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Chapter 04: Ultimatums

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“Let’s get straight to business, shall we boys?” The authoritative voice broke through the tense atmosphere. The man trained his gaze onto the twelve individuals who stood before him, some donned stiff poker-faced expressions, others could not suppress the looks of pure fear that was etched on her faces while the rest felt somewhere in the middle.

The man ran a hand through his greying locks tiredly, as he silently contemplated his next words. He had been in the entertainment industry long enough to know when he saw true, raw talent. Without a single doubt in his head, he knew that these boys were something special—they all had the whole package, from their undeniable attractive appearances to their gifted singing and dancing abilities.

But for the life of him, he just couldn’t understand how these boys had managed to work though a questionably high amount of co-assistants in the last few months, and somehow pushing them enough for them all to give in their notice of resignation—while others simply left without even saying a single word.

*These boys may be exceptionally talented, but they certainly know how to drive away their assistants with their attitudes*

Momentarily pushing that thought to the back of his mind and focused all of his attention onto the twelve males.  “During the time where you were all formally declared as official members of EXO-K and EXO-M respectively, you have managed to scare off all your personal assistants within a span of a few weeks.”

He interlinked his hands together, as he leaned forward with an expression devoid of any emotion. “Would any of you like to suggest a possible answer for this problem?”

Almost instantaneously, a number of hands aimed directly towards their chosen victim. The male in question squawked in protest as he glared at the other occupiers of the room with unconcealed anger.

Lee Soo Man merely cocked an eyebrow at this as he coolly called out. “Well Xiumin, it seems that there the majority have voted that you were the culprit. Let’s hear what you have to say about it.”

“Y-Yah, just because I played a few harmless pranks doesn’t mean that I’m the only person who is responsible for this!” He spluttered in outrage. “What are you guys doing? We were supposed to share the blame!” He hissed at an inaudible level, but loud enough for his fellow members to hear it.

“But you were the mastermind who was behind it all, Xiumin. It’s only fair that you get full recognition for the deeds that you were so proud of.” A fair skinned male retorted with a neutral underlying tone.

The accused male in question openly glowered at him. “If I recall correctly, you never complained about my pranks. Heck, we all disliked our dopey, incompetent assistants, Baekhyun.”

“We didn’t get involved with your ‘harmless pranks’, because it would only inevitably end up causing an argument.” The brown-haired male retorted as his eyes narrowed in evident annoyance.

“Harmless pranks?” Someone else let out a snort in disbelief. “You call switching her deodorant to deer musk harmless?”

“She was practically suffocating us with that disgusting filth she insisted was ‘expensive’ perfume!” 

“…Xiumin, you made her smell so bad people had to physically step a considerable distance away from her.” The male in question opened his mouth to return a witty retort, when his mind suddenly went blank. After a moment’s worth of silence, he wisely closed his mouth.  

“Or that time when you wore zombie makeup and scared the living daylights of another one of our assistants.”

“But it was Halloween; it’s not a crime to dress up!” He tried to dismiss this with a hasty wave of his hands.

“Dude, you kept running after her screaming ‘IMMA GONNA EAT YOUR BRAINS, YA MOTHERFUC—“ Chanyeol cleared his throat awkwardly, after receiving a warning look from Suho. “It didn’t help either that you had this crazed, bloodthirsty look in your eyes.”

“…I just ate too many sweets, that’s all.” Xiumin mumbled, his resolve slowly chipping away.

“Let’s not forget that time where you put lots of laxatives in her lunch.”

“We all agreed that she was too uptight and needed to lighten up a bit!” He frowned as he folded his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, we agreed on that. We didn’t tell you to put enough in to send her to the hospital!” Collectively, the rest of them rolled their eyes incredulously at the oldest member of EXO—who at this point was showing as much maturity of a young child.

“How was I supposed to know she was going to have an allergic reaction?!” He threw his hands up in frustration, then once realising that he was in the President’s office he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Besides, I did apologise to her!”

Someone guffawed in the background. “You call saying ‘You totally deserved it’ a proper apology?”

“In actual fact, I did apologise to her but she just threw it back in my face!” Xiumin scowled darkly.

“Well, you would probably have done the same if you had nearly died from a serious allergic reaction.” Another voice fired back hotly. The oldest male snapped his head towards him with narrowed eyes as he opened his mouth to bite back a retort.

“Would all of you be quiet for a moment?” All the noise that erupted from some of the members instantly diminished within seconds. They focused all of their attention solely on the tired man sitting at his desk, who simply released a dejected sigh in response.

