Friday 1O AM

It´s time to go. You look at yourself in the mirror one last time before you lock your apartment door and hurries down the stairs to meet your best friend.  She stands there, outside her small red car, with a huge, playful smirk on her lips. You can´t help but eye her suspiciously. You´re well aware of that she´s hiding something from you but no matter how much you urge her to spill the secret she won´t budge. 

You e year older the other day but the two of you couldn´t celebrate it together due to your school and her job, so she came up with this secret birthday trip by her own.  She´s some years older than you but you get along fine and you´ve been best friends since several years back.  You met her during a time she really needed a friend and she´s often saying that she´d give up on the human kind if you weren´t there.

“C´mon, tell me!” You laugh as you gently hit her arm as she starts the car. “You know I hate surprises.”

She glances at you with a playful smirk on her lips. “You´ll like this surprise for sure.”

A sigh leaves your lips at this and you give up. She´s so stubborn. You take of your shoes as you sit more comfortably in the car. You´ve already guessed that it´ll be a long ride since she asked you to pack sleep over clothes and some food. The windows are down so the wind plays with your hair as your friend drives out on the highway. It´s a nice day.

It took three hours to reach the destination and you´re amazed at what you see. There are several small wood cottages on a hill, close to a lake and this very beautiful forest. You´ve always been a nature girl.

“Ok, we´re here.” She comments. “Close your eyes and I´ll take you there.”

“Ok…?” You do as she says but you feel a bit wary about the whole thing.  

She leads you up the hill, down a small road and then up some stairs. You´ve no clue where you´re headed to.  When warmth hits you in the face you realize that you´ve probably entered one of those cottages. There are some others there, you can hear movement further inside, as you take off your shoes.  They can´t be your friends since you celebrated with them last week and you and your BBF don´t have the same friends.

Just what is she planning?

She takes your hand as she leads you into the cottage. You almost bump into her as she suddenly stops. The sound of chuckles can be heard and your curiosity is killing you.

“Happy birthday, you can open your eyes.”

Your open your eyes slowly, long eyelashes flutter as they get accustomed to the weak light inside. Your eyes widen.

“Happy Birthday!!!” A choir of voices can be heard.

Your eyes widen more, in an almost inhuman manner, as you see five Korean men, men that you´ve been a fan of for ages, stand there with a big cake with your name written on it. Five pair of dark brown eyes is fixed at you and it´s suddenly hard to breathe.

Key smiles broadly as he waves at you, saying something in English you can´t grasp because of the turmoil in your head. Jonghyun smirks as he gives you a playful wink, he and Onew are holding the cake. The leader of SHINee, Lee Jinki, smiles goofily at you as he tells you that he was the one who wrote your name. Taemin greets you with a nod of his head a bit shyly. Minho looks at you with a pair of curious eyes and a hint of a smile on his lips. You don´t know why, but it seems as if he´s a bit more happy to see you than the rest.

A gasp you tried to hold down leaves your lips and you hurriedly cover your mouth with your hand. One tear of surprise and joy falls down your cheek. Your friend hugs you while laughing at your reaction. You stare at her in disbelief as you hug her back as the shock starts to fade. A laugh leaves your lips and the two of you are soon laughing out loud together.

“Did we just make her cry… or laugh?” Jonghyun shrugs in a confused manner as he looks at the other SHINee members.

“It´s happy tears.” You murmur to them shyly.

You whisper something in the lines of “you´re so stupid, but I love you” to your friend before you wipe away your tears of joy before you turn to SHINee again. You smile at them as bow as a greeting.

“Sorry for that, I wasn´t expecting to meet you…” You tell them in an embarrassed manner.  “I didn´t mean to react like that… I just… couldn´t stop myself.”

The Koreans chuckle a little at you as you apologizes to them. They´re used to people to react like that upon seeing them, which must be irritating, but they only seem positively amused by you.

“Don´t worry. It´s nice to meet you.” Onew tells you with a broad smile. “We have heard a lot of great things about you.”

“I´ve no idea what she told you… but I´m glad.” You smile as you nod his way, glancing at your friend with a suspicious look in your eyes before your eyes find the cake. “Let´s enjoy the cake before the candles burn down, ok?”

Onew and Jonghyun put down the cake at the kitchen table and they of course ask you to blow out the candles. It goes well and all of them start eating. It seems as if they were starving and that they´re amazed over the cake. It´s a quite traditional one from your area. You watch them eat as you walk over to your friend with a plate of cake in your hands.                                                                                                                                                                              

“You´re amazing, you do know that right?” You nudge her with your elbow. “How did you make this happen?”

 “You know that concert you wanted to go to months back? I was working with the security there, but I couldn´t get a hold of a ticket for you.”

“You worked during SM Town?” Your eyes are wide and your slice of cake is forgotten.

You remember that you tried to get a ticket for hours until you had to give up because they were sold out.  It was their first concert here and you really wanted to go since it wasn´t sure they´d return. They´re not in this part of the world that often and you thought it was your only chance to hear their music live.

 “Yeah…but, I met SHINee backstage and we became friends.” Your friend continues.

Your friend got a job as a security guard last year and you were really happy for her. She struggled through high school and to find a job but she finally got the job she dreamed of.  You never could have guessed that her job would lead to that she got to know and befriended the Korean stars both of you adore.

“Wait… what?” You can´t believe it. It sounds too much of a fairytale to you.

She smiles gently at you. “I couldn’t believe it at first either. I told them about you, because you´re the biggest Shawol I know, and my best friend. They wanted to meet you.”

Your cheeks turn red with embarrassment. You were the one who introduced your friend to SHINee´s music last year and she has since then become a great fan of them as well. You´ve never considered yourself to be a big fan, not bigger than anyone else but sometimes you think she´s even a better fan than yourself.  

“I also wanted to repay their kindness by showing them how the locals live, since they´ll return to Korea soon. So let´s make this a weekend to remember!”

You nod. You silently promise yourself not to let your admiration for these men to make you act like that again. You want to treat them like normal people, not like superstars, during this weekend. It´s their time off and you don´t want to spoil it by being your fangirl self.