Dancing with Stray Kids | Kim Seungmin

Chapter 15

TW: mention of hospital, injury

this will be a longer chapter (~3200 words)

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"Well, to start, me kissing Chan back then wasn't supposed to be a goodbye kiss, like I said, I didn't even know I was leaving back then. But I think to understand everything, I have to start at the real beginning, way earlier..."

"It was always my four older brothers, my parents and me. We were a happy family until both of my parents suddenly lost their job, without warning or explanation. From one day to another we couldn't pay our rent and my brothers and I needed to transfer schools because my parents couldn't afford that either. We were moved out of our house into a small apartment with two bedrooms. Even though my parents tried their best, they couldn't get a new job.

The youth welfare office decided that for the time being my parents couldn't care for me and my brothers appropriately so we were seperated into foster families."

"I'm sorry, Amy. I didn't know that you went through all of that" Seungmin said and took my hands into his.
"It's fine now. I mean I always kept in touch with my family and my foster parents were really nice. I also still have contact with them because my real family was already reunited a few years back in case you're wondering. All that happened when I was eleven years old, so shortly before I came to Korea as a trainee.

That's why I had a different surname back then, Smith, because my foster parents were in charge of the application. I came here partly because I really wanted to persue dancing and singing but also partly because I wanted to flee the troubles my family was facing. I felt like they could deal with everything better if I was gone. Everyone back at home supported me with my decision. You already know about a lot of things of what happened after that, like how I met Chan or Somi.

The crucial moment was three years after my arrival and also the reason I went back home. I think I now have to admit that maybe, just maybe, I had a tiny crush on Chan because that kiss which wasn't even a real one, wasn't supposed to be a goodbye. I just ran away because I was nervous and because I had training afterwards. It was supposed to be a special training because JYP came to see it and decide if he was going to let me debut as a soloist."

"You got the offer to debut as a soloist? What happened? Why didn't you take it?"

"I'll come to that. And it wasn't an offer yet just him saying that he had been thinking about it and would make his decision based on this training. So I prepared a lot, didn't eat, didn't sleep, just concentrated on that. I did my best to perform, over and over again until he was satisfied. I think I did it about six or seven times. Then he wanted me to do another move, similar to the lifting figure earlier. The only difference being, that I was lifted up by ropes and needed to do it in the air. Like the manager earlier said, I was almost famous for air-acrobatics but that day I was really exhausted.

Everything previously happening made it worse. About a week before the perfomance I had an infect where I only laid in bed for days. When I was healthy again, there were left five days for me to prepare. I didn't get any sleep nor ate properly, so when the day of the performance came I was actually in no shape to perform.

Flashback

"You got this babe!" Somi cheered for me and fixed something on my shirt. "You will go on this stage and show JYP what you got. He will have no other choice than to offer you a debut! And afterwards we will go to the cafe at the park and celebrate, okay?" I hugged her and whispered "Thanks for being here, Somi. Wish me good luck, I have to go up now."

I pulled away from my best friend and walked towards the stage. When I turned around one last time, I saw Somi with her fingers crossed, jumping up and down like a little kid. With a smile I entered the stage and was greeted by JYP who told me to immediatley start. I panicked, thinking I forgot everything but as soon as the music started my body moved by itself. I went through the performance without any huge mistakes and was proud of me, the look on the CEO's face told me otherwise though.