One

At seven o’clock the next morning Kadence found herself on the third floor of the SM building, chewing on her lip as she decided where she would begin.  Kim Bongsun hadn’t given her an exact location to find Lee Minah and she presumed it was because the lady was likely to be anywhere along the floor at any given time.

Deciding to start with the office that Kadence knew belonged to the woman she was relieved to find a person standing behind the desk.  Knocking on the doorframe she stepped in, Lee Minah looking up from her work.

“Oh, you must be the new assistant, Kadence,” she greeted and Kadence nodded, moving in closer as she was beckoned.  “Pleased to meet you, I’m not fond of formalities so please just call me Minah.”

“Nice to meet you too, I’m glad I managed to find you so easily,” she replied and the Korean let out a laugh, flicking through several papers on the desk until she found what she was looking for, plucking it up with an ‘uh huh’.

“Let’s get you started by running through all the duties and introducing you to the team.  This is EXO-M’s schedule for the next month, I expect you to be at headquarters at least an hour before each event, more so if we have to travel.  If we’re flying between Korea and China I expect you to be ready and waiting five hours beforehand... you wouldn’t believe how much work it is to get six boys to an airport,” Minah babbled, handing Kadence the list and she ran over it briefly as she listened.  The schedule contained three pages of events such as interviews, flights, performances and ceremonies.

“Seems like a busy time.”

“Welcome to the world of SM.  Your duty is basically that of a runner, if any of the boys or us staff need something it’s your job to obtain it.  It’s not the best job, but at least you have direct contact with the stars and higher staff,” the Korean continued and stepping around her desk placed a hand on Kadence’s shoulder.  “Shall we begin the introductions?”

With a nod she followed Minah out of the room and down the hallway, passing several practice rooms, recording studios and offices on the way.  They halted at the very last room, Minah breezing through the doorway as she chatted about a staff dinner the weekend before.  The room was bigger than it appeared and was filled with an assortment of tables, mannequins and materials.  Three young women stood in the middle of it all and it was to them that Minah led Kadence.

“Kadence I would like to introduce you to our styling staff.  Choi Jiyoung and Kang Nana are the boys’ hair and make-up artists and Shin Yoonhee is their stylist.  It’s her job to design, create and purchase all the boys’ outfits,” Minah introduced and Kadence bowed to each of them in turn.  Yoonhee smiled warmly at her and she was glad to see a familiar face.  Being a stylist the girl was always receiving packages and phone calls and so Kadence had, had many interactions with her over the months.

“Welcome to the team Kadence,” Yoonhee grinned and she thanked her heartily.  She looked forward to spending more time with the Korean girl and hoped that she would finally find someone in Korea who was more than just a work acquaintance.

“Shall we move along?  So much to do and so little time,” Minah urged and Kadence nodded, sharing farewells with the three stylists before trailing out of the room.  She was introduced to several more team members and began to wonder how she would manage to keep up with the demands of everyone.  Eventually they reached one of the practice rooms and as they entered Kadence got a glimpse of the reason for all their hard work.

Six boys were moving along in time to the music that was blaring, their gazes fixated on their reflections in the wall sized mirrors.  Striding over to the CD player Minah hit the pause button, causing all of them to stop in their tracks and spin around.

“Good morning boys, sorry to interrupt, but I’d like to introduce our newest member of the team.  This is Kadence, she is going to be our personal assistant,” Minah introduced and they all bowed, Kadence imitating them.

“A foreign assistant, how exciting!” one of them exclaimed and she couldn’t help but giggle.  It wasn’t hard to miss the fact with her pale skin, blue eyes and flaming red hair.

“Kadence, these are our troublemakers; Wu Fan, Yi Xing, Lu Han, Jongdae, Minseok and Tao,” Minah continued and each boy stepped forward as his name was called.  Kadence tried to commit each one to memory, not wanting to embarrass herself.  Minah gave them a few minutes to exchange pleasantries before she urged them to return to work and led Kadence back to her office.

“Thank you very much for all of this,” she said as they came to a halt and Minah smiled brightly at her.

“It’s my pleasure, what kind of a boss would I be if I didn’t show my employee around?” she laughed, before reaching for a device on the table.  “Now I’m going to show you your most important item, you can forget anything except this... and your schedule.  This will allow all of us to communicate with you at any given time.”

Taking the item Kadence realised it was a two way radio and she attached the belt pack to the waistband of her pants, hooking the earpiece around her extremity.

“Keeping it on channel three.  Now, you can start your new job by getting me a coffee from the cafe.  Just say it’s for me and they’ll know how to make it,” Minah ordered and Kadence nodded, bowing to the girl.  She was almost out the door when the sound of her name caught her attention and she looked back to find the Korean looking at her quizzically.  “You know, I have no idea why Lee Sooman suggested on this promotion now.  I mean sure we need the staff badly, but he’s throwing you in the deep end.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at the schedule,” Minah urged and Kadence followed, finally noticing the first event for tomorrow.

“We go to Beijing tomorrow?”

“We’ll look after you.  Be here by three in the morning,” she said and Kadence took a deep breath, nodding.  As she left the room her heart sank, tomorrow she would be trying to get the hang of her new job while in a country she didn’t speak the language of.  She was stuffed.

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Hey guys, I figured seeing as my prologue wasn't the most interesting one I've ever done to post the first chap soon after.  Let me know what you think ^^