Kpop Club (3 page)

First period
was Maths, next it was Biology and then Krystal would have to check
her planner as she couldn’t remember. One thing she did know was
that it was music class after lunch and today they’d be given the
chance to compose their own piece using percussion instruments only
- she couldn’t wait.

Krystal made
her way into the main building, powerwalked to her classroom and
took a seat next to Rebecca.

“How are you
feeling today?” said Rebecca.

“I’m alright
thank you, Becs - just a little apprehensive about my meeting with
Manager Oh but otherwise fine. How are you?”

“I’m right as
rain, hun.” said Rebecca.

“Good good. I
was going to ask you - Manager Oh said to come looking nice on
Thursday so I’ve been racking my brain trying to decide what to
wear. I just don’t think I have anything suitable - any ideas?”

Rebecca pursed
her lips as she began to think.

“Hmmmm… I
wonder what you could wear - I tell you what, why don’t we go
shopping today after school? We don’t have any homework so we can
have a casual evening looking around,” said Rebecca.

“You know how
much I like our little shopping sessions, Becs, but I just can’t
afford anything at the moment. I haven’t worked for the last month
with exams and everything.”

“I’ve still
got my birthday money from last month; why don’t we use that and
you can pay me back later?”

“I can’t let
you do that - you should spend that money on yourself,” said
Krystal.

“I’m not
taking no for an answer,” said Rebecca, jokingly giving Krystal the
evil eye.

Krystal
sniggered but before she could reply, their teacher called for
attention.

“Right class,
please turn to page 23.”

Krystal sat at
her desk smiling to herself; how lucky she was to have a friend
like Rebecca.

The lesson
passed quickly and the girls had a nice lunch before going to their
music class, in which they composed a funky piece involving nothing
more than drums and a xylophone. The school bell rang at 3pm and
the girls packed up their bags, walked to the main road and jumped
into a cab.

The taxi
driver hardly flinched when they got in and only asked them where
they wanted to go after a couple of minutes, when the trot song he
was listening to had finished.

“Please take
us to Edae,” said Rebecca.

“Edae?” asked
Krystal, “What are you thinking?”

“I have a plan
- our budget for your outfit is around 100,000 won plus 10,000 won
for us to have a coffee.”

“That’s far
too much, Becs.” said Krystal.

“Nonsense, I
have an older sister - not my real sister obviously, but my onnie –
Hyerim onnie. She has a clothes shop in Edae and should be able to
help us.”

“Cool beans,
cool pat bing soo,” said Krystal, smiling at Rebecca.

Rebecca shook
her head in disapproval but returned the smile.

The taxi
driver sped through the city and the girls arrived in Edae in no
time. The streets were packed full of students from Ewha University
enjoying all that the area had to offer - cosmetics shops, coffee
shops, smoothie bars, and stalls selling jewellery and other
accessories. The humid summer air was laced with the smell of fried
dumplings and kpop music blared out from all directions. Krystal
felt alive.

The girls
walked through the main stretch before turning down a side street
that was packed with clothes stores. A man on a motorbike
delivering Chinese food zig zagged through the crowd and zoomed
past them, almost knocking Krystal over. After a number of similar
near misses and having dodged a small army of people, they finally
arrived at Hyerim onnie’s store.

Rebecca went
in first and ran over to a pretty lady in her late 20s.

“Onnie, how
are you?!”

Krystal put on
her politest smile and stood patiently with her hands together,
waiting for Rebecca to introduce her.

“Rebecca! How
are you? It’s been too long. You’re getting prettier by the day,”
said Hyerim Onnie.

“Thank you,
Onnie!” said Rebecca, delighted with the compliment.

“So who’s your
friend?” said Hyerim Onnie, smiling warmly at Krystal.

“Onnie, this
is Krystal my best friend from school – she’s going to be a big
kpop star soon!”

Krystal
blushed.

“Is that so?
Well, I better get your autograph now,” said Hyerim Onnie,
pretending to reach for a pen.

“Nice to meet
you onnie,” said Krystal, performing a mini bow.

“Lovely to
meet you too, Krystal. Any friend of Rebecca’s is a friend of mine.
So Rebecca, I haven’t seen you in ages and then all of a sudden you
show up out of the blue. I’m going to take a wild guess here - you
need some wardrobe assistance?”

