Do you think our life is decided by the chances or the choices? The answer is quite obvious, the chances. Let's see if you'll stick to this answer after I give an example, a real one. A boy with talent in music and dreams of becoming a singer is desperate for any chance related to music to show up. When the chance shows up, he would grab it and hold on to it as if his life depends on it. But that boy, the boy I'm talking about, now made a different choice. He declined that chance of making his singer's dream come true. Let me ask you again, do you think our life is decided by chances or choices? I'm hearing a lot of 'choices' as answers. Yes, you are correct. Just because a chance shows up doesn't mean our life would change but the choice we also make matters.
This guy is none other than our Sung Woo. It's hard to believe, I know, but that was his first choice when KH Entertainment approached him for scouting him as a trainee. KH groups are the leading company in South Korea not just in the music industry, they are the empire of many other sectors too, which I'm not well aware of. It shook everyone around him when Sung Woo rejected saying I can't come right now. Then how did he join HAVEN? Good question. Because, when he said right now, he literally meant right now, because he was working as a part-timer at a convenience store, the owner was out, if he left the place then it would be a trouble for customers. His kind heart impressed them, so the recruiters waited for him for three hours, and then he was scouted. His recruitment is still legendary in the K-pop industry.
What I am trying to say is that, if I made it into SNU's two months internship program, most probably I won't be attending it. My parents would never let me go. They are concerned about slight changes in my college schedules, not to mention my home is just a kilometer away from college. Will they suddenly have a change of heart if I say I want to go to Korea? Never, not in a million years. I know they won't, but still, a tiny little part of my hand wants it. That little part is telling me I should do whatever it takes to convince them. Let's give it a try, after all, chances matter too, isn't it?
Ritu and Shreya are waiting outside the music club building for me. Our college's music club is the most funded club, because of the interest of students. It's not that easy to make it to the club but the parties hosted by the club welcome all the students. The club is divided into many segments- pop, rock, classical, country, folk and so many more. K-pop is also a part of this club and I'm a proud member of this segment. We are not the founders, our seniors fought for adding K-pop to the club, after so many pleas our segment was accepted. At first, this segment didn't receive any type of funding, no parties were hosted, and no events too. It was the black era for our segment. As days moved on other college students who shared a common interest in K-pop started to send anonymous funds to our college, which became the start of the success of our segment. We are here to discuss throwing a promotional party for the new album released by HAVEN. When I say party, it's not some boring instrumental no ruckus party, I mean the remarkable kind minus booze, as we are inside the college.
"What took you guys so long? All are waiting for you", Priya our club's secretary comes barging out.
"Blame it on Jeeya, she was the one delaying our walk", Ritu pushes me under the bus almost immediately.
"Uh, how? You were the one who took like eighteen minutes to comb your hair and put on lipstick to come here because your stupid crush is here", I complain.
"One, he is not stupid. Two, he is a fanboy, we all know fanboys are rare species. This is my motto when you can't marry your bias, at least marry someone who knows about your love towards your bias", Ritu goes on.
"Enough, enough, let's get going", Priya urges us inside.
Our club room is filled with about fifty students waiting eagerly to discuss the upcoming events. All of them are not Aves (oh I forgot to mention our fandom name, it's Ave), still we gather together, after all, K-pop stans must stay together or else other segments will tear down this segment.
"As you all are aware, we are here to discuss about the plans for the promotional event for HAVEN's comeback, any ideas?", Priya asks the group.
"Why not take this event to the next level including HAVEN merchandise as a welcome gift?", Ritu asks hopefully.
"That's a great idea but the funding we get won't be sufficient for that", Priya answers.
"So, let's collect money from students as registration fee, snacks can be arranged from our funding money and the merchandise can be bought with the registration fee", I add quickly and Ritu's disappointed face turns happily towards me.
After a load of planning and arguments, the event was finalized. The room started to become empty as the students left to attend their classes. We stayed back to help Priya arrange the chairs, it's not like the secretary should do this too but the students expect everything to be done by her.
"How's your dance practice going?", Shreya asks me and Priya.
"It's going okay, we are nervous as this is our first time performing without the group. Also, this is the last dance on stage for us as we are final years", Priya says with a sigh.
"Yeah, most of the girls want to see us fail as we were selected for this duet without any audition", I shudder at the thought of making a mistake during the performance and letting Karthik, our dance club secretary down. He was the one who put me and Priya into this, for this he received a lot of hate from the others.
"The only fun part of this whole thing was Anaya", Priya laughs.
"I haven't told them yet", I say to Priya.
Both of them rise their eyebrows in suspicion.
"You know how Anaya bullied Shreya, messed with her HAVEN photocards and stuff right?", I say to them. She thinks she's this cheerleader with a bossy personality from the American shows. She bullied Shreya for about a year, which we didn't know at all. Shreya is the type of girl who wouldn't want to trouble others with her problems, so she didn't say anything about the bullying to us. We came to know about that only when the bullying went to the next level. Anaya poured paint on Shreya and made her upload that pic to our college webpage. The pic was taken down immediately, as Shreya didn't file any complaints Anaya was just given a two days suspension. We were angry with Shreya for not telling us, but we know she was scared that Anaya might hurt me and Ritu. We agreed not to talk about that incident ever again.
