Things were back to normal. We practiced, ate, slept, practiced, ate, slept. All the trainees were exhausted, especially the boys. Sometimes it felt like we were practicing for nothing, but another opportunity came up.

All trainees had been gathered in the dance studio, girls and boys. The head of trainees, Junyoung, and some other staff I had never seen before had arrived in studio.

'Gather round trainees, we have good news.' When Junyoung spoke, the whole room listened in silence. Many were thinking the same thing, this is it. This is when he will announce the new boy band to debut. But we were mistaken.

'We have another key opportunity for a select few of you. SMTown will be filming a MV for the song we've produced for Tourism Korea, promoting Korea and Korean culture. You will be joining some of your fellow artists such as idols from Super Junior, Girls Generation, f(x) etc. Unfortunately, we can't include all the trainees in the shoot, so we have selected 5 of you that will take part. Congratulations...'

He began reading out the five names, I was nervous. I thought for sure I wouldn't get a spot because I was one of the newer trainee.

'...Eunseo, Jimin, Haeun, Minwoo and Bobby.' I looked around shocked, I few people patted my back and congratulated me, including Tom.

'Well done buddy!' He then whispered in my ear. 'This may be your second chance with Tae.' He smirked, he hadn't stopped trying to convince me to try and talk to Taeyeon after he found out I liked her.

I was upset Tom wasn't chosen, but I guess they hadn't forgot about his bad behaviour a few months back. Jimin was no surprise, he was the SM trainee poster boy, I still didn't particularly like him, especially after seeing him all over Taeyeon. I knew the two girl trainees; Eunseo and Haeun, we were friends but not that close. And of course I was pleased my one of my roommate Minwoo was chosen, he was known for his good looks so no wonder he was picked.

A couple of days later filming started. I arrived in Central Seoul with Minwoo in the early hours of the morning. After finalising our schedule, we heading to the filming location. Our roles were small, we were to dance happily on the edge of a water fountain, waving flags. The other trainees joined us later, filming similar scenes. It was all going well.

I would be lying if I said I hasn’t thought about Taeyeon at all since that night in the club. When I received texts, I would often be slightly disappointed to see it wasn’t her. I half wanted to see her and half didn’t. I was embarrassed of what happened, how rash I had acted. But I knew the feelings were still there, like an ache I couldn’t get rid of.

The senior idols started filming later on in the day to avoid too much attention. We had seen them only briefly in passing, we exchanged formal bows with most of them; I chatted with a few members of SHINee and Super Junior whom I had become close.

Girls Generation were the last to arrive. They had been filming elsewhere during the day and only had to partake in the final scene which was the group shot. This was to be filmed in a park, with amazing views of Seoul in the background.

‘Listen up rookies - it’s time for the final scene, this way!’ We were escorted towards the filming area, I suddenly became nervous. The other idols were already there, chatting and playing together. I wondered if she would be as nervous as me, or if she was avoiding me.

I gulped as I seen a couple members of SNSD chatting near the front of the group, no sign of her. Me and the three of the other rookies made our way towards the back of the group, unsure were to stand. Jimin, was already in the mix with the rest of the idols, I seen him chatting up one of the Red Velvet members like no one was watching.

As we headed through the crowd of idols, a familiar voice called out to me.

‘Bobby!’ It was Tiffany. I smiled nervously and chatted a little bit, wherever Tiffany was, Taeyeon was sure to be close. The other SNSD members ended up next to us and some joined our conversation. But still no Taeyeon. Was she sick? Or maybe she really is avoiding me.

Staff were directing us on were to stand, we were nearing filming for the first take. As other idols moved into position and out of view, I finally saw her. But she wasn’t alone.

Suju leader Leetuek was with her. They seemed deep in conversation. I couldn’t help but stare, I tried to catch myself and look away but my gaze was always drawn back to her.

‘Taeyeon!’ Sunny who was beside me called over to her, we were about to start filming. She looked up towards me and caught my eyes on hers. I averted my gaze as if to pretend I hadn’t seen her. I knew she was heading this way but I couldn’t bring myself to look in her direction, I began to fluster.

