Two weeks passed by, the boys spent the entire time practicing the choreography and singing for their group song, and of course they didn't forget about their solo performance for the contest too.
Jay makes them jog around the house every morning before school to improve their stamina because he noticed some of them became easily out of breath when they were dancing and singing at the same time. He also makes them work out in gym while singing at the same time.
Finally, the day has arrived, Jay wakes up earlier than usual. He does some light stretches to warm his body up, then he soaks himself in the bathtub for quite some time to relax himself both physically and mentally.
After that, he stares into the mirror, he can't help but something just doesn't feel right, but he just can't seem to find what's wrong.
He goes downstairs and prepares breakfast for Jee Eun and her grandma because this might be the last chance he might be able to do so in the near future. They will be accompanying him to the contest to support him.
Minutes later, Jee Eun's grandma enters the house from the garden, apparently she was taking care of the plants there. Aehile later, Jee Eun also comes down the stairs while rubbing her eyes, that's when Jay finally notices what doesn't feel right when he looks into the mirror.
"Jee Eun ah, do you think I should wear contact lens?"
"Hmm? Wae oppa?"
"Well, I have blue eyes, this might affect how people look at me, in a negative way I mean."
"Ayy... don't worry about that, oppa has the most beautiful pair of eyes I have ever seen, they are going to be one of your unique traits, the other is your natural brown hair, so don't you ever try to hide them."
"Araseo~ hehe, gomawo Jee Eun ah!"
"Hmph! What time does the contest start oppa?"
"In two hours, but we should go there earlier because I wanna see the other contestants too, gotta know the who I'm going up against."
'Maybe I'll get to see some of the legendary idols in the future too.'
(The boys already went back home yesterday, they will meet up at SM later)
...
After they finish their breakfast, Jay calls for the taxi service to send them to the SM building.
When they arrive the place, it is already crowded with people, it's hard for them to even enter the building.
When they finally enter the building, they find Yunho and the others already gathered in the corner of the waiting area, so Jay walks up and join them while Jee Eun and her grandma join the other group (the boys' families).
"Yah! How come you guys arrive so much earlier?" < Jay
"I don't know about them but I couldn't sleep at all last night, I got so nervous that everytime I closed my eyes I thought about the contest." < Yunho
"Same here, I was repeating the lyrics in my mind, worried I might make a mistake today." < Dong Hae
"My legs are all wobbly because of all the trainning we did over the past two weeks." < Hyuk Jae
"..." < Changmin
"Why aren't you saying anything Changmin?" < Jay
"I feel like I'm going to faint any moment now... so don't ask me any question please." < Changmin
"Will you guys be able to perform in this kind of state?" < Jay
"I don't know, just leave us be for now... actually, you are the weird one for not feeling nervous at all!" < Yunho
"Well, I'll go look around the place while waiting for my turn." < Jay
...
'Yah... there are so many people here and I don't recognise any of them, this just show how strict the competition is in this business.'
Jay wanders around the building trying to find any familiar face, but fails to do so. He goes to his next destination, the infamous cafeteria that every SM artists hated (I heard they are food solely for the purpose of maintaining body figures, and it taste kinda bad.). Suddenly, a girl runs out of the cafeteria and bumps into Jay, dropping the ice cream she just bought, as she also falls to the ground.
"Yah! Do you know how long I queued for this?!"
'Hmm... they sell ice cream here?' (Only for today because of the contest)
"Ibwayo! I'm talking to you!"
"Oh! Sorry, I had something on my mind just now so I didn't saw you coming out from there."
"Ahssi... I waited ten minutes for this, and it's my favourite flavor too."
"I'll go buy a new one for you."
"Forget about it, maybe it's destined that I wouldn't be able to eat an ice cream because I get fat very easily."
"Erm, a little ice cream won't make that much of a difference."
"Shut up, what's your name? And how old are you? I've never seen you around here."
"My name Jay Kim, currently 15 years old. I'm here for the contest."
"Oh? Then I'm your sunbaenim then! I'm already a trainee here!"
"Ah nice to meet you, err... what's your name sunbaenim?"
"My name is Jessica Jung, but you should call me Sica sunbaenim!" >;)
"Ah nae nae Sica sunbaenim... anyway! If there's nothing else, I'm gonna go. Nice meeting you!"
"Yah! Where are you going?"
"Erm... the contest is starting soon, I have to get ready."
"Let's go together then, I was going to watch the contest anyway."
"Ah nae..."
...
*thump thump
'Oh my god oh my god oh my god! It's the Ice Princess! She is walking right beside me! She looks so cute right now, the twintail hairstyle looks so good on her...'
"Are you an American?"
"No I'm not, I'm Korean."
"Ah sorry, I just assumed because of your eyes."
"It's okay, not the first time someone asks that. Are you an American sunbaenim? Your accent sounds kinda weird."
"I was borned and raised at US, it's only been a year since I moved here with my family so I'm still not used the language here."
"I can speak English if you want."
"Really?! You don't know how hard it is for me because no one can speak fluent English here. That's why I seldom interact with the other trainees, and they gave me nickname like Ice Princess because I put on a poker face, but in reality half of the time I just couldn't understand what they were talking about, and when I try to speak Korean, most of them couldn't understand me. Ah that's so frustrating!" All of the sudden she becomes talkative when she is speaking in her native tongue.
"Who cares if it's Ice Princess or Lava Princess, at least you got to be a princess, it's not a bad nickname at all, and I can perfectly understand your Korean, so I'm pretty sure they are just making fun of you."
"What?! Really?!"
"Yeah... are you sure you are not being isolated by them?" (._.)
"The thought never came to my mind... why would they? I never did anything bad to them, I was always friendly!"
"I can think of a lot of reasons but, have you ever thought it's because of your beauty?"
"I don't understand?"
"At the end of the day, you are competing against the other trainees in this company to debut, and the worse ones are gonna get eliminated. And since you naturally gifted appearance wise, of course they are gonna be worried and jealous of you."
"Come to think of it, it wasn't like this when I first got here. It started getting worse when The One (a lengenday vocal master in South Korea) seonsaengnim chose me to be his disciple."
"All the more reason to hate you I guess."
"But it's not my fault to beautiful and talented at the same time~ hmph" (｀3´)
"Just think of them as compliments, you only get haters when you are doing something right. Plus, if you really need a friend that desperately, I can be your friend."
"Heh. Win the contest and become a trainee here first before you start suggesting that, junior~"
"Don't worry, I will."
...