The bus is packed with people and I hold on to the rail above my head as I stare out the window. It's barely eight o'clock but the city is already waking up as the sun stretches out across the sky and it look like it might rain today. A man in a business suit, scoots over to allow his son to hold onto to his leg and I glance down briefly as the little boy smiles up at me and I return it back.

There are only a few more stops before more people get on and others get off and I politely say excuse me to a couple as I slide out the side doors when we stop at the university. A group of girls walk past me and one of them drops her pencil bag on the floor as I lean down to pick it up for her and she smiles and bows to me.

"Thanks,"

"No problem," I shake my head. 

 

The economics building is quiet as I take the stairs one at a time and I glance down at my watch before taking the last few steps to the third floor. 

"Kyungmi!"

Lily sits beside me in lab so we talk occasionally and discuss problems over our assignments but we're not exactly close, which makes me raise my eyebrows as she runs over to my side and follows me into the classroom.

"Can I help you?" I'm hoping it doesn't come off as harsh but when I look over at her she doesn't seemed phased by it.

"Want to go to a concert in Sinchon on Friday? It's at Yonsei- some hip hop festival is going on and I know how much you like it, so I thought maybe you'd want to go listen with me?"

I'm shocked she even remembered me saying anything about my music preferences. I take a seat in the chair and set my bag in my lap as she does the same but turns so she's facing me. 

"What do you say?"

I want to tell her I'll think about it or maybe...but her eyes are really excited and it's not that she's a bad person or not fun to hang out with. I guess it's just me really and the fact that I don't go out a lot, resulting in numerous cancellation of plans and awkward conversations. I sigh anyway but decide to put that aside. 

"Who's going to be there?"

Her smile stretches a little wider revealing straight teeth and she quickly digs her phone out of her bag to pull up a website and scroll through the page until she finds it.

"Beenzino, Giriboy, Verbal Jint, GEEKS, MadClown, Dok2 and it says with other guest appearances,"

"Sounds like it'll be pretty cool. Sure I'll go with you,"

"Really?!"

"Yeah," I laugh. "Sorry, but I'd like to, yeah. Do you want to go together or just meet up there?"

Lily doesn't seem to comprehend what I'm saying because she's still in a state of shock that I agreed to go, but eventually she blinks her eyes multiple times before nodding her head quickly.

"Yeah--I mean yeah let's go together. Do you want to come to my place? I'm closer to Sinchon,"

"Alright, text me your address and we'll go then,"

Lily squeals into her hands and a few students turn around to look back at her as my face turns red and I slap her arm. "Will you calm down!"

"Sorry, I'm just excited!" she grins. "I can't believe you actually want to go. You always turn me down," she frowns.

I poke her cheek with my index finger until she swats it away and laughs again. The professor walks in carrying his laptop and a briefcase and I tell Lily to be quiet as she hums and pulls her notes out for class.

 

Thursday night

10:09 PM

 

From: Seunghoon 

To: Kyungmi 

Hey babe, what are you doing right now?

I look down at my phone and chuckle before adjusting the pillow behind my back. 

To: Seunghoon 

From: Kyungmi

Nothing much. Jisum is sleeping, he threw up on himself because he wouldn't stop jumping on the couch then he cried and I gave him a bath and now he's asleep.

From: Seunghoon

To: Kyungmi

omg lol, sorry

 

I glance over at the little boy and he rubs his fists against his face before falling back asleep as soft snores leave his body. I chuckle to myself and stare back at my phone when I realize that Seunghoon is calling now. 

"Hey,"

"Hey," he whispers back. There's light shuffling before I hear a door open and then shut and I give him a minute before he responds. 

"I'm so tired,"

"Did you guys just get done at the concert?"

"Yeah," he sighs and I can imagine his face right now. The pout he gets on his lips when he starts to feel sleepy and the drooping of his eyes when he tries to stay up. 

"How was it?"

"It was good, it felt like there were over thousands of people there. I could barely see people honestly, all I saw were lights and heard people screaming but I liked it. I wish you could come one day,"

"Send me some money and I'll book a flight to Japan right now,"

"Really?"

"No," I frown. "Keep your money, maybe I'll come someday when I have my own money,"

"Okay but the offer is still open, I would gladly get you anything you want,"

I roll my eyes but I can't stop the smile from blossoming on my face. I know he would. 

"Get some sleep, I know you're exhausted. I can hear it in your voice,"

Jisum makes a whimpering noise and I rub his back gently as he calms down again and pulls the Frozen blanket closer to himself. The lights on my window are starting to fade out and I can almost see my reflection in the glass as I stare back at it before letting out a small yawn. 

"We'll just talk tomorrow,"

"But I want to know more about your day. I haven't talked to you in forever," he says and the frown that I'm picturing almost makes me scoff. 

