Fan Service [Chan]

Chapter 1

"Two espresso martinis please," I asked the bartender, and he began making them for us right away.

"What time is your flight out tomorrow?" I asked her.

"Like 1. I'll have to be at the airport around 11:30."

"It sucks that we only had a couple of days together," I complained.

"Or...do our lives suck less because we had a couple of days together," she smiled, my forever optimist.

"What time is your train?" she asked. I lived in Boston so traveling to New York was much easier for me.

"9 am."

"That's so early!"

I nodded. I would've rather left at any other time, but it was the only train with a coach seat left.

The bartender placed the drinks down in front of us. "To an amazing concert," I grinned as I held up my glass.

She clinked her's against mine. "Cheers to that!"

We took a sip and looked around at the hotel bar crowd. Most were well-dressed men and women who had clearly come here straight from work. They wore heels and dresses and stuffy suits.

I found a couple sitting at a table in awkward silence. The woman was leaning in to show her cleavage, and he was staring but hadn't said a word. "His name is Evan, he's a marketing coordinator. Unmarried. She is his boss, recently engaged. She planned this trip to come to meet a client in person which wasn't necessary whatsoever. She wanted them to have one last hoorah before the wedding."

Mana snorted and honed in on two younger women in pastel blazers sitting in the corner. They were side-eying the same couple. "They work with them. Interns. They are helping her manage her schedule with wedding planning and work, but they were accidentally forwarded a scandalous email meant for him."

"Good one," I tapped her glass and took another sip.

We continued our game until everyone in the bar had been assigned a scandalous reason for being there and our drinks were complete. We charged them to our room, and I gathered my things and reapplied my lip oil.

"Ready to see some Stray Kids?" Mana asked as she hopped off her stool.

The men meeting together beside us eyed us both strangely. "It's a band," I explained, and they nodded. One pulled out his phone, probably to make sure we weren't lying and planning to kidnap a lost child.

"Didn't you want to take pictures first?"

"Right!" She glanced around the bar looking for someone younger. She headed towards the pastel blazer women from our game.

"Would you mind taking a picture for us? We're going to a concert."

"Sure," they smiled kindly and followed us into a clearer area where we could pose.

We took a few different photos and thanked them as we looked through them.

"Cute!" Mana complimented, and I nodded in agreement.

"Have a good evening!" I waved as we headed out the door.

"Now I'm ready to see some Stray Kids!"

We walked the quarter mile to the venue excitedly jamming out to their songs through our phones.

"Aren't you sad that they won't play your favorite?"

"It's okay," I shrugged. Never Ending Story wasn't a song that they sang at their shows. It didn't fit the vibe of the concert themes.

"What are you most excited to see then?"

I thought for a moment but my brain could not see anything other than the Red Lights choreography. I coughed and said "Venom," instead.

"That's a good one," she agreed.

"What if you get bias wrecked?"

She froze as she thought about it. "Seungmin has been looking really fine lately."

I smiled and took her hand as we headed to the main entrance. I'd never been to a Stray Kids concert, and I'd never seen so much black leather in my life.

Black Leather pants, black leather boots, black leather jackets, black leather collars...it was everywhere.

My outfit was neither black nor leather and a lot of people stopped to compliment me on the way in. Some eyed my boots and snickered. One even not-so-sneakily took a photo. I didn't care. I liked what I liked.

We scanned our tickets, and my usual concert excitement took over. I hopped inside giddily. "We're here!" I chanted and Mana laughed.

"Let's grab a water before we head to our seats," she suggested, and I nodded in agreement.

The water was $13. I groaned as I paid, and grabbed a soda too since I knew we had a while before the show.

We found our seat section and walked closer and closer until we found our row.

"These are a lot better than I thought they'd be," I said, shocked. Mana's father's friend knew the owner of MSG, and he was able to get the seats for us after we failed in the Ticketmaster armageddon.

"I know right? I'll have to thank him again when I get back."

I smiled and looked around. People were flooding in to see the show. Smiles were everywhere and light sticks, too. I always loved concerts for this reason...a bunch of people coming together to be excited about a common interest. It was so wholesome.

The lights dimmed and screams erupted around us. The first beat of a drum burst through the speaker and an image appeared on the monitor and then disappeared quickly with a glitch.

An electric strum played next and a clip of the members walking towards the cameras played until it faded out. Then the drum and the guitar played simultaneously while different short clips of the members played. They had on leather vests and looked like a motorcycle gang. The video faded into the Rock Star album logo and acid wash took over the screen as the first notes to Megaverse began to play.

I screamed and cheered along with everyone else as Felix appeared by himself on stage and walked down a short staircase. The other members rose from the ground, silhouetted around him while he sang the first few lyrics.

He finished and moved into the shadows. Behind him, Chan stepped into the spotlight to do his verse. My first thoughts were about how similar he sounded to the track. My second thought was curiosity as to how a person could be so handsome.

Mana watched me excitedly as I saw him for the first time with my own eyes, and I blushed shyly when I noticed. "They're even cuter in person, right?" she asked.

She'd seen them several times and had told me before about the Stray Kids phenomenon, but I hadn't believed it was possible. Now I'd seen it for myself.

The rest of the show continued. I hadn't even blinked for fear I would miss something. The dancing and singing were incredible, and I worried about how I'd ever enjoy a non-Stray Kids concert ever again.

Chan excused the group for a brief intermission, and I turned to Mana.

"This is the best concert I've ever been to."

She grinned. "Told you!"

The main monitor began playing an instrumentalized version of Charmer and flashed a number that we could text to win a prize.

"What's the prize?" I asked her, assuming she'd know since she'd been to other shows.

She just shrugged, "Who cares? Let's enter!"

We inputted our information which included a photo of our ID.

"What could they need this for?" I asked.

"To steal our identity," she joked.

"Worth it for a free t-shirt though," I laughed and submitted mine.

She added hers too, and we continued gushing over the show so far.

Eventually, the lights dimmed again, and Maniac began to play.