To say that Erin was bored would be an understatement. A massive one. She was bored at 8:30, after all the Koala.T trainees had settled in and the wait began for their turn to rehearse. That was four hours ago. The trainees were under strict instruction to not leave their assigned area and, for once in her life, Erin couldn’t convince anybody to break ranks with her. What good was an adventure if she was going on it alone? It wasn’t like the trainees had been provided with any sort of entertainment. They were set pieces, props, more than anything. Little care was given to how they felt. This was just another sacrifice on the road to becoming an idol; everyone understood that. Even Erin. Still, when the time to eat lunch rolled around, she was the first one out the door. She was happy to get the chance to stretch her legs, maybe shake off some of her cabin fever.
The SBS cafeteria looked like any other cafeteria. The only differences between it and the cafeteria at a local office building were the idols that scattered about, filling tables and buying food. Erin had only been to the SBS studios a few times before, to backup dance for Nightmare as she was for the Gayo Daejun. For her, the place still held a sense of novelty. Erin smiled as she and the rest of the Koala.T trainees made their way through. She did a fair bit of gawking, too. All of the trainees seemed energized just to be around new, different idols from competing companies. Erin was no exception.
The trainees filed out a couple of tables and their manager — babysitter, really — went to go collect the food. Immediately, the gossiping began.
“Ahh, are those the boys from 1nferno?” one trainee asked in an excited whisper. “They’re even cuter in person!”
“I heard that one of them is dating another idol,” another said, knowingly. This was met with hushed demands that she say who. Erin was more than happy to join in, telling stories from her time at Singularity to her new Koala.T friends. Soon enough, the food arrived.
“The famous Inkigayo sandwich! Oh, I hope there’s something in mine!” Erin’s neighbor exclaimed. Erin looked at her blankly. “You don’t know?! They say that idols exchange numbers using the sandwiches.
“Wouldn’t they just eat the number by accident?” Erin asked, only half joking. She could definitely see herself munching through a piece of paper mixed in with all the strange ingredients. But now, she was curious. Everyone began eating, carefully unwrapping their sandwiches to search for a phone number secreted away inside. No one found anything. Except for Erin, that was.
Tucked inside the plastic wrap was a small slip of paper. There was a phone number on it. A phone number. The girl next to Erin squealed when she saw it. “You have to text them!”
Erin didn’t need telling twice. She typed the numbers into her phone, quickly creating a new contact. Without pausing for a moment to really think about what she was doing, Erin fired off a series of messages.
[sms; sandwich person] hey
[sms; sandwich person] hey hey hey
[sms; sandwich person] heyyyyyyyyy [image attachment]
[sms; sandwich person] ❤️❤️❤️