"Did you read it?"

"No, I did not."

Naha sat down on Arena's bed and crossed her legs.

"Should I read it then?" Arena took her computer and sat down next to her friend on her bed and placed the computer on her legs. She opened an email that was indeed from Starship Entertainment.

"Dear Ms Calder,

We are more than happy to announce that you have successfully passed the first round of auditions for Starship Entertainment Official Idol Dance Group. The second round of auditions will be held here, in Seoul on the 15th of December and we would be delighted if you could make it. The flight tickets and a hotel room for you and a plus one will be provided by us and you will have a driver drive you to the company. The flight details and plane tickets are available in the attachment below. If you have any questions, please reply to us on this email address and additional information will be provided to you on your arrival.

Best wishes,

Kim Young Im, Starship Entertainment."

Naha and Arena stared at the screen for a moment as Arena finished reading the email out loud. Naha nudged her shoulder and shouted delightedly, "I ALWAYS knew you'd make it!"

Arena smiled and looked at the email again, but soon the smile disappeared into a frown. Of course she was extremely happy to have received this email and opportunity, but

"Something's off, don't you think?"

Naha stopped nudging her friend to properly look at her face, "What do you mean?"

Arena gestured to the screen, "Doesn't it seem weird that they're so into bringing me to Seoul that they're even paying for this stuff? I mean a driver, a hotel room, plane tickets, a plus one.."

"Maybe they just don't want to risk losing a talented dancer, cmon' let's go tell your parents."

Arena glanced suspiciously at the screen one last time, "Okay."

But something was definitely not right.

The weeks of school and dance practices leading up to the winter break and trip went by with a flash. Arena was caught up in schoolwork and keeping up her grades and didn't have much free time to dwell on the upcoming trip. Her birthday on the 23rd November passed amazingly as she celebrated with her family and friends.

Since she was old enough now, her parents allowed her to take Naha as her plus one to Seoul, since Naha herself was also 18 years old.

Their flight was scheduled on the 12th of December at 11 a.m. and would arrive on the 13th of December at 0.30 a.m. (Colorado time) in Incheon International Airport with the local time being 5 p.m. on the 13th of December.

The flight was a few days earlier for them to adjust with the 15 hour time difference.

Yes you read right, the flight would take 13.5 hours with luckily no stops or transferring flights.

Arena had only had one really long flight in her life, which was her flight from Estonia to Colorado when she was 6. That flight was 19 hours with 2 transferring flights and it had been a nightmare. Arena didn't want to travel much after that.

"So will your mom give us a ride to the airport tomorrow?"

Naha was packing her things into a suitcase on the other side of the Skype videochat as Arena took out her own suitcase from the closet.

"Yeah, she said she wanted to see us off to achieve our dreams." Arena scoffed a laugh and continued taking out clothes and shoes and other belongings from her drawers and cabinets.

They hadn't been given any details yet about the returning flight because it was still unknown how long Arena would have to stay in Korea. So they were both packing enough clothes for just in case.

While Arena went to the bathroom to gather her things, Naha was stuffing hair curlers and straighteners into her already almost full suitcase.

As Arena came back with a bag of products something caught her eye on the screen and she hurried towards her computer, which was sitting comfortably on her table.

Naha's screen was suddenly filled with Arena's peering face.

"Wait, why are you taking those?" Arena hadn't backed away from her webcamera.

Naha stopped stuffing towels into her luggage to look at her computer, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are you taking 7 towels."

"Don't we need them?"

"Not 7 of them, no," Arena sighed and fell onto her bed in dismay, staring ahead and wondering what Naha had to say about that. "Where did you get the idea to take 7 towels, Jesus." She stood up and saw from the corner of her eye that Naha was running between her open bathroom and her bedroom, transporting towels back to their original places and mumbling, "I thought we'd need a new one for each day..."

It was one of the most sleepless nights for Arena who fell asleep briefly at 6 a.m and woke again at 8.

When the three of them arrived at the airport and Arena and Naha had just given away their luggage, the realization of the situation hit Arena like a truck in the face. "This is actually happening."

