⊱ ♫ ────── ⋆Jaebeom⋆ ────── ♫ ⊰
The next days flew by fast. Between fan meets and traveling to different cities, we worked on contacting a network of almost 50 idols and actors who were willing to make statements against the archaic belief that those in the entertainment business couldn't date without it being a scandal or financial ruin for their company. Some even planned on announcing their own dating status. We had to change the minds of the public and win the hearts and support of the netizens in one fell swoop. I also hoped that with more people "coming out" as dating, it would water down the impact for any one person or group, mine included.
Translations of the videos that were being sent through on a daily basis were exhausting to complete, but they encouraged us all that this plan would be successful. Once the translations were completed, we returned the video files for individual upload scheduled to be done right after our first LA concert.
In addition to the announcement that I was dating, I had also been working on another surprise. This surprise though involved tracking down a little girl named Jane who, hopefully, lived in Texas near Dallas where we'd met several months before. Her Aunt Donna was known to be a follower of Jackson on Instagram. It wasn't a lot to go on, but I had some SNS experts in Bambam and Jackson who were doing their best to track her down.
My desire was to surprise Jane by getting her tickets to the Houston fan meet, rather than merely posting the selca we took on Jackson's Instagram or on my recently added account. Fortunately, Donna was a big fan of Jackson and regularly commented on his posts. She even mentioned her niece thinking she had seen me in Dallas. A few quick messages and some follow up phone calls, and the plan was set in motion.
On the night of the Houston fan meet the crowd was particularly lively. The games were different from the other venues as we had over 10 from which to select and they were drawn randomly. I was beginning to find that many American girls were more forward than Sharay and had to regularly stay off physical advances. Now that I spoke English, and they knew it, some of the propositions I received were, shall we say, risqué at best. I found myself frequently squirming from the encounters and hoping Sharay could tell that I was not interested at all.
For our closing remarks, I went last. It was time for Surprise #2 to be revealed.
"Thank you all for coming," I began. "Did you have a good time?"
I could hear the audience roaring, so I waited a touch until it died down a bit.
"Did you like the surprises I gave you all in Miami and New York?" Again there was a cacophony of sounds drowning out my words, but I followed it with, "Would you like another surprise?"
After finally getting a bit of a handle on the crowd, I continued. "In the audience tonight is a very special fan. This is someone I met in my travels as I was going back and forth between Korea and the States for my English training. Despite my ability to speak English well, and without an accent, I couldn't convince her I was someone other than myself. She was very smart too and figured out that I was probably traveling in secret and learning English."
"This girl informed me I was her bias and that she was a true Ahgase and would keep my secret. The only thing she asked was that I post a picture of the two of us on Jackson's Instagram account once I told everyone my secret. She wanted to prove to her aunt that she hadn't been wrong. She's here tonight as my guest after we were able to track down her aunt. So would you all give it up for my little friend Jane!"
"Jane, would you please make you way to the stairs on either side of the stage?" prompted Jackson. "It's time for all of us to meet you and for Jaebeom to thank you for being so great about keeping the secret he didn't even share with us."
The small figure of Jane appeared at the end of the stage stairs and she slowly started to make her way up. Racing to greet her, I met her as she was halfway up. I grabbed her hand and steadied her as we climbed the rest of the way.
Jane had the biggest grin on her face. I could tell she was super pleased, but wasn't altogether that surprised.
Leaning in I asked her, "Did you aunt tell you I got her the tickets?"
"Not exactly," snickered Jane, "but she's as bad as the rest of GOT7 when it comes to giving spoilers, so I kinda figured it out."
I nodded, and brought her over and introduced her to the rest of the guys. We then took a group photo with her.
"Did you have anything you would like to say to the rest of the audience?" I asked Jane, assuming she would be too shy and would decline.
"Yes please," she said in a small voice, so I handed her a microphone, not sure what she would offer.
"I would really like to thank JB and all of GOT7 for this honor. I would also like to say to all the fans that even when JB was trying to convince me he was someone else, he was very kind and polite. Given how they made this special surprise for me, I would encourage all of you to respect their privacy and not gossip or spread stories if you don't know if it is the truth or not, even if it is a good story. You never know. You might get a one in a life time chance like I did tonight."
With that, she handed me back the microphone, smiled, gave a little bow and thanked me again.
As she was escorted off the stage, I reminded her that I would see her at the photo op since she was in P1 seating and whispered that I would share another secret with her afterwards if she waited a bit.
Jane cocked her head like a curious puppy inquiring what that was all about, but I just smiled and said, "Later."
We wrapped up the fanmeet and began the photo opportunity for those in P1. As Jane and her Aunt Donna came up, I made sure Jane sat in front of me. Donna muscled her way in front of two others to get a spot in front of Jackson. Before they left, I had the staff tell Donna to have them wait by the side until after the Hi Touch, as I had something to share with Jane.
Finally, we headed back to our dressing room. I took a moment to wipe some of the sweat off and change into yet another clean and dry shirt. One of the event staff came in and said, "We have Jane and her aunt in the room across the hall. Are you ready for them?"
"I'll be there in a moment," I offered, as I finished up the text I was writing.
Standing up, I made my way to the room across from ours. Jane was still smiling from ear to ear but didn't say anything besides hello when I walked in the room. Her aunt was a different story.
"So what's the secret you were going to share with us?" she prompted.
