Chapter 114: Fan Signing Event (2)
"Stardust monitoring starting now."
After the pre-recording for <Want to Come In>, I came down from the stage, panting.
Since it was our First Music Show, I had poured out all my strength, to the point my legs felt slightly shaky.
Kang Siwoo adjusted his outfit while keeping his eyes fixed on the monitor screen.
"Here, the movement line matched perfectly."
"It did."
"Look at the footwork matching the beat. Damn, that’s the best."
Since it was our first week’s music broadcast, I’d been worried, but fortunately, we wrapped it up without a single mistake.
Maybe because it was a powerful song, the atmosphere at the site felt even hotter than our previous promotions.
The camera caught us well.
"Crazy. Insane."
Seo Haim kept letting out sounds of amazement as she looked around at the members.
"Junseo-hyung, come here for a sec."
"Huh?"
"Your ending pose today was insane. Why’s the lighting hitting you so well?"
"Overall, it came out really nice."
"Good work, everyone!"
Nods, nods.
There were no mistakes, no parts that stuck out unpleasantly.
Thinking there was no need for a retake, I unclipped the mic from my waist when Seo Haim sidled up and asked,
"Oh, right. Seohan, did you prepare for tomorrow’s fan signing event?"
"Fan signing?"
Tomorrow was the scheduled fan signing event for our second album promotions.
At our first fan signing, I had been so nervous I even wrote the album’s “To fan” messages while trembling, but I figured I’d be a little better this time.
I smiled faintly as I spoke.
"Should I bring some calming pills?"
"That won’t be enough."
Huh?
"Junseo-hyung was in the back just now memorizing 100 of the latest memes."
"…You think that’ll work?"
"Remember last fan signing? A review went up because you didn’t get half the jokes."
I’d seen what Jin Sehyun showed me, too.
"Ah."
[Failed Fan Signing Review – Stardust Edition]
Five years into my K-pop fangirl life…
I thought I’d never start stanning a rookie boy group again.
But it happened.
While watching Starf, I fell for Ha Junseo… Junseo, I love your “meeting-the-parents-free-pass” good looks and your crazy charm… Yeah, yeah.
I ended up going to my very first fan signing in my life.
But honestly… I think I totally failed.
I went trembling, having prepared all sorts of witty lines, but came back in tatters…
This was our conversation.
See for yourself, lol.
Me: Junseo, what did you grab at your first birthday grab event? Maybe my…
Junseo: I grabbed thread.
Me: Oh, I see… You’ll live a long life, then…
I nodded earnestly, wishing Junseo longevity.
But my silly lines didn’t stop there…
Me: Junseo, you know you shouldn’t go to the racetrack, right?
Junseo: (With the most serious expression) Yes, I won’t do things like that.
Me: Junseo, you’re so handsome and cute that it’s just… un…belie…
Junseo: Huh?
Me: Never mind.
And just like that, I became a gambling inspector for horse racing.
Our sweet Junseo… He emphasized two or three times that he’d never do anything fans would worry about.
Then what does that make me, who warned you about horse racing…
Is this for real?
Ah lolol Ha Junseo is seriously “perfect-son-in-law” material.
└ These days, model student Junseo doesn’t know a single fangirl meme.
└ He looks upright and even talks upright.
└ How about an idol who swears twice, thrice he’ll never go to the racetrack?
└ I saw the video lolol him freaking out saying he’ll never go to the racetrack was soooo cuteㅠㅠ
└ I freaking love Ha Junseo.
Meanwhile, Jin Sehyun was flying next to them.
└ lolol This guy knows memes better than me.
└ Search King Jin Sehyun.
└ Bet he’s hiding among my mutuals.
└ Don’t say scary things;;
└ I want to laugh, but it feels too real to be funny.
That conversation was still circulating as a failed fan signing meme.
Apparently, the person involved had taken a heavy mental blow.
"I’m not… going to make the same mistake twice, so I’ve made a list."
That passionate hyung had scraped together 100 of the latest fangirl memes from various sites and started memorizing them whenever he had free time.
Ha Junseo strolled over and handed me a printout.
"Seohan, want to start memorizing too?"
"Ah, no."
I already knew most of them.
Not to Jin Sehyun’s expert level, but…
"Still, I don’t think I’d answer like hyung did to the racetrack joke."
