Once Upon A Star: Chapter 3

"Hey, sleepy head... wake up, sweet dreaming girl..." Shirley heard a sweet voice in her dreams.

"Please let me sleep a little more..." She mumbled.

"Wake up!" A thunderous voice echoed in her ears. A hand grabbed her blanket and pulled Shirley off her bed.

"Ouch! Why do you have to do that?" Shirley said while rubbing her head. She thought it was her younger brother. Then, she suddenly remembered where she was.

She looked up.

"Training starts in an hour! Get ready now. I'll meet you in Training Room 15 at the 10th floor." Ginny, the trainer was there for a second and she disappeared to the other room for the next wake up call.

"Ahhh.." Shirley stretched her body and found out that Hung Man was not in the room. She went out to the common room to search for her.

"What are you doing?" Shirley saw Hung Man sitting at a table, eating cereal.

"Hmm? Me? ...I'm looking for you. Why didn't you wake me up?" Shirley asked.

"I forgot... And your pajamas is embarrassing." Hung Man said coldly and went back to eating her cereal.

"Aish..." Shirley looked at her own pajamas. It had Spongebob Squarepants all over it. Slapping her forehead, she went back to her room and closed the door.

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After getting ready, Shirley took the map she was given and left the dorm. There was half an hour till the class starts.

She went to another building where the training rooms were. She followed the map but she still couldn't find the room.

"It's at the 10th floor rite? Why isn't room 15 here!!!"

There was still 10 minutes left! She studied the map intensely...

"O dear... I've been reading it upside down!!!" She turned the map to the right way and rushed to the training room 15.

She took a big breath, trying to calm herself down from the running.

She sneaked into the training room, hoping that Ginny wouldn't caught her.

She put her bag at the corner with the others and blended into the group of trainees.

"Miss Shirley! You are 3 minutes late." Ginny spotted her and told her to come to the front.

There were whispers from the trainees as Shirley motioned to the front of the room.

"Well, class. Let me introduce you our new addition to the family. Introduce yourself please." Ginny said.

"Annyeonghaseyo (Hello) I'm Shirley and I'm 20 years old." Shirley made a brief introduction.

"Okay, Shirley, today we'll be doing one of miss A's dance choreography. Have you ever heard Goodbye Baby?" Ginny's tone was strict yet gentle in a way.

Shirley said she only heard it once or twice, not really remembering the song.

"We're going to start slow. Now... one two three... one two three four five... turn..." Ginny recited and moved with every count. Soon, the class, including Shirley followed Ginny, besides trying to remember the steps to every count.

Ginny repeated the dance a few times, followed by the trainees. There were a lot of counting around the room and a few trainees were out of breath and couldn't keep up.

After two hours, Ginny let everyone rest for 10 minutes. Everyone was breathing hard, expanding their lung capacity. The trainees were all sweaty too.

"Chaerin, put on the radio please." Ginny said and Chaerin went to on the radio. Everyone went to their positions to stand by.

The music started and everyone tried to dance following the beat. Ginny was still at the front so that the trainees can follow. It was a lot faster than without the music and only Hung Man was doing nicely keeping up with the song. Shirley was hanging on just by a thread, being one beat slower while the others were already out of beat.

"10 minutes!" Ginny said and everyone dispersed to take a break.

After that, Ginny told the trainees to do the choreography again. This time, she didn't dance but stood at the corner, observing the class. She wanted to see how the trainees were doing.

"...Hung Man doing well.. just need a little more power in her dance moves..."

"...Chaerin... still needs a little more practice..."

"...Ariel... slacking... need to pressure her a bit..."

"...Min Thing... doing fine... wait... Min Thing? Director, may I know why are you doing here?" Ginny was surprised to see the CEO dancing with the trainees.

"I want to exercise a bit. Besides, I like your classes." Min Thing said while dancing intensely.

"Okay... " Ginny went to the other corner to see the other trainees.

"...Shirley... this girl has got pure talent... needs just a few months to debut as an artist..."

Ginny smiled while looking at Shirley. She remembered Taemin who is now an artist, he was a dancing machine and when he was training under her, Ginny was always impressed for every choreography he did.

Three hours passed by as Ginny helped the trainees in their dance moves.

After lunch break, Ginny gave a lecture about how every dance move was created and how to present them without tiring the body. She covered every detail. She also talked about the beat and tempo of the song, the lyrics and how to convey the emotion of the song into the dance.

"Thank you class. I'll see you tomorrow." Ginny bowed and the trainees bowed back, thanking her. Everyone left the training room, tired out.

Shirley walked slowly as her limbs were aching. She never had this kind of training and it was unbelievably tough.

Unknowingly, she was lost in the building and took 45 minutes just to get back to the dorms when the other trainees took only 10 minutes.

"Uhh..." Shirley lay on the floor immediately after reaching her room. She had seen Hung Man in the common room, eating her dinner and watching TV.

"I need to take a warm bath..." Shirley dragged herself to the bathroom and took a long, warm, relaxing bath.

She wore her clothes and lay on the bed, not wanting to wake up. Yet, her stomach was growling.

"Knock Knock!" Shirley heard a voice from outside. Lazily, she went to open the door.

There were two girls.

"Hey, you want to go out for dinner?" She recognize the girls from the first day she was in Korea.

"Sorry. We forgot to introduce ourselves properly." The two girls said in unison.

"I'm Chaerin and she's Ariel. So... you wanna to join us for dinner?" Chaerin smiled warmly.

"Please say yes?" Ariel continued.

"Hmm... Okay. Just wait for me awhile." Shirley took her key and purse.

On the way out, Chaerin asked Hung Man but she rejected the offer. Chaerin had a car and the three hopped into it.

"What do you like to eat?" Ariel asked while Chaerin started the engine.

"Anything." Shirley replied with a smile.

"Well, steamboat then!" Chaerin cheered and stepped on the accelerator.

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The three girls ate heartily and talked.

"May I know why Hung Man is so quiet?" Shirley asked as she was curious why Hung Man barely talked.

"To tell you the truth, she's a really cold person." Ariel took a sip of green tea and continued, "But she's really a nice girl. Just that she doesn't warm up with people so easily like our Chaerin here."

"She's been quieter when her roommate left a few months ago. Hui.J and X.Wei were her roommates but they left the company to complete their studies overseas. They'll only be back in Korea after a few years." Chaerin explained.

Shirley got to know more about Hung Man. She also decided to be friendlier to her so that they can become buddies. She also got to know about Chaerin and Ariel. They were a duo and trying their best so that they can be in the comedy industry. Because they wanted to be versatile in the entertainment industry, they ended up joining dancing, singing and literature classes.

"You know, Ginny really likes you." Chaerin said while reaching for a lettuce leaf.

"You mean the trainer? I don't think so. I was late for her class." Shirley sighed and took a piece of fish ball.

"I saw her smiling when you were dancing!" Ariel suddenly shouted.

"Calm down!" Chaerin hit her arm. The three laughed as people were looking at them with weird faces.

They ate for more than 2 hours and went back to the dorms.

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It was all quiet and dark in the common room as everyone was outside exploring the night market nearby or already asleep.

"Goodnight!" Chaerin whispered.

"Remember to set your alarm!" Ariel added and they went to their room.

Shirley made an "okay" sign and quietly went into her room.

Tucked in her bed, Shirley cheered to herself, "Hwaiting!"