‘There’s space here’ Sunny pointed between her and me. 

‘Oh, sorry, I’ll move out of the way…’ I tried to move backward so Taeyeon could stand between Sunny and Tiffany, but Sunny grabbed my arm.

‘Don’t be silly, Tae can stand between you and me.’

Then I looked to my side. There she was. I instinctively bowed and greeted her ‘Annyeonghaseyo’.

‘Annyeong’ she relied with a half-smile.

I shuffled nervously, not knowing what to say. Luckily, she spoke first.

‘Did you like the music video?’

I stuttered, surprise she was even talking to me. ‘Yeah, I mean, it was amazing, you looked…’ amazing I was going to say, but I stopped myself. ‘It was awesome.’

She smiled. Not an awkward smile, like I was expecting but a genuine one.

‘How are your toes?’ I continued.

‘My toes?’ She looked at me confused.

‘Yeah, after having to dance with Jimin and his horse feet.’

She let out her ajumma laugh, tilting her head back. She replied jokingly that they were fine. This wasn’t nearly as awkward as I was expecting; it was like she was pretending like that night never happened.

Suddenly, a voice came over the loud-speaker. ‘We are ready to start filming guys - flags in the air!’ We waved our Korean flags and danced happily to the music. I tried not to look at her in case the camera caught me, but her smile was intoxicating. When she was near, I only saw her. I stole a few glances and caught her eye more than once.

As the chorus began, I waved my flag high into the air however as I lowered it, it caught on something. I looked down and found my hand over Taeyeon’s, if the flags weren’t there, we would have been practically holding hands. My heart fluttered, my hand stayed still on top of hers; I couldn’t bring myself to move it.

To my surprise she didn’t immediately retract her hand like you would with a stranger. Her hand lingered undermine before finally she looked up and gently moved her hand away from mine.

‘ahhh, sorry noona….’

I had never called her noona before but it felt natural. She didn’t seem to mind it.

‘It’s okay.’ She turned her head as she tried to hide the smile that had crept onto her face. I heard giggles from beside me as I turned to see Tiffany and Yoona looking in my direction. It seems they had seen our little incident.

It only took a couple of takes before it was announced filming was over.

‘That should do it guys, that’s a wrap - thank you for your hard work.’

Everyone began bowing and saying their farewells before heading off in different directions. I bowed in Taeyeons direction, and we walked separate ways. Just before she was out of view, I looked back to see her again. Our eyes met. She has done the same, we smiled again at each other and turned back. I couldn’t help but smile widely as I walked away.

As I headed towards the trainees changing room, a member of SMEntertainment’s media team asked me if I could do a short quick fire quiz for their YouTube page. I had seen other idols do it and it was a good chance to let fans know who I was, so I agreed. I gave a quick introduction and the interviewer started with the questions.

‘Ready Bobby? You only have 5 seconds to answer remember, and it has to be the truth!’ I nodded.

‘Number 1 - Favourite food?’

‘Pizza’

‘Favourite artist?’

‘Chris Brown’

The questions continued, nothing too exciting until the last one.

‘Favourite girl group memeber?’

I paused, unsure whether to be honest. Of course, Taeyeon came to mind straight away, but her fans probably wouldn’t like that. Oh, crap, I’m running out of time…

‘Taeyeon Sunbae’ I just blurted it out, unable to come up with someone else in time.

‘Ohhh, seriously? What an honest guy!’ The interviewer chuckled teasingly. I gave him a worried expression.

‘We can’t just leave the interview there! Tell us more Bobby, why Taeyeon?’ I panicked, how was I supposed to answer that!

‘Erm, well…I…’

‘Awww, he’s gone all shy now! It must be love!’ I smiled weakly, embarrassed by his comments.

‘Well that is it from us! Don’t forget to like and subscribe…’

The interviewer wrapped up the interview and I was on my way. I worried about the repercussion of that interview, every time an idol revealed there ideal type it seem to make news. But I wasn’t an idol yet, so it shouldn’t matter too much right? Turns out I was wrong.