“Good day,”

“Good afternoon,”

“The pleasure is all mine,”

“It is an honor to be here sir,”

“Thank you so much for considering my application,”

“I’m fluent in Korean and currently studying Mandarin-” stop it Jieun, you don’t want to brag.

“Yes, sir,” smile Jieun, remember to smile, “it is truly and honor to-”

“Noona, what are you doing?” Jungkook knocks on her door and she jumps from her seat in front of the mirror, she’s holding a brush full of hair and a chapstick used to the last bit of it, she looks like a deer caught in headlights. “Are you...practicing?” Jungkook finally comes to the conclusion and Jieun can see how much he’s forcing himself to keep the laughter in, it infuriates her and she throws her hairbrush at him, it hits him right in the stomach and he doubles over in pain.

“Yes, I’m practicing, this job is serious and we- I- really need it,” she says and goes back to looking herself in the mirror, her hair is smooth after her constant tugging of all the tangles and the conditioner she bought in a hurry just for this interview.

Her lips are plump and pink and her cheeks the perfect rosy color, she looks good for once. Apparently, Jungkook seems thinks so as well because when he looks up from where he was doubled over his mouth falls open a bit and he stares at her, “wow noona, you don’t look ugly,” and the moment breaks as a grin find its place on Jungkook’s face. Jieun stands up from her seat and runs after him, “yah you brat!” she calls after him but he’s faster and runs out the door and into his own room, slamming the door after himself.

She throws a punch at the door and instantly regrets it as her knuckles crack and pain radiates from it, “ah god dammit!” she yells and she swears she hears Jungkook snicker from inside, brat.

She goes back to her room and takes in the site of the dress laid out on her bed, it’s probably one of the prettiest things she's ever owned and she’s so thankful for having Jungkook as her brother, despite him being the biggest brat in the world. She picks up the brush from the floor and drags it through her hair once again, reveling in the way it doesn’t catch onto any tangles and just travels smoothly through her hair. Her eyes have a little bit of eyeshadow defining them and eyeliner to enhance her eyes, it’s not very much but it’s something and she looks pretty and most importantly feels pretty. She’s gonna ace this interview and she’s gonna be the best at her job and nothing is going to stop her from doing so.

The clock on her bedside table reads 11:42 am and the butterflies in her stomach fly wildly at the thought of it only being three hours left until her interview. She pats her stomach in an attempt to calm it a bit and decides that a little bit of food will probably do the trick, all they’ve got are leftover from the past few days but she doesn’t mind, there’s some rice and some chicken and some salad all in containers and she picks out the things that seem appetizing and heats it up. She doesn’t make any for Jungkook because knowing him he’ll probably binge on instant noodles and other unhealthy snacks while he can, but when it comes to school days he’ll just have to settle for his sister’s homemade traditional foods instead of his fried chicken and soda.

She eats in peace and watches the time tick by, when she’s eaten all of her food she puts it in the sink and practically runs into her room in anticipation, it’s probably best if she gets ready now and leaves as soon as possible since they live a bit away from the center of the city and you never know how traffic’s gonna be, despite it being a Sunday many are out. It’s inevitable when there’s a couple of million people crammed into one city.

She takes off her sweatpants and her t-shirt and carefully zips the back of the dress down, it goes without saying that she’s completely in love with it and it shows in the way she carefully puts it on, she drags it up her legs and puts her arms in, it fits perfectly and she’s surprised over how good her brother’s taste is. It’s almost like he had...help from someone.

She has trouble zipping it up in the back when it’s on and she stands in the mirror for a few minutes trying to make it work when a voice interrupts her, Jungkook stands in the doorway, his arms crossed and a small smile on his face as if asking if she needs help. She nods slowly and he comes up behind her and zips it up with ease, she smooths her hands down the sides and instantly a smile grows, this is much better than that brown bag she wore earlier.

“You look beautiful,” Jungkook says with a clap on her shoulder and a wave before leaving the room, it makes her confidence grow. Her brother being the only person she can lean on, his comment makes her really take in her appearance and yes, she does look beautiful. She grabs a bag from her door, it’s simple and black and goes almost unnoticeable, which is exactly what she’s going for when she’s already wearing a statement dress.

She takes one last long look at herself in the mirror and deems herself ready for the world and her interview, she exits her room and knocks quietly on Jungkook’s door, he seems to be talking to someone and doesn’t notice her knocking so she writes a note on the board on his door and leaves. In the hallway, her converse and Jungkook’s sneakers are standing in their place and she gasps in horror as she remembers that she doesn’t have any high heels. She has her converse, a pair of wintry boots and a pair of sandals, so her best option is the converse. Her confidence sinks below zero as she takes in her appearance with the shoes on, her look just went from a solid 9 to a 6.5, if even that. She takes one last look at her feet before shrugging her shoulders and straightening up, she’s not gonna be looking down anyway, so she holds her head high and ignores her footwear. She can get a good job at a pretentious firm without having a pair of sleek shoes right...right?

