The crowd screamed louder and louder in an uproar. Girls all around were chanting, “Xiumin, Xiumin,” crazed with excitement. The exhilaration shot through Xiumin, leaving him feeling alive and energized.

“Woooh!” He yelled into his microphone, and the crowd copied him in a tone even louder than a stadium of football fans.

Suddenly, a group of 4-5 girls break away from the crowd. They somehow manage to avoid the security guards, jumping over them like ninjas. Xiumin, unaware of the girls, turned around to see a pack of crazed screamers running after him. Ohhh no… he thought as he scrambled to get off the stage as quickly as possible. In an attempt to escape, he tripped over his own feet and his face hits the cold, hard floor…

Xiumin opened his eyes, his heart pumping rapidly. After taking a couple moments to calm himself down, he sat up and looked at the clock next to his bed. 3:17 AM. He was about to sink back into his slumber when he felt his stomach growl. Aish, its 3 am, why am I so hungry. Complying with his stomach’s wishes, he got up out of his bed and headed for the dorm room fridge.

There’s nothing in here that tastes remotely good, thanks to Tao, Xiumin thought as he wrinkled his nose at everything in the fridge. Maybe I’ll just go to the convenience store to get something.

Putting on a thick jacket, Xiumin opened his dorm room door, letting the chilly hallway air freeze his bare legs.

Ah! Need some sweats. And some money, he thought as he threw on some pants and grabbed his wallet.

Finally suited up for the freezing night, he journeyed onto the dark street and to the 24-hour convenience store. Once inside the market, he started to look for any edible junk food in the vicinity, but his mind was slowly starting to fall asleep again.  Eyelids still heavy and cheeks puffy, he walked like a zombie towards the chips aisle.

“I’ll just get this, and this, and… aww screw it, just everything,” he whispered to himself as he swiped all the food from the shelf and into his basket.

Eyes starting to close, he slowly walked to the counter before an unknown object stopped him in his path.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going!” a voice almost shouted at him, slightly cross.

Finally waking up from the grasp of drowsiness, Xiumin opened his eyes widely only to find a petite girl in sweats and a hoodie, looking at him with annoyance.

“Ya, sleepyhead, you walked into me! I might be small, but I’m not invisible!”

“So…sorry…”

The sudden surprise of that moment was not enough to keep Xiumin awake, as he hunched over in line and closed his eyes, waiting for the girl to finish checking out. Without thinking, Xiumin had set the basket of junk food down, curled up into a ball, and fallen  fast asleep on floor, ignoring the cold tiles. His mind gave him small flashes of what happened after. He felt someone pull him up to rest his head and upper body on some slightly warmer table, and felt some small hand slowly pull out the wallet in his back pocket.

“Hey give it back!” he said, half-conscious. There was no reply. Whatever, I’ll just get a new one. This table is so comfy.

The next thing he remembered was the cold air hitting his face while he leaned on a mystery person who was slowly dragging him.

“Which way,” it whispered.

“Right,” his mind took over. After that, all he felt was a little tug at intervals as he shuffled his feet slowly.

When he finally got annoyed by the chill that was numbing his face, Xiumin decided to open his eyes. They were nearing his dorm complex. Pulling his head upright, he saw the mystery person who had been dragging him to his dorm. It was too dark to see her face in detail, but Xiumin could tell that it was the same girl from before. She had both her arms wrapped around his, managing to carry around half of his body weight while holding onto bags of his food on her arm. When she realized that Xiumin was awake, she let go and gave him his junk food.

Curious as to what happened when he was asleep, he asked, “What did you do?”

“I just took your money to pay for your food. Don’t worry, I put the change back. But then you still wouldn’t wake up, so I thought I’d just help you home.”

“Why?” Xiumin asked, his curiosity still not fulfilled.

“I dunno. I guess I would just feel wrong if I had left you there. Plus it was awkward with the store clerk. But don’t think I do this for everyone! You’re lucky that your place was in the same direction as mine or else I wouldn’t have bothered.”

“I see,” Xiumin answered, arriving at his dorm complex. “Well, I live here, but do you want me to walk you to your home?”

“Nah, I seriously only live two buildings down,” she said, pointing at a small apartment complex.

“Still, I should,”

“Dude, I don’t even know you. It’s alright.”

He watched the girl walk away before realizing he didn’t even know her name yet.

“Hey! What’s your name!” he shouted after her.

“Wen Ting,” she shouted back.

He kept thinking about her until he got into his room. How old was she? What does she do? For that matter, why was she even at the convenience store at 4 in the morning? These thoughts ran through his mind as he opened a bag of chips and slowly munched them down. As he felt his eyes start to close again, he laid back onto his bed. Maybe I’ll figure it out tomorrow.