Page 97 of When Worlds Collide
We rode the elevator up in silence. Jihoon held my hand, silently calming my nerves as he rode with me all the way up to the floor CDT occupied, even though he was going back down to the recording studios afterwards.
As the doors opened, I turned to him and his smile slipped slightly as his eyes met mine.
“Jagiya, you’ll be fine,” he said quietly, throwing a glance over my shoulder and holding his finger to the ‘open’ button on the panel.
“What if I’m not?” My stomach had started knotting the moment we’d boarded the elevator.
“Then I’ll beat them.” He nodded, and I huffed an involuntary laugh.
“You can’t threaten to beat everyone who bothers me.”
“I can, and I will.” His eyes were firm as they held mine, and I felt my own softening.
“I love you,” I mouthed, the sounds of other voices in the corridors filling the small space we occupied.
He smiled that lopsided smile of his that made me weak. “Saranghae.”
I stepped out of the elevator and into the corridor, looking back over my shoulder to see the man I loved, the man I was here for. I committed the way he looked right then to memory, not turning around until the doors closed.
Seeing my reflection in the shiny doors, I took a deep breath and set off down the corridor, looking for the numbered door, as per the email instructions I’d received.
“One five one,” I muttered to myself as I walked, reading the numbers on the wall as I went past them, until-
“One five one.” I stood outside the plain, wooden door, steeling myself, before I knocked.
“Deureooseyo!” called a gruff voice from the other side and, thanking my most recent Korean lesson, I was able to understand this meant ‘come in’, and not ‘fuck off’. I pushed down on the door handle and stepped into the room.
I immediately had to stifle a laugh at seeing what had to be the Korean equivalent of my former boss at Pisces – Jeremy – right down to the scruffy chin and the tired, but kind looking brown eyes.
All that was missing was the plaque on his desk: ‘Chief Cat Herder.’
A sudden, fond feeling of nostalgia had me smiling at the man sitting behind the desk, which he returned, if slightly more reservedly.
“Kaiya Thompson?” he said in a clipped, but clear accent.
“Yes, sir.” I nodded in confirmation.
“Welcome. I’m Park Tae-Jun, department lead for production assistants. Please, call me Mr Park.”
He offered me his hand, which I took, before he indicated I should sit on the chair opposite his desk. Nervously, I sat on the edge, trying to look more at ease than I felt.
Mr Park sat, and then pulled towards him a manilla folder, reading from it as he leaned back in his chair.
“Kaiya Thompson. English. Degree in Music Production from a London university. Moved to LA to work at Pisces, before moving to Korea in December. Currently working on your Korean.”
It sounded like he was reading off a menu, but there were no questions in his speech, so I kept quiet, watching him scan the folder in front of him.
“You have a very different background to many of our juniors.” He put the folder down on his desk and peered up at me, his gaze assessing, but not unkind.
“Director Kang signed off on your placement herself, so I trust you are qualified to be here. For your first week, you will shadow a more experienced junior assistant, but then I will expect you to be able to complete your job independently. Use this week wisely. Take notes, learn names, ask questions. You will be confused, you will not know how we do things – this is expected, but part of this job is to improvise.”
He still hadn’t asked me anything, so I just nodded along, trying not to look as nervous as I felt, when really, I had a fear I might be sick. Hell, I’d been improvising ever since I stepped off the plane. Winging it, really. But somehow, out of the contextof just me and Jihoon, this felt more like real life. I took a deep breath, mentally sliding into a more focused mindset.
Then, a soft knock came from the door.
“Deureooseyo!” Mr Park called, not breaking eye contact with me.
From behind me, a soft-spoken voice said something I didn’t understand, but had Mr Park nodding, and replying in Korean, until –
