Narrator POV

Hana needed to sit down before she collapsed, Crystal paced back and forth the short distance between an also, happily, pacing Suzi and the excited but physically tired Hana.

Crystal pulled at the end of her past shoulder length, red dyed hair with a smile and then sat next to Hana.

The note was attached to the back of the final ticket. Destination: ICN Incheon Intl Airport…Seoul, Korea.

Dear Crystal Akena, Hana Barlow-Dalka, and Suzi Doherty,

I realize this all came up very suddenly, but as you know you three girls have done an amazing job within the company in such short time. You’ve initiated good and healthy changes in both us and yourselves. It’s our honor to give back something to you three. Be warned however, that this isn’t a vacation. Your trip to Seoul will be long and I hope fun as well. But once you get there you will only have one day of rest before getting to work. I and others who work with you know that your inspiration and drive to perform in our studio comes somewhat if not all from your love of Korean Pop Culture. Taste of Rhythm Studios wants you to be able to experience your inspiration first hand and learn from it. I hope you will return to us with more skill and a new drive to be better. Here is your schedule. Enjoy yourselves to the fullest and Happy First Year Anniversary of joining TRS.

Arrive in Seoul – 5:25PM (1725hrs). Look for a guide who will lead you to the taxis.
Arrive at hotel – 6PM (1800hrs). Dependant on traffic. Clean up and go to sleep.
Be ready for T.O.P Media assistant to pick you up – 6AM

Follow the instructions given to you by the authorities. If there are issues, please contact me immediately.

Sincerely,

TRS Manager
Jason Terina

Suzi continued to walk…no, now skip back and forth, to the left and right a few feet before the two sitting friends. “I swear I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t think I can breathe,” she said.

Hana smirked. “That’s because you haven’t stopped rambling since we got inside the gate to wait,” she said and then laughed cutely. “Hehe. That rhymed,” she added on proudly.

“Oh Hana-ssi. I don’t know if they can handle your aegyo,” Crystal joked.

Suzi came up in front of the two swaying back and forth on her feet anxiously. “Don’t worry about her. They’ve dealt with the worst! I’m the one you should worry about! I need someone to shut me u-“

Hana had put her hand over the brunette’s mouth. “There.”

“Kmwo,” she tried to reply (komawo) in thanks though it muffled through the hand which soon dropped.

“Ok,” Crys began, capturing both Hana and Suzi’s attention. “We need to practice on NOT fangirling, don’t ya think?” she suggested, knowing full well that she was right.

“Yeah. I guess we just need to pretend they’re normal people and act like we don’t really care that they are even there,” Suzi agreed, sitting next to the eldest who now sat in between her friends.

“And I don’t mean not care as in not care whether they live or die, because that is pretty equivilant to hate which is the worst, but-“

“You’re saying if we tried to not like them, we wouldn’t be able to but it would help us to lessen our fangirling urges?” Hana cut in, peeking her brunette with bleached blonde streaked head of hair forward to see the speaker.

Suzi nodded, and soon all three agreed on a few strategies.

1) Try to avoid direct eye-contact at first
2) Cough or sneeze or laugh(lightly…don’t pull a Leeteuk- cough-cough, Suzi, cough) to get rid of squealing
3) Hold each other back if one starts to jump up and down (need I mention who?)
4) Fainting wouldn’t be good, so keep hydrated and sane to the best of your ability
5) If you feel like you need to scream, bow and run AWAY, NOT towards them

They practiced going over these and reminding themselves as they made it to Las Vegas airport and were just in time to catch their flight to SFO, San Francisco airport. The girls had this and one more plane before being able to set foot on Seoul soil.

As the three walked down the roomy pathway of the First Class in order to get to their seats in the less roomy path of Second, they all noticed a group of strange males towards the front on their right. All of them had sunglasses on and hats or had their hoods up. They were all fairly average looking. At least compared to what they saw at Las Vegas and as they ran though SFO. It was somewhat unnerving, and sparked some curiosity, but it didn’t matter at the moment. Suzi and Crystal were too busy deciding who would get the window seat next.