Chapter 3

Jinki gets the letter from SM about two days after the phone call, saying that he could start from next week. The letter also said that he will need to have to go through a small test to help them decide which House he should be put in. As soon as the news was out, every one in the house started running around screaming and Aunt Yoona was the loudest out of them all “OHMYGOD!! YOU GOT ACCEPTED TO SM JINKIII THAT'S SO AAAWWESOME!”. Jinki doesn't understand. He's getting admitted to a new school. What's the big deal? It might be slightly different from the village school he used to go to but that's it right? Jinki will get ignored like how he always did by the students in the new school as well right? He hopes so.

Jinki's mother has never really shown any direct affection towards him. She was always more closer to Eunsook. Jinki has once thought if the reason is related to him being a boy or something. Or may be it had something to do with the fact that she was only seventeen when she had him.

Maybe he was an unwanted child.

Jinki wanted to cry when that thought came across his mind. But then he sees how she puts more meat in his plate than anyone else's, how she wakes up everyday at 5o'clock just to prepare his lunch box for school, how she would smile a little when he comes home with his report card full of A's written on it. It's not that his Mum won't talk to him or anything. But Jinki wanted more.

He envied Eunsook sometimes. He used to watch from the doorway when their Mum would kiss Eunsook's forehead everyday before they go to school together. When she rests her head on their mother's lap and she runs her fingers through Eunsook's long black strands of hair, he had wondered if he's also allowed to rest his head on her lap too. If she would run her fingers through his hair too. It's silly really. But he can't help but wish he'd also get more of his mother's attention.

So it's weird when the night right before he's meant to leave, his mother pops up in his bedroom with a big jar of something in her hands, while he was packing his clothes.

“Jinki..” She calls, knocking the door twice “Can I come in?”

Jinki is surprised but he chooses not to show it.

“Of course Mum. No need to ask” He replies with a soft smile.

She comes in and stands next to him. “Here”, she says, holding up the jar.

“What's this Mum?” Jinki knows it's kimchi. He can clearly see it in the light. What he actually want to know is the reason behind Mum's unusual behaviour. Jinki hopes his Mum could understand it.

But she doesn't. Or she pretends like she doesn't.“It's just some kimchi I cooked for you. Yoona that the school is really posh so they only give you Western food there”
 

Oh. She's here to give me the kimchi, Jinki thinks.

“Oh...yeah...er..okay. And.... thanks Mum.” He lets out one more smile before taking the jar from her hands, making sure he don't drop it and places it next to one of his suitcases. He turns to look at his Mum, who's still standing at the same place, looking at the jar of kimchi. Jinki feels confused. He was about to ask her if she wants anything else from him when he notices the tears in the corner of her eyes, threatening to spill any time.

He slowly reaches out to touch her shoulder but then he stops unsurely. “Mum...” He begins.

“Jinki” She cuts him off and looks straight into his eyes, her tears now streaming down her face. “You've never been away from us for this long. You …you won't be coming back until next year.” Her voice sounds sad “So you have got to look after yourself properly okay? Make sure you eat healthy food. Don't ever miss out any meals. Remember I won't be there to remind you all these things. If they don't give you enough chicken or something just tell me. I'll cook them for you and bring them there. Or I could send Max instead” She stops and sniffles.

Jinki stands there, shocked. This is the first time his mother is showing some direct affection towards him. And he don't know how to react to this.

After a short pause, she says, “Call us once in a while okay? I would get worried other wise”

Jinki can only dumbly nod, his view suddenly becoming blurry. He realises that he's crying as well. He thinks of what to do and does the first thing that came to his mind. Now that he knows that his mother likes him a lot more than he think she does, he decides to show her some affection too. She might have felt the same way as me, Jinki stupidly realises.

“Mum..” He hugs her tightly. “Thank you. Thank you for looking after me till now. Thank you for being my mother. Thank you for everything.” He could feel her hands reaching up and brushing his hair softly. And he feels contented.

*************************

Finally the day came. In the morning, Yoona comes barging into his room, followed by Eunsook. They both sits on each side of Jinki's bed and shakes him until he wakes up with a groan.

“Jinki honey!! Hurry and wake up!”

Jinki doesn't appreciate this at all.

“Why do I have to wake up now? I thought I was meant to leave in the afternoon.” He grumbles, trying to cover his face with the pillow.

“You are. But I want you eat breakfast with all of us.” Yoona says.

“I'll eat it later”

“This is the last time you'll be eating breakfast with us Jinki. Your Mum and Eunsook will be upset. So get off the bed NOW!”

