How Did We Get Here?

Chapter 1: Introducing Me

I was never the type of person to stay in touch with anyone, truthfully, I prefer to be alone and not force myself to speak to others or others to me. If conversation happens naturally, that's all fine and dandy, but as soon as the conversations seem strained, I distance myself. That's why I'm in the new country all by myself with no one to couch me through it. All I could rely on was my proficient language skills and ability to navigate public transportation like it was my job.

Besides finding my way around the city like a person who had lived here in Seoul all their life, my real talent was doing makeup. I loved cosmetics since high school and I will never stop loving it. Unlike most people believe, I don't like makeup because I lack confidence or any of that other bull shit stigma behind it. I love it because it helps me express my feelings in ways that my words would never allow me too. Makeup is how I communicate even if people don't understand what I'm trying to express.

But what I liked even more was seeing how people reacted to how they looked when I finished my work. Some would laugh, some would cry, hell, some would hate it. But no matter what the response was, they would always say, "I look so different." And when they would say that, I realized that I had power surging through the brushes that I held in my small fingers.

I walked through the door of the building and immediately walked to a cute, little older woman who sat behind the desk.

"Hello," I called out, getting her attention.

"Oh, hello. Can I help you?" She eyed me up and down.

"Yes, can you direct me to the head of the makeup department?"

"Are you sure that you are meant to be in this building?" Granted, there weren't many black people in Seoul and even less to stroll up in a building speaking almost perfect Korean, so, I didn't take any offense to her suspicion.

"Yes, I'm sure." I dug into my purse that sat on top of my suitcase that was full of makeup products. I pulled out the letter that granted me permission to enter, my temporary staff ID and both my American and Korean identification cards. I handed all of the things to the woman and she inspected them. A small sorry smile crept on to her face and she apologized as she passed me back my paperwork.

"It's just that foreigners don't usually come here for work. And a lot of fans have been trying to in sneak for weeks and commonly asked to know where the makeup department is. My apologies."

"It's fine," I gave her a smile that she returned two times wider while handing me a paper with the room number and directions of how to get there. "Have a good day." I waved to her and walked past the desk to the elevators.

I pressed the call button and patiently waited for the elevator. I know that pressing the button more than once didn't help, but I was feeling so anxious and couldn't wait to get to the room. The elevator finally dinged and the doors slid open. Before the door was fully open, three boys pushed themselves into the hallway. Two of them just missed me with their bodies and the other on bumped into me full force. I looked up to him who was much taller than me, which wasn't hard to be since I'm a generally small person.

I looked at him and saw his pink hair that was not styled and looked like it was wet with sweat. He smiled at me and he had the cutest teeth. He tapped my shoulder and giggled his apology before running to catch up with the rest of the boys he was with.

"Mark, come on!" I looked to the direction of the loud voice and saw one very skinny boy and another guy dressed in all black with amazingly thick thighs. They were all good looking but also had no idea what they were doing in the building. I mean, they could be one of the artist but that was unlikely because all of the photos I saw of the groups made them look so server and serious.

"Maybe the kids of a staff member? Hmm." I was thinking a bit more but when the elevator started to close so I ran through the doors.

When I got to the third floor, I made my way to Park Sujin's office and knocked. I was asked to come in and when I entered I saw people frantically making their way around the office.

"Excuse me, are you Sujin?"

"No, they aren't here... Who are you?" The woman asked.

"I'm Allie, the new makeup artist."

"Oh! Give me a second?"

"Uh, sure."

She shuffled some papers on the desk and looked under a few makeup sketches to get a folder that was a pretty blue and had JYP all over it.

"You don't work for a few days but this will tell you about the people you will be working with and all of the other shit you need to know and blah blah blah." She handed me the folder and a few sketches. The bulk were labeled "Got7" and mapped the makeup in perfect detail for each person. While they were beautiful, I still had questions.

"Uh, what is Got7?" Everyone in the room looked at me and gave me a questioning look.

"You don't know who Got7 is?" I shook my head. "Just know that they are the artist that you will be working with the most often. They are having a comeback soon and the concept is very dark and sexy. And judging by your profile, dark and sexy is your specialty, so, you were placed with them."

"Hmm, okay."

"Anymore questions?"

"Yes. Where have they been to have a comeback? Have they been inactive for a long time?"

"... I'm not about to teach you about kpop. Just know that you have to be here next Monday. Okay?" She gave me a gentle push out of the room and closed the door behind me. I stood in the hallway for a second. I was expecting to be here much longer or get a tour or something but I guess I was just gonna go on my way and go home. I would give myself a tour, but I was not about to get lost in a building full of strange people. I headed downstairs and walked to the exit waving at the woman at the front desk before leaving.

I got outside and saw a lot of girls standing outside of the building talking amongst themselves. I figured that since place was filled with celebrities, they were waiting for them. My questions were quickly answered when I saw the same three boys from before run back into the building. I was surprised though, the girls hadn't chased them, they just screamed. They all ran past me and the one Called Mark flashed me another smile, just as big as the first. I returned it and simply walked away from the building.

Since it was still early, I decide to go to the convenience store and grab some quick food before I went back home. I walked in and picked up a couple of packs of ramyeon. I walked to the checkout and asked the young boys to put all of the packs but one in the bag. When I paid for my things, I walked outside of the store and placed one of the ramyeon packs in an aluminum tin and filled it with water. I stirred the noodles a bit before walking back into the store and taking a seat at the counter in front of the window.

I sat down and tried to enjoy my food but the person behind me was making so much noise. I was used to the slurping and things like that, but this person was mumbling and humming and stamping their feet, just being distracting. I continued to eat my food as I turned around and saw a woman wearing a hijab sitting at the table. The more I looked at her, the more familiar she had become.

"Sabiana?" She looked up from her food and made eye contact with me.

"Oh my god!"