6: RECOMMENDATION LETTER

She keeps on looking around for the manager, but it seems she’s lost right now. She passed by so many hallways that she can’t no longer remember which way she came from. About to swerve into a corner, she halts when a woman, dressed in a formal attire, stops her. Behind her is a middle age man in a suit.

            “This floor is exclusive for artists and staffs. Can I see your I.D?” Soohyun widens her eyes, unconsciously searching her body for the nonexistent I.D as she trembles in fear.

            “I- I- I- do-don’t…”

            The woman fixes her posture in guard, crossed arms. She eyes Soohyun from head to toe. “You’re certainly not a staff. Definitely not an artist. You don’t have a visitor’s pass either. And we don’t do auditions in weekdays. Then, are you a sasaeng fan?”

            Her eyes widen and lips parted, then she shakes her head hastily in response. Why on earth does everyone assumes she’s a sasaeng fan? She doesn’t even know half of the artists of this company.

            The middle age man smiles at her and asks, “Can you sing?” She nods her head.

            “Dance?” No.

            “Act?” No.

            “Rap?” Yes.

             “Play any instruments?” Guitar.

            “Can you turn around for me?” She did, although confused to why.

            The man smiles at her, nodding. “How do you feel like auditioning for SM?” Soohyun jaw drops as she stares at the man in front of her. The middle age man turns to the woman with her. “Give her a recommendation letter for the audition this Saturday.” Then he turns to Soohyun again. “Can I expect to see you five days from now?” She gulps but then nods.

            He instructs the woman, who turns out to be his secretary, to give her the recommendation letter pronto. When the middle age man left, the secretary told Soohyun to follow her to her office.

            Manager Youngmin found her staring into nothingness while walking without a destination after she left the secretary’s office. She’s holding the recommendation letter in her hands tightly.

            “I was looking for you everywhere,” the manager tells her, worriedly.

            She goes with Manager Youngmin at the café that Baekhyun told her. Aside from the hot cocoa that the singer recommended, she also tried the cakes in the café. They all taste like royalty. No wonder it’s an exclusive café.

            After eating, the manager tours her around the company upon her request. She meets a few artists on the way—Super Junior’s Heechul, whom she recognizes in an instant from watching Baekhyun’s broadcast; f(x)’s Amber, who stops when she sees her and says: “You look familiar.” But Manager Youngmin assures her that Soohyun’s not from around, then they go ahead. However, they also come across SHINee’s Jonghyun and Minho, who both oddly recognize her in a snap.

            “Oh, it’s rapper Soohyun-ie!” Minho says as he points at her, mouth ajar.

            “Whoa! She grew up so fast.” Jonghyun eyes her from head to toe, wearing an amazed expression as Minho.

            Soohyun stares at the two confusingly, because: first, they were never introduced personally before this; and second, she doesn’t have any idea who they are, although now she knows them as SM artists—thanks to Manager Youngnim for hastily whispering it to her while the two artists were still walking to them.

            “Junmyeon talks a lot about you when we were trainees,” Jonghyun explains when he sees the confused look on her face.

            He what? She doubts that. She turns to the manager beside her, accusingly, thinking that maybe he informed them, too, beforehand about her.

            Minho nods in assent. “He has your picture in his wallet, and he always boast about you during break time. It’s easy to recognize you in person, because you look like a girl version of Junmyeon.”

            She frowns at his last sentence. “I’m not!”

            She is. She hears that a lot, especially in school. Her classmates would always tell her that she looks like Suho from EXO. But she’ll just shrug it off and say that she doesn’t know him.

            “Ah, yes, he also mentioned that you hate hearing that,” Jonghyun teasingly adds.

            She pouts at him, still not believing that Junmyeon talks about her to other people. Their parents are close friends to the chairman of SM Entertainment; maybe that’s how they knew her. Though, she never met the chairman, because she busied herself in business school.

            She bid goodbye to the two SHINee memb