Lesson One

He first saw her when he was at his wits' end.

It was his first day of being a trainee, officially. After trying out for the SM auditions for 2 years in a row, he had finally made it in. Now it was time for him to sharpen his skills even further. If he tried hard enough, he could eventually become an idol too.

But being the clueless fourteen-year-old he was, he had gotten himself lost inside the building itself. No matter how much he scrutinized the map in his hands, he still couldn't figure where Dance Studio C was supposed to be.

He was hopelessly lost; he couldn't even find his way back to the counter at the entrance, for goodness sake!

Standing in the middle of the hallway meekly was not what Oh Sehun wanted to do. He was going to be running late for his very first lesson if he did not hurry up and find the correct destination soon.

And he wasn't about to ask the other trainees either. It wasn't because of the fact that most of them just brushed past him without a care, rushing off to their next class. No, it was mainly because he had his pride to uphold. He wasn't going to ask anyone and make himself to be a fool on the first day of being a trainee. That wouldn't leave a very good impression on him. Terrible, actually.

Now he immensely regretted not asking the lady at the counter for clearer directions before setting off.

He took a deep breath and looked down at the long hallway, lined with various training rooms for different purposes. Sehun scratched his head in frustration. How was he going to find the correct room in time? Sure, he could easily go through the signs that were hung outside the rooms one at a time, but it would take too long a time. It didn't help that his anxiety was taking over his mind, and he was not in the right condition to even be thinking straight now.

He looked at his watch. 8.50.

Time was definitely not on his side.

Sehun could literally feel the time closing in on him. He felt short of breath, and he clenched his chest with both hands, the map long forgotten, crumpled up. He closed his eyes shut, and slowly, took long deep breaths. He had always felt like this when stressed, and doing the latter always made him feel better.

But today was different. He could feel the stress pressing against him, nudging at him to explode. And he knew he would if he didn't stop it soon.

Okay, more deep breaths. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. You can do this, Sehun told himself. Just take it like a man, put down your damn pride and-

"Why are you standing in the middle of the hallway?"

He turned to the source of the voice. In front of him stood a girl, around the same height as him, but a little shorter. She was wearing a pair of black training pants together with a blue cotton tee. Even though she was sweating profusely, she still radiated an innocent charm - definitely a typical Korean beauty.

She was also standing there with her hands on her hips, waiting for Sehun to respond.

He scrambled for an answer. "I- I'm fine!"

But as he latched onto her hazelnut eyes, he knew that she knew Sehun was definitely far from being fine.

"Oh fine," he finally gave up. "I'm lost okay?"

The girl squinted her eyes at him, her nose crinkling in the process. Sehun had to admit, she did look cute for that moment. But the way she looked at him made him feel nervous. She seemed to be judging him, but on what, Sehun didn't know.

After a short while she asked him, "Where are you off to?"

As if remembering that it was embarrassing for him to ask someone else, let alone a girl, Sehun quickly looked down and muttered "Dance Studio C".

The girl thought for a moment. "Dance Studio C? It's not even on this floor."

He flushed red. "Oh."

But she immediately gave him a wide smile, showing off her pearly whites. "I'll bring you there though! I have the next hour off!" She skipped to the front, her ponytail swishing along with her. Sehun had to run forward to catch up with her.

As they walked on, she told him, "Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Jung Soojung. Nice to meet you! Are you a new trainee? I've never seen you here before."

Sehun nodded shyly. "Um... I'm Oh Sehun. Today's my first day, and I got lost because..." he trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Because you're a stupid person who couldn't even gather up the courage to ask for directions.

"Because you think that asking for directions is embarrassing for your first day?" Soojung had answered for him. He looked at her with his eyes wide open. How did she know?

She looked at him knowingly. "Many people around here experience the same thing too. They don't ask, so eventually when they get to their training rooms, they get scolded by the instructors harshly. Sometimes, they even make you stay back to clean the room by yourself!"

She looked straight ahead and continued. "But... the thing is, I don't why people want to put their head up so high. Isn't it better to ask than to not know what you're doing?"

Soojung turned the corner and walked up the stairs. Sehun followed suit.

"I've heard this saying before - He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever. Don't you agree? I mean, of course you'll eventually find your way around here, but it would make your life easier if you just asked right?" she mused.

Sehun was in deep thought. He knew she was right; he had spent a whole 20 minutes trying to find the dance studio to no avail, but the moment Soojung arrived, he was already on his way there.

Scratch that. He was already in front of the door. The sign 'Dance Studio C' hung proudly on the front.

"By the way," Soojung's voice broke his train of thoughts. "How old are you?"

"Um, born in 1994."

"Omigosh, me too!" she beamed. Sehun could feel light practically radiating out of her. "I was born in October though. What about you?"

"April," he said slowly.

"Ah, so you're my oppa! I'm calling you Sehun oppa from now on," Soojung said teasingly.

Sehun looked down at his feet and shuffled nervously. Truthfully, he didn't mind; this just meant he would have a larger circle of friends in the company.

"You better go in soon though, or else you will really be late!"

He checked his watch for confirmation - 1 more minute to nine. It definitely was a close shave, and he was fortunate to have met Soojung there and then.

"Um, thank-" he stopped his sentence midway when he realised that she was already walking away. Soojung turned back and waved at him, a smile etched on her face.

"Bye Sehun oppa! Have fun! See you soon!" And she was off.

It was true that Sehun officially started training at 9 o'clock. It was true that his first lesson was to learn how to dance. It was true that he got some helpful tips in improving his skills.

But if Sehun was to be honest with himself, his very first lesson of the day was learning how to ask others for help no matter how much his pride gets to him.

~~~

[A/N] Hello :D I hope this chapter is satisfying for you. I really enjoyed writing it, even though I got distracted a lot in the process :P I'll say this is an introductory chapter, to bring out our 2 main characters ;) So Sehun (in this story) has quite a few flaws that you'll see along the course of this story; some of them small, some of them a bit bigger, some of them even overlap. And who's there to fix it? Obviously Krystal :P Not that she doesn't have any flaws, but she's learnt from them since she has been a trainee longer than Sehun, so I guess she sorts of passes down the stuff to him...? Well, you get what I mean. XD

And I thank those who subscribed to this story! To be honest, I thought my foreword was so lacking that no one would even bother reading it XD

I don't think I can update this tomorrow, but I'll see you guys soon! ^^