"A one way ticket, only one way to go"

Jukebox Hero

By the time Byeol got the bus stop closest to the dorms, it was after 12, dark, and cold as she followed the directions on Lisa's business card.

She ended up in a shady little cornor of the city, in front of a crappy old apartment building that looked like it had at one point been an office of some kind. Maybe in the 70s.

"I guess this is the place..." She carefully walked up the cracked steps and into the lobby.

The lobby was dingy, and the lights flickered as Byeol walked across the colorful yet threadbare carpeting, up to the front desk.

An older man sat behind the front desk, smoking a cigarette and reading a magazine with a girl on the cover.

"What do you want?" He asked, not looking up from his magazine.

"Um, I'm looking for room 2006?"

"Second floor, to the right."

Byeol thanked him and turned for the elevator.

"Gotta take the stairs. It's broken." The man said.

She sighed and turned for the stairs. She walked up the dismal, poorly lit stairway, feeling a bit skeeved out. There were spiders webs and cracks covering the gray drywall.

Byeol physically cringed the further into the building she went.

Oh God, I really hope I don't get assaulted here or something...

Byeol felt major relief wash over her when she finally found the right door. Inside, she heard the sound of women's voices talking loudly, or rather, arguing.

Byeol blinked, raising a hand to knock on the door. As soon as she did, the arguing inside the room came to an abrupt halt.

The door suddenly swung open, and Kaen wrapped her in a tight hug. She squealed as Byeol stumbled under the weight of the young woman.

"Oh my gosh, you're here!" She tugged on Byeol's arm, dragging her into the apartment.

The apartment itself, surprisingly, wasn't too grody inside. It was obviously decorated very lovingly, with lots of throws and pillows and fairy lights. The cheerful colors really did a good job brightening the place up, and the heavy smell of perfume and hairspray masked the scent of mildew that emanated from the whole building.

If you could look beyond some cracked drywall and squeaky hinges, which Byeol could, it looked downright comfy.

Inside the room, Byeol could see Lisa sitting on the sofa next to another woman around their manager's age with colorful hair.

Byeol was surprised to see Lilliana standing in the kitchenette.

"Everyone, say hello to our lead guitarist, Byeom Sejeong!" Kaen cried.

"Byeol Seong," Byeol corrected, smiling at the other women in the room. "Easy mistake. Happens all the time. Nice to meet you guys, though!"

Lisa gave a bored wave as she crossed her long legs. "I'm glad to see you took up the offer, Seong. I think you'll go far here."

The other woman nodded at Byeol, pushing her round glasses up her nose. "Hey. The name's Kaguya. Bassist."

Lilliana walked over, smiling. "I'm glad you decided to join...!" She held her arms out nervously, and Byeol gladly hugged her.

Byeol pulled away and turned to Kaen. "So, is this everyone? Or are there more? You know, managers and stuff?"

"Nope! This is everyone! Our motley little family's all here!"

Lisa sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you, we're a band, Kaen. Not a family-"

Kaen hissed at her, waving her off. "Anyway, I'll let Lilliana show you to your room! I gotta go call my bank real quick."

Lilliana carefully tugged at Byeol's hand, leading her over to the other side of the apartment. There were three doors, one of which was open to reveal a cramped little bathroom.

Lilliana opened the door closest to the back of the apartment, stepping aside so Byeol could enter.

Inside the room were three mattresses laying on the floor, two of them piled with blankets and pillows. Clothes lines ran across the ceiling, several bras and blouses dangling from them.

"I... Hope you don't mind, but you'll have to bunk with me and Kaen. Kaguya and Lisa share a room, too."

"Oh, that's fine!" Byeol stepped into the room, setting her bag on the only unmade bed. "So, when are we gonna start practicing? Do we have a studio yet, or...?"

Kaguya stood in the doorway, watching her with intelligent dark eyes. "I don't think Kaen's thought that far ahead yet. Honestly, this whole thing's been kind've a mess."

Lilliana shook her head. "That's mean. She's trying her best..."

Kaguya snickered and turned away. "Sure she has. But it's still been mess."

Byeol watched the exchange silently, holding her jacket. After Kaguya left, Lilliana turned around and sighed, walking over to the big window on the far end of the room.

"There's a clothes rack in the cornor by the door. You can hang your stuff up there," Lilliana offered as she slid the window open, stepping out onto the fire escape.

Byeol quickly finished her unpacking, then went over to the window where the petite drummer was still sitting.

"Can I join you?" She asked, smiling brightly. Lilliana returned her smile.

"Sure. Here, we can share my blanket."

Byeol stepped outside the window onto the fire escape, the metal cold against her skin as she sat next to the lilac-haired drummer.

They sat in silence for a second, watching the cars and planes pass.

"Kaguya's not mean, by the way," Lilliana said suddenly.

"Sorry?"

"Just now, with Kaguya. I thought that it might've given you a bad impression of her. She's not mean, even if she seems that way. I think she's just a bit awkward," She pulled her blanket up to her chin.

"And she's known Kaen for forever, so that's probably why she doesn't mind calling her out."

Byeol smiled, looking back through the window into the apartment.

