에피톤 프로젝트 (Epitone Project) – 선인장 (Cactus) - Lyrical 

7th November 2014

“Sung Haneul. Wake up you sloth. It’s 4am already, time to leave.” 

“mmm….” 

“Haneul-ah. please, get up now.”

“Yah. Sung Haneul, if you don’t wake up right the train will leave and you won’t be able to make it.” 

Sung Haneul springs up from bed and rubs her eyes. Slowly, she makes her way to the washroom.

“Be fast.” Lee Mihyun’s voice has always been intimidating. 

“Is it just the two of us today?” Haneul’s voice comes from the washroom. 

“Yep, they’ll notice if we bring a crowd. Anyways, I’ve spoken to the producer so when they do the ‘challenge a local’ game, we’ll be chosen. Funny thing, we’re being payed for it and one free meal too. They think we’re college dropouts looking for a part time job. Stupid producers. Get your Busan dialect on.” 

Sung Haneul appears from the bathroom and begins to change into a purple hoodie and jeans. 

Beside her, Lee Mihyun changes into a startling green pair of jeans and t shirt. 

“Lets go. The train leaves at four forty.”  Lee Mihyun watches Sung Haneul leave the house, still sleepy and then follows, shutting the door and leaving the room bathed in darkness. 

———

In the corner of the room, there is a small table lamp. It doesn’t work yet it stands there, adding flesh to the room, bare of furniture. There is not much else that decorates the place. Lose scattered packets of Ramen noodles and unwashed plastic containers. There is the sofa that Haneul stole from the garage sale outside the supermarket. Its arm rests are stained with cigarette burns and despite Mihyun’s desperate attempts at washing it clean with the $0.99 detergent, it retains a certain scent of senile old men and drunk young women. When Mihyun attempted to sell it to the second hand shop, they offered her $3, the price of a black bean ramen packet. Mihyun stood, considering the offer, knowing that without the money, she and Haneul would have to continue their survival on sour kimchi and shrimp crackers. Finally, after a long thought, she refused the offer and begged the neighborhood uncle to pull the sofa back home. They would eventually end up disclosing some of their secret sasaeng photos to make do. The house is owned by Lee Mihyun. In the year of 2009, Lee Mihyun had spent the night camping outside the Super Junior dorm. She had been the first to find out about Hangeng’s contract against SM entertainment. With startling accuracy, she had recalled a conversation she had overhead to a journalist, earning herself nearly 500 dollars in cash. This house, her mother’s in past, belonging to the loansharks then, was her first buy. Initially when she settled in, there was nothing but the malfunctioning lamp, a few blankets and a saucepan to cook Ramen and tea in. When Haneul joined her in 2011, she had stolen, on her monthly trips to garage sales in distant neighborhoods, the couch and some curtains. There was nothing else the girls needed for survival, except their cameras. They were supplied with film, cameras, laptops and everything required to be a sasaeng by major online journal firms. Regular fans often threw spite at them, but the journal firms paid them to bear with it. Being a sasaeng fan had long since ceased to be just a hobby, it had become their job, their lifeline. Mihyun had a highschool diploma, however, her grades were so terrible that no university would dare accept her. Haneul did not even have that. Mihyun had found Haneul, running away from the security, the day she had first left her house. Mihyun was there, quietly waiting for Baekhyun to appear. Haneul was two years younger than her. When Mihyun first saw Haneul trying to free herself from the grip of an imposing security guard, her motherly instincts drew her close to the poor girl. She gave her shelter and in return, Haneul joined her in the stalking. In simple days, they became more than best friends, more than sisters. They shared their lives with each other. When Mihyun appeared with scars from pushing at the airport arrivals, Haneul wordlessly tended to her wounds. When Haneul attempted to steal Tao’s underwear, Mihyun stood guard. In 2012, they formed the biggest EXO sasaeng gang to exist. They looked miserable, surviving on scraps, yet their power was not to be mistaken. From HongKong to the Philippines, every EXO fanbase was under their command. Ever rumor that got released had been carefully sculpted by them. Most major online journalists recognized the power of sasaengs, not only those of EXO. Sasaeng were the passive paparazzi. They stalked their idols and gave the firms what they wanted- gossip. Lee Mihyun and Sung Haneul were the filters of all EXO information, every fantaken picture. On one website, fans praised them for their high quality pictures and on others, they threw spite to their name for harassing their idols. Those fans lived in blissful oblivion, not knowing that their favorite fansites were owned by their most despised enemies. 

Lee Mihyun and Sung Haneul always chuckled at the thought.