O2 : Identity of the Misidentified

 

 

“Excuse me, I came in for a job interview…a chef position?” Bora asks unsurely.

 

The receptionist looks up and replies monotonously, “That would be upstairs on the fifth floor, Mr. Goo should be waiting in room 511.”

 

Bora nodded her head as the receptionist spoke and made a thankful bow once she was done, “Kamsahamnida.”

 

“Unnie, say do you think we’ll bump into any celebrities on the way?” Her young roommate who forcefully tagged along asked. Her lined, feline doe eyes darted at every possible corner, “like Super Junior…” She observes each poster of different idols as she trots beside Bora down the hallway, “…BoA?” She asks hopefully once her eyes met with a Hurricane Venus poster.

 

Bora shakes her head, “Song Ga Yeong you think celebrities are like fungus, popping up anytime, anywhere?” She pressed the elevator button pointing up. The circular silver button lit up with a red border.

 

Ga Yeong blew air into her cheeks and let it out with a ‘FUP’ sound when she replies Bora. “This is the SM building unnie, they should be popping up like mushrooms…” Ga Yeong tapped her chin as she walks into the elevator that arrived for boarding. She continues on with her celebrity-meeting fantasy, “…Gosh how should I react if I meet Go Ara? She is so pretty, I think I might just freeze up!” She spots a Girls Generation poster, “…Ugh, but I don’t want to meet them.”

 

The elevator arrives on the fifth floor.

 

Bora asked, taken aback by Ga Yeong’s comment, “Why? You haven’t even met So Nyuh Shi Dae before.” Both the freelancer and the student got out of the elevator.

 

“Aigoo unnie! What do you understand? So Nyuh Shi Dae is the epiphany of the ideal girl now a day in South Korea…Its their fault guys expect us to look and act like them. Or worse, compare us to them.” Ga Yeong rolled her eyes, “In reality how many girls out there do you actually think reflects the image of So Nyuh Shi Dae? I’d say it has the demographic percentage of point zero zero zero zero…”

 

Bora chuckled at Ga Yeong’s little insight as she glances around to look for the room number. 501…503…505…507…

 

“But isn’t it the same for the male population? Don’t girls expect them to reflect the image of the likes of perhaps…Super Junior? I mean if you think about it, it really depends on the person doesn’t it? Whether he or she is superficial enough to care about these things or not.”

Ga Yeong gaps at Bora and quietly claps her hand after she informatively thought about Bora’s words of wisdom, “Wooooow~ daebak unnie. You can be like a professor in human sociology or something.”

 

…The tag-along sudden halts in her steps, her eyes expand to the size of saucers, “Omo unnie…!”

 

At the sight of Ga Yeong’s sudden change, Bora knit her forehead in worry.

 

“What is the matter?”

 

Ga Yeong’s lips widen into a Cheshire grin and skips along ahead of Bora with her back facing the opposite direction, “Now that I think about it…my boyfriend is definitely a Super Junior type.”

 

Upon hearing this Bora crosses her arm over her chest with an unimpressed look written on her delicate features.

 

The grin on Ga Yeong’s lips never drops as she points towards a room with the plaque ‘511’ written outside of it and announces, “Look unnie, we’re here!”

 

Noticing that the moment has come, all other conversation and thoughts left Bora’s head. Bora took a deep breath and walked towards the room with the rhythmic ‘tap tap tap’ from her sneakers. This really is it.

 

A light pat contacted her shoulders the moment she walked into the room.

 

“Good Luck Unnie.”

 

Bora lets out a relieved breath.

 

Thanks Ga Yeong.

 

- - - -

 

“My name is Shin Bora, I’m twenty, turning twenty-one in a month. I have about six to seven years of culinary experience from working at my late grandmother’s restaurant.”

 

A man, lanky and sturdy, wearing a baseball cap, looked no further then twenty-seven, sat at a table as his eyes scans over Bora’s resume.

 

“Are you currently employed?”

 

Bora nervously curled a piece of stray hair behind her ears, “Uh no sir, I’m currently just taking on seasonal jobs here and there.”

 

The man glances up from the resume and observes Bora. Bora discreetly gulps under the unblinking scrutiny of the man’s gaze.

 

“What can you cook?”

 

Bora thought for a moment, “well sir, with my experience at my grandmother’s restaurant my grandmother taught me to prepare mostly Korean dishes, but I do know how to make the occasional breakfast and…” Bora’s eyes lit up a bit as she thought of her recent activities, “I have also recently learned to prepare different styles of pasta, Ma Por Tofu and some desserts. You see sir, cooking is sort of like my hobby-“

 

“Araso, araso…” The man cut her off as he scribbled something on her resume.

 

Bora immediately fell silent and she began to worry that maybe she spoke too much for her own good.

