Jung Hoseok was on the brink of renaming himself as Jung No-hoper.

Considering how his glory days' stage name used to be J-Hope, this much-inevitable change might prove to be similar to going off at a tangent for both him and the people who usually kept him engaged during those mundane hours of his current life. After all, his candidature as the new dance instructor at Aurum Entertainment had begin to showcase its potential at last— the dispiriting head-sways and jaded expressions of the Director who was seated across him, ultimately making way for that faint beam of hope to dart through the space that separated them.

To venture into that field again implied— quite emphatically, for that matter— that he be summoned by a pseudo title. For if his companions from years ago wound up chancing upon this rather unprecedented news of him reweighing his career as a dancer, Hoseok would not be able to avert the possibility of him being turned into a laughing stock. The man certainly did not look forward to being demoralised by individuals who could not even hold a candle to him back then.

To restart from scratch was already a harsh reality to grapple with, he did not want more of such truth bombs to be pelted down on his head.

On that account, there could not be a timing more appropriate to indulge in mulling over the details— his commitment was definitely no building castles in the air.

When Hoseok had first walked into the magnificent building that was proportionately constructed of sheeny glass windows and comparatively dull brick walls, he had anything but expected the sort of people it housed to be patient and humble. In fact, he had prepared himself to run into a multitude of hard-pressed employees, earning synchronous glares and distasteful grumbles from them for having acted so impetuously in an astir workplace.

Arguably, it was the effect of all those K-Dramas that he had caught Injae binging on every now and then. Real life surely does not operate in such a stilted manner.

Steps hesitant and breath uneven, he nonetheless braved the unfamiliar wind that area had been training at him— courtesy of the countless air-conditioners that it was teemed with. Forcing a reluctant gulp down his throat, his head convulsed in an intentional effort to dispel the second thoughts that had been relentlessly swamping him. With one hand fixed on the strap of his vitiated office bag, he did not realise how his other arm had been defying the laws of motion all along— stiff against the side-frame of his body.

However, the frown on his face involuntarily eased once he spotted the same set of sparkling eyes and an amicable grin that had been growing on to him for some reasons from the past few days. He drew longer strides, feet placing upon the floor with an unforeseen stability. His lips simultaneously formed a smile, widening once it became obvious to him that the owner of those winsome features was now within a reachable distance.

"Hello, Mirae." Hoseok greeted, his pupils dilating as he fixated his gaze at her.

"Hi, Hoseok. About time you arrived. Shall we?" Mirae posed a rhetorical question, gesturing him to trail her as she slithered out from the main reception desk.

Though nothing of what unfolded next measured up to the convenience that Mirae had led Hoseok into anticipating. He was soon ushered into an isolated room— although on the ground floor itself— theme of which was most probably only onyx black for it was denuded of even a stroke of another color. An unnatural poise seemed to flow within him as he steadily glided towards one of the visitors' chairs and perched upon it. Hands now buckled into each other, he rested them on his knees, legs continuously in a bobbing movement because of the restlessness that was leisurely setting in.

His mercurial equilibrium was bound to betray him anyway. Facades do not actually work in the long run.

With Mirae departed from his side, he no longer had a straw to grasp on to. Not that her presence would have guaranteed him staying afloat, but it always feels better to know that we have an unexpressed yet confirmed assurance coming from at least one direction. That, in itself, is an infallible swim ring to latch onto. And Hoseok was desperately pining for one at the moment.

A blunt click of the door knob was what eventually suspended Hoseok's woolgathering, as he immediately rotated his neck to check who else other than him had willfully conformed to being confined in that one hell of a monochromatic room.

If a picture was captured of that office— one in colored and the other in grayscale mode, it would still turn out to be painstakingly difficult for an individual to tell them apart.

Hoseok snickered at the thought.

Nevertheless, his visage only contorted in perplexity when he could not figure out the relevance of the female who was approaching him. Puzzled, he pivoted around, his gaze instantly landing on the matte black name plate that spelled Park Seungyi, Director, to serve the purpose of its existence. Hoseok's eyes squinted as he read the name, wondering if the absurd idea that had germinated in his brain was even plausible to begin with.

How could a woman this young already achieve the post of a director?

Closing his eyes, Hoseok gently oscillated his head, internally jeering at how ridiculous he would have sounded had he said that out loud. Because there was no way his theory could be correct.

"She must be one of the secretaries or something. Assuming her to be Park Seungyi is downright insane." Hoseok addressed himself, lips pressing into a thin line as he agreed.

Except, that woman with a high ponytail, and a business suit on her skin that perfectly emulated the room's interior, was indeed her. Shifting impeccably in order to rest herself on the cushioned seat that was meant for her, in due course, she brought the pounding of her heels against the tiled surface to a halt, letting an uncomfortable silence to sink in thereafter. Straightening herself against the tall back of her chair, she placed one of her fists— albeit loose— on the table top that reflected an immaculate finish on the carpenter's part, intently tapping two of her fingers so as to provide the cue to Hoseok to start talking.

"To what do I owe this visit, mister..."

