“He’s quite young for this kind of job Mrs. Wu…don’t you think?” EXO’s manager says while over looking Tao’s transcript. Mrs. Wu nods and places both of her hands under chin, “Indeed he is.”

“Then why him? Well that’s if you don’t mind me asking.”

Mrs. Wu chuckles and stands up from her chair, “I have my reasons,” she avoids the manager’s question, “now,” she sits down in front of the manager and crosses her arms across her chest, “Tao will be here any moment, I would really appreciate it if you don’t give him such a hard time.”

EXO’s manager up an eyebrow at Mrs. Wu in suspicion, “I…alright,” he closes the file and makes his way towards the door.

“Wait,” Mrs. Wu calls. The manager stops in his tracks and turns back around to face Mrs. Wu, “Yes?” he asks.

“After you’re done showing Tao around, please lead him to my office, I have some important matters to discuss with him,” Mrs. Wu orders. The manager gives her a nod and a bow before leaving the office. Once the shut the door behind him, he stares down at the folder in his hands, “Why so young?” he asks quietly to himself. Shaking off any suspicion, he then proceed down the hallway to the elevator.

---

“Thank you,” Tao pays the taxi driver the fee before closing the door. He looks at the huge building standing tall in front of him. Tao gulps down the lump in his throat, fixes his suit before making his way up the flight of stairs to the spinning doors. He pushes his way in and makes his way over to the lady at the front desk, “Um….excuse me,” Tao clears his throat. The lady at the front desk glances up at Tao and smiles, “Hi, how may I help you today sir?” she asks with a bow.

“Um…,” Tao rubs the back of his neck, “I’m the new manager…or will be the new manager to the group EXO and um…Mrs. Wu told me to meet her at 8am today,” he explains to the lady.

“Ah right, go ahead and have seat while I ring up EXO’s manager for you,” she instructs. Tao nods and gives her a bow before turning his back to her, “Wait!” she calls. Tao stops walking and turns back around, “Yes?” he asks.

“Sorry but what is your name?” she asks.

“Huang ZiTao or Tao for short,” he tells her.

“Thank you,” she gives Tao a smile before looking down at the phone to punch in some numbers. Tao nods his head twice before heading towards the sofas. He takes a seat and glances around at his surroundings. The waiting room he was currently was very very spacious. It had squared polls in the color of dark brown and dark green. Beside each squared polls were at least a small eclipse coffee table with sofas surrounding it. The tile of the waiting room was a marble like tile in the colors of crème and gray and in the middle of the room had tiles of green marble tiles shaped in a rectangle which the rectangle made a path that lead to a different room. On top of the green marbled tiles were a squared dark red marbled tiles and in the middle of that dark red squared marbled tiles was a light yellow circle also made out of marbled tiles.

Tao takes in all of the small little details of the room, “Neat and tidy,” he murmurs to himself.

“Mr. Huang,” the lady behind the desk calls for him.

“Yes?” Tao asks.

“Mr. Seo will be down in a bit to give you a quick tour of the floor you’ll be on most of the day,” she informs him.

“Thank you,” Tao thanked her and turns back around to look at his surroundings.

---

“Kris hyung you’re doing it wrong again,” Kai groans in frustration as he pulled his hair for the 10^th time in a row. Kris falls onto the cold tiles and pulls at his hair, “Sorry Kai,” he apologizes. Kai lets out a groan of frustration and falls onto the tiles as well, “Is something distracting you as of late? Are you feeling insecure about you and Lay’s relationship?” the younger one asks.

Kris shakes his head and falls flat on the cold tiles, staring straight up at the bright light hanging on the ceiling, “Not that,” he murmurs.

“Then what is it?” Kai asks, trying his best to help out his hyung with his life problems. Kris lets out a sigh and shakes his head, “Nothing,” he answers the younger one. Kai simply shrugs his shoulders and then stands up, “Alright, since you don’t want to discuss about it then we should get back to practicing the routine,” the younger one states. Kris lifts his head up from the tiles and glances at Kai who was doing some quick stretching position. He lets out a groan and allows his head to fall back onto the tiles, “I don’t want to,” he complains.

Kai glances at Kris through the mirror and rolls his eyes at the older one, “Quit being such a weakling,” he turns around and marches his way over to the older one. He squats down and lightly slaps Kris on the cheek, “Come on big guy, time to practice again.”

Kris groans and pushes Kai away from him, “Let me rest for another 20 minutes,” he complains. Kai rolls his eyes once again and stands up, “Fine, but after 20 minutes, we’re going to practice for 3 hours non-stop.”

“Whatever,” Kris mutters. The younger one stares at the older one before walking over to the door, “I’m going to go grab a cold drink, you want anything?” he asks.

