Outside of the Arirang building, four people were waiting in the snow for their final two friends to show up. The shortest girl in a dark gray hoodie with horns on it and wings on the back made out of safety pins and bright blue jeans with green and black plaid sneakers on, was holding onto a cake box and leaning forwards to stare down the street. Her name was Sondra Buttolph and she came all the way from America for today. She felt bad that they didn’t all arrive at the same time, since she was the oldest she felt like she should have been keeping track of her younger friends.

                She looked over at the girl standing next to her wearing a puffy winter coat with torn jeans and white sneakers. “Did they tell you when they left?” The older girl asked. The slightly taller girl adjusted her fur lined hood so she could see Sondra. She was the next oldest and her name was Ticti Nguyen and she had come to Korea from Vietnam. Ticti shook her head while hugging herself with her arms in the cold. “No. What about you Leon?”

                The only boy with them was Leon Teo from Singapore. He was holding a box full of food and was glad that there was hot food inside. He wasn’t used to winter, especially snow. He was much taller than the three girls standing with him and was the only one dressed like he was going to freeze to death. He had a long puffy coat that went all the way down to his knees and a thick winter hat underneath the jackets hood. He shook his head and looked over at their youngest friend who was warming her hands on the side of the box. “They should be here any moment.”

                The final girl waiting was Shreya Talukder from Bangladesh. She was the youngest of everyone who had made this trip. She pulled her hands away from the warmth of the box and pulled out her phone from her bright red jacket. “I don’t have any new messages from them though…”

                Just then, they spotted the last two girls they were waiting for. The first one to reach them, wearing gray jeans and a black hoodie, was Nouha Benjelloun from Morocco. She was panting from running the short amount of distance from when she spotted them to here. “Sorry we are late! Emma couldn’t find her boots.” She had a habit of not dressing warm enough for winter weather and always got scolded for it.

                The final member of their group caught up to them. She was wearing a pink hoodie that had a tiny horn with ears on the side like a unicorn. She bent down to her shoes, pulling her black pants legs out and poked around inside of them. “I’m sorry. I had to wear my sneakers and I got snow inside them like every block!” She was Emma Lundin from Sweden, she was very used to snow just like Sondra was, but it didn’t mean she appreciated getting it in her shoes.

                Sondra breathed on her exposed fingers that were holding the cake box handle. “Now we are all here and the show should start soon so let’s go inside!” Everyone quickly shuffled inside the building. Ticti went up to the front desk and started speaking in Korean to the lady behind the desk as the other five tried to get all the snow off of themselves. Sondra, Leon and Ticti also tried to defog their glasses.

                Ticti signed a piece of paper on a clipboard and turned to look at everyone else. “Let’s go to the elevator.” They all piled into the elevator, Leon just finally realized how much taller than the girls he was, now that they were all in a small space. Ticti pressed number 8 and they rode up to the floor excited to finally meet with their favorite DJ. Nouha looked at her phone and saw that it was exactly 4pm, the show was starting.

                The elevator reached their floor and the doors opened. Standing there waiting was Crazyno who had just finished with his segment with Music Access. He bowed his head slightly but then noticed Sondra and Emma’s hoodies. He suddenly pointed at them excitedly as they piled out of the elevator. “Oh! I love your sweaters!” he said in his Australian accent. Emma smiled excitedly and thanked him, Sondra on the other hand almost dropped the cake she was holding, but luckily she tightened her grip before it left her fingers. The oldest girl quickly smiled and was glad when Ticti pushed her out of the way so that everyone else could get off the elevator.

                Zyno got onto the elevator waving with some of the staff after everyone got out of the way. Suddenly a staff member showed up and smiled at them. “Are you the ones here for Super Kpop?” The staff member led the group down the hallway and into the studio. They could barely contain themselves as they saw 1kyne in the sound booth doing the opening to the show. He smiled and waved at them. The staff member took down all their names and usernames and wrote them down to give to 1kyne during the song as another took the gifts from them.

                Once the song started, 1kyne took off his headphones and came out of the sound booth to greet them all personally. He had a red and green scarf on that was a gift from a fan he received in the mail today. The staff tried to hurry him back into the booth after he only managed to introduce himself and get the papers from the staff. The group of friends laughed at their DJ’s usual care free attitude as he went back into the booth and got ready to go back on air.

