[oneshot] Starstruck. (part 1)
Title: Starstruck.
Group: EXO.
Pairing: Luhan/Xiumin
Rating: PG.
Warning: Bad English, really fucking pointlessly long why.
Summary: Minseok is Luhan's fan. Luhan is Minseok's fan. Luhan is a celebrity. Minseok is not.
N/A: originally a fic for the sncj bigbang!!! to everyone who gave it love in the past, thank you! ♥
Sometimes, Minseok receives messages like this:
oppa! what did u think of their performance on Love&Music con??^^
To which, in that occasion, he’d reply:
I’ve seen a lot of people criticize their outfit choice for the event, but I don’t think it was that bad at all! It was a little shocking at first, but I think it fit the concept of Alegria, even though watching them perform Criminal in all those bright colors was a little off-puttingㅋㅋㅋ
Also, as for the performance itself, I think it was great! It was a perfect debut for Alegria, and I confess I got a little teary-eyed when Luhan hit those high notesㅠㅠ
He gets those messages because he manages an internet fanbase for a Chinese pop idol group called Four Seasons, and, for some reason, a lot of fans actually care about Minseok’s opinion on things. Maybe because his fanbase blog - CXQD_love - had been one of the first Korean sources of information about the group, or maybe because he IS truly dedicated, or maybe because male fans tend to attract attention in the Four Seasons fandom… he doesn’t know. The fact is, Minseok has accidentally become a popular entity on the internet.
One of the messages he used to get the most in the beginning was:
adm sshi, who’s your favorite four seasons member??
And
gege, who’s your number 1 in cxqd?
And its witty variation:
what’s your favorite season?ㅋㅋ
To which he’d answer:
Spring!^^
After some time, Minseok decided to plaster Luhan’s smiling face on the site’s sidebar, so to make it unnecessary to ask.
The story of how he had become a Four Seasons fan was quite the simple one. Minseok, always the Chinese pop culture aficionado, started following Four Seasons a year before they debuted, when they still were an indie three-membered group called TriniTy. Back then, Yixing’s stagename was Lay, and Luhan’s was David (Minseok would occasionally burst in laughter at that memory), and Minseok wasn’t sure they’d last, because the Chinese pop industry was one of the shakiest in all Asia. Then, around September that year, the group disappeared, then reappeared with a new member, new name, new concept and a contract signed with some big companies; that’s when Minseok decided to open his fanbase.
Because of his pioneer status in the fandom, sometimes Minseok would be treated like an authority in All Things Four Seasons and get some pretty complicated questions:
why do you think cxqd became so popular in korea?
Because they were, indeed, popular in Korea, surprisingly so, since the Korean entertainment market was bursting with competition.
At those times, Minseok would think very hard before answering:
I think it’s because they’re different from anything we have here, but not so different to the point it causes a clash. Their rotational center logic is really creative, and I think they’re produced by smart people. Also, most people I know became a fan of them because they work hard to improve and to connect with their fans.
Lastly, I personally think it’s because there aren’t Korean groups who can pull off their conceptsㅋㅋ For a Korean guy to have their charisma while wearing their clothes… impossibleㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Minseok knows he himself would look ridiculous in Four Season’s remarkably flashy outfits.
Luhan found out about Minseok almost immediately after the birth of CXQD_love.
Or rather, Yixing did. Almost a month after their major debut announcement, Yixing was sniffing around the net to see if they were any famous yet, and Luhan was sitting nearby in order to interact with Yixing’s random spurts of energy - “Someone talked about us in this thread!”, and “Look, there’s a comment about me!”, and “Wow, they mentioned us in this article!” - when, suddenly, his full attention was demanded in a rather rough manner.
“Luhan! Luhan! Look!” Yixing practically shoved the laptop’s screen onto Luhan’s face. “It’s about us, right? It’s in Korean! Can you read it?”
He could, Luhan was actually fluent in Korean, so he did this favor for Yixing. The site’s layout looked completely foreign to him, hard to navigate and all messed up, but he eventually found a small description, a bubble of text in the site’s sidebar. He read it slowly, lacking the practice from his high school times - and, when he was finished, he couldn’t help but to be excited too.
“It’s a fansite!” he exclaims, scrolling down to check the site. It was a bit more than a week old, but it was already full of content - from what Luhan could gather in his speed-reading mode, there was even a complete background check, including things from their early TriniTy days… no, even from Yixing’s child TV star days!
“We have fans in Korea!” Yixing exclaimed, and ran into the studio where Kris and Tao were practicing for the recording shouting, “we have fans in Korea!”.
While Yixing tried to get the other two as pointlessly excited as he was, Luhan was exploring the site, fascinated. Apparently, it was a bit like a blog, but with no comment space, and other users could send the blog’s owner questions. He had been initially confused at those weird posts that looked like a bipolar monologue, but when he understood those were messages from other people, everything became clearer and more interesting.
One of them seemed to be from a friend of the owner. The message said simply you did it!ㅋ, to which the owner answered, I’m a full-time internet rat nowㅋㅋ And you, have you fallen for them yet?.
Another message said, could you tell me a bit more about them?? i rly want to be a fan!!! to which the owner gave the person an internal link to their official profiles translated to Korean. Luhan opened that link in a new tab, so to check it out later.
Another message said, who runs this blog? r u a boy or a girl??^^, and the answer was a bit surprising to Luhan.
boy! more like an old manㅠ i’m male, and i’m an adultㅠ
A fanboy? Luhan was so sure those were the rarest! And an adult, on top of that? Luhan was quick to picture a middle-aged office worker cheerfully waving a penlight, and he almost laughed out loud.
But then, what made Luhan decide that he definitely liked their Adult Male Korean Fan was the next message he saw:
oppa~ who’s you fav?
Or rather, its answer:
Luhan!!
Maybe it’s the double exclamation marks, but Luhan was really, really happy.
Minseok gets a lot of personal questions:
oppa, how old are you??^^
To which he’d rather answer:
Old. ㅠㅠㅠ
And they’d insist:
Who’s older than you in Four Seasons?^^
He’d swiftly dodge it:
Please don’t ask this old man such complicated questions!! ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Because, even though he’s not even a year older than Luhan and Kris, the two oldest members of Four Seasons, his age is way above the fandom average. Most fans are either the same age or younger than the group’s youngest member, Tao, and Minseok is a whole three years older than him. Sometimes, when thinking about that, Minseok would wonder if he made the right choices in his life.
Luhan and Yixing check the site every day. Almost every day, at least. Yixing usually spends less than five minute on it, since he can’t read anything and just checks it for the sake of checking; Luhan, on the other hand, religiously reads through all the new posts, even if it gives him Korean-induced headache.
What can he do? He appreciates their Adult Male Korean Fan’s hard work. Might as well show some dedication himself.
“Do you think he really might be a middle-aged balding uncle or something?” Kris asks him once. Kris also reads through the blog occasionally, just as interested as Luhan is but not as dedicated. Luhan immediately knows he’s talking about one of the recent messages their AMKF - adult male Korean fan - got.
“Why not? At least he has good taste.” He smiles smugly to himself, once again recalling that their most influential international fan had picked him as his favorite.
Just as Luhan finishes backtracking the most recent entries - all about things he already knew, new album, activities schedule, weibo translations, etc. - he scrolls up to find an update. A new message.
would you post a picture of yourself?^^
And the answer:
nooo!!! what if the camera sucks my soul in? ㅋㅋ
“Aw,” Kris mutters, pouting slightly.
“That was you?!” Luhan stares at Kris, shocked.
Kris nods, and they laugh boisterously loud.
Later that day, Luhan would realize that hey, if Kris sent their AMKF a message, so could he! It isn’t that tricky, after all. After spending almost half an hour thinking of a good message to send, Luhan remembers one very relevant detail he wanted to know about the blog owner.
He asks:
what’s your name? do you have a nickname?
And even though Luhan would love to see his question answered immediately, he knows that he shouldn’t expect so much from the probably middle-aged blog owner, so he goes to bed. First thing he does when he wakes up, though, is to check the site for the answer, and there it is:
most people just call me oppa/gege but it’s because i don’t have a penname hereㅋ but since it’s my penname in all the fansites i’m registered to, you can call me xiumin ^^
Xiumin it is, then.
There was a time when Minseok got the following ask:
gege, do you ever get anon hate?
Minseok found it sweet that someone was worried about him, and answered it honestly.
yes, sometimes, but nothing too harsh. i always erase the hate messages so not to encourage people to send me more. usually they’re pretty generic and don’t offend me, so don’t worry! gege is okay~
The next message he got was anonymous, and he almost expected it to be hate mail - but, instead, the message said:
I can’t believe there are people who send you hate! You’re a nice person and a dedicated fan, don’t let anyone bring you down!
He felt a bit touched by that.
t-thank you! ㅠ this message made me really happy! i might print it and plaster it on my wallㅋ
Meanwhile, in China, Luhan stared at his computer with a grin on his face. At first, right after sending the anonymous message, he had found his own impulse to defend Xiumin a bit weird. However, the fan’s reaction had been worth it. Also, Luhan thought before closing his laptop, maybe Four Season’s number one fan deserved a bit of pampering after all.
Weirdly enough, Minseok gets next to no asks about what he thought it was the most questionable topic about him - his sexuality.
