As the saying went, no one was a prophet in their own land. While Tae Yang found his success in the US, I found mine in South Korea.

It started with a modeling contract for a skincare company promoting inclusion. They wanted a darker skin model to break into a market that needed more skin tone inclusivity, and what best opportunity but to recruit a beautiful foreigner with ties to a native elite.

I became both the face of their product, and also another product, as the girlfriend of The Choi Tae Yang.

Then, I got a gig at a variety show where all I had to do was stand and look pretty before an electronic board displaying the tasks contestants had to do. It was the easiest money I'd ever made, and turned me into somewhat of a household name in local entertainment. Already, this was two more gigs than I'd ever got in Venezuela after my beauty pageant run.

I received offers from a few local entertainment industries that I had to run through Tae Yang. In the end, the person who became my agent of sorts was omunim. She reviewed every contract I signed along with her son, and even went as far as buying an extra car to drive me around.

"Estoy muy orgullosa de ti," Mom said one time over the phone. "Pero como vas a hacer cuando te aprueben la visa pa' acá?"

I'd thought about that. A lot. My goal was still to return to the US, because no matter how well I did in Korea, my home was still with Mom, Tae Yang and my friends.

But I was a businesswoman, or at least I had to start acting like one. So every connection I made in Korea, particularly with people in the beauty industry, turned into an opportunity for me. That was how I gained two more investors for my future venture.

Meanwhile, THESUN released his debut music video to a record-breaking audience, and followed up a few months later with a couple more singles and a full album, officially making a name for himself in the music industry.

"It was about time," Ashton, his bandmate from Casual Friday Funeral, said in an interview. "A genius of his caliber deserves all the recognition."

"What a dork," Tae Yang told me after that interview came out. "He was the one who teased me the most for writing love songs."

I remembered that. In the early days of Tae Yang composing what would become his debut single, he'd mentioned his roommates had teased him a lot.

My boyfriend sighed. "But then again, I'd never been known to write romantic music until then."

"What make you start?" I asked him.

Since we were on a video call, he gave me an exaggerated look. "You."

"Aww, stahp," I said, giggling and waving my hand.

All he did was give me a Mona Lisa smile that made my cheeks heat up and my chest flutter. Maybe I should see a doctor.

Through all of this, the stay that should've been three months long went on for a year. Every day, more than once, I refreshed the US immigration website to see if there were any changes. But at least now without the panic component, since I was busy every day. When I wasn't working, learning Korean, or hanging out with Tae Yang's parents, I was on the phone with him, Mom or the girls.

Slowly, it felt as though I was building two homes, the one I wanted to return to and then new one I was in. And if my cheesy boyfriend lived in my second home, I might have been tempted to stay.

As it was, I only saw Tae Yang in the flesh once more that year, when he came over for a couple of weeks for a collaborative project with the top boyband of the moment, TBS.

But that was already three months ago, and I missed him to the point of madness. I dreamt about him most nights, and often the dreams weren't PG. Waking up from that was getting harder each time.

"When am I going to be able to see you again?" I asked him. "And hug you. And kiss you. And a lot more."

Tae Yang chuckled. "Actually, pretty soon."

"Oh?"

"Now that I have a whole-ass double-platinum album out and about, the label has approved a world tour and the first stop is going to be Seoul."

"When?" I shouted into the phone.

"Three months."

Nothing could have prevented me from snarling like an animal. "Do I have to hold out for three more months? Fuck."

They felt like three years. During that time, I worked three more gigs, refreshed my immigration case a million more times, and grew ten years older. Tae Yang had stayed just as busy with interviews, photoshoots, composing new music and recording it, but I was glad when he called me the day before his flight to Seoul, to spell out in detail everything he planned to do to me when we finally got some alone time. He'd booked a weekend for the two of us in a fancy hotel in Jeju Island, where clothing would be forbidden.

I buzzed with electricity on the day of his concert, although it was a little bit awkward to be sexting Tae Yang while his parents drove us to the venue. But a girl had to multitask.

The three of us had VVIP passes, of course, which meant when I finally got my hands on my boyfriend, I had to keep them very visible. As eager as I was to get them on Tae Yang, I couldn't ruin all my hard work with his parents so far.

