Kpop Club (2 page)

“The bridge of
your nose isn’t very pronounced and in general is a bit, how can I
say? Stumpy.” We would need to fix that. Again, I know an excellent
person in Apgujeong, Dr Daniel Kang, who could sort that out in no
time. Your glasses would have to go too – unless of course we were
going for a certain look, like geek chic. But really, I would
require you to get corrective surgery or wear contacts. Lastly, how
much do you weigh?”

Krystal felt
like she was going to explode. Who was this guy? All these
questions didn’t seem right.

“I… I don’t
know. I think I’m about 57kg,” she said, struggling for breath.

“That’s what I
thought,” said Manager Oh.

She wondered
how on earth he could tell simply by looking at her.

“I think you
need to lose between 7 to 10kg, Krystal. We need to get you down a
few dress sizes. As they say, the camera adds 10 pounds!”

Krystal tried
to smile but simply couldn’t; she was completely devastated.

“I can see
from the expression on your face that this is a lot to take in.
Trust me, in this industry you have to do a lot of things you don’t
necessarily want to in order to keep up with the competition. Let
me suggest the following,” he said, doing a quick twirl in his
chair.

“I think that
I could find a place for you in my new girl group. I would however,
want to spend some time in the studio with you first to double
check that your voice sounds as nice when it’s recorded. And of
course, any contract would be conditional on you making the
physical adjustments I’ve just talked about.”

Krystal
managed to nod her head to show that she was as least listening.
Manager Oh continued.

“I want you to
go away now and have a think about things. I’ll get in contact with
you in the next couple of days to arrange a second meeting and we
can see where we stand. How does that sound?”

“That sounds
great, thank you,” said Krystal, doing her best to stay
composed.

“Good - we’re
finished for today,” said Manager Oh, jumping out of his seat.

Krystal woke up to the irritating drone of her
iPhone alarm. For a moment, she forgot about her audition the night
before, but it wasn’t long before it all started flooding back. In
many ways it had been a bittersweet experience. On the one hand, it
was great to meet a kpop legend and for him to have liked her
voice. On the other hand, his comments about her physical
appearance were nothing short of devastating. All of the changes he
wanted…

Krystal pushed
back her duvet and rolled out of bed, placing her feet in her comfy
furry slippers. She walked over to the mirror, yawning and
stretching as she went, and began to carefully examine her face.
What was it that Manager Oh said? He would struggle to make a
V-shape on her face? If he was lucky he’d make a wide U?

Krystal
couldn’t understand why a V-shape was more attractive than a
U-shape. Also, what was wrong with her creaseless eyelids? She
liked them. On top of that, never once had she thought that she
needed to lose weight.

A solitary
tear ran down one of her cheeks; this was quickly followed by
another and then another, until she broke out into a full sob. It
was times like this that she really missed her mum. She would’ve
made everything okay. It wasn’t as if Krystal couldn’t talk to her
dad; she knew he loved her dearly. It was just different,
somehow.

Feeling a
little stuffy and needing to clear her head, Krystal bashed out a
short text message to Rebecca, her best friend. Rebecca would make
her feel better.

What are you
doing? Wanna grab a coffee and maybe some pat bing soo? K xx

The reply came
back almost instantly.

Yes that
sounds perfect – meet in an hour at Hongdae station, exit 12? R
xx

Great see you
soon! K xx

Krystal placed
her phone on her desk, slowly took off her tatty Mashimaro t-shirt
and wiggled out of her pyjama bottoms. She kicked the clothes onto
a pile of dirty laundry in the corner of her room and headed to the
shower.

The hot water
and green tea shampoo worked wonders and for 20 minutes, she
enjoyed not thinking about singing. Feeling rejuvenated, she dried
her shiny black hair, popped on a flowery summer dress and left
home en route to the bus stop.

The apartment
Krystal shared with her dad sat halfway up a luscious mountain.
This meant that she completed at least two tiring walks up and down
the mountain every day. Her dad joked that this saved them a small
fortune on gym memberships, but on hot and humid summer days like
this it was difficult to see things so positively.

Fortunately
for Krystal, the green number 5 bus turned up within minutes and it
wasn’t long before she got to Hongdae subway station.