“As much as I thoroughly enjoy hearing about your countless activities, I must remind all of you that I did not suddenly call upon you out of your hectic schedule to have an idle chat about who is to blame.” Lee Soo Man’s voice strong steady voice easily cut through the office, he pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to push back the impending headache.

“Joesonghabnida, President-nim.” A chorus of voices stated as they all collectively bowed in shame.

“I didn’t want it to come to this, boys. But it seems that you have left me with no other viable alternative.” He stated with regret, his eyes softened slightly as the sight of the boys’ resolves crumbling—each member donned an expression varying from shock to disbelief. But he couldn’t let this matter slip away that easily, not when it was evident that the maturity was drastically low in some cases.

Soo Man massaged his forehead wearily as he took a deep breath before uttering his next words. “If you cannot find a suitable assistant within the next few hours of today then I’m afraid that I’ll be forced to delay your scheduled debut.”

“W-What?” Some were rendered speechless, as they stared at the President in agape. They were unable to fully process what had just been said, as hundreds of thoughts whirled around in their minds—they certainly didn’t work their asses off for the past several months to only have their prescheduled debut on the verge of being postponed. No way in hell.

“The deadline is at the end of the working day. I wish you all the best of luck with finding a new assistant, boys.” With one final stern expression etched on his face, he curtly dismissed the disheartened males.

*This test will show whether or not they are ready for their debut* He mused with a grim look as he loosened his tie of his smart business attire before busying himself with the numerous growing piles of paperwork on his desk with reluctance.

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“Aigo Victoria-ssi, I would actually consider marrying this cake. It’s so yummy.” Min Jin sighed in complete and utter bliss. Just one bite from the chocolate desert was enough for her taste buds to melt in ecstasy.

The woman merely smiled in response, as she quietly busied herself with organizing the various papers that littered the desk. It was roughly past one o’clock, meaning that lunch had finished not long ago as clusters of people started to flood into their small cubicles.

Min Jin, having decided to take full advantage of her extended lunch break—which was given to her by her temporary new supervisor, a lovely albeit feeble woman in her mid-thirties—decided to spend most of it with Victoria and her delicious confections.

*Plus I’ve been hiding from those weird wannabe-idols in this small cramped office for the past hour. Hm, they should all be back in the dance studio by now…* She chewed thoughtfully as she stole a sideways glance at the stressed-out blonde woman sitting beside her.

“Aish, why is it that I cannot find things when I need them!” She muttered under her breath with a sigh, a frown etched on her pretty features.

Min Jin paused in mid-chew as guilt started to gnaw feverishly at her subconscious. *Here I am relaxing while poor Victoria is up to her neck in work…literally* She inwardly winced at the amount of fluorescent sticky notes that were scattered all around her little compartment like little bothersome reminders.

Some had red circles around certain dates on them indicating that they were considered to be urgent; others were obscured by the intimidating sight of the growing piles of paperwork that littered her desk. Min Jin didn’t attempt to hide her scowl as she read some of the messages scribbled onto the notes, which contained memos from her fellow co-workers reminding her to complete their assisted tasks for them.

*Honestly, are these people really that incompetent that they cannot even photocopy their own work?*  She clicked her tongue in disapproval as she aimed a glare at one brainless worker who attempted to hand over his work over to the weary form that was Victoria. Taking a more –forced—sensible option, he his heel back towards his own work area.

Despite the improvement in terms of boosting the blonde woman’s confidence, the problem of her co-workers loading off their work still seemed to remain, Min Jin noted with evident annoyance.

“Yah Victoria-ssi, I’ll go collect the photocopies for you.” Min Jin coolly stated, as she moved to stand up. The woman in question’s head instantly snapped up as she began to weakly protest, but with one simply look from the chestnut-haired girl she diverted her attention to her folded hands in her lap.

“Now, I’ll only be gone for about ten minutes. If anybody bothers you, you either tell them to nicely go away or you tell me, arraso?” With that said, a bright smile directed towards the startled woman who meekly returned the gesture, as a noticeable blush crossed the bridge of her nose. Shortly afterwards, the girl snapped her attention towards the other occupiers of the room with a glowering look.

Almost instantaneously, all the heads that lifted up in idle interest lowered down in fear of facing the undeniable wrath of the ‘male’. Min Jin felt a corner of her lips curl up in satisfaction, as she swiftly tore off all of the colourful sticky notes that had jobs specifically allocated for picking up various photocopies of goodness-knows-what. *With the amount of paperwork I see everyday, it’s almost like there are hundreds of meetings being held every hour*

With a suppressed shudder, Min Jin departed from the room after shooting one more reproachful glance at anyone who dared to bother Victoria—who by this point, her face highly resembled a beetroot as she watched the ‘male’ leave with a small, grateful smile.