She turned to her mom, her eyes widening as if just starting to understand what was happening. "thIS IS REALLY HAPPENING?!"

Arena's mom and Naha chuckled and Arena's mom wrapped her arms around Arena and then Naha. "Good luck, girls." She smiled as Arena and Naha moved forward to the security check.

They had an hour of free time before boarding so the girls roamed all of the tax and duty free stores, buying snacks and trying on different expensive perfumes. "Do I now smell like a rich person?" Asked Naha as she spritzed on some Gucci to herself.

Arena laughed and nodded, allowing Naha to spray some onto her as well.

When it was finally time to board after many weeks and days and hours and minutes of anticipation, Arena and Naha stepped onto the plane that would take them halfway across the world.

"wOW business class," muttered Arena as she sat down in her seat. Naha was sitting under the window and the seat between them wasn't occupied and the cabin crew knew to tell them that it would stay that way. "I know right." Naha turned to take her earphones and water bottle from her bag. "Are you excited?" Arena asked her.

Naha shrugged and nodded, "Kinda, I'm more nervous than excited I think, what about yourself?" She tugged off her sneakers and pushed them under the seat in front of her.

"Yeah me too, but we have 13 hours to go before we get there," she cringed as she thought about it, "look the cabin crew is showing safety instructions." They both turned their attention to the demonstrators before them.

About 1 hour into the flight a bunch of attendants walked around distributing pillows and blankets for those who wanted them. Arena and Naha both took them with smiles as the flight attendant moved on. They were attending to the girls throughout the entire flight, bringing them food and drinks when ordered and making sure they were feeling good.

Naha was sleeping soundly when they had already been flying for 10 hours and Arena decided to lean over her and take pictures of the sunrise with her iPad. She felt proud as she managed to take great photographs and at the same time not wake up her friend. Arena placed her earphones on her ears as she closed her eyes too.

"...the local time is currently 5.25 p.m. Thank you for flying with Air Korea and we wish you a pleasant stay."

Arena awoke as the leader of the cabin crew completed her speech. Arena pushed her earphones off her ears and looked over to Naha who seemed wide awake. "Did we touchdown already?" asked Arena and put her hair behind her ear, her voice was still sleepy and she was squinting her eyes.

Naha finished packing up her own things and leaned over to pack Arena's as well. "Yes we did, we're almost ready to leave the aircraft. Did you sleep well?" She smiled and handed Arena her bag. Arena nodded, putting her earphones into her bag as well. When the plane rolled to a stop, she and Naha stood up and waited for the line to move. Arena rolled her neck as they stepped off the plane and walked through the airport for baggage claim where they waited another 20 minutes to get their suitcases.

"The exit sign is over there," Naha pointed a finger at a green sign at the end of a hallway and they set their steps toward it. As soon as they exited they saw that this part of the airport was full of people waiting for arrivals.

"Where do you think fans take pictures of idols?" asked Naha as they stopped for a second to look around. "I'm guessing somewhere a little more outside? Also I think we should keep moving."

Arena and Naha started walking again even though they had no idea where they should go. "Hey, look over there." Naha nudged Arena and slightly pointed at a guy in a suit holding a sign.

"CALDER"

"Wow," muttered Arena as they moved forward the guy in the suit. Turns out the guy in the suit wasn't alone, he seemed to have two other guys with him.

"Are you Arena Calder?" asked the guy in a slight Korean accent.

"Uhh.. yes I am."

The guy nodded and checked his phone, "And.... Naha Hatashi?"

Naha nodded as well.

The two guys stepped out to take their luggage as the guy in the suit handed Arena a pair of sunglasses and a face mask. "Please put these on, there are always paparazzis in airports that make articles of everything and we are required to protect your privacy." He handed another pair to Naha, who, surprisingly, refused, "I'm not the important one here." She smiled as Arena put on the dark sunglasses and black face mask. Arena looked at her friend, "Please put them on as well, then we match," she put the face mask on her friend, "see?"

"FIne," complied Naha and put on the sunglasses as well.

"Ready?" The guy in the suit asked, the guys with their suitcases had already gone far ahead.

"Yeah."