Saturday evening. I just broke up with my girlfriend. It wasn’t an intensive relationship and I can say my feelings weren’t very strong. This break up didn’t mean much to me. Just a small negative experience. We already parted ways and I was in the mall’s glass-walled elevator riding to the top floor in order to get to my car and drive back home. With me there is a guy with a hat and face mask, probably trying to hide his identity. I look at the display, only 8 more floors to go. Sighing I look outside the elevator and look at the empty mall. Only very few humans wander in the empty halls. The mall’s closing at any moment after all. I chuckle at myself. The view from the elevator keeps getting better.

Until suddenly a break screeches and the elevator stopped in between two floors. I turn around to inspect the door only to find it being unable to open. Damn I thought. The other passenger seemed to have noticed our problem as well.

“Uhm, I’m gonna press the emergency button.”  I said, earning a quick nod and gaze from the stranger that somehow seemed familiar. But I didn’t thought too deep into it.

After a short ring on the speaker I heard a man response.

“Elevator Emergency hotline, what is your problem?”

“Hi, well…” I awkwardly start to talk. “Uhm, I’m stuck here in an elevator with another person. We’re like about in the 7th floor right now and the door cannot be opened…”

“Okay, let me check your location. You’re in the Spring mall, right?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, since it’s evening already it might take longer for the electrician to come, but he’ll come as fast as possible. We’ll get you two safely out of there.”

“Great thanks!” I contently said goodbye from the hotline dude.

After getting help I turned to the stranger, who apparently watched me for the whole conversation.

“I guess we’re stuck in here together for a while...”

The stranger just stares silently with almost something like fear of me in his eyes. I try to smile politely in order to make the atmosphere not turn too awkward, but failed and I decided to look somewhere else. The repairing guy should come soon enough, no need to make some small talk.

Once again I look at the different floors I can see from the high view. Luckily the whole mall is visible with these glass elevators. The number of remaining people decreases more and more until I found myself not spotting a single person anymore. I look at my mobile, already past 10 pm and I’m still not even at my car. After some minutes I look over at the strange dude, but he’s just staring into his mobile.

Somehow already an hour passed and I started to get tired so I decided to sit down. The man followed my lead shortly after. Soon after my mobile ran out of battery and now it was really boring. Outside the elevator were signs I already read over and over again trying to occupy myself , but after doing so for so long I gave up and indulge in boredom. I lean my head back and close my eyes. Even though I doubt it, for one moment I prayed that the strange dude wouldn’t made a move. All my daily duties came to my mind and I started to think of what I was going to do once I’m outside of this damn elevator again.

I heard the guy’s pocket rustle which made me open my eyes and look at him. He finally put his mobile away as well. His disappointed look confirmed my hunch that his battery died as well. I yawned and wondered if the emergency dude has forgotten about us. To make it worse, the lights were shut down. Now only some smalls lights through the mall provided some light. Even though it was darker than before it’s still rather light and one could see everything. Just damn it.

I tilt my head toward my fellow companion. Now that it has come to this I should really talk to him. I am just so bored and kind of pissed for staying in here for so long.

“So, your battery died as well?” He instantly looked up and remained silent for a moment. That instant I kept asking myself why he seemed so familiar. After a moment he finally replied with a heavy foreign accent.

“My phone….. I can not use.” He says while making some gestures. I nod and continue:

“Where do you come from?” I wanted to know where he comes from, because I might be able to talk in his native language in order to keep the conversation up, since he seemed rather insecure with his English.

“South Korea.” That moment something made click in my mind, but still my brain didn’t let me know the truth just yet.

“Ah, I’ve studied in Seoul for a year!” I replied in Korean, which made him obviously surprised.

“Your Korean is really good.”

“Thank you~  Say, don’t you want to take off that mask and hat? It’s getting rather warm in here. I also already put my jacket over there.”

“Ah…” He contemplates a few seconds and went for my suggestion. The moment he reveals himself it was all up with me. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Say, … “ I begin completely speechless. “What’s your name?”

“My name’s Jeon Jungkook.” He finally started to smile faintly. “What’s you name?” he finished.