                Even though they weren’t in the sound booth, they felt the need to be quiet as they watched 1kyne do the show. After a while, the door opened and Sam Ku walked in. Ticti and Shreya both stared with wide eyes before giggling with each other. Leon and Emma waved happily as Nouha elbowed Sondra lightly and grinned at Sam. Sondra looked as if she had no reaction but her brain felt like it exploded.

                Sam had on a white button-up shirt under a black sweater under his jacket and he smiled at all of the ones sitting. “Hey, I recognize some of you guys!” He looked at Leon first. “What is up Leon? It’s nice to finally meet you.” He shook his hand happily. He looked over at the five girls. “And who do we have here?” The girls looked at each other awkwardly to see who would go first, Sam and Leon both laughed a bit as Emma decided to go first. “I’m Emma from Sweden! Emma the unicorn!” He smiled at her and looked over at Nouha. She smiled politely and waved again. “I’m Nouha from Morocco.”

                Ticti decided to introduce herself next. “Hello Oppa. I’m Ticti!” He smiled. “Oh Ticti! This is a surprise seeing you!” She smiled and nodded awkwardly as she looked away. Shreya held her hand out and smiled at Sam. “I’m Shreya. It’s nice to finally meet you.” The tall man smiled at her and shook her hand. “I’m glad to meet you too.” He looked over at the last one to introduce herself.

                Sondra smiled and took her horned hood off, revealing her short brown hair. “I’m Sondra. We brought you guys some food and a cake.” Sam laughed a bit as a staff member started trying to get him prepped for the show. “Thank you guys! We are going to have a lot less lyrics today with you guys here.” He said as he started going over the script for today. Before he could chat anymore, it was already time for him to go into the sound booth.

                After the show ended, Sam and 1kyne came out of the booth and finally were able to talk to the fans that were waiting for them. The six fans stood up and smiled at them, almost unsure of what to say next. 1kyne was very excited as he learned each of their names, finally able to put faces to the names he had known for so long. 1kyne looked over at the two boxes the fans had brought with them. “So you guys brought us something?”

                Shreya went to the box and opened it up. “We all put our money together and got you all some fried chicken and sides.” She looked over at Ticti. “Ticti-Unnie ordered it for us.” The short Asian girl in glasses smiled as she fiddled with her hood awkwardly. “I wasn’t able to get drinks because I didn’t know how many to get.” 1kyne smiled at her and looked around to the staff that was busy doing post-show work. “Why don’t we all just eat it together and have like a surprise Christmas party?”

                He looked over at Sam and the taller man nodded with a smile. “Sounds fun! I have some time.” 1kyne quickly went over to a staff member and asked if they could use one of the meeting rooms. The staff member handed him a key and 1kyne motioned for Sam to grab the box of food. Sondra quickly took the hint of what was happening and grabbed the cake box as Sam picked up the box of food, smiling at her. “Cool hoodie.” He said quickly as he turned to follow 1kyne out of the studio.

                The group excitedly followed 1kyne down the hallway to a meeting room and he unlocked the door and turned the light on. The room was pretty big. One whole wall was just windows and there was a TV screen on another wall, probably used for presentations. There were a couple tables lined up in the center of the room with a bunch of chairs around them. Sam and Sondra set the boxes down on the table as 1kyne inspected the room happily.

                “How about we move the tables against the wall and move the chairs out of the way?” He seemed to be making himself even more excited as he thought about having a party with his fans. He grinned to himself. “Oh! I will call Sean and Alex and see if they can come!” He excitedly left the room while pulling out his cellphone.

                Sam and the others all laughed at how excited their DJ was getting. Sam pushed up his sleeves, revealing his tattoo on his forearm. “Well you heard him, let’s move the furniture.” Ticti, Shreya and Nouha started moving the chairs out of the way and stacked them in the corner as Sam, Leon, Sondra and Emma pushed the tables against the wall opposite the windows.

                1kyne came back in with a member of the staff from the show that had finished their work. She was carrying a box with an artificial tree in it. 1kyne grinned at the female staff member with the box. “Hey guys, she went out of her way to find us a tree! Isn’t she awesome!” the female staff member laughed a bit and hid her face behind the box. “It needs to be assembled though…” she mumbled nervously.

                He took the box from her and looked around the room at everyone.  “So, who wants to help me put together the tree, even though Christmas passed already?” He laughed happily as he went over by the window and opened the box. It was a really old model of fake tree that needed you to put each metallic branch into the center pole individually.

