“There she is! Rainie-sshi!” a young man scowled at himself while running towards a petite young lady. She dressed casually; with a thick pink sweater, her coffee-brown hair tied up in a pony tail and her bangs tilted slightly to the right side of her small cutely shaped face. She had big round eyes that were a light brown color and wore black leggings.  “Rainie-sshi, I am JungKyu from Korea’s Best Entertainment Corporation, I was sent to you back to our company!”

She looked at the young man; he was tall and quite well built. His looks were well above average; short spiked black hair and dressed in formal attire. The moment he saw her he bent 90 degrees and reached to shake her hand. Already, she could sense the cultural difference.

“Nice to meet you, JungKyu, thank you for coming to get me. I really appreciate it.” She replied in semi-broken Korean while shaking his hand. Thus, they began heading to the company.

In the limousine, silence radiated in every corner of the limousine. Finally Rainie broke the silence,

“So… are there Korean lesson classes I have to take? I’ve studied a bit before I actually came here, but I think lessons would help me.”

“Ah, yes, I could have that arranged for you if you wish,” Jungkyu replied with his best work smile, nodding his head lightly.

“Yeah…” Rainie dozed off as she held her chin in her palm.

Yet again, silence befell them. Rainie hated silence; it was just too awkward for her. “Hmm… have you worked for KBE long?” She prompted, hoping to start a full on conversation with this man she just met.

“About five years,” he replied simply.

“Ahh… I see… what do you do? Other than moving people?” Rainie asked, furrowing her brows as she tried to pronounce the word she believed to be . From his reaction, she could tell she was wrong.

“Moving people? …Oh! You mean escorting people”

“Yeah… that…” she replied with blushing cheeks.

“Scheduling and watching over our celebrities.”

“Ohh… I see… Babysitting,” she laughed.

Again, the silence came about. She started to twiddle her fingers and kept fidgeting, looking out the window and tapping the door. “So… do you like your job?” she managed to allow those lame words to finally escape her lips.

He chuckled softly and answered “yes, I do”. He watched her as she sat in front of him, it was cute how she couldn’t sit still, and the awkwardness was very obvious on her face. It was easy to tell she was uncomfortable, and he found it very amusing. It just made him want to mess with her a little more.

“Ah, we’re almost there Rainie-sshi. Are you thirsty or hungry? Shall I order some things for you to eat after the meeting with the chairman and producers?”

“Actually… I was thinking of going out and running after the meeting. A drink would be nice though.”

“Running…? Ah, exploring… Alright, in a bit I’ll you to the conference room, then I will set off to make sure your room is prepared and transport your luggage’s to your room, don’t worry about anything but the conference.”

“Ok, thanks JungKyu-shi, really” she answered in gratefully. He gave her a warm smile and as the car came to a stop, he led her to the conference room.

The nervousness and anxiety she lacked from before came rushing to her mind. She could feel herself sweating and shaking, she has never felt this nervous before, ever. How will she manage to communicate with these people? What kind of ideas do they have in mind for her to elaborate on? How accepting will they be of her opinions and ideas on this new script? She’ll just have to find out herself.

-

Rainie couldn't help but feel extraordinarily nervous while entering the building into the room that determined quite a bit of her new life in Korea.

“Rainie-sshi, please take a seat over here” a woman dressed in a formal dress-suit directed Rainie. Rainie began to feel very out of place; she regretted dressing so casually when she knew she was coming to such an important meeting.

“Thank you.” Rainie replied, her voice a little shaky. The lady gave her a cup of hot chocolate and watched her uneasiness.

“Ah, I’m HyeMin, secretary of the producing department. Don’t worry, the chairman and producers are very kind. I’m sure they will take care of you.”

Rainie watched HyeMin speak and tried very hard to understand her… the only words she understood were ‘I’m HyeMin’ and ‘take care’. This worried her a bit more than it was intended to.

‘Agh! I have to learn Korean as fast as I can!’ she thought to herself. Nonetheless, she replied very politely to HyeMin with a simple “Kamsahamnida”, which meant thank you in Korean.

Finally, the chairman and two producers arrived in the conference room about five minutes later. Rainie watched them as they rushed into the room feeling apologetic for being a little late. They immediately shook hands with her and she bowed to them respectfully – she learned that very quickly from JungKyu – and they all took their seats. She realized they had hired a translator for her and felt a little less nervous than before.
The chairman and producers would speak and the translator would immediately translate.

“We would like to first introduce the artists you will be scripting for,” explained the translator, “we really want to do a China-Korea collaboration, the first one in Korea, therefore, we are going to be using a Taiwan actress. You might know her, her name is Joanne Zeng Zhi Qiao.”

It really shocked Rainie to hear of such news and it relieved her very much to know that she will be working with someone from the same homeland. “Yes, of course! I’ve written a script for Joanne before, I know her capabilities well.”

“That’s great news! Then we don’t need to elaborate much more on Joanne. Secondly, the male lead is Cho KyuHyun from Super Junior. This will be his first serial, so it’s very important to him,” the translator translated.

Cho KyuHyun…. Rainie has heard of Super Junior many times before, they are very popular in all of Asia, but she didn’t know any one of the members specifically. “Ahh… I see…” she replied.

“Do you not know him?” asked the translator.

“I know of Super Junior, but I don’t really know them individually. It will be harder for me to work on his part of the script…” Rainie replied very seriously.

The chairman and producers peered at her shortly but did not act surprised; they predicted this would happen and already had something planned in order for her to have an easier time writing for KyuHyun. The eldest and most serious looking chairman then spoke up,

“We thought this was the case, therefore, we have arranged for you to work with KyuHyun-sshi directly for the next two to three months you will be spending here to learn about the Korean culture,” the translator explained.

Rainie was dumbfounded. Working with a Korean celebrity? How? She wondered. “You said what?” she asked.

“You will be assisting KyuHyun with his upcoming activities. Of course, we will not be informing him about your position as his scriptwriter so you can observe him in his truest personality,” said one of the producers.

“Oh, and of course this is all up to you, you don’t have to if you think you can write just by watching his performances and such,” another producer added. The chairman just sat in silence, drinking his coffee.

Rainie pondered on the request made by these highly ranked men, she really didn’t know how she was going to do this but she thought she should at least give it a try. “Alright, I’ll do it.”

Everyone was glad that Rainie accepted their proposal. On one hand, they wanted to see how interesting it would be to have such a successful dramatist work with such a famous singer and future actor, on the other; they were really anticipating the script she would come up with in the months to come.

“Alright then,” said the chairman with a wide smile on his round wrinkly face, “you will meet KyuHyun tomorrow. Have a good rest today and prepare for a new life with us, and them, for the upcoming months!” After he said this, the chairman and producers shook hands with Rainie one last time before proceeded to leave. JungKyu was already at the door waiting for her.

“I’ll take you wherever you want to go, Rainie-shi,” he smiled brightly.

“Really? Then let’s go get something to eat at the markets first, I’m dying of hunger! That meeting took 2 of my nine lives!” she joked.

“Are you a cat?” he asked, bewildered and amused.

“No, but I’ll have to be one if I want to continue working here!”

JungKyu laughed at how serious she sounded despite her childish smile. ‘I think I’ll enjoy working with her’ he thought to himself. They stayed up very late together this first night, he showed Rainie around the markets and restaurants while helping her learn more about the Korean culture and language. Suddenly, the chairman’s last words rung in Rainie’s mind. What did he mean by “them”?