Is it me or does that owl really resemble Kyungsoo?

 

Kyungsoo’s POV

In the bedroom

“Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…”

My phone vibrated loudly against the wooden bedside table, demanding for attention. The sheer ringing woke up the sleeping Dongwoo in my arms and he protested loudly. I sighed loudly; it had just taken me half an hour trying to soothe him to sleep and now this. Juggling the wailing baby in my arms, I reached over to look at my phone screen. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

An unknown number.

Sasaeng.

Just another sasaeng.

Who somehow found out my NEWLY CHANGED number.

Seriously, I just changed my number two freaking weeks ago. And I had been receiving endless calls from who knew who for the past week. Angry, I threw the vibrating phone on the bed and returned my attention to the baby in my arms.

It was hard to describe the thoughts that run through my mind when it came to the topic of sasaengs. But soon my thought grew angry that it was confined to my petite frame and pulled against my taut skin. The glowing negative energy began to solidify against my flesh; it lengthened to mold itself to my frame and contained me in a transparent cocoon.

Trapped.

That was how I felt.

And just a few weeks ago, I was thinking that perhaps the fans would be accepting towards the twins and my relationship with Jongin.

Ha.

Fat hope.

The sasaengs that we had been encountering lately had been nothing but rude and unpleasant. When we ignored them or refused to acknowledge their presence, they cursed so loudly that it made me feel so dirty inside. To be honest, sasaengs were not an entirely new concept to us. Touching us without our permission came without question, especially at airports. We’d had fans stalk us to the extent that we were not even safe in our own hotel rooms. I’d been hit by a DSLR camera in the eye before. Suho had seen fans knock over a baby stroller while chasing after us. Yes, we have had sasaengs even before our debut.

But these days, it had worsened exponentially.

Perhaps it was due to our sudden increase in popularity. While I was thankful for the attention that Wolf and Growl had garnered for our group, I sure couldn’t say the same for the increased sasaeng activity.

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Jongin’s POV

Kyungie’s expression was dark and moody when I walked into the bedroom with Jungwoo in my arms.

Immediately I knew what caused it.

If you asked me, Kyungie was the one most affected from all this sasaeng activity. During the Mama era, he was able to look upon such activity with the endless optimism that he had. He would smile and say, “Well, this shows that we are getting famous.” But ever since that incident during his pregnancy outside HomePlus when we were cornered by a horde of fans, it seemed like that piece of optimism just up and vanished. He became afraid of crowd. He grew to feel nothing but resentment towards them.

“Kyungie.”

My voice seemed to snap him out of his moodiness.

“Another sasaeng?”

Frowning, he nodded slightly as he rocked the sniffing baby in his arms.

As much as I wanted to do something about it, there was nothing I could do. I didn’t like to feel this helpless, especially when it came to Kyungie. I hate to see my Kyungie living his life like this.

“Come on, my mom’s here. Let’s get ready for the SS and Billboard Korea interview.”

~

At the reporter’s office

As all twelve of us slowly filled into the office, I strolled up to the reporter and bowed once before leaning over to speak to him softly.

“Reporter-nim, can I ask you for a favour?”

He nodded in consent.

“We would like to raise awareness with regards to sasaeng fans. Could you perhaps ask us a few questions regarding this issue?”

“Hmm, I could do that. After all, EXO has been pretty famous for your sasaeng fans.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Not a problem, Jongin ah.”

Once I accomplished what I wanted to do, I headed to my seat beside Kyungie.

The interview started off without a hitch with the reporter congratulating us on our triple crown. After a few more questions, the conversation turned to sasaeng fans. At the mention of sasaeng fans, many of us lost all traces of smiles on our faces. When asked about our opinion, none of us held back, clearing speaking our mind.

“It’s really serious.”

“It’s hard emotionally.”

“There are times when I am angry.”

“Sasaengs equal stress.”

“They touch us without our permission all the time.”

“They call late in the night. Even when I change my number, they will find out.”

When it came my turn to speak, I spoke out firmly and determined, “There are a lot of times when i’m worried. Especially when there’s a mob of fans.” Because they hurt my Kyungie. “Moreover, I’m even more upset that other fans of ours are being portrayed as sasaeng as well just because we are becoming famous for sasaeng.”

When I had spoken my piece, I turned to my right to look at Kyungie. It was his turn and I saw a mixture of hesitation and uncertainty when he turned to meet my gaze. Reaching over, I gave his thigh a small squeeze of encouragement. Our eyes still locked on each other, he took a deep breath before turning back to the reporter.

His expression had been the darkest amongst us members when we reached the topic of sasaengs.  He steadied his composure and started saying, “Reporter-nim, I have something  Iwant to say seriously,” and shared his inner-thoughts by continuing, “If I change my number, sasaeng fans will somehow find out that I’d changed my number and there are a lot of times when they will call me late in the night. I have over 600 friend suggestions on kakaotalk. Once, a sasaeng pulled a prank by making a kakaotalk group chat and adding all our members. They wait in front of dorm, and when I pretend to ignore them and walk past they swear loudly enough for me to hear. When I get a free day to go out, I have to try so hard to try and mislead them somewhere else. I can’t remember every fans’ faces but because there are so many sasaeng, I’ve developed a sense of victimization. It’s more serious for me because I have always been shy and cautious but it has become more serious. I am getting very worried.”

That sasaengs will find out about my boys.

I knew that was his underlying biggest worry.

Because that, along with Kyungie getting hurt, was my biggest concern as well. Hearing them curse at us simply because we ignored them changed my perception on our fans, on the sasaeng fans at least. Their violent tendencies were frightening and who knew what they might do when the truth about the boys came to light. Just the thought of that was enough to give me shivers and goosebumps. The twins most certainly did not need such negativity in their lives. Ever. They were the sweetest angels I had ever clapped eyes on and they certainly did not deserve any harsh treatment.

I knew that my request to let EXO talk about our sasaeng fans was probably not going to reduce the activity of these crazy fans. But hopefully this interview would raise some awareness about how much sasaengs were affecting our emotional and mental health. We understood that they were our fans but there was a thin line which they had crossed when they hurt others in the process of being our fans. I hoped that perhaps our message would not go unheard and some of our fans would take action to help us reduce the amount of sasaeng activity.

Hopefully.

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Kyungsoo’s POV

In the van back to the dormitory

I rested my head on Jongin’s shoulder as my hand traced playfully on his demin clad thigh.

Talking about the sasaeng fans today did help lift a huge burden off my chest. I knew the problem of sasaengs would hardly cease no matter what I said but I felt better about talking about it. I hoped to condemn their actions, to let them know that it was greatly affecting us and that we did not appreciate it. Their actions often might me fear for my boys’ safety and it made me paranoid and over-protective. I felt better now that I was about to speak my mind and clearly arrange my thoughts. The sasaeng fans had greatly altered my attitude towards my other fans and I resented that. After today’s interview, I was able to sort out my jumbled thoughts and rearrange my emotions. Hopefully, I would be able to happily greet my fans once again.

Then I remembered that I saw Jongin whispering to the reporter before the interview. Now I knew he was the one behind the bringing up of the sasaeng topic. Somehow he knew. Somehow he knew that this would help me feel better when I myself didn’t know.

“Thank you.” I whispered, without lifting my head.

His head dropped gently on top of mine as he planted a soft kiss into my hair.

 

 

“Anything for you.”

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A/N: Hey subbies... sorry for the super short chapter (Not very interesting either...) >< I had been busy... Anyway, thought I should write something about this crazy fans issue. It seemed pretty serious... All translations of the SS and Billboard Korea interviews are credited to ggamjongin