"Do you know who Stray Kids are?" Minhee asked Hye-rim. Even though the two were doing different courses, they were still at the same university, and had taken the opportunity to have lunch together. 

 

"Yeah! They're this badass new kpop boy group! They debuted recently and they're honestly sooo good! All so talented." Hye-rim's expression was accompanied by her enthusiastic hand gestures. "Minhee, they're under your uncle's agency!" 

 

Hye-rim was Minhee's longest lasting Korean friend. Growing up, Minhee had moved back and forth between Korea and America. Despite being in America for her recent high school years, Minhee had still stayed close with Hye-rim. And since Hye-rim had known Minhee from a young age, she knew all about Minhee's family drama. That's why Minhee figured that she was probably a good person to ask for advice about JYP. But first, Minhee wanted to hear what Hye-rim knew about the boys she had met. Hye-rim was a complete kpop fangirl - she 'stanned' so many different groups and had bought a lot of merch and concert tickets throughout her life. 

 

"They are the cutest, they had a survival show before debut where some members were eliminated but then they were brought back in the end." Hye-rim continued, faked wiping sweat from her forehead. "It was so stressful honestly." 

 

Minhee paused as she digested that surprising information. "Woah, is that a thing now in Korea? Survival shows? That sounds intense." 

 

"It's a massive thing! And I mean, this one was just particularly heart-wrenching because their group is so tightly-knit that when they eliminated people they all got so upset." Hye-rim appeared to be on the brink of tears from just remembering the show. "And like I know, I know he's your uncle so I shouldn't say this, but at some points JYP was acting like such a...." 

 

Minhee choked on the water she was drinking, spluttering and coughing as she tried to breathe normally again. 

 

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I know he's not but it was just at some points. Otherwise you know I love the guy, I think he's hilarious." Hye-rim protested. 

 

"Hye-rim don't worry, I just wasn't expecting that, that's all." Minhee laughed, caught off guard by her friend.

 

"But seriously, at one point in the show, I was so tempted to call you and tell you to tell JYP to freaking debut them as 9. But then I was like nah, I gotta leave you out of it." 

  

Minhee wasn't surprised that Hye-rim felt so strongly about her kpop groups. "Speaking of him, Uncle Jinyoung actually texted me yesterday, asking to meet up. What do you think I should do?" 

 

Hye-rim pursed her lips, thinking about the situation. "Well, if Stray Kids had to debut as 7, I would have told you to text him back with 'k' and then never go see him. But, since he let them debut as 9, I'm gonna vouch for him and say that you should go see him. See, good things come out of good decisions." 

 

Her American friend gave her a look. "Is that your serious advice?" 

 

"It's my serious advice. Go see him - you've always wanted your dad's relationship with his brother to improve. I'm not saying that you meeting up with JYP is going to change anything, but having your family separated from him is definitely not going to better anything. Who knows, maybe your dad will appreciate JYP's attempts to make you feel at home in Korea?" Hye-rim grabbed Minhee's hand as she spoke sincerely. 

 

"Hmmm. Yeah I guess so. Can't hurt to go see my uncle, I guess." Minhee agreed, actually looking forward to seeing JYP after such a long time. "I'll text him soon. Tomorrow I don't have uni, so that would be a good day for me to go see him." 

 

"Damn, you're lucky!" Hye-rim told her. "I don't have any days off. But the science labs here are seriously cool! Like not cool, as in temperature cool. They're actually pretty hot sometimes, but not like kpop abs hot, you know what I mean." She rambled. 

 

Minhee shook her head, laughing at her friend's trail of words. "I'm happy that you're having fun at uni too, Hye-rim!" And then she remembered she had yet to tell Hye-rim that she had actually met Stray Kids. "By the way, I met Jisung and Felix randomly yesterday." 

 

That ended Hye-rim's verbal spiel about kpop abs. "Jisung and Felix as in Stray Kids' Jisung and Felix?" hung open in utter shock. 

 

"Yup!" Minhee said cheerfully. "Nice guys, actually." 

 

Hye-rim's expression of shock turned to one of betrayal, as she pressed a hand against her heart dramatically. She glanced down at her phone to check the time simultaneously. "There's 10 minutes left of my lunch break, and you're telling me the most important information now? Tell me all about it!" Hye-rim demanded. 

