Chapter 1 Chapter 1

In the spring of 2006, the wind off the Han River still carried a hint of chill. Lia hurried through the entrance of YG Entertainment, schoolbag in hand. The air was thick with the distinct warmth of early spring.

She shrank her neck and tried to pull the scarf higher to cover the lower half of her face. She still had an unfinished trainee schedule in her hand, and she glanced down as she walked—tonight's vocal class had been temporarily relocated to another practice room.

She blinked and tried to picture the overall layout of the company in her mind, but found herself still confused.

She had only just joined the company, and most of her daily training was concentrated in the fixed practice room on the second floor. She was unfamiliar with the other floors of the company. She lowered her head and sighed, the timetable in her hand wrinkled from repeated checking.

"Luckily I got here early," she thought. Her entry into YG was a fluke. Initially, she taught herself guitar out of interest, then fumbled around and mastered some simple chords.

Mina, a friend who went to language school with him, was very excited when she heard about it: "You know Korean entertainment companies recruit trainees, right? You're pretty and have a nice voice, maybe you can debut!"

Lia initially thought it was a joke. Her knowledge of K-pop was limited to the occasional Korean music shows on the TV at home and the CDs her mother bought her.

She would hum a few lines along to the melody, but never thought she would become one of them.

But Mina was serious. She pulled out her phone and approached Lia: "Are you really not going to try? I saw on the forum that someone got selected this way!"

As she spoke, she began to search online for the email addresses of several well-known entertainment companies. Lia was also a little tempted. Although she felt that she had a high probability of not being selected, her friend's encouragement suddenly made her eager to try.

For some unknown reason, that night, she used the recording software on her computer to quickly record two demos of her own songs, attached a simple email introducing herself, and hit the "send" button. After sending the email, she quickly forgot about it.

She didn't expect that two weeks later, one of the entertainment companies, YG, would actually reply. She still remembers how she felt when she received that email.

The family had just finished dinner. She was doing homework in front of the computer in the living room while her mother was cleaning up the dishes in the kitchen. An email notification popped up on the computer - "YG Entertainment Audition

Team". "Mom... YG replied to my letter." She said, staring at the computer in disbelief. Her mother looked back at her, her face full of confusion: "YG?" She nodded dryly: "It's that... Korean company."

The mother wiped her hands and followed over: "What did they say?" She hurriedly opened the email, her heart beating so fast that it seemed like it could jump out of her fingertips.

Hello, we are very interested in your voice and musical expression and would like to invite you to our company for an interview. Do you have time to come to Korea? At that moment, the living room suddenly became quiet.

"Going to Korea?" Her mother looked at her worriedly, "You can't even speak Korean fluently, how are you going?" Lia opened her mouth, wanting to say that she should still be able to survive, but found that she had not thought that far.

But that night, she thought seriously for the first time - if she missed this time, would she regret it later? In the end, she spent a full two months persuading her parents, took the leave she had applied for in advance, and boarded a flight to Seoul alone.

However, when she arrived in Korea, she realized that life as a trainee was much more difficult than she had imagined. She had to balance her studies, so YG arranged for her to audit classes at a nearby junior high school.

However, her Korean language ability was not as "handling" as she had imagined. Although she could speak Korean with her parents in the United States and attended two classes at a Korean language school every week, those were simple daily conversations after all.

On her first day at school, she was still somewhat excited. But when the teacher stood at the podium and began to explain the textbook knowledge, her eyes began to wander. Great, she understood it, of course, but she couldn't help but be distracted.

The company's training wasn't easy either. The other trainees in the dorm had all been training for at least a year, and compared to them, she felt like an elementary school student who'd accidentally wandered into junior high school.

"Open your mouth a little more," the vocal teacher reminded her patiently, "Your throat is too tight and no sound can come out." She did as she was told, but the sound she sang was still stiff.

She knew she was lagging far behind, but she couldn't find a way to catch up. The triple pressure of schoolwork, training, and living in a foreign country had left her physically and mentally exhausted, leaving her no time for reflection.

Sometimes, she even felt that she was not chasing her dream, but was being pushed forward. Lia's mind was distracted by these things, and her feet unknowingly walked to the original practice room.

The door to the practice room was open, and the sound of drums accompaniment could be heard from inside. It had a strong rhythmic feel, just the style she liked. She looked up and saw that no one else was in the practice room except for a boy who was still practicing.

He stood in front of the mirror, one hand holding the brim of his hat, the other at his waist, and walked a short pace to the music. He wore a loose black sweatshirt, the cuffs casually rolled up, revealing his thin wrists.

His hair was slightly damp, as if he'd been practicing for a long time. It was Kwon Ji-yong. Lia had heard his name shortly after joining the company.

Among the trainees, he is almost a legend: he joined YG at the age of 13, is versatile in singing and dancing, and has strong creative ability. It is said that he has been designated as the captain of the new boy group that is about to debut.

This wasn't the first time she'd seen him, but she'd only seen him briefly in the hallways and cafeteria before. She'd never seen him dancing in the practice room. His presence was so strong, and out of curiosity, she couldn't help but quietly pause at the door.

The people in the practice room didn't seem to notice that they had an extra audience member and were concentrating on adjusting their movements.

His movements are not standard dance training movements, but more like an instinctive rhythm adjustment, as if he is trying to find the most natural connection point between a note and his body.

For a rookie trainee like Lia who is still learning to develop her body, although she can see at a glance that the other person has strong dancing skills, she cannot tell exactly what is so good about them.

