5: 4D Personality And The Missing Seventh

It's 7:45 am in the morning, Rina is already at work, now getting ready for the second and final day of the audition. This time, activity will start at 8, one hour early unlike yesterday.

Rina is scanning at the judges' clip board for the auditioner's name, she lifted her head, taking glances at the staffs cleaning the camera lenses and adjusting the angles.

The flow of the audition went pretty quick ever since she took over, and the staffs just obeyed her.

15 minutes on the clock until it starts, the judges arrived with the employee guiding them to the room.

Rina turned her head to see the judges, to her surprise, one judge is different from yesterday, with that grayish hair, cool clothing and the shoes, plus that judge made her tremble in excitement. Rina smiled brightly and called the judge.

"Mr. Han!" Rina called, waving happily at him, taking steps towards him. The judge turned to Rina and gave her a bright smile.

"Oh, Kyung Nara." the judge replied, smiling back, then disappeared when Rina placed a finger against her lips.

"Shhh, Mr. Han don't call me Nara in public please." Rina whispered, looking around if anyone heard him.

"Aish, why not? I like that name. It's not like you're hiding your identity, right?" Mr. Han complained, with his old accent and all. Rina scratched her head, "Well to be honest, I am hiding my identity, not that I'm hiding it forever, I just want to wait for the right moment." Said Rina, Mr. Han nodded to her words, and understood her well.

"Aigoo, whatever you say... But I never thought that you'd be working in an entertainment industry again."

Said Mr. Han, changing the topic.

"So do I, but I thought it through."

Rina scoffed, remembering the time when Mr. Bang tricked her into coming here.

Mr. Han here was actually Rina's former teacher of self defense and cooking, they've known each other for a long time and he is also a very good friend of her father. When her parents passed away, Mr. Han offered Rina his house to live with, instead of staying with Rina's step mother and her loud twin sister, he kept her under his house until he finds someone to really take care of her. After that, Mr. Han found someone who accepted Rina as their own family, and that's how Rina ended up being Mr. Bang's step sister.

"It's so nice to see you all smart, strong and.... Grown up, Rina." Mr. Han smiled, looking at Rina proudly like his own daughter.

"Well, life is a pretty good teacher." Rina smiled back, as if talking to her lost father.

"Not as good as you of course." Rina continued, praising her old mentor.

"I guess I am pretty good huh?" Mr. Han laughed at Rina's praise.

"Mr. Han." Rina said firmly.

"What are you doing her anyway?"

"Ah, yes. I was filling in for Gi Ral, says that he can't make it today. I didn't want to come here, when he said that you're in charge, I changed my mind." Said Mr. Han, tightening his tie.

"Ahh, Wait---Mr. Oh was here yesterday? I didn't notice him."

"He saw you yesterday yelling at a lazy video director, he says, and doesn't want to disturb you, was really glad to see you again, he also said hi."

Rina laughed awkwardly "Ah, hahahaha, did he really see me? Hahaha, I really didn't notice." Scratching her head again.

Mr. Oh was Rina's another former teacher of vocals and dancing in her early years, this guy a very strict teacher, she always gets punished for not doing warm ups, yet Rina idolized him very much.

Mr. Han then checked his watch then back to Rina.

"I guess we should start early?" Mr. Han suggested. "Still have work to do."

"Oh yes, we shall." Rina agreed, bowing at Mr. Han then went to the staffs to get to their places. As the emcee announced the start of the audition, everything went on smoothly.

Couple of hours passed, until lunch time came, Rina still haven't found a member to add up.

She prayed for her chance to find one today, she can't fail, not in the last day of audition.

Rina went back to her office to eat her brunch, yes brunch, Rina had coffee for breakfast and coffee doesn't count, says her doctor. So for today's brunch, nothing special it's just the same old black bean noodles, two packs this time and just normal instant coffee. Rina mixed the sauce with the noodles evenly, until it all turned black. She sat down, dipped the chopsticks in the bowl and lifted the noodles to her mouth.

Her tongue exploded with delight, her stomach seemed to giggle while chewing the noodles. It's been a long time since Rina ate black bean noodles, cause all she ate in Japan was all sushi and ramen or cup noodles and chips, been eating unhealthy foods there.

Her thoughts are drowned in finding trainees, she must find one today, she can't miss a good opportunity to find one.

One... Just one...

She took a sip of the coffee then thrusted noodles in her mouth, slurping its heavenly sauce.

