CHAPTER ONE

She walked down the street, her eyes bright with hope. It was half past five in the evening and the sky was a dark cyan color. The streetlights began to glimmer and turn on one by one, as her footsteps felt brisk and crisp on the pathway covered with autumn leaves. The evening breeze felt cool against her cheeks. Here she was, in the streets of Korea, the place where she had longed to live all her life, on her way for her job interview. And not any normal job, but her dream job. She, Emile, was going on a job interview at JYP, one of Korea’s most famous entertainment companies! She was so excited she wanted to pinch her arm to feel the pain in order to proof this real, yet wouldn’t, afraid to spoil this beautiful fantasy if it truly were one. She sighed happily, as she found her smile on her face broadening into an enormous grin. Her parents had always wanted her to become a doctor, just like they did, and had spent uncountable effort and time in educating her. She had listened to them all along like any good girl, doing whatever she was told, spending endless nights revising hard for tests. She was so clever and bright, her teachers all felt that she could do anything, and were definitely more than confident about her becoming a doctor. She had sat through all the public exams she needed to and passed with flying colors at a young age of 14, and had easily gained a place at Cambridge University, one of the top universities in the world. Her parents had been overjoyed, but she knew it wasn’t what she wanted, deep inside, she knew she had always been meant to be a fashion designer, and it was that that she had wanted. She would never forget that look on her parents’ face : disappointment, shock, anger. But after numerous quarrels and begging, she had finally persuaded them to allow her to chase after her dream instead of living her life for everyone else. She had sworn she would not let them down.

Emile couldn’t believe it, she had never imagined she could have walked that far. All those tears and sweat she had shed in the past in order to gain a degree was all worth it.  Now after all these hard work, she had finally graduated with first honor and was more than qualified to become a designer, she had finally got hold of her dreamed that had once seemed so far, she had finally made her way to the beginning of success----for a brief moment she felt like crying, her future had never seemed any brighter.

The next thing she knew she found herself standing in front of the massive building, jaw hanging wide open, her expression extremely surprised. ‘What are you doing?’ She asked herself. ‘Walk in!’ Her brain commanded, but sadly her wobbly legs would not comply. ‘Why the anxiety? Where did all your spirit go? Come ON! Get a grip with life. Don’t tell me you’re gonna quit after walking so far just because you are particularly nervous about interviews. You might as well as go back being a boring old doctor!’ She hissed angrily at herself, frustrated at her feeble self. ‘There’s nothing scary about an interview. You’re twenty one now, you’re not a kid, and I’m going to see you march into the building this very instant.’ So this was what she did, and before she knew it, words were already pouring out of her ignorant, big, fat mouth.

“Hello, nice to meet you. Emile Stanley here. I believe I have an interview with Mr Park, would you please tell me which way I should go?’’

It was after the words had exited that she began to regret it. What in the world are you doing? She questioned herself inside her head, prodding at her own ribs. Don’t be such a loser, she told herself again. Cut off that disgusting British accent and speak normally! Then she remembered. How dumb. That Korean receptionist was absolutely NOT going to understand what in the world she had said. She cursed herself for her stupidity, which affected her image. How could she do that? Her first image was going to be so important!

She quickly pulled out a slip of paper that she had prepared earlier, and speaking in bits of broken Korean, asked the receptionist once again politely. Nodding knowingly and smiling at my accent, he led her towards the office, bowed and left. She felt her face flush as she realized how rude she had been. Too nervous and anxious about the interview, she had completely disgraced herself by forgetting entirely about her manners, she had to remember now that she was here in Korea, she was supposed to bow 90 degrees. God she didn’t even remember to greet him properly! No wonder he smiled like that, must have been thinking to himself: how utterly impolite young people are nowadays. At least she should have said something like “Annyeonghahseyo! Emile imnida!” and do the bow or any other action of courtesy.

She was so obsessed in blaming herself that she didn’t notice it when Park Jinyoung ssi came in. She quickly stood up and bowed, her broken Korean phrase that she regretted not having said to the receptionist spilling out immediately without even having thought about it. Park Jinyoung looked more serious than he did in tv, and that made all her relaxed emotions slip away. She told herself not to be nervous, as she flashed a confident smile. At first she caught herself stuttering but then she started to relax a bit as the interview proceeded. She even thought she had caught Park Jinyoung smiling in approval.  In no time at all she was back to her normal bubbly, confident self and was blabbering off, totally different from what she had felt minutes ago, even she herself could not believe how absurd she had behaved before.

Finally the interview ended and she was told to wait for three weeks notice. If they contacted her, she would have the job and if she didn’t receive any means of notice from them during the following three weeks, then that simply meant her interview was not a success. She wished the three weeks would past in a blink of an eye. But they were the longest three weeks in her life ever. They, in fact, seemed more of something like millienas. She finally understood the word eternity.

After three torturing weeks of anxious nonstop phone-checking in absolute craze and portraying all kinds of symptoms of paranoia, she finally received what she had craved for so long---a phone call, from JYP. She swore she could have died at that very moment. She didn’t know why, but instead of being so agitated and happy, she actually, literally panicked. And it wasn’t until almost a minute after that she reacted and picked up that stupid phone that she dropped almost once she picked it up. Terribly petrified at the thought of JYP simply hanging up and giving up on her, checking out the next most considerable applicant’s phone number on the checklist, she quickly rammed the phone to her head, blurting out basically an entire “herd” of hellos into the phone. 

I believe it is not necessary for me to describe what happened next and Emile’s extreme contentment, or how she screamed and made so much noise that the elderly neighbor from downstairs came up banging at her front door in a pang of fury, for I bet you can definitely imagine how it felt for her.

An hour after receiving the phone call, she simply sat their frozen, staring into the endless night sky, her goofy smile plastered to her face gingerly. She swore she was just a zip lock away from drooling. She didn’t even know how to feel. Her next hours were then rather wasted than spent, mucking around the house, totally lost, finding herself in the kitchen when she was about to grab a book by the sofa and losing her way in her mirrored bathroom when she was about to eat the instant noodles she had heated up in the microwave, with the cheesy grin held up onto her face all along, broadening by second.  By the time she went to bed, felt sore and she fell asleep at once.