He'd almost managed to leave when one of the four Tae-Jun identified intercepted him at the door.
"What's a loser doing here?" Malancha sneered at him. Her eyes flashed angrily when she would've shoved him into a wall.
Tae-Jun sidestepped, and she hit the wall instead.
"Man, so he's learned some moves." Altreu studied him with contempt. "Yet, he's just the bastard son of a has-been actress who can't act her way out of a bag these days." His upper lip curled in disgust. "How dare you show your face here?"
Tae-Jun sighed. "That's the best you can come up with?" This sounded scripted and not at all original. He'd heard far worse in another world and another time.
Shellu's eyebrows rose when she heard Tae-Jun's response. "Uhm, who are you?" She recoiled, staring at him warily.
"I'm Thera Tae-Jun," Tae-Jun bowed in mockery as he sidestepped Baltazar, who attempted to punch him. "I'm also really not in the mood for this crap." He could have been more impressed with their tactics.
Shellu swallowed hard. "Okay, the rest of you need to stop." She could sense his strong desire to take them down. "This is not the time or place. Look at him closely," Shellu warned them. "This isn't the body of a coward who can't fight." She was staring at his tattoo. "Keep it up, and we'll have a real dragon in our midst."
Hmm, so she knew what the tattoo meant and that it was almost covering his entire right side. Tae-Jun had observed it gradually becoming more prominent, soon covering his whole body. He figured, at that point, he'd become the dragon. That wasn't something he mainly looked forward to dealing with.
One thing at a time.
"Why are you stopping us, Shellu?" Malancha whirled on her furiously. "You know what the orders are..." she stopped short. "You didn't get orders?"
Shellu regarded her with cold eyes. "You received orders, hmm?" There was pure dislike in her gaze. "I can't believe you'd sell out someone for fame and fortune when it isn't guaranteed." She glanced at Tae-Jun with a hostile gaze. "I sure hope you have a backup plan in case you fail the auditions." She stalked away. "I, for one, am not going to be so immature as to start fights in a place where we're at a disadvantage." She headed to one of the small stalls. The same one that Tae-Jun had just exited, in fact. Shellu turned to face the other three. "You all should really find a different place other than an interview studio to pull this crap."
During her lecture on those idiots, Tae-Jun took the opportunity to walk away from them before he was caught up in something rather ridiculous and, as she called it, immature.
That's when security guards were called, and the trio was hauled off to cool their heads before returning to do their interviews. Wow, that was quite the contrast between his treatment and theirs. All he got were threats of his dying if he failed. What a way to find out he only had a few people he could trust. Tae-Jun shrugged. This was just another obstacle he had to handle carefully.
Wow, after the first showdown during that interview, things devolved into almost continuous verbal warfare. The interviewers stopped their work to observe how he and the others handled the problem.
"When will some of those young elites realize that they'd wound up working with someone who isn't going to do them much good in the end?"
"Sheesh, talk about taking the wrong side and department."
"Oh well, they can always return to their mamas and papas to learn the business trade afterward."
"Bah, trash will always be trash, whether spoiled or not."
"Whatever, we need to finish the interviews. I'm starved."
Fortunately, Tae-Jun managed to remain semi-detached from the insult war, mainly because he didn't care to get involved, and, two, it had nothing to do with him. The argument concerned whether localized dragon lord had more influence over a particular complex, department, or other.
Fortunately, Tae-Jun could remain neutral and only talk with those who had nothing to do with the words flying at each other.
"Oh, you must be Thera Tae-Jun," a black-haired youth approached him cautiously. "I'm Shamus O'Toole."
"Thera Tae-Jun, nice to meet you." Tae-Jun nodded to him. "So, what do you think of everything happening so far?"
"Oh, you mean the hot mess that happened earlier?" Shamus shrugged. "Meh, some old dude who is insecure in the upper administrative division was throwing his weight around." His green eyes glinted with amusement. What do you think, Kyri?" He nudged someone next to him. "Wake up, will ya?"
"Huh?" Kyrie's grey eyes glinted in amusement. "Yeah, that was happening again." A blond yawned in boredom. "I can't believe they chose to target you, though, Thera." Kyrie caught Tae-Jun's confusion.
"You seem to have your head straight when you don't have memory lapses."
That was a good enough excuse since he didn't know who they were. "Hmm, it happens more often than I care to admit." Tae-Jun sighed. He'd have to watch himself around them. Though they seemed nice enough, he realized they would turn on each other when weakness was exposed.
What a cutthroat world he'd wound up in. Yet, that was life in general. Tae-Jun watched as more interviewees showed up. Soon, the troublesome trio walked in with sulky expressions on their faces. They took their turn to do the interviews and then were hustled off to the next activity.
What was it again? Oh, right, another photo shoot. "Well, I guess I'll see you around." Tae-Jun nodded to them politely. "I must be on my sway."
"Yeah, see you." Kyrie watched him go and turned to Shamus. "You think he'll make it through the first wave?"
Shamus shrugged. "Dunno?" He smirked. "This should be interesting since I can tell he didn't trust anything we just said."
Kyrie sighed. "Can't say as I blame him. He's already gone through two wringers so far." He shrugged. "Well, shall we move on as well?"
Tae-Jun ignored them because he was well aware of time passing. That reminded him that he needed to contact Cilin. The problem is that he didn't want others around when he did so. Tae-Jun gained the definite impression that Cilin didn't want to get mixed up in other affairs that had nothing to do with him.
For sure, Tae-Jun didn't want Cilin to become involved with the backbiting. Cheap shots like those taken earlier would only stress Cilin out. That wasn't worth mentioning, nor what happened in the photoshoot, either.
As far as Tae-Jun could determine, he really was on his own. Therefore, he would make a point of handling his problems with various tactics. Certainly, he did know quite a few methods that weren't going to leave anyone with a bad impression—well, other than those who were determined to make him their enemy. Once that happened, Tae-Jun didn't care what happened to their futures, or lack thereof. It wasn't going to be his problem any longer.