It's You Chapter 21

"We'll see you in 2 days, right?" said my father as we got out of the car.
"Don't worry Appa," I said, laughing. "We'll still be alive when we come back."
"Just making sure. You might be die from all the screaming. Don't come back with a sore throat, alright?" He laughed as I rolled my eyes.
"Be careful, JaeHwa," said my mother. "Don't do anything stupid and make sure you're not alone with them even for a minute."
"Umma, there are 13 of them. And they're nice. They're superstars for crying out loud. And I don't think they're idiots."
"So what if there are 13? And so what if they're famous? They're still grown men and you're still an 18 year old girl. Understand?"
"Haish, okay okay. See you in 2 days!" I closed the door and they drove off.
"Gee, I never knew your parents were so funny," said HyunJae, laughing.
"You should try and live with them," I said. "It's like a circus." I sounded more relaxed than I felt. In fact, I was feeling anxiety, excitement and dread all at the same time. At least it meant that I had more of an emotional range than a teaspoon.
HyunJae looked at me. "Nervous?"
I nodded. "And I feel stupid standing out here carrying a bag. We look like lost tourists."
"Hey, it's a small bag, it's 9.30 in the morning, and we're at the back door. No one's even looking for us I bet. YunHo said 10am SHARP, you know. We're early. We can bum around for a while."
"We'll have plenty of time for that, I doubt we'd be there for the actual fan meeting. I mean, we're already meeting them face to face, we don't need to see them perform."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Anyway, let's go in, the guy at the door there is looking at us funny."
We both walked over to the guy standing in front of the doorway.
"And who are you two?" he asked.
"Umm, we're the ones who are only supposed to come at 10?" said HyunJae. I nearly laughed. What a way to describe us. I wouldn't have been surprised if the guy hadn't kicked us out right there and then.
"Right. Can I see your ID?" He held out a hand. I pulled out my card and so did HyunJae. The guy slid our cards through some machine and looked at the screen in front of him. "Okay, that's fine. Go look for YunHo. Have a good day." He handed back our cards.
"Thanks," I said, following HyunJae through the door. He nodded back at me.
"Hey, cool, this is like a real backstage concert," remarked HyunJae.
"That's because it IS a concert hall, and we ARE backstage," I told her. She laughed.
"Hey, look, there's YunHo!" she said, pulling me into a room. "Hello, YunHo sshi!" she called out. She seemed unusually bouncy, and I realized that she was nervous. She was always bouncy when she was nervous.
"Ah, JaeHwa sshi and HyunJae sshi!" YunHo looked at his watch. "Early, are we? Never mind, it's better than being late. I'm really sorry girls, but you won't be allowed into the fan meeting. You'll have to hang around backstage for about 5 hours. Think you can last that long?"
"Oh, we kind of anticipated it," replied HyunJae. "Will we be allowed out? Or maybe like walk around looking at stuff?"
"Sure sure, anything, just don't get in the way of anyone, alright? Oh, you're not allowed in the electronics or lighting areas, but anywhere else is fine. Got that?"
"Yea. We'll just dump our bags and take a look around."
"First door to your left."
We walked out of the room and went into the room. It seemed like a lounge area, it had couches and tables everywhere. HyunJae and I dumped our bags on a couch, then went out to explore. I was already bored. When it was 10, HyunJae and I decided to go out and walk around. The guy at the door opened it for us.
"What's your name?" I asked. "So we can be properly polite to you."
The guy laughed. "You can call me KiBum. JaeHwa sshi and HyunJae sshi right?"
"Hey, how'd you know?" asked HyunJae, sounding suspicious.
"It was on your cards, remember?" replied KiBum.
"Oh yeah... well, see you around KiBum!" I said, walking away.
"And keep up the good work!" yelled HyunJae as she followed me.
"You are so lame sometimes," I said to her.
"Hey, somebody has to tell the guy he's doing a good job."
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."
As we walked down the driveway, three black cars drove up. The windows were partly tinted, but I could still see the shadowy figures inside. As the first car passed us, I saw about 4 heads turn to look at us. HyunJae nudged me.
"Haha, we're turning heads, aren't we?" she asked, grinning. "We must be smoking!"
I laughed. We were both in shorts but I was in my usual sneakers and three quartered sleeve hoodie. HyunJae was in sandals and a singlet with a short shirt that could be tied up in front.
"In your dreams," I said, smiling. She grinned back at me. The second car passed us. Once again, I saw a flurry of movement as heads turned to look at us. "This feels really weird, all we're doing is standing here and they're looking at us. It's not like we're posing or anything."
"We're just naturally hot," said HyunJae, laughing.
As the last car passed us, I peered into the windows to see who was this unusually large group. I knew it couldn't be Super Junior, they'd used the front entrance the last time, they definitely wouldn't use the back this time.
For a second, this face stared back at me.
It was a face I recognized.
His eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he looked at me and he spun around in his seat to speak to the person behind him. That person poked his head over his shoulder.
I nearly keeled over in shock.
It was EunHyuk and DongHae.
In a split second, I grabbed HyunJae, whirling around, and started walking quickly down the road.
"Hey, what gives?" she protested. "I was enjoying basking in the stares!" She giggled.
"It was Super Junior in the car, EunHyuk and DongHae were in the last car!" I said, gasping a little.
"WHAT?!" HyunJae screeched, her happiness vanishing. She turned to look back at the cars and saw them in the carpark, climbing out of the car. They were... waving at us?
We both looked each other and ran.
---
We got back to the Nippon Budokan around 1pm. We spent three hours going around Tokyo, looking at the sights and hearing the sounds. There really wasn't much to do, but neither of us felt like going back so soon, even though we knew that Super Junior were entertaining the fans and were going to do so until 3pm.
