"That's Lee Chan!"
"What? Isn't he from Pledis' newest group though?"
"Didn't you hear? Pledis went bankrupt. The group just disbanded."
"Ouch."
It's a bit strange to walk into the room of trainees like this, especially when Chan's pride was telling him he should've been a mentor, not a contestant. Maybe that's why he decided to join this survival show in the first place. It's an easy ticket to debut (theoretically).
Of course, he was still nervous despite his confidence in his abilities. Everything was up to voting after all—what if people didn't recognize him? Even though he had debuted for a short amount of time, there were other trainees much more famous than him. He could even recognize a handful.
"No, Chan! You can't be thinking like that. You'll do just fine."
He quickly bows to everyone, finding his spot in an empty chair with his name on it. At that moment, self conscious would be a word he could use to describe himself right now. With everyone's eyes on him like this felt like negative attention. They were curious about him, just for the wrong reasons.
The seats they were sitting in were sets of three, labeled 'C, K, and J' for Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
Chan sat in the 'J' seat. Despite being Korean, he was still considered a Japanese trainee because he had citizenship there.
He peers at the seats next to them, trying to subtly look at the name tags of the people next to him.
Xu Minghao and Lee Seokmin. Some names he recognized.
Minghao was a dancer he had heard about often but never seen in person. However, seeing him now, Chan couldn't help but think that he was very, very pretty. His elf ears, lips, and hair were so pretty.
On the other hand, Seokmin was actually someone he had seen in person before. He was constantly on TV and in musicals; a hot topic, mainly known for his outstanding vocals. You must've been living under a rock if you didn't know his name. He's also incredibly good looking.
Their row of chairs is silent as more and more trainees start filling in the seats. Are these our teams? Why were they sitting here? He couldn't help but wonder as he took little side eyed glances at the people next to him.
If this is their team, Minghao and Seokmin would be great assets to him. They're talented and well known, why wouldn't they make it?
"What are you looking at, cutie?" Minghao suddenly said playfully, a shit-eating smirk on his face. Chan flinches, looking away quickly as a red flush engulfed his face.
God, this might be a little harder than he initially thought.
-
A host came and explained to them the basics. Afterwards, each row of three were escorted to their own rooms. It was bigger (and better) than Chan's old, crusty little apartment complex his company provided.
It had a sleek design and had three separate beds for each of them. Chan immediately flops in his bed relishing in the soft blankets.
He can hear Seokmin's honey-like giggles from behind him causing him to look back.
"Why are you laughing?" He mutters, and although he intended for it to be snarky, it comes off a little mellow.
Seokmin laughs again, making eye contact with Minghao who looked equally amused. "No, it's nothing. You're just a lot cuter than what I saw on broadcasts."
Chan quirks his eyebrow, trying to decipher if that was supposed to be insulting or not, "What do you mean?"
"We mean, your debut concept was hard and sexy, your charisma really shines," Minghao jumps in, Seokmin nodding along, "But, offstage, you're a bit of a cute little kid, I guess?"
