I was nervous, my hands were shaking slightly and I swallowed hard as I walked up to the desk in the front of the big lobby. I cleared my throat awkwardly as I tried to focus my gaze on the petit woman behind the desk. Without taking her eyes off the screen in front of her she said sharply.

“What can I do for you?” I immediately began fumbling with the folder in my hands and pulled out a sheet of paper which I placed on the expensive looking marble desk before me.

“I-I have an appointment with the director today, see I got this letter from him “ I pointed at the name and address at the bottom of the paper that clearly confirmed my words. The woman glanced at me before taking the paper from the desk and scanning it thoroughly before turning back to her computer. “breathe, just breathe” I told myself quietly as I took a few deep breaths and watched the woman as her fingers moved over the keyboard with professional speed. In seconds she had handed me the sheet and said once more without averting her gaze from the screen, clearly signaling that she had better things to do today than to give directions to lost strangers.

“16^th floor down the hallway past dance studio nr 8, take a left turn and then at the end of the hall you`ll find him in the conference room on your right.” I nodded understandingly and silently headed towards the elevators.  Once I got there I pressed the up button and waited anxiously. There was no one else beside me waiting for the elevators so once the elevator arrived I alone stepped into it and hovered my finger over the 25 buttons until I reached nr 16 which I then cautiously pushed. I wasn`t really sure what I was doing there in that big building to begin with and the fact that it had 25 floors only screamed even more of the fact that I was out in deep water.

I worked as a freelance translator and had only ever done small jobs for smaller companies. True recently I`d done a few smaller jobs for a few idol groups but never anything big enough to create a reputation for myself. How would a translator create a reputation to begin with anyway? I just translated, which was something millions of people could do. As I stood in the elevator in silence and contemplated how I could`ve gotten a letter from one of Koreas lead idol agencies I barely noticed that the elevator had reached my floor. Had it not been for the little voice in the speakers that announced my arrival I would have accidentally gone back down again. 

Shaking my head slightly I stepped out and headed down the hallway while going through the directions in my head.

“Down the hall, past dance studio nr 8..” I looked up at the numbers and names over the various doors on both sides of me.

“dance studio 3, 4,5 ,6,7 ah..dance studio 8” I beamed triumphantly as I reached the door and smiled at the sign above it. It was then I heard music playing and being the curious person I was I couldn`t help but sneak a peek through the glass window of the door at what it was that made the noise.  My eyes widened slightly as I saw a group of boys, twelve if I counted correctly, moving in synch to the beat of the music. There was no one else in the room beside the 12 boys and as the music grew more and more intense so did their movements.  I knew It was bad to stay much longer because I had a possible job interview to get to but the way they moved despite being so exhausted pulled me in and I couldn`t help myself. They were panting, I could easily tell even from my positing, and they were sweating, obviously dead tired but they still continued to move so powerfully that I couldn`t look away.

Sadly the music came to an end much sooner than I had expected and I found myself pouting slightly as the boys stopped moving and some of them even slumped down to the group, exhausted from dancing.  Seeing as how the show had ended I decided it was time to continue towards the conference room. So as I adjusted my backpack and pulled my two side bags higher up on my right shoulder I began to move forward again. It all went well until I came to the end of the hall where the road parted in two ways. I was about to make a right turn when Is topped myself.

“Was it a right turn and the door on the left or a left turn and the door on the right?” I mumbled quietly as I placed a hand on my hip and the other against my forehead trying to remember the directions. But as luck have it I have always been bad at remembering directions so I couldn`t get the directions sorted out. Not really fancying the idea of bursting in or interrupting an ongoing meeting I decided to go back to the dance studio and ask one of the boys I`d seen if they could help me with new and fresh directions.  So I walked back and as I stood in front of the door to the dance studio I glanced into the room through the window just to make sure they weren`t in the middle of dancing again, and sure enough they were still sprawled and scattered around the room in the middle of their still ongoing break time. I took a deep breath, placed my hand on the handle and hesitantly pushed the door open.  As soon as I did every head in the room turned my way, though some with half closed eyes and slightly furrowed brows. 

