Josephine Swan never thought she would be drawn into the world of K-Pop during her stay in South Korea. Every day she faces challenges that fate has in store for her and her four members.
"𝙇𝙚𝙩'𝙨 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙬...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"If you want, we can swap sleeping places," Su-a said next to me, while I just shook my head in denial. Our room was a large room with three bunk beds in each, the top bunk being occupied by the girls. I chose the bed directly below Su-a.
"Don't worry...I have no problem sleeping in the bottom bunk. My teammates and I have almost always slept in bunk beds or camped outside at competitions," was all I said, covering my pillow with bedding. My two suitcases lay spread out on the wooden floor.
"What competitions? Dancing?" asked Hannah curiously and I turned to her. Each of the girls was sitting or lying on one of the beds, watching me intently as I sorted my clothes into the wardrobes. They had all offered their help without mincing words, but I politely declined.
"Indirectly. More like horse riding and rhythmic gymnastics." I answered her honestly.
"Rhythmic gymnastics?" chipped in Jinny and I nodded. Su-a's bed creaked as she sat up and looked at me with big brown eyes.
"Can you show us something?" she asked excitedly and the other two also straightened up with interest. Surprised, I looked at them in turn and reached for my phone in mild surprise.
"The video was shot just before I came to South Korea," I said typing and turning the screen. Su-a leaned over the frame in her bed while the other two sat down at my side. I turned up the volume and the next moment the song from Frozen played in the background.
"This is amazing," murmured Jinny next to me, her eyes following my fluid movements as I swung my ribbon in large and small circles around me. My cheeks reddened at her compliments and I couldn't help but smile as I startled the girls around me with my arcs and leaps. I had to admit, too, that to outsiders it must have looked quite disconcerting how much the human body could bend with the right training. In many ways, on the outside, it seemed as if your spine would snap in half.
"It's so...precise and elegant," commented Su-a above me.
"It's heavier than it looks at first. It may look elegant from the outside, but the ribbon is 6 metres long and it has to keep moving all the time." I replied to her.
"Still...you really must demonstrate it for us sometime," said Jinny and the other two nodded in agreement. I looked at them in turn and finally smiled.
"All right," I said and turned my gaze back to the screen where the last notes of the song we were playing and I was moving into the final act of the choreography.
♛
I ran my hand through my long hair and had to stifle a yawn. By now, several hours had passed and the night was beginning to fall. Due to our schedule, most of us decided to go to sleep already, including me. The day had been exciting and exhausting in equal measure and fatigue was reaching my body.
"Strange..." I heard Jinny murmur, glancing at me from the side as I sorted some of the rest of my things into the wardrobe directly opposite our loft bed. Irritated, I glanced at her and brought her out of her stupor. She looked at me with big brown eyes. I turned to face her.
"What's weird?" I asked quietly and she just shook her head with a smile, making her blonde hair swirl around.
"It's just...Yun, Chaewon and Haemin...normally are quite shy around strangers. Even towards us, they were and still are to some extent...but in your case..." she said softly and I smiled at the thought of the three girls who shared the rest of the dormitory with us. They were three to four years younger than us and had been under YG Entertainment for about a year. They did not return until the evening hours due to their training and their excitement to meet me was reflected in their brown bullet-round innocent eyes as soon as they stepped through the door. They were very similar in appearance to Sun-Hi and Su Bin.
My smile softened.
"I love children," I replied to Jinny as my thoughts continued to be with the girls.
"Obviously," said Jinny smiling and averting her eyes to turn back to her book. I closed the wardrobe and slid the empty suitcase under the bed before lying down on the bottom bunk under Su-a.
"Are you excited yet?" asked Jinny after a while.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel that way," I replied quietly and Jinny put her arms on the edges of her bed. Silently we looked at each other.
"With that video performance you showed us, you could give some trainees a run for their money," she said and smiled. Thoughtfully, I looked up at the ceiling.
"Gymnastics is not comparable to K-pop dance styles, like hip-hop, popping or the like. Our movements are focused on ballet and acrobatics, while we work with apparatus. I'm not saying it won't give me an advantage in that respect, but I have to reorient and adjust myself in the dance training," I explained to her. Similar to singing, my knowledge of K-pop dance styles was mostly limited to having fun with my classmates or girlfriends. To warm up or re-dance, not professionally.
"In addition, the dance training is only one of the many components. Singing, rapping, acting and modelling are the others." I said quietly. Jinny had leaned her chin on her folded arms and was looking at me calmly.
"I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. After everything I've seen today...you deserve to be here as much as the rest of us," she said after a while and my brow furrowed at her words. She had never seen me sing or rap before. Except for the recorded video, not even dance.
"But the training hasn't even started yet...how do you know?" I hacked in confusion and she smiled at my question.
"Like I said...strange." she simply replied and leaned back in her bed. Puzzled, I looked after her.
