Fall was beginning, which meant that the weather was turning cold and throats would be sore and scratchy again. For most people this would not have been a problem, but singers like Jongdae had to take care of their voices. Kim Jongdae, better known synonymously as Chen, was the lead vocalist in one of the most popular bands of that decade, EXO, and he had been featured on the cover of every magazine that mattered. If a magazine needed some help selling copies, they went straight to EXO’s manager. That was exactly the reason why Chen was posing shirtless for Die Jungs magazine.

The photographers were buzzing about trying to make everything just perfect. They were aiming for a photo shoot that would scream "hey, I’m a super famous rock star and really hot and talented, but I’m totally easily accessible with these grungy, everyday surroundings! Buy this magazine to find out more!" Even though the magazine was called Die Jungs, the advertising department had already come up with a title that they thought was clever – “For the Mad Chen.’ One of the masterminds had had to explain it to Yujin, a staff writer. They thought she needed to know, considering she would be the one conducting the interview with Chen.

And there Yujin was, waiting for the photo shoot to end so she could go to the coffee shop next door with the singer and put this interview behind her. Sure, she was definitely a fan. She loved Chen’s smooth voice as he sang over the guitar and intense drums. Still, this interview had to be absolutely perfect, which meant that the Editor was putting an enormous amount of pressure on her. She had spent two entire weeks coming up with the perfect questions and trying to figure out what follow-up questions she might need to ask in response to any of his possible answers. She had already outlined her entire article; all she had to do was add in his quotes and minor details.

She repeatedly poked her cheek with her pen as she waited for the shoot to end. They were already an hour behind because Chen had shown up late. He had apologized, but needless to say, the staff was not thrilled. They had put him through the stylists, where they had made him wear ripped jeans, a plain grey tee shirt, and one of the coolest leather jackets that Yujin had ever seen. She was almost drooling over it. Eventually, the photography director had instructed Chen to remove his shirt so they could get some shots of his tattoos and, most importantly, his abs. His hair had been ruffled too many times to count. Yujin wasn’t sure if he had developed dark circles or if it was just his makeup.

A twenty-something-year-old boy, one of the interns by the name of Ilhoon, sat down across from Yujin. His perpetually bushy hair was restrained under a black beanie, but his thick-rimmed glasses still perched on the end of his nose.

“So, what’s it like working with this one? Is he difficult or is he one of the easy-going ones, or maybe even flirty?” Ilhoon wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“I wouldn’t know yet,” Yujin sighed.

“Wait, you haven’t interviewed him yet?” he cried out. A few members of the staff glared at him. She groaned and flopped her head down on the table top.

“No!” she responded, “He was late, and they had the stuff for the shoot set up already, and it’s a lot easier for them to send one person home late than it is a whole crew.”

Ilhoon grimaced. “Sorry. I would offer to stay with you, but I have a massive essay due tomorrow for my history class.”

“It’s fine. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on your school work,” she waved her hand dismissively, “Besides, when you do an interview, you want the person to be away from the influences of other people. That way they might be a little more honest.”

The boy flushed a little at having to be reminded of one of the most basic rules of interviews. He was thankfully saved from having to say anything, for the photography director, Kim Kilee, wove through all of the boxes and equipment to stand by the two. He completely ignored intern Ilhoon, focusing only on the girl who was paid to work at the magazine. He used one arm to lean against the table, effectively blocking out the other male.

“Yujin, I’m sorry we went over time. You know what these people are like. Is there any way I can make it up to you? Maybe I could buy you a coffee or something after all this is over?” Kilee asked.

Yujin smiled but shook her head. “Not today; I’m actually interviewing him at Jinny’s Coffee House. Thanks anyway though!”

Kilee’s lips pressed into a tight line. He breathed out and nodded a small bow. “Well then, I’ll let you get on with your work.” And with that he left them.

Ilhoon stared at the girl with narrowed eyes. Yujin noticed his gaze and shrank away, confused.

