Somehow, the time for regrets passes by so quickly, like water flowing, and before I knew it, a week had passed and it was already my first day at work. Because I was so nervous, for the first time in a while, I heard the alarm on time and frantically packed the things I needed to take with me.
"Ahhh.....where are my pants, pants!!!!"
...Of course, if you don't get flustered, you're not a womanizer.
"Tsk tsk, what's wrong with you? Calm down."
Kim Na-yeon, unable to bear it any longer, spoke up. On her first day at work, at Yeo-ju's earnest request for help, Kim Na-yeon personally showed up. She barged into Yeo-ju's studio apartment early in the morning and took up her bed. When she told her she'd landed a job, she'd always refuse to believe her, then simply ignore Yeo-ju's pout and just fiddle with her phone. Honestly, it was a bit of a mistake not to believe her, but Yeo-ju was flustered and frantic. What the hell was that company... She felt a pang of guilt.
"No, that's why I! I bought you drinks and congratulated you!!!"
"No, you should have trusted me from the beginning. And drinking during the day? Are you depressed?"
"Oh, I got it."
"If you knew... you can buy chicken and beer later."
"You can't do it. Don't they usually have a freshman orientation or something on the first day?"
Really? / Huh, the female protagonist chases after the indifferent Kim Na-yeon with empty eyes. Ah, my love, chicken and beer... she starts mumbling. The female protagonist, who suddenly has a question, raises her head.
"Wait a minute... why do you, a job seeker, know more than I, who's already working?"
"Why?"
Kim Na-yeon stopped what she was blurting out and shook her phone. Of course - I learned it from watching the drama. Oh, so that's why you're a job seeker. Na-yeon simply ignored the female lead's harsh words and returned to focusing on the video she was watching. She shook her head and then fixed her gaze on the full-length mirror again. A shirt that looked appropriate and a neat pair of jeans. Oh, is that strange? But I think I wore it well enough... There were no rules about uniforms, so she just took out whatever she wanted and wore it.
"Hey, what do you think?"
"Okay"
"....No, look at me and tell me..."
"Oh, it's okay!!"
"Mr. Lee, you get out of my studio apartment, quick! You weren't supposed to open the door for me this morning..."
"Hey, I'm going to be at the study cafe all day anyway."
"What, that handsome part-timer again?"
"Yeah, that's my style. Like flirting."
Hey, Mr. Goldsappa. Focus on your present life, not chasing after such vain dreams. My friend, who's always been a fool, couldn't understand me, but I kept thinking about what I wanted to say, and then I brushed my hair again.
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring....
"Hey, I have to go. Get out of here quickly."
I quickly packed my bag and rushed out of the studio apartment, pushing Nayeon Kim on my back. Nayeon whined but dragged me along. The two of them exuded the vibe of true friends. Nayeon Kim and Yeoju Lim bickered all the way down to the subway. They bickered, saying, "You were wrong, you lacked something," and they got off the subway.
"I hope your first impression is shit^^"
"Yeah, I hope you get a good kick^^"
When we break up, we don't forget to swear at each other and giggle.
-
I'm standing again. In front of that building. Now, in a place I can proudly call "workplace." A strange thrill tickles my body again. I feel a sense of pride as I watch people casually enter, wearing their employee ID cards. Ah, I feel a sense of useless pride, as if I'm now an office worker.
"Oh... I've never seen that face before."
Suddenly someone speaks to me from behind. What is it?? I am so surprised that I let out a short scream of 'Huh!!' and hurriedly turn around. I see someone looking at me with a serious expression as if to say, 'Who are you?' A woman dressed neatly in a suit. Wow....cool....Wait a minute, come to your senses, what are you really doing....Looking at her looking at me closely with her increasingly hardened expression...Oh, do you think I'm a sasaeng?
"Oh, hello, I'm new!"
".....? Newcomer?"
"Yes, I passed the A&R team interview last week..."
"ah"
Only then did she let her guard down and smile brightly. The corners of her eyes curved prettily. What the heck, do they even hire employees based on looks? I feel unnecessarily shabby. Oh, should I have put on more makeup?
"Nice to meet you, newbie. I'm the A&R team leader."
"Oh, hello...!"
"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. Since this is an agency... there are a lot of sasaengs haha"
"It's okay, I thought so too haha"
"You haven't received your employee ID yet, right? I'll open the door for you."
I quietly took out my employee ID and held it up to the sensor. The door opened immediately. "Shall we go?" asked the person with a quiet smile... He was cool... I said cool was like a sister...
I followed the team leader in with sparkling eyes, without even saying a word.
