When her two Thursday classes had finally come to a close, Vera hurried back to her apartment as quickly as she could.  After setting down her things and turning on the lights, she plopped down on the couch and took out her cell phone.  Taking a deep breath, she dialed her sister’s phone number.

“Hey, sis!”  Sienna’s cheerful and familiar voice sent a wave of relief up Vera’s spine.  “’Sup?”

“Hi, Sienna,” Vera said.  “Are you busy right now?”

“Nah, Mom and Dad went out to some member-only afternoon wine tasting event for public relations, and even though I’m way over legal age, they didn’t want to bring me.  So, I’ve been relaxing in the hotel room for the last hour or so.  In fact, I was just thinking of going out shopping while I waited for them to get back.  So, what’s up?  You don’t usually call unless there’s something wrong.  Are you feeling lonely and missing your big sis?”

“Actually, I think I’m being stalked,” Vera said.

“Wait, seriously?” Sienna asked.

“Yeah,” Vera said.  “Over the past two days, five foreigners have approached me.  The first was randomly on the streets, the second was at a restaurant, the third was on the streets again, and the fourth and fifth came to my door trick-or-treating.”

“Okay…” Sienna said slowly.  “How older were these foreigners?  What did they look like?”

“I’d say they were about my age or a little older,” Vera said.  “They were all Asian and had some presumably Asian accent.  They were all dressed in urban clothes, and two had dyed hair.”

Vera heard Sienna laugh through the phone.  “Honey, did you consider the fact that they might have found you attractive?” she asked her.  “You’re a pretty Chinese girl, and they’re college-age Asian boys!”

“No, not really,” Vera said.

Sienna sighed.  “Girl, when I get back, you and I are going to have another talk about your self-confidence, as well as about boys.  Anyway, if these boys were all foreigners, how could they be stalking you?  They might be tourists or something.  Disneyland isn’t too far away, you know.  And if they’re tourists, then they’ve only been in the country for a couple of days or weeks.  I highly doubt that you’re being stalked.”

“It does seem kind of silly when you put it that way,” Vera admitted.

“Of course it does,” Sienna said.  “Though I don’t blame you for being overly cautious, especially since you’re alone.  But I don’t think you called me just because a couple of boys found you cute, otherwise you would have called Gran or Gramps.  Something else must have prompted this, something that you don’t want Gran and Gramps to worry about.”

“Well, remember how I said that two boys showed up trick-or-treating at my door last night?” Vera asked.

“Yeah,” said Sienna.  “I have to admit, that’s a little creepier than the other cases.  However, they might have just been a couple of the rare guys who prefer looking for a quick way to get free candy on Halloween night instead of a quick way to get drunk at a party.”

“Well, this morning I was putting away the candy, and I found a piece of paper in one of the bowls,” Vera said.

“What did it say?  Something along the lines of ‘you’re cute’ or ‘hey, hottie’?” Sienna asked.

“No,” Vera said.  “It’s a ticket to a concert on Saturday.”

“A concert?  What concert?” Sienna asked.

“It’s a Korean group called BIG BANG,” Vera said.  “They’re playing at the Honda Center on Friday and Saturday.”

“So, you going?” Sienna asked.

“I wanted your advice,” Vera said.

“Gimme a sec,” Sienna said.  “My computer’s right here…”  There was a brief pause as Sienna looked up the band.  “Damn, they’re good-looking!  Hm, so they’re part of K-Pop?”  There was another pause, and then the faint sound of music came through the phone.  “Catchy,” Sienna remarked.  “You know what?  I think you should go!  It would do you some good, since you never go out.”

“Alright,” Vera said reluctantly.  “What should I wear?”

“Uh…it looks like casual and comfy,” Sienna said.  “Oh, and you’re pretty sensitive to loud noises, right?  So buy a pair of earplugs to wear there because concerts are really loud.”

“Okay,” Vera said, nodding.  “Do you think the crowd will be safe?”

“Eh, it looks like it’s mostly going to be fan girls,” Sienna said.  “It looks like a pretty safe crowd – nothing to worry about.”

“Oh, good,” Vera said, relieved.

