Kim Minjeong is never the one to forget a face. It’s one of the many perks of having a good memory.

You see, she would memorize the littlest details of a person she would find physically appealing: from the eyes, the curve of the nose, to the shape of the lips and the roundness of the face. She would remember it all.

And right now, she suddenly despises this ability because all she wants is to un-remember the face of the girl standing in the middle of the stage, dancing powerfully to the rhythm of the music blasting across the huge concert hall.

The screams of the fans around her, especially Yizhuo’s next to her, simply couldn’t drown the ringing in her ears that came in like a wrecking ball the moment she laid her eyes on the stunning woman. The celebrity theatrically appeared through the stage lifts and made everyone in the concert hall go bonkers with just her mere presence.

Minjeong is having her own fair share of going bonkers alright.

Because the girl performing just meters away from her is the very same girl from the convenience store whom she almost had a fight with.

In her mind she called her the “crazy Pink Pringle-napper”.

The thousands of people inside the concert hall, including her bestfriend Yizhuo, call her Karina Yoo, the godly princess of South Korea.

And that’s enough to give her a terrible headache throughout the entirety of the concert because bloody hell??

Of all people she would have to encounter, it’s this superstar?

Minjeong would probably need a jug of Iced Americano when the stupid event is over. This is just a lot to take in…

***

But the universe just wouldn’t give her a damn break. Not even a second to let her breathe and process whatever the heck is going on.

Yizhuo’s simple, “It’s time for the meet and greet, unnie! Come on!” was enough to pale her, blood running cold at the mere thought of meeting crazy Pink Pringle-napper Karina Yoo for the second time today.

“You have access for the meet and greet?” she asks, stunned at her friend’s right of entry.

“Of course. I availed their promo right on the clock when they opened the ticketing. I would never miss a chance to meet Karina unnie. Duh.”

Minjeong bites back a groan.

Yizhuo and her crazy, rich .

“Should I really go with you?” she hesitantly asked, “I mean, I’m not a fan. You know, it’s more intimate without a non-fan like me to ruin the fun. Believe me, it would be best if you personally go and meet her in person. Alone.”

Yizhuo isn’t having any of her excuses. “Oh shut up. You’re my company tonight so you’re going with me,” dragging a grumbling Minjeong towards the backstage door, “And I want you to meet Karina unnie so you could see for yourself how much of a visual powerhouse she is.”

“But I already did when she was onstage!”

“It’s still a different thing to see her up close unnie. C’mon!”

She wants to tell Yizhuo that she already did at the mini mart; but before she could spill the tea, they were both being ushered through the backstage and towards a busy hallway filled with people.

And there she is, all in her glory.

Karina Yoo is happily conversing with few of the people, probably fans, who are surrounding her. Some were taking pictures. There were even some who were joking around with her.

This side of the girl all smiley and friendly is giving Minjeong a whiplash, a stark contrast to the Karina Yoo she met at the convenience store, glaring and very intimidating.

If only she was this nice to her at the convenience store, maybe Minjeong wouldn’t have been so passive aggressive.

“Oh my god!” Yizhuo’s girly squeal beside her almost blasted her eardrum. “There she is unnie! That’s Karina unnie!”

Minjeong could only roll her eyes at her friend.

“Yeah I can see that.”

“We’re just a few feet away from her! Aaaaccckkkk! Aren’t you excited??”

“No.” Minjeong deadpans, grumbling again when Yizhuo grabs her by the arm to get closer to where Karina Yoo is.

Upon the signal of one of the staffs assisting the very casual meet and greet, the group of people talking with the celebrity was ushered away to give way for the other waiting fans.

Which happened to be Yizhuo at this point.

(No, not Minjeong.  She is not a fan of Karina Yoo.)

But fan or not, much to Minjeong’s chagrin, she was ushered nearer to where Karina Yoo is together with Yizhuo.

Here we go..

For the second time that day, her eyes met the girl’s big, round eyes that would never cease to put Minjeong in some sort of a trance.

Maybe if this was a different circumstance, Minjeong would have liked staring at those brown orbs.

Karina Yoo’s eyes are a pair that Minjeong finds quite unique. Not only because of its feline-like shape or how beautifully round it is because that’s apparently attractive.

It’s just that those eyes hold some kind of enigma or something; the swirls of brown and black piercing through Minjeong like a burglar, startling and uninvited.

She doesn’t know exactly what it is but it’s there.

But before Minjeong could even dwell deeper into whatever it was that she was thinking, her stupor was cut short when a cloud of recognition flashed across Karina Yoo’s pair of eyes, her thick eyebrows suddenly meeting together upon recognizing who she is.

