10 October 2017

Pledis Studio

"You got that something boy oh eh oh

I'll be your melody every day

I won't ever stop"

While the members and I were practicing the WE LIKE choreo for Music Bank, I felt the sky of my mind being clouded over by a sinister thought of unknown origin. Before I knew it, I had fallen over and had hit my head quite hard. The physical pain chased away the miasma and my sisters crowded. I heard panicked voices call for our manager before I slipped away...

I woke up in a starched white room smelling of disinfectant. An intravenous tube was stuck to my arm, injecting some solution that my body needed. One of the nurses walking past saw that I was awake and called a doctor. After a perfunctory inspection, I was given the diagnosis.

"No bones have been broken and there is no source of internal bleeding," she removed the needle from my aching flesh.

"May I leave?" I poured a glass of water gingerly.

"We are reluctant to release you as there is a possibility of a concussion," those words were the death knell to my career.

"My guardian lives in California," I tried a different approach.

"I'll arrange some medication to ward off the effects of the concussion if you can arrange a flight there ASAP," she left.

I called my manager and she agreed, saying that she'd come over with my luggage and the tickets. Doctor Ko, as the name on the badge informed me, scrawled out the prescription, which the Pledis staff would also fetch. Once she left, I video called my parents and they started interrogating me about what happened before running around to make the house comfortable for me.

"This is the statement we're releasing," Mio eonnie handed her tablet to me. I nodded and we then left the room, walking to the dispensary unit of the hospital. My manager would go on the flight with me to ensure that nothing happened. As we walked through LAX, I mused on how different this was from an idol landing at a Korean airport. There was the ordinary bustle of the jet-setters and such but there wasn't a throng of reporters swarming me. I introduced my family to the Pledis staff and she would stay with us for the night as opposed to crashing at a hotel; the culture and language barriers threatening to engulf her with unnecessary stress. Mio eonnie seemed satisfied with my living arrangements and left for her flight early the next morning.