And Then There Was Vince

Chapter 23: Stranger in a Foreign Land

I sat with Ashley and Corinne at lunch that day. It felt so surreal to be back at my old table. For so long I'd been a part of this scenery, and I had melted naturally into it. Now, I almost felt like an animated character dropped into a strange land who stood in stark contrast to the backdrop. I kept having that weird dissociative experience one gets where all you can do is look down at your hands and wonder whether or not you actually exist. Or maybe I'm the only one who goes through that. Who knows.

"Did you hear SN Entertainment is debuting a new boy group tomorrow?" Ashley asked excitedly as she dabbed grease off of her pizza.

"YES!" Corinne practically screamed. "They have probably the best concept I've heard of in years."

They're talking about Kpop...I think. Something that was very weird for someone to like years ago and had only recently become acceptable to enjoy. I'd always been a closet fan, and silently thanked the group who had made it all possible when they broke into the American music scene at an awards show. Still, I definitely hadn't been keeping up with it at all.

"What's their concept?" I asked, a little sheepishly. I was met with overexaggerated surprise from the other two.

"Seriously V, where have you been?" Ashley groaned. "They're going to be called AlienZ."

"AlienZ?" I sort of snorted in response.

"Yes," Corinne picked up. "They're these super handsome aliens who get sent down to earth by their queen on the mothership to learn about us and lead us into the future."

I suppressed my laugh. It sounded ridiculous to me.

"I see," I said, hurriedly shoving some disappointing pineapple chunks into my mouth.

"You gonna come over and watch the video when it drops with us?" Ashley asked.

She was weird with pop music releases. She would plan little viewing parties for the four of us and have us sit around her laptop for our first listen. Then, we'd talk about it. It definitely didn't sound like a horror movie marathon, but I guess it was a return to normalcy.

    "Sure," I said, noncommittally.

    "I think Jeongmin is going to be the most popular member," Corinne droned on. "He's definitely gotta be the main visual. I mean...UGH."

    "I'm kinda interested in Zhang actually," Ashley continued. "He's from Taiwan and apparently can't sing very well, but they scouted him at a dance competition and paid for him to come to Korea and train. There has to be something special there because of that, right?"

    I more or less ate my meal in silence with unenthusiastic grunts here and there. I should have been ecstatic to be back at the table with my friends, but something about the situation was irritating me.

    "Oh yeah!" Corinne shouted once again, way too loud for the topic of conversation. "Did you catch 'The Island' last night?"

    "Oh my God!" Ashley chirped in return. "I can't believe Jacqueline picked Lenny. Standards!"

    I felt as if my head was going to explode. I hadn't watched the show, I hadn't kept up to date with the music news, and I was nowhere near ready for this conversation.

     Or maybe, I just didn't want to be a part of it. I enjoyed mindless guilty pleasures as much as the next guy, and I surely didn't begrudge them for their choice in entertainment, but I was finding it increasingly more and more dull.

    Had it always sounded this stupid?