Rebecca made
the cutest facial expression she could.

“Actually
onnie, this isn’t for me. Krystal has a big meeting about a record
contract on Thursday and needs something nice to wear.”

“I see, I see.
Where’s the meeting?” said Hyerim Onnie, chuckling.

“It’s in a
nightclub in Gangnam, onnie.”

“That’s a bit
of a strange place to have a meeting, isn’t it?”

“Yes onnie –
it’s a long story – I’ll have to explain it properly to you later.
The meeting is with Bear so Krystal is very keen to look good.”

“Bear as in Oh
Young Taek from Bear & the Band?”

Rebecca and
Krystal nodded in unison.

“Wow, I used
to have such a big crush on him when I was in school! You lucky
girl, Krystal!

Krystal
laughed awkwardly. She half wanted to tell Hyerim onnie what she
really thought about Manager Oh but decided to keep it to
herself.

“So what kind
of look are you going for, Krystal? Something sexy? Something
elegant? Something in between? What make-up are you going to be
wearing as well?” said Hyerim onnie.

Krystal paused
for a couple of seconds.

“I wasn’t
planning on wearing any make-up. I guess in terms of the dress,
it’d be nice to have something in between.”

“You weren’t
going to wear any make-up?” said Hyerim onnie. “With a pretty face
like that? Why ever not?”

Krystal didn’t
quite know how to answer.

“Uh… I guess
I’ve just never learnt how, onnie.”

“Onnie,
Krystal’s mum passed away when she was very young so she never had
anyone to teach her…” said Rebecca.

“Oh, I’m so
sorry.” said Hyerim onnie, looking rather embarrassed. “Do you want
to learn darling? Because I’ll happily teach you.”

“That’d be
really nice,” said Krystal.

“Great! Okay,
give me a minute; I think I have some ideas for a dress. You two
have a seat over here,” said Hyerim onnie, pulling out two plastic
stools. “Let me get you something to drink, how about some peach
iced tea to cool you down?”

“Thank you,
onnie.” said the girls.

Hyerim onnie
fetched the tea, went to the back of the store and then reappeared
two minutes later, holding three dresses.

“Okay, these
are my three recommendations. I must admit I do have a favourite,
one that I think will be perfect, but I want to see what you think
first.”

Hyerim onnie
held up the first dress; a purple, knee-length number with an open
back and sequins.

“This is
option one; quite discoey but strangely fashionable at the moment!
A lot of these things might be considered a bit gaudy for western
tastes but this is very en vogue in Korea right now.”

The girls
oohed and aahed over it.

For her second
option, Hyerim onnie presented a short white dress; the girls were
less enthused by this.

“For your
final option, I present to you a classic piece,” said Hyerim onnie,
holding up a short black cocktail dress.

She twirled
the dress around on its hanger so the girls could see it from all
angles. Out came the oohs and aahs again.

“Now that
you’ve seen them all, what do you think?”

“I mean
they’re all lovely, but my favourite by far, is the black one -
it’s sexy in an understated way but still very classy.” said
Krystal.

“You’ve
obviously got great taste, Krystal – that’s exactly what I thought
too,” said Hyerim onnie.

The girls
giggled.

“Now, come
with me,” said Hyerim onnie, grabbing Krystal’s hand and leading
her over to a changing room at the back of the store. “Put it on
and come out and show us when you’re ready.”

Krystal got
changed and walked gingerly out of the dressing room. Rebecca and
Hyerim onnie were gobsmacked.

“You look
absolutely beautiful,” said Hyerim onnie.

“Just perfect!
How do you like it?” said Rebecca.

Krystal turned
and looked at herself in the mirror.

“I love it. I
feel like a million dollars,” she said, beaming with joy.

“Now, no dress
is complete without matching shoes. What’ve you got at home?” said
Hyerim onnie.

Before she
could answer, Rebecca jumped in, “She doesn’t have anything, onnie.
What can we do for her?”

“Wait here,”
said Hyerim onnie, magically reappearing within moments with a pair
of heels and a simple black clutch handbag. “Try these,” she said,
handing them to Krystal.

