It's a quiet day at our dorm in Seoul, South Korea. Chung Eun Kyung, the second oldest member of Jump Girls, sits at the table journaling.  Park Hyun-Ae, the middle member age wise, is in the kitchen with me, doing some dishes that were forgotten last night. I am drying some of them, and Yoon Mi Hi, my best friend who is only three months older than me is still sleeping. Kim Mi Sun, our band leader and oldest member is out running an errand. 

     "Hey, Maggie," Hyun-Ae says. "Am I saying your name correctly?"

"Better than you were three months ago," I say.

   "I'm just going to call you 'Miso', like the fans do. It's easier."

I laugh at the cute yet somewhat odd nickname that I seem to have adopted. My parents decided to call me Melinda after my aunt on my mom's side who died of cancer at 12. From the stories I heard of her, she sounded like the kind of person I wanted to be. Yet somehow, people started calling me Maggie. I don't know why, but they just did.

      I have a rough translation of both Melinda and Maggie into Korean, but they're basically said the same way as they are in English. Melinda was kind of hard for people to wrap their heads around here, like it was hard for me to remember Korean names at first, so most people call me Maggie here. Heck, everyone back in the U.S. does ! And then here I just adopted the nickname 'Miso', the Korean word for 'smile', because of my apparently infectious smile.

      "Alright. If that works for you, I'm okay with it."

"You've gotten a lot better with your Korean, too" she tells me.

     "Kamsa Hamnida (thank you). I've been working hard to speak better so I can communicte and sing more easily."

"Well, I can tell. Is Mi Hi awake yet?"

      "I don't think so. She usually doesn't get up until noon on our day off."

"Or on any day, for that matter," Hyun-Ae jokes.

     We both laugh at the antics of my best friend. Neither Hyun-Ae nor I are morning people, but we both get more done if we wake up at a good time.

  Eun Kyung looks up from her journaling. "Do you want me to go wake her up?" she asks.

"No, it's alright," I tell her. "She really hasn't gotten to sleep in this week and has been working extra hard with our dances."

    "Ne (yes), she has been. Very hard."

"And I've taken a liking to you, Eun Kyung. So, I don't want you to get murdered today."

   She giggles. "Thank you for protecting me from certain death. I am forever in your debt."

At that moment, Mi Sun returns from her errands.

    "Annyeonghaseyo (hello)!" she yells.

"Joh eun achim (good morning), Mi Sun", Hyun-Ae says. "How were your errands?"

    "They were fine, thank you."

"Anything out of the ordinary?" I ask.

    "Nope, noth- wait. I did see someone I haven't seem in a long time."

"Who was it?"  Eun Kyung asks.

     "I'll tell you more after breakfast. Is this everything you needed to cook with, Hyun-Ae?"

"Looks right to me. Miso, how would you like to cook this morning?"

    I twist my face into a confused look. "I don't know how to cook Korean food. I don't want to poison all of you."

"All right, all right. I'll help you. Just don't blame me if it flops," she teases.

  Suddenly, Mi Hi wakes up and comes out of the bedroom we share.

"Good morning, beautiful friends" she says.

   "Who took a happy pill this morning?" I joke.

"Oh, shush. I have to keep you people wondering some how."

       "I bet you'll want to know who I saw while I was out," Mi Sun says.

"If it was that dude who sent me a picture of him and his cat in matching Jump Girls t-shirts that were two sizes too small, no thank you."

     "Mi-Hi, would I really mention that over breakfast?"

"Wait, we're eating together?"

   "It's a nice idea," Eun Kyung says. "We haven't done that in awhile."

"But, but that means... I have to get dressed, and brush my hair... and…Ugh! So

much work, and on my day off!"

    "Alright, drama queen. No amount of aegyo will make me feel sympathy for you. Now, go make yourself presentable."

"Fine." Mi Hi pops a pleadingly cute face, but Eun Kyung isn't phased.

    "Nope. Go."

"Ooookay." She attempts one last aegyo face. Nothing.

     "Why did I even mention it?" Eun Kyung asks herself.

"Anyway, you're all going to want to know who I saw. I won't mention all the details since Mi Hi is stil getting ready, but as soon as we eat, I'll mention everything. It will help with our publicity, and this will give us some allies in the K-Pop industry."

     That last statement caught everyone's attention. We all wanted to know who this important person was, and it seemed that breakfast couldn't come soon enough.