**Note: Around the time of writing this story, Dahyun had her passport information exposed by photographers at the airport. Please remember to give all idol’s their space and respect their privacy. They are human too.
-=-=-=-=-=–=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-
I had saved up a lot to go on a trip around the world, and with the experience from language learning apps and Google Translate, I was able to meet a lot of people and learn a lot about different cultures. Having just finished up my trip in Korea, I was waiting at the airport to head to my next destination: Japan. Airports are usually always busy, but I had never seen one this busy before. Fortunately for me, every time I went on a trip, my family had taught me to always several hours early for no reason at all. It was something that many asian families did, and that was something that I carried into adulthood. I was simply sitting near my gate, just watching some movies on my phone, when I saw a large group of people heading towards me. Curiously, I decided to get up and take a look at what the commotion was. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was the internationally famous K-pop group, TWICE. I stood in awe as I saw the members of the group pass by, each with a security guard or two by their side.
I had expected them to pass by, perhaps head to some kind of VIP lounge, but suddenly, a group of people near me stood up, and the girls turned to walk over to my gate, sitting in the now vacant seats. That was when I realized that I was one of the lucky people to have actually purchased a ticket on the same plane as such a famous group. I opened up the camera app on my phone and held it up, hoping to snap a picture of one of the idols. I had been taking pictures my entire trip, but this had to be the craziest thing that happened to me. Looking through my camera, I started looking for one specific idol, Kim Dahyun, who had always been my favorite ever since I first saw her on Sixteen all those years ago. Finally finding her in the crowd of people, I zoomed in to take the picture. Suddenly remembering the awkwardness of having the flash go off when you don’t want it to, I quickly lowered my phone and made sure the flash setting was switched to “off.” After that, I raised my phone back up and looked for Dahyun again. But before I could find her, she found me.
Instinctively, I snapped the photo, but it was too late. A memory suddenly flashed through my head, and I remembered Dahyun’s uncanny ability to sense when a camera is on her. I saw one of the security next to Dahyun notice her stare, and he looked over at me. Quickly, I got up and walked away very quickly. Stumbling, I made a break for it. Not turning around, I made it a good distance away and turned the corner. While turning, the restroom sign caught my eye, and I increased my speed ever so slightly. But before I could reach the restroom, I felt a hand grab my shoulder, and I thought to myself “Oh no, it’s all over now.”
To my surprise, when I turned around, it wasn’t the security guard but Dahyun herself. I’m sure that my jaw dropped so low, it hit the floor. Her face looked confused, as she stared at me, trying to figure out who I was. Then, in her broken English, she asked “Are you Korean?” This was actually something I got a lot, being Asian. However, my facial expression after her question probably confirmed to her that I was not Korean, so continuing in English, she said “Please delete photo. Please.”
The shock of being so close to an idol was slowly wearing off, and I took a closer look at her face and saw that her eyes were ever so slightly puffy. Keeping this in mind, I smiled gently, and said in Korean “I’m not Korean, but I do speak it. I’ll delete the photo, so you don’t have to worry.” Taken aback by how good my Korean was, which was courtesy of being in Korea for so long, Dahyun stared, then gave me a slight smile. “Thank you,” she said, switching to Korean, “I just had a pretty bad incident with photographers, and another photograph is not something I need right now.” I nodded knowingly, then showed her my phone, and then promptly deleted the photo I had taken. “And just to make you more at ease,” I said, going into my photo trash folder, “I’ll permanently delete it as well.” Once the photo was gone, Dahyun thanked me again, slightly bowing her head in a polite manner and then turned and left. I gave her a minute to get away, and then headed back myself. By the time I got back to my gate, she was in the crowd of people again. I saw my stuff and headed back to my seat, pulling out my phone to continue watching movies. I looked up every now and then, but couldn’t meet her eye again.
