“Joonie!” Chan called, looking around the dorm for his son. “Joon. Really, where are you? I have to go soon.” He looked at the clock on the wall. It was 3:03 P.M. He had roughly an hour to bring Joon to someone so he could go to his class.

Joon peeked his head out of the cabinet he hid in under the sink. Chan caught this small motion and made his way to the sink. He smirked.

“Ah… well since I can’t find you I guess I will just have to leave you here all by yourself.” Chan looked down at the cabinet door and chuckled lightly as Joon hurried out of the small space on his hands and knees.

“No. Don’t do that.” Joon got off his hands and knees and looked up at his father, genuinely worried. Chan smiled and lifted his son off the ground and positioned him on his hip. He poked Joon’s forehead as he made his way to the door.

“I’m just kidding. We are going to see if our new neighbor can watch you.”

Chan slipped on his shoes that waited for him at the door and stepped out, still carrying Joon. After closing the door behind him Chan placed Joon on the floor, holding out his hand. Joon placed his hands in his fathers and the two moved down the hallway to the next door.

Chan knocked, then waited. He was slightly nervous that they would refuse. He hadn’t thought about who was going to watch Joon while he was a trainee, and it was quickly becoming a real worry for him. He would need to find something that would work, and soon.

A girl opened the door, shock quickly crossing her face. Her hair laid wavy and messy around her shoulders. The lower portion was a lighter blonde, while the top was a chestnut brown. Her sweats were twisted, giving the impression that she had been asleep before Chan knocked.

“Oh.” She said in surprise, when she looked down to see the three-year old. She quickly pulled her two-toned hair into a messy bun and smoothed out her clothes. It was embarrassing to have strangers see you at your worst.

Chan bowed at her, still slightly nervous.

“Hello. I’m sorry. I just had a question to ask you.”

She bowed in response and Chan quickly added, “I’m Ahn Chan…by the way.”

She opened the door wider, responding softly that her name was Tam Hyeru. She continued to look at the pair curiously. Chan looked down at his son before he began to speak again.

“I…uh… I have a class tonight and I didn’t quite think of finding someone to watch my son until the last minute. So I’m really sorry to ask, but, do you think you might be able to watch him for me?”

A small smile broke through Hyeru’s confused expression. She looked between the two again before focusing her attention on Chan.

“Yeah. I think I can do that. He’s your son? He’s cute.”

Joon grinned and turned to Chan.

“She said I’m cute, dad.” He turned back to Hyeru and bowed his head a little. “Thank you.”

Her smile widened and Chan sighed in relief.

“Thank you so much. I promise I won’t ask you again. I’ll cook tonight too, as a thank you.”

She shook her head, a few hairs falling from her bun.

“No, it’s fine. Really. I just need to change. Is that okay?”

Chan nodded, pulling the key to his room from his pocket. He held it out to her.

“Yeah. I really have to run though. Just... when you are done you can go over to my dorm.”

He kneeled down and faced Joon after she took the key from his hand.

“Be nice Joon, don’t cause her any trouble. She was nice enough to help, Okay?”

Joon nodded and Chan dropped his hand.

“I’ll leave first. Thank you Hyeru-ssi!”

Chan took off at a jog towards the stairs. Their dorm was only on the second floor, so it would be faster to take the stairs than waiting for the elevator. With the nervousness of finding someone to watch Joon vanishing, a new nervous settled in Chan’s stomach as he jogged to the company building.

This was his first class and he had no idea what to expect, it was completely natural for him to be a little bit nervous. He stopped to collect his breath outside the door to the practice room. Upon entering he found a handful of people seated on the floor, casually talking to each other.

After scanning the crowd, who hadn’t even acknowledged the door opening, he made his way slowly to an empty spot on the floor. The room they were in was one of the dance studios, but today they were going to be in a Presence class. Chan wasn’t sure what it meant, but he assumed it had something to do with acting, since it was his focus.

The door opened again and a dark-haired girl entered the room, panting slightly. Chan looked up at her, noticing that again, nobody else even moved a muscle and continued their conversations. He watched the look of confusion cross her face as she scanned the crowd, presumably looking for somewhere to sit like Chan had. He didn’t want anyone to feel left out, so as her gaze made its way to him he lifted his arm and waved for her to sit near him.

She stared at him blankly for a moment before making her way slowly over and sitting next to him. There was nowhere else to sit, and it made it much more comfortable to feel welcomed in a seat rather than simply sitting next to someone. Chan watched her walk over and offered a small smile and a bow of his head in greeting.

“Chan.” He said.

She looked up from her notebook that she placed in her lap.

“Yeji” she responded.

Chan turned his head, looking around the room again, before returning his eyes to Yeji.

“Are you a new trainee?”

He saw her eyes harden slightly at the question. He smiled at her again in an attempt to show her that he was being friendly.

