"Sue...let's go back. I don't think we're going to be able to see them," you heard yourself talk to your travel companion as well as your best friend, Sue, while tugging her thick coat. Not much to your surprise, she swatted your hand away. Sue had always been intent on meeting her bias, Yixing, and this is her main reason about coming to visit Korea, to see him. On the contrary, your main focus is much more on tourist spots, street food wonderfulness and of course meet the boy band but it comes the last. You see them on screen anyway, why bother lining up in front of the management company, right? 

"Sue~~~~~~~~~" you started to nag her and Sue turned around to face you. 

"Shush, you. If you are tired, go back to the inn and wait for me, I'll be back, okay?" Sue looked into your tired eyes with worried expression and patted your shoulder. 

"Promise me that you won't do something extravagant, okay?" you pouted and tugged her coat again. You heard Sue laughing, "Like what?" 

"Like taking a taxi and following them back to their dorm, of course!" you stamped your feet to express disatisfaction with her attitude. "Okay, okay. I won't. I'll head straight back to the inn once I've seen Yixing, okay?" Sue turned around again and lightly patted your cheek. 

You decided to battle through the sea of fangirls who were huddling up in front of SM entertainment to catch a glimpse of their favorite idols. Those hopeful individuals who were enduring the bone chilling winter of Seoul with their undying passion of a fangirl. You are also a fangirl too but your comfort comes first before your passion. You'd rather be comfortably strolling around Seoul than stand in front of the management company for hours just to see your idol for a split second. You have always thought, "That's what posters and TV shows are for!" 

Without a second thought, you decided to head back to the inn where you were staying at, half hoping that the room would be warm when you get there. You took out your phone to check on google maps so that you find your way home since you are not familiar with the neighbourhood. The map told you to walk in which direction and you kept staring intently on that so that you don't miss a turn and find yourself in middle of nowhere before realizing that you took a wrong turn. You kept walking and walking before you realized you've reached a dark alleyway. 

"Uh oh..." you muttered and looked around with shifty eyes, hoping that you wouldn't meet a Korean underground gang who would capture you and sell you off to a foreign land. Remembering that Korea is one of the safest countries for girls to travel alone at night, you giggled at your silly thought and continued your love affair with the phone screen, while hoping that the phone wouldn't die out before you reach back to the inn. But you are not too worried since you have an extra battery pack in the bag but it's a chore to attach it so you just didn't want the phone battery to run out. 

"Ouch~~~" a tall, dark hooded figure bumped into you which caused you to drop your phone and collapse on the pavement. You glared at the hooded figure who stopped to check on you. 

"Are you alright?" a familiar low, deep voice came out from underneath. You squinted your eyes to have a clear look before you heard a girl scream, "there he is!!!!!" which caused him to run away in huge strides before he disappeared into darkness. 

You cursed at yourself for dropping the phone, which caused a cracked screen at the corner. A girl arrived beside you after you stood up, "Are you alright?" you nodded. "Did you see where he went?" 

"Who?" 

"The tall person." 

"Oh, he ummmm..." you wanted to know the reason why the girl and her friends were so intent on catching the guy, "did he steal your purse or something?" 

"Oh no. He was Kris from EXO-M!" she answered excitedly which caused a lightbulb to go off in your brain, "We were stalking him since he tried to escape from the crowd by snooping out from the back exit!" 

"Ah right," you looked away into the darkness where he left off, "He went that way!" you pointed into the direction opposite to where Kris headed. Kris is your bias in the group but you'd never dream of stalking your idols let alone having them stalked at ungodly hours of night at 11pm. The girls dashed into the darkness where she pointed without asking whether you were alright or not. 

You shook your head, "Invading sasaengs...you'll reach him. NOT!" you muttered to yourself and continued walking while looking down at your phone again. You kept walking until you realized you were hungry. Three rolls of kimbap you consumed as lunch was gone after using that on walking in the city. Sighing in disappointment, you decided to go out to get some food. 

"Will the samgyupsal place be open at this hour?" you thought to yourself and started walking to the place you and Sue always go for dinner ever since you have arrived here. The restaurant is a little cosy place which depicts the style of outdoor camping but you can choose to stay indoor and feast cooked meat. 

When you step into the restaurant, there weren't many people. You looked down on your mobile and saw that it's almost 1AM. People are starting scatter on streets and there weren't many people left in the kitchen. "Hello, ma'am!" you greeted the store owner, who smiled back at you feebly. She must have been so tired from an evening of hard work with customers. "Hello there, sweetie. What do you want? The usual?" you and Sue had been coming here for about half a month since you were here so the shop owner had remembered your orders now. 

