My friends had finished buying posters while I bought 2 new books because they were cheaper in Korea than in America. My friends and I are all Kpop fans and we decided that after our second year of college, we would go to Korea for vacation. And here we are, walking along the streets of Korea, having the best time of our lives so far. “I don’t think I’m going to be sleeping tonight. I’m so excited to see my babies perform tomorrow!” our friend, Gabby said with a huge grin on her face. “I don’t think I can sleep either. I’ll stay up with you” Tracy said excitedly. “Have fun. I’ll be sleeping tonight because I’m dead tired” I said. “Of course, you’re tired. You guys wouldn’t let me sleep last night. I’m still going to get you guys back for drawing on my face with eyeliner!” Tara said and scowled at us. Everyone except for Tara laughed.

“Why is there a group of girls standing in the middle of the sidewalk like that?” I asked. “Ooh! Maybe they’re waiting for an idol group!” Tracy said excitedly. “I don’t think we’re near any companies, practice studios or whatever famous building…” I said. “Why else would they be standing there like that?” Gabby asked. Tracy and Gabby walked ahead to see what’s going on while Tara and I walked at our pace. When we got closer to the group of girls, they were squealing and excited. No doubt, they were waiting for an idol group. Instead of lingering around to find out which group they were waiting for, I decided to walk around them. Tracy, Gabby, and Tara were following behind me, but suddenly, the group of fangirls went crazy and the pushing started. Eventually, I got pushed and I fell onto my side, scraping my right knee and my right wrist. My books spilled out of the gift bag while my phone flew out of my hand and slid along the pavement. It was embarrassing because everyone stopped to look at me and some were scowling. I didn’t pay any of them attention. To be honest, it was stupid move for me to walk around them instead of crossing the street to avoid them. This is what I get for being an idiot.

I started collecting my books and put them back into the gift bag. I stood up and my phone was handed to me. I looked up to see it was Suho, from Exo, who was holding out my phone to me. “Thank you” I smiled and took the phone from him. I looked down at my knees and saw that I already had a trail of blood sliding down my leg from where I scraped my knee. “Tara, can I get a tissue?” I asked. “You’re bleeding a lot” Suho said. “It’s okay” I said, trying to focus on getting tissue from Tara, to wipe the blood off. When the tissue was placed in my hand, I felt a hand on my arm. “Why don’t you come inside so we can help you clean that off?” Suho asked. But since I couldn’t understand Korean that much, I replied with, “I don’t understand what you’re saying,” in English. Kris was there and he translated. I looked around to see that everyone was staring at me. Of course, the fans were murmuring and either gave me a weird look or scowled at me. When I was about to refuse their offer, their manager had grabbed my arm and was ushering me into a building and was talking to me in Korean, which of course, I didn’t understand since I wasn’t Korean.

My friends had followed behind as I was led down a flight of stairs and into a practice room. I was seated on a couch that sat on the side of the room by the stereo. I tried wiping the blood with the tissue I had in my hand, but it kept bleeding. “Does it hurt?” Suho asked. “I’m okay” I replied in Korean. Although I couldn’t understand most of the things they said, I still understood the basics. “What’s your name?” Suho asked. “Uh, I’m Maggie” I replied. “Are you a fan?” he asked. “Yes, but I wasn’t part of that crowd. I was just walking by” I replied in English. Kris translated for me when Suho looked at him. Their manager came back with a first-aid kit and started to help me clean my wound and applied a band-aid over the scrape. “I’m sorry you got hurt because of us and those fans. Would you like anything from us? Like an autograph or a picture?” Suho said. I shook my head after Kris translated what Suho said when I tilted my head, indicating I didn’t understood what he said. “It’s okay. We have to go anyways” I said and stood up. My friends and I left the building and my friends were calling me stupid for rejecting Suho’s offer. I shrugged and we made our way to another music store that we wanted to go to.

