The opening night for the musical came by quickly.  The last few weeks were like a blur.  There have been so many interviews from the local news station and the local newspaper.  Being one of the 4 lead roles of this musical has involved my full participation in the interviews.  They weren’t really long. 

            It’s just that I had exams in all of my classes in the last 2 weeks leading up to the opening night, so it was stressful.  Academically, I was pretty much drained.  But, for the musical, I was excited.  Fortunately, no one else got the strep throat from Chohee even though Lu Han was still skeptical until this morning. 

            He’s been freaking out and monitoring me like crazy…  He’s been forcing me to go to sleep at 10:30 every night.  Now, I can’t stay up any later than that.  Darn you, Lu Han!

            I took in a deep breath as I stood in my small dressing room.  It was only enough for some of the outfits I have to wear for the musical and a small vanity table for makeup application.  It was originally a storage room, but because there were so many small roles, I had to be given the storage room.  I didn’t mind.

            “Chohee Unnie.” I said, as I knocked on her dressing room door.

            As the lead actress, she had one of the larger dressing rooms because she has so many costumes.  In this musical, there’s a wedding scene and her dress was huge and elaborate thanks to many sponsors from town. 

            “Ah, Mia!” she said, as she opened the door.  She was wearing her white and pink hanbok.  “Wow~  You look so pretty in a hanbok!”

            I just flashed hera look, as I leaned on the door way.  My hanbok was a mint green and dark blue.  “So do you.” I commented.  She was really pretty.  “I’m nervous.  Jonghyun said that the tickets were sold out.”

            “I know.” said Chohee, worried.  She sent me a smile.  “Fighting~”

            “Are you guys nervous?” asked Kibum, as he approached the door.  He was wearing modern day attire.

            “Of course!” Chohee and I said.

            Kibum nodded his head and took in a deep breath.  “So am I.” he smiled.

            “You guys will do good.” said Jinsang, as he walked past us.  “Get in positions, the show starts in 5.”

            “Yes, Director!” Chohee, Kibum, and I said.

            I frowned as I looked around the packed lobby.  I was looking for Lu Han.  He was such a trouble maker.  I know that it was him that was fooling around in my dressing room.  How did he get backstage to begin with?!  I have been thanking the audience for 10 minutes straight already and I think that it is time for me to look for that bastard.

            Besides my frantic search for the devil, the musical went well.  Everyone performed wonderfully, especially Chohee and Junsu, our lead actor.  I haven’t mentioned this before, but I was worried about my singing.  Honestly, I feel that my vocals are pretty weak so I was worried about the high notes.  Fortunately, I was able to hit all the high notes.

            I spotted Lu Han across the room.  He was talking to someone.  I quickly picked up my hanbok skirt and started heading over there when someone stopped me.

            “Your performance was beautiful.” she said.

            I smiled and bowed a 90˚bow.  “Thank you so much.” I said.

            “You were the one that composed and wrote the lyrics to the ending song, right?” she asked.

            “Yes, I was.” I said, nodding my head.

            “It was lovely.  I cried.” she said, as her hand came up to wipe her eyes.  I could tell her eyes were watery.  “Oh, sorry!  It was just so touching!”

             Whoever she was, she was such a sweet fan.  She gave me a bouquet of flowers and I thanked her like 20 times afterwards.  After our small conversation, I quickly headed over to the direction I saw Lu Han.  I let out a sigh of relief; he was still there.

            “Lu Han!” I said, as I grabbed his hand to get his attention.  “You didn’t need to-”

            Lu Han turned around to look at me and I quickly let his hand go.  That person was NOT Lu Han.  Whoever he was, they looked similar from faraway.  But, up close, you could tell that he was definitely not the baby face I was looking for.

            “Y-You’re not Lu Han.” I stumbled, mortified.  I quickly dropped his hand.

            The Lu Han look-a-like just smiled.  He was cute, for sure.  But, not Lu Han.

            “Mia?” asked the person I was looking for.

            I quickly turned around and the hanbok swoosh.  I quickly went to the real Lu Han’s side and took his big, warm hand in mine.  “Sorry for holding your hand!” I apologized.  “I found my friend.”

            The stranger just continued to smile.  “It’s OK.” he said, softly.

            I nodded my head.  “Sorry.” I said, again.  Then, I pulled Lu Han into the hallway that led backstage.

            “Mi-” started Lu Han.

            “I-I was looking for you.” I stated, lamely trying to save myself from embarrassment.  I looked over my shoulder at him.

            He was smiling for some odd reason.  “You thought that that guy was me, huh?” he asked.

            I glared at him and continued to drag him to my dressing room.  I pushed the door to my dressing room open to reveal it be completely filled with yellow roses.

            “Why?!  Why, Lu Han, why?!!” I asked, appalled.

            Yes, it was a lovely thing for him to do…  BUT, I needed to change out of my hanbok ASAP.  My parents surprised me with a reservation about 7 minutes ago.  We were going to eat at a restaurant that closes at 10:30 and it was already 10:27.  Mom, Dad…  Were you serious about that?!  We would had never made it in time anyways.

            “I don’t know.” Lu Han replied, acting like he didn’t do anything.  He closed the door and it got extremely crowded in the room.

