SASAENG

Chapter Two – Panic!!!

“ALICE!” I heard my uncle and Hyerin calling after me, but I was already in the stairwell, heading down. I was just going to go and calm down! Yeah, calm down! It’s only a man… Jin from BTS but they’re just humans! Just calm down! CALM DOWN ALICE!

“ALICE, WAIT!” my uncle’s voice echoed down as I sped down the stairs. I could hear his footsteps following me. “MEET ME AT THE CAR!” he bellowed, and I heard him stop, and then a door opening and closing. My mind was blank! I was in pure panic mode! I just needed to get away! RUN! JUST RUN!

I got to the basement level one, out of breath, feeling like death! I could taste blood in my mouth, my lungs burned! I burst through the door and saw my uncle standing by the car.

“BTS!? ARE YOU SERIOUS!?” I shouted, running as fast as I could up to him.

“Alice, I can explain” he was bright red in the face, sweat now was practically dripping from every area.

“Explain!” I demanded, finally reaching him. He flinched, expecting an outburst or something.

“I’m their hair stylist, that’s all, I was going to tell you in the apartment when you were settled…” he started but Hyerin came running from the door… with Jin behind her…

“I want to die!” I groaned, reaching for the car door but my uncle stopped me and squished my face in his hands.

“Kang Alice! Calm down! Starting tomorrow you’re going to be working for them! Just try and bear with it! Just think of them as your employer and not as celebrities!” he said in a rap of words, whispering for Jin couldn’t hear but straightened up when he approached. Shaking, I took a deep breath in, cleared my muddled mind, turned and faced Kim Seokjin of BTS!

“Are you okay?” Hyerin looked at me with wide eyes. I nodded quietly and looked to Jin.

“I apologise for my strange behaviour, I was just shocked to see such a celebrity in my uncle’s apartment. I’m Kang Alice, I’ll be working with you from tomorrow” I said in the most formal tone I could manage, and then bowed to my belly button.

“Okay…” Jin was quiet for a second before clearing his throat and said “I am BTS worldwide handsome Jin! Are you Army?” in full English… I actually felt my heart squeeze hearing it in person. I stood straight and gulped.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you, I am Army, but I will not be an Army while I am working for you! I’m sorry!” I replied in Korean… I looked at Jin as he beamed a huge gorgeous smile. I heard a sigh from behind me as my uncle heard my confession… I am a KPOP fan! And now my family knows it… and my employer… BTS… I feel sick! I want to bury a hole and jump into it forever!

“Army!” he approached me, opened his arms for a hug. I ducked, lightening fast antisocial instincts kicking in, and Jin ended up hugging my uncle… That was a sight indeed! My uncle patted Jin’s shoulder and pointed to me standing next to them.

“She’s an introvert, and a crazy fan so it seems” my uncle said in a low, monotone voice.

“I’m not a crazy fan!” I gasped, looking at the floor so I couldn’t see his disappointed face. “I just like KPOP, I’m not obsessive” my voice started strong, but it lost its strength, so it eventually became just a murmur.

“Honey!” Hyerin tapped my uncle on the shoulder, rather hard. He hissed in pain and rubbed it before coming over to me, taking my arm. “She just has good taste in music! I’m a fan of BTS but you don’t call me crazy! Really now!” she snapped, linking her other arm in Jin’s, she led us both to the elevator at a fast pace, leaving my uncle behind.

“Calling his own family a crazy fan, when his own fiancée is also a KPOP fan, he needs to look at his brain and sort himself out, really now the hypocritical man…” she was muttering all the way to their apartment.

“Fiancée!?” I gasped, looking at Hyerin, shocked at the word!

“He proposed last week, but of course he hasn’t told his family, why did I even say yes?” she huffed a piece of hair from her face and practically dragged us to the door. She punched in the numbers and hardly waited until we took our shoes off before rushing into the living area.

“Noona, you’re hurting my arm” Jin said in a worried voice, not daring to raise his voice. She eyed him and he gave her a wary smile. She let us go but turned to me and took hold of my shoulders.

“Don’t listen to your uncle, you can be an Army all you want, right Jin!?” she asked Jin who nodded quickly.

“Yeah, the members won’t mind and don’t listen to Bang PD-nim, but don’t tell him just in case” he said while picking up a box of black hair dye. Currently, he had blonde hair, the roots were beginning to show.

“Jin! Put the hair dye down! If I must listen to another one of PD-nim’s talks about letting you guys dye your own hair, I’ll begin to lose mine” my uncle came in with a glum face. He ignored me and Hyerin, walked past us and disappeared behind a door.

