S e s s  i o n : O n e

Boredom

“So, what brings you here?” Rovina asked, her eyes intently laid on the blonde boy sitting in front of her.

He, rolled his eyes, and pushed the basket full o muffins to her, with a tiny card in between. Rovina cocked an eyebrow, ‘Blueberry?’ she thought, the smell of fresh muffins filling her nostrils. She wanted to grab one and take a bite out of it, but that would be just too indecent. She moved her hand forward and picked up the white card, and opened it, ‘You’re first idol. Have fun. LSM.’

Rovina looked back at the boy, his attention already diverted to the city outside the large glass wall, his body language expressed boredom and ego the size of his company’s building. She mentally rolled her eyes, then smiled at him, even though he wasn’t really looking at her, “So, Kris…is it?”

“Yup,” he said and stretched in his chair. Rovina straightened her back and then got up, “Why don’t you get comfortable on the couch?”

Kris glanced at the black colored couch with a cocked eyebrow and then shrugged, getting up, “No harm there.”

He jumped on the couch and then lay there, crossing his legs over each other and his arms under his head. Rovina sat down, pulled her notepad out, and chose a pen from her stand. She kept a number of colorful pens and rated her patients with the help of colors. Her basic ones were Blue for clam, Black for depressed, Green for hyper and Red for dangerous.

She was still choosing a pen, when she looked at Kris, lying peacefully on her couch. From the past five minutes, she could make out that Kris was least interested in coming here, let alone talk to her. And she had to work hard to get him to open up. So she guess, ‘Purple.’

She pulled the pen out, and on top right of the white page, wrote the date, then time and then at the center wrote, ‘Session One.’

She pulled out a file from her lowest drawer, and was about to write ‘Kris’ on it, but then refrained or she knew this much that Kris was not his real name, “What’s your real name?”

“Huh?” Kris opened an eye and Rovina shruged, “Kris is defiantly not your Korean name. Plus to maintain privacy of your visits, I must record it with your real name.”

He shrugged yet again and replied, closing his eyes, “I’m not Korean and the name is Wu YiFan.”

Rovina nodded and wrote in Capital on the file and then kept it aside, deciding to begin the session. She set her clock to ring in exactly one hour from then and looked at the dozing boy dressed in a plaid shirt and black jeans, his hair tasseled to the side, on her couch, “So, Mr. Wu, What brings you here?”

“I didn’t come here because I wanted to,” Kris replied monotonously, “I only came because all the SME artists were told to come here at least once. I’m just being a good leader and showing the youngsters that visiting a shrink doesn’t not tag you mentally ill.”

Rovina kept her pen down, later scrolling the words ‘egoistic’ and ‘arrogant’ on the paper and kept her hand under her chin, “What do you think? Does it tag you mentally ill after visiting me?”

“Frankly?” Kris looked at her expecting her not to say yes or try to further converse with him but she nodded which forced him to reply, “I think I or anyone who drops by here is crazy. Because this whole effort of the industry to try and get us back to stable is crazy. And impossible.”

“Such a sad thing to say,” Rovina smiled, and then asked him his details, “So, you’re Chinese I suppose?”

“Chinese- Canadian,” he corrected her and she nodded, “Yes, you do hold Canadian citizenship.”

Kris closed his eyes again keeping one hand over his eyes to cover it from the bright light, “Family? Siblings?”

“Look,” Kris finally sat up, “I am not here to get all chummy and chatty with you, Dr. Shrink. I’d really prefer if we passed this session with me resting and you doing some other work than bothering me with your psych stuff. Let’s just pretend to each other that we don’t exist here,” with that, Krish lay back and closed his eyes, dozing off while Rovina gaped at him. At first, she felt angry and wanted to do something bad to him or at least come back with a cocky reply, but her training and ‘wisdom’ advised her against it, telling her to keep her calm and follow what he was saying.

She had met people worse than Kris before, people who would try escaping her office after assuring their loved ones that they were in the session. She was threatened multiple times to stop bothering about others lives, but this was her job. Bothering about others problems and lives was her god damn job.

