Buzzing filled her ears as she looked over at her two best friends in the whole world. They have all been together since she was in kindergarten. The boy with dark brown hair covering one eye was laughing at the boy with orange hair. The one with the orange hair was wincing in pain and trying not to cry as he looked down at his wrist. The tattoo artist was smiling, entertained. The dark haired boy laughed again “Hongki, you should have chosen a less sensitive spot.”

                Hongki glared at him, pouting. “Seunghyun! You shouldn’t be moving your head. He could mess up the back of your neck and your tattoo will look stupid for eternity.” She laughed at them arguing. “Seunghyun, are you even allowed to take your head out of the hole?” Her tattoo artist laughed as Seunghyun put his head back into the hole on the tattooist chair. Hongki looked over at her. “Why am I the only one who thinks this hurts? Sanghee, yours is on your hip. How does it not hurt?”

                Sanghee laughed and reached out and grabbed his hand. “It just doesn’t.” She reached her other hand out and grabbed Seunghyun’s hand. “Now, both of you listen. I got ink put into my skin for this pact. So you better work your hardest! No backing out now.”

                Both boys squeezed her hand lightly. They had made a pact that their new band would become the best band in the world. Hongki was the main vocalist and Seunghyun was one of the guitarists and would do backup vocals and rapping occasionally. Sanghee was officially their first fan. The three of them were all getting their first tattoo together, the symbol of their band, FT Island. With this, they promised to always be together and working hard.

~ 2 MONTHS LATER ~

                Sanghee was standing impatiently looking at her phone, checking the time. She frantically kept looking at the door to the apartment building behind her. “Where are they? We are going to be late!” She mumbled to herself. Suddenly she saw Hongki running down the stairs on the other side of the door, with only one boot on. He hopped out the door trying to put the last boot on his foot. He stomped his foot to the ground and started hopping impatiently. “SEUNGHYUN!!! GET OUT HERE NOW!” He yelled at the building.

                Seunghyun came running down the stairs carrying a guitar case and sliding down the last five stairs but landing on his feet. He pushed the door open and the three of them took off down the street without a greeting. Sanghee smacked the both of them upside the head while they were running. “Why are you two always late during important times?”

                They turned the corner and ran down an alley way where a boy with light brown hair was pacing back and forth in front of a door. “Jonghun! We are here!” Seunghyun yelled as they slid to a stop. The tall boy smiled at Sanghee as he pushed the two boys through the doorway. “Seunghyun! Set up immediately, we go on in 5 minutes. Hongki go drink some water and warm up your voice.” Jonghun was voted as the leader of FT Island by all of the members for good reason. He was able to keep them all in line.

                He hugged Sanghee. “Thanks for delivering them to me. You are the best!” He kissed her on the top of the head and went back to the stage, yelling at the drummer for touching his guitar. Sanghee laughed and took her usual spot at the table closest to the side of the stage. She thought nothing about Jonghun kissing her head. She was like a sister to the whole band. Everyone was born within the same three years.

                Hongki and Sanghee were in school together. She got to go into school early and was with people a year older then her. Seunghyun was Hongki’s neighbor and went into kindergarten when they got into first grade. He also got into school a year early. If it wasn’t for Sanghee starting school early, her entire life would be very different.

                The drummer was named Minhwan and he was pretty quiet. He was the youngest of all of them, younger then Seunghyun by only 3 months. He waved awkwardly at Sanghee who smiled and waved back. Their bassist was picking on Seunghyun for being late and laughed really hard when he told him about almost falling down the stairs. That was Jaejin; he was trying to go for the smart concept. He got a bowl cut and wore round glasses frames. Sanghee had saw him before his hair cut and he was pretty attractive, like the rest of them, but this concept just made him look like the American stereotype of a nerd, but in fashionable clothes.

                The leader, Jonghun, was only 5 days younger then Hongki, who was the oldest. Jonghun was a model before he joined this band. He had a great body and always had great hair. His personality was amazing too. She was surprised that Hongki had the most fans of any one else. They haven’t made it to the big time yet and only played in this bar twice a week. They had many local fans.

                The band finally began playing. She happily listened. She has never missed a performance. Hongki was very comfortable singing on stage. However he felt uncomfortable doing most fan service on stage. Off stage, he would throw around fan service like it was second nature. A lot of the female fans came for him so he would often point out into the audience and wink. The fans always thought he would point randomly but he would always point at Sanghee and make eye contact with her. The band knew about that so they asked her to always be in the audience where he could find her. She was happy to help them in any way she could.

