Half an hour later we pulled up to the hotel. It was a large brown brick building, with an archway leading to the entrance. A doorman opened the door for me and I stepped into the lobby. The floors were covered with golden colored tiles, and shiny chandeliers hung from the ceiling. There was a fountain directly in the middle of the room surrounded by a benched seating area. I went up to the check-in desk, received my room key, and made my way to the elevator.

When I arrived at my room number, 809, I opened the room door and quickly dropped my bags on the floor. I looked around the room and then ran to the King sized bed. I dived on it and then began jumping before realizing that if I accidently fell and hurt myself I wouldn’t be able to audition tomorrow. I sighed and lay down. Here I was in a different country, skipping school, the day before I audition for Super Junior M, and I was sitting in a hotel room staring up at the blank, white ceiling. I got up and went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth; I ended up taking a quick shower before ending up on the bed again staring at the ceiling. I ran over the idea of what I had to do tomorrow. The audition started at nice o’clock sharp, and the audition place was only 15 minutes away from my hotel. I knew there were at least 15,000 people auditioning, but for some reason, I wasn’t nervous anymore. Maybe it was just because my excitement about being in a new country overpowered my nervousness, but now the only thing I really felt was boredom.

I didn’t go out and look around because I knew I would end up getting lost, and the part of China I was in was mostly hotel buildings, and big business corporations, it really wasn’t what someone would call a tourist destination. I debated what to do and the television grateful that the hotel had English channels. I scrolled through and almost had a heart attack when I saw Teen Wolf was on. It was my favorite show! An old episode was playing, but I didn’t care at that point, I was just happy I had something I recognized in this different country.

A few Teen Wolf episodes later I was getting hungry so I called room service and ordered noodles. After what seemed like an eternity, a knock came at my door. I opened it to see a young man maybe in his early 20’s at my door with a big, round silver dish cover. He asked where I would like it and I told him to put it on the table. Once he put it on the table I expected him to leave but he just stood near the door with his hand stretched open. Thinking this was some Chinese custom I didn’t know about I quickly took his hand at shook it. He looked at me like I was a lunatic. It then dawned on me that he wanted a tip so I reached into my blue jeans and pulled out some form of Chinese currency, I didn’t know how much it was so I just gave it to him anyway. He snatched it out of my hand, looked at it, scowled at me and then left. ‘Well,’ I thought to myself, ‘That wasn’t embarrassing.’ I opened the noodle dish and my stomach growled immediately. I mixed them and began eating. By the time I was done I could barely walk and I promised myself I wouldn’t eat again for the rest of my life. I got up and walked slowly to the bed. I plopped down on it and tried to go to sleep, ignoring the nagging feeling in the back of my head that that was a bad idea.

The darkness surrounded me, suffocating me. Light was shining through the top of the hole, but it was too far, there was no way I could reach it. I heard voices laughing, “Did you see that kid?” They said, “He’s a waste of space. No talent what so ever. He thinks he can make it into this company? Ha! Not a chance.” The light went out.

I didn’t know how long I stayed there. It was cold, empty. I stayed quiet. What exactly could I say?

A buzzing sound came from a distance. I tried to focus in on it. It came closer, and closer, getting louder, and louder.

I jerked up out of my sleep, I looked around my brightly lit up room, and covered me eyes. The buzzing was still there, and I looked around to find the source. It was my phone alarm clock. I turned it off and continued to rub my eyes. I checked the time and saw that it was already 8o’clock. I jumped out of bed and raced to my suitcase. I was still in yesterday’s clothes of jeans and a hoodie, and I had to change. I threw clothes out of the suitcase left and right until I pulled out black jeans and a black t-shirt. I put on my favorite black high tops and ran to the bathroom. I washed my face quickly and brushed my teeth. I fixed up my messy hair and went back into the room to grab my phone. I looked at the clock, and it was only 8:10. I called for a taxi, and he said that he would be outside of the hotel in five minutes.

As I made my way out of my room, I ran straight into someone and we both crashed to the ground. I went to apologize but then I realized it was that hotel worker that I mistakenly shook hands with yesterday. The guy that brought me my food. I tried to help him up but he pushed me away from him and got up. I was sure he was going to hit me but he just looked at me and shouted. He was speaking too fast so the only thing I could make out was, “What the hell is wrong with you?” and, “People like you make me hate my job.” He walked off and I never got the chance to apologize. I made my way down to the lobby and went out through the revolving door. My taxi was already there which I was thankful for. I opened the door and got in.

“Hey, kid where you off to?”