But as I hugged him, I whispered to his ear. "Later."

He made a very low sound akin to a mewling cat. I liked it.

I watched the concert from backstage, sitting with his parents. Somehow, I figured they'd go up in arms in the more racy portions of the concert—which was basically any time Tae Yang touched a guitar.

But while the crowd screamed themselves hoarse, all abunim and omunim did was clap. Having gone to the noraebang with them several times, I knew they were capable of loosening up, but I'd never heard them listening to music made between thirty years ago and now. Tae Yang's music was so cutting-edge it was sharper than a knife, and it still couldn't cut through the generational barrier between him and his parents.

I made a ruckus on behalf of the three of us, being as loud as the rest of the attendees on my own. It was one of the few moments I was glad his parents spoke little English, because occasionally a dirty word or twenty spilled out of my mouth.

I couldn't help it, THESUN just brought out the thirstiest bitch out of me.

During an intermission between songs, a sweaty, panting Tae Yang grabbed the mic and said, "I'm going to say a few words in English here, because my girlfriend is in the house."

That caused some cheering I wouldn't have expected.

"Noona," he said, turning to face me even though he was in the middle of the stage, and I was hidden in the dark. "Come out here for a second."

"No," I shouted back, shaking my head and my hands.

"Go," abunim surprised me by saying, and as I stood rooted to the spot, omunim pulled at me until I had no choice but to walk on stage.

My heart pitter-pattered, not just because I hadn't dressed in my very best fineries and there were almost a hundred thousand people screaming before me. But because I had no idea what Tae Yang was doing, and sometimes he was dangerous for my health. Often.

All the time.

"What are you doing?" I whispered through the gritted teeth of a fake smile.

He circled my waist with one arm and pulled me up against him, which sent a spike of noise across the crowd.

"Hey," he said, as though we were alone. The rasp of his voice sent a hot shiver down my spine, and I had to remind myself we were not, in fact, able to do any of the things we'd been talking about for the past few hours.

Clearing my throat, I said, "Hi."

Tae Yang's eyes twinkled like he knew exactly where my train of thought had crashed.

Facing the audience again, he said, "I want to be serious for a second. As most of you know, I dreamed of having a music career since I was a kid. But I wasn't good at dancing and I was chronically shy."

"Really?" I asked, mentally smacking myself when my question echoed across the vast arena.

Tae Yang laughed, though. "Yeah, believe it or not. It's why I learned so many instruments, so I could speak from behind the scenes."

I couldn't stop myself from giving him a quick kiss on his cheek. "I'm glad you walked into the light, though."

"See," Tae Yang said, looking into my eyes as thousands of people shouted and whistled. "That was because of you."

I shook my head. He was ridiculous. I hadn't contributed anything to his success. If anything, I owed him for my newfound one.

"I wanted to impress you," he said, to a chorus of coos. "I wanted you to look at me, and only me, which wouldn't happen if I kept staying in the background. So really, it was the desperate need for your attention what finally made me push myself to work for that forgotten childhood dream of mine."

I leaned into him, hiding my face from view and from the microphone, to whisper. "Stop it, or you're going to make me do something that will appear in the news for years to come."

Tae Yang chuckled, but he didn't stop.

"So, I just wanted to say that this song is for you," he said, looking into my eyes. "And the next one, and the next one. Because every song by THESUN is about you and for you."

Maybe spontaneous human combustion wasn't possible, but spontaneous waterworks were and that was what he caused at that moment.

He surprised me by saying, "Siempre te voy a amar."

Crying, and much too loud, I said, "Saranghae."

As we hugged amidst cheering, he said into my ear, "Will you come back with me to build a life together?"

"I would love to," I said, wiping my face with the back of my hands. "But I can't, yet."

My boyfriend smiled like this was the moment he'd been waiting for. "Guess what? Now you can. Your mom got your visa approval in the mail and I brought it for you."

I sucked in all the oxygen in the stadium and there, in front of the whole country, I kissed Tae Yang like no one was watching.

SONG OF THE DAY: Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You

and now we cry