I open my eyes to the bright sunlight and the annoying blaring of my alarm clock. Reaching my arm over, I manage to successfully hit the button before it could annoy me any further. “Wake up, baby,” my boyfriend, Yongguk says to me in his deep voice. “Your first day of work is today.” I roll my eyes and take a look at him standing at the doorway with his goofy gummy smile, but it’s the same smile that captured me in the first place. “Jaime, I know how much you don’t want to go, but you can’t be late for your first day. I already made breakfast.”

                Yongguk travels over and stands by my bed before he sits down on it and touches my face. I smile at him and slowly sit up to face him. “Do I really?” I ask pouting.

                “You have to,” he simply replies as he leans down and gently kisses me on my lips. “You’re going to get fired before you even go there.”

                “Shouldn’t you be at work?” I ask staring at him. Normally by the time that I wake up he’s already gone, but that was before I ever had a job. Yongguk laughs his deep laugh before he ruffles the top of my already messed up hair. “You’re tangling it even more,” I complain as I start attempting to fix it.

                “You have to get ready anyway,” he says with a smile. “And I thought that we could leave together, but if you dillydally any more in bed, I’m going to have to leave without you.”

                “Starting!” I yell as I immediately jump up from my bed and head towards the bathroom. I hear Yongguk laughing at me, but I don’t mind. He normally laughs at my stupid antics, it’s what we do.

                Yongguk and I have been dating ever since our third year in college when he had the courage to ask me out. Before that we were friends for two years, we met in our first year by mutual friends, even if we didn’t have the same major, but we somehow bonded. I’m not even entirely sure myself. A year after we graduated, well last year, Yongguk and I decided to move in with each other. We’ve been dating for three years so we decided that it was alright if we lived together.

                Now since we’ve graduated, I’ve now gotten a job at a company and right out of college, Yongguk got a job at a talent agency for training kids how to rap and dance and whatever else he does in preparation for the idol world. Before I used to always visit him, but I guess I can’t do that anymore since I’ll be working my own job.

                Coming out of the bathroom in my working clothes, I make my way downstairs to where the breakfast is already laid out on the table and where Yongguk is already eating his food. “Oppa, you didn’t wait for me?” I ask sitting down and begin eating myself.

                “Sorry,” he apologizes with a smile. “You took too long.”

                “I guess I did oversleep,” I say giving him one of my eye smiles.

                “No, really?” he asks. “Let’s go or we’re going to be late.”

                “Yes, sir,” I say grabbing some toast and running out the door with him to the car.

                “So, are you ready for your first day of work?” Yongguk asks as he starts driving. Excitedly, I nod my head causing him to reach over and rub the top of it.

                “Oppa,” I complain as I attempt to straighten up my hair again. “You’re going to mess it up. I can’t look messy when I go to work.”

                “Sorry,” he apologizes. “I’m just happy that you got the job in the first place.”

                I smile back at Yongguk. I’m proud of my accomplishment, too. It’s hard to get into the company in the first place. They only take a limited number into their company every year. Right after college I didn’t want to apply because I wasn’t sure if I’d make it in, so I waited a year and built up my resume before deciding to apply. Thankfully, I was accepted and today is the first day that I’m going to start training.

                “Well, we’re here Jaime,” Yongguk says as he quickly pulls into a parking space near the front. I sit there and admire the building for a moment. I look at how bright the inside seems and how the front is made almost entirely of glass. It looks like a beautiful building and it doesn’t scream the name that it’s a business. I would take it more as a broadcasting station or an entertainment agency, but no, it’s a company that buys and sells things and is one of the largest out there. “So, am I picking you up when you’re done?” he asks.

                “Of course,” I state giving him a look. “How else am I supposed to get home? Ride the bus?”

                “I’m never going to let my girlfriend ride the bus. What time are you going to get done then?”

                “I’ll call you,” I tell him with a smile. “I’m not sure, but I won’t try to state late.”

                “If you end up being late, I’ll get some dinner and save some for you. Just call me to pick you up, okay?” I nod my head. “Now go inside, I don’t want you to be late.”

