RVDFC: Seoul Long

Harmony

If you ever plan a trip to Korea, here’s some sage advice, splurge on one of those fancy cars to pick you up at the airport. In the long run, it’ll end up saving you time, stress, and eventual heartbreak.

What I ordered—the trip of my dreams to experience the Seoul nightlife, long walks through the cherry blossoms, and an immersive cultural experience.

What I got? Lost—really frickin’ lost.

So, maybe I confused some of my Hangul consonants with a few vowels. Come on, though, those double consonants are hard! I was far better at speaking Korean than reading it. In any event, one language barrier slip-up later and I completely missed my bus stop for my hotel, leaving me wandering the streets of Seoul at night….alone…carrying all of my luggage.

Good times.

Cars whizzed by on the bustling city street, and the neon signs glowing against the black sky melted into a blinding array of confusion. Turns out you’re an easy target when you’re wandering around a foreign country with a suitcase and desperation painted on your face. I trudged along the sidewalk, dodging cute couples taking selfies under the canopy of cherry blossoms and people jumping out at me with clipboards and pamphlets. I was pretty sure I got inducted into a cult just trying to ask for directions.

Then there was the shop owner who barked at me because I blocked the entrance to his convenience store when I stopped to look at the map on my phone. But hey, at least I picked up a few new Korean curse words. I think that’s what they were. At least he changed his tune when I purchased a cup of noodles and asked him for help.

Full of ramen and regret, I made my way back onto the streets with, as it turned out, a little less than a kilometer to go.

Between all the cars honking, a loud voice rang out through a speaker, echoing off the buildings. Red and blue spotlights blazed into the night sky from a nearby alleyway. I followed the commotion and squeezed my way through a crowd gathered between the buildings. Camera operators blocked most of my view, so I had no idea what was actually going on, but I prayed that I just landed on the set of one of my favorite K-dramas. That would almost make up for having to walk to my hotel.

“You!” a short, angry woman shouted at me in Korean. “You’re late. Go set up!”

“Huh?” I blinked.

She gripped my elbow and pulled me through the alley and shoved me near one of the trailers. “You set up here.”

What the hell was she talking about? I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

“My apologies,” she said in English this time. “You set up here.” Before I could ask again, she ran into the middle of the chaos and her voice vanished under the blaring of the director over the blow horn.

“I understood you just fine. I don’t know what’s going on, though.” I sighed and tried to grasp what the hell just happened.

“She wants you to set up your makeup table.” A head of blonde hair appeared in front of me. As she brushed it out of her face, a smile that could light up the Seoul sky streamed across her lips. “I’m Grace.” She held out her hand. “Sorry, I’m a hot mess. I’ve been running all over the place.”

“Harmony,” I said, returning her handshake. “And you look fantastic. You pull off the whole I just got pinned against the wall by the hottest K-drama actor in the world look.”

Her laughter just about matched the frequency of the blow horn. “I wish. No, this is the, I am in charge of the five most chaotic men on the planet and I haven’t slept in forty-eight hours look.” She blew another lock of hair out of her face. “We’re in comeback mode and I’m dying.”

I blinked. “Comeback mode?”

“Yeah, this is the video shoot for the title track of SWT’s latest comeback.” She arched a brow. “Wait, the company didn’t tell you that?”

I shook my head. “Uh, no. I’m not from a company; I have no idea what’s going on. Who’s SWT?”

“Well, crap.” Panic bled over her face. “We’re down a makeup assistant and the company was supposed to send someone over.” She stared at my luggage and then back to my eyes. “You look like you can do makeup. Nice puppy-liner. Can you help a girl out in a pinch?”

“I… I’ve never…” I glanced around at the chaos of the lights, music blaring, and the crowd of people. A ball of anxiety ramrodded my throat, blocking any sort of coherent response.

“There’s nothing to it, really. Soojin over there actually does the makeup. I’ll be sending the guys over to you for touch-ups between takes. Your job is to keep them looking pretty and dry.” She patted my shoulder. “Thanks for doing me a solid.”

“Uh, okay?” In hindsight, this was where it all went downhill. I should have said a polite pass and carried on my merry way. This, right here, was the moment that doomed my life forever.

“Great!” She bounced off, tossed out a bunch of things from her clipboard, then twirled around and ran back to me in a frenzy. “I’m so sorry. I owe you…Harmony, right?”

I nodded.

“Truly, I’ll make it up to you. You just saved me!” She disappeared in a fury of blond hair and flailing arms.

