A/N: Longer chapter, I hope? Everything is longer on notebook paper. Anyways, let's learn some Korean!(=

• De = Yes (pronounced like "day")
• Kansahamnida = Thank you *formal/polite (pronounced "kahn-sah-hahm-knee-dah")

            We ended up walking back to our hotel to put up our bags first, having to ignore the flagrant aroma of the food stalls beckoning us every block. Aside from the receptionist and the two doormen who kindly opened the door for us, the hotel was pretty much empty. Probably, we all thought, because the hotel was full of teenagers from our American school. With the people already in the hotel, we booked the entire hotel. And we all really enjoyed it; the rooms were spacious and very comfortable even with 3 to a room. Plus, for those who couldn’t speak Korean, there as always a worker who was fluent in English.

            Up seven floors and two left turns later, with one key-card, we were in our room with Big Bang’s Blue on the radio. Ann had this weird way with electronics. She figured out how to get a radio playing once the lights . In three minutes.

            “Jae, let’s leave the organizing for tonight,” Seohee smiled, emphasizing her movements of taking my bags away. I grimaced, but managed to label whose bags were whose with sticky notes before the two left me, rolling their eyes and smiling. I shrugged and followed them out.

            Yoomi led the way, being best with directions which were given to us by a very excited doorman; so excited that he answered our question of where to get a cheap but quality Korean lunch though we were asking the other doorman. We laughed; it must have been the excitement of foreigners speaking Korean. Seohee and I stopped her every now and then to buy little things from street carts and such. We smiled at each other; we stopped her for very similar stores and items- we had similar styles.

            About the time my stomach was digesting itself, Yoomi walked into a little restaurant. We followed promptly and took off our shoes. The waitress seemed a little thrown, but once we asked her what the specialty was and she realized we could speak Korean, she relaxed and was very cool; she suggested filling up on side dishes and getting, yes, bulgogi. We loved her.

            “Aigo, this is amazing,” Seohee sighed, setting her chopsticks down. Yoomi was still picking at the meat, knowing that this would add an extra hour to our daily work-out. Our classmates thought we were crazy for it, but we woke up an extra three hours early to exercise and then shower in time to meet the group down in the lobby for breakfast.

            I puffed out my cheeks and looked up, trying to think of a song for the upcoming audition. Payphone would be repetitive and tire the judges. Actually, anything too mainstream would be the same. I sighed. That meant to Adele or Bruno Mars or any other more popular singers.

            “Good Day?” I unwittingly said aloud.

            “By IU?” Seohee almost choked on her spit. “You’re crazy, Jae. There’s no way you could possibly pull that off!”

            “Hey, I think I could at least try, Ann,” I retorted, not hiding my bitterness all too well.

            “Ann kind of has a point, Jaemin..,” Yoomi frowned, very apologetic-looking. She could tell Ann took that too far. “You have a big capability, but we’ve always talked about that three octave sequence and how hard it is”

            “Maybe Slow Motion then,” I smiled, half-heartedly. Seohee looked slightly burdened, but she quickly agreed, trying to make it up in her own way. Good Day still lingered in my mind.

            After paying and tipping our waitress, we bought milk tea and sat, watching the city as we digested. It was interesting to see. The teenagers traveled in general ways; alone looking busy and preoccupied or cold and bitter; in small groups, linking arms, gossiping and/or eating; or in large groups, like a dysfunctional family with some trailing terribly behind, seeming left out. The adults generally walked with a purpose. All the elderly, though, seemed the coolest. Despite their age, they carried large bagso f groceries and walked in a straight line, everyone making a way for them. What an odd city. I liked it; the rush at first glance, but the calm and almost repetitive state at closer look. How very deceptive to the shallow onlooker’s eye.

            The three of us finished our drinks about the same time, reenergized for more shopping. Along the way, we heard Hyuna’s Bubble Pop twice, Wonder Girls’ Be My Baby once, SNSD’s Genie twice, and IU’s Good Day four times. I felt Seohee’s careful glances at me up until we reached the hotel for the school group’s dinner. We were early, so we were instructed to wait in the lobby with the other early students. Among them were three very unusually attractive boys that Yoomi and I may or may not have had an interest in since the moment we saw them. Seohee remained unfazed by them, though, and never felt they possessed any charm. Yoomi and I didn’t question it and just talked about the three to each other.

            Daeho stuck out most to me. Not particularly because of his looks, but because we had so many encounters of awkward eye-contact. For that reason alone, I was almost certain that he knew of my existence. Honestly, do you forget the girl who always happens to have the twisted fate of looking at you the moment you step out of the bathroom? Three times? In front of all of your friends during your break-dance practice? Twisted fate. The same twisted fate that gave us more eye-encounters throughout our high school years. And yet this same twisted fate twisted Yoomi’s path with Yoojin’s. He wasn’t exactly a break-dancer like his friends, but he could swim just like Yoomi. And so they met. With many oddly uneasy conversations on Yoomi’s part, but it was better than eye-contact immediately upon leaving a bathroom. Besides, I had heard guys say it was part of her charm. Wes was the only one Yoomi and I agreed on fully; He was attractive, but not someone we would really invest our time into for a relationship other than a regular friendship. We were both thrilled when we heard he had gotten a girlfriend.

            Daeho and Wes were teaching Yoojin a move with some snapbacks they had obviously gotten today. Daeho dropped his hat and kicked it, trying to catch it, but it landed in my lap as Seohee was telling Yoomi and I about the fanfic she just had an idea for. I took the hat by its rim and flicked my wrist, hoping it wouldn’t fly away and make me look a fool. Luckily, though, Wes caught it before it reached Daeho. And with an exceptionally odd grin mixed of amusement and utter surprise. I laughed out of my nose and grinned a little awkwardly before shifting to face Seohee again, only hearing half of what she was saying. Yoomi, not wanting Seohee to feel like we weren’t listening, nudged me with a proud and similarly shocked face. I realized then that I hadn’t even looked at Daeho. In the back of my mind, I realized how stupid it was of me to look at him exiting a bathroom and not when I did something slightly impressive.

            Behind Ann, still talking about an extraordinarily long idea, stood a man in a particularly stylish black vest and tie. He looked intrigued with me. I bowed my head, slightly uneasy with his gaze. He smiled and nodded back, walking to the front desk.

            “So, let’s find out,” Ann finished, smiling and loudly slapping her hands on her knees, getting up. Seohee stood, too, signaling that I should follow, too. Ann walked up to the front desk. There was only one receptionist, but as she flipped through papers for the man who had just acknowledged my hat trick, she noticed us.

            “De?” She didn’t even look up.

            “De, we were wondering if you have a dance studio here in the hotel,” Ann asked, politely. The man turned his chin towards us, slightly, trying to conceal his obvious interest in our question. I but my tongue, a little perplexed with him. He didn’t notice.

            “De, it’s in our gym on the first floor here to your left,” She looked up and gestured to a hallway, “You will see a door on the far side of the gym. Inside is our studio open all day and all night”

            “Kansahamnida,” Ann said, all of us bowing. The receptionist smiled and returned to flipping pages for the man.

            “So now we have a place to practice,” Seohee smiled, walking back over to the group as they stood and boarded a charter bus. We boarded last, checking for any empty seats. Unfortunately for me, though, Yoomi and Seohee boarded before me, taking empty seats with people they recognized from school closer to the front. I, however, waddled to the back of the bus with only one seat available. Daeho sat comfortably in the seat next to it, watching me, knowing that the seat by him was the only empty one. He nodded me over. Twisted fate.