“I’m really sorry I was late,” you said to your teacher, who pulled your bag behind her as she led you to the front desk. She claimed that she wasn’t angry at you, but you’d known Miss Hong long enough to figure out her moods. She turned to you with her movie star smile.

“Oh, that’s alright,” she said. “We’re just glad you showed up at all! However, you still have to check in on your own. The hotel likes to have a list of guests when they check in as a large group. Have you got everything you need?”

“Right here,” you said, grabbing your messenger bag. You looked around the hotel and its contemporary, minimalist décor. The full-wall windows had a spectacular view of the beach and the cliffs in the distance. One week of this, you thought to yourself with a content sigh. Since the year was coming to a close, Miss Hong had decided to put together this vacation for your choir group. One week at the five-star accommodation called The Glass on Jeju Island with 14 of your closest friends. Nothing was going to ruin this vacation.

When you finally got up to the front desk, Miss Hong talked to the receptionist before stepping aside and letting you handle the rest. You gave the receptionist your name and the name of the school group you were staying with. The man behind the counter nodded with your answer and asked to see your release forms, your school ID, and your passport, all of which you handed over without question.

Suddenly, however, you were shoved aside. “Hey!” you yelled out, turning to the person who shoved you. You were met, however, by a man’s back. He turned to you quickly and muttered a quiet apology. It was only then that you noticed the film crew. It was a group of four or five men, three of which were holding cameras, and two women with clipboards and papers. In the middle of their little powwow was, you guessed, the subject of their filming: Taemin.

You recognized the SHINee star almost immediately. Seeing him up-close and in person was a surreal experience. You’d only ever seen him through a TV or computer screen, but here he stood in his entire three-dimensional glory ad you were beholding him with your own eyes. Star struck, you could only stand y your corner of the front desk while Taemin and another couple checked-in.

“You’re a little bit late, sir,” said the female receptionist who attended Taemin. She, too, was star struck and blushed unabashedly. “We had your check-in schedule two hours ago.” Obviously that was a bit more than being a little late, but Taemin blushed as he apologized to her.

The idol dug into his pockets and produced his credit card and passport. “There was a bit of a mix-up at the airport,” he said, and the crew laughed as though at an inside-joke. The PD, however, did not look much amused. After the receptionist had handled all his papers and checked him in, Taemin looked around the hotel. He remarked at how empty it was, given the minimalist design. That’s when he caught your eye.

For a moment you stood absolutely still, not quite grasping the fact that Taemin had seen you and was making eye contact. You could hear your heart beating in your ears, and suddenly, seeing you gawking, Taemin smiled courteously and waved in your direction. You were about to wave in return when the receptionist grabbed your attention.

“Ma’am,” the male receptionist said and you turned back to him. He pushed your card key and passport across the counter to you. With a quick bow and one last look at Taemin, you followed Miss Hong to the elevators.

It was nighttime, nearly 1 in the morning, and you were just starting to unpack your clothes. Since you were the last one to arrive, you’d been given a private room on another floor, the 11^th. All the other girls had roommates on the 20^th floor. You would have liked to be closer to them, but you figured that you’d be able to catch up with your friends tomorrow when the week of fun and bonding finally started. The girls in your choir group were friendly enough, and you felt comfortable with them. But they were the types of people whose company made you feel separate the longer you spent time with them. Of course, they were kind people, but being with them only made you aware of how alone you felt. You were a girl among other girls, but at the same time, you weren’t one of them at all.

You contemplated telling the girls about your run-in with Taemin earlier that day. You had gone up the elevator with every intention of doing so, but when the girls huddled around you and began talking about everything all at once, it slipped your mind. Finally tucking away the last of your clothes, you walked back to your messenger bag. You decided that maybe it would be best to keep anything important locked away in the complimentary safe the hotel provided in your closet.