                Leon, Emma and Ticti excitedly sat down next to 1kyne on the floor to try and figure out the instructions. Sam looked over at Sondra and Shreya. “Sondra, Shreya, you two want to help me set up the food?” Both girls just smiled and nodded as Sam handed them food to set on the table. Nouha was talking to the staff member who had the TV and they were trying to figure out what to use to play music out of it.

                Soon kpop was playing through the TV speakers and the tree was half assembled and the food was all set up on the table. The doors opened and Sean Lee came in holding a paper bag. “Hello! I was told to bring drinks? I brought cola and some cups!” Leon quickly got up and introduced himself to Sean, excited to finally meet him. The two of them set up the drinks on the table together.

                1kyne turned and looked at Sean. “Glad you could make it. Our listeners came from all over to bring us food.” Sean smiled and looked around at everyone. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!” Sam was picking at the food while everyone started to help finish assembling the tree and choosing songs to play. “So what are we going to use to decorate the tree with?” he asked as he bit off a piece of a chicken wing.

                They looked around the room for anything they could use when Sondra spoke up. “If we get paper, we could make snowflakes and things.” Ticti laughed. “I love making paper snowflakes!” Sam, 1kyne and Sean all agreed it was a good idea and Sean and Leon went to go find paper and scissors. They returned with a stack of paper, 5 pairs of scissors, some markers, string and tape.

                Everyone had finally taken off their jackets and hoodies and put them all on a chair near the door. Sean, Sam, Leon, Sondra, Shreya and Nouha sat on the floor and made decorations as 1kyne, Emma and Ticti finally finished the tree. As 1kyne put the final top piece of the tree on, the door burst open again. Suddenly Alex from HIGH4 stood in the door wearing a Santa hat, holding a bag. “Santa Alex is here!! I bring you all some holiday cheer!”

                Everyone in the room looked at him confused then from behind him, his other HIGH4 members pushed through the doorway, making fun of Alex as they passed. Myunghan had sequined reindeer antlers and Youngjun had fuzzy antlers on his head. Sunggu just had a holly pin attached to his hat. The members of HIGH4 introduced themselves in Korean then Alex translated for them. The idol group reached into their bags and pulled out a bunch of Christmas hats and headbands and went around the room putting them on people. Sean Lee got an elf hat, 1kyne got some red antlers, and Sam got a mini top hat with a green ribbon and holly on it.

                Sunggu went around and put headbands on the girls, smiling. Shreya got a pair of antlers with little bells on them, Nouha got a holly headband, Emma got one with a tiny snowman on it, Ticti got a big green bow and Sondra got one with a mini Santa hat with ribbons on it. Youngjun gave Leon a hat that looked like a Christmas tree. The members of HIGH4 looked satisfied with themselves at bringing enough to decorate everyone who was there.

                The group making decorations had a big pile of snowflakes and paper chains made already as Ticti and 1kyne had started tying bits of string to some of them and putting them on the tree. Sondra decided to start taping some snowflakes to the window. Sam got up and helped her reach higher up on the window. Suddenly HIGH4’s song with IU started playing, Not Spring Love or Cherry Blossoms. The members suddenly got excited and started grabbing some of the girls to teach them the simple dance they did with IU. Myunghan pulled Emma to dance. Sunggu grabbed Nouha’s hand as Alex asked for Shreya to dance with him. Youngjun looked disappointed that he didn’t choose a girl fast enough.

                Sean and Leon laughed as they watched the girls try to dance, but get too embarrassed at first before finally getting it right. The boys of HIGH4 looked excited at being able to teach the girls even though only Alex could speak English.

                After the song ended, they had started grabbing food, using napkins as plates. Sean helped pour drinks for the girls. Suddenly Myunghan was digging through his bag he had brought and pulled out a fake microphone. He started talking in Korean and the boys and Ticti laughed while the rest of them were confused, waiting for a translation. 1kyne grinned. “He said he wants to do lip synching karaoke since we don’t have an actual karaoke machine.” Everyone agreed as they situated themselves to sitting on the floor, leaving space in front of the TV screen for whoever was up for lip synching.

                Myunghan decided to start it off and put the playlist of shuffle, the first song to play for him was 25 by Song Ji Eun. Everyone laughed as he composed himself and started lip synching to the song, complete with the foot kick dance. When the song was over he fell over onto Youngjun and Sunggu, embarrassed.

