A few weeks passed and business was great. She had decided to do resin workshops in the mornings and each session was filled with students from the local college. Once or twice the guys dropped by to check on her. It always caused a scene and it wasn’t uncommon to see pictures on Twitter and Instagram of them. The upside was her business increased and she had to make time for more sessions and even do them on the weekends. She enjoyed all the business but because of it she started to see Minwoo less and when they did find time, she was often exhausted. Just the night before they’d had a discussion after dinner. She had went to take a nice hot bubble bath and he had followed her and sat on the floor by the tub.

“You are wearing yourself out baby, you need to think about hiring someone to help you.” He poured water over her head and started to lather her hair with fragrant shampoo.

With her eyes closed she sighed.

“I know but I’m still in the red. Moving here and setting up took a lot. Hiring someone would only make it harder to break even.” She knew he was right but she was also determined to succeed, even if she had to work harder than she’s ever worked in her life.

He massaged the shampoo into her locks and pulled her hair gently, “You are so stubborn, my Maggie.” He shook his head and grabbed a cup to rinse the soap out. “Fine, have it your way, I guess we will have to stop in more often to make sure you aren’t killing yourself.”

She turned to face him with a smirk, “You do realize it’s your fault I’m so busy. All the extra workshops I’ve had to do are because the customers think there is a chance they might see a member of Shinhwa.” He chuckled and grabbed the conditioner.

“So maybe you should tell them we are dating, I’m sure that would slow things down a bit.”

She looked at him with a serious expression and took the bottle from his hand.

“I will never use to to my advantage. I’m with you because I want to be, not for what your celebrity status can do for me.” She squeezed out a generous amount of conditioner and slicked it through her hair.

“I never said you were, baby”, he grabbed the wide tooth comb she used to detangle her curls and handed it to her. She started at the bottom and worked her way up. “But if us showing up helps you, we are more than happy to make an appearance every now and then.”

She finished her bath and got out. He helped her dry off and they went to bed. He couldn’t stay the night and by the time they had made love she had fallen asleep and he had headed back home to sleep in his own bed.

Maggie got up early and went down to hit the cafe for a cup of coffee and a muffin before she opened for the day. She stood and talked to the owner for a while. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see a group of teen girls dressed in school uniforms run past the cafe. They had come from the direction of her shop. She wished the owner a good day and went back over to get things ready for the day. She had a full workshop at 10am and needed to get all the supplies set out at the long table she had gotten just for the workshops. When she reached the shop she gasped and dropped her coffee on the ground.

On the sidewalk in front of her store window someone had written with chalk.

“you aren’t good enough for him.”

She sat down on the curb heavily and stared at the words. The hot coffee ran down the side walk and stained the white jeans she had put on but she didn’t even feel the heat. The cafe owner came out and saw her there and went to help her up.

“Aigoo, aigoo. Don’t you worry about that Ms. Maggie, it will come off with a little water and a broom”, she called out to her grandson Changwoo to bring the stuff out to clean it up. She led Maggie back to the cafe and got her some more coffee and a damp towel to clean the coffee off her jeans.

“So you are dating that handsome man that I keep seeing in the shop after closing. Well, don’t let whoever did that bother you. Sure, they can say what they want, but you know what your worth is, and so does he, or he wouldn’t be with you in the first place.” Maggie wiped the last of the coffee away and looked at her.

“But he’s an idol and I’m just a girl from California. Maybe they are right”, she sighed heavily and looked out the window and watched Changwoo scrub the hateful words away. “Now I know why Kaye and Celeste were so hesitant about dating the others. You can believe that people will be happy they found someone but it rarely goes that way.” She stared into her cup morosely and stood up. “Well, I better get over there and set up. It’s going to be a busy day.” She gave the sweet, wrinkled ahjumma a hug then headed outside. Changwoo had just finished and took a moment to sweep the water into the street. “Miss Maggie”, he bowed slightly, “I’ll keep an eye out and if you have anymore trouble just let me know.” He gathered the broom and bucket and as he walked back to the cafe, he patted her on the shoulder lightly.

Inside she went down the table and set the bottles of resin and hardener at each spot and went to the back to get the caddys of glitter and molds. When she came back out her phone went off. It was a text from Eric.

“Pictures just went up on Twitter, is everything okay over there?” He had seen them and texted her immediately. He hoped it was less severe than what had happened to Celeste.

