Of Stalkers and Celebrities
Mr. Perfect
If Kyungran thought a mere grounding would stop Myungsoo from going to Inkigayo, she was wrong. Myungsoo had been in Korea for almost two months, and in that time, he hadn’t missed a single public event with Fedora—until that weekend, of course. He had already missed their performance on Music Bank and Music Core already; he couldn’t afford to miss the Sunday performance as well. How would he ever become the fan club president if he couldn’t identify every single stage outfit his idols wore?
No, missing Fedora’s goodbye stage wasn’t an option. His sister wasn’t stupid; she would have never locked him inside without a way out, in case of emergency. So there had to be something else that would tell her whether he left the apartment or not. He only needed to find out what.
Checking the contents of his backpack for the last time, Myungsoo headed toward the front door of the apartment. He stopped to think for a minute. The most logical place where she could have set up a trap would be the front door itself. He scanned the door frame for a while, and found what he was looking for. Almost unnoticeable was a tiny piece of black paper stuck just above the ground. It blended so well with the door itself that Myungsoo would never have noticed it if he wasn’t looking so carefully. With a victorious smirk, he grabbed the handle.
However, he stopped immediately. His sister was smarter than that. She was the finalist of The Genius, after all. She knew that Myungsoo was smart. There had to be something else. And then, an image flickered in his head. He remembered this funny anime he had watched ages ago, in which the door was similarly set up. Light had also placed a piece of paper between the door and the frame, but he had put two more safety mechanisms in.
He quickly let go of the door handle and inspected it. His eyes widened when he saw that it was, indeed, slightly pointed downward. Did his sister really pull an Imagay on him? He quickly rushed to the other side of the door, and he spotted the pencil lead resting on the door hinge. He had to admit, he was impressed that his sister would actually watch Death Note, but it was too bad that he had watched it, too. Carefully, he removed the pencil lead and placed it on the coffee table. With a satisfied smile, he headed out of the apartment.
He headed straight for the subway station. From there, it was only twelve stops and five minutes of walking to his destination, and nothing could stop him from getting there. His mood was increasing by the second, and by the time he entered the subway train, he was grinning like a madman.
He noticed several schoolgirls eyeing him from across the car. It wasn’t anything new to Myungsoo, of course; girls never quite managed to take their eyes off of him. Usually, he would be bothered by the attention, but not that day. No, it was too good of a day for something so trivial to ruin his mood. He even went as far as to smile and nod in their direction, which resulted in the four tomato-faced girls squealing like Sungjong singing the Queen of the Night Aria.
A dozen stops and twenty giggling girls later, Myungsoo finally got off the underground. He happily skipped on the escalator, making several ahjummas send him weird looks. Myungsoo couldn’t care less though; he was just glad that he was finally out of the stuffy apartment. He still vividly remembered the terror of the thunderstorm that night; he had been completely soaked wet before his sister took pity on him and uncuffed him from the lamppost. He had promised to never cause trouble again; yet here he was, heading toward the SBS building where… his sister worked.
Myungsoo stopped abruptly in the middle of his steps. How could he have forgotten that? His sister worked in the very same building he was headed to! What if she caught him there? Well, he’d deal with the consequences later; right at that moment, Fedora was more important. He hadn’t seen his idol for almost a week now; he needed to see Hoya again.
With renewed energy, Myungsoo started walking again. He made his way through the overcrowded sidewalk, and finally, after several more minutes, arrived in front of the SBS building. It was almost even more crowded than on Monday, when Myungsoo had been there for the Running Man filming. Most of them were eager fans who didn’t have a ticket to go inside, so they just camped outside of the building, hoping to see their idols pass by. Luckily, Myungsoo had his ticket to the show, so he headed toward the security guards at the entrance.
“Do you have a ticket?” one of the guards at the door asked.
“Give me a second,” Myungsoo replied and reached for his wallet. He opened it and pulled out… nothing. The ticket was gone.
“Well?” the guard repeated.
Myungsoo was at loss. He knew he had the ticket. Where could it have gone? He had made sure the night before that he had the ticket inside the wallet! So where could it have gone? Unless… was this his sister’s work? The best way to prevent him from going would be getting rid of his ticket! Why didn’t he check the ticket before he left?
“If you don’t have the ticket, please leave so others can come in,” the guard growled.
“Myungsoo-yah!” someone yelled behind him. Myungsoo turned around and widened his eyes in surprise. Walking fast toward him was announcer Kim Hwan, his sister’s co-worker.
“Hyung,” Myungsoo called in surprise. “How are you?”
“I’m alright,” he shrugged. “What are you doing here?”
“I want to go to Inkigayo, but I lost my ticket,” Myungsoo grunted.
“Oh, is that so?” the announcer furrowed his eyebrows and turned to the guard. “You can let him in.”
“Is he your relative?” the guard asked with curiosity.
“No, he’s Kyungran announcer’s younger brother,” Hwan replied.
The guard’s ears turned red, and he cleared his throat, flustered. “A-are you? Well, then come on in. Since you’re Kyunggie—I mean, Kyungran announcer’s brother.”
Kim Hwan and Myungsoo slid past the guards inside the building. Myungsoo turned to the older and said. “Thanks, hyung! I owe you one.”
“Your sister did more than I,” the older chuckled. “She’s pretty popular among our security staff. Anyway, I’m off. I need to finish my report. See you around!”
“Bye, hyung,” Myungsoo waved after the announcer. He couldn’t believe his luck—she must not have expected this at all. With a very, very wide grin, Myungsoo headed toward the concert hall. Fedora’s performance was starting in just a few minutes. He immediately identified his fellow Pandoras in the crowd and ran toward them. He sat down in the front row, hoping that Fedora members would see him.