                The next person to go was chosen by rock paper scissors. They did it all as a group. After the first round, only 1kyne, Sam, Sondra and Emma were left to go. They went again and 1kyne and Emma threw out rock, but Sam and Sondra threw out scissors. Sam and Sondra stared at each other and went again, both threw out rock. Sam laughed awkwardly and gently pushed her on the shoulder. They went again and Sondra threw out paper but Sam threw out rock again. He burst out laughing and covered his face as Myunghan handed over the plastic mic.

                Sam took a deep breath and stood up, waiting for the next song to start. Finally his song started to play and he instantly fell to his knees laughing as NoNoNo by Apink started to play. Everyone laughed and cheered for him to go. The boys of HIGH4 all got up and started dancing to the song as Alex tried to pull Sam up off the floor so he could join in. He finally stood up and attempted to lip synch through his laughter, without dancing.

                Sondra looked over at Emma and motioned her head towards the boys dancing and the younger girl got the hint and immediately jumped up as the oldest girl stood up. They joined HIGH4 with dancing during the part of the dance when they line up. Everyone cheered for them. The song ended and the members of HIGH4 gave Sondra and Emma high-fives.

                Alex was the next one to lose at rock paper scissors. He got up to perform and excitedly waited for his song to start. The song he got was Dang Dang Dang by Supreme Team. 1kyne automatically got up and held his own phone like a mic and rapped along with Alex. The HIGH4 member ended up dancing through most of the song as 1kyne took over the lip synching. All the girls cheered for them. Sam put his hands up and waved them around for most of the song.

                Their song was almost over when Sunggu’s phone suddenly went off. All of the HIGH4 members froze where they were. 1kyne suddenly realized what was happening as Sunggu ran out of the room to answer his phone. He turned and grinned at Alex. “You guys escaped from practice didn’t you?” Alex rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Ha maybe. I just wanted to meet our listeners and the guys wanted a break from practice.”

                Sunggu came back in and spoke to s in Korean. Alex turned to look at everyone else. “Well, our manager found out and we gotta go. It was fun!” The boys started getting ready to leave when 1kyne stopped them. “Wait! Let’s all take a picture first!” He quickly went and found a staff member who came in with a tablet and told everyone to get together.               

                Everyone gathered in a group in front of the tree and decorated windows. It was already dark outside, so the lights of the buildings and street outside were their backdrop. The girls blushed and smiled as the guys had put their hands or arms around their shoulders. They took a few pictures before Sunggu’s phone started ringing again and HIGH4 finally excused themselves after they hugged each girl and shook Leon’s hand. They let everyone keep the Christmas headbands and hats as presents.

                Sean checked the time and it was already past 8pm. “Whoa! Time really flies when you have fun. It’s getting pretty late. I should be going soon. I have some work left to do today still.” 1kyne looked over at the uneaten cake. “How about we eat the cake and then call this party to a close? Sam, you want to cut the cake?” Sam went over and started handing out cake to everyone. Sondra and Shreya had been in charge of choosing the cake and they knew Sam didn’t have that big of a sweet tooth so they had gotten a vanilla cake with strawberry cream filling with whipped cream frosting. The top was decorated with strawberries and some chocolates since 1kyne loved chocolate.

                Sondra pulled out her phone and attempted to take a selca of herself eating the cake while she was sitting on the floor. Behind her, Sam was standing by the table with his cake and he suddenly crouched down just in time to get himself into her selca and then laughed about photobombing her. 1kyne laughed the hardest. “That’s a good idea! We can take some selcas before we go home!” Soon everyone was taking selcas with each other as they ate their cake.

                After the cake was all gone and they cleaned up the room together, Sean Lee was the first to leave. He had signed Leon’s phone case before he left. The girls had followed their lead and asked 1kyne and Sam to sign their cases as well.

                Sam and 1kyne had walked with their fans turned friends all the way outside before hugging them all and parting ways.

                Sondra, Ticti, Leon, Emma, Nouha and Shreya were happier than they had expected to be. They couldn’t have even imagined that today could have happened today. Leon was the first one to burst out laughing. “Today was great! I’m so glad we made this trip.” The girls all agreed with him, Sondra almost walked into a stranger on the street because she was staring at her phone. Ticti laughed at her “What are you doing?” She asked the oldest girl. Sondra smiled down at her phone. “I’m deciding on a new wallpaper.” She held her phone up, showing the one that Sam had photobombed. “I’m thinking I will use this one.”

                The group of friends laughed and talked excitedly about their day at Arirang all the way back to the hotel, where they stayed excited about it until late into the night.