Chapter 5 – Coincidences

HER

Finally it was Sunday. The one day of the week when I don’t have to think about work. Since it was really nice outside, my friend Woojin and I had decided to go shopping in Myeongdong. It had been a while since I’d been able to spend time with her because she worked for a big company that published several magazines and never had any free time; working til late in the night every single day. She was supposed to have Sundays off too, but in reality, it rarely happened since she was a first year employee and her sunbaes were prompt to drop a crap load of work on her at any moment’s notice. So I was really happy to see her. We hadn’t seen each other since I’d moved to my new place too, so we had a lot to talk about.

Woojin and I had actually met in England. She was a year younger than me and I’d met her through one of my tutoring workshops. She was this really funny, loud girl from Busan with wavy light brown hair and a floppy fringe. She always spoke her mind and didn’t care what anyone thought about her. If she didn’t like you, she would tell you to your face. She’d only spent one year in England, unlike me, but we’d reconnected after I moved to Seoul, which was great since I didn’t know anybody when I first got here. It was nice to have a friend you could really tell anything to.

After a few hours of window-shopping, we decided to take a break and popped into a large, stylish café on the ground floor of this giant building. It had big floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and the bright lighting gave it a clean, airy feel. There were already many people inside, and many more people waiting in line, but Woojin assured me that we wouldn’t have to wait very long since the service was pretty quick.

“You come here a lot?” I asked her, as we took our place at the end of the line.

“Yeah, my office is just a few blocks from here. Their maple-ginger latte is super nice” she flashed a big grin at me.

She kept chattering and as she talked, I turned back to see this tall girl, decked out in a slinky dress, fur coat and ridiculously high heels waltz into the store. She wore big giant sunglasses too, which she removed with a dramatic flip of her perfectly styled hair. She was about to make her way over to the counter but was stopped midway by a pair of teenage girls crowding around her. They seemed very excited and she smiled at them and nodded, before posing for a selfie on one of the girls’ phone.

“Who’s that?” I asked, being a bit clueless about Korea’s celebrity culture.

“Hmm… I think that’s ReAh? She’s an upcoming model. You see her everywhere these days... She was in that chocolate commercial, you know?”

“Oh yeah!” I said, remembering the ad she was talking about, though I still didn’t really know if I was supposed to be impressed. But I had to keep my thoughts to myself since the girl in question was now standing right behind us.

“Can’t even get a damn coffee…” I heard her mumble under her breath and Woojin and I shared a look. She fished her phone out of her purse and started scrolling as she waited.

While we stood in line, another girl, looking just as pretty as the first, came to meet her and they exchanged fake, European-style cheek-kisses before hugging each other and squealing greetings. Woojin looked at me like she was about to start laughing and I gave her a little nod, understanding her feelings.

 Soon it was our turned to get served, and both of us ordered maple-ginger lattes.

We lucked out because, the minute we got our drinks, a couple that was sitting in the plushy white couches by the windows stood up to leave, and we quickly rushed over to steal their seats.

We hadn’t even sat down for 5 seconds that we were distracted by a commotion around the counter area. It was the stylish model girl from before who was yelling at the barista who had accidentally spilled her drink on her designer bag, which she’d happen to put on the counter.

“Are you ing thick?!” she screamed at him, “do you know how much this costs?!”

The whole shop had gone quiet, staring at the scene.

“I am sooooo sorry….” muttered the poor boy, frantically wiping at her bag with a towel.

“I want to speak to your manager!” she demanded, haughtily.

But he didn’t have to call anyone, because the manager had appeared behind him almost immediately, and started grovelling in front of her, saying that he was so sorry, the boy was new, and of course they would make her another drink on the house, and he was probably just distracted because he was so shocked to see such a beautiful celebrity so please not to hold him against him.

The flattery approached seemed to work on her and she calmed down. She grabbed the new drink that another staff handed her and walked away in a huff, her friend in tow.

I watched as the poor boy got scolded by his manager in front of everyone. I felt really bad for him since it was a mistake anyone could have made. He didn’t deserve to lose his job over it. I hoped he wouldn’t.

