You're Beautiful: Chapter 5
JUMP! Karin, JUMP!
“You’ll be fine, don’t worry!! You look great!”
“Yeah those fake muscles look great in place!!”
"I'm really glad you let me cut your hair though, made a HUGE difference..."
"But I mean, it looks great...it will grow back..."
“Urm...” Karin glanced at her moving reflection in the mirror decorated walls, as Nina and Suzuki trotted behind her admiring their masterpiece.
True enough she could pull off her brother today. But it was the days that were coming that scared her. She had tried so hard to convince everyone how ridiculous this idea was and she was bound to get caught. Whatever her brother had trained for the past few years, she was forced to learn in a span of just two days. And she was still making mistakes.
“I can’t pull it off!” she had cried when Suzuki san forced her to practice piano past midnight.
Never had she realized that her brother knew so much, he could sing, dance, rap, play instruments and worst of all, he could do back flips. Karin hadn't managed to even do one over the two days. Now she stood nervously walking down the hallway of Johnny’s Associates, to the group of ‘idols’ waiting for her in a room, or in other words, she was basically walking into her doom.
“I can’t...” she whispered, trembling from head to foot.
“You’ll be fine!!” Nina said reassuringly and grabbed Karin’s right shoulder. However even she bit her lip and turned to Suzuki san for some words of motivation.
“You did great Karin don’t worry” he said.
“Are you insane? I couldn’t learn anything...except 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' on the piano...they’ll see right through me...”
“No no Karin, you know the basics. Just keep practicing real hard! They won’t make you do anything on your very first day!”
“But I...” Karin whimpered still not removing her eyes from the door, beyond which stood impending doom.
“Karin, you can sing! And you look like him! Everyone is really friendly! You’ll get along just fine with Jump...”
“Wha?” Karin mumbled.
“Jump, JUMP! Karin....”
Karin stared at him bewildered, than jumped.
“No no Karin, HEY SAY JUMP! That’s their name!!!” Suzuki san said now grabbing a hold of her left shoulder. Another problem Karin had of course, was that growing under a strict dorm, she had no idea what Idols were nor celebrities or pop songs. Her only singing experience had been in the church choir. And as for dancing, no experience whatsoever, except for a kids play about humpty dumpty (it’s a nursery rhyme) which she had done at the orphanage.
The closer Karin got to the door, the more she felt like throwing up.
“I’m screwed...”
“Karin...” Nina said gently. Karin looked around at her.
“What?”
“Good luck!”
And before she could react, Suzuki and Nina had pushed her into the room, where she stumbled in trying to cover up her trembling as much as she could. She stared around nervously. In the center of the room was a four sofa setting on which sat nine boys, all of whom had looked up as she had made her entrance. She stood shivering as one of them stood up and stared. After a few seconds, in which it seemed like he had taken a deep breath, he smiled widely.
“Inoue Ken san! Welcome to the group! JUMP!”
And Karin jumped.