She held Minjeong’s gaze, bold and penetrating.

If the girl thinks Minjeong will back down, oh hell naww. She thought wrong.

Kim Minjeong hadn’t won staring contests that gave away a week’s supply of banana milk and yakult in high school just for nothing.

Luckily for the celebrity, Yizhuo decided to put her loud mouth to good use.

“Oh my god unnie! I’m your biggest fan!”

This pulled Karina Yoo away from the unsolicited attention she was giving Minjeong, focusing on the human embodiment of a megaphone standing excitedly in front of her instead.

“Thank you. Did you enjoy the concert?” asks the singer, giving Minjeong yet another whiplash for the second time that night because wow.

Karina Yoo was looking so ready to kill her with her looks just a second ago. Now, she’s butterflies and unicorns speaking to Yizhuo all of a sudden.

Minjeong almost scoffed at the duality.

Almost.

“Yes unnie! You were so great out there. Your vocals was on point. Your dance moves were so powerful. And you were so pretty in every set of outfits! I loved it!”

It was taking everything in Minjeong not to puke at her friend’s disgusting tirade.

Does she really have to be this crazy about the woman?

“Oh wow. Is that so?” Karina Yoo asked with amusement in her voice, probably used to this kind of declarations from her fans.

Yizhuo was nothing but a subservient devotee. “Yes yes! You were really cool up there! Right unnie?”

Minjeong almost didn’t catch Yizhuo’s question because she was too busy trying not to look so disinterested at the exchange even if she clearly is. Her friend’s nudge shook her out of her blank stare.

“Huh?”

“Karina unnie looked so cool up there on stage a while ago, right?”

Yizhuo was looking at her with a stretched smile, too stretched for Minjeong’s liking, so she had no choice but to nod briskly, going along with the girl’s narrative.

“Right.”

“See?” exclaimed Yizhuo back to the celebrity in front of her, as if she just told Karina Yoo the greatest secret in the world. “Trust me unnie. You are always the best on stage.”

Minjeong darts her eyes to Karina Yoo, only to find the girl already looking at her. She couldn’t read the stare but Minjeong knows that her blasé attitude isn’t making Karina Yoo amused.

"Do you always do this? Flatter your way into people’s hearts?" the celebrity says, attention back on Yizhuo with a ghost of smile on her lips.

"Only to the right ones like you unnie."

Oh cheesus crust.

Can the ground just swallow Minjeong whole??

She would rather be an integral part of the earth's surface than live in a society and experience this secondhand embarrassment of her friend's exaggerated zeal for a practical stranger like Karina Yoo.

Yizhuo’s statement earned a chuckle from the singer (Minjeong would like to think that it's her go-to response for cringe statements like what Yizhuo just blabbbered) before she extends a hand out to a woman beside her who passed her a set of what looks like wallet-sized pieces of cardboards.

"Since you're being such a sweet-talker, how about I give you unreleased photocards as a gift?"

Wait for it.

"Aaaaaaaacccckkkk!!!"

There it goes. Yizhuo's signature boisterous shriek that could bring the dead back to life, awake the monsters in Tartarus and make them wish they go deaf than to hear the oh so unworldly sound.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god!! Those are unreleased???"

"Yep."

"So if you give me one it means I'd get to have a very limited edition Karina photocards not being sold in stores???"

"That's right."

"And I'd be the luckiest Karebear alive??"

"Uh, well-"

"Aaaaccckkkk!! Yes unnie please I would love to have that photocard oh my god!"

If Karina Yoo finds Yizhuo's screams annoying, Minjeong thinks she's really doing a great job of concealing it.

Her?

Oh hell be damned.

She is certain her face screams outright disgust and humiliation at her friend's shamelessness.

Perhaps even borderline comical because when Karina Yoo flits her eyes to Minjeong, the singer breaks into a smile so tiny Minjeong would've missed it if she didn't happen to land her eyes on Karina Yoo's full lips.

What.

"Alright then. One photocard for you.." Karina Yoo pulls out one photocard from the stack, hand stopping abruptly when she realized something.

"How about your friend?" she locks eyes with Minjeong, "Does she want a photocard, too??"

Minjeong twitches at the challenging stare, the smug on Karina Yoo's face masked with a perfectly-staged innocent look making her feel bare and helpless.

The girl is mocking her.

Minjeong wouldn't give her the satisfaction.

"Oh no, thanks. I'm not a fan—"

But Yizhuo immediately cuts her off before she could even give Karina Yoo the real-talk she needed.

