October 2011

"You have two left feet."

"Thanks for stating the obvious genius. Do you want a freaking cookie?"

"This is hopeless. You really do at dancing."

"I warned you, didn't I?"

"I said to step the left not the right!"

"That's what I did!"

"Are you blind?!"

"You're about to become blind!"

I sat inside the dance room, we decided to take a short break from the dance rehearsal. 

I was a hopeless case. I can't dance. 

"How are you that bad at dancing?"

I stood up, having enough with his complaints. "Look, if all you're going to do is complain about how bad of a dancer I am, then I'm leaving." I picked up my things and made my way to the door until a voice stopped me. 

"I'm sorry for insulting you. It's just frustrating." 

I turned around and looked at Jongin with my arms crossed. 

"Let's just start again. I'll be nicer this time."

I walked back to my previous spot and sat down. "Fine. One more tantrum from you, you're dead."

"I'll change the dance to something simpler for you to do." He added. 

"Good because that was honestly out of my level to do." I felt relieved now. 

Jongin stayed quiet as he thought about the dance. "I have an idea." He stood up, brushing off the dust on the back of his sweats and held his hand out for me to take. 

I held his hand to stand up properly and followed him to the center of the room. 

"You've heard I Need a Girl by Taeyang right?"

"I don't live under a rock." 

"Okay Ms. I Have An Attitude. Since you have no sense of catching the beat with dancing, we'll do this." Jongin placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face the mirrors. He stood in front of me and said, "Bend your knees slightly, like this." He demonstrated the move. "Just keep doing that."

I eyeballed Jongin. "This isn't the actual dance routine right? I'm pretty sure they want me to do more than bending my knees."

Jongin chuckled at my reply. "It's not the actual dance. I'm trying to help you get the feel of the music. Just bend your knees like that. Okay?"

I nodded my head. "Okay. But what are you going to do?"

Jongin walked over to the stereo system, plugging his phone to play the song. "Just bend your knees and you'll see. You'll get the feel of the music."

Before I could even ask more questions, the song filled the room. 

I bent my knees like how he told me to. I glanced to the side to Jongin to see what he was doing. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVLR8ZufB-o

Jongin's arm fell inside his pockets after the short dance as he stood over me. "So?"

I bit the inside of my cheek because of what just happened. I hate to admit this myself, but DAMN. This Jongin person is hot when he's dancing. 

Jongin cleared his throat to catch my attention. I whipped my head to look at him. "You did good."

Jongin chuckled lightly and a small grin appeared on his face. "It's nothing big or amazing. But it helped you move to the beat."

That is true. It did help me. It was a small move but it dramatically helped. 

My eyes suddenly narrowed on the digital clock behind him. 7:13PM.

"Crap." I gritted my teeth and dashed for my bag on the other side. 

"What's wrong?" Jongin asked as he watched me slung my backpack on.

"Nothing's wrong. I just forgot I had to do something. I'll see you tomorrow about the song!" I quickly stepped out of the room and headed outside into the fall night.

I failed to mention earlier that my parents are professors at big time universities here. My mom is a English language professor and my Dad is a Literature professor. Since they're so amazing in their respective department, they travel from time to time. Right now, both of my parents are in England for some kind of conference. They were only gone for a week but that meant I could, well, disobey their orders about singing on the streets. 

So I decided to go to my usual spot, Hongdae. I sang outside a clothing store called, SoulHeart, near popular food shops. The owners at the store shop didn't mind me, they liked my music and they were hoping to hear me on the music shows one day. I always tell them the same thing, 'We'll see.'

I got into a taxi first so I could stop by my house in Seoul first. I needed my guitar, is it weird that I named it Royal? No? Okay, that's good!

My house is not your average house. Yes, my parents are successful professors so I lived in a luxurious house. But we weren't that kind of family who wore only designer brands items. We live in a fancy house yes, but that doesn't mean we have to live up to the fancy life. The taxi arrived outside my house, I asked the driver to wait for a few minutes so I could grab the necessities. 

I ran inside my house and into my room to grab Royal. As soon as I placed the guitar case on, I grabbed my portable guitar amp (which came with a mic) and headed outside to meet the driver. This time, I asked him to take me to the Hongdae area. Once I arrived, I gave him the taxi fare and began walking to the clothing shop. I was extremely excited once I saw the familiar spot. I happily walked to my favorite spot and sat myself down on the flat spot near the display window. The owners saw me walking over, giving me a wave from the inside. I returned the wave and began to set up my amp. I plugged the proper cord into my guitar and for the mic. I set up the microphone stand, slid the mic into the slot and positioned the microphone near my mouth.

In less than ten minutes, I was ready to go. I placed my opened guitar case on the ground in front of my feet. I took out a guitar pick and silently strummed to myself, thinking of a song to sing. Why not sing an oldie? So I sing A Thousand Years. I'm not a fan of Twilight, but hey this song is great to sing. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PQsXOafY88

People walked past me, dropping their spare change into my case. I bowed my head slightly to give my thanks. People took time out of their night to listen to me, which I couldn't be even more happy. Something about singing on the streets seemed nice to me. I mean, I put myself out there in front of strangers and I'm not trying to become famous by this. I do it because I truly enjoy it. 

I finished the song on a good note and everyone watching seemed to enjoy it. The people who were listening clapped their hands at my performance. 

"Thank you." I beamed happily into the mic as I bowed my head. I already knew my next song so I immediately strummed the chords after saying thank you to the audience. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgg4o6n3c5c

A few more people dropped their spare change into my case and I bowed my head for the gesture. 

The song came to an end and again, I gave my thanks to everyone for listening. Suddenly, I immediately locked eyes with a person in the crowd. The particular person didn't seem notice her gaze at their presence since they were just walking by. My heart sank, even my shoulders sagged slightly when that person walked just blankly walked past me. I shouldn't be like this anyway, but I am. 

Little did I know that there was another person in the crowd who saw the change of expression in my eyes.