My Rising Star

You couldn´t help but stare at the man who´s standing at the subway station, looking a bit lost as he looks around as if he´s searching for something. The air around him tells you he´s not from here. The reason why he caught your attention is because he has very unique features and you can´t decide if he´s good looking or not. You force yourself to look away as you realize that you´ve been staring but your eyes are soon on him once again.

Curiosity killed the cat, and you find yourself walking up to him. “Excuse me, are you alright?” You tilt your head, and send him a kind smile.

He blinks in surprise as he turns towards you. It seems as if he didn´t expect anyone to approach him. His eyes widen a bit as he looks down at you. He´s quite a lot taller than you, you realize, as you have to take a step back to meet his eyes properly and not hurt your neck.

“Ah… I´m looking for this place.” He shows you his map. “I don´t know which subway exit I should take…”

You look at the map and your eyes widen. It´s one of the big idol companies that train singers, models and actors. This guy is probably on his way to an addition. A smile spread on your lips.

“It´s not too far from here.” You tell him. “Take exit 3, and turn to the left. You can´t miss it.”

“Thank you.” He tells you with a handsome smile.

“No biggie.” You chuckle. “I hope you make it.”

You give him thumbs up before you turn around to go to your platform across from where you are. The young man looks at you for a moment, before he turns around and movies in the opposite direction from you.

The scent of newly cooked food surrounds you as you keep on working. It´s a hectic day at the restaurant, and since you´ve one of the employees that have worked there the longest, your boss gave you more hours.  The new employees are still not used to the stress, but you help them with a smile anyway. You want to be the one they can rely on.

“You can´t do it like that.” You say to girl who started working there the other day.  “If you do it like this instead, it won´t get burnt.”

“Thank you!”

You smile at her before you return to taking the customers´ orders. You move gracefully between the tables, as you work, and time passes by quickly. Around 6PM, you spot a familiar face. It´s the young man you met at the subway. Your eyes meet and you can see how he recognizes you as well. It makes you a bit happy inside.

“Ah, you!” His eyes widen and he laughs merrily.

“Hi again.” You laugh at the situation. “I´ll show you to your table.”

You show him a small table by the window, and he sits down, without letting you go with his gaze. You give him the menu, and tell him to take his time.

“Can I take your order?” You ask as you come back at his table.

“What do you recommend?” He asks you.

You lean towards him a bit, and his eyes are on you again. He smells nice, you think to yourself, as you feel the scent of his cologne.

“I´d pick… our medium beef menu … here.” You show it to him. “It´s very tasty, and you get coffee and a cookie for free.”

“Ah…” He turns a bit quiet as he looks at the price.”…Do you have something cheaper?”

You look at him, and you suddenly understand that he´s in a situation where he can´t spend a lot of money. A small smile grows on your lips as you no his way. Trying to become a star must be difficult. Although you don´t intend to pry, you see that he´s carrying around his luggage, just like he did when you ran into him a few days ago at the subway station.  It might be that he doesn´t have a place to stay in Seoul.

“…I feel like being kind today, so, I´ll give you this one for a cheaper price.” You say after a while of thought.

A surprised expression cover his face for a moment, before he asks if it´s really alright. You nod. You´ve had it tough too, so you know how it feels. You can´t just not care.

“I´ll give you a coke too, alright?”

“…Thank you, really.” He breathes almost in relief. You nod and put your notebook in your back pocket. “Ah, what´s your name?” He asks you as you´re about to leave.

You stop in surprise, but decide to tell him. He isn´t a stranger anymore, after all. You tell him your full name and he nods. Your heart skips a beat as he flashes you one of his bright smiles and you have to force a professional smile to your lips.

“I´m Kim Woobin. It´s nice to meet you.”

You nod, and turn around to leave. You touch your slightly burning cheeks, as you scold yourself for checking out a customer. His name is Kim Woobin…Woobin… You think to yourself as you ask your coworkers to prepare his order.  This time, you´re even more careful to make sure they make it right.

It´s almost as I you keep on running into him by accident. One day, you run into him as you´re on your way back from your night shift. You spot him sitting at a bench near a vending machine by the road. He´s holding a can of hot coffee in his hands.

“Hello!” You greet him cheerfully.

He looks up, and you realize he can´t be feeling that well. He looks very down and it seems as if he feels worse by seeing you. That makes you slow down. Did you do something? You try to figure out what could have happened as you approach him.

“Are you alright?” You ask with worry clear in your voice.

He looks almost scared, as he pushes himself up from the bench, but you don´t know why.  You pout, as you look around for the cause of his behavior. That´s when you realize it. This is a public bath: a sauna.  An ice cold feeling strikes your stomach. He walks around with his luggage all the time, can´t waste money on expensive food, and he´s outside a sauna in his slippers… you look at his feet.

“Are you… staying here?” You ask carefully. “…At the sauna?”

A tense silence spread between you, and you regret you asked him. “I´m sorr—“ You start but he interrupts you.

“…Yeah.” He answers honestly, but you can sense the caution behind his voice.

