Full Course Dinner
Living With VIXX: Making An Album [Hiatus]It took the girls a bit over twenty minutes time to get to the restaurant, arriving a couple of minutes before seven. The entrance looked spectacular; the building’s color of ivory was in total contract to the black frames of the glass walls, which presented the warm and dark interior of the restaurant. The staff was all dressed in black and white suits, hair sleek and into ponytails for the ones with long hair. Everything looked very… Chic, high-class. Looking at each other, they wondered if they were at the right place.
“Hey, girls!” Jeonghwan walked up to them. He had already noticed them shortly after they walked into the street. “Great that you could meet in such a short notice. Let’s go inside.” And with a bright smile, he turned around and swiftly entered the restaurant.
“A very short notice.” Nadia murmured to Morena, side eyed, receiving an irritated sigh from the other.
“Hey, we’re on time.”
Joining him, they were escorted to a table in the middle section. It was a table originally for four; the manager went to sit on one side and the girls on the other. A designated waiter came up to the table and took the serveware from the empty place. The ensemble of utensils was aligned perfectly; three sets of knives and forks, two spoons at the top. The waiter asked in French if anyone wanted something to drink. Being asked if he could speak English, he shook his head slightly. There was a short silence and the three looked at each other, questioning what they should do now. The manager had forgotten to mention that the day before, he had people translating for them. He assumed that the girls were from the area. The waiter had grown impatient and wanted an answer. Morena came up with an idea. She took a menu from the side of the table and went to the page with beverages. Showing the man the menu, she tapped on the “Drinks” title and made a questioning sound. He looked at it and simply answered with “yes”. She ordered her beverage first, instantly followed by the other two. The man thanked them and walked away.
Morena was looking around her. “Besides the lack of English speaking workers, this place is wonderful – really beautiful.”
“Yes, it is.” Jeonghwan’s voice was content. “Someone from the organization recommended us to go here yesterday and I really wanted to come for the second time.”
The girl still had the menu and started looking at its content. “What kind of cuisine do they have?”
“French, of course.” Jeonghwan snickered. “What else do you want here in this city?”
“Well, the Italian food we ate yesterday was also delicious.” Nadia commented with a noticeable sarcasm, making Morena giggle.
“And I don’t want to eat snails.” The other one went along.
Jeonghwan shivered by the thought of eating such slimy things, making a funny face that made the girls laugh. “Well…” He cleared his throat and got himself together. “I only ate delicious things yesterday, so let’s see what we can order today.” Nadia and Jeonghwan each got a menu as well and looked at the dishes.
Morena was already with her nose in between the pages. “Confit de canard… Soupe à l'oi-…” She murmured as she read every dish.
Jeonghwan looked at her with widened eyes. “Do they really pronounce it like that?”
“Hm-hm.” She looked up from the menu and gave him an eye-smile.
“Do you know any French?” He was curious on where the girls came from, as he figured out that they were not from that country.
“I had to learn it at school years ago, but just the pronunciation and some words remained.” And she went back to reading.
“How about you, Nadia?” His gaze switched to her.
She did not look up, but simply kept searching through the menu. “Only ‘Bonjour’, ‘Au revoir’, I can count to ten and some loanwords that we use in the Dutch language.”
He was impressed and above all very interested. Wanting to ask more, he opened his mouth, but closed it again when he realized that he should order first. Like the girls, he continued reading and within several minutes, they all had found something.
For starters, they went easy: Jeonghwan choose to try mussels for the first time, Nadia went for a Carpaccio, Morena for a tomato soup and together they shared a few slices of bread with three different kinds of spreads.
The three were having another conversation. It began with Nadia her interest towards the manager his meeting. He explained the meeting’s topics; the moment the confetti machines had to be activated, any damages to other machines and extra tests, the way the members would get into the building and how they would exit after the concert, things like that. As the conversation went on, Morena was feeling more at ease, but Nadia kept stuttering from time to time – she was more nervous than the other, especially since she could not easily put down her thoughts in English. Their food was served while they were talking. Even with the first bite, they all agreed that the food was delicious. It also did not take long until they were finished and got asked what they would like to order next.
Main course: Jeonghwan got a T-bone steak, well done, with a baked potato that was coated with a garlic based sauce. Nadia a hamburger “royal” topped with bacon and an egg. Morena went with a medium-rare beef tenderloin coated with mushroom gravy. Both girls got fries on the side.
“So…” Jeonghwan started off a few minutes after the food got served and they had started eating again. He immediately got the girls’ attention, looking up towards him. “Where are you two from?
“We’re from The Netherlands.” Morena answered.
The man’s eyebrows lifted. “Netherlands?”
“Yeah, Holland?” Nadia tried to copy his intonation. There are many people who do not know the original name of the country or use ‘Holland’ as the name, so that is her default comment when people make that mistake.
“Yes, yes, I know about The Netherlands, but why did you come from so far?”
“Because you guys didn’t come to our country?”
Morena had taken a sip from her drink before she spoke. “We had to choose between France and Germany and Paris was easier to travel for us.”