-
"Hello, I'm Lim Yeo-ju, a new employee. Please take care of me!"
I bowed 90 degrees and greeted him. I heard somewhere that first impressions are lasting, so I was even more nervous. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any old farts or old farts. I smiled brightly.
"Okay, Ms. Im Yeo-ju, your seat is over there. I've placed your employee ID on the desk, so please go and sit down for now."
"Oh, yes!"
I hurried over as instructed and sat down. Ah, this is now my desk. A single monitor on a clean white desk. The office job I'd always dreamed of looked exactly like this. Time would pass and the excitement would fade, but still, somehow... it felt good. Feeling the happiness of my first day, I opened the laptop I'd brought.
"Ms. Im Yeo-ju"
"Oh, hello!"
"Oh, that's enough greetings."
He raised his head and found someone looking at him askance, as if he wasn't happy to see him. .....What is it?
"This is Assistant Manager Choi Mina. Today, I'll give you a general overview of where everything is located in the company building. Let's go."
"Yeah...yes!"
I immediately got up and followed him. Manager Lee glanced at me and sighed... He didn't seem too pleased with me. What the heck, did I do something wrong? Still, the interior of the company was quite clean, no, very clean. It was smaller than I'd expected from the outside, so I was worried it might be shabby. I guess you can't judge a building by its cover.
"....The 3rd to 5th floors here are for trainees."
"Oh, yes."
He looked at me for a moment and then spat out another word.
"Then let's go say hello."
".....Huh? To whom?"
"To the trainees. They're new, so they don't know."
I'm standing in front of a noisy door. Wait a minute, right now? I don't even have a prepared comment. Annoyingly, the agent suddenly slams the door open and yells.
"Guys!! A new employee has arrived~!"
The eyes of the men inside suddenly turned to me. Oh my. Seriously, sir, I'm not that popular...
I quickly scanned the trainees with my eyes. ....Hmm? The guy with the scarf isn't there?
"Oh, hello. I'm Lim Yeo-ju, a new employee. I look forward to working with you in the future..."
A small round of applause erupted along with my awkward self-introduction, and I felt embarrassed again. The agent just looked at me with indifferent eyes. No, agent... Please explain something...
"Ah, Ms. Yeoju is still new, so she won't be going straight into design work or anything like that. She'll start off as... in charge of the practice room keys, and the training will proceed gradually from now on. Got it?"
"Oh, yes..."
"..What are you guys doing? Go practice."
"Okay" / "Okay" / "Okay"
In an instant, the practice room erupted in a commotion. Manager Choi scribbled something down and handed me a bundle of files. "What is this? I'm definitely part of the design team." As I blinked slowly, he placed the files directly in my hand and spoke.
"Here's the list of trainees."
.......? Yes, but why are you giving it to me?
"We'll start with easy tasks and do them little by little. I'll have the next new employee do this too."
"What are you, Gung-ye?" How did you know I was flustered? I'm a master at hiding my expressions. Oh, yes... After giving a short answer, the manager immediately went to the door and took a seat. He motioned for me to hurry up. "No, we're the design team, why are you doing this...?" "Just do it," he said, clicking his pen and calling out the names one by one.
Kim Dong-hyun
Silence. What? Are you ignoring me? A sudden silence fell on the children who had been responding well. Thinking their voices were too soft, I called out again.
"Excuse me, Kim Dong-hyun?"
"Hey, new employee Dong-Hyeon said he went to the convenience store with Woong-Hyung."
A friend spoke from the side. Manager Choi let out another sigh. "Why do you keep making such a fuss next to me...? It's making me feel uneasy..."
"Since you're here, just circle it."
"yes"
With a loud bang, everyone's attention turned to the back. Two men had rushed into the practice room. They were out of breath, as if they had been running.
"Whew...whoa...am I late!!!?"
"Yeah, it's late. What were you guys doing?"
"Oh, I just went to the convenience store for a bit..."
"Oh, who is this person?"
Hey, a trainee is a trainee after all. What are their eyes... stars in them? They're so big and so pretty..... Ah, I'm admiring their faces without realizing it and it's a mess. But their eyes are fun. Yeah, it was good that they came in. I looked at the trainee with a happy smile on my face. That trainee was also smiling brightly while making eye contact. As one of them, who was panting and catching his breath, raised his head, Yeo-ju's breath stopped for a moment. It's that person. That person with the pretty smile in his eyes. He's standing right in front of me. Should I pretend to know him? No, don't? But since it's my first day at work, let's just let it go.
"Hello, I'm new. Please take care of me."
"Yes, please take care of it!"
