Chapter Twenty Seven 

Hyejin couldn't believe she was standing in front of him again. She thought that their hangout at the market would have been the last but here she was, with all her courage, she was standing there while looking Dino in the eyes.

She actually expected Dino to turn away or ignore her as if she didn't exist but he was the one who called her out first. She was surprised but at the same time, she was relieved. That should mean something, right?

"Dino," she called in return with a smile of her own. The only thing that prevented Dino from seeing that smile was the mask on her face. "Um, can we move to somewhere more private to talk? You're not performing until..."

"I've got minutes to spare, don't worry," he assured her with a smile before grabbing her by her wrist to pull her to somewhere more quiet and private. And without any eyes watching them, let it be on a camera or just someone's eyes. "Wait, remind me how you're here again? Not in the concert. I meant backstage."

Hyejin lifted up a tag that was hung around her neck. "Your manager gave me this. I think he wanted me to talk to you. I don't exactly know why, but I do know that I want to talk to you."

Dino looked nervous. What could she possibly want to talk about to him? "I'm listening."

Before Hyejin could continue on, she removed her mask. There was absolutely no one around, which gave the two of them the privacy they needed. "I think we need to talk about what happened."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you heard? It's all over the news. It's about the guy who recorded your confession to me, a.k.a the same guy who also took that photo of us the first time," Hyejin told him. 

"Oh yeah. I saw. I also heard that Waenji Publishing Company is also going to sue him?" Dino asked. 

Hyejin nodded to answer his question. "That's right. That's what my manager is doing anyway. I don't know what will happen in the end, but I really hope it'll be resolved. But that's just one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you."

"And the other reasons being?" Dino waited for her to continue. 

Hyejin knew the time was ticking. She also knew that Dino was needed somewhere else to change out of his outfit and get ready for the next stage. She knew it was a bad timing, but she had to talk to him now. She wanted to watch the concert in peace without her heart breaking every time he would be there. 

"Dino, truth is, I—" Hyejin paused again. She stared into his curious eyes and waited for herself to regain the courage. 

"You?" Dino repeated, titling his head to the side. 

Hyejin inhaled a deep breath before she slowly continued, "Dino, I lied. I actually do like you." 

Dino had never looked so happy. Compared to all the variety shows she had seen him on, compared to every other V live they would conduct, this was the happiest she has ever seen him before. "You do?" 

"I do," Hyejin repeated with a smile, "but there was a reason why I lied to you, don't you know?"

"And what was that reason?"

Hyejin traced her mask with her fingers and her eyes were only glued on them. "Because I don't want to be that person who will ruin your career. I don't want you to get distracted because of me. You still have so much more to achieve. You still have to place your group name, SEVENTEEN, somewhere in this K-pop industry. You should concentrate more on than before anything."

"And what if I want to do both?" Dino challenged. 

Hyejin was surprised at his words and her head immediately shot up to meet his eyes once again. "No! You shouldn't. I really don't want you to have come so far, but not far enough. Concentrate on your group activities before anything. Love can wait. Okay? Please listen to me."

Dino daringly took a step forward and pulled her into a hug. "I want to, but I want you too. I want to protect you from this scary world as much as possible."

"I understand your concern, but you have to work hard first." Hyejin was the first one to break the hug. She then lifted her hand up and waited for Dino to shake it. Once he did, she smiled and said, "As of now, we'll stay like this—nothing more than a fan and her idol. Because we both knew, at first, I was nothing but your fan girl and you were nothing but my fanboy."

+ + + 

"Where were you? How could you missed your idols perform?" Dae Jung asked once Hyejin returned to her seat. 

"I had something I needed to do," Hyejin vaguely replied before her eyes moved up to the stage once again. Hip hop unit had just finished their performance and performance unit was up next. "Did I miss much?"

"Yes, you did," Dae Jung replied. 

Oh, well. At least I had settled something. Dino did say he was willing to wait and who knows what will happen in the future? As of now, we were nothing but friends who liked each other. Nothing official. I liked it better this way. 