"Ehhhhh..you remember!" you giggled, "No, ma'am. I'll be adventurous today and eat something different like...gop-chang!" Sue was scared of eating intestines so you have always put it off the menu and ate the usual 3 layered samgyupsal. You kind of worry about your health as well as your weight but you console yourself by thinking that you walk a lot everyday. "Gop-chang, tuna kimchi stew and lots of lettuce please!" you finally ordered and chose a spot by the glass door so that you can still see the people as you ate your food. When you looked around the store, there weren't many people left; some lonely drinkers, some university students and some girls who were winking at them.

The meals have arrived and you started to munch on it but you were feeling so sleepy to a point that you were in your half-asleep mode as you chewed your meal. "Excuse me!" a voice startled you and you saw a person standing beside your table. You looked up with your sleepy eyes and realized that it was the dark, hooded figure from before, Kris Wu from EXO. Surprised, you swallowed your food abruptly and choked on it slightly. He handed you the glass of water in front of you. "Thank you," you spluttered and drank the water. 

"Yeah?" you bit your lips and responded to him. 

"Were you following me?" he asked you as he swiftly sat down at your table, trying to face away from the glass window. 

Your eyes narrowed from annoyance, how could he think that?! I diverted those fans away from him! "Yeah...I know you very well so I know you would come here so I chose this restaurant to hunt you down because it's so popular," you replied in sarcastic tone and rolled your eyes "Have you gone out of your mind? Do I look like I'm aware of your presence in this restaurant?" He chuckled, "Not really, you looked like you were being sedated by food, dozing off." 

"Exactly!" you slapped the table, ouch that hurts. You rubbed your hand. He started laughing and his head leaned back, which caused his hood to fall off. Abruptly, he caught it mid-air and popped it back onto his head. "Fans," he mouthed, "they might find me here. I tried to escape them with much difficulty." You smiled and nodded. 

"Do you mind if I join you here?" he asked. "Of course not, sure. Sit down and enjoy. Just don't offer me soju if you are drinking." 

"Why not?" 

"I'm allergic to alcohol," you answered with a laugh, "cool points gone, huh?" He also laughed, "yeah, pretty much. I'm just kidding. It's not your decision anyway. I'm not drinking either. I have schedules tomorrow. Can't be dying with a hungover." 

"So, are you eating anything?" you asked him a question since you heard about idols not eating after certain time of the day. 

"Samgyupsal," he answered and you pointed at the tray filled with gop-chang in front of you and pushed it towards his direction, "be my guest,"

"Are you sure?" he asked as he poured himself a cup of water from the bottle in front of him and swigged.

"Of course, I can't finish the whole tray by myself and I realized it's pretty sad to eat gop-chang by myself so yeah, please be my guest," 

"Okay!" he beamed and started putting the slices of meat on the fire between you two. "Oh," he motioned you to lean forward to get closer to him, which you did, "can you please help me order some samgyupsal? I don't want anyone to recognize my voice either." You rolled your eyes again, "Auntie! can I get a serving of samgyupsal at this table please?"  

"Happy now?" you asked him. He grinned and nodded. 

Food is a great way to bond with new people, is the phrase that you have heard for a while and you never thought it was true to this day. As you spoke with Kris over slabs of Samgyupsal and slice of gop-chang, you realized that he is a very nice person to talk to. Is this how an idol without the frills? you thought to yourself. He seemed so normal, like any other 23 years old guy you would see on streets. You could feel all the pretention falling off him and his true self revealing, little by little. It was refreshing for you to see someone who had always been inside the computer screen coming alive in front of you.

You would smile and nod at places where you think it is appropriate. The more you listen to him, the more charming he becomes. You could sense that he needed someone to talk to to let the steam off but he is still very careful about not giving away his personal feelings and details to you. But, it doesn't matter to you. You are just glad that you had someone to eat food with. Both of you talked throughout the meal, you told him about the country you are from and the famous tourist spots as well as the must-try food. He promised that he would try out the food when he visits the city and in return, he told you about the places he had been to for work. 