Jinki sighs. He knows there's no point in keeping this on so he admits defeat and silently follows his Aunt, grabbing his glasses from the table on the way out.

“About those glasess of yours”, Yoona says while she serves the the soup, “I think you should get rid of them and wear contacts instead. That way you can get all the girls drool over you” She winks at him. He almost chokes on his food.

Girls is Jinki's least favourite subject. Jinki doesn't know how to act around them. At all. He feels strangely uncomfortable and awkward when he's with girls. He can't even recall the last time he made a proper eye contact with one. That is excluding Eunsook, of course. Obviously he is not going to tell this to Yoona.

“No. Dad bought them for me. I want to keep it. And wearing contacts hurts my eyes anyway.”

Hearing this, his mother smiles.

“If that's what he wants, let him keep it, Yoona” Yoona nods. Jinki knows that Yoona won't go against his Mum. They act like they're blood related sisters, he thinks as he takes a last sip from his soup .

Afternoon came pretty soon. Max came from his work with his car just in time so that he could drop Jinki off. Yoona is blabbering about how Jinki shouldn't immerse himself too much into his studies and instead he should start making new friends. Jinki's only half listening, too busy taking his two suitcases, one with clothes and the other full of books, to the car's trunk. After he's done he notices how his Mum is in the verge of tears again. How selfish was he for even thinking that she didn't love him enough? He hugs her closely and kisses on top of her head, promising that he would call her whenever he can. He then hugs his Aunt, thanking her for everything she has been doing for them, for which, he gets a huge smack on the back of the head.

Eunsook is smiling her rainbow smile but her eyes are watery, small drops of tears making their way across her cheeks. That's when he remembers something. He quickly runs off to his room to get something from the drawers and returns. He tells her to close her eyes before grabbing her chubby little hands and placing something on them. She eagerly opens her eyes and gleams. It's the bead bracelet he bought for her. She hugs him dearly, saying “You're the best brother ever”. Jinki feels sad that he won't be hearing her bell-like voice for a while. He's going to miss her smile too.

“You ready?” He hears Uncle Max asking.

“Yeah” He replies after giving his family one last look. “I'm ready” And off they go.

*************************

After about one and a half hour of journey, they finally reach the school. Before Jinki could get off the car though, Max suddenly stops him. “Jinki, I want to confess something to you”

“What is it Uncle?”, he asks.

“You see Jinki, SM is a very famous Academy. They're very well known in South Korea. Most of the students here are multi-talented. It's not that easy to get admitted here. You should, you know, have an extra talent or something”
 

Jinki takes a moment to think before speaking.
 

“I can memorise all the words in one page of a dictionary in one hour. Would that get count as an extra talent? I remember putting that down in the application form. That must be why I got in.” Jinki says, remembering how the Academy's application form asked questions about what special talents you have. Jinki didn't pay much attention to it though because he just wanted to get it over with.

“If that's what you wrote down, they obviously wouldn't have accepted you Jinki” sighs Max.

“Uhh..but they did. That's why I'm here uncle” Jinki says, pointing his finger towards the school's direction.

“Not exactly”

Jinki an eyebrow at him“What do you mean?”

“Jinki do you remember that one time when me and Yoona came to the village to celebrate Eunsook's birthday and everyone asked her to dance but she couldn't because the music got stuck half way and you sang a song to make her happy? That is how we found out that you could sing?”

“Yeah”
 

“I don't know if you were aware of this but Yoona recorded your singing and made a CD out of it.”

“What? Why did she do that for?” Jinki whines, “And what's that got to do with how I got into SM anyway?”

“Oh it has got a lot to do with how you got into SM, trust me”

Jinki thinks for a while, trying to interpret what Max just told him and finally he gets it “It's not what I think it is, is it?”

“May be” .
 

“You're kidding me” says Jinki.

“Look Jinki, if I didn't put singing as your special talent in your application form and didn't send off that CD to them, you wouldn't have gotten into South Korea's number one school” Max says, trying to defend himself.

“What? You didn't..” gasps Jinki.

“I did. Jinki, I also did this for your Dad. I feel guilty that I wasn't able to help him when he was going through the toughest time of his life although he was the one who refused my help. Somehow, I feel responsible for his death.” Max lets out a shaky breath and looks at Jinki . “He wanted you to make him proud right?”

Jinki remains quiet.

“Jinki, you're acting like it's a bad thing”

“No I....It's just that... you should have let me know about this!”

Yes. He did sing. His parents knew about this and had told him a hundred times to join the school music club. Personally, he never thought he was a good singer. All he ever wanted was to study.