You rummaged around in your bag and finally fished out your passport. Your slippery hands however dropped it to the floor. Cursing your clumsiness, you stooped over to pick it up and the little document opened up to… not your picture. With wide eyes you stared down at the picture of a woman you didn’t know, a woman named Jang Hyo Seon. This passport was not yours.

Thinking quickly, you ransacked your bag again and again before deciding that perhaps the receptionists had accidentally switched them. But who could yours be with? The realization struck down on you. Taemin. It had to be with Taemin, he was the only other guest at the desk with you. But then there was the other dilemma: finding him. Even if you did go down to the front desk, there was a fat chance they were going to give you the room number of a VIP.

Still. You had to try. So you went back to your closet and slipped on a shirt. Then, you marched toward the door determined to get your passport back from Taemin, even if it took you the entire night to find him. You pulled the door open and stepped into the hallway with renewed vigor and—

“Ooh, sorry--,” you started to say, and you looked up at the person you had run into.

And as fate would have it, it was Taemin. You stared up at him with wide eyes, and he stared back with equal surprise. You opened your mouth to speak, but before you could say anything at all, Taemin had cupped a hand over your mouth and the force of it had you pushed against the door to your room.

“Shh!” he said. “Yes, it’s me. I’m Taemin, I know. Don’t scream, and please don’t tell anyone that I’m here. I lost my passport and I’m just combing through the place looking for it and I really don’t want to disturb anyone but if any other fans find out that I’m staying on this floor, there could be trouble. I could get kicked out and everything. I just need to find my passport quietly and then get back into my room before the crew finds out that I lost it again. And I need you to cooperate. Okay?”

Still wide-eyed, you looked up at him and nodded. Taemin gave a sigh of relief and then gave a weak smile. “I’m going to let go of you now,” he whispered. “I’m really sorry.”

Like he said, Taemin took his hands from your mouth. Stunned, you just lifted your hand and rubbed the spot where he touched your mouth. “Your hands are so sweaty,” you said.

Taemin laughed. “I guess I’m nervous,” he said. “You’re the girl from the front desk earlier.”

You nodded. “So idols do remember random faces,” you said, though you immediately regretted saying it afterward. Taemin graciously shrugged off the remark, however. “Did you say you lost your passport?” you asked.

“Second time today,” Taemin said, running a hand through his hair, frustrated. He then put his hand into his pocket and took out a passport. He flipped the pages around and finally opened it up to the picture. It was a brand new passport and it belonged to a man named Jang Min Hyun.

“This picture was stuffed in the pages, too,” he said, and showed a wallet-sized photo of a couple at their wedding. Suddenly, the passport struck you as familiar. The photo, especially.

“Wait a minute,” you said. “I lost my passport, too.” You dug into your bag and took out the passport that ended up in your possession. You opened it up to the photo and, sure enough, the woman was the bride in the wallet-sized picture.

“They’re a couple,” Taemin observed. “Jang Hyo Seon and Jang Min Hyun.”

“They’re a married couple,” you said, parroting his observation. “The date on the photograph is pretty recent. They’re newlyweds and they must be here on their honeymoon.”

“How did we end up with their passports, though?” Taemin asked. He ran through the events of the day in his head, and he subtly remembered a beaming young couple standing next to him at the front desk at the time he checked in. Of course, he thought. The receptionists must have mixed up the passports when they asked for all their important papers. Taemin turned to you and the look on your face told him that you were considering the same theory.

“We should go down to the front desk and report the mishap,” you suggested. Taemin nodded in agreement, and the both of you hurried to the elevator. When you finally got to the lobby on the ground floor, it was almost completely empty. The doors had been otherwise locked, and the lights had been dimmed. The rushing waves of the nighttime ocean were barely visible from where you stood.

“Uh, excuse me,” Taemin said, approaching the lone receptionist at the front desk. It was young man, barely older than you were, and you bit your lip, hoping that he might know what to do. He looked a bit bored, and looked up at Taemin without even bothering to try smiling for courtesy.

