Another (not really) quickie. Sorry it's just oneus, I was too tired to write onewe too. Maybe I'll add one later?
Also, I don't know Korean. There is Korean (hangul) in here that I put to differentiate speaking Korean vs. English. I put what I intended to say in parentheses. This is all Google translated, so there's bound to be inaccuracies. I apologize to any native speakers.
Enjoy!
☙
You're favorite kpop group, ONEUS, is having a concert near you! After months of saving up for a ticket, you prepare for the bloodbath called ticket sales. You eagerly sit in front of your computer with Ticketmaster open, ready to purchase a ticket. The countdown on the screen feels like it's going in slow-motion and you can't wait any longer.
Finally, the countdown hits 0. As quickly as you can, you pick GA and punch in your credit card information. You click "confirm" and watch the loading bar as your transaction is processed.
But then, the worst thing happens. The website crashes and cancels your order! Even worse, all the tickets are sold out by the time you reload the website. What will you do now?
A week later, RBW announces that they are accepting volunteers for the concert to help promote it, sell merchandise, and even do some backstage work. You sign up reasoning that at least you can make the concert better for everyone else. A day later, you receive an acceptance email and instructions to show up early at a designated spot to help set up.
It's the day of the concert and you're feeling, well, bittersweet. You want to be going to see them, but you're glad you can at least support them in another way. You're also somewhat jealous of your friend who got a ticket and forced you to help them pick out an outfit and go to the store to buy a lightstick. You're happy for them, really, but you kind of regret asking them to carpool with you. The whole ride there is just them screeching out the fanchants you know by heart, but won't have the chance to sing.
When you get there, there's already a line of fans outside. The concert doesn't start for another three hours, but you guess the fans really want good seats. You're friend is one of them. They wave to you quickly before joining the other fans lined up outside the venue.
You make your way over to the back door where you were instructed to go for volunteering. There's a security guard and a worker from the venue standing at the door.
"Hello, are you a volunteer?" the worker asks.
"Yes."
"May I have your name and ID, please?" You state your name and pass your ID to the woman. She compares the name with her list and crosses something off before turning her attention back to you. "Welcome y/n! Thank you for volunteering, we really appreciate it. If you can, help set up the merchandise stalls. Alright?"
"Ok."
"Here," she hands you a blue pass with the word "volunteer" printed on the front, "go inside and go to the red table. Show them this pass and they'll give you directions from there."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"No, thank you for volunteering. We really appreciate it."
You smile at the woman and follow her directions. At the red table, there are two other volunteers, one girl and one boy.
"Excuse me?" They turn around and you flash your pass, "Do you need any help?"
"Oh! Hello. Yes, we do need help. We need to set up this stand for selling shirts. Can you help us?"
"No problem, I'm y/n by the way."
The girl smiles, "Nice to meet you, my name's Charlotte."
The boy also responds, "Myeongsook, nice to meet you." He bends down to pull a box out from under the table, "Here's a box of shirts. Can you sort them by size? I'll hand you a shirt, you sort the size, and Charlotte can put them on the table, ok?"
"Sure." You step forward and start taking shirts from Myeongsook. You read the size from the tag before handing it to Charlotte to put on the table. An hour later, you have all the shirt boxes unpacked and sorted neatly on the table. Myeongsook hands you a water bottle and you thank him before taking a sip. Since you finished early, you might as well take a break.
"So, y/n, why are you here?" Charlotte asks.
"I couldn't get tickets, but I thought it'd be good to help out anyway."
"That's so sweet of you! I have tickets, so I'm only here until the show starts. Mine are seated so I don't need to worry about staying in the line for pit. I was supposed to just hang up flyers, but they needed me here, so I just did what I was told."
"That's nice. What about you, Myeongsook?"
"My father is one of the sound designers for RBW, so he's working with them on soundcheck right now. He thought it'd be good if I helped out, so I'm here. Normally, I just translate stuff."
"That's cool, so have you seen them before?"
"Yeah, I translate stuff all the time for them. I'm the one who hangs a paper saying 'bathroom' in Korean next to the bathroom signs here for them. I also help them with understanding fan letters. My family moved to Korea for my father's work, but I was raised here, so I'm fluent in English and Korean."
Charlotte gasps, "Wow, I can't believe you've met them before! I'd kill to meet them, let alone see them. I'm just grateful I'm seeing them from 300 feet away!"
You laugh, "I'll be lucky if I even hear them!" The two laugh. It feels good to laugh about your misfortunes, makes it feel less sad.
Soon, though, the woman from earlier comes up to you three, "Good work! Charlotte, you can return to the line, they'll be letting in the audience soon. Myeongsook, your father needs you backstage."
"Alright," they both respond before taking off in their respective directions.
