"Beyond the Beat"

Prompt: Our story starts in March 2014, in Seoul, South Korea. Sammy Hanson (Born Samantha Marie Hanson on February 1, 1989 in her mother Catherine’s hometown, Boston, MA, but raised in her father Gary’s hometown, Ocala, FL), 25, is a singer/songwriter/producer/YouTuber… her channel has amassed a sizable following from just uploading her demos and the occasional vlog. In 2012, fresh off a breakup with her high school sweetheart (Neil), Sammy moved to LA, where she took a job working for her cousin’s company, editing videos for his super popular Let’s Play channel. She just went through a shitty breakup 4 months ago, with her cousin’s best friend who was 10 years her senior (Dan). As a teenager and young adult, she co-wrote songs for her childhood best friend’s (Jeremy) pop-punk/post hardcore band (of which her now ex-high school sweetheart, Neil, is a member of). They ended up making it big, and through royalties and the sheer luck of coming from a very rich family, Sammy Hanson is a very well off, financially independent woman thank you very much. But through her Korean-American best friend’s connections in Seoul (and all the Korean lessons he’d given her over the last two years), Sammy applied for, interviewed for, and then received an offer to intern at YG Entertainment (which is INSANE to her because she is a HUGE fan of BigBang and that’s THEIR label!!) … she accepted it and then next thing she knew, she was on a 17 hour flight to her new life. She bought herself a really nice apartment in the Hannam-dong, leased a car, and got all the necessary paperwork done within the first week she was in Seoul. And upon arriving at YG, found that she has been assigned to work with Lee Chaelin AKA CL from 2NE1, who thankfully can speak English which makes life easier for Sammy. Sammy has been a fan of BigBang since 2012. 22 year old Sammy, who was crashing at her older sister Scarlett’s house, when the music video for their single “Bad Boy” came across her recommended videos on YouTube and she clicked on it just out of curiosity. And she fell in LOVE with their music and developed an immediate crush (bias) on their lead rapper, with his perfect jawline, wide expressive eyes, and all around gorgeous face… T.O.P (real name: Choi Seung Hyun). Through watching old interviews and whatnot, Sammy learned that T.O.P wasn’t only beautiful, but he’s also very funny, silly, a bit weird, loud, obsessed with art, has a caring heart, and is so kind… but he also gives off such sad, lonely poet/artist energy… much like Sammy. Sammy (never “Sam”) is 5’9”, skinny but curvy where it counts, she never keeps a hair color for more than a couple months, has multiple tattoos on her arms, hands, chest, ribs, and legs, her nose and ears are pierced and she has bright blue eyes. She’s funny, loves fiercely, smart, a bit of a smart ass, and exceedingly kind. She’s southern so she can cook really really well. She dresses edgy but still girly. She comes from a very rich family. She plays the piano and the guitar. Her songwriting style is very 2016+ Taylor Swift-esque. She’s the middle child of 5… Sammy has an older sister Scarlett, 28, an older brother Ben 27, and a younger sister Lucy and Lucy’s twin brother Austin who are 22 and her family all still live in Florida. Seung Hyun is 27 (born November 4, 1987 in Seoul), 5’11”, lanky but has defined muscle mass with NO TATTOOS. He CANNOT cook, he DOES NOT drive. He collects ridiculously expensive art work, he’s an actor too. He’s insanely good at rapping, unfairly good. He’s one of the most handsome men in the country, despite the fact that he doesn’t ever really show his body or very much skin at all. He even sleeps in full pajamas. He’s quirky, weird, so funny, so silly, and loud. But on the flip side he’s temperamental, stubborn, dramatic and can be brooding and sad. He has an older sister, Hye-youn. Jiyong AKA G-Dragon (26, born August 18, 1988) Youngbae AKA Taeyang (26, born May 18, 1988) Daesung (25, born April 26, 1989) Seungri (24, born December 12, 1990) This should be a slooooow burn, with both aware of the boundaries between them at work but they both struggle with controlling their feelings and emotions around each other. Both too scared to cross the invisible boundary line. After two weeks of run ins and at work conversations, he casually asks for her number… for “work reasons”. So they’re friends… at first… then they slowly start entering “friends who are very much attracted to each other and DEFINITELY wanna hook up” territory… and they’ll stay there for a bit but we all know where that leads. It leads to “oh fuck I’m in love with him/her but we absolutely cannot do this.” and then doing it anyway. Our first chapter should focus on Sammy’s first full day as an intern at YG.