                Seunghyun, during his rap part would make a hand heart to the audience. He was very confident about his fan service. He was very confident in everything, even if he wasn’t good at it. Some people would call him ‘Baseless Confidence Seunghyun’ and she agreed with the nickname.

                These two girls leaning against the wall near where Sanghee was standing started talking, “I don’t see why this band gets to play here all the time. They aren’t anything compared to Big Bang.” Sanghee looked at them from the side with a disgusted face. “I wish that Big Bang would play here instead.” Big Bang was the hugest Rock Band in Korea right now. Sanghee was a huge fan of them, especially their leader TOP. Even though she was a fan of them she could never understand why these girls would always pay to come see FT Island and then just complain about how they aren’t like Big Bang, the whole time.

                FT Island finished their set and went backstage. Sanghee made an intimidating face at the two girls as she walked past them and went backstage.

                She opened the door to the small room the band was using. Hongki and Seunghyun ran up to her excited. “Sanghee! Did I sing well this time?” Hongki asked as he hugged her and picked her up. Seunghyun leaned on Hongki’s shoulder and smiled at her. “Was my rapping amazing?” Sanghee laughed as he set her back onto the floor. “You guys were amazing, as always.” She leaned around her two friends and smiled at the rest of the band. “All of you were!”

                Jonghun winked at her as Jaejin and Minhwan celebrated together. The bar manager smiled at Sanghee, Hongki and Seunghyun as she walked up to Jonghun and handed him an envelope. “Great job you guys! Don’t forget, I’m your biggest fan!” The band laughed. Seunghyun leaned on Sanghee, “Sorry ahjumma. You know that spot is already taken by Sanghee here.” Sanghee poked him in the ribs as the ahjumma laughed. “I know, I know. She is very helpful. She keeps you in line too.” She said pointing at Seunghyun as she left the room.

                Everyone laughed at him as he pouted. Jonghun opened the envelope and separated the money by five and gave everyone their share. “You two can walk her home now. There isn’t anything for us to do tonight. Practice tomorrow morning, don’t forget!” Sanghee went and hugged the rest of the band and waved as Hongki and Seunghyun walked her out.

                Seunghyun huffed as he put the guitar case on his shoulder. “You don’t keep me in line. I’m always in line. We need you to keep Hongki in line.” Hongki punched him in the arm. Sanghee sighed. “Those girls were back again, the ones who always compare you to Big Bang.” Hongki put one arm around her lower back and Seunghyun put his arm around her shoulders. Seunghyun smiled “I bet they were saying how we are so much better then Big Bang and how they want to be our fans instead.” Hongki leaned forward and looked at him like he was an idiot.

                “Well even though they always say bad things about us, they still pay to come see us. It’s been more then once, so they must actually like us.” Sanghee nodded and put her arms around the both of them. “Everyone will like you soon. I bet you guys will be even better then Big Bang someday.” Seunghyun laughed at her. “I thought that you were a big fan of them?” She nodded “As a matter of fact, I am. But I’m not their biggest fan! I’m FT Islands biggest fan.”

                Hongki pouted “You are TOP’s biggest fan.” Both Sanghee and Seunghyun laughed. “I don’t even know him. I just find him attractive and I think he is a talented musician.” Seunghyun grinned at Hongki “Are you jealous of him?” Hongki stuck his tongue out at him “No!”

                They stopped in front of the house that Sanghee shared with her dad; her mom had died about two years ago. “Well, I better go inside. The lights are still on; he must be waiting for me.” Hongki and Seunghyun both hugged her at the same time. Hongki kissed her on the cheek. “Tell your dad hey for us!”

                She walked inside as they walked away. Hongki and Seunghyun walked towards the busy street market. “Seunghyun, what should we spend our money on?” Hongki asked as he mindlessly looked in a store window. Seunghyun was counting his money. “I need to get some more strings. What about you?” Hongki shrugged. “I think I will get a new phone case and then save the rest.”

                They found the phone store and Hongki started looking at the cases. Seunghyun was wandering around. Suddenly his attention was grabbed by a special promotion. He yelled for Hongki. Hongki about jumped out of his skin and came running over to him. “What!?” Seunghyun pointed at the poster and started reading. “Buy a couple phone case set and get one entry to see if you win an afternoon with Big Bang.” Hongki was suddenly interested and started reading the fine print. “Only one person can win. Let’s enter Sanghee! She might get to meet TOP.” Hongki glared at Seunghyun. “Maybe I don’t want her to meet him.” Seunghyun laughed and said “I guess we can’t enter her anyways since you have to buy a couple phone case set.”

