The Unexpected Rhapsody || ✅

Chapter 14

31st January, 2020: 5:43 pm, KST.

"Is she Japanese?" asks gym trainer Kim MinSeong pointing at Hana's sweating figure relentlessly performing spiderman planks.

Glancing in the direction of the indication, SooAh mumbles, "Ah... You mean, Hana?"

"Is that her name?"questions MinSeong as he checks the stopwatch in his hand. "Now I'm pretty sure she's from Japan."

SooAh grins lightly. "The first time I saw her I thought she was a mixed Korean because of those slightly slanted but large hazel eyes, a darker skin tone," she pauses to eye the mentioned girl, "and of course those curves at just the right places."

Turning to the tall man next to her, she smiles, "But she's actually a Nepalese."

"Oh," he mentions, "I see."

Together, the both of them go around the gym to inspect and instruct all the trainees. The not-too-large gymnasium looks even smaller with the number of new equipments there are. All girls perform some activity or the other, exactly according to the plan provided to them beforehand. The stench of sweat, the steady beats of the song Dionysus and the whiff of the freshly-bought gears lingers in the air-conditioned room. If you would enter this place right now, you would probably wish to disappear immediately.

SooAh finds a younger girl struggling to set up the magnitude of the treadmill and walks away from MinSeong to help her out.

Meanwhile, he takes another glimpse of his stopwatch. 4 minutes 02 seconds, it displays. How long on the earth is she gonna do the same exercise? He wonders, suddenly becoming concerned about the duration of this routine of Hana.

He begins to take long strides to reach to her. Right when he is two feet away, Hana stops and so does the banging music.

Okay. So the song was her stopwatch.

His eyes find her collapsed body on top of the mat as she pants hard for oxygen.

The next song on the playlist begins- Gogobebe by MAMAMOO.

"You must follow the directions given to you by me," his manly voice commands, making the girl open her eyes and quickly stand up straight. "If your workout plan says one minute, then only one minute it is. No more, no less."

Suddenly bowing down, Himani apologizes, "I'm really sorry, sir. It won't happen again."

"Okay," he replies and vanishes off.

~~~

31st January, 2020: 7:56 pm, KST

Today's Korean lesson was a very productive one. The girls learnt those vocabularies which would be helpful if at all they were to give a speech at an award show post winning a prestigious award.

Finally, they make their way to the large practice hall. Given its huge size, it is especially designed for evaluating contestants and trainees. On the way to the hall, the silence of the usually chaotic girls shows how anxious all of them were due to today's test.

A weird yet familiar scent suddenly wafts through the corridors leading to the great hall. She looks to her right, the side where her olfactory receptors had detected a stronger potency. Unintentionally, her feet begin to drag her to its direction. She takes three steps towards her right, and someone catches her wrist, taking her completely by surprise.

"Where are you headed to, Hana-ya?" Rebecca asks with a look of clear perplexity on her face.

"Oh, I- I was just, nothing a-" Hana stutters.