One fine Sunday afternoon, Carleigh stumbled tiredly into the airport, carrying a large green rolling suitcase and sporting a snapback and colored shades. She was followed closely by Ayumi, who, in a blue sports jacket and carrying a large red rolling suitcase, could see significantly better and was able to avoid colliding with the doorframe that Carleigh had stumbled into before her. Carleigh sighed, because her hands were too full to take her sunglasses off. She looked like an international playboy, she just knew it. The two of them had just spent a month planning and preparing for their current situation: a three month stay in South Korea, all for the purpose of meeting attractive young men and getting scouted for modeling on the streets of Gangnam.
But in all honestly, neither of them were feeling quite like models at that moment; the BTS WINGS 2017 concert that had inspired them to take this trip earlier that year seemed incredibly far away. Carleigh had just won state title in her weight class in a Muay thai tournament the day before, and now she was underweight and had a black eye, and Ayumi had just returned from a road trip up the Californian coast with their friends from Japanese class. She was in no mood to embark on yet another long journey in a seat. The only bright side of their departure was the fact that the plane took off in the afternoon, and they had been able to sleep in before leaving.
They checked in to the appropriate gate and sat down, finally having shed all luggage and sunglasses. Carleigh began to scroll through Facebook. "Bro." She said. Ayumi looked up from rifling through her carry on.
"What?"
"Fun fact, at this VERY MOMENT one of the producers for BigHit entertainment is flying from San Diego to Incheon. Watch him be on the same flight as us." Ayumi laughed.
"HA. Dude, it's the prime time. We're gonna meet him and then meet them and then get famous. This is excellent!" Carleigh laughed along with her, appreciating her joke and simultaneously wishing those kinds of things really happened, like in fanfictions. Actually, today wouldn't quite be the best time to meet someone with connections, because they looked like two people who had just rolled out of bed and sped to the airport. In fact, Carleigh had hit 90 on the freeway and they were still wide eyed from the near-accident that had occurred near SeaWorld Drive. At that moment, their group was called in to board the plane, and they stood up together and shuffled through the ticket check. The man in front of them was having a hard time finding his ticket. He turned around and apologized, but they waved him off with a smile; they could relate to him perfectly after a tumultuous stay in Japan. He looked grateful, was probably around ten years older than them, and was kind of attractive. Ayumi coughed, "Sah?" Carleigh agreed silently, giving her a secret thumbs up.
Once the two girls stepped on the plane, their excitement for the trip returned, mainly because they had scored themselves seats directly behind the first class section of the plane--these were bigger and had more legroom even though there were three seats per row. Ayumi graciously took the middle seat, because they had done rock-paper-scissors and she would get aisle side on the way home. Carleigh was about to sit on the end when the same man who had held them up in line slid into the aisle seat. He looked at them, slightly surprised that Carleigh was still standing while staring longingly at the place he had just stolen from her. Eventually, Ayumi moved left to the window and made her sit in the middle in order to avoid a scene. The man looked slightly apologetic, but said nothing. Honestly, Carleigh would have done the same in this situation because she loved the aisle seat, but she was still annoyed at his audacity.
Eventually, the plane took off. By that time, the air hostesses (strangely dressed in classier attire than normal) had begun handing out airplane dinners. All three of them politely refused. Carleigh didn't know the Aisle Seat Thief's reasoning, but Ayumi and she usually didn't feel hungry on cross country flights. Also, Ayumi was vegetarian and Carleigh's stomach was practically inverted from her weight cut (not good for indigestion LOL). She nudged Ayumi. "You're so beautiful..."
"Beautiful" She whispered back, catching on to the observation of their flight attendants' attire.
"You could be an air hostess in the 60's!!!" They both whisper-shouted, startling the Thief next to them. He looked over at the two, suddenly smiling.
"You guys know that song? Aw man, that's cool. I thought Flight of the Conchords wasn't popular anymore." Ayumi and Carleigh looked at each other for a split second before turning to him face him directly, grinning sheepishly. His English was oddly pronounced, and they realized he was probably a native Korean person who, like Rapmonster from BTS, had become fluent in English through multiple Kanye West hard rap tracks and every season of Friends (actual truth tho).
"Yeah! It's so funny! Sorry, we're kinda loud..." Carleigh trailed off, trying to look apologetic. Aisle Thief laughed and shrugged.
"It's ok, you guys are funny. What are your names?" After they made their introductions he introduced himself. "My American name is John, but you can call me Pdogg." They looked at Pdogg and then back at each other, and almost burst out laughing. Pdogg? What a concept! He returned their incredulousness with a smile. "Actually, I'm a producer in Korea, and that's my name in the business. Do you guys know BigHit? BTS?" It was then that Carleigh turned to Ayumi with her eyes popping out of her skull. Did they? Did they really frick frack swig swag swaeg boom shakka lakka know flip flopping Bang tan Sonyeon flapping dan? The answer was yes, yes they did. She turned back and cleared her throat, (hopefully) effectively disguising the shaking of her soul as a cough.
"I think so! We've heard a few of their songs, right Ayumi?" She inquired innocently. Carleigh could feel Ayumi's eyes burning holes in the back of her head as she swiveled to face her. Carleigh bet on the Suga Kookies in her backpack that if they played this right, the fanfiction scenario she had wistfully abandoned in the airport would actually become a reality.
"Yeah!" Ayumi nodded vigorously. She had come to the same conclusion as Carleigh. Pdogg was gazing at them with a weird expression on his face, like he couldn't gauge whether or not they were actually fans. They tried to veer the subject back to him. Better to gain his trust first, make connections and such, and then plan a chance meeting in front of the BigHit building later. "Do you produce for them?" Ayumi offered.
"Yes!"
"Wow, that's amazing! Actually, we're both thinking about getting into the international music industry. Need any interns? Haha!" Carleigh said enthusiastically, an idea forming in her head.
"Really? No way!" Pdogg laughed, and Carleigh could tell that Ayumi was mentally facepalming at the far-fetched question. The truth was that they were NOT going to Korea to become producers, obviously. But Carleigh was her mother's child, and playing the system was an immediate instinct. "Actually, we have a full staff right now, but here's my card just in case." They could tell that he was only giving it out because they were now acquaintances, not because he actually thought either of them would get to intern at BigHit. But that's how deep relationships start sometimes, Carleigh thought--with a business card that read "Pdogg, Producer". They each took a card and carefully slipped it into their backpacks. Pdogg, seemingly eager to diverge from his job and ask them questions instead, proceeded to whittle a life story out of each girl. By the time everyone was getting sleepy eyed as the sky outside the plane turned black, Pdogg, Ayumi, and Carleigh were pretty much homies.
