His eyebrows furrowed once more, as if to convey a thought he could not say. I noticed he did that a lot, used facial expressions instead of talking.

“Just call me Siwon,” he said.

“Okay Siwon-ssi, where do you want to take me?” I looked up at him. He was indeed quite tall, but with my wedges on, I was a good 5’10 so it wasn’t that big of a deal. We were probably the tallest people in the store.

“I know this place that sells awesome bubble tea,” he pulled on my arm. “Let’s go!” I let him drag me out of the store—although admittedly, I wasn’t done clothes shopping—and to the bubble tea shop he babbled on about. I smiled. The man was a truly handsome person, like a model, but he acted like such a dork.

“Wow,” I gaped, “there’s a lot of selection here.” The menu was listed with countless amounts of flavours and mixes.

“Yup, it’s almost impossible to have all the combinations,” Siwon said.

“What do you want?” I asked, shoving him aside and pulling out my wallet.

“H-hey, why are you—?!” Siwon’s eyes widened. “I should be paying! The gentleman always pays.”

I pursed my lips and pondered a solution. I looked to him, “in Canada, we call it going Dutch.” I winked. “You pay for yours, I’ll pay for mine.”

“Dutch pay?” he raised a brow. Hmm, I supposed they had that term in Korea.

“Yeah, it’s what usually happens in this kind of situation.”

“I suppose. What are you getting?” he asked.

I looked at the menu, “I think I’ll have green apple tea with jelly stars instead of tapioca.”

“Okay, one second,” he walked up to one of the old men behind the counter. “Ahjussi, how long is the wait?” Siwon jerked his hand to the long line formed.

“Ten or fifteen minutes I’d say,” the ahjussi said.

“Ami-ssi,” Siwon turned to me. “You can check out the next clothing store over while I wait in line.”

I was startled, “w-what? But I—”

“I insist. Seriously, you can’t walk around Seoul in the same outfit,” he laughed. I glared at him. Did he think I was some sort of hobo? Aish, this guy…

I huffed, “I’ll be in there for five minutes!”

The store wound up being this athletic apparel retailer. I needed some new workout clothes, especially since I would start training. I was browsing through the yoga jackets when I remembered the reason why I was buying practice clothes. I had made the cut. The whole reason I even went to S.M. was because of Henry, and I haven’t told him a damn thing since I got to Korea!

I dialed the number Henry gave me and waited, and waited, and waited.

He wasn’t picking up. I growled. The phone finally went to voice mail.

“Henry, it’s me, Ami,” I recorded, “we met on the plane from Montreal? I was just wondering if you could call me back when you weren’t busy, thanks, bye.” I checked the clock in the corner of the screen. I’d been in this store for nearly ten minutes! I bought my things and got out. Hopefully Siwon didn’t buy the teas yet. That means he would’ve paid for me as well!

“Did you see him? He used his status to get ahead of everybody,” one of the young men in line said to his friend when I got to the tea shop. I frowned, that’s rude. I can’t believe someone would do that. Just because they were well-known doesn’t mean they should abuse it.

“Why did oppa buy two? What’s the other one for?” a girl near the front whispered.

Where was Siwon? I couldn’t see him anywhere in the line. Have I been gone that long? I broke past the line and saw Siwon waiting a distance off with two teas in his hand. I waved at him and walked towards over. My phone started to ring and I picked up.

“Hello?”

“Oh! Ami it’s you, good,” he said. “What did you want to tell me?”

“Hey Henry, guess what?” I grinned.

“No!” Henry gasped.

“Yes! A certain someone has been accepted as a new SME trainee,” I sang.

“Who?” he asked, then laughter erupted on the other side of the phone. “I’m just kidding. That’s awesome! We should go out to celebrate sometime. Are you good for Sunday?”

“Sunday? I’ll check, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got nothing going on,” I made my way over to Siwon. “I have to hang up, Henry. I’m hanging out with someone.”

“Okay, text me!” and he hung up.

I looked at Siwon, who was giving me a strange look.

