For this week's competition, we were all assigned a song to sing, we were to choreograph it by ourselves and pick out a costume suitable to the style of the song.

The songs we were assigned were challenging and not the typical K-pop kind. I was hoping for one that had some English in it, but that didn't happen. I ended up with a ballad of all things. We were told that each song was picked especially for us, to see each of us in a different light. To see if we could rise to the challenge.

I had my doubts...but I would try my best. I did my research on the original artist and tried to figure out the meaning of the song. I listened to it and watched the music video too many times, just to get the feel for the song. I even read the English version to the song to see if I could translate some of it to English.

When I sang the song, I put my own spin on it. It was about remembering your first love.

I've never been in love with someone so it's hard to really relate.  The only comparison I can draw upon, was the love I had/have for my mom. I used my emotions I felt towards her to sing this song. A couple of times while practicing, I had to stop because I was too emotional and I was starting to choke up.

The next four days flew by; emotions were high. Everyone was feeling the pressure. Apparently in the other male dorm, two boys were dismissed because of fighting. In the two girls' dorms, three girls left because the pressure was too much for them to bear.

After Tuesday's normal schedule, the rest of the week's late afternoon classes were cancelled to allow everyone time to practice. We were to book in individual times to see our voice coaches and dance instructors; where they would help us out with little ideas and advice us on how to make our individual performances better.

Sulli and I scheduled homework sessions in whenever we could... at lunch, dinner or between practicing for our performances. I was making steady progress and was almost totally caught up.

When the line-up for Friday's performance came out on Wednesday morning, I was shocked at how many probees had dropped out. Four weeks ago, there were 48 of us. Now, there were only 20, twelve boys and eight girls.

Amazingly, all my roommates were still here. Our dorm had one empty room which was now filled with the other male dorm's surviving members. Yoo Ah In had lost a few of his cronies too, so one of the unfortunate guys from the other dome had to bunk with him.

On Thursday, during my practice session with my voice coach, she held up her hand and told me to stop. She said if I sang like that tomorrow, she would need a box of tissues.

“That bad, eh?" I turned beet red.

"That's not it, James Kim. There's something so sad in your voice... It makes me want to cry." she stated and patted my arm.

"Is that a good thing?" I asked.

"Of course it is!" she said. "To be able the move your audience in that way is the goal of every artist! No more practicing! I can heard that you are on the verge of straining. No more singing until your performance tomorrow night. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Sinsangnim." I bowed to her.

"James Kim, I think I will be seeing a great deal more of you." She patted me on my back as I left her practice studio. "Get a good night's sleep."

I bowed again to her and headed up to the dorm.

Maybe I would do as she suggested and really get to bed early. My body had fully recovered from ‘The Kang Incident’ but I was worn-out. I better not push my luck.

I did a final check before I called it a night. I confirmed that the music I had selected was downloaded to the server for tomorrow's performance. I double-checked on the clothes I had picked. They were hanging in my closet. Everything from my shoes, socks and even underwear were there, ready to go. The only accessory I was going to wear was my grandfather's watch and had placed it in one of my shoes for safe keeping.

That's all I could do... The rest would have to wait until tomorrow’s performance.

                              …

"James Kim, Earth to James Kim!" I was brought back to reality by a light cuff on the back of my head.

”Be-yen-ida, Chan Sinsangnim." I bowed slightly to him.

"Just try to look like your paying attention, okay?" he said. I bowed again and refocused to the here and now.

The class still had an hour to go, it was unusually subdued. I wasn't the only one deep in their own thoughts today.

"Alright! Let's call it a day. I might as well save my breath and my effort until next week. Class dismissed!" Michael Chan closed his book. "I'll be see some of you tonight. Good luck to you."

Sulli grabbed my arm, "Let's go and have a great big lunch!"

"Sounds good...I'm just going to drop my bag off in the dorm first. See you in the caf in say ten minutes." as I looked down at my watch then remembered that it was in my closet.

                                                …

I flung my backpack up on my bunk then went to my closet to grab my watch. My carefully hung outfit was now laying in a heap in the bottom of my closest.

I took it out and placed it on Kim Hyun Joong bed. I started to re hang them. I noticed someone had marked my shirt up with a permanent marker. It read "Go home, Foreigner!" across the back. The jacket had been ripped at one of the shoulders. Somebody was trying to sabotage my performance. Three guesses who?

I threw down by jacket and bolted back to my closet.

The watch! Oh god! No!

There at the bottom sat my shoes.  The left one was filled with hair gel and the right one, where my watch was, was empty. My watch was missing.

Panic! Utter panic washed over me. Someone had stolen it! If my dad finds out I lost it, he and my grandfather would kill me. That wasn't just any watch!  Worse still, if the thief had any brains, they could figure out my true identity from the engraving on the back.

Only one person would do this to me! Yoo Ah In! Where was he, that bastard?

 I ran out of our empty dorm and down the stairs towards the cafeteria.  My heart was in my throat and my blood was pounding in my ears.

I flew past Sulli and Kevin sitting at one of the tables. My eyes were searching for the culprit. Kim Hyun Joong who was standing in the food line caught sight of me.

"Hey, James Kim. Come and grab some lunch." He was waving me over.  I bowed my head to him but kept on with my search.  He wasn't here. Where the Hell was he?

I bolted out of the cafeteria and bumped into some trainees in my hastiness. I bowed a number of times to them and left before they had a chance to acknowledge it.

I worked my way down floor by floor. I checked out the voice studios...not there, the big theatre, not there, the small practice studios...not there. I'd reached the basement, the main training studios. All three studios were occupied. 

The last room I hit gold.