Chapter One

Choon-Hee rubbed her arms as she waited in line to order a coffee. The aroma of the air smelt delicious and her mouth was already watering for the delicious blended Caramel frappe with a shot of hazelnut. Her favorite coworker was working right now too. She made the best kind of coffee.

"Binna! Hey." Choon-Hee said, still kind of tired.

"Hey, your usual?" Choon-Hee smiled and gave a nod. "No classes today?"

"Nope. I also don't work until tonight so I thought I'd come here and work on some homework here." Choon-Hee replied, lifting her computer bag away from her hip. "Yay!" She said not completely sarcastically. She loved the courses she chose. Music Production. She loved music so much, but right now she was struggling with one of the assignments. She needed to make a track that didn't sound like her usual tracks.

She paid for the drink and thanked Binna as she went and sat her stuff on a table by the big window. Looking out the window and watching people walking by sometimes helped her inspiration. Her name was called out and she went and got her drink. She thanked Binna again before sitting down at her table. She opened her bag and pulled out her laptop. She popped in her headphones and plugged them into the laptop.

She took a sip of her coffee as she opened the laptop with one hand. The screen immediately lit up to her unfinished project. She sighed as she hit play again of what she already had done. It was only a couple seconds and she needed it to be at LEAST two minutes long. She sighed as she fidgeted with the audio. Her usual style was some kind of hip hop or maybe r&b style. Drums, electric guitar, trumpets, instruments like that.

So she had settled to add some instruments she didn't usually put in there. Violin, piano, harp, those kinds of things. She tapped her finger on the table in time of the music as she looked ahead and was surprised to see a male sitting a couple tables away on his own laptop. He had different stickers on the top of his laptop, stickers she had never seen before. He was bobbing his head a bit as he pressed a headphone more stable into his ear. He wore a black mask over his mouth and what seemed like light make up. Some soft brown liner, foundation, and a tan shimmery smokey eye from what she could see.

His hair was a soft brown and had fluffy curls on the top of his head. It was some kind of undercut style. He had brown almond shaped eyes with the natural tanned skin of a Korean. Choon-Hee fumbled for her coffee when he looked up and their eyes met. She quickly looked out the window as she sipped her coffee before turning back to her project.

She let out a frustrated sigh and pulled her headphones out of her ears when she saw a hand knock on the table. She followed up to the owner's face. The guy that had been sitting with his laptop a couple tables away.

"May I sit with you?" He asked and she was surprised to hear a different accent mixed in with his Korean.

"Oh, um sure?" She was confused on why he moved from his table to ask to sit with her. He pulled the chair across from her out from the table and sat down. Choon-Hee gazed out the window as she sipped her coffee absentmindedly. She had finally gotten up to a minute long on the track but she couldn't figure out the transition from strings to the bass of the drum and electric guitar.

"What kind of music were you listening to?" The male asked and she looked at him.

"Hm?"

"Oh, well I noticed the headphones and you were bobbing your head a bit. Tapping your fingers in time with it too. I do that when I'm listening or producing music." He explained.

"Oh, well that's what I was doing. I'm working on a track."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, I'm studying Music Production at the University." Choon-Hee said. "I'm having trouble with it though.. it is supposed to be an experimental one that isn't like what we usually do."

"Well, I'm not in University but I am a band leader." He said.

"Really? That's super cool."

"Yeah, I guess. Can I try giving it a listen?" He asked and Choon-Hee nibbled her bottom lip.

"Um, sure. Why not? I'm having trouble with the transition though, so it ends a bit abruptly."

"Okay." He moved his chair next to hers as she handed him a headphone and put the other one in her ear. She moved the cursor back to the beginning and hit play. She watched his face and he started out by slowly bobbing his head before his face scrunched up in what she thought was disgust. When she finished and he headed the headphone back she felt a bit discouraged.

"Was it that bad? It's not my usual genre."

"Are you kidding? It was good, but I was disappointed by the abrupt ending though." He said with a grin.

"But.. you like scrunched your face up in disgust.."

"Huh? Oh no, I'm so sorry! My face scrunch means it was good! So what trouble are you having with the transition? What are you trying to transition to?"

"Well, as I said I don't usually use all those strings. I usually do more bass like drums. So, I thought maybe the first minute or so would be the strings and then transform it into a sudden bass drop. I've never done something like it so I'm sure it should still get a good grade."

"Oh, I see. Like a sudden dance break sorta of?" Choon-Hee nodded in agreement.

"But everytime I try it just feels like a sudden complete change of genre and a whole different soundtrack." She frowned as she tapped her finger beside the mousepad of her laptop.