 

“Shin Bora-shii, you realize this job isn’t very high paid right?”

 

Bora nodded, “I fully understand sir.”

 

“…And you probably have to work on call at unstable hours for a long period of time…”

 

Bora nodded again, “I understand sir.”

 

“…And you’ll have to make trips to the supermarket yourself…”

 

“Yes sir.”

 

The man scribbles something else on her resume and silently nods.

 

Bora blankly stares at the man with a mind full of ‘and…?’ on her mind.

 

A minute passes by…

 

The man finally looks up.

 

“I hope you will not be taking anymore season jobs for the time being…”

 

The young freelancer’s mind went blank. What, why?

 

“…You are hired.”

 

She is hearing this right…RIGHT?

 

Bora stands up with both her hands placed over her heart. Her eyes glistens with hope as she murmurs an audible, “really?”

 

“This is the contract of agreement you have to sign, read it over. Then sign here…” The man points to a blank line, “…and here…” he then points to another at the bottom.

 

Bora scans over the contract.

 

Terms of agreement with SME employer:

 

Employee must be respectful among other employees…must notify employer during absence…must not speak of artists well being with the media or anyone who might repeat anything to the media…must be respectful of artist’s personal lives…

 

Bora quickly scribbled her signature on the first line, easy enough.

 

“Your experience might not be as outstanding as other applicants, but I can see you are a very driven young woman. It is also good you are quite flexible with your timing and you are clear of any criminal record…I can see you are most befitting with this job…”

 

...Any sort of intimate relations with artists is also not suggested.

 

Welcome and thank you for assisting SM Entertainment.

 

Bora signed the last part of the contract. Done!

 

“Thank you sir.” Bora bows and smiles as she hands in her completed contract with both hands.

 

The man finally breaks into a small smile, “It’s Goo Tae Hyuk and I am an artist manager here at SM Entertainment. Welcome…I hope you are prepared to work first thing tomorrow morning.”

 

“Yes Tae Hyuk-shii.”

 

“Good, I’ll send you additional information later to your e-mail. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

 

Bora continues smiling widely as she does a full ninety-degree bow, “Neh Kamsahamnida!”

 

- - - -

 

“Beepbeep Beep Beepbeep Beep…”

 

A lean yet firmly built figure groans as he rolls over to his other side to turn the alarm clock off.

 

Currently 7:00 AM.

 

He rolled to the other side again and rubbed his eyes. Sigh, how much he didn’t want to get up. If it weren’t for the possibility of being late for practice, he really didn’t want to be making the effort to get up.

 

Defeated Lay outstretched his left arm and tapped the side of the upper bunk.

 

“Hyung-g-g~ Hyung-g-g~” He hoarsely calls out as he ran his free hand through his mass of messy dark brown hair, “Jia Heng (Kris) hyung-g~”

 

The serenity continued to fill the room except for the regular soft snores from his roommates, Kris who slept on the top bunk and Tao who slept on a single bed a little less than a metre away.

 

Lay laid in his bottom bunk now with his eyes wide open. He sort of wished he wasn’t the first person to wake up…It only meant he is put on duty to rouse the other EXO-M members awake. They were all quite the heavy sleepers so Lay knew it isn’t going to be an easy task.

 

All of a sudden a few soft noises from outside the room came to Lay’s senses. He squinted his eyes and perked his ears a little more as his mind worked his way to trying to figure out who is awake already.

 

Hmmm…maybe it’s Jong Dae; he is usually one to wake up early.

 

Knowing another member is awake already Lay didn’t feel so prone to stay in bed anymore. He quietly slips out of his room to check out what Chen was up to.

 

“Jong Dae-yah…Jong Dae-yah…”Lay whispered as he followed what sounds like the soft clangs of utensils moving.

 

“Jong Dae-AHHHH!” Lay gasped the moment he realizes the person standing in the kitchen isn’t his band mate, but a silhouette of a woman.

 

The woman who was startled by Lay’s shriek proximately turns around towards the sound. Her eyes widen as she in a gasp at the sight of the bedhead young man clad only in a pair of navy Calvin Klein boxers standing in front of her. His expression was rather frantic at the moment as he tried to cover his exposed self up.

 

“INTRUDER!!! WE HAVE AN INTRUDER! WAKE UP EVERYONE! WAKE UP! IT’S A ERT!!!”

 

The young woman looks around in fright, trying to look anywhere but at him as the just woken up half- young man made a stance to corner her in the kitchen. In less than a moment a group of five startled half- male idols scampered towards the frantic yells with assortments of what seems like weapons.

 

…Slippers…Hangers…A stick…

 

“What happened?! What is going on?!” The tallest blonde of the bunch hollers, dressed also only in a piece of black undergarment.

 

[Author's Note]

(BTW nothing against SNSD)

Hi to those who are reading :) How is it so far? 

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