“Almost there!” Jacklyn squealed as the mall came into view.

“Ahhh! I can’t wait to meet him! This is so exciting, I bet we’ll have a lot of fun together!” Ali exclaimed as she bounced in her seat, seriously spazzing out.

“Yes I’m sure we will, but you have to stop bouncing,” Jacklyn laughed. “You’re making the whole car shake!”

“Oh, sorry,” Ali stopped and waited anxiously as Jackie did one of her not-great-but-good-enough parks in the mall parking lot. They both nearly leaped out of the car, purses flying and did a double check in the side mirrors to make sure they looked good before fast walking to the mall entrance, slowly down and trying to act as normal as humanly possible for the two before they started to the entrance.

Jackie spotted him right away, waiting patiently and looking around at all of the people passing by. She pointed him out to Ali; who gave a small giggle in response. As soon as it came out, she clasped her hands over so no other weird noises would escape. “Now remember, we must be calm, composed people and not crazy fangirls,” Jackie reminded and Ali.

“Yes we must,” she mused before cracking a grin and both girls did a mini freakout together before taking a few calming breaths and crossing the lane (after looking both ways of course). Ali waved at Teo, who spotted them and smiled.

A few strides later, they met up and he shook their hands happily. “Hi I’m Teo! You must be Arison and Jackeurin.”

“Yes that’s us,” Jacklyn laughed at his little accent.

“So let’s get shopping! I’ve been to a mall in Singapore, but never to an American mall so this will be fun!” He beamed and walked between the two girls, leading them to the food court entrance.

They walked around and got some yummy yummy cajun chicken samples from a nice Mexican lady before deciding that they should shop first, then eat afterwards. “So what are you looking for?” He asked.

“Clothes,” Ali replied as Jackie said, “Hair accessories.”

“Then let’s go!” He smiled, not minding their indecisiveness. The day was meant to be fun and carefree. They ended up in JCPenney first and explored the clothes racks that were nearest to the doors. Jackie found a fedora with an odd pattern and plopped it on Teo’s head. He laughed, taking a moment to pose. Ali pulled out her phone and asked if it was alright if she could take some pictures. “I don’t mind at all! Come here, let’s take a group photo that I can put up on Twitter!”

They all crowded together with Teo in the middle, and he held up the phone for the self-photo. Jackie and Ali made aegyo-like faces while Teo made a funny one. In the end they had to take three photos because Teo kept laughing and moving the phone.

Once they finished their little mini-photo shoot they continued shopping, actually finding some good deals on clothes. They even managed to find a really cool t-shirt in all of their sizes, which they took another picture in.

Jackie led the other two to the cosmetic aisles and disappeared down one of the never-ending rows. Ali didn’t have much use for anything in those aisles, so she followed Jackie  as Teo explored the make-up. Jackie had just stuck a flower in Ali’s hair when they heard Teo yell from a few rows over, “Guys! I didn’t know you had BB cream in America!”

“They just started that. I told my mom that we stole it from Korea,” Ali laughed, grabbing Jackie’s hand and pulling her to go find Teo.

They continued to shop for a few more hours before they finally had to stop and re-energize with some food from the food court. Jackie and Ali had about 6 bags each full of amazing finds. Teo, on the other hand, had about 20 bags between himself and his manager who magically appeared while we were in American Eagle. (Teo’s pick, not the girls’)

Teo insisted on getting something extremely American. Jackie and Ali discussed it and decided that he should get a pizza from one of the couple pizza vendors. “I’ve had pizza before,” Teo complained. “I want to try something new!”

“Trust me, you haven’t had pizza until you’ve had American pizza,” Jackie replied, dragging him along as her and Ali bought a pepperoni and sausage stuffed crust pizza. They took it back to a table where they ate the entire thing, Teo surprised at how different it really was.

The time came for them to say good-bye. Jackie and Ali were sad to have to say good-bye, but Teo gladly gave them his email and told them how to find his real facebook page.

“I had a ton of fun today! I’m glad I got to see America with such cute girls!” Teo grinned, giving them each a hug.

They blushed, but returned his smile. “Trust me, this is just a very, very small sliver of what you can really find here in the United States.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be back. Then, together we can explore the rest of the country!”

The girls waved as Teo disappeared into his van, and watched solemnly as the van slowly disappeared from sight.

“I wish we had more time with him,” Ali sighed, picking up her bags.

“Just think, how many people can say that they got to go shopping with a real Korean idol?” Jackie laughed, wrapping an arm around Ali’s shoulder. Together, they walked off to the car with their memories of the day locked tightly at the forefront of their mind.