Josephine Swan never imagined that her stay in South Korea would lead her into K-Pop's glittering and challenging world. Each day, she encounters new hurdles and adventures that fate has in store for her and her four team members. Between gruelling...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
YG Entertainment
Office of Yang Hyun-suk
Yang Hyun-suk propped his elbow on his desk thoughtfully, while his fingers kept brushing over part of his lips. His dark eyes were fixed on the computer, closely following the video footage of the cafeteria, where a majority of his female trainees found themselves.
Since he pursued the plan to form a girl group modelled after Girls' Generation in 2011, much had evolved over the years in terms of his selected candidates. Eleven girls were selected in the beginning before some members were expelled due to scandals or health issues, and the group split over time. Meanwhile, the debut group included five members and the other formed from the expelled members. Among them was an unusual but talented newcomer.
Josephine Swan.
He well remembered finding Kwon Ji-yong in one of his studios, with the young British woman's recording playing in the background. His interest in her voice and the added emotions she expressed in each of the recorded songs made him pause in surprise. When Ji-yong stated that she had not received any basic musical knowledge or training, his curiosity regarding the girl was not lowered. Even his thorough research regarding the girl and her family in Britain did not make him pause in amazement for long. Instead, he sought her out personally and offered her a contract within his entertainment.
He could certainly understand her hesitation.
None of his trainees had ever been in a position where she was.
He was not exaggerating or lying about the fact that he was taking a big risk with her.
Even though the fact about her social affiliation was still a secret, Yang Hyun-suk knew that it was only a matter of time before this closely guarded fact would eventually come out. Just thinking about the PR and media attention that would come to his entertainment made him slightly uncomfortable.
A noblewoman from the European region, without any Asian features and any training within the music industry.
And yet, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to take this risk.
His eyes flew over the cameras again and spotted the young British woman in her workout clothes that she and her members had put together for their monthly performance.
She stood out from the crowd.
Her presence in the cafeteria alone still made some of the other trainees or visitors look up, even though she had been a fixture in the entertainment and training program since April.
By now, she would be starting her sixth month in entertainment, a fact that was noted not only by him. Just as he was aware of the risk surrounding her, so were a majority of his producers and staff. Quite a few of them watched the young girl with suspicion during her early days, some out of curiosity, others more prejudiced.
Her first performance was, as expected, marked by discomfort and nervousness so that even he had doubts at that moment. Her voice was still untrained, even the scant month and daily singing practice only affected her basic skills. Contrary to his expectations and those of his producers, however, she caught on surprisingly quickly and secured another month with her solo.
Her training was increased and two more teachers were brought in to get the maximum potential out of the girl and keep it.
With success.
The following month was a marked improvement and he began to recognize more and more the voice from Kwon Ji-yong's recordings that he had been doggedly searching for.
Besides her achievements in singing, she was in no way inferior to the others in dancing. Her previous sports proved to be very helpful in this matter, so she was able to keep up with the best. Her manager Lim Myung-ok mentioned in their last meeting how Josephine put together the choreographies in the last evaluation, probably in the current one as well. According to her dance teachers, she brought different variations to the dances and always adapted them to the circumstances of her members, so her performances had changed significantly since three months ago. He noticed them. Their dances seemed more fluid, more vigorous, and in some cases more elegant because of Josephine's intervention.
The vibration of his phone made him forget to look at the cameras, and with a swipe of his finger, he answered the incoming call.
"Yeoboseyo," he said.
"Annyeonghaseyo..." he heard on the other side and straightened up in his chair. Kwon Ji-yong voice seemed slightly hoarse on the other end of the line.
"You seem tired. Where are you currently?" he asked curiously, opening some files on his computer until finally, BigBang's tour plan appeared on his screen.
China.
"In Changsha. We leave for Chongqing in a few hours." the leader of BigBang replied and Yang Hyun-suk nodded.
"You should sleep, Jiyong-ah," he said after a while of silence on both sides before he was elected to end the phone call.
"How is she?" he finally asked, a small smile forming on Yang Hyun-suk's lips before his eyes slid to the cameras once more. Josephine, accompanied by Hannah Jang, walked toward a long table where the other trainees were also seated. A tray was full of food in her hands.
"She doesn't stop surprising me more every month. Even my producers are silent now. It seems...like I have to let you choose our new trainees more often, Jiyong-ah." he remarked, and there was a rustle on the other end. He guessed the broad smile on Ji-yong's lips.
"It's just nice to hear that she's doing well," he said after a while, and Yang Hyun-suk could only nod in agreement. His eyes passed over the white-haired girl sitting together with her members and the debut group. She seemed to be talking animatedly with the Thai girl Lisa and the others also turned to their conversation after a while.
He saw them laughing together and the girls started pushing their chairs more and more towards Josephine. Forgetting the food around them.
"Considering the fact that she was very hesitant about us...she has moved remarkably fast. Rapidly...I would think." He murmured thoughtfully more to himself than to his interlocutor.
