Section 109, Row 24, Seat 2

5 pm

Soojung looked down at her ticket again.

Section 109, Row 24, Seat 2.

The very last row. Okay, good, she thought. So far, things were going exactly as planned.

Even though they'd gotten there with plenty of time to spare -to avoid having to interact with anyone and to stay clear from the crowds- the SAP Center at San Jose, California, was already pretty packed. And they still had two hours to kill before the show started.

Deep breath, Chrystal Jung, Soojung nervously mumbled to herself in English. Her best friend, who was climbing the stairs to her right, caught her words, and softly squeezed her hand in reassurance. Soojung looked to her left, and her other friend was also smiling at her. They were both confident in the fact that everything was going to be okay. Soojung did as she reminded herself to do -took a deep breath- and finished the last flight of stairs before taking her seat with a sigh of relief.

She was nervous, and with good reason. She had never done anything this risky before. If only one person out of the thousands that were there tonight caught a glimpse of her -or even so much as thought they recognized her-, if any of the thousands of fans in attendance took a picture of her...she'd be doomed.

They'd be doomed.

Soojung took another deep breath and tried to remind herself of all the reasons why this was going to work. She'd planned it all very carefully, with the help of her sister and her two best friends. They'd bought seats on the very last row in the whole venue, so that nobody would look at her when they turned around. One of her friends was sitting to her left, so the people on the same row wouldn't see her, and the other one was sitting to her right, just next to the aisle, once again to protect her from prying eyes.

Soojung was dressed the complete opposite of how she usually dressed, this time wearing a pair of dark baggy pants, a hoodie, big round glasses and a beanie, and had her hair in a low bun. Both her and her friends were also wearing the largest masks possible. And just to be completely in disguise, they all held different lightsticks and seemed to be supporting a different member: Soojung had a Taemin sign and the Shinee lightstick, and her friends were both impersonating Baekhyun and Taeyong fans. They could've easily been mistaken for a group of regular, next-door Korean-American friends -which in reality they were, of course-, and that was the whole point. Absolutely nobody could know she was there.

She hadn't even told her parents or her best friends from the company where she was going. Only her big sister knew, and her involvement was crucial, for she was playing along with her on her Instagram strategy: they were both posting pictures of the snow trip to Vermont they'd taken just a few days ago. This would trick people into thinking they were still there, and nobody would be able to place her in the same city as him. That was the most important step of Soojung's plan, for he was in her home state, and just under an hour drive away from her hometown of San Francisco. She knew how easily people jumped to conclusions and how quickly a new rumor could spread, and this was the last thing they needed right now.

Browsing through Instagram as she tried to calm her nerves inevitably led her to her phone's gallery, and her gallery was full of recent pictures of them together, which in turn unequivocally made her start thinking of him. How would he react when he eventually found out Soojung had gone to such extremes just to be able to attend his concert? Would he be happy that she was finally able to see him perform with his new group? Would he feel a bit shy? Worried? Elated? Mad at her for risking so much just to see him, when they could've easily met at her place back in Seoul like they did almost every night?

It's true that Soojung had never been much of a risk taker. In her own words -and she'd only admitted to this after he had pressed the question, one soft spring night in between kisses, giggling and chicken- there had only been three times in her life where she'd felt truly brave. The first was when she moved to Korea to start training. The second was when she'd told him she loved him for the first time. And the third was the day she decided to forget her pride, leave the past behind, follow her heart and give the possibility of them being together another chance.