"I didn't do much, it really wasn't that eventful at all. I went to class, hung out with some friends, ate dinner in the lobby with Hyuk and now I'm watching Jisum for the night,"

"Even if you didn't do much then I would still find something interesting about your day,"

"I'm hanging up on you," I sigh.

"Hey!"

We both laugh at that and I tap my fingers against my thigh before pulling my legs up so my knees are touching my chest. "I miss you stupid,"

"I miss you too," he says quietly. "When I come back let's have a lot of to make up for how long I was gone,"

"Oh my god," I pinch the bridge of my nose and then burst out laughing. "I ing hate you, you know that? Who says something like that? You just like ruined the moment. What makes you even think I want to do that with you again?"

I wipe tears away from the edge of my eyes and laugh some more as he chuckles. "Well I mean judging from the scratches you left on my back the last time, I say it was pretty good for you,"

The way he talks so casually about this makes my face warm and I pull the neck of my T-shirt up to my chin and shake my head. "Just shut up Seunghoon,"

"Come on, you mean to tell me that you didn't enjoy it?"

I can hear the teasing in his voice but I ignore it. "That's not what I'm saying, no"

"So you enjoyed it?"

"What do you think?" I click my tongue. He laughs and I can hear him his lips. "Seriously I haven't stopped thinking about it, when I close my eyes I see your body and I see your face and then I have to wake up and take a cold shower,"

"Oh my god," I snort. "Please stop Seunghoon," My face is heating up more and for some reason I fan myself even though the AC is on. 

"I'm serious, that was my first time-- it was our first time and it was the best. Nothing can compare, I just want to do it again and again with you,"

"You don't have anything to compare it to though. For all you know it could have been bad,"

"Trust me that wasn't bad,"

I throw my head back to laugh loudly and quickly catch myself when Jisum makes a noise beside me. "," I muttered. 

"What is it?" he chuckles. 

"I'm too loud,"

"You are right about that,"

"Shut. Up."

"Okay," he says quietly.

I smile and I can hear the bed shift around as he moves and probably tries to slide underneath the blankets. "Did you already take a shower?"

"Yeah Mino and I shared because he said he couldn't get his back. He's a liar though. Jinwoo is knocked out on the other bed, he has a night mask on and everything. he looks like he's at a sauna. He didn't even take his robe off,"

"Maybe you should follow suit and get some rest too, you have another long day tomorrow and I don't want you to be exhausted,"

"You're right," and he yawns as I smile. "I love you and I'll call tomorrow okay?"

"Be safe and take care of yourself, I love you too,"

We hang up after that and I stare at the screen of my phone for a minute longer until it shuts off and then I set it on the stand beside me. It doesn't take long for me to drift off to sleep after that.

 

Friday 

12:24 PM

I walk a few more blocks until I'm glancing down at the address on my phone again and I smile when I see that I'm right where I should be. An apartment complex is situated next to a tiny bistro that has soft music playing from its open door and I walk inside the building, waving at the woman at the front desk and walking over to the buzzer.

My eyes scroll down until I see number 7 and I press it two times before someone answers. "Kyungmi?"

"Yeah it's me," I chuckle.

There's some shuffling before she responds me and I can tell that she's smiling. "I buzzed you in, come on up!"

"Alright,"

The elevator has an Out of Service notice posted across the front and I roll my eyes before heading to the stairs up to the second floor. When I get to the landing, there's a hallway of rooms situated across from one another, so I pull out my phone again and check each of the doors before stopping at the one with AD at the front. 

I knock twice and I hear light footsteps until the door opens and Lily smiles before ushering me inside as she moves backs.

"Hey you didn't have any trouble finding it right?"

"Not at all," I slip my shoes off. "You're right though, you do live really close. It'll take us like ten minutes to get there, how come you don't just go to Yonsei? Our university is much farther,"

I follow her as she leads me to the kitchen and her apartment is set up in almost the same style as mine but it's slightly bigger. The walls are painted a mint green color and there are so many records hanging up on the wall along with a stack of magazines in the corner and the TV is playing a music show program.

It almost feels like I've stepped into some kind of alternate retro universe. Her kitchen appliances look like something from decades ago and I notice a portrait of Elvis Pressley in the kitchen that has me chuckling.

"Yonsei is so stuck up. Everyone thinks they're so much better and honestly it's too big. I prefer a small school like ours,"

I nod my head and take a seat at the stool as she pulls out two bottles of Cola and hands me one while popping hers open. "I like your apartment by the way. Can I just ask you something?"

"Sure,"

"What's with the design? Some kind of identity crisis thing going on?"

"NO!" she spluttered.

"Then why?" I laughed.

"I just really like that era, it's always fascinated me, the time, music, arts, I just I don't know," she shrugged.

"Okay," I nod. I look back at the portrait and raise my eyebrow. "Do you even know English well enough to understand what he's saying?"

