“Perfect For The Job”

               The sun is 149.6 million kilometers away from the earth; its light takes loads of time to travel from its core and it takes about eight minutes to reach the earth but sunlight still manages to shine directly at my eyes despite the presence of a thick white blanket covering half of my face. I squint my eyes to try to adjust my vision while in the process of waking up and I see the window to the left of my bed shining like it’s the doorway to heaven. If this is the afterlife, then I want ten minutes more of sleep and some curtains.

               But, even though it’s a weekend today, I still can’t sleep in like I usually would. Unlike before, I have a job that demands most of my time, starting whenever I wake up. It still doesn’t feel real to me—leaving my company to work for SME, for EXO. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that this is all just a dream. I wish it was.

               Suddenly, loud knocks come from my hotel room door, breaking me out of my thoughts. I immediately assume that it might be a SME staff of maybe a member of EXO so I bolt out of my bed. The sudden action sends a ringing pain to my head so I end up stumbling a little towards the door with one hand on my temple.

               I swing the door open only to find a hotel staff with a cart full of food. She smiles at me as she greets me in English, “Good morning, Ms. Harrison. I have your breakfast for today.”

               My eyes go wide as I stare at the cart filled with food, “Breakfast? These aren’t all mine, are they?” Not that I don’t want to eat them all, nor am I saying that I can’t, but I’m just trying to be sure.

               “No, ma’am. I have breakfast for EXO in here, as well,” she explains. “But I’m not allowed to go to their hotel room for security purposes. So my superiors told me that you can bring their food to them.”

               “Oh, is that so?” I say lowly. “Of course, I can bring them their food. Just leave the cart out here while I go fix myself up, okay?”

               The woman nods and thanks me before leaving. I watch her turn to disappear in the hallway before I close the door again. I want to complain but I know I’m in no position to say “no” to whatever my new job asks from me.

               There’s no time to waste, is there? I brisk walk my way to one of my open bags that contains my clothes. I’ve left one open since I changed into some sleepwear last night. I grab a fresh shirt and proceed to replace my current loose tank top with it. I keep my jogging pants, though—I don’t want to dig into my bag to find some other decent pair of pants.

               On my way out, I stop by a large standing mirror to check if I look alright. I run my fingers through my dark brown hair, watching it fall just below the level of my armpit. I wrap a hair tie on my wrist to use later. I then smoothen out my white shirt a little as I stare at my own deep green eyes. It’s funny how my eyes are they only thing distinct about my face while my brother inherited the good-looks of our parents—only difference is that he has dark brown eyes.

               I should probably call him soon, too, to let him know I’m already in Las Vegas. But that’ll have to wait because I need to deliver EXO’s breakfast.

               I rush to leave my hotel room, grab my copy of their hotel room’s key card and take the cart, heading to EXO’s suite. With one swipe, I unlock the door and let myself in, pushing the door open with my back as I pull the cart with me.

               Just as the entirety of the cart was nearly inside, someone startles me by placing both their hands on my shoulder and greeting me, “Well, good morning, noona.”

               I let out a small and controlled gasp as I quickly turn around to find Suho grinning at me, still in his sleepwear. I playfully punch his shoulder as I whine, “Don’t scare me like that! Give a warning next time!”

               Suho just laughs at me before proceeding to take the cart from me, “What’s this, noona? You brought breakfast for us?”

               “I didn’t cook all of that, if that’s what you’re thinking. A hotel staff brought these up to my room and told me I should deliver these because she’s not allowed to go to this room,” I explain to him as I watch him push the cart away, parking it next to a large coffee table in the middle of a few sofas and a television. “And you’re really starting to enjoy calling me ‘noona’, huh?”

               “Well, it is a lot easier to pronounce,” Suho replies, smiling at me. “Also, will you be eating breakfast with us, too?”

               “I think it would be better if I eat breakfast in my own hotel room—”

               “Nonsense! You should stay and eat with us!” I hear a loud voice say as I feel an arm lazily rest on my shoulders. I glance to my side and see Chen yawning and rubbing his eyes, “Hey, noona! What’s on the menu?”

               I laugh at him, “I don’t know, either.” Chen then makes his way to the cart and begins to take plates out and place them on the coffee table with Suho helping out.

               “Whoa, your hair looks better if it’s not tied up,” I hear Baekhyun comment as he approaches me from behind and gently grabs a handful of my hair, combing it. “You should keep your hair like this, noona.”

               “Don’t tell noona what to do, Baek,” Chanyeol says as he walks past me with a smile before dragging Baekhyun by the neck with his arm. I let out a small giggle as I watch this grown man drag his friend, making him struggle to keep up.

