions feel free to ask us whenever you like. If you follow us, we’ll take you to one of the conference rooms and we’ll begin from there.”

I smiled at the students and walked behind them as they followed Doo Joon so that none of them got lost along the way to the conference room which was a good few minutes’ walk around the building. I hadn’t had a chance to properly look at their faces when they arrived but looking at them from behind was quite interesting. They were all of an average height and they all had jet black hair, apart from two: one girl who had platinum blonde hair which met the middle of her back, and the other was a boy who had golden hair which covered his ears and looked in need of a good cut. His hair shone in the bright lights as he walked under them and his posture never faltered from a completely straight and upright back, but his head slightly hung as though he was looking at the knees of the person in front of him. He wore tight light blue jeans which could have been spray-painted to his skinny legs, and a leather jacket with I presumed a t-shirt underneath. He walked on the right of the group and I couldn’t help but notice that he walked slightly apart from the others, not talking to anyone, just stuck in his own thoughts but not showing any signs of not liking it that way. It looked as though something was bothering him but that was probably just me feeling slightly sorry for him walking separate from the others who were chatting amongst themselves and to Doo Joon.

When we arrived at the conference room, all the students sat at a seat and looked towards Doo Joon and I in anticipation. The boy I was looking at from behind sat in the seat nearest to the back, leaving one empty seat between him and the rest of the group. My heart ached at his loneliness. Did he choose to be like this? Or was he isolated for a reason?

I couldn’t wonder for long as Doo Joon nudged me to start the welcome talk I had prepared. “Oh…right.” I nodded, removing the boy from my thoughts to concentrate.

“Welcome to CUBE Entertainment. As you know, my name is Yong Jun Hyung. I’ve worked here at CUBE for five years as a dance instructor with Doo Joon. We usually are the ones responsible for teaching the new trainees dance as well as helping them fit into the intense routine of their trainee life which can, at times, be extremely tough.” I cleared my throat. “Within the company there are many departments including Drama, Dance, Vocal, Production, Financial and many more. Today we’re going to give you a tour of as much of the building as we can and later on in the day you’ll be able to sample a few of our classes for yourselves which we hope you’ll enjoy and will give you the insight you intended to gain today.”

All the time I spoke, the boy never once looked up from his lap to me. His eyes stayed focused on his fingers twiddling in front of him, however I noticed that when I mentioned dance, his ears pricked and although he was not looking at me, I could tell he was listening. Perhaps he enjoyed dance as much as I did? I would have to speak to him to find out, but something held me back from conversing with him; as though it was forbidden to talk to him, like some kind of mystical prince.

I had never thought anything like this about another boy, but he was very very pretty. The first thing I had noticed about him except his hair was his flawless glowing skin. It looked as smooth as porcelain and as clear as crystals. His hair was styled carefully into a messy but neat look – oxymoronic, I know, but I couldn’t describe it any other way. He looked like a model straight out of Vogue or GQ. He was truly fascinating to look at. His isolation within the group made him even more interesting, but forbidden. It was difficult not to stare at him, but I tried my best to control my eyes throughout the day. It would be when we came to my dance class that I would truly have to stop myself from concentrating on him too much. But maybe it would be a chance to finally be able to talk to him.

For now, I had to focus on the tour that we were about to give. I could tell that secret glances were going to be ruling the rest of the day for me. But as long as he didn’t notice, it was fine. 

A nice long chapter to properly start off the story! :)

Thank you to everyone who has subcribed and shown interest so far.. please spread around to your friends and the internet!!

Although you can probably all guess... who do you reckon the mysterious boy is that Junhyung is so interested in? hehe. What do you think of Junhyung and Hyunah's relationship? Pretty cute, huh? 

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please anticipate the next~

#nowplaying: Tell Me Where - Jin Akanishi My favourite Japanese artist - check out his American debut album 'JAPONICANA' it's really awesome :D