(Guide Us to) A Million Stars

29🔥

Early the next morning, Tae left my studio apartment. A light drizzle was falling when I escorted him out into the courtyard. Normally I would never do that, but we were trying to catch the sasaeng posting these intrusive photos. For good measure I even gave him a good-bye hug.

Sure enough a picture of Tae and I in the courtyard was posted on the internet a couple of days later. I was looking at it on my phone showing Seonhwa who came over to help me investigate for clues. We stood outside my apartment complex and looked around.

"According to this pic, the angle comes from..." I said, pointing to an area by a high retaining wall, "...behind that wall."

Through a gate, we exited the courtyard and scanned the area. I looked down and noticed how the soft ground was still wet from the rain.

"Suni!" Seonhwa screamed, pointing to a large flat rock nearby. On the flattened part were two damp, slightly dirty footprints. "This is where Chan stood to take the picture."

My eyes went from the rock to the top of the wall, only six feet high. "But Chan is tall. He's taller than Tae. Why would he need to stand on the rock?" I asked, narrowing my eyes in the direction of the courtyard.

Using my phone, I took a picture of the inside of the courtyard by holding my arms above me, clearing the wall. Then Seonhwa and I studied my phone. "Chan could have taken the picture from here. But this isn't the angle," I said. An idea came to me so I placed my hand on Seonhwa's shoulder and boosted myself onto the rock.

"Wae?" she blurted out.

"Help me." Once on top, I found my footing and stood on the rock, being careful to step next to the footprints not on them. I gasped. "These footprints are small. These might be female footprints!"

Seonhwa peered closely at them. "This not Chan."

Again I took my phone and from that height, looking over the wall, took a picture of the courtyard. I bent over to show Seonhwa. I almost slipped and fell off the rock.

"Aah!"

Seonhwa helped me down then we both looked at the phone. The picture was exactly the same angle as the one on the internet. "I knew it. It's not him. Anyways, Chan seems like a nice guy."

"Are you going to tell Tae?"

I nodded as I texted him 🥑 and 👨.

***

A few days later I was shocked to discover the impact of these pictures circulating on the internet. On Weverse, someone had posted a picture of me and Tae on Halloween and in my courtyard. Next to that another picture of a gun with the caption "Good night tutor." Earlier when Areum posted that "ship" video, I had seen mean tweets. But this was worse. It was violent and I got scared.

I called Seonhwa to meet me at BTS' apartment complex. I had received a call from the doorman that a piece of certified mail, which I had to sign for, had arrived. When she approached the gate, I told her about the comment on Weverse.

"This happens sometimes in K-pop. Some fans are crazy. Are you okay?" she asked, as we waited for the security guard to let us in.

"Well, it's not very nice," I stated.

Suddenly, a group of female voices shouting could be heard a hundred feet away. "Ya! Teacher!" they said in an aggressive tone. "Boo!"

Seonhwa and I looked at each other, trying to ignore the mocking girls. As we entered the complex, a pair of teenagers walked by and we could hear their conversation in Korean.

"Isn't that one his English tutor?"

"Her? She's not as pretty as I thought."

"Why does she get to be his girlfriend?"