Angel Smile 175 Scene 175

Yeo Ri donned one of the new outfits that Mrs. Choi had bought for her. She had spent a long time choosing her outfit the night before to make sure that she looked presentable.

"Are you ready?" Gun asked as he held her shoulders. "Don't be nervous; you'll do great."

"Mm," Yeo Ri replied briefly. She hooked her arms around his arm and the two left the house together.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Choi was busy with her business matters so she could not accompany Yeo Ri. However, she generously sent her a road manager and allowed Gun to come with.

The road manager had already been waiting for them in front of their apartment building.

"h.e.l.lo," the two younger ones greeted the manager with a bow.

"Yes, h.e.l.lo," the manager returned their greetings politely and briefly introduced himself. "I'm Byun Joo Hyuk. I'm your road manager for the day."

"h.e.l.lo, Joo Hyuk-ssi."

"Ah, you don't need to be so formal; just call me 'Oppa'." Byun Joo Hyuk smiled. After exchanging a few more perfunctory words, he ushered the two to get into the company car that Park Soo Yeon had prepared for Yeo Ri.

The audition was being held at D Corporation's headquarters—D Corporation was the company behind VitaQua. Actually, these kinds of commercial would usually be handled by an advertising company, but the VitaQua project's person-in-charge happened to be the heir of the company, and he wanted to personally manage everything, so instead of subcontracting another company, he was going to produce the commercial himself.

—Or so Yeo Ri was told by the rather verbose road manager.

"So as long as you impress the heir, you'll be fine. Oh, yeah, he's probably going to be there at the audition."

Yeo Ri's hand trembled slightly. She glanced at Gun with a troubled smile.

Gun squeezed her hand in response, smiling rea.s.suringly. "It'll be fine."

Yeo Ri nodded, then rested her head on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and entered a state of meditation to calm herself until they arrived at their destination.

"We're here."

Yeo Ri and Gun went ahead while Byun Joo Hyuk searched for a place to park the vehicle. There were signs placed around the place to make it easier for the candidates to find the audition area.

A staff was waiting by the waiting area, sitting behind a table labelled 'registrations'.

"Here's your number. The auditioning area is behind this door," says the staff after receiving Yeo Ri's identification. She gave her a number sticker labelled '15' and told her to put it on.

"Ah, outsiders aren't allowed in the audition room so please head over to the other waiting area over there," she added. She pointed towards the open waiting area where several people were already lounging about.

The Lee duo exchanged glances. A slight hint of unwillingness crossed Yeo Ri's gaze as she looked at her brother. Yeo Ri was not ready to part with him yet especially since this was her first time doing an audition.

After a brief moment of silence, Gun hugged her rea.s.suringly. "Do your best, Yeo Ri-ah. Good luck! Oppa will cheer you on from outside."

"Okay." Yeo Ri finally nodded after receiving a kiss on the forehead. She squeezed her arms around him tightly and heaved a deep breath, letting go of her nervousness.

Finally, she pushed open the door and entered the room alone.

Aside from her, there were already a dozen or so people inside the room. There was a mix of boys and girls sitting or standing around the room. Some were idle but many of them were talking or fixing their makeup.

As she stepped into the room, all eyes were suddenly on her.

Yeo Ri was startled for a brief moment, but quickly regained her cool and bowed her head in greeting to the people. She muttered a quick 'h.e.l.lo' before scurrying to an empty seat in the corner. Although she was not a stranger to being the center of attention, she did not feel comfortable with the curious, measuring gazes of the other candidates.

Yeo Ri sat down quietly by herself.

Once the other candidates realised that she had no intention of socialising with any of them, they stopped paying attention to her.

Yeo Ri silently sighed in relief.

With lesser eyes drifting her way, Yeo Ri took the free time given to observe her 'rivals'.

Although there were no restrictions on gender, it was apparent that there were more girls than guys, and all of them looked to be from teen-aged to early-twenties.

Yeo Ri was not interested in the aesthetics of the other candidates, so after evaluating them for half-second, she kept her eyes forward, trained at the door of the conference room where the interviewers sat in, as she waited for her turn.