After a few minutes, conversation picked up again in the shop and things seemed to return to normal. We chatted, sipping our coffee, for nearly an hour before Woojin suggested we get going because there was one store she wanted to check out before it closed. I agreed and started getting ready but she told me to wait since she had to go to the bathroom first. While I waited for her to come back, I glanced around the room and noticed that the two beauty queens had taken a seat right behind us. I could even hear what they were talking about.

“He’s still not answering?” asked the friend.

“No…” answered ReAh, with a frustrated face, putting her phone down. “Well,” she went on, putting on an understanding face that seemed very calculated, “he’s really busy you know… being in EXO and all…”

“Are you sure you should be talking about that here??” her friend whispered at her, leaning in.

“Pffft…” the model girl waved a hand to show she couldn’t care less, “if you ask me it would be much better if we could just go out in the open. I grow so tired of this anyways…”

Woojin chose that moment to reappear, asking me “are you ready?” so I had to stop my eavesdropping. We gathered our things to put them in the trash, and I saw another couple quickly grab our seats before we went out the door.

HIM

Today we had a fan-signing event in Gangnam. Fan-signings are kinda nice, because since they take up so much time and energy, the company tends to not schedule us too many other things for the day; so we got to sleep-in a lot later than usual. I also liked them because it’s pretty much the only time we get to interact with our fans face-to-face, even if it’s only for a short time.

The only downside was that these things could be draining. They last for hours and you have to be “ON” all the time, because you don’t want to disappoint your fans. For most of them, this is a moment that they will cherish forever, so you don’t want to be the grumpy idol who had no energy for that one girl who waited for this event for weeks, or who drove 5 hours to come and meet you.

But mostly it was nice. The fans in Korea (at these events, at least…) were usually cheerful and polite and always brought lots of gifts for us to play with. Sure, at the end of the day I had a blister on my finger, but I figure it’s a small price to pay to bring a little happiness into so many people’s lives.

Right now, we were all in the waiting room, waiting for the event to start. We were all ready, dressed, and made-up, but there was still about 30 minutes to go before we’d be ushered into the room where our fans were waiting. Manager-hyung said that it was 100 people today. Not bad.

The atmosphere in the waiting room was pretty relaxed. Everyone was doing their own thing. Someone had put their phone on loudspeaker and it was now playing a Bruno Mars song. It was a song I liked, so I looked up, just in time to see Kai busting a ridiculous move in front of the mirror, and Chanyeol and Baek laughing at his . “Come, on, come on! I’ll show you!” he was saying, and then it was all 3 of them dancing in front of the mirror, looking ridiculous. A few steps behind them, Suho was also looking at them, shaking his head but chuckling quietly.

D.O. was sitting on the room’s only couch, reading his book again, and seeming completely oblivious to the fact that Sehun was passed out on his shoulder, sleeping with his mouth open.

Lay was sitting at the big table in the center of the room, flipping through a magazine. I noticed that it was the new issue of W that we’d interviewed for about a month ago, so I paused behind him to have a look.

“Oh, that looks nice” I said, resting my hands on his shoulders as I peeked from behind.

He looked up and gave me a smile, “yeah, look at this one,” he flipped a few pages back and showed me a pair-shot of myself and Chanyeol. The picture made us look really y, but I didn’t really like being portrayed like that, so I made a face and looked away.

“Aahh… it’s okay…” I mumbled, embarrassed, and he laughed at me.

“Wae..? You look really good! As expected from Hot Trend Xiumin!” he laughed. Aaaah, I hated when he brought that up! -_-

Hearing us, Tao – who was apparently done checking himself out in the mirror – trotted over and peered beyond Lay’s other shoulder. “Ooh, where’s mine?” he asked and our brown-haired friend obliged by flipping to the next page, to a picture of Tao and Kai looking super intense.

“Aahh… what’s that angle?!” he complained childishly, and we both laughed at him.

Chen came over and tapped me on the shoulder, “hey hyung, your phone’s been ringing nonstop” he said, handing me my phone, which was still vibrating noisily.

“Ah, ignore it,” I said, looking at the screen and tossing it on the table.