“Hey, it looks like these guys are really popular,” Sienna commented.  “Gee, it looks like they were only going to play one night, but then had to add another date because of popular demand!  And you somehow got that ticket for free?  That’s pretty awesome, because I’m seeing prices of two hundred thirty dollars for some tickets!  Yeah, you are so not skipping this event.  In fact, I kinda wish I was there to go with you.  They seem pretty cool.  Take some pictures and video for me if you can, okay?”

“I will,” Vera promised.

“Alright,” Sienna said, sounding pleased with herself.  “And now I’m off to go shopping.  I’ll buy you something cute!  I’m so looking forward to playing Barbie with you when I get back.  I’ve seen some pretty neat styles out here in New York, so be prepared for some makeovers!”

“Are you guys still planning on being home for Thanksgiving?” Vera asked.

“Yeah,” Sienna said.  “I know Grandma’s been bugging Dad about having a family dinner and everything.”

“Good,” Vera said.  “I miss you.”

“Miss you too, sis,” Sienna said.  “Take care of yourself – oh, and call me when you get home on Saturday.  I wanna hear all about the concert!”

~*\_/*~

Friday passed easily as a day off of heavy academic classes for Vera, and she spent it at home in the apartment writing with Revan.  That evening, she glanced out one of the windows (whose blinds she had finally lifted after her chat with Sienna) and saw a heavy flow of traffic.  “I wonder if it’s for that concert, hm, Revan.” Vera murmured.  “Sienna was right, they really do seem popular.  I wonder what time I should leave tomorrow.  I’ll need to catch the bus there.”

The next day she slipped on a comfortable pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a zip-up sweater.  Anticipating that all of the venues around the Honda Center would be swamped with concert attendees, Vera ate a filling meal at home before leaving Revan fresh food and water and heading out.

“Hm, cell phone, wallet, driver’s license (not that I ever use it), earplugs, a bit of pepper spray for just in case…ah, and the ticket.  Yep, looks like I have everything,” Vera said to herself as she went to catch the bus.

The bus reached its stop soon enough, taking a little longer than usual because of traffic.  Vera slipped into the crowd of mostly young women, all wearing and/or carrying fan merchandise.  She felt uncomfortable surrounded by so many strangers, but she knew that they were all here for the concert and to have a good time, not to bother her, which made her feel a little better.  She allowed herself and her purse to be checked, and the staff asked her to leave behind her pepper spray for the safety of the fans.  Vera might have argued that the pepper spray was to keep her safe from potentially rowdy fans, but lacked Sienna’s fire and so complied and was let through.

Her ticket was checked and scanned, and she was allowed into the Center.  After using the lady’s room and purchasing an overpriced water, she attempted to navigate to her seat.  Section 210, she read on her ticket.  According to the seating map, that was very close to the stage.  Ah, Sienna would be very envious when she told her how good a seat she had gotten!  She made her way over and found her seat.  Taking out her earplugs and fitting them into her ears, she did her best to relax amid the excited chatter and screams of high-pitched female voices.

After what felt like approximately fifteen minutes, the lights suddenly went out, and the crowd screamed.  Vera winced – the noise was piercing even with her earplugs.  Yellow lights began to appear throughout the crowd.  Vera guessed that they must be some kind of fan merchandise.  A video appeared, projected on a giant screen, and music began to play.  The crowd went wild, and Vera gripped the arms of her seat, anxious.  Flashes of the planets, frozen faces, flying capsules, and a futuristic-looking city captivated the audience, and Vera had to admit that she was interested to see the act which had garnered so many very excited fans.  Suddenly the screen dropped, and the five flying capsules in the video stood onstage.  Five young men clad in white each stood inside one of the five capsules, labeled on top with their stage names, holding what seemed to be an oxygen mask over their faces.  The capsules slowly opened, and when the music suddenly changed, they pulled off their masks.

“What’s up, Cali?!” shouted the man in the middle, G-Dragon.  “Make some noise!”  The crowd screamed louder, if that was possible, and the show started.

Vera found that the music was not bad at all, and that aside from the deafening crowd and speakers, and the bright and flashing lights, she really was enjoying herself.  The performance was quite good, from dancers to band to singers, and that there was a mix of styles, from catchy and dance-y to more mellow.  She was particularly amused when the performers celebrated one of the member’s birthdays.  After about two and a half hours of music, the concert came to a close, and Vera had to say that she was glad that she had attended.

