ENCHANTED [ WRITTEN ] — a nice day
the first meeting
WARNINGS: implications of stalking, mild self-objectification, implied trauma (2.4k)
y/n knew what she was doing was incredibly stupid.
she wasn't born with the cautiousness that alluded her mom. she was just as reckless, if not more. y/n could've changed her last name when her mom gave her the chance to, but she chose to wear it like a badge instead. she could've moved to the states with her uncle like he wanted, but she chose to stay right here with her mom.
she knew she was reckless, she knew she was stupid.
y/n had to be, considering she wanted to be in the industry that stole her mom away.
"what am i doing...?"
y/n looked at herself in the mirror. her eyes, dark and dull, swirled with their usual anxiety and fear as if anticipating the worst. she felt it all over her body - her head and chest heavy.
there were only two outcomes to this: kazuha was actually an idol that looked like moomin, or kazuha was a thirty-year-old man trying to catch a scoop on her mother.
(y/n didn't know why, but the possibility of kazuha being kazuha made it worth the risk.)
"mom is gonna kill me."
she was pathetic.
it was funny actually. being stood up by a stranger shouldn't have hurt as much as being stood up by her mom, but y/n could feel her lungs closing in on themselves as she waited.
each moment she waited, she felt like she was wilting. like a cold, harsh winter had taken refuge inside her, never settling down. the air she breathed was frost, and her delicate lungs were always on the verge of collapsing.
y/n looked at her phone. kazuha (or whoever it was) was twenty minutes late.
"i'm gonna kick minji's ass."
maybe it was a sign from the universe, that she needed to haul her ass out of there that instant. perhaps the adorably bright-eyed idol she thought was real was actually just a loser reporter with a microphone shoved up their ass and a notebook in hand.
y/n fiddled with her mask, the hot air hitting her eyes.
she's not upset that kazuha probably ditched her. no, of course not. kazuha was an idol, and if she knew anything about them, they were always in it for money and fame. granted, her friends were almost all idols and weren't like that but still.
she wasn't upset, really.
the breeze blew a bit too hard, the trees rustling in the wind as leaves tumbled pathetically onto the ground. y/n could hear the soft chirping of a bird around her, drowned out by the cars. the sun hid like everything in her life did, yet today, it still gave her the comfort she needed.
it was a nice day to be disappointed.
"y/n?" the voice was pretty, soft like snow, but warm like a fireplace. "you're y/n, right?"
a strong grip, one from trained hands.
y/n opened her eyes, her head tilting up to look at the woman in front of her.
the woman had a smile drawn like the cartoons, big and expressive and apologetic. she seemed out of breath, her hair tousled and cheeks flushed like she had been running. and her eyes...
she does look like moomin.
"kazuha?"
kazuha perked up at the sound of her name. she felt a cold shiver run along her spine, like a chilly gust of wind during fall.
"yeah, uh, sorry i'm so late!" kazuha cleared her throat as best as she could, trying not to sound too out of breath. "my unnie was helping me get dressed, then my other members came in and started using me as a barbie doll. i actually almost came with this really weird hat that looked like an angry bird."
plain dark eyes stared back into kazuha's. the idol could barely see them, hidden behind the shadow of her baseball cap.
actually, kazuha waited to approach her for a couple minutes, unsure that this random girl dressed in all black with a cap and mask on was actually the one she was supposed to meet.
the idol looked her over once more, ignoring the inkling of disappointment at not being able to see her entire face.
(she'd still brag to the rest of le sserafim - mostly chaewon - that y/n did exist.)
silence took over the two still strangers(?), the sound of the wind and the singular bird in the distance filling the empty space. the sun begins to shine a bit brighter, the sound of cars approaching in the distance.
kazuha takes another look at the shorter girl in front of her.
"why are you dressed as batman?"
"huh?"
kazuha froze, not meaning to say the words she just said.
sakura had told her to not let yunjin be near her before her meet-up with y/n. she had a tendency to copy their mannerisms when she was nervous, and the more she was exposed to it...
the wind blew harder.
