Untitled, 2018

Chapter 4: 5Ever

                  The next morning, in a daze, I somehow went from my bed to my shower to the hotel lobby. Jon was already there, and I just sat to wait for Mateo.
                "Riti - how did you like the view from the balcony? We were lucky with our rooms."
                 I looked him in the eyes and said, "I think he hated me." Jon looked confused, and questioned me in French, "Comment?" But I didn't tell him Jimin was on my mind. I twiddled my thumbs and just sunk into a bit of anguish.

I mean, sure, we don't know each other. But my only impression on my idol crush for the past couple of years was a purely bad one - and that pretty much sums up my entire life. Well b****, we had a good run. Time to die. Groaning into my hands, I saw Jon clearly judging, and I tried to play it off coolly.

               "I ran a lot in the airport yesterday and got really sore so I tried giving myself a massage but now I'm more sore so I'm in pain." I'm a master of excuses.
                "Is that why I could hear your muffled screaming last night?"

               I froze for a good few seconds and just shut up, embarrassed. Right then Mateo sidled up with a "Screaming? Oooh," and we laughed at the dumb joke. We got up and took a taxi. Destination: Seoul National University, where the CS depart had lent us a lab.

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                 The college had a cool main gate structure and was really freaking huge. It had a concentration of large rising buildings in the center, the infrastructure was quite modern, and I was wowed. Reminded me vaguely of my own college visits (to a lot of places I didn't quite make it to... not even remotely). I screamed internally with a straight face at the thought. As we hopped off the taxi I noticed a large soccer field barely visible off to the side had been cordoned off, but was full of workers putting up a stage-like structure. It was likely for some fun event, considering how students stood by the construction laughing and chirping like excited birds.

                 Once we made our way to the lab, I was convinced that this university was out of my league, and that I suddenly really wanted to take classes here, live here, and own the entire thing or something. I think I could convince Dr. Wang to let me do at least one of those things. Speaking of Dr. Wang, she was sitting in the lab with a short Korean old man who was smiling from ear to ear. Jon greeted him with a hug, "Dr. Kang! Ça va?" Kang gave a hearty laugh and they conversed about their health and their spouses for a few minutes. I was impressed- Kang was Korean-American but spoke fluent French too. Dr. Wang smiled warmly at us, and only then did I notice an older female student sitting behind her.

                 "I hope your trip was pleasant! I'd like for you guys to meet Hanna- she's a computer science student at Seoul National University and will be working on the project with us. Also, this is pretty important for you guys to know. The college administration really wants you guys to take a few classes here. I guess they want the study abroad experience to include studying abroad. But we'll talk about your schedule in a bit." She gestured widely to the man on her left. "This is Dr. Kang. If you screw something up and need someone to go easy on you, he's your guy. Now, if you want to be successful, I'm the woman for your questions. Jon is your liaison in case anything comes up, because he can probably answer most questions you have, even if he's leaving soon. But you can just ask us too, we don't bite. Now without further ado, Kang, please show them to their workstations and I'll bring their scheduling materials."

                As we walked to three small meeting rooms that I figured was ours, I introduced myself to Hanna, who seemed a little shy. She spoke perfect English and had a strong accent. Turns out she was a senior, and she and Mateo became quick friends because of it too. Most importantly, she said she was willing to help me improve whatever elementary knowledge of Korean I had.

My room was right next to the back door, and possibly a little smaller than the others. But they surprisingly had large windows, which revealed that the bottom of our floors were about two feet below the ground outside. We were overlooking part of a small patio or garden or such. Not much farther away, I could see the soccer field and the throng of workers building up fixtures. Once we reconvened in Hanna's room in the middle, I asked her what it was for aside.

                "There is a big performance that is using our soccer field on Friday. It is one of the stages for M Countdown Live. M Countdown is—" I smiled wide, "Wait, really? M Countdown?!" Hanna laughed a little. "You listen to kpop?" I did a small salute and chuckled. "Yeah there's a few groups and artists I really like." Hanna clasped my hand excitedly. "Wow! You must tell me all about this. I'd love to show you to some stores that sell merchandise!" I was about to squeal a little but was interrupted by Wang passing out several forms to Mateo and me - our schedule choices. I chose three official classes for the semester - something economics, something psychology, and something programming - and decided to sit in as Hanna's shadow in Korean Literature.

                 After finding out about our first round of tasks for the project (interviews, which I thankfully didn't need to conduct or anything), we were free to tour around the campus for a lunch break. Hanna introduced me to some of her friends, and took me on a walk around campus. Once we rounded back and saw the M Countdown stage-in-progress in full view, I asked Hanna and her friends. "Which groups are performing here on Saturday? Do you have tickets?"
"Oh- it's Friday. And no, getting tickets is for the rich fangirls," she chuckled, "it's a special event but they didn't reserve any seating for students, I guess. But she is going to watch Got7's stage a little farther away from here." She gestured to one of her friends who gave a sheepish smile. "Here we are having..." she turned to the same friend and asked in Korean, "Wait I forgot. Who is it?" Her friend rolled her eyes and responded, "It's a few smaller but good groups... but the highlight of the evening will be 4Ever!" I'd only ever listened to their first breakout hit song a couple of months ago, and didn't really know what songs they were promoting. I could probably recognize two of the members- one who'd become famous overnight at a variety show, and the other pretty one whose designer cap tipped me off about—

                "Hey- did BTS have a schedule overseas last week or something by any chance?" Hanna crinkled her brow and thought for a minute. "No... they were filming for a Korean variety show just last Monday. It's almost comeback season, right?" But then why was Jimin at the airport? "Yeah. I was just asking because it's hard to keep track, you know?" Which isn't untrue. I guessed I might've been overreacting. I wasn't going to tell these girls I saw Jimin lest they thought I was... racist or something. But I was quite sure it was him... well.
                "Couldn't we get tickets to the show now? I can't just pass up the chance to go to a concert when I'm literally in Seoul." Hanna's friend laughed heartily. "If you get your hands on any tickets do tell me - I've been trying for a while but don't want to become penniless. But since this is a college venue, the seats are very limited, which means we'll likely get a show if we're in the building for it."

                Hanna smacked her friend on the arm. "How can you forget? That day is a department-wide dance party at a venue just two streets down. Besides, they're shutting off access to our building at like 5 pm that day. You should come, Riti- it'll be fun." If I ever turn down a party invitation, just know that I've probably been possessed; so how could I say no? I guess wanting to see 4Ever did not last 5Ever (yes, shoot me).

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               When we got back to the lab, though, Mateo McChocolate sidled right up to me and looked very pleased about something. "What are you doing this Friday?" I shrugged and went through the work I needed to do for Week 1 on my laptop.
"Well, apparently the kids around here are throwing a party this Friday. What do you say? We could slip away and grab some dinner too if you want." I blankly turned to him. I'd known him for like two weeks but I really couldn't tell what he meant by me that. Was he... hitting on me? Also he's like 22... I thought about the fact that Jimin was turning 23 later in the month and almost laughed aloud.

I just gave Mateo the benefit of the doubt and assumed nothing of his motives. "Sure- I don't see why I couldn't make it!" I smiled and went back to my work.

           Within 30 seconds I saw the workload outline and gulped, because I realized why I might not be able to make it- What the **** is all this...