“The Yangshin business building please.” The man looked at me through the rearview mirror before driving. It was a few minutes into the ride before he started speaking to me again.

“Are you going to that building for the Super Junior M audition?” I looked at him surprised.

“Yeah. How did you know about that?”

“My daughter works there,” he said, “It’s all she’s been talking about for weeks. Some lucky kid would get into the legendary boy group Super Junior.”

“My cousin Zhoumi is in that group.”

He snickered, “Yeah sure kid, and my wife is the queen of England.” I was a little offended that he didn’t believe me, but I couldn’t honestly blame him.

We sat in silence for a while before the car stopped. “Well good luck kid. If you make it in, I’ll have driven a future celebrity around.”

“Thanks,” I said and stepped out of the taxi. He drove off, and I entered the building. As soon as I stepped in, I was sure my eyes were going to pop out of my head. The size of that place was massive, but there were 15,000 people in that room! I had never seen so many people in my life, and it was extremely hot in that room. More people pushed me from behind as they entered the building and it dawned on me that it was about time I get my audition number.

I followed the English signs that read ‘Registration Numbers’ and there was a lady at a table with a pile of papers and safety pins next to her. I went up to the table,

“Name?” She asked.

“Henry Lau” She entered my name in the computer than wrote my number on a paper that said SM on it.

“Safety pin this on the middle of your shirt, if it’s not on there clearly the judges will not let you audition.” I thanked her and walked away from the table. I looked at the paper. I was number 4,843. Wow, it would be a while before I would audition. I safety pinned it on my shirt and just stood there not knowing exactly what I would do next. I looked at my phone, it was 8:55, and auditions would start in 5 minutes.

“Hey.” Someone said from behind me. I turned around to see a boy about my age with black hair and brown eyes. He was taller than me, and his height was a little intimidating.

“Hey.” I said back.

“What’s your name?”

“Henry Lau, and yours?”

“Lang Kaichi” Well that was a unique name I guess. Well I bet my name was unique in china too. “What are you auditioning as?”

“A singer, you?”

“Yeah, same here.” I looked at his registration number. It was 3,997, he would audition before me, but at least I wouldn’t be left by myself the whole time.

Before we could talk about much anything else a short, a Chinese woman who had her hair pulled up in a ponytail came onto the little stage that was set in the room.

“Hello, and welcome to the SM Super Junior M auditions. My name is Miss Lee. As you know you may audition for the group as a singer, rapper, or dancer. You will have 30 seconds to audition. No more no less, so choose what you want to do carefully. This is a one day audition, so if we are interested in you, you will be called back. There will be a maximum of three call backs and if you are the new member you will be chosen today. I will be telling you now if you do not seriously want this you can leave now because we do not have time for people who think this is a game. It is not fair for the people who really want this to be kicked out for someone who is not really serious about this.” She gave a short pause for people to leave if they really wanted to, and to my surprise at least twenty people left. “Okay. Now that you all know what is going to happen I will tell you how we are going to do this. We will call you up 100 at a time, and as you can expect because the turn out for this is so big, this will be a very long audition. As we call your group we want absolute silence so each person can focus on their talent and not be distracted. For dancers who are appearing in the group you will all preform together to the same song and we will assess each of your abilities. So will the first hundred people follow me?” She got off the stage and a large group of people followed her. People began sitting on the floor and me and Kaichi joined them.

After four hours of agonizing waiting it was finally my groups turn. We followed Miss Lee into a large room were at the end a row of judges and a camera were waiting for us. This is where my nerves really started to kick in. The room looked exactly like it had looked in my dream. The judges, while they didn’t have the same faces, had the same stone-cold, unimpressed expression. I had to remind myself that it was just a dream. There was nothing to worry about. Just like Kelsey had said, I only needed to rely on what I practiced and believe in myself. I was going to pass this audition for her, my mom, and myself.

The judges asked for the dancers first and somehow more than sixty people in my group decided to audition as dancers. I felt a little calmer now that I wouldn’t have to have as much singing competition as I expected. Since there were so many people who wanted to show their dancing the judges split them up into two groups. Each of the groups showed what they could and I had to admit some people were really amazing while others, others we just shouldn’t talk about.

Next, the rappers. There were 34 of them, and since each person had to rap individually, it took almost 20 minutes for them to finish.

Finally it was the singers turn. All the people in my group who wanted to sing besides me were girls, and I felt like that gave me a little edge over the competition.

I was the third person in my group to sing, and let me tell you I sang. I used that 30 seconds like it was the last 30 seconds of my life and I hit all my notes well. I thought I even saw a little eye twitch from one of the judges but I wasn’t sure.

