the muse

Chapter One

The scratching of chairs over the gray concrete floor and the quiet gaggle from my staff made my mood even worse. One of the workers, who came through the door behind me, barged me sideways with his beam, which he carried, "Sorry'', he mumbled. I glared at him angrily, he bowed out of respect and kept going. I smoothed out the wrinkles from my suit where the worker just had touched me. Out of nowhere stood my secretary next to me,"Mr. Kim?", she scrolled trough her cellphone and looked over her reading glasses at me." What?" I asked her, " We're done with the stage right away", "And that means?", I turned away from her and looked towards the podium they were setting up. "That means... we can start right away." , "Aha"

My Make up was refreshed, the cameras lay on me like the eyes of my employees before the first candidate stepped on the platform.

"Three, two, one", shouted the director.

A girl stepped on the stage. She had long black hair and smiled confidently. There was a dark red folder in her arms, which had to contain her photos and other data. All candidates had already been read in advance by people from my company, but whether they were really 'good' was still my decision.

She stepped into the middle of the stage. " My name is Min Chae-young, I have been modeling for over two years, uhm... here", she gave me her folder. I opened it and examined her portfolio. Min Chae-young just kept talking.

She had simple photos, really boring magazines or no good brands. She was nothing special. I could use her as a backup the most, someone standing in the background.

"...very flexible and have been doing performance gymnastics for a long time, so I could represent sports fashion well." she ended. I nodded, "Thank you, next, please!".

Min Chae-young turned red: "Um, Thank you for...". I gave her her folder back, but when she still didn't want to leave, one of the security people shoved her off the stage.

The next person stepped on the platform, also a girl, she had bleached hair that looked disgustingly green. She looked nervous and clung on her portfolio. With her head lowered, she mumbled almost incomprehensible: "He...llo, my nam...", " You can leave right away." I said with a cold smile. The girl opened her mouth to say something: " But I...", her eyes filled with tears. " First, you're too nervous. Second, you're boring. I don't need either." The girl started crying and ran off the stage. I shook my head. "Don't be like that." grumbled Hoseok sitting next to me. " I don't have time for a model no one wants to see.", I answered.