SM Entertainment’s newest (and youngest) trainee struggles with her first day of lessons.
Future NCT and I.O.I member | Takes place in early 2010
Word Count: 2.4k
Nari could hear her heart pounding and she was pretty sure the instructor could hear it too. She was also certain that if the instructor couldn’t hear it then surely the older boy whose ears stuck out of his head, standing almost as tall as the door to the practice room could hear her heart beating.
Maybe she had acted too fast. She wasn’t really that good at dancing, was she? Sure she’d been dancing since she was 5 but Taekwondo was where she thought her talent was, and even with that skill the only experience with singing she’d ever had was in her school choir.
Her school wasn’t like the schools she’d passed on the car ride here with her dad. Her school had barely 800 people in it, but looking at the people that filled up the room she was certain that their schools were cooler than hers. They almost certainly had really fancy uniforms, just like the clothes they were wearing now.
She felt uneasy in the best athletic outfit she owned. Her dad had bought it for her as a gift after she passed the audition. At the time she had been ecstatic. It was her mum’s favourite shop, and her family always bought their athletic and hiking gear from there. But it seemed to Nari that everyone else had decided to wear the same few logos and suddenly she wasn’t so excited about her present. Yet, she’d been feeling excited not even 5 minutes ago. It wasn’t until she actually walked through the doors and saw how tall, beautiful, experienced and professional everyone looked that she started to feel like this could have been a mistake.
“Alright warm-ups over. Today we’re working on different aspects of Hip-Hop style Dance so ...”
Nari listened to her new teacher talk about some techniques that she would be learning today with the other trainees as she found a spot towards the edge of the room like she’d been told. She really wanted to stand at the back, but seeing as most, if not everyone, in the room was taller than her, she doubted she’d be able to see from the back. So she continued the lesson in her spot by the wall, watching what others did and doing her best to keep pace and seem like she was meant to be there.
As soon as Nari was dismissed from her last class of the evening she walked as fast as she could towards where her dad had promised he'd be waiting for her down the street. Spotting her dad's car she sped up a little and jumped into the car closing the door and putting on her seat belt, forgetting to greet her dad, her brain opting instead to just wait for the car to start moving.
“How was training blossom?”
Her dad’s voice seemed to be broadcasting to her from outer space. Nari’s head snapped to the side, her big eyes meeting his questioning ones that accompanied his comforting smile. She had been so deeply lost in her own thoughts for the last few minutes of training, but now she couldn’t seem to find an answer to her dad’s question. Was training good? Had it been fun? Or had she felt too scared to call it fun? She definitely loved some bits of it. But she also hated that there were so many people who made her feel silly in comparison. The building was really fancy as well. It was way cooler than the building where she trained for Taekwondo. She couldn’t wait for her next class when she could tell all her peers and instructors all about the fancy training rooms in Seoul and how they had ...
“How about we just listen to some music now and you can tell me about your day once we’re home. Does that sound good?” Nari’s eyebrows had scrunched up as she thought, and after noticing her cheeks fill with air as she seemed to struggle finding the right words to say, her dad decided it would be best to just enjoy the songs they’d sing together whenever he drove his children to and from school.
“Can I pick the songs?” Nari asked in an excited tone, already reaching for her dad’s phone to put on her favorite mix of SHINee and Avicii which her dad never really understood but enjoyed nonetheless. Looking up before she pressed the play button the nod of approval from her father brought a smile to her face whilst simultaneously, and unbeknownst to Nari, comforting her dad as the two began their karaoke session and their trip home.
Soon enough after passing her neighbours house and patiently waiting for her dad to park their car on the gravel laying beside the road, Nari was able to jump out of the car, securing the straps of her backpack over her shoulders as she did. Her feet sped up the path where she met her dog Mello who she'd seen enthusiastically bounding towards them from the front door of her home.
As Nari bent down to pet Mello she noticed the dried dirt that clung to his skin and found her eyebrows raising. As she tried to remember whose turn it had been to wash the pets over the weekend Nari found a smirk forming on her face. Swivelling her head around to see that her dad was a few steps behind her she quietly called out to him.
"Dad, hyung forgot to wash Mello again. And I bet Minhyuk and him are both playing video games right now."
"What makes you say that?" Her dad chuckled as he also bent down to look at Mello.
Nari's hand followed her eyes as she pointed towards the study, exclaiming that "The light is still on in your study dad."
Nari heard her dad let out a sigh before telling her that he'd put Mello back in his bed and tell off the boys.
“Whilst I do that you can go shower and brush your teeth and I’ll come talk to you when you are ready for bed.”
Nari quickly nodded her head before turning and dashing up the rest of the path to the front door. After she'd closed the door she was able to hear her brothers voices as they rushed to save whatever game they'd been playing. Chuckling to herself, Nari quickly ran up the stairs to intercept them.
As Nari threw open the door she laughed at the chorus of excuses about homework and assignments she heard before her brothers realised who had caught them.
"It's too late. Dad already saw the light on and he's coming up to scold you after putting Mello to bed." Nari smiled as she watched her brother’s eyes widen.
Nari thought that Minseok’s reaction was the most entertaining between the two as his palm met his face while exclaiming "Ah! I forgot to wash the dogs again."
This time both Nari and Minhyuk were laughing at their older brother who began to whine that he wasn't the only one getting in trouble tonight.
Nari, however, kept laughing as she waved to them saying goodnight before she cheerfully made her way to collect some pyjamas so she could get ready for bed.
It was about half an hour later that Nari was sitting in bed, reading over a book she'd been set to read for school, when she heard her dad knock on the door to her bedroom. Nari called out for him to come in.
After watching her dad come into her room and sit down on the floor beside her bed Nari listened as her dad asked her the same question she'd been asked in the car earlier that evening.
