‘I’m going crazy with all these people! Yes, I love them but GET OFF MY BACK! They kept buzzing through my ears and tried to grab a photo with me, should I clue them in? I’M NOT INTERESTED!’

DongHo could hear himself, screaming in his inner thoughts as he tried to hasten past the crews and walked out of the building unnoticed. He was halfway through the hallway when he heard Kevin’s voice and in a blink, he found a spot to hide next to the pillar.

“Yo Eli, did you see DongHo? I was trying to get a selca with him since 2 days ago but he kept disappearing on me…” Kevin asks as he hurried through his mentions on twitter and pouted. “SEE!” He shoved his iphone’s screen to Eli’s face. “I’ve been called bias because I didn’t post up selca with our DongDong!”

Eli chuckled reading the mention. “Chill Kev!”  Eli took out his mobile phone and quickly scrolls through his mentions. “Well, actually I’m looking for DongHo too. I got tons of requests to get a selca of him celebrating his birthday tomorrow.”

‘Mi chin ya~ (Crazy) Omo!’ DongHo rolled his eyes as he took a deep breathe trying to calm himself. ‘Did I even agree to celebrate my birthday? These guys are taking things into their hands seriously!’ As he heard trails of footsteps echoing away along with Eli’s and Kevin’s voices, DongHo poke his head out to check if the coast is clear before he continued on his journey out of the building.

His eyes stared coldly at the floor as he walks; Eli and Kevin’s conversation still lingers in his head. Just then Hoon’s voice was heard from a distance. “SooHyun Hyung!! Wait up!!”

DongHo looked up and saw Hoon and SooHyun from a distance; he quickly looked around for a place to hide and saw a store room just up ahead. In a swift, he glided into the room while letting a slight gap to tab on their conversation.

“Wae? (What’s up?)” SooHyun smile at Hoon.

“SooHyun Hyung!! DONGHO DISAPPEARED!!” Hoon’s voice cracked up.

SooHyun studied Hoon’s face carefully before he burst out in laughter. “Wuri aggie Dongho? (Our baby DongHo?)” He waved his hands dismissively. “Can’t be! He must be hiding somewhere, playing his games!”

Hoon grabbed SooHyun’s hands and looked into his eyes. “N0! Look!” He handed SooHyun DongHo’s pocket game that he carries with him all the time. “SooHyun Hyung I’m worried! He must have been really upset with me for splashing water on him on stage just now!”

DongHo looks down at his clothes, it’s still wet, he brushes it off and rolled his eyes. ‘OH NOW he worried! Should have seen it coming before he does that to me!’ DongHo made a disgusted face, he hates being wet and cold. ‘JUST GREAT!’ DongHo had forgotten to change his clothes, he just grabbed his wallet, jacket, sunglasses and a hat before he dash away. ‘Slick move Hoonie Hyung’ He shook his head in dismay.

DongHo could hear SooHyun’s laughter again and then he starts teasing Hoon as he sings along. “OMO! Hoonie is a scardy cat! He’s afraid of a kitten! OH WAIT! This kitten turns out to be a CUB instead! ROAR!”

 “SooHyun Hyung!!! WAIT!!” Hoon run after SooHyun.

DongHo carefully checked his surroundings, the exit of the building just meters away from him. At full speed, he headed towards the exit. ‘FREEDOM!’ He literally screams in his head.

AJ was walking towards the building; he had left his lucky charm in the van and went out to get it. “Dong...” His voice trail off as his eyes followed DongHo’s leap towards freedom. He scratch his head and look at his lucky charm that he held in his hand. “That couldn’t be DongHo I saw right?” He said out loud as if asking his lucky charm the question. He looks towards the direction DongHo’s disappeared and shook his head. “Nah, DongHo would rather sleep than going out for a jog.” He continued as he walked into the building.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After what seems like ages, DongHo finally felt his legs giving in and start slowing down. He was panting heavily, sweats tickles down his forehead. He lifted his right hand and wiped it off using his pointer finger as he smiles to himself. Finally, he’s alone, away from the daunting flashes and cameras, paparazzi and fans, away from everything stardom brought into in life.