Both of them bowed their heads and quickly entered the group practicing. I was a little disappointed that they had greeted me so casually that I wondered if they had not recognized me, but I was also relieved to see that they looked brighter than I had expected. Before leaving, I took a look around the practice room and our eyes met.
"he.."
The man said with a smile on his face.
"Send again, us"
-
"Should we have the company dinner this Friday?"
"How are you, newbie?"
My name is Shinip... My eyebrows twitched, but I held it in and smiled.
"Yes, I like it!"
"Then let's see then. Good work, everyone. Let's go home."
"Oh, right,"
As I was leaving, Manager Choi turned around and called out to me. "What's going on? Why are you acting so ominous? No, I told you not to come. Don't come. I'm going home."
"Newbie, the practice room has to lock at 12 o'clock, so you have to stay until then."
Ha, I wish this guy would lose his sense of humor a little. I bit my lip and smiled... I answered with a smile on my face, and Manager Choi opened the door sharply and left. Oh, I'm going to trip over a rock. I cursed inwardly and headed back towards the practice room.
There were still quite a few trainees. When I came in, they glanced at me and then went back to practicing. "Yeah, you guys are working hard too. That's cool. That's cool. I have classes to attend (I'm currently taking college classes again) and work to do. I didn't know there would be this much to learn on the first day. I need to get things done quickly." I took out my iPad, put my AirPods in my ears, and focused on my work.
.
.
.
It's already midnight. I look up to the alarm, but no one's there. Oh, it's already this late? My studio apartment is a bit far, but I can walk there anyway. I groan, get up, and go to lock the door, but then hesitate. I remember that when I was little, I loved singing. I seriously considered majoring in singing, but then gave up and went into art. Should I just sing one song...just one song? I glanced at the computer. Where...is the microphone?
"......."
"Just a few songs... Okay, let's just do a few songs and go."
I typed in my favorite song and held the microphone. Ah, it's been a while, this feeling. I looked around to make sure no one was there, then started singing the lyrics to the music that was playing.
"I might lose my mind, waking when the sun's down"
.
.
.
"Now I'm shaking drinking all this coffee"
"These last few weeks have been exhausting"
"I'm lost in my imagination"
"And there's one thing that I need from you"
"can you come through"
-Zeremy Zucker, comethru-
Nice to meet you. I can sing as much as I want like this. It seems like I'm going to develop my own secret hobby in the future. I'm embarrassed about my skills, but I still like singing. 3 songs? Okay, I guess I'll just sing about 3 songs and leave. I looked through my playlist. Oh, what would be good? Should I try a combative song? This is exciting for no reason ㅋㅋㅋ Should I try a song with a lot of rapping? I'm the only one ㅋㅋㅋ
"It's not hard, I'm okay because I jumped into the rough jungle."
"We goin' higher in the next city"
"Fly all day looking down at the buildings"
"Woah, woah, woah, woah, higher, I want to go up there"
.
.
-Stray Kids, MIROH
"I don't try to fit myself into the frame people have created."
"I'll build the courage to be hated. The wounds will make me grow even more."
"Bless me for my hard work today."
"I'm beautiful 노래해 yeah yeah yeah"
"Every cry in my life is art."
-On and Off, beautiful beautiful
I turned around, startled by the sudden sound of applause. Wh...what? Weren't they all gone? Where did I start? What did I see? Wait a minute. My mind went blank and my pupils shook. No, I should have known who it was first, but it was so dark I couldn't even see who it was.
"Wow, you sing well."
"Huh? Who...? No, I'm sorry!!"
"Oh my, I apologized, my words twisted. Oh, this isn't right. What if it's my boss? I bowed my head and apologized unconditionally. What kind of person am I from day one?"
As the person separated from the shadow, a sigh of relief escaped me. Ah, it was you.
"I was surprised..."
"Ahahahahaha sorry."
It was him. “Thank you for the scarf.” He held out the scarf he had washed, though he didn’t know when he’d prepared it. “Oh, yes,” he said briefly and took it. The scent of fabric softener… it’s nice. I pretended to cover my face with the scarf and sniffed it. “Mmm, it’s sweet.”
"I wasn't able to greet you properly earlier haha"
"I'm Jeon Woong. Nice to meet you haha"
He thrust his white hand out. Wow, it's really pretty... No, come to your senses, you thorn...
"Yes! This is Im Yeo-ju."
I grabbed it, shook it for a moment, and then let it go.
"Excuse me...how old are you...?"
"Oh, I'm 24 years old."
"Oh, we're the same age? Why don't we talk?"
Hey??