Chapter 1 - "Good Mornings"

February 14th, 2014 - Friday

“Youngie-ahhh, 일어나 (il-eona ; get up) ~~~”

The soft voice sang as my bed shook and I felt a hand on my shoulder. Mumbling while half awake, I turned my back to the person who was attempting to wake me up.

“Yah! Nam Na Young, 일어나 (il-eona ; get up)!”

There was a strong tugging sound of the blinds at my window, and my head began pounding to the sudden flush of light shining through my eyelids.

I began to whine as I slowly opened my eyes, “Unnie, whaeee~”

“Because today’s the last day of this school year! You must get up! This is the last day before I become a senior, and you will be in the 2nd grade!” She patted my to get me out of bed before walking out the door, “가자! (Gaja! ; Let’s go!) The others are already eating breakfast downstairs with Ajusshi. We’ll be waiting!” she brightly smiled and waved.

I remained sitting up on the edge of my bed and I sighed heavily. I loved Eun Bi Unnie, but she had way too much energy for an older woman.

After dragging myself into the shower, I felt completely better and awake once leaving my room all dressed up in my uniform. I had done a light layer of makeup just to cover a few of my blemishes and a light coat of mascara and eyeliner for the finishing touches. My father had always told me that I didn’t need a lot of makeup, and so I didn’t wear much of it.

But that was only because he would scold me and tell me to wipe it all off if I ever did wear a large amount of makeup.

He would always say something between the lines of:

“Your mother never wore that much makeup, you have great natural beauty from your mother that you should show off!”

or

“Take all that junk off your face, no one will ever want to be your boyfriend if they knew you were being fake!”

or

“Honey, you look beautiful just the way you are, you don’t need all that crap.”

or

“You’ll never find a husband if you’re always taking up time to paint your face!”

Thanks dad.

On the reality of things, my father and I are very close. He is my 4th best friend - next to Eun Bi Unnie, Min Ji, and Yoo Ri of course. He always supports me for whatever choices I make, and he’s always willing to listen to my problems. I am so grateful to have him in my life, and I don’t know what I would do without him.

That’s exactly why I must work another job other than the ramyun shop. Father’s ramyun shop hasn’t been doing very well for the past few months so that’s why I took up the opportunity to get another job to help support our small family. At first he didn’t like the idea and he just wanted me to focus on my studies, but I told him that I really wanted to help and so he finally let go of the argument and agreed. So now I am a student / waitress / junior janitor!

.......

That doesn’t sound as exciting as I thought it was going to be. But hey- it’s the money that’s helping us get through life so I’m still willing to do it. And it was the easiest job I applied for, that also worked with my schedule. In the mornings I would go to school, then at 3 o'clock, I would go straight to my janitorial job after school. After my janitorting job, I would head home and help out with the ramyun shop if it was ever busy and if not, I would just work on my studies.
Sounds easy right?

Wrong.

My janitoring job is located in a famous building filled with snobby and stuck-up famous people.

SM Entertainment.

Now, I’m not saying that all the artists there are snobby and stuck-up, I’m just speaking about the ones that I have already encountered with. Let’s just say that looks are deceiving when you’re on TV v.s. real life.  Let me also make the statement that if you put too many girls in one room, you will get drama.

Even some of the trainees are already acting up, thinking they’re all high and mighty. I would say that I have gotten pretty darn good amount of dirty glares from both the artists and trainees at that building, but I’m not going to let it bother me as much because I know I am a better person and I just like to think to myself that ‘maybe they were just having a bad day’, that’s all.

But ‘having a bad day’ for 3 days straight whenever they see me isn’t just some ‘coincidence’.  

I’d like to give them a piece of my mind sometimes, but I can’t.

You see, the rank of popularity and respect in the building runs like this:

Founding Chairman (Lee Soo-man)

CEO (Kim Young-min)

Artists (Kangta, BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, f(x), and EXO)

Managers / Stylists

Trainees

Bodyguards

Main Office Workers

Main Desk Workers

and then there’s people like me - the janitors.

We’re at the bottom of the food chain, and no one cares about us. If one of us says something ridiculous, they can easily replace us with the snap of their fingers- just like that.

But if one of the artists says something ridiculous to one of the workers, no one complains because of the obvious fact that the artists are irreplaceable.

And let me tell you something else about SM Entertainment- the artists get treated like kings and queens there. Along with the founding chairman and the CEO, of course.

Just thinking about my workplace gives me headaches, and I dont know how much longer I’m going to be able to work there without having my mind explode.

“Ahh.! Looks like the beast FINALLY decides to wake up.!” Minji looks at me with a big smile that’s stuffed with kimchi pancake.

I gave her a glare and walked over to the refrigerator to get a water bottle, “Ha ha, very funny.” I rolled my eyes.

They were all gathered around the kitchen’s island munching on the breakfast that my father had made for us, like he does almost every morning.