It seems as if he´s afraid that you´d judge him for staying here. It makes your chest hurt a bit. You give him a gentle smile as you realize just how much he must have gone through just to get here, and how much he´s putting on the line to reach his dreams. 

He gives you a puzzled expression just as if he doesn´t know how to interpret your smile.

“Don´t give up, okay?” You tell him in a sympathetic voice.

You give him a friendly punch, and send him a smile. His dark eyes regard you in silence but you can see how his worry seems to fade from his face as he returns your smile. His tense shoulders relax, as he opens up to you.

“It´s harder than I thought.” He tells you with a weak smile.

“Yeah?” You urge him to tell you more.

The two of you sit down on the bench together and starts chatting. You feel quite comfortable with him now when he has relaxed, and you talk freely, just like if you´ve been friends since way back.

“People either tell me I don´t have the face for it, or the personality.” Woobin explains to you in a defeated manner.

“Do you want to be a singer?” You ask.

“Ah, no. A model… and I´d like trying acting.” A smile grows bigger on his lips.

You look at him intensively after his answer, because he seems to be shining as he talks about what he loves. Woobin notices that you´re staring, so he stops talking and leans back a bit in surprise. He has nice eyes, you think to yourself, and his skin is also very smooth-looking. You nod. Over-all, he has a unique look, that you think would fit a model. You nod again.

“…Don´t worry. You´re tall, handsome and you seem to be a great and hard-working person.” You summarize honestly.  “You´ll find a job soon.”

Woobin stares at you in silence for a while, before he breaks that silence himself. “…Thanks.” He grins to himself with a hint of a blush on his cheeks.

You realize what you just said, and you get a bit embarrassed, but you shrug it off quickly. “Don´t thank me, I´m just being honest.” You laugh at him. “If you´re in trouble, you can rely a bit on me. I think you can make it out there, so when it comes to a meal or I drink, I can always help you out.”

“Why are you… so kind to me?” He whispers.

“I went through something similar when I first moved to the capital.” A sigh leaves your dry lips. “It wasn´t easy, so I naturally want to help.”

Woobin nods his head in a silent understanding.

You check your cell-phone. “Oh, it´s this late already? I need to go.”You get up and dust off some invisible dirt from your pants. “I´ll see you around!” You wave at him as you leave just like that.

After that, you met Woobin quite frequently since he became a regular at the restaurant you´re working at. Although you couldn´t give him free food all the time, you made sure he´d get a little extra, or some free coffee.

“Is that your boyfriend?” One of your coworkers, a boy who usually messes up, asked you one day.

“No. He´s a friend.” You told him, but you know you regard him as something more than just a friend already.

The two of you have become a lot closer, and you hang out together from time to time. It seems as if Woobin wants to be anywhere but at the Sauna, so he frequently asks you to keep him company between his job interviews.

“He looks funny.” Your coworker told you with a frown.

“You´re just mean.” You scolded him.  “He´ll become a star soon, and you´ll regret that you said that.”

Time passed, and it has already been 6 months since you first met Woobin. That´s when it happened.

You´re working late again at the restaurant, and you wave good-bye to your boss as he leaves the last cleaning duties to you. A deep sigh leaves you as he´s gone. You´re tired and your body is aching. The door-bell rings suddenly, and tells you a customer arrived. Irritation makes you sigh again. Did your boss forget to put up the “closed” sign and lock the door?

“I´m sorry we´re closed!” You shout.

You look towards the door, and your eyes widen. It´s Woobin.

“Hey, why are you here at this late… ehm… early hour?” You ask him.

“I did it!” He shouts wide-eyed as he move towards you.

“What?” You´re confused.

“I got a contract!” He tells you happily.

Joy enters your body at the happy news. You´re about to congratulate him when you suddenly find yourself trapped in his arms in a tight bear-hug.  Your eyes widen, and it feels like your heart stops for a second before it starts racing like crazy in your chest. You can feel his hot breath touch your hair end neck as he seems to fight his tears. A soft expression can be seen on your face as you slowly hugs him back, encircling him with your arms.

“You did well…” you murmur against his shoulder.

“There were so many times I thought of giving up but…” Woobin murmurs softly. “When I met you, when you encouraged me, I just knew I couldn´t stop until I reached my goal.”

“I…didn´t do anything…”You tell him in a puzzled voice.”You earned this yourself.”

“You were there.” He tells you firmly. “Thank you.”

He breaks the hug to stare at you in an attempt to make you understand just how much you helped but as you look back up at him, you realize you´re very close. Your breath gets stuck in your throat. Woobin´s smile is gone as he looks deep into your eyes, as he´s also affected by the atmosphere around you.  He moves in closer, and presses his lips to yours in a gentle kiss. It took you by surprise, so you had no chance to react. Woobin breaks the kiss slowly as if he wants it to last longer, and he continues to look at you as if he´s trying to read you, if you hated it or not.

“And I want to ask if… you can continue to be my supporter… as I debut?” He whispers with fear of rejection clear in his slightly trembling.

“….Yes!” You nod while trembling slightly.

Woobin hugs you again, and he smiles like crazy to himself.