CHAPTER TEN

 

*YOUR POV*

 

“Welcome to KBS’s Oh, My School!”

I took a deep breath and glanced at the other three guests. They seemed perfectly fine.

“You’ll do well,” Seohyun whispered to me. I flashed her a grin, thanking her silently. She understood and nodded.

The MCs voices were distant and blurred as I focused on calming myself down.

“Let’s bring in the new students! Today we have two beautiful ladies and two handsome guys who’ve brought up the show’s rating 30%!”

Dalmatian’s Drama slid down the poll first and I heard the excited shouts.

“So handsome!” Someone yelled. I peeked through a hole and saw MC Shinyoung jumping up and down with excitement.

Seohyun gave me a high five and went down the poll.

“SNSD’s Seohyun! Wow! She’s so pretty!” MC Shinyoung was even more excited now.

Brian Joo also gave me a high five and joined the crowd below. EVERYONE started fangirling, even the guys.

I took a breath and slid down.

“Excuse me, who are you?” MC Shinyoung asked me.

“It’s a secret,” I said.

“Wah, her eyes are so pretty!” Yoseob called out, winking at me.

“Guest students, stand here at the front,” MC Myeongsu directed.

We gathered beside the MCs and I glanced around the room. The regular students who appeared today were Gikwang, Yoseob, Joon, Min, Soyeon, and Hyosung.

“Today we have with us Dalmatian’s Drama, SNSD’s Seohyun, Brian Joo, and a mystery guest.”

“Seohyun-ssi!” MC Tony An called.

“Ne?”

“You guys just released a new song in Japan, right?”

Seohyun nodded.

“Please perform part of it for us!” MC Gyeongrim shouted.

The music for Mr. Taxi played and Seohyun danced to the chorus, as well as the other students. Everyone was having fun pretending to drive a cab. Yoseob, Gikwang, Joon, and Tony An pretended to be the other SNSD members, making everyone laugh.

“Brian-ssi,” Shinyoung said.

He looked up at her.

“Your new song is also doing very well,” Shinyoung smiled as Brian’s new song came on.

“Our Mystery Guest, can you show us something?”

“Yes,” I answered in English.

Drama widened his eyes. “You’re from America, too?”

“USA Represent, baby!” I high fived him.

“Where you from?” He asked me.

“Texas.”

He nodded. “Ahhh, that’s cool.”

“You?”

“Cali.”

“What are you guys saying over there?” Shinyoung called out at us. “Talk in Korean! We’re in Korea, not America! No secret flirting allowed!” Laughter erupted.

“Min-ssi, you and Mystery Guest-ssi should have a dance off!” Gyeongrim suggested.

The students clapped while we walked to the center of the classroom.

When Far East Movement’s Like a G6 started playing, Min started her popping dance moves. I copied her moves and for a while we danced in sync. Then the music switched to Black Eyed Pea’s Boom Boom Pow. We both continued popping, but then she went down into splits. Seeing her change, I did a back flip, wowing everyone in the room. The moment I landed, I instantly went down and did a windmill, and then, feeding off the momentum, I moved up and spun while in a handstand position. Min backed off, leaving me to dance. I bowed and walked quickly back to stand with the other guests.

“Wah, Mystery Guest-ssi, you’re an amazing freestyle dancer!” Myeongsu applauded me.

“Kamsahamnida,” I bowed.

We sat down in the empty seats, Kikwang on my left and Drama on my right.

Just then, the lights dimmed down and creepy music started to play.

I froze. It was the exact same music that played when Gikwang and I were in that haunted house.

Gikwang gave me a reassuring smile and I relaxed.

I marveled at how everyone was dancing along to the music.

The lights came back on again as Shinyoung announced the next segment of the show. “The truth about stars as told by youngest show writers, Kim Shinyoung’s Youngest Writers Talk!”

“Let’s reveal the first clue,” Myeongsu pointed at the board.

Gyeongrim pealed away the slip of pink paper covering the first line.

“Rumors say he’s a total player,” she read.

“BRIAN!” Everyone called out.

He looked innocently at us. “Why me?”

Gyeongrim stripped away the next pink slip.

“He’s really popular in Japan. Japanese fans always request his songs.”

Once again we all called out in unison, “BRIAN!”

“Japan…” Tony An turned towards the other students.

Gyeongrim caught on and said the list of other artists currently popular in Japan. “Beast, MBLAQ, Miss A, Tara.”

“Gikwang,” Myeongsu pointed at him.

“Beast is huge in Japan,” Gyeongrim agreed.

“I’m not a player…” Gikwang looked at Yoseob.

Tony An noticed the look. “He just looked at Yoseob!”

“We went to Jeju-do recently, and we were watching TV in our hotel”, Yoseob reminisced. “There was a survey on another program. ‘Which celebrity seems like a player?’ He came in 4^th place.

“Whoa…” everyone commented.

Gyeongrim leaned forward. “Who came in first?”

Gikwang and Yoseob shook their heads, saying that they couldn’t remember.

“But I remember Leeteuk-hyung was on the list,” Gikwang added.

“Joon could be a player too,” someone pointed out.

“Ah! I remember now! Joon was 1^st on the list!” Yoseob shouted.

Joon stood up. “What?! I don’t look like a player! What’s wrong with the way I look?”

“Blonde people tend to look like players,” Gikwang consoled him.

Shinyoung gestured at Joon’s ears. “Ear fire!”

Everyone burst out into laughter.

“The third clue.” Shinyoung yanked the last covering away. “The best at making a mixed bag of expressions.”

“What is a mixed bag?” Brian asked, puzzled by the Korean phrase.

Beside me, Gikwang pouted.

“Gikwang-ssi just made a cute face!” All the attention was on Gikwang.

“Brian-ssi makes a lot of faces, too!” Joon pointed out.

“It’s Brian-ssi!” Tony An revealed the name.

“This concludes Kim Shinyoung’s Youngest Writers Talk!”

School bells started ringing and a lady came on the intercom.

“Hello, I’m KBS announcer, Hwang Sugyeong. You will now be sitting for the exams. If you lose, the entire team will be punished. I will now announce the teams. The returning, handsome Brian. Hyosung. Variety show genius, Yoseob. The gentle beauty, Seohyun. The lady’s man Drama. Myeongsu. Top star, Tony. This is the Desperate Team.”

The Desperate Team pouted while everyone else laughed at them. The announcer continued.

“Our dazzling Mystery Guest. Min. Soyeon. Pop icon, Gikwang. Lee Joon is lovely. Gyeongrim. Shinyoung. This is the relaxed team. Do your best to save yourself and a friend. Mission, start.”

The countdown started.

“Five, four, three, two, one!”

Boom!

Everyone jumped up at the sound and posed.

Then we all left to go get changed.

When we returned, we sat on opposite sides of the room with our teams, facing the other team.

“We’ll show you our war cry,” Myeongsu said.

His team got up and started singing. “Jungle, jungle, welcome to the jungle. Victory, victory, Victory to the desperate team.”

My team got up as well. “Stay relaxed and answer, stay relaxed and win. You will go to the punishment room, go go go go!” We all pointed at them.

The bell dinged.

“The 1^st class is Single Verse Song Quiz. Today’s songs are no. 1 songs from past music chart shows. Listen to part of the song, guess the singer, title and sing it for us. The Mystery Girl, I’m expecting a lot from you. Single Verse Song Quiz, start.”