LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 25
Spring is fading into May.
School classes have ended.
“Do-hee, where do you go every day?” Su-jin asked while catching me as I was leaving with my backpack.
Su-jin, who was in the same class as me in first grade, has been in different classes since then, but now in fifth grade, we’re back together and she sticks to me like glue.
“Just have some stuff to do.”
I figured if word got out at school that I’m a trainee idol, it would be a hassle, so I kept it quiet.
“Can’t you play with me today?”
“Sorry, Su-jin. Unni is a bit busy.”
“Hmph… You always say that and never hang out with me.”
“What can I do? I’m busy all the time. See you tomorrow.”
“Okay…”
Leaving Su-jin behind, I headed out of school.
After taking the bus, I arrived at the company, went up to the third floor, greeted the staff, and signed the attendance sheet.
“Hey, Do-hee! Long time no see?”
Turning around, it was Team Leader Kim Jin-woo from the Rookie Development Casting Team who cast me.
Since he’s always out on business casting, I rarely bump into him.
But considering how few new faces he’s brought in, it seems he’s just collecting a paycheck.
“Hello, Team Leader!”
“Yeah, I heard a lot of praise about you, Do-hee.”
“Really? That’s the first I’m hearing of it.”
“Team Leader So-hyun said so!”
“Really?”
“I guess they didn’t tell you to work harder.”
Oh… classic Tsundere Team Leader Jung.
“Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing you work hard in your lessons.”
“Yes! Thank you~”
After finishing my chat with Team Leader Kim, I headed down to the basement studio for class.
Today’s first lesson was dance.
Woo-ah Unni was already there.
Now a middle schooler, she said she comes in early skipping the second or fourth classes.
“Unni, I’m here.”
“Do-hee~”
She stopped dancing and ran over to hug me.
“Isn’t it tiring to hug while dancing?”
“Not at all!”
Sigh.
After practicing the dance for the end-of-month evaluation with her, Teacher Ye-rim walked in.
“Hello~”
“Oh hey, why are you normally practicing dance today?”
“Today, Unni came in early and finished her foreign language homework in advance.”
“Really? Keep it up. Now let’s start class.”
Teacher Ye-rim stood in front and demonstrated the dance.
“Okay, try to follow me.”
“Yes.”
“Imagine there’s a wall in front and bang it with your elbows! Again.”
“Do-hee, focus! Focus!”
“Shoulders and arms tight! Again. Woo-ah and Do-hee, your rhythm is off.”
“Yes!”
Recently, I’ve been feeling a pain in my chest when dancing and can’t concentrate.
So, as expected, I couldn’t focus and made a mistake.
“Do-hee, why don’t you push hard with your chest? Bang it!”
Eventually, the teacher paused the music and spoke to me.
“Do-hee, why are you having such a hard time focusing these days?”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that when I dance lately, my chest hurts…”
“Your chest hurts?”
The teacher pondered for a moment before coming closer and reaching out to touch my chest.
I was surprised for a moment as someone touched my chest, but that distraction faded quickly as pain shot through that area, making me frown.
“Does it hurt here?”
The place she touched felt hard.
“Ugh… yes, that spot.”
She smiled for a moment and said, “Looks like our Do-hee is growing up!”
“Eh.”
“That’s a chest lump. Do-hee, are you hitting puberty now?”
Ah, so this is a lump.
Then does that mean my chest will grow too?
At least it should be bigger than Mom’s…
“Do-hee, how tall are you right now?”
“I’m 154.6 cm.”
“If you do well, you might surpass 160 by the end of the year.”
“Really? Does that mean I can go over 170?”
“Well, even the teacher doesn’t know that. But I’ve heard that if secondary sexual characteristics come later, you might end up taller.”
“Oh!”
“Anyway, having growing pains is natural, so just hold on a bit and focus.”
“Yes!”
“Oh, and Do-hee, are you still stretching at home regularly?”
Of course, I’m doing it steadily for 30 minutes before sleep every night.
“Yes, I’m doing it consistently.”