"Jung Hoseok, ma'am." The male's brisk response successfully demonstrated how he had effortlessly fathomed Seungyi's deliberate elongation of her last consonant.

"Yes, Mister Jung, how may I help you?" She quizzed, her assertive tone reverberating in Hoseok's ears.

"A contact of mine recently recommended me that I'd present solid prospects for positions in the dance department here in case I decide to go ahead and actually apply as a matter of fact. I had been active in the underground scenario until... uh, some tragedy happened to strike me headlong a few years back, and forced me into giving up on dance altogether as a consequence. Initially, I thought I'd do just fine without, y'know, putting all my time and energy into it every single day. For a change, I had subsequently come to believe that maybe it was an opportunity in disguise for me after all, to pay attention to those aspects that I had tended to overlook all that while I was preoccupied with the world of dance." Hoseok sighed, dragging a deep breath in right after.

"It was foolish of me to live in that constant denial, because all that was ever on my mind was dance. Abandoning something that you've been doing for as long as your memory could go back, just like that, is easier said than done. I feel incomplete without dance, the agony I undergo due to that is inexplicable, ma'am. Even till this date, I dream of upending every adolescent choice of mine and proceed to trudge onto an entirely different path— that's precisely how much I hate my present life."

Seungyi's brows furrowed, still in the process of unraveling Hoseok's ambiguous monologue. Noticing her reaction at once, Hoseok must have deemed it redundant to weave a couple more string of words at this point, as his lips abruptly parted to conclude his pitch.

"The teenager me might've been short-sighted, ma'am, but I am anything but that now. I've already wasted a decade in contemplating issues that weren't really worthwhile, when returning to dance should've been my priority. I don't want to live the rest of my years being the same irresolute son of a bitch— pardon my language— who has also ruined the only precious thing that he had ever had by his side, the only thing that ever made him truly happy." Hoseok paused, clearing his throat. "Allow me to plug away at your company and relive my ambition, all at the same time."

Seungyi sat frozen, eyelids flapping sustainedly as she stared at Hoseok. Then out of the blue, her lips twisted into a pout, as though she was thoroughly ruminating about the job-seeker's proposal. Her brows rose, mouth closely following the suit as she plainly stated, "Okay."

Hoseok's facial muscles twitched when he heard the reply, uncertainty eclipsing his features because something was not adding up. Of course, Seungyi's glazed eyes did not complement the affirmative answer that she had just delivered. It was either Hoseok had merely imagined those words escaping her lips or what she had uttered, quite surprisingly, did align with how he had conceived the acknowledgement.

Hoseok earnestly wished that he had not gotten ahead of himself by misconstruing what had not even been spoken. But lately, his life had also suddenly started to bestow blessings that he did not even remember asking for. The odds of that taking place, used to be so low for him that he had even self-effacingly accepted his destiny of being at peace only after his death.

It was amusing for him to witness how every ideal that he had adhered to, every judgement of his that he had claimed was unerring, was as flawed as that medieval postulation of the Sun revolving around the Earth.

Unless...

There was a tacit curveball waiting to be revealed from beneath that curt okay.

"You don't seem to have credentials that can be verified, though. Moreover, you haven't been participating in dance-related events for over a decade now, as you yourself have confessed just now. That tips the situation against you." Seungyi conveyed, her countenance bearing subtle dismay. "Yet, we don't want to miss out on such an exceptional asset."

"Wh—what would you mean by that?" Hoseok stammered, a discernible shade of red fanning out across his cheeks.

"That means, Mister Jung," inclining her torso in her desk's direction, the Director insinuated. "That we accept your application, but you shall work as an unpaid intern for about a month first. I hope you're aware of how it's important for us to monitor our employees' functioning, right? The first month is therefore our unofficial screening process. Majority of the people survive through this round so don't worry, we won't kick you out after having availed your services for free. There are ninety percent chances of you being hired as a permanent worker at our agency once you're sent in as an intern. So, good luck, I guess? I know you'll do well."

"That's— that's excellent! Thank you so much, really, I'm so grateful. You have no idea how much this means to me. Thanks for being so kind towards me." Hoseok blurted out, tears sprouting in the corners of his eyes. "I understand how the agency runs, but could it be so that I get paid from the first month itself? I'm open to adjustments—"

"It's useless to discuss on this matter, Mister Jung, obviously I won't tamper with the company's terms and conditions because of one person. I liked your confidence up until now, try to maintain that impression of yours in my eyes and refrain from disclosing the you're, perhaps, struggling financially?" Seungyi's gaze was intense enough to steer anyone into cowering before her.

"Yes, ma'am."

Turns out Hoseok was barely as anomalous as he had always viewed himself to be.

✧

a/n

qotd: how do y'all keep the em-dashes in your passages, intact? no matter how many times i edit a chapter, the final version always shows rather... hyphens in their place. does anyone know how to fix this?
also, thank you for the 200+ reads on this book! it's been showing a steady growth, makes me really glad to know that there are some ppl who actually enjoy reading what i write💘