ok i know every single person, including me, has at one point referred to their fave kpop human as their “boyfriend/girlfriend” or their “wife/husband”. we all mean it lightheartedly, not being serious, right? which is why it blows my mind that some people actually are dead fucking serious lmao hate to break it to ya but u have no chance with ur fave. sorry not sorry bout it, u creeps. oop
I was an SM trainee for a period of time. It was when I was in middle school. They offered Chinese classes at my school and I was taking them. I had been taking them since sixth grade.
It was the summer between seventh and eighth grade. In two months, I would be in eight grade. My parents and two of my friends parents got together and decided to go to China.
My friend, Maddy, was half Chinese and half Caucasian. They wanted her to go connect back to her roots. It was Mia, Maddy, and I, along with our parents going to China.
I was twelve then, Mia and Maddy were thirteen. I was born in December while they were born in the earlier months. I think it was 2009 back then.
We went to China and it was great. It was fun. I loved the culture. Maddy could barely speak Chinese because her father barely spoke it around the house. I wasn’t Chinese. I was Vietnamese. Mia was from Kazakhstan.
I know, that’s not really a place where SM picks its trainees. But she had very nice features. She was tall already. 5'6". Taller than me, who was 5'4". Maddy was only 5'1". Mia also had brown hair and light brown eyes. I’ll have to admit, she was good looking and Kpop companies like the good looking ones.
We were in China, hanging out in a shop. Our parents were also with us. An SM scout was walking around the streets looking for new recruits. He spotted us in the shop and went in. He gave us his card and told us about the audition.
Our parents let us go to the audition. What’s the worse that can happen?
Mia was good at singing. She got all the solos when we were in school choir. She had chestnut brown hair. Light brown eyes. Tall. Good looking. SM let her in despite her heritage.
Maddy was good at singing too. Not as good as Mia, but still good. She was half Caucasian which gave her lighter features. Chocolate brown hair and light brown eyes. But SM was hesitant about her tan skin. She was just born tan.
But they let her in. She showed promise. Kai from Exo was tan too. She had full lips like him and a nice face.
I was more of a dancer and rapper. I could sing okay but I’d rather rap and dance. SM let me in. I spoke fluent English, Vietnamese, and was pretty good at Chinese. They believed that I could pick Korean up pretty easily. I also had very pale skin. SM liked that.
So then started out trainee years.
Mia was bullied. Despite her looks and singing talents, she was still bullied. There was never a trainee from Kazakhstan before. The Korean trainees bullied her for not being able to speak Korean.
Maddy wasn’t bullied. She spoke a little Chinese. She was Chinese. The Korean trainees didn’t bother her much.
They bothered me. They bullied me like they did with the other Viet trainees. They even did it with the Thai trainees. SM had never debuted a Viet or Thai trainee before. They liked to rub it in our faces.
Training was intense. We were rated on a scale of 1 to 6. 1 being terrible and 6 being expert.
We trained for three years until there was a rumor that went around about a new boy band called Exo. The Korean bullies were excited because they thought it could’ve been them.
The look on Mia’s face was priceless when tears started to well up in their eyes when the twelve members were announced.
Honestly, some of us were jealous. Tao and Baekhyun only trained for a year until they debuted. It wasn’t fair to the others who had trained much longer.
Baekhyun was good at singing and he was hard working. He practiced his dancing as often as he could. I could understand why he was chosen, but why not one of the more experienced trainees?
Tao begged the manager to let him train for a few more years since he hadn’t grasped the Korean language yet. The manager ignored his pleas.
Whe clearly weren’t going to debut anytime soon and we needed to go to college so Mia, Maddy, and I left SM once out contracts for seven years ended. I was 19 and Mia and Maddy were 20.
That was seven years of our lives wasted. On intense training. Unhealthy diets.
Our scores were exceptional in the beginning of 2016. And they still didn’t let us debut.
We were good at dancing. Good singers. A good rapper. And multiple languages that we could speak. And we still didn’t debut.
Old ex-trainees say that only the most dedicated trainees debut. That’s not true.
Tao begged for more time being a trainee. But it wasn’t up to him. Whether or not the trainee debuts is up to SM.
Mia, Maddy, and I dedicated seven years to being trainees. Mia got sick and hurt her throat after singing too much. Maddy got bone problems from SM wanting her to learn how to play piano and guitar. She practiced too often and her bones began to get problems.
I practiced dancing so much that I fell to my knees. During practice, I got a nosebleed. Now I have health issues.
The most dedicated trainees don’t always get to debut. It’s only up to SM.