Hey guys I hope you are liking the story...sorry for the drag in these few chapters, i think it is a writer's block...I'll try and improve the story from the next Chapter onwards...thanks for reading, it means a lot to me! 

Have a nice day ahead!

A week into the summer break and I was already getting bored. Though I had class plans to prepare and what not formalities as a teacher, somehow I ended up totally bored. I didn’t go out much for Rachel was on a trip with her husband and I didn’t know Korean that much.

One evening I just got frustrated & decided to set out and explore. I thought that at least I knew how to hail a cab and reach home. I was walking through the streets when I ended up in some flea market. I swear it felt like home. Indian cities are filled with flea markets and there isn’t just one but numerous flea markets in a city; each one being famous for different things. I was visiting one stall after another when my phone rang. I picked it up and a voice that would really melt your heart said “Hi, its been long since I saw you, how are you?” It was JinKi. He further said, “ Look, I know that this is short notice but we just got an opening in our schedule and the others were pushing me for a treat as I topped in my year, so… would you like to join us, I mean if you are free… by the way where are you? It is awfully loud there!”

I looked around in search for an English sign indicating as to where I was, but “Oh, I don’t know, I was just walking and came into this flea market. Wait, I’ll give the cell to a vendor, you ask him”, and I handed the cell to a vendor in front of me and said to talk to the person on the phone. I don’t know if he understood my instructions but still the vendor took the mobile to his ear with a puzzled look and started talking. After a minute or so the vendor gave my mobile back and smiled. I took my mobile and thanked him.

JinKi told me some Korean name which I didn’t get but then he told me to walk straight ahead for 5 minutes and I’ll come across a big Nike showroom and to wait there, he’ll send a car to pick me up.

I did just as he said, but I stopped by a pharmacy selling cosmetics. I don’t know what got into me for I’m not a girl who cares much about her looks but the thought of being with 5 amazing celebrities made me want to look at least presentable. To my relief there the girl understood me when I said I need emergency makeup. The store attendant was kind for she let me use all the testers I required and didn’t even ask me to buy a product but I eventually did for it would have been rude otherwise. So now I was waiting near the Nike showroom and I was quite cleaned up and a bit pretty if I might add. Thankfully I was wearing sort of nice casuals so I wasn’t that bad looking overall.

I had been waiting for 10 minutes when a minivan stopped in front of me and Hong came out. He smiled, opened the door for me and I got in Celebrity style. It took us 15 minutes to reach the venue. It seemed like a hip place with all those flashy lights on the outside, so my first guess was that this might be a disco, but when I stepped in it was a whole different place. It was flashy but quiet. I could only see many corridors of rooms and more rooms past the reception area which had a sparkling fountain with neon lights.

An attendant came up to me and asked if I had a reservation? (Thankfully he spoke in English). I thought for a while and said, I must be on Mr Lee JinKi’s guest list. He looked up in his tablet, nodded and waved at another attendant who escorted me through one of the corridors. We walked and passed many doors and now stopped at door no 25. He opened the door for me, I entered and I think I froze…

It was a room like no other I had seen before. On the right side there was this big TV screen and some Mikes, on the other side was this mini Arcade, some pretty cool sound systems installed and at the centre was a big black table. But his table’s height was so low that it did not have chairs for seating rather cushion/mattresses, long ones and all these cushions along with the table were enclosed in a low height wood cubicle which acted as the backrest just like in a chair.

I was too engrossed in checking out the spectacular room that I forgot the 5 guys who were sitting right in front of me at the table. It was only when Key said “the room is pretty cool na!” that I replied like to a stimuli, “Ya, totally cool, never seen such a room ever! Seriously it must be fun!”, I said this and walked towards the table and sat down next to Minho. Jjong said “Yup, it is fun, that is why we come here and the best thing is that we rent this room for cheap as we each get celebrity discounts!” “Then it is definitely worthwhile”, I said with a grin… Everyone laughed. I looked at JinKi; he was beaming and it suddenly came to me “Congrats JinKi, you’re really intelligent I guess, I mean you are a topper! Congratulations again. And ya, you are no more my student so I guess I can talk frankly now and the rest of you don’t take my subject so… we all can be frank with each other!”

All 5 of them looked up at me, it was oddly quiet. I thought that maybe I said something wrong, perhaps being frank in Korean culture is rude… My mind’s stack was overflowing with these thoughts when Key said “That’s a relief! I don’t like looking up to you as a teacher. I mean, even though you are older than me, but seeing you as a teacher is so wrong. An elder friend is cool!”

Man! I was so relieved for in that moment even JinKi acted as if he was serious and stopped smiling. Actually it was scary seeing JinKi loose his smile, it feels as if something is really wrong.

So we all were talking, well it was a bit odd for they would talk in Korean and then realise that I couldn’t understand. At one such moment when I was left out of their conversation; I was checking out the arcade, when Jjong asked “You want to play?”, “Well I haven’t been to an actual arcade before, just seen them in movies.” Jjong was taken aback and with his order to immediately try it out we started from one game to another. To my and everyone’s surprise I beat Jjong in every game ! Surprise because he was a pro and I was a novice when it came to arcade games. When the food came in I was glad for all that competition had drained all my energy. As I sat down at the table the sight of the food made me speechless. I was all Sea Food!!!

Everyone jumped at the sight of the food but me. Jinki politely said to dig in and not to be shy. This gesture of JinKi made me feel real guilty but what could I do, I had to tell him. “Actually… I’m sorry but I can’t eat sea food. Its not that I am a vegetarian but in NonVeg menu I eat only river water fish and chicken…I’m so sorry”. I almost lowered my head in guilt, I felt bad that he put together a feast and I just said I can’t eat it. “What do you want to eat? Why don’t you order from the menu” and he handed me the menu. I went through it and all it had was sea food. Finally, in the snacks section I found chicken burger and I ordered it with fries and coke. The eating section was totally talkative again with the focus being my Indian life!

Suddenly Key threw the idea of Karaoke. “Oh no,anything but singing”. But as we all know, nobody can win against Key’s stubbornness, Karaoke began. It was fun seeing these guys singing loosely, I mean no uptight costumes, complex choreo, just singing for fun. Then, it was my turn and I immediately responded that I can’t sing Korean songs. I thought I had saved myself but that feeling was short lived. Key went to the international song section and opened a wide array of English and to my surprise Hindi songs as well! “You have Indian songs listed here too! But why don’t you just sing an English song please!” Once again there was no arguing with Key and I stood up, took the mic and selected Whitney’s ‘I will always love you’ the one from the movie Bodyguard for to my dismay all the other English songs were male voice songs

My start was really shaky but I guess singing this song for years in my shower gave me the required practice and confidence to pull it off decently. It is not that I am a bad singer. I am trained in Vocal Classical Indian Music with a Senior Diploma at it, its just the fact that I cant bring soft emotions into my singing that I gave up on it.

When the song ended and I sat down beside MinHo, I saw everyone’s face, they were shocked to see my score-93. I said “What!” Jjong replied ‘You got a score which only real singers get” and I told him “I have a Senior Diploma in Classical Indian Singing, I think that makes me a singer…”

Hearing this all of them started clapping and praised me. It felt real awkward…

The guys sang a bit more, not me and then JinKi said “Guys it is late, let’s call it a night, c’mon Aansha we’ll drop you home”.

I just entered my house when I received a message on my cell-

“You sang beautifully Aansha.  I would love to sing with you someday, like a duet…

 Thanks for coming today. It felt good to see you today as a friend…

~ JinKi

p.s you looked really pretty 2day, light makeup suits you.”

I blushed! Don’t know when I’ll see him again, but I know that I will…