It was around 9 at night and two friends were walking down the unfamiliar streets of Seochu-gu, near Gangnam. It was the first Monday after Christmas and they had just arrived in Korea a few hours ago. The woman wearing a gray hoodie with horns on the hood with wings on the back made out of safety pins, round glasses, pants that had one black leg and one red leg, and white shoes which lit up the sidewalk red as she walked fixed her short dyed blonde hair under her hat with the parental advisory logo on it. “Shreya, I think we got off the bus too early. I don’t remember this part on the google street view.”

               The younger woman named Shreya who had shoulder length black hair and was wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans, sneakers and a red scarf, carrying a box, nodded. “You should look at the map again.” The older woman named Sondra opened her leopard print backpack with red accents and a jeweled skull and crossbones with pins on it and pulled out a printed map from google. “This would be much easier for me if the street names were in English… or at least Romanized.” The two of them kept walking until Sondra spotted a cafe she recognized. “Oh! I saw that on OWOL TV! It’s that way.”

               The younger one followed the older one as they turned down a narrow street. They immediately spotted the buildings they saw on google and YouTube. “So, which building is it? Are they even still here?” Sondra asked Shreya. The younger female shrugged her shoulders and pulled out her phone to message one of the people from CHITWN music.

               Before she was able to send the message, they saw two puppies coming out of the glass doorway leading to stairs going down next to the cafe. The person holding the leashes turned to face them and the girls both stopped as he smiled at them. He was about to walk away but Sondra suddenly spoke. “What’s up Benji Boy?” She said with a smirk on her face as he looked at her like he was trying to remember her face. Shreya laughed and called out to him as well. “Benjiiiiiiii!!” she said holding out his name way too long before he started laughing.

               He waved at the girls. “Are you two Shreya and Sondra?” Shreya nodded as Sondra was already bent down by the puppies, letting them her all over her face. “Why are you at CHITWN?” He was about to answer but Sondra answered for him. “Obviously he is Sam’s new dog walker.” Benji burst out laughing. “Yup, you caught me. No actually we are working on a song. When did you get to Korea?” Sondra didn’t look up from the puppy she was petting. “A few hours ago. We are here to deliver fan gifts to CHITWN.”  Benji nodded and pulled gently on the dogs leashes. “Well the office is down there. I didn’t lock the door. I gotta take these two out first.”

               The two girls watched Benji walk away before they went down the stairs and found the CHITWN studio. The lights in the office were turned off but they opened and went in anyways. Shreya looked around confused and about jumped out of her skin when Sondra knocked on the closest wall. “Annyeong!” She called out while listening to see which way to go.

               They heard no reply but saw a faint light coming out of a glass door. The two girls carefully walked to the door and Sondra slowly pushed it open as Shreya looked over her shoulder. Sam Ku was sitting in front of the computer in the recording studio with headphones on.  Sondra pushed the door open further and pulled out her phone. “Wait, let’s see if he answers.” She said laughing as she messaged him on Facebook telling him to turn around. Sam saw the chat pop up on his phone and closed it without reading it. “Now you send him a message to turn around.”

               Shreya also messaged him from her phone to turn around. He saw her chat pop up and looked at it, then turned to face the two of them. He jumped a bit before smiling and taking off his headphones. “Hi! What’s up?” Sondra laughed and looked over at Shreya. “See I always told you that he ignores my messages.”

               Sam blushed a little bit at being caught and laughed. “I’m sorry. So you are already here?” Shreya just nodded awkwardly and stared at the box. Sondra stared back and forth between the two of them who seemed to be looking everywhere except at each other and sighed before smiling. The older girl took the box from her younger friend. “The CHITWN Fan base has put together these gifts for you guys. It’s so dark in here.” She explained as she put the box on his lap.

               Sam smiled at the box as he started to open it. “Oh, yeah, you guys can have a seat.” He said as he motioned towards the single black couch. Shreya chose to sit on the empty rolling chair that Benji had probably been sitting on earlier. Sondra took off her backpack and put it next to her feet as she sat on the couch.

               They heard a bunch of noise as Benji opened the door to the entrance way and released the excited puppies. The two Korean Jindo dogs came running into the studio and saw that there were people besides Sam in there and both started begging for Sondra to pet them since she was the only one on the couch. Benji came into the room holding their leashes. “These two feel like they have to meet everyone they see. How do you handle the two little escape artists??” He said as he plopped on the couch next to Sondra without even caring she was there.

