All's the Same

“Hi! I’m Minjeong, I’ll be in your care!”

She’s so cute. Like a puppy.

The energetic greeting, her small face but contrastingly large eyes, the cute smile that stretched across her lips, everything about this adorable girl made Jimin want to pet her silky hair and scratch her sharp, well-defined chin. The cheers and whoops from the rest of the team caused the smile on Minjeong’s face to burst into a giggle, something that endeared the younger girl even more to Jimin.

Hmm … what about that smile is so…?

That was the second thought that popped up in Jimin’s head, but even as she scratched her head to think about it more deeply, she couldn’t figure out what about Minjeong’s smile drew Jimin’s attention.

“I was at the concert Minjeong’s choir held and, when I heard her solo, I knew I had to invite her to join us,” Danielle, the leader of the acapella group, explained. “We’ve also been looking for another soprano since Lexy dropped out, right? I think Minjeong will be a great fit.”

“Sing for us!”

The chant Jimin started gradually trickled into the mouths of the other members, turning the face of the girl redder and redder until she eventually buckled. “Um, what should I sing?”

The shy way Minjeong diverted her gaze, the adorable way she asked the question like she was asking her mother permission to eat another cookie, Jimin wanted to just run up to her and squeeze her little cheeks and then smother her little body with her arms.

“What do you want to sing? We’ll back you up.” When Minjeong didn’t answer for the next few seconds in silent ponderance, Danielle continued, “What type of music do you like? Who’s your favorite artist?”

“Oh, then…” the abrupt twinkle in her eyes quickly petered out, but not before Jimin noticed.

“Go on.”

Energized by Jimin’s encouragement, Minjeong continued. “Um, ‘You’ll Be In My Heart’, by Phil Collins.”

“Oh!” Jimin burst out in giddy excitement, “From ‘Tarzan’?”

Minjeong’s eyes similarly sparkled at the mention of the Disney movie. “Yeah! I watched it a few days ago and have been obsessed with that song recently.”

After going through the music video a few times and distributing parts accordingly, Danielle gave the group a final reminder to not overpower Minjeong before starting. Shortly after the introductory few notes, Minjeong jumped in—and despite how soft her voice was, Jimin could immediately tell what drew Danielle to the young soprano.

The song started off softly in the first place, so Minjeong starting off softly wasn’t too out of pocket, but the tenderness with which she treated every syllable … hearing it put an incredibly vivid picture in Jimin’s mind of Minjeong soothing a child, whose cries were diminishing by the second, by singing this very song. After the short bridge to the second part of the first verse, the volume of Minjeong’s voice grew ever so slightly, and with it, so too did the intensity of the emotions the small girl poured into her singing.

Wow, Danielle really found a great singer.

That was the thought that came to Jimin right before the chorus, where Minjeong’s voice exploded: not in volume, but in strength.

Did she lose someone?

To Jimin, that was the only reasonable explanation for the amount of raw emotion she could feel from the young girl’s voice. But, perhaps the most incredible thing was how soothing it was to listen to her singing. Even if it was her that prompted Minjeong to sing this song, she knew it couldn’t be true, but that didn’t stop the feeling like she was personally singing the song to Jimin herself. In fact, Jimin almost found herself crying by the end of the song.

“Wow, that was amazing, Minjeong!”

She shyly nodded in gratitude. “You all were amazing too! But, um…” as Minjeong turned towards her, Jimin, realizing no one else was crying, shyly turned her face away, dabbing at the tears, “…sorry, are you ok?” she asked with a hint of bashful laughter in her voice.

Jimin let out a chuckle, half in embarrassment and half in communicating that she was indeed, ok. “Sorry, it was just…” Jimin took a second to wipe the tears from her face before finishing her reply, “…you sang so passionately that it sounded like you were directly speaking to someone who lost someone with that song.”

“Oh!” For someone with as prominent a voice and with such an exuberant aura, Minjeong certainly seemed to smile and laugh bashfully quite a lot. “Um, thanks…?”

“…Were you?”

“Mark! You can’t just ask her that!”

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” Mark hastily replied in response to Danielle’s pointed response, “I was just … um, never mind.”

“Oh, no, it’s ok. I wasn’t really doing that…”

Wow. Then that was just pure talent?

The awkward period of silence was interrupted by Danielle, who clasped her hands together. “Well, now that you all know how great of a singer Minjeong is, does anyone have any issues with her joining us?” When no one chimed in, she continued, “Then, let’s get started, shall we?”

When practice ended and everyone headed their separate ways, Jimin made sure to grab Minjeong’s attention as she picked up her backpack. “Hey, Minjeong?”

She whipped around, her dark-chestnut shoulder-length hair twirling around in such a cinematically aesthetic way that Jimin didn’t respond to Minjeong’s inquiring look until she broke out into a smile and said, “Um, you’re Jimin, right?”

“Ah—yeah. Yeah, sorry.” Part of Jimin wondered if Minjeong found her weird for crying at her performance of ‘You’ll Be In My Heart’, but there was no evidence of such a reaction. She felt like she just couldn’t read Minjeong. Usually, Jimin felt like she was pretty good at reading others, but Minjeong remained a mystery, with the ever-present, glowing smile on her face. “Are you heading home?”

“…Yeah?”

“Do you wanna stop by the nearby Froyo place?”

“Oh, um…” Jimin made it her responsibility to acquaint herself with all the members of the acapella group, especially the newer ones, and especially after Lexy had to drop out of college due to family issues. Usually, she was able to get along with them pretty well and pretty quickly, but something about Minjeong made Jimin feel more jittery than usual. “…I told a friend I would meet with her after this.”

“She can come too!”

Minjeong blinked a few times, the smile in her lips and in her eyes transforming more into a bemused one. “Oh, um…”

“So?”

“Um…” Minjeong took out her phone, and after a quick few taps that seemed to be a text, she said, “…I told her that I’ll be thirty minutes late.”

“Oh, so I get thirty minutes, then?”

Minjeong perked up at that. “Sorry! Did you want longer?”

“No, it’s fine,” Jimin replied, ultimately bursting out in laughter, “I was just surprised that you gave me that long when you sounded so hesitant.”

“Um, one more thing though…”

“Hm?”

“…I didn’t bring any money with me…”

Jimin grinned and grabbed the younger girl’s hand. “It’s ok, I’ll pay for you.”

“What? No! You were already so nice to me already, and you’re so pretty, I shouldn’t let you pay for me.”

Aside from being completely stumped at the relevance between being ‘so pretty’ and letting her pay for the younger girl, Jimin was at the very least relieved that she didn’t secretly hate her. “Then, you can pay me back next time.”