He was driving back from the hospital where he was shooting a drama as a brain tumor patient. It was 2 in the morning and he was really tired. There were a couple of times he yawned and slapped his own face in order to make himself awake. He was in the entertainment industry for more than 5 years now and actually from his own experience as a member of an idol group, SS501, 2 in the morning could still be considered early. He remembered when they made their comeback last year, they spent hours practicing their dance and preparation for their concert where most of the time they would only end up sleeping somewhere around 4. So, he had no idea why he was being so sleepy now.

‘Come one, stay awake! I’m nearly home now…’ he scolded himself to stay awake but in his mind, he was already imagining his bed and how soft his pillow would be when he placed his head on them. Yawning again, he rubbed his eyes and when he opened them he was surprised to see at the road side near the entrance towards the residential area of his dorm was a girl in a white flowery dress and a knee length white jacket walking towards the same direction while playing a ball in her hands. He kept driving but when he passed the girl, he watched her from the rearview mirror; his heart was making him miserable. ‘I can’t just let the girl walk in this hour…where is my manner? It’s dangerous for a girl to be walking alone at this time. Maybe she’s staying somewhere near the dorm. I should give her a ride.’

He slowed down his car and stopped at the side, waiting for the girl to walk by, watching her still from the mirror of his car. As he saw the girl by the side of his car, he reeled down the passenger’s window and honked his car lightly, just loud enough for the girl to hear. He bent over towards the passenger’s seat and looked outside through the window at the girl who was also bending over to see who was honking her.

“Do you stay near here? Need a ride?”

“Huh? A ride? In a stranger’s car? No thanks,” retorted the girl, hurrying making her move away from his car.

He looked at the girl passed by his car in a hurry and scratched his head. ‘What was I thinking? She must think of me as a ert. Maybe I should just go home.’ He started his car and drove off, passing the girl as he watched her from his car mirror. ‘What was she doing walking this late? And playing with a ball? But, she’s pretty cute.’

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just as the nights before, he drove back to his dorm after midnight only that this time he was coming back from his cousin’s wedding. He was happy for his cousin to finally settling down with the one fated for the both of them. Sighing, he thought about his own love life. It has been a long time since he was in a relationship. He was just too busy to be in one and he’s group of people he socialized with now was from the same industry, and everyone in this industry faced the same problem especially if they are idols like him.

As he was approaching the junction where he was supposed to make a right turn, he saw the same girl as the night before walking towards the same entrance, wearing the same style of clothing with different color, light blue, still with a ball in her hand. He made the turn and stopped his car by the roadside. This time around, he stepped out of the car and waited for the girl.

“Annyeonghaseoyo…hi…I’m Kim Kyu Jong.”

The girl was startled by his sudden introduction statement. He could see weariness in her expression. Though she was weary, he noticed she still stopped and nodded to him politely before she started to walk again, in a faster slide.

“I’m heading that direction as well. Do you need a ride? You could call someone telling them my name and car number if you’re worried. I promise you I do not have any ill intention towards you. I just want to give you a ride.”

The girl eyed at him cautiously. “Wae?”

“It’s late and my conscience won’t allow me to leave you again just like yesterday.”

His statement shocked the girl. “Oh? It was you yesterday? I thought some ert wanted to do bad things to me.”

He chuckled when he heard her, “Yeah, I guessed I do act like a ert yesterday. Sorry to frightened you. I would have stayed away from me too in that situation. So, you want the ride?”

The girl thought a while before nodding. She walked towards him, with her phone in her hand and when she was near, she quickly snapped a picture of him. “I have your face so, if you tried to do anything bad to me, I’d report to the police and show your picture.”

He smiled, “But I think it’s going to be a little bit hard because they would say you are a fangirl.”

She moved her head to the side, eyeing at him questioningly. “A fangirl? Wae?”

‘She doesn’t know who I am? I’m so full of myself. I even act like Hyung Jun, thinking that everybody would know who I am,’ he thought, smiling sheepishly at himself.