“Oh wow.” He was flabbergasted and could not find his words. He did mutter some other words to say that he wanted to know more.
“What international fans do when certain artists won’t come to their country.” Morena smiled and looked at Nadia as she sighed. “Traveling, crossing boarders multiple times…” She tried to sound sarcastic, even though she was describing the current situation of the duo.
“I’m impressed.” Laying down his cutlery, he crossed his arms to concentrate to what he was hearing.
“Well, you don’t have to be surprised.” Nadia commented. “There are enough foreign fans at the concerts and other schedules in Korea.”
“That’s true.” He wondered for a few seconds. “But how did you get interested in this genre? And especially VIXX?”
The girls looked at each other, determining by looks who would go first. Nadia took the initiative to do so.
“I got introduced to K-Pop by my friends who kept sending links to music videos from different groups like Girls’ Generation and Super Junior. Eventually they stuck on me and I began to like it. With VIXX it was very simple: when you meet Morena, you’ll meet the group very quickly afterwards.”
Morena burst out into a nervous laughter and poked Nadia in her side with her right fist. “Don’t say it like that.” She spoke in a high-pitched voice and clenched teeth; her face flushed bright red from embarrassment.
The other one closed her eyes and raised her hands a little for a couple of seconds. “Well, it’s true. Since I befriended her, I kept hearing her singing and listening to all the songs. That already got my attention, so I watched the music videos on YouTube by myself and became fan after I saw Hyde.”
Jeonghwan got excited while listening to what Nadia was telling him. “And how about you?” He now looked at Morena, who was still blushing.
“Ehm… I’ve always been interested in music sung in different languages. Soon after I started listening to Japanese music, some recommended videos on YouTube were Korean. And also for VIXX, it was a recommended video that took me to the music video of On And On. It was just released, so I got very interested into looking up some other MV’s.”
“Oh wow…” He repeated, smiling brightly. He switched his focus between the girls a couple of times. “I’d like to know more about you two, to be honest. I’ve got so many questions. I’ve never really had the chance to speak with fans like this.”
“Please, eat something first.” Morena said giggling as she saw that Jeonghwan still had not taken one bite since he let go of his cutlery. He listened and smiled briefly before he continued eating.
It took him several minutes to carry on his interview. “I’ve always wondered how it’s like to be an international fan.” Both girls looked up as they took a bite.
Morena chew fast to be able to swallow. “In what way?”
“Well, as you know, the fans in Korea have a close relationship with the idols: fan signs, fan meets – they will be waiting around the places of the boys their schedules…” He tried to come up with more examples, but stopped as he saw the disheartened look in both girls’ eyes. “They’ve got so much interaction.”
“We’ve got this.” Nadia took another bite and muffled her words. “A showcase.”
Morena took over from there. “The music and online footage is all we’ve got. We don’t know what to miss since we haven’t experienced it like the fans in Korea. We are used to this kind of fan-life with artists in general, even though we get more interaction with K-Pop idols via social media. Of course, we do see what’s going on with native fans, but to us it’s already a lot more than we’re used to.”
“So, you wouldn’t like more interaction?”
“Of course we do!” Nadia needed a moment to lower the volume of her voice. “But we won’t get the chance. Of course we’d love to see our idols every single day if possible.”
“Well.” Morena snickered. “Not every single day, that would be crazy, but it would be amazing if we could get more interaction with them. It’s especially hard since there are several issues like a language barrier, time zones and heck loads of shipping costs – to just call a few – so it’s even harder to connect.” She looked at her plate, pushing some food back and forth with her fork and got a small content smile on her face. “But at least we’ve got the music… and the videos on YouTube.”
Jeonghwan sighed and finished his bite. “Fascinating.”
He looked at his food to see what he wanted next. There were so many ideas popping up in his mind and he did not know what to do with himself. Because he got so into himself and his choice of words, the two girls looked at each other with questioning faces.
“Are you… Ok?” Nadia asked after a minute, as he was still having a conversation with himself inside his head. He looked up; mouth open, confused on how long he had been doing that.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ve been having several kinds of ideas for a new project.” He started second guessing the decision on telling the girls while he was talking. Being too late now, he went on with his story. “I’ve been thinking about bringing fans to Korea to live the life of a Korean fan. I would like to know how they experience it.”
“Like a reality show?” Morena had a smile from ear to ear. She absolutely loved these kinds of series.
“I don’t know yet. I’m still thinking about the concept.”
Nadia placed her head on top of both her firsts. “Maybe we can help?”
“Well, ideas are always welcome.” Jeonghwan hesitated for a bit, but he got enthusiastic about the girls wanting to help him.
Nadia thought for a little while, staring in front of her. “Maybe it could be a contest?” Jeonghwan looked at her with questioning eyes. “Maybe a fan can win the trip with some kind of contest, like showing off talents or a random draw.”
Jeonghwan copied Nadia from earlier, looking into the abyss in front of him, thinking.
