Kpop Club (8 page)

They were so
engrossed in each other’s company that the whole evening passed
without them talking to anyone else. Krystal knew that she
should’ve made more of an effort to meet the other girls, but she
was on such a natural high that she didn’t care too much. There
would be plenty of time to get to know them, she reassured herself.
The only other person she was immediately concerned about was her
dad, who had been enjoying some whiskey with KYM and Ben.

As the evening
drew to a close, KYM stood up to make a final announcement.

“Everyone
thank you very much for coming tonight – hopefully you’ve had a
good time and learnt a bit more about each other. Krystal, I
thought it’d be good if you spent next week getting to know the
other girls better. I’ll give you a call tomorrow to set some stuff
up if that sounds okay?”

“Brilliant,”
said Krystal, smiling at the girls.

“Thank you
again, guys – the drivers are waiting out front to take you home –
have a safe trip!”

“Thank you!”
said everyone.

Krystal and
her dad got back into the Starship and spent the whole trip home
chatting about the evening. Krystal was so happy that her dad
seemed to like KYM. She was also very relieved to have finally met
the other girls; they seemed really nice. What she was most excited
about however, was meeting Andrew.

KYM called Krystal on the Sunday to explain
the plan for the next few weeks. Krystal would need to call the
girls to arrange informal meetings with each of them; KYM would
cover all costs. The idea was that by Friday, Krystal would’ve had
a good chat with all the girls. This would make moving into the
house on the following Monday more comfortable for everyone. The
girls’ work as Kpop Club would then finally begin at the KYM
offices on the Wednesday.

Krystal called
the girls and was very relieved that they were all keen to meet up.
How great it would be to have nine new friends, she thought.

Monday –
Hannah and Nadia

Krystal’s
first meet and greet was with Hannah Smith on the Monday morning.
They arranged to meet at Coffee Bean in Shinchon for coffee and a
bite to eat. Hannah was from Bondi Beach in Australia and was
stunning, with long golden locks and sparkly blue eyes. She spoke
passionately about her love of surfing and how hard it was for her
not being able to go out in the sea on a regular basis.

Hannah
initially got into kpop as a GT Mountain fan and had grown so fond
of the genre that she set up a kpop club at school. KYM’s talent
scouts found a video of her covering a GT Mountain song on YouTube
and the rest was history. Krystal really liked Hannah and thought
that if the other girls were half as nice as she was, things would
be just fine.

The next
meeting of the day was with Nadia Abbar at 3pm in Hongdae. Nadia
was striking in appearance; she had turquoise eyes, long brown hair
and beautiful clear skin. She was from a city in Algeria called
Biskra.

Nadia and her
friends had organised a flash mob in Biskra town centre that was
witnessed by a Korean journalist reporting in Algeria. The
journalist interviewed Nadia and recorded a clip of her singing
PHP’s Love is Lost. When the video went viral, KYM rushed over to
Algeria to sign her. Krystal felt like they’d have lot of fun
together in the dance studio.

Tuesday –
Celine and April

Krystal’s
second day of meetings began with lunch at a Chinese restaurant
with Celine Beaumont. Celine chose the restaurant because
jajangmyun was her favourite food in Korea. Krystal found it quite
funny that her favourite thing to eat in Korea was a Chinese dish
but didn’t mention anything.

Celine was
very fashionable and carried herself with a lot of grace. She told
Krystal of how she fell in love with the group Brassy when they
went on tour in Paris a couple of years ago. After getting into
Brassy she quickly became “obsessed” with kpop.

Celine lived
in Seoul when she was younger as her Dad was the French Ambassador
to Korea between 2000 and 2004. This meant that her Korean was
already pretty good. KYM heard about Celine’s killer voice from one
of his friends whose daughter attended the same international
school in Seoul. They quickly arranged an audition and Celine
signed within days.

Krystal really
enjoyed talking to Celine and found that they had a lot of common
interests, especially in the arts. Before they left, they made
plans to go and check out a few plays and galleries in
Daehangno.

Later that
day, Krystal met April Jones from Los Angeles, California. April
was very athletic and had an extremely bubbly personality. She’d
lived in LA all her life but her parents were originally from
Kingston, Jamaica.

