Buffie pulled up his car outside Nessa's house and waited patiently. His phone was connected to the car radio, because no local station seemed to want to play black pop.
After a few minutes, Nessa appeared, beautiful as ever. He threw his bag in the back seat and hopped next to Buffie. "Hey boy," he beamed.
"Morning Nessa, how are you?" he replied as he put the car in gear and headed off.
"I'm good... Last night was a roller coaster, though. I'm ready to think about something else."
"Yeah, I heard," Buffie sighed.
"You know... Ever since things got crazy, one thing that I notice has really changed is the music."
"Oh, really? Tell me more."
"Well, the big difference is that the music you like really...didn't exist. These slick black pop bands really have no equivalent where I...came from," hesitating to find the right words to describe the world before the wish. "Then again, neither did the Korean rap I've gotten used to."
"You gotta be kidding me."
"The more I think about it, it's like they kinda switched places. In my world, Korea was a factory for pop stars. Slick sounds, smooth dances... And rap and hip-hop came out of the Bronx."
"That just sounds strange to me," Buffie chuckled.
"And here, there's slick black pop and the sort of Korean rap that has inspired more people to take up Korean classes."
"And is it bad? Beats learning German or something."
"I know, but it is still strange to listen to the girls from Red Velvet sing about cold champagne and broken boys."
"Boy, you woke up bitter. What's next? You gonna talk trash about YOLO or Jayonce?"
"No, what I meant is... YOLO didn't exist before all this. Actually... It was a slang term, for 'you only live once'. Everything just seems...too commercial?"
"Well here, everybody knows YOLO means Yolanda, Olivia, Lauren and Octavia. And you're onto something. Many of the boy bands which are now major hits were minted in Atlanta, like YOLO, come from the talent farms like Republic Atlanta."
Nessa sighed loudly. "Well, can you blame me? I've only been here a little over a week. By the way, Buffie, who is singing?"
"Right now? That's the Black Damsels, Kenya Kardashian's group. Basically they are funded by Kenya's husband's money. But Kenya is a genius. He added a rapper to the group, an Afro-Korean boy, very talented. And he designed the group's clothes and choreography. And their videos are epic and glamorous. Uh, can you tell I'm gushing over here?" Buffie added, still daydreaming about one of his favorite style icons.
"Well, that sounds like Korean music from where I came from, even if I never paid it much attention," Nessa replied. "This is catchy stuff, and perfect for the club."
"Yeah!" Buffie agreed enthusiastically. "If you want, I could teach you the choreography. It's easy to learn yet quite amazing. Korean rap's easier to dance, except when they do all those solo acrobatic steps, like sliding backwards or planting their hands on the floor. I caught some girls from the school practicing some rap steps over by the skate park a few weeks ago."
"Better than some pointless fight."
"And better than when they hit on us, ask us to dance and then are really bad at it," Buffie added as the car pulled into the school parking lot.
