Chapter Two
Dino and the rest of the SEVENTEEN members got off the stage after an amazing performance. Each of them did their best to catch their racing breaths as they tried to relax. Some of the staffs came over to each member and helped them dry their sweat with towels and tissue papers.
"Job well done, kids," said their manager, walking over to where the members were standing backstage, currently.
The members gave him a tired smile as they prepared to head off to their mini bus.
Dino saw their manager holding his phone in his hand as he smiled proudly at them. Dino only wondered what was going on. Still being curious, he approached his manager and asked, "Why are you smiling like that, hyung?"
His manager looked up with the same smile still on his face as he replied, "Oh, it's just your popularity, Dino. Not only you; the rest of the members as well. SEVENTEEN as a whole has been receiving more attention these days."
"Really?" Dino beamed back at his manager. "That's amazing! I guess all that hard work paid off, huh?"
"Not only your hard work, Lee Chan," his manager replied with a smile. He placed his phone back into his pocket and added, "Her hard work also paid off."
Dino was confused for a second as he watched his manager move away. He quickly followed after him and asked, "Her? Who's her, hyung? What hard work?"
His manager stopped in his tracks and stared at him. "Haven't you heard?"
"About?" Dino was starting to get confused.
"About the girl. Your fan girl," his manager clarified.
Fan girl? Dino knew the Carat fandom. There were more than just one fan girl, that was for sure. "Hyung, you don't expect me to know everyone out of the many girls in the fandom."
"That's what I'm saying. She's not a no one. She's practically a well-known Carat of the fandom. She basically has Carats loving her just as much as the Carats love SEVENTEEN," he explained. Then, with a smile, he added, "And thanks to her, SEVENTEEN's popularity is rising. As well as yours."
Dino couldn't keep up with what his manager was saying. "Wait, I don't get it. What exactly did this fan girl do to help us? And herself? How is she well-known in the fandom?"
"My boy, I think it's time you look at your phone and the K-pop news. It's all over Soompi," his manager explained. He fished something out of his pocket and handed it to Dino—it was his phone.
Once his manager walked away with the other members, Dino followed after them while he was on his phone. He typed soompi.com on his search area and waited until things popped up.
Hwan Hyejin, a Carat (the fandom of SEVENTEEN) has made it big with her debut story, Highlight. The story is published under Waenji Publishing Company and is non other than a fanfiction for the K-pop group she loves—SEVENTEEN! SEVENTEEN must be a really lucky K-pop group to have a fan girl write a fanfiction for them.
Dino squinted his eyes after he had read the entire article. Hwan Hyejin? A Carat? A Carat who was increasing their popularity with her fanfiction? Dino couldn't help but feel thankful for the love. But he was starting to grow curious.
In their mini bus, some members were already knocked out. The ones that were not were targets for Dino's questioning. He made sure to sit next to Seokmin, who was still awake once he sat down on his seat.
"Hyung," Dino called, showing the phone to Seokmin, "read this for a moment."
After Seokmin was done reading, his eyebrows furrowed before he smiled. "Woah! A Carat wrote us a fanfiction? And it's published? Wow! That must be why we're getting more love these days."
"I know, right? We must be really lucky," Dino told him as he checked the other news. Another article caught his attention and he immediately tapped on it.
Dino from SEVENTEEN has immediately caught the hearts of many women ever since the story Highlight by Hwan Hyejin has been published. It has shone light to Dino, SEVENTEEN's maknae, because of the way he is in the story. Explained beautifully in words, have you already fallen in love with SEVENTEEN's Dino after reading Highlight?
Dino squinted his eyes at the mention of his name. What is this about Dino and the fanfiction titled Highlight? Not only was it the title of their song from their album Going Seventeen, it was also a famous fanfiction that was trending in Seoul—or the entire South Korea, for all he knew.
He showed it to Seokmin once again. "Hyung, look at this."
Seokmin took time to read it and once he was done, he blankly stared at Dino. "Is this for real? It's not a fake article, right?"
Dino shrugged as he checked the webpage. "It's a real webpage. It's not a spam or anything. Everything they post on this website is 100% real."
Seokmin broke into a proud smile as he patted the maknae's head. "Wow, Dino! You're famous now! More than you already are."
Jeonghan, who was sleeping soundly on the row next to theirs, woke up from the sound of Seokmin's cheer and looked over to the two of them. "What's with all the noise?"
"Sorry, hyung," Dino immediately apologized.
Seokmin snatched the phone away from Dino and showed it to Jeonghan. "Look, hyung! Dino's riding on fame on his own."
Jeonghan took the phone from Seokmin's grasp and read it for himself. He let out a small gasp as he looked at Dino. "Lee Chan! When were you getting famous on your own?"