Two plates of samgyupsal, a serving a gop-chang and a bowl of kimchi stew later, you both were satisfied. Both of you decided that it's about time to go home. Being such a gentleman that he is, he offered to pay for the meal but you refused, "We'll pay half each," you insisted. "But, it's not a problem for me to pay for the meal, you know?" he argued and his hand reached out to stop your hand from pulling out the bank notes. At the first skinship, both of you froze. You stared at him, which caused him to faze for a while but he remained his composure and smirked, "Well, would you rather let me pay for the meal or would you like me to pull off the hood and let everyone know that I am one of the 12 super stars in the country?" you narrowed your eyes. If there is one thing you would hate, that would be sasaeng's hate. "Fine!" you hissed at him through your clenched teeth, "you pay for the meal!" He chuckled and asked for your help to talk to the Auntie from the shop again. 

After that both of you walked out of the place and decided to head home, you bowed to him, said goodbye and thanked for the meal before heading back to the inn. You haven't even taken your 10th steps when he rushed over to your side and whispered, "Ummmm. Okay. This is going to sound so weird. So bear it with me." 

You halted and your eyes widened. Needless to say, your heart missed a beat. Is this what I think is this? Is this the ultimate fangirl dream coming true? You turned to face him. He put his hands in his pockets and smiled, "Actually, I'm really, really stressed out tonight." 

"Yeah?" you prompted him. 

"I really need a person to talk to to let everything out. Can we go somewhere and talk? I promise no harm will come over you," he continued to talk in a timid manner, his face looked half hopeful and half unsure. 

"Sure," you agreed, "A friend in need is a friend indeed, right?" When he heard your reply, he smiled and took out a key remote from his pocket. "Let's go!" he gestured you to walk alongside him with a slight bow, "Where are we going?" you heard yourself asking him. "Somewhere I really like to go when I feel stressed out from overload of work." 

"Okay," you started to walk beside him as he led the way, "I'll believe you. You sure you won't sell me off to some underground society, right?" He roared in laughted, which caused a few passerby to give dirty-look at him, which caused him to shut up. "No, don't worry. I'm not stupid enough to make my fame plummet yet." 

Both of you walked for a while and he stopped you mid-way, "Here we are," he pointed at an all white SUV, a car that is commonly seen on Seoul's streets. "That's your car?" you pointed at it and asked him. He nodded as he fumbled for the key, "Yeah, I bought it for my personal use when I want to drive around the city. It conceals pretty well since a lot of people drive this," he chuckled and opened the door for you. Due to your short height, you had quite a difficulty climbing up a high car. After that, he got in from the other end. 

"Seat belt," he reminded as he buckled up. You followed his reminder and questions started entering your brain. Are you crazy? Mom told you not to accept rides from stranger. He's a celebrity but still he's a boy. What if something inappropriate happens? "Are you all right?" Kris asked as he started the engine. You collected yourself again, "Yeah, I'm all right, why?" 

"You look a little lost. is the exhaustion kicking in?" he asked with a concern. You nodded in an attempt to cover up your thoughts. He might actually be being very sincere. You told yourself and agreed. "Oh, before we head out to the place I really want to go. Let's go there first." 

Ten minutes later.

"Here we are," he announced as he parked the car in front of a late night waffle store. Your mouth gaped, waffle? At this hour? Why on earth? 

"This place does the best waffle in Seoul. It's so delicious. Wait here. I texted the order to my friend who works there so I can just go from the behind and pick it up." He walked out of the car and hurried to the back door of the building. Five minutes later, he ran back out with two brown paper bags. With the ease of a panther, he got back up onto the car again. "Here you go," he handed a bag to you and you unrolled the top of it. Inside the bag was a coffee cup and a separate bag of waffle. You looked up at him and he smiled. "The place is the best when you have food. Can you help me hold my bag?" 

He drove to the outskirt of the city. The radio was on and there was some sort of late night talk show going on, which you were trying to make sense of with your Korean skills. Even though you tried to stay awake, your eyelids were rolling down from the exhaustion of running around the city. Your eyes looked to the side and there he was, driving calmly with one hand and the free was tapping the gear rhythmically and that was the last thing you remember. 

The car came to an abrupt stop, which woke you up. When you looked through the windshield, you saw the neon-lit Seoul hustling and bustling before you. When you looked at your side, you got a feeling that you are in a wood; all tranquil and soothing. "What is this place?" you asked him. 

"This place?" he took out the coffee cup from his bag and unwrapped his waffle. The smell of sweet waffle with whipped cream floated in the car. He took a bite and sipped the coffee, "This is where I frequented during my trainee years. Like everyone else, I had a tough time during the training period and it was a little harder for me since I am not from here. So I visit here to comfort myself, away from all the disturbances that affect my soul and that is how I came to love this place. It got a little harder to just take a bus and come here when I debuted so I got this car and come here when I need some time alone." 