               Sam laughed at him. “They don’t do that when I walk them.” He pointed towards the dogs. “The boy is Roy and the girl is Lexy.” Sondra kept petting the dogs, not paying attention to Benji who had set his attention on the box. “So what did you get?” He asked as he leaned forwards to see the stuff being pulled out of the box. Shreya cleared awkwardly. “The CHITWN fan base got these for Sam and everyone else.”

               Benji noticed, just like Sondra had earlier, that Sam and Shreya wouldn’t look directly at each other. He looked over at Sondra and motioned his head towards the other two and made a confused face. Sondra just laughed and nodded.

               Sam and Shreya were talking about the things that were in the box and about who sent each thing, but they were still only looking at the gifts and not each other. Benji suddenly stood up. “Hey Sam, I’m going to take Sondra and go run to the store real quick for drinks and snacks and stuff.” Sam pointed to the side of the couch where there were a few bottles of water. “There are drinks right there.” Benji grabbed all the bottles of water and tossed them out into the office. The puppies ran after the bottles as Benji suddenly grabbed Sondra’s sleeve. “Well we better go get those drinks from the store.” He said in an awkwardly loud voice as he dragged her out of the building.

               Sam and Shreya finally looked at each other confused as the puppies each brought back one of the bottles Benji had thrown. Shreya laughed a bit as she fidgeted with her phone she was holding. Sam leaned back and looked out the door. “What was that all about…?” he mumbled.

               Benji finally let go of Sondra’s sleeve when they got outside onto the street. “You didn’t have to drag me you know. I would have followed you.” She said while looking at the grinning Benji. “So tell me the deal with those two.” Sondra adjusted her hair under her hat and sighed. “Well…”

               Sam looked over at Shreya as she kept messing with her phone nervously without actually unlocking the screen. “Are you alright?” He asked realizing she was nervous. She nodded and glanced over at him. “Oppa… Do you think… we could take a selfie?” He laughed and nodded as he grabbed her phone to hold up to take some photos together.

               Benji burst out laughing as Sondra finished explaining how the relationship between the other two has been the past couple years. “So it’s probably very awkward down there right now then.” He said as he started walking towards the main street. “Are you coming? I can’t carry it all back by myself.” Sondra put her hood up over her hat and followed after him. “So Sondra, how old are you anyways? I don’t think you ever told me.” She smiled. “I’m 24. So I’m older than you.” The younger male looked shocked. “Seriously! But you look like a teenager.” He put his hand on top of her head. “Plus you are so short…” Sondra forgot that he was an idol and elbowed him in the side. “I’m not short! You are just a giant!” He grabbed his side and laughed.

               Shreya was smiling to herself as she looked over the selfies they took together as Sam put the gifts back in the box to get them out of the puppies reach. He stood up to put the box on the table in the entryway for the others to see when they arrived for work tomorrow. As soon as he walked back into the studio, Shreya smiled sweetly at him. “So, Oppa, Benji said that you two are working on a song together?” He sat back down and unplugged the headphones from the speakers. “Yeah, tell me what you think.” He pressed play and let the song play for her.

               Sondra followed Benji over the footbridge that passed over the street and suddenly stopped half way across. Benji stopped and looked back at her confused. “What?” She stared at him for a moment before looking at the people passing them without even a second thought. “I just realized that I am walking down a Korean street with an idol and no one is even noticing.”  He nodded and shushed her. “Don’t mention the “I” word. I don’t usually get noticed. I only get recognized around Arirang or at scheduled places.” She nodded. “Is that why you don’t have a face mask on?” He nodded and looked around and people were starting to stare now. “Let’s go. We are getting stared at for speaking English.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her the rest of the way off the bridge.

               The song finished and Sam pressed the stop button. “So?” He asked with a smile. Shreya blushed a bit and looked away at from his face. “I really like how the beat goes well with Benji’s Violin. Do you guys have any lyrics yet?” He shook his head. “We just finished fitting the violin in. The lyrics are the next part we were going to work on. Good thing you two showed up now. I remember you both always had good lyrics.” Shreya laughed and started scrolling through her phone. “You remember the times from Sing & Song and Lets Make a Song days? Some of those lyrics might work for this song…” She said as she started to play back the lyrics from the old radio shows.

               Benji and Sondra made it to the 7eleven without him being noticed. Sondra had already taken her hand back from him. “So what are we getting?” She asked as she stared at the labels she couldn’t read. He turned to look at her and smirked. “You know, a lot of fans would kill to hold my hand but you let go.” She laughed and held up her left hand. She had two rings on her ring finger, one was black and white jewels wrapping around each other and the other was in the shape of a t-rex wrapped around her finger. Benji suddenly gasped. “OH YEAH! You got engaged using a dinosaur. I remember now!” The cashier looked at him funny for suddenly being loud. He bowed a little bit and grabbed a basket from next to the aisle. He started putting random bags of snacks into the basket. Sondra couldn’t read any of the labels as he moved onto the drinks.