“No problem.” I forced the words over my tongue and prayed they sounded more confident than I felt. What the hell did I just get myself into?

I shoved my luggage to the side and plunked down in the makeup chair behind me. Grace mentioned it was a video shoot for a title track, so I guessed SWT had to be some kind of K-pop group. Maybe this could work to my advantage, as the whole reason I was in Korea was to take some time to celebrate graduating college with a BFA in dance before launching myself into a full-time career.

Okay, so my major was more geared toward elementary dance education, but hey, maybe I could network with some of these choreographers or something. You never know. Though, spur-of-the-moment makeup assistant wouldn’t really work on my resume.

I’d never really gotten into K-pop. So many of my friends in university were into it that I vehemently avoided it at all costs. The way they would spend hours rabbit-holing their favorite groups and threw away their hard-earned beer money on plushies and light sabers or light sticks or whatever they were called. It boggled my mind. Grown-ass adults gushing over some boy band…okay…fine, I may have understood that part. I’d have given my left kidney to be up close and personal with Kim Seon-ho from the show Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.

The director bellowed, “Cut!” and a stream of colored hair headed my way; one fiery red-head, one brown with bits of pink, and some guy with a messy man-bun that would look atrocious on any other human being except, somehow, he pulled it off and made me want to birth his children. They veered off and went for Soojin, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

A blond with long hair headed my way, and I assumed it was Grace coming to tell me my brief stint of makeup assistant had been called off.

I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

That’s when it happened—God’s gift to lady bits walked right up and flashed me a toothpaste commercial smile, and I swear the world stopped, along with my heart. I prayed there wasn’t a trail of drool running down my shirt.

His brown eyes laser-locked on mine and as much as I tried to look away, I couldn’t. I was pretty sure the derpy look on my face probably resembled a cross between a hyena and that sloth from the Ice Age movies.

He bowed low at the waist. “Annyeonghaseyo.”

“Hi,” I managed to spit out with a stupid little wave as I came out of my stupor.

A smirk twitched on his lips as he leaned forward. “Ah, American?” he said in English.

“Oh, yes. I’m American.” I nodded and rocked back on my heels. “From Texas.” Brushing a lock of hair behind my ear, I made every attempt to try and look away from him. It only made it that much more awkward. “You know, in America.”

Even his laughter was perfection. “Got it.”

Good god, what in the K-drama was going on with me? I suddenly lost all ability to speak Korean, let alone English. My capacity to function as a normal human being left me the minute he opened his mouth.

“You can pat me now.” He winked.

Pat him? I blinked and my heart roller-coastered through my insides. I had no idea what he meant, so of course my idiotic self did the most embarrassing thing possible. I reached up and patted him on the shoulder. His muscles twitched beneath my fingertips, and I had to stop myself from gripping onto his bicep for dear life. His baggy shirt and jacket did him no justice, hiding his muscular build. That boy was packing biceps for days.

“I meant my face, but thank you for the shoulder massage.” His chuckle jerked me back to reality.

I finally looked beyond his brown eyes and entrancing smile and spotted the sweat beading across his forehead. “Oh shit! Right! Yes, pat you. Got it!”

He laughed even harder as he eased himself into the makeup chair, and I wanted nothing more than for the Han River to swallow me whole in that moment. I ran over to Soojin and asked for something to pat him down with. Thankfully, I figured out how to speak Korean again, because as fluent as she was in the language of side-eye, I can only imagine what would happen if I had to try to communicate with her via awkward hand gestures and interpretive dance.

I ran back and dabbed the towel along his forehead. “I’m so sorry.”

“Let me guess, you’re new here?” He quirked a brow.

“That’s one way to put it.” I refused to get caught in the lust-trap of his eyes and concentrated my stare on his perfect skin. What the hell kind of sorcery was in his moisturizer, angel blood and baby tears?

“Well, new girl, you smell amazing.” A smile turned over on his lips.

I jerked my hand back from his forehead and stared him down. “Huh?”

“Your wrist.” He pointed to my arm. “I caught your perfume as you wiped me down. It’s lovely.”

“Oh, thanks, but I’m pretty sure you’re just smelling embarrassment and airplane peanuts.”

He tossed his head back and a loud laugh burst from his mouth. “You’re funny, new girl.”

Well, at least his bouncing laughter hid the fact that my hands shook like I just downed a vat of energy drinks followed by an army of espresso chasers. My nerves were doing me no favors today.

