Speed Talking and Streaming

Chapter 3

Speed Talking and Streaming

I had one of those K-Drama moments where you leave baggage claim and there in a crowd of people is someone holding a big sign with your name printed on it. Of course, she put my full name that I never go by, Gelilina and I had to bite the inside of my mouth to keep from sighing.

We approached the tall glamorous woman holding the sing with some trepidation but then she beamed at us, and I relaxed.

'You must be Gelilina,' she said with a thick American accent. Talking fast and moving us along the busy airport with no idea when I could say something cause she barely took a breath between sentences. 'I'm Jenny Young from the Korea Tourism Association. Congrats on winning our grand prize by the way. You may call me Miss J. Welcome to South Korea girls. I have everything prepared for you already. You'll be staying at the Grand Troy Hotel in Gangnam. It's absolutely gorgeous and overlooks Hangan River. You will love it. As you are the grand prize winner, you will be put up in the Princess suite. I have some lovely treats to welcome you already put in your room thanks to my assistant here, Daniel. Say hi to Daniel.' The bespeckled slight man who had to jog to keep up with her nodded at us.

'It's 18:30 and it will take about an hour to get to the hotel. You will have dinner as soon as you arrive, but I am sure you are eager to get out of your airplane clothes so I made reservations for 20:00 and the hotel restaurant agreed to seat us late should you girls need a little more time. There's a limo waiting to take you to the hotel, a little welcome to Korea present. Oh, and don't worry about Wi-Fi, Daniel rented you all portable Wi-Fi routers, just don't forget to charge them at night. Your first schedule is tomorrow morning at 9:30 in Digital Media City for Music Time pre-recording, so you will have breakfast in your hotel rooms. Don't be afraid to call room service. Everything is on us. And of course, do not forget your notebook and camera so you can blog about everything. Any questions?'

I had about a thousand but the first thing that came out of my mouth was, 'Please, call me Gel. Like the G in Galileo and nice to meet you Miss J.'

'Nice to meet you too, aren't you sweet,' said Miss J putting her hand to her mouth in an over exaggerated way. Rather like a movie star talking to normal people.

'Okay, it's pretty humid girls so I also got you portable fans for when you go out and lots of sunblock. You'll find them all in your rooms along with some sunglasses from Something Hot, a brand gift so do take photos of you wearing them for the blog okay.'

'Something Hot, that's a luxury eyewear brand,' Sunny whispered to me, leaning over to me with some trouble as she was pushing her cart full of luggage. 'Almost a thousand pounds a pair.'

They were going all out to welcome us, and I was certainly grateful, but it was hard not to be overwhelmed by it all. Liz on the other hand looked thrilled, nodding along to everything Miss J said, pushing her cart with one hand and using her smartphone with the other.

'OMG, the hype for GXY's release is massive, it's been out 30 minutes and its already trending on Twitter!' she exclaimed. 'We have to listen to it as soon as we get in the limo. I cannot wait til we get to the hotel though, Miss J's right, I am mingin.'

At her words, my heart leapt. Will this finally be their first big hit? For the past two years, I've been stanning GXY and sharing their amazing music with everyone I knew including my two best friends who I made fans too. It was the leader Brendan Choi who first caught my eye back when he was a model before GXY's debut, appearing in various commercials and music videos of his labelmates.

GXY has 8 members, Brendan the main rapper who we usually call Bren, Tony K, the sub rapper, Seungyoun Bae, the main vocal, Jupiter aka Park Sejun the sub vocal who we call JT, main dancer Shou Orihara, lead vocal Hyeon and the maknae Kang Min-ho.

They debuted under Outer World Entertainment, a mid-size company that's been around for a while with 4 other successful artists under its label. GXY did a lot of pre-promotion for their mini album Rock Galaxy including maknae Min-Ho's adorable acting debut in a web drama and Seungyoun's impressive stage musical. For the last three months, OWE focused on the members individual projects so that the boys could draw in new fans.

With all that they have achieved over the past two years, a music show win still eludes them and it's all I want for them, us all the Dear Astras, our fandom name, around the world rooting for them.

Most of my life, astronomy has been my obsession thanks in large part to my dad being one of the most well-known astrophysicists in the world taking me to lectures, planetariums and even naming me after his favourite astronomer. But K-pop came into my life and brought me something I could call my own. Something I loved with all my heart and gave me joy and of course the occasional tears.

GXY is the source of my happiness and why I got to have this amazing opportunity, two months in South Korea going to music shows, fan signs, musicals, fashion shows and sightseeing to all the places I've only seen in K-Dramas and music videos.

'I want to stream all night in our hotel,' I said, the excitement building up inside me like a balloon.

'Don't worry, we will have you there in a flash,' says Miss J with a wink and a mock English accent as we approach the doors out to the carpark and suddenly, we were hit with a wave of humidity that feels rather like walking in a steam room.

'Ych a fi!' Liz exclaims in Welsh.

'Okay this is mingin,' says Sunny pulling a face. 'Been to Korea to visit my family numerous times but I'll never get used to the humidity.'

Thankfully, the stretch limo was already waiting for us when we stepped outside and soon as we and our bags were in, the three of us were on our phones checking Twitter and YouTube. Miss J and Daniel sat up front to give us privacy which I was really grateful for. The first time we had to ourselves since we landed but we were on full Dear Astra mode and ready to take in GXY's comeback song.

'How are the views?'

'Frozen, bloody hell.'

'But look at the number of likes!'

'Liz pull it up on your iPad so we can watch the MV together first, then start streaming on our devices.'

Within minutes we squished together with Liz in the middle and the large iPad balanced on her lap. She loaded up GXY's MV for their title track 'Moonlight Eyes,' and the first thing we saw was Bren's beautiful face, his eyes closed and laying on the grass with a blanket of stars above him. I thought he looked breath-taking, and I put my hand to my heart the moment I saw him. A beautiful piano opened the song but then the beat came in and it was a dramatic dance track with the boys in deep blue outfits. Bren being the more muscular of the 7, wore a v neck shirt that showed a lot of his chest and made my face warm. The song was both sexy and romantic with the lyrics designed to make us swoon and swoon we did.

'Kyaaaa look at Minno!' said Sunny, clapping her hands to her mouth at the sight of her bias.

'Tony K needs to stop with those stares, he is too sexy.'

'This song is fire,' I said not taking my eyes off the screen for a moment. All too quickly for me, the song ended, and we immediately hit the replay button. I loaded the song up on my iPhone and my notebook pc for what would be an hour streaming session. Miss J even leant us her phone to stream on the Korean sites. Daniel streamed the song on his own phone and connected the device to the limo's speakers, so the limo was filled with GXY's music. As we streamed, we hoped with all our hearts that it would be enough. That Moonlight Eyes would chart, trend and break records. But no matter how it did, I loved the song and MV so much. Our boys deserve the world and the feeling I feel when I listen to their music is more important to me than any accolade.