 

Well, this was actually the reaction Minhee had anticipated, which is why she hadn't told Hye-rim about this at the start. She wanted to hear Hye-rim's opinion about things while she was still calm and collected, knowing that information about kpop idols would probably send her friend shrieking. But she loved the girl, fanatic tendencies and all! It made Hye-rim an exciting person to be around, and hey, Minhee really didn't mind the fact that Hye-rim messaged her a photo of a cute kpop guy basically every day. It was like a sprinkle of glitter over life. 

 

Minhee did her best to fill Hye-rim in about the short meeting she had with Felix and Jisung. There wasn't really a whole lot to tell, as it had been their first meeting, so of course the 3 had only shared a very general conversation. Nonetheless, the story seemed to excite Hye-rim, who couldn't stop telling Minhee how lucky she was. Felix was apparently Hye-rim's 'bias'. 

---

After she had lunch, Minhee went to her writing class with Somi. Their professor was providing one-on-one feedback to each student, while the other students spent time writing short stories based off the writing prompts that their professor had given them. Both girls were engrossed in their story-writing. Minhee had received positive feedback from the professor about one of her recent writing pieces, but the professor had also pointed a few things that Minhee could improve about her writing style. 

 

Minhee noticed Somi putting in her headphones and listening to some music. Her conversation with Hye-rim had helped Minhee get her thoughts together, but she knew that there was no point asking Somi about JYP, because Somi didn't listen to kpop. She listened to heavy metal, which Minhee had no doubt was exactly what was playing through her earphones right now. How Somi could concentrate on her writing while listening to that, Minhee didn't know. But each writer had their own, unique style, and writing while listening to heavy metal was definitely what worked for Somi. 

 

This time, once their afternoon lectures were completed, Somi and Minhee walked home together. They parted ways for the day and went to their own apartments. It was early evening, and Minhee knew that Minjun wouldn't be back for a couple of hours today. On her to-do list for today, stored in her folder, Minhee wrote 'get groceries' and 'cook dinner' right under 'finish short story'. Her brother would come home tired from the hospital, so he would probably appreciate some food straight away. Minhee wasn't the best cook, but she knew a few handy recipes that she usually stuck to. 

 

She knocked out the rest of her short-story in just over an hour, and she was pretty satisfied with it. So, she put away her laptop and grabbed her handbag, heading out to the nearby supermarket. 

 

Minhee was in the mood for some tteokbokki, so she rounded up the ingredients. While exploring the supermarket, Minhee saw two guys with their hoods up, obscuring their faces slightly. Immediately, she thought of Jisung and Felix from the day before. For some reason, she suddenly got her hopes up, it would be pretty cool if she saw them again. But as the two figures came closer, she saw that they were just random, middle-aged men. Those men were definitely not as good-looking as Jisung or Felix. Geez, Minhee, why were you so excited? You're not Hye-rim, she thought to herself. It would be too much of a coincidence to see them two days in a row anyway. 

 

A familiar tune began to play at the supermarket, as Minhee made her way to the checkout. 'I'm on a hellevator!', the music played as Minhee began to discreetly dance to the beat drop, while waiting in the line for the checkout. Well, this was a bit of a coincidence. This particular song had played as if it was on cue. Damn, Minhee didn't know she had the ability to change songs at supermarkets with her brain, but it was a handy power to have. As Minhee neared the front of the line, what she had dubbed as 'Jisung's epic high note' came on in the song. She momentarily closed her eyes to appreciate the music, opening them once that part was over, only to see that she was at the front of the line, and the bored teenage employee at the checkout was looking at her expectantly, unimpressed. How embarrassing. 

 

Once she got home, Minhee decided to get to work making the tteokbokki. She still had to text back JYP, but the reason she was holding off was because she hadn't talked to Minjun yet. They could discuss it over dinner. It had been a while since she had cooked this dish, so she was a little rusty, but it was just her and Minjun who would be eating it. Making the food on her own made her slightly home-sick momentarily. She remembered learning how to cook tteokbokki from her mum, and remembered how the first time she had tried to make tteokbokki mostly by herself, it hadn't gone so well. Her dad and grandpa had praised it way more than it deserved, so that she wouldn't get discouraged in her pursuit to learn how to cook. But Minjun, classic Minjun, had simply said "this tastes like ". But it was all good, her and Minjun never sugar-coated their opinions around each other. She had already texted Minjun to come to her apartment for dinner once he got back, so hopefully her cooking today would rate slightly higher than ''. 

 

She cooked their dinner while Beyonce's Drunk in Love filled her apartment, playing from her phone. "Watermelon..." She muttered the lyrics while stirring the tteokbokki on her stove.

 

A knock sounded at the door, and Minhee went and opened it, letting her brother into the apartment. "Welcome!" 