“I don’t understand just, one thing,” Rovina voiced her concerns after a silence of a few minutes. Kris rolled his eyes and looked at her, propping himself on his elbows, “What?”

“Why come here? Why not just shrug it off, saying you’re busy? No one asked you to play the good guy who does as he’s told. Then…why?” she arched an eyebrow, absentmindedly playing with her pen.

Kris shrugged and didn’t answer for a while, closing his eyes. Rovina mentally cursed and then the silence in the room was broken by Kris’s husky voice, drowsy and tired, “I live the life that everyone craves, but only selective few can tolerate. We wake up at five, work non stop till three in the morning. Unending schedules, cries from fans, performances. A new album is coming out, you spend three hours minimum in the studio for one song. An album contains minimum of six songs, that a total of eighteen hours for each album. Then promoting takes its toll. Not only performing live,  but also appearing on various variety shows. It’s a never ending process. After all we’re idols. We’re supposed to do the hard work, show off our body, to the crowd of squealing people just to earn a single dime. And if that’s not enough…”

Rovina in some air and Kris took a pause, thinking he spoke to much, but anyways continued, “Stalkers, extortionists, unfair means. So much more than what I just said.”

Rovina looked down, wondering where he was getting.

“And all we want, is just a little rest. We’re ready to do whatever they ask, the industry, you know. In return we want a little time in isolation, away from the glitz and glamour, away from the screams and the booming music, neon lights. Just some peace. And right now…I think this is the only place where…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Rovina’s phone rung and Kris sighed, dozing off again.

“Hello?”

After finishing her talk on the phone about her next client, she kept her phone down and looked at Kris, who was snoring lightly, the sound of air escaping not his lips but his mouth. She noticed the signs of a blocked nose, probably from being in AC for a long time.  She quickly jotted down something on the papers and put them in the file with Kris’s name on it.

Rovina sighed and shrugged, “Fine. If you wish so,” she opened her laptop and went online, deciding to go do a little news reading and then an idea struck her.

Half an hour passed, and Kris hadn’t said a word. He was soundlessly sleeping on the couch, while Rovina completed some paper work . She would occasionally steal glances at him, observing his body language, mostly the way he slept. His hand over his eyes, sleeping sounds escaping his lips, occasional turning over the leather couch. Kris, who would wake up occasionally to the sound of Rovina’s phone ringing, would observe her. Her straight posture, continuous signing and scrolling down of notes, then suddenly turning to her laptop screen and reading something carefully, and then making notes again. But not once in that hour did she call her secretary inside for some work or discuss Kris on the phone with anyone else. Still, she wasn’t very trust worthy. Everyone fell for money. His secrets, his life, anything were only safe with him.

Half an hour turned to forty five minutes then fifty and finally the clock rung one and Kris suddenly jumped up, “Well, Dr. Shrink, that’s my queue,” he treaded out o the office, stretching his skinny arms.

Rovina smirked and then press the ‘Send’ button on her email which read:

Mr. Lee Soo Man,

I have come to a sever conclusion about your idol, and my first patient, Mr. Wu YiFan, a.k.a Kris of group Exo-M. It seems that the idol is under a lot of stress and would need more sessions with me. I would suggest he is sent to me between 4 pm to 5 pm, for his weekly session, every Wednesday, and if necessary, I shall make the sessions daily. For now, please make sure Mr. Wu is attending my sessions without any failure.

Sincerely

Dr. Kwon Rovina.

“Sorry, Mr. Kris,” Rovina smiled slyly, “But it’s my job to interfere.”

As Kris walked out, he closed the door behind him and then stopped, turning his head slightly to the door. He looked at it seriously, one of his eyes hidden behind his blonde hair, just like how he appeared first on EXO’s MAMA video, earning fangirls at the first sight. With that icy look, he pulled out his shades, classy dark green Ray Bans with a golden coloured frame, and pushed them over his nose. Smirking with the virtual satisfaction that he glowed even without his makeup, he stuffed his hands into his pocket and walked, whispering to himself  in his ever husky voice, “I heard that.”

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Shani6's corner:

Yea....I took way too long to update. My internet is y as always. So please forgive me. 

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