                I wave goodbye to Yongguk and watch him leave to go do his work at the entertainment agency that he works for. Slowly, I turn around and take a deep breath before moving to make my way inside.

                Opening one of the clear doors to enter the company, it feels like it’s a completely different atmosphere, it feels like the air is completely different. Looking around, I’m not entirely sure where to go so I go up to the front desk. “Hello,” I say greeting her with a slight bow.

                “Hello,” she happily says. “Are you looking for something or someone?”

                “I’m supposed to be starting work today.”

                “So you’re one of the new trainees?” I nod my head. “You’re early, we love to see that. You can just sign in here and wait over there.” She gestures with her hand to a somewhat lavish waiting area that has multiple couches and chairs that are all white and a television that is also over there. The woman hands the clipboard to me and I see that someone else has already signed in, so that means that I’m not the only early one, maybe I could make friends with this person. I don’t see the name, though, because the handwriting is somewhat hard to read.

                “Thank you,” I tell her before I make my way over to the seating area.

                Once I sit down, I look around, but I don’t see the other person that signed in anywhere. I guess they went somewhere, probably to go to the bathroom or possibly grab something to eat. Thankfully Yongguk made breakfast this morning, even if I didn’t eat much of it. Silently I sit there and wait for some other people to come. I stare at some of the workers as they walk in. they all look busy and I can’t help but wonder if I’m going to look like that within the next year. Will I end up being that busy, too? I keep staring at random things until I feel a presence in front of me and a voice.

                “Are you here for the training, too?” the voice asks. I nod my head and look up. The person and I stare at each other. It can’t be. “Jaime?” he asks shocked.

                “Himchan?” I ask staring at him. He’s wearing a suit and has a lanyard around his neck. He seems so different than what I remember him as, but we were teenagers, now we’re adults and we’re in the workplace.

                “Jaime, so it is you then,” he happily says as he sits down next to me. I however am still in shock that he’s here.

                Himchan and I used to have an interesting type of friendship; I’m not exactly sure how to describe it. We only ever saw each other during school and we were always alphabetically next to each other. We weren’t the best of friends, but we weren’t the worst. The both of us attended the same elementary school with the same classes, were on the same teams in middle school, still with the same classes, and were in the same homeroom in high school, but we didn’t have any classes together.

                When we were in school, Himchan could’ve been classified as the typical playboy. He always got notes from other girls, but he never paid attention to them. He did have a couple of girlfriends during our schooldays, but nothing too serious. It always seemed like there was something holding him back. Yes, we did talk and we were friends causing some people to be jealous of me, but they didn’t do anything irrational, they just always asked me to help them get closer to him. Himchan and I never hung out outside of school; the only time we communicated was inside of school.

                I’ll admit now that I used to have a crush on him, but back then I didn’t know of my own feelings. I just thought we were good friends and that was the end. I wasn’t jealous whenever he had a girlfriend and I was always by his side if he needed to use my book or my locker for something, but looking back on it, I guess I did like him. However, that’s now the past. I have Yongguk now; he’s everything that I could ever want.

                “Are you a trainee here, too?” I manage to ask while still digesting the news that he’s here in front of me. During our second year of high school, Himchan moved and I haven’t seen him since.

                “No, I work here already,” he announces.

                “You already work here?” I ask shocked. “That’s amazing. I’m just starting today. Shouldn’t you be getting to work then?”

                “Already growing tired of me?” Himchan jokes. “Anyway, I’m in charge of the group of trainees for the part of the business that I’m under. There are other people that are going to help with it, too.”

                I nod my head. I don’t know how I should feel about Himchan being my boss. I know that he loves to point me out of the group and make fun of me. At least that’s how it used to be when we were still in school.

                “It feels like forever since we last saw each other,” I tell him. “It’s been seven years since you moved.”

                “I can’t believe it’s been that long,” he says thinking about it. “So, how were your final two years of high school without me?”

                “They were alright,” I say with a smile. “They were kind of peaceful without you around to always play at my locker. A lot of things happened, though.”