“Yes, or it could be multiple fans who can win.” The other girl added. “Maybe with that you could go for multiple countries so you’ve got different cultures and because of that different kinds of reactions to show.”
Jeonghwan nodded, still staring. A short high-pitched ringtone could be heard coming from him, but he ignored his phone.
Morena took a bite from her tenderloin as she came up with another idea. She fastened her chewing and undid from all the food. “Maybe the contest is some kind of quiz.” Nadia looked at her with a questioning face this time. “Well, we both like to do those quizzes on how good we know members, right? That way the people from the staff will know that it isn’t just a random person who wants to have a free trip.”
“Good, good.” Another ringtone. Jeonghwan got his phone, put it on silent and placed it face down on the table.
He and the girls tried to think about several other ideas. This time, he got a notebook and a pen to write everything down. To his irritation, his mobile kept buzzing from time to time, but he tried to ignore it. He already had written down two whole pages with ideas when the three were finished with their food.
“You two are really good.” He smiled, amazed by the ideas of the duo. “Shall we order some desserts?” The girls smiled together with him as he grabbed the dessert menu standing in a holder on the table.
For the final course, they all went for ice cream: Jeonghwan and Nadia both got one serving of vanilla with a small brownie on the side, Morena got strawberry. It was presented beautifully with whipped cream, chocolate and strawberry sauce on the side respectively, cookie crumbles, the whole shebang.
Jeonghwan’s phone kept vibrating at that point and he kept losing his concentration, so he finally gave up and took his phone; looking at the lock screen.
“Hehe, the boys are clearly missing me.” His irritation melted into a wide grin as he unlocked it and started texting. “They had been texting me the entire time.” Well, more like ‘teasing the entire time’. “It was a game to send as much messages as they could.” The girls started laughing.
“It’s like talking about the devil.” Morena commented, looking at how the man was busy typing as she took another sip of her drink. “They knew that we were talking about them.” The three snickered. Nadia then joined the staring towards the phone. Jeonghwan was whispering the words he was typing and the emoticons he was using. Morena grinned widely as she heard him speaking Korean.
“So, now they will not bother us for a little while.”
Morena made eye contact as he put away his phone. “Wouldn’t it be nice to see how the members would interact with those fans? Both international as Korean fans.”
“The group and the fans meeting each other?”
“Yes, for the show?”
“Would people be interested in that?”
Morena became even more enthusiastic as she went on. “Of course they would!”
Nadia raised her hand a bit. “I would love to see that?”
“Wait.” Morena’s eyes widened.“ It could then be mixed with VIXX TV if you don’t want to make an entire show around it.”
“Seriously, you two come up with the greatest things.” Jeonghwan couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “Maybe I should hire you for the concept department.” The girls laughed.
“By the way, aren’t you supposed to be with the members as their manager?” Morena felt a pinch in her stomach as she said that. It suddenly felt weird for her to talk about them so personally.
“They are having dinner with one of the organizers and staff.” He took the last bit of his brownie with his spoon and ate it.
They finished and asked the waiter for the bill. The French man returned quickly and Nadia instantly took the piece of paper, checking if everything was correctly billed. As she started to split the price in three, Jeonghwan insisted to pay for the whole thing. He invited them, so that was the least he could do. The girls declined and already started placing the amount of money onto the table before he could even give the waiter his card.
The three walked out to a beautiful scenery – the street was lightly covered in snow, people around them were mostly warm-clothed couples walking next to each other and it was almost quiet; the only thing they could hear were some soft voices, the cars driving through the other streets and the snow crushing under the people’s feet.
“Which direction do you have to go?” Jeonghwan’s voice took the girls out of their short daydream. They looked around, but nothing was recognisable to them.
Morena grabbed her mobile. “I’ll look it up, one moment.”
“You’ll be going to your hotel, right?” He asked.
“Yes, but we’ve got to find the nearest metro station first.” Nadia answered, as the other was one with her device.
It took Morena less than a minute to search for the way back, as the station name was saved by the app. “It’s a ten minute walk from here.”
“I’ll make sure that you’ll get there.” Jeonghwan promised and made the girls walk together with him. “I won’t let you wander alone.” The two looked at him with wandering eyes. “I know the way to my hotel.”
And with that, they walked to the station together. He said his goodbye at the entrance and hoped to see them on the day of the concert. The girls waved to him as they walked away, repeating their gratitude for the nice evening. They had told him how glad they were for so many times that the only reaction he could give was a smile and a slow headshake. He had a nice evening as well; he had the conversation that he wanted for a while and had enough ideas for the project.
It took the girls one hour to get to the hotel. Immediately they changed into some comfortable, warm clothes and got into their bed. Jeonghwan had texted multiple times, asking if they already arrived and this time they could answer him that they did.
I hate apologizing for being slow but got to do it again. Days been going quickly - like they merge, shortening my weeks. I just realized that I uploaded Tour Eiffel in January! My (mental) health & block prevent me from writing. I read the words I got over & over but nothing comes out. I'm so sorry
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