It's early morning around five. The roads are almost empty.
A late teenager and a young man are jogging together around a park. Sweat is pouring down from the teenager them like rain.
He slowed down and sat on a nearby bench. "I can't go any longer, Hyung. You continue…"
Jun looked at this only friend of his, "Jaemin-ssi, we only ran four rounds. That's only like…" He glanced at the mission status…
Daily Missions:
Mission 1: Running
Description: Improve your strength and stamina by running 10 km a day.
Progress: 47%
'Oh! 4.7 km?' Jun mumbled to himself, and then said, "Okay, I think you ran farther than yesterday. Anyway, I'll finish my routine."
As Jun continued to run, Jaemin rests his back on the bench, "Man… This is why I like running on a treadmill."
Jun continued to run until he heard a notification bell.
*Ding! You completed the mission. Strength increased by 0.02
*Ding! You completed all the daily missions. You receive 10 credits as a reward.
Jun finally stops running and walked towards the bench where Jaemin is sleeping.
"After reaching 8, the mission gives me very little benefits."
"Aria, show my status."
Name: Han Sung-Jun
Stage name: Jun
Age: 20 years, 4 months, 23 days
Height: 184 cm (6'0")
Weight: 74.1 Kg
Strength: 8.08
Appearance: 7.6
Talent: Max
Vocals: 8.3
Rap: 2.1
Dance: 5.8
Songwriting: 5.1
Luck: 5
Free talent points: 0
Credits: 210
'Ugh… my vocals and dancing skills growth rate is too slow. Without the help of missions, it would be hard to improve. Aria mentioned that I have to wait until I fulfill a certain condition or I have to wait. I wonder what that is… And when they will be available…
The only good thing is I grew half a centimeter in height and lost one kg in the past week. 4 Kgs to go…'
Closing the status window, Jun woke up Jaemin from his sleep. "Let's go… I'm done."
For the next few hours, both of them went to the store. After cleaning up and arranging everything in proper order, they went to the basement.
To let Jun practice when they have time, his mother cleaned up the place a few days ago and installed a large wall mirror, a speaker, and a few instruments.
For the past 10 days, Jun was busy practicing here. Jaemin joined a few days later. Daily, after his work time is over, Jun's mother let Jaemin train. After all, with medical bills on his head, it will be too difficult for him to support himself if he went to a training academy just with a part-time job alone.
And he can't tell his parents about his medical condition and let them worry.
So, Sa-Eun decided to cut off his work hours a little bit and let him practice more.
"5, 6, 7, 8…" Jun and Jaemin are practicing a choreography together. Since neither of them has skills to make choreography, they just practiced moves from the internet and mixing with moves from Jun's memory.
Looking at how Jun was changing the moves to his own style, Jaemin thought he was awesome and his admiration grew further. He didn't know that Jun was just using moves from the previous Jun's memory at ZC.
Three hours later, Jaemin left to do his part-time work and then went to college, meanwhile, Jun continued to practice without rest like usual.
Soon, the store's closing time is near and his mother came to the basement to remind him.
"Jun-ah, let's go back. You haven't packed anything, yet."
"Ah!" Jun slapped his forehead as he tightly shut his eyes, "I forgot about that…"
After packing the things, Jun just spent the rest of the evening with his mom and then slept comfortably in his room.
The next day morning, located in the district of Mapo, a car stopped nearby an apartment building.
Jun stepped outside of the car along with his mom, who dropped him.
Looking at the building, she asked, "So this is where you will stay for the next two months?"
"I'm hoping to stay…" Jun replied while feeling a little bit of nervousness inside, wondering how much completion there's going to be.
She then looked around and saw there are a lot of parents accompanying their kids, only which, they seem around her daughter's age or even younger…
Meanwhile, Jun took out his mobile phone and called someone.
After three rings, the call was picked up.
"Yeoboseyo (Hello)"
"Yeongue-yah… I'm here at the dorm. Where are you?"
"Ah, Hyung. You are already there. I'm sorry. I might arrive a little bit late. What about Daniel-Hyung?"
Jun replied, "I'll call him after this."
After getting to know that Daniel is out for looking around, Jun spoke, "I should get going, mom."
"Call me when you are free, okay?" Sa-Eun hugged her son and patted his back, "Good luck…"
With his luggage, Jun proceeds towards the gate and entered the premises after showing the gate pass to the security.
Reaching the first floor, Jun entered the apartment.
He saw a couple of kids going into their rooms.
There are three to four more, sitting in the living room.
They instantly stood up and greeted him with a bow. He returned the greetings with a light bow and walked towards his room.
As he walked away, they sat down and whispered between themselves.
Jun entered the room. He saw five beds are occupied. Two other roommates are currently out.
At that moment, Jun clearly felt embarrassed as all of them clearly look like middle school students. 'Oh Boy…'
"Hello." Everyone greeted him upon the first glance as a part of the tradition.
Jun returned their greetings and introduced himself, "Hello. I'm Han SungJun."
Usually, in cases like this, one would usually ask each other ages to decide on the honorifics but they didn't think of that as Jun is clearly older than them, by a lot.
After everyone introduced themselves, Jun introduced himself as a former trainee. But, he left out his agency name. They thought Jun was either kicked out or failed to debut. After all, at least one entertainment agency will disappear every day.
Because of the age gap, they didn't dare to ask further and kept silent.
In the evening, after dinner, everyone was informed to attend the Genesis training facility in, early morning.
The next day, Jun woke up early and went to the building along with Daniel. Yeongue also stuck with both of them.
He saw everyone is sitting in the entrance hall. Girls on the left and boys on the right.
As a tall handsome adult young man, Jun surely attracted a lot of girls, especially those who are teenagers. They can't help but glanced at Jun until he sat down and got covered with other kids.
The staff is guiding the candidates to sit down.
After a while, the entrance hall is fully packed with participants. The buzzing stopped as JYP arrived at the scene. Brave brothers and YG are nowhere to be seen.
JYP opened the speech. "First of all, welcome to the Treasure Campus. I'm sure everyone must have heard the rules from Jongsu-ssi. Right now, there are 137 boys and 148 girls in this competition."
Despite expecting such a number from the scene, Jun can't help but gasp in surprise like others around him.
JYP continued, "One week." He raised his index finger, "for one week, the beginners will be trained by our trainers.
Meanwhile, the former Kpop trainees will have to train themselves and prepare for the performance.
After one week, i.e. on November 8th, the first elimination will be conducted, and out of which, only 100 from each gender will remain.
Now, former trainees who have at least one year of experience will train upstairs. Girls to the fourth floor. Boys to the second floor. You have to choose out your own training room and sort your own category.
The categories are solo, duo, five members, seven members, nine members, and eleven members. Whether it's a song or a dance performance, everything is up to your own."
His eyes then lingered around the boys for a while as if he was searching for someone before he gestured everyone to be on their way.