The plastic chair you were sitting on came in very handy since your feet were killing you. The café you were currently in was a famous one, hidden away in the tangles of small streets in Sinsa-dong, where the life of Seoul was bustling with lively, young energy that you should have been able to relate to but it had been a bit difficult recently. It might have been the amount of assignments combined with the internship you managed to land- although you were not sure how.

“It is interesting,” mumbled Hyeri seated across from you,  who, would become your senior at the magazine. “I would never say you have an inch of fashion sense if I were to just look at you.” She didn’t look up from the printed text of your blog posts and various stories you managed to get out to the world through indie publications. Wearing an expensive set of sunglasses, there was no chance you would be able to see the sharpness of her eyes. “It is just so… “ she shook her head slightly, searching for the correct word to describe your fashion sense. “Plain.”

your lips inside your mouth, you nodded slowly although she wasn’t paying attention to your physical being, her head still set low, hawk eyes skimming through every word you typed out.

A couple of more seconds passed by without any words spoken, when she suddenly looked up, startling you for a heartbeat. “You also don’t say much.”

“I didn’t think there is any correct answer I could give you.”

“Well, your senior is talking to you. You should acknowledge their words.” You noticed a frown on her forehead, her eyebrows that were dark with a generous help of a pencil, were scrunched upwards. Her face must have been very pretty, the heavy red lipstick said it, too. Confidence. Authority.

“Sometimes staying silent is better than saying something unworthy,” you replied calmly, giving her a slight uplift of your lips. They were becoming rather dry, not having a lip balm as you left your teeny-tiny one-room apartment in a rush, scared of not arriving on time. Seoul transportation could be sometimes quite nerve-wrecking.

Hyeri reciprocated the tiny smile, but it didn’t give you an inch of reassurance. “Alright, good.” She slammed the document shut, reaching for her iced-americano. Carefully pursing her lips, she drank through the straw so that her lipstick wouldn’t be ruined. “Let’s go to the office, shall we?” Chairs screeched on the floor and you followed her click-click with your tump-tump.

When you started the work, it was crazy because wow, you made it into one of the best fashion magazines in Korea!  But continuing to work there was slowly killing you… until you met him.

Those simple yet somehow powerful words he uttered to you…

I will wait for you until you make it.

The feeling he left inside of you was like a tattoo that should have been temporary, just like it happens in any random first-time meetings with people you don’t know. They might charm you and the effect might last for a day or two, sometimes a bit more. But in this case, you could not get the look out of your mind. He was tattooed on your eyelids, and he seemed to constantly talk into your ear.

I will wait until you make it.

Naturally, you were trying to shut the intrusive chain of thoughts out, telling yourself that it was ridiculous. C'mon, we were talking about a famous singer - a very famous singer. For him to reach such popularity meant to not only have crazy talent but also crazy amount of charm which seemed to work absolute wonders to you and to your mind. It wasn’t helping that after the meeting, you followed his activities and looked up interviews, trying to decode his personality through videos and his body-language. Because if there was one thing people underestimated - it was the power of body language. But his was pure, honest, well-mannered and completely controlled, with some dangerous flirting and body movements that made your head spin for a bit, totally affected by him, seeing him even with your eyes closed.

You scoffed out loud, unconsciously, as you were transcribing an interview Hyeri did earlier in the morning with Twice. Not realising your colleagues were giving you a questioning look, you typed away what the interviewee was replying, the volume in your ear a bit too loud. 

Huh… He wouldn’t even remember you, let alone wait ’till you “make it” as he so confidently said. These superstars… They thought they could just say something they thought sounds cool but it actually didn’t. 

It definitely was not the reason you found yourself listening to his latest album as you were going through the minutes of the meeting that just finished. You were supposed to bring them to the editor-in-chief in an hour.

You could manage to do all the work in one hour.

Only if his voice wouldn’t have been so distracting.

Why was it so distracting?

Maybe you were just starstruck. After all, he was someone that you knew about before ever applying to university and making it to a magazine. He was the singer hanging on the walls of teenage girls and, let’s be honest, many young adults and adults… Who would dislike him, right? 

“Ah, Baekhyun,” mumbled Hyeri with a sigh once you were walking up the stairs of the office building after THE meeting with Baekhyun, the singer. “He is a dangerous one. Always a gentleman, though.”

“Why is he dangerous for being a gentleman?” you asked matter-of-factly. Seriously. People should pay more attention to what they were saying and whether it made sense or not. Just like she could have thought twice before saying whether you were good or bad in front of him just now… Why would she give two damns about your feelings being hurt while also belittling you in front of a major celeb… If only people paid a little bit more attention.

Hyeri smirked, stepping on the first floor in front of the golden elevators. She pressed the button to call one, now turning to you. The sunglasses she liked to wear so much, as you learned,  were leisurely holding her hair back as they were resting as a headband on her head. “He is a sweet dream,” she said, calling your name to make sure you are listening. “Working with him is probably more pleasurable than it should be, but then… You just know he isn’t a gentleman only to you. He is the same to each of us.”