                “Good or bad?”

                “Both?” I ask shrugging my shoulders. “I don’t know.”

                “Did you date anyone?”

                “Why are you asking?”

                “Just wondering,” Himchan says putting both of his hands up in the defense position.

                “Nope,” I say shaking my head. “I didn’t date in high school, but I am now.”

                “You’re dating someone now, who is it?”

                “Nosy,” I say eyeing him, but he just laughs at me. He always used to laugh at me now Yongguk laughs at me. What’s with everyone laughing at me? “But his name is Bang Yongguk. He works for an entertainment agency, not as an idol or anything, but he helps train them. He’s a rap and dance teacher.”

                “So, you like the slightly bad boys. If I would’ve known that, I would’ve asked you out years ago,” Himchan jokes, but I only stare at him. What does he mean by that? “It was a joke,” he says after a long silence between us. He flashes me a smile before standing up. “Well, looks like there are a lot of people here, we should start this training session.”

               I look around the room and see that there aren’t really a lot of people here since they don’t really accept a lot. At most there are probably about twenty. Himchan and his exaggerations, they never seem to go away.

                In starting the training session, Himchan motions for everyone to make a circle around him and some other people, who I’m guessing are the other trainers. “Hello,” he says greeting everyone happily like an emcee would. “My name is Kim Himchan and I will be one of the trainers to help prepare you for the first day of working here. I will help you through all of the procedures that you will need to know while working in my specific department. What is my department you may ask, well, you’re just going to have to wait,” he says smirking a bit. It seems as though nothing really changes in seven years.

                “Okay,” another guy says picking it up, “nametags are now being disturbed throughout the group of you. The nametags are color-coded to the person and identify which trainer you belong with for which part the company deems your skills will be most useful.” The guy goes on to continue how the nametags will be given out, which is in alphabetical order by letter.

                “What is your name?” one of the workers who is giving out the nametag asks as I go up to her.

                “Jaime Cho,” I confidently tell her.

                “Here you are,” she says pulling out a pink colored nametag.

                After I receive my nametag, I turn around to look at all of the trainers standing there with their colors on. I look at the ten people that are standing there with different colors to find the person with pink. Finally, my eyes land on the one person who has the pink nametag. It’s Kim Himchan.

                “You have a pink nametag?” Himchan excitedly asks as I walk up to him.

                “I do,” I say showing it to him. I look at it. “Is there something wrong with it?”

                “Nope, I’m just glad that we’re together.”

               “Um…okay,” I hesitantly say while looking at him. I don’t know what he’s attempting to get at, but whatever. He’s Himchan; he’s always been like this for as long as I can remember, I guess I just thought he would grow up once in a while.

                The other member of the group, since there are twenty people and ten departments, joins Himchan and I and we’re ready to get going. “So, Jaime, this is Yubin. Yubin, this is Jaime.”

                “Nice to meet you,” Yubin and I say as we introduce ourselves to each other.

                “Well, you’re both going to be in the promoting department, yay!” Himchan yells as he raises his hands into the air.

                “The promoting department?” I ask.

                “Yeah,” Himchan says looking at me with a goofy smile. “We’re the people that get to go on TV and promote the products.”

                “Aren’t the idols supposed to do that?” I ask.

                “Well…yeah. We just make sure that we get the correct idol to help with the promoting process. Like examine each product and see which idols would do good in fitting the image that we’re attempting to portray. This is better than the rest of the departments because this is the one that most people try to get into since we work with so many people in the entertainment industry we meet a lot of people. My friends are a part of the entertainment industry.”

                As Himchan goes on and on about the promoting department that I’m now a part of, it seems like I’m going to have to do my research on idols. I’m not very good with idols since I don’t really memorize any of their names. Sure I listen to the music, but that’s about it. How did I get sorted into this group? Even though this seems like it’s going to be slightly difficult, for some reason, I can’t wait.

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How will Himchan think about seeing Jaime for the first time in seven years?

Next chapter will be Himchan's point of view. 

Well, here was the first chapter. Hope you enjoyed :D