Clarissa

Clarissa couldn’t go back to sleep. She hugged her knees and screwed her eyes shut, making herself as small as she possibly could. Funny how one guy could bring out all her insecurities and demons in a split second, and he wasn’t even physically there. She laughed, quiet and bitter. Nikki was right. She was running away.

She couldn’t stand being in LA anymore: no matter where she looked, no matter where she went, Ryan was there in some form of memory. Clarissa felt as if the city was mocking her—it moved on even as she felt her world collapsing. Seoul was the change she needed, far away and Ryan-less.

Clarissa stood up. No more moping around, Reese. She flipped her laptop screen open and waited as the screen came to life. “Ah…” she felt her sadness ease up a bit. “Tumblr, what would I do without you?” For the next few hours, she scrolled through her dashboard. “They look even better in real life.” She found herself smiling, spazzing, and laughing with the Exo fandom’s dedication and craziness. As she scrolled further down, her eyes landed on Kai.

“Kai, you y beast,” Clarissa proudly smiled. She’s seen him close up, laughed with him, and had ‘skinship’ with him (Although seriously, what is the Korean deal with skinship? She scratched her head). “I know a K-pop star in real life. Who would’ve known?” With a picture of Kai on her laptop screen, she finally fell asleep.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hm? Is that… Exo? Clarissa was happy to see the group again so soon.  She looked at the last one in line.

“Kai!” Clarissa unconsciously called out. They must have another recording in SBS today. Star King?

Kai turned around at the sound of his name. Oh. It’s Clumsy! He let himself fall behind from the group and smiled. “Hey. Be honest with me,” he had a teasing look on his eyes.

“What?” Clarissa wished he’d stop smiling like that. It’s doing unhealthy things to her stomach.

“Are you… stalking me?” He tried his best offended face.

Shoot! Does he know about Tumblr?! Oh my goodness, the things he shouldn’t see…

When Clarissa’s brows furrowed and her cheeks started reddening, Kai started laughing. “It must be true, huh? You stalker!”

Clarissa finally regained her senses. “First of all, I work in here, so no, Mr. Arrogant, I don’t stalk you. And even if I did, it’s not like your group’s schedule isn’t public. It doesn’t take a detective to figure out where you’re going.” She stuck her tongue out to him.

Kai laughed even more. “You have a point. But how’s your stay in Korea so far? Liking it?”

“It’s really nice. Some aspects will take some getting used to, but everyone’s been really nice and helpful.”

“That’s good.” There’s an awkward silence. Kai put his hand on the back of his neck. “Do you have, uh—“

“Kai! There you are!” The Exo manager looked relieved.

“That’s my cue to leave,” Kai said as he started walking backwards.

“Hey, what were you going to ask me?” Clarissa was curious.

“Maybe next time,” Kai smirked. For the second time, and with the same guy, Clarissa was left flustered and blushing.

“Who was she?” the manager asked after a few steps, trying to make conversation.

“Oh. A clumsy fan.” Kai tried to leave his voice neutral, but a smile was on his face.

“Mmm” was all the hyung said. He hoped that was all there was to the girl.

Kai

Kai felt a little nervous. Dancing is fine—he could do it in his sleep—but variety shows… those were a different animal.

“Okay, guys. Our years of training didn’t just go into singing, dancing, and table manners. Remember your reactions! Smile, and do whatever they tell you to do,” Suho instructed. They’ve gone over this more times than Kai could remember, but he couldn’t blame the leader for repeating himself. They were all new to this.

“Take your positions. We’re on in sixty seconds,” the production staff called out.

Kai’s head turned to where the voice came from. He scanned the backstage crew, his gaze falling on a familiar figure in the background, concentrating on the paper in her hands. Feeling his eyes on her, she looked up. There goes her blush again, Kai couldn’t help but notice. She smiled, mouthed ‘Fighting!”, and gently pumped a raised fist with her right hand.

Suddenly, he didn’t feel so nervous anymore.

The filming went smoothly—the guests seemed like they were custom-made to put the members in their respective spotlights: dancers, linguists, and musical instrument players. Indeed. We weren’t trained in variety all those years for nothing. Baekhyun and Chanyeol were hilarious as always, and Lay’s unexpected derpiness made the audience laugh. Kai smiled, content to be in the background. Variety just wasn’t for him.

“Take ten, everyone. We’re changing tapes,” the PD-nim said.

The Exo members started talking among themselves, giving each other constructive criticism and praise for the second half of filming. Suddenly, Kai saw Clarissa walking towards their direction.

“Hi, Exo!” She looked beyond excited to be talking to the members. Kai scoffed, So much for not being a normal fangirl. “You guys are doing great so far!” Is that pride in her eyes? She can be so weird sometimes. She cleared once before talking. “I’m the new scriptwriter, and I just need to give you guys a heads-up on the next few guests. There will be some Chinese and English speakers, so if you can start talking to them in those languages, it would be nice.” She then started talking in rapid Chinese, occasionally switching to English for Kris. She really knew what she’s doing.

Kai knew she wasn’t Korean, but it still somehow surprised him that she looked so comfortable switching languages. He was impressed to say the least. Clarissa looked like she was done talking to the Chinese members and was about to walk away.

“Oh, writer-nim,” Kai suddenly called. “I have a question for you.” It’s now or never.

“Yes, Kai-ssi?” Clarissa wasn’t sure why he had a question, but she walked towards him anyway. The other members were just as surprised, but returned back to talking among themselves.

“Do you,” he lowered his voice, “have your phone?”

“Um, yeah…?”

“Can I borrow it? I think I lost mine somewhere here.”

Clarissa looked perplexed. “Sure. Here.” She handed him her new phone.

Kai started dialing his number, smiling when he felt his phone vibrate. “Oh. It was in my pocket all along. Oops.” He saved his number on her phone before handing it back to her.

Clarissa felt her face heating up, but Kai was still calm and composed, saving her phone number (Clumsy ^^) in his.

“That was probably the lamest way someone’s asked for my number,” Clarissa suddenly said. But she was smiling, that beautiful eye smile lighting up her whole face.

--

A/N: I'm sorry for being so lame, guys. I don't know what I'm doing! :O But thank you for reading, and thank you for subscribing! You don't know what it means for me to get feedback! Comment, please? Thanks a ton!!! <3