"Welcome back girls," said KiBum when we walked up to him. "Guess bumming around Tokyo is better than sitting around backstage huh?"
"Haha," said HyunJae. "You could say that again. Hey, if you're bored, JaeHwa and I can take over your job for you."
He laughed. "You're a funny girl, that's good. I would let you, but I'd lose my job and you'd be banned. Nice try anyway."
"Oh well, it was worth a shot," I said, taking back my card. "Keep smiling, right?"
"Yes, and don't forget the important 'have a nice day!' to go with the big smile," he replied, giving us the all-important big smile. "2 more hours to go, you can always come and have a chat with me if you're bored."
"More like if you're bored," replied HyunJae, laughing. "How old are you anyway? You look our age!"
"Well, more or less, I'm 20. Just a uni student who needed a part time job, you know, tall, scary-looking, always ready to kick people off the stage." He laughed. "And thanks to your cards, I know that you're both 18."
"Hmm, maybe we should never throw the cards away," I said.
"Yeah, maybe. Anyway, get inside before the card refuses to let you go through. See you later!"
HyunJae pushed me through the open door. "He's nice," she remarked.
"Yeah, and hilarious," I added, when suddenly laughter filled the air. I thought that there was a major party going on in one of the rooms, then realised that it was actually coming from the stage.
"ShinDong hwaiting! YeSung hwaiting! SiWon hwaiting!" the crowd started chanting. More laughter.
"God, they sound like they're high on helium," said HyunJae as we made our way to the room where our bags were.
"What's going on out there?" I asked one of the girls in Japanese, who was wearing an official tag.
"They're playing games, we'll be done in a couple of hours, they've just gone back out after a short break. Who are you two anyway?" she added.
I told her. She nodded. "Yeah, I heard YunHo-san talking about it. In fact, Super Junior have no idea about it, or about you. It'll be a complete surprise." She tipped her head to one side. "You two don't look like the screaming sort of fans like those out there," she said.
"Yeah, not really into that sort of thing," I replied. I was surprised that I was managing to keep this conversation going. I'd always stumbled during Japanese oral.
"Good," she said. "They don't particularly love the screaming sort. Anyway, I've got to run, nice meeting you." She walked off.
"And what just happened?" asked HyunJae, grabbing my shoulder. "I had no idea you were fluent in Japanese."
"Tell you the truth, neither did I." I told her what was going on and what the official had said.
"Playing games? Is the audience playing with them? Haish, this is going to be so boring." She flopped down on the couch and pulled out her music player from her bag. "Might as well utilize this thing," she said, plugging in. I stretched out on the other couch and pulled out the book that I was reading. "Evidently still into reading," said HyunJae, playing air guitar.
"And you're still playing air guitar," I shot back. She shot a quizzical look at me and pulled out an earphone.
'What?" she asked.
"Never mind," I said, giving her a -.-" expression. She shrugged and plugged back in. I went back to my book, and got lost in the story.
---
Lightning flashes. Thunder growls, threateningly. I call out, to someone, anyone, but the words are blown away as soon as they leave my mouth. The storm has moved fast. It's over me now. I start running, somewhere, anywhere, desperate for shelter. Hands are reaching down from the clouds, swooping at me, trying to grab me and drag me into the darkness.
You'll never get me alive, I think. I grit my teeth.
There it is!
A shining beacon of hope against the darkness surrounding me.
I rush into the apparently empty warehouse, closing the door behind me. The storm rages outside, battering on the walls, trying to get in and claim me for it's own. Ignore it, ignore it. "Hello?" I call out. Silence. I'm alone with my own voice. I settles down against a large beam, waiting for the storm to pass.
A small breeze blows behind me.
I turn around in fear, because I was sure that there were no holes in the windows or cracks in the walls.
"DongHae?!"
He smiled at me, that special smile that was reserved only for me. "Hey you," he said.
All of a sudden the back of the warehouse was ripped open. The wind swirled through the building, and I swear that everything in there grew wings and started flying at me and DongHae. He flew at me too and knocked me to the ground, protecting me from the objects.
"Hey...!" I protested.
"Just like the first time I met you, huh?" he said, smiling again, but before I could reply, he was suddenly pulled backwards by an invisible force. "Hey, what gives?!" he yelled. He stretched out his hands towards me and I caught them, but the wind was stronger than me.
"Don't let go DongHae!" I said, as the wind pulled both him and me backwards. But he only smiled at me, a sad smile this time.
"It's okay, JaeHwa, so long as I've seen you one last time, I can die happy." His feet were lifting off the ground. His hands were slipping out of mine.
"No!" I yelled. "I won't let go!" I was fighting back tears.
"Annyeong, Jaehwa. Saranghaeyo." His hands flew out of mine, and I watched him flying into the clouds.
"No....!" I yelled. "DongHae! Are you leaving me again?! DONGHAE!"
---
"JaeHwa!" someone called. Someone was shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes with a start, staring into the face of my best friend. Where the heck was I?
"H-hyunJae...?" I said, bewildered. I sat up, shaking my head. I spied my book on the floor. "Oh, did I fall asleep...?"
"Yeah. You were thrashing around like crazy and screaming out NO! Did you have some sort of nightmare?"
"You could say that," I said, trying to remember my dream, but it had completely flown out of my head. "I can't remember it now though."
"Oh well, that's too bad," said HyunJae. At that moment, YunHo entered the room.
"Hello ladies! Did you have fun?" He grinned. I could hear cheers and screams from the stage speakers. "And they're done! They'll be coming in soon. Hey JaeHwa sshi, you look like you just woke up. Why don't you two go refresh yourselves?"
"Yeah, sure," I said, and we made our way to bathroom.
"Just a moment more," said HyunJae, sounding nervous. "Can't wait for their reactions."
"Yeah," I muttered. "Can't wait."