Junior year, 2009

“Hey Cho.”

She looks up from her Spanish work and turns to the seat next to her. “Yeah, what’s up Jongdae?”

“Did you do the main ideas for physics?”

Cho blanches and curses. “, is that due today? Doesn’t he usually give us an extra day?”

“I don’t know,” Jongdae shrugs and leans back in his seat, precautiously settling the weight on the back legs of the plastic chair. “I’m getting them from Haley later. You want me to send you the pictures?”

“You are an angel if you do, please,” Cho pleads and groans. Jongdae has an iPhone while she has a Samsung Galaxy Note so she gives him her iMessage email on her iPod touch. “You’ll probably get them sometime during lunch,” Jongdae apologizes and she waves him off. “No big deal. Thanks a lot, I owe you.”

“You don’t; you’re cool.”

“Thanks again, Jongdae.”

“No problem.”

-

“What about the past?” Minseok inquires and Cho shrugs.

“Just… the past. Anyways, I start tomorrow. How exciting is that?”

“Very,” he grins. “I saw and heard your other works before and they were really good. I can’t believe you thought you didn’t have a chance with works like yours.”

“Stop it, stop it,” Cho cries as she feels the blood rush to her cheeks. She’s never been really good at taking compliments and still isn’t to this day. “What about you? Still girlfriend-less?”

“I’m not really looking into it, you know?” Minseok shrugs and sips his steaming mug of Americano. “I want to get my main courses done and then maybe start looking around. Oh yeah, so my dad decided it’d be a good idea to house a girl for her whole high school life. In conclusion, Mom isn’t too happy.”

“Dang, her whole high school life? That’s a bit insane, but your dad’s always been a softie,” Cho murmurs. She knew Minseok’s father was the epitome of nice, but this was stretching it a bit too far.

“Yeah, Mom doesn’t really like this girl’s mom. They come from some haughty private school in America and she’s sending her over here. For what reason, I’m not too sure either. But Mom keeps emphasizing that this girl is going to be my little sister.”

“Tch, now you know how I feel about you,” Cho jokes and Minseok sticks his tongue out at her. “Kidding, kidding. When is she coming?”

“Hmm, in about two weeks. We’re moving things around the apartment and I’ll probably just stay at the dorms more often than crash at home. Besides, I have to crash their now because dorms aren’t open during the summer.”

“Good luck with that.”

-

“7 AM, the usual morning lineup. Start on the chores and sweep til the floor’s all clean~ Polish and wa--”

Cho grumbles and swipes mindlessly on her phone until she feels the vibration beneath her finger and swipes right to turn off her alarm. Yes, she wakes up to Tangled.

First day of work. The only problem right now is what she should wear. If The Devil Wears Prada taught her anything, it’d be to give a good first impression. Cho isn’t one for floral patterns much as she prefers the darker colors. They complement better with her pale skin and the only bright color she’s tolerant of is white. Something about it makes her feel pure and enlightened and after five minutes of rummaging through her closet, she pulls out a simple, dark navy, school-girl like skirt, a skin-colored tank top, and a formal, sleeveless, white sheer top. She tucks her top and tank top in tightly before pulling the material out a little bit to fold over the top of her skirt.

After pulling her hair back in a high ponytail, she judges her appearance and nods before heading out the door with her purse. With her attire completely unfit to ride a bike (even though she’s wearing biker shorts underneath the skirt), she hops on to the bus and presses the buzzer once it reaches near SM.

She picks up her ID badge at the front desk and nods gratefully as the receptionist tells her which floor she’ll be on. Cho steps into an elevator and gently presses the “5” button, looking up as the doors close on her. The ride up is smooth and quiet and even smoother when reaching the door, no bumpy or sudden drop in a metal compartment.

Everything truly embraces the modern age as she makes her way to her work area where a small team of writers is seen. One man brightens up and chuckles at her hesitant posture and beams. “Ah, you must be Jung Cho, right?”

Cho nods and relaxes at the man. They all seem very relaxed as she bows and starts her introduction.

“Hello everyone, my name is Jung Cho. I’m starting today as a songwriter and lyricist and I hope to cooperate well with all of you. Please take care of me. Thank you.”

“Thank the lord, we need fresh minds,” one lady moans and introduces herself as Park Junmyeon. The man is Kim Jungshin. Two more older ladies introduce themselves as Kim Yeon Jeong and Misfit and Cho literally has to stop herself from running and bow down at their feet. “I love your works,” Cho gushes before biting her lip and bowing down her head. But instead of scoffs or indifference, the air is filled with light laughter, and Cho knows she’s going to have a blast here.

After a few hours of getting to know each other and working together on different projects (not to mention a nerve-wracking one hour of listening to all of Cho’s works and commenting on it), Jungshin calls for lunchtime and they all head out to have lunch with the newbie.

-

“You’ve worked hard today!” Her team exclaims and packs up their stuff to go home. “Are you not leaving?” Junmyeon asks, nodding at Cho who’s still sitting in her seat looking as if she didn’t have any intentions of packing up now. Cho shakes her head. “I’m going to stay for a bit longer, maybe look around and see the studio just to familiarize myself around the floor.”

“Alright, well stay safe. There’s a bottle of pepper spray in the top drawer of my desk if you leave too late at night. And stop with the formal talk. It makes me feel too old,” Junmyeon sniffs and the others shake their heads at her antics.

“Ok then,” Cho switches to informal language and Junmyeon immediately stops her act. “See you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!”

After they leave, Cho relaxes into her chair and sighs before looking out the glass window. The sun is starting to set and as she gets up to walk to the floor-length window, she can see more of the bustling city life that she had pictured on the plane. The sun completely sets and she watches the progression of the other building lights of the urban area. When she looks down, she can see the fangirls piled up in front of the building and can only imagine their excited squeals as a white van pulls up. There’s a sequence of flashing from cameras and phones alike as bodies file out of the vehicle and through the glass doors of their life.

Tearing her gaze away from below, she stares straight ahead and sighs yet again. She’s always been a firm believer of the balance of ups and downs in life. For every up, there is a down, and vice versa. Anybody could clearly tell that now was an up in her life, and a very significant one at that. It only has her nervously questioning what is next in store for her.

Plagued by her thoughts, she grabs her purse and the bottle of pepper spray from Junmyeon’s desk. There’s another man in the elevator when the compartment lands on her floor and she looks down before making her way into the elevator. Her badge is hanging out of her purse and she carefully stuffs it back in. But as she does so, a hand shoots out and stops the plastic from going any further in her direction.

“Jung Cho?”

Her head quickly whips up at the voice and stares in shock at the man in front of her.

A/N: Heehee. School starts on Monday for me, so I won't be updating as much, sadly. Thank you for reading! You can also find me on: 

- Karen