“Are you boys ready?” The president was calling us. This was big, even for the 6 of us. We were actually going to meet her. In the flesh. Lee Kina. I turned to look at Yoseob, and he was just as jittery as I was. Our eyes met, and we couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Can you believe it, Kwang?” he asked me, “We’re actually flying to Japan to see her!”

“Yah! Kikwang! Don’t break down and start drooling when you see her, okay? I don’t want you embarrassing us in front of her,” Doojoon warned me.

Thanks a lot, hyung. Now I gotta worry about that too, I thought to myself. Today, the 6 of us took twice as long to get ourselves ready. This was going to be huge, us flying to Japan to maybe convince Lee Kina to join Cube Entertainment. I don’t blame us for being so anxious.

“Sir? How come it’s only us going to Japan?” Dongwoon asked, “What about 4Minute and G.Na noona?”

“They’re busy promoting, and G.Na’s flying out to Canada to meet her parents today. Besides, I don’t think the girls are as desperate to meet her as you boys are” the president joked, laughing. All of us laughed along.

“That’s so true,” Doojoon replied, “but, sir. How is it you managed to get us to meet her? I don’t imagine it was easy?”

“Ah, that,” the president said, “Me and Johnny Kitagawa are old friends from college. He was more than happy for us to come today.”

“Really??” I blurted out. The president nodded back.

“And between you and me, he told me if it were up to him, he’d send her to Cube automatically. But he respects her freedom to choose whoever she wants to join.” The rest of us turned and looked at each other, dumbfounded.

“Wow. Our boss is really amazing…” Yoseob said in awe, and we nodded in agreement. President Hong just laughed it off and motioned for us to start walking.

“C’mon. We don’t wanna be late for the plane.”

The stage was huge. Outrageously huge! As the 7 of us walked into Tokyo Dome, we couldn’t help but stare with open mouths. A few minutes after getting our passes, we were met by a man who looked to be the same age as President Hong. The two men shook hands and greeted each other in a casual hug. “Good to see you, Hong-ie!” the other man said.

“Likewise, Johnny,” President Hong replied, “I want you to meet the boys of B2ST” he said as he turned to motion towards us.

“Ah, it’s nice to meet you boys. I’m Johnny Kitagawa, a close friend of your boss here” he said to us in fluent Korean. We bowed deeply in unison, expressing our greetings and respect. “My friend Hong-ie here tells me you’re very keen to have Kina-chan join your company, is that right?”

“Yes, sir” Doojoon replied, courteously.

“I like your boys,” Mr. Kitagawa whispered to President Hong, “very polite. Sadly, I can’t say the same about some of my boys,” he joked. We laughed along, awkwardly. “Give me a second, okay? I’ll just get someone to tell Kina she’s got some visitors.” We watched as he walked towards the edge of the stage to talk to, what seemed like, another artist in his company. The 6 of us turned to form a small huddle, talking over one another.

“Guys, this is really happening!” Hyunseung giggled, smacking Dongwoon’s arm. Yoseob clutched his stomach.

“Wow, I can feel the butterflies already.” Junhyung quickly tapped his shoulder.

“Hey, Mr. Kitagawa’s coming back now.” We turned to see him returning.

“She’s going to be singing next. She’ll be coming down once she’s finished practicing. Have a seat here and enjoy the show.” He motioned to some seats close to the edge of the stage. “Front row seats!” Yoseob whispered. I smiled back, excited, anticipating the performance. In a matter of seconds, Lee Kina was centre-stage, microphone in hand, back-up dancers in position, dressed in nothing but a white singlet and some shorts, hair in a ponytail. The volume of the speakers made the chairs vibrate in time to the booming bass. The test cameras were positioned on her, her image projected on the huge screen behind her. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I turned to the rest of the members beside me and saw Hyunseung hitting Junhyung’s leg excitedly. I chuckled a little, noticing how annoyed hyung was getting. And just like that, the whole stadium was filled with her voice. That voice. The voice. I couldn’t help but stare up at the angel on stage, moving perfectly in time to the music. Popping, waves, floor slides… there was nothing she couldn’t do. I knew the song. We knew the song. And we all thought it, I knew: it was definitely better sung live than listening to it on my iPod. Soon enough, the long of the song we anticipated arrived, and we stared in awe as we listened to Lee Kina hit the high note perfectly, holding it for no less than 5 heavenly seconds. I could feel Yoseob’s hand hitting my chest like a silent question, “Did you see/hear that??” I wanted to answer back, but my eyes would not move.

The song was going to come to an end soon. Slowly she started to move closer to where we were seated. As if the performance couldn’t get any better, in a split second, she managed to hold eye contact with all 6 of us, shattering our hearts with that killer smile of hers. I could’ve sworn I saw her wink at us too. She ran back to join her back-up dancers to finish the song with the final dance. When I could finally move my eyes away from the stage, I saw Doojoon clutch his heart, pretending to faint on Yoseob, earning laughs from Mr. Kitagawa, President Hong and the rest of the members. The music stopped, and we watched as Lee Kina ran towards the back of the stage where other artists sat and grabbed a water bottle from the hands of one of the guys. Mr. Kitagawa leaned across to our backs and asked, “Did you enjoy that, boys?” The 6 of us nodded our head in agreement. How could you not enjoy that? “Well, stay tuned because there’s one more, apparently!”

“There’s more??” I asked, excitedly. He replied with a simple gesture, motioning us to look towards the stage. We turned our heads, listening to a familiar tune starting to play. Yoseob and I turned to each other, our eyes growing in amazement. “Hyung! It’s your favourite song!” I cried. One of her popular English songs, we watched with wide eyes as Lee Kina belted out the familiar ballad with her powerful voice. By the end of the song, I could see Yoseob wiping his eyes.

“Aww, man. Is it weird that I’m crying?” he asked us. Doojoon just patted his shoulder.

“I’m pretty sure we all want to cry right now, Seob.” And he was right. I wanted so badly to just cry at how amazing today had been so far. We watched as she made her way to the back of the stage again, grabbing her water bottle and handing her microphone to who seemed to be the next to sing. It wasn’t until she gave a little wave to the guys sitting down that we realised that she would be coming towards us next.

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Um, is... no one reading my story?

I've had no comments and no subscribers at all since writing this. Nada. Zero. Zip. TT_TT

Maybe... I should give up on it then...?