“Is that your brother? How he’s been doing?”

Sooyun mom asked while was preparing for their breakfast. Sooyun was walking down the stairs with the phone on her hand.

“He’s on the line mom, would you like to say hello then?”, she rushed to help her mom with the breakfast so she could talk to Sehun.

Her mom took the phone from her as she directed her to keep stirring the soup she was making and watch the microwave while she was on the phone.

Her mom started to burst in tears as soon as she greeted her son. She then moved to the living room to put herself back together. They were in the same city but felt separated countries away.

Sooyun glared at the clock, she could still make it on time to YG, and if she was lucky, her mom would leave the house at the same time and she could save her money for the bus.

The microwave had just beeped and the soup was all done when her mom returned.

“He sounds tired.”, her mom said shortly.

Sooyun checked the microwave when her mom continued.

“Do you think he’s happy?”, her mom now returned to the preparation with Sooyun’s help.

Sooyun nodded, “More than you can even imagine, Mom.”

Her mom sighed, “He grows to be more like your father, and now he’s about to live the same life as him.”

“Dad’s happy, so is him.”, Sooyun said shortly.

“Yeah, they’re happy with their things.”, her mom poured the soup into the bowl.

Sooyun kept doing the things without even a word.

They moved to the dining table and began their breakfast, silently.

“Let me drive you to YG, I might want to pay him visit before I go to the clinic.”

Sooyun went to her room after washed the dishes to take her bag. She returned to the kitchen when her mom prepared a lunch for Sehun.

They finally left the house in 30 minutes.

“Have you met your mentor? Should I say something to him? Or her?”, her mom spoke as she drove.

“Not yet. I guess I’ll meet him today.”

“Who’s him then? Is he someone from Big Bang?”

“I don’t think so, Mom. They’re too busy to deal with a rookie trainee, it might be someone from the producing team.”

“Umm, okay.”, her mom paused, “how about the boy we met earlier, wait, who’s his name again?”

“Nam Taehyun?”

“Ah, yes, that boy with a weird haircut, Nam Taehyun.”, her mom giggled, “he looked fine actually.”

“Emm.”

“Have you meet anyone I might know since then? 2NE1? They have a member at the same age with you, don’t they? You should look up to them.”

“Okay, Mom.” If only they had  time to stay at the office for a while, Sooyun kept it for herself.

“How about the other trainees? Have you made any new friend since then?”

Sooyun remembered the group she was in at the first gathering.

“Seems like yes.”

“Good! Are they good? How old are they?”

“Ah, Mom, do you remember Superstar K’s Kang Seungyoon?”

Her mom thought for a while, “The one who can play guitar very well?”

Sooyun nodded, “ I was in the same group with him at the first gathering.”

“Wow, isn’t he a singer already?”

“I think so, but you should see him dancing, Mom-”, she suddenly burst into laughter, and so she began to tell her mom about the boys in her group, who she didn’t belong at first.

She laughed, so did her mom, she turned to be serious again, and laughed. Until they finally reached The YG Entertainment HQ without even noticing.

Sooyun was about to open the door when her mom suddenly talked, “Do you know, Sooyun, all this time, I often think that I have two boys instead of a girl and a boy, but listening to your story like this makes me realize that you’ve grown to be such a good girl without me even knowing.”

Sooyun stayed still.

“I hope we can do this more often, you can just tell me whatever you want, okay?”, her mom smiled.

“Okay, Mom.”, she smiled back.

“Okay, good luck my girl!”, her mom talked through the opened window.

“Thanks Mom, take care!”, she waved at her mom.

Sooyun didn’t know what would YG bring to her, but she was already feeling grateful that YG had turned her mom.

//

Sooyun was in the lift heading to the 3^rd floor with her mixed feelings of anxiety and excitement. The lift stopped and the door was opened at last, she walked out of the lift feeling more nervous as she approached the studio and finally reached it, stunned in front of the door, tried to peek inside. She could see the psychiatrist from the first gathering was talking to a guy possibly her mentor.

She was trying to identify the guy when the psychiatrist spotted her and asked her to come in at once. The guy turned, it was Teddy! Teddy Park! The guy who had produced most of YG’s hits and now she was about to enter his studio! Sooyun was close to open the door before she stopped and checked her shoes, made sure that not a single would ruin her entrance this time. Clear! She opened the door with a pounding heart.

“Hi Sooyun! How’s your day? Welcome to Teddy’s studio!”, the psychiatrist greeted her.

Sooyun bowed and greeted them. Teddy greeted her as well.

“Not bad.”, he mouthed to the psychiatrist.

“Have a seat, let’s talk about your training program briefly.”, the psychiatrist pulled a seat for her.

“Oh, thank you Mrs. Lee” Sooyun thanked her before she sat in front of them.

“Okay, so here you are. Have you known him?”, the lady smiled at her.

Sooyun nodded, “I’m even a fan.”

“Woa, this is my first time meeting a fan of mine, good.”, Teddy laughed.

“Great then-“, the lady paused, “I’m glad to inform you that Teddy-ssi will be your mentor for a week, and maybe you will also work with him more often after that.”

They smiled at her.

Is this even real? My mentor is YG’s Teddy Park! Sooyun held herself from screaming her excitement out.

“Please guide and take care of me-“ Sooyun paused in the middle of her bow, confused on how should she address him.

“Oh, you can just call me Sunbae, Oppa, even Teddy is fine, whatever you like.” Teddy responded to her confusion.

“Please guide and take care of me, Teddy Sunbaenim.” Sooyun completed her bow.

Teddy looked pleased, “I know you’ll call me that, fine.”

