(Request from anon)

 

“I cannot believe you made me put this on again,” you whine, sitting behind the passenger’s seat.  Your manager is turned around in the sit in front of you.  You interrupted him while he was trying to tell you about the plans for Running Man.

 

“Honey you look gorgeous, so will you just drop it already?”  Your manager rolls his eyes and tries to go back to his instructions.

 

“No, I will not,” you argue, acting like a child.  Yes, you are throwing a tantrum and you don’t care.  “I told you the first time you made me wear it for the music video that I never wanted to see this outfit again, let alone appear on a variety show in it.”

 

The root of your rage is a pair of skintight ripped leggings, a short-sleeve red shirt that was too short and a black jean vest with strings and pins and every adornment you could think of.  Not to mention the heels; ruby red and unnecessarily high.

 

“Honey, for the last time, you are wearing that for the first part of your appearance and I don’t care what you say.”

 

“But…”

 

“Nope.  Don’t even.”

 

“Oppa, I…”

 

“Don’t ‘Oppa’ me.  If you don’t wear that, then I’m just going to go jump off a bridge and let your idol career die along with me.”

 

You hold your tongue.  I hate when he gets all dramatic like this.  You cross your arms and lean back in your chair and look out the window.  

 

“Good girl.  So as I was saying, since this is the Valentine’s Day shooting, the hosts are going to give you a rose and ask you, along with the other girls, to choose your favorite guy.  Not only will you have the original Running Man cast, but you will have Exo.”

 

“I’m appearing with Exo again?”  You don’t look at him.

 

“Of course.  After Kai appearing in your music video, their manager and I have become great friends.  We are goona stretch this out for as long as we can.  Speaking of it, your video has only been released for 13 days and you have over 2 million views.”

 

The fact really did excite you, but to keep the aggravation toward your manager still evident, you reply, “Really?  Cool.”

 

“So anyway, back to Running Man.  So, while you are choosing your guy, they will be playing music and expecting you to be entertaining with it.  I need you to make it y, to keep with your concept.”

 

“Of course.  And to keep with the popularity, you want me to choose Kai.”

 

“Wrong.”

 

“What?”  This time you look at him.

 

“I don’t want you choose him.  I don’t care who else you pick, just not Kai.”

 

“Why not?  Isn’t that the concept you’re going for.”

 

Your manager sighs in frustration.  “Not exactly.  We are keeping you two on the same shows to spread word about your comeback.  We are not encouraging the idea that you two are together.  He was just a guest in your music video.  That’s it.”

 

You feel your heart sink a little.  Sure, you know that there’s no chance of being with Kai, but some tiny part of you thought maybe you could be together.  What’s Kai going to think when I choose another guy?  Will he be upset or just not care?  I mean it’s not like he liked me, right?

 

Your manager continues to talk, but you only half listen, more focused on the questions in your head.

 

~<3~   

 

Standing behind some trees that are off to the left of the Running Man cast, you try to ignore your nervousness.  This is huge.  Weekly Idol was exciting, but Running Man is just mind blowing.  

 

There are two other female idols standing next to you.  You are the odd ball of the group.  Two amazingly beautiful and talented women are fixing their hair and makeup, ready for the cue, while you are convincing your breathing to return to normal.  Your manager was sure to remind you that with the release of your new y song, Day Dream, you had to keep the y concept in everything you do.  You could strangle him sometimes.   

 

You listen to the members of the show talking about Gwangsoo’s apparently interesting outfit and move on to introducing EXO.  You catch a small glimpse of Kai and see that he’s wearing an outfit from the music video too.  You sigh and think back to the shoot.  It took three days to shoot the whole thing.  Its concept was Snow White and Prince Charming with a huge y twist.  You remember sitting in the makeup artists chair as they applied the fake apple tattoo to your neck and covered your eyes in black eye shadow and thick eyeliner.  You were not the innocence Snow White who sang with the birds and frolicked with deer.  You picture Kai.  He had been dressed in a black leather jacket, tight black jeans and combat boots, the same thing he’s wearing now.  He played the part of your dark prince, who woke you from the spell.

 

You jump as someone put their hand on your shoulder.  You turn and see Hyuna’s smiling face.  “Oh, Unnie,” you whisper shyly.  “Sorry, I guess I was just…”

 

“Day dreaming?”  Hyuna offers, smirking a little.

 

You giggle quietly at the association and scratch the back of your head.  Well, no you don’t.  You remember how long it took the hairdresser to tease and style it into whatever it’s supposed to look like now, so you don’t touch it.

 

“Yeah, I guess.”

 

“You nervous?”   

 

“Maybe a little,” you admit.  Hyuna’s wearing one of the outfits from her latest music video, Red.  She is definitely something to behold.  You notice her tiny waist and long black hair.  She’s wearing contacts that make her eyes look crystal green and you are completely jealous.  I wish I looked like her.  

 

“Don’t worry.  This show is the most fun I’ve ever had.  Though it is exhausting,” she giggles.  Why does her giggle have to be so cute?  You smile at her and nod your head.

 

“Watchcha girls talking about?”  Bora sneaks up to you two and puts a hand of each of your shoulders.  She’s beautiful too.  You only pale in comparison.