“What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious.

“Nothing,” he sighed, “absolutely nothing.”

About twenty minutes later, Yujin was sitting in the back corner booth of the coffeehouse. Two cups of coffee and two slices of some sort of baked, pumpkiny treat sat on the table in front of her. She was still waiting for Chen to arrive. He had approached her shortly after Kilee had left and told her to go ahead over while he changed.

Yujin tried her best not to look like a girl who had been stood up, but she was receiving some rather obvious sympathetic glances from the other customers. She distracted herself by pulling up the voice memos on her phone so she could record the interview. It saved a lot of time to just record everything and type up the transcript later. She would be able to get direct quotes without worrying about fabricating one.

A figure slid into the seat opposite her. She looked up, expecting Chen, but was shocked to see a man bundled up from head to toe. He had wrapped a burgundy scarf around his mouth and neck, his puffy jacket had been zipped up almost all the way, and striped fingerless gloves covered his palms. Yujin could have understood a sweater and jacket, but his outfit was rather extreme. It was only 20 degrees Celsius outside.

She saw him reach for Chen’s coffee and opened to protest, but he spoke before she could.

“I’m so sorry I’m running so late today! It’s been kind of crazy,” he apologized.

Yujin blinked.

“Chen?” she began tentatively.

He pulled down the scarf to reveal a bright smile. “Yep!” His smile fell. “You are Yujin, right?”

She nodded slowly. “I wasn’t really… I didn’t expect you to, well, look like that.” She blushed.

“Like what? Ah, you mean all the layers? It’s cold outside, and I can’t afford to get a cold with our tour coming up next week,” he explained. While he spoke his scarf fluffed back up to its previous position by his cheeks. His chin barely managed to hold down the part in front.

“So you dress like this all fall and winter?” she inquired.

“Not always. Just, most of the time, especially when I go outside,” he said.

She had to bite her lip to keep herself from grinning.

“So I can say that the great rock star actually turns into a giant cuddly teddy bear when it gets cold?” She teased.

His eyes twinkled over the rim of his mug. He breathed in before replying.

“I’d like that very much.”

Yujin stared at him for a moment too long, but he snapped her out of her daze by snorting into his drink. She suddenly remembered that she needed to turn the recorder on and promptly did so before she could forget.

“Okay, you’re sure you’re ready for this?” she asked.

“I was born ready.”

“Your music generally seems to be composed of love songs and songs of heartbreak and the like, but some of your songs, especially those off of your most recent Killjoy album, have darker subject matters. What made you decide to put these on the track list?”

“First off – all of our songs are love songs. They’re just about different kinds of love. And it was almost like we had to include those songs. There’s one that I would have been absolutely devastated over if it had not made the final cut. It’s called Ah Poor Bird. I wrote the verses, and we composed everything else.” Chen took a bite of his cake.

“The chorus of that song is taken from an old round, correct? It’s almost a standard for chorus classes now,” she inquired.

“Yes, yes that is where it’s from. I heard it for the first time in eighth grade, and I’ve been in love with it ever since.” He paused for a moment. “I won’t tell you what it’s all supposed to mean if that’s what you were going to ask next. It would ruin the song.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Oh, well, five.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing.”

Yujin looked back down at her list of questions. “Is it true that each member of the band wrote a song for Killjoy?”

Chen nodded, then quickly said, “I mean, yes. Mine was Ah Poor Bird, Lay’s was Track 7, Xiumin’s was his solo, Smoke, and Luhan’s was Mistaken. It was only right that we each had our own.”

“Okay, um, on a slightly lighter note, what were your influences for this album?”

“Our personal experiences, books, movies, things we see on the street and in the news – that’s where all of our inspiration comes from. Our musical influences are older bands like Boohwal, of course, Kim Jongseo, Seo Taiji… We also really like Journey and Foreigner.”

