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“Jinie!”

Jinie practically flew off the bed when Nani pounced on it.  Why had she asked Nani to wake her up?  This was what alarms were for.  Jinie groaned and rolled over in bed, ignoring Nani’s shout.

“Oh, come on, you have to leave in an hour to get to the airport.  Get up!  Besides, this is the one day I can wake you up!”

Jinie sighed.  Nani was referring to the fact that she’d spent the night last night.  Jinie wasn’t sure why she’d thought it a good idea to have a friend over the night before a flight, but she couldn’t unmake that decision now.

“Fine, fine.  I’m up.”

“Great!” Nani jumped. “I made breakfast!”

“You know I don’t eat until noon…” Jinie yawned.

“I know.  But you’re not going to get to LA until nearly one, and then you have to head straight to the hotel.  So, you’re eating whether you like it or not.”

Jinie huffed but didn’t argue.  When Nani was piling food on their plates ten minutes later, Jinie realized how little of an appetite she had, though.  She pushed her food around on her plate, occasionally taking a bite while Nani chattered happily.

“We’ll miss you while you’re in California.  I never like it when you get gigs in other places, but I know you enjoy traveling, so I suppose it’s ok.  You promise you’ll take tons of pictures of scenery for us, right?”

Jinie looked up at Nani. “Yeah…sure.”

Nani frowned. “You all right?”

Jinie took a deep breath. “Yeah…I’m just nervous.  This is my first one in LA, you know?”

Nani shrugged. “I suppose it sounds a bit intimidating.  But you’ll be fine.  I’ve seen your photos.  They’re beautiful.”

“They are not…anyone can take pictures that good.”

Nani raised her eyebrows. “Oh really?  Do you remember those photos I took last year?”

“…yes…”

“Do you remember how bad they were?”

Jinie hesitated. “I mean…they weren’t that bad.”

Nani sighed and continued eating.  Jinie pushed her plate away and stood up.

“I’m not very hungry.  I’ll go change.”

Jinie was finishing cramming her last few things into her suitcase when Nani walked in.

“Are you sure you’re ok?  You look kinda…depressed.”

“I told you, I’m nervous.”

Nani shrugged. “All right.  Are you ready to go?”

Jinie nodded and zipped her suitcase shut. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

——————–

Nani bid Jinie a final farewell at the airport.  Jinie wove her way through customs before finally meeting up with her coworker, Ivory.

“Are you excited?  I can’t believe we got chosen to be the photographers for this shoot.  I looked up the group we’re shooting, and they’re famous!  Like, really famous.  They have millions of fans worldwide, and get this, they’re from South Korea!”

Jinie, of course, knew all of this already.  The group in question was her all-time favorite band.  It was why she was so nervous.  Not only would she be meeting them, but she would be taking their pictures.

“Hey!  Jinie!  You there?”

Jinie blinked her eyes and realized Ivory was waving a hand in front of her face.  She looked over at Ivory.

“Look, they’re so cute!”

“Mhm,” was all Jinie could manage to say.  She wanted to chew her nerves out on something.  But she absolutely refused to chew on her nails, and she didn’t have any gum with her.  She resorted to chewing on her bottom lip.

Half an hour later, they were boarding their plane.  Jinie fell asleep halfway through one of Ivory’s informative rants.  When she woke up again, they were about to land.  That made her giddy.  They were supposed to be meeting the rest of their team for dinner tonight, and then tomorrow was game day.  Jinie was not ready.  Even after 3 weeks of mentally preparing herself.

The airport was packed when they landed.  It took them over an hour to even find their way out.  They collected their rental car afterwards, which took another half hour.  Once they were on the way to the hotel, it was already past five.  That left them with a little over an hour to get to the hotel, check in, get settled, get ready for dinner, and drive to the restaurant.

They barely made it.  They were five minutes early to dinner.  They cut it close, but they made it.  Jinie sighed in relief as they sat down with the rest of their photography team.  Maybe this wouldn’t be a bust after all.