Karaoke

Karaoke had been on Helen’s mind all trip. When she’d lived in Japan, she’d gone every week at least, if not more. Coming to Korea, she knew she needed to go at least once with her husband Dominic. The opportunity finally arrived the morning before their flight. They had a few hours to kill before their late flight and got a room for the next two hours.

Their Korean friends, Manjung and Jiwon, shepherded them through the process of picking out cute cosplay costumes - a fuzzy bear for her and the quintessential sailor school uniform for Dom, while Manjung and Jiwon both opted to be superheroes.

Jiwon went first, picking a Black Pink song and expertly doing the accompanying dance as she sang. Helen wanted to go next but needed to wait for Jiwon to finish before she could make her selection. Manjung and Dom were having a friendly drinking competition, and she couldn’t figure out the Korean controls.

“Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye,” Helen smiled. Jiwon took her seat, quickly found the song, and added it to the queue.

Helen took the mic, cleared he throat, and heard a track that was both familiar and unfamiliar. It was the right song, but clearly some kind of remix. Undaunted, she pushed forward, only to discover that half the lyrics were in Korean and written out in Hangul. She stuttered through most of the song and finally gave up halfway through.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Jiwon said, taking the tablet and going through the settings, trying to switch the lyrics to English.

“Don’t worry about it,” Helen said sheepishly.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Another round of drinks arrived, along with the ice cream sundae Helen had ordered. Helen chipped at the ice cream while Dom and Manjung sang “I Can Show You the World” together.

“I found the right one, with English words this time,” Jiwon showed her the screen.

Helen just shook her head. “No, it’s all right. It’ll never sound as good as it used to in my head.”

Helen sat back then, eating her ice cream and enjoying the early-morning drunken shenanigans of her friends, keeping her eye on her watch. They might have to leave early so she could sober Dom up.

With their time up, Jiwon played designated driver and took them to the airport. Dom was buzzing, but Helen was sure after a coffee, she’d be able to smuggle him onto the plane. She wondered when she would ever visit Asia again and what her next karaoke song would be.