When he said that I just couldn’t believe my ears. But his voice confirms his whole appearance and it was truly BTS’s Jungkook. The guy I admired for a few years of my life and who seemed so distant, is now literally in the same small room as me. Furthermore I have been with him for hours already and didn’t even notice it. I guess people really change when they stop being into something.

“I…uhm…” I stutter being lost for words. “My name is Addison.” He gives me a gesture as in nice to meet you.

“I, well, I know you. Very well in fact.” Just as I began to hesitantly voice those lines his eyes changed, disappointed and somewhat annoyed, feared of being together with a crazy fan. When I noticed that, I desperately wanted to show him that this wasn’t the case. “No! I mean yes I know you, because I was a fan of you and your band a few years ago, but now I don’t follow any of your activities and moved on from that part of my life. Please, don’t think I am some kind of creepy fan. I swear to you I have nothing to do with Kpop in general.” I wanted to take my phone out to proof my innocence with my nonexistent Kpop photos, but my mobile was not in my favor. I kept on explaining how I really was just some random person and for some reason, a reason I will never be able to understand, he believed me.

“It’s alright Addision, I believe you.” He even chuckled. “You seem like an honest person and there’s something in your eyes that tells me that I should trust you. So don’t abuse my trust.”

“No, I’d never want anything bad for you or anyone dear to you.”

Somehow we changed from awkward heavy air to having a friend like conversation. This it too good to be real but also too crazy. Things like this don’t just happen. But just for this moment I can treasure it and live it to the fullest and make good use  of it.

“Since I already now you, let me tell you about me so that we are about even. If you want to know anything further just go ahead and ask.”

“I will” And so I started to talk about everything about me I could think of. Not only did I want to be fair to let him know something about me, but truthfully I was also egoistic and just wanted to let a famous person know about me and just hope that he might remember me, my name and the experience he shared with me. Just this once  I wanted to feel important as well.

Throughout the time we were talking we made a deal: Everything said in this room stays in this room. We can talk about everything, because after this incident we won’t be seeing each other ever again. We both became something like a friends with benefits, however just for talking. Talking to a completely new person about your problems just illuminates a completely new view which was a nice change for me as well as him.

“Okay, let me ask you a few questions about your idol life. It’s that what interested me the most when I was a fan back then. If there’s anything you don’t want to answer, just skip it.” He scratches his head already dreading some questions.

“Are you happy?” A simple question, yet it holds so much meaning. When I was a fan I wished nothing but happiness for him and his bandmates, but I always feared them to be not. Before he replies he sighs deeply.

“Truthfully I don’t know how to answer that. I am very happy for having so many fans that accept me for who I am, who take me with all my imperfections, weird characteristics and just tolerate everything I do. This unconditional love makes me feel so honored. I have enough money which I can give my family to have a nice life and even for myself I have endless possibilities, but well let me say it like this, I don’t have the chance to spend all this money. And that’s something I almost regret. Yes, saving money is good, but what use is it on my bank account when I can not use the money to experience something, something that makes me experience new things or… or I don’t know. Just something that I will remember? I am spending the best time of my life, my youth, as an idol and even though it has many perks it has even more disadvantages. I miss those times when I could walk around freely through the streets, not fearing anyone following me around and seeing everything I do on the media the next day. I miss all those things that seem natural to an ordinary person, but as a celebrity I had to give everything up. I miss a normal friend whom I can talk to, that isn’t influenced by my fame or who just wants to get to know me to take advantage of my popularity. I miss a friend that isn’t another idol or bandmate. I miss my family that I hardly see. Furthermore I have so much stress, I sometimes cannot even sleep well. Those days I just feel like . When I am on stage it feels like I am in paradise, because I forget about all my physical pains and just try my best to deliver a good performance, however when I get off stage it all comes back to me. So, am I happy?"

“Wow, what an answer, didn’t expect that. Why don’t we go to another topic. Relationships. You should be well informed about all the secret dating that’s going on. How many idol couples actually exist?”

“A lot, seriously. Most of them are within the agencies. It’s easier that way.”

“I can imagine. Is it easy to find a partner within the same company?”

“Hm, I think so. Usually people make their connections over their trainee days and there you still have the chance to talk freely to males and fe