Wish (Jung Hoseok)

Prologue

'Loud screams, excited screams, actually. Not ones you hear in horror movies, but the ones you hear when they want more, more from you. In an 'ocean' of a crowd. They all came to see you, and sure, whoever else you're performing with.
But nothing gets better than walking out on stage and seeing and hearing them. Our Army.'

That answer rang in Riley's head, watching her superior interview Kim Namjoon, of BTS.
Of course, Riley was too sick to go attend after staying up all night excitedly. Just her luck.

The man smiled at the camera, it came naturally to him. Riley was jealous of her manager, Dani, who was only just slightly older than Riley.

So why was she sitting in bed, drowning her sorrows in a bowl of melted ice cream?

The tv suddenly went black, as Riley had turned it off.
It was too depressing for her. Everything she worked for up to this moment was gone.

Riley had been practicing, working extra hours and interviewing snobby kpop groups just to get to BTS, the one band she was focused on the most.

It was something about them, their color, their smiles.

How each of them showed their personality.
She couldn't really describe it, but aside from this, she was thankful to them.
They brought her out of the depths of her own hell, with a singular video. One song is all it took, surprisingly. To show her that she could have control of her life.

That was the day she decided, one way or another, she would interview them.

When that would be, she didn't know. Especially since Dani was already there. Who knew when they'd get that opportunity again?

After turning it off, Riley left to go back to work. Working her sorrows away was a usual thing for her.
Just today, she didn't know when she would go back home.

On the way, her mother called.
Oh boy.
"Mom! How're you doing?"
"Enough of that! Did you see your company interviewed your boys! That rap... master guy is quite cute! So nice of him to translate for his friends~" her mother cooed.
Fucking simp. Riley thought.

"Yes, mama, I noticed! I couldn't go cause I got sick. But I'm well enough to go to work I guess."

"You should take a break, Riley. You know you get sick easily if you overwork your-"

Riley rolled her eyes and interrupted her mother. "No, I need to work, mom. I'm so close. One day, I'll be on that screen interviewing them. Not Dani." And with that, she hung up.

-

"Riley! What're you doing back?" Her coworker, Georgia said.

"Oh. Don't answer that~" with one look on Riley's pale face, Georgia knew she wasn't exactly pleased about the situation.

"I'm sure there will be other opportunities Ry! I mean, the company is always trying to book with them, so it would take longer and also given that they all have to be available and-"

"jesus christ, Georgia! You're not helping!" Riley slammed her office door, letting out a long, exasperated sigh.

She loved Georgia, and how much she talked, but damn she couldn't handle it right now.

Riley stood in her office, leaning against her desk with her palms pressed firmly into the sides. This was ridiculous.

Why was she so discouraged when her career was only just starting? A career in kpop magazines, interviewing all sorts of idols, writing her own articles.

"I wish I just knew Korean so I can go to the Korean branch..." she groaned, looking out the high window panels. The night sky was beautiful to her, but it was tarnished by the New York skylines.

She yearned to see more stars someday. Coming from the depths of  country in Tennessee, Riley grew up seeing stars and constellations of all kinds.

And yet, she gave that all up to be met with buildings in the sky, rather than her imaginary pictures in the pinholes of the night.

As Riley went to turn, her eyes connected with a comet.
It was huge, almost the size of a quarter from her distance.
It was slowly flying past the Empire State Building.
Riley narrowed her eyes at the anomaly, almost thinking it was a UFO. But as quickly as it came, it was gone.

"What the hell~" she whined, sitting at her desk.

-

It was almost two hours later, deep into the night when Riley started to doze off, her head leaning against the desk.
She yawned, stretching her arms out.
Riley felt funny, like she was going to faint at any moment, plus, she was getting kind of hot in the office humidity. Everyone was gone, so of course the AC was off.

Should probably head home. She thought.
The work was practically completed, there wasn't much else to do, so Riley picked up the backpack that rested on her desk and stood from the leather chair that was now dented from the hours of use.

Though, when she went to stand, everything got blurry, like a dark tunnel.

Her head swayed, like it was stuck on a swivel. The room even started to tilt as she felt her head steady.

"The hell~... I might just be tired." She mumbled, continuing on to the door. But then, it was like she had no control of her own body, and then when she went to think about it, her sentences didn't make any sense either.

Her body was on fire, like she needed to claw herself out of the wretched office clothes that trapped her perspiring skin.

Her voice was weak as she said "am I... having..."

And then, it was all dark.