“Ji Mi Young-ssi?”

                A young woman looked up from her resume. “Yes?”

                “We’re ready to interview you. Please come this way.”

                She nodded, standing and straightening out her suit pants.

                The older woman gave the nervous interviewee a once-over before leading her down the hallway towards the office.

                Mi Young tried not to let her gaze wander too much as she tailed the secretary. The office hallway was neat and organized, but it held a coldness to it. She swallowed, feeling dry out.

                “Here we are.”

                Mi Young was led into a conference room.

                “Please have a seat. Your interviewer will be here shortly.”

                “Thank you.” Mi Young bowed politely as woman left, shutting the door behind her.

                It was a few more minutes before the door opened again and an older man walked in, preoccupied with his folder. Mi Young stood up quickly, giving him a respectful bow.

                “Ah, hello.” He gave a friendly smile. “You are… Ji Mi Young-ssi?”

                “Yes,” She waited until he had taken a seat before following suit, trying not to look too nervous.

                “I’m Kim Jun Ho.” He placed his folder down on the table and finally turned his attention to her, giving her a strange look.

                “Thank you for taking the time to interview me, Jun Ho-nim.”

                “Yes, of course…” Jun Ho leaned back in his chair, perfectly at ease. “You’re very pretty, you know that?”

                Mi Young was taken aback by her interviewer’s sudden comment. “Do you think so?” She dipped her head, embarrassed. “Uh, that’s very kind of you.”

                Jun Ho laughed. “You look so uncomfortable right now. I apologize: you see, I’m looking to hire someone who can keep their appearance well and so far, you seem to fit that description.”

                “I see…”

                “Having someone very exotic looking would be interesting, but would draw too much attention. You look plain, but you aren’t an eyesore, so that’s a good thing.” He continued, drawling on for no apparent reason. “Your eyes are the only thing that stands out about your appearance… Such a strange color.”

                Mi Young could only nod, as her interviewer went into detail about her appearance. “I got my green eyes from my dad. I don’t know much more than that.”

                “Very good.” Jun Ho seemed to be done with his objective appraisal of her. “Mi Young-ssi, do you know what this interview is for?”

                “Um,” Mi Young frowned. “I received a phone call yesterday for a desk job, so I’m assuming it’s that.”

                The interviewer folded his arms. “It’s true that you probably will have some paperwork to do, but how are your… management skills?”

                “Management?” Mi Young echoed. “Like, time management?”

                “No, people.”

                “Well, I believe I’m good with people.” Mi Young said, feeling more at ease with the straightforward, standard interview question. “I think my personality is well-suited to managing small groups and communicating in an effective and timely manner.”

                “Hm,” Jun Ho gave a smile. “Good. And do you know anything about music?”

                Mi Young’s face brightened considerably. “Yes, I do.”

                “Tell me more about that.”

                “Well,” Mi Young thought carefully, not wanting to bombard her potential employer with all her knowledge, but also not wanting to leave out anything important that might benefit her. “I have studied music theory pretty extensively, I play a few music instruments, and I have some experience in both singing and dancing.”

                Jun Ho clapped his hands once. “Excellent.”

                Mi Young was pleased at his reaction, but couldn’t help but blurt out. “What does music have to do with a desk job, though?”

                “Well, this isn’t exactly a standard desk job.” Jun Ho’s demeanor suddenly changed, becoming more serious. “Our company has a strange hiring process… Because of the type of work we do, we can’t exactly advertise our work directly.”

                Mi Young felt uneasy. “Wait, this isn’t a place to contract hitmen, is it?!” She exclaimed, looking around sharply.

                Jun Ho laughed. “No, no, of course not!” He seemed to deliberate for a while before continuing. “Our organization deals with famous idol groups. We can’t advertise our jobs candidly because the only replies we would get would be sasaeng fans trying to get close to their idols, not actual job candidates.”

                “O-oh…” Mi Young agreed—having extremely obsessive fangirls applying for jobs relating to their bias would be a problem. She could see the logic behind that.

