Work is over for me. Most of the award ceremonies had passed now and I am proud to say that our drama was nominated for 3 awards—though we only won 2—and I was nominated and awarded as the Best Rookie Actress of the year at one of the award ceremonies.

 I haven’t received any news about filming another drama lately. Most days are pretty uneventful for the most part, especially since everyone is so busy at YG. Winner left to Japan last month to record their new Japanese album, but they should be back by Christmas though.. iKON has been busy with producing an album which will probably be released in 20 years from now knowing YG…. But really, I have barely seen any signs of the boys. Yang sajangnim has also been busy with the KPop Star auditions as a judge. CL unnie has been in LA for the past month getting ready to have a comeback back in America. Dara unnie has been in several dramas as of late and Minzy unnie has been stuck inside her dance studio. Bom unnie is the only one hanging around the YG building, but even then, most of the time she is off at HIGHGRND working on some songs that she will be featured in. I have been pretty lonely when I visit YG, but the time passes fast since I am back in the gym working off the kilos I gained while I was busy with my schedules and neglected my daily exercises…. Hwang Ssabunim was super upset at me for not being careful of my weight and now I have to run up and down the stairs for an hour (taking small breathers once in a while, of course) and I was to eat small amounts of food about every 3 hours.

Recently I have been very hard on myself to get a nice body since I got an offer as an MC for Inkigayo—one of the music shows that idols go to promote their comebacks.

Even though my Korean improved a lot during the first 2 months dedicated to training it was still not at par with someone native to it or someone who had been learning for several years. Most of the Korean I knew was survival Korean—just enough to get me through an easy conversation. I did expand my vocabulary while I was working in the drama due to the fact that I was working with people who could speak little to no English—yet it was still barely enough. And now, since I will be an MC, I am back at taking Korean lessons again to further develop my knowledge—I wouldn’t want to make a mistake while talking, now would I?

I will officially start MCing sometime next month—January—but I will have a trial as a Special MC during the broadcast Christmas Special. If I do well that day I will be able to continue as an MC later the next month. I do hope I get the job, since it might be a bit difficult to get a role in a drama.

I am now in my apartment, enjoying a luxuriously silent afternoon along with all one of me. My manager had told me yesterday he would be out with some friends all day today since I didn’t have a schedule to attend. I feel a bit selfish thinking that I did not quite realize that my manager has had an equally busy schedule—maybe even more than mine—for the past months. It wasn’t until yesterday that he told me he would go out that I realized something: my manager has more of a life than I do. This is not the first time that he goes out, but it is the longest he has stayed out of the apartment since I met him. We were usually just waiting in alert in case my schedule changed unexpectedly while I was filming, but now he has all the time we wants to roam around the city with his friends since I don’t have much of a life right now.

I decided to take my laptop out into the living room and make some calls which I have been neglecting for a while now. I love my family, don’t get me wrong, but everyone knows that I can be a bit heartless when it comes to missing my family. I had been yearning to come to Korea for years, and now that I am here I don’t want to go back, and sadly enough, I don’t feel like I miss my family. However, when time comes that I have to go back, I will really miss my friend from here. Maybe it is because I know that my family will always be there, waiting for me when I go back that I don’t feel like I should long for  them, yet with those whom I will be leaving behind here once I move back—I'm not sure if I will ever get to see them again.

I my computer and my Skype. I sent a message to my father and waited for his reply while I browsed through YouTube. I didn’t know what to watch so I put on my Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie on. I really like that movie, maybe because it is about my hero Severus Snape… Hehehe!

I was almost one hour into the movie that I received a message from my dad.

Hey! How have you been? I haven’t heard from you in some time. Been busy?

Yeah, I finally got a break.
I am done with the drama promotions now.

Dad Is Calling….

The computer started to ring as I received my dad’s call.

“Hello!!” my dad was now showing on my screen, and to my surprise both my mother and sister where right behind him, waving back at me with huge smiles.

“Oh! Sweetie, I saw the dress you were wearing at the latest awards’ red carpet! It was magnificent—just my style!” My mother started rambling right away.

“I'm glad you liked it,” I said. “Believe it or not: I chose the dress.”

“Oh really?” My sister piped in this time. “I never knew you had such great taste in fashion!”

“Just because I don’t normally dress like you doesn’t mean I don't have a good sense of fashion, Karla! Hahaha!”

