english translation of hanbin talking about belift’s trainee system when he trained there 🐈 before the program (iland) came out, the trainees weren’t allowed to meet up with one other. we were only allowed to pass by one another, greet each other at the corridors and that was it. we weren’t allowed to befriend each other. anyone who became friends with one another would… bye bye~ go home. 👤 so you weren’t allowed to befriend anyone? 🐈 i wasn’t. we basically had to conceal our names, ages and which company we were a part of. when i went out, people would be like ‘he seems like a trainee right?’ and i would say ‘no i’m a university student, a student studying abroad.’ when i went out i would introduce myself like that. 👤 you must’ve been really lonely then? 🐈 well that was the hardest period of my life. 👤 so you would go to classes, go home and deal with everything alone. 🐈 people would also say ‘oh this person seems to be a dancer,’ and i would respond with ‘i like dancing but i’m just a university student.’ 🐈 something even crazier was that the house we stayed at was like a homestay. we stayed with a korean family who didn’t know who we were and i wasn’t even allowed to tell them that i was a trainee. but i do think that the company had already created a cover up that i was a son of xyz and i was here as an international student. 👤 like a spy. 🐈 i was basically one! there were a lot of cases where the trainees couldn’t keep their secret and they would tell their host family that they were a trainee. those trainees would have to move homes. once the company finds out that their secret has been revealed, they will move the trainees to another host family. 👤 why do you think the company hid the trainees’ identities like that? i personally think that they wanted the trainees to focus. 🐈 to focus yes, and also when no one knows who the trainees are, they won’t tell other people about their past, like ‘oh this guy used to stay with us and he did this and that!’ 👤 you didn’t interact or take pictures with the host families during that time? 🐈 well during that time period, i could only secretly take photos/take candid pictures. i really cared for my host family, and when i return home i would go ‘mom~ dad~ i’m home!’ and my host parents would cook for me as if i was actually a student temporarily staying abroad. i had a lot of affection for everyone - we would eat together and go out to take pictures together. when i was about to appear on the program, i told my host family that i was actually a trainee the entire time and they understood my situation. they cheered me on and told me that they will watch the program to support me. that period felt so long to the point where i can’t even believe that i had been through something like that.