Chapter 16 Mr. Trot
Mr. Trot
Julia
Julia had only ever been to the Pantages Theatre once to see the Broadway rendition of The Phantom of the Opera performed. She couldn’t really imagine a K-pop concert here within its ornate walls and intricately adorned ceiling.
She looked back down at her phone to check the text from Young Kim. The address and date and time were all correct. She looked
at the marquee to see Korean Music Festival—featuring Young Kim in lights. She was definitely at the right place.
But Tae never mentioned K-pop stans donning formal attire to concerts. And there was a whole lot of sequins going on here.
The crowd was not what Julia had expected. There wasn’t the wide range of concertgoers . . . from teens to adults. It skewed
more to middle-aged women in their fifties. All with the short-cut permed hair and colorful sparkly dresses with bold lipsticks.
The chatter was loud, and the excitement high.
Young and Julia had made plans for Julia to attend his concert and then the two would meet backstage before going out for
drinks. But she was way underdressed if the other concert attendees were anything to go by.
Julia found the way to her seat and plopped down into the surprisingly comfortable theater chair. At least this would be an upgrade from what she was expecting.
The fatigue from the day made Julia’s shoulders feel heavy. After a late night at Tae’s, Julia spent the majority of Sunday
at the office working before heading over for her date. She didn’t want to be ungrateful, but the recent boom in business
wasn’t something her current business model and staff were able to accommodate. Stores and online sites were out of stock
on products, and customers were frustrated that they couldn’t get their hands on the now-trendy skincare for holiday gifts.
She would focus on the immediate problem of distribution and restocking in time for the holiday orders. The bigger, more long-term
problem of how to grow the company would have to come later. Julia was curious what Andrew Lim and Hansuk Holdings would bring
to the table and if, with a partnership, they could move quickly to accommodate the boom in business.
This was why Julia had wanted to deprioritize her personal life in the first place. Yes, she was tired of bad dates. But truthfully,
she was just tired. Period. She didn’t have the time or the energy to be at the Pantages Theatre watching a concert on a Sunday
night.
Though, oddly, Julia didn’t feel this exhausted when she was doing her practice dates with Tae. Everything felt different
with Tae. Easy. Fun. Safe.
Julia looked around at the seats in her row and then behind her. Not a light stick in sight. Maybe Young Kim wasn’t big enough
yet to have a fan-group name or merchandising? Tae had mentioned he hadn’t heard of Young Kim and thought he could just be
an up-and-coming idol.
Julia let her thoughts lead her back to the outdoor concert Tae had prepared for her.
She was mesmerized by his impressive dance moves and the way he had complete control over his body.
Muscles in his back, his abs, his legs, his arms all gracefully moving to the music.
Tae was even sexier than the guys on-screen, and those guys were hot.
Bad Julia. What happened to the Tae who was like a little brother to her?
He’d grown up. They both had. And now this grown-up version was single. Available.
This was not a line of thought Julia wanted to go down. Because if she were to give in and explore something with Tae, Julia,
as she always did, would somehow scare him away. And she was getting too used to having him around. And Tae was going through
his own journey in trying to figure stuff out for his life. He’d made that clear. She didn’t want to derail that for him.
It was ten minutes past seven and the houselights still hadn’t dimmed, and half the chairs remained empty. Korean time. Always
plan for everything and everyone to be thirty minutes late.
Julia closed her eyes and waited, the sound of the excited chatter lulling her to sleep.
She was startled awake by the loud boom of what sounded like a variety-show theme song. She sat up in her chair and looked
to the stage where men in sequined dinner jackets and perfectly coiffed hair danced to the beat. It was like a bad Las Vegas
revue. Julia tried to hold back her laugh, not that anyone could hear her with the music. She appreciated some musical comedy
for an opening number. But after a few songs of bad dancing and cheesy, over-the-top singing, Julia was starting to get antsy.
Finally, a younger, handsome man took the center of the stage. He welcomed the crowd in Korean, and then again in broken English.
The ladies in the audience screamed like they were watching The Beatles.
“I’m so happy to feel so much the warmth and the love from America fans.”
The sound of the crowd rose and spurred him on.
“Thank you for support, and I will continue to work hard to bring you better shows in the future.”
He bowed and walked offstage as another singer took his place.
