After several hours of a very thorough health check, Yibo had to be weighed and was then given a diet plan. Although he was in good physical condition and his weight was only minimally increased, he still needed a better balanced diet, as the health check revealed.

Yibo spent most of his first official day as a student at the Keno Academy in the state-of-the-art infirmary for his health check. Afterwards, he and the other 19 students had only two hours left in which they met their new teachers and coaches in a sort of formal ceremony, and also learned what was planned of them for the coming year.

In the evening, he and Seungyoun then spent the evening with the other students in the community center, where they also met the older students and got good tips from them in dealing with one or the other difficult teacher or trainer. Yibo and Seungyoun talked the most with an older student from South Korea, whom they both know from many competitions. However, they were never his opponents in a competition.

While Seungyoun made his first attempts to get to know and befriend Kim Wooseok during the evening, Yibo had a hard time keeping the Italian Alessia away from him. Again and again she approached him and tried to engage him in a conversation. She raved about the performances she had seen from Yibo and about his various talents. As much as Yibo liked to receive recognition and praise for his talents, he found it uncomfortable with her.

Then, when Alessia kept touching his arm "accidentally" while she was trying to flatter him, he finally got fed up and said, "I'm going to see where Seungyoun is. We should slowly get back to the dorm. The lock-up time will start soon."

"We still have an hour." Replied Alessia, holding Yibo by the forearm. She tried to pull him back to his chair, but Yibo shook off her hand and shook his head.

Yibo was about to tell her to go to hell and leave him alone, but someone forestalled him. "I guess you don't see that touching him makes him uncomfortable, do you?" Said one of the other students. This student was also new and Yibo knew his name was Xiao Cheng.

"Thanks. But I..." Began Yibo.

"You're welcome." Xiao Cheng interrupted him with a grin. He looked at Alessia one more time, then turned to Yibo and said, "Your roommate has already gone back to the dorm. Someone tripped earlier and accidentally spilled his water. It landed on Seungyoun's back."

"Oh, I see. Then I'll go as well." Replied Yibo.

"I'll go with you. After all, we have the same way." Said Alessia, who seemed to be completely ignoring Xiao Cheng. For she got up from her chair and raked in Yibo's arm.

"What are you doing?" He asked her, confused.

"Well, we're friends now. And friends do things like that." She replied with a grin.

Yibo pulled his arm out of her grip and said, "Where you come from, maybe that's normal. But not here. I don't want that. If you want to go back with me, okay. But keep your distance!"

"Then I'll come too." Interfered Xiao Cheng again and also immediately put himself between Yibo and Alessia. Yibo already liked Cheng, while he likewise already knows that he will never like Alessia. He just doesn't like pushy people and he likes it even less when he is touched by others.

On the short walk back to the dormitory, Cheng told, "My brother is also in an art academy. He wanted to go here too, but had no luck in the Keno lottery. Now he's at Paradise Academy and will be here in 8 weeks."

"Who is your brother?" Alessia asked.

"Xiao Zhan. Actually, he is not my real brother. My parents adopted him back then. But to me, he is still my brother." Explained Cheng.

"And what is his talent?" She asked.

"He is a singer with the voice of an angel. And he can dance, too. Though there's still a lot of room for improvement there."

"Well, I've never heard of him. Do you know him Yibo?" She wanted to know.

"No. The name doesn't ring a bell. But it doesn't mean anything. Every year there are quite a few contests and not all of them are reported on, or very little." Replied Yibo.

"Well, I'm just saying, when you hear my handsome brother sing, you'll understand why he would have fit in here." Said Cheng, opening the dorm door.

"He might fit in here, but he didn't make it. And I doubt he'll make it to great success. Nobody knows the Paradise Academy, after all. How will he be discovered there?" Asked Alessia.

"Are you always this mean? Besides, it was said yesterday that the students from there are here every 8 weeks and everything we do with them is broadcast live on TV. So Paradise Academy won't be unknown for long. And the same goes for the students there." Said Yibo angrily. He just can't stand that arrogant bitch.

Yibo hurried up the stairs to the fourth floor. Alessia couldn't keep up and Cheng was completely out of breath when they reached the top. "Thank you for your assistance just now." Cheng said, gasping heavily for breath.

"Mn. No problem. You should work on your fitness and stamina. If the stairs are already killing you like this, how are you going to keep up the hard training?" Yibo replied.

"I know, I've already been told that today. I need to diet and do more endurance training. Well then, nice talking to you. I'm leaving now. Good night, see you tomorrow." Said Cheng, waving to Yibo and hurrying to his room.

Yibo went to his room where Seungyoun was already showered in his bed talking on the phone with his family. Not wanting to disturb him, Yibo took his shower materials and went to take a shower first. He ran into Cheng again, who was already singing in one of the shower stalls. Since Yibo knew the song, he joined in and the two sang together. Laughing afterwards, he said, "I didn't expect anyone else to like that song."