On the bus home, she texted Sienna.  Heading home, she wrote.

Call? Sienna asked.

Bus, Vera responded.

:/ call asap, was Sienna’s answer.

After a long ride on a bus with a large percentage of the passengers being hyped-up fan girls from the concert, Vera was glad to return to the peace and quiet of her apartment.  She got herself ready for bed and settled in before plugging in her phone to charge.  Revan hopped up next to her and made himself at home.  Then Vera called Sienna.

“Hey, girl, how was the concert?” asked Sienna.

“Enjoyable,” said Vera.

“Oh, no one word answers,” complained Sienna.  “Gimme the juicy details, sis!”

“Well, there were a ton of people, and most of them had these little yellow glow stick things.  By the way, you guessed right, the audience was mostly girls.  Um, Honda Center was huge, and the stage was big and shaped like a cross.  My ticket gave me a really good seat.  I was in section 210, and had a perfect view of the stage.”

“Ugh, I’m so jealous!” whined Sienna.  “But you haven’t said anything about the boys!”

“Um, they were good,” said Vera.  “Some of their costumes were a little weird, but they could dance and sing well.  They had a band playing their music in the background, and they had a bunch of dancers too.  The songs weren’t bad, and they knew how to please a crowd.  Oh, and it was one of the performers’ birthdays, so they had a little celebration for him.”

“So, were they as cute in person as they looked in all the pictures I Googled?” Sienna asked.

“They were certainly good-looking,” Vera said.

“Okay, but did you find them cute?”  Vera hesitated.  “So you did,” Sienna supplied.  “Which one?”  Vera again did not say anything immediately.  “Oh my, all of them?” Sienna asked with a giggle.  “Sis, there’s hope for you after all!”

“But I didn’t say anything,” Vera protested weakly.

“Honey, silence speaks as loudly as words.  Man, I should be a freaking psychologist or something!” Sienna said proudly.

Vera hummed in half-agreement.  “Are Mom and Dad there?”

This time it was Sienna’s turn to pause.  “No, they’re out on a fancy dinner that was strictly for business and which I wasn’t allowed to attend.”

“Oh,” said Vera.  She was equally as observant as Sienna was, though she was more inclined to hold her tongue regarding her observations, and she noticed the brief pause.  Her parents were there, but they did not feel like talking to her.  “Okay.  Tell them I love them and miss them.”

“I will,” promised Sienna.  Vera picked up a slight something in her voice which meant that Sienna had been signaled to say that their parents were occupied, and was glad to know that her sister cared.  “Now, you get a good night’s sleep, okay?  I know social events are stressful and tiring for you.”

“Alright,” Vera said.  “I love you.”

“Love you too, sis,” said Sienna.  “Oh, by the way, did you get any pictures like you promised you would?”

“Yeah,” said Vera.  “I’ll text them to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” said Sienna.  “I’ll see you in a couple of weeks, sis.”

“Night,” Vera said.  The call ended, and she put her phone on her nightstand.

Stretching back, she sighed.  Sienna had only been half right when she had commented on her being attracted to all five of the main performers.  It was less of an attraction, Vera thought, and more of a strange sort of familiarity.  She felt like she had seen each of those five boys before.  Throughout the concert, she had watched them onstage for familiar body language and had watched the giant television screens for their faces.  By the end of the concert, she knew that she had seen each of them before.  After running through a list of movies and shows which she had watched, she was fairly certain that she had not seen them before on television.

As usual, just as she was about to fall asleep, she realized that the five performers had the same faces (and hair, which should have been a dead giveaway) as the five boys who had approached her on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The only reason why she had not realized this sooner was the fact that she had been doing her best to push the incidents out of her mind.  This so troubled her that she laid awake for another hour before finally slipping into a dream-filled sleep.

~*\_/*~

“Was she there, Dae?”  The boys had congregated in Seunghyun and Jiyong’s shared room to enjoy the cake from the concert.

“The wild emotions of the crowd made it very hard to pinpoint anything, even our own excitement,” Daesung began.  His friends’ faces fell.  “But,” he continued, “from a section on the second floor, stage right, there was a slight feeling of apprehension mixed with anxiety that felt extremely familiar.”

