Chapter One: The Meeting

Once upon a time...

Wait... let's take this in another direction...

April 27^th, 2012

I had just finished the longest ever shift at the local Hot Topic and was elated to be almost to my house because my brother was finally coming home from a year away at college. But when I had come closer to my house I became more and more confused by what I was seeing. I truly did not understand. Why was my dad's entire congregation standing outside my house. It wasn't like anyone had passed away... Had someone died? Who? I began thinking of all of the elderly people in my father's church, but they were all there...

What happened?

Where were my parents?

Where was my mom?

Where was my dad?

What about my older brother? Wasn't he supposed to be coming home from college today?

And then I saw the smashed vehicle in the road...

and it hit me...

It was my family...

They all were gone...

And I was left all alone.

May 11^th, 2012

“Can you believe that it's been two weeks already?”

I don't even remember who said it, but someone in my class was trying to recall what happened two weeks ago. I try not to but all the memories just begin to whirl through my head as if the past two weeks had all happened in the past 30 seconds.

The memories of identifying the three corpses, having to get a lawyer to pursue the drunk driver who murdered my family, the funeral, the sob story speeches, the overwhelming and intolerable pity that people continue to give... I just can't handle it.

“Yea. I honestly can't believe that the 'Cat Who Sneezes' video already has, like, 20 million views online!”, someone else had responded to the asker's question.

Oh. Well, I guess that's interesting too...

July 30^th, 2012

“That's the last of it”, I whisper to myself as I place the last box on the donation truck.

I decided about a month ago that I needed to just start fresh in a new place. I decided to get rid of almost everything. I got rid of their clothing, their beds, sheets, old toys, everything.

I enlisted the help of the church members to pack up everything to donate it. I couldn't let this bring me down. The only thing I wanted to keep was the pictures... Of which there were more than enough.

I walk back in the house and take a look around. The house looks so plain. And empty.

I think I am going to put the house up for sale and find an apartment. I need to get out of here. I feel as if I'm drowning in grief.

I need to snap out of it.

I can make it through this.

August 4^th, 2012 – S.M. Entertainment Youth Audition - NYC

How did Rhi ever convince me to do this thing??

Over the past few months, a certain ability seems to have appeared due to the loss of my family.

Now I have the urge to write out my feelings in to poetry... I know this sounds crazy but it has really happened... I write lots of poems and sometimes set the poetry to a song I know or even create my own melody to go along with it. My best friend Rhianna overheard me and told that I should try and pursue it, that it'd be a way to start new and actually perform somewhere other than my bedroom.

Although I am not Asian in any way, shape, or form, I have been teaching myself Korean for a few years, and am almost fluent in speaking it. I heard of an audition for a Korean entertainment company and Rhi forced me to go...

Well, I guess, here I go...

I walk into the building where the audition is being held, and there are hundreds of people here to reach for their dream. I receive the application to fill out and that is when my nerves reach their peak.

What if they don't like me?

What if I mess up?

What if I forget everything?

“... 65! Is number 265 still here?!”, a staff member screams across the loud, boisterous room.

265? Who could that be?

I look around the room, to try and see who ws stupid enough to not realize it's their turn, only to find 137 pairs of eyes staring right back.

I glance at the number plastered on the front of my pastel blue shirt and see numbers staring right back and screaming 265 right at me... I was the one who they had to search for... I felt even worse than I had felt already... I had a bad feeling about this...

When the staff saw my number, he came over to me and said in a rough way, “Your group is about to enter the audition room, you better be ready”. When I was placed at the end of the line with people who were numbered 260 through me I was scared witless. I then overheard some of the auditioning people from the group who was before us and almost ran out the door to try starting anew somewhere else.

They were amazing! I would never be able to top that... Why should I even try?

“Next group!”

We entered the room and saw a very elegant lady sitting at a desk with a camera to record the auditions to show to her boss once the auditions were completed. The auditions continued down the line. One by one we all sang our hearts out to try at the rare chance that we all wished to receive.

After we had all finished our auditions we were told that we could leave and that they would be in touch to tell everyone the results and that they wished us the best.

As I was leaving the building, a young looking man came up to me.

“Are you Naomi Nowak?”, he asked abruptly.

“Y-yes”, I could barely speak, his presence had startled me so severely.

“Hello. My name is Lee Jun Ki. I am an independent manager from Korea and I saw your audition. I am quite intrigued by your talent. Would you like to go have some coffee with me? I would like to talk to you about somethings.”

“Sure. I guess.”

To be continued... :)

Please comment... This is my first attempt at writing a story and would enjoy some feedback... thank you!! :)