The only asks that he ever gets about the subject were mocking ones from Jongdae, his annoying best friend. Whenever Jongdae realizes that Minseok is online but idle, he’ll flood him with anonymous messages.
you’re granted a one day date with luhan. what do you do?
Minseok laughs, knowing it was him, and answers:
take him to see the cherry blossoms with me, then get to my knees and propose eternal friendship. complete with bromance golden ring. we then have a june wedding.
It’s just like any other time Jongdae has teased him about it… except, this time, five minutes after he posts his answer, he gets an ask from another follower (username: taotastic) about it, which is a first.
are you saying you wouldn’t date luhan? ㅋㅋ
Minseok thinks it over for a bit.
i wouldn’t have the guts to reject luhan if he wanted to date meㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋthat i know for sureㅋㅋㅋ
Kris mentions Xiumin to their manager once, when the manager comments on their surprising popularity among Korean netizens.
“We even have a Korean fansite,” Kris says, glancing at his bandmates so they’d know who he was talking about. Luhan catches on.
“A really big one! Let me show you, gege!” he says excitedly, pulling his laptop.
Just as Yixing is explaining about how they found about the site and how it was maintained by a very dedicated fanboy, Luhan reads the most recent post on cxqd_love and gasps a little.
“Aw,” he says, turning to his bandmates, who look at him a bit startled. “He’s sick!”
Kris frowns a little. “Really?” All of the members, plus their manager, gather around Luhan’s laptop to read the post.
Hello! I’m actually not your oppaㅋㅋ I’m xiumin’s friend, jongdae. I’m just here because xiumin asked me to let you know that he’s sick and won’t be able to update the blog for a while. He told me to say he’ll be back in three days, but his face is a bit green and he’s been running a fever since today morning, so I’d say he’ll be back in a week^^ please don’t give up on cxqd_love, or your oppa might cry! ㅋㅋ
“Aw,” Yixing pouts. “Poor Xiumin gege. Do you think he’ll miss our stream this weekend?”
“Send him a message wishing him well!” Kris suggests.
Standing behind them, their manager shakes his head. “Who’s the celebrity again…?” he mumbles to himself.
Crouching right beside Kris, Tao pouts and nudges their leader’s arm. “Can we go to Korea?” The manager is a bit alarmed by that request. “I want to go.”
“We should talk it over with the company!” Yixing suggests, and Manager gege foresees trouble.
jongdae oppa!! could you please post a picture of xiumin oppa?^^
he strictly forbade me from posting pictures of him, and he’s really annoying when he’s mad, but i can assure you he looks exactly like this:
A close-up picture of the full moon. Minseok chokes on his tea.
“JONGDAE!” he shouts, and a cackle can be heard from the front door as the culprit leaves the house.
Luhan doubles over with laughter at that answer.
“Does that mean he’s chubby?” Tao giggles, taking note of the words used. Maybe studying Korean from the internet was not that good of an idea, but it was better than nothing.
“He must be! Can you imagine him?” Luhan chuckles at the mental image of a balding, fat, pale office worker wearing a Four Season’s tee and headband. Even though Luhan’s image of Xiumin varies a little from times to times, he’s always an office worker, and always older than thirty. Now with the addition of a pudgy belly. “I really want to meet him. Gege, when are we going to Korea? Can’t we hold at least a fanmeeting there? A small one?”
Their manager sighs from where he’s doing paperwork, knowing that opposing to it would be fighting a lost battle. “I’ll see what I can do.”
The night seemed normal enough for Jongdae: he was finishing a project that would pay next month’s rent, Minseok was online posting fresh info on the boyband he was obsessed about, everything was just as usual. It had been a month since Minseok got sick and Jongdae had to handle the influx of get better soon!!!! messages that overflowed Minseok’s askbox. He sure was popular. Anyway, it stops being a normal evening when Jongdae receives a call at eight PM, right when he finishes editing the last batch of pictures. It’s from Minseok himself.
“What?” Jongdae casually answers.
His ears are assaulted by a lot of incoherent screaming.
“Jesus, Minseok, calm down! What’s wrong?” Jongdae jumps from his seat, trying to sound angry when he’s actually a bit alarmed.
“Sorry! But! Jongdae!!” Minseok sounds hysterical. Jongdae hopes he wasn’t just mugged or something. “I can’t believe this! I just read it on their official site! Four Seasons! Four Seasons is coming to Korea!!”
Oh. Jongdae laughs, relieved. No, not mugged, just excited.
“They’re coming to Korea, Jongdae! Jongdae!” Minseok repeats, voice strained. “They’re going to hold a fanmeeting in Seoul next month! We need to go! You need to go with me!!”
“Whoa, wait, wait, wait. Why should I go? I’m not even a fan!” Jongdae is not, really. He knows some random data, like the members’ names and some of their songs, but just because Minseok does never shut up about them.
“But you have a camera!” Minseok argues back.
“So? I’m not a daepo goddess!” Even though he does work with macro photography for a living. “What, are you scared you’ll look like a homo at the meeting? Because, if it’s that, me going would only make everything worse.”
“I’m not scared of looking like a homo! I just don’t want to go alone,” great, now he’s sulking. Minseok is not a forceful person, but his sulking face is capable of making even the coldest men feel sorry for him. “Please? Just make me company? I’ll buy you a brand new degrade filter if you go!”
And, well, Minseok sure knew where to hit with his bribing. Cunning little Swiss cheese.
“Hello,” Tao flashes a smile to the mirror, his Korean pronunciation hesitant, and bows. “My name is Huang Zitao. My season is Autumn.”
“Perfect!” Luhan clapped from this seat, excited. “You learned so fast! Your fans will be delighted, Taozi, I guarantee you!”
In a distant corner, Yixing is also practicing, repeating ‘hello, my name is yixing, I am summer, nice to meet you’ a hundred times. Kris is browsing the web, trying to study the hype they were getting from Korean netizens, wondering whether it was enough to hold a smooth fanmeet.
“What if not enough people show up,” he questions, obviously worried. Their manager shakes his head, placid as always.
“The company wouldn’t have agreed if they thought not enough people would show up,” Manager gege reassures Kris calmly. “It’s a free event, at a popular venue. Don’t worry. It’ll be full.”
“Hello, my name is Yixing,” Yixing chirps in his trained Korean, waltzing across the room. “I am summer. Nice to meet you!”
Minseok cannot think of anything else but the fanmeet. He giggles a little every time he looks at his Blossoming-era poster, trying to fully grasp the fact that soon he’ll be seeing them in flesh; he also thanks God that Kris’ pink perm times were way past him (the fashion choices for Blossoming had been particularly extravagant). He forgets to eat sometimes, because he’s either too busy browsing the internet for information or immersed in making banners for the performance, and, thanks to that, he becomes somewhat thinner. Jongdae is worried about him.
“You,” Jongdae accuses when they have brunch together. For once, Minseok is eating eagerly, sparkling with energy. “Are driving me mad. I feel like I have to save you from yourself. Did you even realize that all you ate for lunch this week was green tea biscuits?”
“They’re tasty!” Minseok objects, mouth full of ramyun.
“They’re styrofoam, as far as nutrition goes.” Jongdae sighs. “You have to calm down. If you don’t eat well and sleep seven hours per night, you might get sick and not be able to go to the fanmeeting. How’s that?”
“Don’t say that!” Minseok is a bit shocked, but Jongdae sustains his point. Minseok reconsiders. “Mm, you might be right. It’s just… I feel like my stomach is upside down inside of me. Every time I remember I’m going to see them live, it’s just,” Minseok tries to express it with a hand gesture, but fails. “I don’t know! I feel… fuzzy.”
Jongdae grins. “Natural, since you’re finally going to see your true love in person.” Minseok side-eyes him judgingly. “I’m seriously going to make a ‘Xiumin loves Luhan’ banner and hold it over your head the whole time. Be prepared.”
“Please don’t,” Minseok pleads, but he’s afraid it might be futile.
Luhan practices with unseen enthusiasm for their mini live. Four songs, one for each member, including their newest song, Alegria. Alegria features Luhan as the center, since it’s a spring song, and he rehearses it with such pride that the choreographer praises him.
“Looks like someone is excited~,” Yixing singsongs during their break, a knowing smile on his lips.
“Well, aren’t you? It’s the first time we’re going to Korea,” Luhan justifies. “What if we get big there? Wouldn’t it be great?”
Yixing doesn’t drop his knowing smile. “Say,” he takes a sip of water from his bottle. “What if Xiumin gege doesn’t show up for the fanmeeting?”
Luhan frowns, tilting his head to the side. “Well, that would be a bit sad.” He narrows his eyes a little, catching up with Yixing’s insinuations. “But I’d perform just as happily. Are you trying to say something…?”
“Timetable!” Kris suddenly bursts through the door, startling his bandmates to death. “Mini live, then MC and greetings, album signing, then encore. Manager gege tried to make the album signing into a handshake session, but I said…”
Kris keeps talking, Yixing keeps smiling, Luhan narrows his eyes a bit more.