               Sam and Shreya were watching an old video of Sam singing some lyrics that Shreya had written last year. “I wonder what’s taking them so long.” Sam said as he looked out towards the office again. “Maybe they are planning on pranking us?” The older man laughed and shook his head. “I don’t think so. He’s probably flirting with her too much.” Shreya laughed “No Oppa, she is probably flirting with him.” They both laughed. Sam reached down and pet the puppy that was sitting by his foot. “Maybe they are flirting with each other then.” Shreya nodded and laughed. “There is a chance she beat him up too.” Sam burst out laughing.

               Benji set the basket full of snacks down on the counter and the two cases of drinks he grabbed. The cashier said something in Korean and Benji turned to Sondra. “He needs to see both of our ID’s.” She opened her phone case and pulled out her ID. “You are lucky that my phone case is my wallet or else I wouldn’t have my stuff since you didn’t let me grab my bag.” He just grinned at her and took her ID from her to hand to the cashier who looked a bit confused at seeing an American ID. Benji paid for the stuff and looked at her ID before handing it back. “I guess you are older than me. What’s with the face though?” She grumpily took it back from him. “They took my glasses away and I couldn’t see where the camera was…”

               Sam finally went out into the office to find all the bottles Benji had thrown while showing Shreya around the studio.  The front door suddenly opened and Sondra came in holding a plastic bag while Benji followed after her holding the two cases of drinks. “I still don’t see why you are so grumpy with me.” Benji said laughing. Sondra sighed and set the bag on the table next to the box of gifts. “First you tease me for being short. Then you try to hold my hand, and then you make fun of my ID photo. What makes me grumpier is that every time you smile or laugh at me, I don’t care that you made fun of me and that is what makes me mad.” Sam and Shreya both burst out laughing as Benji just grinned and looked her over. “Too bad you are engaged already.”

               Sondra just ignored him and crouched down to pet the dogs that came to see who showed up. “So what did you get?” Sam asked as he looked into the bag of snacks. “I have no idea because I can’t read it.” The crouched woman said as she stood up. Sam spotted the drinks that Benji was carrying to the studio. “You got two cases of soju? How did you afford that?” Sondra and Shreya both looked over at Benji confused. “I have a credit card.” He said laughing as he went into the recording studio with the drinks. Sondra shrugged her shoulders and grabbed the bag of snacks and followed him in with Shreya and Sam following behind.

               Sam sat back down in his chair and Shreya sat in the chair next to him. Sondra sat back down on the couch by her bag as Benji was sorting through the snacks Sondra set on the couch. “I got some chips and some squid snacks. These are shrimp chips.” He said as he was pulling them out. Sondra immediately snatched the bag of shrimp chips. “Yes! I love these.” Shreya laughed as she politely grabbed a package of seaweed snacks.

               Shreya looked in the bag. “Do you guys have any glasses?” Benji groaned. “That’s what I forgot!” He looked back over at Sondra who was already contently eating the shrimp chips. She just shook her head. “I don’t want to walk back to the store.” Sam laughed and left the room, returning with some paper cups. “This is all we have but it should work.” He laid out four cups and Benji poured the soju. Everyone grabbed their cups and Shreya just looked at the clear liquid in hers. Sondra smiled at her. “Shreya, don’t worry. It probably won’t taste very good to you and it might burn a little.”

               Sam and Benji looked at the youngest one in the room. Sam chuckled a little bit. “Is this the first time you have had alcohol?” She nodded a bit embarrassed. Benji smiled at her too. “It will be ok. It’s just a bit bitter.” Benji looked over to Sondra. “So how did you know what it tastes like? Have you had Soju before back in the states?” She shrugged her shoulders. “Nope, but it looks and smells similar to vodka so I assume it tastes like it.” Both of the guys nodded as she kept talking. “So Shreya, are you ready for your first shot?” she said with a smile on her face.

               Shreya nodded and took a deep breath as they all held up their cups and tapped them together. Sam, Benji and Sondra drank their shots down quickly as Shreya tried to sip it before making a face. “Oh god, it’s so bad!” She said as her face crinkled. The other three laughed. “You don’t sip it. It makes it worse. Just take it as a shot and it just passes most of the tongue.” Sam said laughing and patting her on the shoulder. She blushed and took the rest of her drink in a shot like the others, still crinkling her face.

