'Will you sit down already?' Choi Minho said, rolling his eyes.

'No, Minho. I can’t sit down. Did you see the last audition? It was horrific!' Kim Kibum responded. He wasn’t entirely sure when he started pacing the floor, but he just couldn’t stop it.

Minho’s eyes followed his path across the tiny room before he returned his glance to his notes. The action only serving to annoy Kibum more.

'Yes, I did see it. I agree it was bad,’ Minho said. ‘But, you aren’t the one directing this project. I am.'

'I am aware of that. But, I am your stage manager. How can we expect to work with someone who doesn’t understand basic directions?' Kibum made another lap of the room.

'Hey boys,' Amber, the production manager for this particular production of Spring Awakening, said, popping her head around the corner of the room. 'How’s it going in here? You’ve got one more.'

Kibum groaned.

'What’s with him?' She vaguely gestured to the wandering stage manager.

'It’s been a long night,' Minho replied. 'Send our last one in.'

'You got it,' she responded, disappearing around the corner.

'I don’t want to see anyone else!' Kibum whined. 'I just want to go home and run my head under a faucet.'

Minho rolled his eyes. 'Stop being so dramatic.' 

'I am---'

‘Hello,’ an unfamiliar voice said, cutting off Kibum’s tirade. ‘I’m Lee Jinki...Onew.’ The man gave a small bow and approached the table with his headshot and resume, nearly tripping over the carpet in the room as he approached.

‘Hello, I’m the director, Minho. This salty creature is the stage manager, Key,’ Minho said, taking the documents and flipping the headshot over to see his resume.

‘Hi,’ Kibum grumbled.

‘Just ignore him,’ Minho continued. ‘Your resume looks very impressive. What do you have prepared for us today?’ 

Jinki smiled. ‘Today, my monologue is from The Game . I’ll be reading the part of Death.’

‘Great. Whenever you’re ready,’ Minho said, making a note in his notebook.

Jinki took a deep breath and then began, his expression morphing from a man with a sweet expression to something darker. ‘Think of the great lovers of the world--Paola and Francesca, Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde. I, I claimed them all. Who are you to set yourself up against such august precedents? You think he loves you. It is not you he loves, but your dancing of his songs. He is a Poet--therefore he loves only himself. And his sweetheart, for lack of whom he was going to die. See! He has already forgotten her! As you will one day be forgotten. Life offers you many things--I but one. She pours out the sunshine before you to make you glad; she sends the winter to chill your heart. She gives you Love and Desire--and takes them away. She brings you warm quietness--and kills it with hunger and anxiety. Life offers you many things--I but one. Come closer, tired heart, and hold out your weary hands. See! What a pearl I offer--to kings and beggars alike. Come--I will give you peace!’

As he finished the monologue, Kibum watched as Jinki’s expression returned to his sweet smile. He scribbled a note down on a piece of paper and turned to Minho, waiting for him to speak. 

‘Thank you very much,’ Minho said, after a few moments of him making his own notes. ‘We’ll be in touch in a few days one way or the other.’ He returned to his own notes once again, shuffling through various papers.

‘I appreciate that, sir. Thank you,’ Jinki responded, bowing deeply before exiting the room.

Kibum continued to stare at Minho, watching Jinki leave from the corner of his eye.

'You have to cast him,' Kibum said, once he was certain Jinki had left the room.

'What?'

'You have to cast him. Did you not see him?'

Minho blinked. 'Yes, I saw him. He tripped over the carpet.'

'But, he’s amazing. He’d gorgeous. And that monologue. Did you see him flip from being cute and adorable to being terrifying and back in sixty seconds? You won’t find anyone else like that. You won’t find anyone else who can carry that part. 

Minho looked up from his stack of papers. ‘I think I might,’ he said. ‘We saw a number of actors today.’

‘Yeah, and they were all horrible. Except one. Stop being an idiot Minho and cast him. No one is as good as him. Not even Joonmyeon...and I saw how much you were drooling over his performance.’

Minho glared at him and then returned to the pile of resumes and headshots once more. He shuffled through them before returning his attention to Kibum once again, much to Kibum’s delight.

‘I hate to you’re right, but you are. Tell Amber to put together a contract and offer him the job,’ Minho said.

‘Yes!’ Kibum yelled, jumping from his chair and sprinting toward the door, calling for Amber as he ran. 

‘I hope I don’t regret this,’ Minho said with a sigh.