Welcome to paradise.
Can I Have This Dance? [Discontinued]
(Sorin POV)
The next morning, I had to meet with a certain Kwon Minhee< at the SM building. I was so excited and so nervous that my eye bags grew even bigger. I had to cover them with make up or people would think that I was a zombie on my first day of work. Which was the last thing I wanted.
I came half an hour earlier than the actual appointment and I had to wait outside since the boys had a variety show recording, I couldn’t use their member card to get in. I waited for what seemed to be ages when someone patted my shoulder,
“Lee Sorin-shi?” a quit familiar voice called,
I turned around and faced someone I didn’t really want to see,
“K-Kwon Minhwa-shi?” I said,
“Ah! No,” she laughed, “I’m Kwon Minhee. Minhwa is my younger sister,” the young woman smiled,
“Ah! Hello, nice to meet you,” I bowed, a bit relieved,
“I’m going to be your manager starting from now on, so let’s work hard together,” she extended her hand,
“Yes, please take care of me,” I shook her hand and bowed again,
“Don’t be so formal. Call me Unni,” she smiled,
“Ah. Okay,” I nodded,
It was… weird… I felt like I was talking to a nice Kwon Minhwa… Now I really found Sidney’s identical copy!
“Let’s go!” she suggested,
“Okay,” I followed,
We walked to the door and she swiped her card to open it,
“We’ll give you your own card when you’ll have signed the contract and all,” she explained, “But I’m sure you’ll sign it. The conditions are really good! You have approximately the same contract as most artists in the agency. Trust me you’ll love this job,” she smiled,
“Ah really?” I smiled,
It is true that I haven’t thought about the juridical part of the job. I’ll ask the boys about this later.
“So, you know my sister?” she asked when we climbed in the elevator,
“Not really. We met once or twice,” I scratched the back of my neck,
“She’s a little intimidating at first, but she’s really nice when you get to know her,”
“I see,”
“There should be no problem,” she smiled,
I didn’t get the chance to ask her what she meant by problems as the elevator stopped with a ‘Ding’. She leaded me in this unknown part of the building and we stopped in front of a door,
“We came to see the President,” she said to the secretary,
“Do you have an appointment?” the lady asked,
“Yes,”
She took the phone and dialed a number, “President Lee? Manager Kwon is here to see you,” she nodded and hung up, “You may go in,”
“Thank you,” Minhee bowed lightly and opened the door, reveling a small but charismatic man on his leather chair and glass desk in the middle of a huge office, typical image of a businessman, “Good morning President Lee,” Minhee bowed and so did I,
“Ah! Our Sorin! You finally came, I’ve been waiting for you!” he got up and came to hug me.
My eyes widened. I didn’t expect him to be so… on skinship. “H-Hello, President…” I stuttered and bowed when he let go of me,
“I’m happy to see you! Have a seat,” he offered. I bowed my head and waited for Minhee’s signal to sit down, “So,” he started, “I hope you weren’t too disappointed about not making it to the second round,”
“Ah. No it’s fine,” I awkwardly laughed, even though it was the complete opposite,
“Good! I was afraid that it’d have made you cry like crazy,” he laughed, “So how do you feel about working for us now?”
“I’m really honored! Thank you for giving me this chance!” I thanked,
“It’s nothing big. You were AMAZING yesterday! From the moment you started dancing, I knew you had something special. Yes, you broke the rules, but it’s that audacity that I’m looking for. You had the guts to do it!” he praised, making me pink,
Thanks for the advice Donghae Oppa!
“After the auditions, I talked to the judges and they all agreed to let you debut right away! Except one though…” he said,
Kwon Minhwa isn’t it?
“Anyway. Let’s talk about what you came here for. The contract. As Minhee must have told you, you approximately have the same conditions as other artists, so you can ask your brother about it tonight. Take your time to read it and all. I’m sure you’ll join us anyway,” he smiled,
Oh you can count on it! I’m not letting this pass!
“Now what will happen is that Minhee will introduce you to the staff and the groups. She’ll explain everything you should know about the job,” he said, I nodded, “Then if there’s time left, maybe you’ll do some practice sessions with the other dancers,”
“Understood,” I nodded,
“Good. What else is there to say?” he asked himself, “Mmh… nothing that I remember. So, I’ll see you later, and hope you’ll enjoy working here,” he smiled,
Minhee and I got up and bowed to him, “Thank you very much!”
======================================
The first half of the day was spent visiting the building and the different dance practice room. The dancers had a separated floor from the artists. There were rooms for solo dancing, group dancing, and concerts practice… There was also a gym to work out and bathroom with lockers. The place was huge. You could get lost here!
Minhee and I rapidly had lunch in a restaurant outside. While we were eating, she explained to me how a typical day was like; “You should be here at 7:30AM everyday for practice and it usually ends at 8PM. If there are special events, I’ll provide you the schedules and all. Prepare yourself for working really late or early,” she said, “We want our dancers to be healthy so you have a two hours lunch break everyday and 15 minutes of breaks between each practice sessions,” she continued,
“What do we dance for usually?” I asked,
“What is good with our company, is that you can dance for artists from different agencies. Because the groups in SM don’t really need backup dancers for music show performances, you can be brought to dance for example for IU or Miss A,”
The idea of working for them made me feel butterflies in my tummy. I couldn’t wait for that.
