Nabi, currently in the gym, with her class. She was making the singers sing while running. She kept trying to train them on not straining their voice while doing extreme dance routines. She had a co-ed class this time. Nabi however didn't give the girls any slack. They were running the same pace as the boys and they were all singing the same note. Nabi had on the same workout outfits as the girls. She wasn't going to just stand around watching them run. She ran in between both the boys and the girls, singing Korea's national anthem in every pitch.
"Okay, we're going to go a note higher." Nabi said breathing heavily. "The last note alright? If you boys can't hit it, don't force it out. Just try your best not to strain your throats like I taught you guys."
"Yes teacher." They said in unison.
"Ready? Set. Go!" Nabi said starting off the Korea's national anthem.
When they finally finished, everyone instantly hit the red button on the treadmill. They all bent over, huffing and puffing. Nabi shook her head and started straightening their posture to breath better. She handed each of them a water bottle and smiled happily at them. The lesson worked better than she remembered when she was going through the same process. This process was going to help their singing become stronger when performing live. Running on the treadmill helped mimic their breathless singing while dancing on stage. The more they do it, the better their singing will be live.
"Wow, you guys sound great!" Nabi smiled cheerfully. "Just one thing." She said hearing silent groans come out of the trainees. "We're going to be doing this three times a week. Be prepared. Trust me, the more you do this, the better results will appear doing live performances."
"Teacher!" One of the female students called out.
"Yes?" Nabi smiled.
"Was this a vocal warm up?" She asked.
Nabi shook her head. "No. We'll be doing that in a minute. As soon as we can catch our breaths."
"If that wasn't vocal warm ups, what was that?" One of the boys asked.
Nabi sighed and closed her eyes tightly. "Guys." She dragged out and opened her eyes. "Were any of you guys even listening to me?" She asked.
"We can't hear you if our heart is screaming in our ears." One of the girls complained.
Nabi smiled. "Aigoo. Fine! I'll explain it again. If none of you listen this time, that's going to be another ten minutes running and singing. I'll make you wear weights on your ankles too." Nabi threatened. "Don't take my warning lightly."
They all nodded, waiting for her to explain. Before Nabi could get a word out, she spotted Kwon Ji Yong entering the gym, wearing the same clothes he came to pick her up in. Skinny jeans ripped at the knees and a white t-shirt with a jacket. He smiled at seeing Nabi who in return stared blankly with her big button eyes. The trainees followed Nabi's eye view and caught their sunbae walking through the gym. They bowed at seeing him enter. Kwon Ji Yong just smiled at them.
"Okay kids, go take a break back in the room downstairs. Drink only warm water. I mean it Yebin! I'll come and talk to you guys after." Nabi said to the trainees as they gathered their belongings and rushed out of the exercise room. Nabi looked at Kwon Ji Yong. "Why are you here?" Nabi asked.
"I'm a music artist under the company." He replied playfully.
Nabi sighed. "I know. I mean, what are you doing here?" She said pointing to the gym floor under her feet.
"Ah~" Kwon Ji Yong said smiling. "You mean, in the gym." He nodded. "We have to set ground rules. After you're done work, let's go eat dinner where we can talk more privately about it."
Nabi folded her arms across her chest. "Why a restaurant?" She asked. "Why don't you just come over to my house?"
"Your apartment? The same building where all the other YG artists live in. If they see me entering your dorm, rumors will fly. Speculations will not be the end of it. When finally..."
"I get it." Nabi cut him off. "But I have to get ready. I'm wearing gym clothes and the only extra I have are the ones I wore to work."
Kwon Ji Yong nodded. "Alright. I'll talk to you later."
With that he left. Nabi sighed at his absence. He didn't quite end the conversation normally. How was she supposed to know if he was okay that she went home early to get dressed? Yet he said he was going to 'talk later' like Nabi was some type of high school friend. She sighed and wiped her sweat with her hand rag.
After packing her things from the gym, it was time for her to head back downstairs. She was still teaching class. She walked down the steps and to the room to see all the trainees whispering to each other. It was always like this when Nabi turned her back on them. They were always whispering. Nabi's sense of hearing wasn't the best but she could catch little bits and pieces of the conversation amongst the trainees. It was of course about Nabi but she couldn't break the professionalism that she built within herself as a YG Vocal Trainer. The moment that breaks, her true emotions and anxieties would surface and all of Nabi's hell would break loose. She walked in opening the door, making sure to make her movements extra loud to stop the whisperings.
Nabi sighed as she placed her bag down. "Sorry, I had no time to change."
"What did Jiyong sunbae-nim want with you?" One of the students asked.
Involuntarily, Nabi's cheeks had redden. "Nothing important." She said rolling her eyes. "Now let's get star...."
"It looked important." Another trainee said, rudely cutting her off.
Nabi raised a brow and scoffed. "Wow, so when it comes to gossip you all can open your ears bigger but when it comes to training you all claim your heart was beating too loud to hear. I see none of you take training seriously. The more you guys continue on like this, the longer it takes for you guys to get set up with a debut date. You need to concentrate on training and be serious about it. You're all here because your dream is to become singers. With all of your messed up priorities, none of you are ever going to debut under YG Entertainment." Nabi snapped raising her voice to teacher level. "But, if you all wanted to know, he needed to borrow the gym." She said eyeing them down. "Which, like I said, isn't important."
The trainees kept quiet and cowered down from Nabi's blank stare. After a few seconds of trainee domination, she started back up her training sessions. She was going to be helping them sing notes louder and longer without straining out their throats. The goal of training is to always protect the vocal cords. If a trainee is straining, Nabi has to stop the whole lesson and fix the problem. If they're straining, Nabi knows they aren't singing correctly. If they continue to sing incorrectly, they would end up with a singer's worst kind of sickness, vocal nodules. It's bound to happen to singers especially those who have been singing for most of their lives and have more experience in the game, it's inevitable. However, for young trainees like the ones Nabi was in charge of, they had to properly lubricate their vocal cords to be able to last nodes free for a long time. She couldn't stress it out more on the importance of vocal warm ups.