"Of course she wants a photocard too unnie!” her friend exclaimed, turning to Minjeong to give her the same overstretched smile she was sporting a while ago, “You want to have Karina unnie’s photocard too, right unnie??”

“No, I don’t—”

“Photocard or I’m burning your apartment. Choose your fighter.” Yizhuo grits through her teeth, the overstretched smile still plastered across her face.

This little er.

“A photocard would be awesome. Yes…” Minjeong gives in, locking eyes with Karina Yoo with a pained and tight-lipped smile she only ever wore for annoying customers at the diner.

If god is real, she prays she be given the strength to resist the urge of strangling one Ning Yizhuo in her sleep tonight.

“Okay then,” Karina Yoo looks like she was stifling her laughter, making Minjeong’s blood boil. “What name should I write in here?”

A marker was handed to her by the same woman who gave her the stack of photocards.

“Just write ‘Ningning’, unnie.” Yizhuo answers, “My name’s Ning Yizhuo but I’ve been called Ningning since I was a kid.”

“Ahhh, you’re Chinese.”

“Yes.”

“You speak Korean very well though.” Karina Yoo comments, “That’s cool.”

Yizhuo perked up at the compliment she received, Minjeong rolling her eyes when she saw how red her friend’s ears are, an indication that she is pleased by what she heard.

“Ah thank you. I’ve been living here since I was twelve so I know the basics.”

Karina Yoo nodded her head at the information, seemingly impressed. “I see. How about your friend?”

Minjeong felt her stomach drop when she realized what the girl was asking.

“Uh, I—”

“Her name’s Kim Minjeong.” For the nth time today, Yizhuo decides to speak in behalf of her.

Fly high anonymity.

“Kim Minjeong..” Karina Yoo repeats, as if testing the name on her tongue and deciding whether she likes it or not.

Minjeong doesn’t like how the sound of her name from Karina Yoo’s mouth is making her head spin.

“Just write ‘KMJ’,” she sighs, watches Karina Yoo turn even smugger at the information she was receiving.

“Okay, Kim Minjeong.”

Great. The celebrity has finally put a name on the face of the girl who claimed not to know her but is found attending her concert.

Minjeong and her hard earned dignity… it’s gone…

“Here you go..” Karina Yoo hands out the signed photocards after writing something for each of them. Minjeong immediately snatched hers away before Yizhuo could get it.

For some reason, she doesn’t want the girl to read whatever it was Karina Yoo wrote at the back of the photocard. Minjeong knows, ooohhh she knows, the celebrity wouldn’t let her get away that easily after their encounter.

When they were ushered away later on so the other waiting fans could be accommodated, Karina Yoo had specifically sent her a vaguely noticeable challenging brows, topped it off with a smirk that Minjeong wanted so bad to wipe away from her pretty face.

But all Minjeong could do is let out a scoff as she and Yizhuo was escorted away from the woman.

Good riddance.

***

(“What did Karina unnie write on your photocard unnie??”

“I don’t know. I didn’t read it.”

“Well, let’s read it. Come on show it to me.”

“No.”

“Why not? Let me see it~”

“No, Ning Yizhuo.”

“Photocard or I’m burning your—”

“One more word of that burning my apartment thing and I’ll send you back to China.”

“Pfft. You can’t do that.”

“Try me. You and I both know who Auntie listens to when it comes to your performance at uni.”

“Ahhh! How dare you Kim Minjeong!”)

***

Later that night when she was finally inside the comforts of her apartment (that Yizhuo had threatened to burn into ashes a million times that day), Minjeong fishes out the signed photocard from her pocket.

She really wished she hadn’t.

“To KMJ who doesn’t know me,” the handwriting reads, teasing and messy, “..do you now?”

Minjeong scoffed at the words, scoffed even more when she realized what a menace to the society Karina Yoo is.

“What a brat,” grunted a fuming Minjeong, throwing the photocard on her bed side table with a glare, “She’s a freaking little monster..”

***

Jimin scrolls idly through her phone at the backseat of the company car. She and her manager unnie are being driven to her penthouse upon her insistence that she does not want to attend the after-party thrown by her company to celebrate her yet another successful concert.

It’s the same old blue-collared people and their stocks that she’d have to face anyway. She’s so sick and tired of those. Fake-smiling, forced laughs.

Jimin wants a break just for tonight. She can face her big bosses and colleagues once she’s reenergized tomorrow.

“What do you want to eat, Jimin-ah?”

Her manager unnie asked from the passenger seat. The petite woman’s loud voice resonating through the cramped car, making Jimin flinch.

She’s always been so rambunctious.

“I don’t have the appetite unnie,” Jimin mumbles, eyes still glued to her phone. “I just want to sleep.”

