The Trainee and Me

Chapter 1

I know this isn't my usual thing. Sorry for the lack of Sulay btw. I have had the worst kind of lack of concentration. And... A.C.E is important to me too. Like, ult group levels of important.

I am not going to lie I am incredibly nervous for the start of this. But here goes nothing I suppose.

...

Sehyoon's POV

...

"Did you see?" I flicked my gaze up as Yuchan hurled himself at the table, squishing in between Junhee and I. Junhee made a noise at being jostled around, but our youngest friend didn't seem phased in the slightest. He presented his phone screen to us. "A new video!" he exclaimed with the enthusiasm of a toddler, feet tapping the tiles and all. I chuckled at his antics, reaching out to pat his head as he hit play on the video.

For several months now he had been obsessed with this group of trainees from some no name company. We only knew they were trainees from the obvious practice room. Their name on YouTube was simply A Name Trainee, and any traces of a company logo had been scrubbed from anything. They also had an Instagram that contained many masked selfies and a few seemingly random house pets. Yuchan was positively obsessed over them, though, and saved every single photo with reckless fever. He also boasted about their covers every time they posted a new one.

"Only one this time?" I asked, peering over his shoulder at the screen. He nodded rapidly, then smirked, jabbing me in my side oh so gently with his elbow.

"It's Jason," he told me, and I felt my ears burn at just the mention of his name. Ah yes. Jason. This boy and I had a history and he didn't even know it. One of the very first videos Yuchan ever showed us was Jason dancing to Lie by BTS's Jimin, and let's just say I ended up on the floor when it started with him in an all black outfit with the shirt unbuttoned and a red silk scarf over his eyes. And of course no one ever let me live that fact down.

"What did I just miss?" The final member of our ragtag friend group finally made his way over, plopping his tray on the table. Donghun sat down, swiping his hair from his face and huffing in annoyance. I kept telling him to get it trimmed but he kept insisting on letting it grow out "just a bit more." The downside being having to constantly move it to see. At one point Yuchan offered to put clips in his bangs, which just got him scoffed at and drew some laughter from Junhee.

"Jason posted a new cover," Yuchan sing songed, giving me the side eye. I felt myself burning all over again. It wasn't necessarily my fault my favorite of the trainees just so happened to spend half his time in crop tops? I wasn't even sure where he got them all. But he practically lived in them on their lives and in their covers. "Which Sehyoon hyung isn't even watching," Yuchan helpfully pointed out. "That's fine I'll just watch him dance to Filter on my own thanks."

"Wait, Filter?" I questioned, and Yuchan laughed at my sudden alertness. Jimin seemed to be a big favorite of his, as any time a new song dropped he was racing to be part of the team or trying to beat the other trainees at being the first to his solo songs. Yuchan did say at one point he'd revealed his role model was Jimin, but no one seemed to exactly know where that came from. Yuchan twisted the phone screen to face me. "Oh." My breath hitched in my throat as always. Right now he sported platinum blond hair and his signature black mask. Black jeans low at his hips and a belt around those, studded with fake jewels. And a fan favorite, the crop top red sweater with black stripes. A signature look overall.

"You'll catch flies like that," Junhee suddenly spoke. I snapped my jaw shut as Donghun howled in the background. Yuchan simply smirked, smug as he always was. I went back to my lunch, rather moodily munching on my food and letting the chatter fall into static in the back of my mind. I had other things to think about today. Mostly my art final coming up. It was indeed an elective, but the school still put on a grand show at the end of every semester. And while I wasn't the most stand out art student ever, I wanted so bad to participate.