Vocal Coach ~ Baekhyun & Sungchan(NCT)

Chapter 16

When I finish dancing with my dad, it was time for the lighting of the 18 candles from my female friends. I chose 18 women who are nearest and dearest to my heart. This includes my mom, my female cousins, and my best friends from high school. We're all gearing up for graduation this summer, and we've been friends even before high school. We promised each other we'd be a group of friends since freshman year, and while some girls left the group because they moved, or there was some drama among them, the few of us stayed strong as a group.

My mom lights the first candle and is the first one to do a little speech for me. I just know both of us are gonna cry because of it.
"Shelly, you are my beloved, my one and only daughter. You're 18 now, but you weren't always the grown young lady you are today. You were our million-dollar miracle baby. . ." Mom said, continuing her speech from there. My mom sometimes forgets English, even though she's been living in America for so long, so she threw in some Tagalog/Visayan words that her friends understood and laughed at. Ah, here she goes embarrassing me in a language I don't understand. She does that every time.

Next was a few of my high school friends. One of my closest friends from even before high school is my friend, Angel, who has been by my side since 8th grade. We've had our moments of ups and downs, but we have mostly stayed friends afterwards. It's like any relationship, whether it's platonic or not. When I had my phase of anxiety and slight depression, she was there for me, and I paid her back by talking through her episodes of depression as well. Overall, we became best friends because of our dysfunctional mental health, that had gotten better because we had each other. She was also the one who introduced me to NCT 127, so I don't regret becoming an NCTzen for a moment.

Along the way, I had made some female friends from South Korea, notably Min Sooyun and Jong Mirae(their names have been changed to protect their privacy). They are my Korean friends I made online and we became so close that I had invited them to America, to my 18th Debut party. They are honestly some of the best Korean friends I have, besides NCT and EXO of course. When all my friends had finished their little speeches with their candles, I blew them out, and will now have a prosperous young adult life.

There was one request that I really wanted to make of Kai in particular.
"Kai oppa, can you perform Mmmh?" I asked.
"Ahaha, sure." Kai said, laughing.
I had the DJ que up his song, and then Kai starts performing his debut solo song Mmmh. This song has such a sexy feel to it, and since I'm 18 now, I can be allowed to vibe to this type of music. Kai is my bias, and of course I loved this song from first listen and first watch of the music video. I was blown away from the music video. Kai flaunted his abs, that he is always acting shy about. That is one of the cutest things about him. Oh, the choreography for this song is equally as sexy too. Those body rolls, oh God, I'm hot haha.
"Kai, you're so hot!" I exclaimed. Sungchan side-eyes me. He doesn't understand what it means to be a K-pop fan like me, and how weird I am with my biases sometimes. . . Oops. I cover my mouth and fan myself, realizing how hot this performance is making me.
"Jagi. . . Are you okay?" Sungchan asked.
"I'm just fine. Your sunbaenim is something else." I said.
"Ah~ I understand now. It's okay. Kai hyung is attractive." Sungchan said.
"Thanks for understanding. God, I must be so embarrassing." I said.
"Kai is enjoying your reactions, though. He's all smiley." Mark said.
"I guess you're right." I said.
"No, I know." Sungchan said.
"Guys, let's just enjoy this performance. 127, you're next." I said.
"What are we performing?" Mark asked.
"Angel. It's one of my favorites, and it's so cute. I also have a few ideas written down. Would you like to read it?" I asked.
"Of course." Mark said.
I reach into my purse and unfold the piece of paper with my dream setlist from NCT 127,

I hand the paper to Mark and he starts reading it aloud,
"Angel, FOOL, Paper Plane, Jet Lag, 90's Love, Make A Wish(Birthday Song) - English Version, My Everything, Kick It, NonStop, Cherry Bomb, Regular - English Version, Make Your Day, Love Me Now, Love Song, White Night, Dreams Come True, Touch, Highway To Heaven(English Version)."
"Do you like my choices?" I asked.
"I see a common theme here, love songs, and some of our biggest hits." Mark said.
"You got it." I said.
"You're quite romantic then." Mark said.
"If it's not obvious by my setlist." I said.
"No, I feel. I'll talk to Taeyong about ending the show with this. Although, we don't have all of NCT U here, we'll try our best with the members we have." Mark said.
"Okay." I said.

Mark gets up from the table where he was sitting and goes over to Taeyong's table. He sits down next to Taeyong and starts talking about doing this little concert to end off the party with a bang. Taeyong loved the idea, but the smiley face he is making. He nods his head, wanting to do this performance for me. Then, the message gets passed down to the other members, and they agree to do the performance as well. NCT talks amongst themselves on how they should rearrange the units so that the song can still be performed with missing members. Two key vocalists, Taeil and Haechan, are not here, so the other vocalists will have to fill their space in those songs. Eventually, they figured it out, and will now be performing very soon. . .