“Just give me water,” Kris answers. Kai eyes Kris’s tired form before exiting the room.

---

“Mr. Huang,” Mr. Seo calls as he approaches Tao. Tao immediately stands up once he saw Mr. Seo approaching him and bows, “It’s nice to meet you Mr. Huang,” Mr. Seo states. Tao smiles and nods, “And it’s nice to meet you too Mr. Seo,” he answers.

“Shall we? I want to start giving you a tour before sending you off to see Mrs. Wu who has some important matters to discuss with you,” Mr. Seo explains.

“Sure,” Tao answers.

“Perfect, follow me then,” Mr. Seo leads Tao to the elevator and presses the up button then waits for one of the many elevator doors to open, “So tell me a little about yourself Mr. Huang,” Mr. Seo says while waiting for a door to open.

“Well,” Tao bites his bottom lip and rocks back and forth on his heels to his toes, “Well…before this job I was a retail seller at the company Apples,” he says.

Mr. Seo up an eyebrow, “I heard that they pay their employees exceptionally well.”

Tao nods, “They do Mr. Seo.”

The elevator dings and the door opens, “Come, follow me,” Mr. Seo leads Tao into the opened elevator and then pressed the 10^th floor button, “I’ll be taking you to the floor you’ll be spending most of the day on, also I’ll give you a short introduction to the kids you’ll be managing,” he explains. Tao gives Mr. Seo a nod telling him that he understood everything the elderly man was saying.

“Alright, so continue with yourself,” Mr. Seo ushers.

“Oh right, so um…I graduated last year at Seoul University,” he continues, “and majored into computer engineering but since the only job offers were out of town, I chose to be a retail seller at Apples until I have enough money to move out and take my mom with me.”

“Computer engineering huh…you’re a very smart kid Mr. Huang,” Mr. Seo compliments. Tao blushes and bows, “Thank you Mr. Seo.”

Mr. Seo chuckles and glances at the red numbers at the top, “We’re almost there, don’t worry,” he announces. Tao gives him a nod and a “mm,” for a response.

“These kids…er well hyungs for you,” Mr. Seo corrects himself, “they’re…well…”

“Young teenagers still going through their teenager years?” Tao asks with a slight chuckle. Mr. Seo chuckles at the younger one’s response and nods his head in agreement, “They’re a bit rowdy but I’m sure you guys will all get along,” he stated. The door dings and the slides open, “Follow me Mr. Huang, I’ll be showing you to where you’ll be at until I permanently leave my position.”

Tao nods and follows Mr. Seo down the hallway and into an opening, “Good morning Mr. Seo,” a lady at the front greets him with a bow. Mr. Seo greets her as well and stops when the both of the approached her, “Sooae, I would like to introduce to you Huang ZiTao, he would be taking my spot once I fully resign,” he explains. Sooae glances up from her bow, “Well…isn’t he a young one,” she states with a chuckle.

“Ah…yes I am,” Tao replies with a slight blush on his face.

“Don’t worry about it Mr. Huang, although you may be young, there’s a possible chance that you have a brain of an old man like Mr. Seo over here,” she jokes, pointing a finger to Mr. Seo. Mr. Seo chuckles, “Alright Sooae, that’s enough, follow me to your office Mr. Huang.”

Tao bows to Sooae once more before following Mr. Seo to a certain cubicle, “This is where you’ll be staying until I fully resign, it’s still a bit small but once I’m gone you’ll get my office over there,” he motions a finger to the room with glass double doors, “any questions so far?” he asks and Tao shakes his head, “alright then, let me give you a quick tour first before we greet the kids,” he turns around to glance at Sooae, “Sooae, can you please order all of the members to meet in the practice room?”

“Sure Mr. Seo,” Sooae answers and picks up the phone.

“Alright, follow me over here Mr. Huang,”

---

“I wonder what hyung wants to tell us,” Luhan wonders as he takes a seat in one of the chairs in the room.

“Same here,” Sehun responded and sat down in the middle of the room. After a moment of silence of no one saying anything, the door to the room opens and their manager walks in, “Kids,” he calls. Once they heard Mr. Seo’s voice, they all stood up from their sitting position and greets Mr. Seo with a 90 degree bow, “Good morning hyung,” they all said in unison.

“I’m going to miss this when I move,” Mr. Seo chuckles and makes his way up to them, “I came in here to introduce to you guys your soon to be manager,” he broke out the news.

“What? They already found one?” Chanyeol asked from behind Kris.

Mr. Seo gives him a nod, “Mr. Huang, would you please come inside?” he calls. Tao takes in a deep breath knowing well that he was going to see Kris again. He places a hand on his heart to calm his rapidly beating heart down, “Mr. Huang?!” Mr. Seo calls again.