               “Did you sleep well, noona?” Lay’s soothing voice asks as I feel an arm snake around my waist from behind. “I would have gone to check up on you last night but Kyungsoo wouldn’t let me.”

               “It was late and she would have already been resting by then,” D.O. says in his defense as he approaches the others around the table, who are now placing the food from the cart onto the table. “And noona isn’t a child, Lay-hyung.”

               “I know, I know,” Lay says, chuckling as he lets go of me to join the others.

               “Ah, noona, you brought us some food!” Xiumin exclaims, almost running towards the cart. “Smells wonderful!”

               I let out a laugh, “I didn’t cook that, you know. It’s all from the hotel.”

               “Doesn’t matter,” Xiumin almost cuts me off. “You brought this to us so that means it’s from you.”

               I laugh again as I was about to join them as well when Sehun suddenly walks up behind me and rests his chin on my shoulder, “Good morning, noona.”

               I get startled by his action but manage to respond, “Good morning, Sehun. Did you sleep well?”

               “Well enough,” he replies as he bends further down to adjust to my height. “Suho-hyung kept hitting my legs while he’s asleep.”

               “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” I comment, laughing before I try to brush my hair away from Sehun’s face, but end up struggling to do so.

               Sehun sees what I’m trying to do so he stands up straight and takes the hair tie from my wrist, “Let me try.” Before I could protest, Sehun gently grabs my hair and wraps it in the most loose hair bun I’ve ever seen. He lets go of my hair, and it dangles by my shoulders.

               “Wow, thanks, Sehun,” I say sarcastically as I laugh at his hair-tying skills before reaching out to redo it. “I should show you how it’s done—”

               “No! Don’t touch it!” Sehun protests, grabbing my hand. “It looks fine. Let’s eat breakfast now, noona, okay?”

               I stare at him as he does the same, making me smile. Is this one of the perks of being the youngest? He gets to do what he wants? If it is then his “hyungs” have really spoiled him.

               Sehun lets go of my hand and joins the others, with me following behind. Just as I’m walking towards them, though, I feel someone bump into my shoulder as he walks past to sit down at the sofa next to D.O.—Kai. He doesn’t apologize, of course, nor even look at me as he takes a seat. He rubs his eyes tiredly and yawns as if as an insult.

               “Well, good morning to you, too, Jongin,” I greet him, slightly irritated, catching the attention of the others.

               “Don’t call me by my real name if you’re not going to respect me,” he replies, still not looking at me. “It’s just ‘Kai’ for you, noona.”

               I scoff at him as I take a seat next to Sehun, crossing my arms, “I’m not calling you ‘oppa’, Jongin. I'm older than you. You can’t even respect me, so why should I?”

               “You're older by about three months. And I call you ‘noona’, don’t I?” he scoffs back at me. “And you started it—!”

               “Enough, okay?” Suho scolds us both, making us stop. “We’re just going to eat breakfast. Can’t we just get along and eat?” He sounds a lot more worried than angry, so neither Kai nor I speak again.

               Chen then steals our attention as we begin to feast on the food in front of us, “So, noona, why don’t you tell us more about yourself? Since we’re going to work together from now on, I think we should know more about you than just your name and face.”

               I’ll be honest and say that I really did wish they didn’t ask. I’m not really bad at introducing myself but I don’t really want to bother telling them anything. Not to be rude, of course; I just don’t think my life is worth explaining to them.

               “Um, okay,” I say as I begin to try to stall. “But I don’t know where to start.”

               “Maybe you can tell us something about your parents? Or a bit of your past?” Xiumin suggests before chomping down on some bread and continuing with a mouthful of it. “You told us before that you’re British-Korean and that you grew up in the US.”

               “Oh, w-well, yeah, I guess I d-did say that,” I say nervously as I gulp. “Well, my full name is Alice Choi-Harrison. My mother, Nari Choi, is Korean but she’s living in the UK now with my father, Louis Harrison, and my younger brother, Connor Choi-Harrison.

               “My brother and I were both raised by them in the US where we both finished college earlier than anyone in our age group at that time. I obviously studied business management while he studied mechanical engineering. After that, we went back to the UK where he and I became the assistant manager and manager, respectively, of our family’s company.”

               D.O. hums before speaking up, “Can you tell us more about your family’s company?”

               “W-Well, it was started by my father’s grandfather. It handles different projects in the UK,” I try to explain as best I can. “And…And it used to be sponsored by SM Entertainment before something went wrong during my father’s management. Basically, we owe SME a lot of money.”

               “Your company has a debt towards SME?” Suho asks, repeating what I had just said. “Sorry to ask this, noona, but why are you here, then?”