“If you get taller, your flexibility will decrease, so stretch even harder from now on.”
“Yes!”
“Or, how about you go to Pilates with Woo-ah?”
I think I’m flexible enough, so my older sister goes to Pilates alone.
“Yes. If I feel like it’s not enough, I’ll tell the Team Leader.”
“Okay. Now let’s focus and start dancing with the opposite foot this time.”
“Yes!”
After the dance lesson, I went up to the fifth floor to have dinner with Woo-ah.
As I entered the restaurant and looked at the menu, today’s options were cheese pork cutlet, sprout bibimbap, and Vietnamese spring rolls.
“Oh! I’m going with cheese cutlet. Older sister, you too?”
“Ah… I need to lose weight, so I’m going for the spring rolls.”
“Hmm…”
I visually checked my sister’s body.
“What’s wrong?”
I took out my transportation card from my pocket and placed it against my sister’s chest.
“Beep beep, it’s a child.”
“Oh, don’t!”
She playfully hit my shoulder, blushing.
If it were Mom, she would’ve hit my head instead.
“What fat are you trying to lose from that chest? You’re still growing, so you don’t need to lose weight like me. Just eat the cheese cutlet.”
I ignored my sister’s words and scanned my card at the kiosk, ordering two cheese cutlets.
“Ah, I really need to lose weight…”
“You really don’t. You’re going to Pilates, right?”
“Still…”
“But what’s your height and weight?”
“I’m… 161 cm and 48 kg.”
“Ah.”
I knew it.
What do you mean, lose weight?
“Do you think you don’t need to lose weight?”
“Actually, I should lose a bit, right?”
“Hey!”
“Hehe, I was just joking. You really don’t need to. You’re thin enough.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But you might need to lose some when they pick the debut team? From the camera’s perspective, you might look fuller.”
Cameras distort images and make you look fuller than you actually are.
So it’s common for celebrities who look okay on broadcast to be extremely thin in person.
“Right…? Should’ve eaten the spring rolls.”
“But if you lose weight now, you’ll end up with a flat chest like our mom, you know?”
“Really…? But isn’t chest size genetic?”
“What size was your mom?”
“Probably a D cup?”
“Oh.”
Genetics is a broken game.
“You should stick to eating spring rolls from now on.”
“Okay.”
I took out my phone and sent a KakaoTalk message to Mom.
I sent a Kakao message to my mom.
– Mom, Woo-ah Unni’s mom is a D cup. –
Oh, and 1 has disappeared.
Then I got an immediate reply from mom.
– ㅗ –
I replied right away.
– LOL –
After dinner, I came to take my vocal lesson.
Since vocal lessons are one-on-one, my Unni takes a different class when I have my vocal lesson.
Right now, Unni is probably taking a rap lesson.
When I entered the vocal room, Kwon-sensei was there.
“Hey~ Kwon-sensei, I’m here~”
Kwon Hyuk, my vocal teacher, seems more comfortable than other teachers since he’s a guy and isn’t harsh like the others toward me and Woo-ah Unni.
“Alright, Do-hee, come sit down.”
I casually walked over and sat at the piano seat.
I’m good at playing the piano, so I don’t even need sheet music; I can play right away just by listening to the song, so I ended up singing while playing.
I should brag about this later when it goes on broadcast.
“What are we doing today, Sensei?”
“What do you mean, what? We need to practice the long vocalizations like last time.”
“Hmm… I don’t think I can hit those high notes.”
“Why? Are you hurt?”
“I’ve hit puberty starting today.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“If I’ve hit puberty, a voice change will definitely come, and what if my voice gets messed up?”
“For girls, it’s only about three keys lower. There’s no problem, so just sing already.”
“Oh. Bummer.”
So I ended up singing anyway.
“Do-hee, relax and focus on bending.”
“Okay~”
After finishing the song, the teacher had a vague expression on his face.
“Hah… this is strange.”
“Why?”
“Since you play the piano so well, it makes it seem like you sing well too.”
“That’s because I do sing well.”