The trek to the resources room was relatively short, considering it was conveniently situated on the same floor and it only took a few turns down several hallways to find. Min Jin was more than happy to say that after spending nearly three weeks working at S.M, she was starting to get used to the many, many rooms in the building. Sure, she still sometimes found herself getting lost every now and again, but it did help to familiarize and be able to distinguish the numerous floors of the building.

*Omo, I wonder how long Victoria put up with all this crap? There’s so much paper here* The girl felt her heart go out to the girl, as sympathy practically rolled off her body in waves which eventually melted into blatant annoyance. Although at her previous job, where her co-workers didn’t exactly treat her with respect—at least she could say that they didn’t try to shove their work onto her. *Suddenly, making coffee and moving paperwork doesn’t seem like a pretty bad job after all*

She released a weary sigh as she adjusted the bearable weight under her hands. Unlike the other heavy paperwork that she was accustomed on carrying during the past few weeks, it turned out that the photocopying was only a few advertising posters for present S.M groups, amongst all the heavily annotated scribbles here and there she could just be able to make out a few faces that were profoundly displayed in the lobby.

*Shouldn’t there be any EXO posters? Aren’t they supposed to debuting soon?* Bemused, Min Jin’s eyebrows furrowed together in thought. Having been so busy trying to absorb all kinds of information that was constantly being thrown in her direction whilst numerous failed attempts were made trying to find her way through the maze-like hallways, she seemed to have terrible timing whenever it came to catching a glimpse of any posters of the ‘sensational’ upcoming boy group that was to be EXO.

*Though, if I heard correctly in the resource room…the majority of EXO attire and merchandise are supposed to be in the preparation room* She released a weary sigh as she walked towards the metal doors that would inevitably lead her to the incompetent lazy people that couldn’t be bothered to get off their own arses to pick up some photocopies.   

“Wah, Kris oppa’s not here either!”

Min Jin froze for a second as she turned her head from side to side, straining her ears to hear the distressed whine that emitted from down the hall. Quickly taking a glance to the heap of posters in her hand towards the direction where she heard the voice, she inwardly debated in her mind whether to assist this person—may she be a rabid fan girl or a harmless girl was questionable—yet a small part of her wanted to check whether the girl was okay.

Making her mind up, the bespectacled girl casted an apologetic look towards the door as if this simple gesture could be seen by Victoria before hurrying towards the incessant whining that by the sound of it threatened to become hysterical crying any given moment. 

*Please let it be just a normal girl and not a crazy fan girl!* Min Jin repeated the mantra for the nth time as she has eventually reached the end of the hallway, where the elevator was situated. Tentatively, she peeked around the corner as she quickly surveyed the hallway for any sight of the girl.

Subconsciously, she nibbled on her lower lip in confusion. Did she just imagine hearing that child-like voice? *It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard voices in my head* She mused as she scratched the nape of her neck. After taking one last look around to reassure herself that she was probably just hallucinating voices, she spun on her heel back towards the direction where Victoria’s office was.

“Oh finally an actual person! I was starting to wonder if people were avoiding me or something~”

Right before her very own eyes was a little girl; Min Jin estimated that she couldn’t have been older than six years old with her black doll-like curls that framed her chubby face and wide curious eyes that seemed to penetrate your very soul. *So I haven’t completely lost my mind or sanity yet…This is good*

“Is there something I can help you with, miss?” After a somewhat awkward bow, she shot a small smile at the child who was clutching the furry hand of a bright yellow teddy bear in one hand, while the other was placed on her chin in a thoughtful manner as she openly scrutinized the ‘male’ standing in front of her.

“You seem like a nice person, could you help me find someone?” The little girl tilted her head to the side with a heart-warming smile. Min Jin blinked owlishly for a moment, before nodding with slight hesitance. “I’ll try my best to assist you, miss.”

The ebony-haired child clapped her hands together in evident excitement. “Great! Now, I’m sure you must have heard about my future husband Kris oppa right?”

Given that Min Jin was currently blank-faced, the girl puffed her cheeks out in displeasure. “How is it possible that you have not seen the most handsome and charismatic person on the planet?!” She flapped her petite arms about in outrage.

The bespectacled girl nervously let out a chuckle. “I-I guess I don’t really know most of the idols here. I just work as a trainee assistant, so I don’t really interact with anyone remotely famous.”