               “Well, I was offered a job under SME to repay that debt,” I reply before grabbing some food, finally realizing that I’m actually hungry. “A cousin of mine, Keith Harrison, works under SME and has a pretty high position. So, he managed to come up with a deal for me—I’ll work under SME and I’ll leave the company to him and my brother for now.”

               I see Suho about to speak up when Kai suddenly raises his voice, “So you’re telling us that you’re only here because of a debt? You’re just here to repay it?”

               I look at him shocked but I answer, “Well, yes, but it’s not as easy as you think—”

               I could hear a nearly silent “tsk” from him and, with that, Kai drops his plate on the table quite angrily before proceeding to the bathroom and locking it. What the heck is his problem? He asked and I answered—what was he expecting? What did he want me to do?

               “D-Don’t mind him, noona,” Baekhyun tries to say, comfortingly, “I bet he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

~-~-~-~

               The day went by smoother than I imagined for a Korean pop group. EXO will perform on live television tonight along with other invited groups and artists. I’ve never been to one of these events so I don’t really know what else to say about it. Obviously, they didn’t need help getting ready to leave the hotel so I only had myself to deal with. I decided to wear casual clothes—grey shirt, black cardigan and black skinny jeans since I’ll be staying in the backstage or even in their dressing room for most of the time.

               Though, upon arriving at the venue, I couldn’t help but feel like everyone around EXO is also looking at me. Call me paranoid or big-headed to think so but I’m pretty sure I’m being noticed more than a new staff should be. I don’t tell any member of EXO, of course, because they might say I’m delusional.

               Though, they did drag me into their dressing room instead of leaving me outside to wait for them to prepare for their performance. I shouldn’t complain, of course, because it’s better than staying outside and having others look at me and question why a woman is standing outside, guarding EXO. Though, staying in here is a lot more hectic—I’ve been running around for almost an hour now, at least, fixing up one member before the other. I’ve been scrambling to help someone get ready before doing the same for the others—make-up, hair, clothing, you name it. Yes, they have specific people to do those tasks but I’m still needed to lend a hand—and even lend more hands than I have.

               But, this is my job, after all. This is what I signed up for. Besides, Mr. Tak Youngjun is in this very room, probably fixing a few things but still keeping an eye on me. I guess he wants to see what I have to offer so I need to give him a good impression. I’ll be tired and worn out by the end of the day, yes, but it’s better than losing this job.

               A few more minutes pass and EXO is finally next to perform. Suho then calls the others and gathers them around as I stand just behind Chen and listen to Suho, “Okay guys, we’ve practiced for this so let’s to our best!” They all then give out collective shouts, cheering themselves. It looks cute, to say the least—it shows their teamwork. I guess I’ll see more of these in the future, and I look forward to it.

               EXO then heads out to perform on stage but each of them stops to ask me for good-luck, except Kai, of course. I do so and even praise them for how ready they are as I them out of the room.

               “You’ll finally get a glimpse of what EXO can do,” Sehun says before leaving the room as if he’s boasting for the whole group.

               I pat his back before gently pushing him out because his hyungs are already jogging away, “I'm sure you’ll all do great.”

               I watch them all leave and get ready to show themselves before I prepare to rest on one of the sofas in the dressing room. Before even getting ready to sit, though, Mr. Tak stops me, “Aren’t you going to watch them perform?”

               “I, uh, I will,” I say, slightly lying because I don’t really feel like watching them dance right now. “I just want to take a breather for now.”

               “Once you’re done resting, their performance will be over,” Mr. Tak says before gesturing me out of the room. “Go on, go watch them perform. You need to be there for EXO, you know.”

               If I didn’t know better, I would have groaned loudly out of irritation. My body already feels weak from all the running I did and now I have to stand outside and watch nine boys dance on stage? I cannot begin to express just how much I am against doing so. But, heck, what can I do? I can’t say no to Mr. Tak of all people.

               I make my way out of the room and to an opening at the side of the stage where I can see EXO preparing to start their performance. Though, only Kai is in the middle of the stage while every other member is waiting at the sides. Kai, though, looks confident standing there alone with his head down and probably waiting for his cue.

               Chanyeol, who is still standing pretty near to where I am, looks back and sees me. He flashes me a smile and raises his hands to show a thumbs up. I do the same, supporting them, before he turns again, still grinning.

               Then the music starts, growing as it did. I recognize the intro as their song “Call Me Baby” so I wait to hear Kai’s voice. Though, a couple of seconds already pass but I only hear background hums so I strain myself to look at Kai—he’s already dancing some of his parts and his lips are moving but I still hear nothing from him.

               His microphone isn’t working.

