apartment block 17

[ 056 ]

part four: remember the reason for the season

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pledis entertainment

the thirty or so current trainees at pledis entertainment gathered in the biggest studio, as per staff orders. it was time for pledis' annual special trainee christmas broadcast.

seokmin spotted chan across the room and waved frantically to get his attention. chan grinned and flashed finger guns.

"hey, seokmin!" a female voice caught his attention. seokmin flushed, as he recognised the voice. it belonged to yuju, a fellow trainee who also happened to be his classmate and good friend at pledis university.

"you nervous?" she laughed, glancing at seokmin's shaking hands.

he smiled as widely as he could. "i'd be lying if i said i wasn't."

she clasped his hands tightly in her own. "you're one of the best trainees here. fans love you already," she smiled. the gesture made seokmin relax a little.

they were soon divided into groups and given scripts to read over. this year's broadcast would be a collection of christmas skits performed by each group of trainees. seokmin was happy to see that both chan and yuju was in his group. the broadcast started and each trainee bowed and introduced themselves (which unsurprisingly took a really long time). seokmin's group was up to perform first, and they drew their roles out of a hat.

"horse," seokmin grinned and held up the paper he had picked to the camera.

"elf," chan picked his role after seokmin.

"princess," yuju read out after chan. seokmin couldn't help but think it was a perfect role for her.

they soon assembled and seokmin waited backstage nervously for his scene to come. he read over the script again and realised that in his opening scene, the princess was riding the horse.

as in, yuju was meant to be riding seokmin. he didn't exactly know how to pull that off.

"do you think you could piggy back me?" the girl in question whispered. seokmin hadn't seen her approach him.

"yeah, sounds like a good idea," seokmin said, thankful that yuju seemed cool with the situation.

seokmin knew he wasn't allowed to 'like' anyone due to pledis' strict dating regulations, but he would admit that yuju was someone special to him. they had known each other since middle school back in seokmin's hometown, and had coincidentally moved to seoul at the same time after both being accepted into pledis.

but he'd never had the chance to properly get to know her. he heard that she was going to debut soon in pledis' new girl group.

seokmin hated being left behind. while he was an easy-going and lively person, he did sometimes display perfectionist tendencies and didn't like it when he failed to succeed. he was always used to getting by in life by trying his best; but knowing that even his best wasn't good enough for the idol industry made him feel despondent.

convincing his parents was difficult. they were quite shocked to hear that both of their sons wanted to move to seoul and pursue careers as idols, which no doubt required brutal training, raw talent and mental strength to achieve. seokmin knew that he had to try beyond his best if he wanted to succeed and prove to his parents that they made the right decision to trust him.

yuju was no doubt one of the most talented people seokmin had met in his life. since middle school, she had excelled in both academics and sports, and had the same passion for music as seokmin and chan did. seokmin didn't know anyone more worthy of debut than her.