“Personal experiences? Could you maybe share an example?” she requested.

“Not before your article is published. I’d much rather have it stay a secret. Ruins the whole ‘the song means something different to everyone’ thing,” he told her.

The “not before your article is published” did not escape her notice. She could not help but wonder if that meant he wanted to meet up again. She did not allow her emotions to get the best of her however, and made sure she appeared in no way flustered. She read the next question.

“A lot of your fans are female, and they’re dying to know; is there a romantic lead in your life?” When she looked up, the singer was staring intensely at her hands.

“Do you play guitar?” he asked.

“No, violin actually. Why?” She blinked.

“The calluses,” he said simply, “Anyway, there’s no one, at least not right now. I don’t have that kind of time.”

She had to admit that she was, for some reason, a little disappointed.

“What qualities do you look for in a girl?” she asked.

“The most important one is kindness, and not like the fake kindness where they expect something in return. Real kindness. Love is next, although I guess that kind of includes kindness, and also gentleness. I’m not the easiest to talk down, but I usually listen if someone approaches me – uh – gently.”

This struck Yujin as slightly odd, but then she realized that as a celebrity he was probably used to getting his own way. It made sense that he would be at least a little egotistical.

“Would you say that your stage persona is the same as the you off stage?” She continued with the next question.

Chen hesitated a minute. She almost asked if he was okay, but then he smiled and looked down at his half-empty coffee.

“They’re both me, but do you think the great Chen would be wearing this? It’s nice to break away and be Kim Jongdae for a while, know what I mean?” he chuckled.

The rest of the interview was fun. It consisted of the same questions that had been asked a million times before, but Yujin had come up with some new ones to make it exciting. They included, but in no way were limited to “If you had to choose between being a fairy or a merman, which would you be,” “What is your favorite kind of cake,” and “In your opinion, what is the best place to go on a last date?”

“On a last date?” Chen echoed.

“You know, when you’re about to break up with someone, and you go out one last time,” Yujin explained.

“I guess it would have to be an art museum,” he said.

“Any reason why?” she prodded.

“It wouldn’t be exactly the last date for sure. It would be the make-it-or-break-it point. When you talk about the paintings and sculptures and their interpretations of it, you get a little peek into their mind. The art museum would be the place where I would either decide that I was going to break up with her or that we were about to get really serious.”

“So after this is published, your girlfriends will know that whatever they do or says will determine the future of the relationship,” she continued.

“Or maybe they already know. Word gets around.” He shrugged.

“Yes, yes it does.”

The next morning at work Yujin put her headphones on and started playing the recording of the interview. She had to type out a transcript that she could pull quotes from. It took almost two hours with several interruptions from Kilee and the other staff writers, but she did finally finish. She read back over the document as she saved it one last time. However, she noticed a few words that didn’t fit in with the rest of his answers, and she wrote them all out on her notepad.

“Five… Five… Five… Seven, four, five, seven,” she muttered as she scribbled. She sat back in her chair. “He didn’t – there’s no way.”

She hid the notepad under a stack of papers. She didn’t pull it back out until she left for home. The entire bus ride she had it at the bottom of her bag, afraid that someone would see it or it would fall out and be lost forever. She was so relieved when she pulled it out in her living room. She ate dinner with it sitting next to her and watched the news and brushed her teeth and read her book in bed. She closed the novel at ten-thirty. Only the lamp on her bedside table was still on. Underneath it was the number on the notepad. She stared at the black numbers for a few minutes, debating over whether or not she should try calling it. She decided to call at eleven.

The phone rang exactly three times.

“Hello?” Chen’s sleepy voice answered.

“I-Is this Chen?” she managed to squeak out.

“Yujin? So you figured it out, huh?” he laughed.

“Why did you-“

Chen cut her off. “You want to go out this Friday?”

The first chapter is up! I hope you enjoy! The first member is Chen~

from your evil author,

Juliette