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...
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Due to the many different universities in the vicinity, life on the streets in the Sinchon area was characterised by many students and young people like us. Street food, bars, clubs and traditional restaurants lined the sides, offering an extensive Korean variety.
The "Jjukkumi Dal-in" was a small restaurant that hardly differed from the other surrounding eateries with its simple outward appearance.
"The special thing about this restaurant is that you can choose the level of spiciness," Ji-soo said to me as we sat down at one of the remaining tables. Next to us on the bare tiled walls were stickers with the dishes on offer and prices. Curious, my eyes ran over the dishes.
"And...?" asked Rosè next to me, following my eyes over the wall while one of the waiters was already taking the other girls' order. I smirked and just shook my head at the amount of dishes I was unfamiliar with.
Although my stay in South Korea had been several months, their cuisine was extensive in many ways. From the early days with Jihe and Ahri, I largely only remembered the specialities like bibimbap, kimchi and bulgogi.
A stark contrast to the few opportunities that the training period offered.
Ji-soo nudged me lightly and pointed to one of the dishes in the middle.
"I would recommend jjukkumi. It's a spicy dish of fried small squid marinated in a red chilli gochugaru sauce," she said and my eyes unconsciously widened at the thought of too-spicy food. Ji-soo noticed my slightly panicked look and laughed softly.
"Like I said...you can choose the spiciness of your dish," she explained again and turned to the waiter.
"Hey...is everything okay?" Ji-soo asked me cautiously as the waiter finally left the table with our taken orders. Her eyes looked at me worriedly, so I struggled to bring a reasonable lie to my lips and imply that I was fine. The other girls, who had been silently looking around the restaurant, glanced in our direction, or rather mine.
"It's still quite...a lot...to understand and process." I finally admitted honestly and the girls around me nodded in understanding.
Even though Choi's words regarding my acceptance into the debut group lifted a small part of my burden, they didn't replace the further large mountain of confusion in the middle of my head. There were still far too many unresolved questions and fears that had been piling up since the monthly assessment. And unfortunately, the more I thought about it, the more they seemed to multiply.
Suddenly I felt a delicate hand grasp my left and squeeze it. Astonished, I looked up and met Ji-soo's dark brown eyes, which by now were looking at me compassionately.
"It's going to be okay, Josie. You'll see," she said, her calm aura taking over my chaotic insides.
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"This social engagement...did you do that in England too?" asked Jennie.
"My mother works for United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF, among other things. I've accompanied her several times when there were important projects or volunteer work to do," said I.
"And...these children...you visit them every fortnight at the hospital?" asked Lisa cautiously, her brown beady eyes staring at me across the table. The small sauce-doused squid between my chopsticks trembled as I nodded silently.
"Originally, it was considered a six-month project to sponsor and provide a better psychosocial environment for the sick children. I usually read to them or help them with their homework...in return, they usually helped me with Korean." I explained quietly to the girls, smiling at the thought.
"That's very impressive," replied Choi, taking another bite of her food as Jennie put her chopsticks aside.
"Do you think...you would have followed a similar career path to your mother's if it wasn't for the offer from our company?" she asked curiously, dabbing her lips with the paper napkin.
I looked at her perplexed and lowered my head to my already half-eaten plate.
Philanthropy was not uncommon in our circles.
Not only did members of the British royal family have connections to hundreds of charities and projects that they embraced and supported. Many other upper-class nobles or celebrities also took advantage of their popularity within society and held fundraising events or set up charitable projects to further their interests.
My family alone was instrumental in the annual "Queen Charlotte's Ball" debutante ball to give ambitious girls the opportunity to develop their careers and social confidence.
I sighed softly and looked up.
"Honestly...I don't know. Before joining Entertainment, my focus was mainly on my school activities to get into a good university. Of course, charities or similar working organisations appeal to me a lot, but there is more than one way to support needy people and children." I explained after a while, while the girls listened with interest.
"As in the case of a debut," Choi said after a while and had the attention the next moment. Her black hair swayed as her head began to turn in our direction.
I didn't know how to react.
I had no intention of debuting.
I had spent the last 48 hours trying to come up with a reasonable explanation and solution as to how best to handle this situation in the best interest of all concerned.
I had chosen this path voluntarily, I had agreed to the contract to train for two years. And I had so far been able to meet their demands, even though the path had taken me further than I had originally intended.
The girls, and I too, were well aware that with my joining the group, their debut was also affected and probably postponed once more to test and evaluate the latest combination of the six of us.
Each of them trained hard and persistently for years towards this goal and I did not want to lower it by my comparatively low level.
Despite my undesirable position in the new group, I had therefore decided not to hinder the other girls in their training and their possibility to debut soon as a group by my insufficient knowledge.
And I had secretly resolved to support them in their goals as far as I could.
