1 and 24 - A tripleS story ❀

Chapter 9

– I- I mean –, the girl in the blue headband smiled brightly, – Aren't you Seoyeon? Yoon Seoyeon? The idol??

Seoyeon froze.

– What are you doing here??

– W- what am I-

Thump, thump, her heart palpitated.

As if vignetted, the girl in the blue headband's face, and the bright, scary, artificial smile printed on it like on the face on a billboard ad, immediately filled up all of Seoyeon's field of view, blurring everything else away in a vortex.

No way.

Someone had recognized her. Seoyeon knew it was bound to happen eventually, but, already? When not even half a day had gone by since she had left? She had, like on the first page of a manga, lived but a first, brief moment of bright colors, setting out to find her dream, and now someone was already trying to drag her back into a colorless every other page, and make her fall again into that deep, frightening, cold ocean of solitude that had dulled her reality to black and white ever since that previous morning.

I don't want it. But what could she do?

– I know it's you! –, the girl in the blue headband, as if behind a glass wall where she could only hear herself, was insisting, clapping her hands all excited: – I've seen you on Y**Tube, and I love the videos! But I thought you weren't in Seoul, though –, she raised an eyebrow in an expression that didn't look like it belonged on her face, – so, what are you doing here now??

Seoyeon flinched: – I- I'm-

The words, instead of coming out, weighed down on her lungs, as if turned to stone, and, suddenly out of breath, the world around the girl started spinning faster, and her knees threatened to give out.

Some people, after hearing what the girl in the blue headband was saying, had formed a small circle around them, and Seoyeon could feel the presence, and the pressure, of everyone who was staring at her, their noise and silence too, and how they were breathing in all the air she needed to breathe in instead not to give in to the anxiety and stay lucid – and, above everything else, the girl could feel the other girl's eyes on her, and the strange, eerie yet, somehow, dangerously familiar plastic impression they gave – eyes that, on the one hand, looked like they couldn't even see Seoyeon, and, on the other, looked like they knew everything about her, everything she was trying to hide, and even things that she, herself, didn't know yet.

What was Seoyeon doing there? Why wasn't she at the Gapyeong Haus, shooting that day's Signal? Did she really think she could run away from her company, and from her contract, without any repercussions? Now that girl, or someone else, was gonna talk or post online about her, her manager was gonna find her, and they were gonna bring her back, back to those black and white pages of the manga. Seoyeon had no intention of letting that happen, and she had already promised herself she was gonna figure out a way to avoid it, but now, caught off guard, and in front of those eyes she felt like she could've never lied to, she couldn't think of anything, and she was scared.

– Inyeop, quick! –, the girl in the blue headband exclaimed, gesturing to the guy beside her, then, to Seoyeon: – Hey, can we take a photo? –, she skimmed to her side, still grinning like a robot: – It's not everyday I get to meet an idol like this!

Inyeop, after making a couple of steps back, took out his phone, and Seoyeon, shaking, looked down, unable to move a muscle.

– But really –, the girl in the blue headband was saying, sliding an arm over Seoyeon's shoulder: – You're an idol, but you're at a uni festival, like this, without even your manager? Is it even safe for you? Like, really, what are you doing he-