INTERN [Series 1]

INTERN - PART 05

Locking himself in one of the cubicles, and placing himself on the closed loo seat, Namjoon frantically searches his pockets.

"Omo.... Why didn't I just say something? Anything?!" he mutters to himself, eventually feeling the familiar object in the left inside pocket and swiping the screen like there is no tomorrow... Namjoon isn't even sure he wants for there to be a tomorrow, or a rest of the day at that, after his little incompetent freeze in front of the editor back there.

"Please be on a break... please be on a break..." he wills upon pressing the 'call' button next to Seokjin's name, tapping obsessively on the cubicle wall with his long fingers, leaning his head onto the arm attached to his nervous hand.

Namjoon absolutely hates being like this. Why must the past have shaped him in this way, so that at the first sign of distress, he can think of no other way to cope than to run away?

After the second time trying to connect and being put to the answer machine, Namjoon drops his arms down in defeat with a big sigh and lets the silence fill the air until the next person comes into the toilets, and it's only a matter of minutes before a couple of the staff make their entrance.

"Did you see the way the intern just completely blanked the editor earlier?"

"I know! He must be brave; probably still quite young and naive..."

"No, I've heard he's a few years older than our youngest writer."

"Really? How odd..."

Just like that, here it was again... the remarks behind his back... Does high school really never end?

He figures, nope.

*

"We need to up our game if we want this magazine to keep running! Sales are declining; something is going wrong... but what?" questions Hoseok to his staff who are all sitting patiently in the meeting, listening to his every word.

The room is silent, apart from the ticking clock, informing the people that it is 15 minutes away from 3pm. The listening people are unresponsive to the question that has just been asked to them, except from Jeongguk who willingly raises his hand in the air, leaving Hoseok to sigh deeply, admit defeat to his urge to not pick this writer in particular, and point in his direction. "Yes, Jeongguk?"

"We're too consistent, editor: yawn!" Jeongguk replies, making a yawning gesture. "We're recycling way too much in recent times..." Jeonguk continues, then gasping "Oh! We should do some travelling! Do something more innovative!"

"Jeongguk, we --"

"OFFICE ROADTRIP!!!" the writer exclaims, punching a fist to the air, clearly not amusing a single person in the room, as the editor shakes his head downwards, leaving Jeongguk's words to echo a little in the empty air. Well, the air would be empty, albeit the tiny snort of a chuckle that manages to resonate across the room to Hoseok's ears turns an awkward silence into... a still awkward moment, really.

Almost every pair of eyes glare in Namjoon's direction, making him realise he'd responded out loud, no inside voice evident at all.

"Intern! I suppose you have something to say about this?" Hoseok questions sternly.

This can all be turned around in a moment Namjoon figures. He has ideas with potential, he's an intelligent guy... maybe he can prove himself to the staff that have obviously been looking down at him for this past month...

"I, uh... yes!" Namjoon shakily begins, standing from his seat. 'Come on 'Joon, you can do this!' he tries to tell himself, wanting so badly to turn the tables round and have the staff quit talking about him so negatively... He'd be very surprised if what he heard back in the toilets was the first time other writers would have gathered to talk about him in this way.