“Ever since you went off to Korea you completely forgot about your family, didn’t you?” my father accused. “You haven’t called ONCE ever since you left home SIX MONTHS ago!”

“I did call,” I started to defend myself.

“A short 30 minute call we received on the second week you were over there does not count, young lady!” my father said fervently. “Of course, I understand that you must have been very busy, but that is not an excuse to not call home.”

“Amor, forget about that,” my mother tried calming my father. “At least we know she is enjoying her time there.”

“And what about those articles just last month?” my father pushed further. “You ended up in the hospital for overworking yourself?? Unbelievable! And here I am worried sick about you and you don’t even call to tell us, ‘Oh, I'm fine, dad, no need to worry.’ But no!”

I knew that my father would start nagging, but I know I deserve it. After all, I had not called home in months.

“Well, you don’t have to worry too much, dad. I am fine now,” I assured my father. “You know better than anybody that I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my work, and even more now that I am here in a foreign country and I am so different from everybody else around me.”

“But you didn’t have to overwork yourself to exhaustion.”

“I know, but I felt like I was lacking and I could not let myself and those around me down; I just couldn’t. The only thing I could do was practice and practice until I got everything right.”

“Ok, I think we should talk more about what you have done all this time,” my mother spoke up. “How exciting your life there must have been so far!”

“Hehehe! Well, apart from working most of the past months I did have several cool experiences.”

“Did you meet anyone famous that you like?” Karla finally spoke up.

I blushed a bit. “Well, you already know that I met Mino and Bobby and Taeyang and GD and Daesung and several other YG artists. Taeyang and GD left to the military a short time after I met them,” I pouted. “But almost two months after I arrived here I became really close friend with Mino.”

“Wow! That sounds awesome!” Karla became excited just hearing me talk about him. She knew I have been a huge fan of his for the longest since she had to fall asleep day after day listening to me rant about them. By this time my father was now pushed to the back on the living room couch and Karla was taking up the screen time.

“Anything interesting happened,” Karla hooked up her eyebrow.

“Hahaha! No, we just went to the movies one time, but I was more like barging in on Mino’s ‘date’.”

“What? He’s dating someone?”

“Haha! You look so shocked! No, he's not dating anyone. He was out with his friend at the movies and I joined by chance. I made a fool of myself, though,” I pouted as I looked down at my lap.

“Why? What happened? And don’t leave details out!” Karla was nearly shouting at the computer now.

“Ya! Did we let you go to Korea to meet up with guys?” My father shouted from his seat in the back.

“Shh! Dad, she's talking,” Karla shushed dad. “So, what happened?”

This is what I most missed from home if nothing at all. I missed my sister’s and my dad’s small quarrels. I missed my mom just sitting in the back watching over all of us as she would dose off into some fantasy in her head. I missed just laying around the house and not doing anything—Oh, wait, I don’t do anything right now….

“Karla, you won't believe who Mino was at the movies with,” I said exasperatedly. “I feel like a fool. I was so stupid. How could I act like I did around him? I should have just told Mino that I was fine and not gone along.”

“Erika! Don’t do this to me! Who was it?”

“Oh my gosh, Karla. I feel like I can NEVER see him again! It was so embarrassing!”

“Ok, now you are just playing with me,” Karla said. “It’s not like it was—what was his name again—Zico was it?”

“That’s the thing,” I said as I covered my face. “It was Zico….”

“What? I didn’t hear you.”

I raised my face and yelled, “IT WAS ZICO! Mino went to the movies with Zico, but when I called Mino and he told me to join them, he didn’t bother to tell me who his friend was. I was not ready, Karla. And Mino knows I am a BBC and that my favorite member is Zico—apart from B-Bomb! He did it on purpose!” I ranted.

“Calm down, Erika, breathe,” Karla tried to tranquillize me. “It must not have been that bad—“

“OH! It WAS bad,” I said frustrated with myself. “I acted exactly like he doesn’t like people to act around him.”

“Why? What exactly did you do?”

“I told you I was not ready to meet him. When I saw him I was basically speechless; I was in shock. I was freaking out inside; fangirling so bad. I know he noticed that I was his fan.”

“And what’s so bad about that?”

“Karla, don’t you understand? I made a fool of myself. Zico doesn’t like when people notice who he is and start acting weird—I did exactly that! He prefers when people pretend they don’t know who he is….”