Two days till the fanmeeting, and Minseok has all his things ready. Two small banners - “Four Seasons Love” and “Beautiful Spring Sunshine” - a T-shirt Jongdae helped him to design, a striped wristband with the members’ colors, and his blue Stormy Eyes cap, one of the first pieces of Four Seasons merchandising he bought. Jongdae is at his place, presumably to remind Minseok that he should sleep, but Minseok thinks he’s there just to browse the net with him.
The whole Korean Four Seasons fandom is in a hubbub. Minseok can barely translate the members’ weibo entries properly, because he’s too excited, and his inbox is constantly flooded with questions and requests.
oppa!!!!! two more days!!!!! im so excited!!!!!! oppa is going right????
yes! i’ll be there, although i can’t believe it myselfㅠㅠ let’s have a good time!! don’t forget to take your albums or a notepad, because there’s going to be an autograph session!
Minseok’s albums are all ready, neatly organized inside his backpack. Since he owns too many, he decided to select just a few to take with him for the signing - the first press edition of their debut album, Fortune; the special edition of Blooming; and their best-of album, Good Omens All Year Round. When organizing the albums, he thought about taking enough money with him to buy a copy of Alegria at the event, but eventually decided against it, since he had already purchased it online.
gege i wanna meet u @ the event on saturday! how can i find u?^^
At that, Minseok purses his lips, thoughtful. If he were going alone, maybe he wouldn’t have answered that question, but, since Jongdae is going with him, he feels a bit safer. The reason why he never posts pictures of himself is fear that someone could use that data to kidnap or murder him, but maybe he’s worrying a little too much.
i’ll be wearing jeans, a white shirt with flowers in it, a pink+green+orange+blue wristband, and the stormy eyes blue cap! also i’ll be holding two black signs and carrying a black backpack with red stripes. if you see a short guy dressed like that, it’s probably me, so go talk to that person! i look forward to meeting you and everyone^^
Shortly thereafter, Minseok gets another message.
oppa! you should make banner with your name. maybe cxqd can remember you after! d(*・ω・*)b♪
Minseok chuckles a little at the possibility.
aah, it’s too late for that nowㅠㅠ but jongdae said he’d hold a sign with my name over my head. let’s see if he’ll honour his wordㅋㅋ
Yixing is calmly packing when suddenly Luhan bursts into his room.
“He’s going,” Luhan says simply before sticking his tongue out and leaving.
Yixing fails to understand the message, and shrugs it off.
One day till the event.
“… I mean, unless you really desperately want to go, I wouldn’t go,” Jongdae advises him over some ice cream. “Airports are not the best place to fanboy in. It’ll be crowded, bodyguards will be pushing people. Besides, aren’t you going to see them tomorrow anyway?”
Minseok nods, pouting a bit. “You’re right,” he says thoughtfully, nudging his melting ice cream without enthusiasm.
Jongdae stares at him for a while, then sighs. “Do you want to go or not? We’re a fifteen minutes bus away from it.”
Minseok frowns a little, seeming to think it over. Then, instead of answering, his smiles sheepishly. “Do you have your camera with you?”
As soon as they exit the waiting room, Luhan is taken aback. Wow. Wow. That sure is a lot of people.
The noise that rises when Kris first steps out is deafening; it hits Luhan like a warm gust of wind, and he smiles involuntarily, waving to the crowd. His gaze travels across the crowd: there are three very young girls right in front of him, not older than ten years old, holding a sign for Tao while a woman (their mother?) watches over them; there’s a group of teen girls in jerseys, holding a sign that says ‘Deokeun Woman’s School’s Volleyball team ♥ Four Seasons!’, and one of them, who is remarkably tall, has a blue hairband on, signalizing she’s a fan of Kris’; there’s an older lady, accompanied by a boy in his late teens and a slightly younger girl, all three holding a ‘Four Seasons is the best!’ banner and waving energetically; there are two stylish young men with matching outfits holding a sign that says ‘Gay for Lay’, and Luhan cackles, because that might as well be the best thing ever.
“Did you see that?” Luhan calls for Yixing, and points at the boys, which makes them flail around intensely. “Your true fans.”
Yixing winks at them and blows a kiss, probably killing them for good, before turning to Luhan and whining, “How do they know that stagename?! I dropped it ages ago!”
Luhan cackles a bit more, and keeps waving.
Luhan sees all kind of people gathered at the airport, chanting his name, waving at him: young adults, children, teens (a lot of them), men, women, people he couldn’t tell whether they were men or women, students, fashionable girls, tough-looking boys, and more. There was one type of person he didn’t see, however, and that’s a thing he thinks about while climbing on the backseat of their rented car.
“No office workers,” he mutters, pouting a little.
“I was thinking about that!” Kris confesses from the front seat, turning around to face him and almost hitting Tao with his shoulder. “I looked around a bit but didn’t see anyone who could be him. Maybe he’s at work?”
“True! Today is Friday, it’s a workday,” Yixing says nodding. “Poor gege. I wonder if he’s sad for not being able to come?”
“But there were a lot of men there today,” Tao interferes, thoughtful. “Maybe he’s not as old as we thought? Or maybe he was just a bit hidden by the crowd?”
A thoughtful pause, as they try to recall the images of the reception crowd.
“Well! What matters is that, tomorrow, we’ll definitely meet him,” Kris says, dismissing the assembly.
“By the way,” Luhan decides to change the subject. “Did you guys see Yixing’s hardcore fanboys?”
Everyone did.
“Kris is so freaking tall!” Jongdae is positively outraged. “What the hell? He looks super chic, it’s ridiculous!”
Minseok laughs, toying with his empty cup of coffee. “Look at you. Don’t you sound like a huge fan right now?”
“Shut up! I totally heard you shouting ‘Luhan, Luhan’ like a madman at the airport!” Jongdae accuses and Minseok blushes, guilty as charged. “I just-you told me Kris was tall, but I never thought he was really that tall!”
“Yeah, he’s a tower,” Minseok chuckles a bit, holding onto the sides of his seat as the train comes to a stop. Two more stops and Minseok will be home. “I think I’m gonna collapse tomorrow. Even from afar, Luhan’s skin sort of blinded me. It might kill me if I get too close.”
Jongdae snorts. “Maybe it’s a good thing we were pretty far from the rails, you’d have fainted if Luhan had looked at you in the eye.”
“Most probably, yeah,” Minseok shrugs, a smile on his lips.
“He was there!!”
Kris’ accusatory shout wakes Luhan up from his unplanned nap on the hotel’s bed, sending him scrambling over the sheets muttering ‘what, when, who’.
“Xiumin gege! He was at the airport today!” Kris goes on accusing, turning the laptop to Luhan for him to see the proof. “Look!”
All members and the manager gather around the screen. CXQD_love is filled with pictures of them in the airport - very flattering ones, none of them thought they could look this good in movement - all watermarked after the site’s name, followed by a text caption that said photo by: jongdae.
“Wait, so his friend Jongdae was there,” Yixing points out, mispronouncing the name. “That doesn’t mean he was there too.”
“No, there’s a post…” Kris blindly scrolled down a bit, peeking from over the screen. “Here, this one.”
A text post, from before the pictures were posted.
i was at the airport today!! four seasons arrived @ 3:30 PM. i was a bit far from them and didn’t have any signs with me because i forgot them at homeㅠㅠ anyway, photographer jongdae took a lot of pictures, so i’ll post them now!
“Those pictures are really good…” Manager gege comments, nodding.
“I can’t believe he was there and we missed him!” Tao whines, brows curved in an unhappy expression.
Luhan nods, pouting as well. He really wishes he could have at least caught a glimpse of him at the airport, just so to have a face to associate with his internet-self. But, well, he couldn’t, and now he can barely wait for the following day, when he’ll finally face his dedicated, cheerful number one fanboy.
That night, tossing and turning on the hotel’s bed, he dreams of chubby office workers.
It’s The Day. When Jongdae and Minseok exit the station near the event’s venue, Minseok takes a deep breath.
“Albums; check,” he mutters, patting his backpack. “Signs; check,” in a big tote bag he’s carrying. “Cap; check,” it’s on his head. “Wristband-”
“Calm down. You’re driving me crazy,” Jongdae hits him softly on the head, not looking up from his camera, where he’s setting the white balance to the right value. “It’s the billionth time you check everything. Even if you had forgotten something, the event won’t start till two hours from here. Enough time for you to run back home.” He then raises his eyes, adjusting his beanie and making a face. “Man, I’m hungry. Wanna grab some lunch?”
“Too nervous. Sorry,” Minseok smiles apologetically as they cross the street and approach the venue. “But I have a sandwich and some biscuits if you-wow, oh my God.”
The surroundings of the venue are covered in people. There’s about twice as more people there than at the airport in the day before, all gathered under trees or buying goods at make-do stands. Albeit at the airport there were a remarkable high amount of boys, there, at the event venue, Minseok can see nothing but girls, girls, and more girls.
“I do look a bit like a homo here,” Minseok jokes, and Jongdae laughs soundly. “Specially with the flowery T-shirt. Hey, look at that, I told you they would be selling goods! Did I even bring money…?”
“Um, e-excuse me…” Minseok is suddenly nudged on the shoulder. When he turns around, he sees three girls - much younger than him, probably in high school - looking at him with curious round eyes and holding assorted signs. One of them is blindingly fashionable; the other two are a bit plainer, one is wearing a bright neon orange headband, while the other has very, very long hair. “X-Xiumin oppa…?”
