Josephine Swan never imagined that her stay in South Korea would lead her into K-Pop's glittering and challenging world. Each day, she encounters new hurdles and adventures that fate has in store for her and her four team members. Between gruelling...
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My legs released from the cross-legged position and took up the full length of the bed, while my upper body leaned back in relaxation. Turning carefully, I moved both my wrists in all directions, their flexibility limited under the prolonged pressure of my propped-up cheeks and the weight of my heavy head. My tense, rigid neck and shoulder muscles also gradually recovered from hours of study with the help of the soft polyester of the pillow and the foam mattress under my back. Dropping into the calm and serenity, I was only peripherally aware of how my eyes began to flutter more and more and the white colour of the room was increasingly replaced by the black nothingness of my shutting eyelids.
A sudden jolt jolted my prone body and I opened my eyes again in a flash as the familiar sound of the door opening echoed through the previously silent flat. The soft murmur of the girls entering immediately sounded and was joined by the sounds of clothes and shoes being removed. Blinking and still slightly dazed, I carefully sat down at the edge of the bed as the tapping of the ten slippers echoed throughout the flat's lined parquet floor.
"Josie...?" I heard Ji-soo's cautious voice and looked up.
The Korean's long dark hair framed her tilted head, which warily risked a glance into Lisa's and my shared room. I ran a hand through my hair, knotted from lying down, with a sigh as more footsteps sounded in the middle of our hallway and Jennie's petite body appeared beside Ji-soo in the doorway. Her cheeks adorned a faint shade of red, brought on by the rising temperatures of the ending year and the onset of winter.
"Did we wake you?" she asked, her voice automatically taking on an apologetic tone.
"No...everything's fine," I explained quickly, squaring my shoulders before getting up from my bed.
"So...how did you guys like the street market?" I drawled, walking up to the two girls.
"We went to see a fortune teller.".
Lisa's loud voice instantly boomed through the hallway, while the Thai girl's cloth slippers did little to dampen the pulsing energy and excitement of her footsteps. With a broad smile that accentuated her gleaming teeth, she appeared between Ji-soo and Jennie at the door.
Whereas in the West, including Great Britain, fortune-telling was more of a bogus science and was largely practised as a pastime or fool's errand, in Asia fortune-telling about certain matters concerning finances and acquisitions, marriage, studies and future careers was not only considered a lucrative and growing business, but was also a living part of Asian culture.
Sometimes also in Lisa's home country, Thailand.
She told me in our early days how a fortune teller predicted great happiness and prosperity for her and her family if she changed her original birth name "Pranpriya" to "Lalisa", which Lisa said translated to "the promised one".
"She predicted our imminent debut as a group," I heard Rosè say in the background and Lisa's brown eyes twinkled like stars in the night sky while I could only look at her in amazement and disbelief.
♛
The spoon in my hand banged against the inside of the teacup, its stirring aiding the release of antioxidants from the chopped green tea leaves in the bag, and gazed thoughtfully into the coloured boiling water.
Lisa's broad smile still harboured my thoughts, her infectious joy unmistakably evident in every feature of her face and palpable and contagious to outsiders, so that it was almost anathema to dash her hopes and dreams regarding a claim made by a stranger with a word.
With a defeated sigh, I turned back to the next room, balancing the green steaming tea in my hand.
The bright coloured lights of the flat screen TV that was switched on illuminated the large space of the living room and reflected in the focused eyes of the five girls sitting on the black sofa. Two opened bags, each containing started low-calorie Choco Pies and Pizza Bagel Chips, littered the living room table, leaving small crumbs and melted chocolate residue on the glassy surface.
"So...this fortune teller..." I broke the silence, lost in thought, and placed the tea at the edge of the table, away from the chocolate.
"...Do you believe in her predictions?" I asked cautiously as my warm hands gripped the soft woven polypropylene of the rug at Ji-soo's feet and I leaned my back against the black sofa, sitting up.
"I don't know..." I heard Jennie answer softly after a while of silence and turned my head in her direction.
"She knew the exact date of my birthday and my mother's wish for me to be a teacher or a lawyer," she murmured, her features pensive. The bitten Choco Pie twisted between her fingers, leaving brown melted marks on her skin.
"It could have been a coincidence..." I replied automatically.
"Even though I initially thought of this visit to the fortune teller as more of a joke..." supported Ji-soo, faltering in her words.
"She knew the song name of my audition for YG Entertainment and my dislikes for avocados and Jokbal," interjected Rosè incredulously, partially offset with suspiciously doubtful undertones in the middle of her voice.
"...she knew about things she couldn't possibly have known. It was occult, almost mysterious and incomprehensible." Ji-soo added in retrospect, my expression sinking increasingly into astonishment at the flood of information unleashed, directly contradicting my running thoughts that persistently sought a rational and scientifically explainable answer.
"It was rather scary and eerie," replied Choi beside her, shaking her head. Her thin lips had drawn into a thin line as her dark eyes followed the actions of the onlooking drama. Even her naturally pale skin looked even paler under the throwback light of the television, almost resembling the colour of her dressed pyjamas.
"Do you remember what she said to us when the five of us had stepped up to her counter...?".
Lisa's spoken words made the ongoing dialogue of the televised lovers fade into the background. Curious, I looked at the blonde Thai woman whose brown eyes sought mine for a brief lingering moment.
"She said our debut group was missing another important member," she replied.