“You would have said no if I did and you know it. I wouldn't have wanted that. Your Dad wouldn't have wanted that either, Jinki.” Max checks the time. “Now come on. Let's go before we get late. You get out of the car and I'll take the suitcases.”

Jinki sighs as he obliged his Uncle. May be it was all for good. Getting admission in one of the most prestigious schools definitely can't be a bad thing right?

As expected, the school looks enormous from the front. The strange thing is that he can't feel a single presence of life. Max takes him to the reception where the receptionist, a young, pretty woman, is sitting, with the receiver of the phone in one of her hands.

“Yes? How may I help you?” She asks.

“ Err Jinki here got admitted into this Academy and he's meant join the school from today ” Max replies.

“Oh.” She puts down the receiver and points her look towards Jinki. “Your full name?”

“Jinki Lee” He quickly replies.

The woman runs her fingers through some papers as if she's trying to find his name and nods her head. She gets up and uses a swipe card to open the door and holds it open.

“You may follow me” , she says.

Jinki hurriedly takes both of his suitcases and gets in through the door, thanking the woman quietly. Max tries to follow him but is stopped by the woman.

“Not you. You may return now. I'll take care of Mr Lee from here on”

Max looks at Jinki worriedly. Jinki feels bad. Uncle Max have been giving him advices through out the whole journey to the Academy and although it annoyed him, he knows his uncle deeply cares about him. He didn't even get a chance to thank him properly.

“Don't worry about me Uncle. I'll be fine. Take care of yourself okay?” Jinki smiles, noticing the concerned look on Max's face.

“Yeah. You too. Go and work hard Jinki. Make us proud. Jinki fighting!” Max lifts up his fist in the air. Jinki's smile widens and he gives a huge nod as a reply, his glasses nearly falling off his nose bridge. With a final wave, Max disappears.

The woman keeps walking fast and Jinki had to jog a little to keep up with her.

“You'll be having a short test now. Well, more like an audition. You have to show them your skills so that they could see how good you are”

Jinki stills. What?

“But I wasn't told about this so I'm not prepared”

The woman stops and turns to look at him.

“You didn't expect to get into SM without having any kind of skill or talent did you?” She asks him. “Besides,” she continues, “in your application form it was clearly stated that you have a singing talent” She starts to walk again.

He don't seem to have a choice.
 

“Uhh...so this is what decides what House I'll be in?” Jinki asks
 

“No. Not really. To be honest, your House has been already decided by the School Officials. People with similar talents are put into the same House. They wouldn't let you know until your audition is over.” Jinki nods.
 

After walking through some more corridors in complete silence, the woman decides to break it “You got 100% in five of the subjects last year didn't you?”
 

“How did you know?” Jinki asks, surprised.
 

“I checked your application form” She sends him a 'duh look', lifting up the copy of his application form in the air.
 

“If my House is already decided then why am I getting auditioned?” asks Jinki. Gosh why is this school so complicated?
 

She sighs and looks at him again. “You wouldn't have gotten into SM with just your grades, no matter how great they are. You should know that by now. We accepted you because you could also sing.”
 

“Err... What if I can't actually sing? Suppose I was lying. I wasn't actually the one who was singing in my demo CD. What would happen then?”
 

The woman looks at him in disbelief. “Didn't you read the Terms and Conditions while you were applying, Mr Lee?” He didn't. “You will get fined for violating them and will be immediately expelled from the Academy. And getting expelled from a well famous school as SM on the first day basically means you won't be having a pretty future. As simple as that.” She shrugs.

Jinki nods. He would never want that to happen. He wouldn't want to disappoint his family, his Dad.

“What House am I in?”
 

“You'll find that out soon. I'm not supposed to tell you that”

“Mr Lee, this is the auditioning room.” She says when they finally reach a door. She uses the swipe card to unlock the door again.“When you open this door you'll see three rooms. You have to go straight to the room that says H2. I'll be leaving you now. Good luck” And she's gone like that, giving Jinki a small pat on the back.

Jinki doesn't know any song, now that he think about it. It's not like he had any interest in listening to songs. He begins to get nervous.

He opens the door and finds a big room, more like a hall, and it's awfully empty. Why is it so quiet in this school? And where the hell are all the students? Jinki's mind is full of questions as he slowly makes his way to room H2.
 