Minseok blinks, then smiles brightly, eyes wide. “That’s me! You guys read my blog?”
The girls proceed to squeal a bit, causing Jongdae to snicker discreetly. “We’re so happy to meet you!” the fashionable one says, suddenly taking out a compact camera from her Cinnamon Roll pouch. “Can we take a picture with you? Please?”
“Sure! Jongdae,” Minseok calls his friend. “Would you please-”
“Oh my God, so you’re Jongdae!” the one with the orange headband exclaims. Jongdae, who was previously jeering at Minseok silently, is taken aback by the recognition, and nods a bit shyly. “Can we please take a picture with you too?”
“Um-um, sure,” Jongdae is confusion, and his confusion pleases Minseok, who chuckles and nudges him on the ribs jestingly.
Minseok is asked for pictures a grand total of ten times, which is a lot, and a great number of people come talk to him and say things like ‘I love your blog’ or ‘I’ve been following since last year’, et cetera. Of course, there are many people who don’t know him, or don’t care, or are too shy to talk to him, but Minseok feels overwhelmed by the attention. Even Jongdae gets in high spirits thanks to the attention, asking for pictures of the most stylish fans, telling Minseok about how his next project will be about ‘fangirl’s fashion’.
“Abandoning macro photography for good, then?” Minseok teases, munching on some biscuits.
“Never!” Jongdae shouts, widening his eyes.
When the venue staff announce the time to line up, Minseok and Jongdae rush to get a good spot, and manage to be close enough to stand close to the stage. As Minseok jumps on the balls of his feet, excited to the maximum, Jongdae smirks and pulls out a folded sheet of A3-size paper from his bag.
“So…” he unfolds the sign and casually holds it out for Minseok to see. “Are you ready for the show?”
The sheet of paper says ‘Xiumin = Luhan’s boyfriend’ and it makes Minseok’s face go beet red.
“You would never!” Minseok exclaims, hiding the paper from the public eye, and Jongdae’s smirk widens. “Please don’t! I’ll do anything!”
“Don’t ruin my fun, Minseok,” Jongdae shakes his head, and the staff starts letting people in.
“Put it back in there,” Minseok hurries as the line begins to move, and Jongdae does as told, obviously not giving up. “You won’t be getting any filters from me! Terrible friend! Terrible!” Jongdae just laughs.
Backstage, all of them are jittery. Even Kris, who’s famous for being overly calm and often expressionless, is clearly in a good mood. Tao can’t stop taking selcas. Yixing and Luhan are hopping around, annoying the staff. Manager gege is browsing CXQD_love with curiosity, saving all of Jongdae’s pictures from the previous day to a folder named ‘mysterious photographer JONGDAE’.
“Can you see them? Can you see if it’s full?” Luhan and Yixing are exploring the corners of the stage, taking care not to be discovered.
“If I manage to see them, they might see me too,” Yixing justifies. “But I think it’s full. Or almost full. The noise is really loud.”
“Standby! One minute!” A member of the staff shouts as the second warning bell rings through the venue. Luhan and Yixing glance at each other with mirrored excitement, then rush to where Kris and Tao were already waiting, microphones set, make-up fixed.
Following a tradition, they stand in a circle and hold onto each other’s shoulders, like a sports team getting ready for a big game. “Okay, so,” Kris starts off, awkwardly as always. “This is the first time we’re performing in Korea. It’s a big deal, since there’s so much competition here, and we have to rely on our hard work to please our fans. Since we’ve been diligent for a long time, I think we can do it. Let’s climb onto the stage with confidence and excitement. Ready?” his bandmates nod. “Four Seasons, let’s go!”
“Fight!” they shout in unison, clapping and whistling, getting properly pumped up. Yixing jumps around a bit, making sure he’s warmed up; Luhan tests his voice a bit, blocking his auricular mike with his hand so no accidents occur; Tao stretches, getting ready for his cartwheel at the intro of Alegria; and Kris takes several deep breaths, trying to loosen up his tense limbs.
“Standby! Twenty seconds! Lights, off!” The staff screams, and lights go off. Luhan’s heart is pounding soundly in his ribcage.
“Go!” Their manager commands, and they rush to the stage, intuitively finding their positions in the pitch black darkness.
The final bell rings. The cheering becomes deafening. A pause, seemingly long enough for the venue to become silent.
Then, lights on. Screams. The first powerful notes of Alegria blast through the speakers, and Tao finishes his cartwheel perfectly, followed by Yixing’s pirouette.
“Days of sunshine, nights of moonlight, I see your smile in the clear sky,” Luhan’s voice quivers a little, but still comes out perfectly melodic, and his heart is put at ease. “A century of dreams, a lifetime of hopes, Alegria.”
“Don’t cry!” Jongdae screams at Minseok, laughing.
“I’m not crying!!” He is not, really, but his voice does come out a little choked up.
Minseok knows he can’t cry, that would be an embarrassing overreaction, but when he looks at them his heart does this weird thing and he can’t breathe and it’s pretty uncomfortable and overwhelming. His cheeks hurt from grinning, his throat is going to hurt from singing along afterwards, and he instantly forgets about those pains because he can see Luhan so clearly, my God, he’s so perfect.
When he realizes what he’s thinking about, Minseok laughs at himself and nudges Jongdae’s shoulder. “Maybe I am a homo after all!” he screams, eyes glued to the stage.
“What?!” Jongdae doesn’t hear him.
“I said: maybe I am a homo after all!” Minseok screams louder, and he swears he can hear some girls behind him giggle. Jongdae bursts out in laughter.
“No shit, Minseok!” He mocks before turning his eyes back to the stage. Minseok is only slightly offended.
They wrap up the mini live with Dance! Dance! Dance!, a summer song, and announce some first-hand information: the title of their next single, Mirage, also a summer song. Yixing speaks a bit of broken Korean, since he’ll be centering it, and Luhan can’t help but laugh.
“I’ll do hard! Cheer for me!” Eventually, Yixing gives up and finishes his speech with his signature fanchant. “Summer and Love! One, two…?”
“Yixing!” fans and members shouted in unison, familiar with the call.
“How did you guys know that!?” Kris asks the crowd, surprised. The fans laugh. “Even some people in China can’t keep up with it!”
“It’s because, even though they’re far from us, they’re still dedicated fans. Right?” Luhan smiles, browsing the crowd for the specific person he was talking about. As the crowd cheered loudly, Luhan gives up, unable to see the fan’s faces clearly. He’ll have to calm down and wait for the fansigning. “We’re trying to be just as dedicated. Our youngest child, Tao, has been studying. Right, Tao?” Tao jumps, a bit startled. “Haven’t you been studying Korean?” Luhan says to him in Mandarin.
“Yes! Hello!” Tao steps forward. “My name is Huang Zitao. My seash… season is Autumn!” fans squeal and coo, Tao blushes, Luhan cackles at the cute mistake.
“Now, it seems like our manager prepared games for us to play with you,” Kris says, looking for their manager for confirmation. From the backstage, Manager gege nods. “Yes, and then the fansigning. Are you ready?”
“Yes!!” Minseok screams from the top of his lungs, joining the chorus.
The games go on smoothly; Tao and Yixing make up for their bad Korean by entertaining the fans with interpretative dances and impersonations. Luhan is pretty sure the internet will be soon filled with pictures of Tao making “sexy” poses while wearing cat ears, and he has to admit he almost fell off his chair when Yixing impersonated Kris’ rapping. Eventually, after four games and Luhan being announced as the overall winner, Manager gege and the staff remove the costume racks and flag stand from the stage, replacing it with a long table as the members reorganize the chairs.
“Now, as you might know, there’ll be a signing session.” The crowd’s uproar is great, and Kris smiles. “The staff will help you to line up. Those who want a signature, the line will be on the right side of the stage. Your right, not mine.” The fans laugh. “Those who are just accompanying someone can stand on the left. Don’t worry about rushing, we’ll not stop the session until everyone gets our signature,” that information is received with a round of applause, which makes Kris a bit flustered. “Well, then… staff sshi? Ah, yes, let’s go.”
Minseok gets manhandled into a relatively good position, and Jongdae, surprisingly, adheres to the signature line. When silently questioned by Minseok, he shrugs.
“I’m here already, might as well get some free autographs,” he says, setting up his camera. “They don’t have any ‘no pics’ rule, do they? I didn’t see anything.”
Minseok ponders for a bit, then attracts the attention of the nearest staff member. “Can we take pictures?”
The staff member, who’s a forty-something man, looks at Minseok, then at Jongdae, then back at Minseok, then forth at Jongdae. “Okay,” he says finally, making a positive sign with his hand and moving forward to organize the rest of the line.
“Lucky! I’ll be able to take photos of you dying onstage,” Jongdae says, taking a test picture of the boyband. “Man, the lighting here is shit.”
“Do you want one of my albums?” Minseok asks as he pulled the first press of Fortune out of his backpack.
“Nah, I’m good,” Jongdae brushes it off. “I have a notepad or something, I think. If anything, I can ask them to sign my shirt.”
Minseok snorts, eyeing said shirt with disbelief while straightening his back and taking a deep breath. This is it. It’s finally time.
part 1 → part 2 → part 3
Group: EXO.
