GD POV

Mellifluous (English)

(adj) A sound that is sweet and smooth, pleasing to hear.

Ji Eun and I go over to Highground’s headquarter, which was architecturally sophisticated and totally my style, to do hmm, I don’t really know what I want to do there. Ji Eun is going to do the guest-perform rehearsal thingy and I can’t just say Ji Eun is inviting me to watch the rehearsal. I won’t be able to answer their following question and judging looks if I say those words. But still, it is so out of nowhere for me to drop over Highground to just hang out. I’m not close enough to Blo hyung to just drop by and hang out. I’m totally not close with all of HyukOh, it’s a bit ambiguous but I can say that we’re all not that close. I just met them during IC, Oh Hyuk is part of Hae Sol (Zion T.) circle—which is also kind of close with me—and Oh Hyuk is also somehow know Xin. In other simpler words, he’s a mutual friend of mine.

Oh well, let’s just hustle my words around to create a reason, it’s up to them to take it to their face value or not.

I enter Highground’s headquarter with Ji Eun, walking side by side and naturally maintaining some gap between us. We are greeted by Oh Hyuk who is already waiting and the rest is already in the studio. Blo hyung joined us shortly after and called the rest of the band to join our small talks. The thing is that all the greetings and politeness before the rehearsal start out really slowly, much to my surprise especially knowing HyukOh and their usual silent preference. It’s tiring and confuses me, and I felt lost in my mouthful of lies. I have a little free time before this weekend’s concert, I wanted to go to Jeju but there’s not enough time, so I drop by to check out Blo hyung. I don’t know that IU-ssi will be here too, we met at the parking lot. What are you guys doing here? There I said it all.

Despite my blatant lies about meeting her in the parking lot, Ji Eun seems unfazed. In fact, she played it along. Yeah, I met sunbaenim in the front, I thought he have something to do with Tablo sunbaenim. I have a rehearsal with the band, we will perform together in a little café in Hongdae. Care to listen to ours? Oh yeah, she’s good at it.

Then, she turn to face to me, masking it as a gesture to get something in her bag, and whispering quietly, “I almost don’t know what I’m talking about just now”. I chuckled at that remarks, almost gave away to others that we’re talking in secret. Damn, Ji Eun why took the words out of my mouth? Like ways, it’s never the differences between people that surprise us. It’s the things that, against all odds, we have in common. In this very brief moment of confused of our own lies, I felt this little fun surprise again.

I remembered our little talks at the after party of IC Music Festival. She was outside at the restaurant’s garden, getting some air as the barbeque has gone wild in creating those carbon monoxide, while I was just finishing a cigarette. She greeted me and just about to walked to another part of the garden before I asked her to have a chat with me.

[flashback]

“Just for the sake of talking, we haven’t had the proper chance earlier,” I said to her. She turned back, walked at me, and smiles, “Okay.”

“Mapsosa’s so good,” she said.

“I thought you only enjoy listening to HyukOh’s. Anyway, Leon’s awesome,” I said, half-teasing.

“I enjoy it all, sunbaenim,” she said diplomatically.

I pouted but immediately smiles, “I know you’re a loyal VIP, especially to Youngbae.”

“Oh well…”

“I enjoy your other songs too.”

“Really? Whoa I felt a sense of proudness hearing that coming from you, sunbaenim,” she said. I used to think she was half-drunk saying that, it’s not her usual self that she’s shown to camera and in our katalk conversations. Now I now she’s just being her own self with her wit.

“I can sense a hint of proudness in your Whoa.”

She chuckles a bit, “Jokes aside, do you have a particular favourite, sunbaenim?”

“Hmm I don’t usually play favourite but ‘See You on Friday’ is probably one of the song that I played over and over in my playlist.”

“Ohoho”

“You’re cocky, aren’t you?”

“Did I came across as cocky? Why did you say so, sunbaenim?”

“I can sense a hint of cockiness in you Ohoho,” I said jokingly.

“God, I was just about to say my long winded apology before you smirk and I realized that that was a joke.”

“IU-ah, let’s loosen up a bit. The alcohol didn’t work on you yet?”

“Only a bit, I think. I should drink more, I guess.”

“Don’t drink too much, just enough.”

“Okay. Anyway, sunbaenim, what’s with ‘See You on Friday’?”

“You are a one cocky kid.”

“I’m just asking, sunbaenim”

“Okay okay. Your voice melt well with the melody. The combination makes the song felt sweet, smooth, and pleasing. But I guess, I stayed listening more for the idea of the lyrics. There was something romantic about the idea of being young and tipsy and having somewhere to go on a Friday night. I like it a lot, the idea of it.”

“Tipsy is not really the agenda of the song, though.”

“Tipsy is always in my agenda, to loosen up the atmosphere mostly.”

“Hmm.”

“IU-ah, I thought you’ll explain the song for me.”

“Eh?”

“You are not cocky but you don’t really like explaining yourself, don’t you?”

She smiled and asked, “Can I be honest with you on that point, sunbaenim?” I nodded “It’s a fruitless task, explaining yourself,” she said. She was enjoying confessing the truth, I was a bit surprised. “Either people get you, or they don’t. In fact, even when they get you, it’s always….” She didn’t finish it. Partial, I wanted to say. Imperfect. A disappointment.

She took it too far, my question. But dang, her statement hits me on every right corner, I can even finish her sentence with my words. She knew that you could foam your mouth with any kind of explanation and people wouldn’t want to accept it. That’s why she didn’t bother explaining, be it a misunderstood or even a scandal. She knew it first-hand how volatile thing explaining a scandal is, she’s been in one big scandal that threatened her career. She knew that years of love, adoration, and praise have been forgot in the hatred of a minute. She articulates what I’m feeling in a very well manner. That’s the first time I found something in common and connect it immediately with her. I used to think that I probably had some things in common with her with the way she didn’t have the doubt to kept on working with Park Myung Soo, the way she persistently albeit hard-headedly crafting that Leon song to tailored it well with Park Myung Soo even if it cost her a great deal of stress and time. But this is the first time I felt totally connected to her, the surprise still apparent in my memory