As I stepped into the room fully I pulled at the two straps on my two shoulder bags and stared at them nervously. I thought I had calmed down through the elevator ride but having so many attractive boys focusing all, or at least half, of their attention to me only brought the anxious feeling back.  I cleared my throat slightly as I walked into the room and approached the one guy who was the closest to me. He had strawberry blonde slightly curly hair and was lying flat on his back with his arms stretched out and only one eye open as he looked at me. I however had trouble focusing on his eyes as his chest heaved up and down in rhythmical way, clearly signaling that he was indeed very tired.

“Sorry to trouble you.” I spoke softly as I stopped a few feet away from him, far enough to not intrude on his personal space but close enough so I wouldn’t have to yell. “but could you tell me where I can find..” I trailed off, I suddenly realized I didn`t know the name of the person I was looking for. My eyes widened for a split second and I rapidly held up a finger in a ‘one second’  motion as I once again fumbled with the file in my hand and pulled out the same paper I`d shown the lady at the front desk earlier. My eyes scanned the paper quickly before I finally found the name of the person I was looking for.

“..Mr. Park Kwang-Ho.” I finished my earlier sentence with awkward smile. The boy before me took a few deep breaths again before he slowly got up and brought the towel around his neck to his face to wipe away some of the sweat. After doing to he turned towards me and flashed me a bright smile before speaking.

“He is probably down the hall, to the left and at the end of the hall in the conference room on your right.” My eyes widened slightly as his surprisingly deep and dark voice, that did not suit his childlike smile, finished explaining the directions.  I bowed slightly as I tried to regain my composure and said with a slight stutter.

“T-Thank you.” I turned from the boy before me and glanced at the other who still kept their gaze on me. ”Sorry for disturbing you.” I excused myself politely before turning and heading towards the doors again. As I once again entered the hallway I began to make my way towards the conference room for the second time, and this time I remembered the directions long enough for me to make it to the conference room. I knocked on the door and awaited a response. Upon hearing a muffled

“come in” I opened the door and stepped inside.  It was a simple room, much more so than I expected. It had a long conference table with chairs lined up on both sides as well as one on each end of it. There was a projector at the far end of the room and a white screen at the other end and a whiteboard stood against the wall next to me. Other than that there was no other furniture or even any wall decorations in the room. A man sat on one of the chairs at the table. He was looking over a pile of paper and only glanced over the bridge of his glasses as I entered the room and stopped in front of him. He looked at me from head to toe, probably analyzing me, and it made me feel very self-conscious about my appearance. I wasn`t rich so I didn`t have a suit of any sort and had therefor showed up at this possible job interview wearing my normal everyday clothes, which was a long dark red skirt with a white tank top and a brown knitted sweater over. Quite simple and defiantly not something you would wear to a job interview.

Add the fact that I had one backpack full of all my personal necessities and two shoulder bags, one full of dictionaries of all the languages I spoke and one with important documents and my journal which I used to schedule all my appointments and important notes, I did not really give of the impression of being someone who knew what she was doing.  He inhaled deeply before turning to fully face me and waved his hand towards an empty chair, signaling for me to take a seat.  I slipped my bags of my shoulders and swung my backpack from my back to the ground where it landed with a muffled thump before taking my seat on the chair.

“Miss. Lee Hye-Mi.” He started before placing his arm on the table and slightly tapping his fingers on the surface. “I have heard a lot about you from several of my friends.” He continued and I shifted nervously in my seat while my mind was racing, why had he heard anything about me?

“It seems that your translating skills are quite impressive.” He praised me with a soft smile and I shook my head modestly.

“It nothing special really, anyone with the knowledge can translate.” I replied while I half laughed a little bit, needless to say the situation was making me uncomfortable for no particular reason at all. The man, Mr. Park, however smiled once more and leaned forward.

“But not many translators speak 7 languages fluently. “ He leaned back again as I tugged at my skirt slightly while keeping my gaze on my shoes.” And from everything else I`ve heard you`re still studying many other languages.” I looked up at him, finally daring to face him, only to find that kind smile still plastered across his face.

