“This is stupid.”

“You look cute!”

“But I don’t want to look cute!” Seungkwan fiddles with his costume. “How did you talk us into this again?”

“Because it’s a good idea!” I coax on.

“You have to admit though, it’s pretty creative.” Vernon complies.

For our Halloween fansign, my suggestion was that our ‘98 line trio became the Powerpuff Girls. Vernon was down for it but Seungkwan was whining about having to wear a giant bow to be Blossom, so there was no way I was going to talk him into a dress as well. 

We settled on pink, blue and green colour palettes of clothes of our choice with thick black belts around the waist. Vernon and Seungkwan wear funny wigs of black and strawberry blonde with haircuts that match their characters while I dye my hair platinum blonde. Nothing permanent, just some cheap and easy spray on colour, held up in pigtails by blue bobbles. 

Out of the three of us, I’m truest to the original with a blue tank dress, thigh high white socks and black flats.

The rest of the hip hop unit have gone for their own takes on the vampire, Mingyu has the classic vampire image while Coups and Wonwoo are more the y variety. 

Joshua and Chan stick to their branding with Josh as a priest, while Chan dons a hilarious inflatable dinosaur costume. Soonyoung and Jihoon have just became each other, which is interesting but sweet. 

Jeonghan has his take on Harley Quinn, becoming her male counterpart and showing off the impressive skills of our makeup artists. Minghao and Jun take advantage of Minghao’s curly hair to become a sheep and herder duo. I’m not sure how Minghao feels about Jun prodding him with a stick though. 

Last but not least is Seokmin as Harry Potter.

I link arms with Seungkwan and Vernon when it’s time to come out. We all stand together and pose for about 10 minutes, letting our fans get as many pictures as they can, before going to our seats (not before I press sheep Minghao’s cute pink nose of course).

We meet fans and sign things, because that’s what you do at a fansign. It’s always a lovely experience to meet people who enjoy something you’re a part of. I really do love our fans, they’re always so kind and shy, but who wouldn’t be? 

The conversations we have are a delight, a lot of people compliment my hair and ask me to dye it more and I’m so grateful for the gifts they give. 

That sketchy guy who tried to give me pants at my first fan signing did spook me, but as I went to more it was clear that the good outweighed the bad and not many creeps attend.

Like always, it seems to be over too quick. All of us help stack chairs and move tables now the venue is deserted. A white slip by my foot catches my attention, because stepping on it would be disastrous while carrying 3 chairs. 

Someone has forgotten their photo card, a picture of Soonyoung. It’s a shame but all the fans are long gone, the best I can do is keep it with me and try to return it to its owner.

Our work is done, but Halloween isn’t over, so the celebrations will continue back at the dorm.

What else would you do on Halloween with your friends except watch scary movies and eat all the sweets you’ve got? Well, because of what happened last time, everyone’s telling me they don’t need to watch a scary movie. 

Okay, I’ll admit, maybe I was a tad... frightened. But that doesn’t mean no one else should watch what they want! It takes a lot of convincing but many concerned looks later, we’re all sat down to watch the ‘gory horror blockbuster of the year.’

“If any really scary scenes come up, you could hold my hand if that would help?” I don’t reject Soonyoung’s offer, but am determined to woman up and stop being such a wuss.

That is, until the first part where the film starts with a jarring sound and my hand automatically darts around his.

It just escalates from there, the film lives up to the hype with the levels of gore and I can’t help but bury my face in Soonyoung’s shoulder at the worst parts. 

When the movie ends, I peel myself away from Soonyoung, highly embarrassed, but he’s very understanding. The members, who can somehow sleep, settle down for night. The mentally scarred of us, who are too frightened to move, watch the cutesy girl anime that Joshua puts on to undo the effects of the previous picture.

No more damage is done and I can go to sleep knowing that I won’t have a heart attack in the night.