Performance unit had finally made their way on the stage. Before they would perform, they said a few words to the Carats. Starting from Hoshi, the leader, up until Dino, the maknae. 

Once the microphone was in Dino's hands, he began reciting the words he had probably practiced backstage, "SEVENTEEN wouldn't be anything without you amazing Carats, don't you know that? We're really proud to have such an amazing fandom such as you guys!"

Carats cheered in return. 

Dino scanned the dark arena of Carats with their light stick and looked like he was searching for someone. Then, he shouted, "I love you, Hwan Hyejin!" 

The whole arena was quiet as the sudden confession of the maknae. But slowly, one after the other, there were loud roars and cheers. Some Carats were feeling salty and bitter, but majority of them were cheering on for the love of Hyejin and Dino. 

That was when Hyejin finally understood the fandom more. They weren't against their bias's happiness, even if their bias had fallen in love with someone other than them. No, instead, they were willing to support even that. Some may not be as supportive, but if Hyejin were to look at the ratio of it all, she came to realize that they were actually fine with it. 

Hyejin couldn't help but felt her eyes go watery. Her face was lowered as she let the reality drown in her thoughts. The reality she dreamed of was of something different. In the end, this was the reality of their love story—if it could be called one. 

"I love you too, Lee Chan," she whispered back and only she could hear it. 

+ + + 

Three years later...

Hyejin sat alone in a cafe with a book up her hands. A mask was on her face and she wore a hat to conceal most of her face. She even wore fake glasses to conceal herself even more. There weren't a lot of people in the cafe, but she knew that she should still conceal herself. 

This cafe was mostly famous among celebrities in South Korea. In fact, not so far away from her sat Kim Saeron and Yeri from Red Velvet doing an Instagram live together. She remember watching them do their first one back in 2017. It was amazing how three years had already passed ever since then. 

Hyejin didn't mind them because she also had to respect their privacy and went back to reading the book that was clutched in her hands as she continued to listen to different music put on shuffle in her phone. 

While reading, she suddenly reminded the day she graduated out of high school. It was a touching event, especially with a secret piece that Hyejin was working on. She had written a touching story about their batch and at the end of it all, majority of students were seen with teary and red eyes. 

Dae Jung was one of them. 

After the event of their graduation, students lined up to get a photo with Hyejin to remember that they were all once classmates or schoolmates with her. Some even chatted up with her and told her how much more she could do in the future. Hyejin was thankful for all of their existence. 

Dae Jung was there with Hyejin most of the times—until his girlfriend came along. Yes, Cho Dae Jung, the almost forever single boy, finally got himself a girlfriend. Hyejin knew a girl from K-Tigers who had taken an interest in her best friend and after a few months, they had gotten together. 

Hyejin was sad to see her friend spend more time with his girlfriend than with her but she figured it was for the best for him. She has never seen him so happy. And from the looks of things, Hyejin had a feeling they would last longer than his previous ones. 

And they did. Looking at them now, Hyejin would have never imagined that they were still together after two years. She was really happy for them. 

Hyejin has been living a pretty simple life ever since. She occasionally went on TV shows and variety shows but most of the time, she was stuck in her room or a cafe, working on a new story to be published. She has expanded into different genres of books and not only fanfiction. She has tried horror, thriller, mystery, romance and a lot more. So far, every story has been successful. She was quite content with her life now. 

In the midst of her relaxing and lazy day, someone had pulled the seat across her and had sat down. It took seconds for Hyejin to realize that there was someone else at her two seats table and once she glanced up, she was surprised to see who it was. 

"Hi, Ji," he greeted with a grin after removing his mask. 

Hyejin was surprised. She hadn't seen him ever since he took off for K-Con in L.A. She didn't even get updated with when they would be coming back, because apparently, their agencies wanted to keep it a secret from the Korean Carats. 

"Lee Chan!" Hyejin quietly exclaimed as she closed her book. She pulled her mask down just as well and smiled back at him. "How are you?"

"How are you?" Dino asked in return. 