Ignoring my words, he made me stand up from the piano.
“Do-hee, come out. Let me play the piano.”
He played the piano while I just sang again.
“See? This kid is a fraud.”
Ah. Caught.
“You keep covering up when your voice gets faint with the piano, huh?”
“Hehe, you caught me.”
“I told you to focus on your breath pressure, right? Sing it again.”
“Yes!”
I sang again.
“I can’t let this slide. Lee Do-hee, plank.”
“Oh. Sensei.”
“Quickly, plank.”
Reluctantly, I laid down and got into the plank position.
“Now, pay attention to your breath while you sing. You’ll improve quickly in that position.”
“Yes…”
I ended up singing for three minutes in plank position and collapsed right afterward.
“Huff… I’m dying…”
The teacher handed me water while saying,
“You did well. If you keep this up, your skills will skyrocket.”
“Yes…”
“Shall we do three more times?”
“Ugh, whaaat?”
I choked on my drink when the teacher said that.
“Okay. Back to plank!”
“Oh, Sensei.”
“Hurry up.”
Cancel the notion that I’m not tough.
After finishing the physical exercise disguised as vocal lessons, I stepped out of the vocal room to find Woo-ah Unni waiting for me up ahead.
“Do-hee, all done?”
“Ugh… I thought I was gonna die.”
“Haha, make sure you cool down after the lesson~”
This time, I was feeling the least confident about the rap lesson.
The rap teacher is a guest instructor, and they say he’s a pretty successful rapper. His rap name is ‘Jo,’ which sounds like ‘Jay-oh,’ but his real name is Jo Bong-sik.
A rapper with the name Jo Bong-sik?
Pfft.
I trudged into the vocal room where the rap teacher was.
“Hey, Do-hee, you made it?”
“Yo~ Jo teacher~ I’m back…”
“Do-hee, I told you, no need to go all out like that for rap class.”
“Yes…”
He’s surprisingly polite for a rapper.
“Do-hee, did you come up with any lyrics?”
“Yep. Should I try?”
“Yeah, go for it.”
“I am Do-hee not a boy. My home is filled with gold trophies. I treat you like broken glass.”
“Is that it?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how to write more than that.”
“It’s okay, you did well for a first try. But it’s a bit disappointing that you just stuck to English rhymes.”
“Yeah.”
“Also, Do-hee, I mentioned last time that your nasal voice comes out while rapping, right? It messes with your pronunciation and you can’t bring out the accents.”
“Yes, I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize, just pay more attention.”
“Okay.”
Rap is the hardest…
Finally, all the lessons were over, and it was time to leave.
Woo-ah Unni, who had been jotting down notes beside me, asked,
“Do-hee, what are you doing this Sunday?”
“I need to rest, I’m exhausted.”
“Can’t you hang out with me?”
“I’m too tired.”
“We’ve never hung out just the two of us~ Hmm?”
“We’re basically glued together six days a week, that’s enough…”
“Let’s hang out! We can eat something delicious and go shopping, okay?”
“Should we?”
“Yes! Let’s go, let’s go!”
“No way.”
“Please~”
In the end, after her persistent whining, we agreed to meet up on Sunday.
Ugh, what a hassle.
As I left the building with Unni, I noticed that where Mom’s car usually is, there was nothing.
Ah, where did she go again?
I took out my phone and called Mom.
“Mom, where are you?”
– Mom? I’m at home~ –
“Aren’t you coming to pick me up?”
– Nope~ –
“Is it because of that KakaoTalk I sent? Why are you being so immature?”
– Mom’s heart is as small as her chest~ –
“Come quickly.”
– I saw last time you got here fine on your own. Do-hee is all grown up now. Gotta hang up! –
Ugh.
The call ended.
I called Mom again.
– The customer you’re trying to reach cannot take your call now. Please try again later. –
Ugh.
Woo-ah Unni asked me,
“Your mom can’t come?”
“Nope, she’s not coming.”
“Well, good for me. Let’s take the bus together.”
“Guess that’s what we’ll have to do… Ugh.”