“Yah, you haven’t eaten anything since this morning.” her manager scolds, “You tricked me into getting to the convenience store but you didn’t even buy anything. Do you want my head to the big bosses if you suddenly faint because of malnutrition?”

At the mention of the convenience store, Jimin suddenly remembered the once in a lifetime encounter she had that afternoon.

Kim Minjeong.

The girl is...distinct. Her valiant and straightforward persona caught Jimin off-guard, qualities that are almost foreign to Jimin. She was so used to people bowing at her mercy that when Kim Minjeong unashamedly told her she has no idea who she is, Jimin was scandalized because everyone knows her.

She is Karina Yoo for crying out loud.

But Kim Minjeong she… she is built differently.

She is a challenge and Yoo Jimin never backs down from a challenge.

With an idea in mind, she opens her Official Instagram account that she rarely uses, only when she updates something for her fans or when the company tells her to promote something.

Right now, she thinks she could put the account to better use.

“Yah, are you even listening to me Yoo Jimin?”

Her manager unnie’s nagging comes again but Jimin drowns her out, vaguely hearing her say that I’m cooking something for you when we get you home or something. Jimin was more occupied scrolling through her phone to actually understand what her manager said.

She remembered that she took pictures with the fans that participated in her concert’s meet and greet. She would like to try something out of this.

After hitting the ‘Post’ button, Jimin waits. She doesn’t know if it would work because she has thousands of fans across the country. It would be quite a task once she received tons of notifications after her post.

But when she heard a ‘ding’ on her phone with pop-up notifications, Jimin zooms to her self-imposed task in hand.

She scrolls through the growing number of comments under her concert-related post with a caption that says:

“You are the best thing that happened to me. Thank you for the memories we make together. #KarebearsJjang  #KarinaLovesKarebears

PS: If you’re one of the lucky fans who participated in the meet and greet, leave a comment so I can see you!”

And comment they did.

Jimin sighs at the tremendous amount of comments that were flooding her post. She couldn’t even scroll past a comment without a new one popping in. What was she thinking, she asked her fans to leave a comment of course this will happen.

Jimin was ready to give up when she finally caught sight of a username she has a feeling is the one she’s been looking for.

@nnyizhuo_prfctn commented: afghjdjfhdfkdkjhkjdsf me me me!!! i went to the meet and greet unnie!! ilysm you are the best T_T

@nnyizhuo_prfctn commented: @kminj look at this! we’re on karina unnie’s post aaaccckkk!!

Clicking at the handle, Jimin was welcomed with a sight that she didn’t expect was of a girl’s Instagram feed at this time and age.

@kminj’s feed contained nothing but a simple “Kim Minjeong” in her profile description with two photos posted for her almost 1K followers. The girl’s feed was drier than the Sahara Desert Jimin can’t help but laugh out loud at the dullness of it all.

“No wonder you don’t know me.” she mumbles to herself, “You’re like a hermit, Kim Minjeong..”

Even the photos in the feed are just as bland. One was an aesthetic photo of the night sky filled with glimmering stars and the other was a silhouette of a girl staring outside a window. All these with a thousand following.

Not bad.

But realizing that she would get little to no information in the feed, Jimin went back to the previous comment and clicked @nnyizhuo_prfctn’s handle and voila. The girl has thousands of posts compared to @kminj’s uninhabited Instagram.

The glaring difference plastered a small smile on Jimin’s face.

She scrolled through the feed trying to find something that could give her more information about a certain radical blonde. Kim Minjeong and Ning Yizhuo felt like a very close duo as per Jimin’s observation during the meet and greet. Surely there are pictures of them together in this feed at least, expectations flaring for the outgoing and bubbly Ning Yizhuo.

Thank god for the girl because Jimin just saw what she was looking for.

And she totally didn’t expect it.

“Wendy unnie,” she called out to her manager who was blabbering about what she plans to cook for dinner once they arrive at the penthouse, “what did you say was Yeri unnie’s café again?”

Wendy abruptly stopped with the yammering and looked at Jimin.

“The one that she opened a few months ago?”

“Yeah I think?”

“Madame Yeri Miese. That’s the name of her restaurant.” Wendy answered, eyeing Jimin in confusion. “Why? Do you want to eat there? I don’t think it’s still open at this hour.”

But Jimin isn’t planning on eating there at this hour.

“Maybe next time then,” she smiles, a glint in her eyes as she stares at her phone with the photo of a certain blonde head posing for the camera with a couple of people and her Yeri unnie in front of a cozy-looking café, “I think I want to try their chicken.”