"Hmmm, can I try something maybe?" He asked and Choon-Hee hesitated. What if he only made it worse? She knows it is harsh to judge someone like that but she hasn't even seen or listened to his work. "I mean it's fine if you-"

"You know what? Go for it. I can take any help I can get at this point." She said and turned it to him. She watched as he zoned in and retrieved a headphone back. She took her headphone out not wanting to hear the random noise audio clips he might click. She drank her coffee and instead of looking out the window she watched him. He was really hot and smart from what she could tell. He was even hotter when he was focused.

She watched his eyes and hand moves as he worked on it.

"Do you mind if I connect my phone for a moment?"

"What for?" Choon-Hee asked, skeptical.

"I have a perfect original audio of mine that I think would work well. You can say no of course." He said as he looked at her with warm sincere brown eyes. She sighed, she really hoped she wouldn't regret this.

"Okay, go ahead." She said and he quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and plugged his phone into her laptop. He then went back to clicking on her laptop. After about 20 minutes and a Caramel Frappe later he tilted the computer back to her. He waited for her to put the headphone back in her ear before hitting play. Choon-Hee's jaw dropped in amazement as he pulled off exactly what she was looking for. "Wow! Oh my god you are amazing…uh sorry what's your name?"

"Christopher. You can call me Chris though." He smiled as his face flushed. "You really don't need to butter me up by the way. It was something really simple." He said, brushing off her praise.

"Christopher? I noticed you have a different accent too. Are you not from here? My name is Choon-Hee, by the way." Choon-Hee said a bit jumbled. "And are you kidding me? I've been trying that for the last 20 minutes before you came over! That was incredible. Show me?" He chuckled as he shook his head.

"I was born here in Korea but I moved to Australia when I was younger. So that's probably the accent you are hearing." He said, his ears a bit red. "Of course, so I just.." He showed her how he made the harp into a guitar playing the harp notes just before the bass drop to make the transition.

"And what about the harmony clip you added? Is that your band?" Choo-Hee questioned, curious.

"Yeah, those are my Vocals, Niki and Sky. Niki is the Maknae of the group."

"Oh I see. Their vocals are no joke." Choon-Hee said with slightly wide eyes. "Niki is the youngest? Is he from America?"

"No, he's from Canada actually."

"Really? Wow."

"Here let me show you one of our songs." He said as he unplugged his phone from Choon-Hee's computer before getting his own laptop. "All the finished ones go on my laptop. Big files." He explained as he handed her one of his headphones and he pulled up an audio folder. She put it in her ear and listened to the most amazing song she ever heard. She went to pull the headphone out, but it just plopped out because of her slackened jaw.

"Yo! That is like contract worthy!" She exclaimed as she looked at him. "Your members have voices. The one doing the ultra fast rap? He was spitting fire! Your band is insane!" Christopher laughed at her awe.

"The one doing the really fast wrap is Bin. He helps me with writing the lyrics." Christopher explained.

"Wait wait, so who is who then?" Choon-Hee asked. "Like what section are they in?"

"Well, as I said before Niki and Sky are the vocal line. Bin, Byeong-Ho, and Dae-Jung are the rap, song writing, and production team. Sam, Jae, and Ji-Min are in the dance line."

"Wait, you guys have a dance line too?" Choon-Hee asked. "You guys are like a whole self produced boy band."

"Well, why wouldn't we? What's music without choreo?" Christopher said with a smile.

"I dunno a lot of self made bands don't think of that. They should though. Your group is amazing. What's your band name?"

"Stranded."

"Stranded? That's interesting."

"It's because we found each other, we felt lost and alone. When we found each other we no longer felt that way."

"So did you pick all the members then? Since you're the leader?"

"That and I'm the oldest out of all of them."

"Really? How old are you?"

"26."

"Oh! They don't joke when they say your genes make you look so young. I'm only 21!" Christopher laughed at her surprise.

"Are you from America then?"

"Yes, I am."

"Your Korean is good. Is your family from Korea?" Choon-Hee chuckled.

"Absolutely not. Do I look Korean? Nope, I am probably as white as they come." Choon-Hee said. "My American name is actually Chamille."

"Oh, wow! So you learned Korean completely from scratch?"

"Um, I'm still learning. But yep."

"Impressive."

"Haha, thanks."

"By the way, can I get your email or something? I can send you original audio clips and things like that."

"Hmm, are you sure you don't just want my email so you can bother me."

"And what if I do?"

"Whoa!" She laughed as she pulled out a piece of paper and wrote her email on it. "Here you go."

"I do actually have to go now, otherwise I'm going to be late for my job." He said as he looked at his phone and put his laptop in his bag.

"Okay. It was nice meeting you!" Choon-Hee said with a

smile as he waved.

"See you around, Chamille!"

"Hey! Don't call me that!" She exclaimed as he laughed before exiting the cafe with a bell jingle.