Part 2

 

    The music she played was incredible.

    He didn’t know how to explain it. He isn’t sure if he was supposed to feel happy or to cry. He wanted to dance, but besides the fact that he was in class, the only thing keeping him from dancing was that the music had also captured his ability to move so that all he could do was get lost in it.

    It wasn’t a song that you could just include in any genre. All he could say was, “This song is so beautiful.”

    Alissa smiled. She had hoped he would have said anything, as long as it was good. She hadn’t realized how much he really genuinely felt this. “Thanks.”

    Alissa had noticed that ever since Taehyung met Courtney, he was always more interested in what she had to say. It wasn’t like he was ignoring her. Well, he wasn’t, but Alissa felt like he was whenever her friend was around. She thought maybe he would pay more attention to her if she focused on his interests.

    She thought maybe it was working.

    “Wow, that was beautiful, Alissa. I honestly don’t know what to say.” Taehyung said after the song was over. “I don’t feel so good about mine now.”

    “I’m sure it’s fine! Let me listen!”

    Watching Alissa smile and bounce to his music gave Taehyung some relief. Maybe his song was good after all. Or maybe she just loved it because she is a loyal fan. She was so cute humming along to the tune. He was glad he had a friend like Alissa. She always knew how to make him smile, which was why he still hesitated to admit to who he really liked. He didn’t want to hurt his friends.

 

    “I hear there’s a new kid here. Started attending this school a few days ago.” said Angelica.

    Courtney laughed. “Are you the messenger of new students?”

    “No, but I hear whoever it is is really popular and outgoing.”

    Alissa pouted as she sipped her lemonade. “It’s a girl. It has to be a girl.”

    Courtney’s face scrunched up. “What do you mean?”

    Alissa’s eyes grew wide, motioning with her hand the empty spot where their foreign friend once sat.

    It’s been a month since Alissa and Courtney met Taehyung. They quickly realized that he doesn’t share a certain common interest as them, as surprising as it seemed: KPop. He quickly grew tired of their fangirling. He wasn’t interested.

    “You don’t like KPop?!” squealed Alissa.

    “No, it’s not that…” V was desperate for words, but he didn’t feel they would understand.

    Courtney did, however. “I don’t think he wants us to irritate him with it. He’s in America, and he has a purpose for being here. Besides, we might draw too much attention. We can fangirl on our own.”

    And so they found other things to talk about. They loved talking about food, but of course, they still talked about music, even if it wasn’t KPop.

    But for a week, maybe two, Taehyung hadn’t joined Alissa or Courtney at lunch, and Angelica had decided to join them because of their lonely faces.

    Courtney laughed at her friend’s expression, before saying, “You don’t own him, and you can’t control him. Besides, who cares? If it’s a guy or a girl, it makes no difference.”

    Alissa smirked. She could see inside her friend was suffering. Now Courtney knows how she felt. She thought she had Taehyung, but she let him get away.

    But it lasted too short.

    “Hey guys!”

    They turned to see their idol-friend, happy that he had once again acknowledged them. But he had a surprise with him.

    “This is Mandy Sekiguchi. He’s from Japan, but he’s been to America a lot.”

    “Yeah, we know,” Alissa said, standing up. “He was born in New Jersey.”

    Mandy smiled. “So he’s right, you do know me.”

    Courtney smiled and stood up. “Of course. I’m Courtney. Nice to meet you.”

    After exchanging introductions, everyone settled back down.

    This is the friend that Taehyung had been involved with. Mandy’s outgoing personality as well as his background offered benefits for Taehyung. Not only were they both celebrities from small, but popular countries, but because Taehyung had become friends with Mandy, but Mandy’s friends befriended V as well.

    The fangirls knew that it would be a bad idea to start talking JPop to Mandy. But Mandy was fine with any conversation. So they had begun a conversation that evolved into the differences between Japan’s and Korea’s.

    Mandy looked at Alissa, amazed at how much she knew about Japan’s monster sized groups and the graduating system versus Korea’s idol groups. He looked at her beautiful face, and never heard the rest of the conversation because he analyzed her beauty from head to toe.

 

    Taehyung saw Courtney walking off campus and decided to catch up to her.

    “Hey, where you goin’?”

    “To a restaurant. You wanna come?”

    “Sure.”

    For a while they walked in silence.

    “Mandy and Alissa were cute at lunch.”

    Courtney’s face lit up. “They were. He really liked her.”

    “Yeah, it seems like it.”

    Taehyung couldn’t say anymore than that. He tried. He wanted to. But he never said anything about it after that.