Seeing that
Rebecca had arrived early, Krystal sneaked up behind her and
smothered her with a big hug.

“Hello you!”
said Krystal.

“Oh, hello
darling! Why are you so happy today?” said Rebecca, grinning.

“I’m just glad
to see you! Come on let’s go get some caffeine.”

The girls
walked arm-in-arm to the nearest Starbucks and sat down with two
iced lattes and a special pat bing soo. This was what Krystal
enjoyed in life - good company and a nice treat.

“I’ve been
dying to find out how your audition went yesterday,” said Rebecca,
excitedly.

“I don’t quite
know where to start, Becs. I went to meet Manager Oh, who was very
straight to the point. I sung for him and he liked it. He said he
could possibly see me in a girl group he’s forming at the
moment.”

“That’s
brilliant news, Krystal!”

“But…”

“But? But
what?”

“There’s
something I want to talk to you about,” said Krystal.

“Yes, of
course. What’s wrong darling?”

Krystal stared
down at the coffee table for a couple of seconds before
continuing.

“Manager Oh
said I need to… what did he say exactly? – that’s right, he said I
need to make some adjustments.”

“What a weird
thing to say. Whatever does he mean?” said Rebecca, tilting her
head to one side.

“First off, he
said I need to go see a surgeon because my jaw is too round!”

“You mean he
wants you to get the V-line jaw surgery?”

“So you know
about it?!” said Krystal, visibly shocked.

“Yeah, it’s
very fashionable to have a V-shape jaw these days; loads of people
are having it done. I heard that Cindy from school is getting it
done this weekend, in fact.”

Krystal leaned
forward in her seat, her mouth wide open.

“I can’t
believe it! She’s only 17.”

“I know! But
this is Korea!” said Rebecca.

“Oh, my gosh…
right well anyways… so he wanted that done, then he also said he
wants me to get my nose done as it’s a bit stumpy! I also need to
get noon couples according to him. Then I need to lose weight and
stop wearing glasses – get corrective surgery or start wearing
contacts. I can’t afford to get contacts!”

“Never mind
contacts, they’re affordable compared to the surgery. You’re
talking about $30,000 dollars’ worth of cosmetic work. How are you
going to afford to pay for all that?” said Rebecca.

“How on earth
do you know how much all that costs?!” said Krystal, laughing.

“I’ve been
watching a lot of those reality TV shows. In my estimation, a nose
job is around $5,000; the jaw surgery is $20,000; and the eyelid
surgery is around $5,000,” said Rebecca, putting on her best
professor’s voice.

“I just don’t
know what I should do. I think I look fine as I am and I don’t want
to look like another one of those samey kpop singers. What’s going
to happen to their faces when they get older?”

“I agree, I
think you’re beeeeautiful just the way you are. But you’ve seen
most of those girl groups out there now. They all have the same
nose and whatever shape face is in fashion.”

“But that
doesn’t mean I have to look like that does it?!”

“No, of course
not! I’d say don’t do it if you don’t want to, but signing with OMG
would be a great way to launch your career; you’d get so much
exposure. On a slightly different note, I saw one of the Bear &
the Band music videos the other day – Manager Oh was pretty sexy
back then wasn’t he?!”

“He’s actually
quite repulsive and a lot shorter in the flesh,” said Krystal,
adopting a very serious tone.

Rebecca
giggled.

“Well, I’m
sure you’ll have plenty of other opportunities if you don’t sign
with OMG, right?”

“That’s the
thing, Becs – I’ve been sending audition tapes to all the record
companies since I was 16 and no one has seemed interested.”

“Yes, but now
we’re just about to finish school you’ll be able to focus on it
properly. I bet the record companies get so many audition tapes
that they don’t even listen to them all.”

“Maybe you’re
right,” said Krystal, smiling again.

“Don’t worry
about it too much, hun. We’ve just finished our final exams, we’ve
got a couple more weeks of school to go to and then you can
concentrate on singing full time!”

“Yeah, thanks
Becs. I still need to talk to my dad about it all but…”

“He’ll be fine
with it you dummy!” said Rebecca.