The child didn’t seem satisfied with this answer as she pointed directly at the sheepish girl. “Aish, what kind of person doesn’t know any of the idols here? Are you some sort of weird hermit person?”

“H-Hermit?” Min Jin repeated slowly, bewilderment coating her words. *Is this girl for real?* She stared at the young child with a frown etched on her features, when she was her age the last thing on her mind was who the current K-pop groups were. The brown-haired girl was far more interested in watching the news to see what exactly was happening in the world—information that actually meant something—that had a significance which the majority of the population knew about.

“Whatever, it seems that you would only be a hindrance in my search for Kris oppa. Later hermit~” The child lifted her free hand to salute her, her interest in Min Jin was fleeting quickly by the second as she started for the elevator.

She couldn’t understand why but curiosity had started to build up at the pit of her stomach as she stared at the retreating figure of the girl. But before she could comprehend what she was doing to deliberate her next words, she spoke. “What’s so good about Kris oppa?”

It was almost as if her words were considered to be blasphemy as the child instantly whipped around with shock etching from every pore of her body. “W-What did you just say, hermit?”

Min Jin arched an eyebrow defiantly. “I said what’s so good about Kris oppa? I mean you’ve already said he’s supposed to be the most handsome man on the planet but you shouldn’t like him just for looks, you know.” After taking a moment to pause in thought, she digressed. “He may seem perfect on the outside, but do you really know what his true personality is like?”

The child openly glowered at her. “You can’t say that about my precious Kris oppa! He’s much, much nicer than you are!”

In an attempt to suppress her guffaw, the brunette brushed it off as a scoff. “And how would you know that, hm? You’ve only spoken to me for about five minutes? What’s the longest conversation you’ve had with this Kris?”

Complete silenced eluded into the tense air as Min Jin observed the changes of emotions that flickered on the girl’s face who seemed to struggle with a comeback. The older ‘male’ simply sighed as she folded her arms over her chest.

“Look, I’m not disputing the fact that your Kris oppa isn’t the most wonderful person on this planet, okay?” The child lifted her calculating eyes to meet with hers. “All I’m saying is that if you really like him as much as you say you do, then maybe you should take the time to get to know him a little better, hm?”

Min Jin brushed a stray stand of hair behind her ear nervously, as the child simply turned her head to the side so that her half of her face was hidden by a curtain of ebony locks. She her dry lips as she took a hesitant approach.

“I’m sorry, miss. It wasn’t any of my business and I must have overstepped the line.” She spoke slowly, as if afraid that her words would set the girl off. The expected reactions included either bursting into tears or screaming bloody murder in anger.

Preferably, Min Jin didn’t really like the two plausible results—so she just decided to wing it with extra caution.

She cleared . “I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of these issues before you get too caught up in it, if you become emotionally involved—it could most likely have a messy ending. It’s probably better if you stick with teddy bears than boys…it’s a lot less headwork, trust me on that.” Awkwardly, she let out a laugh in an attempt to lighten up the apprehensive atmosphere surrounding the pair.

The child glanced at her with widened honey brown eyes, her lips pursed together in thought. “I don’t understand, aren’t you basically criticizing yourself then?”

In an instant, the brunette managed to resist the urge to face-palm her forehead. *Aish, how could I be so careless?! She’ll probably think I’m more eccentric now than before!* Inwardly chiding herself for her lack of paying attention to the situation, she quickly came up with an excuse.

“W-Well, it’s kind of complicated to explain. See, I don’t really have much experience when it comes to love…or infatuation which is what I think is the current phase you are going through at this point.” Min Jin carefully watched the girl’s face contort into mixed emotions. For a moment, the brown-haired girl thought she was off the hook when the pig-tailed girl shot a menacing glare at her.

“Infatuation? Are you saying that my love for Kris oppa is not one 100% real?”

*GAH. It seems no matter what I say to this kid, she thinks that I’m trying to insult her precious ‘Kris oppa’* The bespectacled girl blanched as she idly paid attention to the ranting and raving child about how much she ‘loves’ Kris.

After taking one glance at the neglected photocopies in her hand, she decided to not waste any more time conversing with this child—who simply refused to listen to reason. So, she crouched down beside the child with a blank-faced expression etched on her face as she mustered up all the patience she had left in her body.

“Like I said before, I’m not refuting the idea that Kris could one day be your ideal match.” *Yeah, in some strange non-existent universe perhaps* “But all I’m saying is that maybe you should take a moment to think clearly before making any rash decisions. I’m not saying this because you’re young but because you shouldn’t rush the process of growing up. I myself am quite inexperienced with matters involving love. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that love is such a complex matter to understand…” She trailed off, an uncomfortable suffocating silenced quickly followed afterwards.