“Yes, sir?” the man asked, obviously a little annoyed at having to call Taemin “sir” even though they were probably the same age. Taemin motioned you to stand next to him and you both opened up the passports to show him.

“We both checked in earlier today with our passports, but the receptionists must have mixed them up.”

“This happened today?” the young man asked, and you both nodded. “This isn’t the embassy or anything, but what would you like me to do?”

You gawked at the young man. “Well, it would be nice if you could help us locate our passports,” you said. “Just saying.”

The man looked up at you and then sighed as he grabbed the passports from yours and Taemin’s hands. He inspected the both of them. “Must be a married couple,” he said, and you and Taemin both nodded.

“We know,” Taemin said. “Now, I’m willing to bet that that couple has our passports. Did they turn them in or anything?”

“No one’s turned in any misplaced passports at all today. You can check back tomorrow.”

Taemin turned and shot you a terrified look. “I need to have it, I fly out of here the day after tomorrow,” he said. The receptionist bit his lip as well.

“Well, I’m sorry about that, then,” the receptionist said. “If you tell me the names of the receptionists who checked you in, I can talk to them about it, but really, all you can do for now is sit and wait.”

“Well,” you said, leaning in. “Can’t you tell us the room number of the couple? We could go up there and clear this up ourselves--,”

“No can-do,” the receptionist said. “Our guest list is strictly confidential.” Right then, the receptionist slammed shut the open book he’d been looking at and you threw him a suspicious expression.

“That was the guest list, wasn’t it?” Taemin asked, and the two boys glared at each other. The receptionist hugged the book to his chest then.

“Gunna wrestle it from me?” he taunted. Taemin just shrugged. The receptionist sighed. “I wouldn’t bother them about it tonight, anyway,” the man said. “It’s one in the morning, and they’re newlyweds on their honeymoon, and you know what newlyweds do on their honeymoon. Give them a little privacy for tonight, and, like I said, check back tomorrow to see if they’ve turned it in or ask them about it then.”

The way the receptionist turned away from the both you told you that it was time to give up and take his advice. With a sigh, you tapped Taemin on the shoulder, and he followed you back to the elevators. The ride back up to the 11^th floor was silent, but as soon as you were both in the hallways, Taemin spoke up.

“We’ll talk to the couple tomorrow,” Taemin said. “But you have to be quiet about this; I don’t want my crew to know I lost it again.”

“Again?” you asked.

“I was late checking in because I dropped it on the escalator at the airport this morning,” he admitted shyly. “Pretty typical of me actually.”

“Okay, so tomorrow morning then? What time?” you asked.

“Early,” he replied. “Try dawn. The crew wants to get some shots of me around the island, but if I can get away from them before they wake up, I might be able to ditch them long enough.”

You kept your mouth shut and nodded decisively. “Tomorrow, then.” Taemin took a deep breath and gave you a weak smile. The sight of it sent your heart aflutter all over again. You scratched at your elbow before following him down the hall. You finally reached your respective rooms, which were across the way from each other.

“What’s your name, by the way?” Taemin asked.

You slipped your card key into the slot and waited for the little green flash before pushing it open. “My name is __,” you said. The smile on your face grew embarrassingly wide, and you turned away to hide it. Despite your initial panic at having lost your passport, you were finding it difficult now to maintain composure in front of your favorite idol. Finally getting the opportunity to look him up and down, you felt exhilarated to be standing in his presence.

Dressed in a simple white long-sleeved shirt and blue jean ensemble, you reveled in the fact that not many people had seen him looking this normal. And you had just come back from a mid-night front-desk adventure with him. “I’m a fan,” you added to the end of your introduction, just for good measure.

Taemin looked down and smiled at your answer. “I’ll see you tomorrow, __,” he said. And the both of you retired to your beds for the night, eager to right the wrongs, restless for the dawn. It was funny; you’d come to Jeju to escape the chaos of city life. Instead, you lost your passport and found more stress. You groaned in your bed, dreading your newfound involvement in the Jangs’ honeymoon activities.