“I hope so,”
said Krystal, biting her lip.

“Anyways, what
did Manager Oh say to you when you left?”

“He basically
told me to think about it and that he’d get in contact to arrange
another meeting. I really don’t know what to do, Becs - I don’t
want any of the surgery. Manager Oh kept talking about how you have
to do things you don’t want to do to get ahead in the business;
maybe that’s just the ways things are and I need to accept it?”

Just then,
Krystal’s phone began to ring; she took a deep breath and picked
up.

“Krystal, this
is Manager Oh. Listen, I’m having a little celebration in a club on
Thursday night and I’d like you to come and discuss our next steps.
How does that work for you?”

“Yes, great
thank you,” said Krystal, now on autopilot.

“Excellent,
make sure you wear something nice. I’ll text you in a minute with
the details. See you later.”

Manager Oh
hung up and a text message followed immediately after.

Club H, 10pm,
Gangnam Subway Station, Exit 3

“So what did
he say?!” said Rebecca, bouncing up and down with excitement.

“He wants me
to meet him in a club on Thursday to discuss things.”

Krystal paused
to mull things over whilst Rebecca waited patiently. After a couple
of minutes, Krystal’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“I have to go,
I just have to go! You know this is all I’ve ever wanted,
Becs?”

“It’s all you
ever talk about,” said Rebecca.

“Even if I
don’t go through with it, I need to go and see how I feel. Who
knows? He may not even offer me a contract.”

“What if you
sign something and then change your mind later though?” said
Rebecca, doing her best to be the voice of reason.

“I won’t sign
anything and even if I do agree to anything, I’m still going to
need to convince Dad to give me his blessing, and that’s as good a
safety net as anything.”

“This is
true,” said Rebecca with a cheeky grin.

The girls
spent the rest of the afternoon running through what might happen
at the meeting at Club H and didn’t leave the café until 6pm.

Krystal
arrived home to find her dad cooking something that smelt
divine.

“Where’ve you
been darling?” said her dad, turning to look at her whilst
continuing to stir some stew.

“I went to
meet Rebecca, Dad.”

“Oh yeah? And
what did you get up to yesterday that made you so tired? I came
home and you were fast asleep. I hope you’re getting enough sleep
and studying hard?”

“Yes, Dad. You
know I’ve already finished my exams? I was just a little tired
with, you know – girl stuff.”

“Oh right,”
said her dad sheepishly. “Right, well go and wash your hands,
dinner will be ready in 5 minutes.”

“Yes, boss!”
said Krystal, before scurrying up to her bedroom.

Krystal slept through her alarm on Monday morning
but still managed to make it to the main gate of Korea
International School Seoul (KISS) with 5 minutes to spare. She
loved her school; it had state of the art facilities and was a real
melting pot of cultures, with students from all over the world.

The only
downside of going to KISS was the constant reminder of how little
money she had; almost all of her classmates wore designer clothes,
were chauffeured everywhere and generally never thought twice about
spending money. Krystal on the other hand, bought most of her
clothes in local markets, took the bus everywhere and worked a
part-time job in a coffee shop.

Some of the
other girls occasionally teased Krystal about her clothes, but
she’d tell herself there was nothing wrong with them; they kept her
warm, were nice colours and at the end of the day, who cared if
they weren’t designer labels? Krystal was raised to think it was
silly to spend a fortune on anything unless it was a classic piece;
like a Burberry coat or a Rolex watch. Even then, she’d only buy
classic pieces if she could afford them, which she couldn’t and
that was fine.

Krystal’s
general attitude to fashion meant that she was never part of the
so-called popular crowd. She wasn’t unpopular, she just didn’t
socialise with the main group of girls, which actually suited her
just fine. Instead, she had a barrel of laughs milling about with a
handful of good friends, like Rebecca.

Krystal’s dad
denied himself many things to send Krystal to KISS and this
sometimes made her feel guilty for not wanting to pursue a more
traditional career, like law or medicine. Her dad assured her that
this was fine; he’d support her decision to do anything as long she
studied hard before she left school. Now that exams were done and
Krystal had kept her side of the bargain, all she had to do was
enjoy the final weeks of class.