“Maybe this Mr. Huang is shy?” Chanyeol jokes.

Tao gulps down the lump in his throat and slowly made his way into the room and out into the opening where the members all stood at. Once they all saw Tao all of them gasped loudly except for Kris, “Hyung!” Chanyeol’s voice bounces off the walls of the practice room, “are you sure this is Mr. Huang?”

Mr. Seo back glances at Tao and chuckles before facing the shocked boys, “Yes Chanyeol shi, this is Mr. Huang and he will be managing you guys after I leave.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Chanyeol walks up to Tao to examine this face carefully, “Are you an old man stuck in a young man’s body?” he asked. Tao backs slightly away from Chanyeol, who was at that time invading his privacy space, “No Chaneyol shi, I am not an old man stuck in a young man’s body, I am a young man just like you,” he explains.

“This is really interesting,” Chanyeol soft exclaims and grabs Tao’s face in his hands, “How old are you?”

“I’m actually younger than all of you except for Sehun shi,” Tao tells him.

“What?!!!” Chanyeol shouts loudly into Tao’s face and jumps back, “how…how am I…”

“Chanyeol,” Kris’s leader like voice calls for the younger one, “get your back over here now,” he orders.

“But…hyung…how…,” he turns to look at Kris then back at Tao, “but lets look at the good side, at least we get a handsome young looking manager,” he grins creepily at Tao. Tao an eyebrow at Chanyeol and steps away again, “Mr…Mr. Seo…help me,” he squeaks and runs behind Mr. Seo. Chanyeol laughs loudly and runs after Tao, “You can call me hyung instead of Chanyeol shi,” the over hyperactive man stated, bouncing up and down in place as Tao shrinks behind short Mr. Seo.

“Chanyeol shi, go back to your group members now,” Mr. Seo orders in a stern voice.

“But hyung, I want to play with my new dongsaeng,” Chanyeol protests and advances towards the scared Tao, “Tao ah!” Chanyeol shouted loudly. Chanyeol then jumps towards Tao to quickly close the gap between him and Tao and just as he was about to wrap his arms around the frightened Chinese boy, he comes colliding with a broad chest, “Ow,” Chanyeol stumbles backwards and falls on his , “what the heck?” he looks up to see his leader staring daggers into his soul and he smiles sheepishly, “hi there hyung.”

“Do not get close to Taoer,” Kris grits between his teeth.

“Say what?” Chanyeol asked, standing up to face his hyung, “I didn’t hear what you said.”

Kris clenches his fists into a ball and continues to glare daggers into Chanyeol’s poor soul.

“Hey…is it just me or does hyung look like he knows this new manager of ours?” Sehun asked Luhan.

“Yeah…it does,” Luhan agrees. Both boy stopped talking and turn to look at Lay who was standing in his spot still watching the whole scene unfold before him, “I wonder what Lay hyung is thinking,” Sehun whispers. Luhan shakes his head and being the second oldest in the group, he walks up to the two younger ones to calm down the tension, “Alright guys, stop it, Chanyeol quit chasing our new manager around and Kris quit staring daggers into Chanyeol’s soul,” Luhan orders.

Mr. Seo watches as Luhan calms down the two before clearing his throat loudly and walks up to Tao, “So…um Mr. Huang…let me go ahead and introduce you to the kids. The one who chased you was Chanyeol,” he stated and Chanyeol grins happily at Tao and waves, “Hi Tao ah!” the curly haired boy shouted. Tao slightly gives him a nod and a smile, “Hyung! Luhan hyung! Tao ah just gave me a smile!” Chanyeol squealed like a fanboy and tugged on Luhan’s shirt. Luhan yanked his arm out from Chanyeo’s grasps and smacks the younger on across the head, “Shut up Chanyeol before I lay a fist in your face,” he threatens.

Chanyeol pouts and turns away from Luhan, “Meanie.”

“Anyways,” Mr. Seo sighs, “the one standing next to Chanyeol is Luhan, he’s also a Chinese member, the one standing across from Chanyeol is Kris and he too is also a Chinese member, the one over there is Lay and again he’s also a Chinese member, the one standing next to Lay is Sehun, the youngest in the group, that’s Kai, Kyungsoo, Xiumin, and Chen.”

Tao nods and gives each and every single one of them a bow, “It’s nice to meet you all and I’m looking forward to work with all of you guys, please take care of me,” he says and just as he finished saying that, Chanyeol rushes over to Tao and side hug him, “I’ll take good care of you Tao ah,” he stated.

Tao turns to look at Chanyeol and gave him an awkward smile…

Kris clenches his fist even more…

Luhan face palms…