Firetruck sirens blared in a distance, causing an unknowing Sera to emerge from her peaceful slumber. She has spent 25 years of her life occasionally wondering why, of all places in their fairly big community, her ancestors decided to build their house two blocks away from a fire station. And, like those mornings when she had the same experience, she heaved a deep sigh and whispered, "May everyone involved in the unfortunate fire incident be alive and safe."

With all her might, she forced her eyes open to welcome yet another day of self-loathing that she likes to think is a form of self-discovery. Just like how there are five stages of grief, she believes that discovering one's self is a lifetime journey that progresses through five different—not necessarily mutually exclusive—stages as well, namely (1) indifference, (2) self-loathing, (3) bargaining, (4) bettering, and (5) acceptance. Currently, she is like a pendulum that is constantly swinging back and forth between the second and third.

After making her bed, she proceeded with her morning rituals— one that involved, aside from the usual groaning, doing stretches that she, herself, admits to be bare minimum as it barely lasts a minute, and washing her face. Catching a glimpse of her toothbrush, she found herself wondering why some people brush their teeth before eating breakfast. And after they eat, what? Brush their teeth again? Wouldn't that damage the teeth more? she thought. "Maybe you should've become a dentist," she told her reflection on the bathroom mirror.

"Talking to yourself again?" her roommate, Lane, jokingly asked as she got out of the bathroom.

"Yeah, thought I needed a little pep talk to start the day," Sera said back.

Lane is the perfect roommate to Sera. She never brought a boyfriend home as per their roommate agreement and would always bring her food from her hometown whenever she goes back home for the holidays. Luckily for Sera, it's her own house so she does not need to bring her anything as she remains cooped up at home, alone, watching videos of her K-Pop idols like she had never seen them before, and some K-Drama episodes thrown in between. One interest they share is their love for Hallyu or the Korean wave. Though Lane has only been a fan of K-Pop for several years, in terms of general know-hows and depth of artist knowledge, she exceeds Sera, who has been a fan for a decade. In her defense, she likes a lot of groups, dividing her attention and the space in her memory.

"Hey. Earth to Sera!" Lane called. Apparently, she was having a one-sided conversation with a distracted Sera.

"Sorry. What is it?" she asked.

"I said I'll be home late tonight."

"I thought WINNER's concert is tomorrow?" Sera asked, confusion evident on her face.

"Yeah. Tonight is the fansign," Lane answered with a suggestive grin on her face.

"Oh, you won!? Congratulations!" she exclaimed as she poured herself a bowl of cereal.

"Thanks! But, yeah, I'm gonna be leeching off of you for about a month... but thank you!"

Sera looked at her with wide eyes. "What? How much is the fansign ticket?"

Lane made a weird face then took a seat opposite her on the dining table. "Oh, sweetie. That's not how it works."

"What do you mean?" Sera asked with a mouthful of mixed milk and still-crispy cereal. She likes her cereal not soggy but also not too crispy.

"It's via raffle. The more albums you buy, the more chances you have of winning," Lane explained.

She tilted her head to the side with a look on her face that said that's absurd! "So you have to be either lucky or rich, or both, in order to win?"

"That's just how the world works. And our boys are the face of capitalism, so we knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into when we decided to love them forever, Sera."

She released a defeated sigh. "Right." As she was about to take in another spoonful, she felt a sharp pain in her head that disappeared as fast as it came. Lane was about to leave her seat when Sera suddenly, like a Eureka-moment of her own, exclaimed that terrified the former, "OH MY GOD!"

Automatically, Lane clutched her chest, afraid that her heart might have left her chest cavity due to the shock she had just been in so early in the morning. "What!? What is wrong with you!?" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them slowly as she exhaled through . "I literally saw my entire life flash before me. You almost killed me!"

She just rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry. It's just... wow!"

"'Wow' what?" she asked.

"I just remembered my dream. It's crazy! When I woke up, I only remembered how I felt during the dream. But now that I remembered a little bit of what happened, it feels... it feels... I don't know! It's crazy!" Sera babbled in sheer excitement.

"I'm starting to think that the 'crazy' part of it is sitting right in front of me." Shaking her head a little, Lane decided to ask further. "So, what was the dream about?"

