(Recap in italics)

The woman nodded and began making her way back up the stairs.  Caden turned back to Top and G Dragon and bowed slightly again, smiling politely before following the woman upstairs.

The boys bowed back, although she was already turning away, and watched as she disappeared up the stairs.

G Dragon gazed after her with a bit of a strange, lightheaded feeling.  He wasn't sure what had brought it on.  Just then Top turned to him, shaking his head slightly.

"Well that was pretty strange, wasn't it?" he said, grinning in amusement.  Suddenly GD felt a surge of annoyance at his friend that he couldn't explain.  He'd had the same experience just several moments before when the girl had momentarily started to dribble in front of Top.  Up until then he had seen her as a source of amusement - she gave him a reason to tease his friend and she was cute and embarrassed about the whole situation.

At that time, although he tried to ignore it - always hating this feeling in himself - it was similar to the one he occassionally got when he was slighted by fans in favor of another member.  Now it was like he resented Top for earning the girl's attention over him.  This made him feel immediately guilty.  He turned to Top, forcing a smile onto his face.

"Yeah, it was," he replied a little overenthusiastically.  Top didn't seem to notice.  His expression became more contemplative.

"I'm surprised.  I never would have thought she was a job candidate... Especially to replace Teacher Park," he mused.

"Yeah," GD agreed. "We've never had a foreign English teacher before."

"Oh," Top said, finally turning his attention away from the girl, "I bought everyone's favorite drink from the convenience store."  He looked around for the bag he had brought with him.  He looked back up at GD sheepishly.

"I think I left it outside... I can't believe I forgot to grab my bag when I grabbed all of hers," he laughed.  GD felt another pang of annoyance, which immediately turned to guilt once again.

"I'll get it for you, hyung," he offered, attempting the alleviate the feeling.  "Teddy hyung is waiting for you to record anyway."

"Ah, thanks," Top said, nodding.  "I'll be going first then."  With that he turned and walked upstairs.  GD watched him go, sighing deeply.  He wasn't too happy with himself regarding these weird pangs he was having today.  Maybe he was getting sick or something.  He put his hand on his forehead - he didn't feel warm, but he knew that he really couldn't tell on himself.  He shook his head, turning to walk outside and retrieve Top's bag.  He spotted it immediately near the bottom of the steps.  He hopped down the stairs and snatched the bag up by its handles, starting to turn back inside when something caught his eye.

He stepped back down, looking at the object more closely.  It was a cell phone laying between two cobbles on the street.  It must have been under the bag this whole time.  He reached down to pick it up and found that it seemed to have broken into a few pieces.  GD looked the phone over closely.  He knew it wasn't Top's phone.  It wasn't a brand sold in Korea.  He looked at the keys and saw that it must be a Japanese phone.  It probably belonged to that girl.  She must have dropped it when she tripped earlier.

He stared at the broken pieces in his hand for a moment when an idea popped into his head.  He wrapped his hand around the broken pieces protectively, smiling to himself.  With that he turned, running up the stairs to give Top the bag back.

*     *     *

Meanwhile, Caden had followed the woman up the building's stairs for a surprising amount of floors.  Luckily for Caden, the woman didn't insist on taking the stairs at a brisk pace, so by the time they reached the top floor, she wasn't too out of breath.  She continued to follow the woman down the long, straight hallway clear across to the other side of the building where the hall opened up to a large waiting room looking area.  The woman directed her to sit on one of the overstuffed couches scattered around the room before disappearing through a door that Caden hadn't noticed initially.

She looked around the room as she waited.  Unlike the first floor, which had been designed in an interesting modern fashion, this floor seemed rather blank - at least in the public area that she had seen.  She didn't have a chance to wonder about it for long because the woman reemerged, carrying a small stack of papers on a clip board.  She handed them to Caden with a polite smile.