“If you are going to give me a ride, why are you still standing there?”

“Sorry…let me open the door. Get in.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever since that night, the night he gave her a ride, he would always wait for her at the entrance when she would be on the way back from her night class or part time job. She would always dress herself in the same outfit. He asked her before about it and she just answered that it was her style. She hates pants and anything that doesn’t have the length of below her knee. And about the ball, she told her that it was her favorite thing in the world as it was the last present her father gave her when she was 11, before he passed away.

In one of their rides, he told her about his work which really shocked her. She listens to music but she never cared about who the singer was, so she had no idea who he was. She knew the name of his group for the sake to find the songs that she had interest on but she doesn’t know who the members are. Not having television in her house was another reason why she has no idea who he was. She only listened to the radio. Her naivety intrigued him. He liked the way things are going between the two of them and he was truly happy of the absence of activity during these times that allowed him to meet her. But in a day time he had to leave her because of the concert he’ll be having with his group members at Bangkok, Thailand. When he mentioned that to her, he could see the sadness in her eyes and how she wished she’d be able to see him performing.

“You don’t have to travel to Thailand. We’ll be having our encore concert end of this month here, at Seoul. I’ll get a ticket for you. But what about your class?”

“Missing a day from class should be okay, I guess…I’d just have to double my hard work studying. By the way, I need to show support to my new friend and also, I need to make sure that you’re not lying to me about being a SS501.”

“Hey, I didn’t lie! Fine, on the 28th, you really have to come and see me perform. So, today would be the last day for me to send you home, until I come back from Thailand. You have to take care of yourself, okay.”

“It’s a deal. You too…” she happily said after they made the pinky promise.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He wrote a letter for her in the hotel before the concert expressing how he felt for her though the time they spent together was brief, he can’t helped himself from falling for her. Smiling, he tucked the letter in his wallet. He would wait for her tonight after their flight back to Korea right after the concert and give her the letter. ‘It would be perfect, on Valentine’s day,’ he said to himself in his mind.

The whole time of the concert, he was having fun like he always does but this time around he was more happy waiting for the concert to finish and going back to his country because of the mission he has in his mind. It was during his solo performance that he thought he was imagining things. Right in the center of the standing area, in between the many fans singing and screaming, he saw her. In her white dress, dark brown wavy hair flowing smoothly and the glow she had around her, standing there, smiling and waving at him. He almost stopped singing because of the shock but he controlled himself. As he was about to wave back at her, he got distracted for a while by the blip on his left side and when he turned to where she was again, she was gone.

‘I must really being too excited of seeing her later that I started to imagine she was here.’

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The stylist was doing his hair for the next performance where they would be singing the Peas Song and Harooman when Hyung Jun called out to him.

“Kyu Jong ah, you’ll be going back to the dorm when we get back? I think we should stay at my parent’s house for tonight.”

“Why?”

“I read in the Internet that last night there was an accident on the road towards the dorm. A girl died there. It stated that the driver didn’t see her. She just dashed forward in front of the car, running after a ball, I think. It would be scary to use that road tonight; especially we’ll be back really late. After midnight…Aaaa…I don’t want to see any ghost…Ya! Kyu Jong do you hear me?”

He stopped listening to Hyung Jun from the moment he mentioned the girl running after a ball. ‘It can’t be her…the one I saw earlier…it can’t be that…that was her?’

“Kyu Jong ah…we have to go! What are you doing still sitting there?” scolded Jung Min, pulling him from his seat towards the stage.

He was too dumbfounded but he followed him up the stage and continued on with the concert. In his heart he kept saying that the accident...the girl...can’t be her. He put on his performance act together but when Harooman played, he couldn’t control it anymore. Closing his eyes during the song, the lyrics really touched his heart and he cried…in front of the fans…he cried. Only he knew how fitting that song was in his life at that exact moment.

Idea / Source:

During Persona Concert at Thailand, Kyu Jong was seen / said cried when they sang the Harooman / Only One Day song.  So, that's how i got the storyline for this fiction.