Yoochun

Robyn and Shandi left their room to go looking for a DBSK member, hoping they’d run into one downstairs in the lobby.  They got distracted for a moment by the wonderful smell coming from the coffee shop and walked into the lounge area with steaming hot cups of their favorite sweet coffee. 

            “Maybe, they’ve gone up to their rooms.  I didn’t see anyone but hotel staff down here.”  Robyn was a little frustrated.  She didn’t have as much patience for waiting as Shandi.  Of course, Shandi wasn’t really listening.  She was watching the snowfall outside.

            “Wait.  Is that Yoochun?  Outside?”  Robyn’s eyes followed the direction Shandi pointed to see a shape that did sort of look like Yoochun, huddled against the wind.  Why would he be outside?  They got up and walked outside, ignoring the warning signs posted near the doors.  It looked like Yoochun was on the phone.  Robyn mentally kicked herself.  She had left her phone upstairs.  How was she going to get a picture of Yoochun looking all cute and bundled up if her phone was upstairs? 

            He looked at his phone and shook it a little, as if that was going to get him a better signal.  Robyn wondered who he was talking to and why he needed to be outside to do it.  Did he privacy, or was he just not getting good signal inside?  He put the phone back in his pocket with a sigh and stood in the wind with his eyes closed for a moment.  This was their opportunity.  They walked over to him. 

            “Yoochun-ah, can we have a high five?”  He opened his eyes, looking surprised to see them.  He smiled.

            “Sure.”  He gave both of them high fives.  Awesome!  Only four more to go.  Man, I really wish I had brought something to get an autograph with.  Robyn regretted leaving her bag with all her CD’s and other autograph worthy merchandise in the room. 

            “Have you two been in Korea long?”  Robyn and Shandi shook their heads.

            “We just got here today, actually.  My dad’s working on the snowmaking stuff for the ski resort and school’s out for the semester, so we tagged along with him.” 

            “How long are you planning on being here?” 

            “About a week, then we’re going to Seoul for a few weeks.  We weren’t expecting anyone to be at the resort, much less you guys.” 

            Yoochun smiled at them.  “So, you two are fans of mine?”

            “Umm…not just you.  We’re fans of DBSK in general.  But, we saw JYJ in LA last time you were there.  That was an amazing concert!”  That had been only six months after Robyn became a hardcore fan.  She loved going to that concert.  It was the first time she had flown anywhere without her parents or a church group.  And they had spent the entire time fangirling over JYJ. 

            “Oh.”  He sounded almost disappointed.  Well, they didn’t want him to get a big head, and he was their least favorite member of the group.  But, they didn’t have to tell him that.  He might misunderstand, and they didn’t want to make him cry over something serious.  Besides, being the fifth favorite man in the world to someone was a pretty good achievement. 

            Right at that moment, the power went out in the lodge behind them.  Yoochun gave a start (he was facing towards the lodge whereas Robyn and Shandi had their backs to it).

            “Hold on a second.”  He walked to the doors and tried to open them.  They didn’t budge.  Apparently, the lodge was designed so that in a state of emergency (like if the power went out due to a blizzard) the doors would lock so they couldn’t be blown open by the wind.  They were locked outside with a blizzard arriving while they stood there and the temperature dropping alarmingly fast.  At least Robyn and Shandi still had their coffee.  Robyn took a sip of hers and made a face.  It wasn’t hot anymore. 

            Yoochun banged on the doors, but no one was in the lobby to see them.  Robyn and Shandi shared a glance.  Obviously, they weren’t getting back in the lodge through the front doors.  They needed to find shelter, and fast.  This place was built to withstand blizzards, so they weren’t going to find an open window anywhere.  Moving out of sight of the lodge would be dangerous, but not as dangerous as being caught out in the open when the worst of the storm got there. 

            Robyn tugged on Yoochun’s sleeve.  “We should find some shelter.  It’s getting dangerous out here.”  He nodded, but didn’t look entirely convinced that they were locked out.  They inched along the wall of the lodge until they came to a sign written entirely in Hangul.  Robyn wasn’t good enough at reading Hangul to decipher it.

            “Yoochun, what does that say?”

            “Lake-side log cabin.”  There was an arrow pointing away from the lodge.  If they could find that log cabin, maybe could survive this. 