                Hongki sighed “Well… We are two people; do you need a phone case too?” Seunghyun smiled and they bought matching cases and entered Sanghee. “Hey Seunghyun, use your contact info so we can keep it a surprise if she wins.” Seunghyun nodded as he handed the entry to the cashier.

                The next morning Sanghee woke up and walked into the living room to see her dad sitting there petting the dog depressed. “Dad? How come you aren’t at work?” Her dad sighed. “I didn’t have the courage to tell you last night.” She sat down confused “Tell me what?” Her dad tied up his long hair and looked at her with a tear in his eye. “I lost my job yesterday. As you know, this is a company house and all of my money was from the company.” Her jaw dropped. “What?” She couldn’t believe what she had just heard; she ran her hand through her long reddish brown hair. “What are we going to do?”

                Her dad sighed again “One of my high school friends found me a job, but its in America. We have to leave tomorrow.” She stared at him in shock. She was happy here. She didn’t want to leave her home. She definitely didn’t want to leave Hongki, Seunghyun or FT Island. Her dad rubbed his head and drank some water. “Please go pack your clothes. There isn’t anything we can do about this. It’s our only option.”

                She stormed off to her room and started crying as she put her clothes into a suitcase. She laid on her bed and looked at her phone. She had a picture of Hongki and Seunghyun posing at their first concert as her wallpaper. She wanted to call them but they would know that she was crying. She texted them “My dad lost his job. We lost everything and have to move to America. We leave tomorrow…”

                She didn’t get a response right away. She looked at the time and realized they were probably at band practice right now. She continued packing in silence.

                A half an hour later, her front door burst open, scaring the crap out of her dad who was standing in the kitchen. Hongki and Seunghyun bowed to him and ran directly to her bedroom. Seunghyun flung her door open, she about had a heart attack. She quickly turned towards them and they saw that she had been crying. They both ran to her and Hongki pulled her to his chest as Seunghyun leaned on her back. “We are here now. Stop crying.” Seunghyun was trying to comfort her.

                Hongki rested his head on her head and Seunghyun rested his head on her shoulder. They stayed like that until she could no longer cry anymore. They began helping her decide what things she would bring with her. Her dad soon came in with a package of cookies and some juice boxes. Seunghyun looked at the food and started laughing. “We aren’t little kids anymore.” Hongki pushed him and grabbed some cookies and a juice box. “Shut up! I like cookies and juice boxes!”

                Seunghyun laughed and grabbed some too. Sanghee smiled as her dad left the room. She was going to miss this. She was 21, Seunghyun was 20 and Hongki was 22 and they were sitting in her room with juice boxes and cookies. She didn’t think she could find any friends like that in America. She drank her juice box and the boys helped her and her dad pack for the rest of the day.

                The next morning, Sanghee and her dad had to go to the airport. Seunghyun and Hongki were there waiting for them. They carried some of the bags for them. Seunghyun and Hongki sat next to each other on a long bench, waiting for them to get their tickets. Sanghee and her dad returned from the ticket counter. Her dad sat next to Hongki and Sorotsu sat next to Seunghyun. “Our flight leaves in 2 hours…”

                They sat there silently for a while and soon Sanghee was tired. She pulled her knees up to her chest and started resting. She was starting to fall asleep so she curled up on the bench with her back against Seunghyun’s leg. Hongki and her dad started trying to practice English. Seunghyun smiled down at Sanghee and rested his arm on her. He moved his arm so it was over her and rested his hand on the bench in front of her face.

                She moved her head slightly and her lips brushed against his forearm. He blushed a little bit. Her head slowly started to move towards the edge of the bench. He smiled and lifted her up so she was once again in a seated position. He rested her head on his shoulder and moved the hair out of her face. He let her stay like that until it was time for her to board her flight.

                Hongki leaned down and gently woke her up. She smiled at the both of them and pulled them both into a hug. “I’m really going to miss you guys so much! You are my best friends. Work hard with FT Island while I’m away. I demand that we have video calls as often as possible.” They smiled sadly, agreeing to all of her demands.

                Her dad had to pretty much pry her away from her friends. They waved after her as she cried boarding her plane. Hongki and Seunghyun were holding back tears as they watched her flight take off. Hongki hugged Seunghyun, hiding his face in his shoulder.