"I was at a fansign event," she began. "And there was this K-Pop idol who looked so handsome I just stared at him in silence during my turn."

"Hold up," Lane stopped her. "If you're planning on stealing my ticket, you won't succeed. I hid it in a safe place," she warned.

"No, no. He's not a member of WINNER," she interjected.

"Then who?"

"I... I don't know either. I have never seen him before."

"Sera, you mean to say that, of the ten K-Pop groups that you like, none of them is him?" Upon earning a nod from her, she continued, "Well, that's just your luck," she teased. "Although, I'm curious who this mysterious man is."

"You and I both," she agreed. "But his face.. He's so handsome. I can't remember his face but I know that he looks intimidatingly handsome."

"You're drooling on your bowl of soggy cereals," her roommate joked. "And does that even make sense?" she asked to which Sera just shrugged her shoulders. "Alright, let's enumerate and see. Are you sure he's not from TVXQ or SS501?"

"I know my boys. He's not any of them."

"Bigbang? Super Junior?"

She shook her head.

"What about 2PM? B.A.P?"

"No.."

"EXO? VIXX? Monsta X? B1A4? Jinyoung sure looks intimidatingly handsome sometimes."

Sera shook her head yet again. Her head was starting to hurt even more.

"Okay, I quit. I'm going to work." She raised her hands in the air as if to surrender. "It's probably nothing. Maybe it's like when you dreamed about hanging out with a faceless guy whom you thought was your soulmate."

She gave Lane a tight-lipped smile as she retreated to her room. She proceeded to finish her now-soggy cereals with a distracted mind. "I'm pretty sure it's a face I've never seen before, but he somehow feels familiar," she thought to herself out loud.

~~~

Sera never felt under-appreciated nor bored in her job but it's definitely one of those days where she was preoccupied all day long and wouldn't give a rat's āss about her immediate bosses' passive-aggressive brow-raises. She still couldn't get the mysterious guy out of her head.

"What are you up to this weekend?" her workmate, Ria, asked as she sat on her own cubicle adjacent to Ria's.

For a moment she was thankful that her timid workmate even bothered to pause what she was discreetly watching on her phone just to strike a conversation with her. "Not much."

"Wanna go on a double date?" Ria blurted out that took her by surprise.

"Eh. I don't really feel like it." Changing the topic, she asked in a hushed tone, "What are you watching?"

Ria pursed her lips, feeling a little embarrassed for getting caught. "It's a Korean drama called 'About Time'," she answered.

Recognizing the title, she replied with enthusiasm, "Oh, the one in which Lee Sungkyung and Lee Sangyoon are the leads?"

Ria nodded.

Inquiring further, she asked about the cute actor currently on the screen. "Who's that?"

"Oh, it's a new actor named Rowoon. He's actually an idol too."

"That's cool! From which group is he?"

"I'm really not sure," Ria trailed. "SH9? SM9? Seriously, I don't know." She gave a nervous chuckle that Sera found cute.

Feeling like nothing important was waiting for her on her desk, she unconsciously unlocked her phone to look up the subject of the small talk on the all-knowing magical place called internet. "Okay, I see little Rowoon's personal details here.."

"He's actually not little. He's very tall," she butted in.

Sera looked up to Ria and went, "I mean it as a— never mind." Scrolling farther, she went, "Oh, here's his group. It's called SF9. At least you were right about the 'S' and '9'," she commented with a small laugh. "Why haven't I heard of them before?" she asked, more to herself than Ria.

But Ria answered anyway. "Maybe because—" Her next words disappeared the moment she looked up to her senior colleague. Terrified of a pale Sera with mouth agape, she asked with concern, "Oh, my. Are you okay?"

"Zuho.." she uttered under her breath.

"What?"

Gaining composure, bouncing back from her previous disconcerted state, she uttered once again, but this time with a sparkle in her eyes, "Zuho. His name is Zuho!"

"No, his name is Rowoon. I just told you," a confused Ria corrected her.

Not bothering to clarify, she got up, threw her burgundy bag on her shoulder, and tucked her seat into the desk.

"Where are you going?" Ria asked, having no idea what just happened.

Without looking back, Sera replied, "I'm going home." She raised her left hand in the air as if to brandish her wristwatch. "It's five o'clock."

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