My Summer in Seoul

I had a sick feeling I was about to be more chauffeur than intern. I wanted so desperately to shout, “I FAILED, ran into my neighbor’s mailbox and ran over their dog Spike, who now has to use one of those little wheelchair things for his back legs to get around.”

Instead, I nodded glumly.

A day and a half in, and I was already experiencing all the regrets as every single guy went back to ignoring me—some were resting their eyes, others were on their phones.

Nobody looked at me, not even the one guy who had helped me—Rae.

“Here.” Solia tossed me the keys. “You already have their schedule on your calendar; enter the address into your phone. Get them to their shoot as fast as possible. They’re already a few minutes late, and we need this for promo.”

“Okay.” At least I was driving on the right side of the road, not the left. I could do this, follow directions, get them all there safe.

Grace to the rescue!

Solia shut the van door.

It was eerily quiet.

I mean, I could hear myself breathing, and I’m sure they could too. With shaking hands, I typed in the address only to realize I probably could have clicked it from my calendar and listened to the voice give me directions.

We were only a few minutes away from the shoot, so I figured I wouldn’t experience a ton of trauma.

I knew better than to think that in my head as I pulled into traffic and nearly sideswiped a delivery guy on his bike.

“Sorry!” I cringed.

Groans came from behind me and what I assumed were curse words directed at me in Korean.

I took a deep breath and stayed in the right-hand lane like the voice told me to. Oh shit, oh shit! “Is that a freeway!”

“Yes.” Rae’s one-word answer.

I gripped the steering wheel and drove onto the on-ramp, praying that traffic wouldn’t be terrifying. A huge truck honked his horn at me, then someone else followed suit. “Um, what’s the speed limit? Am I doing this wrong?”

Rae cleared his throat. “It’s in kilometers.”

“But, but—” I looked down at my dash, then up at the numbers. I was officially going slower than a turtle compared to everyone else. “Why not miles?”

He didn’t answer.

I was going to assume this lack of answering had to do with his irritation with my inability to understand numbers.

I finally took the right exit, only to have to slam on my brakes when the light turned red.

“Aghhhhh!” Sookie’s yell came from the back.

“Mi-Chin nyeon!” Kai said at the same time.

A few things came sliding forward, including Lucas from right behind me; I could see his glare in the rearview mirror as he shook his head in disgust.

Please, God, help the seatbelt not to have bruised his perfect skin.

“S-sorry,” I mumbled. “I swear I can drive. It’s just not like Seattle.”

They were quiet as I pulled in front of the building and parked in the closest spot I could find. I didn’t see any security or any fans, so that was good. I killed the engine, took the keys with me, and nearly cried when every single member shot me a glare straight from the pits of hell as they slowly got out of the car.

Fighting back tears, I quickly texted Solia and let her know that the guys had arrived unscathed. I left out the part about nearly killing the biggest K-pop group in the world, though.

Mortified, I followed them into the building. People offered small bows as we passed, I awkwardly tried to mimic them, but it felt weird, so I ended up doing this odd semi-bow-super-American-wave that probably looked even more strange, but at least I was trying.

The guys were all shuffled onto a large set. The concept was really cool, almost ethereal with trees, water that looked real, moonlight in the back, and a few dangling branches that didn’t look like props. Moss covered the ground, and a bit of smoke or haze was being pumped on stage.

Even though I was still upset over the drive, I finally was starting to get excited. This was why I was here, why I wanted to intern in the first place. I wanted to see behind the scenes. I wanted to see all the moving parts.

Swallowing my embarrassment, I tried to stay close enough to the group that if they needed something, I could help them, but far enough away that their stares wouldn’t singe me alive.

“You must be Grace,” a friendly, lightly-accented voice said from behind me.

The woman was my height, had gorgeous silky hair pulled back into a tight bun, and was wearing a walkie-talkie. She had a beautiful smile, and her kind demeanor immediately made my defenses fall.

“Yes, hi!” I did a bow curtsy thing and wanted to die only to have her laugh a bit and hold out her hand. I shook it with relief.