Aurora || Park Seonghwa x OC

Chapter 4: Besorgnis und Erleichterung

° Besorgnis und Erleichterung °
-> worry/concern and relief <-

"I understand that you're nervous, sweetie. But please, you've got to eat at least a few bites."
Yeseul let the spoon circle around in her bowl of cereal, occasionally picking up a few pieces of her chocolate-flavored breakfast food and staring at them as if they were her biggest enemy, before lowering them back into the milk. Some people eat more when they're stressed, some eat nothing at all. She belonged to the latter group.

Three weeks had passed since she joined KQ Entertainment. Today was Saturday and the day of her first monthly evaluation. Yeseul felt like she would throw up as soon as any food entered her stomach.

She had heard her mother's attempt at getting her to eat but decided to ignore it.
"You've been practicing until late at night every single day. You've worked so hard, I'm sure you'll be fine."
This time, she gave her mother an affirmative, but not very confident "mhm-mhm".
"I have to go now, I'll see you tonight. You definitely need to get something in your stomach, you'll only let your teammates down if you faint in the middle of the performance because your blood sugar is too low."
With those words and a gentle squeeze of her daughter's shoulder, the older woman exited the apartment and left a silent trainee behind.

Even if she didn't want to admit it, her mother was right. If she didn't eat now, she wouldn't have enough energy later and might become even more of a nuisance to her team. Yeseul slowly started eating a few bites of the now soggy cereal and after managing to finish half the bowl, she got ready and left for work.

The clock read 6:30 am when she entered the convenience store.
"Noona! I haven't seen you in quite a while!" Jinwoo immediately greeted her and she gave him a friendly wave. As she had started working the morning shifts right after joining the company and Jinwoo usually took shifts in the afternoon, they had only worked together once or twice. He had been extremely excited to find out that Yeseul had become a trainee and would not stop pestering her with questions throughout their shifts. She didn't mind sharing her stories but always made sure that no customers were present when the topic shifted to her trainee life.

Her shift felt like it went on for ages, even though her colleague had kept her busy with all his inquiries, but at the same time she didn't want it to end. She wasn't ready. But around noon, she had to leave and face the inevitable.

So many things had happened in these past three weeks.
Her first classes had been interesting, to say the least. She always did well in singing class and felt herself easily catching up due to her already having taken vocal classes back in high school. Dancing classes were a different story. It was rough. Just as she had expected, everyone was way ahead of her and she had a hard time keeping up. Luckily, Jaehee had taken the time to give her some pointers and help with any questions about the choreographies. Her teachers were constantly scolding her but they had recognized her ambition during the first evaluations. But now, a big one was coming up. The monthly evaluation, where they had to sing while dancing.

Another trainee joined the agency a few days after Yeseul, making them eight female trainees in total, so they were split into two groups of four girls. She had gotten pretty close to all of the other trainees in the short time she'd been part of the company, they all got along. But there was one girl who was a mystery to her. Annie. The trainee who had given her the stink eye when Yeseul was asked to sing on her first day.

Annie was Korean but had grown up in America. She was a year younger than Yeseul, was tall and tanned, in general, a very beautiful girl but had an awful personality, as far as the others could tell. Yeseul didn't like to judge people quickly but she soon learned that Annie wasn't here to make friends. She was here to outshine everyone else and make sure she debuts, no matter what it takes.