 

"Yo, I'm so tired. Thanks for cooking food, Minnie." Minjun ruffled her hair affectionately, visibly looking exhausted. "It's so nice to have you around. And I don't mean just cos of the food." 

 

Minhee smiled at him. "No problem. So you had an eventful day, I guess?" 

 

"Always is, at the hospital." He followed her into the kitchen, and then stopped in his place, looking around. "Is that Drunk in Love playing?" 

 

"Yeah, it's my go-to cooking song!" Minhee informed him. 

 

"I mean it's a good song, but I dunno if I'd call it a 'go-to cooking song'." He said. "Are these the kind of weird habits you developed in the three years while I was here and you were still in America? Man, I'm glad I wasn't there to see it." 

 

Minhee rolled her eyes. "In my defence, the song is literally set in the kitchen."

 

"But they-" 

 

She waved the ladle at him threateningly. "I don't care what they're doing, they're still in the kitchen!" 

 

Minjun laughed, and made his way over to the stove. "Looks good, sis. Is it done?" 

 

"Mmhmm." Minhee nodded. "Cmon, I'll bring it over to the table."

 

Over dinner Minhee told Minjun about her day at university. Then, while hearing about his experiences at the hospital today, Minhee thought about how to broach the topic of JYP's text. She knew he wasn't going to be very happy about it, but there was no way she would go see JYP without at least telling her brother. 

 

"Minjun...yesterday I got a text from Jinyoung uncle." She said softly, looking at Minjun carefully to gauge his reaction. 

 

Predictably, he looked immediately angered, as his grip on his chopsticks tightened. "What the hell did he want?" 

 

"He was wondering if we wanted to meet up with him." 

 

"Hah! It's a no from me." Minjun said sassily. 

 

Minhee huffed. "Okay, Minjun come on, don't you think that we should make an effort to reach out to him so that maybe one day, him and dad will make up?" 

 

Her brother grimaced. "No. He's the one who chose to leave the family, so it was his own decision that led him to ruin his relationship with dad." 

 

"He didn't leave the family, he's always supported us. If he honestly didn't care about grandpa, dad, or us, why would he have come to visit us each time he came to America?" 

 

Minjun shrugged, his opinion unchanged by her argument. "I don't know, probably something stupid like keeping up appearances for the Korean media." 

 

Minhee raised her eyebrows. "Really? Minjun that's a stupid argument - the Korean media knows nothing about our side of Jinyoung uncle's family. And we were in America, so it's not like the media would even be able to find us." 

 

"Look, whatever." He muttered, an annoyed look gracing his face. "It doesn't matter. I don't know why you keep defending him, but I want nothing to do with the guy. I'm definitely not coming to see him." With that, Minjun got up abruptly and stalked out of the apartment, slamming the door on his way out. 

 

Minhee sighed, maybe she shouldn't have pushed the issue so far. Minhee's dad despised his brother's decisions, because to him, it seemed as if JYP hadn't supported their parents during a rough time. But Minhee's grandpa had no problem with JYP's decisions throughout their life. And Minhee agreed with him, just because JYP had stayed in Korea while his parents and brother went to America doesn't mean that he doesn't care about them. He had consistently stayed in contact with his parents and supported them, especially throughout his mother's medical treatment, the reason why their family had moved to America in the first place. 

 

Just as Minhee was thinking about cleaning up the dishes and putting the leftover tteokbokki away, she heard a knock at the door again. Curious, she walked over and opened the door, surprised to find that her brother was back. "Oh...hey, oppa." 

 

"Sorry for being so dramatic." Minjun gave her a sheepish look. 

 

She shook her head, dismissing his statement. "It's okay, I know you don't like talking about him." 

 

Minjun walked back inside, and sat at the wooden table again. "Before you even think about putting the tteokbokki away, I'm gonna eat just a little bit more." He grabbed the ladle and helped himself to another serve of food. "It tastes a lot better than now, Minnie." 

 

She laughed as she sat back down in her seat. "You remember that!" 

 

"Of course I do. Now, lemme see that text message." 

 

It took a moment for Minhee to realise what her brother was talking about, before she quickly got out her phone and showed Minjun JYP's text. 

 

He quickly skimmed the message, chuckling when he read the final part of it. "Extend my invitation to Minjun, even though I know what his response will be. Hell yeah you do!" 

 

Minhee gave him an unamused look. 

 

"Okay, look. The reason why I came back is that I know you and grandpa have great aspirations of reuniting the family and all. Personally, I don't care about JYP, so I'm not going to come to see him. But, I'm also not going to tell you what to do. If you wanna go see him, then that's fine - I'm not going to be angry at you or anything." 