"Actually," I corrected her, "it's a secret I'm sharing only with Jane. Please wait here for a bit. I need to borrow your niece for a bit." With that, I gabbed Jane's hand and departed before the aunt could object. The two burly security guys I had selected effectively blocked her from following us, instructing her to just stay in the room.
"What's going on?" asked Jane.
"I have a really big secret I want to share with you but, after what you said about her giving you spoilers, I don't think your aunt can be trusted."
Bending down to her level, I asked, "Do you think you can keep a secret from her for a few days? You obviously kept the other secret about our deal from her and that was for much longer."
Laughing, Jane looked at me and said without hesitation, "Of course. Piece of cake!"
Grabbing her hand again, we walked together down the hallway past a few other rooms until we reached a closed door.
"I want you to meet someone," I said and took a deep breath. Jane would be my litmus test to see how Ahgases would respond to the news that I was dating.
༺ ¤○•° Sharay °•○¤ ༻
There was a knock at the door before it was pushed open. Jaebeom walked in holding the hand of the girl I was expecting to meet. Jane was about 11 and was really an adorable little girl. She had medium brown hair that was pulled up into two long pony tails on either side of her head. Holding her hair in place were two hair ties with circular buttons with pictures of Jaebeom on them. She was wearing a T-Shirt from the Just Right era and a cute little denim skirt with leggings underneath. She sported brown lace up boots and a shoulder bag covered in GOT7 memorabilia. Clipped to one of the straps was the JB Dream Knight doll decked out in a red hoodie.
"Jane, I would like you to meet Sharay. Sharay this is Jane," Jaebeom offered by way of introductions.
Jane pursed her lips for a moment like she was trying to remember something and then smiled, "You're the girl who was Jackson's game partner in Miami!" she exclaimed all of a sudden.
I couldn't help but smile back, as she had such an infectious grin. It was also good to know that she appeared to have a positive impression of me.
Jane's smiled wavered for a moment and then her mouth dropped open as she figured out what was going on.
"You're dating!!!!" she squealed. "That's the secret isn't it?"
She said this as more of a statement than a question.
"Yes," Jaebeom confirmed. "We started dating after the fan meet in Miami.
"But she was Jackson's game partner. How could you start dating someone you just met?" the little girl asked, confusion showing on her face.
"Because we met before. Sharay and her mom were my English teachers, so we've known each other for about 6 months," Jaebeom clarified.
"Oh, that makes more sense. So the other guys only found out after the Miami fanmeet?" she asked for confirmation.
Jaebeom came over and put his arm around me and said, "I promised this past summer during a press conference that I'd tell our fans when I started dating, so I'll be making the announcement at the first LA fanmeet. We just hope the fans don't turn against us."
Jane was quiet for a bit before commenting, "Well, I always hoped you would marry me, but any true fan would want you to be happy, so I'm really happy for you. I don't think our age difference would have worked out anyway."
I could tell this last part was added in more to convince herself than anything else, as I had been in her shoes not too long ago when I thought Jaebeom loved someone else. Before I could respond to her, she spoke up again.
"Is there anything I could do to help out? Probably not, but if there is I'd be happy to help," Jane proposed, not really sure what else to say.
"Actually, there is something you could do," Jaebeom chimed in.
⊱ ♫ ────── ⋆Jaebeom⋆ ────── ♫ ⊰
When Jane offered to help, I realized that we had a ton of idols speaking up on our behalf but no fans. She would be a huge help and I told her so. I asked if she would be willing to let us video tape her saying basically what she'd just told us and she agreed.
Grabbing my phone, I called Bambam and asked him to come to the room we were in and to bring his camera. Not long afterwards, Bambam walked in with Daniel in tow. Sharay's younger brother was carrying a tripod.
*My real son Simon lending his face for a visual to represent "Daniel"
After a little fangirling over Bambam and a lot over Daniel, Jane was set up in a chair and was videotaped stating that as an Ahgase and fan of JB, she was thrilled that I found someone I loved and who loved me. She also said she knew many would be sad that he was off the market, but that "obviously" he was still giving it his all to the fans both musically as well as with fan service. As a side note she offered that Sharay came with a cute younger brother to help ease some of the fans who would be heartbroken.
After Bambam wrapped up the taping, Jane started talking with Daniel. As usual for him, he made friends with her in about two minutes. The conversation quickly shifted to YouTubers they both watched regularly. I wasn't long before they exchanged social media information. Looking over, I saw him ruffle Jane's hair and as he said goodbye she said, "Goodbye Daniel Oppa."
Jane turned to wish Sharay well and they gave each other hugs. Looking at my watch, I realized we had been gone for over 45 minutes and was glad I had sent Jackson a text requesting he keep Donna company for a while, with Jinyoung in tow to make sure he didn't share about my dating.
"I'll be back shortly," I told Sharay. "Let me just walk Jane back to her aunt."
I had arranged some special gifts for Jane. She had my Dream Knight doll, but I also got her one for each of the other members so she would have a set. I also got her a mini Snoop Dogg shirt and the unicorn outfit for her JB doll, as well as the full set of GoToon figures. Finally, we all took some selcas with her and signed her T-Shirt.
As she and her aunt departed, Jane turned back and ran her fingers across her lips in the universal sign of zipping her lips to keep a secret and throwing away the key. I responded with some of my best aegyo, including giving her some finger hearts and a cheesy wink.