Thank goodness. Julia wasn’t sure she could watch much more of this. She felt the start of a headache coming on.
But it wasn’t the end that Julia had hoped for. In fact, there were three more costume changes, a myriad of variety-show-type
skits, and more of the music that Julia could not get into. The combination of yodeling, overdone vibrato, folk, and disco
was a complete shock to Julia’s system.
The crowd was loving it. They were loving Young Kim and the other performers. This was definitely more her mother’s jam. In
fact, some of the songs sounded familiar from tunes she’d heard playing from her parents’ beloved variety shows on TV.
When the final number and the two encores had come to an end, Julia put her head between her legs to try and gather herself.
She looked up to find the irritated face of a woman who could be her Aunt Linda’s doppelg?nger, anxiously waiting to get past
Julia in the row.
“Sorry,” Julia said as she grabbed her purse and coat and shuffled out the aisle.
Julia took her ticket to stand in the line to get backstage. She would give anything to go home right now. She was not looking
forward to meeting Young Kim and having to comment on the concert she just saw. Whatever that was, it was not K-pop.
“Kim Young Gi is even more handsome in person. I can’t believe we’re gonna meet him,” the voice behind Julia said. She looked
over her shoulder to find two young ladies, possibly Julia’s age. So she wasn’t the only younger person here.
“He’s gotten even better since winning Mr. Trot. The new season’s contestants are good, but none of them compare to Kim Young Gi.”
Julia looked up Mr. Trot on her phone. She face-palmed. It was a competition variety show featuring singers of trot, a type of highly popular traditional
Korean music. She’d gotten it wrong. She assumed all Korean music was K-pop, spending days studying up on the music, the bands,
the background. All for nothing.
“Excuse me, are you gonna go or can we pass you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, I’m going,” Julia said. She stepped up as the man with the word Staff on his shirt directed her to the table where the performers were seated in a line. She was ushered to the first person, who
smiled and said hello.
“Hello,” Julia returned the greeting.
They stared at each other. His smile grew more and more forced.
Julia fidgeted, uncertain of what to do.
The next person in line pushed her forward and Julia almost tripped over her feet. She grabbed onto the table to catch her
fall. The water bottles that were all placed out in front of the performers, open without tops, began to sway, and the world
moved in an almost comical slow motion as each bottle tipped over.
Water spilled everywhere, and trot singers in various shapes and sizes stood to scramble out of the way to not ruin their
colorful sequined jackets.
“Oh my God, I am so sorry. I was pushed, and I had to grab the table. I didn’t mean to—”
Fans continued to push Julia forward, taking unsanctioned photos of the performers during the commotion. Julia was escorted
out of the way and off to the side where a security guard opened the exit door. She shoved her pass in his face in panic.
“I’m a guest.”
The guard rolled his eyes and ushered her to a back dressing room instead.
Julia stood out of the way, hidden in a corner, waiting for her date.
Young Kim and some of the other trot singers, including a couple of young boys dressed up like little men, filed in.
Seeing them up close with all their makeup and sweat felt a little too Barry Manilow for her.
Young noticed her in the corner and walked up to her, asking her something in Korean.
Julia shook her head to let him know she didn’t understand.
“So sorry. You were at meet-greet outside. You spill water everywhere.” His eyes danced in delight like Julia’s clumsiness
was the funniest incident he’d ever witnessed.
“Yes, sorry. I’m Julia Song. I think you and I have a date tonight?”
His brows rose as recognition hit him as to who Julia was.
“Oh shit. Hey, Julia. Sorry to keep you waiting. Was that you? That’s hilarious. Let me just get changed, and I’ll meet you
back here in a few.”
Julia nodded in silent shock and agreement. What happened to the guy’s broken English? His accent?
Julia’s fingers itched to text Tae to tell him all about the concert and the odd Young Kim. She quickly grabbed her phone
and snapped a picture of the performers before they changed out of their sparkle.
So I may have been mistaken when I said K-pop, she typed as she pressed Send on the photo.
Her phone rang immediately. “Oh my God. Is that Mr. Trot?”
Of course Tae knew Mr. Trot. There was literally nothing this man did not know.
“Yup. Never mind that I had to google what trot was.”
“Wait, your date is with Kim Young Gi?”
“I guess so? And apparently that’s a big deal?”
“He’s super popular in the trot circles right now.”