It was our first day of training and the atmosphere in the dorm was ecstatic as we all enjoyed Migoon's delicious ramen.

"Where did you learn to cook like this, Migoon?" Aki asked through a mouthful of noodles.

"My mum taught me from when I was young," Migoon smiled to herself, satisfied.

"Mmm, this is really good. The only ramen I ever got in England was crappy stuff from packets," I said, reminiscing about the countless packets of dried noodles I'd bought back in England.

Jaeyoon agreed, "Yeah, in Canada there are barely any good korean restaurants."

"So everyone," said Aki brightly. "Are we ready for our first day?"

I looked down at the bracelet on my wrist, took a deep breath and nodded.

"Let's go," I chirped.

The first thing on my timetable was my dance class, Jaeyoon's was the same. We headed to the dance studio together, eagerly anticipating what was waiting for us. As we stepped inside, a loud gasp escaped from my mouth.

"Wow! This is amazing!" We stared in awe. There were spotlights in the ceiling, highlighting the polished wooden floor. A long row of mirrors ran along one wall, while the rest were black. Incredibly modern. A thin woman with black glossy hair appeared in front of us dressed in sweats.

"Hello, nice to meet you!" She spoke in korean. "Call me Kwon Seonsaengnim," she smiled and bowed.

We introduced ourselves in korean and bowed back. I wasn't sure if she spoke English. Luckily, since Jaeyoon was from a korean family, she was able to translate anything lost on me.

"Okay, you're the first two here, Jaeyoon and Soapy. Just do some stretches while we wait for the others."

She spoke too fast for me to understand much but I managed to catch our names at the end. Alas, the second Korean who could not pronounce my name.

"You reckon if you debut they'll give you a different name?" Jaeyoon giggled as she stretched.

"Ha ha," I said sarcastically.

When the others had arrived there were ten of us, Jaeyoon and myself plus eight other girls.

"Okay girls," the teacher said to Jaeyoon and me. "We've been preparing for the end of month evaluation but luckily you haven't missed much. Come and watch at the front so you can see the whole dance, then we'll walk through it. All warmed up girls? Okay, let's go. And full out please!"

We sat infront of the mirrors and tried to take in as much as possible as soon as the music kicked in. The song was Stronger by Kanye West. I was taken aback by the talent the girls had, and it must've showed on my face because when the dance finished the teacher helped me up and laughed.

"Don't worry, these girls have all been training for at least 6 months. You've been put in this group because we reckon you can keep up."

Jaeyoon translated quickly at the side and I thanked her, then turned to the teacher.

"Kwon Seonsaengnim," I told her in korean that I was sorry and wasn't fully fluent yet but I was learning. She seemed pleased and then began to go through the dance with us.

After 2 hours I was tired but not exhausted. I hadn't been practising non-stop for the full two hours since I had to actually learn the dance first and I knew our teacher had taken it easier on us because it was our first day. I had a little bit of time to shower and change before heading to my first korean lesson. I said goodbye to Jaeyoon, clearly she didn't need a lesson in korean, and found my way to a small classroom setup.

Cautiously, I pushed the door open and, thankfully, I was greeted by Callum, the person in the same audition as me.

"Hi!" I waved.

"Hey, our teacher isn't here yet. This is Young Jae, he's from the US."

"Hey," he greeted with a deep voice.

"Nice to meet you, but, I hope you don't mind me asking, you have a korean name but, you don't speak korean?"

He smirked, "Yeeeah, my parents are korean but they never taught me. Kinda wish they had now, haha."

"Ahhhh, makes sense." 

After the korean lesson we made our way to the canteen for lunch. I saw Aki and Jaeyoon chatting with Harry Potter guy Josh at a table. They waved us over when they saw us.

"Heey you guys. Josh, Aki, Jaeyoon, meet Callum and Youngjae," briefly introducing everyone.

Sitting down I noticed someone missing.

"Hey.... Where's Migoon?"

"She's in her last year of school so she's there until 3, then she'll come and train," Aki explained.

"Man, she has it rough," Youngjae said. We nodded in agreement.

"So," said Josh. "How is everyone's first day going?"

We chatted laughed non-stop for the whole hour, everyone sharing stories. Jaeyoon told us that she'd had a lesson in rapping and had promptly had her timetable changed to a Japanese class since she had apparently so much. We roared with laughter, but I calmed down and consoled her, telling her it meant she could improve her other skills.

 That evening I didn't want to go back to the dorm straight away so I headed up to the rooftop to watch the sunset. I was surprised when I saw Callum. He had his back to me and was looking out over the city. I closed the door behind me and he turned his head at the sound.

"Oh, hey Sophie. I didn't know it was you."

I walked over the stand next to him and leant on the wall.

"Isn't this city beautiful at this time?"

I stared at the vibrant city below me and nodded slowly.

"It is beautiful, I wish we had more time to see it."

He laughed, "Yeah..."

"Your first day been okay then?" I asked him.

"It was good, tiring but good. Yours?"

"Yeah, mine was good too," I said as I pulled my jacket around me tighter.

"Cold?"

"Its just a little windy," I smiled. I looked out over all the other buildings, thinking of how busy everyone was here. It was so different to where I used to live. Not that nobody was busy there, I could just sense a whole other culture. It was nothing like home. So different.

"Hey... Are you okay?"

I looked up at Callum, confused until he brushed away a tear on my cheek that I didn't even realise was there.

"Oh," I sniffled. "I guess I'm just a little homesick." He sighed and put his arm over my shoulders.

"You'll be fine, I'm sure we'll all get used to it soon enough. And we're all here to help each other, right?"

I nodded and smiled as I looked up at him.

"Thanks, Callum."