"I'm doing fine. Just living a pretty simple life, as you have probably heard from almost everywhere. How about you? How was L.A?" Hyejin asked. She turned around for a brief second and then asked, "Oh, do you want me to treat you to something? You can pick. I'll just go buy it for you."

"That's okay. I'll buy my own drink. Hold on." Dino stood up and walked to the cashier to order something. 

Hyejin wanted to read on her book a little more but she had already lost interest at the moment so she turned around and stared at Dino as he ordered himself a drink. 

Despite three years going by, the two had never failed to contact each other as often as possible. Hyejin still liked him, but she had never tried asking him to be her boyfriend ever since. She knew that he had already claimed a spot in the K-pop industry and were now idols that were rocking the K-pop world but she had no courage to ask him. 

Dino returned shortly with his cup of ice Americano and smiled at her once again. "Shall we continue where we left off?"

Hyejin nodded in response and smiled. "Sure. How was L.A?"

"It was really fun. The hyungs and I enjoyed there a lot," said Dino in response as he drank his ice Americano. 

"I can't believe we're turning older next month." Hyejin didn't mean to change the subject, but she had suddenly took notice of the time that was slowly passing. 

Dino nodded with a slight chuckle. "I'm turning twenty one, can you believe that?"

"And I'm turning nineteen!" Hyejin gasped. How did time fly by so quickly? She felt like her life experiences when she was just sixteen was just yesterday. But no, three years had already flew by just like that. 

Dino was silent for a few more seconds before he said, "So... it's been three years. I managed to keep a promise."

Hyejin already had a tingling feeling and a guess as to what he was going to say next. But instead of saying anything, she let him continue on his own.

"Is it too much to ask you now?"

Hyejin was already smiling like an idiot. It was funny. She had always imagined this happening even before she was made known to him or even before she wrote that fanfiction of him—Highlight. Yet, it was happening before her right now. Every single fanfiction moment that she had imagined has now led her to this very moment in her life. 

"Is it too much to answer yes?" Hyejin asked in return, blushing in response. Her head hung low, embarrassed after saying so. 

Dino was grinning like a child who had finally received a gift after all hopes were gone. He stood up and grabbed her by the wrist then pulled her out of the cafe and into a dark alleyway which he knew was safe. 

It was a lazy winter night in Seoul and everyone seemed to be minding their own business. As for Dino and Hyejin, they were sharing a special moment on their own. 

"Then... this is our day one." After Dino had said that, he slowly removed Hyejin's mask and leaned in closer, where he let his lips meet hers. 

Hyejin didn't pull back or stay frozen. Instead, she went in for him too. Who knew her first kiss would be with her one and only bias from SEVENTEEN? Now, her boyfriend. 

As the snow fell from the skies, the two shared a very sweet kiss. As if the night couldn't get any better. Hyejin was happy like this. She didn't care about what social media would think of them anymore. As long as she knew what she wanted—as long as she knew what made her happy, she would stick to that. 

It's funny. I used to be your fan girl and you became my fanboy. Now, we're each other's. Forever, like this, I hope we'll stay. 

THE END. 

~Author's Notes~ 

Oh my gosh. It finally ended! Wew! That was a really great ride! This has to be one of my personal favourites, I'll be honest! I hoped you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this :) 

ABOUT THE STORY 

I've been meaning to write a story like this for a while now. What does that mean? I've been meaning to write what seems to be a fanfiction, but a little different from its norm. I also really hoped you enjoyed this slightly different way of writing of mine! 

If you have any more questions to ask, do comment down below! Also, if you want to ask any of the characters a question, comment down below! I might make a Q&A chapter soon enough too! :) 

Hwan Hyejin

Lee Chan (Dino)

Cho Dae Jung

Jang Soojin (Hyejin's manager)

Kyungie (a.k.a me! HAHAHA)

Others

SEQUEL

Sadly, I won't be posting a sequel for this. I don't think there's anything left to write, actually XD

As always, I always love my Kimichies and I wouldn't be who I am without your love and support so thank you so much! <3 Continue to love our Sebongie <333 I hope to see you in another fanfiction of mine :)