            If it’s already this late, then it doesn’t even matter anymore, I thought.  The restaurant probably closed already.

            I rolled my eyes as I made Lu Han sit on the stool by the vanity table.  The guy back in the lobby really did look like him at a distance.  I wanted to inspect the similarities and the differences.  So I grabbed Lu Han’s face without telling him on purpose.

            “What are you doing?” he asked, irritated.

            He tried to pull away, but I got my grip on him.  After realizing that I wasn’t going to let go, Lu Han stopped and relaxed.  His skin was really soft for a guy and I was oozing with jealously.  All the sudden, I could feel his warm hands on my hips. 

            “Did that guy really looked like me?” he asked.

            I placed my hands on his shoulders and sighed.  “I like your nose and your eyes more.” I said.  “It makes you look like a doll.”

            Lu Han smiled as he looked down at my hanbok.  He looked back up at me.  “You’re the one that looks like a doll.” he commented.

            I smiled and gave him a hug.  “Thank you for the flowers.” I said.  “And, for the comment.”

            Lu Han laughed.  “I know…  I overdid it with the flowers.” he said.  He quickly looked around the tiny room and laughed again.  “But, you can give the rest of them to everyone on the cast and production team for their hard preparation on my behalf!” 

            I pulled away from the hug.  “We have to leave right now.” I said.

            “Oh yeah.” said Lu Han and he laughed.  “We’ll just have to do it in a sloppy fashion.”

            Since there was a glass vase of about 30 roses or so, I decided to keep only those.  And, I made Lu Han go around passing all the other roses to people as I changed out of my hanbok.  He did it pretty quickly because by the time I was done, he already passed out all of them.  We met my parents and Heawoo were out in the lobby.

            “Heawoo!!!” I yelled, excited as I ran up to her and hugged her.  Most of the people were already gone, so my voice echoed throughout the lobby.  “I missed you so much!!  Why didn’t you tell me you were going to come?!!”

            She pulled away from the hug.  “I wanted to surprise you.” she said.

            Before I could say anything someone covered my eyes.  “Stop playing around, Lu Han.” I said.

            “But, I’m over here.” he said.  He sounded like he was standing far away from me.

            “What?” I asked, as my hands reached up and touched the hands that were covering my eyes.  I immediately recognized them.  “Mason?!!!”

            The person uncovered my eyes and rested his chin my shoulder.  “Hello.” said Mason.

            I quickly turned around and saw my older brother.  “Mason!!!!” I said and jumped up and down, excited. 

            He laughed and I hugged him.  He picked me up and spun me around.  After he placed me on the ground, I linked my arms with his.  My partner in crime and I are finally on the same soil again, I thought.  I’m so excited!!  I was smiling so hard that my face hurt.

            “Mom, Dad…  Why didn’t you guys tell me that Mason was coming home?” I asked.

            “We didn’t want to ruin the surprise.” they replied.

            “Yah!” I said, unlinking my arms with Mason.  I pointed my fingers accusingly at Heawoo and Mason.  “You two are mean!  How could you guys possibly not tell me you guys were coming to see me perform?!!”

            Heawoo just laughed.  “Don’t be so dense.” she said.  “We really wanted to surprise you.”  Mason nodded his head in agreement.

            “And, do you really think that I was really going to miss your first musical performance?” he said.  “No, that’s why I’m here.”

            “And, classes?” I asked, taking his hand in mine.

            “Who cares?” shrugged Mason.  “I’m going back on Sunday night.”

            I pouted.  “Ge ge, why?!  I’m going to miss you!” I said.

            Mason let out a squeal.  “You’re so cute when you talk in Mandarin!” he said, as he leaned into my face.  He smiled before he planted a kiss on my cheek.  I laughed.

            Heawoo sent us a warm smile.  “I should get going home now.” she said.  “My older sister, her family, and my younger cousin are visiting, so I should go home.”

            I grabbed her hand with my other free hand.  “Oh, Heawoo~  We’ll hang out tomorrow.” I said.

            She smiled.  “Of course.”  She gave my hand a quick squeeze before leaving.

            “Are we still eating at the restaurant?” I asked.

            My parents shook their heads.  “Maybe we can have some lunch, but dinner seems to be impossible.” smiled Dad.

            Mom laughed.  “It’s a good thing I already made some things earlier.” she said.  “I was skeptical when Dad told me about the reservations.”

            “Good thinking, Mom.” laughed Mason and I.

            I quickly turned to Lu Han.  He was standing by Mom’s side, quietly.  I grabbed his hand with my free hand and he jumped, being startled.  He looked down at me, surprised.

            Did he really thought that I forgot about him?, I thought.

            I smiled at him and held onto his hand tighter.  Lu Han returned the gesture with a soft smile.

            “Just so you know, I didn’t forget about you.” I said, softly as Mason and Dad started to talk about his schooling.

            Lu Han’s smile just grew wider, as he squeezed my hand.

Author’s Note:

            Yay!  Mason is back!  Mason is back! 

            And, who is the Lu Han look-a-like?  Hmm…  Long lost twin brother?

LOVE,

loveFORyunho