Nepotism

Chapter 1: Competition

'Welcome, to the HYBE Internship Competition. We welcome you all as interns and hope that you shine throughout your time here, with your hard work and creative ideas.'

I can't believe it! Me, Dee Stan, qualified for the HYBE Internship Competition and I'm standing just outside of the HYBE Building, with the other interns. As a fan of kpop, that has been studying and working in broadcasting, I'm so happy that got to I fly all the way here in South Korea to be a part of this competition. I'm not going to waste this.

Me and the other interns enter through a special entrance from the back, and enter the HYBE Labels building, having one of the most thrilling and intimidating things that I've ever experienced. 

We enter through a carpeted hallway with grey walls and only the lights on the ceiling, lighting the hallway. We then get divided into elevators, with four of us plus a HYBE employee going in one elevator with us, making up four elevators going up, for all 16 of us interns.

However, before going up, the HYBE employee only closes the elevator and asks us each a question. 

They first asked the person on their right, 'So how did you find out about this competition?' 

The intern answered with, 'I was looking for other jobs, as the last company I worked for got shut down due to classified reasons from the CEO, and saw this. The fact that I get to suggest my creative ideas intrigued me, as I didn't get to do that at my last company.' 

The HYBE employee showed interest on their face. They then asked me, 'Do you have any experience being an intern?' 

With my answer being, 'Yeah, as I was getting my bachelor's degree, I did some intern work throughout my course and was always offered a permanent job from each place, but turned them down because I wanted to look for jobs with higher opportunities and responsibilities.' 

The HYBE employee widened their eyes as they stated how pleased they were with my answer and added, 'That's what we look for in our staff.' I felt a huge weight off my shoulders as they said that. The HYBE employee asked the other two similar questions, and they also answered up to the employee's standard, leading us to finally go up the elevator.

We exit the elevator and see the other interns arrive at the same time. However, only two interns exit one elevator, and just one intern exits another. Only one other elevator has the same four interns from the start. Eight of us look to each other confused and concerned, while the other three look burdened and shocked. We all then get lead to a room, and in that room there's nothing but cameras, HYBE employees, and a table with a man sitting at it. But not just any man, the man, Bang Shi Hyuk. 

He then says hello to us and asks us to stand in a line as the cameras will start rolling and will give an explanation of the competition. We all stand in line so quietly, I can hear my own heart race quicker and quicker. 

The director then goes '1, 2, 3, *clap*!' and Bang Shi Hyuk begins his statement, 

'Hello to all of you, and welcome to the "HYBE Internship Competition" which will showcase to the world what it takes to become an employee here. All 11 of you have been chosen to compete to become a permanent employee at the company, as a content producer, director, manager, so on and so forth. Now, some of you must be wondering what happened to the other five that you came to the building with, but that did not enter this floor.' 

I was definitely one of them. 

'Well, remember how an employee here asked each of you a question before going up the elevator, well those five interns did not give satisfactory answers, that would be acceptable here at HYBE Labels, so they have been let go already, as we value you to give sufficient yet detailed answers on the feet, whenever and where ever. So the competition officially begin now, with all you 11 interns.' 

And the weight that was lifted from my shoulders, came back crashing down with double the weight, almost feeling like I couldn't breathe, which motivated me more.

'During your time here, two of you will pair up, with one group of three, and each pair will work with one of our five established Kpop groups, working on producing content for their YouTube channels, managing their schedules, getting them on to variety shows, going with them at music shows, whatever they need, you must provide. I wish all of you good luck, and we all look forward to who we will be working with in the future.' The game, is, on. 

I then get paired up with the same person I was on the elevator with, who said that they had to leave their job as the company got shut down. We then got our lanyards, company IDs, and folders that have the information we need. 

We then have an employee take us to our artist that we will be working with, as we both walk in a shaky manner, so we have a little chat to each other to ease the tension and to take our minds off the pressure. They then said, 'Oh, by the way, I'm Akai. It's nice to meet you.' I then state my name and say that it's nice to meet them too.

We then enter the room to where me and Akai's assigned artist are about to film a dance practice. Which I then realise, I was so focused on the job I didn't realise which artist I could be assigned to and who I could meet. And it was them; one of the artists  that I look up to and adore as people. It's LE SSERAFIM.