“What are you doing here?” a girl next to him asked smugly in Busan accent. “Sones are over there.”
“But I’m here to cheer for Fedora,” Myungsoo replied.
“Really?” the girl’s expression brightened immediately. “Are you a Pandora too? Whoa, that’s so cool! You’re the first male Pandora I’ve ever met! Let’s be friends! I’m Jung Eunji, nice to meet you!”
“I’m Kim Myungsoo,” Myungsoo introduced himself and shook her hand. “Who’s your bias?”
“I’m a Hoyatic!” Eunji replied enthusiastically.
“Me too!” Myungsoo added eagerly.
“Whoaaaaa,” Eunji squealed. “I knew Fedora fanboys existed! Aish, that stupid dog kept arguing. He’s smart, but doesn’t know how the world is.”
“Who are you talking about?” Myungsoo asked curiously.
“Oh, just a friend from back home,” Eunji grinned. “I’m from Busan, you know. I got to know oppa because I was an extra in Reply 1997.”
“Oh, really?” Myungsoo gasped. “I thought you looked familiar!”
“I was one of oppa’s classmates,” Eunji giggled. “He was so cool on the set! I even got to shake my hand with him!”
“You’re so lucky!” Myungsoo exclaimed. “I wish I could, too…”
“Did you know Inguk-oppa and Hoya-oppa are having a special stage together today?” Eunji asked. “Yoonhee couple reunion!”
“Is that so?” Myungsoo asked, his enthusiasm waning. He wasn’t particularly fond of Seo Inguk. Mainly because Joonhee was in love with Yoonjae.
“I waited so long for this,” she continued, oblivious to her new friend’s mood change. “I mean, I rooted for them till the end! Just why on earth…? Aish, Sung Shiwon just makes me so mad. The actress…”
Whatever Eunji was about to say was drowned in the eruption of cheers from everyone around as the lights flickered and music started playing. Myungsoo immediately pulled out the huge placard from his backpack, unrolled it, jumped out of his seat, and started waving it wildly on top of his head.
“Before the dawn…”
“OPPA!!!” Eunji screamed so loudly that Kyungran paled in comparison. Myungsoo dropped his sign and instead covered his ears with his hands. He wasn’t the only one.
“OPPA!!!” she yelled again. “EUNJI IS HEEEERE!!!”
“Before the dawn…”
“OOOOOOPPPPPFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!”
* * *
One hour and eighty-five screams later, Myungsoo finally emerged from the concert hall. His ears were still buzzing from the extremely loud screaming of his newfound friend. Eunji was dragging Myungsoo by his wrist, apparently headed for the dressing rooms.
“You can’t get in,” Myungsoo repeated for what felt like the thousandth time. “There are guards there!”
“I just want to see them when they exit!” Eunji replied, her breathing uneven from all the physical activity. “Just a glimpse of them is enough!”
Myungsoo couldn’t quite argue with that reasoning. He himself wanted to get a glimpse, maybe even a handshake, with Hoya. Or any other members, actually. Hell, even Sungjong would be great after that epic performance on stage. So he let himself be dragged by the energetic girl.
“OPPA!” Eunji suddenly shouted, making everyone around them cover their ears with their hands. “HOYA OPPA!”
Fedora members were just ten meters away, apparently trying to get away from the armada of passionate fans following them around. Eunji used the momentary confusion and with several leaps, she was practically harassing Hoya.
“Oppa, do you remember me?” she asked, her voice two octaves higher than normal. “I was in the drama with you, oppa!”
“Yeah, I remember you,” Hoya gritted his teeth. “You’ve been following me around ever since the drama ended. Would you, please, STOP STALKING ME?”
“I-I,” Eunji stuttered, letting go of Hoya’s hand. Then, to Myungsoo’s surprise, she started crying and hitting her head. “Jung Eunji, you idiot! Of course oppa would hate you if you follow him like a stalker! He doesn’t have any privacy because of you! He’s probably scared to sleep at nights because he thinks you might go in his dorm, steal his underwear, and then sell them online for stupid ten thousand won! Why are you doing this to oppa?”
“Oh, no, please stop crying,” Hoya bit his lip. “It’s alright, I’m not angry. Oppa doesn’t hate you.”
“Are you really not angry at me, oppa?” she sobbed.
“Yeah,” he forced a smile. He grabbed a pen from his pocket and grabbed the small placard Eunji held in her hands, and signed it. “Here you go. Take this, alright?”
“Al-alright, oppa,” she wiped her tears. “I won’t follow you around that much anymore, oppa.”
Hoya gave her another weak smile and headed out of the place, followed by the rest of Fedora who had been watching the exchange quietly. The moment they all left, Eunji sprang up from the ground, her tears completely gone. She headed back to Myungsoo with a huge grin on her face.
“This is how you get your idols to remember you,” she said so merrily that it almost sounded like she was singing. Myungsoo was speechless—that girl had no shame at all. Even though he really loved Fedora, he’d never stoop that low to get their attention.
“What are you looking at?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “Follow me.”
“Oh no, he’s not following you anywhere,” a cold voice said from somewhere behind Myungsoo, making his hair stand up on end. He slowly turned around to meet the icy glare of his sister. “Well, hello, brother. Did you really think I wouldn’t know that you came here?”
I started a separate thread for stuff relating to this story. To read more about the chapter, click on the link at the end.
In the next chapter, the timeline will return to the Introduction as Myungsoo finally goes to his new school. And he'll be very surprised to find out who his classmates are. And just what exactly is Sunggyu's deal? You'll find out on March 22nd in "To His Majesty, the Queen of the Night"!
Until then,
Karma~
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