Chapter 76: Phantom III

Jae Joong was the first to react to Yoo Chun’s comment.

“Gay? Are you saying I’m some gay magnet?” he laughed.

“I wouldn’t rule out the possibility,” Yoo Chun laughed.

“Omigod…” I said. “A gay man is after me because he’s in love with you?” I said to Jae Joong.

“Gay magnet!” Jun Su exclaimed, the guys laughed.

“If he really is a gay fan, I wouldn’t be laughing about this now,” Yun Ho smiled grimly.

“What are we going to do when they catch him?” Shoei asked.

“First of all, we’re going to sue him for trespassing,” Yun Ho said.

“Then for attempting to cause harm to Sierra,” Jae Joong said as he tightened his arm around me.

“You guys have everything thought out, don’t you?” I smiled. “I’m sure it was a moment of insanity. The guy just needs some therapy.”

“Which they will provide in prison,” Shoei said.

“Let’s just wait till he’s caught,” Yoo Chun said.

“Don’t you guys need to continue?” I asked them.

“The technician and producer went out as soon as Yun Ho and Jun Su hyung went missing. I think they went for a drink. We’ll need to wait for them to get back,” Chang Min said.

“Well, then we should get back to ours,” Shoei said.

“Yea,” I agreed.

“You’re alright?” Jae Joong asked me.

“I’m fine. Just a little freaked out just now, but fine,” I replied.

“We’re not leaving you alone from now on,” Shoei said.

“Yea,” Yun Ho agreed. “Until this psycho is caught, you should not go anywhere alone.”

“Araso,” I said as I stood up from the chair.

“I’ll see you later,” Jae Joong said as he lifted my hand and kissed it.

“Later?” I looked at him questioningly.

“I’ll have dinner with you. I should’ve walked you to the studios just now,” he sighed.

“No harm done,” I smiled as I caressed his neck. “I’m fine.”

“But you were in danger,” he said.

“I’m fine now,” I insisted.

“Let’s go,” Shoei said.

“Yea… we’re making a scene here,” I laughed, referring to Jae Joong and me.

“Glad you know it,” Yoo Chun winked and Jae Joong stuck his tongue out at Yoo Chun.

That night, Jae Joong dropped by our studios as promised, and waited for me until I’d finished recording.

“They found the guy,” Jae Joong said as we walked hand in hand toward the elevator.

“Who is he?”

“Apparently, he’s a staff here. That’s how he got in, and I wouldn’t have believed it if the police hadn’t said it; Yoo Chun was right.”

“Right? You mean the guy’s gay?”

“Yep,” he replied, and I started laughing hysterically. “You shouldn’t laugh,” he smiled. “That would be sexual discrimination.”

“I’m not laughing at the guy. I’m laughing at you,” I said as I continued laughing.

“You shouldn’t laugh anyway,” he said as we entered the elevator. “You could’ve been hurt.”

“I’m fine now,” I said as I put my arms around his waist.

“Thank god,” he said as he put his arm around me.

“So where are we going?” I asked him.

“How about making up for the dinner we missed more than 2 weeks ago?”

“Good idea,” I replied.

We ended up at Jackie’s Kitchen, and yes… it’s Jackie Chan we’re talking about. The man’s a brand… I’d always thought the place to be a little gimmicky, but at the end of the day, I love my Chinese food, and I don’t care where it comes from as long as it’s nice.

The ambience was actually pretty good at Jackie’s Kitchen. We sat by the windows, overlooking the street, and if you looked up, you could see the sky since the roof was made of glass in that section. Not exactly the wisest place to sit since it was very public, but somehow that night, not many people interrupted us.

We ordered prawn dumplings, fried rice and stir fried noodles in black bean sauce. Jae Joong was laughing hysterically when the prawn dumplings arrived.

“Why are you laughing?” I asked him as I picked up my chopsticks happily.

“I should have a camera ready next time,” he laughed.

“For what?” I said as I stuffed a dumpling into my mouth, which was a mistake since it was piping hot inside.

“The look on your face when the waiter set the dumpling down on the table… it’s priceless.”

“What do you mean?” I said as I quickly drank some water to cool down the contents in my mouth.

“The way your eyes lit up,” he smiled.

“Oh…” I grinned sheepishly. “You know how much I love dim sum.”

“Yea… you love dumplings in any form. Dim sum, mandu… it’s a wonder your face doesn’t look like a dumpling.”

“Now you’re being mean,” I pouted.

“But you’d be a very cute dumpling,” he said, and I smiled.

“Come on… eat. Before I finish it all,” I laughed, and he picked up his chopsticks.

“So…” I smiled. “You still haven’t said anything about the MV.”

“The MV?” he said, his chopsticks in mid-air.

“Si Won and I?”

“Oh… the MV,” he murmured as he picked up a dumpling with his chopsticks. “Isn’t it a good thing that I’m not saying anything?”

“I don’t know. It depends on how you’re feeling.”

“How I’m feeling,” he laughed softly.

“Come on… didn’t you feel a little jealous? Not even a tiny bit?”

“Si Won wouldn’t dare touch you for any other purpose other than work,” Jae Joong said.

“Still… you’re telling me you felt nothing when you watched the clip?”

“Nope. Nothing…”

“I know why,” I said.

“Why?”

