Chapter 56: Escaping together

The show has finally come to an end. All the idols who performed made their way to the stage for the award ceremony determining the 1st-place. A little after Evan's stage, Ms. Grace left to grab some drinks, but she still didn't return for the next five minutes, so I thought she might be in Evan's dressing room. Since many idols were still making their way back to the stage, the area where I was standing became crowded, so I had to escape the situation practically. I went back to the dressing room; my head bowed down as I shyly walked into the hallway where some people-who I assumed were the same people we saw when we arrived earlier-were intriguingly looking at me. They probably might've deemed me as some outsider who discreetly fled inside the studio. "Now I can breathe," I said and immediately plopped myself on a seat in front of the television wherein the music show's broadcasting was projected. After all the idols settled on stage, three masters of ceremonies then walked on the stage and approached the idols. At one point, the camera was directed to Evan, and I must be a weak fan for immediately getting a flutter in my heart as he flashed a smile and waved his hands to his fans in the crowd. "God, I must be crazy. Why did he need to smile like that?" I whined, my hands scratching my head as my feet irritatingly stomped the floor. "Everyone did a great performance!" the male MC chimed. "I agree! It's so hard to guess who will today!" the female MC rejoiced. "Who do you think will win, guys?" she asked the audience, and everyone started screaming the name of their idols. "It's time to know the results!" the other male MC said. The three contenders for the first place were projected on the television. I gasped happily, seeing that Evan was among them. A graphic showed every criterion needed to determine the winner was underneath their names: the criteria for winning included votes on SNS, digital charts, physical or album sales, pre-voting, and live voting. As the numbers tallied up, the fan votes rampantly increased for each contender; I bit my lower and tightly gripped the hands of my chair, expecting that Evan would win. "And the show's choice for this week is . . ." the female MC halted as the final tally continued determining the total. "Evan Park!" the three MCs rejoiced as a confetti cannon made a blasting sound as a celebratory event. One of the MCs gave Evan a silver trophy and a bouquet, and I screamed so loud and fell off my chair, my butt immediately hitting the floor. I groaned in pain, but thank God, I was alone in the room. I watched as Evan thanked his fans, mom, and management for supporting him. As I fondly watched Evan give his word of thanks, the door suddenly blasted open, and two familiar women came in, making my attention divert to them so that I couldn't watch Evan's entire speech. Now that I saw them closer, I realized they were Evan's makeup artists I saw earlier. "Uhm, excuse me? Who are you?" one of them asked her eyebrows in complete furrows. "Hi, I, uhm . . ." I hastily stood and wiped my hands on the side of my shirt as I felt a sudden nervousness around them. "I'm Misty. I'm with-" "Are you an outsider?" the other woman speculated, but it was more like she was accusing me of someone who illegally went inside the studio. "Because you don't have an ID. Miss, you're not allowed in here." "But I'm a friend of-" "I'm sorry, Miss. You have to go out now before security sees you hiding here." I quickly made my way outside, as I didn't want to hear any more words from the two of them. They were so rude to accuse me of someone I wasn't. They didn't even let me explain, which was even harsher. But I realized it was not as if they would care about me. They were partly right, anyway. If it weren't for Ms. Grace, I wouldn't be here-I wouldn't be able to watch Evan's performance. So, technically, I was an outsider. Once outside the dressing room, I pressed my back against the wall beside the door-which I couldn't close properly because of the sudden urge to leave them-and happened to overhear them talking. "Wasn't she Evan's partner on that magazine wherein Once Upon A Time's new collection was featured?" one of the two women asked, and I could imagine how sarcastic her voice was uttering those words. "I think so. Though I can't remember that girl's name," the other said. "I wasn't the one who assisted her that day." "Why is she here, anyway?" Her voice sounded irritated. "Are they in a relationship or something? Because"-she snorted-"I'd rather ship Evan with Zoe." She clapped her hands. "She's a real model and prettier than that substitute model." "I agree. Also, Evan's career is stable now. He's getting awards and recognition everywhere because of his great music, so I think he can't afford to get into an issue or scandal with anyone now. Especially with that girl." "She could ruin his image and career he built over these years." Reaching into the pocket of my suit, I clenched my fists, thinking about what they said. I wasn't furious. It was more like the bitter reality slapped me that Evan and I lived in different worlds. The feeling was overwhelming, as though I was hit by thousand pieces of glass shards, making me arrive at one conclusion as to why Evan had avoided talking to me the past few days. We were too different; our lives were just so different. The fact that he was an idol-a popular one-who'd make music for his fans, who'd perform on lots of shows, and about me . . . I was just a simple developmental editor-a frustrated one. No, I was just one of his fans. That alone was one reason I shouldn't have let my feelings escalate to something that could ruin Evan. "I should leave," I hissed to myself as I walked into the hallways where some idols were heading back to their dressing room. I kept my head as low as possible so that I wouldn't get so much attention. "Crap, crap crap," I chanted quietly as more idols rushed back to their respective rooms, making their voices fill the entire space. As I hurried forward, a hand grabbed my wrist, and I saw Evan's worried face when I looked up. There were already some pinches of sweat on his forehead, signifying how much he enjoyed performing earlier. His makeup was also kind of ruined now, but I couldn't care less as his attractive face was still glowing. Suddenly, the hallway became silent- a very deafening one, and the only thing that I could hear was the lights being turned off coming from the main stage-and the idols from the other groups were staring at us, staring at our hands. "Let go of me." I tried twisting my hand to escape Evan's tight grip. "Evan, what are you doing?" I hissed, my teeth grinning as I slowly panicked because of the people's straight gazes at our situation like they were watching a drama's climax. "I told you there's something I need to tell you. Why are you suddenly leaving?" Evan whispered, his hands still tight on my wrist. A stubbornness oozed from him even with his soft voice, and it was apparent that he didn't care if other idols were murmuring some things as they observed us. "Evan, they're staring at us." "Let's go," he firmly said and ushered us back to the dressing room. The idols in the hallway parted in between to make space for us to walk, as they kept on bowing to us-to Evan-and we did the same to them. I realized most of them looked younger than Evan, and the way they greeted him was so punctual, so I presumed they were Evan's hubaes. (Hubae: junior; on the k-pop scene, it refers to the idols who debuted later, regardless of age.) A little later, Evan was already wearing straight denim jeans, a plain black long-sleeved shirt, a ball cap, and a black mask covering his nose and mouth. "Come on," he said and took my hand as we exited the building, though a few people still glanced at us.