Julia looked around at the seats in her row and then behind her. Not a light stick in sight. Maybe Young Kim wasn’t big enough yet to have a fan-group name or merchandising? Tae had mentioned he hadn’t heard of Young Kim and thought he could just be an up-and-coming idol.
Julia let her thoughts lead her back to the outdoor concert Tae had prepared for her. She was mesmerized by his impressive dance moves and the way he had complete control over his body. Muscles in his back, his abs, his legs, his arms all gracefully moving to the music. Tae was even sexier than the guys on-screen, and those guys were hot.
Bad Julia. What happened to the Tae who was like a little brother to her?
He’d grown up. They both had. And now this grown-up version was single. Available.
This was not a line of thought Julia wanted to go down. Because if she were to give in and explore something with Tae, Julia, as she always did, would somehow scare him away. And she was getting too used to having him around. And Tae was going through his own journey in trying to figure stuff out for his life. He’d made that clear. She didn’t want to derail that for him.
It was ten minutes past seven and the houselights still hadn’t dimmed, and half the chairs remained empty. Korean time. Always plan for everything and everyone to be thirty minutes late.
Julia closed her eyes and waited, the sound of the excited chatter lulling her to sleep.
She was startled awake by the loud boom of what sounded like a variety-show theme song. She sat up in her chair and looked to the stage where men in sequined dinner jackets and perfectly coiffed hair danced to the beat. It was like a bad Las Vegas revue. Julia tried to hold back her laugh, not that anyone could hear her with the music. She appreciated some musical comedy for an opening number. But after a few songs of bad dancing and cheesy, over-the-top singing, Julia was starting to get antsy.
Finally, a younger, handsome man took the center of the stage. He welcomed the crowd in Korean, and then again in broken English. The ladies in the audience screamed like they were watching The Beatles.
“I’m so happy to feel so much the warmth and the love from America fans.”
The sound of the crowd rose and spurred him on.
“Thank you for support, and I will continue to work hard to bring you better shows in the future.”
He bowed and walked offstage as another singer took his place.
Thank goodness. Julia wasn’t sure she could watch much more of this. She felt the start of a headache coming on.
But it wasn’t the end that Julia had hoped for. In fact, there were three more costume changes, a myriad of variety-show-type skits, and more of the music that Julia could not get into. The combination of yodeling, overdone vibrato, folk, and disco was a complete shock to Julia’s system.
The crowd was loving it. They were loving Young Kim and the other performers. This was definitely more her mother’s jam. In fact, some of the songs sounded familiar from tunes she’d heard playing from her parents’ beloved variety shows on TV.
When the final number and the two encores had come to an end, Julia put her head between her legs to try and gather herself. She looked up to find the irritated face of a woman who could be her Aunt Linda’s doppelgänger, anxiously waiting to get past Julia in the row.
“Sorry,” Julia said as she grabbed her purse and coat and shuffled out the aisle.
Julia took her ticket to stand in the line to get backstage. She would give anything to go home right now. She was not looking forward to meeting Young Kim and having to comment on the concert she just saw. Whatever that was, it was not K-pop.
“Kim Young Gi is even more handsome in person. I can’t believe we’re gonna meet him,” the voice behind Julia said. She looked over her shoulder to find two young ladies, possibly Julia’s age. So she wasn’t the only younger person here.
“He’s gotten even better since winningMr. Trot. The new season’s contestants are good, but none of them compare to Kim Young Gi.”
Julia looked upMr. Troton her phone. She face-palmed. It was a competition variety show featuring singers of trot, a type of highly popular traditional Korean music. She’d gotten it wrong. She assumed all Korean music was K-pop, spending days studying up on the music, the bands, the background. All for nothing.
“Excuse me, are you gonna go or can we pass you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, I’m going,” Julia said. She stepped up as the man with the wordStaffon his shirt directed her to the table where the performers were seated in a line. She was ushered to the first person, who smiled and said hello.
“Hello,” Julia returned the greeting.
They stared at each other. His smile grew more and more forced.
Julia fidgeted, uncertain of what to do.
The next person in line pushed her forward and Julia almost tripped over her feet. She grabbed onto the table to catch her fall. The water bottles that were all placed out in front of the performers, open without tops, began to sway, and the world moved in an almost comical slow motion as each bottle tipped over.
Water spilled everywhere, and trot singers in various shapes and sizes stood to scramble out of the way to not ruin their colorful sequined jackets.
“Oh my God, I am so sorry. I was pushed, and I had to grab the table. I didn’t mean to—”