After eating dinner, we decided to go back to the hotel. When I searched my bag for my phone, I had no luck finding it. “Where’s my phone?” I asked no one in particular, as I dug through my bag. “You lost your phone?” Tara asked. “Yeah. I can’t find it!” I said as I started to panic. I’ve never lost my phone before and I definitely didn’t want to lose it in a foreign country. “I’ll try calling it” Tara said. After a couple of tries later, we gave up on calling it since no one was answering our calls. I frowned as we started to go back to the restaurant and stores to ask if someone turned in a missing phone. When we got back to SM’s building, I slumped like a zombie. There’s no way anyone would allow us to go search the practice room for my phone. The people who work in the building would just think of us as desperate fans. We all decided to give up and go back to the hotel. After I showered, I borrowed Tara’s phone to call and text my phone while Tracy and Gabby prepared their fan signs that they’ll be using tomorrow night. Right before I decided to go to sleep, someone answered my phone. “Hello?” a male voice answered. “Hello?” I sat up on the bed I shared with Tara. “Are you the owner of the phone?” he asked. “Yes, I am. Who is this and where did you find my phone?” I asked. “I’m Luhan. I found your phone on the couch of the practice room. Who is this?” he replied. “Luhan? Uh. My name is Maggie…” I said. “Maggie?” he asked, sounding confused. In the background, I heard other people’s voices and then someone else answered. “Hello, Maggie?” someone asked in English. “Hello? Is this Kris?” I asked. “Yeah, it is. We found your phone on the couch” he said. “I figured as much. Is there a possible way I can get my phone back?” I asked. “Uh. I can leave it with someone at the company and maybe you can come pick it up?” he said. “Won’t people at the company think I’m a desperate fan who wants entry?” I asked. “Oh. Well, we’re busy without any free time…unless you’re going to the music show tomorrow night…We usually get drinks before rehearsal…” he said. “Music show? Oh! We’re planning on watching you guys perform tomorrow night. Are you going to give my phone to your manager to give it back to me then?” I asked. “Yeah. That can work. I’ll tell my manager and I’ll call you tomorrow to see where we can meet up” Kris said. “Okay. By the way, the password to my screen lock is 1052” I said. “Okay. Should I call this number?” he asked. “Yeah” I said and smiled, feeling relieved. “Okay. I have to go. Enjoy the show tomorrow night” he said. “Thank you, my friends and I will. Good luck and have fun on stage” I said. “Thank you. Good night” he replied. “Good night” I said and hung up.

The next day, my friends and I waited on line in front of the building where they hold performances every week. When we were granted access into the building, Gabby and Tracy had gone ahead to save me and Tara a spot while the two of us went to meet up with Exo’s manager. When Tara got a call from my phone, I answered it. “Hello?” I answered. “Hello? Maggie?” a familiar voice replied. “Yeah. Who is this?” I asked. “You don’t remember my voice? I’m Suho” he answered. “Oh. What about your manager?” I asked. “He’s busy. I’m going to be buying drinks for the members. Where are you?” he asked. “In Starbucks, on the first floor” I replied. “I have to rehearse before I can come give you your phone back. Can you wait like 10 more minutes?” he asked. “Okay. No problem” I replied with a smile and then we ended the call. While waiting for Suho, Tara and I were talking about how impossible this situation was. “What are the chances that we get to meet an idol and actually interact with them like this?” Tara asked. I smiled. “Right? But oh my goodness! I downloaded 3 more books last night. They were 99 cents each! They got really high ratings and are apparently ‘the hottest books’ right now” I said as I looked down on my iPod, trying to update my Kindle Cloud Reader. “You buy way too many books. You still have like 100 books to read and you’re still buying more books” Tara said and rolled her eyes. “58 to be exact. But who says I won’t read them all? And plus, you read some of them too” I stuck my tongue out at her and smiled. Just then, Suho walked up to our table with a smile on his face, with Kris following behind him. “Hello” we greeted each other. “Your phone…” Suho said as he held out my phone to me. “Thank you so much!” I smiled back at him. “Can I get your number?” Suho asked shyly. I felt my eyes widen as I looked at him in surprise. “I didn’t want to go through your phone, so I didn’t get your number on my own. I thought it would be better if I actually asked you for it. I think you’re really pretty” Suho said nervously and Kris translated for me. “Thanks…Um, okay” I smiled. “Really?” Suho asked. I nodded and we exchanged phone numbers. Because Suho and Kris had to get back to their members with their order, Tara and I said good-bye to them and went to join Gabby and Tracy. That night was one of the best nights I’ve had so far.

For the rest of my stay in Korea, Suho and I had texted each other. Of course, there were times when he didn’t respond for hours because of his busy schedule, but I also had not replied to his texts because I was busy exploring famous tourist attractions in Korea. When it was time for me to leave, I told Suho. Unfortunately, we never got another chance to meet each other again to say goodbye, although my friends and I had enjoyed watching their live comeback stages during that week. When I returned back to my homeland in America, I decided to learn Korean by taking Korean classes. Suho and I had continued our conversations through email. We ended up translating each other’s words since there was a language barrier, but I tried to type to him in Korean and he would try to talk to me in English. He had also corrected my mistakes and helped improve my Korean skills. Eventually, our foreign language skills improved a lot with the help from each other.