Chapter Text
Prologue
When Chris moved to Korea to become an Idol, he was 13 years old. Just entered puberty, only knew a few Korean sentences, mostly short phrases like “Go and clean up” or “Hurry and come here”. His parents thought him being fluent in English would be more important, he would grow up in Australia, and they wanted him to fit in. He was also the youngest trainee at JYPE, most of the others were like two or more years older than him. So naturally, he struggled a lot in the first months, having to learn Korean, a changing body and learning a new etiquette to interact with the other Idols.
But it got easier after a few months. Three other English-speaking trainees, Mark, Jae and Younghyun, who spoke Korean and English, joined the company and they could learn together. Slowly their Korean got better, and they could interact with the other trainees more. Chris was soon adopted as everybodys maknae and he got dragged everywhere and learned how to survive and strive in Korea. Chris became Chan.
2010
It was Friday afternoon and Jae (18) and Dowoon (15) were bored. They were sitting in the common room with Mark (17), Jun (16) and Younghyun (17). “Let’s do something, anything, I’m really bored” said the Jae. Dowoon grinned and jumped up from the couch. “Yes! Let’s go to a karaoke bar! Young-hyung, Jun-hyung, Mark-hyung, wanna come with us? We can ask our gangsa, (teacher) I’m sure he will allow it.” Mark looked up from his phone. “Sure, why not. I think Jae-hyung should ask, he is the adult here.” He laughed and Jae made a face in his direction but got up at the same time and went searching for the gangsa (teacher) on duty.
He came back a few minutes later with a big smile on his face. “He said yes!” Then he grinned even more. “We just have to take Chan-ah with us.” Everybody besides Dowoon nodded. Dowoon sighed dramatically. “Why? He can be so annoying, and we must take him with us every time.” Mark just started laughing. “Oh Woonie-ah, wanna be the maknae for one day?” Then he got more serious. “Chan-ah isn’t that bad, give him a chance.” He stood up from the couch. “Everybody, get ready, I’ll go with Young-ah to their room and tell Chan-ah that he comes with us. We will meet at the door in 15 minutes.” Everybody agreed, even Dowoon after a stern look from Jae.
Mark knocked at the door from the shared room of Chan and Younghyun. When he didn’t get an answer, Younghyun just opened the door and grinned. “He is probably listening to music on max volume over his headphones.” He was right, Chan was laying on his bed with his headphones on, oblivious to his surroundings. Mark walked to him and body slammed onto the bed with a laugh. Chan was dragged out of his own world by somebody jumping onto him and tried to get away but hit the wall with his shoulder. He quickly took his headphones off and recognized who body slammed him. “Mark-hyung! You scared me!” he said, half shocked. He slipped back to English when he was scared or emotional and the English-speaking trainees were switching languages mid-sentence a lot. “Can you knock next time you wanna talk to me?” Younghyun was laughing on his bed on the other side of the room. Mark just grinned at the youngest. “I did Chan-ah, but your music was way too loud. So, I had to get your attention in another way. I just wanted to tell you that we’re going to a karaoke bar and you’re coming with us. Get ready, we’ll leave in 15 minutes.”
Chan’s face lit up, and he started bouncing on his bed, which almost led to Mark falling off the bed, which led to him start laughing which Chan basically ignored. “Yes, that sounds great. Who is going?” Younghyun answered for Mark who was still laughing hard. “Jae-hyung, Jun-ah, Dowoon-ah, me, you and Mark-ah obviously.” Chan’s face got a bit sceptically. “Dowoon-hyung is fine with me joining? He always seems like he doesn’t like me.” Being the youngest still wasn’t easy, some other trainees always thought he was annoying and clingy. Mark, who had calmed down looked at Chan with a serious face. “He agreed, don’t worry. You aren’t annoying, don’t make yourself smaller than you are.” Mark and Jae were noticing that Chan was overthinking everything constantly and they tried to remind him that he was a part of the group all the time. Chan still had a hard time believing it. Younghyun smiled to the youngest. “Even if somebody thinks that, just ignore it, they clearly don’t know you that well and one day you will prove them all wrong.” Chris smiled to both, thankfully for their encouragement. Deep inside his mind he still questioned it and thought about how to be less annoying.
The karaoke bar was a great experience. Everybody was having fun and singing on the top of his lungs. The three English speaking trainees did at least two English songs and the group sang all together as well. Chan liked thinking of this event and all the other times they went to a karaoke bar, still after many years theses were some of his happiest memories.