Pairing: Luhan/Xiumin
Rating: PG.
Warning: Bad English, really fucking pointlessly long why.
Summary: Minseok is Luhan's fan. Luhan is Minseok's fan. Luhan is a celebrity. Minseok is not.
N/A: originally a fic for the sncj bigbang!!! to everyone who gave it love in the past, thank you! ♥
Sometimes, Minseok receives messages like this:
oppa! what did u think of their performance on Love&Music con??^^
To which, in that occasion, he’d reply:
I’ve seen a lot of people criticize their outfit choice for the event, but I don’t think it was that bad at all! It was a little shocking at first, but I think it fit the concept of Alegria, even though watching them perform Criminal in all those bright colors was a little off-puttingㅋㅋㅋ
Also, as for the performance itself, I think it was great! It was a perfect debut for Alegria, and I confess I got a little teary-eyed when Luhan hit those high notesㅠㅠ
He gets those messages because he manages an internet fanbase for a Chinese pop idol group called Four Seasons, and, for some reason, a lot of fans actually care about Minseok’s opinion on things. Maybe because his fanbase blog - CXQD_love - had been one of the first Korean sources of information about the group, or maybe because he IS truly dedicated, or maybe because male fans tend to attract attention in the Four Seasons fandom… he doesn’t know. The fact is, Minseok has accidentally become a popular entity on the internet.
One of the messages he used to get the most in the beginning was:
adm sshi, who’s your favorite four seasons member??
And
gege, who’s your number 1 in cxqd?
And its witty variation:
what’s your favorite season?ㅋㅋ
To which he’d answer:
Spring!^^
After some time, Minseok decided to plaster Luhan’s smiling face on the site’s sidebar, so to make it unnecessary to ask.
The story of how he had become a Four Seasons fan was quite the simple one. Minseok, always the Chinese pop culture aficionado, started following Four Seasons a year before they debuted, when they still were an indie three-membered group called TriniTy. Back then, Yixing’s stagename was Lay, and Luhan’s was David (Minseok would occasionally burst in laughter at that memory), and Minseok wasn’t sure they’d last, because the Chinese pop industry was one of the shakiest in all Asia. Then, around September that year, the group disappeared, then reappeared with a new member, new name, new concept and a contract signed with some big companies; that’s when Minseok decided to open his fanbase.
Because of his pioneer status in the fandom, sometimes Minseok would be treated like an authority in All Things Four Seasons and get some pretty complicated questions:
why do you think cxqd became so popular in korea?
Because they were, indeed, popular in Korea, surprisingly so, since the Korean entertainment market was bursting with competition.
At those times, Minseok would think very hard before answering:
I think it’s because they’re different from anything we have here, but not so different to the point it causes a clash. Their rotational center logic is really creative, and I think they’re produced by smart people. Also, most people I know became a fan of them because they work hard to improve and to connect with their fans.
Lastly, I personally think it’s because there aren’t Korean groups who can pull off their conceptsㅋㅋ For a Korean guy to have their charisma while wearing their clothes… impossibleㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Minseok knows he himself would look ridiculous in Four Season’s remarkably flashy outfits.
Luhan found out about Minseok almost immediately after the birth of CXQD_love.
Or rather, Yixing did. Almost a month after their major debut announcement, Yixing was sniffing around the net to see if they were any famous yet, and Luhan was sitting nearby in order to interact with Yixing’s random spurts of energy - “Someone talked about us in this thread!”, and “Look, there’s a comment about me!”, and “Wow, they mentioned us in this article!” - when, suddenly, his full attention was demanded in a rather rough manner.
“Luhan! Luhan! Look!” Yixing practically shoved the laptop’s screen onto Luhan’s face. “It’s about us, right? It’s in Korean! Can you read it?”
He could, Luhan was actually fluent in Korean, so he did this favor for Yixing. The site’s layout looked completely foreign to him, hard to navigate and all messed up, but he eventually found a small description, a bubble of text in the site’s sidebar. He read it slowly, lacking the practice from his high school times - and, when he was finished, he couldn’t help but to be excited too.
“It’s a fansite!” he exclaims, scrolling down to check the site. It was a bit more than a week old, but it was already full of content - from what Luhan could gather in his speed-reading mode, there was even a complete background check, including things from their early TriniTy days… no, even from Yixing’s child TV star days!
“We have fans in Korea!” Yixing exclaimed, and ran into the studio where Kris and Tao were practicing for the recording shouting, “we have fans in Korea!”.
While Yixing tried to get the other two as pointlessly excited as he was, Luhan was exploring the site, fascinated. Apparently, it was a bit like a blog, but with no comment space, and other users could send the blog’s owner questions. He had been initially confused at those weird posts that looked like a bipolar monologue, but when he understood those were messages from other people, everything became clearer and more interesting.
One of them seemed to be from a friend of the owner. The message said simply you did it!ㅋ, to which the owner answered, I’m a full-time internet rat nowㅋㅋ And you, have you fallen for them yet?.
Another message said, could you tell me a bit more about them?? i rly want to be a fan!!! to which the owner gave the person an internal link to their official profiles translated to Korean. Luhan opened that link in a new tab, so to check it out later.
Another message said, who runs this blog? r u a boy or a girl??^^, and the answer was a bit surprising to Luhan.
boy! more like an old manㅠ i’m male, and i’m an adultㅠ
A fanboy? Luhan was so sure those were the rarest! And an adult, on top of that? Luhan was quick to picture a middle-aged office worker cheerfully waving a penlight, and he almost laughed out loud.
But then, what made Luhan decide that he definitely liked their Adult Male Korean Fan was the next message he saw:
oppa~ who’s you fav?
Or rather, its answer:
Luhan!!
Maybe it’s the double exclamation marks, but Luhan was really, really happy.
Minseok gets a lot of personal questions:
oppa, how old are you??^^
To which he’d rather answer:
Old. ㅠㅠㅠ
And they’d insist:
Who’s older than you in Four Seasons?^^
He’d swiftly dodge it:
Please don’t ask this old man such complicated questions!! ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Because, even though he’s not even a year older than Luhan and Kris, the two oldest members of Four Seasons, his age is way above the fandom average. Most fans are either the same age or younger than the group’s youngest member, Tao, and Minseok is a whole three years older than him. Sometimes, when thinking about that, Minseok would wonder if he made the right choices in his life.
Luhan and Yixing check the site every day. Almost every day, at least. Yixing usually spends less than five minute on it, since he can’t read anything and just checks it for the sake of checking; Luhan, on the other hand, religiously reads through all the new posts, even if it gives him Korean-induced headache.
What can he do? He appreciates their Adult Male Korean Fan’s hard work. Might as well show some dedication himself.
“Do you think he really might be a middle-aged balding uncle or something?” Kris asks him once. Kris also reads through the blog occasionally, just as interested as Luhan is but not as dedicated. Luhan immediately knows he’s talking about one of the recent messages their AMKF - adult male Korean fan - got.
“Why not? At least he has good taste.” He smiles smugly to himself, once again recalling that their most influential international fan had picked him as his favorite.
Just as Luhan finishes backtracking the most recent entries - all about things he already knew, new album, activities schedule, weibo translations, etc. - he scrolls up to find an update. A new message.
would you post a picture of yourself?^^
And the answer:
nooo!!! what if the camera sucks my soul in? ㅋㅋ
“Aw,” Kris mutters, pouting slightly.
“That was you?!” Luhan stares at Kris, shocked.
Kris nods, and they laugh boisterously loud.
Later that day, Luhan would realize that hey, if Kris sent their AMKF a message, so could he! It isn’t that tricky, after all. After spending almost half an hour thinking of a good message to send, Luhan remembers one very relevant detail he wanted to know about the blog owner.
He asks:
what’s your name? do you have a nickname?
And even though Luhan would love to see his question answered immediately, he knows that he shouldn’t expect so much from the probably middle-aged blog owner, so he goes to bed. First thing he does when he wakes up, though, is to check the site for the answer, and there it is:
most people just call me oppa/gege but it’s because i don’t have a penname hereㅋ but since it’s my penname in all the fansites i’m registered to, you can call me xiumin ^^
Xiumin it is, then.
There was a time when Minseok got the following ask:
gege, do you ever get anon hate?
Minseok found it sweet that someone was worried about him, and answered it honestly.
yes, sometimes, but nothing too harsh. i always erase the hate messages so not to encourage people to send me more. usually they’re pretty generic and don’t offend me, so don’t worry! gege is okay~
The next message he got was anonymous, and he almost expected it to be hate mail - but, instead, the message said:
I can’t believe there are people who send you hate! You’re a nice person and a dedicated fan, don’t let anyone bring you down!
He felt a bit touched by that.
t-thank you! ㅠ this message made me really happy! i might print it and plaster it on my wallㅋ
Meanwhile, in China, Luhan stared at his computer with a grin on his face. At first, right after sending the anonymous message, he had found his own impulse to defend Xiumin a bit weird. However, the fan’s reaction had been worth it. Also, Luhan thought before closing his laptop, maybe Four Season’s number one fan deserved a bit of pampering after all.
Weirdly enough, Minseok gets next to no asks about what he thought it was the most questionable topic about him - his sexuality.