Nabi smiled at her class. "Alright. That's it for today my butterflies." She waved at them as they slowly walked out. "Remember, nothing cold! Bone soups and tea!" She shouted. "Yebin, I'm talking about you! Stop drinking cold things and stop chewing ice!"
"Yes teacher." Yebin replied sadly.
After the last student left, she let her body fall to the floor, letting herself lay flat on the cold floor. She was mentally, emotionally and physically drained from being around too many people and it caused her body to feel really weak. Let alone the fact that she was the teacher and she was the one teaching. Doing most of the work. She wasn't getting used to teaching, even if it's only been about three days. She couldn't stand some of the students but she couldn't do much about it. Her professionalism was hard to build. She wasn't about to blow that out for some trouble with her students.
"What are you doing?" Kwon Ji Yong asked as he entered the room to see Nabi's body flat on the ground. "Did something happen?" He was confused by her actions.
Nabi shot up and off the floor. Nervously placing a small strand of hair behind her ear. "Resting. I was resting." She said quickly.
"O...Okay." Kwon Ji Yong said skeptically. "You don't have to worry about getting dressed. I bought you something."
Nabi raised a brow. "You bought me something?" She asked.
"Yeah, a dress." Kwon Ji Yong left the room and came back with a dress hanging off the hanger. "A size small right?"
Nabi was shocked. "Why did you buy me a dress?"
"That way you can get dressed here and then we can leave." He smiled brightly.
"I know you mean best but I can't accept it. I can buy my own dresses. I have plenty of dresses at home. It's a waste of money buying a dress for me." Nabi sighed. "Please return it."
"No. I bought it for you, so wear it." Kwon Ji Yong said stubbornly.
"You know what, let's just not do this right now. We can try again tomorrow." Nabi said packing her bags.
"No. I already made reservations. If you want, I'll return the dress, after you wear it tonight." He said pushing the dress into Nabi's arm. "Now go get ready.
Kwon Ji Yong had to hold back the smile at hearing a small grunt of annoyance escape from Nabi as she left the room. He bought the dress to speed up the process in getting to the restaurant. He knew Nabi going home to get dress would waste time so he just went out and bought her a dress after their talk in the gym. He honestly didn't know what to pick out for Nabi but he decided on a dress that would bring out her figure since she hid behind a lot of oversized t-shirts and sweaters. The restaurant was a five star restaurant and a lot of celebrities that are low key dating went there. The owner was very private about celebrity's private matters inside his restaurant and was able to keep it a secret. That was the rumor that he's heard from other celebrities anyway.
"I'm ready, but my shoes are kind of..." Nabi said walking back into the room wearing the dress.
Kwon Ji Yong looked over in the doorway. His breath hitched in his throat at seeing her. He stood up and straightened out his posture. The dress is black and clung to her body like a second skin. Over her right thigh had a four inch split revealing her legs in a sexy way. The dress sleeve stopped just above her elbow, exposing her collarbone. However, her hair was messy from working out and her face was bare. Her shoes, all on it's own, threw the whole dress and it's appeal out the window.
"And the dress....isn't it over the top just to eat dinner?" She asked pulling at the sleeves.
Nabi was used to wearing dresses like this. She didn't mind it either so it wasn't a big deal. However, she never dressed like this because she was too lazy to do so. Not only did she have to pull a tight dress over her body, she had to put effort into doing her hair and makeup. Which was never worth it. She also hated wearing heels because it brought her pain, so she tried her best not to wear them. But it wasn't feeling like that in her current situation. Her shoes were down grading the dress so bad, she couldn't help but start to think about all the heels she had been through. Ones that broke while she was walking on the street, minding her own business. Maybe even the ones she worn and she had to make a decision to run in them. She just hated heels. The only heels she ever liked were sneakers with wedges. Those were comfortable enough for her to run in and they don't randomly break off while walking on the street, minding one's own business.
"What's wrong with your face?" Nabi asked as she walked into the room.
Kwon Ji Yong, despite Nabi's messy appearance, didn't think the dress would look this good on her. He bought it because it was the only one in her estimated size. He didn't think anything of it. Now seeing Nabi in the dress, he wasn't sure he'd actually return it after seeing her in it.
He cleared his throat and nodded. "That looks great. I also bought you better shoes to wear since sneakers don't really match your dress, so don't worry." He pulled out a box from his bag and handed it to Nabi. "It's black."
"Heels?" Nabi said with a smile that he couldn't tell was fake. "Thank you." She bowed politely. "You'll return them afterwards right?"
"Yes." He said lying through his teeth.
Nabi excused herself to fix her hair and at least apply BB Cream to her face. She knew they were going somewhere fancy since he was also dressed nicely. She thought a dinner meant going to a barbecue joint where yelling the word "Ahjumma, Soju please!" is a normal thing. She didn't want to downgrade Kwon Ji Yong's status by looking like a hot mess while Kwon Ji Yong could just breath and look okay.
Like most girls, Nabi carried a makeup kit. She just never found the motivation to put it on. She was too lazy to do so. Easily, she wiped her face clean with a wipe and started to apply BB Cream. She made sure to apply it to both her face and neck. While she let the BB Cream sit, she started brushing her hair. It was much more tangled than she had expected. Even though she only ran for an hour, she felt exhausted.
"I only need to deal with this tonight and then I can rest to go back home." Nabi said to her reflection as she started to apply eyeliner. "Then I'm done." Nabi sighed. "I can do this."
...