It had sounded like a great idea at the time. "Oh Saoirse, come to Korea. Be a coordinator. You can style clothes and do hair and make up professionally. You can live with your idols up close, this is like a dream job!"

And it was a flithy lie.

Noone mentioned the dirt pay, the outrageous hours, the whining man-boys and the dull hour long meetings about things that had nothing to really do with my job at all and the illusion shattering reality that your idols were idiots. I felt like smashing my head against the wall as Taemin sat down in front of me, sulking as usual. "Taemin-ah" I forced out, keeping my face neutral "where are your extensions?" Why is it that every time Taemin was in front of me he would conveniently forget his hair extensions.

"Noona." he pouted, frowning up at me "Do I really need them? I am a man, after all" He said that so often it could become his catchphrase. 

I could almost feel a twitch in my eye "Taemin-ah" I said, more forcefully this time. "You have to wear them for performances. No choice. You may as well be a woman for all I care, when you go on stage you have the extensions in. No exceptions." I know I was being mean, but this happened every. single. performance.

He pouted and I knew he was sulking. I hunted out his spare extensions from my bag and put them in quickly, careful not to hurt him. I ruffled his hair cutely after I finished inserting them, smirking when he grumbled under his breath. "Next is make up with Siofra-ya, Taemin-ah." I wondered why I got a sick pleasure from tormenting him, but I brushed the thought away. Everyone got a sick pleasure from teasing the maknae, it was the primary form of amusement at SM Entertainment.

I waved over Minho, and took a mental check of the progress. So far, Onew and Key were done, Jonghyun was doing whatever it was he did, Siofra was applying Taemin's makeup, and Minho was currentlly sat in front of me with the most enragingly smug face waiting for me to do his hair. Sounds about right. I picked up the already hot straightener, and tugged on his hair sharply. I got along with each member to some extent- I considered myself friends with Kibum and Jinki, I loved to tease Taemin, I was friendly with Jonghyun, but the only thing I felt toward Minho was a forced politeness, if even that. He was insufferable. He was a smug, annoying, derpy idiot. 

He was perfectly lovely to Siofra, Helen, and all the other coordinators. He was great with the rest of the band, and the other groups. Everyone had glowing commendations of him. He was even nice to me at the beginning, but for some reason, he suddenly turned nasty, to me in particular. I ought to burn his ear for that, I chuckled darkly as I fixed his fringe. I amused myself by imagining petty revenges against Minho, balancing the straightener on the stand and spraying various parts of his hair. 

I finished fairly quickly after that, 'accidentally' spraying Minho's eye. I smiled sweetly as he glared at me, hand over his eye. What a baby.  I was busy wafting in my sense of superiority when I noticed that Jonghyun hadn't sat in front of my automatically. We had a conveyer belt system going, with Helen sending each member behind a curtain with their outfits, before being sent over to me for hair and finishing touches, and then I would send them over to Siofra to have their makeup applied, usually under the watchful eye of Kibum after he was finished. I made a beeline for Siofra, my palms sweating. What would Manager-ssi say if I lost Jonghyun? Would my pay get docked...

My mind whirled with the possibilities. My pay couldn't be docked. F.cuz were having a comeback next month that I simply couldn't miss. 

"Siofra-ya! Have you seen Jonghyun?" if she hadn't been in the middle of putting on Minho's face, I would have shook her by her shoulders until answers rattled out. As it was, I was sorely tempted.

"Jonghyun-ssi? Didn't he say he was visiting Seunghyun-ssi" I would smack that boy when I got a hold of him. He had a live performance in twenty minutes, why in gods name did he think he could wander into other idol's dressing rooms! "Kamsamnida, Siofra-ya" I smiled before hurrying out the door. I was not going to be known as the girl that made SHINee late for Music Bank. 

I skidded through the halls until I landed upon the seventh circle of hell: Bigbang's dressing room. 

I debated opening the door. Jonghyun would leave eventually, there was no need to go in... I really didn't want to go in. I had gone in once before, at my first Music Bank. I still had the mental scars from the event. Their coordinator was possibly the scariest person I'd ever seen. When SHINee came out with Lucifer, I had a sneaking suspicion they were talking about her. Noone, and I mean noone enjoyed crossing her. 

I counted backwards from five as I waited to knock on the door. You can do it, Saoirse, dragons can be slayed-

I knocked twice, then three times, before barely opening the door and sliding myself in. 

"GODDAMNIT TAEYANG, PUT YOUR DAMN SHIRT BACK ON!" 

I jumped at the volume, frantically feeling behind me for the handle. Abscond, Abscond--

"Oh, hey Saoirse-ah. What are you doing here?" Kwon Jiyong I will kill you and chop you into bite sized pieces to feed to ducks. I glared at the singer, and wished a painful death upon him. All eyes in the room turned to our exchange. 

"Oh, hey Jiyong oppa" I made the best smile I could considering my face was frozen in fear. "I was just looking for Jonghyun ssi, so we could finish getting ready"

My smiled faltered as Emma walked up to me. "So, someone's finally here to pick up their puppy. Here, did EXO finally debut yet?" I never knew someone who could both insult and incite terror into me so strongly before. 

"Ah, Kamsamnida. I see Taeyang's got a new haircut- oh..." Why was my mouth not connected to my brain. I spotted Jonghyun across the room, and grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room before Emma could respond. 

What the hell was I thinking?! I had just insulted bigbang's coordinator. BIG. ING. BANG.

"I need a drink. Scratch that- I need a lot of drinks" I muttered under my breath as I dragged Jonghyun behind me. I felt a headache coming on as I navigated the needlessly complicated hallways to make my way back to the dressing room. The mosyt terrifying encounter of my life had gone by in about three minutes, so there was still twelve minutes left until the boys had to leave for stage. I could get this done in twelve minutes.

I waved Siofra over to do makuep as I did his hair, working intently on spiking his hair perfectly. I sprayed his hair carefully, making sure each spike was in place. Jonghyun's hair was always my favourite to do, along with Kibum's. The two knew what suited them, and didn't complain if I tried something new. I watched Siofra transform him from the corner of my eye. A smudge of eyeliner here, applying powder there. I always liked watching people put on makeup, I just thought it was neat.

We patted eachother on the back when we were finished, and the boys rushed out of the room behind the stage managers. "GOOD LUCK OPPAS~ DON'T MESS UP THIS TIME!" helen called making me blush as the people in the hall turned to stare.

I walked with Alyanna and Siofra through the dressing rooms to backstage, seeing what other groups were there. It seemed like UKISS, Orange Caramel, B1A4, 2PM and Secret were also here. Who did we know from the teams... 

Aislinn was a UKISS coordinator as far as I could remember, and the fanclubs would be here too. So that meant that there would be Aislinn, Helen, Clare... 

I was lost in thought as we walked toward backstage, practically being dragged ahead by Siofra and Helen. There was almost a clique of the more experienced stylists and coordinators, despite company differences and group rivalries... including Emma. I shuddered at the thought of the elite group. Technically we should be in it because SHINee was one of the most popular hallyu groups worldwide, but let's just say we made a bad impression

And I mean bad impression.... 

It's probably best you don't know.

 

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So that's chapter one... it kind of , but I wrote this in twenty minutes in Careers so... 

Don't blame me. c: 

Other characters will be coming in next chapter, this is just an introduction.