I forced a smile and brushed back a sweaty lock of blond hair falling over his forehead. Why did even his sweat smell like fresh rain and fabric softer? Life just wasn’t fair sometimes. Beautiful, smelled good, and charm oozed from his almost non-existent pores, he was like some kind of perfect K-drama or anime character come to life.

And he thought I was funny. Points for me for surviving under pressure.

“Did you like it?” He tilted his head.

I tossed the used towels into the trash. “Well, when I got up today, I had no idea I’d be wiping down a demi-god’s sweat, but I guess it wasn’t bad. I’ve definitely had worse jobs.”

Another laugh rippled across his very full, perfectly heart-shaped lips. “I meant the video shoot. But I’m glad I’m not the worst job you’ve ever had.”

And the last bit of dignity left my body. Why was I so utterly awkward and filled with verbal diarrhea? When under pressure, I had little control over what came out of my mouth and every possible dumb thing just flew out.

I face-palmed myself and groaned. “That came out totally wrong.”

As if on cue, Soojin scampered over to my station, waving a fan in one hand and a royal crap-ton of paper towels in the other, shouting at me in Korean. I hitched back and the blond demi-god nearly tumbled out of his chair.

“She, uh, said you need to keep the fan on me and continue patting me down.” He leaned in, covering his mouth from Soojin’s glare. “I’ll leave out some of the colorful adjectives she added in.”

It took everything in me to keep my eyes from rolling right out of my head. I understood every one of those colorful adjectives just fine. I didn’t need Soojin to make me feel any more incompetent and embarrassed. I was doing a fine job all on my own.

I bowed low in her general direction, took the fan and wipes and she scurried back to her station, continuing a string of colorful adjectives I’d have to add into my vocabulary on the rest of the trip.

“I’m sorry,” I said, turning the fan on and handing it to him.

“Soojin’s a little uptight. Don’t mind her. Plus, she smells like patchouli and tiger balm and doesn’t pat me down near as good as you do.” He winked.

I should have made a mad dash right out of that alley after that remark. If I had had any sense in my brain. But I didn’t. Have any sense, that was. Because I stood there and let my heart flip-flop through my chest, exploding a rush of heated adrenaline right over my face. I’m sure I glowed as red as Soojin’s laser-eyes.

Grace thankfully saved me. She bounded over toward my station. “Rae, the guys want to practice the next section of choreo before they film. You about ready?”

He nodded. “I’ll be right there.”

Grace turned to me. “Soojin wasn’t too tough on you, was she?”

I shook my head. “Naw, it’s fine. She was just doing her job. I understand.”

Grace smiled. “Thanks again for helping out, Harmony.”

“Harmony?” Rae quirked a brow.

“Oh, yes, sorry! Rae, this is Harmony. Harmony, this is Rae, leader of SWT.” She turned back to Rae. “She’s filling in for our missing makeup assistant.”

I gave a little wave.

“Okay, we’ve got to get you to choreo. We’ll catch you at the next break.” She tossed me a smile and all but yanked Rae’s arm out of his socket as she dragged him over to where the rest of the group was rehearsing.

He turned and looked at me over his shoulder, mouthing the word demi-god with a smile as he pointed to himself. My eyes widened as shock and even more embarrassment filled them and I two-handed face-palmed myself. Things were going swimmingly.

So that was Rae, the leader of the group. He brushed his hand through his hair as he fell in line with the rest of the group already dancing, like he hadn't even been missing. I stared in complete awe at the entire group as they moved like they were one succinct body. My inner dancer squealed at the clean lines and stark, sharp moves all in sync with each other. Their perfectly executed moves made it seem like they were almost computer-generated characters, weaving in and out of each other with stunning precision and timing. I’m pretty sure my mouth hung open the entire time I remained hypnotized by them.

That is until Soojin stomped her way over and broke my hyper-focus. “Stop flirting with the members, unless you want to get fired. You must prepare for the next break. Set up your station. I need you to do more than just one of the boys. If you can’t keep up, we need to find someone else.” She turned on her heel and marched back to her hole.

Flirting? I wasn’t flirting! I was trying not to throw up and shame my family for the next forty years. Flirting.

If she thought that was flirting, Soojin definitely needed to get out of the alley a little more. And probably lay off the patchouli and tiger balm. Rae was definitely right on that one.

I glanced around and made sure no one was looking before I sniffed my wrist and a smile twitched along my lips.

Don’t be stupid, Harmony. Please don’t do anything stupid.

But stupid was just how I rolled.