Dongho took a deep breath before continuing on his journey. He has no idea where he should or could go in this unfamiliar place. After a while, he came upon a deserted playground not a soul in sight, it makes perfect sense to him, and no one in the right mind would be out in the cold at this time of the night. DongHo zipped up his jacket and pulled the hoodie over to give him some warmth before making himself comfortable on the swing.

Just as he was thinking things through, a girl walking by caught his attention; she is about 5 ft 1in tall, dressed in a pink Lolita-styled dress attached with a bunny ears hoodie paired with a pink framed glasses. Her facial expression shows a hint of tainted sadness as she dragged her feet along, carrying lots of things in her hand. DongHo quickly pulled his hoodie further to prevent from being recognized as he observed her from where he was.  

As she was walking, one of the laces from her shoes came undone. DongHo could foresee her tripping over but he wasn’t about to make a move that could jeopardized his hideout. Seconds later, a thud was heard, his predicament was right in front of his eyes, the girl tripped over and fell, sending all her things flying scattered to the ground. DongHo froze, ‘Should I help her?’ He hesitate his next move but he shook off the thoughts and jogged over when he saw the girl gets on her knees and frantically searching the area trying to locate her glasses. He picked up her broken pink glasses and handed it to her. “Here you go… but the lenses are cracked…”

 “Uh, thank you.” The girl said as she took the glasses from DongHo. “It’s doesn’t really matter… Just that I got problems in seeing things at night everything and everyone looks the same.”

‘That’s good for me then’ DongHo thought to himself and hurriedly went around the area to help her pick the rest of her things. He picks up an envelope written “To Prince” The handwriting looks so familiar but he could not put his finger on it. Underneath it, he found his picture. ‘She’s a fan of mine?’ Dongho freezes. ‘Should I leave? Will she recognize me? What should I do?’ He could hear questions going through his mind. He was about to make a dash but when turn around, he saw the girl sitting at one of the park bench as she checks her body for any bruises. Picking up the last item on the ground, DongHo cautiously made his way towards her. “Here, I’ve helped you pick up all your stuff…” DongHo place her things next to her.

The girl looked up, blinking her eyes a few times before squinting it to help her see better but nothing works. The girl gave up after a few tries and look down on the floor, “Thanks…” She said quietly. “But I don’t think those things are of any use now…”  

Without realizing, DongHo took a seat next to her. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“Well… I made all these for him…” She passes DongHo the photograph. “Tomorrow is his birthday… I was working very hard to finish this on time…” She passes him a box.

“What’s in it?” DongHo asked feeling curious.

“It’s a scarf.” She smiles thinking of him. “I learn to knit just to do this for him… though… I don’t think it’s good enough…”

“Things fans do…” DongHo accidently blurted out.

Hearing the words the girl shot up. “What do you mean by that? You don’t understand!” She retorted.  “To others he may be an artist, a super star but to me, he is everything. He is my average boy next door, someone I could relate to… “ Her sorrowful eyes gives away her emotions.

“I heard that he’s arrogant, boastful, disrespectful and cold towards fans.” DongHo tried to agitate her further.

The girl quietly sat down as she held a pillow looking unicorn tightly. “So… just because he’s a star he needs to be nice all the time? Smiles to camera and fans all the time? He got no right to be show emotion when he’s angry or upset? When he is tired or frustrated?” She turn to look at him for an answer.  “Yes, he is arrogant, boastful, and when he acts cute I know that it’s pure 100% acting, he doesn’t like to be called cute at all in anyways but because he’s all that, my feelings grew.”

“Now, I really don’t understand.” DongHo replied looking away as he tries to fight the squishy feelings that’s building inside him, he never thought he would make such an impact to anyone.