“Your girlfriend again?” he said, wigging his eyebrows at me, which made me laugh.

“Well if you don’t want her, I can take her off your hands,” said my giant, blonde dongsaeng , grabbing the phone from my hands.

“Hey!!!” I called, “give that back!!!”

I had to chase Tao around the table twice while the others laughed at me until he agreed to give my phone back. After that it was time to go.

As soon as we walked into the room, the crowd of girls there started screaming and cheering. Only 100 people would be able to come talk to us, but there were at least 300 more people in the room, watching behind the ropes and from upper balconies. And let me tell you, 400 screaming girls in a small auditorium can get pretty loud…

We were led to a small elevated platform, where someone had set up a long, narrow table covered in white cloth, and 10 chairs evenly spread out behind it. We took our places, smiling and waving at the fans who jumped up and down behind a velvet rope a few meters away. The rope was mostly just for show though, in reality, it was several burly security guards who kept those scary teenage girls away.

Once we were all sat down, Suho, who was sitting at the end of the table, accepted a microphone from one of the staff members and proceeded to greet the crowd.

“Hello everyone!”

Screams.

“We’re so happy you could all come here today!”

More screams.

“Please, let’s all try to be orderly and enjoy today, alright?”

Even more screams.

And then it started. One by one, girls (and the occasional boy) were led to our table, under the careful scrutiny of a few security guards. Each girl got about 30 seconds to say hi to each member, and let us sign her photobook. It might seem a terribly short amount of time for something that was so meaningful to them, but 30 seconds times 10, times 100… that makes a lot of minutes.

 “Hello!”, “oh thank you!”, and “please keep supporting us!”

It might seem boring to have to just smile and wave as a job, but even though we were just saying the same thing over and over again, the routine never really settled-in. Each fan is different. Some of them are shy, and some of them are hyper; some of them cry and a few of them are downright indecent, but it’s always entertaining. A lot of them bring us presents too; mostly ridiculous toys or things that we’re supposed to try on so they can take a picture of us wearing it.

About an hour in, these three schoolgirls in matching uniforms came to the table. There was a tall one, who was blushing furiously as she got Lay to sign her album; a short one in pigtails next to her was giggling as she placed Mickey Mouse ears on Chanyeol and he asked her if he looked cute; and then the one in the ponytail was telling Baekhyun next to me how much she loved him, jokingly asking him to please wait until she was old enough for them to get married. (or maybe she wasn’t joking…) I twiddled my pen, waiting for my turn and ponytail girl came over.

“Hello!” she smiled a bright dimpled smile at me so I smiled back.

“Xiumin, you look so cute, as always!”

I blushed in embarrassment and replied, “You’re much cuter than me!” giving her a small smile. She giggled.

“Oh!” she suddenly said, smacking her fist in her other hand, as if she’d just remembered something important, “by the way, do you know a person called Cheon Sora?”

The sounds of the crowd and everyone around me seemed to vanish in an instant and I looked at her completely stunned for a moment.

How, did she know that name?

“Hum… no?” I answered, blood rushing back into my brain, smiling back in what I hoped was a convincing way.  How long had I paused before answering? No more than a few seconds, surely…

The girl looked disappointed, and I waved her goodbye as security told her and her friends to move along and I watched them walk away.

“I told you… how could Miss Cheon have been dating a celebrity? It must have just been someone who looked like him…” the tall girl was telling ponytail, but she looked so disappointed.

“Miss Cheon…?” I thought to myself, then asked “Hey Baek, do you know what school uniform that is?” pointing to the three girls who were still within eyesight.

“Oh, that’s Junyan, isn’t it? Famous all-girls school. At least, I think… why?” he answered me, waving a girl who had just screamed his name, beyond the rope.

“Oh just wondering…” I said, trying to not attract attention to myself, “the colors are cute.”

“Didn’t know you had a schoolgirl !” he teased me, giving me a dirty wink, then laughing.

“I do not!” and I puffed up my cheeks, pretending to sulk, to the great delight of several fangirls beyond the cords.

This was something else I’d learned as an idol: fanservice is gold.