               The older girl elbowed Benji playfully. “If you told me you were getting alcohol, I would have told you to get some chasers too.” She said laughing as she handed Shreya a handful of the shrimp chips to cover up the flavor of the soju. Benji was already pouring the next round of shots. Sam laughed and turned his chair so he was facing Shreya slightly. “You don’t have to drink anymore if you don’t want to. It’s ok.” She nodded awkwardly, fidgeting with her cup.

               Benji and Sondra had already drunk their shots before the other two. Sam drank his and Shreya followed, still not liking the flavor. Sam laughed as he watched Benji try to slowly reach over Sondra to get some of the shrimp chips. The older female just watched his hand creeping in front of her until Shreya burst out laughing. “Benji, you should be careful.” He suddenly stopped and looked at Sondra’s face only a few inches away from his and grinned as she just stared at him unamused. “Maybe she should be careful.”

               Sam grinned and looked at Sondra. “She has been careful of you since they got here.” Sondra and Benji both burst out laughing as he leaned away from her. “So you can notice that but not…” he stopped his sentence as Sondra shoved a shrimp chip in his mouth. “Notice what?” Shreya asked confused. The older girl smiled at her and ate some of her chips. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it. So, Sam, Benji, and how many fans from the radio have you actually hung out with like this?”

               Sam shrugged his shoulders and twisted his chair back and forth a bit. “Well I have met a few of you guys last year. You were there. But since then, I have only seen Ticti and I think Shella? But we never hung out. If it was anyone besides the Chitwn fan club, we probably wouldn’t be hanging out right now either.” Benji scoffed. “I would hang out with you guys even if you weren’t in my fan club.” Sam and Shreya laughed as Sondra flat out said “We are fans but aren’t in your fan club.”

               Benji pouted a bit but poured everyone more drinks anyways. He had gotten closer to Sondra and Shreya had noticed that he didn’t back away after trying to take her chips. Their legs were almost touching. She wished that she could be sitting like that with Sam.

               After taking her shot, Sondra stood up and walked next to Sam and looked at the computer screen. “So you guys are working on a song? How far are you?” Sam turned his chair around to face the screen, his legs almost brushing against Shreya’s chair.  Shreya’s eyes opened wide as Benji grinned and winked at her. Sam pressed play and let the music play.

               Sondra pretended to stare at the music program intently but her real goal was to push his chair closer to her best friend. The older girl bent down and acted like she was pulling up her sock and pushed his chair over with her hip until the arm of his chair was almost touching Shreya’s chair. “Oops, sorry about that.” She said smiling at the older male before turning around to sit back on the couch.

               Sam turned back around to face the couch. His chair was now noticeably closer to Shreya. Benji nodded and poured more shots for everyone. “I don’t think I want to drink anymore soju.” Shreya said as she pulled her cup away from him. He nodded and sat back down.

               The other three drank their shots and Benji automatically filled the cups again, getting laughter from everyone. Sondra drank her shot with Benji as Sam got up. He grabbed one of the water bottles from the table in the office and brought it back for Shreya. “Here you go. Don’t worry about not drinking more.” She grabbed it and their hands touched briefly before he pulled his hands away. The two observing from the couch just smiled at them as he sat down.

               “So what did you think of the beat?” He suddenly asked, looking at Sondra. She nodded. “It’s really good.” Benji nudged her gently with his elbow. “The violin was cool too.” She said sarcastically as the younger boy just beamed and grabbed some chips.

               Shreya took a deep breath and scooted her chair until the arm touched the arm of Sam’s chair. She covered it up by putting her hand out to Benji. “Can I have some?” She asked smiling at him. He laughed and gave her a handful. “Good job.” He said winking at her.

               Sam was about to ask what he meant but Sondra interrupted him. “Sam, did you know that Shreya still writes lyrics all the time? She even sings covers online too. In Korean.”  Benji made a surprised sound. “Really? Is she good?” Sondra nodded and Benji caught Sam nod slightly. “Oh! Hyung, have you heard her singing already?” The older male laughed and nodded. “A few. I saw them on her sound cloud.” Shreya blushed and smiled as she put some of the squid snacks in .

               Benji poured another shot for himself, Sam and Sondra. Shreya looked over at Sam “Oppa, you really liked my covers?” He smiled and nodded as he scratched at his cheek. “Yeah, I heard a couple of them.” He turned to Sondra. “I saw your sound cloud too.” The older girl automatically covered her face and hid behind Benji. “Oh geeze. Please forget you heard those.” She said, still behind Benji.

