You shivered in the harsh wind of Spring in Seoul and frantically glanced around at the crowds of SM trainees holding up signs in front of the SM Training School for Performing Arts. This was the dream of anybody in South Korea (and even abroad), producing legends like Boa and H.O.T. And you'd, well you'd made it. After auditioning as a vocalist via social media and anticipating for months, you had been accepted and were now searching for the tour gide trainee who would be holding up your name card.

At last, you spotted her: a girl a few years older than you with long straight brown hair shaking a sign with y/n written on it in the air. Feverishly, you approached her and make eye contact. She nodded.

'You're y/n?'

You smile and bow courteously, anything to make a good impression.

'Hi, I'm Seo Jeo Hyun, a vocalist, but say Seohyun for short. I'll be your tour guide today. We'll head to your dorm first so you can meet your roommate and drop your bags off and as soon as you're ready, we'll have a look around this place. That sound good?'

You nodded frantically again and followed her in to a building not long away from the main school, weaving across the other trainees giving tours to the new ones.

As you walked, Seohyun filled you in on the rules of the dorm, including the curfew and breakfast timings. Finally, she stopped at a door on the second floor.

'This is your room, 207. I'm just opposite at 208 so you if you need anything you can just knock.' Seohyun hands you a key before opening the already unlocked door.

The room was quite spacious with two wardrobes, beds, bedside tables and a desk. It also had an ensuite bathroom. One of the beds was already occupied by a few bags and two other girls who were deep in conversation. In English. As you walk in, one of them looks up and smiles widely at Seohyun.

'Seohyunnie! I've been waiting for you! Is this your trainee?' The girl with a slight foreign accent began to speak Korean and threw her arms around Seohyun before turning to look at you, 'I'm Jessica Jung, Seohyun's roommate. And this -' she gestured to the other girl who had jumped up and was now bowing - 'is your new roommate, Amber Liu!'

You bowed towards Jessica and Amber and held your hand out to the latter, 'Hi, I'm y/n,' you said. Amber had short blonde hair and was grinning lopsidedly. Seohyun and Jessica left the two of you alone , promising to return in half an hour to begin the tour.

After getting refreshed, you and Amber spoke for quite a while. Turns out Amber was from Los Angeles (despite her almost perfect Korean accent) and had auditioned in the global SM auditions. Like you, she was interested in vocal and variety, though she also had an interest in rap on top of that.

Seohyun and Jessica arrived, and the four of you began the tour around the buildings, including the canteen, theory classrooms, library and recording studio. Since neither of you were interested the acting course, you skipped the drama studio and headed straight over to the dance practice rooms. Before entering, Seohyun turned to the two of you.

'By the way, they picked the best of the best dancers to do these performances, so don't feel intimidated. Most of us can't come close to the things they do.'

You and Amber nod nervously and sit in the audience to watch some of the performances, which alternated male and female. They first watched a girl called Hyohyeon do a solo dance before two boys of the same height danced a duet. They were all incredible, as well as slightly intimidating: Hyohyeon was very flexible; the boys unbelievably in sync. However, most amazing was the boy in the duo called Eunhyuk, whose sharp movements were unlike anything you'd ever seen.

During the duet performance, you overheard Jessica and Seohyun whispering to each other and shuffled slightly closer to hear what they were saying.

'I thought Yunho and Eunhyuk were doing the duet? They're the best dancers in this school, they should've been the climax. Donghae's not nearly as good as Yunho, what's he doing there?' Jessica was saying.

Seohyun spoke even quieter; you leamed in closer to hear her reply:

'Kyuhyun told me that Eumhyuk told the dance teacher he wouldn't dance any performances today unless he was with Donghae instead of Yunho.'

'What? No way! That's such a petty thing to do, Yunho and Eunhyuk would've been amazing. Eunhyuk and Donghae are too obsessed with each other to realise there are more important things than being together 24/7.'

'That's what everyone else has been saying. All the teachers and dance trainees are really annoyed about it.'

'Whatever. Yunho dances better than Hyukjae anyways.'

After Cho Kyuhyun's vocal performance, there was thunderous applause and cheers, unlike the other vocalists. In fact, Kyuhyun was probably the best singer you'd ever heard, and you found yourself anxious over your own, in comparison, shaky voice with a narrow pitch range. Kyuhyun's voice never wavered; remained deeply in control; reached unreachable pitches on both sides of the scale; and to top it all off, during the performance, he looked unbelievably bored, although he did wink in Seohyun's direction after he'd finished singing (Seohyun smiled and blushed deeply).

However, she didn't look as happy a second later when Taeyeon, another vocalist, threw her arms around him in a hug.

After that, you only had one more course to look at: variety. In variety, there was an interactive activity where trainees would interview the newbies.

When you enter the room, they seem to be rotating MCs, with a panel of three: Leeteuk, Heechul and Yoona. Yoona was finishing off an interview with a new trainee when you walked in, and Kim Heechul was the next to MC.

'So who's next?' Heechul asked with a rather dazzling smile. His hair reached just below his shoulders as he ran his hand threw it and surveyed the many tainees who had volunteered.

You put your arm up as well, though, due to the amount of people volunteering, you have your doubts about being picked.

'You, over there at the back,' Heechul called, pointing in your direction. You jumped in surprise, looking to see if he was pointing at Amber, but she had not volunteered. You rise from your seat nervously and meekly make your way down to the front. You bowed at Heechul as he gestured for you to sit down. As he took his seat to begin the interview, you were able to see his face up close.

And oh how very pretty he was.