Attending SOPA

Chapter 2

After all my classes today, I feel exhausted. I did so much today, and I wanna go to bed right now. Before that though, I check the time in America. I see that it's 2am, it's a bad time to check in on my parents. See, the bad thing about moving halfway across the world is you have to deal with timezones. I have to find a good time to call my parents later.

I decided to roam around the campus a little bit before going to bed. Then, down one of the guys' dorm room hallways, from outside, I hear someone singing a BTS song, their Japanese song: Lights. The guy singing it sounds so good, I wonder who it is. Since it's the guys' dorms, I'm not allowed to go in, so I try my best to get his attention. My best bet is to open the door and yell at him from outside.
"HEY!" I exclaimed. The boy is caught off, abruptly stops singing, and looks down the hall. He walks down the hall toward my voice. We meet face to face.
"What?" He asked, looking at me.
"You have a beautiful voice." I said.
"Oh, haha thanks." He said.
"Look, I'm new here. I would like to make some friends. What's your name?" I asked.
"Me? I'm Seon Youngsoo." Youngsoo said, "It's nice to meet you."
"I was just wandering around and happened to hear your voice." I said.
"Aw, thank you." Youngsoo said.
Here is what Youngsoo looks like:

(All photo credit goes to original owner). Damn, he's cute too. Why are people in South Korea so freaking attractive? I ask myself that every day, being a fan of K-Pop. Anyways, the shy Youngsoo and I start having a little conversation. We thankfully became friends, I am slowly but surely building my friend group.
"So, where are you from?" Youngsoo asked.
"I'm from America, in a little town in Nevada." I said.
"So interesting." Youngsoo said.
"What about you?" I asked.
"I grew up partially in Korea, partially in Australia." Youngsoo said.
"Aww, that's why you have a little bit of an accent." I said.
"Ah, yeah. You noticed, is it that obvious?" Youngsoo asked.
"Yes, yes it is. I think it's pretty cute." I said.
"Oh, stop. It's not cute." Youngsoo said, blushing.
"You're like Bang Chan or Felix in Stray Kids." I said.
"Oh so you're a K-pop fan? Figures, makes sense for you." Youngsoo said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"Americans love K-pop. Like, they obsess over it." Youngsoo said.
"That's only half true. I'm not a crazy fan girl or anything." I said.
"Okay, I'll take your word for it." Youngsoo said.

We sat there for about an hour before the teachers making runs of the dorms told us to get to bed. I took one quick selfie with Youngsoo, then sprinted back to my dorm before I got in trouble. I made it back to my dorm room, completely out of breath. Man, I haven't ran like that since freshman year. I quickly take off my uniform and change into pj's. I climb into bed, covering myself up and fall asleep. I end up dreaming about both Hajoon and Youngsoo. Already, my dreams are filled with boys. Will I ever get to a point where I'm not thinking about boys 24/7? Probably not. I'll be on the hunt for the "perfect boyfriend" my entire life. Shaking those dreams away, I dream of many other things. I dreamt of my debut, what company I go into, and my possible bandmates. I imagine them, despite my differences, grow to accept me as me. I have very high hopes for the future, and my future at SOPA.

That next morning, I went to Hip Hop 3, and then to vocal class. I'm always excited to go to that class because some of my best friends are in that class. They showed me that I am no longer an outcast. They showed me the beauty of inclusion. I think if we all work really hard, we can become a co-ed group like KARD. How amazing would that be? I would love to debut in a co-ed group, it looks like a lot of fun.

For today's class, we are to pair up and sing a duet of our choice. Of course, I chose Hajoon. I have the best song in mind: Time of Our Lives by DAY6. I love that song so much, and it's a lot of fun. I pitched the idea to Hajoon and he loved it. After choosing a song, you have two days to rehearse together, then perform it in front of the rest of the class. We are not required to do the choreography, but you may do it if you please. Hajoon and I are so excited to be doing a duet together.

*After Class/Rehearsals*
Hajoon met up with me in one of the empty studios where we could rehearse our song. Time of Our Lives may not be for a couple, but it's fun to perform.
"First of all, can you play guitar for this song?" I asked.
"Yes actually. I should work on that while you work on the lyrics." Hajoon said.
"I agree. I didn't know you could play guitar, that's pretty cool." I said.
"Ha, thanks." Hajoon said.
Hajoon disappeared, leaving to grab his electric guitar from his dorm room. While he's working on learning the song, I will practice singing it. This song has some pretty powerful vocals in the chorus(King Young K slayed). Knowing this, I knew I had to do incredible on this song. I did my regular warm-ups, then began working on singing the first verse. I'm not the best at speaking Korean, let alone singing in it, but after listening to this song over and over, I'm pretty confident in my pronounciation. I'm sitting in the middle of the dance studio, belting my heart out to this one DAY6 song. Nobody questioned it because we're all in the arts. People get used to random people singing easily.

I finish rehearsing for the day because it feels as if my throat has become the Sahara Desert. I need some ginger/lemon tea or something. I shoot a text to Hajoon, asking if all is going well. He texted back telling me that it's going good. The chords are simple in this song, and will definitely add some flare to our performance. This makes me even more excited for our performance in two days. I think we'll absolutely slay it.