20. Naeun (1/2)
(Ost- When I was by your side by Toy)
They played a song and the microphones were switched off. The member’s eyes were staring at me. “What are you doing?” Chorong unnie whispered.“Don’t worry,” Eunji unnie interjected which I was relieved for. “Naeun knows what she is doing don’t you?”
I didn’t know how to answer. I’d just said on the radio that my feelings for Taemin haven’t changed. If anyone but the celebrities really knew what this meant… I could be handing myself a lot of trouble.Trouble came in four words and a popular topic on search engines.
‘Naeun could like Taemin?’ The other members couldn’t believe it and they gave me no sympathy or comfort. It was one of the very few times where I felt that they let me down.“Well… Your comment has caused a rise in your anti-café,” Saeeun remarked in a rather positive voice much to my annoyance. “Ten thousand members joined within the past day.”
“You’re supposed to be my dongsaeng yet you’re treating me like this!” I exclaimed wanting to cry. There was a pause on the end of the line.“Sorry unnie… I guess I wasn’t thinking of your feelings. Does it make you think back to that time?”
I had no idea what she meant. “What time are you talking about?”
She hesitated with one syllable. “Ah… W-when you and Taemin ended your run on the show. You were in a pretty unhappy state of mind back then as well.”
I wanted to hang up. No one likes the end of their run on a show. We were dreading our end on the show. It came as a complete bolt out of the blue.Ω
January 4 2014 The doorbell ringing interrupted our conversation. “Ah someone is here,” I said as he got to his feet.“Who could it be?”
Maybe it would tell us what we would be doing today. Surely there would be some fun date planned by the staff. He retrieved the mission card and joined me on the couch. Leaning against the back of the chair I sat there with a smile, wanting to glimpse what was written.And then my smile faded. He didn’t speak for a moment either. Eventually both of us gave rather awkward smiles as we became animated again.
“First love, first love!” It was amazing what amused my husband.“It’s a movie ticket,” I pointed out, with the barcode, date, time and the location. We did our best to focus on that. Not what the mission card said.“What is this, is it a joke?”
“I don’t know.”
He passed it to me. “Is it real? You try reading it.”
“To the youngster couple, today your virtual marriage will end. After taking your stuff from the We Got Married Village have your last date at the movie theatre.”
I tried to make light humour of it. “Was it sent by mistake to us?”
“They said to take our stuff. The lease has ended.” He said it so pitifully that it was funny. But the laughter couldn’t last for long.“It’s really ending,” Taemin said. “What do we do?”
It was now starting to sink in more with me. “It must really be ending. It feels strange… right.”
He was avoiding my gaze now and chose to look elsewhere. Neither of us knew what to say like we had mentioned before. We had to take up the painful task of separating what we had once shared. It was almost like a slow transition up the final stage. The stage we were looking forward to the least. ΩAfter packing away our things it was time to head the movies where we would have our final moments on camera together.“What movie is it?”
“First love,” he answered as we slowly entered the screening area. Our eyes opened wide at the plush, red leathered seats in pairs. “Whoa this is my first time seeing something like this.”