“And how do you know this?”

“He said it in an interview almost 3 years ago….”

“Erika, you really need help. Hahaha!” Karla sighed. “Don’t worry too much about it; I'm sure he noticed how unique you are …?”

“If by ‘unique’ you mean dressed up in guy clothes and acting like a tomboy as I fangirled over him in front of him, then yeah.”

“Well, that IS how you dress normally. And what if he is head over heels for you right now? Hahaha!”

“Yeah, right! I wish…. I'm sure Zico would prefer someone who is more feminine, unlike me. But I don’t want to think about that! Let’s stop talking about Zico….”

“Awe, is my baby sis feeling down?”

“Shut up! You're just making fun of me,” I said with a smile.

“So, did you meet any hotties?” Karla said with her eyes twinkling. “Zico does not count; only you like him.”

“Wow! Nice way to diss my bias… Hahaha! Well, you probably saw I worked alongside Jaejoong oppa in the drama. He is to you standards as a hottie, right?”

“Oh! Yeah! Hey, get me his phone number; he is so my style!” Karla gave me a huge smile.

“Ha! Ha! You wish! I am not giving out his number to anyone!”

“So you DO have his number??” Karla grinned. “I would have never guessed that my little sister would have a man’s phone number in her contacts apart from father’s.”

“Did you just praise or diss me?” I asked bewildered.

“A little of both,” Karla smiled back at me. “So, did you do something for your birthday?”

“Not much, honestly, I was busy filming for my drama. At the end of the recoding that day the crew brought out a cake and I got some presents.”

“Really? What did you get?” my sister asked curiously.

“Jaejoong gave me a pair of cute earrings. I got a new and fluffier body pillow from my manager, a HUGE teddy bear from Mino and my other co-star, Yoohwan oppa, gave a little cactus,” I got up from the couch I was sitting on to get the small pot with the cactus. “Look! It’s so cute!!”

“Only you like weird things, sis,” Karla said with a raised eyebrow.

“It IS cute! Look at how round and plump it is!” I cleared my throat. “Anyways…. After I got home that night Mino and his bandmates were in my apartment and threw a ‘surprise birthday party’ which consisted of me being caked and having my house invaded by those guys. Hahaha!”

“That sounds awesome! I wish I had been there. Every time you talk about them you sound so happy. I have never seen you smile as brightly than when you are talking about them.”

“Really?” I somber up. “I'm sorry.”

“For what? I don't mind you being happier over there than with us. Trust me, sis, if I were in your shoes right now I would be the same,” Karla explained. “Our parents just don't really understand that feeling now because they are parents. I’m sure they were the same as you when they moved over here to the US and they left their own parents.”

“Hehehe! Yeah….”

“Mom just walked into her room and slammed the door,” Karla informed. “She is probably upset that you are having such a good time over there instead of missing us. She was expecting for you to ball your eyes out in tears and crying out that you want to come home. Hahaha! She got very sensitive when you left.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it shocked me too.” Karla became serious. “You know how dad is the one to get sad when we leave the house even if it’s for some hours. But, this time dad is acting like nothing much happened. He does worry a lot about you, but mom was the one who hit depression after you left.”

“I would have never guessed….”

“Yeah, but she is fine now. Just don't tell her you don't want to come back home—and don't start singing that 2NE1 song either!”

“Hahaha!! You know me too well,” I said with a smile.

“Well, I should let you go. You are probably busy watching some movie, am I right.”

I am shocked, “Y-yeah…”

“I knew it! Well, take care! And call more often!”

“Take care, sweetie!” my dad had come up to the computer screen again and was now waving bye.

“Bye! I love you! And give a hug to mom for me. Tell her not to get too upset. I will be home soon.”

I turned off the call and resumed playing the movie once more. But then my phone started vibrating and the screen . It was a message. I took my phone and looked at it.

From Kim Jiwon
Yo! What up?

To Kim Jiwon
Nothing. Just finished talking with my family back in Texas.
Why the sudden message? Kekeke!

From Kim Jiwon
Just checking up on you. Make sure you didn’t pass out or anything.

To Kim Jiwon
It’s not like I do it very often. It was only once. Hehehe!

From Kim Jiwon
I'm just messing with you!
Hey, do you think you could do me a favor?

To Kim Jiwon
Me? Do a favor for You?
Lol! Sure. What is it?