“When it’s not for casual performances, you may be asked to perform for concerts like Super Show or SHINee World,” she said,
I nodded to each piece of information she gave me. This job looked amazing! She didn’t try to hide the bad parts of the job, which showed that I could trust her. Working a lot is not a real problem for me. I used to practice 22 hours a day back in the U.S. for the musical.
“By the way! I haven’t asked you but… who’s your brother?” Minhee suddenly asked,
“Oh, my brother’s Lee Hyukjae!” I said,
“The actor?”
“No, no,” I smiled, “Eunhyuk from Super Junior,”
“Oh! This Lee Hyukjae,” she laughed, “No wonder why you’re good at dancing! It’s a family gift!” she said,
“Thanks,” I pinked,
“Are you finished?” she asked, talking about my lunch,
“Yes,”
“Okay, so let’s go back to the office. I’ll introduce you to the group,” she said,
We went back to the SM building. I was so nervous about meeting the other dancers. I’m not stupid… I know they’d think I’ve been able to debut immediately because my brother is Eunhyuk and Sooman likes me… Which is not true anyway. If I’m lucky they will accept me, if I’m not, I’ll be victimized…
“We’re here,” Minhee said, bringing me out of my thoughts. She opened the door of a practice room. All the dancers in there stopped what they were doing, whether they were dancing or chatting or whatever, and looked at us with curiosity, “Hey everyone, let me introduce our new crew on board Lee Sorin. She’ll be part of the family from now on,” she clapped her hand happily,
“Hello. My name is Lee Sorin. I’m 20. It’s nice to meet you all. Please take care of me,” I bowed,
“WELCOME!” they all yelled and applauded cheerfully, making my heart relax from the worries I had earlier,
For the next 40 minutes, I traveled around the room, introducing myself and trying to memorize all the names. The people seemed nice, just like a big family. It reminded me the relationship we had with the musical troupe.
“Hi! I’m Kim Yun,” a girl introduced herself,
“And I’m Han Dookyung,” the guy next to her said,
“Nice to meet you,” I bowed,
“How did you get in here? The auditions are not over yet,” Dookyung asked,
I hesitantly opened my mouth to say something. There’s nothing to hide anyway.
“I did participate to the auditions yesterday,” I started and told them what happened, skipping the part about me crying like a baby over it and the surprise party the boys prepared.
“You’re so lucky! You must be really good for Sooman to make you a special treat!” Yun smiled impressed,
“Well…” my cheeks turned pink,
“Let’s see what you got,” Dookyung challenged. He got up and walked to the speaker to turn on the music. As the first notes played, he moved his body to the rhythm. I watched him as he kept dancing and everyone gathered around us to see what was happening. His dancing was awesome! But what did I expect? I was in a room full of professional dancers!
Dookyung made a few more moves before waving his right arm, his finger ending up pointing at me and motioning me to come in. I smiled to his challenging eyes and stood next to him,
“Follow me,” he said, I nodded,
He made an easy popping and locking at first and I copied him. Everyone went ‘Ooh’, seeing how I managed to do the same moves as him. He smiled, and did something more difficult. I copied every move he took and we ended up dancing together in synchronization. It was fun! The music stopped and everyone cheered,
“Good job!” Dookyung came panting, ready to high-five me,
“You’re good!” I praised, high-fiving him back,
“You’re good too!” he smiled,
“WHY ARE YOU ARRIVING ONLY NOW?” we suddenly heard Minhee yell from the back of the room,
“Stop yelling! Really, it’s annoying!” someone else replied,
Oh God…
“Do you know how late you are? Lunch break ended an hour ago!” everyone separated to see Minhee yelling at her little sister, Kwon Minhwa…
“So what? From what I see no one was practicing either!” she said,
“You really!” Minhee groaned in exasperation,
“What’s this?” I asked Yun,
“Kwon Minhwa… She’s Minhee Unni’s little sister, and a real by the way,” she said, making a face.
Nothing new…
“She’s always late for practice. But since she’s a really good dancer, we have to wait for her,” Dookyung added,
“I see…”
Minhwa looked away from her sister, and her eyes landed on me,
“Oh! Look at who’s here,” she walked to me, “It’s miss I-came-here-thanks-to-my-brother,”
“I-I…”
“Too bad I was the only one to disagree on your debut… But since you’re here, let’s do our best,” she sarcastically extended her hand,
I shook it even though I didn’t want to.
“See ya!” she said. As she was about to go pass me, she stopped and whispered to my ear, “Welcome to hell sweetie,”
I shivered to her words… Now that I think about it, neither the hours of work nor the people bullying me were going to make my life a living hell.
She was…
This one's a long chapter.
I wrote it months and months ago so my writing was still poor...
Anyway. Hope you liked the chapter!
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