The house was a lot farther from the Coffee Shop, but I still wanted to go to work, so I just hailed a taxi though I was a little regretful to spend my money on something that would keep me from getting tired. As always, Emmi greeted me with a bright smile, and was surprised when I told her I already had breakfast. She just brushed it off and went to work.
Everything was normal in the shop with customers coming in and out, and Boss helping in the counter or in the kitchen. We became even busier at lunch, but it was still fine as long as the customers weren’t too pushy or impatient. At one time, Emmi approached me, saying that a certain customer was searching for me.
He was a man wearing a bonnet and shades, and somehow he reminded me of the boys’ weird way of disguising. “Good afternoon sir. How can I help you?”
“May I take you out on a date this evening?” he said in a weird voice.
“Excuse me?” my eyes widened, and he chuckled. He took of his shades and spoke once again, this time with a normal voice.
“I said, may I take you out on a date this evening?” I was even more surprised when I saw that it was Sunggyu. “You didn’t recognize me, did you?”
I shook my head. “I told you dressing normally is better.”
He smiled and put back his shades. “Infinite is going to have a fan meet this evening. Wanna come along and watch us perform?”
“Wouldn’t I become a burden to you? I mean, you’re busy preparing and such…” If a fan-girl was on my place she would probably say yes a hundred times.
“Of course not! You never saw us perform right? Now is your chance, and you’re an Inspirit now. An Inspirit should never let a huge change pass by.”
“Okay, if you say so.” I shrugged. “Where is it?”
“Yeolyun Theater. It’s very far from here, so we’ll just pick you up at 6, okay?”
“Okay.” I just stood there, since I thought he was going to leave after talking to me. But he didn’t. “Well, do you have anything more to say?”
“It’s the first time I entered this place and it looks quite interesting, so I would like to order coffee lattes. Take out for the boys.” He winked and I wrote down his order. I quickly went back to the counter to get the lattes, and then went back to his table. When I passed him the box of lattes, he suddenly noticed my hand and inspected it.
“Is your hand getting better now?”
“Yeah, of course.” I shrugged, but he didn’t seem to believe me.
“Why don’t you stop working for a while until it heals completely? It’s dangerous to overuse it with a horrible wound, even if it’s bandaged.”
“It was just a puncture, not a fracture or dislocation. I’m fine.”
“If you say so,” he exhaled and stood up. “I’ll go now. See ya later okay?”
He passed me the payment before leaving. After a few seconds, he ran back in, panting. “Almost forgot! I gotta have your number. I can’t go on going to your shop just to tell you something.” And so, I gave him my phone number before he left for the 2nd time. Emmi appeared beside me.
“Who was that?”
Should I tell her or not? It might wake up her crazy fan-girl self and creep off the customers, but on second thought, she deserves to know.
“Sunggyu.”
Her jaw dropped, but she didn’t say anything. She glanced at the door where he left, and then back at me, and turned around to quietly go back to the kitchen. I was dumbfounded by what she did. Did she eat something horrible this morning, or has she stopped going crazy over Infinite? Or maybe, she’s still awkward towards Sunggyu because of his surprise hug at Gamdeol mall?
I smiled evilly and went back to work.
[6 O’clock P.M, Yuan’s Place]
There I was sitting in the middle of the living room, reading the magazines that I brought down from the attic yesterday. They were 2011 and 2012 issues, and the latest one was from 2 months ago. In some articles, Infinite was featured so I was able to know a little more about them.
One article was about Infinite releasing teasers for their music video called “Be Mine” which really poked my interest. Another was talking about how successful they were and such and I couldn’t believe how handsome Sungjong and Sungyeol were in their pictures.
Based on what I see when I’m with them, they were just cute and childish 20-year-old boys who have mastered aegyo very well.
A car suddenly honked from outside the house and I quickly put back the magazines in the cabinet. I grabbed my purse before going out.
“You’re right on time,” I complimented, and Sunggyu smiled.
In thevan, I was at the farthest seat between Sunggyu and Myungsoo. I was starting to suspect that they’re purposely placing me beside Myungsoo even with the knowledge that we hate each other. I was expecting him to annoy me throughout the ride, but he didn’t. Not even a single word, but maybe he was trying to pretend that I don’t exist. My mind suddenly went back to his tiny smile, but I quickly shook it off my mind.
It was just probably my imagination since there’s no way that a brat would show kindness to me.
“Hey, Yuan, we’re here.” Sunggyu nudged me. I realized that I was just spacing out all these time. While getting off, Myungsoo’s eyes and mine accidentally met, but he quickly looked away. I narrowed my eyes.
‘Something is odd……’ Not wanting to stress my brain, I just shrugged and followed the boys through yet another hidden passage at the back of the theater. It was probably only for V.I.P’s because there was a guard there that asked for our identification. Of course, their manager only had to say that they’re Infinite and I’m their close friend, and we’re through. For a moment there I felt fabulous.
I was able to watch them prepare for their performance by applying make-up and fixing their hair, in which I had a laughing fit because they looked horrible with their hairs flipped here and there by the stylists. But honestly speaking, their handsomeness doubled when they were finally done. For the first time, I felt like a fan girl that was star struck by their beauty.
“Close your mouth or else you’ll drool,” Dongwoo joked and I looked away, embarrassed.
“No, I was just looking at the doughnuts at the table,” I tried to escape but of course, it was too late. They laughed at me for a long time and I pretended to be unaffected. I suddenly noticed that Myungsoo wasn’t joining in enjoying my embarrassment, and was busy playing on his phone.
“Yuan, we already reserved a seat for you, so all you need to do is blend in with the crowd, okay? Congratulations on being an official Inspirit!” he gave me a fighting sign and I smiled.
“Thanks. Good luck on your performance.”
“See you later my Inspirit!” Howon made a heart sign over his chest and pretended to throw it to me. I played along and catched his “heart”.
“Yah, you can’t do that by yourself!” Woohyun said and threw a heart too. The others joined in (except for one person, of course…) and soon the room was filled with imaginary hearts. With the help of a staff member, I found my seat which was at the 5th row from the stage. It was okay for me because I know the lights would make me dizzy if I were at the front row. All people in the place, who were mostly girls, were giddy with excitement while waiting for the show to start.
After a few minutes, an emcee came up on stage and started interacting with the crowd. The lights went off for a while, and music started playing. The boys popped out on stage and the crowd went wild. I admit, I kinda went wild too.
They performed an addicting song entitled “Before the Dawn”, and it was immediately stuck in my head. I clapped and cheered with the others after the song. They introduced themselves, and Woohyun seemed to spot me. He threw an imaginary heart to me again and the girl beside me squealed. She probably thought it was for her.
Anyway, the show went on with them answering questions from fans and performing songs every now and then. When it was time for them to perform their last song, Sunggyu announced that they’ll get one Inspirit to come up on stage. The girls started squealing and raising their hands, wanting to be picked. The spotlight started roaming all over the theater and I just stared at it as it moved. But when it started to come to my direction, my heart started to beat faster. The spotlight passed over me and my mind went blank.
Wait. Don’t tell me……
“A round of applause to our lucky Inspirit!” Sunggyu cheered.
Yep, I’m that lucky Inspirit. Yay.
******************************