NABC Chapter 20 First Day of Work
Chapter 20 First Day of Work
The middle-aged woman looked at her, and finally a genuine smile appeared on her lips. She took the two signed contracts, left her one original, and took out a bright yellow temporary access pass from the drawer and placed it on the table.
"You're the first child this year to not utter a single complaint after hearing these conditions, and also the first to go through the entire contract clause by clause with your guardian."
"Take your temporary access pass. It's valid for one month and only allows you to enter the B1 training area, the cafeteria, and the first-floor lobby. You can't enter other floors."
"The official trainee card will be issued after your fingerprint is entered into the system, and the course schedule will be sent to your registered email address one day in advance."
"Thank you, teacher."
Kim Minjung accepted the access pass with both hands, bowed deeply, turned around, pushed open the office door, and walked out.
She leaned against the wall, clutching the still-smelling contract, then suddenly turned around, holding it up to Jiang Yan's eyes. Her voice was low but couldn't hide her barely concealed excitement and pride, "Look at these three words! Kim, Min, Jung! I signed it! I'm really an SM trainee now!"
Jiang Yan took the contract from her and flipped through it, confirming that the terms on each page were consistent with those he had just reviewed. He then closed the folder, raised his hand, and lightly flicked her forehead. "Keep your voice down. There are people in the hallway. Be careful not to get scolded by your seniors for being rude."
Kim Minjung covered his forehead and chuckled, his eyes curving into two crescent moons, the smile spreading from the corners of his mouth all the way to his eyebrows and eyes, he just couldn't stop it.
She took out her phone from her pocket, quickly snapped a picture of the contract, and sent it to Jin's mother.
[Mom, I've signed it!]
Less than three seconds after the message was sent, Jin's mother called.
Kim Minjung saw the word "Mom" flashing on the screen and quickly answered the call. While bowing and apologizing to the passing trainees, he ran to the window at the end of the corridor and whispered something to them.
Jiang Yan didn't follow her; he only saw her from a distance, talking on the phone while wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Mom, don't worry... Oppa read through the contract for me from beginning to end and asked a lot of questions, even stumping the teacher... Hmm, I have to run back and forth every week... It's not tiring! Not tiring at all! I can take the SRT from now on, it's fast... Mom, don't cry, if you cry I want to cry too..."
She tilted her head back, forcing back the tears that were about to spill, and said to the phone several times, "I know," "Don't worry," "Oppa is so good to me," "I'll be home Sunday afternoon, and you'll make me soybean paste stew."
After hanging up the phone, she stood by the window for a while, took several deep breaths, and then came back. "My mom said she wanted me to thank you. She said that with you in Seoul, she can finally get a good night's sleep."
Jiang Yan took the bright yellow temporary access pass from her hand and glanced at it. "The trainee restaurant is on B1. You can eat for free with this card. I also know some people at SM, so I've booked practice room number 3 for you for half an hour. Would you like to go there and get used to the environment?"
Kim Minjung's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing this, "Honey? We can practice today?"
"You've officially signed the contract, so of course you can."
As soon as she finished speaking, a young woman in her early twenties walked out of the personnel department. She still had a student-like look on her face and was holding a folded floor plan in her hand.
"Kim Minjung-ssi, right?" She smiled politely and handed over the floor plan. "My name is Lee Ji-na, and I'm an intern in the HR department. It's Saturday today, so there aren't many people around. I'll take you to the B1 training area and show you the locations of the changing rooms, practice rooms, and the cafeteria."
"Yes, thank you for your trouble, senior!" Kim Minjung quickly took the floor plan and bowed deeply.
Clutching her access pass, she glanced down at the barcode, took a deep breath, and hung the pass around her neck as if it were a heavy medal.
"Oppa, I'll go with this senior! You find a place to rest, I'll come find you when I'm done."
"Hmm." Jiang reached out and straightened her crooked high ponytail. "Don't practice too hard. Today is the first day. There are no teachers on the weekend, so just practice with the videos. Be careful not to make mistakes in the movements. Once you develop bad habits, they will be hard to break. Also, there may be other trainees in practice room number 3. Take turns using the speakers and don't argue."
"Okay, okay!" Kim Minjung stuck out her tongue, then took off her red backpack and handed it to Kang Yeon. "Hold this for me!"
Then she jogged to catch up with the intern in front of her, her high ponytail swinging behind her.
Jiang Yan, carrying her backpack, watched the small figure disappear behind the emergency exit at the end of the corridor, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously curved into a smile.
He turned and stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the sixth floor.
Today he also had his own things to do: get his official access card, sign a producer contract, and familiarize himself with the recording studio equipment.
Ahn Jung-hwan said his onboarding procedures would be completed this morning.
The corridor of the sixth-floor production department was much quieter than downstairs, with a thick gray-blue sound-absorbing carpet on the floor, so you couldn't even hear footsteps.
Several SM classic album cover posters hang on the wall, from H.O.T. to TVXQ, from Girls' Generation to EXO, arranged in chronological order, like a condensed history of Korean pop music.
Jiang Yan pushed open the glass door of the production department office, where An Zhenghuan was already waiting.
On the table were two copies of the producer contract, next to a silver-gray electronic access card and a name tag that read "SM ENTERTAINMENT Producer Kang Yeon".
"Take a look at the contract. It's exactly the same as what we discussed before." An Zhenghuan pushed the contract over, leaned back in his chair, and said with a hint of teasing in his tone, "I heard you spent almost twenty minutes downstairs reviewing the contract for your sister? Teacher Zhang Zhenying just said in the department group that young people these days are really thorough, even more meticulous than the people in our legal department."
Jiang Yan took the contract, smiled, and didn't say anything.
He carefully reviewed his producer contract from beginning to end, confirming that the three-year contract term, the 15% commission on arrangement from the company's production revenue, the basic monthly salary of three million Korean won, and the liability for breach of contract were all completely consistent with what had been agreed upon before he signed his name on the last page.
Ahn Jung-hwan took one contract and pushed another, along with his access card and employee badge, in front of him. "Welcome to SM. You can go to Recording Studio 1 now. Kenzie is already waiting for you there to do the final adjustments before recording."
"Okay, I'm coming over now." Jiang Yan picked up the employee badge, ran his fingertip over the gold lettering on it, and solemnly hung it around his neck.
He walked out of the office and headed towards recording studio number one at the end of the corridor.
The recording studio door was ajar, and the low-pitched melody that Kenzie habitually hummed while mixing the sound could be heard from inside.
He raised his hand to knock on the door, when he heard the muffled sound of high heels on the sound-absorbing carpet coming from the other end of the corridor.
Turning his head, he saw Tiffany wearing a simple white T-shirt and jeans, carrying two iced Americanos in one hand and a light pink gift bag in the other, walking towards him with her beautiful smiling eyes.