"I see," you answered and took a sip from your cup, the taste of vanilla latte streamed down your throat and you felt instantly warm and fuzzy. Then you took a bite of the waffe that Kris was raving about; it was exactly as he said, one of the best tasting waffles you have ever had. The outer crust was hard while the inner was soft and warm with fresh creamed whipped up into a delicate cloud of sweetness with a hint of honey treacle. It was everything you have ever wanted in a waffle. "It's nice, isn't it?" Kris asked as he bit off another bite from his waffle and you nodded. 

Both of you talked for a long, long time. He told you about how his trainee life was, how he had to try hard to be where he is right now and all the little things he wanted to spill out. What about you? Of course, you told him about how you came here on a vacation with your best friend for her mission to stalk YIxing, which he laughed at, then you told him about your school life, which he was envious of since he has put a stop in pursuing his career and then he went on to tell you about how he wished he could live a campus life. That's when you realized how tiring must his life be being under the spot light constantly. All those sleepless hours, the time when he have to wake up early in order to get ready for events, the time he had to work out hard at gym just so he could look good on camera, the diet restrictions he has to follow, every restraints that have a hold on his life. You looked at him as he spoke and saw dark shadows under his eyes, his skin which was slightly breaking out in area due to every day application of heavy makeup and his tired eyes which still sparkle with passion as he told his story. All of a sudden, the fondess you have for him doubled and you patted on his shoulder as an encouragement. At that moment, he was no longer the idol you admire. He was this normal friend of yours who wanted to have a friendly chat. 

"Thank you," he responded as you patted his shoulder, "that helped me alot." 

"You must try hard, okay?" you spoke, "I want to see you succeed and be on stage for a long, long time so you must try hard. I'll pray for you every night." He softly smiled and nodded ever so slightly. "You must try hard at your academics too. You don't know how lucky you are to be studying at university." 

"Of course," you replied as you reassured him, while making the determination to study hard at the upcoming semester. 

The rest of the night was a blur for you. All you could remember was him talking to you in his deep, soothing voice and you dozing off, thinking of his voice as a lullaby. 

~~~~~~

"Have you woken up?" Sue came into the room and sat on your futon, "I came back home really late, like I got back at dawn, and you already passed out from exhaustion." 

"Was I?" you sat up, your mind groggy and unclear, "I think I had the weirdest, craziest dream ever." 

"Really? How so?" she asked you as she was drying off her freshly washed hair. 

"It was just weird. I hardly remember half of it," you lied, not wanting to speak further since you were feeling extremely tired, "All I remember was that I dreamed about Kris." 

"Oh him?" Sue chuckled, "he's a trouble maker all right. The managers went crazy trying to look for him since he disappeared all of a sudden. Some fans said they saw him walking into some dark alleyway or something," You paused your steps as you walked into the bathroom, "really?" you asked. "Yeah, he didn't come back home until dawn. I saw him." 

You raised one of your eyebrows, "Did you not promise me that you wouldn't stalk to their dorm?" Sue smiled guiltily, "it's note everyday that you're in Korea!!" she defended herself. You smiled and walked into the shower to wash off yourself. You couldn't think whether the Kris you met was real or just an illusion that you put yourself under. 

"I'm leaving first!!!" Sue shouted as she left the room, "I'll meet you at the usual restaurant where we have lunch at 1!" 

"Okay!" you shouted to respond to her while you were washing your face. Then you got dressed to head outside, ready to enjoy the Seoul city. You picked up your mobile and swiped to unlock the phone, where you found an unfamiliar note on the home screen, "I wrote a new note?" you wondered and you clicked on it. A message appeared, which was in somewhat untidy handwriting. 

To the unexpected friend I gained on a random night, 

Thank you so much for accompanying me on one of my soul soothing trips. It was great to have met you, someone who would listen to me and is genuinely interested just because you care for me as a person, a human being, and not as someone who just perform on the stage. 

Thank you so much for listening to my stories. It was refreshing to hear your stories too, a world that I don't get to experience as often. 

Try hard at school and I will try hard to improve as well. We'll meet at the top. 

Dragon Wu

You laughed at the mention of the name "Dragon," and continued reading. He ended the note with his number, leaving it as a way to contact him. You pondered a while about whether to send a message to him or not. Your whatsapp notification blinked and a message appeared, from Kris. 

Hey!

At that very moment, all you could do was smile like an idiot. 

xxxxx

[A/N] Yes, it's so cheesy. Yes, it's so unrealistic. But hey, it's a fangirl's imagination. I hope you enjoyed! Sorry that it is super duper long.