Dating an Idol

Twenty-One: HIS KRYPTONITE

Watching the waves while feeling the cold sea breeze was giving me comfort. It brought calmness to my troubled mind.

I was at the beach. Alone.

We just finished having an early dinner to celebrate Skye's mom's birthday. Her husband booked a restaurant by the beach for us. He literally booked the whole place so Skye and Eun could dine comfortably. His friend owns the place so booking it to ourselves was never a problem.

It was a seafood feast. I never had such a sumptuous dinner for the longest time.

I excused myself after we ate to check the beach. It was like the beach was calling me so I came here.

I felt something on my back and when I turned around to see what it was, I saw Eun putting his coat over me.

"No, no, I'm good," I said as I tried to take off his jacket and give it back to him.

But he just put it back on me. "Keep it, it's cold," he said before he sat down on the sand right beside me.

"Are you sure it's okay for you to be out here?" I asked, looking around to see if there's anyone who might have recognized him.

"Yeah. There was no one around anyway," he said. "They were having some quality family talk over there. I wanna give them some privacy so I left."

It was so nice of him to think that way, I thought.

"Arghhh, I miss this," he said while fixing his gaze on the horizon. "I miss moments like this when you have nothing to do and you just basically kill time doing nothing."

"How does it feel to see your dreams unfold into reality, by the way?" I asked all of a sudden.

"Hmmmmm. Nice, actually," he replied. "It's fulfilling. Sometimes I still couldn't believe that I have come this far. I mean, sometimes everything still feels like a dream."

He paused to fill his lungs with air.

"But there are also days when you miss your old life away from all these spotlights," he continued. "There are also days when you miss the old you. I actually miss going anywhere without anyone having to recognize me."

I didn't say anything. I just stared at the ripples the waves were making.

"How long have you been training?" he asked all of a sudden.

I smiled timidly. "I've been training for as long as I remember. I've been training for most of my life, it's crazy."

"I'm glad that you're giving it a second shot."

I just smiled without actually looking at him before I heaved a deep sigh.

"You must be shocked to see me come with him here," he said.

"Yeah, I… I actually am," I admitted, smiling.

"I wasn't meant to come with him. I just forced him to let me tag along." He chuckled. "I had nowhere to go. I don't wanna go home. It's useless to come home to an empty house. I don't want to stay alone in the dorm either so I decided to tag along."

"What about your family? Where are they?"

"Everyone's busy with their respective lives. My parents are busy with their businesses. My older brother and sisters are married already and are now busy with their own family. So there's basically no one to welcome me if I go home. It's just a huge, empty house."

Although he was smiling, I could feel the sadness in his voice.

"Actually Skye didn't really want me to tag along. He just wants to borrow my car but I told him that I won't let him borrow my car unless he'll let me come with him," Eun continued. "So he had no choice but to let me tag along although he was really hesitant at first."

"Well, I'm glad that you're here with us," I said.

"I hope he feels the same way."

We chuckled in unison.

"Actually I figured out right away why he doesn't want me to tag along," he continued. "'Is Yuri coming with you?' I asked him. 'Is that why you don't want me to come?' He was shocked. He wasn't expecting me to figure it out. In my mind, I was like 'Gotcha!'" He grinned like he was so proud of himself.

I chuckled. "It still overwhelms me to think that you know me by name."

"I've got something to tell you, by the way. Just don't tell Skye about this. He's gonna smack my ass if he finds out." He was still grinning.

I got curious. "What is it?"

"Actually I already knew you way back then. I just didn't realize it right away," he admitted.

"What do you mean?" I got even more curious.

"I have been roommates with Skye ever since," Eun recalled. "When we haven't debuted yet, I saw your pic in his old wallet. He didn't mean to show it to anyone but I saw it by accident."

I was surprised. "What photo?"

"I think it was taken from a photo booth. Just the two of you," he replied.

But Skye and I have taken a lot of pictures from photo booths before so I do not know what pic it was exactly. But I'm surprised that he kept one of those in his old wallet. Though he might not be using it by now.

"I asked who you are and he just said dongsaeng so I thought you were his biological sister. But then I found out later that he's an only child."

"When I saw you during the audition, I thought you were rather familiar. But I haven't figured it out yet that you are that 'dongsaeng' that he was referring to before," he said. "But when I saw you come out together from the comfort room… holding hands... that's when I realized who you are. I was like 'Ahhhh. That's why she looks familiar.' But I haven't confronted Skye about it right away. You know him, he's very secretive. He doesn't want to talk about personal stuff. He'd rather keep things to himself. But I was dying to ask him about you since then. I just didn't get the chance."

And I couldn't agree more. Skye does not open up that easily, even to me.

"Then here comes that airport incident when out of nowhere, you landed right in front of me ---"

"Ohmygod, that was embarrassing!" I covered my face with my own hands. I could feel my face getting warmer because of embarrassment.

"No, that was actually cute. You don't need to feel embarrassed by that," he said, smiling. "But yeah, I recognized you right away. And I saw his reactions, too, when he saw you. I saw how shocked and worried he was when he saw you falling right in front of us. That's when I finally had the guts to ask him about you."

He paused.

"And to my surprise, Skye started to open up about you," he continued. "He even told me that you are staying at his place right now. Can you believe that? He actually opened up to me!" He looked giddy.

I chuckled.

"Hey, guess what?" he asked.

"What is it?" I asked back.

"I actually helped him sneak out when we came back here from Japan. He said he wanted to check on you so I helped him sneak out." Eun was proudly grinning.

I chuckled. "Yeah, so I've heard. Thank you."

"You know what?" he continued. "Among the members, I found it more difficult to get closer with Skye at first. Like, he's very quiet. He seems very cold. Sometimes I would even think that maybe he was not a human after all. For all we know, he's just a robot pretending to be one of us." He was grinning.

I laughed out loud. "That's crazy."

"But when I met you, and I saw how he cared for you, I realized that he's human after all. He had feelings, too. He was just acting tough and all but he had weaknesses, too."

"Yeah, Skye may appear cold and tough most of the time but he's a real softie inside. He lost his father at a young age, that's why he grew up like that. He always acts strong so as not to make his mom worry," I said.

"Yeah. Figured that out, too. But guess what?"

"What?"

"There's one thing I've realized about Skye."

"What is it?"

"Aside from his mom, you are his greatest weakness."

"What do you mean?"

"Like Achilles' heel. Like Superman's Kryptonite. You are Skye's ultimate weakness. Like he could act strong and unaffected but when it comes to you, he loses his cool just like that."

I stared at Eun. "No, that's not true," I said, more to myself than to him.

"Nah, that's true. You might not have realized it yet but that's true," Eun said. "You are his Kryptonite."