a small gift for your eyes; hyunjae looking like a freaking prince charming in the picture. the boyz is making a comeback this 3/4 so please support them 🍒
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later that day, eunbi was brought to the trainee dorm located a few building away from the company. she would be sharing the same apartment unit of three rooms with other five trainees.
it was her first time meeting other sm trainees whom she would be living together under the same roof from now on, the nervousness seeping through every inch of her soul as seol knocked on the door of the apartment.
the door was opened a while later by a foreign-looking girl and she instantly welcomed them in upon recognising seol. while the girl left to call the rest of the house members out, eunbi learnt from seol that the foreign-looking girl was a trainee for half a year now, who goes by the name nicole.
their conversation was cut short when nicole returned to the living room with other four girls. seol introduced eunbi as the new members of the house before proceeding to tell eunbi about her new housemates.
the oldest one in the house was named hong woora, a trainee of five years in sm. shin jihyun and seo minjung were friends of same age and they were the second oldest, both of them had been training for three years. another girl was a japanese girl named morinaga yumi who trained for two years. last but not least, nicole was an american and the youngest out of them, a year younger than eunbi herself.
most of the talking was done by seol. the air was thick with awkwardness, and eunbi could see the judging look they threw at her. at that point, she had known that she wasn't exactly welcomed in the house.
seol left soon after that. eunbi just stood there, not knowing what to do as she fiddled with her fingers.
"a new kid again, huh?" woora broke the silence, scoffing. "what exactly sm wants to do with us if they keep bringing in new kids? do we train until we die or something?" she shook her head with a cynical smile, her eyes glancing at eunbi up and down before she left to her room, slamming the door behind her.
eunbi didn't know how to react. her hands were trembling from the tension, her eyes wavering in fear as she hung her head down.
this wasn't what she expected...
a sudden touch on her shoulder made eunbi looked up. it was yumi, who sent her an apologetic smile. "don't worry, eunbi-ssi. we're glad to have you here." she spoke, a hint of japanese accent still linger in her words.
"sorry for that, eunbi-ssi." minjung spoke guiltily, "woora unnie is just... sensitive these days. anyway, nice to meet you. let's be good friends in the future."
"me too, eunbi-ssi." jihyun simply added, her eyes forming crescents as she shot eunbi a kind smile.
eunbi was overwhelming with emotions, she found herself tearing up. she blinked away the tears, smiling. "thank you." she muttered, genuinely.
"eunbi unnie, you're gonna rooming with me so let me show you our room." nicole clung onto eunbi's arm, looking like a cute kid and eunbi let the girl drag her to their room.
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few weeks later, eunbi found herself getting used to her trainee life. her training schedule was far different from the time when she trained under fantagio. it wasn't as packed as before; she only had a class in a day for approximately seven hours of learning. at least, it was less tiring than before. she still remembered having several different classes a day when she was still a fantagio trainee.
she blended in well with other trainees too. well, except for woora. eunbi didn't know why or what she did wrong, woora just seems to dislike her to the bone. everytime the two were placed in the same room, woora would always picked on eunbi, throwing cynical looks and snarky remarks to the latter.
since woora had trained way longer and also one of the oldest trainee, eunbi couldn't do anything to defend herself. she was practically helpless against woora.
other trainees, including her dormmates, also didn't dare to back up eunbi when woora treated her rudely, though they deeply sympathised eunbi. they just didn't dare to defy woora and get into her bad side. and eunbi wouldn't want them to do it, either way.
they didn't need to suffer along with her.
and today, it happened again.
the trainees just finished their dance training and the trainer had already dismissed them when woora began her daily bullying against eunbi yet again.
"yah, lee eunbi." woora called out.
the chattering noise in the room immediately died down, every eyes looking at woora, wondering her next moves.
"jihyun is not feeling well today, so will you clean the room?" the way she asked didn't sound like a question, instead a command. she had this challenging smirk hung on her lips, waiting for eunbi's reaction.
the trainees had agreed to take turns for cleaning duty, but because of woora, eunbi had been doing it for a week straight.
jihyun's eyes widened as she shook her head rapidly, "no no, i'm perfectly fine. i can do it—"
"yah, didn't you tell me that you feel a little bit tired today? i'm giving you a chance to rest. can you just be grateful and screw off?" woora cut her off sharply, glaring at the poor jihyun.
jihyun was totally bewildered. she looked at eunbi apologetically, eyes getting teary from the guilt. eunbi managed a bitter smile, assuring the latter as she gestured towards the door, allowing her to leave.
jihyun breathed in relief, though the guilt was still present. she shot a glare at woora who merely shrugged, muttering curses under her breath as she exited the room, followed by minjung.
all the trainees began to leave, one by one until the only ones left were woora, eunbi and nicole.
"aren't you going to leave too, maknae?" woora shot nicole a menacing look, seeing as the girl was still there.
"i'm going to help eunbi unnie—"
"there's no need to. eunbi can do it all by herself, right eunbi?" woora faked a overly-wide smile at eunbi.
eunbi hummed in response. "y-yeah, you should go and take a rest, nicole-ah."
nicole wanted to argue but eunbi shook her head softly. nicole heaved a sigh in defeat. she stormed past woora, who had a smug smile, and exited the room.
"good job for today, eunbi. you're sooo kind i'm about to cry." she snorted at her own words, "i'm leaving first!" her laugh echoed throughout the room as she left.
eunbi could only sigh. she grabbed her phone and tapped hyunjae's number. while waiting for the call to be answered, eunbi pondered over what to tell her boyfriend.
"eunbi!" came hyunjae's cheerful voice through the speaker. "are you done with your practice? i'm still at the shop, gonna take a taxi to seoul right after this. i can't wait to see you! i miss you so much!"
"hyunjae-ah." eunbi started, her voice shaky. "we can't meet today. i have— extra training." she lied.
it was silence for the next few seconds until hyunjae spoke again, "ahh really?" he chuckled bitterly, in attempt to hide his disappointment but eunbi could hear it in his voice. "it's okay, i think. we still have next time, right?"
eunbi hummed, feeling extremely sorry and guilty.
"well then, you should go back to training. i'll hang up—"
"hyunjae-ah." eunbi called out, stopping hyunjae from ending the call.
"yeah?"
"i miss you too." she blurted out, genuinely, "thank you for understanding me."
"you're my girlfriend, eunbi. plus, i promise you to be by your side no matter what, don't i?" hyunjae sounded much better, the disappointment earlier fading away. "fighting, my eunbi! i love you!"
eunbi chuckled and the call ended. she put her phone away and began picking up the empty bottles scattered around the room, humming a soft melody to herself.
"did i just listened to a trainee speaking with her boyfriend on the phone?" a voice spoke in the background, startling eunbi. the bottles she had collected slipped from her grip as she froze. great, she was busted!
turning around nervously, eunbi's eyes widen to the max upon seeing the owner of the voice.
there, leaning by his side against the doorframe with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face was none other than exo's main vocal, byun baekhyun.
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this chapter sucks a lot. too much usage of the same words (genuine, guilt, sorry, bitterly and such) over and over-- i swear my vocab is becoming worse each days.
anyway, i've been meaning to ask you this: do you have any face-claim for eunbi, any idols you imagined her to be? not something important; i'm just curious.
and woora is so annoying i swear. does this kind of person even exists in the reality? comment if you ever encounter someone like woora!