A Thousand Years

Chapter 1: New Job

*Boom* The sound of thunder woke Astoria up from her slumber and she began to heavily breathe, sitting on her bed. Astoria calms herself down with some deep breathing. She looks over to her right to see outside the window. It was raining. She grabs her phone from her nightstand and looks at the time.

"3 AM here" She notices her cheeks are wet. She realizes that she has been crying. "How can this be? I was fine last night. It must have been that dream. I never had one like that before." She looks around her room.

She has just moved into a 1K apartment in Seoul to work as the manager of Ateez. She was offered the job just the week before after she worked as a manager with another music company in Los Angeles for a year. Her apartment basically had boxes of her stuff that she had shipped to there laying around. "It must be the stress of the new job. Hopefully all will be better." Astoria tries to go back to sleep but as soon as she does, the dream plays again. It was gonna be a long night for her.

Since her apartment was a short distance from the company, Astoria decided to walk there. She puts on her airpods and listens to Ateez songs. She heard of them slightly before she was offered the job but decided to listen to their music to understand what makes them popular.

Astoria was fascinated and quickly became a fan. She decided to make a detour and go to the nearest Starbucks to get herself an iced coffee. After getting her coffee, she walks off to KQ Entertainment while listening to their music. Soon, she was right at the entrance. Astoria turns off the music, takes off the airpods and puts them in her bag. She takes a deep breath and walks in.

A man, who looked to be in his 30's, is waiting in the lobby and looks at her. He waves at her. "Hello, are you Kim Astoria?" Alex hears her name being called and sees the man waving at her. She goes over to him.

"Hi, I am. You can also call me Tori, if you wish to." The man smiles. "I am Hyun. I was the one who offered you the job." Tori kindly bows at him. "It is a pleasure meeting you. Thank you for this opportunity, I will not let you down."

Hyun bows back at her. "I know you will do great. Someone told me how brilliant you are in this profession while in America. Especially at age 21, that is quite impressive."

She smiles at the compliments. "Thank you very much sir. I have been working hard in the music industry since I was 18. Music has always been my passion." Hyun nods. "That is wonderful to hear. Let us go upstairs and meet Ateez." He walks her over to the elevator. Tori gets nervous but does not show it. As they get into the elevator, Hyun presses a button and the elevator closes.

Hyun looks over at her. "Do not worry, the boys are wonderful. I would know. I am their producer. Also note that Ateez member Song Mingi just came back last week from being on hiatus so you are just in time to meet all 8 of them." Tori looks at him confused. Hyun explains what happened. This made her feel sad. "I am glad he is alright." Hyun smiles and nods. "So are we."

A moment later, the elevator doors open and Hyun walks out. Tori follows him. They turn left and walk down a long hallway. This made her feel even more nervous. The hallway felt endless and that made her nerves go up. She suddenly remembered she still had her iced coffee. She drinks it quietly, hoping it would calm her down. Hyun looks back at her.

"They're in the practice room. We thought it would be easier to meet them in a big room so you would feel more comfortable." Tori could not believe it. He knew she would feel overwhelmed in a small space like a meeting room.

A few minutes go by and the pair have come face to face with the door to the practice room. She discards her already empty iced coffee in a trash bin right by her. Hyun looks at her. "I will introduce you to them." He opens the door and walks inside.

"Pardon the interruption, but I would like to introduce you all to your new manager. Everyone, meet Kim Tori." He looks back at the door. She takes a deep breath and walks inside.

Tori looks ahead and sees 8 guys staring at her. They were all in workout clothes, a few had hats on. She bows slightly. "It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I hope we get along. I am honored to be your manager." Hongjoong looks around. "Let's introduce ourselves.1.2.3.."

"8 Makes 1 Team! Hello, we are Ateez." They bow slightly as they introduce themselves as a group.

Tori smiles softly. She looks down, slightly nervous. "I apologize. I still get nervous meeting new people." "It is alright, Tori. You are in good hands." Hyun said, assuring her. "As much as I would love to stay, I have to attend a meeting. I will check on you later." Tori nods. "Alright, sir." He says his goodbyes to Ateez and leaves the room, closing the door.

"Alright so let me actually see if I can guess your names. I learned a little bit from online. I will start from my left to right." She looks on her left. "You are San, Yunho, Seonghwa, Hongjoong, Woonyoung, Yeosang, Jongho, and Mingi." Wooyung dances a little. "She got our names right." This made her giggle.

Tori looks at everyone. "So anyways, as Hyun said, I am gonna be your manager. I may look young, but I am capable of this job. I am 21, from America..." Wooyoung interrupts her. "You're 21?!" She nods

"Yup! I was born on December 14th in the year 2000." Wooyoung looks at Jongho. "That makes you her hyung!" He laughs. Jongho rolls his eyes at Wooyung's comment.

Seonghwa looks over at her. "My apologies for Wooyung, he acts more like the maknae than Jongho." Tori giggles. "No, no it's okay."

"So as I was saying, I have been listening to your music since I was offered the job. You are all quite talented and I can't wait to see them all in person." This made everyone become shy and smile at the compliment. Hongjoong comes up with an idea. "Let us show Manager-nim what we have been working on." The others agreed and got into position.

Tori takes off her coat and places it on the couch that was near the door. She sits down and watches them. As the music played and the group danced, Tori knew right then and there that she made the right choice in accepting the job.

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After some time, Tori decided to treat them to lunch as a thank you for accepting her. As soon as she brought lunch in the practice room, the guys started getting excited like little kids. All 9 of them sat on the floor and ate. Wooyoung was goofing around with San and Yeosang. Everyone else was eating and talking amongst themselves. Tori went over to Hongjoong to talk as the others were eating peacefully and playing.

"So how do you handle them?" She asked him, watching the others. He looks at her. " Just see them as 5 year olds. It makes it all easier." "Ah." She responds. Tori goes back to eating. Seonghwa goes over to her. "So what brought you to us?" He asked with curiosity. This made everyone stop what they were doing and go over toTori to hear what she has to say. Tori puts down her food. "Well, before today, I was assisting another manager in Los Angeles. I actually came to Seoul before with the artist I helped manage about a month ago. I went to attend a dinner with all the heads of different music companies."

"The CEO of KQ noticed me and asked about who I managed. He was intrigued and offered me a job here. So here I am. And no I will not speak about the artist I managed. He was also impressed with how well I can speak fluently in both English and Korean. So it makes communication in the U.S. easier."

"Any other questions you have about me?" San and Yeosang raise their hands. Tori chuckles. "Yes San-hyung?" He puts his hand down and Yeosang follows suit. "May we learn more about you, manager-nim?" Tori nods. "Alright well, I will give you all the basic information."

"I was born in Orange County, California. I am an only child to my mother and father. My dad is from South Korea and moved to America after high school. He met my mom at university. They both own a Korean BBQ restaurant together. It is one of the most successful restaurants in Orange County." Yeosang raises his hand. "Yes, Yeosang-hyung?" She asked. He puts his hand down. "Does Tori stand for something?" He asked curiously.

"Oh, why yes it does. Tori is a nickname that I go by. I am alright with you guys calling me that or Manager-nim. My real name is what my mother calls, 'a name fit for a princess'. She giggles at that. "It's adorable actually. She found it in a story my grandmother used to tell her for years. My real name is Astoria. I was named after the legendary princess who became a pirate to rebel against her family."