The only asks that he ever gets about the subject were mocking ones from Jongdae, his annoying best friend. Whenever Jongdae realizes that Minseok is online but idle, he’ll flood him with anonymous messages.
you’re granted a one day date with luhan. what do you do?
Minseok laughs, knowing it was him, and answers:
take him to see the cherry blossoms with me, then get to my knees and propose eternal friendship. complete with bromance golden ring. we then have a june wedding.
It’s just like any other time Jongdae has teased him about it… except, this time, five minutes after he posts his answer, he gets an ask from another follower (username: taotastic) about it, which is a first.
are you saying you wouldn’t date luhan? ㅋㅋ
Minseok thinks it over for a bit.
i wouldn’t have the guts to reject luhan if he wanted to date meㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋthat i know for sureㅋㅋㅋ
Kris mentions Xiumin to their manager once, when the manager comments on their surprising popularity among Korean netizens.
“We even have a Korean fansite,” Kris says, glancing at his bandmates so they’d know who he was talking about. Luhan catches on.
“A really big one! Let me show you, gege!” he says excitedly, pulling his laptop.
Just as Yixing is explaining about how they found about the site and how it was maintained by a very dedicated fanboy, Luhan reads the most recent post on cxqd_love and gasps a little.
“Aw,” he says, turning to his bandmates, who look at him a bit startled. “He’s sick!”
Kris frowns a little. “Really?” All of the members, plus their manager, gather around Luhan’s laptop to read the post.
Hello! I’m actually not your oppaㅋㅋ I’m xiumin’s friend, jongdae. I’m just here because xiumin asked me to let you know that he’s sick and won’t be able to update the blog for a while. He told me to say he’ll be back in three days, but his face is a bit green and he’s been running a fever since today morning, so I’d say he’ll be back in a week^^ please don’t give up on cxqd_love, or your oppa might cry! ㅋㅋ
“Aw,” Yixing pouts. “Poor Xiumin gege. Do you think he’ll miss our stream this weekend?”
“Send him a message wishing him well!” Kris suggests.
Standing behind them, their manager shakes his head. “Who’s the celebrity again…?” he mumbles to himself.
Crouching right beside Kris, Tao pouts and nudges their leader’s arm. “Can we go to Korea?” The manager is a bit alarmed by that request. “I want to go.”
“We should talk it over with the company!” Yixing suggests, and Manager gege foresees trouble.
jongdae oppa!! could you please post a picture of xiumin oppa?^^
he strictly forbade me from posting pictures of him, and he’s really annoying when he’s mad, but i can assure you he looks exactly like this:
A close-up picture of the full moon. Minseok chokes on his tea.
“JONGDAE!” he shouts, and a cackle can be heard from the front door as the culprit leaves the house.
Luhan doubles over with laughter at that answer.
“Does that mean he’s chubby?” Tao giggles, taking note of the words used. Maybe studying Korean from the internet was not that good of an idea, but it was better than nothing.
“He must be! Can you imagine him?” Luhan chuckles at the mental image of a balding, fat, pale office worker wearing a Four Season’s tee and headband. Even though Luhan’s image of Xiumin varies a little from times to times, he’s always an office worker, and always older than thirty. Now with the addition of a pudgy belly. “I really want to meet him. Gege, when are we going to Korea? Can’t we hold at least a fanmeeting there? A small one?”
Their manager sighs from where he’s doing paperwork, knowing that opposing to it would be fighting a lost battle. “I’ll see what I can do.”
The night seemed normal enough for Jongdae: he was finishing a project that would pay next month’s rent, Minseok was online posting fresh info on the boyband he was obsessed about, everything was just as usual. It had been a month since Minseok got sick and Jongdae had to handle the influx of get better soon!!!! messages that overflowed Minseok’s askbox. He sure was popular. Anyway, it stops being a normal evening when Jongdae receives a call at eight PM, right when he finishes editing the last batch of pictures. It’s from Minseok himself.
“What?” Jongdae casually answers.
His ears are assaulted by a lot of incoherent screaming.
“Jesus, Minseok, calm down! What’s wrong?” Jongdae jumps from his seat, trying to sound angry when he’s actually a bit alarmed.
“Sorry! But! Jongdae!!” Minseok sounds hysterical. Jongdae hopes he wasn’t just mugged or something. “I can’t believe this! I just read it on their official site! Four Seasons! Four Seasons is coming to Korea!!”
Oh. Jongdae laughs, relieved. No, not mugged, just excited.
“They’re coming to Korea, Jongdae! Jongdae!” Minseok repeats, voice strained. “They’re going to hold a fanmeeting in Seoul next month! We need to go! You need to go with me!!”
“Whoa, wait, wait, wait. Why should I go? I’m not even a fan!” Jongdae is not, really. He knows some random data, like the members’ names and some of their songs, but just because Minseok does never shut up about them.
“But you have a camera!” Minseok argues back.
“So? I’m not a daepo goddess!” Even though he does work with macro photography for a living. “What, are you scared you’ll look like a homo at the meeting? Because, if it’s that, me going would only make everything worse.”
“I’m not scared of looking like a homo! I just don’t want to go alone,” great, now he’s sulking. Minseok is not a forceful person, but his sulking face is capable of making even the coldest men feel sorry for him. “Please? Just make me company? I’ll buy you a brand new degrade filter if you go!”
And, well, Minseok sure knew where to hit with his bribing. Cunning little Swiss cheese.
“Hello,” Tao flashes a smile to the mirror, his Korean pronunciation hesitant, and bows. “My name is Huang Zitao. My season is Autumn.”
“Perfect!” Luhan clapped from this seat, excited. “You learned so fast! Your fans will be delighted, Taozi, I guarantee you!”
In a distant corner, Yixing is also practicing, repeating ‘hello, my name is yixing, I am summer, nice to meet you’ a hundred times. Kris is browsing the web, trying to study the hype they were getting from Korean netizens, wondering whether it was enough to hold a smooth fanmeet.
“What if not enough people show up,” he questions, obviously worried. Their manager shakes his head, placid as always.
“The company wouldn’t have agreed if they thought not enough people would show up,” Manager gege reassures Kris calmly. “It’s a free event, at a popular venue. Don’t worry. It’ll be full.”
“Hello, my name is Yixing,” Yixing chirps in his trained Korean, waltzing across the room. “I am summer. Nice to meet you!”
Minseok cannot think of anything else but the fanmeet. He giggles a little every time he looks at his Blossoming-era poster, trying to fully grasp the fact that soon he’ll be seeing them in flesh; he also thanks God that Kris’ pink perm times were way past him (the fashion choices for Blossoming had been particularly extravagant). He forgets to eat sometimes, because he’s either too busy browsing the internet for information or immersed in making banners for the performance, and, thanks to that, he becomes somewhat thinner. Jongdae is worried about him.
“You,” Jongdae accuses when they have brunch together. For once, Minseok is eating eagerly, sparkling with energy. “Are driving me mad. I feel like I have to save you from yourself. Did you even realize that all you ate for lunch this week was green tea biscuits?”
“They’re tasty!” Minseok objects, mouth full of ramyun.
“They’re styrofoam, as far as nutrition goes.” Jongdae sighs. “You have to calm down. If you don’t eat well and sleep seven hours per night, you might get sick and not be able to go to the fanmeeting. How’s that?”
“Don’t say that!” Minseok is a bit shocked, but Jongdae sustains his point. Minseok reconsiders. “Mm, you might be right. It’s just… I feel like my stomach is upside down inside of me. Every time I remember I’m going to see them live, it’s just,” Minseok tries to express it with a hand gesture, but fails. “I don’t know! I feel… fuzzy.”
Jongdae grins. “Natural, since you’re finally going to see your true love in person.” Minseok side-eyes him judgingly. “I’m seriously going to make a ‘Xiumin loves Luhan’ banner and hold it over your head the whole time. Be prepared.”
“Please don’t,” Minseok pleads, but he’s afraid it might be futile.
Luhan practices with unseen enthusiasm for their mini live. Four songs, one for each member, including their newest song, Alegria. Alegria features Luhan as the center, since it’s a spring song, and he rehearses it with such pride that the choreographer praises him.
“Looks like someone is excited~,” Yixing singsongs during their break, a knowing smile on his lips.
“Well, aren’t you? It’s the first time we’re going to Korea,” Luhan justifies. “What if we get big there? Wouldn’t it be great?”
Yixing doesn’t drop his knowing smile. “Say,” he takes a sip of water from his bottle. “What if Xiumin gege doesn’t show up for the fanmeeting?”
Luhan frowns, tilting his head to the side. “Well, that would be a bit sad.” He narrows his eyes a little, catching up with Yixing’s insinuations. “But I’d perform just as happily. Are you trying to say something…?”
“Timetable!” Kris suddenly bursts through the door, startling his bandmates to death. “Mini live, then MC and greetings, album signing, then encore. Manager gege tried to make the album signing into a handshake session, but I said…”
Kris keeps talking, Yixing keeps smiling, Luhan narrows his eyes a bit more.
