“May I help you?” the secretary at the desk asked as she raised her head to look at me.

“I’m new music technology student Jang Liyeong,” I answered.

“Follow me.” She rose and led me to a room down the hallway. “The Director will be here in a moment.”

“Kamsahabnida,” I said, and took a seat at the small rectangular table in the middle of the room, which was covered wall-to-wall with posters of past and present SM artists. I recognized Shinee in several of them, and sighed. Even just being able to talk to them or perhaps sneak a glance at them at the SM building was beyond my wildest dreams…that is, if my Korean ever got past shamefully broken sentences.

The click of high heels echoed down the hall towards my direction. Puffing my cheeks and sighing, I stood as the director walked in, arm full of files and papers. She was maybe in her thirties, and much more kind-looking than I’d expected her to be. “Annyeonghaseyo,” I bowed.

“Welcome to SM,” she smiled. “I’m Director Lee Solim. Please, have a seat.” Her voice was friendly and her English decent; I felt relieved as both of us sat down. “You are Miss Jang Liyeong, age 17, Chinese, born in the United States?”

“Yes,” I nodded.

“I must say, your application and recordings impressed me and many of the others here at the academy. Normally we don’t accept many students from America, and this is the first time we’ve had a non-Korean speaker. But this is something I’m experimenting with, and after considering your fluency in Mandarin as well as your resume, motivation, and high level of musicianship, we are all very optimistic about this.”

“Thank you,” I smiled. I wanted to keep modest, not like so many of the prima donnas I could only imagine attended SM Academy in hopes of being the next star.

“However, we have decided on a few curriculum adjustments for you,” the director continued. “As you know, the preparation training is normally six weeks, much of which is keyboard lessons and basic theory classes. Since you are far past this level, you will still be encouraged to practice piano in spare time, but we are replacing the music basics for you with intensive Korean language classes. With hard work, you should be much closer to proficiency within six weeks.”

I nodded, and she continued. “These intensive classes will not just be strictly learning Korean from a book and teacher’s lecture, however. Because immersion is a strong factor in how well and how quickly you learn a language, we’ve decided on a deal. I’m sure you are more than familiar with Shinee?”

“Yes,” I said. Where was this going?

“Well, they’ve been rather lazy with the intensity and frequency of learning Mandarin. We are hoping to promote them more with the fans in China. So for your daily language classes, you will teach the members Mandarin while they teach you Korean. Of course, the language teacher will structure the lessons, but the conversations will largely be between you and the members.” I gaped. Was Director Lee honestly handing everything to me on a silver platter? Only better? I closed my mouth so I wouldn’t scream everyone in the building deaf with excitement. Literally, I was being TOLD to take a daily dose of Shinee.

“Understand that you should not share this information with anyone,” Director Lee warned me gently. O.o “As you are probably aware, such an arrangement would attract the wrath of many trainees, students, and fangirls.” Oh boy didn’t I know that already. She then proceeded to go over the rest of my schedule.

“Oh, by the way, since you’re underage and here alone, we’ve decided to give you a dorm here. To be honest, I trust you more than many of the fangirl type trainees, so don’t freak out when you see some familiar faces at the dorm. Here’s the keycode to your building and the academy”—she passed me the information—“and this is your key”—she passed that to me as well. “Again welcome to SM. You’ll meet everyone on Monday during your first language class. Have a good weekend!”

“Kamsahabnida,” I said, still in a stupor as I took my schedule and key, walking out of the room. “Omo,” I gasped as I almost ran into two trainees, who giggled and veered to avoid me. Blankly watching the Hello music video playing on the screen in the main office, I left the building, dreaming of what was to come…

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How was it? Mianhe if it’s a bit boring right now, but the first chapter has to set everything up :P also this is my first published fanfic...please comment and subscribe! Kamsahaeyo! <3