After the auditions and ranking, we were taken to a giant locker room. 553 said that it was where the contestants kept their luggage before the start of the recording. Apparently every contestant was required to stay in the show's dorms until the end of the contest to get more content recorded. Before I had transmigrated over, the original owner had already stored his luggage so I had no idea what he had packed.
I looked over at the other trainees and saw that most of them just had a few bags or suite cases. I casually opened mine thinking that mine was going to be no different. Oh how wrong I was. In front of me was two giant suit cases, ones too big to even take when vacationing. It was a struggle to get them out. Both of them were squished in the locker, I had to pull with all my might before finally setting one free. Both of them were super heavy and dragging them was a workout.
Among the large group of chatting and laughing young men, I stuck out like a sore thumb, struggling with dragging the two giant suit cases. The walk to the buses felt like it took ages and the temperature was sweltering. Huffing and puffing, I finally made it to the bus but what lay in front of me was an insurmountable mountain, the stairs. Seriously, didn't this body train like crazy for the past 4 years??? How the heck is it still so weak in terms of endurance?
Suddenly someone took one of the suitcases from me. Turning around, I saw a guy with dyed blond hair. He had sharp features, but his large droopy eyes gave him a lazy air and softened the otherwise aggressive looking face. With a lazy smile he asked, "Need a hand with that?"
"Yes please! Thank you very much!" I gave him a bright smile back. Each carrying one of my giant luggages, we ascended the bus stairs and found a seat near the front.
"You know that we're only going to be in the dorms for 6 months right?" He asked clearly judging my giant suitcases, "And that's only if you make it all the way to the finals."
Him and the majority of trainees were only carrying backpacks, and I myself had no idea why the original Ahn Hwan-Byeol packed so much, so I could only give an awkward laugh.
"Haha… I just like to pack more, you know, just in case," realizing that I never asked for his name, I changed the subject, "Anyway what's your name?"
"I'm Park Seojun."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ahn Hwan-Byeol."
We chatted the rest of the way to the dorms. I found out that he had auditioned way after me and that he was placed into the lilac level like me. Learning more about each other, we became closer.
Finally, the bus arrived at the dorms. It was a brightly colored building with five layers, each layer a color of the pyramid levels except for the lowest level which was a plain white. The second floor, unlike the other floors, was actually painted half red half yellow. Was everything going to be based on our levels?
Just then we heard a loud screech and then an announcement from the building's speakers. It was a cold sounding female voice. "Hello everyone. I know it's getting late so we'll be quick with this announcement. First of all, congratulations for making it through auditions. This dorm will be where all of you will be staying outside of practice and performances." Suddenly some people in the front started cheering and clapping as if on cue. Were they handed a script?
"Second of all, what floor you're on and what type of room you get is based on your rankings. Level turquoise trainees (1-10) each get a room for themselves on the top floor. For level lilacs (11-26) it's two per room on the 4th floor, 3 per room on the 3rd floor for level pinks (27-47), 4 per room for yellows (48-71) on the 2nd floor, and 5 per room for reds (72-96) on the second floor as well. Each room has its own bathroom. Please feel free to pick your own roommates. Good night and we'll see you all again in the morning."
As soon as the announcement turned off, everyone went silent. Those trainees that were cheering before were clearly in a fouler mood due to the unfair room distributions. Oh well, what could you do? Everyone started walking towards the dormitory except the cheerful voices from before turned into hushed whispers and envious glances. Even I couldn't help taking a peek at those in the top ten. It was obvious that this show and rankings were going to be even more cut-throat than I had initially imagined.
Entering the building, the entry room was quite spacious and had sofas lining all of the walls. A the back, there was a hall that had rooms leading to the dining hall, bathrooms, and the gym. There were also two wide staircases on either side of the entry room. We were all curious about how they looked, but we were all more exhausted.
Seojun and I simply decided to room together and headed for the stairs. That was when I realized the big problem. My giant suitcases. Our room was on the 4th floor meaning three flights of stairs to climb. I shared a glance with Seojun who sighed at me in defeat. Step by step we each dragged one. When we first started the climb, most of the pinks, yellows, and reds were trying to find roommates, when we finally reached the 2nd floor, quite a few of them passed by us, either giving us derisive smiles, or showing looks of sympathy.
After what felt like (and quite possibly might've been) an hour, we finally reached the 4th floor, each covered in sweat and panting. We were the last ones to arrive on the floor; thankfully there was an empty room by the staircase. Perhaps it was a kind gesture from those who passed by us.
Too tired to move anymore, I simply abandoned my luggage by the foot of my bed and collapsed on the lilac colored sheets. I was too tired to even check out the room let alone force myself to take a shower. I decided that all these problems were for tomorrow's me to deal with and drifted off the sleep.