Final Puzzle Piece || SKZ 9th Member

Incident With a "Fan"

my perfectionist self screams at the edit, but hey, i tried okay

If you think nothing has happened since Kala first revealed to the public as the only female member of Stray Kids, that everyone likes the concept of eight boys and a girl in one group, that she gained popularity from that, and that everything is perfect, and so far so good—oh, how you are wrong.

Kala's appearance in the Stray Kids survival show could be said to be unlooked-for. During her time as a trainee, she never showed up anywhere to make herself known, like maybe being a cameo in the MV of JYPE senior artists, or participating in the JYPE girl group survival show, or even expecting JYPE to release any information about her. It seemed that this blue agency took the title of secret weapon very seriously.

As a result, No one knew who Kala was or the fact that she originally should debut as a solo artist for her talents. Her official introduction was deemed so sudden. Not to mention, it pretty much had sparked pros and cons since the broadcast of the Stray Kids survival show, specifically on the label of 'the only female member' thing that latched onto her.

Just like what the old man JYP himself had cautioned Chan about, the situation spawned a debate among fans, K-pop enjoyers, and the general public. Those who were on the pro side found Kala's case unique, inspiring, and a new breakthrough. Whereas on the con side, they were doubtful about how this was going to work and questioning whether it was appropriate to add one girl to a group full of boys.

Some of them expressed their opinions with civilized arguments, but not once or twice, Kala must swallow much harsher words that claimed themselves as improvement criticism when they were plainly hate speeches. Chan and Changbin sometimes had to confiscate her phone so that she couldn't drown herself in the negative comments that were directed at her.

What's worse was the existence of those jealous "fans" (i wouldnt call them stay) who treated Kala differently from the others, and not in a good way. They purposely skipped her at the fan sign, didn't include her name in the fan chant, stopped cheering when it came to her, gave her snide glances, called her names in a mumble but loud enough to be heard,

... or at this very right moment, when Stray Kids was having a hi-touch event. The fans were lining up to claim their chance to high-five the members and just having a good time interacting with each other, but this one fan had to ruin it when she pulled off a hair stick from her bun and abruptly aimed it at Kala's face.

The sequence of the havoc unfolded at a brisk speed, and the next thing Kala knew, Hyunjin had already tugged her to the back of the stage while Chan and Changbin pushed the fan from reaching out to her again. Beside them, Minho slyly snatched the hair stick from that fan's grip so it wouldn't hurt anyone else.

The security guards were at the scene in no time and roughly whisked that fan away who looked like an insane forest witch now that her hair was down in a mess. She kept barking things and trying to lash out at Kala, but Jisung had taken a protective stance in front of his best friend.

As for Kala herself, she had gone blank and unresponsive, clearly shocked by the attack. She never felt hated this much by someone that they were capable of hurting her. It made her judge herself and think there must be something wrong with her for that fan to feel that she deserved to be harmed.

Is it my singing and my dancing? I should've done better. I'm sorry, I'll work harder.

Maybe it's also something that I do? She doesn't like the way I behave. I'm sorry, I'll fix that.

Or perhaps my look? I'm probably not a nice sight to look at. I'm sorry, I'm not good enough.

Forgive me, forgive me, forgive—

"Kala!"

Felix's shout and the shakes on her shoulder brought Kala back to reality. She looked up dazedly and saw her members had huddled around her, minus the two oldest and Jisung who talked to the staff not far from them to settle the issue and ensured the culprit faced the consequences.

"You're bleeding!" Felix continued in a panic exclaim, holding Kala's left arm that displayed a rather long vertical trail of blood. "Don't you feel hurt?"

Everyone simultaneously focused on Kala's arm. Even Chan, Minho, and Jisung eventually joined them after hearing Felix freaking out.

Still holding the stick hair in his hand, Minho took a look at it and only just noticed the blood dripping from the sharp tip.

While maybe the fan missed Kala's face, her left arm that instinctively protected her couldn't avoid the sharp tip of the hair stick and it managed to slash her forearm. Nonetheless, Kala still considered herself lucky to have a decent reflex.

"Let me see it." Chan took over Kala's arm from Felix's hand and examined it with a detested frown on his forehead. The members could easily tell that their leader was holding his anger at this incident. "It's quite deep. How can you not feel it?"

Kala was silent. She stared at the cut while her mind played back on what the fan said to her.

"You worthless orphan! Why can't you just leave this group? You don't belong with them! Go die and meet your parents in hell!"

The words cut deeper and hurt her more.

Jeongin was instantly at Kala's side when their manager told them to return to the waiting room. He gently held her wounded arm with both of his hands and guided their way back. "Does it hurt?"

Not answering the question right away, Kala honestly felt numb. She barely felt any pain at the moment. Maybe it was because she used to tell herself that pain was just an illusion and her brain had made it as a default setting when she was hurt. That, or her mind was still busy pondering about those cruel words that fully distracted her from the physical pain.

"Kala-ya, hey!" Jeongin yelled her name, trying to get her back to her senses. "You're lost again."

"Sorry," Kala muttered in a low voice. "It doesn't hurt much. I'll be fine."

Jeongin just nodded in response.

Before Kala could travel back to her train of thought, Seungmin spoke on her other side, "It's not you." As he succeeded in obtaining her attention, he gazed down at her, a soft warmth in his eyes. "It's never been you, Kala. There's nothing wrong with you, I promise. Don't let them inside your head."