The college campuses was alive with the sound of the crisp bells ringing. The cherry blossoms were fully bloomed as Minji held onto her backpacks straps tightly. It had been two weeks since she’d touchdown in Japan only now has she found the time to explore. The urban city streets held many stores but she held the filled paper with sloppy Japanese in her hand. The two story store with a “cash only!” sign was her first destination. 

Minji rubbed her eyes on her uniforms sleeve as she entered the store. Upon opening the door the dusty store caused her to sneeze. She began shakily walking through the maze of vinyls. Her eyes sparkling at the classics of Mariya Takeuchi’s albums and the smell of old cardboard made her experience nostalgia of a past she hadn’t experienced. With a tint of pink splashed on her cheeks she approached the old Japanese woman at the desk,

“Ex-Excuse me?”

Her broken Japanese made the woman look squinting as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Her wrinkled eyes turned into a smile as she saw Minji,

“Oh it’s you dear, you can speak korean with me. You look just like your grandmother.”

Minji let out a sigh of relief as she bowed and handed the small paper to her,

“Agoo you want to work with this old woman, huh?”

She nodded as she glanced around with her lip in her teeth. The old lady pinched her cheeks,

“No need to worry, the jobs is yours. I owe your grandma that, I’ll be upstairs with some tea. All you need to do is sit here and put the cash in this box,” she jangled an old tin box filled with mostly coins and set it in front of Minji, “Now if you’ll excuse me.” Grandma Choi began to stand with difficulty and Minji rushed to her side,

“Let me help you!”

She smiled and helped Choi up the stairs and before disappearing completely she poked her head out,

“And sweetie,” Minji turned and hummed a response,

“If they are wanting to sell the limit is 10,000 yen each! God knows I ain’t rich!” 

Minji smiled and bowed,

“Yes Grandma!”

She smiled at Choi, she was so much like her late grandma. Minji took her place behind the desk like counter and began taking out her books. The music theory books made her groin,

“Almost $300 for this book and I have no energy any for it.”

She pouted as she began drifting off. She rolled her eyes as she passed time dusting  and turning on vinyls. She lightly bounced her head to the music until the stores bell rang finally for the first time in almost two hours,

“Grandma!”

The young boy ran into the store holding a worn box. He looked around the store and spotted Minji,

“Ah you!”

He ran to her with excitement scaring Minji slightly,

“Uh-ye-yes?”

The boy frowned,

“Can you not speak Japanese?” He tried looking at the stairs for the owner. He looked at Minji’s second hand uniform which made him even more jumpy,

“I’d like to sell this! It’s suuuuppper rare stuff!” He patted the box with pride. He couldn’t be older than 14, Minji could only fake a smile,

“Come here.”

She lead him to the counter and let him pull out his albums one by one,

“This was my grandfather’s vinyl collection!”

The array of albums wasn’t anything special. She looked at the most worn of the bunch,

“How much can I get for these?”

Minji traces them with her slender hands. Her eyes glued to one in particular,

“I’ll give you 5,000 yen for that one and I’ll let grandma decide what else she’d like after her nap. Deal?”

He looked at her with distaste but agreed,

“Why this one? No one knows who it’s by, do you?”

Minji shakes her head and tries to bite her tongue,

“You’ve been quite rude, I think I may just send you on your way.”

Minji was half joking but the boy shook his head a bowed,

“I’m so sorry! Just take it and I’ll leave the rest for grandma bye!”

Her ran out the store tripping slightly and swung the door open. His friends where snickering at him and Minji hit her head on the table. 

She hated Japan so far and missed the  kimchi her mom always made on Thursday. She scolds herself for eating it all on the trip here. Her stomach growled and it made her even more homesick. Another half hour passed so she started to skim through the box. All of them seemed in decent shape as she picked through them gently. The last in the box seemed to be used often as it was almost silk in her hands. The design caught her eye as the title was seemingly handwritten by the artist. Almost as if it was a demo,

“Endless Night? Huh?”

She slid the vinyl out of the sleeve to find the cover artwork. The blank sleeve hid the intact cover and the handwriting that caught her off slightly. It was in korean and apparently signed,

“To Yuta-tata, Thank you for your support during my Japanese debut! With Much Love Yoohyeon-Chan.”

Assuming Yuta was the boys grandfather she smiled. The cute message was very different from the sensual picture of the woman. Her shirt open slightly with her hair down as she stared into Minji’s own eyes. She followed the signature with her finger and blushed as an old Polaroid fell out as well, “Tsumago August 17th 1980 concert, me and my love Yoohyeon-Chan!!!!”

The Polaroid showed Yuta and a woman, presumably Yoohyeon herself, doing finger hearts to the camera. Minji memorized her features, feeling even warmer. Not only was she extremely, for lack of better words, hot but cute as all hell. Now she was intrigued, her insides were in knots as her thoughts were filled with the singers  puppy eyes. Was her voice as alluring as her pictures? Only one way to find out Minji went to the record player and placed the vinyl on it carefully. Yoohyeon’s powerful voice filled the room. The cute girl becoming a rock star as the heavy guitar riffs made her heart beat quicken. It was something that had left with her jaw dropped long after Yoohyeon’s last note. 

She felt less homesick as she re-played the single once more.