"Okay." Ouyang Guang nodded slightly, thinking: SM's top management advises people not to work too hard, what a joke. Who made me learn Korean proficiently and able to speak fluently in just three months?
After the morning class, the rain continued to fall. Ouyangguang and Jin Shengxian walked to the cafeteria together. On the way, they passed a French window. The rain flowed on the glass, blurring the outside world. Ouyangguang stopped and suddenly remembered that the rainy season in Shenzhen was also so long.
"Are you homesick?" Kim Seung-hyun asked.
Ouyang Guang shook his head and continued walking forward. Missing home was a luxury that he was not entitled to now.
At lunch time, Ouyang Guang chose the corner seat as usual. Jin Shengxian was like a human gossip machine, constantly telling him all kinds of company gossip.
He had been eating kimchi fried rice in the cafeteria for a month, but he still couldn't get used to the over-fermented sour taste.
"Have you heard?" Kim Seung-hyun lowered his voice mysteriously, "Song Qian is really going to debut! Next month!"
Ouyang Guang paused for a moment. Song Qian - the Chinese trainee from Qingdao, he had only seen her from a distance a few times in the corridor. "Are you sure?" He asked a question on his own initiative.
Kim Seung-hyun nodded vigorously, "I heard it from Lee Soo-min from Class A! And..." He looked around and lowered his voice, "I heard that there will be four Chinese members in this girl group!"
"...So Mr. Lee Soo Man has been meeting with investors from Country Z recently," Kim Seung Hyun stuffed his mouth with kimchi rice, "I guess the company wants to expand into the Country Z market, hasn't it already launched the SJM team..."
Ouyang Guang listened in a disjointed manner, his eyes sweeping across the cafeteria. At a table in the distance, Zhang Yixing was eating with a trainee, a tall man he had never seen before, with a clear outline like a sculpture.
"Who is that?" Ouyang Guang pointed.
Kim Seung-hyun followed his gaze and said, "Oh, Kris Wu, a Chinese Canadian who joined the company in 2007. He's a rapper, and he's not in the same circle as us."
Ouyang Guang looked at him a few more times. Wu Yifan did have an aura that kept people away, and he looked quite cold.
The dance class in the afternoon was also a subject that Ouyangguang was not good at. Although his basics were weak, his physical coordination and learning ability made Teacher Zheng nod his head occasionally. Today, he was taught a basic hip-hop move. Ouyangguang followed the rhythm with full concentration and temporarily forgot the unpleasantness of the morning.
"Ouyang Guang," Teacher Zheng suddenly called on his name, "you come and demonstrate this turning movement."
Ouyang Guang's heart tightened. He had practiced this move many times in private, but this was the first time he performed it alone in front of everyone. He walked to the center of the classroom, took a deep breath, and started the move.
The moment he turned around, his eyes passed by the classroom door - Park Junhao was standing there with a malicious smile on his face. This mistake made Ouyang Guang's footsteps deviate by a few centimeters, and although he adjusted back in time, Teacher Zheng noticed it keenly.
"Your center of gravity is unstable. You will need to practice for an extra hour after class." Teacher Zheng frowned. "But your sense of rhythm is good. Keep practicing."
After class, the other students left one after another, and only a small group of people remained.
"Xiaoguang, I'm leaving first! See you tomorrow!" Kim Seung-hyun patted Ouyang Guang and left.
Ouyang Guang was practicing alone in the classroom when Park Junhao walked in.
"I heard that you made a fool of yourself in your acting class today?" Park Junhao said slowly in Korean, making sure that everyone around him could hear. "You are a Chinese, but you can't even express basic emotions."
Ouyang Guang clenched his fists, but remembering Zhang Yixing's warning, he just glanced at Park Junhao coldly and walked around him sideways.
"Ah! Ignoring your senior?" Park Junhao raised his voice, "It seems that this morning's lesson was not enough."
“It’s you!”
Ouyang Guang stopped and turned to face Park Junhao. People who had not left the classroom stopped what they were doing, and the air was filled with tension.
"Park, senior," Ouyang Guang said in the Korean honorifics that he had practiced countless times, and bowed in a standard manner, "Please forgive me if I was impolite. I just came to Korea and I am still learning etiquette."
These words hit Park Junhao like a punch on the head, and he was speechless for a moment. He obviously didn't expect Ouyang Guang to respond in this way.
"Huh, you're pretending well," Park Junhao finally muttered, "Who knows what you're planning behind the scenes..."
Ouyang Guang ignored him and walked straight out of the classroom. In the corridor, his pace became faster and faster, and in the last few steps he trotted into the bathroom. After locking the cubicle door, he allowed himself to breathe faster and punched the partition.
"Calm down..." Ouyang Guang said to himself, his forehead against the cold wall. Park Junhao's provocation, Lee Jae-won's request, the pressure of the unfamiliar environment, all the emotions came like a tide. He took a few deep breaths and forced himself to calm down.
When he walked out of the bathroom, Ouyang Guang bumped into Che Zhenyu, the emotional explosiveness training teacher with a goatee.
Che Zhenyu raised his eyebrows when he saw Ouyang Guang’s red and swollen eyes.
"I just happened to meet you. Did Minji tell you? Starting this week, your Korean class every Monday will be replaced by an emotional outburst training class."
Che Zhenyu said, "In the evening class, be prepared to show extreme sadness. I want to see real tears, not eye drops."
Ouyang Guang stood there in a daze. It was hard enough to express anger, and now he was crying? He had hardly cried in front of others since he was a child.
"Teacher," he asked with courage, "Why do I have to take this course when I am not in the acting department?"
Che Zhenyu stroked his goatee and said, "Didn't Minzhi tell you? The company positions you as an all-around artist, so performance is a must." He glanced at Ouyang Guang meaningfully, "There are so many practice sessions every day in Korea. If you want to be the exception, you have to work ten times harder."
These words weighed on Ouyang Guang's chest like a stone. He bowed and said goodbye silently. When he walked out of the company building, the rain had lightened up a lot, but the sky had also darkened.
There was no food in the cafeteria, so Ouyang Guang walked into a convenience store. The window displayed a variety of bento boxes and rice balls, and he suddenly felt hungry - he hadn't eaten since lunch. When he pushed the door open, the aroma of heating and food hit him in the face.
"Welcome." said the aunt at the cashier without even looking up.
Ouyang Guang chose two spicy fried squid rice balls and a bottle of orange juice, but when he checked out he realized he didn't have enough money. He was embarrassed to put the milk back when a familiar voice came from behind him.
"Let's tie the knot together."
Zhang Yixing appeared behind him at some point, holding a can of coffee and a sandwich. He paid for Ouyang Guang, and the two walked out of the convenience store together.
"Why are you eating so late?" Zhang Yixing asked.
"More practice." Ouyang Guang answered briefly, and couldn't wait to tear open the rice ball packaging and take a big bite.
Zhang Yixing didn't ask any more questions, but just walked with him silently in the rain. The halo of the street lamp spread on the wet ground, stretching the shadows of the two people very long.
"Brother Yixing," Ouyang Guang suddenly asked, "Do you know Wu Yifan?"
Zhang Yixing was obviously stunned for a moment: "Why are you asking about him suddenly?"
"I saw you guys in the cafeteria today."
"Oh..." Zhang Yixing's expression was a bit complicated, "Brother Fan came a little earlier than me, and he's very good at rap. But recently... he has some troubles of his own." He didn't continue the topic, "Eat quickly, the rice balls are getting cold."
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