Krystal shook
with excitement. She sat back down on her plastic stool, strapped
on the heels, grabbed the handbag and headed straight for the
mirror.

“Bravo! That
completes the outfit!” said Rebecca.

“I’m a
genius,” said Hyerim onnie, chuckling to herself.

Krystal
suddenly went quiet.

“Thank you so
much for showing me all of this onnie - I love it - I really do but
I have a very limited budget and I don’t think...”

“Don’t you
worry about that,” said Hyerim Onnie. “This is on me; you can pay
me back when you’re famous by coming to visit my store. Then
everyone will know that the kpop mega star, Krystal Kim, shops at
my store!”

“That’s so
kind onnie, but there’s no way I can...”

“Rebecca has
told me a lot about you, Krystal, and how good a friend you’ve been
to her; this is my treat and my pleasure - don’t worry about it!
Now it’s time for make up 101,” said Hyerim onnie, grabbing Krystal
by the hand.

“I don’t know
what to say, onnie - thank you so much!” said Krystal.

And with that,
Hyerim onnie went through her make-up kit, showing Krystal how to
apply foundation, eye-liner, eye-shadow and lipstick. Once the
tutorial was finished, she took the girls out for some spicy
dak-kalbi, bought Krystal her own set of cosmetics and put them in
a taxi home.

“Your onnie is
amazing,” said Krystal.

“Yeah, she’s
the best - an absolute sweetheart,” said Rebecca.

“I can’t thank
you both enough for today; I’m just so grateful.” said Krystal,
leaning her head on Rebecca’s shoulder as she welled up with
tears.

“Don’t be
silly you doughnut!” said Rebecca. “What are friends for? Now, you
just concentrate on your interview on Thursday.”

Krystal wasn’t used to wearing heels and so took
special care as she walked out of exit 3 of Gangnam station. The
night sky was lit up by neon lights advertising a variety of
businesses – karaoke rooms, pharmacies, motels and saunas. The
lights were really quite beautiful Krystal thought to herself, even
if some of the things that happened in the establishments were less
so.

Keen to check
her make-up, Krystal navigated her way through a crowd of drunk
businessmen and darted into the bathroom of a nearby Starbucks.
Applying the make-up tips Hyerim onnie had given her, she now felt
and looked predatory. She tilted her head up to examine her U-shape
jaw and started to consider what she’d do if Manager Oh offered her
a contract.

Could she have
all that surgery? Manager Oh was responsible for a host of
successful groups and Krystal was fairly sure she’d be successful
if she signed with him; it was a real dilemma. There’s only one way
to find out she said to herself as she splashed some cold water on
her face and made her way out of the bathroom.

Krystal
arrived at Club H to find big groups of noisy clubbers congregated
outside. She suddenly felt very young. She’d only been to a club
once before and that was with friends and then there was safety in
numbers. She took a deep breath and made her way over to the
entrance of the club where a bouncer stopped her and asked for her
ID.

“I don’t have
anything on me I’m afraid but I’m here to see Manager Oh, perhaps
he’s said something to you?” said Krystal, trying to stay calm.

“You must be
Krystal? Manager Oh told us to expect you. Please go in, he’s in
the VIP room at the back,” said the bouncer.

Krystal let
out a sigh of relief – that could’ve been embarrassing, she
thought. She walked into the club and went down a long set of
stairs into a glassed reception area which looked out over a packed
dance floor. The bass from the music shook the floor and Krystal
was reminded of how careful she’d have to be, walking in her new
heels.

Following some
rather muffled directions from a lady at the cloak room, Krystal
made her way through a rat’s maze of corridors until she reached
the Bear’s room, room 44. She performed two sharp knocks before a
giant of a man opened the door.

“Yes?” he
said.

“Hi, I’m here
to see Manager Oh,” said Krystal.

“Come in,” he
said, slowly opening the door.

Manager Oh saw
Krystal immediately.

“Krystal!
Welcome! Come right in, we’re just about to do some shots. These
are some of my colleagues,” said Manager Oh, pointing to three
eagle-eyed men, all in their early 40s.

“Someone, give
Krystal a glass,” said Manager Oh.

The giant
passed Krystal a shot glass and Manager Oh picked up a half empty
bottle of soju.