RULE # 1: NO OFFICE ROMANCE
Breaking Rules STORY BY KENZO
View from the fifth floor
She stood up slowly from bed... watching the last rays of the now orange sun disappear little by little.
“Kya!” she spoke to the wind blowing through her fifth floor window “Anyeong Hae!”
Night was engulfing the city but she had just woken up. As the office crowd trudged towards the streets and blaring car horns filled her tiny apartment, Dara thought that her “day” was just about to start.
She directed herself towards the mirror and made funny faces. “Good morning! Dara fighting!” she told herself and squeezed her cheeks to form a smile.
Life was hard but she shouldn’t look gloomy. As Chaerin-ah always told her, “We’re the baddest females in Korea! We’re always fierce!”
And so she was... as long as her friends were with her.
And as long as she was able to watch him sing... ah... him. She looked dreamily into the orange sky gradually turning into purple.
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I see you despite all these blinding lights
Ji knew her schedule by heart. At 7:00 PM, he looked up the door to find her walk-in.
“Anyeong” she greeted to everyone, bowing to him without making eye contact, bowing politely to Manager Teddy and scooting over to her friends. She had her hair up today, like usual. It seems so soft and he had always thought how she’d look like with it down. He’d never had the courage to ask her though.
They only knew one another through work and had never had the chance to grow close. He was a performer and she was one of the waitresses. Teddy had strict rules about “romance inside the office”. The performer he replaced got pregnant because of a waiter and some of her fans, big-time patrons of Teddy’s club got really angry and decided to transfer to another hang-out. It had caused quite a slump for Teddy and he replaced all of his staff, explicitly stating to his new employees that no one is to be involved with each other.
See, unlike other clubs, Teddy’s is ultra luxurious and a favorite hunt of the rich and famous of Seoul. All of his performers are offered contracts by various music labels and artists management groups and his patrons dole out cash like its running out tomorrow. They appreciate Teddy’s promise of exclusivity and the high class performances he offers that only few are allowed to see.
That’s why very few of his performers actually agree to sign up with labels or management groups. Why work hard training, not sure if you’ll even get in the lime light, when you shine so bright on your own in a stage where all those who watch you treat you like a god? And they pay like a god just to see you too.
The more exclusive Teddy made out a performance, the more rave and hooplah it got. Patrons would shell out just any amount he told them too. But what he admired in Teddy is that the man made sure that his patrons got their money’s worth - he wouldn’t show a performance short of extravagant.
And his marketing skills were to envy too. Teddy once decided to open the club to media men and the buzz about Teddy’s became all the more louder. Word spread that “Only V.I.P.s get inside Teddy’s”.
And everyone wanted to be a V.I.P.It was the same for him. The exclusivity attracted him to accept Teddy’s proposal that faithful night a year ago when he and his group were performing for a bar on the other side of town.
He had not found it a problem to agree to the “No Relationship” rule back then but during their first night to perform, amidst all the lights on stage, his eyes caught sight of her.
He’d been fighting a battle of both his heart and mind ever since.
“Everyone here now?” Teddy asked, commanding everyone’s attention - performers and servers alike.
“Yes, Manager” was everyone’s reply.
“Good. As you all know, I have been offered to establish an American branch of Teddy’s and with the help of trusted friends, we shall be opening Teddy’s in L.A. next month. Due to this, I have decided to have our very own Wonder Girls launch Teddy’s in America.”
Instantaneous applause broke out.
“Congratulations Unnie!”
“Well done Wonder Girls!”
The staffs were congratulating the teary-eyed girls.
Teddy raised both his hands to ask everyone again for silence. “Tonight will be the girls last night with us here in Seoul as I will need them to train hard and work diligently for our L.A. opening. They will also need to pack their bags as they will be departing for California day after tomorrow.”
A gasp came from one of the girls and he refrained from smiling like everybody else. Teddy had told him all about this plan a week ago after he and the boys refused to leave Seoul as of the moment. They had kept the conversation to their selves, though, as it would seem shallow to brag that they were actually Teddy-oppa’s first choice.
“Manager! You are full of surprises!” So Hee, one of the girls, exclaimed and hugged Teddy tightly. “Thank you Teddy-oppa. Thank you so so much.”
Teddy was all smiles as the rest of the girls converged to hug him. “You deserve this, my dears. You have worked hard and have not given Teddy-oppa a hard time. We shall all make sure that Teddy’s in L.A. become as successful as Teddy’s here in Seoul.”
Applause once again broke out and Teddy made the girls face everyone. “Thank you everyone as well for your support. This is all because of everybody’s work so congratulate yourselves as well.”
He saw from the corner of his eye that “she” was shaking hands with herself. That! He couldn’t resist smiling at.
“Of course, our superstars, BIG BANG will remain with us to make sure that we continue to be the best here” there was applause for that again “This also brings me to my other news.”
Silence, then, engulfed the whole room.
“A few days ago, I was approached by one of you and was showed this video. I believe that I have found the girls who I can groom to take the place of Wonder Girls here in Korea.”
Teddy the flat screen TV behind him and made way for everybody else to watch an audition clip.
“Kya!” someone shouted from the back.It was her. And she was reacting to a video clip of her singing “Gimme More” by Britney Spears. His eyes widened in surprise… not bad, he thought, listening to her… not bad at all.
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Chance
“Chaerin-ah!” Dara exclaimed as they entered the changing room “How could you not have told us???”
Despite their angry faces, Chaerin was grinning from ear to ear. “We were good weren’t we? Teddy-oppa was really amazed when I first showed him those videos.”
“I’m so embarrassed” Bom told them, her face indeed turning red.
“Oh shhhhhhh” Chaerin replied “This is our chance! Do you want to be waitresses forever? We’ve got talent. And this club needs a breath of fresh air from all the girly cuteness! This is our moment to finally show who the baddest females in Korea are!”
“But you could have told us” Dara told her.
“I think we were more surprised than everybody else when those videos flashed on the screen” Minji added.
“I told you about it!” Chaerin replied.
“When did you do that?” Bom asked.
“Remember our talk last week while we were changing here?”
“What talk?” Dara asked “We talk about a lot of things.”
“Remember that I told you that I showed Manager Teddy our videos singing?”
“That was the time you showed him the videos???” Minji’s eyes shrank to slits.
“I thought that was a joke” Dara said.
Chaerin shook her head “Well, that’s because you always think everything is a joke Dara-unnie. But I was serious then. I told you guys, we have potential, we’re better than any of the groups I’ve seen perform here (well, except for Big Bang, of course)… so, what do you say??? Let’s go for this! Come on!”
Dara looked from Bom to Minji and they all looked apprehensive. Chaerin was the only one positively glowing.
“Don’t look like that!” Chaerin scolded them “This is our dream, remember? We’re going up! We are FIGHTING!”
She expelled her breath and found that the two others did the same.
“You should all be happy! Teddy-oppa even offered to have BIG BANG train us! Isn’t that amazing???” Chaerin was so lost in her litany of all the plans that Manager Teddy has for them that she did not notice that Bom was still contemplating everything deeply, Minji was doing a calculation of how this will be a gain for them or not, and Dara had totally stopped thinking altogether at the mention of being trained by Big Bang…
“I’m going to be training with him… with Ji” she thought, drowning out everything else.
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