Two days till the fanmeeting, and Minseok has all his things ready. Two small banners - “Four Seasons Love” and “Beautiful Spring Sunshine” - a T-shirt Jongdae helped him to design, a striped wristband with the members’ colors, and his blue Stormy Eyes cap, one of the first pieces of Four Seasons merchandising he bought. Jongdae is at his place, presumably to remind Minseok that he should sleep, but Minseok thinks he’s there just to browse the net with him.
The whole Korean Four Seasons fandom is in a hubbub. Minseok can barely translate the members’ weibo entries properly, because he’s too excited, and his inbox is constantly flooded with questions and requests.
oppa!!!!! two more days!!!!! im so excited!!!!!! oppa is going right????
yes! i’ll be there, although i can’t believe it myselfㅠㅠ let’s have a good time!! don’t forget to take your albums or a notepad, because there’s going to be an autograph session!
Minseok’s albums are all ready, neatly organized inside his backpack. Since he owns too many, he decided to select just a few to take with him for the signing - the first press edition of their debut album, Fortune; the special edition of Blooming; and their best-of album, Good Omens All Year Round. When organizing the albums, he thought about taking enough money with him to buy a copy of Alegria at the event, but eventually decided against it, since he had already purchased it online.
gege i wanna meet u @ the event on saturday! how can i find u?^^
At that, Minseok purses his lips, thoughtful. If he were going alone, maybe he wouldn’t have answered that question, but, since Jongdae is going with him, he feels a bit safer. The reason why he never posts pictures of himself is fear that someone could use that data to kidnap or murder him, but maybe he’s worrying a little too much.
i’ll be wearing jeans, a white shirt with flowers in it, a pink+green+orange+blue wristband, and the stormy eyes blue cap! also i’ll be holding two black signs and carrying a black backpack with red stripes. if you see a short guy dressed like that, it’s probably me, so go talk to that person! i look forward to meeting you and everyone^^
Shortly thereafter, Minseok gets another message.
oppa! you should make banner with your name. maybe cxqd can remember you after! d(*・ω・*)b♪
Minseok chuckles a little at the possibility.
aah, it’s too late for that nowㅠㅠ but jongdae said he’d hold a sign with my name over my head. let’s see if he’ll honour his wordㅋㅋ
Yixing is calmly packing when suddenly Luhan bursts into his room.
“He’s going,” Luhan says simply before sticking his tongue out and leaving.
Yixing fails to understand the message, and shrugs it off.
One day till the event.
“… I mean, unless you really desperately want to go, I wouldn’t go,” Jongdae advises him over some ice cream. “Airports are not the best place to fanboy in. It’ll be crowded, bodyguards will be pushing people. Besides, aren’t you going to see them tomorrow anyway?”
Minseok nods, pouting a bit. “You’re right,” he says thoughtfully, nudging his melting ice cream without enthusiasm.
Jongdae stares at him for a while, then sighs. “Do you want to go or not? We’re a fifteen minutes bus away from it.”
Minseok frowns a little, seeming to think it over. Then, instead of answering, his smiles sheepishly. “Do you have your camera with you?”
As soon as they exit the waiting room, Luhan is taken aback. Wow. Wow. That sure is a lot of people.
The noise that rises when Kris first steps out is deafening; it hits Luhan like a warm gust of wind, and he smiles involuntarily, waving to the crowd. His gaze travels across the crowd: there are three very young girls right in front of him, not older than ten years old, holding a sign for Tao while a woman (their mother?) watches over them; there’s a group of teen girls in jerseys, holding a sign that says ‘Deokeun Woman’s School’s Volleyball team ♥ Four Seasons!’, and one of them, who is remarkably tall, has a blue hairband on, signalizing she’s a fan of Kris’; there’s an older lady, accompanied by a boy in his late teens and a slightly younger girl, all three holding a ‘Four Seasons is the best!’ banner and waving energetically; there are two stylish young men with matching outfits holding a sign that says ‘Gay for Lay’, and Luhan cackles, because that might as well be the best thing ever.
“Did you see that?” Luhan calls for Yixing, and points at the boys, which makes them flail around intensely. “Your true fans.”
Yixing winks at them and blows a kiss, probably killing them for good, before turning to Luhan and whining, “How do they know that stagename?! I dropped it ages ago!”
Luhan cackles a bit more, and keeps waving.
Luhan sees all kind of people gathered at the airport, chanting his name, waving at him: young adults, children, teens (a lot of them), men, women, people he couldn’t tell whether they were men or women, students, fashionable girls, tough-looking boys, and more. There was one type of person he didn’t see, however, and that’s a thing he thinks about while climbing on the backseat of their rented car.
“No office workers,” he mutters, pouting a little.
“I was thinking about that!” Kris confesses from the front seat, turning around to face him and almost hitting Tao with his shoulder. “I looked around a bit but didn’t see anyone who could be him. Maybe he’s at work?”
“True! Today is Friday, it’s a workday,” Yixing says nodding. “Poor gege. I wonder if he’s sad for not being able to come?”
“But there were a lot of men there today,” Tao interferes, thoughtful. “Maybe he’s not as old as we thought? Or maybe he was just a bit hidden by the crowd?”
A thoughtful pause, as they try to recall the images of the reception crowd.
“Well! What matters is that, tomorrow, we’ll definitely meet him,” Kris says, dismissing the assembly.
“By the way,” Luhan decides to change the subject. “Did you guys see Yixing’s hardcore fanboys?”
Everyone did.
“Kris is so freaking tall!” Jongdae is positively outraged. “What the hell? He looks super chic, it’s ridiculous!”
Minseok laughs, toying with his empty cup of coffee. “Look at you. Don’t you sound like a huge fan right now?”
“Shut up! I totally heard you shouting ‘Luhan, Luhan’ like a madman at the airport!” Jongdae accuses and Minseok blushes, guilty as charged. “I just-you told me Kris was tall, but I never thought he was really that tall!”
“Yeah, he’s a tower,” Minseok chuckles a bit, holding onto the sides of his seat as the train comes to a stop. Two more stops and Minseok will be home. “I think I’m gonna collapse tomorrow. Even from afar, Luhan’s skin sort of blinded me. It might kill me if I get too close.”
Jongdae snorts. “Maybe it’s a good thing we were pretty far from the rails, you’d have fainted if Luhan had looked at you in the eye.”
“Most probably, yeah,” Minseok shrugs, a smile on his lips.
“He was there!!”
Kris’ accusatory shout wakes Luhan up from his unplanned nap on the hotel’s bed, sending him scrambling over the sheets muttering ‘what, when, who’.
“Xiumin gege! He was at the airport today!” Kris goes on accusing, turning the laptop to Luhan for him to see the proof. “Look!”
All members and the manager gather around the screen. CXQD_love is filled with pictures of them in the airport - very flattering ones, none of them thought they could look this good in movement - all watermarked after the site’s name, followed by a text caption that said photo by: jongdae.
“Wait, so his friend Jongdae was there,” Yixing points out, mispronouncing the name. “That doesn’t mean he was there too.”
“No, there’s a post…” Kris blindly scrolled down a bit, peeking from over the screen. “Here, this one.”
A text post, from before the pictures were posted.
i was at the airport today!! four seasons arrived @ 3:30 PM. i was a bit far from them and didn’t have any signs with me because i forgot them at homeㅠㅠ anyway, photographer jongdae took a lot of pictures, so i’ll post them now!
“Those pictures are really good…” Manager gege comments, nodding.
“I can’t believe he was there and we missed him!” Tao whines, brows curved in an unhappy expression.
Luhan nods, pouting as well. He really wishes he could have at least caught a glimpse of him at the airport, just so to have a face to associate with his internet-self. But, well, he couldn’t, and now he can barely wait for the following day, when he’ll finally face his dedicated, cheerful number one fanboy.
That night, tossing and turning on the hotel’s bed, he dreams of chubby office workers.
It’s The Day. When Jongdae and Minseok exit the station near the event’s venue, Minseok takes a deep breath.
“Albums; check,” he mutters, patting his backpack. “Signs; check,” in a big tote bag he’s carrying. “Cap; check,” it’s on his head. “Wristband-”
“Calm down. You’re driving me crazy,” Jongdae hits him softly on the head, not looking up from his camera, where he’s setting the white balance to the right value. “It’s the billionth time you check everything. Even if you had forgotten something, the event won’t start till two hours from here. Enough time for you to run back home.” He then raises his eyes, adjusting his beanie and making a face. “Man, I’m hungry. Wanna grab some lunch?”
“Too nervous. Sorry,” Minseok smiles apologetically as they cross the street and approach the venue. “But I have a sandwich and some biscuits if you-wow, oh my God.”
The surroundings of the venue are covered in people. There’s about twice as more people there than at the airport in the day before, all gathered under trees or buying goods at make-do stands. Albeit at the airport there were a remarkable high amount of boys, there, at the event venue, Minseok can see nothing but girls, girls, and more girls.
“I do look a bit like a homo here,” Minseok jokes, and Jongdae laughs soundly. “Specially with the flowery T-shirt. Hey, look at that, I told you they would be selling goods! Did I even bring money…?”
“Um, e-excuse me…” Minseok is suddenly nudged on the shoulder. When he turns around, he sees three girls - much younger than him, probably in high school - looking at him with curious round eyes and holding assorted signs. One of them is blindingly fashionable; the other two are a bit plainer, one is wearing a bright neon orange headband, while the other has very, very long hair. “X-Xiumin oppa…?”
