Seoul Mates ~ ATEEZ

Chapter 2

After visiting KQ Entertainment, it is time to move onto the next company. San continued to text me even after I left. He told me since I'm such a huge fan, that he would give me the rest of the memebers' KakaoTalk so I can chat them too. Well, I don't know about that, but San gave me their contacts anyway. The next company I visited in the meanwhile is SM Entertainment. I love this company even if they treat their artists like trash sometimes, the groups and soloists that come out of this company are just perfection. From NCT to EXO, they have all the groups I love. I'm hoping to meet at least one of my NCT biases, which includes; Mark, Renjun, Jaemin, Lucas, Shotaro, and Sungchan. I have 7 biases out of the various units of NCT. Mark is my ultimate NCT bias, though.

My mom and I arrive to SM Entertainment after a short taxi ride from KQ Entertainment. Upon arriving to SM Entertainment, it's the pink aesthetic all around. I also notice ginormous photos of SM's all-time greatest groups such as; TVXQ, Super Junior, SHINee, f(x), EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, SuperM, and aespa. These groups and many shaped the way K-pop would be for many years. To be honest, I wasn't into K-pop back in the prime days of the older groups like Super Junior, SHINee, TVXQ, and f(x). I'm just glad I got into NCT 127 when I did, and was able to discover SHINee in 2019 due to Taemin being in SuperM and SHINee. This group that he's in, which he's the maknae, made me really curious of his group. I started to listen to SHINee more and more, loving what I've been hearing. I thank Taemin for introducing me to this amazing group of is. It's just a shame that I got into them late, because after discovering that one of their members passed away due to suicide, made me so so sad. I can only imagine how hard it was for them to move on after that happened. Kim Jonghyun will forever be in our hearts. He was so talented, it's so sad that he struggled with depression and in 2017, couldn't take it any longer, deciding to leave this world too early. He would probably be my second bias, after Taemin, if he were still around today. . .

Anyways, moving on from the sad, sappy stuff, I wander around the lobby of SM Entertainment after grabbing a coffee from the café. Coffee in Korea is some of the best coffee I've ever tasted. I could get nothing like this in America. While wandering around, I hear a couple familiar voices. Then, I look over. I see Lucas and Mark hanging out, walking towards the elevator. No way. I have to go up to them or I'll miss my chance to meet them too.
"Mark Lee! Lucas!" I exclaimed.
"Hmm?" Mark asked, turning around, "Oh, hi."
"Oh my gosh, hi guys. I'm a huge fan of NCT. Would you mind if I took some selfies with you?" I asked.
"Oh, of course. We were just on our way to the practice room, but that can wait." Mark said.
"Oh, sorry for interrupting your work." I said.
"No, no. Don't be sorry. We love meeting our fans." Mark said.
"Wow, you guys are so handsome." I said.
"Stop." Mark said in embarrassment.
"I know." Lucas said sassily.
"Let's just take the pics, bro." Mark said, pushing Lucas, playing around with him.

I snap some of the cutest selfies with Mark and Lucas. I also mentioned to them that I love Baekhyun and Kai, of their senior group: EXO. Mark told me he could hook me up, and give me a chance to meet Baekhyun and Kai. If only they weren't in the military at this time. Baekhyun had enlisted on May 2nd of last year, which was his 29th birthday. He couldn't delay his enlistment any further, even if he wanted to. As for Kai, he decided to enlist with Baekhyun so he could have a friend while in the military. So, Baekhyun and Kai are graciously serving their country of the Republic of Korea. Despite this, every once in a while, they allow visitations of the person serving. This is so the person who serves can have a chance to see their loved ones and friends after being in for a few months. After a while, a person starts to miss their family and friends after not seeing them for months on end.

Mark explained to me how visitations work, and told me the next slot of visitations for Baekhyun and Kai. I can go visit them as soon as tomorrow if I wanted to. I'm glad Mark is here and able to explain these things to me, or I would have no idea if or how I would be able to meet Kai and Baekhyun. I would probably not even meet them in the first place since they're in the military. Anyways, Mark told me, if we keep in contact, we can go to their military base and go visit them bright and early tomorrow morning. I agreed to give Mark my KakaoTalk so we can keep in touch and so that he can take me to the base where Baekhyun and Kai are stationed currently. I'm so glad that Mark is willing to tell me about all this.

Later that same day, the evening was
approaching, and my mom and I were getting tired from going all around Seoul. We decided to go back to our condo for the evening. We order delivery chicken so I can have of the arguably best fried chicken in the world. Once the chicken arrives from B.B.Q Chicken, I place the steaming, delicious-smellimg chicken on the dinner table. I pull out the many free side dishes provided with all Korean meals, and the boxes of chicken. I ordered a few different types of chicken, just so we could try a little bit of everything. My mom and I begin diving into the different types of chicken I ordered.