Dino shrugged in response. "It's the girl, hyung. Our Carat. She wrote a fanfiction and I'm guessing I'm one of the main characters, which is why I'm getting known?"
"Hwan Hyejin?" Jeonghan read on the article. "She's becoming a well-known Carat? Even Carats idolize her? That sounds crazy!"
Seungcheol woke up from Jeonghan's noisy chatter and asked, "Yah, what's with all the noise?"
"Sorry, Coups. But read this!" Jeonghan quickly passed the phone to Seungcheol, who was sitting behind him.
"Heol, daebak. Yah, Lee Dino, you're becoming famous on your own?" Seungcheol teased, now more awake than he was at first.
"Not only me, SEVENTEEN too," Dino corrected. He didn't want to be greedy when the others also worked hard for the team.
"Hwan Hyejin?" Seunghceol also read.
That name has been repeating ever since Dino read the article. He wondered how famous she was now thanks to the fanfiction she has written and published.
"It says here Highlight is sold everywhere in stores," Seungcheol read out loud. "Most of the times, it gets sold out, too."
"Sold out?" Seokmin asked, surprised. "There's that many people who likes reading her book? Wah, that girl's amazing. What do you think, Dino? Do you think she's a noona?"
"Judging by everything, she sounds like one. I'm guessing she's around... mid twenties?" Dino guessed before he let out a shrug. "I'd like to thank her, though. Even if I can't do it personally, at least buying her book would make her do well, right?"
Seokmin patted his shoulder as he gave him a proud smile. "Our maknae's growing up. I'm so proud of you. I hope Author Hwan will make a fanfiction about the other members, too."
"Doesn't writing take a lot of time? I'm sure it would be hard," Dino told him.
"Yah, don't think so highly of yourself, okay? Just because you're the only member who has a fanfiction written doesn't mean the others won't," Seokmin told him intelligently.
"Hyung, are you jealous?" Dino teased.
"What?" Seokmin stuttered. "No, I am not. I'm just telling you not to have a big ego after this. We are one team, remember that. Okay?"
Dino nodded obediently. "Nae, hyung! I will remember that. Although... should I ask manager hyung to buy me a copy of the book? It said you have to be living under a rock to not know of the book. Now I'm curious about how the book will be. It's famous after all."
"Good point," Seokmin said, yawning. He got comfortable in his seat and smiled a tired smile. "Hyung's sleepy now. I'll go to sleep. You can go stalk that Hwan Hyejin girl if you want."
"No, I won't be doing that! That's embarrassing," Dino replied.
"I saw that it mentioned her Wattpad account. You should check it out," Seokmin said before he slowly fell asleep.
Dino rolled his eyes at his hyung before he turned back to Seungcheol. "Hyung, can I have my phone back?"
"Huh? Oh, right." Seungcheol immediately handed Dino back his phone. "Congratulations, Lee Dino. You're officially a famous and most wanted guy from a book."
Dino lightly blushed, but no one saw it. He checked the Internet for more articles regarding the most searched Hwan Hyejin as well as her story Highlight.
Shortly, Dino found her Wattpad account: @hwan_ji. Curious, he tapped on it and saw her followers, leaving Dino's jaw dropping lower than Wonwoo's voice.
21.3K followers.
This girl's really famous, he thought as he checked her Wattpad account. He saw that she had a book about herself but he couldn't touch on it because he needed a Wattpad account. Before Dino knew it, he was making a Wattpad account just to know more about the girl who helped made him famous.
+ + +
Hi guys. My name's Hwan Hyejin. I'm a Korean living somewhere in Seoul, I won't exactly tell where because I don't want people finding where I am. I'll just tell you that I'm living under a rock with good Wi-Fi :)
Dino silently laughed as he continued reading on. He had created a Wattpad account a few minutes ago, going by the account, @dinorawr17.
I'm a 2001 liner. Yes, I'm really young but that doesn't stop me from having a passion for writing. And! Great news! My SEVENTEEN fanfiction Highlight has been published as a real book! I really hope you guys would have the time to purchase it in stores near you :)
Dino paused, staring at the first sentence that he had just read. She was two years younger than him, and yet, she's now a famous fanfiction author that was well-known in both their fandom and South Korea.
She's that young?
Dino's assumptions of her being a noona fan had totally gone down the drain. Instead of a noona fan, she ended up being a dongseng fan.
Unable to hide his emotions, he immediately woke up Seokmin, who grumbled a few times before he woke up.
"What?" Seokmin asked in a hoarse voice.
"Hyung..." Dino said.
"What?"
"She's not a noona fan."
Seokmin rubbed his eyes as he quietly asked, "What are you talking about? Who's not a noona fan?"
"The girl? The author? Hwan Hyejin," Dino clarified.
"What? Is she a guy?" Seokmin tiredly asked.
"No. She's two years younger than me."