The child simply raised an eyebrow at the flustered Min Jin, who struggled to find the right words. *Aigo, the awkwardness is starting to spread!*

“I guess that’s all I have to say on that. Mianhae for rambling,” She bowed her head in embarrassment, feeling her cheeks burning up. “I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide to do.” She allowed a small smile to grace her features before swiftly turning on her heel towards the direction of the office, fully intent on leaving behind the unnecessary awkwardness.

“Hang on a minute, hermit.” The newly dubbed girl halted in her strides to glance briefly over her shoulder only to see the girl skipping towards her with a bright smile plastered on her face. “After spending some time talking to you, I don’t think you’re all that bad. Maybe a tad on the kooky side, but we can always work on that~”

Min Jin felt her eye twitch in annoyance. *This is coming from the girl who would rather spend her time being delusional about her future ‘husband’, yeah right okay*

“As much as I would love to spend time with you looking for Kris oppa,” She successfully managed to suppress the urge not to puke whilst speaking, feigned sadness coating her words. “I’ve put off my work for some time now and it wouldn’t be fair on the other people who are busy busting a gut to ungrateful lazy people.” *Like poor Victoria-ssi*     

The child didn’t seem disheartened by this minor fact as she simply clicked her fingers in a snappish manner. In a matter of seconds, Min Jin felt the paper being plucked out of her hands.

“Deliver these to where they are needed.” She stated curtly to the employee, who merely complied with the order without even uttering a single word of compliant.

*…What in the world just happened?* The brunette stared in agape at the poker-faced girl. Once the male had retreated into the office, her expression did a complete 180 turn as she beamed broadly at her. “Now that’s dealt with, you can help me find Kris oppa~”

“Don’t just stand there with your mouth open like that, you might let out some of your weirdness. For all you know, it could be contagious and if that’s the case then I don’t want to catch it!” *God, give me strength to bear with this irritating burden* Gritting her teeth, she forced out a smile that turned out more of a grimace.

“Oh, I’ve only just realised I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Lee Soo Young pleased to meet you, hermit~”

“It’s Choi Min Kyung, not hermit. Didn’t you know that you’re supposed to be respectful towards your elders, Soo Young?” The bespectacled girl folded her arms over her chest with an unimpressed look. The girl in question simply rolled on the back of her heels as she tilted her head to the side with an unreadable glint in her eyes.

“Let’s just say there’s a few things that you don’t know about me, hermit.” With a wink, she skipped towards the elevator leaving a confused girl in her wake. Min Jin shook her head in disbelief. Nevertheless, she followed the perky girl with unveiled reluctance.

“We’d better get started, let’s quite a few floors that I haven’t covered yet~” The brunette felt her shoulders deflate in defeat as she trudged her way into the elevator, she could already see her energy quickly floating away at the amount of floor buttons the child had pressed.

*Aish, ever since I started working here I’ve met too many troublesome people* Min Jin inwardly sighed, as the girl’s eager chattering easily passed through one ear and out through the other without even a tinge of guilt.

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♫ A U T H O R' S C O R N E R ♫                                                                                                                         

Originally, I had planned for Min Jin to meet EXO at the end of this chapter...But I think this was a better way to end the chapter.

SORRY for the lack of Min Jin/EXO interactions. Don't you guys worry though, there's going to be lots of interactions in the next chapter! WOOT WOOT~

As if you guys can't already guess what's going to happen in the next chapter...Because the hints weren't very subtle *cough* in the beginning *cough*

Doesn't Xiumin look utterly adorable? :3 Is it just me that can imagine him being a prankster? *Most probably, yeah*

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you readers to sticking with me so far, just seeing those subscriber alerts, views and comments makes me feel all warm inside <3

You guys are the best seriously.

*See, I even underlined it. Just purely for emphasis, of course*

                                                                                                                         ♫ C O M M E N T  R E P L I E S ♫

*I've decided to do this here, so if any of you have any queries you want to ask then feel free to drop it in the comment box :D*

kima_siksin: Yes! Yes it was :D I wish I could have seen them *pouts*

All of your guesses were correct! Ah, her saviour's name isn't a secret -It was Kris :) Haha, I know! But for the purpose of this fiction, Min Jin is kinda slow with these things :P

xLadySakurax: :D I'm very, very glad you're liking it so far~

I'm sorry this update is kind of late, I'll try my best to get the next chapter posted soon! :3

P.S UPDATE YOUR STORIES TOO!! I NEEDS ME SOME UPDATES, WOMAN.