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.
I fidgeted restlessly on the bench as Hannah performed her solo song. I could see her lips moving to match the background music, but my mental focus was on my song. Ellie Goulding's "Love Me Like You Do" blurred more and more as I closed my eyes and the verses appeared like a poem before my eyes. My lips formed in sync, reading off the line after line.
The first four weeks of my training under YG Entertainment had come to an end and the monthly assessments were coming up. As Hong Eun-ha had announced, a group performance, a self-created dance choreography and finally a solo song were each required from all the trainees present.
We chose "EOEO" by Uniq as the group dance. Despite the training, the beginning of the choreography was difficult and each of us was well aware of Yang Hyun-suk's steely eyes, especially me. In time, however, the emotionless faces of the producers and the CEO blurred before my eyes and my concentration turned solely to the choreography. With the credit of hours of repetition and touch-ups in training, we were finally able to get the dance over with no major failures.
A warm hand suddenly placed itself on my cold leg and I was startled. Su-a looked at me anxiously from the side with her brown eyes. She was the first of the group to perform her song in front of the CEO and producers. I looked at her with blinking eyes as she slowly leaned over to me.
"You can do this, Josie. I've seen you practise." She whispered to me and smiled encouragingly at me. I could only manage a twitch of my lips, despite her attempt to starch me. My mind began to wander. I had practised, practised a lot and intensely.
If I didn't make it, my life would go on as normal, as if those four weeks had never happened. I would finish school and my year abroad in South Korea, return to England and go to Oxford University. If I got through and passed my solo song and later the group performance, I would spend another month in entertainment.
"Josephine Swan."
My head lifted to meet the dark eyes of Yang Hyun-suk, barely visible through his low-slung cap. Hannah, meanwhile, had left her place in front of the microphone and was sitting next to Jinny. Her face was flushed and her body was still shaking with adrenaline.
Su-a's hand fell from my leg and squeezed my hand encouragingly for a brief moment before I stood up and stepped to the microphone with wobbly legs. I noticed out of the corner of my eye how some of the producers sat up curiously. Excitement flowed through every corner of my body. This scenario was not even comparable to my rehearsal recording back then, in which only two strangers had heard me sing. Today there were almost fifteen. The soft sounds of the piano boomed through the room and my excitement reached its peak as my cue drew nearer and nearer.