Rina chewed, feeling the sauce along the way. She threw everything in her thoughts to focus on her meal, until one thing suddenly popped in causing Rina to choke out the noodles.

The business card rejection.

Rina's eyes crinkled and swallowed hard. Looking down at the noodles with a pronounced sigh, pushing the plate away then drank the coffee in 2 gulps. She lost her appetite.

I guess, I need to find two. Rina thought

But broad shoulders looked so perfect!. Her brain cried

Rina groaned and pulled her hair, she banged her head on the table in frustration then squeaked because it hurts.

Well, let's just hope that it goes well.

She hoped.

Rina stood up, clipboard in hand then stormed out of the office to go to work.

The flow was the same as yesterday, Rina blending in the camera men's area, recording every auditioners.

It was the 44th audioner, Rina still haven't found one, she's almost loosing hope. But she doesn't want to give up easily.

The judges was now communicating to the auditioner, as Rina focused the lens at them.

She noticed an employee, the same one she asked yesterday, walking towards her direction, she thought the employee was gonna go to the judge's table, so she payed no attention to her, but instead she patyed her shoulder softly.

"Senior Manager." She whispered at Rina's ear.

Senior?

Me? I'm only 19!

Rina turned to the employee with a worried face.

"What is it?" Rina whispered back.

"A commotion is starting outside. And an extra camera man is involved." Said the employee.

Rina stared at the employee, lips curled, Rina backed up and looked around for another extra camera man, she spotted one by the corner, reading a magazine, she called the camera man and told him to take over, as Rina followed the employee tip toeing outside.

The female employee led Rina to the commotion around the corner, there are piles of people surrounding two of them quarrel like cats.

Rina squeezed through the crowd, the employee following her.

All she can think about is to save that camera man and end the racket so she can go back to the studio. She reached to the center bearing heavy gasps, and was surprisingly welcomed by a face slap. The crowd gasped in unison, the female employee reacted and covered her open mouth.

Rina lifted her head, feeling her left cheek burn by the slap. And there, a skinny camera man 3 feet away and a civilian dressed in street style with tattoos on his right arm, seems like a foreigner, looking at her with bulging eyes. Rina bared her teeth, she slowly paced towards the civilian and breathed to ease her anger.

"Th-th-that was an accident! I swear!" The civilian yelled.

Rina just stared at him blankly then slapped him harder than he slapped her, putting the civilian off his feet.

"You know that really hurt." Said Rina, touching her left cheek.

"Now tell me, what happened here?" Rina demanded in a cold voice, eyeing the camera man trembling.

"I-I-I was just passing through, and I didn't see him on the way, my face blocked by stack of boxes, and I bumped on him and coffee spilled on his shirt." The camera guy explained, glancing at the boxes on the ground with bubble wraps around.

Rina raised an eyebrow, turned to the civilian." So, It's just an accident, so why cause such scenes in public?" Rina asked emotionless.

" The coffee was boiling hot BITCH!" The civilian barked, standing up.

"So? Why beat him up then?" Rina asked, with a hint of sarcastic tone.

"I did not beat him UP!"

"Oh, you're one to talk. You see, there are faint bruises on his left arm, and you even punched him, which causes his nose to bleed in 15 seconds. If you didn't see them then you're probably blind, and the terrible part is that you managed to slap my face. " Rina retorted coldly.

" Nose? Bleed? 15 seconds? Who are you a fortune teller? "the civilian scoffed.

Rina turned to the skinny camera man and the civilian followed her gaze, then a red liquid flowed out of his nose, making the crowd gasp even more. The female employee quickly snatched the camera guy and took him to a clinic.

Told you

"Who are you?" the civilian asked in bewilderment.

"You're nightmare." Said Rina, then hammer jacked a part of his neck that made him drop to the ground out cold.

Rina escaped the crowd leaving the incident behind her. When Rina was 19 feet away from the crowd, her heart began to throb, cold sweat slowly flowing out of her forehead, then followed by a chilly feeling. Rina knew this feeling, and pushed herself away from collapsing. Her heart beating faster, and breaths shallow. Rina had searched about her trauma yesterday in her free time, and saw an article to calm it if the trauma starts to happen, it's either tea, water or coffee, Rina thinks it's absurd, but she had to try right? Rina darted around to find a water machine or something calm to drink, she went around the corner but all she could find is a coffee machine.

Rina ran towards it and searched for her pockets for a penny, she remembered that all of her money is in her bag, and her bag is in her office, and her office is in 2 floors, and she is so far from it.

