Revised on 11-04-20

Chapter 1

Baekhyun bowed to the fans along with all the other band members as the public, a sea of bright lights, cheered and screamed the boys’ names over and over again. They had just played their encore and the concert was coming to an end. They all moved in their line, watching each other with a bright and proud smile on their face as they bowed again.

“We are one, we are EXO! Thank you everyone!” Junmyeon screamed in his microphone and the fans went crazy, screaming desperately, asking for more, but unfortunately the nine boys exited the stage, not without bowing again and waving at everyone.

I whined and closed my laptop, leaning my head back and groaning in frustration. Was the concert already over? I felt grateful enough to have access to a live streaming, but it always felt like time passed way too quickly. The past two hours and a half had been like watching a dream from a screen, but now that it was over and that my room was quiet again, it felt like I was back into the harsh reality – the one in which I did not have the chance to see EXO performing live in a concert.

Living on another continent, far away from my favourite music group had never been easy, and having to wake up by 4am on a school day was one of the many sacrifices me, Kang Eunji, had to do in order to feel at least a bit closer to my idols.

It wasn’t rare for people who knew about my passion to ask me: “Why the hell did you move in here if you’re still in love with your Korean dudes?” to which I needed to explain that yes, my name did sound incredibly Korean, though it didn’t mean I was born there and moved afterward. I didn’t know anything about my biological parents, actually, or how I got here in America. I was found in front of the door of an orphanage a few days or weeks after birth with a blanket and a pendant around my neck with a name on it: Kang Eunji. The people at the orphanage took this as my name and my small almond eyes, skin tone, and straight dark hair only confirmed the origin of my name.

And there I was, 20 years later, fangirling hard over one of the many groups that had ruined my life.

After a few other whines and complaints, I stood from my bed and the light of my small bedroom, changing into some clothes before heading downstairs to get ready for my only class of the day. The sun was slowly revealing itself, as I could see some of its rays piercing through my curtains. I still had a lot of time before my class, but I rather make it there early considering my bed was tempting me to slip back into the sheets and never come out for the rest of the day.

Living as an orphan isn’t the easiest way to grow up, but I had managed to survive the first 18 years of my life and, as soon as I got into university to study, first in sociology and then in Anthropology, I found a way to move on with my life, found a few friends who were willing to do the same and we rented a small apartment near the campus we were studying at, escaping from the rules and curfews of our severe parental.

It wasn’t a surprise when we realized how messy we all were but it didn’t seem to cause many problems. As long as we didn’t bring any insects in with our garbage, everything was fine.

I ran down the stairs with my bag on my shoulder and my purse in my hand, heading to the kitchen. I immediately took out the peanut butter and a piece of bread, not even bothering to toast the latter before taking a bite while searching for a clean spoon around the sink. I dipped it in the peanut butter before putting it in my mouth along with another piece of bread. One of my friend came downstairs as well, her hair a complete mess and I greeted her with my usual greeting-with-my-mouth-full-of-food, to which she responded with her ‘morning’ that sounded more like the growl of a zombie. I eyed her as she took my spoon, stealing a good amount of peanut butter from the pot before putting it all in .

I continued watching, holding my laugh as she walked back upstairs. “Hey, don’t forget it’s your day to wash the dishes, mmh?” I reminded her with a small smile and she simply groaned. Typical Kaithlyn.

I rolled my eyes and took another spoon of peanut butter before throwing the utensils in the sink and heading out of the apartment, locking the door before heading out to class.

It was quite sunny for the time it was, but then again, summer was arriving quick and I smiled a bit at the thought. Summer meant holidays and no school, summer meant road trips with friends and parties. Though summer also meant finals coming. I lost my smile at that thought and let out a small groan, holding onto my jacket tighter as I made my way around the busy streets of the city. I tried convincing myself today would be a good day, though my mind wasn’t that convincing. I only had one class in the morning, which meant I had the whole afternoon to do whatever pleased me. The thought managed to bring back a small smile on my lips and I walked a bit more enthusiastically on the street walk to the campus.

***

I sat in the rather small auditorium, taking out my notebooks and looking around the almost empty room. I was, of course, pretty early, so I took the opportunity to rest my head on my arms and close my eyes, trying to catch on the sleep I didn’t have in the morning. Being rather tired, it was easy to drift off to an almost asleep state and I smiled a bit as I started imagining EXO suddenly barging in my class to rescue me from this horrible lesson that awaited me.

I was brought back to reality as I heard the teacher’s annoying voice echoing in the room and I groaned inwardly, looking up and noticing the room had filled up quite much since the last time I had my eyes opened. I looked up at the clock and my eyes widened: it had already been 30 minutes since the class had started. I sighed and took my pen, trying to understand whatever the teacher had written on the board for the first part of the course. I noted down the most important things, telling myself I’d simply ask someone in the class afterward for some explanations.

As I continued writing down everything the teacher was saying in a boring automated tone, I heard the door of the auditorium crack open, someone’s steps coming in the class. I chuckled silently, knowing that this teacher was not one to accept late arrivals to his course, so I waited for the old man’s lecture about arriving late to class to begin…

Though it never came, and the steps stopped rather early. The person didn’t move to sit down and the teacher continued speaking as if nothing had happened at all. I frowned a bit, confused, and finally looked up from my notebook, my eyes widening as I did so.

None other than Byun Baekhyun was standing there, right in the middle of the class. His eyes were, scanning the room, searching for someone around the students in the auditorium and when they fell on mine we both froze, keeping the eye contact. My eyes stayed wide while a smirk appeared on his face.

I was probably hallucinating. Of course I was, or else someone else in the class would have noticed the stranger near the board. I looked around, just to be sure no one was looking at the front of the class weirdly, but everyone had either their eyes on their notes or on the teacher and his board, none paying attention to the Korean idol standing there and smirking at me.

Baekhyun crossed his arms over his chest, his smirk not once leaving his lips. I felt like screaming, both of intense fangirling and of fear because that was it, I was going crazy. I bit onto my bottom lip hard and broke the eye contact once again, looking down at my notes before closing my eyes tightly and repeating to myself that no, I’m not crazy, of course I’m not crazy…

I heard someone chuckle and step closer and I only closed my eyes tighter. Baekhyun finally spoke, not even bothering about waiting for the teacher to stop speaking because, who cared, it’s not like anyone except me could have heard him anyways.

“I’ll guess by the face you gave me earlier that you probably know me. So, you’re a fan? I’m flattered, really, but I expected a bit more screaming and squealing from you. Are you scared to embarrass yourself in front of all the students?” He said and laughed. Scared of being spotted with my eyes tight shut, I opened then but made sure not to look in the direction of my hallucination, preferring to keep my gaze on my notes instead. His English was perfectly understandable and that only gave me another proof that this was just my imagination playing with me. As if he had heard my thoughts, Baekhyun hummed and scoffed.