"nothing." her ears rang as her cheeks burned. "never mind."
kazuha was definitely gonna explode once she got back to her dorms. she'd probably get chaewon to use a fire extinguisher on her, or maybe eunchae to dump a bag of ice on her head. hopefully, they wouldn't make too much fun of her for mentioning something nerdy on her date.
wait, this isn't even a date.
the idol looked at the sky, the rays blinding her. in that moment, she wished to be a leaf, blown away to (hopefully) a different continent. somewhere like japan would be nice, that way she could run to her parents and talk about the atrocious not-date she had that lasted five minutes. her dad would probably make her onigiri with too much rice in it like usual. speaking of rice, she needed to remind chaewon to stop eating all of her-
"were you talking about...?" y/n pointed to her mask, kazuha's eyes snapping back onto the girl in front of her. "oh, this is just a precaution."
it was the least y/n could do, considering she put her mom's career in danger again.
"oh." thoughts swirled inside kazuha's head, a long list of possibilities, both out of reach and self-deprecating. "for what?"
the two stared at each other, waiting for an answer to be spoken. yet, as reckless as the young kwon was, she wasn't stupid. sure, she met up with a random person on the internet that she met three weeks ago. maybe she did it because she thought the random girl claiming to be an idol was cute. and yeah, she did meet this stranger in a secluded park but regardless.
a secret was something you'd take to the grave.
y/n cleared her throat, a twisted sort of guilt stirring in her chest.
"let's go get food."
she walked off, the clouds following her every step along with the idol beside her. her legs moved as if they had a purpose, yet the only thing on her mind was who her blood belonged to.
it belonged to the kwon's, for one. her grandparents, her uncles, her mom. she was their little flower, their princess. the prized possession hidden from sight, enough to be valued but never to be spoken of. she wasn't the black sheep by any means, but more like a dog in a wolf pack.
then, there was the media. dispatch and sbs and whatever news outlet was out there with her description. to them, kwon y/n was a rumor, the headline of the biggest scandal of the kpop industry. her blood was ivory to them - a rare, heafty bounty with fame to spare.
y/n wondered what it would be like to belong to herself, or at least to someone who wouldn't hide her.
"you're prettier in real life." kazuha spoke, looking at the ground with her lips pursed.
this was awkward. the last ten minutes were filled with the sounds of daytime seoul - honking cars and mindless chatter around them. it gave kazuha ample time to check out look at the younger girl beside her, like one of yunjin's creepy dates from the stories she told.
"you can barely see me."
"i mean, yeah, but like..." kazuha hoped she wasn't being creepy. "y'know?"
y/n nodded, going back to whatever she was thinking before.
kazuha knew she should've brought her '100 jokes in korean' book. she didn't get half of the jokes in them - granted, she didn't get half the jokes she knew in her mother tongue - but as long as y/n was having a good time, kazuha knew she would too.
if only chaewon didn't confiscate it...
"so, uh..." kazuha cleared her throat. "you go to hanlim?"
the shorter girl stopped in her tracks, looking at the idol. her blood froze in her veins like a cold tundra had washed over her being.
"...how do you know that?"
her tone was thin and sharp, a blade ready to cut into the nearest enemy. y/n's eyes now gleamed with hostility, her plain irises now alert like a cat.
"in the photo." kazuha didn't know what was going on, but she was sure she messed up just now. "the photo you sent to me? your blazer. uh, the crest?"
the idol's hands moved around flimsily, drawing a square-like shape near her chest.
oh.
y/n was an idiot.
"i thought i covered that."
but then again, y/n was too busy trying to find a good-looking picture of her. considering that jinsol and hana kept taking photos of her annoying the shit out of jungwon, it was safe to say that her options were limited.