Her head starts to spin, hands shaking, feeling a single penny in her pocket, all she need is just one.

But there's nothing.

Rina flopped herself on the ground, afraid of collapsing in the middle of the day.

Her head shook, feeling the cold sweat dropping on her hand.

She closed her eyes helplessly while listening to her throbbing heart.

All of a sudden, a warm hand touched her shoulder. Rina looked up, eyes furrowed. A young teenager wearing a brown beanie hat, inverted triangle shaped face and one mono eyelid, and one partial double eyelid.

Another feeling of deja vu shot through her, everything similar, like this happened before, again.

Rina didn't think of anything except maybe the sign that she's going to die in a few minutes.

"Umm, Noona, are you okay?" The stranger asked in a deep voice.

Rina nodded, head dropped.

Rina felt the stranger stood up and heard something jangle above her. She didn't care about it because her vision started to blur.

I guess this is my end.

Rina joked

She blinked a couple of times, then felt something touch her shoulder again, it's the teenager.

Rina looked up to him, then gazed at his hand holding a small disposable cup of coffee pointing directly at her.

"Noona, you're trembling. Drink this, it just coffee." The teenage stranger offered.

Rina tried to lift her hand, but can't feel her arm move.

She sighed in frustration then head shooked again, closing her eyes.

Rina felt another soft touch, lifting her hand, making her grip to the small cup. She gazed at the teenager then to the cup and took a sip slowly until the cup was empty.

Few minutes later, Rina was back to herself, her heart went back to normal and her vision cleared.

She glanced at the kid beside that helped her earlier, now sipping at a coffee himself.

"thank you." Rina said, the teenager looked up to her.

"Um, that was nothing, I'm always ready to help people." He said, sipped back at the coffee.

"What's your name?" Rina asked in a soft voice.

"Taehyung, Kim Taehyung." Taehyung answered.

"Well, Taehyung, here for audition?"

"Not actually, I just here to support a friend who auditioned."

Rina studied Taehyung for a moment, his movements, his style, his aura.

And to her guessing there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that this kid is a shy one, and the good news is that he is also a charismatic person that is hidden in him.

" Do you want to audition?"

Rina suddenly asked, Taehyung paused then slowly looked at her.

"Who knows you could be one of the trainee." Rina continued.

"But, my parents didn't know that I will audition." Taehyung replied softly in his deep voice.

Rina hinted a bit of interest from him, she smiled.

"You can just give them a call."

Rina suggested, Taehyung gazed at her again, now his eyes are glittering.

"I guess I can, Can I?" Taehyung asked, Rina burst out a soft giggle looking at his cute expression.

"Of course!"

Rina helped Taehyung to call his parents the news about his sudden audition, thankfully his parents agreed.

As hours passed by and the audition finally finished, Taehyung made it to being one of the trainees, now he went home to pack, bringing a business with him and will return tomorrow for his first day.

Rina on the other side, just finished having a group meal with her staffs, treating them for their good work.

4 pm sharp on the clock, Rina is sitting in her chair, a disappointing look carved in her face, facing down at her third coffee if the day.

She managed to gather one today, so she got 6 members, still lacking one.

Rina crossed her arms on the table and placed her head on it in disappointment. She can't think of another plan on how to find another trainee.

I so done for!

Rina kept hoping for luck to be on her side at thus moment, she still have 2 hours to find the last missing 7th. But how? Better question is, Where?

Rina jolted straight up when she heard a knock on the door. It's the same female employee.

What does she want in Rina's time of sadness?

"Senior." said the female employee

Why is she keep calling me senior?!

She looks definitely older that me.

"Someone is looking for you." She said calmly. Rina's eyebrows curved in bewilderment.

Who could be looking for her in her moment of sadness?!

Rina followed the female employee down to the first floor, scanning the foyer, with guards standing at the glass like door.

Rina almost reached the center, she heard clacking footsteps walking away, she looked back and saw the employee turned back opening the elevator and mouthed a word of 'good luck'. Rina's eyes grew wider, her knees started to tremble and suspiciouns grew, is it a murderer? A kidnapper?

Before she took another step, she swallowed hard like she was drinking a rock.

Upon reaching the center of the foyer, her trembling knees disappeared, suspicions exchanged to a very bright smile like she'd won the lottery. As she looked at the tall person standing before her, spotting a pair of shiny black school shoes,  those cool broad shoulders and a hand holding a business card, now that person shot Rina a small shy smile and bowed at her as Rina did in return.

The Missing 7th...

Hello broad shoulders...