Serin refreshed the browser, hoping for a new email to magically  appear.

Specifically an email announcing that she’s been accepted for a job. 

But that didn’t happen and she let out a frustrated groan as she munched on a piece of cracker. 

“So stupid,” she muttered as she slowly realized how impulsively quitting her job at YG Entertainment was a foolish decision. She initially did it because she couldn’t bear seeing the two of them waltzing around that building while she suffered in silence. YG has been Bo Hyun's home for four years and no one had any idea that she was his girlfriend who moved back from the States, just so they could be together.

Just the idea of seeing them together while she worked as one of the production assistants, made her angry. So in the heat of the moment, she submitted a resignation letter effective immediately. Her supervisor wondered about it, but she was insistent. 

And now she’s suffering the consequences.

Serin let the cursor hover over the other tab on her laptop, showing the profile of the person who bought the beanie. User_칠일팔 had no profile picture and all his details are kept private. She clicked on the envelope icon on the upper right, only to see, for the nth time, that her messages were left seen without a reply.

Bo Hyun offered to pay her back for the beanie but she insisted that she wants the beanie back and she’s going to get it back from whoever has it now. She was being petty about it, but who cares. If all else fails she’d have to take Bo Hyun’s offer to pay her back for it though, because she’s broke. 

It’s been two weeks since her last workday in YG and the pressure to find a new job is mounting. She’d have to find a new one soon if she wanted to stay in Korea or risk facing her parents' tirade about her wrong decisions. Serin wanted to prove to them that although not everything worked out as she thought they would, she still made it. 

She was just about to decide on walking around the city to look for temp jobs when her phone rang. It was Jinhwan (whom she fondly calls Nani), one of the YG artists she got to know and become friends with in her relatively short stay in YG. 

“Nani -”

“Noona, how are you? I was wondering if you’re still looking for a job.”

Her eyes grew wide. 

“Yes!”

“My friend was wondering if I know anyone who can teach English and I immediately thought of you.”

**

A week later, she met up with Minho at the SM Cafe. The vibe from the YG building is entirely different. It felt more like a luxury mall rather than an entertainment company building, with its well lit lobby and the aroma of butter cookies wafting into your nostrils as soon as you pushed the doors to the lobby open. 

“Hi, I’m Minho.” 

“Serin. Nice to meet you.”

They shook hands. He had a firm grip, and despite his huge, muscular build Serin didn’t feel intimidated because he had such a kind smile on his face.

“Let’s just wait for a few moments, Taemin is running late.”

Lee Taemin. 

Serin wondered about him. Apart from what she learned from her work in YG in the last five months, she had little knowledge about the kpop industry. Her main job was to arrange and check the instruments and music equipment for shows, and sometimes assist with the promotional materials which had to be printed in english, but she didn’t really care much about kpop or pop music in general. Her father, a frustrated cellist, exposed her to jazz and classical music at the age of three, and her world revolved around that up to her adult life.

However, the quick research she did this morning told her that SHINee is one of the movers and shakers of kpop. Some say they are SM’s answer to YG’s Bigbang. Lee Taemin, SHINee’s maknae, is not just a soloist who branched out from his group but is a complete artist, Korea's musical wunderkind. Reading about him made Serin a little nervous, but she tried to be as calm as possible, making small talk with Minho as they waited. 

“Mianhe, my rehearsal got extended.” 

Serin looked up. She had the impression that Taemin would look small in real life but he was way taller than her, almost 6 ft tall. He had on a baseball cap and a black shirt tucked into denim jeans that made his legs look longer.

He didn’t seem to notice her at once, immediately talking to Minho but that’s understandable. She would look like any of the people here. 

“Taeminie, this is Serin. Serin, this is Taemin.” 

“Hi.” She tried to sound confident but there was something intimidating about this Taemin. 

She also wondered about Minho calling him Taeminie. That sounded cute, but there was nothing cute about the man in front of her. 

“Hello.” He put the envelope over the table. “So this is the Job Description for the position I’m hiring for. It’s straightforward; the qualifications are basic and finding people that fit them is easy, actually. But the thing is, what’s really important to me is discretion. I need to find someone trustworthy. Someone who can keep their mouth shut.” 

Intriguing. 

Why go through all this trouble for an English teacher and translator?

Serin perused the file and asked what exactly she had to do for him. 

“Translating. Writing stuff for me and giving me lessons. I have wanted to be really proficient since last year but my progress has been hampered because I fired the teachers I hired before. Basically because they talk too much and couldn’t mind their own business.” 

She can see him study her face as he is talking. 

“You look like you have questions..” 

She cleared .

”Ermm…just so I have an idea, what kind of translations do I have to make?” 

He smiled but it didn’t feel warm at all. There was a weird tinkle in his eye as well.

 “Most of them are related to work, mostl