The Superstar's Autograph
_Chapter Thirty-Three

The metropolis of Seoul was quiet; snow stacked against curbs drifted to the surfaces of structures and shops, stores and withered foliage. The moonlight cavorted against the synthetic lights and white mounds, bringing them to life with opalescent vim. Normally I would have taken my time, renovating and clearing my disorganize insights but not tonight.

I thought about all he had done.

From the very beginning...

Fourteen year old me...

To the nineteen year old me...

And to the current Xiao Zhan...

Who unable to recall him not until he told me about the past...All clear now and it kept on replaying in my head...All the good and ugly feelings he fostered in me declined to flow through the channel of my hopeless and 'should be forgotten' anamneses. [A/N: Anamneses means memories] They still ignite, warming my chilled scalp.

The sound of his phone robbed me out from my pensiveness and slated me back in my present-day regrets. "Hello? It's me. Yibo...Yeah, sure. I'll go there. Tell them, I will do my role to the job." Yibo then took a quick turn to a lane and we stopped in front of a huge building. In the doors, there were people in suits coming in and out. "I'll have to talk to someone and we can go straight home. Be right back."

He left me to the truck and hove himself on his full height, looking around him as he approached a petite girl who just got out from the revolving doors. I looked up to see the name of Yibo's company plastered on the upper section of the building. The young woman was in her early twenties, I judged, only about one year older or so than Yibo, she was stunning with long black hair, winter coat and boots. He put a smile for her as their eyes contacted and something inside me singed, burned, charred. Who is this fox? Why is Yibo smiling like that to her? He never smiled for anyone similar of that one other than...me. They swapped words with each other, anyone can call it whatever but it was plain as the nose on your face that this female has feelings for him. She was gazing at Yibo in an infatuated lovesick way while speaking to the idol. I saw it with my two naked eyes! When she placed her arms around his neck, held her hips against his for a moment and laughed to what he said, my eyebrows flew to the roof of the Chevy. Clenching my fists on top of my thighs, I pasted myself on the seat, emotionless and was about to run there, demand justice. Why would I? Who am I anyway in Yibo's life? The dummy he just rejected.

Five meters away from where they were, I noticed two women possessing cameras and directing it to them.

Damn reporters...

As I returned my kindling vision to Yibo, he was scanning the maiden with what I presumed was like or love in his eyes but couldn't tell from the angle he was standing at. The damsel beyond doubt was doing that to him. She loves him! My heart frisked a collection of pulses and rapidly thumping to the point I thought my chest will burst open at any second as soon as what he did etched on my head with the stranger; he kissed her on the cheek and I swore she gasped referring from her expression.

Now I understood what he feels, existing as the third party in the middle of my relationship with Zoey...

Forty-three minutes perished from my imaginary wristwatch, they exported their final dialogues and the lady fixed her stylish tote bag on her shoulder, kissed him back on his face then expired to the office block. I guaranteed all I could see was red in disapprobation.

When Yibo returned to the vehicle, I am improbably threading through my rising and falling agitation but swigged my words back to my throat. He started the ignition, backing out of his parking space as he steered off to the road. "What's wrong? You have a contorted face on." He abstractedly stretched an arm to touch me but I scooted to the door, avoiding his hand.

Is he seeking an argument?

"Nothing." I idly orated.

"We'll buy food first, okay?"

I clipped my mouth as I fiddled my fingers with the fabric of my chunky cardigan.

We stopped at KFC and with the take-outs he ensued to his apartment. We drove to a road with no living in sight, I decisively called his bonded sentience, "Yibo, leave me somewhere, I want to be left alone."

"Where will you go?"

"Somewhere without you. Bring me to a bus stop."

"What? Zhan, at this hour there are no buses available for you to ride. Just stay for the night in my place and you can call Suho to get you there tomorrow."

"No, I'll be fine."

"Zhan, don't be stubborn."

"I'm not."

He picked the paper bag above the dashboard and distributed it to me. "Please eat."

I accepted the bag vainly and placed it back on its original place, "I am not hungry."

"Zhan Zhan, I don't know what you are feeling unless you tell me. What's going on?"

I AM OUTRAGED TO WHAT YOU DID WITH THAT GIRL! Prior to my eloquent comeback, the spluttering, choking and lurching engine sounds of the Chevrolet rolled us to a slow and long stall. It died. He pressed his foot on the accelerator but it didn't stir.

"Are you out of gas or fouled the spark plugs?" Holy junk! I can't be with him while the ferocity in me intensifies to its critical point. I have to contain my temper...

"The gas ran out..."

"You are an idiot. We passed a gas station earlier yet you didn't refuel... What are we going to do?"

If Suho or my dad were here, they would irrefutably know.

"I'll message our location to Sehun and wait for him to rescue us." He typed impetuously on his screen and shunted it to his pocket. He leaned his head to the bolster of the driver's seat, "Cars barely came by in this route..."

"Why did you drive here if you knew and why didn't you do the obvious thing to provide additional fuel to this truck?!"

"I know that you're mad at me for no logical reason again so I forgot to refuel. I bought food for you but you said you are not hungry and I am asking you what was wrong but then you said nothing."

"Wow, rejecting my marriage proposal isn't a logical reason for you?"

"It is and I'm sorry." It sounded like he didn't feel sorry at all. "What's the other reason?"

"What do you want me to say? I am upset because I saw you with that girl? If that was your revenge, you did well." I grouched fiercely.

Confused Yibo turned to me, "You are jealou-"

"Don't finish that word, Mr. Wang. Who is she? Your ex-girlfriend?"

He threaded a hand through his hair. A not-so-secret smile emerged on his mouth. "No. The company is paying her. They employ her as my pretend girlfriend. The higher-ups are planning to divert the attention of the paparazzi from the rumors and gossips circulating between us. I may lose some fans but it is okay as long as you are safe from the public eyes and haters." His mouth set on a firm line. "You can have your life back, the one without me in it. I promise. It's the least I can do for loving you these past years."

"I understand that we have to depict boundaries to our own respective standings in the society and never ever meet again but this isn't making any sense! Having a fake girlfriend won't stop others from attacking you or me. And why do have to kiss her?!"

"Zhan Zhan kissing her cheek is a part of the act. Don't sweat it. I have to settle the predicaments that enmesh us together before we go back to China."

Not concerning to take a brief, silent inventory of my feelings about his decision, tears spontaneously shimmered in my eyes.

Perceiving what had happened to me; his hand found mine and he squeezed it. "We'll be fine..."

We will...if the world is for us...we will if the people around us accept and support us...we will if I have a kind and understanding grandmother . My intuition says she has something to do with this...And maybe dad too...No...Please not dad.

"No, we won't...We both ruthlessly hurt ourselves that pain lost its meaning and degrades the cost of happiness..." Is this his test for me? Or a trial from my grandma? "I am hopeful that my grandmother or my father has nothing to do with this all..."

"Zhan, that night when I left you..." His voice filled with disturbed urgency tone that made me feel worried. "Your grandmother offered me -" He was discontinued the minute three black cars stopped with an ear-tearing stretching noise in front of the truck and men in tux advanced to us. They all wore indecipherable look on their faces.

To some degree I am 100% sure something was off. I couldn't say how I knew or what that 'something' might be, but my senses were definitely on alert. "Do you know them?"

Yibo dithered as if he's debating with himself either to tell me the truth or what. He replied a "No."

"Step out of the truck." The oldest of the group commanded; directing to him. "You are done here."

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TO BE CONTINUED IN THE BOOK ENTITLED;

THE SUPERSTAR'S ADDICTION
Continuation of Book 1

SEE YOU THERE!