“So she was there,” Jiyong said.

“Most likely,” Daesung said.  “I tried to get a better read from backstage, but it wasn’t easy at all.  You guys have no idea how hard it is to pick out one person’s sense from a sea of people with emotions running high!  It’s like trying to pick up one specific grain of sand from even on handful.  The grain could be bright red, but because it is mixed among thousands of white and tan pieces, it is extremely difficult to find.”

“We understand,” Youngbae assured him.  “We’ll just have to pray that we got lucky.”

“Of course we got lucky,” Seungri said.  “I was there.”

“He’s full of humility, this one is,” Seunghyun commented.

“Says the guy who goes and does a silly dance while we’re celebrating his birthday and then goes and claims that he’s shy,” said Seungri.

“You were shoving your phone in my face half the time!” Seunghyun complained.

“I’m posting it on YouTube,” Seungri informed him.

“You brat,” grumbled Seunghyun as he shoved cake in the younger’s mouth.

“So we’re leaving Monday,” Jiyong remarked.

“Yeah,” Youngbae said.

“Do you think we’ll ever see her again?” asked Daesung.

“We will,” Seungri said with confidence as he wiped the frosting from his face.  “We started to remember more and more when we met and got to know each other.”

“The dreams were a killer,” Seunghyun said, nodding.

“Ah, realizing that we were all having the same disturbingly realistic yet fantastical dreams on alternating nights was definitely scary,” Jiyong said.  “And then when we remembered that first cycle when we ended up with our powers… I’m just glad that I don’t have wings this time around.  They would be a pain to hide.”

“And then there was that time when Jeonghye was spirited away by that wise woman and learned magic herself,” Youngbae recalled.  “Thank goodness we had already gained our powers and were able to track her down with some ease.”

“Learning that we’re all cursed in this cycle of reincarnation wasn’t so great, though,” Daesung said.  “Ah, well, at least we then knew what we were up against.”

“That being?” Seungri asked.

“You know, only fate,” Youngbae answered.  “She’s always sick, we always end up being friends, and then before any of us can have a happy ending, she either dies of illness, someone from outside comes between us, or some number of us die.”

“I find it interesting that the laws of supernatural power and human nature hold true no matter what world in which we end up being reincarnated,” Jiyong said out of the blue.

“You could say it points to a higher power,” Seunghyun said.

“Or you could say we’re being played and this is all some sick illusion,” said Seungri.  “I mean, have you ever considered that only one of us actually exists and everyone else is just a figment of someone else’s imagination?”

“You have way too much time to think about depressing things,” Daesung said.  “Let’s think about the good things instead.”

“Like how we’re going to end this once and for all?” Youngbae suggested.

“Yes,” said Jiyong.  “We made a vow – this curse ends with this cycle.  We keep getting closer and closer each time.  This time we will make sure it ends for real.  We know where she is, and once she remembers the pasts and how to use magic, we can combine our powers and overcome fate.”

Seunghyun decided to attempt to lighten the suddenly heavy atmosphere.  “How about before we leave we try to set up a protection charm like she taught us a couple of cycles ago?”

Thankful the change of tone, the others quickly agreed.

“What did we need again?”

“Hang on, I think I might have written this down when I dreamed it…”

“Dammit, how are we get our hands on that many clovers without getting arousing suspicion?”

“More importantly, how are we gonna figure out the right formation and words?”

“Even more importantly, how are we gonna enact the charm without alerting every pilot and passerby in Anaheim?”

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!  Enjoy this year of the sheep, and congratulations if it is your lucky year this year!  May red envelopes abound :)

Even though I did some research to make this chapter as realistic as possible, I do not actually live in Anaheim and I was not actually at that concert, so I apologize if I messed up details.  Please feel free to correct me, and I will edit the chapter to fit the facts.  I have already had to correct my past chapters, because after watching some videos of the California concerts, I realized that the boys at this point did not have their “Fantastic Baby” music video hair anymore.

Please leave any comments, constructive criticism, pointing out of typos and grammatical errors, etc.  I would love to have the advice of other readers and writers in order to improve my writing – I’ll take everything with elegance, except for flames.