 

With that, Minhee's mind was made up. "Alright, I'll tell you how it goes." 

 

Later that evening, she texted JYP back, thanking him for checking up on her and asking if they could meet up on the next day, as she didn't have university on Wednesdays. She received a message back saying that he was going to be at work, at his entertainment building and that she should come visit him there - he could also give her a tour of JYP entertainment. As Minhee went to sleep that night, she hoped that it wouldn't be awkward the next day. It had been a long time since she had seen her uncle. 

---

"Thank you!" Minhee paid the taxi driver and stepped out onto the pavement. She turned to face the large building in front of her as nervousness began to bubble within her. Maybe her father was right - maybe JYP was a terrible person and Minhee would regret this. But she sincerely hoped that was not the case, and there was really only one way to find out. 

 

Minhee approached the front door of the building and called the admin number that JYP had given her in order to notify them that she was waiting outside. The door, that was otherwise locked for security, opened for Minhee and she entered the company building. 

 

The building was pretty beautiful on the inside as well, not to mention quite spacious. Minhee was in awe at the facilities inside the building as she wandered around. She was still near the entrance, and there were some JYP staff walking around. There were tons of doors that seemed to lead to different rooms in the building, none of which Minhee went into. She just had to find the elevator so that she could go up to JYP's office. Minhee knew she was terrible with navigation, but she should at least be able to find the elevator, right? 

 

She thought that she'd see the elevator as soon as she walked in, but no such luck. I should probably just ask one of the staff members, Minhee thought. But even saying that, she didn't really know if the people around her were staff or JYP artists, considering her very limited knowledge about kpop groups. These people could be super famous in Korea and Minhee probably still wouldn't know them. She hadn't even known who Stray Kids were when she met Jisung and Felix the other day. 

 

Well, it didn't really matter, so she decided to just ask the next person she saw. "Excuse me." She stopped a young guy who was walking past. "Could you show me where the elevator is?" 

 

"Yeah, of course!" The guy smiled brightly, leading the way by walking back in the direction that Minhee came from. 

 

The elevator was actually right next to the entrance, and Minhee had somehow missed it. She supposed this is why her parents always roasted her for having absolutely no sense of direction. "Oh", was all she could say. 

 

"Do you know where you're going?" The boy next to her asked a very valid question. 

 

Minhee awkwardly laughed in an attempt to cover up the fact the boy probably thought she was stupid. "Yes, I'm just going up to JYP's office. Thank you for showing me where the elevator is."

 

He seemed a little taken aback that a young girl had just called his CEO 'JYP' quite colloquially. He stepped into the elevator and gestured for her to follow. "I'll just take you upstairs anyway." He pressed the elevator button for the CEO's office. "Are you a new trainee or something? Has he called to see you?" 

 

Minhee shook her head, chuckling. Kpop artists were always so gorgeous and charismatic, she wasn't like them. But she could write, and she was happy that she had something she was so passionate about to always focus on. "Nah, I'm just his niece."

 

The elevator arrived to the correct floor, and the boy's eyebrows shot up in surprise upon hearing her words. "PD-nim has a niece?!" He spoke out loud, startled.

 

She giggled at his shocked reaction, as she walked out of the elevator. "And a nephew." 

 

The boy soon snapped out of his stupor and followed her onto the high level in the building. "Woah, I never knew that." 

 

"Yeah I don't think people in Korea know much about Jinyoung uncle's family. Not about us, at least. We lived in America, but me and my brother are in Korea now." She explained. 

 

The boy's surprised expression returned. "Oh, America? So you know English, yeah?" He suddenly switched languages. 

 

Minhee was also a little taken aback, not expecting him to break out into perfect English. "Yeah, of course. I'm Minhee by the way." She offered her hand.

 

"I'm Bang Chan. I'm a JYP artist." He shook her hand. "And I'm from Australia." 

 

"Oh heyyy, we can be foreign buddies!" Minhee gave him a high-five to follow up their handshake. 

 

Chan chuckled. "For sure!" He then pointed towards a door. "PD-nim's office is right through there by the way. I'd walk you in, but I don't wanna interrupt a family reunion." 

 

Minhee nodded. "Well, thanks Chan!" 

 

He waved, stepping back into the elevator, "See ya, Minhee!" 

 

Minhee stood in front of the door in question, taking a deep breath. Why was this so daunting? It was just her uncle! She raised a closed fist and knocked on the door.