Holli blinked. "What? No...I mean...It is supposed to be you..."
Val looked at the worried young woman standing in front of her wondering how to put her mind to rest this time. “Holli, why would it be me, I can't sing.” Val asked her. She sat there smiling with her eyes so as to make it look like she was not smiling. “Are you telling me that you did not perform on stage last night alongside the other members of Peace Blossom?”
“Val, this is serious. What are we going to do about this? That only happened because of you. People only saw me as a member of the group because of you,” an angry-looking Holli explained to the woman in front of her.
Val saw her opening. She had waited a long time and was so close to leaving the group, but she was not going to give up now. “Don’t worry, Holli. There is still time to get everyone where they are supposed to be before you board the plane, I promise you,” Val told her as she beckoned Holli to take the other seat in the room. That was one thing she had noticed when she entered her new hotel room. It was much smaller than the one that Holli now occupied. But having a smaller hotel was a minor inconvenience compared to having even the freedoms that she had enjoyed since Holli had taken her place in the group.
Holli took the seat offered to her now that she had been reassured that things would be back to normal before she had to leave for the States. “That’s good to know. I don’t know how I would explain trying to use my passport tomorrow.” Holli said with a small smile creeping onto her face.
“Yes, I can see how that might be a problem,” Val said this time letting the smile that she had been holding back creep onto her face.
“Val? Do you know why I know things about being a Peace Blossom member that there is no way I could know?” Holli asked.
“What things?” Val asked her as If she had no idea what the young woman could be talking about.
“Well to start with when Eonni took me to see Oppa earlier, I knew things about him that I shouldn’t know because I had barely met him before but it was as if I had known him for an olaen sigan,” Holli told her.
“Do you remember me telling you that Holli Mok, member of Peace Blossom, is real to the people around you?” Val asked Holli.
“Yes, I do, what does that have to do with this?” she asked.
“Well, I think that you have these memories to help people think that you are Holli Mok as Holli Mok should have these memories. I mean...everybody would think it was strange that a member of the band that G-Bear managed didn’t know about their manager wouldn’t you?” Val replied.
“I suppose you are right, it would look strange if I didn’t know about Oppa’s days as an idol as he has been Peace Blossom’s manager for olaen sigan now,” Holli answered. She didn't notice she'd lapsed into Korean there.
Val looked over and saw that she seemed satisfied with the answer that she had given her. It was close to the truth after a fashion anyway, so she hadn’t lied to her. It was much easier to bend the truth than to break it.
"Maybe this will help you,” Val said offering Holli a piece of paper sitting on the table beside her.
Holli was sure that there had been nothing on the table beside Val before she had drawn her attention to it. “How will this help?” She asked.
“It will help people see you as Holli Mok until everyone is where they are supposed to be. Just read out loud twice like the last time,” Val told her.
Holli looked at the piece of paper and read to herself. Everything that Val had done since the initial confusion had been to help her hadn’t. So she thought this had to be more of the same.
“Thanks, Val.” She said before saying the phrase on it out loud, before repeating it. “One Blonde to another. One country to another. One culture to another. One image to another.”
Oppa – Big Brother
Eonni - Older sister
Olaen sigan – Long Time
