I am a Pioneer

A break in recording

It was the week of July, we had finally been given some time off from recording. I had decided to spend this time wisely. By composing a new song. I take a guitar to an empty dance practice room and sit down in the middle. I start to fiddle around with different melodies on the guitar. Noting down the riffs that I liked in my book. I sat there for about two hours just playing my guitar and writing lyrics. By the end, I had written all the lyrics to the song and had a basic guitar accompaniment to go with it. I had just started to play it together when two girls walked into the room. The first girl was Na-Yeon whom I recognised very quickly. The second girl was one that I hadn't seen around the company before. When Na-Yeon noticed that I was there she quickly greeted me and introduced me. "Hello Jin-Ho, how are you doing. I haven't seen you in a while?"

"Hi, Na-Yeon, I'm currently having a break so decided to try and compose a new song."

"That's cool! Oh right, this is JYP's newest trainee. She just arrived yesterday."

The other girl quickly bowed and introduced herself. "Hello, I'm Kim Dahyun, 15 years old. I joined JYP yesterday, please look after me!" My eyes widened in surprise, I quickly regained my composure. I had completely forgotten that today was July 8th. Dahyun joined JYP on the 7th. WHich means that Chaeyoung must have arrived as well. That must have been who the girls were at about that time during the first recording.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Chu Jin-Ho, I'm also 15, so you can talk casually with me!" I get up off the floor and greet her. Offered my hand to shake. She takes it without hesitation. She seems pretty outgoing and sociable. If I remembered correctly, she had some issues during her trainee days. I decided that if I could, I would try and help her when the time comes. After talking for a little while. We found out that I was only a month older than her, and that she had been recruited after a scout from JYP saw her performance at church online, and approached her about signing. That was when I remembered her famous eagle dance from my previous life.

With the introductions out the way, Na-Yeon explained that she was giving Dahyun a tour of the company and so needed up showing her the dance rooms. They asked if I could show them my new song, to which I complied with. Then they went on their way to continue with the tour.

I decided to try and iron out a few more kinks in my song before lunch. But just as I was about to get back to work on the song, I got a sudden message from Hyun-Shik.

'yo, can we meet up for a while? I need to have a chat'

'Sure, let me know where

'Times Square mall'

'Alright I'll be there as soon as I can'

about 40 minutes later, I hop off the bus out the front of the mall. I send a quick message to Hyun-Shik to let him know that I had arrived and headed into the mall. The mall is huge and clustered with people. I arrive at the meeting spot. Which was a small cafe tucked into the corner of one of the mall's middle floors. Thankfully it was pretty quiet here. Both Hyun-Shik and I had worn face masks as, even though we weren't idols, we definitely had the visuals of one.

"So, what do you need from me?" I ask Hyun-Shik as I sit down at the table.

"Do I have to have a reason for wanting to hang out with a friend?" Hyun-Shik replies his voice slightly raised.

"If you had wanted to do that, you could have put it in the group chat. You directly messaged me. That only happens when you want to talk to me privately" I reply, eyes narrowing.

Hyun-Shik sighs. "You got me. I need your help with something" he tells me, brows furrowing and unfurrowing as if he is really stressed.

"What's the problem?" I ask.

"I'm stressed and worried" he replies.

I understood what he meant all too well. The pressure of being on a survival show was huge. Not only that. He was also the leader of our trainee team. The ones that needed to do well if we wanted to debut. I also knew that Hyun-Shik had a little bit of a confidence issue. Ever since he joined JYP, he had struggled through classes. He had a talent for rap, but his brother was better. He could sing, but his range was highly limited to mostly midrange notes. Although he could convey emotion. His range stopped him from being able to sing most songs but would work well in a group. His dance was also one of the weakest out of the trainees. He worked well as a support act in a group. Where he could flesh out, harmonise and rap well enough that he made everyone else's performance improve drastically. However, he wasn't good enough to be a solo act. This is what was getting to him. He was afraid that he would fail on this show because he would be exposed as a trainee with little talent.

But what Hyun-Shik lacked in performance ability, he made up for in his leadership. Not only was he amazing when it came to organising practices, keeping us all in check, and distributing lines perfectly. He could play almost any instrument he picked up. He had perfect pitch. He was a master director and has made his own music videos in the past. I had never seen a more perfect leader than him. He supported everyone else and lifted them to the next level. But he also kept everyone together and balanced out all of us. What I needed to do right now, was to help him build his confidence and realise what his talent was.

The perfect opportunity would reveal itself very soon, so while I waited for it, I decided to take Hyun-Shik shopping and distract him from those worries.