From Kim Jiwon
I heard from Mino hyung that you listened to his songs and gave him some helpful feedback.
I was wondering if you could do the same for me. It is just a couple of songs that we have been working on for the new album, but I didn’t want to go directly to Yang sajangnim, and Mino hyung also told me you have similar views as Yang sajangnim.
Plus, you are a fan, and I think that will help us too. You know, having someone with the view of a fan.

To Kim Jiwon
Ok! I'm up for it.
Just tell me when to go over to listen to the tracks and I'll try to be there!

From Kim Jiwon
Really? Thank you so much! And I'll let you know later when you can come to the recording studio! ^_^

To Kim Jiwon
Alright!

After that, I spent the rest of the day watching the last half of the HP series until I fell asleep on the couch.

-----

5 Days Later

I am at the SBS building that Inkigayo is shot to rehears for the Christmas Special in 2 days. I am wearing a thin sweater over a tank top and a pair of slightly ripped skinny jeans accompanied by my phosphorescent green Converse high tops. Very simple, really. I know I have not said this in a while, but I have to bring it back…. I just have to be dreaming! How is it possible to meet so many of my favorite KPop groups in less than a day?

I used my position as an MC to be near the stages, monitoring the idol’s performances. So far I have met Girls’ Day, who came up to me before they went on stage to say that they really liked my drama. 4Minute, B2ST and BtoB were also performing some stages. EXO was going to perform their new Christmas collection for this year, and most of the time they were rehearsing I couldn’t contain myself from watching over Chanyeol and fangirling over Chen’s angelic voice. And Orange Caramel finished the morning rehearsals.

After lunch B1A4, F(x), Twice, AOA, and Got7 did their rehearsals and soon most of them soon left to their next schedules or just back to rest. ZE:A’s Kwanghee came in earlier in the day since he will be one of the other MCs along with B1A4’s Baro, B2ST’s Doojoon, BTS’s V and Jimin and AOA’s Choa, which makes me the maknae MC.

In the evening the last artists came to rehearse after the stage crew changed the sets. I think this might be one of the best, if not THE best, Christmas I have ever had. Winner and iKON were performing on the show, but I loved the way they carried themselves in front of cameras compared to in the dance studio. They had so much charisma and elegance that nobody can compare to them. Some might even call it the YG glamour, but I know that they each have their charms which are only enhanced by our label.

To my great pleasure, BTS and Block-B were also going to attend the special. And to my surprise, Taewoon also came to the rehearsals earlier since he is featured in one of Orange Caramel’s Lizzy’s songs.

If I don't die of excitement, then I will die from containing my fangirling.

I was so intent on watching BTS’s rehearsal that I did not sense Bobby and Taehyun walk up to me.

“Boo!” Bobby grabbed both sides of my ribcage from my back as he tried scaring me. I swear, I probably jumped about 2 feet off the ground in shock, thank goodness I did not scream.

When I turned around I saw Bobby and Taehyun both covering their mouth as the laughed silently, bent double. I playfully slapped Bobby on the back and shot a glare at Taehyun.

“You should have seen yourself,” Taehyun said just loud enough to be heard over the booming MR by me. Bobby was still having laughing fits.

“That’s not funny!” I hissed, but this time I had a smile on my face.

“Yah! Leave her alone,” Mino came to defend me, closely followed by P.O.

“Awe! Is Mister Boyfriend here to the rescue?” Taehyun teased Mino. Mino however only slightly shoved him and shushed him.

“Woah! You are Mino’s girlfriend?” P.O apparently took Taehyun seriously.

Shocked I waved my hands in front of my face as I tried to correct P.O, but right when I started to speak his manager called for him and he left. I was left in shock and blushing. It’s not true! P.O oppa!!!  I mentally yelled after P.O.

After I regained my senses I took hold of Taehyun’s shoulders and slight shook, speaking through my eyes and then I lowered my head and released him.

But I had not seen was that Zico had witnessed the small interaction from the beginning.

________________________

Yo!! So…. This is a small update. You Like??

I will be out of town and without my computer for the next month. I'm Off to MEXICO!! Yay! I will try to write at least 2 chapters while I am away, but I will most likely going to have to update until next year… Hahaha! Sounds so far away.

Anyways, my next update will be in about a month if I cannot upload from Mexico.

Please Comment and Subscribe!! And Enjoy!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years Everybody!!