“Nari unnie, I’m back! I picked up the stuff you wanted,” I poked my head into the kitchen to see her stacking dishes in the cupboard. I set down the groceries on the kitchen counter. Nari sifted through the bag, inspecting what I bought.

“You bought a lot of junk food,” she finally said. Her hand reached in and pulled out my banana milk.

I snatched it from her, “yeah well…yeah.”

She laughed, “It doesn’t matter. At least you got the good Kimchi.” She picked up the jar from the bag. “I was worried you wouldn’t pick out the one that tasted good,” she placed in on the counter. “We’re having kimchi tonight!”

“I actually had help. I had no idea what kimchi looked like,” I shrugged. “Wait, I thought you said we were going to have me try kimchi at a traditional restaurant?”

Nari looked like she was mentally slapping herself, “that’s right! I want you to have really good kimchi for your first time. The boys are going to this great restaurant downtown after choreography Friday night. Do you want to come with? And we can show you the sights of Seoul afterwards! Their schedules are short that day.” she seemed to be rambling the last part to her and I didn’t really understand anyway so I just smiled and nodded.

“Sounds awesome! I can’t wait,” I told her.

“I’m glad. Just be warned, they’re very rowdy. And there are a rather large number of them, so don’t be surprised,” she looked a bit hesitant at her decision to bring me along with her.

“Chill, I’ll be fine,” I said, picking up the remote control for the TV. I switched it on and started watching the channel it was already turned to. My eyes focused. That place looked so similar. Oh! That was Vancouver! But why was a Korean program showing Canada?

There was a small array of men in puffy winter jackets (why, I did not know. It was usually warm in Vancouver). They had helmets on and were perched high a top a forest of tall trees. I realized that they were zip lining. The older men seemed absolutely terrified, but the young ones did it with gusto.

Nari watched the screen, “oh, this is a rerun from winter. It was for the 2010 Olympics. The team stayed in Vancouver for three weeks.”

I did not know what team this was, nor what they were doing until the program cut to commercial, and portrayed the logo on the screen. “Let’s Go Dream Team?” this was the athletic variety show that Shinee member was on. I pondered his name, briefly forgetting it, when the commercials ended and the program was back on.

“Have you been to Vancouver?” Nari asked. I nodded. When I was younger, I visited family there. 

The camera panned to a tall, young man with wavy brown hair. He had those same big eyes that stared me in the eyes dead on just this morning. These eyes were not tired, but they were the same. His name instantly flitted into my mind, “that’s Minho-ssi?” I never got a very good look at him, but now I could see that he was incredibly good looking. I remember Soohye-ssi telling me about how he started his career as a model.

“Minho-ssi?” Nari looked at the screen, “oh yeah, that’s him alright. He’s the best on this show. Whenever the Dream Team is losing, Minho-ssi always comes from behind and wins it for them.”

That’s amazing. I always had a soft spot for aces. I liked the ones who carried their team to victory.

“Wow,” was all I said.

“Haha, you’re starstruck,” Nari laughed.

“Am not!”

“Okay kid,” she went back into the kitchen chuckling. I scowled and flipped the channel to a news show.

“Super Junior’s new single will be-” flipping the channel once more to a music channel. What was it called? The logo flashed at the corner of the screen, Music Bank. The cameras were showing a group of MCs in the back room, talking about the performances of the show.

The shot was panned to a man with smiling eyes and strange slit of a dimple near his mouth, “I personally thought it amazing. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them the whole time.”

“You couldn’t take your eyes off of Yoona-ssi,” one man behind him laughed. The rest of them laughed along while the guy with the dimple chuckled embarrassedly. I recognized the man who made the snide comment as one of those drag queens from Super Junior. Actually, I think they were all from Super Junior.

“Anyway,” the dimpled man changed the subject. He was pretty cute. His eyes were so bright and happy, “Shindong, what do—”

“Ami, help me in the kitchen!” I got up from my seat just as the shot focused on someone else. I didn’t see who. Some guy named Shindong.

I stepped into the kitchen to see the sink running and the microwave going but no Nari. I poked my head back into the living room to see her flipping through the channels.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

She looked up, “nothing, really. I was just curious about what was on. I thought I heard Music Bank but it’s a rerun.”

I shook my head, “is anything new today?”

She laughed, “Yes, you just have to look for it.” We went back into the kitchen and Nari told me to wash the vegetables.

“Super Junior was on Music Bank,” I said absentmindedly.  I didn’t look at her, but I could feel Nari’s stare on me. “I don’t really know who they are. But they’re weird and I probably wouldn’t want to meet them. I watched a video about them in a drag queen contest!”

“That’s…odd,” Nari said. She was sifting through the refrigerator so I couldn't see her face, but I swear she was smiling. Weird Koreans with their weird sense of humour.

“It is. I hope your fiancé and his friends aren’t like that,” I huffed. There was a brief silence. Nari didn’t say anything. We just did our jobs to make dinner. I finished washing the vegetables and set them on the counter.

“I wouldn’t worry about it.”

I looked at Nari, “what?”

“Dong-hee and his friends, they aren’t like the Super Junior you talk about,” she said. “And even if they are, you’ll like them.” She winked and sent me out of the kitchen to watch TV. Gosh, she really felt like a mom.

After dinner, I stayed in my room and browsed through the internet, searching for agencies within the area that I could go to this week. Classes didn’t start yet. I had arrived a week and a half early to get settled in. Today was Wednesday. I planned to hit up a bunch of agencies tomorrow and during the day on Friday and then go out to dinner with Nari. I hope I get much of this done before term started.

“Hopefully someone up there will make it easy for me and just have S.M. hire me,” I chuckled to myself. I finished up my emails for everyone and yawned. It wasn’t that late, but I wanted to wake up early to start my search.

Morning came and my sensitive nose found the smell of congee. I loved congee in the morning. My mom only made it while I was sick, so it kind of bummed me out that I could only have it when I couldn’t taste or smell.

I went into the bathroom to wash up. Nari could be heard singing, “heen juk,” over and over again. I suppose that was the name for congee here. The phone started ringing. I didn’t bother to pick up. Almost no one knew I lived here, so it probably wasn’t for me. The phone just kept ringing. I suppose Nari didn’t know who it was either.

Stretching, I entered the living room to see Nari standing in front of the answering machine. I stopped. Her face looked frozen.

“What’s going on?” she didn’t answer for a long time. I just stood there, waiting.

Five minutes passed before I decided to repeat my question, “wha—”

“I didn’t know you auditioned for S.M.”  

GASP! Is Nari unnie mad?! Who knows?

By the way, to clear up when Nari said the Let's Go Dream Team episode in Canada was for the 2010 winter olympics this year. It just means that this story starts to take place around the time right before Bonamana and Lucifer. So, in the middle of the year 2010.

I don't know why Sungmin has a moustache in my poster, he just DOES okay? Makes him look more derpy.

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-Lilmisschique 

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