prove it • stray kids

06 | training

riley smith

[korean]

Yesterday, Suwei, Nyla, and I called our parents to tell them the news of our acceptance into JYPE. While they are all supportive of us, they want to ensure our safety in a new country. Along with the contract we had to sign to be a JYPE trainee, they provide us housing and enrollment into a performing arts school in Seoul.

Training starts today for us, so we have a long way to go before we can go back to California. Our parents plan to fly out to Korea, so they can bring us clothes and other necessities while we live here.

Stepping into a JYPE practice room, Suwei, Nyla, and I are greeted with boys and girls that appear to be around our age. We were instructed to meet in this room for dance practice.

"Hello," Suwei greets the other trainees that noticed us enter. The three of us slightly bow to them, and they return the gesture.

We introduce ourselves and state where we are from. The four trainees in front of us introduce themselves in the same manner.

A boy speaks up first, "I'm Jeon Moon-sik, and I'm from Busan, South Korea."

"I'm Kim Hye-sun from here in Seoul," a girl says after him with a smile on her face.

"I'm from Kyoto, Japan. My name is Fujita Kaito," he tells us, careful to pronounce the Korean words correctly, "Sorry, my Korean isn't too great."

"Don't worry, you're doing much better than us," I laugh.

The last trainee introduces herself, "I'm Sarai, and I came from Thailand."

"It's nice to meet all of you," Nyla says, Suwei and I nodding in agreement.

A woman walks into the room and introduces herself as our dance instructor. She begins to go over some basic techniques we should master before practicing more complex choreographies.

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After our first day of training, I glance at the time on my phone to see it is already late at night.

"You're all still here?" We hear a voice calling out to us.

Turning around, we see Hyesun with Moonsik, Sarai, and Kaito behind her.

Suwei responds for us, "Yeah, we were just heading out. Where are you guys off to?"

"We were planning on getting something to eat," Kaito explains, "Do you guys want to join us?"

I politely decline, "We wouldn't want to intrude."

Sarai interjects, "No worries! We all want you three to come. It'll be fun getting to know more trainees."

Moonsik holds up two thumbs ups and smiles to reassure us that we will not be a bother.

The three of us end up agreeing and following the four trainees to get some food.

"I know this place nearby that makes amazing tteokbokki!" Moonsik exclaims, unable to contain his excitement for food.

»

For the next month, we continued to rigorously train after coming back from our new school. Hyesun, Moonsik, Kaito, and Sarai all attend the same school as us, so we had the comfort of having friends around.

Furthermore, Hyesun and Sarai dorm in the same building as us, except on a different floor. Moonsik and Kaito dorm nearby in a building with other male trainees.

While the trainee life has proven to be tough, we are determined to work hard because of the encouragement from people around us and the goal that one day we can debut in mind.

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i researched a bit about korean, japanese, and thai names to try to keep the fictional trainees' names as authentic as possible. according to what i read, thailand does not have any common surnames due to family uniqueness, so that is why i did not give the character, sarai, a surname.