You frowned, still having his face, his eyes set on you vividly in your brain. Hyeri looked like him a lot if you didn’t focus enough. “You know you don’t make sense, my dear senior.”

“Yah!” she shouted, making you jump but you smiled right away. “Don’t act like you aren’t even a little bit phased by meeting him just now. He looked gorgeous. Plus, it was your first-time meeting someone of his calibre.”

“So will you finish what you were saying before?” you asked nonchalantly, definitely not letting her know that you were out of it because him, too. You didn’t want to follow the crowds he was obviously so used to have him follow.

“I meant,” she started again, just when you heard a ding! of the elevator. You walked in, pressing the 24th floor. “No girl seems to be special to him.”

Shrugging, you pursed your lips. “Well, you do realise you are not part of his world, right? He isn’t here to make us feel special nor to help us to stand out. That is our job. To make him special.”

Of course no one would dislike him. The editor ladies were swooning, always bringing up his name during the meetings as a proposal for the cover of the magazine of the upcoming issue. You typed his name the most when writing the minutes of the meetings. They all wanted him, but he did not want to be wanted always.

Hence his appearance once in a while. 

Hence you saw him again after almost one year and a half for the first time since your first meeting with him. Coming with a new album that had yet to be released, your editing staff was hot on their feet, running errands, picking up calls and making new ones, because our magazine definitely had to be the first one to book such a luxurious star.

“Good news for you,” started Hyeri as she was passing by your cubicle, her heels loud, her hair bouncy, her sunglasses tucked sensually in the sharp V cut opening of her Gucci shirt. “Your first participation in the creative process.”  She propped up on the edge of your desk, and you turned in your chair to face her. She gave you a mischievous smile. “You shall be able to finally prove to Baekhyun that you made it and that he didn’t wait for nothing.”

Your eyebrows shot up fast, your reflexes faster than your brain trying to keep your emotions at bay. But wait… did she just say… “Why do you remember those words?” you asked, dumbfounded.

She gave you a funny look. “Why do you ask me that when I just told you some privileged news? If this whole shot goes well, you sure can expect some sweet promotion.”

Swallowing, your eyes were wandering around, trying to process information. It was ridiculous she would remember some words that weren’t even directed towards her. But hey, goodness gracious, were you just assigned to participate in the creative process of his promotion in your magazine? “Will I get to interview?”

Hyeri’s lips twitched, only the left corner of raising. Naive child, she must have thought. “No way. The writer has been already assigned. You aren’t close enough yet,” was her reply, standing up now. “The meeting is at six.” She gave a quick look at her golden wrist watch. “You have three hours to help your looks and charm off his pants,” she gave you wink and left.

“Hey!” you shouted after her, grabbing a pencil, ready to throw it at her. “Why would I-” you stopped, when you saw she just laughed loudly without even looking at you. “Woah!” you breathed out, “I don’t even care about charming him!” Calming down, you sat back down properly, mulling over her words. “I finally get to be part of something,” you sighed, talking to your wildly beating heart to stop it.

Just why was it beating so fast?

It was not because of him.

It was not.

-

You remember wearing this lush white sweater you had to actually tie around your body unless you wanted to flash some skin or worse… a . So you tied it very tightly, and took a breath before heading to the meeting room a bit earlier to prepare the documents for the participants. Thankfully, there weren’t many. It was the singer’s team, you, the writer and, well, the editor-in-chief, because who would want to miss a meeting with such a popular singer?

You entered the meeting room which had a lovely view of the city that was about to be consumed by darkness, yielding to the city lights that always gave you a sense of excitement, a sense of liveliness. And so as you placed neatly each document in front of each seat, you could hear some movement on the corridor, hinting that it was about to go down.

You turned to the glass wall and saw two men with faces you did not recognize until they let in the first person that was behind them. And just then, you made eye contact with him for the second time in your life. His hair dark, bare face and simple clothing combined in dark colours made him so… normal.

But your heart was reacting like it just saw something completely abnormal and it was going nuts because your breath got caught in your throat as you felt a foreign pull towards him. It was because he a famous personality, nothing else…

He smiled.

Wow.

That was a beautiful smile. And did you just sense a hint of acknowledgement on his face? There was no way he could possibly remember you. This wasn’t a drama.

But… then…

He uttered your name.

It rolled of his tongue as if he has had always muttered it before, just like to his old friend that he met for the first time in a long time.

Baekhyun, the singer, was walking to you now, and once again, he spoke your name before saying: “We came a bit earlier, I hope that is okay with you.” Stopping right in front of you, you had one document left in your hand which was meant for you. Without realizing, you were bowing to him, hugging the chunk of papers to your chest as you stole a glance at his managers, quickly bowing to them as well.

“Of course it is, Baekhyun ssi,” you said, bowing again before straightening up and stealing a glance at him to see an entertained look on his face. 

Few more heartbeats passed, before he said, not even turning: “You guys can go, the rest of the team will come later. I wa