Enjoy!

While the girls continued our schedules, I stayed at the dorm catching up on my homework and spent time practicing as my face cleared up. It was a bit awkward since the girls still had obligations they had to fill so when they came home tired, exhausted, I felt left out but tried to push those thoughts to the back of my mind as I got closer and closer to joining the girls in our schedules. The first music show I had my ‘come back’ on was Inkigayo and the girls treated me like an abused puppy who was scared of sudden movements, loud noises, the works. Them tiptoeing around me made me even more anxious but I knew they meant well although they were driving me crazy! The girls treated me like fine china although we were a group who were very rough and physical with each other but I understood their caution around me.

The time to go rehearse our stage came sooner than I had wanted it but I saved face as I walked up the steps with the girls with my head down. As soon as I was fully on the stage there were cheers and calls of fans saying them loved and missed me. I gave them a quick nod of the head before doing our greeting with the girls and it seemed the fans got even louder. I struggled through the rehearsal but got through it as best as possible. Once we were done I was the first one to leave the stage before I felt like puking all over the fans near the top of the stage. Since news of my attack it was to be noted that a ot of idols beefed up their security as there were more body guards around the area than usual. Once we all got comfortable in our waiting room, we began monitoring our rehearsal, me cringing because of how bad I messed up repeatedly with the choreography. Although the girls were understanding Nari, nor Suri let it slide as they both gave me a lecture on being a professional. Suri’s lecture lean more towards showing those anti-fans that I could, if not be truthfully confident, ‘fake it till I make it’. By the time we were done monitoring our rehearsal, at least 20 different artists/groups stopped by our waiting room to make sure I was okay, people I didn’t even know knew me! Of course I was grateful but all of the attention made me more anxious than usual and my members, being the angels they were made sure to let others know that we were busy or just speaking for me as they easily picked up on my emotions. When it came to our actual performance I didn’t mess up to bad but my voice was not as strong as it usually is. I couldn’t hold the camera’s gaze even if my life depended on it! Although I was still lacking it seemed like every fan there cheered for me as I did my part of the song which made me smile on the inside. After all the artists performed we were in the top three of winners so we stood towards the front which I was not happy about. I kept my head down the whole time and interlocked my fingers with Tali when she offered her hand to me. Whether she saw my hand shaking or not, I’ll never know as I usually have to beg her to hold my hand. Unsurprising to most, we won for our song and I clapped but kept my head down so I wouldn’t have to look into any cameras. A squeeze from Tali’ s hand made me look up and scan the crowd quickly before looking back down, listening to the girl’s speeches.

"Thank you for supporting us and being great fans! We will continue to make you proud!"

“You believing in us put us in this position once again! We love you so much!”

“Continue to look after each one of us and love us like a close friend!” The mic came under my mouth and I bowed a little.

"Thank you fans."

Before I finished the word thank, fans went insane creaming and cheering which made me look up and smile. We had our encore stage and we were doing it until they stopped which made me look at my members before looking out to see our fans holding up, ‘We Love Our Princess Baby Maknae Dain!’. So surprised they did an event for me at my comeback had me in tears as I cried from the love I was given from our fans. I made sure to give them a deep bow before the girls came over and hugged me tight.

While it took me some time to get over my initial anxiety I became more emotionally stable as I carried out my schedule. Even so, I still did not attend the multiple fansigns that our group had. But I couldn’t avoid fansigns forever and one person was going to make sure of it.  The day it changed was like any normal day as I decided to do my homework in our personal dance studio at the YG building. I had come early in the afternoon not liking the quietness of the dorm and decided to finish my homework there. I was brought out of my concentration on doing my homework when there was a knock at the door before it opened.

"Narsha unnie!!! What are you doing here?!?"

"I'm here to take you out kid! So take this bag and get dressed!" She said handing me a bag and pushing me into another room to change into the clothes she brought.

While pushing me to the room she didn’t answer any of my questions on why I had to get dressed and where we would be going. I put on the paisley leggings, a black oversized shirt with cute sandals she brought me with a little pep in my step as I was excited to be doing something other than homework. My hair was a mess so I grabbed a leather SnapBack that had been on a chair when I walked in, on and came out the room.

"Okay! Ready!"

She took my hand as we left together. She took me to downtown Seoul around the vendors, stuffing me with food and buying me anything I showed interest in which drove me crazy! There was a drum player by one of the venders which reminded me of all the videos I saw of people doing the same thing in places like New York City, LA, that I began dancing while Narsha cheered me on. I felt embarrassed for dancing by myself so  pulled her to dance with me, attracting a huge crowd around us. She nudged me away to get from in the middle of the crowd which left me so surprised all I could was laugh and clapping towards the drummer which in turn had the crowd doing the same thing.  I was straightening my body as I had bowed to the drummer and crowd when hands grasped my shoulder tightly.

"Turn around, Dain-ah." I smiled at Narsha’s voice, doing as she said and squealed.

"Mommy!?!?!" I yelled running to my mom who was at front of the disappearing crowd.

"What are you doing here?? Mommy you should have told me you would be here! I missed you!"

"Well I was showing a friend around!"

"A friend?" I questioned frowning at her.

What friend did she have that didn’t know their way around downtown Seoul?

"Oh! There’s my friend!" Following the pointed finger behind I was struck frozen as I stared in the eyes of my best friend from the States, a freshly turned 19 year old Lena Dumas. I didn’t realize I had been crying until she was hugging me wiping my face off chastising me for being so emotional.

"I get so emotional only when I’m around you! Stop it!"

"It's because you missed me!" I laughing thickly.

"But what are you doing here Lena??"

"Stop with the Korean, I only understand a little bit! You know that!" She said roughly wiping at her eyes and putting her arm around my neck.