Krystal
couldn’t resist the urge to ask April whether her favourite ice
cream flavour was Ben and Jerry’s, “Jamaican Me Crazy”. Luckily,
April thought it was funny and the bad joke led on to a very
detailed conversation about ice cream.

Once the ice
cream chat was over, Krystal learnt that April was a huge X-Plosion
fan and loved hip hop dancing. April had an amazing vocal range and
was spotted at Kpop Camp auditions in LA. The two of them got on
like a house on fire and Krystal could tell they’d enjoy living
together.

Wednesday –
Maya and Priya

Krystal spent
Wednesday lunchtime meeting Maya Naser from the U.A.E. Maya had
exotic dark brown eyes and a very voluptuous figure.

After a light
lunch, the girls went to eat patbingsoo, which Krystal learnt, was
Maya’s favourite pick-me-up. This was the perfect ice breaker for
them as Krystal was also mad about patbingsoo. Anyone that liked
patbingsoo was okay by her, thought Krystal.

Maya first
started listening to kpop after she saw MVXT perform in a mall in
Dubai. KYM came knocking after she uploaded a number of covers on
YouTube. Maya was cool and Krystal felt like they’d become very
close with time.

In the
evening, Krystal met Priya Patel who was from an area in north-east
India called Manipur. She was very pretty and reminded Krystal of a
cat – perhaps a tigress. Priya was passionate about food and had
arranged for them to meet at her favourite Indian restaurant in
Itaewon, Masala Grill. Krystal had never had Indian food before and
quickly fell in love with all the new flavours.

Priya was a
huge fan of the boy band Animal and was signed after singing one of
their songs on an Indian talent show. Krystal felt that their
shared love of food and music would mean they’d definitely get
along well.

Thursday –
Pooky and Jennifer

Late Thursday
morning, Krystal met Pooky Rattanakosin for brunch. Pooky was very
soft spoken and extremely cute-looking. Despite this, she had a big
personality and loved outdoor activities.

Pooky had a
rocky voice which she inherited from her mother who was a famous
soft rock singer in Thailand in the 1980s. Pooky was a massive -17
Degrees fan and travelled to Seoul solely to audition at Kpop Camp.
KYM signed her on the day.

After lunch,
Krystal met Jennifer Florendo from Manila in the Philippines.
Jennifer had long curly black hair, green eyes and multiple body
piercings including a belly ring. She was a huge sports fan and was
particularly fond of the Burger King Whoppers basketball team.

Jennifer was
initially drawn to kpop after seeing an A-First tour in Manila. She
was another member who was signed off the back of a viral YouTube
video. Jennifer was really easy to talk to and seemed like she’d be
good fun to be around.

Friday –
Rosa

On Friday
afternoon Krystal met Rosa Garcia who was from Lima in Peru. Rosa
was a feisty character and this was mirrored in the bright red
lipstick she wore on her luscious lips. She was quite tall with
light brown hair and pretty brown eyes.

Rosa told
Krystal that music was her life and all she ever wanted to do. She
was a big G-Hugg fan and was signed after KYM saw her in a Peruvian
documentary about local kpop fans. Krystal really admired Rosa’s
passion and was excited at the prospect of recording with her.

Krystal was
exhausted by the end of the week but KYM was right, she now felt a
lot better about moving into the house with the girls. Something
was still bothering her though, and it wasn’t until Sunday night,
when she was lying in bed, that she finally realised what it was –
she would no longer be able to see her dad every day.

Krystal’s eyes
welled with tears at the thought of her dad sat at home alone, in
the basement. Surely, that can’t have been in the universe’s plans?
For such a nice, loving man to have to spend so much of the rest of
his life alone? She started to sob uncontrollably and made so much
noise that her dad rushed into her room.

“Whatever is
the matter, darling?” he said.

“Oh, nothing
Dad - don’t worry.”

“It’s
obviously something – come on you can tell me.”

“I’m just
sad.”

“Whatever for,
darling?”

“I’m just sad
that I won’t be living with you anymore, that I’m leaving you, I
feel awful dad.”