For a moment, the only sounds in the practice room were the music and the scraping of shoes. Lia watched quietly for a while, then prepared to leave to find a practice room.

But just as she turned around, Quan Zhilong suddenly stopped and looked up at the mirror. "What's wrong?" His voice was full of breath after practice. Lia stopped and hesitated for a moment: "I think I went the wrong way."

Quan Zhilong stared at her for a second, then curled the corners of his mouth slightly: "You've been watching for almost two minutes since you came in?" Lia didn't know how to answer for a moment, so she had to look at him with a slightly apologetic expression.

Meanwhile, Kwon Ji-yong appears to be practicing diligently, but in reality, his focus has long been on the sidelines. News of the new boy group's debut has already spread within the company, and he's barely had a moment's respite from the intense practice and creative work.

As the designated team leader, he not only has to make sure his practice goes smoothly, but he also has to take care of the other team members. With limited debut spots, he'll be upset no matter who leaves the team.

The closer the debut date got, the more restless he became. Unwilling to stay cooped up in the dorm, he preferred to hunker down in the practice room, practicing late into the night.

Physical fatigue can sometimes offset some of the mental distress. However, he still noticed the person standing at the door through the mirror early on. He knew most of the trainees in the company.

He has a cheerful personality and is very considerate of younger trainees. He might not be familiar with all of them, but at least he looks familiar. But the one who was hiding in the doorway and watching him today was a new one.

The girl behind him was wearing a trainee's tracksuit, her black hair casually tied back, with a few strands of hair hanging down in front of her forehead. Her facial features hadn't fully developed yet, so she wasn't beautiful in the traditional sense, but when put together, she had an unspoken sense of story.

Like the heroines in movies who accidentally stumble into the camera. She had no expression, just quietly watching him practice. He couldn't help but think that if she acted in a movie, she might be more attractive than being an idol. "Sorry, senior."

She cleared her throat and said, "I'm leaving now." "Are you new here?" Quan Zhilong looked back at her. "Yes, I'm new this year."

Although somewhat surprised that he'd continued the conversation, Lia answered honestly. "What direction?" He walked over to the player and paused the music. "Composition, arrangement..."

Although the question wasn't very clear, she had gotten into the company through her own demo, so this answer shouldn't be wrong. "Why don't you use honorifics?" Quan Zhilong raised an eyebrow at her, looking dissatisfied with her answer.

Lia was startled. She still wasn't used to Korean honorifics, and she often forgot about it mid-sentence. He wouldn't think she was deliberately disobeying etiquette, would he?

Seeing her nervous look, Quan Zhilong chuckled: "I'm just teasing you." "Just like Bo Eun-no, you're from abroad, right? Come in."

Like a child who wants to play with a street cat on a whim, he greeted Lia while turning back to fiddle with the player at hand. Lia walked in obediently, confused about what he was going to do next.

The next second, a powerful rhythm suddenly blared from the speakers. The melody was familiar yet strange, making it hard to remember which song it belonged to. "This Love," he prompted, "I adapted it."

Lia was a bit surprised. It was actually quite rare for a trainee to arrange music. Otherwise, with her humble demo, she wouldn't have received a response from YG so quickly. Kwon Ji-yong, however, seemed to be just bringing up something insignificant.

He shrugged casually, as if talking about today's weather: "You heard it first." Lia stood near the door and watched him pull off his hat, revealing his sweaty dark chestnut hair.

Suddenly, I felt my heart skip a beat. * Sitting in vocal class, Lia stared blankly at the music sheet on her practice paper. She had been staring at the words for a long time, so long that the trainee next to her quietly nudged her, and she finally came to her senses.

"You don't look good today." Lia was stunned for a second, then twitched her lips, trying to force a response: "Huh?" Of course she knew something was wrong. Anyone who heard that level of arrangement would be shocked, okay?

That guy was a complete freak. His dancing was impressive, and his casual arrangements were incredibly good. He played it lightly, as if he could just pick up an ant from the street and arrange it.

But she knew full well that the arrangement's completeness, melody, and depth far exceeded the capabilities of the average trainee. To achieve that level of skill required both talent and experience. And what about her?

In comparison, her "work" suddenly seemed incredibly shabby. Previously, perhaps it might have been barely praised as having some kind of spirit, but now it was being completely crushed by the other party. Lia was devastated.

She bit her lip, suddenly regretting saying she was a trainee arranging student. If he ever heard her music, he'd probably laugh his head off. Just saying I'm good at English is better than anything else!

She sighed heavily. And that damned melody, after just one listen, started playing in her head. Even the way he nonchalantly asked her, "How's it going?" appeared before her eyes.

"It's nice," she heard herself reply. Her tone was too calm, as if she were just casually commenting on a song, rather than hearing a melody that made her heart skip a beat. * She had thought this incident was just an incident.

But after that, Lia found herself subconsciously paying attention to Kwon Ji-yong's movements. When other trainees talked about him, she'd unconsciously listen a little more attentively. When she saw a familiar figure in the distance in the hallway, her steps would pause slightly.

After learning that Kwon Ji-yong had the habit of coming to the company at night to arrange music, she also began to increase her practice time at the company. "You've been finishing practice quite lately," a trainee asked her casually.

"Ahem..." Lia choked on her water and waved her hands. "Just because I need to catch up with everyone else, ahahaha..." She definitely wasn't feeling guilty! But chance encounters weren't easy.

Trainees preparing for their debut receive separate training in vocal, dance, and physical training, and unless they deliberately wait in line, their schedules rarely overlap. Lia hadn't seen him in a long time since that day in the practice room.

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