He opens the door slowly and sees three people waiting for him. They're not much older than he is and they're definitely not teachers, as they are wearing uniforms. One of them has his leg crossed, humming lowly, looking pretty much like he's uninterested in whatever is going on. The next one, the one in the middle is sitting calmly, his, eyes watching every movement Jinki makes. The last one wears glasses like Jinki (and he wonders how someone can look so handsome and cool with them) also waiting for Jinki. He gives Jinki a small smile. The cool guy's uniform is different from the other two, he notices. His uniform blazer was blue when the other two were wearing black blazers with white lines.

What is this? Korea got talent? Jinki doesn't know what to do or say as he walks toward the middle, trying his best to remain cool. That's when his clumsiness kicks in and the next thing he knew is that he was kissing the floor. He curses and jumps up off the floor quickly. He look at the “judges” only to see all three of them staring at him with their mouth open. Then a loud snort followed by a laugh is echoed in the room and it's coming from the one that's sitting cross legged. Jinki wouldn't exactly call it a laugh. It sounds more like some kind of siren. The middle one is still examining Jinki from head to toe as if he was the most amusing thing in the world and Jinki suddenly feels uneasy. The glasses one looks at him sympathetically and asks “Are you alright?”

Jinki blinks at him and realises that he has just given them a very bad first impression.

“Erm... yeah I'm fine” He starts fiddling with his shirt nervously and then gives an awkward bow. “Hello, I'm Lee Jinki and I was sent here by the woman....I mean the receptionist for my... err...audition?”

Another snort is heard and it's from the same person. It looks like the middle one doesn't like it though as he glares at him and says,

“Leeteuk, if you don't shut up I'll throw you out of here in a minute” And named boy stops. “It's not like I want to be here. But this guy's funny so I'll stay” He decides, his lips still quirked upwards.

“We know who you are and why you're here Jinki.” The cool, handsome one says. “We just want you to do a quick performance just to see how good you are at singing”

So he sings the first thing that comes to his mind. It was short lullaby he had heard from his Mum when she sings Eunsook to sleep. He sings it with all his might, with his eyes closed shut. A strange tide of emotions rise inside him and suddenly he feels like he's flying. When he finishes he slowly opens his eyes. Three of them are staring at him like before and for a second Jinki thought he completely screwed it up. But then the one named Leeteuk, and the cool glasses guy starts applauding, causing Jinki to beam at them.

“That was great Jinki” The glasses guy says smiling reassuringly. “Your voice is even better in real life than in the CD” Leeteuk nods in agreement and winks at him.

Jinki does a ninety degree bow and thanks them. He curiously waits for the serious one to say his opinion. He is still staring at Jinki, looking like he's thinking hard about something and after about at least thirty seconds he lets out a loud sigh and says to the glasses guy “Alright, you can take him to the Academy”

Jinki doesn't know what's going on or what meant by that “take him to the Academy” (weren't they already in the Academy?) but he feels like his heart is about to explode with happiness. A sudden regret also comes to his mind when he remembers how he had entirely ignored his singing talent. Perhaps he should have just listened to his parents and joined the music club because singing, he admits, feels amazingly good.

The cool glasses guy comes to him and shakes his hand, congratulating him and says “You'll be in my House from now on Jinki. Welcome to Apollo” He says with a smile.

“Apollo?” Jinki raises his eyebrow.

“Yeah, that's the name of the House. Oh and I'm Jung Yunho by the way. The Head of Apollo. Now let's go”

Jinki looks at the Leeteuk, who gives him a thumbs up and the other guy who nods at him slightly. He leaves the room with Yunho, dragging his suitcases along with him.
 

Jinki clears his throat before he starts speaking “Where exactly are we going?”

“We're about to enter the Academy now.” He says.

“What do you mean? Is this building not part of the Academy?”

“Well it is. But at the same time it's not. Didn't you notice that there are no students on sight here?”

“I did. And I found it really weird. Where are they anyway?”

Yunho just chuckles and opens a door at the back of the building they're currently standing, which revealed a huge gate that had 'Welcome to SM Academy for Gifted and Talented' written on top it.

“That building is just used by the School Council for meetings and auditions for new students and all that sort of stuff. Behind this gate is the real SM Academy.” Yunho says while he push opens the huge gate after entering the code on the machine.

Jinki's eyes widens in horror as he gapes at the scene before him. God, just what has he gotten himself into? 

A/N: OHMYGOSH I'M SO SORRY!! Jonghyun still has not appeared and I kind of promised you that he will in this chapter :-/ I honestly am sorry for breaking the promisee >< But don't worry he'll be here VERY soon.I'll try to update the next chapter as soon as possible :) And I didn't forget about the character guide.  It's on its way  ^_^  Please continue to support me.