"Here is your paperwork.  This is all the basic information that we'll need to know about you.  Don't worry, there aren't any creative thinking questions - soley information that we need on file if you are eventually hired.  Some of it you'll recognize from your application because these are the only papers we file - your application will be tossed as soon as an applicant is hired - whether it's you or not.  I've already given your resume to the President to look over.  I'll be back in about ten minutes to collect your paperwork.  Is there anything else you need?"

Although speaking very politely, Caden heard the challenge in the last question.  She had learned very well through her experiences with the Japanese application process that there are certain things that an applicant is expected to have.  Asking for any of these expected materials reflected badly upon the person - it made them seem unprepared.  Because of this, Caden was very grateful that she had been provided with a writing surface.  She knew that she would sooner stand, filling  out her papers using the walls, than ask for one herself.  It simply wasn't done if you wanted any hope of getting the job.

Caden smiled at the woman, pulling a couple good pens out for her bag.

"I'm fine, thank you," she said pleasantly.  The woman nodded approvingly.

"Very well.  You may fill everything out in English if you wish.  Please begin."

With that, she walked past her, back down the hall and out of sight.  Caden immediately began filling out her information diligently - knowing that it would be very important for her to be finished by the time the woman came back.

As the woman had said, the paperwork contained mostly basic personal and professional information - all of which mirrored the info she had given to each of the Japanese and Korean  positions she had applied to.  She was able to finish quickly, a good few minutes before the woman returned to collect her papers.  Caden watched her disappear once more behind the office door before leaning back in her chair to wait.

Nervousness that she hadn't had time to feel in the midst of the sudden excitement now started to creep up on her.  She tried to calm herself, reminding herself that she had thoroughly prepared for a nearly identical interview the following day.  The only difference being that this interview happened to be regarding a famous Korean band full of gorgeous boys around her age who she had been a fan of for several years now.

She shook this thought out of her head.  She refused to act like a dribbling fangirl around boys - fan or not.  She focused on all the Korean interview skills she had been working on.  She didn't know how long she would be made to wait, so she found a good spot to leave her shopping bags where someone wouldn't be likely to notice them and they'd be safe while she was in the interview.

She had been waiting about 20 minutes when a women Caden hadn't seen before appeared from the hall.  She smiled and bowed at Caden, greeting her in English - to Caden's slight surprise,

"Hello, how are you?"

"Very good, thank you.  And yourself?" Caden responded, smiling slightly.  The woman responded politely before sitting down on the couch opposite of her.  Not even a minute later, the assistant reappeared from the office door looking straight at Caden,

"The President is ready to see you now."  Caden stood, bowing politely to the newcomer before walking past the woman, into the office.

She immediately had a moment of strange recognition - it was odd to meet someone you only expect to see on tv.  As an avid 2ne1 fan and 2ne1TV viewer, she was much accustomed to seeing this man's face, but in a far away, unreachable respect.  Seeing him here, in person, in a job interview capacity seemed crazy.  Her stomach flip-flopped as she sat down.

Determined to keep her cool, she took a deep breath and smiled politely (having bowed when she entered the room).  The President looked her over carefully, nodding in response.  She sat straight and tall under his imploring gaze, never allowing herself to fidget and keeping an outwardly easy, polite smile plastered on her face.

"Your resume is very impressive," was the first thing he said after a long moment of scrutiny.  Caden was extremely relieved to hear this, but didn't change her expression - instead allowing herself a gracious nod.  He looked down over all of her paperwork in front of him.  He was silent again for a while.

"You don't look like a Choi Eun Ha," he said casually, not looking up from the papers.  Caden froze, her stomach clenched in fear and surprise.  She realized that he must be naming the applicant whose spot she had taken.  Knowing full well that she was caught, but unsure as to quite what to say, she was silent for a moment before deciding that she wasn't going to have much shot at the position now, and even less so if she lied.  She sighed before responding,

"That's because I'm not."

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A/N

Posted a little later than expected.

I decided to end it on a bit of a cliff hanger - K drama style. :P  I hope you don't mind. :D

And now I better get to work before I'm late.

Please enjoy and don't be afraid to comment!

Planning on posting by tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.