               Sam and Shreya laughed. “I was listening to the ones from Super Kpop. Then it kept playing to your covers.” Sondra groaned and continued to hide behind the only person who hadn’t heard it. Sam started to get more outgoing and started to tease the two on the couch. “You two seem really close. Are you sure you guys never met before today?” Benji just laughed as Sondra sat up and held her left hand up. “I’m engaged. I can’t be close to Benji.” She said grumpily.

               Benji covered his face. “Oh that was cute.” He said deciding to as well. She hit his leg with hers. Sam took another shot of soju with Benji. “So what songs were your favorites to cover?” He asked both girls. The girls thought for a moment. “A Song for You by Roh Ji Hoon.” Shreya said smiling. Sondra sighed and looked like she was thinking really hard. “Mine was probably the English version of Stop Girl by UKISS or Rockstar by Super Junior. I like CNBLUE songs too. They don’t make my voice tired.”

               Benji looked at Sondra, impressed. “Those songs tend to always have rap parts in them. Which do you like better, rapping or singing?” She didn’t even hesitate. “Rapping, singing makes my voice tired. My favorite rap verse is in the English Stop Girl.” Benji held his hand up. “High five!” She high fived him as Shreya and Sam laughed at them.  Sam looked to Shreya. “What about you?” She shook her head. “I like singing because it’s easier than rapping.” He nodded in agreement.

               After a while of drinking more and playing the beat to the song they were working on over and over, Sam and Benji decided that they weren’t going to get any lyrics done tonight. Benji was too drunk to write lyrics and Sam was having too much fun to want to stop. Benji leaned forwards and pointed at Sam. “Hey, didn’t you promise her a date when she got to Korea? Are you going to take her on one?” The older male froze for a second but laughed. “Sure, let’s go for coffee before you leave Shreya.” Shreya smiled excitedly. “Alright!”

               Sondra and Benji had seemed to be closer or at least she was being nicer. She nudged his leg with hers again and pointed at a bag of chips on the other side of him. “Will you hand me those?” He yawned and handed them over to her, nudging her leg back. Sam and Shreya looked at each other in the eye finally and laughed. “So what day should our date be?” She asked him. “I don’t leave for a week.” Sam opened his phone and looked at his schedule. “I have an hour free on Thursday after lunch time.” She nodded and set a reminder in her phone.

               Benji kept yawning but he felt accomplished now that he got Sam to actually set up a date with Shreya.  He leaned back against the couch as Sondra was looking at her phone and Sam and Shreya were setting up details for their date. The older girl looked back at him. “Are you tired?” She asked as she put her phone away. He smiled at her and didn’t move. “I’m fine. I didn’t get to sleep last night but I will be ok.” She nodded and turned back to the others.

               Sam and Shreya were finally talking comfortably as Sondra ate her chips. Suddenly Benji’s head was on her shoulder. They all stopped what they were doing and stared at him. He had passed out. Sondra sighed and put her chips down. Her shoulders weren’t that wide and she was shorter than Benji even while sitting. His head leaned forwards as she moved and fell down to her lap. Sam and Shreya laughed a bit as he wrapped an arm around her leg closest to him. Sondra stared at him and sighed. “He is so lucky he’s…” She stopped mid-sentence and looked at him confused. Sam and Shreya burst out laughing because they saw it. “Did he just…” She said not sure if she imagined it.

               Sam stood up and picked up some of the snacks from the floor. “Well we should call it a night before he kisses your knee again.” He said through his held back laughter. The girls nodded and Shreya bent down next to Benji. “Hey Benji, high five!” she said laughing as he smiled and held his hand out sleepily. “Yeah… high five…” he mumbled as Sondra picked his head up off her lap and scooted out. She looked at the other two in the room. “That never happened.” Both nodded with smiles.

               The girls made sure they had everything and followed Sam to the front door. Sondra went outside first. “I will meet you outside.” She said smiling at the other two. Sam smiled down at Shreya and held his arms out for a hug. “I will see you on Thursday?” he said as she came into his arms for a goodbye hug. She nodded and was about to let go but she felt his lips touch the top of her head. She froze where she was. Sam let go and laughed. “Sondra is waiting for you outside.” She snapped out of it and awkwardly headed out the door without saying anything.

               Sam laughed as Benji stood in the doorway to the studio. “So my plan worked! Yes!” he said as he turned around and went back to the couch to call his manager.

               Shreya almost ran into Sondra at the top of the stairs. “So, what happened?” The older girl asked when she saw her friend being all flustered. “He… He kissed my head!” The older girl laughed and nodded. “It’s about time.” Shreya pouted at her. “At least it was my head and not my knee!” Sondra pointed at her. “NEVER HAPPENED!!” The two girls teased each other the whole way back to the hotel.