a mostly boring (but true) story.

a mini vacation

My best friend, Morgan, and I both listen to a lot of Korean music together- mostly hip-hop, rap, and r&b. At the start of 2017, her and I drove out to LA with my mother (who likes K-pop as well) to see GOT7, a high-energy, seven-member K-pop group. It was the best day of my life (and now my second best day)- until the start of this year. It was June, 2017, and I received a notification on Instagram from Morgan. When I opened it, it was a mostly red and black image, with the words "The Act III: M.O.T.T.E 'Moment of Truth The End' World Tour" on it in edgy, yet fancy, font. Along with the words was the face of one of my childhood icons on the ad, Kwon Ji Yong. Holy crap, G-Dragon is going to come to California in a month.

Somehow, Morgan's parents and my own agreed to let us fly out to see him on such short notice, as long as my father flew with us, which was fine, especially since Morgan and I are too socially inept to ask for help when it comes to things like asking for directions. It was nice to have some time to spend with my father, too, as we never hang out outside of the occasional small family outing, but even on those, he and I never talk much.

The trip to the airport was full of excitement and nervous energy. But the nervousness mostly came from me, as I have a pretty crippling fear of heights. The plane ride itself was short- it went well and with minimal turbulence. Though I was anxious, I was comforted by the fact that I'd be seeing a living legend in less than twenty-four hours. My dad and Morgan thought that me internally panicking was hilarious to witness, of course.

After renting a vehicle and dropping our stuff out at the hotel we'd be staying at for the night, the three of us went to find somewhere new to eat for dinner before the concert, as it was going to be the same day we arrived in California. The city we were in, Inglewood, wasn't much to look at, but they had some hidden gems here and there that we unfortunately didn't have any time to explore. We pulled up Google maps and found a ramen shop right around the corner from our hotel. If I could remember the name of the restaurant, I would recommend whoever is reading this to get their miso ramen because it was damn good. A little after eating, we visited Koreatown and found a store called Choice Music LA that sells K-pop merchandise and albums. I bought a SUGA (I'm obsessed) phone ring stand and the WINGS album, and Morgan bought herself a J-Hope phone ring stand to match, and some Hip-Hop Monster keychains.

Later in the afternoon, my father drove Morgan and me over to The Forum, the indoor arena that the concert was held at, to drop us off. He drove back to the hotel to mess around editing his photography pictures from the last event he had gone to by himself while waiting for us to need a ride again. Walking up to where we were supposed to enter the building after a bit of confusion as to the where the actual entrance was, I realized that I had forgotten how great it felt to be surrounded by other like-minded people. Concert atmospheres are one of my favorite things in life. Plus, my taste in music is great, and all of the hundreds of people around us had similar taste that I did, so that meant I already was positively biased towards them all.

Morgan and I were seated towards the middle, facing the stage from across the arena, a little higher up. It was a great view, even though we were pretty far from the stage itself. The audio and lighting were phenomenal, and I wasn't expecting there to be a live band, but they definitely didn't disappoint. Every song performed had everyone in the arena hyped up. G-Dragon's talent really shined that night, and he sounds even better live than he does in recordings. I'd definitely recommend going to one of his or BIGBANG'S concerts if there's others in the future. I was lucky. Throughout the show, Morgan and I cheered and laughed, and it was overall a fun time. At some points we got teared up, though, as G-Dragon was talking about himself, his goals, and his (at the time) upcoming mandatory military service.

. . .

The next morning, my father, Morgan, and I drove out to see the nearby beach. We were only there for a little while, and the sky was grey, but it was still beautiful. Morgan looked around in the damp sand for seashells, and my father and I took plenty pictures of the area.

About a half hour later, we rushed off to the airport after dropping off the rental car. The plane ride home had Morgan and I drained. Listening to older BTS songs that were on my phone with one ear bud in while we were in the air, I couldn't stop thinking about all that had happened- Morgan and I still talk about it often, as well as the GOT7 concert. The entire experience is one I know I won't forget, and I'm grateful to have shared it with my best friend.