APink’s schedule had thankfully become less hectic since the start of September.   During the promotion of “No No No” she hadn’t even been able to attend all the events that the members had.   It was crazy.

But now the girls were much better rested.  Everyone in the company was.  At the moment, they were sitting on the floor of a practice room and eating lunch.  I had just arrived with Samgyupsal and we were all savoring the warm meal.

“At a fanmeet that isn’t in Korea, what do you all plan to do?”  I ask them in Mandarin.

“I think we plan to do it like the Korean fan meets,” Namjoo replies after swallowing a mouthful of rice.  Both her Chinese and English is much more advanced than the others’.

“I was trying to remember words that might be helpful.” I reply thoughtfully.  “We can study characters.  You all will have to write things.”

“I don’t want to,” Eunji replied.  “It’s difficult.”

“It is, but practice will help you,” I reply.  It’s weird to be in the position of quazi-teacher to young ladies who were older than me and already well-recognized in their field.    I got up and brought over my large bag.  I started pulling out my two little white boards, my pencil pouch, and a pad of paper.

“They speak English in Singapore,” Bomi pointed out in English.

“Do you need to practice writing in English?” I reply, with a smile.

“Hey Chen Sarah, let us finish eating!”  Chorong scolded.  I apologize and go over to the speaker system.  I put my ipod on shuffle and plug it in.  It starts playing “Paradise” by Infinite.

I’m done eating and bored so I start dancing along to it.  I had taught myself the dance back when I was in America.  When the chorus started, Bomi hopped up and tried to do the dance with me and Eunji belted out the lyrics, causing Naeun to laugh so hard that she started tearing up.

The next song that came on was the instrumental version of 2pm’s “Heartbeat.” So I came back to the group and sat down.  “Eunji Unni, you sing like an angel.” I said in English.

“What?” She replies in Korean.  Hayoung tries to indicate the meaning without speaking in Korean.  The result causes Naeun to start laughing again and soon we’re all giggling.

“You sing very well.” I say in Chinese.  “Your voice was super.” I add in Korean.

She laughs, “I’m just like Sunggyu-ssi.”  Eunji then starts to sing 60 seconds.   “You dance well, Chen Sarah,” she compliments in Mandarin.  “Where did you learn that dance?”

“I taught myself.” I admit.  The others look impressed.  I explain in Korean.  “The dance practice videos that you upload.  I watch the video and imitate.”

“Do you know any of ours?”  Naeun asks, swallowing her mouthful of vegetables. 

I nod.  “Of course!  I already knew Hush and BuBiBu and I don’t Know before I moved to Korea.”

“Really?  Which is your favorite dance?”  Eunji asks me.

“I liked Hush a lot before I knew who each of you were,” I admit.  She hops up and messes with the speakers.  The song starts playing and she pulls me up.

As a few of the others get up and start to dance, I tell them, “I don’t know whose part I learned.” 

That turns out to not matter two much.  I only bumped into another person twice and they would point to an empty spot in the formation just before the shape changed.

At the end they were clapping and telling me I was very good when Chorong says, “It was so nice to have seven people in the line again.”

The others nod and I venture a question cautiously, “Are you guys getting a new member soon?”

Chorong shrugs, “We haven’t been introduced to anyone and the CEO hasn’t discussed it.”

“Our manager even said he didn’t know,” Bomi adds, taking a seat on the bench.  “When Yookyung left, we thought we would get a seventh member after ‘No No No.’”

We all nod thoughtfully until Eunji interrupts the silence, “You should become our new member!”  She wraps her arm around me shoulders.  “Position: languages!”

The mood is lightened as we laugh and start talking in English and Chinese again.  Eventually the topic turns to EXO and the lyrics in Wolf.  They ask me if they are the same in Chinese.  I start singing the Chinese version and I dance along.  This causes them to laugh some more.

“Are you an Exo fan?”  NaEun asks.

I nod, “Yes, they are one of my favorite groups.” Remembering that Naeun had filmed an episode of We Got Married with them, I asked, “Are they very different in person?”

“We don’t see them that much,” Hayoung says in Chinese.  “They’re all very handsome.”

“We didn’t get much time to talk with them when they did their special Wolf performance for us on We Got Married,” NaEun said in Chinese.  “But they are very fun and Taemin is close to some of them.”

“What do you think of all the idols?”  Chorong asked me, curious. “You’re a foreigner to Korea, what is it like for you?”

“I used to watch you on Youtube,” I reply in English.  “Music Bank, Show Champion, I even watched APink News!  I really liked 2PM and B.A.P and U-Kiss and Infinite, but no matter how many shows I watched, you were not real.  You weren’t really people.”  They seem confused, I switch to Korean, “You were like the stars.  You were far away in space.  Now I realize that you’re actually human.”

“Ah, because you looked up to us?”  Namjoo asks.

“Yes, because you were so pretty and talented,”  I nod.  “Seeing all your hardwork, I understand that being and idol is your job.  It is very different.  But I am still a fan!”

“Oh,” Hayoung asks, “Are we different than you thought?”

I shake my head, “Eunji is just as nice as I thought.  You all were very fun on APink News.  Naeun is not as cold as I had thought, but that’s the only thing.  I haven’t met many other idols, but I spoke to Bang Yongguk and he was even friendlier than I had thought.”

“Ah, are you a B.A.P fan too?”  Hayoung asks me.  When I say yes, a couple of the others say that they are as well.

Eunji sighs, “All these handsome men that we can’t date.”

I whine back, “They are so attractive and nice- at least you guys get to do schedules with them.”

They chuckle in acknowledgement and we continue practicing writing.