A smile slowly crept onto my face as my fans—I know I can’t believe I actually have fans!—starts to squeal and chant my name as the music track for my song Beautiful Stranger begins to play.

“3,2,1,” a stage member mouths as he ticks off his finger for each number.

The small rectangular platform that I’m standing on begins to rise and I feel my heart beat racing erratically as I ascend out onto the main stage. With a hand placed over my heart, I closed my eyes and made a quick prayer, thanking Him for everything. I feel the platform come to a stop, now leveled with the main stage, and I begin to rap.

It’s just another story, I fell in love with a foreigner

Yeah it’s all about me! How can I make you understand me?

Boy, and I thought my fans couldn’t get any louder than this, but they proved me wrong. Not that I’m complaining.

By the time my song ended, my clothes were clinging onto my skin and sweat was rolling off my forehead and dripping down my neck. Yet, despite my body’s exhaustion, pleading for rest, standing on that stage in front of my fans was the best feeling I’ve ever felt in my entire life. Okay, you got me! I may be exaggerating a tiny bit, but you know what I mean.

MC Yu stepped out and joined me on the stage, asking, “Well, what did you all think?” in which the fans responds in kind, with shouts of “marry me, Amber-yah!”, “I love you!”, “Go, Amber!”.

“Kamsahamnida, kamsahamnida,” I bow multiple times all the while chuckling at some of their cute responses.

Once MC Yu and I sat down on our stools, he jumped right into the topic that I was hoping he wouldn’t bring up. But I guess it was a given that it’ll come up eventually since it is the ‘hottest topic’ at the moment.

“So…” the crowd and I begin to laugh as he wiggles his brows. “Beautiful stranger, eh?”

I laugh harder than before as he playfully nudges me in the side. Following his antics, I nudged him back, “Shhh, it’s a secret!” added with a playful wink which causes an uproar from the audience.

“Aye! You can tell me! Oppa will keep it a secret and not tell anyone. I swear!” MC Yu pushes his mic closer towards my mouth.

“Yah! How will it be a secret then if there’s a mic here!” I cross my arms and pouted childishly.

Fortunately, MC Yu didn’t push the topic and we were able to go onto other things such as my struggle with learning Korean and breaking through the language barrier, to my inspiration in composing, he even asked me to perform a special song on the piano that the staff just oh happens to have come across right before the show started. Not one to turn down others, I accept and played a snippet of the song that I’m currently working on.

“Ohhhh! That doesn’t sound bad at all. In fact, I’ll bet it’ll be no.1 when it comes out!” He proclaims proudly causing me to blush at his compliment despite knowing that he’s just saying it to be nice.

“Aigoo! You’re just saying that!”

“No, no, no. I really do believe that song will be no.1.” Seeing my disbelieve look, he turns to the audience and ask, “Don’t you all think so too?”

“NE!!!!!”

Embarrass by their confident in me, I stumble with my Korean. “I-I-Ijeushio!” And being the dense and slow me, I didn’t get why everyone was laughing. Even the back stage crew was no exception.

The show ended and I was waiting in my waiting room, fidgeting with my iPhone, and every time a staff looks my way they break out into laughter.

Was it something I said? I my head to the side in confusion.

“Manager oppa.” We are now in the van heading towards my dorm when I decided to ask oppa why the staff keeps laughing at me.

“Hmm?” He hums in response, not taking his eyes off the road.

“Do you know why they were laughing at me? Was it something I did or said?” I’m curious because I don’t know if it was a good or bad thing. What if it’s bad? Will it be the end of my career already? No! It can’t be! My career had just begun!

“Amber. Amber!” He calls out to me when he sees me overthinking things again before going into why they were laughing.

Phew! I let out a sigh of relief knowing that my career wasn’t ending anytime soon, but then I remember my mess up—on live television!—and my face begins to heat up.

“Ahahahaha!” Manager oppa’s laughing doesn’t help whatsoever.

“Why are you helping me again? I can carry this myself, oppa.” Normally, manager oppa will drop me off at my dorm then leave, but tonight he’s following me up to my dorm with the excuse of helping me carry my backpack. My one, light backpack. Now I know something’s up.

I step off the lift with caution, as if waiting for something or someone to pop out from around the corner and scare me half to death. Fortunately, no such thing happened. As I near my dorm, I can see in the distance that something was positioned in front of my door. It looked a lot like a red post box of some sort and as I neared, it was confirmed. But now the question is; what was it for?