Chapter 37 - Radio

Ye Rim was taken to a small waiting room with two other women who had also applied for the DJ spot on the radio. After trying to engage in casual conversation with both of them, with poor results, she gave up being social, wondering why non chatty people were applying for such a job.

'Maybe they think I'm checking about their previous experiences in the field, to have some kind of advantage in the interview. Whatever. I just wished to break the ice. It's just an interview, I'm sure they'll want us to record or even make a live broadcast as test, anyway.'

As she arrived early, she was soon bored having nothing to do but wait. One of the women was called for her interview, and when the radio's employee closed the door behind the candidate, Ye Rim had the impression that she had been curiously analyzed. 'Did the Bombshell rumor really get up here?' she wondered, starting to panic. Mentally she began to prepare to answer the possible awkward questions that might arise about her:

'You didn't specify it in your resumé, but is it true that you were Na Na from the now defunct Bombshell Unit girl group?'

'You only released a single that didn't go well on the charts, right?'

'Is it true that the agency gave up on you? Why?'

'Do you have any violence episode in your background?'

She shook her head trying to erase off her mind the vivid imagination of an Inquisition style job interview. Her skin felt sticky with cold sweat. 'Oh damn! There should be enough time to retouch up the makeup a bit. I don't wanna get in there looking like a greasy seal.'

She left the waiting room and asked the secretary where the resting room was, and was pointed the end of a corridor. She passed two empty broadcast booths and the break room, whose door wasn't totally closed. She tried not to pay attention to the conversation inside, but the distinctive gossip tone and the subject made it impossible.

"... I don't know why to insist on the farce if the name to replace Song Kyu has already been decided this morning." The nasal male voice spoke in a mocking tone.

"Seriously?! How did you know that? "A female voice excited by gossip asked. "Is she one of the candidates, at least?"

Ye Rim just wanted to be a better person and get right through, but instead slowed her pace in the small empty corridor and hoped she could hear more, stepping lightly.

"It seems so.The director called and dropped the bomb early in the morning. By Sunday evening he called sunbae Sunny and requested her portfolio by phone message. That's what sunbae Sunny told me, later. It seems like a recommendation."

"Ohh!"

'Ohhh!' Ye Rim replicated in her mind's the same surprise reaction of the woman she wasn't actually seeing. 'This is not right!'

"But that's not fair! I really hate people who get things like this! What kind of person can this woman be?" the conspiratory chatting followed.

"Well, Sunny sunbae said she's never heard from her before."

"But she has good friends, by the way."

"That's when things gets interesting. Sunny sunbae said the Angel recommended her. You know he has his way in here. He knows everyone."

"Angel?"

"Oh, don't you know, silly? Angel is how Sunny sunbae calls MP Lee from HTN."

"MP Lee Dae Won?!"

'Lee Dae Won oppa'?! Ye Rim felt her blood run cold as she finally understood what was happening.

The door to the break room opened wider and the couple inside came out, facing her. They looked her up and down, with mixed expressions of who feels caught doing something wrong, but catches someone else doing something objectionable as well. Ye Rim just greeted them with a brief bow and hurried past them, entering the bathroom and closing the door shut behind her.

"Gosh." She looked herself in the mirror, looking disheveled, disturbed and a bit pale. Her desire was to splash cold water on her face and put the fire off her cheeks, however. The words reverberated in her mind:

'Farce.'

'Recommended.'

'Lee Dae Won.'

She remembered when she was talking to him about her hopes on this job opportunity, when they met in the Friday night. He said he knew a lot of people there. But Ye Rim never asked him for anything. And how dare he ... 'He barely knows me, why did he do that ?!'

Feeling ashamed in such situation was the most confusing feeling she could feel at that moment.

'I did nothing! I did not ask for anything! Why do I have to be ashamed ?! Can't I just ignore that, as I would if I hadn't heard this conversation? I know I'm going to perform well in the interview. And in any test they might have. I don't need to worry about his recommendation helping me to get this spot. I am quite capable of getting this job on my own. And for those who think I'm taking advantage ... Time will tell. They will see that I am good at it. Why in the hell are my hands shaking?!'

She picked up her cell phone with trembling hands out of frustration, and looked down at her Instagram feed, through her teary eyes. Things were more or less as she left it about one-two hours before. Her post with a photo taken outdoors on her way to the radio station, captioned with: " Wish me luck, today can be a good day!"

There was Lee Dae Won's like, and his comment, listed among others: "Fighting!"

'Fighting!...'

'Here it is! You did it!'

Ye Rim felt panicked. Someone knocked on the bathroom door: "Miss Nam? Are you there?"

"Eh… yes!" Was her nervous response. The thought that she had not even done anything to fix the oily face flashed through her mind.

"Can you hurry? They are already calling for you."

"Eh, ah yes." She answered automatically.

The steps outside faded, and she pulled some tissues to dry her hands nervously, and finally looked at herself in the mirror again.

Now she had to decide whether to get this job knowing what her future co-workers think of her already, or giving up everything.