2 The Beginning

Chen’s POV~~

It all began when I won the singing competition in 2013, a TV show for kids in China, my homeland. I was only 12 but the whole of China adorned and praised me for my sweet angelic voice which gave me the title ‘Little Singing Star of China’. But 3 years later in 2016, due to my appearance in many shows and new year concerts after the competition, I got a call from the trainee casting department of a well known Idol entertainment company in South Korea. Upon hearing the news of me being called all the way to South Korea for an idol trainees audition, I was overjoyed and found myself a new dream to enter the upcoming debuting trainees group of that company to become an Idol Star as soon as possible seeing the video of the other trainees.

I set off to South Korea together with my mama (mom in Chinese) after getting my parents permission, who I have to say is very supportive towards my new found dream. I visited the company the next day itself after landing in South Korea and was taken to the audition hall right away by a staff where all the board directors sat. I sang a song which I had practiced while on the flight with the utmost confidence, thus getting accepted as a trainee. The cherry on top being me, surprisingly chosen for the upcoming debuting group of trainees directly with whom I had dreamed to be, saying my skills were far more enough to make a debut immediately.

By night after signing a trainees contract with the company, I was again right away taken to an apartment which was apparently a dorm for the other teammates with whom I was set to debut as an Idol. I bid farewell to my mama and the staff who brought me to the dorms to enhance our teamwork.

If I were to say that I'm nervous it would be an understatement, I started to feel sick worrying about my first impression on them. A few moments later I saw the geges (term used for an older male/ older brother in Chinese) pour inside all looking sweaty and tired from practice I'm guessing. They clearly were as shocked to see me as I was seeing a whole lot of them than I had expected. Wait let me count 1..2..3……17! A total of 17 geges were just weirdly staring at me. God that's a lot, the staff was not kidding when he told me their were many trainees.

The most handsome looking one stepped forward, they all were very good looking but OMG this gege was so gonna be my bias~ *coughs and clears his throat* I mean my favorite gege~ I thought seeing him confidently stepping forward, he looked handsome even when sweaty whereas here I looked like a literal kid in front of him. Handsome gege was trying to make me feel better, thus he offered me to sit on the sofa to have a chat politely smiling.

I have decided to call him handsome gege till I knew his name because let's face it, he looks like those male lead in K-dramas that I love watching. He sat besides me on the sofa encouraging me to introduce myself.

"Annyeong I’m Wang Chen!!" I introduced myself unexpectedly with my voice cracking, sounding high pitched due to nervousness with whatever little bits of Korean I learned on the flight. My Handsome gege gave me a huge proud smile relieving my worries of having messed up my first impression on them. I continued now feeling relieved “I'm Chinese, I'm 15yrs old. I'm a new trainee selected to join this upcoming debuting group of trainees.”

One by one all the geges started introducing themselves now knowing who I was whereas here my dumb brain was trying to remember all their names cause firstly I'm damn bad at remembering names and secondly THEIR SO MANY.

“Annyeong Chen-ah, I’m Lee Young. I’m Korean, 21yrs old, the leader, center and visual of the group.” My handsome gege introduced himself. Oh so his name is Lee Young~~ Even his name sounds so cool~ god I'm such a fanboy.

“Ni Hao woe shi Kim (Hi I’m Kim in Chinese), I’m the oldest Chinese member in this group and I'm 20yrs old.” Oh this gege is also Chinese, I'll at least be able to talk freely with him, that's great.

“Annyeong I’m Tae, the oldest member of the group being 22yrs old and the main vocalist.” Oh so this gege is the Dage. (eldest brother in Chinese)

“Hey Bro, I’m Johnny. 21yrs old from Chicago, the most clumsy person within the group but I spread my positive energy to all the members, hope we'll get along.” Woah this gege speaks English, I can understand English but only talk a bit so I just smile widely at him.

“Annyeong I’m Do won. 20yrs old, the power vocal of the group but people call me Charlie as that's my English name and easy to pronounce by the international members.”

“Swadikarb I’m Ten, also 20yrs old from Thailand but can speak English so feel free to talk in English with me and I'm also the main dancer of the group.” This gege is so jolly, I like him. He must be incredibly good at dancing to become the main dancer and here I can't even dance to children's songs.

“Hello I'm Hyun, 19yrs old also known as the Valentine boy because my birthday falls on 14th Feb.” Wow this gege also looks damn good. Why are they all so good looking?

“Ni hao woe shi Win. I'm also Chinese, 19yrs old, good at martial arts.” Here I have another gege to talk freely to but let's talk about how cute win gege I guess looks AWE~~

“Annyeong I’m Jung won. Korean, 18yrs old and everyone calls me Zeus.” Woah this gege has a very pretty smile.

“Ni hao woe shi Lucas, 17yrs old the pro-gamer cause I'm damn good at games.” Ooh~this gege doesn't look like a 17 yr old teen. He's very built for his age, I also wanna grow that tall! but one more Chinese gege to talk to and moreover play games with.

“Konichiwa I’m Yuka. Japanese, the Osaka Prince and I'm 21yrs old.” OMG this gege is Japanese!?!?! It's my first time meeting a Japanese person. He’s giving me full ninja vibes.

“Hey I’m Yee Mark. 17yrs old and from Canada. Let's be friends!” He came forward to give me a fist bump. Oh god this group surely is international.

“Ni hao woe shi Hwang Ren. Chinese, 16yrs old and I'm good at drawing.” This gege and I can get along very well. He is Chinese as well as younger to the other elder Chinese members. I wanna be friends with him. He's so cool to be good at drawing whereas I'm the worst at drawing. I'm telling you even a 5yr old could draw better than me cause I suck at drawing so much.

“Annyeong I’m Lee Jino. 16yrs old, Korean, one of the visuals and lead dancers in the group.”

“Hi I’m Park Hajoon, also 16yrs old and Korean. I'm the mood maker of the group.”

“Annyeong I’m Na Jae or Nana. Korean, 16yrs old and the cutie of the group.” So they're all friends already. Poor me I’m so gonna be left alone, there is no one my age or younger than me to make friends with.

“Annyeong hyung! I’m Lee Jihun, (term used by younger males for elder brothers/ elder males in Korean) 14yrs old the youngest member. The member hyungs call me Jwi (mouse in Korean).” Look who we have here, there is a member younger to me and he is such a cutie pie~~ I wanna pinch his chubby cheeks.

After looking at Jihun unknowingly I couldn’t get rid of the ear to ear smile that I was giving off. Like how could a human be so cute, just like a hamster~ The geges gave him the right nickname. Realization drew to me that I was thinking about Jihun, which made me blush for the first time in my entire lifetime. “Let’s get along well!!” I said smiling wholeheartedly making Jihun blush now but he was still smiling his cute hamster smile. AWE~ so cute~~~