Exposure

Chapter 2

I call it a day for practice, and am now making my way back to the dorm now. I hope the guys have cleaned up a little. It can get a mess very easily if 9 guys are living together in one tiny dorm. 

I open the door and see all the guys on the couch. None of their eyes are blinking, as they have their eyes glued to the television. 

"What are you guys watching?" I ask. 

"Hyung! You're home!" says Kyuhyun, making eye contact with me for one second, just to have his eyes turn back to the tv again, not answering my question. 

"You came just in time! They are now announcing the members of the new girl group!" says Jeong-in. 

I walk in the living room to see what the commotion is about. They are watching "100 Dream Girls"? I did not expect they would be actively following it, since none of the female trainees of our company are on the show. Jang Ye-ri used to train under our company, D&D Entertainment, but abruptly left a couple of months ago for unknown reasons. I heard she joined the show as an individual trainee. 

"Jang Ye-ri better makes it and gets that number one spot", says E-chan, the youngest of the trainees. He just turned 16. 

"Does someone have a crush on Ye-ri?", jokes Han-bin. 

"Can I not be supporting our former fellow trainee?" asks Echan, with an annoyance in his tone. I don't really get why he reacted so defensive, everyone knows that Han-bin likes to make jokes. But he knows when to be serious too, which I like about him. Han-bin is the "mother" of the boy trainees, I feel like he would make a great leader in the debut group. 

"Woo-seok hyung, come sit!" says Kyuhyun and moves a bit to the side to make space, bumping into Young-jae. 

"No thanks, I'll go wash up and get ready for bed I think." 

"This trainee... is NOT born in Korea!" suddenly blasts out of the TV. One of the guys must have turned up the volume. 

"Not born in Korea?! It must be Ye-ri then!" says Hyuk-tae with excitement in his voice. 

"There is also this girl from America and the half Australian 14-year old, so I wouldn't get too excited yet", says Jeong-in. 

"And Ye-ri has never been below rank 3", E-chan adds. 

With curiosity getting the best of me, I turn around and make my way to the couch, sitting where Kyuhyun made space for me. 

"So now you're interested?" Kyuhyun laughs. I don't comment. 

The camera focuses on Ye-ri, who looks very nervous, but I do see a spark of hope in her eyes, eager for her name to be called anytime. The next shot is a girl I have not seen before, with long brown hair and rose gold eyeshadow on her eyes. The camera then focuses on a much younger looking girl, she does look a little bit foreign. That must be the half Australian Jeong-in talked about. 

".... Taurus Entertainment trainee Rose Cho!"

The camera points towards rose gold eyeshadow girl, she has her mouth wide open out of shock. She must be the girl from America then. Rose... 

She looks familiar, but I cannot really pinpoint how. Have I seen her somewhere before? I don't think so.... Does she look like someone I know perhaps? 

We watch the rest of the ranking announcements. Then comes the point where the final 2 will be announced. 

"YE-RI! YE-RI!" The members obviously have a favorite. 

And then the tv screen shows the faces of two trainees, but neither of them is Ye-ri. 

"WHAT?!" Everyone in the room is shocked, but I cannot be bothered. I knew that Ye-ri was one of the best female trainees, but I didn't know she was the fan favorite, let alone our boy trainee favorite. I can hear the booing of the audience, that must feel very uncomfortable for the trainees who will be placed 1st and 2nd.