New Morning | A Kpop Idol Life Story

10. Haunting Memories

- You look like you could use some company.

I looked up from my trainers, feeling weirded out by the sudden English. A young man around my age smiled at me, holding a bottle of sports drink close to my face.

- I am in a company of hundreds of people, of course I have company, I answered sharply, but accepted the drink anyways.

The boy only laughed, clearly intellectual enough to understand the pun I had made. He sat next to me on the bench and opened his own bottle of blue liquid.

- Yeah, but you can feel lonely in a crowd.

- Wow, depressing much? I sipped the drink.

- I was in your position not long ago. Not to mention you aren't fluent in Korean like the rest of us.

This guy seemed to know awfully lot about me and my language skills considering we didn't even have lessons together. To be honest, the staff would get angry at us for mingling with the opposite gender to begin with.

- And how do you know English? Most of you don't speak it as well as you do, I raised an eyebrow.

- Was that a compliment? he smirked, earning a slap on the arm.

- Shut up, just answer my question.

- My dad has connections abroad so he wanted me to learn English in case I will continue on the same path.

- Oh my gosh, is he in mafia? my gasp was overly dramatic, making the both of us laugh little bit hysterically.

- Nah, he is just a businessman, the boy leaned back, looking somewhere in the distance.

I, however, looked at him.

- Okay, so you're rich. But why Sunrise? I heard all the rich people go to JHA. Or Cosmos, I sighed.

My new friendly acquaintance didn't answer right away, taking his time while fiddling with the cap of the bottle.

- Sunrise values personality more, he suddenly said and I was surprised to receive such a wise answer.

- In other companies it's all about pure talent or appearance, but at Sunrise they care about your character as well. They have produced a lot of artists who are genuinely fun and captivating. Those people made me fall in love with idols.

For a moment I couldn't think of a funny remark and I just sat there, looking at the boy talk about deep things just a few minutes after we had first met. But he was speaking the truth and I felt quite secure with him. I agreed with the fact that Sunrise was a good company at taking care of its artists and trainees. And I could relate to him on a certain, idol loving level.

- Hyung, let's go to the cafeteria, I'm starving!

With that simple sentence the bubble of tranquility was gone. The boy got up, happily chattering with his friend. They glided past me like two tall towers. Before he was out of the range of hearing he quickly turned around, flashing me a smile.

- Let's see again.

I barely managed to send him off with a tiny wave of a hand before the two men were behind the corner.

~ September 1st, Thursday ~

Your P.O.V.

That was how I first met Hyeonwoo. It happened in late 2012 when I had been training for two weeks. We met a few times after that, usually in the cafeteria when we happened to be on lunch break at the same time. One day, he made a bold move and asked for my phone number. He insisted he wasn't flirting and thought I needed his number so that I could text him whenever I had problems with training, friends or language. Luckily they let us use phones. We did text occasionally, gossiping about the dance instructor's wardrobe and newest album releases of our favorite idols. But then he suddenly stopped talking to me. I didn't see him even at the company. Rumors said he had quitted for a reason no one really knew, but people were guessing it was about substance abuse or maybe even a girl-