"That bitch, she wouldn't dare to do that to me or you, Shreya is just an innocent and easy target. I wish I could smash her head on a running truck", Ritu boils in anger.
"Woah, I didn't know my friend loves me so much", Shreya hugs Ritu.
"Idiot, she tore HAVEN's photocard you want me to leave her alone?", Ritu says with the same intensity of anger.
"Of course, it's for the photocards, not me", Shreya mocks a cry.
"Okay stop, both of you, wait for the good part", Priya stops them and makes me continue.
"She's with us in the dance club and that brat wanted the spotlight on her so badly, she tried a lot to convince Karthik but that didn't work. She knew if she convinced me she could do that duet with me and kick out Priya", I know people can be disgusting but Anaya after doing awful things to my friend, how stupid of her to expect a favor from me.
"That cunning witch", Ritu spats.
"She did what she's good at", I say with a sigh.
"You mean ass- kissing?", Shreya laughs unbelievably.
"Yeah, and in order to impress me she asked me to suggest a K-drama"
"Don't tell me you suggested one of our favs", Ritu mocks horror.
"Ay, listen", Priya cuts off Ritu.
"We all know how strict her mother is, she wants Anaya to be the first in everything and has limitations for her to watch entertainment shows. So..."
"C'mon tell me what happened", both of them ask curiously.
"I suggested her to watch Nevertheless, which unfortunately she watched with her mother. I know this because she uploaded her Insta story with the caption, 'My first K-drama, with mom and already love that guy'. After this we can all picture what would have happened", I gave my best wolfish grin.
"You, you sly fox, you nailed it", Shreya gives me a high five.
"Rumors have that all her devices have been confiscated and will never be returned to her ever again", Priya beams at us.
"This is legendary. It's even better than her head being smashed on the running truck", Ritu joins.
"Serves her right", Shreya says her mind elsewhere, she must be thinking about all those incidents. I pull her into a hug and others join. If I make it to SNU, it would be boring without these girls. Ritu has applied too, I know it's for my sake, but she's not that interested in pursuing another degree. Even if she makes it, she won't go. Her dream is to take over her mom's boutique and develop it.
As for Shreya, she's doing BSc physics only because both of her parents are physics professors. They want her to get a degree in physics then she's allowed to do whatever she wants. She has applied for an art program in France. Most probably she'll fly immediately after our final semester exams. So, there is no hope for us to stay together after this year. Any relationship starting with a hello will have a goodbye as well. We must prepare ourselves for that, it will be tough but we have no say in that.
Dad's waiting for me in the parking lot, suddenly I feel nervous. It's hard to hide something from my parents but I can't reveal about this internship without a clear plan to convince them. If I handle this five-minute drive, dad will go to work after dropping me off. Then it's easy to avoid mom.
"Hey dad", I get in the car.
"Hey sweetheart, how was your day?", he asks while taking the car out of the parking lot.
"It was good and for you?"
"Boring"
"You should quit your job if it's not satisfying enough dad"
"Aha, it's nice to hear those words satisfaction and fun in theory dear, but in real life, it's not that nice", he says laughing.
"Well, suit yourself"
He drops me off and leaves. I slowly open the gate and head inside. Mom was already home; I take off my shoes and tiptoed inside. The living room is empty. Uff! I run towards the stair just in time mom emerges from the kitchen.
"Stop right there", mom says in a tone which means I-know-what-you-are-doing.
"Oh, hi mom", I say sheepishly.
"Why are you running from me?". She asks with a raised eyebrow.
"I am not running from you, I didn't even know that you are home", I lie, which sounds like a lie even to me.
"Okay. You know our neighbor who complained about your high music volume, she came before two days", mom says rolling her eyes.
"That nosy neighbor. It's unbelievable mom, it was one time when my friends came over. God, I hate her. Why did she come?"
"You shouldn't say that about elders. She came here to tell me that, the lights are on all night in the left corner room upstairs, which is yours. Her intention was to tell us that we are forgetting to switch it off but little did she know that my k-drama addict daughter is watching dramas all night. I wanted to check, so I watched for two nights and found out your room lights were on", she gave me a death stare.
I'm dead meat. My mom's already against my fangirling, now this. I just wish that nosy neighbor would disappear.
"I was studying for finals mom", I plead with my eyes.
"Oh really"
"Sorry mom, I won't repeat it", I'm damn sure she's going to cancel my Netflix subscription.
"Stop acting, it's your wish to sleep or not. I know you are not a girl who would put her duties aside and watch k-dramas because Ha-neul wouldn't like it", she says with a wink.
Wait, what?
"You are not mad?", I ask her in disbelief.
"No, now leave before I change my mind"
"Love you mom", I give her a hug and sprint to my room.
I smile to myself like an idiot. My mom mentioned Ha-neul, I wanted to say to her he's her future son-in-law, but even for me, I know it's too much. But we can have our fantasies, right? I open my laptop to order HAVEN's new album which dad promised to buy. At the same time my screen dings with a mail notification.
It's from SNU.