"Hello, are you calling about my cousin and Min Yoongi?" The voice in the phone sounded both defensive and apprehensive. She knows, you think.
You took a deep breath and started your question.
"Is this Kim Ji-Ho?" you ask. The woman on the other end acknowledges that yes, it is, and you continue.
"Ms. Kim I am calling about a temp worker that arrived on site this morning named Marie Wang. Are you familiar?"
Ms. Kim signed a long time, and you heard the flicker of a lighter in the background and the hiss of a flame. She must be lighting a cigarette? Who still smokes these days?
"What's she done now?" asks Ms. Kim and you begin to tell her your litany of troubles. You can hear the woman on the other end of the phone sigh before she speaks.
"Miss... I'm sorry what was your name again?"
"My name is (Y/N) (L/N) and I am the assistant to Mr. Min for this production." You want to make sure she understands that you have taken over for Marie, or her cousin as it seems, and Ms. Kim is quick to understand.
"Miss (L/N), thank you for your understanding in this matter. Can you advise me on the status on Ms. Wang at the moment?" I glance over at the woman standing next to me. She had briefly wandered back over to the trailer when one of the security team waved a coat at her but she had dutifully come back over to stand next to you and seemed to be coming down off her trip.
You advised Ms. Kim that Marie Wang was standing next to you after security had managed to remove her from the trailer.
You could hear some papers shuffling on the other end of the phone and some typing noises before Ms. Kim spoke again.
"Miss (L/N) I have the contract from HYBE-LA in front of me now. Could I ask a very large favor, and request to speak to my cou...my employee please?" You knew the slip up from cousin to employee wasn't intentional and you felt a small shiver at the thought of the amount of volume your phone was going to receive next.
"Of course, Ms. Kim." You turned to Marie Wang and held out the phone. She stared at it as if it was a poisonous viper. "Miss Wang, Ms. Kim from the Just in Time agency would like to speak with you. Now." And again, you pushed your phone towards Marie Wang.
She hesitantly took it from you and put it up to her ear.
"He...Hello?" she said tentatively into the mouthpiece.
A blast of English, Korean and what you thought might be Chinese, but weren't 100% certain on came out of your phone at was certainly a full volume scream. You said a silent apology to your phone and stepped back to let Marie wince in piece. Between the cold morning and the reaming, she was getting from her cousin, you knew she was nearly done coming down from her trip.
You looked up to see Kyle and his team exit the trailer... without a suitcase. You frowned at Kyle, but he turned to dismiss his guys before heading over to you and didn't see it.
Kyle walked up to stand beside you and you both watched in awe as the volume coming through your phone somehow increased in loudness and frequency. You caught both idiot and pabo multiple times and couldn't really disagree with Ms. Kim's choice of words. On the other hand, her cousin's complete ineptitude had netted you some facetime with Min Yoongi, so you supposed you couldn't be too harsh on the woman in front of you.
Kyle looked down at you and turned to the side slightly.
"(Y/N) we have two problems besides just her and her agency. Number 1, trailer is a loss. It stinks so bad in there, no talent will want to use it but Snoop and his crew, and that's not a thing on this production. And number 2, the amount of pot she's got in there is waaaay over the legal limit. I'm going to have to call in CPD."
Now you knew from Derek that Kyle was pretty chill. So the fact that he said he had to involve the city cops over the amount of pot Marie Wang had brought into the trailer shocked you a little. How long had she been in there smoking? You thought to yourself while turning your head to see where the conversation between cousins was. It looked like the volume was decreasing, but it looked like Marie Wang was about to start crying hysterically and you needed to get information out of her before the cops came.
You turned your attention back to Kyle.
"No suitcase?" you said a little despairingly and Kyle shook his head no.
"She blew through most of the snacks and drinks, and the fridge was left open so anything that was in there that isn't sealed is probably suspect, but most of the trailer itself wasn't touched. But she'd sat in the living room to smoke, and that smell is in the leather and the carpet and the walls now. Jason's going to be furious.
Your frustration with what had happened continued to grow and before Ms. Kim had finished screaming at Marie Wang, you took the phone from her hands.
"MS.KIM!" you yelled into your phone trying to get her attention. You saw Kyle step forward to block Marie Wang into place in case she was trying to slip away and you turned your attention back to your phone when you saw Kyle had the situation in hand.
"Ms. Kim, I need some more answers from your cousin. Several of Mr. Min's belongings are missing and we cannot locate them, do you know what could have happened to them?" you ask once the yelling has stopped.
Ms. Kim took a deep breath and was able to respond in a much calmer, but obviously hoarser voice than she had used a few minutes ago.
"Apologies Ms. (L/N) for putting you through that. Yes, I have the hotel information here for Mr. Min. Is there an email I can forward this to for you?" She was doing her best to be polite and professional, but it seemed odd she wasn't fighting for the contract anymore. You knew that, if it was you, you wouldn't have let the opportunity to be close to Yoongi slip away, but both of these women seemed so blasé about it you were more than a bit taken aback. Maybe they don't know who he is? That's really weird.
You rattled off your more professional email address of just (Y/N)(L/N)@gmail.com and waited for the confirmation of file received while you finished talking with Ji-Ho Kim. Then you dropped the news Kyle had told you about the state of the trailer and the quantity of pot found in the trailer. To say Ms. Kim was even less pleased with her cousin than she had been moments before was a bit underwhelming, but you got the impression that she had figuratively wiped her hands of her cousin.
"While we are just the temp agency for placement, our contract says that HYBE-LA is liable for claims, so please inform them of your costs for the trailer. As for Ms. Wang and the Chicago PD, that situation is entirely up to her now. Is there anything else I can assist you with this morning?"
You were again taken aback by the blasé attitude of this woman towards what had to have been a fairly substantial contract for employees and the fact that her cousin was about to be hauled off by the police but decided to act in kind.
"Thank you Ms. Kim, I think that will be all. If I have any additional questions later, is there a better number I can reach you at?" You and Ji-Ho Kim exchanged information before you closed out the call.
You turned to Kyle and the now sobbing Marie. You hesitated but you needed the information.
"Marie, can you tell me what happened to the suitcase from this morning? You asked quietly.
Marie paused her sobs for a second and tried to take a deep breath. You dug in your pocket and came up with a pack of Kleenex you had grabbed this morning on your way out of your apartment and handed it to her. She looked at it, surprised for a moment, and lifted her head.
"Yea," she responded in between sniffles. "When the guy arrived all Ji-Ho had told me was I had to get his stuff back to the Drake so that I wasn't responsible for it. So, I texted Feng, the other temp. He was driving the guy this morning and had waited for me to tell him if I needed help or not. Then he was going to come back and blaze with me later." She paused her and you realized your earlier thought was right. She has no idea who Yoongi is and you decided you weren't going to educate her at all.
"Thank you Marie, that was very helpful." You turned back to Kyle and said "I think I have everything I need here, I'll let Jason know the trailer is a 100% wash and see what he can do instead. You need me for anything else Kyle?"
Kyle shook his head and looked towards Marie as she started to sniffle again.
"Nah, I think Ms. Wang here and I are going to have a nice long discussion about appropriate behavior in society. Thanks (Y/N), I'll have the paperwork to Jason about what we do next and have him show it to you before we close this out. Miss Wang?" and with that Kyle guided Marie Wang towards the studio door, presumably to head back to the security office. You spared her a momentary I hope everything turns out ok for her and turned to go towards the hair and makeup staging areas.