Auditions (1)

Joon-woo stood in front of the small theater. Inside lies his fate as an idol as far as he knew. He pursed his lips. Kite had explained how as a last gift for Park Joon-woo, Sunrise Entertainment had gotten him a spot in Producer10, a popular idol survival show.

While Producer10 didn't have the best rep, as vote rigging was a large issue within it, Joon-woo was still grateful. A chance was a chance, and in an industry as competitive as K-Pop, chances were about as rare as could be. And especially in Joon-woo's case, he would now be classified as an independent trainee, without a company. And with no higher power to back him, his name would be even more worthless.

He smiled at the efforts though, smaller companies, in Ha-rin's experience, were always better than the larger companies. She had debuted from a larger company after severely toxic competition and nepotism ran wild within. But from what Kite had explained, it seemed Sunrise had been kind to Joon-woo. Too kind about his dancing skills, though.

"Get a move on, Joon-woo…" Kite groaned on his shoulder.

Joon-woo rolled his eyes, "Have some patience— you're not the one auditioning here, are you?" He replied with a slight snark in his voice.

Just as Joon-woo began through the doors, a voice caught him.

"Hey! Excuse me?" A loud voice called in Joon-woo's direction. "Are you here to audition too?" Joon-woo nodded, bystanders walking by casting glares at the loud voice.

Joon-woo turned, a tall man with dyed blond hair stood over him. He wore a sports cap and was dressed quite comfortably. Joon-woo could smell it off of him, an American.

"Yes." Joon-woo replied.

The man took a moment to look at Joon-woo, as if curious. Joon-woo frowned, had he done something wrong already?

"Hm. The name's Reggie Lee, you?" The man, Reggie, smiled brightly at Joon-woo, who timidly shrunk at the sun-like man.

"Park Joon-woo." He replied softly, "Nice to meet you…" He awkwardly added.

Reggie just nodded, looking Joon-woo over with pursed lips. Joon-woo wrapped his arms around his chest. The heavy gaze shot through him, just as they always do.

Kite whistled at Reggie from his shoulder, "He's totally checking you out."

Joon-woo waved Kite off, uncomfortable with the intense glares of Reggie, shifted away. "Goodluck with your audition." Joon-woo said, quickly scurrying away through the doors, leaving Reggie and his weird glares.

When he entered he was met with a lobby. The lobby had many people in it. There were many trainees with numbers taped to their chests, they filled up the 30-seater lobby. Some had parents with them, and Joon-woo watched as they patted their panicked child's back in encouragement, chanting kind words with full faith.

The stress exhibited on the faces of the trainees was familiar to Joon-woo, he had seen it every day at every award show and it just reminded him of everything there was to hate about being an idol. And as he analyzed the families further he frowned as both Ha-rin and Joon-woo had the same family issues. They were both orphans from childhood, getting thrown from house to house with no solid ground. He wasn't jealous of the other contestants' parental love, he swore he wasn't. How could you miss something you've never had?

He laughed to himself, sadly. Now that he thought of it, the two were quite similar. Ophrans, dropouts, idols, suicide… Maybe he was just bound to live miserable lives, he shrugged.

He approached the front desk with shaking hands. As again, he was here. He was a trainee again and his gut twisted with the idea of such.

"Hello, name and agency?" An older lady asked. Looking at Joon-woo curiously.

"My name is Park Joon-woo and I'm with—" He stopped, because could he even say Sunrise Entertainment? In his silence the woman looked at him impatiently. "Um— formerly Sunrise Entertainment?"

The woman raised an eyebrow, "Eh, formerly?" She asked.

Park Joon-woo played with his hands, digging his nails into his skin. How could he explain this? The woman's gaze pierced through him and he knew that other trainees in the room noticed it. He felt their gazes too.

"Um— They um— They recently went bankrupt…" He quietly admitted.

The woman's gaze paused, and she opened her mouth in acknowledgement. Pressure immediately left from his chest.

"Ahh, yes I know. I'm very sorry about that." She said, looking at Joon-woo with a pitiful look. "Here's your number, just and wait for it to be called." She explained with a softer smile.

"Yes, thank you." Joon-woo said as he went to grab the large sticker with the number '56' on it from her hands.

His breath stopped for a moment, as when he went to grab it, the woman's hand encouragingly grasped Joon-woo's with a comforting squeeze. "Goodluck." She said,

Joon-woo's heart skipped a beat and he narrowed his gaze on his hands. "Thank you ajumoni…" He said, hand over his mouth in disgust as he took the sticker in hand.

As he rushed off the nearest bathroom, he heard Reggie's voice approach the front desk after him. Not that it phased him, as he was too busy about to throw up.

Just as he entered the door he winced, remembering that now he did infact, have a dick and the door he was approaching was the women's bathroom. Frantically he looked around, hoping no one noticed.

All eyes, to his surprise, were on Reggie as he babbled in weak Korean to the front desk lady.

"Thank god for the loud American's of the world." Kite joked from his shoulder.

Joon-woo didn't find it funny. Entering the men's bathroom reluctantly. The odd stench of men and the existence of urinals didn't even phase the Ha-rin in him, because he felt sick.

And he felt stupid. It was the smallest and most well-intended contact Joon-woo had ever had, but still he couldn't help but hate it. It felt foreign in all the wrong ways, because what had he done to deserve that? He didn't even say anything kind to the lady back!

He looked at himself in the large bathroom mirror and he swore to himself. Park Joon-woo was around 5'5' which in other words, meant he was short. Park Joon-woo had hair on the longer side, face on the softer side. In all honesty, this dude could pass as a girl if he really wanted. Would he never escape the unwanted attention, even as a guy?

Kite wolf-whistled from his side, "You would look like a hot girl." It shrugged.

Joon-woo looked blankly at Kite, "Do you want a repeat of earlier? 'Cause I will not hesitate to drown you in this sink." He threatened.

Kite quivered, attempting to flap away, but Joon-woo caught him and pinned him to the sink counter. Kite yelped, "Joon-woo~ Please!" Kite yelled in pain.

Joon-woo shook his head, releasing Kite and exiting the bathroom with a frown. He really, really thought his woman days were over.

As he re-entered the lobby he looked around. Almost every seat was filled, but Joon-woo noticed one empty one was next to none other than Reggie Lee and the other next two were probably the sappiest little family he had ever seen. The parents held their son in a hug as he was hyping himself up, muttering encouraging words to himself as the parents replied, 'yes, yes you are son'.

In his seconds of decision he figured the sappy family would be better.

As he took his seat, the family didn't cast a glance at him. He had made the right choice.