She set the caddys on the table and responded. “It was just some chalk on the sidewalk, the cafe owner sent her grandson over to clean it up. I’m fine, just a little shaken”, she spread out the supplies and sat down.

Minwoo stood behind Eric and read the message and sighed. “So they know…at least some of them. Maybe we should have been more careful being around there so often.” Eric shook his head.

“No, don’t say that. We are grown men, it’s unfair to expect us to remain single just because the fans want it that way. I suppose it’s time to make an official statement.” He sent back a quick text.

“Announcement in a few days. We will try to keep an eye on you before and after. Don’t worry about it and go about things as usual.”

Maggie read it and sighed and closed her eyes, “Well we couldn’t keep it a secret forever.” She got up and finished her preparations and opened the shop.

Celeste saw the post on Twitter and texted Kaye. Luckily they were both off today. They met at Celeste’s apartment and headed over to the shop together. When they showed the workshop had started already and they took two empty spots and watched as Maggie showed everyone what to do. Once they had the resin mixed Maggie came over and pulled a chair up.

“So you saw it already?”, her tone was hushed as she tried to keep the customers attention away from them.

“You bet we did”, Kaye said loudly, she didn’t care if they were overheard.

“And we came to hang out and be your body guards for the day. The nerve of some people”, Celeste said just a little quieter. One student looked over at them.

“Are you talking about the pictures on Twitter?”, her voice was hesitant and she shook some glitter into her mold.

Kaye rolled her eyes, “We sure did. We couldn’t let anyone hassle our friend.” She put her arm around Maggie’s shoulder. “This is my best friend and I’ll be damned if anyone hurts her.”

Celeste nodded, “Besides, I’ve been through this already so I figured who better to come over.”

The girl’s eyes widened as she realized who Celeste was, “Omo! You’re Hyesung’s girlfriend!”, she said loudly enough that the customers turned to look.

“No way! I can’t believe its her! I love the cafe she works at, it has the best coffee”, whispers ran up and table as the others stared.

“OMO!!! She was on that show with Shinhwa!”, one girl shouted and pointed at Kaye. The other girls started to freak out.

“Hey now! Everyone just calm the down”, Kaye stood up and waved her hands in the air. The room went, even Maggie and Celeste just stared at the redhead.

“Now look, we came cause someone is trying to start trouble with Maggie here because she’s dating Minwoo”, at her words the volume in the shop rose again.

“YAY!!! I said calm down! It’s not a big deal, they like each other so they are dating. Keep this between just us, will ya? They are probably going to have to go public after what happened today but it will be easier if Minwoo and Shincom make the announcement instead of a bunch of silly females.”

When she made the announcement a couple of the girls started to cry but the majority of the room started to cheer and came over to pat Maggie on the back and a few even hugged her.

“And just to make sure, I’ll need all of your social media user names, just to keep you of course. I trust that you are happy for them and won’t cause any issues”, Kaye pulled out a folder and got out some sheets of paper and passed them around. Each girl wrote down their information and passed it back.

“I’ll leave this here with Maggie, I’m sure she will be checking them to make sure that no one goes back on their word.” As a gesture of good will Kaye pulled out her company credit card and went with a couple of the girls to the cafe next door and get everyone coffee and something to nibble on. When she got back the atmosphere was cheery and the girls had all moved on to another project. Maggie and Celeste sat on the stairs and talked quietly amongst themselves.

“So do you really think they will keep it to themselves?”, Celeste looked around the shop.

“Well, if not we can always take legal action against them, they would be dumb to say anything”, Kaye handed them each a coffee.

“Well, Eric said they will be making the official announcement soon so hopefully they can manage to keep it for a few days”, Maggie said and took a sip of her coffee.

“And at least it was just chalk on the sidewalk, it’s not like they knew you live just upstairs”, she remembered the fear she had felt when her apartment door had been vandalized.

“Oh and don’t you worry about Eric, I’ll tell him what’s up and that we took care of it”, Kaye had a glint her eyes, she always looked forward to confrontations with Eric.

The workshop ended and all the pieces were set aside to cure and the girls made plans to come back and see how they turned out in a few days. Each hugged her as they left and Kaye and Celeste followed them out the door.

Maggie stood in the open doorway and looked up and down the street, she wondered what had prompted the graffiti. Changwoo waved at her from the little table and chair that sat outside the cafe. She smiled and waved back and went to clean up from the workshop. It was almost lunch time now and she was certain Minwoo would show up to check on her.