"It's improved Lena! But let’s go we’re starting to gather a crowd again.” Bowing at the drummer again I turned to Narsha and hugged her tight.

"I hope this made you feel better."

"Ah~ unnie!!! Unnie you are the very best there is! I love you!" I said truthfully.

We went walked all over downtown Seoul once again but I was leading the way showing Lena all there was to see. I made her try something from each food vendor, making a note of the food she liked so I knew where I would take her for dinner. Just as Narsha did me, I made sure Lena left downtown Seoul with every trinket she showed interest in before she wanted to go to the mall. So distracted from Lena being in Seoul, South Korea, I didn’t realize that we came to the same mall where the rest of POWER were holding their fansign at. Because I was a bit wealthier I made sure to bring Lena to the name brand stores so she could buy some clothes. After a quick 30 minutes of shopping Narsha and Lena wanted to go back to the main floor of the mall. I was talking to my mom when Narsha called to me. 

"Hey Dain-ah, I want to show you something really quick!" We walked to the back of wall with a curtain separating the other side but I followed Narsha until she stopped suddenly.

"Keep going! I have to take this call!"

"Okay?” I looked back at her but she waved me on.

I could barely see but made my way through the curtain maze and pulled it back to POWER's fansign. I gasped and tried to turn back without anyone noticing but there were shouts of my name making the whole place go wild! The girls turned around with smiles on their faces and Suri came over with a mic.

"Introduce yourself to everyone!"

"Um, h-hello I'm POWER's maknae, Dain-imnida." The fans went crazy and cheered my name for a bit as I tried to back out of Suri’s arms but it was useless as I was directed to a chair in between Joonmi and Minah.

"Welcome back kid."

”I’m not suppose to be here! I was tricked!” I said realizing that what I had just blurted out was true.

“Well you’re here now!” Minah said and waved at a fan who was extremely loud talking to her.

(I took inspiration from Goo Hara and one of her fangirls! It is the cutest thing to me and Hara takes it all in stride!)

“MINAH UNNIE! YOU LIGHT UP MY WORLD!”

“MINAH UNNIE! WILL YOU TAKE CARE OF ME THE WAY YOU TAKE CARE OF DAIN-AH?!?!”

"MINAH UNNIE! ARE YOU EVEN REAL??”

“MINAH UNNIE! TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!”

“MINAH UNNIE! I LOVE YOU!”

“MINAH UNNIE! CAN I BE YOUR DONSAENGGIE?!?!?!”

“MINAH UNNIE YOU’RE SO CUTE! UNNIE LET’S GET MARRIED AFTER THIS, OKAY???”

“MINAH UNNIE YOU WON’T HAVE TO LIFT A FINGER TO CLEAN! I’LL BE YOUR WOMAN AND THE MAID!"

That last bit had Renni howling with laughter as well as Nari. The others had the decency to try and cover their mouths from laughing as I was shocked that a fan knew how much of a lazy person Minah really was. But, all Minah did was communicate back with her special fan giving her a thumbs up and a heart. I was so enthralled with Minah and her fangirl that I didn’t realize a fan had come in front of me.  I looked down at the fan and she smiled before sliding her album towards me for stepping back to put a lot of distance between us. I made sure to speak louder so she could hear me as I asked her a few questions. She also placed a gift on the table and slid it to me like she did the album and put more distance between us.

"Accept that on behalf of other fans who cherish you as a person and in this group. Please don’t let that one fan ruin you love for the rest of us. Donsaenggie, unnie has come to ever single fansign since the accident to give you this gift personally.  I run a fansite for you! This gift is from the thousands of members who love you. Please accept this with your heart and start coming back to fansigns! We miss seeing your beautiful face and your happy smile as you greet us. Please, for us. For your members. Please?"

I felt tears well up in my eyes but nodded to this fansite master. She looked close to crying as I slid her album back to her. She moved over to Joonmi but came back and stuck out her hands. I leaned forward a bit to lightly tap them before moving back. The smile on her face was something of pure adoration and love that I had to turn my head because I never realized I had fans like her who loved me so much. She moved on and it was like that for the duration of the fansign! Fans kept their distance with me and made sure not to freak me out by getting to close to me which I appreciated. Once we bowed to our fans and said goodbye we all headed to the dorm where my mom, Narsha, and Lena were waiting for us. Lena voiced that she was proud of me for sticking it out, telling me I looked the happiest meeting fans. The girls had given me a big box that was filled with letters, stuffed dolphins- my favorite animals, animal headbands, food, and all kinds of things that fans had wanted me to have although I did not go to the fansigns. When things settled down looked at the gift the Jiyeon, the fansite unnie gave me, and it was a CD. A CD of all my performances, on music shows, around local schools, in different regions and I truly seemed the happiest when I was performing for the fans At the end of the video there was a montage of what seemed like a thousands of my personal fans telling me how much I inspired them, gave them hope, got them through hard times that I couldn’t finish the video as I couldn’t see through the tears in my eyes. Going to bed that night I made a vow to continue entertaining because so many people looked to me as their saving grace and I was NOT going to let them down.

I am glad that this story is being well received! I am almost done with school (its Hell Week aka Finals Week) so I might not be able to update this story as fast as I would like but continue to comment please! What do you like? What do you NOT like? Is it intereting? Is this story going to fast? Are you wondering when Dain will meet Park Yoochun? Do you like Dain as a character? Tell me your favorite part of the story! Anything! Something! :)

Also, I changed up the format! It looks a whole lot better than huge blocs of writing.

Also, I was listening to this mix of two EXO songs while writing this and it is soooooo good! I am an EXO fan but I stan YG FAMILY FAMILY FAMILY!