                Jun Ho stared at her for a moment. “I don’t think you completely understand.” He grinned. “I actually wouldn’t be telling you this information unless I thought highly of you.”

                Mi Young tipped her head to one side, daring to ask the question out loud. “Does that mean that I have a job? Already?” She was a little unnerved; Jun Ho hadn’t really asked her anything about her job experience… He had only commented on her physical appearance and her musical talents and he seemed set on hiring her.

                It was a little weird, wasn’t it?

                “Well, my company does do some research on its potential employees before contacting them. It’s in the best interests of those who we work with, of course. So quite honestly, this is all just a formality.” Jun Ho sighed. “Are you interested in our position?”

                Mi Young hesitated. Being hired so quickly almost seemed like some sort of a scam, but she knew that there weren’t many other positions open for her to take. With the money slowly dwindling away at home and her bills hanging over her like a heavy weight, she didn’t really have much of a choice. “Yes, I am. But what other research have you done on me?” She asked, curious and wary at the same time.

Jun Ho seemed pleased. “You are Ji Mi Young and you lived in America for a period of time, fluent in Japanese and English as well as your native language.”

                Mi Young nodded. “Yes, I stated that in my resume.”

                Jun Ho opened his folder and began reading from the documents in it. “But we also know that your parents were scientists involved—and regrettably passing away—in a lab accident in 2003 and that you suffered from a traumatic head injury at the age of 17 that left you in need of four years of physical rehabilitation. That recovery period was where you gained your extensive music knowledge. ”

                Mi Young’s eyes widened. “I… I didn’t know you had access to that information.”

                Jun Ho pursed his lips. “We have our patron’s best interests at heart, and we don’t want to hire anyone with any potential… marks on their record, so we have to do fairly extensive research on everyone we hire.” He dipped his head. “I’m sorry, this all must be very shocking to you.”

                “I understand your concerns regarding those that you work with, but…” Mi Young couldn’t help but be honest. “Yes, it is pretty shocking.”

                Jun Ho didn’t take her bluntness as an insult; in fact he seemed a little happy about her straightforwardness. Maybe that was something they were looking for. “But I’m glad you are willing to work with us, Ji Mi Young-ssi.”

                “Thank you for considering me in the first place…” She dipped her head.

                “Well, the job in detail will have you working with a fairly well-known idol group, working in their management and business relations and working your way up through the corporation slowly.” Jun Ho flipped through the folder, laughing suddenly when he reached one page. “Honestly, when I read through all your paperwork, I couldn’t really believe there was someone out there so fit for the position. You have all them musical expertise that could be asked for when working for a musical group, and your knowledge of various languages makes you a perfect translator for foreign relations.”

                Mi Young could barely keep up with the man’s words, not even registering that she was actually hired and stumbling along, feeling like there were more questions being created than answers.

                “So basically, I’ll be working relations for a KPOP group?” She restated, trying to be clear.

                “If you’d like to put it that way, then yes.” Jun Ho nodded. “You will be contracted through our corporation and if we issue you work to do, then your job entails that you prioritize that first, but rest of the work you will receive will be up to the group you are working with.”

                “I… I think I understand.” Mi Young gave a half-hearted nod.

                Jun Ho laughed. “It is a lot of information to process, but you will get the hang of it as you go along. According to your paperwork, you do have knowledge of idol groups… which we have taken note of.”

                He continued, seeming to lose track of this thoughts again and going into another long-winded ramble. “There is one group in particular that has just joined a new company… well, I suppose that’s not the correct way of putting it. They are… forming their own company, as it were, and since they are still in the early stages of forming things, they are in need of a good public and foreign relations assistant. That’s where you come in…”

                There was one question that Mi Young had, but was almost too scared to ask. Of course, they probably knew which idols and groups she held an interest in. However, there was one group and fandom that she knew better than the rest. And if what he was saying was true, that group was the only one was in a situation like that… But would they really…?

                “Uh,” Mi Young bit her lip.

                Jun Ho stopped talking. “What is it?”

                “Which group exactly are we talking about?” She managed to get out.

                He grinned at her, almost as if he were waiting for her to ask.

                “Shinhwa.”