survive - 생존

Chapter 2 : KH

-Welcome to KH agency.

We're not as many as yesterday. Some of us are still trying to fight against the sleep. The same man that during the audition is here. We're all in the practice room with our stuff.

-Some of you are still not here, you're supposed to be 16. They have five minutes left to arrive, after that, it'll be over.

Sixteen? What are they going to make us do? A boys group and a girls group? If we're supposed to be 16, it means that four persons are not here.

I was thinking about a lot of things when three people enter the room out of breath and bow, apologizing. One girl and two boys.  They come next to us and wait too. The atmosphere is tense.

The director enters the room and slams the door.

-It's over. The last man won't be a part of this.

Everybody bow to miss Kim, and she comes to sit next to the man. When she looks at us, her gaze is glazing. She could kill us with her eyes.

-Well. You're surely wondering  about what you're doing here. I'll be very brief : you're an experience.

Every new word she pronounces makes her even more scary. But I'm curious, I'll finally know what I'll be doing.

She begins her explanations :

-As you already know, KH agency is new and has no other group. I'm the director, and mister Hwang Dae Ho is the investor of this project. We are the 4th of June, and the 1st of September, 8 of you will debut as a mixed group. It means that during these months, 7 of you will be fired. After every two weeks you'll have a performance to do. We'll give you details about that later. There won't be any survival show about this, you'll do everything away from the public. We'll make an announce about the creation of a new group, but that's it.
Let's talk about the rules. There aren't any. You are going to be distributed in 4 dormitorys, 2 for the men, and 2 for the women. That's the only thing that is imposed. Out of that, you can do what you want. For the practicing, that's the same business. You'll have 4 practice rooms at disposal, but if you don't want to practice, it's your problem. All we ask you is to give great perfomances and improve during these three months. There isn't any leader, any superiority between you, so I don't want to hear any "oppa", "noona", "hyung", "unnie", "dongsaeng", "sunbae" or anything else. Speak how you want in the dorms or out of the practice rooms, but here, you're all equals. To summarize, if you want to date someone, then do it. If you don't want to practice, don't do it. If you want to insult someone older than you, do it. That's none of my business. All I want is a group that can work and become famous. Is it clear for everyone?

Everybody answers together. I'm amazed. If I stay here, it means that I'll debut in three months. Oh my god. The project is amazing. I don't know how it'll be, but that's the craziest idea I ever heard. I'm excited. Scared and happy at the same time.

-We'll talk about the performances later.

And she leaves the room. Everyone is in shock. The man is still here. He begins to talk and I realize that he's not as old as I thought.

-I'm Lee Ho Joo. Your manager. And dance teacher. And...

-Oh, I forgot something.

The director enters the room again, interrupting mister Lee and we all turn the head to look at her, like one person.

-I won't have any pity.If I don't like you, then you'll be fired. I don't have to give you a reason to fire someone. Get it? If you have problems with each other, I don't care, solve them yourselves.

And she slams the door. Ho Joo coughs and says, laughing:

-I can be your confidant too. If you need to talk to someone, I'll listen to you.

Then, he tells us to put our stuff somewhere and to sit down. He seems to be friendly. At least, more than the director.

-Okay, so you probably don't know each other, right? You'll be able to introduce yourselves later, for the moment, let's talk about the practice. I'll give one lesson per day, you're free to come or not. Tomorrow, we will decide about the teams for the performances. About the teaching, as you know, we don't have any artist in this agency that can give you advices. But I'll try my best to find artists that can come here to teach you some stuff okay? I can't promise anything, but I'll try hard.

I can't focus on what he's saying, I'm too excited. It's been months since I last danced and sang. I want to begin right now and train hard. I want to debut and finally realize my dream. Calm down Ha Neul, you don't even know what the other people are capable of.

Ho Joo continues to give us informations, and he finally gets up.

-It's now time for me to let you introduce yourselves!