"As expected… Youth is great, youth is."
"…?"
Next to him, Kang Siwoo was practicing a challenge that’s been trending lately.
He’d been nodding his head over and over, so I thought he had a stiff neck, but it turned out to be the challenge.
I glanced at Kang Siwoo and asked casually,
"Leader-hyung, what are you doing?"
"Uh… you know, the ‘Sorry for Being Cute’ challenge."
Huh?
"‘Gomen… gomen…’"
Kang Siwoo was diligently practicing while watching a YouTube video.
He put his hands together and bobbed his head.
To be honest…
While I was quietly watching him, Jin Sehyun dropped a truth bomb.
"But hyung, you’re not cute."
Cough-
"I don’t think you even need to be sorry."
"Hm. Should I… go with ‘Sorry for being scary’ instead?"
Kang Siwoo stared seriously into the mirror, thinking it over.
With his hair bleached gray and wearing colored contact lenses, Kang Siwoo looked pure cold. Sure, he had a jaw-droppingly handsome face—
—but honestly, doing the “Sorry for Being Cute” with that face was a stretch.
Jin Sehyun shook his head side to side and tossed out,
"Just go with ‘Sorry for being handsome.’"
"That’s not bad."
"Sorry for being… handsome…"
Kang Siwoo went back to bobbing his head while focusing on the monitor.
Two days later, at the fan signing event.
College student Dusty fan Lee Harang sat in her seat, legs trembling.
‘I won the fan sign ticket—!’
When she saw the results, she had screamed loud enough to shake the entire apartment building.
That’s how much she couldn’t believe it.
She hoped to win, but never actually thought she would.
‘Did I save the country in my past life?’
She thought she had bought fewer albums than the expected cutoff, so it was even harder to believe she really got picked.
Truthfully, it still didn’t feel real.
Lee Harang pressed her hot cheeks with her hands and took a deep breath.
Her heart already felt like it was about to explode.
What if she fainted when they came in?
While she was seriously worrying about that—
—the door to the left of the signing hall opened.
"Stardust will be coming in now~."
“Kyaaaaaa!”
In that moment, her heart stopped.
.
.
.
.
"Seo Ian, look over hereee!"
"Kyaaaaaa!"
"Aaah! I love Universe Dust!"
"Crazy, what are those outfits?!"
Dusty fan Lee Harang slowly lifted her head with a dazed expression.
At first, really—
—it looked like there was a halo shining behind them.
‘So this is a celebrity?’
Seven people came in, one after another, looking like they belonged to a different world.
Even from this fairly close distance, their proportions were overwhelming, and their faces were so bright it was like they had a light panel behind them.
Lee Harang unconsciously murmured,
"Do Seohan’s face is insane…"
Without a doubt, the top two visuals in real life were Do Seohan and Ha Junseo.
It wasn’t for nothing that they had taken 1st and 2nd place side by side in the visual polls—those perfectly sculpted faces left anyone who saw them in awe.
Can people really look like that?
How are they even the same species as me?
But the most surprising thing was—
‘He’s taller than I thought?’
—Do Seohan in real life.
On the monitor, he had seemed like a baby hamster you could slip into your pocket, but seeing him walking from over there, he was clearly a solid 182 cm tall.
"He’s really tall…"
Why wasn’t he pocket-sized after all?
And yet, that boyishly youthful face for his age was enough to drive someone crazy.
“Ha, this is insane…”
Lee Harang was briefly in a daze, taking in each member with her eyes.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—she really wanted to remember everything with her own eyes.
Just then, a staff member called out in a loud voice,
"Number one, please come up."
The fan signing event officially began.
With the bright-eyed gaze unique to rookies, the members faced their fans.
"Hello~."
As each person went up in order of their queue number, Lee Harang, seated toward the front, fidgeted restlessly.
‘So this is how a fan sign works.’
Even though they had debuted less than a year ago, this was already their second album promotion, and the members looked more relaxed than before.
When they finished signing and had a brief gap, they gave fan service to the fans sitting in the back.
Seohan even put on the hamster headband a fan had prepared and waved toward the cameras.
Every so often, he smiled faintly in this direction,
and whenever Lee Harang thought their eyes met, she took a deep breath.
After several dozen minutes,
—it was finally her turn.