            If only his cell phone hadn’t been on the fritz.  Then he wouldn’t be in this mess.  Yoochun sighed.  He should step up and lead the two girls to safety, but he didn’t know where this log cabin was or what to do if they got there.  He knew enough to know better than to get caught in a blizzard.  But here he was, lost in the blizzard with two fans.  He hated that his fans got dragged along with him, but at least he wasn’t alone.  That would be a lot worse. 

            “Let’s go find this log cabin before we can’t see anything.”  He started off in the direction the arrow indicated, the two girls following close behind him.  It wasn’t too dark, yet.  That was good.  He could still barely make out the path that had to lead to the cabin. 

            “Did the sign say how far away the cabin is?”  He shook his head without looking back to see which of the girls had asked the question.  They just had to hope it was close enough that they could find it before they froze to death.  They walked on.

            After about ten minutes, he stopped and looked back at the girls.  They were still right behind him.  He looked at what they were wearing.  They had to be freezing!  They only had on light jackets, as if they hadn’t been planning on going outside the lodge.  They probably hadn’t planned on it.  They must’ve seen him on the phone and gone out just to talk to him.  That made him feel really guilty.

            “Here, put these on.”  He handed the shorter of the two girls his overcoat and gave his huge scarf to the other one.  It wasn’t much, but it was better than what they had been wearing.  The taller one took the scarf and wrapped it around her neck and face and leaned over to say something to the other girl.

            “How can you smell anything?  My nose has been frozen since we left the lodge.”  Had the taller girl noticed his aftershave?  He wondered what she had said about it.  Yoochun shook his head.  Wondering about that was getting them nowhere.  He started walking again.  It was getting harder to see.  They had to find the cabin before they couldn’t see at all.

            “There it is!”  He turned to see the taller girl pointing somewhere off to his right.  He thought he had been walking in a straight line.  Had he been veering off to the left?  He squinted in that direction.  He didn’t see anything.

            “Come on!”  The girl grabbed Yoochun and her friend and started off in the direction of whatever it was that she had seen.  What if what she had seen wasn’t the cabin and they were now going in the wrong direction?  Oh well, they didn’t really have much time left before they had to stop anyway.  Thankfully, she had seen the cabin.  It was small, and the door didn’t look too sturdy, but it was better than nothing.  They opened the door and went inside.  The wind was blowing so hard that it took all three of them to get the door closed again.  Luckily, it bolted from the inside. 

            “Now what?”

            Robyn rolled her eyes at Yoochun’s question.  Obviously, they needed to find someway to get some warmth or they would still freeze.  It wasn’t completely dark in the cabin, so she could just make out the firewood stacked against the back wall.  They were in luck:  there was a fireplace and what looked like a thick blanket sitting on top of the wood next to it.  She put some wood and kindling in the fireplace and tried to get a fire started with the flint and steel she found under the blanket, but her hands felt frozen and wouldn’t work right. 

            “I can’t get the fire going.  My hands are too cold.”  She looked over at Shandi who shook her head.  Shandi wasn’t wearing gloves either and her hands were just as cold.  Yoochun, however, was wearing gloves.  She tried to hand the flint and steel to him. 

            “Here.  Take your gloves off and see if you can get a spark.”  He looked at her like she had just sprouted a second head.

            “I don’t know how to use that.”

            “It’s really easy.  Just follow my instructions.  You know some English, right?  I may not be able to explain everything in Korean.”  Again, Yoochun just stared at her.  She sighed and got up, shoving the flint and steel into his hands. 

            “Just try it.  If you don’t and we can’t get the fire started, we might not make it through this.”  Through Robyn’s careful instruction (which Yoochun had trouble following due to her lack of ability to communicate clearly in an unfamiliar language), Yoochun managed to get the fire going.  It was still cold, though.  Shandi grabbed the blanket.

            “We’re gonna need to share warmth.  It’s the only way.”  Robyn hesitated and shared a look with Shandi that said, I really don’t want to share warmth with Yoochun.  She knew Shandi didn’t really want to, either.  But, in a life or death situation, sometimes they had to do things they would rather not. 

            “This blanket should be big enough for all of us.  Yoochun, scoot a little closer to the fire.”  They sat on either side of him and spread the blanket so that it covered them all evenly.  Robyn was sure Yoochun was thinking about how lucky he was to have two girls sitting next to him.  He had such a player vibe that she and Shandi would have rather been stuck with anyone else.  Well, almost anyone else.  Robyn could think of several people that she would rather freeze to death than share a blanket with.