Seoul

How is it that no matter how early you plan on getting to the airport, you always end up running late?

Something always throws a wrench in things, today it’s an ungodly amount of traffic clogging up the roads from the heart of Seoul to the airport. Nothing would be worse than missing one of the most important flights of your life.

This business trip to Tokyo will almost certainly lock in the promotion to Director of Sales. All you have to do is close a high stakes deal with one of the hottest up and coming Japanese tech companies.

No pressure.

The deal is at the finish line. There are just some final small details that still need to be ironed out ahead of the formal signing ceremony tomorrow. After that though, it will finally be hello, promotion.

You can’t, by any means, miss this flight.

Thankfully, this particular Uber driver is not messing around. The man is on a mission. He’s swerving, speeding, honking, and cursing his way there. How does this guy have a five-star rating?  You close your eyes and grip the oh shit handle to keep from getting thrown around the back of the car since you get motion sick so easily. To make matters worse, you are praying that your suit doesn’t end up a wrinkled mess.

Right as you open your eyes to tell him you’d prefer to live today, the car screeches to a halt in front of the entrance to the terminal.

“Sir, we have arrived. I hope you enjoyed the ride today. That traffic was terrible, wasn’t it?”

You’re taken aback by how polite he is, it’s like he’s been a chauffeur for the rich and famous for years. Before you can respond, he hops out of the car. What is this guy doing?

He opens your door and bows, “Sir, thank you again for letting me drive you today, it has been an honor. Let me grab your suitcase out of the back of the car for you.” You slide out of the car with your briefcase, still stunned. A simple “Thank you” is all you can say as he brings you your suitcase.

“No problem at all, sir. Hope you have a great trip. Seems like you have some important business to attend to with that dapper suit you have on.” You look down at your suit, somehow, someway still as crisp as it was when you took it off the hanger this morning.

“Very important business,” you say as you can’t help but let out a laugh at the absurdity of it all.

“Well, I wish you the very best, sir. Hope it all goes well.” He extends his hand, you shake it.

“Thank you very much, hope you have a great rest of your day.”

The driver bows and then gets back in the car as you put your briefcase on top of your suitcase. So that’s how he hangs onto that five-star rating even though his driving is straight out of Crazy Taxi.

You make your way inside the airport and thanks to your driver, you now have a comfortable amount of time to spare before your flight. It’s of course crowded in the terminal lobby, but it’s not crowded with people getting ready to fly somewhere. Instead, you notice a lot of the people have cameras out. They’re surrounding a group of people trying to make their way to the security lines upstairs, yelling at them and probably blinding them with all the camera flashes.

Well, at least it looks like they have security guards, whoever they are…

Wait…

Is that?

You start to actually listen to what the people with cameras are yelling.

“See you in Tokyo, Ahyeon. Love you!”

“Asa, have a safe flight!”

“I wrote this letter for you, Ruka. Please take it, please please please!”

Holy fuck… it’s BabyMonster. And they’re going to Tokyo. Wait, you’re going to Tokyo. No way they’re on the same flight, right?

Fuck.

By no means are you a huge K-Pop fan. You don’t have the time for that. But like many dudes in their 20s, you have a celebrity dibs list with your friends that happens to include many K-Pop idols. It is extremely dumb and immature, but it makes for hilarious arguments when you all get together. One of your buddies even keeps a stupid spreadsheet of it all. It’s very much like Ross in that one episode of Friends where he has the laminated hall pass of celebrities he’s allowed to sleep with.

Totally ridiculous, yes.

But it is fun. That’s all that matters in the end, right?

There’s only been one woman who has held the top spot on your list ever since that day last summer. Even though you can’t see her, you know she’s right in the middle of that chaos.

That day last summer…

You walk into your buddy Han’s place with a six pack of beer and two pizza boxes in hand for your monthly K-Pop catchup. It’s become a nice tradition where Han shows you new releases he thinks you’ll like while getting to catch up on life.

“For some reason they didn’t throw me out when I asked for pineapple on your pizza. I really wouldn’t blame them if they had,” you joke, setting the boxes down on the kitchen island.

Han laughs. “Fuck you man, it’s good. I keep telling you that it’s normal over here. I know it’s like one of the most hotly debated topics where you’re from.”

“Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza, there’s no debate. It’s settled science.”

“Settled science?” Han rolls his eyes and continues to laugh. “Okay man, whatever you say.”

You pull two beers from the six-pack, slide the rest into the fridge, then grab the pizza boxes. “Here’s your nasty ass pizza, if you can even call it that,” you say, handing him his box as you both head to the couch. You set the beers and your box on the coffee table.

“I’ll make sure if you ever lose a bet to me in the future, you’ll have to eat an entire pineapple pizza,” he promises, opening his box.

You pop the caps on the beers and hand him one.

“Cheers,” you both say, tapping the bottles together.

“So, bro, what are we starting off with today?” you ask, taking a big bite of your pepperoni pizza. Nothing beats the basics.

Han sets his “pizza” down and grabs the remote. “It’s a group I haven’t shown you yet. I think you’ll like them. This song kind of has those late 80s/early 90s American hip-hop vibes I know you love.”

“It’s really all I listen to now thanks to my dad.” You can’t help but reminisce. “It’s all he would play in the car while I was growing up. That era was all about just having a good time, it’s why I love it so much. None of that serious, deep shit we get from today’s rap.”

“Well lucky for you, that’s exactly what this song is, it’s just a good time and it doesn’t take itself seriously.” Han hovers his thumb over the play button on the remote. “This one is called Hot Sauce by BabyMonster.”

“BabyMonster? That’s their name?”

“Yeah, I know. Just give it a chance.” He presses play.

As the video plays, you can already tell this is right up your alley. This beat is bouncy. Han’s right, it really does feel like that era. The opening chorus sounds so familiar. The pacing, the instrumental. Oh, “It’s Tricky.” That’s the song it reminds you of, your favorite Run-D.M.C. track.

Right as you start to really take a liking to the song, you see her.

The cat-like eyes.

The long black hair.