After we were done the Miss Lee asked us to wait back in the lobby. I found Kaichi and I told him how I did and he told me he did somewhat of the same thing except he sang a song in all high notes. Now all me and him could do was wait for the judges to see if we made the callback.

It was five hours later till the final group auditioned and in a few minutes we were going to find out who made the call back. I sat down and silently prayed that I would make it, and it was only Miss Lee’s voice that snapped me out of my thoughts. “Okay,” she began, “I would like to inform you that out of all of you that have auditioned… only 100 of you made the callback. If I call your name then please continue to wait here, if I do not, then I’m sorry but you did not pass.” I swallowed hard and waited for her to call out names. When she started I heard happy cheers of people who made it, and heard the desperate whimpers of people who had still not heard there names. Each passing second I was getting more and more nervous, but then she said, “Henry Lau.” And my heart almost leaped out of my chest. The sense of relief and happiness that I felt at that moment could not possibly be expressed. Later I heard Kaichi’s name being called, and we looked at each other glad that we both had made it. When she was finished she told all those whose names had been called to wait for further instructions and all those who did not make it, she wished them the best of luck and encouraged them to continue pursuing their dream.

After those who did not make it left, there was only the hundred who made it and Miss Lee left in the room. “Congratulations,” she said, “Now please do follow me.” We followed her into the room we had previously entered to audition, and we were facing the judges once again.

A tall man at the center of the table stood up. “Congratulations on making it this far, but do not stop counting your blessings just yet. You still have a long way to go. You will now do exactly what you did before in the previous round of auditions, but this time we will narrow it down to only three. So show us what you’ve got like your life’s dream depends on it, because trust me, it does.”  

Like before dancers went first, however, there were only about 15 dancers in this group, all of which were really good, except this one girl who fell during her routine. Next were the rappers. There were at least 40 rappers and all of which had unique styles of rapping. The judges nodded their heads at one of the rappers, and they whispered something amongst themselves. Finally, it was time for the singers, and unlike the first time, I had to go last. While watching the other singers sing I started becoming incredibly nervous. They were all really good, especially Kaichi. He has this unique thing in his voice, and he hit high notes like a pro.

When my turn came around, I chose to sing a song that incorporated both high notes and low notes so that I could show the judges my vocal range. I sang the song the best I could and when I finished I saw that one judge’s eye twitch again, and this time I was sure of it. I didn’t know if it was a good sign or a bad sign, I was just happy that I got some sort of reaction out of him. As I stood back in line, the judge that stood up when we came in stood back up again. “Thank you. If you will just now wait in the main lobby, we will tell you who has made it to the next call back shortly.”

As we entered the main lobby and sat down once again I turned to Kaichi, “Listen you were really great in there. You’re really talented.”

He looked at me, I expected a ‘thank you’ or ‘Oh no, you’re too kind,’ but instead I got, “Shut up. I know how talented I am. I don’t someone like you stating the obvious. It’s true I was nice to you before, but that was before you turned into actual competition. Don’t talk to me. Don’t look at me. And don’t get in my way. Got it?” I looked at him with obvious shock in my eyes, I gave him a ‘You must be some kind of psycho look’ and then scooted as far away from him as I could.

Miss Lee came back out about ten minutes later with a paper in her hand. “Again, whoever I call please come this way, and whoever I don’t call, I’m sorry but you did not pass.” She looked at the paper in her hand and started calling out names. “Choi Hichae.” A girl with black hair stood up and I recognized her as one of the dancers. “Lang Kaichi.” That didn’t surprise me. “And Henry Lau.” I stood up and let out a sigh of relief. I was so close. So close to actually getting what I have been dreaming of. It was all so surreal.

Miss Lee led us back into the room for a final time before we all stood facing the judges for the last time. The judge who stood up the last time we had come in stood up again, and I realized he must be the head judge.

“Miss Choi Hichae, congratulations on making it to the final comeback. Your dance skills are wonderful and it is clear that you love what you do. Mr. Lang Kaichi. Wow. You are incredibly talented, it was such an honor to have you here today, and whether you get chosen or not I hope you continue to expand your music career. Finally, Mr. Henry Lau, I have to say I did not expect that kind of voice to come from a boy like you. It is very inspiring, and it makes people listen. It is no question that you have talent, and I hope that you as well continue on in your music career. The passion and your love of music comes out through your voice.” He took a deep breath and in that moment I knew that I would either have made my dream come true, or just have lost it all. The nerves hit me like a ton of bricks and it was the most nervous I had ever felt. “So…. The person who has passed this audition, and gets a spot in Super Junior M is……”