“Hmm, okay then. I guess I’ll just leave you guys here, I need to meet the boys too.”, the lady smiled at them before she stood up.

Sooyun bowed at her before she stepped out of the room.

“I’ll see you later guys, have fun!”, and so it was only her and Teddy in the studio. Awkward.

“Okay, what should we do now?”, Teddy tried to break the ice as he turned to his computer.

Sooyun stayed still, didn’t have any idea what to do.

“Emmm, let’s see what we’ve got here.” Teddy was looking for a file in his computer. “Ahhh, this one is good!”, he suddenly turned at her and asked her to move closer. “I’m currently working on this, let’s listen to it together.”, he played a song that filled the studio at once.

Sooyun noticed TOP’s voice at the beginning, followed by Daesung’s and she began to realize that she was listening to Big Bang’s upcoming song! Before everyone she knew did.

She gasped and Teddy smiled.

“Can I really listen to this? I mean, this must have been confidential.” Sooyun asked in a formal way.

“Will you break this to the internet then?” Teddy asked her casually.

She shook her head.

“Good, I want you to listen to the song carefully, and let’s hear what do you think of it, shall we continue then?”

Sooyun nodded before the song continued and she tried to focus on it, the melody, the beat, the rhythm, and she even imagined how it was composed. The song ended gracefully with her still captivated by it.

“The album will be released in a week, but I still find the song somehow incomplete.”

Sooyun was stunned to hear Teddy’s bland statement, didn’t know what to say.

“Let’s hear from you now, the very first fan listen to the song.”

She was thinking hardly, “Great. I love the way it brings us to the , even the repetition doesn’t make me bored, it sounds so fresh to me.”, she finally said in a formal way.

“Fresh?” Teddy confirmed her statement.

Sooyun nodded.

“Is that all?” Teddy asked her again.

“Oh?”

“Is that all you’ve got.”, Teddy said shortly.

Sooyun was stupefied, had she said something wrong back then.

“From now on, If I ask you to speak up, don’t speak as a fan, try to speak as a producer, try to think how the song can be better-“, he paused and turned at her, who had just turned to be a stone, he sighed, “okay, let’s start from this-“ he spoke as he returned to the screen, “watch me doing all the things here, tune your eyes and ears on this, stick with every move I make.”

Sooyun was still shock but she moved closer anyway, kept her eyes and ears on the screen and every sound came out.

//

The lift door was opened at last, every second spent inside it felt like hours to Sooyun who had just experienced her first day of sticking with her mentor. The sky had turned dark when she headed to the cafeteria, she wondered how time flew here, it was all bright when she came and now it had turned dark already.

Just then, she suddenly smiled to find familiar faces were waving at her from the cafeteria. She rushed to order her meal and joined them.

“How long have you guys been here? The first evaluation will begin in one and half an hour right?”

“Not so long before you came, it’s the vocal training and we’re kind of losing our voice already, especially Taehyun Hyung.”, Bobby turned at Taehyun.

“Woa, you guys must have such a tough day,”, she paused, realized that someone or two were missing, “wait, where’s Jinwoo oppa and Hanbin?”

“They said they’re still full, so they wanted to keep on practicing.”

“Ohhh.” Sooyun mouthed.

“Hey, who’s your mentor? Have you met him? Or her?”, Jinhwan asked Sooyun whilst having their meal.

Sooyun choked once the topic appeared. “Teddy sunbaenim.”, she said shortly.

The boys were stunned for a moment.

“It can’t be real! Woww! This is great.” Bobby exclaimed.

“He didn’t even appear at the gathering, so I thought he wouldn’t be a mentor.”, Sooyun explained.

“He’s my idol though, how lucky are you.” Seungyoon said after finishing his meal.

“and you’re my idol, Hyung!”, Bobby smiled crookedly at him.

“Aishh, here you go again.”, Seungyoon stared at Bobby.

Jinhwan laughed silently at the two.

“Even my mom knows you, woa, you really are great!”, Sooyun said shortly in a formal way.

Taehyun and Jinhwan paused their meal to believe that Sooyun was teasing Seungyoon right now.

“No! I really mean it, she knows you.”, Sooyun ensured the boys about her words after found Seungyoon’s pissed expression.

“Should I start to give people my autograph then?”, Sooyun was relieved to know that Seungyoon wasn’t that pissed, he even enjoyed it.

“Aigo, this hyung is getting out of control.” Taehyun said shortly before he laughed.

“Look, that girl from the modelling program keeps looking at you ever since we came, Hyung!”, Bobby whispered before everyone turned their head to the table he looked at. Sooyun watched in such a great disbelief as they turned their head together at once.

“Aishhh, you guys really don’t know how to gossip, do you?”,  Sooyun whispered at them, “First rule, don’t look at the person you’re talking about.”

The girls giggled as they turned at them previously.

“But she really can’t take her eyes off Seungyoon Hyung.” Bobby whispered again.

“And you can’t take your eyes off her.”, Jinhwan said shortly before everyone laughed.

“Oh, our poor magnae is being bullied right now.” Jinhwan pretended to pat Bobby’s head.

They laughed again when Bobby remained silent, it was a boomerang he threw at Seungyoon.

“Let’s go, we’ll be late for our first evaluation.” Bobby suddenly got up.

“Ah, wait, I haven’t finished my meal.”, Sooyun protested.

“Let’s help this poor noona finishing her meal then.”, Bobby giggled as he pretended to took her meal.

“Ah, really...”

“Why you have to be so slow uh?”, Taehyun said shortly before the rest tried to hold their laughter.

“Why am I getting bullied right now? I’m not even the magnae oh.”, she protested.

//