“Average idols have to be perfect in their fans eyes but he is not in mine. DongHo is full of flaws, full of nonsense, but he’s the only reason for my smiles… though… his smiles are getting lesser and lesser as the days gone by… I wish there is some ways…” She looks up at the clear dark skies. “LOOK! A shooting star!!” She shook DongHo’s arms. “Let’s make a wish!”

A moment later DongHo asked, “What did you wish for?”

“I wish for his happiness… I wish for his smiles… You know, he stop tweeting since last 3 months and it got me really worried since that’s the only way I’m able to know how he’s doing. But if that’s the only way for him to get time away from fans expectations… then I’ll just wait for him patiently. ” She look over to DongHo, he was hugging his body while crouching as he tries to keep himself warm.  

Noticing how lightly DongHo dressed, she placed the unicorn at the side and reach for the box that contains her heartfelt gift. She opened the box to reveal the blue knitted scarf she made. She turned to look at DongHo and smile while she took it out of the box. “I would like you to have this if you don’t mind…”She stood up and twirl the scarf around DongHo’s neck. “There, that ought to keep you warm…”

“But this is meant to be for…”

“It’s ok…” She cut him off.  “No matter how I see it, I’ll never be able to personally give this to him…” She turned to reach out for DongHo’s photo and held it dearly. “It was nice to know you… and thank you for helping me and for lending a listening ear… I’m heading home now, it’s less than 2 hours before midnight and I want to be at home in case DongHo decided to tweet.”

DongHo silently watch as she walks away leaving everything behind except for his photo. He picks up the huge pillow-looking unicorn and the letter and makes his way back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Where is DongHo? How are we going to celebrate a birthday without the birthday boy?” KiSeop walks in the room carrying a birthday cake they especially made for DongHo.

AJ start fidgeting ‘Could that really be DongHo I saw earlier?’ His face turned panic.

SooHyun tiptoed towards AJ from behind. He tilted his head to the right and then to the left trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Then he stopped and shook his head. “YAAAA!” He shouted in AJ’s ears. “Wae gu re? (What’s wrong with you?)”

AJ fell backwards and head for the floor and laughter starts to fill the room. “Ermm.. ermm… Hyung… I think I saw DongHo running a marathon out of the building earlier on…” AJ stammered.

Everyone look at each other and the room was greeted by awkward silence. Just then, their manager HwaSeok entered the room. “What is this vibe I’m feeling? What went wrong now? Did you get yourself in trouble again?”

KiSeop shook his head. “NOPE!”

“Where is DongHo?” HwaSeok asked as he did a head check.

“He’s in the toilet!” “He’s getting dressed” Hoon and KiSeop said in unison.

“So, is he in the toilet or is he getting dressed?” HwaSeok interrogated.

“Ah haha” SooHyun broke the awkward situation. “He’s in the toilet, getting dressed.” He rephrased, Eli and Kevin nod their head to back SooHyun up. Just then, DongHo barged into the room. “Oh… our DONGDONG…” SooHyun quickly walk towards DongHo. “Why are you still not dress huh?” SooHyun motion for DongHo to act along.

“HwaSeok Hyung….” DongHo called out to their manager sweetly. “Look at my present! Isn’t the unicorn looks cuteeeeeee!”

While DongHo was diverting HwaSeok’s attention, Eli and Kevin quickly attempted to light up the candles on the cake. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Happy Birthday DongHo!”

“Make a wish DongDong!”

DongHo sheepishly smile as he blew out the candles.

"GROUP HUG!” Eli declared and everyone start to gather around DongHo.

“WAIT, FREEZE!!” DongHo waved his hands up in the air and he reaches out into his pocket and took out his mobile phone.  “Hyungs, let’s take a selca! I want to post it up on twitter!” Everyone was surprised but without uttering another word, they gathered for a selca.

‘Well, it won’t hurt posting a twitter... let's just look at it as a fan service, she did prepare thoughtful gifts for me.’ DongHo thought as he twitted the photo with the caption, "Thanks for all the love on my birthday"