Pete leaned on the desk, looking at me so intensely that for a moment, I forgot about the mics.
“Complicated, how?” He asked.
“Because the media still impose Western validation as the benchmark. You’ll see headlines like ‘K-Pop finally breaks America’ when, in reality, it broke into America years ago. It’s less about trends, and more about Western media finally deciding it matters. In a way, the fans really decided the course on this one, because historically, the music companies have had the power to tell us – the public – what’s popular, what to like, who’s in and who’s out, – but with K-Pop, the fans have firmly fought back. Just look at the well deserved outrage around who is, and who isn’t nominated during awards season.”
“Now that’s a really interesting point, let’s talk more on that.”
The rest of the interview blurred past. I was barely aware of time passing until the producer held a hand up to the glass, and Pete segued neatly into a break, thanking me for my time and leaving an open-ended suggestion to having me back on, before clicking the ‘off-air’ button and launching some music into the void to replace our voices.
“Kaiya, I am thoroughly surprised,” he confessed, taking his headphones off. I followed his lead and hung mine neatly back on the nearby rack.
“Surprised?” I echoed.
“I really wasn’t expecting that to be so animated. To be honest with you, I don’t know a great deal about K-Pop, and I wasn’t expecting to get so invested!” He laughed, and I smiled in response.
“Pete, I think you might have just exemplified my point,” I said gamely.
He held up his hands and nodded. “Every day is a school day.”
“Babes you were amazing! I’m so fucking proud of you!” Becka howled down the phone as I queued to get on the train.
“Thanks, but it was only a little segment, probably not a lot of listeners.”
“Who gives a fuck!” She said, outraged on my behalf. “Post it! Are you allowed to do that?”
“Yes,” I said after squeezing myself into a seat. “Providing I credit the show and don’t post the entire thing.”
“Do it, then!”
“I’m gonna!” I insisted, laughing.
“Seriously babes, “Becka’s voice took on a unexpectedly sombre tone. “I am so, so proud of you. Everything you’ve done. You’re doing it, y’know? I always knew you would.”
A suspicious sniffling sound alerted me to the fact that she was crying.
“Becka.”
The sniffling continued.
“Becka,” I tried again, “I love you, too.”
Becka burst into tears, and I had to pull the phone away from my ear as loud sobs burst out of the speaker, earning me a concerned look from the woman I was pressed up against in the packed carriage of the London Underground.
Similar, but less wet messages flooded in throughout the day. First it was just my parents, and then Taeyang, but eventually my colleagues and peers sent messages, or one-liners, and I was kind of surprised to learn that so many people had listened in.
But the thing that had made me sit suddenly on the little bed in my dorm room was a message from Ace on my social media. I knew it was him, and not a scam. I confirmed it.
Kim Seokmin
Kaiya, you did so well today. I am so happy for you. Eat well to celebrate.
The ‘reply’ button was right there, but every time my thumb hovered over it, I seemed to freeze. Until, eventually, I closed theapp and put my phone down and tried to pretend the door that had just cracked open didn’t exist.
Chapter 39
It seemed that I couldn’t open my laptop anymore without Google alerting me to something new about the members of GVibes.
Minjae had been spotted in New York.