Minseok blinks, then smiles brightly, eyes wide. “That’s me! You guys read my blog?”
The girls proceed to squeal a bit, causing Jongdae to snicker discreetly. “We’re so happy to meet you!” the fashionable one says, suddenly taking out a compact camera from her Cinnamon Roll pouch. “Can we take a picture with you? Please?”
“Sure! Jongdae,” Minseok calls his friend. “Would you please-”
“Oh my God, so you’re Jongdae!” the one with the orange headband exclaims. Jongdae, who was previously jeering at Minseok silently, is taken aback by the recognition, and nods a bit shyly. “Can we please take a picture with you too?”
“Um-um, sure,” Jongdae is confusion, and his confusion pleases Minseok, who chuckles and nudges him on the ribs jestingly.
Minseok is asked for pictures a grand total of ten times, which is a lot, and a great number of people come talk to him and say things like ‘I love your blog’ or ‘I’ve been following since last year’, et cetera. Of course, there are many people who don’t know him, or don’t care, or are too shy to talk to him, but Minseok feels overwhelmed by the attention. Even Jongdae gets in high spirits thanks to the attention, asking for pictures of the most stylish fans, telling Minseok about how his next project will be about ‘fangirl’s fashion’.
“Abandoning macro photography for good, then?” Minseok teases, munching on some biscuits.
“Never!” Jongdae shouts, widening his eyes.
When the venue staff announce the time to line up, Minseok and Jongdae rush to get a good spot, and manage to be close enough to stand close to the stage. As Minseok jumps on the balls of his feet, excited to the maximum, Jongdae smirks and pulls out a folded sheet of A3-size paper from his bag.
“So…” he unfolds the sign and casually holds it out for Minseok to see. “Are you ready for the show?”
The sheet of paper says ‘Xiumin = Luhan’s boyfriend’ and it makes Minseok’s face go beet red.
“You would never!” Minseok exclaims, hiding the paper from the public eye, and Jongdae’s smirk widens. “Please don’t! I’ll do anything!”
“Don’t ruin my fun, Minseok,” Jongdae shakes his head, and the staff starts letting people in.
“Put it back in there,” Minseok hurries as the line begins to move, and Jongdae does as told, obviously not giving up. “You won’t be getting any filters from me! Terrible friend! Terrible!” Jongdae just laughs.
Backstage, all of them are jittery. Even Kris, who’s famous for being overly calm and often expressionless, is clearly in a good mood. Tao can’t stop taking selcas. Yixing and Luhan are hopping around, annoying the staff. Manager gege is browsing CXQD_love with curiosity, saving all of Jongdae’s pictures from the previous day to a folder named ‘mysterious photographer JONGDAE’.
“Can you see them? Can you see if it’s full?” Luhan and Yixing are exploring the corners of the stage, taking care not to be discovered.
“If I manage to see them, they might see me too,” Yixing justifies. “But I think it’s full. Or almost full. The noise is really loud.”
“Standby! One minute!” A member of the staff shouts as the second warning bell rings through the venue. Luhan and Yixing glance at each other with mirrored excitement, then rush to where Kris and Tao were already waiting, microphones set, make-up fixed.
Following a tradition, they stand in a circle and hold onto each other’s shoulders, like a sports team getting ready for a big game. “Okay, so,” Kris starts off, awkwardly as always. “This is the first time we’re performing in Korea. It’s a big deal, since there’s so much competition here, and we have to rely on our hard work to please our fans. Since we’ve been diligent for a long time, I think we can do it. Let’s climb onto the stage with confidence and excitement. Ready?” his bandmates nod. “Four Seasons, let’s go!”
“Fight!” they shout in unison, clapping and whistling, getting properly pumped up. Yixing jumps around a bit, making sure he’s warmed up; Luhan tests his voice a bit, blocking his auricular mike with his hand so no accidents occur; Tao stretches, getting ready for his cartwheel at the intro of Alegria; and Kris takes several deep breaths, trying to loosen up his tense limbs.
“Standby! Twenty seconds! Lights, off!” The staff screams, and lights go off. Luhan’s heart is pounding soundly in his ribcage.
“Go!” Their manager commands, and they rush to the stage, intuitively finding their positions in the pitch black darkness.
The final bell rings. The cheering becomes deafening. A pause, seemingly long enough for the venue to become silent.
Then, lights on. Screams. The first powerful notes of Alegria blast through the speakers, and Tao finishes his cartwheel perfectly, followed by Yixing’s pirouette.
“Days of sunshine, nights of moonlight, I see your smile in the clear sky,” Luhan’s voice quivers a little, but still comes out perfectly melodic, and his heart is put at ease. “A century of dreams, a lifetime of hopes, Alegria.”
“Don’t cry!” Jongdae screams at Minseok, laughing.
“I’m not crying!!” He is not, really, but his voice does come out a little choked up.
Minseok knows he can’t cry, that would be an embarrassing overreaction, but when he looks at them his heart does this weird thing and he can’t breathe and it’s pretty uncomfortable and overwhelming. His cheeks hurt from grinning, his throat is going to hurt from singing along afterwards, and he instantly forgets about those pains because he can see Luhan so clearly, my God, he’s so perfect.
When he realizes what he’s thinking about, Minseok laughs at himself and nudges Jongdae’s shoulder. “Maybe I am a homo after all!” he screams, eyes glued to the stage.
“What?!” Jongdae doesn’t hear him.
“I said: maybe I am a homo after all!” Minseok screams louder, and he swears he can hear some girls behind him giggle. Jongdae bursts out in laughter.
“No shit, Minseok!” He mocks before turning his eyes back to the stage. Minseok is only slightly offended.
They wrap up the mini live with Dance! Dance! Dance!, a summer song, and announce some first-hand information: the title of their next single, Mirage, also a summer song. Yixing speaks a bit of broken Korean, since he’ll be centering it, and Luhan can’t help but laugh.
“I’ll do hard! Cheer for me!” Eventually, Yixing gives up and finishes his speech with his signature fanchant. “Summer and Love! One, two…?”
“Yixing!” fans and members shouted in unison, familiar with the call.
“How did you guys know that!?” Kris asks the crowd, surprised. The fans laugh. “Even some people in China can’t keep up with it!”
“It’s because, even though they’re far from us, they’re still dedicated fans. Right?” Luhan smiles, browsing the crowd for the specific person he was talking about. As the crowd cheered loudly, Luhan gives up, unable to see the fan’s faces clearly. He’ll have to calm down and wait for the fansigning. “We’re trying to be just as dedicated. Our youngest child, Tao, has been studying. Right, Tao?” Tao jumps, a bit startled. “Haven’t you been studying Korean?” Luhan says to him in Mandarin.
“Yes! Hello!” Tao steps forward. “My name is Huang Zitao. My seash… season is Autumn!” fans squeal and coo, Tao blushes, Luhan cackles at the cute mistake.
“Now, it seems like our manager prepared games for us to play with you,” Kris says, looking for their manager for confirmation. From the backstage, Manager gege nods. “Yes, and then the fansigning. Are you ready?”
“Yes!!” Minseok screams from the top of his lungs, joining the chorus.
The games go on smoothly; Tao and Yixing make up for their bad Korean by entertaining the fans with interpretative dances and impersonations. Luhan is pretty sure the internet will be soon filled with pictures of Tao making “sexy” poses while wearing cat ears, and he has to admit he almost fell off his chair when Yixing impersonated Kris’ rapping. Eventually, after four games and Luhan being announced as the overall winner, Manager gege and the staff remove the costume racks and flag stand from the stage, replacing it with a long table as the members reorganize the chairs.
“Now, as you might know, there’ll be a signing session.” The crowd’s uproar is great, and Kris smiles. “The staff will help you to line up. Those who want a signature, the line will be on the right side of the stage. Your right, not mine.” The fans laugh. “Those who are just accompanying someone can stand on the left. Don’t worry about rushing, we’ll not stop the session until everyone gets our signature,” that information is received with a round of applause, which makes Kris a bit flustered. “Well, then… staff sshi? Ah, yes, let’s go.”
Minseok gets manhandled into a relatively good position, and Jongdae, surprisingly, adheres to the signature line. When silently questioned by Minseok, he shrugs.
“I’m here already, might as well get some free autographs,” he says, setting up his camera. “They don’t have any ‘no pics’ rule, do they? I didn’t see anything.”
Minseok ponders for a bit, then attracts the attention of the nearest staff member. “Can we take pictures?”
The staff member, who’s a forty-something man, looks at Minseok, then at Jongdae, then back at Minseok, then forth at Jongdae. “Okay,” he says finally, making a positive sign with his hand and moving forward to organize the rest of the line.
“Lucky! I’ll be able to take photos of you dying onstage,” Jongdae says, taking a test picture of the boyband. “Man, the lighting here is shit.”
“Do you want one of my albums?” Minseok asks as he pulled the first press of Fortune out of his backpack.
“Nah, I’m good,” Jongdae brushes it off. “I have a notepad or something, I think. If anything, I can ask them to sign my shirt.”
Minseok snorts, eyeing said shirt with disbelief while straightening his back and taking a deep breath. This is it. It’s finally time.
part 1 → part 2 → part 3