 

“Nothing much.  You look great by the way,” Hyuna pipes up, obviously used to this whole socializing-with-other-girls thing.  You never were very good at girl talk.

 

“Thank you.  I am so excited for the rose part.  I already know who I’m choosing.”

 

“Really?  Who is it?”

 

“Not telling.  You’ll see.  All I can tell you is he’s probably going to be really shy.”

 

“Aw, that’s cute.”

 

I will never understand girl talk.

 

You stop listening for a minute and think about who you want to pick.  Your manager said he didn’t care as long as it was not Kai.  You peak around one of the trees and see that Kai is standing between Luhan and Chanyeol.  The light bulb over your head lights up. 

 

Turning back to the girls, both of them are looking at you and you don’t know why.  “Sorry, what?”

 

Bora laughs, quietly.  “Wow you really are a day dreamer.”

 

Again with the song association.  Really?

 

“Something tells me we have more guests so why don’t we go ahead and ask them to come out…” you hear Jaesuk say.  Your heart rate escalades and hammers against your chest.

 

“Come on out,” you hear all the members call.  The writers had told you that Hyuna would go out, then Bora and then you.  You see Hyuna walk around the trees confidently and hear the casts, plus Exo’s response.  Yes, they are going crazy.  Especially Haha, Gary and Gwangsoo.  There’s a little bit of talk before you hear the cast yell out again.

 

“Come on out.”

 

Bora walks out around the trees and there is yet another uproar.  Your knees are shaking now.  You know that you won’t get that kind of response, but you don’t really care.  You wonder how they will react to you.  Before you can think much, you hear the line once again.

 

“Come on out.”

 

You’re instantly in a different world.  Out of nowhere, you feel confident and turn up the sassy and y.  You strut out from the trees, taking big steps in the wobbly heels.  You watch the cast gape at your entrance, as if they don’t believe it’s you.  You glance over at Exo.  They are cheering loudly and clapping and you can’t help but smile.  The Running Man cast gets over their shock factor and start clapping too.  Haha rushes over to you and you laugh as he escorts you over to the line.  

 

“Wah, the writers are being generous to us today, bringing in all these beautiful women.”

 

You hear one of the Exo members call out, “Yah, what about us?”  You laugh when you realize it was Chen.  Gwangsoo starts making a show of saying, “We don’t need you.  Get out of here.  Go home.”  Everyone’s laughing and you feel yourself blush.  You glance over at Kai and see that he’s looking at you.  He’s wearing a smile that could light a dark room and you feel your whole face turn red.

 

Without realizing it, you are all of sudden getting a rose.  You take it and feel a thorn under your finger.  You quickly more it before being cut.  You listen to Jaesuk.

 

“…Valentine’s day and we want to start out by asking our female guests, plus Jihyo to pick any one of us to be their Valentine.  They will do so by giving us their rose.” 

 

You bring the flower to your nose and inhale deeply.  Why do roses have to smell so good? You wonder. 

 

You hear your name.  You look up and see Jaesuk looking at you.  

 

“What?”

 

There are small laughs throughout the very long line of people.  Jaesuk smiles.  “Were you day dreaming?”

 

That’s gonna get real old real quick, you think.  You smile and try your best to look cute.  “I guess so,” you say.

 

“Well, anyway, let’s line up.  We’ll start from Jihyo, then Hyuna, Bora and then the dreamer,” Jaesuk laughs at his joke and everyone around smirks too.  It takes a lot for you to crack a smile.

 

Yep, that just got old.

 

All of the guys line up and music starts playing from behind the camera.  Jihyo starts walking in front of the line doing some funny dance moves.  The guys are all holding their hands out with their eyes closed, so this is all purely for the entertainment of the audience.  Jihyo stops in front of Gary and puts the rose in his hand.  Of course, the Monday Couple.  You see Gary smirk; he obviously knew who it was.  He opens his eyes and yells out.  Everyone else opens their eyes and most of them roll them at the sight.

 

Then it’s Hyuna’s turn.  She looks very graceful as she dances down the line and back again.  She chooses Jongkook, who turned very red when he saw who it was.

 

Bora’s next.  She’s very energetic and as she skips down the line straight to her choice; Baekhyun.  Baekhyun is indeed very shy and embarrassed when he opens his eyes.

 

Now it’s your turn.  You hear your next song come on in the background.  You y walk as best as you can along the line.  You make sure to give the camera a few y glances along the way.  Then you walk behind the line.  You were a bit taller then everyone, except Chanyeol, due to the high heels.  You come up right behind Luhan, who is still standing right next to Kai.  You wink at the camera directed at you two and wrap an arm around Luhan’s shoulders.  You feel him jump a little, but then he laughs a little and takes the rose you’re holding in front of him.  You get right up next to his ear and whisper something.  You see Kai turn his head and look at you, slightly confused.  Luhan also gives you a confused look, but you let go as everyone gasps with surprise at your choice.

 

You smirk.  Even if the microphone picked that up, I doubt many people can understand Mandarin.  You walk back over to your side of the line, with a teasing smile on your face.  Jaesuk asks you why you chose Luhan and not Kai.