“If it had been someone like Darren from Helix, or Bi sonbae, I don’t think you’d act so nonchalant about it.”

“What?”

“Si Won’s your friend, and you trust him. But if it were someone you didn’t really know personally, I don’t think you’d be keeping you cool.”

“Hey… if the guy acted professionally, I have nothing to get upset about. If Si Won did come on to you during filming, I would kick his butt.”

“Really?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yea,” he said with conviction. “So did he?” he added, and I burst into laughter.

The way his expression changed really cracked me up. One moment he was saying how confident he was of his friend, and then suddenly throwing a question at me which more or less showed that he wasn’t that confident after all.

“Pabo,” I said as my laughter subsided. “Si Won was so uneasy and scared throughout the filming. He was kinda afraid of what you might say.”

“I’m okay. And to answer your question, yes… I felt a little uneasy watching my friend hit on my girlfriend,” he admitted.

I think I was almost beaming, knowing that he felt jealous. I can’t explain why it would feel good, but it did. To know that he was jealous sort of proves to me that he is possessive. Not that he was possessive to the extent that he locks me up, but to some extent, it felt good to know that he feels that I belong to him, and I wanted to belong to him.

“Why are you smiling,” he said, the corners of his mouth turning up. “Pabo…” he said affectionately and reached over to grab my hand and give it a light squeeze.

By the end of dinner, we’d signed at least 3 autographs, taken pictures with some of them and there was even this tourist from Malaysia who came up to greet us.

“You’re Sierra from S-Cube?” the girl said in English.

“Yes I am,” I smiled. “You’re not local, are you?”

“I’m from Malaysia!” she almost squealed.

“Really? Nice… What's your name?” I said.

“I’m Ling,” she replied.

“Hello Ling,” I said, as I shook her hand.

“Why haven’t S-Cube come to Malaysia?” she asked me.

“It’s not in the management’s plans, I guess.”

“But you’re from Malaysia. You should come and hold a concert soon,” she said.

“Maybe soon, and if we do come, I will make sure they inform everyone in Malaysia that I’m coming back,” I laughed.

“Really? Then we’ll be waiting,” she smiled. “Can I have your autograph?”

“Sure,” I said, as I signed her book.

“And Jae Joong’s too?” Ling said as she held her book out to Jae Joong.

“Sure,” he smiled, and signed her book for her.

“Can I take a picture with the both of you?” she asked us, and we complied with the help of a waiter.

“Sierra will come home soon,” Jae Joong told Ling before she left.

“Okay…” she replied. “Jae Joong! Your English is so much better now!”

“Ah… Cheongmal? Thank you,” he laughed softly.

“Must be Sierra’s influence,” she added.

“Definitely,” I quipped.

“You should go back soon,” Jae Joong said as we sat down after Ling left.

“The management has never talked about such plans. And you know that they don’t really listen to our input when it’s to do with promotional issues.”

“But it’s your home, and I am sure you have a legion of fans waiting for S-Cube to hold a concert. One of their own is in S-Cube. The tickets would be sold-out within the day.”

“We’re not TVXQ,” I laughed. “Our ticket sales don’t move that fast.”

“I still think the management is making a big mistake,” he said as he ate his noodles.

“It’s not our call,” I shrugged. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

The next morning, the news about the ‘attack’ on me was all over the papers.

‘Gay Jae Joong fan lashes out at Sierra!’ was the main headline. The guys laughed till they were in stitches when they read it.

“Hyung!” Chang Min exclaimed, almost in tears. “It was really a gay fan!”

“Very funny, Chang Min,” Jae Joong said sarcastically.

“I don’t find it funny,” Yun Ho said. “Sierra could’ve been seriously hurt.”

“We know that hyung, calm down,” Jun Su said as he put his hand on Yun Ho’s shoulder. “It’s just really funny to know that Jae Joong hyung had such an extreme male fan.”

“Yea… we’ve heard of gay fans,” Yoo Chun said, “and we are aware that not only Jae Joong hyung has them,” he quickly added, “but it’s just funny that one of them went public about it.”

“He’s a madman,” Jae Joong said.

“That I agree too,” Jun Su said.

“How’s the hand?” I asked Jun Su.

“Better,” he smiled. “Thanks to your loving attention,” he winked, for Jae Joong’s benefit.

“Xiah Jun Su,” Jae Joong said and scowled at him.

“Oops,” he said, covering his mouth. “We mustn’t be too open with our affections, Sierra. Alright?” Jun Su said in a stage whisper, and I giggled.

“The both of you have no shame?” Jae Joong said, pretending to be hurt.

Jun Su and I looked at him, and we started giggling again.

That afternoon, Skye, Shoei and I were filming a promotional video for the album. This was different from an MV. They’ve planned a short film, documentary style, for us, and this will begin airing the week before our album launch. There will be 5 episodes; 1 documentary of our activities, 1 interview as a group and 3 separate interviews. They will be aired separately for the next 4 weeks. And the final episode is a special premier of our second MV.

They had an interviewer from Mnet come and we each took turns and sat down in with the interviewer. The camera would only be filming us, with the interviewer sitting beside the camera, across from us, and from time to time, they would cut to video clips and etcetera, taken from events and performances we’ve had in the past 3 years. Before the individual interviews, we had an interview as a group…