old cigarettes | min yoongi

xxix.

the man known as mr. sagong looked younger than you'd imagined; something about the way he was talked about made him seem like an old man. but he was most definitely not an old man; he looked maybe a year or two older than jin. he had black hair, brown eyes and a slightly crooked nose, and a smile to match.

he smiled nicely at all of you, his gaze landed on each of you separately. you swore you saw his eyebrows ruffle slightly in annoyance at the sight of the skunk girl, but it was too subtle to be sure.

suddenly, his smile brightened. "ah, so this is all of you for this year? nice, nice. well, don't just stand there, sit down." he gestured to the couches that the skunk girl was already sitting on. you found yourself at the edge of one of the couches and next to minjae.

"first, i'll start us off with an introduction to the show, and then we can introduce ourselves. i believe that it's best to know who your fellow contestants are." you resisted the temptation to throw a triumphant smirk at skunk girl as mr. sagong continued. "as you know, this is the show Ten Star, where we get ten people who have unrecognized talent, and basically pit them against each other in a contest where the winner gets to sign on with one of the hosting companies."

"there are four stages. the first round, second round, the semifinals and then obviously, the finals. as you've noticed, there are five girls and five boys, which i'll just refer to as groups to be simple. in the first round, two from each group will be eliminated. in the second and semifinals, only one will be eliminated. and obviously, the winner is decided in the finals when there is only one from each group left. who stays and goes is half decided by our judges, whom you met last time, and the other half by watchers of the show through a poll, where the one with the least amount of votes gets voted off."

"oh, and if you're worrying about preparing another song for the first performance, don't. we'll have you perform with the song you auditioned with. is everyone okay with that?" he finally finished his long speech, raising his eyebrow. you nodded thoughtfully, as did most of the others. "alright, then we'll introduce ourselves. who would like to start?"

minjae nervously started to raise her hand but the skunk girl butted in. she was obviously trying to suck up for whatever reason. you had no idea why she was trying to suck up to him of all people, since he wasn't even one of the judges. "i will! i'm on chiaye, nice to meet you all!" you resisted the temptation to make a gagging gesture.

the girl on her right, tall with bright blue hair spoke up next. "yong jinju. pleasure."

the boy who had stopped the upcoming fight between you and chiaye, donghyeon, was next before they moved onto minjae and you. the next five people to introduce themselves were jina, a girl who looked like she'd rather be anywhere else, and the other four boys. your mind struggled to try and remember them all, so you promised yourself you would memorize them later.

"alright," mr. sagong said, and you were starting to get the impression that he talked a lot. "like the email said, the plans are to start filming today. because it's the first episode we're filming, we're going to interview all of you so the fans get to know you better. we'll do those and then film the actual first performance. is that okay with everyone?" he finally finished, standing up.

you all nodded along. with that, mr. sagong left the room, beckoning jinju to follow him, and she left without a word. the room lapsed into immediate awkward silence. after a while, donghyeon got on his phone and a minute later you heard cricket sound effects emitting from it. pretty much everyone except chiaye burst out laughing. chiaye rolled her eyes and pulled a file out of her handbag and started filing her nails, ignoring everyone.

one of the boys you didn't catch the name of started speaking, and the tension from the room left. "we should get to know each other better, don't you think? like tell each other what we do for a living and what not."

"oh! that's a good idea!" dongheyon said, shutting his phone with an enormous grin. "i work as an architect at a small firm down the road from my house. my friends told me to audition after we went to a karaoke bar one night. needless to say, they were all drunk, but here i am."

"i'm a college student studying design," jina picked at the hem of her skirt as she mumbled, "my friends convinced me to audition as well, but i'm not convinced it was a good idea."

"i'm sure you'll do great!" donghyeon said. "what about you, nari?"

you jumped slightly at the sudden aim at you. "uh... i run a music shop not that far away. it was inherited from my grandparents and i live there with my sister. she and a good friend of mine told me i should audition."

"wow, so cool! music shops and book shops are the best places on earth, don't you think?" minjae, surprisingly, brightened up as she shouted. "i'm currently unemployed and i was trying really hard to find a job when i came across the flyer for the show so i decided to give it a shot, and now i'm here!"

it was like donghyeon and her were the happy viruses of the group. once she stopped being shy, at least. after around ten more minutes of random talking, jinju came back into the room. "nari, they want you next."