You look around, "What about me? Am I going to run this booth?"
The woman shakes her head, "We have someone lined up for that. Actually, I need you to run an errand. The crew will be wrapping up soundcheck soon, can you take some water to the sound room for them?"
"No problem, where is that?" She instructs you on where to go to pick up a pack of water and where the sound room is. "Alright, ma'am, I'll be back soon."
"Thank you, y/n, please don't get lost!"
You quickly go to the place where the water is stored and pick up a case. Now if you could just find the sound room...
You walk around for a bit trying to remember where the room is. Before you know it, you're lost. It doesn't help that all of the rooms' labels have been covered with papers with Korean on them instead either. Maybe you can ask someone. You end up knocking on the door closest to you.
"Do you know where the sound room-" The door swings open to reveal the one, the only, Lee Seoho. He looks you up and down confused and you drop the case of water in shock. It crashes down straight onto your foot, "Ouch!"
Seoho gasps and bends down to pick up the water. He places it behind the doorway and bends down to meet you. He watches as you squat to examine your inevitably going to bruise toe. "너 괜찮 니 (are you ok)?" he asks, but you understand nothing.
"What?"
"형, 그들은 한국말을하지 않는다 (hyung, they don't speak korean)!" he calls inside. He takes a step back to allow Youngjo to step forward.
"Are you alright?" Youngjo asks in nearly perfect English.The only thing a little off is his accent, but it's cute anyway.
"Y-You speak English?" is the only thing you manage to say.
He chuckles, "Keonhee and I are almost fluent, and Geonhak knows a lot too. But, are you ok?"
"Oh! Um... I think I'm going to be?" you say rather unconvincingly.
"Right, let me help you up," Youngjo reaches his hand out for you to take. You grab it, still in shock, and he pulls you up with ease. You stumble a bit because your foot is in pain, but Youngjo catches you and lets you lean on him. He helps you walk inside the room where you find the rest of the members lounging before the concert.
The other members look up, see you and immediately start to freak out. You would too if a fan was suddenly in your dressing room. Honestly, this whole scenario seems very surreal.
Hwanwoong is the first to speak, "너 누구 니 (who are you)?"
"한웅이, 그들은 영어 만한다 (Hwanwoongie, they only speak English)." Youngjo responds.
Hwanwoong looks at Geonhak with pleading eyes and Geonhak speaks instead, "Ah, what happened?"
"I guess they dropped a case of water on their foot. We should make sure they're ok. 동주아, 얼음 좀 사다 (Dongju-ah, get some ice)."
"예, 형 (ok, hyung)."
Youngjo leads you over to the sofa in the middle of the room. Hwanwoong and Seoho scoot over to allow you to sit between them. "Please sit down, let me see your foot."
You nod and sit down. You remove your shoe and sock to reveal a swollen and purple bump on your foot. "Is it bad?"
Keonhee walks over and crouches in front of you with a pack of ice, "It's fine, just bruised. You should ice and rest it," he places the ice pack on top of the bruise and Youngjo helps wrap the pack around your foot in a makeshift sling. Then he lifts your foot up and places it on top of the coffee-table-like ottoman.
"So, who are you? How'd you get here?" Youngjo asks.
"I'm y/n. I volunteered here today. They asked me to take water to the sound room, but I got lost and ended up here. I knocked on the door to ask for directions, but I wasn't expecting you guys to answer. Quite a shock to me, so I accidentally dropped the water on my foot."
Geonhak, who's leaned against the wall, speaks, "That's really unfortunate. Good thing it's not a serious injury, you should be up and walking in a matter of minutes."
Keonhee nods, "I just feel bad we kind of caused this. I wonder how we can make it up to you?"
Youngjo stands from his crouched position, "Let's sign an album for them."
"Yeah, that's good." Keonhee checks the clock and his eyes widen. He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, "The concert is going to start soon, do you mind waiting backstage until after? We'll get you a chair and you can watch from the side."
"I'd love to! Oh my gosh, I thought I would never be able to see your concert. This is a miracle!" You shout enthusiastically.
Geonhak comes over and helps you up. You lean on him and he guides you to the side of the stage. Already, you can see the fans piled into the venue armed with lightsticks and extreme anticipation. Hwanwoong pulls a chair up for you and Dongju follows with a wooden box for you to prop your foot up on. Finally, Seoho and Keonhee reapply the ice and make sure you're comfortable.
"Cheer for us, alright?"
"Of course!"
Your foot may be swollen and bruised, but you barely notice. You're too caught up in the atmosphere of the whole event. The screaming fans, ONEUS cheering back, and the overall miracle of the events that led up to this. You went from no ticket at all to a front row seat and a signed album.
They even make sure to take a picture with you and promise to save you a ticket to their next concert.