Episode 1

 

     Even though they had always been close, the whole KDrama thing was something Angelique just didn’t understand about her bff. Though it never caused any fights between them, it was always a void between them.

     Jessica rarely watched American television, preferring to watch Korean mini-series on the net instead. Her insistence that ‘You’ll love it! There’s really cute boys in them, too!’ was more annoying than anything else.

     During their freshman year of high school, she finally succumbed to Jessica’s incessant badgering and grudgingly watched her first episode, simply for the sake of finally shutting her up.

     “Watch just one with me. Please. Just one. I promise if you don’t like it, I won’t ever ask you to watch another one. I promise. Please. Just one.” Her friend desperately pleaded with dark brown doe eyes and fingers and thumbs curled in the shape of a heart.

     Angelique felt her resolve weakening, but was still skeptical. “You won’t ever ask me again? Ever?” she asked incredulously, with eyebrows arched over her own chestnut eyes.

     “I swear!” Jessica said, taking her index finger and crossing her heart and then holding up three fingers in The Girl Scout Salute.

     Angelique’s eyes narrowed to disbelieving slits. “You really promise?”

     Jessica’s mouth broke out into a big grin as she held out her pinkie in front of her. Angelique linked her pinkie with that of her best friend. Jessica then took her other hand and folded their hands upward so that both thumbs also met.

     “What’s that mean?” Angelique asked.

     “You’ll get it eventually,” Jessica replied with a wink and a sage smile.

     Angelique had to admit that getting ready to watch the show was fun in and of itself. First they conned a ride from Jessica’s mom to the Asian market in the nearby city of Macon where they filled a basket with rainbow rice cakes, pepero, crown choco heim, honey twists, and sikhye.

     They took these to Jessica’s room where they hooked up the laptop to the big screen TV, put on cutesy pajamas and slippers, piled the bed high with stuffed animals from the closet, and nestled a spot for the two of them in the middle. At that point, she was perfectly happy with the time she had already spent with her friend and didn’t care if she wasted an hour of her time watching some stupid show where she’d have to read subtitles to understand what was being said.

     Many years later she realized the trap into which she had fallen. Her friend knew her well enough to know that she immensely disliked loose ends. Of course, Episode 1 ended on a cliffhanger, so they needed to watch Episode 2 to find out what happened.

     The overnight sleepover turned into a marathon weekend of munching, sleeping, and watching KDramas. Interspersed were tears of joy and sorrow, laughing, and outbursts of anger, frustration, and aggravation as they fell in love with and hated various characters while comparing them to people they knew. Without ever knowing, her fate had been sealed.

     After that the two became completely inseparable. Unless there was a school project to work on, every weekend was spent like that one as they worked their way through an endless variety of romantic comedies.  

     Angelique quickly realized that she was addicted, but still (or maybe because of it) became obsessed with everything Korean. She became a total “fangirl” following the stars on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. She dressed like the female lead in the latest KDramas down to the exact shade of lipstick worn. Now she and Jessica really were sisters in every sense.

     During one of these weekends, Angelique kept ranting about the ending of a particular episode and how she just wanted to bang some heads together to knock some sense into them.

     “Go to sleep, Drama Queen,” Jessica teased playfully, rolling her eyes.

     “That’s KDrama Queen!” Angelique corrected with a toss of her head and her nose held high in the air.

     They fell back in the bed giggling uncontrollably.

     As she nestled under the covers with the warmth of her friend next to her and slowly drifted off to sleep, Angelique recalled that in one of those shows, Heirs, the male lead, Kim Tan, had written in his journal, “He who wishes to wear the crown endures its weight.”

     Even though most around her used the term ‘Drama Queen’ derogatorily, Angelique decided then and there that she would embrace her nickname and its responsibility and wear her crown proudly. After all, she couldn’t imagine living her life in any other way than that of the lead in one of her beloved KDramas.

     And her mother hated her for it.