“See you tomorrow” Jin gave me a sly grin and left quickly… he was definitely going to go and dye his hair. I felt drained… mentally and physically.

“I’m going to throw up” I muttered before gunning it for the bathroom, my stomach lurching.

“Are you okay?” Hyerin asked as I tried to hold my stomach together, leaning over the toilet. I shook my head and gripped the sides of the seat.

“I need my bag” I shook, fear and anxiety rushing through me like an ice-cold blanket. Tears stung at my eyes as Hyerin handed me my bag. In the front pocket, I took out my box of anxiety meds and took one tablet.

“What’s that?” she asked, looking at me like I was a pill-popping addict.

“Anxiety medication, something to calm me down, if I can keep it down” I leaned against the glass of the shower and closed my eyes… I needed to calm down…

“Alice?” my uncle’s voice came from the door, but I was too exhausted to look.

“See what you’ve done!?” Hyerin rose her voice, uncle didn’t answer. “She has anxiety, did you know that?” I heard her footsteps walk over to him, he must have nodded because she carried on. “And you didn’t tell me? You told me to let you handle it, now look at her! She’s your niece!” I heard her hitting his arm after every sentence, I could tell she was in tears.

“Okay! I get it, stop hitting my arm!” he shouted back, and she stopped, “let me speak to her please, honey” his voice was much softer and after a few seconds of her sniffling, she left.

“I made a fool of myself, I’m a freak” I sighed, opening my eyes to see my uncle sat down next to me, watching me carefully.

“No, you’re not, I shouldn’t have kept it from you, and I should have told you about my work. I didn’t know your… problems… were this bad” he sighed, rubbing his face with his hand, he looks like he’s aged 10 years.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you I was a KPOP fan, I thought you were a hater” my voice was still shaky but much calmer. “What am I going to do tomorrow? They know I’m an Army, how am I going to be a professional way?” I hid my face in my hands, folding into a human ball of self-loathing.

“Well, one thing is for sure, I have to tell your dad about all this… you’ve been here all of two hours and I’ve already messed up” he stood up and offered me his hand. He helped me to my feet, my legs wobbling slightly and we both shuffled tiredly into the kitchen.

“You have, haven’t you” I chuckled, bumping my shoulder into him as I passed him. Hyerin was sat on the sofa, watching a drama. I joined her and watched as Lee Dong Wook’s face appeared broodily on the screen. “So handsome” I mused as Hyerin threw dagger eyes at my uncle.

“Let’s order in” my uncle picked up the phone and looked through the numbers. “Chinese?” he looked to Hyerin, whose face has become much softer.

“Get three servings of dumplings and I’ll think about forgiving you, and you need to apologise to Alice for your behaviour!” she made her demands before staring back at the drama. Uncle nodded quickly before quickly ordering some food… half an hour later we were pigging out on Korean-Chinese food and watching a horror movie, laughing about the whole matter… Although my uncle did get an ear-full from my dad, his voice was so loud it came out as a jumbled mess through the phone.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning, after very little sleep, both myself and my uncle were ready for 5 am… for my first day as a BTS hair stylist… Although I remembered to take my meds and glugged two cups of coffee… my nerves were a complete wreck on the way to the studio…

“Remember, the members know about you, Jin probably hasn’t told the boss and we’re all calm… we are calm aren’t w…” he didn’t get to finish, a yawn spread across his face as he blinked at the road. “I hope you’re ready for no sleep for the next month, or longer… comeback months are the worst” he grumbled, lifting his flask to take a sip of hot coffee.

“I can’t function without sleep” I admitted, copying my uncle, but my drink was sweet and milky. I hated black coffee unlike him. Less then ten minutes later, we were pulling into the studio carpark and I could see a flash of blue in the window… who was that?

“Ready?” my uncle asked me… he should have asked that to himself, he looked like he was going to faint. I nodded, taking a deep breath in, we both entered the studio… and there they were… the 7 members of BTS who’s eyes were instantly on me… here we go!!!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

AUTHORS NOTES

THERE'S GOING TO BE ANOTHER CHAPTER UPLOADED LATER TODAY, IT WILL BE THE LAST CHAPTER UNTIL WEDNESDAY. PLEASE LOOK FORWARD TO IT. <3 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi! I’m EstelleKpop! I hope you like Sasaeng so far! I’m sorry for any spelling and grammar mistakes, I’m not a professional writer he he XD

I will hopefully be uploading every Tuesday and Saturday. Please look forward to more chapters soon!

Thank you for reading!

Laters!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KpopEstelle

xxx