"You can get ready and go in now."
Lee Harang stood from her seat on shaky legs.
She had tried to dress nicely for the fan sign, but now that she was right in front of them, she suddenly became hyper-aware of everything.
‘Did I really prepare well enough?’
‘What should I say first?’
‘What if I collapse the moment I sit down?’
Even in her flustered state, she kept her prepared meme jokes loaded in her mind.
Whether she could say them properly was another matter.
Shyly, Lee Harang sat down where the staff guided her.
First in line—
—her mutual Kokyo’s bias, Kang Siwoo.
And then—
"…!"
The moment she saw him, a curse almost slipped out.
‘Wow, insane.’
"Hello."
Kang Siwoo greeted her with a bright smile.
He looked pretty much exactly like he had in her first impression from his fancams—
—broad Pacific Ocean shoulders, a cold-looking face, just like in her head. But his voice was much softer than she’d expected.
Maybe that was why—
Unlike his first impression, his smile looked warm.
It somehow gave off a reassuring feeling.
With a trembling voice, Lee Harang barely managed to speak.
"Uh… this is my very first fan signing… I’m so nervous right now."
"If you’re nervous, you can hold my hand."
Was Kang Siwoo just… a guilty human being by default?
Lee Harang barely held herself together, feeling like her mind was about to go blank any second.
"Hoo… haa… hoo… haa…"
As expected, her first-ever fan signing was too much for her heart.
All the lines she had practiced in her head dozens of times vanished completely.
"Wow… I don’t even know what to say."
"I prepared a challenge, should I show you?"
"Kang Siwoo, I love you…"
Kang Siwoo, showing her the challenge he had worked so hard to prepare,
Ha Junseo, soothing her with a bright smile, saying,
"It’s okay. Everyone gets nervous at first. I still get a little nervous too…"
Cha Seongbin, skillfully leading the conversation with,
"Ah~. How do I look in person? Am I a little, no, a lot more handsome?"
"Kyahhh, Seongbin-ah…"
Seo Haim, beaming purely, and Jin Sehyun, the fan-knowledge master.
And even Seo Ian, nicknamed Sundubu, who shyly responded to whatever she said.
They say going to a fan sign makes you un-stan—that it’s an unspoken rule in this industry.
But it was so blissful that the thought never even crossed her mind.
‘They’re truly the genuine idols of this generation.’
—she thought, while feeling her soul leave her body a little more with every step to the next seat.
It felt so good… so good she thought she might lose her mind.
And her heart wasn’t calming down at all, only beating faster—
—because the last person in line was…
Her bias, Do Seohan.
Finally, she stood in front of Do Seohan.
Lee Harang swallowed hard, holding onto her heart that felt like it would burst at any moment.
"Hello."
Seohan smiled faintly and lowered his head.
In that instant, her mind went completely blank.
Like how during the album-buying spree for this comeback, she had pulled four photocards of him—both the Star version and the Line version—at once.
Like how watching four of his stage videos before bed helped her ease the weight of the day.
Like how he was the first idol who had made her come to a fan signing at all.
There were so many things she wanted to say, but…
Damn it.
At moments like this, all she could think of was some cheesy fan sign joke.
Not wanting to waste the precious seconds slipping away, she just blurted out,
"Um… you know."
"Yes!"
"Can you start an acrostic poem for me?"
It was one she had hastily looked up before coming to the fan sign.
Might as well hear this much.
The idea was—
When she started with “Who’s the cutest in the world?”
—the idol would answer brightly with “Me!”
‘He’ll probably get it, right?’
If she asked Ha Junseo, he would probably give her the most serious acrostic poem ever, but she believed the maknae Seohan would respond differently.
From the fan sign reviews she’d seen, he seemed to know some well-known fangirl jokes, if not to Jin Sehyun’s level.
‘Ha, I’m going crazy.’
Lee Harang chewed on her dry lips and carefully asked,
"Can you start an acrostic poem with ‘noona’?"
"Yes, of course."
Seohan smiled faintly while picking up the album to sign.
Then, his lips parted softly.
"Nu."
When Seohan gave the first syllable, Lee Harang spoke in a trembling voice,
"Who’s… the cutest, prettiest, and coolest in the whole world?"
At those words,
—Seohan paused for a moment, then grinned.
"It’s you, noona."