“Well, it`s true but why would that be of any interest to you? Do you have a job for me?” I asked while rummaging through my shoulder bag and pulled out my journal. “I do have a few open spots for this month and if it`s just a paper translating job I can have it done in a few days if you`re in a hurry” I continued as I flipped through the very worn out pages. Mr. Park however only let a small chuckle escape his lips though before he shook his head.

“True I do have a job offer for you, but it`s not a onetime thing. It`s more permanent than that.” He said and I looked up with wide eyes as I almost dropped the pen I`d pulled out with the intention to take notes.

“P-Permanent?” I asked hesitantly, not quite believing my luck. Sure it was really fun to be a freelance translator but the income was anything but stable which had more than once forced me to live off ramen and soup for several weeks or even months in a row. A stable job was very hard to find though, especially if ones only skills was language and translating. Sure it was an impressive skill to speak 7 languages and still counting but there weren`t many jobs that needed someone that over qualified permanently, smaller jobs however, always.

“Yes, I`m offering you a permanent job here at SM and I`m really hoping you`ll take it, or at least think about it.”

“I`ll take it” I almost shouted as the sudden fear of losing this opportunity became too overwhelming for me to bear, thus the sudden rash decision. To be honest I didn`t really care about the job details as long as it was permanent. Permanent meant solid income and a solid income meant something other than noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Mr. Park smiled at me again.

“I`m happy to hear that. Now do you want the job details immediately or do you have some place else to be today?” He asked politely as he began rummaging through his paper pile on the table. I shook my head violently.

“No I have time right now.”  I was so eager that I`d completely forgotten all about my previous nervousness. But then again Mr. Park to begin with didn`t really give off the typical scary director type of feeling. He was more like a kind old uncle who just praised his niece.  As he finally pulled out a piece of paper from the massive pile he handed it to me.

“I don`t know if you`ve heard of them but we have a newly debuted group in our company called ´Exo´ and even though they have managers and assistants their managers are in need of an extra assistant that can be with the boys when they themselves cannot.  There are two managers, one for Exo-K and one for Exo-M and your job.” He stopped and pointed at me and I briefly tore my gaze from the paper to look at him.” Is to assist the two of them with whatever they need, which include looking after the boys and running errands.”  I nodded understandingly before asking something that had been bothering me.

“But I have no experience in being a personal assistant, or an assistant of any kind actually. I just translate.” I hesitate and studied Mr. Parks’ expression, silently wondering if I maybe just blew my chances of getting a job.

“I know, which is why you are almost perfect. I know you will probably have trouble in the beginning with learning how things work, but considering how many languages you`ve managed to master at such a young age I`m guessing you`re a fast learner.  Besides your language skills are the very reason for why I choose you out of all the other capable candidates. If you, who speak so many languages, already work for Exo it saves us the trouble of hiring translators every time the boys go abroad for showcases and concerts.” I nodded in agreement, he had a point.  Mr. Park smiled once again.

“Well now that you`ve been filled in on the details, what do you say we go and meet the boys?”  My eyes shot up at him and I hesitantly nodded.

“ Alright.” I replied as I stood up and slung my backpack over my shoulders once again and picked up my two shoulder bags while silently following Mr. Park out of the conference room.  

When Mr. Park finally came to a stop I noticed that he was standing right in front of the same dance studio I`d been lurking outside just a few moments ago.

“don`t tell me..” I thought quietly to myself as a thought struck me. I was about to ask Mr. Park about it when he said.

“You ready?” and with the he pushed the door open and walked inside.  I swallowed hard as I followed Mr. Park  “breathe, just breathe” was the only words the kept playing on repeated in my head as I looked at the people in front of me, the same 12 boys I`d briefly admired right before meeting with Mr. Park. Who would have thought that they were Exo.
 

“Breathe, just breathe.” I thought quietly again as I for the second time that day felt 12 pairs of eyes staring straight at me.