               Baekhyun, Xiumin, Suho and Sehun run towards the stage for their parts but I can still hear nothing from them. Chanyeol turns back at me, panic obvious on his face as he gestures at his mic and his ears. Chen and Yixing are frantically messing with their microphones before it’s their turn to perform. D.O. looks back at me, as well, looking hopeless as he mouths “what’s happening?”. I don’t think any of their microphones are working.

               One by one, EXO’s members begin to appear on stage mute. They’re dancing well but their faces says it all—they are definitely not happy with this. I try to look around my surroundings and see several staff compiling in one area, most of them running.

               I look back at the stage and see them already struggling to give a good performance. I can’t just stand here and watch their performance go downhill! I run towards the crowd of staff members and push my way through them. In the middle of the crowd, I see what must be responsible for the microphones and audio. Those who were sitting in front of it are panicking as to what to do but are not really trying their best to solve it.

               I look around and see a box filled with wires open with a few sockets missing their connections. I push my way towards it, crouching down too take a closer look, causing other people to give me their attention. Upon inspecting, I find an old-looking cable unplugged and seemingly fried. I quickly grab it, which electrocutes me a little. I look around a little more and see a toolbox nearby with electrical tape. I take it the tape and rip some off before grabbing the wire again. I wrap an arguably thick coat of electrical tape on the fried part of it—I get grounded as I do so but it doesn’t matter right now.

               After wrapping it up as fast as I can, I then plug it back several times into several jacks until I suddenly hear EXO members’ voices booming through the speakers nearby and screams from the crowd watching the boys. With a few “hoorays” around me and a few pats on my shoulder, I let out a sigh of relief before returning to where I was standing to watch the remainder of their performance.

~-~-~-~

               EXO’s performance went smoothly after the fix I made until they were able to leave the stage. Suho storms out first, demanding to know what had happened at the beginning before Mr. Tak fills him in with the information I told him. After that, almost every member approached me and thanked me for saving their performance.

               Now, we’re on our way back to the hotel to rest up and prepare for our flight to Toronto tomorrow. In the van, every member are minding their own business or are resting. I’m sitting at the back with Baekhyun by my side and Sehun sleeping on my shoulder.

               “Thanks for fixing that audio problem again, noona,” Suho says as he turns from his seat to look at me. “We were about to stop performing.”

               “It’s my job, Suho,” I say as I flash him a smile. “It’s the least I can do. It’s my job to make sure you guys get what you need and want.”

               “How were you able to fix it, though?” D.O. asks me without turning around. “Was it just a mix up?”

               “No, a wire was unplugged,” I explain, “And it got fried pretty badly.”

               “So, what did you do?” Chen asks me. “Did you replace it?”

               “I patched it up,” I say, almost confidently. “My brother did study mechanical engineering, after all. I picked up some of the things he learned.”

               “That’s pretty awesome! That’s great, noona!” Chanyeol praises me, his ears almost perking up. “How did you do it, though?”

               A smile appears on my face as I raise my hands up with some of my fingertips looking fairly burnt, “With some electrical tape and some patience.”

               “Ah, noona! You burnt your fingers!” says a suddenly awake Sehun as he grabs both of my hands and looks at them. “We need to get you some medical help!”

               I let out a laugh as I reach out to pat his head, “Calm down, Sehun. I just got grounded because the wire was live when I touched it. It’ll be all healed tomorrow.”

               Sehun looks at me, pleadingly before wrapping his arms around my own, “Are you sure, noona?”

               “Yes, I’m sure.”

               “Say, why don’t we stop around some places in Las Vegas before we go back to the hotel?” Baekhyun suddenly suggests. “It’ll be no fun to just leave without enjoying for a while.”

               Almost all of the members agree with him and they proceed to urge me and the driver on to allow it. Suho then speaks up, “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Our manager is expecting us to arrive at our hotel room.”

               “C’mon, hyung, let’s not waste our night!” Chen urges on. “Besides, it’ll be exciting! Right, noona?”

               “I’m sorry but I’m with Suho,” I reply bluntly. “We should get back to the hotel.”

               “I thought it’s your job to give us what we want, noona?” Kai teases, emphasizing the “noona” part. “Are you really going to deprive this opportunity from us?”

               I look around and I see every member looking at me pleadingly. Even Suho doesn’t say a word against it anymore.

               Now, this isn’t fair at all. We’re all expected to arrive at the hotel. Who knows what Mr. Tak will assume had happened to us if we go back late. And our flight it scheduled early tomorrow!

               But, then again, they’ll probably only return here in a year or so. And who could say no to these faces? This might not be the wisest decision but, to hell with it. “Alright, where do you guys want to go tonight?”