“I probably had the same look on my face when I came in. Nobody even moved to see who was entering.” Chan spoke again and Yeji’s eyes softened as she realized he wasn’t going to make fun of her for being new. She adjusted her sitting position so that she was more comfortable and smiled back at him.

“Isn’t that strange? In school, everyone looks when the door opens.” She laughed slightly

Chan glanced at the door as another trainee entered, this one moving fluidly across the room to sit next to someone. He faced Yeji again.

“You are a student too? How old are you?”

She nodded before responding.

“I’m 21. How old are you?”

Chan laughed to himself slightly. When she said school, he had thought she meant high school.

“I’m 24. I’m older.” He smiled again.

A quick look of surprise crossed her face before she bowed, still seated.

“Oh. I’m so sorry. I didn’t even bow to you properly.”

Chan laughed and waved his hand towards her.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not that much older than you anyway.”

She smiled.

The door opened and a tall man in a blazer jacket stepped in. Unlike every other time, all eyes instantly fell on the door when it opened. Chan and Yeji glanced at each other, laughing quietly at the quick change.

The man walked around the room, passing out papers to each seated trainee before he made his way back to the front, leaning against the mirrored wall.

“Good evening everybody. To any new trainees that don’t know me, my name is Park Kyungra. What I gave you is a script. It’s simple, just a dialogue between two people. So I would like you to pair up, and practice these lines. In about an hour I will ask a few of you to run through the dialogue up here. On Wednesday we will have all of you run your lines and we will decide what class you will be in. Alright?”

The room responded as a whole.

“Yes, Teacher.”

He seated himself at a chair in the corner of the room and looked across the heads as they paired up and started memorizing.

Yeji looked down at the script in her hands. It was between a boy and a girl. She looked over to Chan.

“Partners?” she asked

He looked up from his own script with a smile and nodded, rotating his seating position so they were facing each other.

“It seems to be rather cheery, not like a first date sort of scene, more like…..” Chan paused, reading through the script a little more “… more like a girl hanging out with her older brother.”

Yeji nodded, also reading through the script. After reading the last line she looked up at Chan.

“Do you want to just read it through with me first, and then we can work out any kinks?”

He flipped back to the first of the two pages before looking up at Yeji.

“Alright. Let’s do that. Your line is first.”

The class was rather laid back, most of it was spent reading the lines back and forth until memorized, with occasional comments from their instructor. Four other trainees were chosen to read their lines in front of everybody, which came as a relief to both Chan and Yeji. When the class ended Chan stood up to stretch and Yeji slowly gathered her things.

“Ah. What time is it?”

Chan asked as he stretched. Yeji stood up, reaching into her pocket to make sure she brought money with her to buy some groceries. As Chan dropped her arms Yeji looked at her watch.

“It’s 7:30”

The two slowly made their way to the door with the rest of the trainees. Chan nodded his head. The pair chatted casually about the class as they made their way through the building, when they stepped outside the front door into the cool night air Chan adjusted his jacket and turned to Yeji.

“So, we can meet up tomorrow night to go over our lines again?”

She nodded.

“Yeah, sure. But I have to run now. I need to go pick up some groceries to cook for my roommate.” She lifted her arm to wave and Chan laughed.

“That’s funny. I do too.”

Yeji dropped her arm and shook her head.

“Looks like I’m just stuck with you today then, huh? Come on. We can go together.”

Chan stuck his hands in his pocket and started walking, Yeji following close behind.

“I guess so.”

Yeji fell into step next to him and the two made their way down the sidewalk. Luckily enough for both of them, there was a store nearby where they could pick up some simple things. The two carried comfortable conversation as they walked. Yeji was slightly surprised at how comfortable she was, since she wasn’t very good at meeting new people.

They conversed lightly about the audition process, and what it was like finally being a trainee. Yeji would laugh and smile along with Chan. She had gotten comfortable with him quickly, as he was very welcoming when they met in class. It would have been really uncomfortable for her to enter the class and work with someone she didn’t know. For that, she was grateful that Chan had been so friendly from the beginning. She made a mental note to try and be warmer to Kymin, she just hoped wit would stop being awkward between them.

They entered the store and bowed at the owner behind the register.

“So…what are you going to make?” Yeji asked, as they made their way towards one of the isles.

Woahh! Two chapters in one day???

Sorry it took a while to update. I was super busy with work for a while and didn't get the chance to update.

You get two chapters this time though!!! I'm probably going to be writing the next chapter like......now, but I'm not going to upload it until I feel all good and ready to do so _{(mwahahahaha!)}. These last two chapters were still a little more of introducing the characters and having them begin to build some relationships with people. It might be like that for another chapter or two, but I'm doing my best to keep in interesting and have each character share some of the attention for a while. I hope you are enjoying it so far.

Bye~~!