Seokmin paused, staring at Dino as he expected Dino to tell him in the end that he was kidding. But no such thing came so Seokmin continued on staring at him. "Wait, you're serious?"
"Yes! I'm reading her book that's about her," Dino replied, showing his phone.
Seokmin's lips curled into a smirk as he teased, "You ended up stalking her, huh?"
Dino felt his cheeks starting to warm up, but luckily for him, it was quite dark so it wasn't like Seokmin could see them. "I-I got curious! Wouldn't you have been curious, too? If a girl wrote a fanfiction for you and it's what everyone's talking about? I can see why it's a big deal now. She's so young and look where she is now!"
Seokmin gave it a thought before he broke into a smile and agreed, "That's true. She must be what the entire nation's talking about right now. A Carat that became famous for her writing. Wouldn't it be even crazier if she found out that her idol, Lee Chan a.k.a Dino of SEVENTEEN, is right here, stalking her on her Wattpad?"
"Hyung!" Dino whined. "I am not stalking her. I was just really curious about her age. What's so wrong with that?"
Seokmin leaned in closer, with his head still resting on the seat, and wiggled his eyebrows teasingly at the maknae. "Being curious is the first step."
"First step of what?" asked Dino.
"Of falling in love," Seokmin continued teasing.
Dino looked at his hyung skeptically. "Hyung! That is not what's going to happen. She's a fan. Every idol has probably imagined what it was like falling in love with a fan. We say we would date a fan, but if we do, what about the other fans out there? There are so many risks to it."
"We all know that," Seokmin said, "but this fan isn't some fan anymore. Don't you see idols? They date other idols. They get married with other idols. Some with actresses, or if they were a girl idol, then actors. To put it in simpler words, idols only get to see and interact with people of their level. This fan... she's not some fan writing fanfictions of us in her room alone on a website or app called Wattpad anymore. She's the topic Seoul or the entire South Korea, in that fact, is talking about. She's going to be of our level."
"Hyung, she's still a fan," Dino reasoned out with a heavy frown.
Seokmin sighed heavily. "If you still see it that way, then keep seeing it that way. What are you doing reading her book, anyway? That's a book about her facts."
Dino didn't want to read everything on the book. All he wanted to do was simply read a few facts here and there—especially her age—but now that he was reading it, he felt an urge to continue it. To read until the end.
"I was curious," Dino repeated for the nth time. With a smile, he left Seokmin to his dreamland and continued reading the book of hers.
He was midway of the book then noticed something on her works. Highlight. It was the fanfiction of hers. The one that was going around Seoul as the latest trend or news. Curious, he tapped on the story of hers and read the description.
He was intrigued enough to start reading the first chapter of the book. He has never really paid attention to the fanfictions the fans wrote because he never had the will to check them out. They were just a fan's writing based on their imagination written somewhere in a website, where the other fans will start to swarm and enjoy. Both the story and the fact their favourite group were part of the story.
Hello, wonderful readers! I'm happy to tell you that this story, Highlight, is published everywhere in South Korea! And for those fans living out of South Korea, the online version is available for around 15, 000 Korean won here: www.yeppeo.com/highlight
Thank you for all the support you've given me and this story! I don't deserve it, really, you should be giving SEVENTEEN most of your love. But since you guys are still giving me love, thank you! I wouldn't have made it this far if it weren't for you guys, so thank you for your lovely existence! <3
The first draft of this story will be left here on Wattpad for you lovely people to read. The published version is a lot longer and has secret scenes added to it ;) Hope you'll buy the published version too :))))
Once again, thank you very much! Enjoy the story! Continue to love and support SEVENTEEN, as well! <3
Instead of sleep, Dino was concentrating on reading the story until his eyelids got too heavy and he had fallen asleep in the mini bus.
+ + +
The members finally arrived back in their dorm. Their manager was the one who had to wake up the sleepy members who had a busy packed day today. Slowly, the members boarded down their mini bus with yawns escaping their mouths and squinted eyes that resembled Hoshi's.
In the dorm, the members dragged their sore and tired bodies to their rooms to get a few minutes of shut eye before they could take a shower. Dino wanted to shower first, but he was so tired that he collapsed on the couch in their small living room.
Dino noticed that his manager was about to enter his room and quickly called out to him, "Manager hyung!"
His manager paused and turned around. "What is it, Chan?"
Dino's eyes avoided eye contact with his manager as he looked around the living room. Slowly, he finally let the words escape from his mouth, "Hyung... can you get me a copy of Highlight from a bookstore?"
~Author's Notes~
Here's the second update! ^-^ I read your lovely comments from the first chapter of this book and I'm really glad you guys are already enjoying and loving the story! :) You guys are the best for reading this!
I can't believe it has already reached 100 views! This is crazy! You guys are the best! <3
Until the next update, then! :)