She grabs her keys and her phone and leaves the apartment. This time there’s no cat outside of her door but there is a basket of cookies and a note that says “eat well,” and it gives her comfort, she picks two of the cookies up, puts them in her bag and places the basket in the hallway for Jungkook to pick up, if he won’t notice her knocking he’ll notice the smell of freshly baked cookies for sure. She hurries down the stairs and out of the building, for once not walking downtown but actually to the central part, to where the buses to the subway runs.

Of course she occasionally ventures outside of the ‘slums’ as the fine folk calls it but it’s not often, most of her jobs are here and only one is a station away, she barely ever goes into the center of Seoul if it isn’t because it’s a special day and they’re celebrating with the greatest chicken you can only find in the rich part of town for surprisingly quite little money.

She hurries over to the station where she feels quite a lot of looks fall upon her, she cowers slightly under all the stares at it is a new feeling for her. She's had people stare at her before, whether it was because she was pretty, ugly, covered in paint, covered in flour, but never because she’s the most dressed up compared to the rest. It’s rare to see someone wearing something too extravagant in this part of town where most of them are workers at cafes, factories or perhaps grocery stores. Not many business people running around.

As she steps onto the bus she sees a lone spot by the window and sits down, there are about 2 stations to her destination and she picks up her phone and decides to take a picture and send it to her friend from school, her friend Yuna lives in Busan with her boyfriend so she rarely gets to see her but they still keep contact through weird photos of their everyday lives and of their crying faces when the second male lead syndrome hits too hard. So she sends a picture of her outfit (making sure to get the shoes in frame) with the caption ‘job interview, wish me luck?’ and gets a reply only seconds later with a shocked face and the caption ‘in those shoes?!’ and Jieun chuckles a bit before sending a quick ‘yes’ back.

The conversation stops there and Jieun’s pretty sure Yuna’s texting about every person she knows about her fashion fail and begging them to send money because ‘please she’s in need of it go fund her’. It wouldn’t be the first time, she did it when Jieun sent her a pic of a cake she made and Yuna called her brother because ‘are you okay? Are you alive? Is the apartment still standing?’, what can she say she’s good at cooking but everyone’s got a weak side and her’s is baking.

She taps her feet in a weird rhythm and hums along as she looks out the window and takes in the scenery, but when the bus suddenly stops she’s thrown out of her stupor as she realizes this is her stop. She quickly grabs her bag and runs off just in time for the doors to close behind her, “that was a close call,” she mumbles to herself and hurries over to the train station straight ahead. The blaring clock on her phone states the time 01:27 pm and she takes a deep breath as she sees that she has a lot of time to make it to her interview. She gets on the first train that arrives, they go to the same place anyway, and takes a seat beside a man dressed impeccably nice and she tries to cover her feet by pushing them under the seat as she sees his sleek and brown shoes in...leather? She never got the materials in school except for like satin and fleece.

They ride past the stations in silence as the train slowly becomes fuller and more people step on and off, as she arrives at her station and goes to stand up so does the man. She quickly steps off and hurries to the escalator, she grabs her phone and checks the time, 02:05 pm, an hour left and she’s a ten-minute walk away from the building. At least I’ll be on time, she thinks and puts her phone back so she doesn’t drain the battery, she needs to be able to call Jungkook if she gets the job...or if she completely fails and needs him to come pick her up.

As soon as she gets out on the streets of Seoul she takes in the sight of the tall buildings and the blinding lights from the windows of thousand upon thousands of shops and cars. It’s a bit overwhelming for her and Jieun has to take a moment to get used to it, the city is so different from where she lives, it’s still Seoul but so divergent.

She catches sight of a sign with an arrow where it reads 종로 and knows that she’s in the right place, now she just needs to find number 147, she looks to her right and left before deciding to walk to her right, she probably looks like a lost little lamb which isn’t so far from the truth but as she walks down the road she notices the number above building entrances gradually getting bigger and she assumes she’s walking the right way. As she passes by the 130th building she comes to a stop as she sees the tallest building yet with the blaring letters of YG on the outside, it’s not in the center of the street but it’s the most obvious building.

She gasps as she takes in the building in all it’s glory, so many floors and offices made out of glass, it is a sight to behold. And she’s not the only one who seems to think the same because she sees a woman dressed impeccably neatly in front of the building staring at the entrance like she’s awaiting god’s order to enter hea