“Who was that?” he asked, handing me my tea.

“Hey! You paid for this!” I protested.

“Yes, and?” he grinned.

“You planned this!”

“And you’re avoiding my question.”

“I-it’s— He’s a friend I met on the plane,” I explained. I rummaged through my purse for money for the bubble tea. I held out the change to him but he closed his larger hand over my own to prevent me from slipping the cash into his pocket.

Click!

I looked around. Groups were forming. People were beginning to stare. Siwon pulled down his sunglasses from where they were perched on his head.

“Let’s go check what’s around the corner,” he said. He grabbed my arm and tugged my quickly. We ducked into a department store.

“Siwon-ssi, what’s going on? Why are there crowds gathering? Did someone take a picture of us?” I panicked. What in the hell was going on? This has never happened to me back home. How do you deal with a situation like this?!

“Calm down Ami-ssi. We’ll just lie low for a while in here, okay? This place is big enough,” he replied. Gee, you think? This place was like four department stores in one! It practically took up the whole damn street!

“Is that Siwon oppa?”

“Who’s he with?” Siwon turned in panic and ducked into a change room with an assortment of clothing he snatched off the racks.

“Siwon-ssi?” I watched him peak through a crack in the door.

“I think you should shop alone in the women’s section for a bit. I’ll come find you later okay?” he told me. I agreed and walked to the other side of the store.

I realized I had been shopping for quite a while when the pile of clothes and shoes I had built for myself became difficult to carry. It was probably a good time to try on the stuff instead of making the mound bigger. I hummed along to a song that was playing in the store. I’ve never heard it before, but I swayed to the chorus, speaking the only part I really understood.

“Fiction in fiction,” I sang. Slipping on the last piece of clothing from the pile, I looked in the mirror. Bleh, it looked awkward. I threw it aside and picked up the significantly smaller bundle of the clothes I decided to buy.

After I purchased the items, I headed to the men’s section to find Siwon.

“Wasn’t she the girl who was with oppa?”

“Yeah, I think so. I don’t know why, I mean, like, she’s so dark.”

“And look at her arms. She’s totally butch.” I looked past a few racks to see a couple of teenage girls a few years younger than me staring and whispering to each other. I don’t really give a rat’s about teenage girls gossiping because that is basically what they do all day, but when you gossip about me, ’s going down.

I remembered what Adrianna told me about beating people up. And I suppose I couldn’t anyway because it would cause a public disturbance and I could lose my contract because of that. Instead, I shot them a cold glare of fury and flexed my arms. Their eyes widened and they started rapidly conversing with one another in a panic. I clenched my fists and stepped slowly towards them.

They gave tiny squeaks and scuttled off like bugs. I heard a man chuckle. I spun around and searched the area for the person who laughed to no avail. I couldn’t see anyone in the area. That’s weird.

Snap out of it! I shook my head. I have to find Siwon and beat some answers out of him. Why was he hiding? Was he famous or something? Were those his fan girls? Usually only famous people get this kind of recognition…or criminals… Oh Lord! What if he’s a criminal?! Or perhaps a criminal celebrity? I mentally slapped myself. Ami, shut up and start looking for Christ’s sake.

The change room he was hiding in was still shut. Maybe he was still hiding in there. I rapped on the door softly. A man in his mid-twenties opened the door to a crack.

“Yes?” he asked.

I flushed, “o-omo! I’m sorry. I thought someone else was in here.” I bowed and ran behind a shelf. The same chuckle floated over the shoe shelves I was hiding between. I looked up to see if the laughing man was anywhere to be seen. No such luck…

“Siwon-ssi?” I called out softly, hoping he’d see or hear me. I checked every corner of the store. I searched high and low and called out on the streets. I might as well give up and go on my way.

Siwon was nowhere to be found. 

Oh noooooo, she's lossssttt! Where oh where is Siwon?

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P.S. The next chapter will be released on a certain special date. What kind of date? A special special one :3 So stay tuned!

-Lilmisschique

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