"So, how was your first day of training?"
This time Nari didn’t hesitate as she had done earlier. Instead, she let out an endless flow of talk about her time at SM.
She told her dad how she’d been one of the earliest people to arrive and how when she introduced herself to her trainer with her age they told her she would be the youngest trainee currently at SM Entertainment. She explained how this was why she was one of the only people leaving the building at the time she did because even though there were apparently “like a thousand” trainees only the youngest ones left when she left and most of them stayed late into the night, even staying till morning. Nari talked all about the dancing, vocal and language instructors she’d met and how the dancing instructor was probably her least favourite teacher so far because they forced her to stand near the front because apparently she was too small to stand at the back of the room.
As Nari kept talking, she found herself admitting that she’d been a bit intimidated by the other trainees. She described them to be tall, talented and beautiful. Almost all of them had an intense look of determination on their faces that only really relaxed when they were given a break.
“Appa, do you think I made the right choice?”
By the time the question had left her mouth Nari's monologue had died down from a heartful recount to a small barely audible whisper.
“Why do you say that?”
“They all look like they belong there. I’ve only been to Seoul a few times and ... even my clothes are different.” Nari admitted under her breath as she found her eyes wandering out the window above her bed.
“Well,” Her dad started as he sat himself on the bed beside Nari “You don’t have to keep going if you don’t want to. If you don’t want to pursue music anymore then you can find something else to do and ...”
“What?!” Nari exclaimed in shock as she sat up in bed and looked at her secretly smiling father. “NO! I want to sing and dance and perform. I want to make people happy with my music and one day I even want to be able to make music like Avicii.”
Nari watched as her dad reached out and ruffled her hair, a big smile on his face as he asked her “Then why are you letting other people scare you into thinking you should quit, huh? You are my daughter and you are everything you said those other trainees are. You are talented and beautiful. You’ll grow up to be even taller than some of those trainees, and your determination is going to help you to one day make even better music than Avicii. I can see it!”
Nari let out a giggle as her dad put on a dramatic show with his hands, demonstrating the pride he held towards his daughter. Her laughter abruptly came to a stop once she’d processed his last words.
“Yah, that’s impossible.” Nari mumbled as an offended pout found its way to her face. “Avicii’s music is the best, I can’t make music as good as him.”
Her dad once again looked at her in confusion as he asked “Why not? You already know how to write music. I bet he didn’t know how to write music at your age.”
“No dad. I only know boring old music. I want to make cool music like SHINee and Avicii.”
“Then you stay at SM and work hard and when you’re older you’ll be able to make some “cool” music just like Avicii and SHINee’s music. Don’t let the other trainees intimidate you and if you ever feel uncomfortable there then your brave dad can come and yell at your teachers and I’ll find you another place to learn about music. Does that sound good?”
Nari’s smile was an immense comfort to her father as she told him that she would stay as a trainee at SM. But it soon disappeared as the girl once again thought about the seemingly infinite things that could go wrong.
“Dad, what if I can’t make any friends there? All the female trainees are really old. They don’t seem like the type of people who want to play handball and tag after school.”
“Then why don’t you try talking to some of the boys?” Her dad questioned. “Most of your friends that come to hang out here are boys anyway and there’s nothing wrong with having male friends.”
“But dad, aren’t I supposed to be friends with girls now that I’m not a kid anymore? At school and even during the break in training today everyone always splits into groups of girls or boys. At school Woorim and I are the only girls that hang out in a group of boys. Besides, some girls in my class keep saying that boys are disgusting.”
Nari watched as her dad raised his hand to his heart as he exclaimed “Oh mo, then am I disgusting as well? Are your brothers disgusting. Will my own daughter stop talking to me?”
Nari laughed at her dad as she waved her arms and shook her head, repeatedly telling him that they weren’t disgusting.
“Then I bet the other trainees aren’t disgusting either. And I’m sure the other girls won’t be as different as you think once you get to know them.”
“Okay” Nari nodded as she grabbed her dinosaur plush and wiggled in her bed so she was laying down, covered in her blanket. “I’ll try and talk to some of the other trainees.”
After telling his daughter one more time that he was sure she’d do amazing at SM, Nari’s dad stood up and made his way to the door, preparing to turn off the lights and let his girl rest after her long and exciting day. However before he could reach for the lightswitch, he heard a soft murmur coming from the girls bed.
“Dad, do you think mum is proud of me?”
The smile that made its way onto his face had only a tinge of sadness as he assured his daughter that her mum held more pride towards her than there were stars in the sky.
It almost seemed like the girl was talking to the dinosaur toy her mum had gifted her as she tiredly said “You can’t possibly count all the stars silly.”
Soomin watched as his daughter’s eyes closed, turning off the light and quietly whispering “I am so proud of you Nari-ah” as he closed the door to her room.
Lol don’t worry her dad’s is Yang Soo-MIN not Lee Soo-Man the CEO of SM haha (although it does make for some funny jokes in the future). Also this was originally going to have some interactions with EXO members (besides the brief allusions to them at the beginning) but it quickly became too long so I just focused this on Nari’s relationship with her family. Please remember that throughout this fic she is 10 years old so some of the stuff she thinks are misconceptions but please let me know if I was offensive anywhere in the fic. I always want to try my best to spread positivity and learn from any mistakes I make. (besides grammatical and spelling ones apparently. I swear I try my best!)
With all that being said I hope you enjoyed this backstory for Nari and feel free to read more of her content with NCT and I.O.I here. Also I recently hit 200 followers, like what even?! 😍🥺😄Thank you guys so much for all the love and support I seriously appreciate it and it never fails to make me smile!💚💚💚
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and having a good day or night wherever you are in the world!