"Somewhat," she murmured. "If the music is good though why should I let language stop me?"

"You have a point," I say and take a sip from my soda. 

Lily smiled and set hers back down before moving around the counter to head down the opposite hallway. "I just need to do some more stuff and we'll leave in a few. Make yourself comfortable!" she shouts. 

"Okay!"

I get off the stool and glance around her apartment before moving to the living room where she has photos of her and others, some at school and some in the city. There are also frames of what I assume is her family and another one where she's holding a baby as she makes a peace sign. I chuckle and turn back around to see a record player set up on a stand next to the window and I'm so shocked that I freeze, taking an entire minute before I speak.

"Wow, where did she even find this?"

My hands itch to touch it but I don't want to break it so I only look at it and marvel at the stacks of records that she has in a shelf above it. There are so many that I don't even take the time to count them all, I just pick out names that I'm familiar with.

"You want me to play it?" I hear her say suddenly.

I jump and whirl around in shock as she laughs and I scowl at her. "What the Lily?"

"You looked so cute, have you never seen one before?"

"Not really no,"

She nods and I take note of her appearance that's now a short yellow sundress with a denim jacket and she has a cute flower headband as her curls lay down against her shoulder. I feel severely undressed right now and I frown as a smile tugs back at her lips.

"What now?"

"I look like your emo twelve year old sister that your mom forced you to take with you,"

She bursts out laughing and runs over to me as her hands grab my shoulder and shake it just lightly. "Yah what are you even saying? You look fine to me, actually you look hot," her eyes scan down my frame.

"Stop lying through your teeth," I have on skinny jeans and dirty Converse sneakers with a white button up shirt and my hair is in a high ponytail. I wasn't expecting much when she said concert anyway so now I feel like I should have.

"You seriously don't look bad but this is how I always dress you know that,"

It is true, the only  time I don't see Lily dressed up is when we have lab but even then she makes her jeans and sneakers look like she just came from the runway. I honestly don't know how she does it.

"Do you want to borrow some of my clothes?" she frowns.

"No no no--"

"No I insist!" she nods her head. "I want you to smile and we're supposed to have a good time so let's just pick something out for you,"

"We're gonna be late," I groaned.

"No we won't. We have a lot of time anyways since you got here so early. Come on, it won't even take long,"

She pulls me by the wrist towards her bedroom and I sigh but secretly smile to myself because honestly I really do like Lily even though we weren't that close before.

By the time we get finished, almost twenty minutes later, my hair is now in a side braid and I keep my white button up shirt while Lily puts me in a pair of high waisted shorts and a pair of wedges that match my shirt. She does some light makeup on me even though I refuse and after spraying both of us with a little perfume, she smiles proud at her work and sends me a wink in her full length mirror. 

"Better?"

"Yeah," I look down before staring back up at her. "Thanks,"

"No problem," she says warmly and gives me a side hug before lacing our arms together. "Now let's go so we can get a good spot,"

 

The walk to Yonsei isn't long at all and by the time we make it to the courtyard, where the event is taking place, there are already a bunch of people there. Some have brought their own chairs, others blankets to sit and lay down on but most are standing around and talking to their friends while they wait. Lily pulls me through the crowd as we politely excuse ourselves and then end up finding a nice spot under some trees that's relatively close to the stage.

"Want some snacks?" she points over to a vendor where some students are waiting in line.

"Sure," I shrug. "But I'll get it what do you want?"

"Hm...some tteokbokki if they have some and maybe chips?"

"Alright, I'll be right back," I say. I walk back off the lawn and across to the vendor as I wait in line with the rest of the people. It doesn't take long and fortunately the line moves pretty fast until I'm smiling at the woman and asking for two cups of tteokbokki and a bag of potatoe chips. After she hands me my order, I walk back over to Lily and she's fanning herself with one of the fans before she lights up as she takes the cup out of my hands.

"Thanks!"

"You're welcome," I smile.

We eat quietly, stealing some of each other's and looking around at others while talking about some of the things we see, the people, the weather, just simple chatting until the concert is about to start. The crowds grow larger and after Lily comes back from throwing our trash away, we move closer to the stage and squeeze in next to a couple that are holding onto each other.

When the sun finally begins to set, the lights go up on the stage and people start cheering and hollering while Lily cups her hands around and shouts. I snort and she shoves me aside but grabs a hold of my arm just in case.

Music begins to play from the speakers set up along each side and the bass is loud as lights start going off on stage and then someone runs up to the stage, who I immediately recognize as Giriboy and the crowd starts screaming and completely going wild as he smiles into the microphone and waves out to everybody.  

  

---

Hey guys, so this update was a little longer but there will be a part two to continue this in the next chapter? Do you all like how this is going so far? I'm sorry if the pace is slow but it's building up lol I hope you guys enjoyed this and plase leave comments below to tell me what you think. Okay love you ^^