"For the record, I didn't think she was mean. She seems cool. All of you guys do, actually."

Lilliana giggled. "I mean, you're, like, super cool. I was kind've intimidated when I first saw you 'cause I thought you were gonna be really sharp, like Lisa. But instead you're super sweet!"

Byeol laughed, rubbing her arms to bring life back into them.

"That's really kind of you to say."

Lilliana squinted at her face. "Are you alright, though? You look sad, or upset about something."

Byeol nibbled her lip. "Oh, no, it's just- I just had a fight with my mom. That's all. I feel like I kinda... screwed things up between us, y'know?"

Lilliana nodded. "Well, I'm sure that if she really cares about you, she won't let one little fight get between you two."

She patted Byeol's back comfortingly before getting to her feet. "I'm gonna go get some tea. You want some?"

"I'm okay, thanks..."

Byeol rested her chin on her knees as she stared at the city lights.

I'm sure that if she really cares-

That's the problem. She doesn't care.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

After Byeol had gotten settled in, Kaen called all the girls to the living room for, what she called, an 'Emergency Meeting'.

"So!" The singer clapped her hands and paced in front of the sofa the others were seated on.

"We're all together at last! Everyone's settled in and comfy!"

Lisa sighed. "Kaen, please get to the point before I get a migraine."

"Right! So, I just got off the phone with my bank, and it turns out that we have pretty much no money!"

There was a long pause of silence before everyone spoke at once.

"Are we going to get evicted?" Kaguya asked.

"Do we have to take second jobs?" Lilliana muttered.

"Should we be worried?" Byeol asked.

"Maybe, probably, and yes!" Kaen cried. "But don't worry! Lisa's already found a gig for us, and if we get to practicing, we should be ready for it in no time!"

Lisa stood up, handing each girl a piece of paper. "We're booked out for the Vieux Carre nightclub at 9 A.M on the 16th."

Byeol looked at her, eyes wide. "But that's tomorrow- how are we supposed to get it together by then?!"

"I don't know!" Kaen said. "But we'll figure it out. If there's one thing I'm not, it's-"

"Sane?"

"Intelligent?"

"Practical?"

"No! I was going to say I'm not a quitter!" Kaen stated confidently.

"Are you sure about that?" Kaguya mumbled. "'Cause you do tend to give up a lo-"

"Shush it!"

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

After the meeting, all the girls gathered their instruments and set them up in the empty dining room.

Byeol sat on the cold hardwood floor next to Lilliana as they untangled and plugged in various cords and wires, chatting idly. Kaguya was tuning her bass as Lisa gave each of them a handful of sheet music.

She straightened up as she finished handing out the last of the papers. "You girls should all be familiar with these songs. At least, I hope you are, because you've only got a few hours to learn them."

In the kitchen, Kaen spit out the water she was gargling and skipped over to them, pulling off her t-shirt to leave her in just her tank top and skirt. She took her lyric sheet from Lisa, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she skimmed over the words with seemingly unblinking eyes.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road!" She cried cheerfully, fanning herself with the papers. "We haven't got all day!"

The other girls took up their instruments and Lilliana clacked her drumsticks together, counting up to three.

Now, not to be a little hater, but Byeol had to admit it. She thought Kaen was going to be a trash singer.

Everyone had to be thinking that, right?

Kaen's speaking voice was sharp and loud and pitchy, and just overall annoying. It made a sort of hiss when she made her S's, and she tended to enunciate words in a really weird way. Byeol had no idea how that would transfer to singing, but she could only assume it wouldn't be good.

But as soon as Kaen sung the first note, it was as if an angel stood in her place. Her flowing, smooth soprano breezed through the lyrics, enchanting and bright as she spoke in her native language. Byeol noticed that her voice also lowered substantially when she spoke Japanese, giving a lovely pitch and rasp to her voice that made it sound pleasantly unique.

The change was... pretty shocking, honestly.

Maybe this'll work out after all... Byeol thought to herself.

The group continued practicing almost all night. They played mostly city pop songs, with some English and American pop songs thrown in to add a bit of interest.

Byeol was thankful for her good music reading abilities, because contrary to what Lisa had promised, she didn't know any of these songs or even most of the artists who sung them. Guess it was a good thing that she was such a quick learner, then, huh?

It was nearing 3 in the morning when they were finally finished with rehearsing. Byeol stretched and wiggled her fingers as she set down her guitar, yawning.

"Well, I'm pretty happy with how that went," Kaguya stated, running a hand through her bobcut. "Not too bad for our first day. Gotta learn to keep up the tempo, though."

"Oh, don't be such a downer, Kags!" Kaen cried. "We did a-maz-ing! We're so totally gonna blow the crowd away tomorrow!"

"You're not going to be blowing anything away if you can't learn to stay on beat with the others, Kaen," Lisa said plainly, bending to unplug a cord.

Kaen rolled her eyes. "Everybody's a critic..." She mumbled bitterly.

"Shush. But I will agree, you guys did great today. Go get some sleep, we have a big day coming up."

Byeol followed Lilliana and Kaen as they went to the bathroom to wash up. She couldn't help but notice that the fluttering in her stomach had finally died down.

This... might actually work out.