YEAR 2011: PRELUDE

THIS building has a very proper design and I kind of like it, I realized. From the outside, it’s like your common brick building with some green plants here and there. From the inside, its neat and tidy look makes a great ambiance for the people who work there. The perfect combination of home office that I like, you won’t be lacking the cozy atmosphere but somehow still manage to support the working ethics thus making you more productive.

It would be more perfect if the people who work here is more like the building itself: laid back. Sadly, that’s not the case here. Everyone looked always in a rush; they won’t be able to enjoy the surrounding should they be working like this every day.

Who am I kidding, it’s better like this. People wouldn’t spare me another second of their time and that means I’m out of the picture. The less the attention that I get, the less the trouble that will come.

What do you expect from an agency that manages many artists? Even though this agency hasn’t managed that many artists in compared with the other three big agencies in Seoul, still this agency is alive with its bustling activities probably to keep their glorious streak of earning some more sales profit.

They said that this agency is the first one in the country that introduced an advanced management system that encompasses expertise in record production, distribution, marketing and public relation. When other agencies dare not to salvage other agencies’ dropouts especially those considered ‘rebels’ by their former company, this agency did it. And that’s exactly how C-Jes Entertainment got started.

Pretty amazing, huh? But what’s more amazing is the fact that I’m standing in front of the white reception table inside this agency, which has been some kind of routine of mine recently.

“Excuse me, I have some files for Mr. Kim Jae Joong?” I asked the long haired woman who is busy with her files.

“Oh, it’s you,” she looked up. “You know what to do, right? I’m sorry, today too please just bring it straight to him.”

Isn’t this Mr. Kim Jae Joong very famous? For an agency who handles him and his group, shouldn’t the agency be more strict on their regulation and protective toward their artists?

“Here, sign this.” She said as she shoved me some letters to which I obediently signed. “He’s in the studio, like always.”

I nodded, said my thanks and walked straight to the stairs that led me downstairs. Some familiar figures stood there with their back facing me, I made stealthy steps and put down the files on the coffee table at the back of the studio.

Another stealthy step later, I was upstairs on my way toward the receptionist again where I signed the letter reporting my done deed. Two down, one more to go. The sun is still glaring, it’s still a long time before I can shut my eyes and sleep peacefully.

Inhaled, indeed the air here is different in compared with Indonesia. Exhaled, let’s go to Myeongdong!

*******

“It turns out pretty well!”

I looked up from my book to see a pretty woman whose name I learned to be Choi Hye Yoon smiling at me. She has a milky skin; in fact all the women here pretty much shared the same milky skin. I spent a year already in here yet my skin didn’t transform to be even slightly milky like theirs, I wonder what their secret recipe is?

“Please come by frequently, we are in dire need of another helping hands!”

I offered her the prettiest smile I could muster, and promised her that I would visit this boutique every time I have my day off.

“Here!”

In front of my face were two big paper bags in which I guessed were filled with the boutique’s goods. How can I not guess it right? For every time I came there to help, I never came back home with empty hands. Those goods would always be given to me by the same person, Kim Su Young.

“Thank you very much.” I said as I accepted the good gesture. When somebody gives you something, you shouldn’t refuse especially when it’s someone older than you, it’s considered rude here. Done that before, a handful of earsplitting advice greeted me.

“Those came yesterday, it’s pretty new.” Kim Su Young said. “So make sure to wear it often, you understand?”

I nodded, after all that’s what I’ve been doing all this time. I’m basically their boutique’s walking mannequin.

“Okay, let’s head back.” Choi Hye Yoon urged.

While they barked some orders here and there to their staffs, I busied myself checking the window display of the boutique that I helped to decorate. Pretty satisfied to have my hard work actually being put in good use and respected, I didn’t get the same attitude from the office I’ve worked at in Jakarta. Apparently, they didn’t trust me enough probably because I was just nineteen at that time.

On our way back, we parted ways with Choi Hye Yoon. Kim Su Young steered me to the other shop at Myeongdong, a photo studio owned by her older sister named Kim Yoo Seon. We exchanged greeting before we resumed our walk back.

*******

Laughter and quarrels here and there, something that I never experienced back in Medan with my family. A bunch of adults goofing around mainly with their high-pitched voice. We were in the middle of preparing dinner for five people, super spicy spices in each of the traditional Korean cuisine and there were lots of meat.

In front of me were Kim Su Young, one of the owners of the boutique I frequently helped. Right beside her right sat Kim Yoo Seon, the owner of photo studio that we picked up. Another woman who sat at the far end of the table named Kim Min Kyeong, a respective professor of the institute I’ve been admitted into and owner of the design firm that I’ve been working at. On my left sat Kim Ah Young, the quietest one that I learned to be a specialist in reconstructive plastic surgery and aesthetic.

From their surname, it’s obvious that they’re all related. This was the Kim family’s dinner that I intruded often. Intruding their family’s dinner didn’t really tickle my nerves off; they made sure that I’m always welcomed to their routine seeing that I’m all alone here in their motherland as a scholar that worked her off for one of the professors of Seoul Institute of The Arts.

Professor Kim Min Kyeong was seated on my right when I first took off from Jakarta to Seoul, she was the one that actually helped me through the entire admission mandatory at the institute after recognizing me to be the one who shared the same plane with her, and she also helped me with the intensive language program at Yonsei University as my guardian representative. Coincidentally, she was also the one who was in charge of my primary class. It didn’t take long for us to have a closer bond than the other students, and she didn’t hesitate to have me fill the position as her assistant in her design firm when the chance came. And through her also, I got to know her other sisters.

Intruding my professor’s family dinner didn’t really bug me like I said before, no matter how killer she is in the eyes of the students. But it clearly bugs my conscience when the handsome and famous younger brother of my dear professor came to join the family dinner.

I might be seen as a very collective and calm person throughout the family dinner, but on the inside, every bit of my cells jumped in a frenzy state. I could feel my lips thinned out and my body grew stoic. Eyes stared down and sweats graced my palms. Toes curling and my mind blanked out.

You couldn’t expect me to function well when he came, not when Kim Jae Joong took his seat right beside my left.