Several days later Summer was standing gaping up at the YG Entertainment building, clutching at her bag.  The evening of her encounter with Seoyeon in the cafe she had received a message from the woman, stating that an interview had been arranged for a night time cleaning job in the same company she worked for and stated a time and address.  Summer had never known what Seoyeon did for a living, but now she learnt it was apparently working for one of the biggest entertainment companies in South Korea.  Swallowing thickly she made her way to the front doors, the wall of heat hitting her as she stepped in.  Not entirely sure what she was supposed to do, she approached the front counter where a security guard was sat.

“Uh, excuse me?  I have an interview with Min Heejin,” she said and the guy nodded, picking up the phone and tapping in a number.  She waited patiently as he spoke to whoever was on the other end, informing them she was here.  A moment later he hung up.

“Take a seat, she’ll be down soon.”  Bowing in thanks Summer retreated, smoothing down her shirt as she moved to a row of seats and tried not to appear too nervous as she waited.  For a public entrance there seemed to be a lot of coming and going of staff and whenever a door opened into the foyer she looked up expectantly.  It was almost ten minutes however before a hunchbacked old lady walked in and called out Summer’s name.  The girl jumped up and tried to ignore the way Heejin’s eyes swept over her judgingly, instead focusing on greeting the elder as she approached.

“Follow me,” the lady instructed and she did so obediently, shuffling along behind Heejin as she was led through a side door and up a set of stairs.  Summer’s mind started to run ahead of her, imagining the room she would be taken into and wondering if she would pass by any of the idols on the way.  The thought of that made her even more nervous and she took a deep breath to try and steady herself.  It wouldn’t do her any favours to be so wound up she forgot how to speak Korean, especially considering how badly she needed the job.

The disappointment was enough to bring her back down as Heejin ushered her into an office barely bigger than the cleaning cupboard she imagined all the supplies were kept in.  It was only big enough for a desk and a two drawer filing cabinet and when Summer took a seat her legs were pressed right up against the wood of the table backing.  She offered the woman a smile, but didn’t get one back, simply another studying expression and one that this time seemed to hold some curiosity.

“When Seoyeon asked me to consider you for the cleaner’s position I was expecting something vastly different.  For one you’re at least two decades younger than our youngest current employee.  For another it’s rare to see a white person fluent in Korean.  You do understand me right?” she paused giving Summer a moment to nod in response.  “Well, what experience do you have?”

“Um, well none professionally.  But I’m in charge of my dorm room, and I always did the housework for my parents back home,” Summer replied, beginning to wonder whether this was a waste of time.  They were probably looking for someone who had held the best cleaning record consecutively in their last job and had a minimum of five years experience.

“What do you use to clean a mirror?”

“Glass cleaner and either newspaper or a fibre free cloth?” the foreigner answered, wishing her voice sounded more confident than she felt.  But with the unexpected question she couldn’t help but give the answer in a tone that suggested she was waiting for a cane over her knuckles if it was wrong.

“The floors have been swept and mopped.  What’s the last thing I do to them?”

“...wax them?” Summer visibly winced at herself that time, resisting the urge to cover her face with her hands and peek out at the lady from between her fingers.  No reprimanding came, instead Heejin stayed silent, seeming to mull over the answers.  It was getting to the point where Summer was about to reach for her bag and apologise for wasting the lady’s time when she finally spoke.

“I run a tight ship in this establishment.  By the end of every shift I expect your assigned rooms to be no less than perfect.  You will receive your hours by text message no later than five hours before your shift starts as they depend on the schedules of those who use the rooms and don’t expect me to be lenient if you have some big project due for your studies,” Heejin said and it took a few moments for the foreigner to realise she had been immediately offered the job.  “Come, there is paperwork you need to fill out and background checks that need to be sent.”

Summer jumped to her feet immediately, trying to ignore the pain as she smacked her knee on the underside of the desk, using a deep bow of gratitude to cover up the screwing up of her face over it.  Then they were back into the hallway and down into another room that seemed to mimic a staff room at a school.  There were several tables grouped together, a couple of copy machines, and a wall of pigeon holes for the paper trails that refused to turn electronic.  Heejin moved to one with her name stuck to it and pulled out a thick looking document, handing it to Summer.

“Those are the terms and conditions to your employment under YG and myself.  Take it home and read over it and bring it back signed for your first shift.  You’ll find the most important rule in there is to keep your mouth shut.  Talk about what you see in this building and you’ll be out of the job quicker than you can say our CEO’s name with a fine bigger than what you earn in three months slapped to your back.  Let me take all your details and you’ll receive notification when all documents are in order,” Heejin explained and Summer swallowed thickly as she thumbed through the pages briefly.  As part of her language degree she had been made to translate legal documents before, but she idly wondered if this would give her any difficulty.

Nevertheless, it was a job and if she started within the next week then she wouldn’t have to run out of money at all, which sounded mighty pleasant to her.  Once again she thanked her new boss, assuring the woman she would read it front to back and have everything signed, dated, and ready when she arrived back at the building.