"I heard it in the waiting room this morning. Since then, I can't get it out of my head." Replied Cheng also laughing.

The two finished showering and finally each went to their rooms. Seungyoun finished talking on the phone and happily told Yibo about his conversation with Wooseok and the similarities the two had. Yibo was happy for him, then told him about Alessia and Cheng, explaining that he can't stand Alessia. Seungyoun agreed with him and said he also realized what a fake snake she was.

The next morning and in groups of four, the students stood in the large training room watching the instructor and his two assistants demonstrate a dance they must learn within the next few days. Many complicated steps and turns later, the coach said, "You must master this dance within 7 days. And this is one of the easier dances you will learn here. If you can't manage this dance, you won't be able to manage the following ones either, and you'll be useless in my class."

"Why do we all have to be here? Not all of us are dancers." Complained one of the students.

"Because we hope we can get more out of you." Explained the coach and then waved off when someone else wanted to ask a question. Then the coach looked at each student and asked Yibo to step forward. "I heard you can learn new dances very quickly. How fast is fast for you?"

"Well, I only need to see some dances once and I can copy them." Replied Yibo.

"Okay. Then show us if you can do this dance yet, too. Or at least some of it." The coach challenged him.

Yibo nodded. One of the two assistants started the music and Yibo concentrated completely on the sound of the music. In his mind he saw the steps and turns and performed them. Although he couldn't remember everything and in detail, he could already do half of them and thus amazed not only the other students but also the coach, who clapped and said, "Oh yes, that's fast. Very nice."

But Yibo wasn't the only one with this quick grasp. Cheng also stepped up and did his best. And just like Yibo, he was able to perform at least half of the dance and also received praise from the coach.

Third, Seungyoun stepped forward and showed why he also belongs to the Keno Academy. And Seungyoun was even better than Yibo and Cheng. For he was able to perform almost the entire dance and didn't even look awkward in the steps he didn't remember. Instead, he continued fluidly, giving the impression that this was the dance he had just been shown. Yibo was really impressed and understood that he would have to try harder in the future if he didn't want to end up behind Seungyoun.

After two hours, they went to ballet class, where it was made clear that they would learn to move more fluidly. "It's good for you and your movements to learn some expressive dances." Said the trainer. The trainer, a former famous ballet dancer, was especially enthusiastic about Alessia and said she had already thought of a freestyle for Alessia to dance while the others would accompany her. Yibo was not at all pleased, as were some of the other students.

Next came singing lessons, then instrument lessons and acting lessons. After that, there was the first lecture and normal classes like any normal student has. But that was not the end of the day, because the students could then go to the training rooms and train on their own. Yibo and Seungyoun shared a training session to work together on the dance they learned in the morning.

In the evening, the two were so tired from all their training that they hardly felt like going to the community center to spend time with the other students. Nevertheless, they went and Seungyoun noted excitedly that Wooseok had apparently been waiting for him. Albeit for a different reason than Seungyoun had hoped. For Wooseok asked the handsome Youn to show him the dance again and help him with the steps. But to get closer to his crush, he was willing to help him.

Yibo was immediately drawn back to Cheng, who was sitting tiredly on the sofa, watching the activity around him. Almost all the students, no matter what year, were talking about their training or practicing together. Only the students from the final year were not there, because they were training in the dormitory in the training rooms.

"Can you believe it? They still have energy and that's after the long day." Cheng said as Yibo sat down next to him.

"Well, they have more stamina than you." Replied Yibo with a grin.

"Haha, very funny. But let's get serious now. What do you think about us dancing in tights like ballerina's soon?"

"I don't know. I'm not really into it."

"Me neither. My brother laughed when I told him about it and said their day was just like ours."

"Oh yeah?"

"Mn. Our academies seem to have coordinated on that."

"Well, that would make sense. After all, Paradise Academy is the little sister of our Keno Academy."

"Mn. My brother thought so too. I'm a little envious of him, too, though. We have all these old buildings here and they're in new buildings. Everything in high modern standard."

"Well, the buildings here are old, but they keep them in good condition. Everything here is modern, too."

"Sure. But my brother sent me pictures of the dorm and academy, the training rooms and all. Believe me, they're better off than we are." Said Cheng and showed Yibo the pictures.

For a brief moment as Yibo looked at the pictures, his heart did something strange. It jumped like crazy in his chest when he saw a picture of Cheng's brother Zhan. The latter was standing in front of a mirror in a training room, smiling as the looked into the mirror.

Confused, Yibo touched his chest while looking at the picture. Cheng grinned and said, "I told you they have it better than us." Yibo said nothing to that and only wondered about his own heart that was still jumping excitedly in his chest.

Even later, when Yibo was long since in his bed, he wondered why his heart was so out of control when he saw the picture of Xiao Zhan. And why did his belly tingle now, too, when he thought that Xiao Zhan would be coming to the Keno Academy in just a few weeks and that they would be training together?