“Don’t be
silly, poppet, you’re only going to be down the road and I’ll be
fine. You can come and see me whenever you like - just say the word
and I’ll come and see you wherever you are,” he said, with a warm
smile. “I’ll be coming to see you rehearse as well when I have time
off. You’re on the verge of living your dream, Krystal – you should
be happy – this is a good thing! KYM is a good guy and the girls
seem lovely. I couldn’t be happier for you.”

“Are you sure
dad? Are you sure I’m not abandoning you?” said Krystal, her crying
now more under control.

“Of course
you’re not – I’d never think that. It’ll take some getting used to
but we’ll still see each other all the time, just at different
times of day.”

“Okay Dad,”
said Krystal, giving him a hug.

“Good. Now, I
think you should go to sleep - you have a big day tomorrow,” he
said giving her a kiss on the forehead.

He walked out
the room, blew her another kiss and closed the door. Krystal lay
awake in the dark. She still felt a pang of sadness; it was a
familiar pain, the same pain she felt when she lost her mum - she
hated it. After a couple of hours of tossing and turning, Krystal
eventually fell asleep.

Krystal and
her dad woke up early the next morning and arrived at the house at
10am to find the other girls still in their pyjamas. This clearly
made Krystal’s dad a little uncomfortable as he dashed up to
Krystal’s room and started unpacking.

Once Krystal
was all unpacked, her dad made his excuses, gave Krystal a kiss on
the cheek and rushed out the door. She knew he was upset as his
voice broke slightly as he said goodbye. Krystal did her best to
hold back the tears but she was a wreck on the inside. As soon as
the front door shut, Maya went over to Krystal and put her arm
around her.

“Here here,”
she said. “That must’ve been so difficult for you both. Let’s get
your mind off that, we’re all family now and in many ways we’re in
the same boat, away from our loved ones. But it’s not that bad,
we’re young adults now and we have this amazing house and our
futures are looking bright! Let’s have some ice cream Krystal,
hey?”

“Thanks, Maya
– that sounds nice,” said Krystal. “Ice cream though? It’s only
11am.”

“What’s your
point?” said Maya, with a cheeky grin on her face.

The girls all
giggled as they headed for the freezer.

The girls spent most of the weekend in the
house getting better acquainted: chatting, watching movies, reading
magazines and generally relaxing. They had a whale of a time and
this made Krystal feel much more settled.

KYM called the
girls on Sunday afternoon and asked them to report to the offices
in Apgujeong at 10am the following day. They were instructed to
dress in comfortable clothes and to not wear any make-up. A group
decision to wear tracksuits meant that they looked more like a
sports team than a pop group as they left the house on Monday
morning. Still, they didn’t care; they were just excited to start
their journey together as Kpop Club.

When they
arrived at the offices, Jihae took them straight to a meeting room
where KYM was waiting. He had laid out a full continental breakfast
buffet with tea, coffee, cereal, fruits, yogurts and a variety of
pastries.

“Welcome
girls, I hope you’ve all had a good chance to get to know each
other better? Krystal how was your week?” said KYM.

“Great, thank
you,” said Krystal, “the girls have been so nice and very
helpful.”

“Excellent. I
knew you girls would get along. So, this is where your journey as a
band begins,” said KYM, with a big smile.

“There are so
many things to teach you about this industry that in many ways,
it’s hard to know where to start. However, I have devised what I
hope is a logical approach. I’ll explain more later but first I
want to talk to you about your future as a group.”

The girls were
hanging on his every word.

“As you know,
there are a lot of you – 10 girls! One of the difficulties with
being such a big group is that it can be difficult for everyone to
be singing all the time. Whilst many of our songs will allow you to
all sing together, this won’t always be possible. There will be
times when it’ll make more sense for only a few of you to sing. One
thing I wanted to make clear now is that you’ve all been signed for
a reason; you all have a part to play, please don’t ever forget
that.”

The girls
smiled.

“Another thing
I wanted to mention - in the videos we bring out, you’ll all
feature but naturally depending on the song, two or three of you
may feature more than the others. We need to be united here. So
even if a few of you seem to have more of the spotlight at the
start, it’s not a sign of things to come – everyone will get their
chance to shine – got that?”