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To Yuna, Soojin, and Haeun— fighting! And stop stealing my sister's hoodies. Do you have a friend in the trainee system? Or are you dreaming of becoming one? Drop your questions below—I’ll ask the girls for their honest answers.
The scariest part? The . Most agencies pay for housing, food, and training—but the trainee pays it back out of their first earnings. My sister’s friends already owe roughly $40,000 each. They joke about it, but you can see the terror in their eyes when they talk about "what if I don't debut?" 4. How They Treat "Civilians" (Like My Sister) You might think idols-in-training look down on normal people. It’s the opposite. my sisters idol trainee friends
They have inside jokes about farts. They have a group chat named "Flop Era." They steal each other’s concealer. To Yuna, Soojin, and Haeun— fighting
Because my sister is not a trainee, she is their escape hatch to reality. They love her because she doesn't care if their high kick is 5 degrees off. Or are you dreaming of becoming one
We all know the glamorous side of K-pop (or J-pop/CPop). The music shows, the fan chants, the flawless Instagram posts. But what happens before the debut stage? For the past two years, I’ve had a backstage pass to a world most fans only dream of—not through a documentary, but through my little sister’s friendship circle.
But here’s the sweet part: When they come to my sister’s dorm on their one day off a month? They demolish fried chicken and tteokbokki. The "idol diet" is a costume they wear for the agency; the real girls just want pizza. Being a trainee friend means being a therapist without a license.
Here is the honest, unfiltered reality of what your favorite idols are like before the lip gloss and the lightsticks. The first thing I learned? These girls don’t feel like students . They feel like exhausted entrepreneurs.