"you didn't."
the two continued to walk, the air feeling light through y/n's chest. her fingers buzzed with the knowledge that kazuha knew more than y/n wanted her to, running up her arm and sitting on her throat like poorly tightened tie.
her mom was going to ground her for the rest of eternity, if she found out, of course.
"are you okay?" kazuha's voice stumbled in her ears, clumsy yet caring. "uh, you look like you're gonna pass out."
"yeah, i'm fine." the younger girl took a breath, the light breeze carrying the smell of freshly grown petals.
y/n's head snapped towards the scent, her eyes zeroing in on the stand. mismatched bouquets littered the wooden shelves, mostly pastels, yet all eye-catching.
"you like flowers?"
"yeah." y/n didn't realize she was walking towards the stand until she was face to face with a pretty pink flower. "my mom, she would give me the ones she got all the time."
her hand moved on its own, gripping an out-of-place flower from the rest of the tulips. it looked weirdly valuable, its stem delicately wrapped in parchment paper and its petals free of dust. on the front, a sticker of '₩80000' was pinned neatly.
y/n took a sniff, the soft alluring scent nothing like she smelt before.
it was different from the roses and tulips and carnations, like a lone blackbird in a sea of swans.
"what does it smell like?"
kazuha leaned over slightly, her shadow blocking the bright sun just enough to shield y/n.
y/n hummed, rubbing the petals between the pads of her fingers.
"peaches."
the younger girl held the flower up for kazuha to take in, the idol's eyes wide with hesitation. the leaves and debris tumbled beneath them, the wind blowing strong for a moment before calming down.
kazuha leaned her head lower.
peaches.
"you two better not wreck that flower!" the two jolted up, y/n rushing to it back. "do you know how expensive that is?!"
kazuha stared wide-eyed, suddenly stiff like a tree.
a couple months after she debuted, she had already gotten in trouble? surely, this would be a scandal, and all the hard work she and the rest of the girls did would be overturned.
beside her, y/n stared at the broken stem.
"oh shit."
the old woman walked closer, her eyes burning as her precious (and overpriced, y/n thought) flower was no longer its usual pristine self. it had snapped under the pressure y/n had given it.
but she wasn't gonna pay more eighty thousand won for a single flower.
y/n grabbed kazuha's wrist.
"run."
the woman got closer, grabbing what seemed to be a rolled-up wad of newspaper.
"maybe we should apologiz–"
it wasn't the first time y/n got an ajumma mad.
"run!"
kazuha prided herself on being athletic. aside from being an idol, the japanese girl had a strict regimen that she had perfected during her years of ballet. it took blood, sweat, and tears to perfect, and not once did she doubt her abilities, not even next to the almost equally versed huh yunjin.
still, she had never needed to outrun the media.
the taller girl could feel herself being dragged along as the loud cussing of the older woman faded behind them. she could barely keep up, if not the wind pushing them along.
was this how birds felt like? she thought.
the two stopped minutes after, nowhere near where the area they agreed to meet up on, and even further from the ajumma then they had realized.
as she stared at the idol, y/n could feel hot air radiating around her.
"i'm gonna get in trouble with management." kazuha managed to puff out, her chest heaving and her hair tousled like before.
"yeah," y/n dropped her mask down to her chin, taking in the air. "you are."
pretty...
the leaves around them rustled, breeze picking up to cool the two off. kazuha could feel her skin losing heat, but her thoughts ran like a hamster on a wheel, thinking about all the possible outcomes from that encounter.
it was probably fine, the general public had no clue who le sserafim was, much less kazuha, that other japanese girl next to the miyawaki sakura.
she was fine, she was-
y/n laughed.
"sorry, sorry!" she couldn't help it. the way kazuha's face twisted in worry was so animated that it made her imagine the older girl as moomin. "just give me a sec."
kazuha broke out into a grin as the pretty girl in front of her laughed and laughed, the ice-cold tension melting off of her in the rays of the sun. the birds chirped in the distance, the lack of honking near them making it loud enough to register in her ears.
it was a nice day today.
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