 

You honestly have no idea how to answer the question, so you go with the first thing that comes to mind.  “He’s handsome.”  You glance down the line and see Luhan nod his head in acknowledgment.  Kai on the other hand is giving you a very confused look.  Knowing not to lose face in front of the cameras, you look away.  He’ll understand later.

 

After the teams were determined, you were allowed to change outfits.  Thank goodness.  You make a mental note to burn the clothes before you give them back to your coordi.  You while moving to a new location you notice Kai isn’t looking at you at all.  He’s not looking at Luhan either.  You really hate your manager sometimes.

 

Throughout the games, which were fun but tiring, you continue to notice that Kai is acting a little strange.  During the relay race, he dropped the baton while trying to hand it to Tao.  During the puzzle challenge, he dropped the pieces everywhere.  Now, he’s trying to do the karaoke challenge and he keeps forgetting the words.  He’s smiling the whole time, but you can tell that something’s wrong.

 

~<3~

 

Kai cannot understand why Luhan was chosen over him.  It’s not like you all have some special relationship of something, but he thought at least there was some kind of friendship.

 

He thinks about his manager telling him that you all would be doing a lot of stuff together in order to promote your music video.  How is choosing Luhan helping promote the music video?

 

He can’t seem to focus on anything else and it’s affecting the games.  He feels bad that he’s letting his team down, but he can’t help it.

 

He wonders about what you said to Luhan.  You said it in Mandarin, so it was obvious that only Luhan would understand.  But what was it?

 

When the karaoke game is over, they start to change location to their final game.  Kai sits next to Luhan.

 

“Luhan, what did she say to you?”

 

“Who?”  Luhan is fixing his hair, though it isn’t messed up.

 

“Apparently your Valentine,” Kai says, sarcastically.

 

“Oh.  I don’t know.  It didn’t really make sense.  She said it in Mandarin too.  Very weird.”

 

“I know she said it in Mandarin.  What did she say?”

 

“She said, ‘You came anyway.’  Odd thing to say, right?”

 

Kai freezes in place as a memory comes crawling out of the back of his mind.

 

~<3~

 

You and Kai were sitting in the makeup studio waiting for the director to call you to set.  It had been the middle of a very long day of shooting and it was only half done.  The kiss scene still had to be filmed, though there would not be any actual kiss involved.  

 

You and Kai were messing around and acting out the scene in a very over dramatic way.  In other words, you guys were exhausted and needed something to laugh about.

 

“But Prince Charming,” you said.  “What if I didn’t want you to come and wake me from this curse?  What if I wanted to stay asleep forever?”  You laugh and so does Kai.  You held your wrist over your forehead and a swooning motion, talking in a high pitched soft voice.

 

Kai stood up very tall and puffed out his chest, putting on a manly face.  Then in a very deep, booming voice, he says, “Well, I came anyway.  So now I’m going to wake you up and take you back to my castle in the sunset.”

 

“But I don’t want to go live in some castle in the sunset.”

 

“Well, who cares, because nothing you say now can make me leave you alone ever again.”

 

There was a slight pause as the two of you realize the power of the line that Kai just said.  Kai physically deflated and looked anywhere but at you.

 

You giggled a little.  “Sounds like something a guy would say to his lover.”

 

“Well…”  Kai stuttered.  “Snow White and Prince Charming are supposed to be lovers, right?”

 

Then the two of you just looked at each other, staring into each other’s eyes, until the director bellowed for you two to get on set.

 

During the filming, when Kai bent over you to wake you from the curse, you had said, “You came anyway.”

 

~<3~

 

Now at the final location, you are struggling to stay awake.  Yes, this was a lot of fun, but like Hyuna said, it was also exhausting.

 

You start to follow everyone else into the arena for whatever the final challenge is, but someone grabs your arm and pulls you to the side.  You turn to see Kai pulling you into a hallway off to the right.  There’s no one around and you wonder what in the world is going on.

 

Once you’re a little ways down, Kai stops and turns toward you.

 

“Kai, what…”  Kai puts a finger over your lips.

 

“Luhan told me what you said to him earlier,” he says, quietly.  He pulls his hand away to let you reply. 

 

“He did?  I was wondering how long it would take you to ask him.”

 

“So you did mean for me to hear that?”

 

“Of course.  Kai the whole Luhan thing, it was my managers idea.  He told me not to choose you because he didn’t want to start a scandal or anything.”

 

Kai smiles the smile he had earlier.  “Good.  I was hoping there was a reason.  I kind of got a little jealous.”

 

“I didn’t notice,” you say with heavy sarcasm.

 

“Was it that noticeable?”  You nod your head.  “Well, whatever.  But anyway seeing you choose him made me realize something.”

 

“What’s that?”

 

Kai paused slightly.  “I want to be with you.  Will you be my girlfriend?  Please?”

 

Everything inside you stands still and your jaw drops.  Did he really just say that?

 

“We don’t have much time.  They are gonna be looking for us soon.”  Kai grabs your hands and gives them a small squeeze.

 

All you can do is nod your head.  Why do variety shows have a way of changing my life?