Crossed Dreams

A Sense of Mesmorization

Tae-joon's eyes closed as the make-up artist's hand flew over his face adding powder, eyeliner, eyeshadow and more. This rhythmic, massage-like feel never failed to put him to sleep. He knew that only a few minutes had passed when one of the workers woke him. Silently he scooched himself off the chair and mechanically made his way to the room that was currently being used as their changing room. This was a repeated process, one that he's done so many times that he could do it in his sleep.

Almost all of the other members were already there changing. He found the wrack that had his name on it and grabbed the outfit that he was to wear for the first part of the performance. All of their performances required a costume change and it looked like this one called for three of them.

He pulled on the outfit and went to stand in front of the mirror that took up the top half of the entire wall. His outfit was a simple black dress suit that had silver-glitter buttons on it. He left the top two buttons undone and rolled up the cuffs of his jacket.

Chan-woo was the last member to enter the changing room. Once everyone was dressed and had their appearances approved of, they gathered onto the lowered platform below the stage. The gears came to life and they slowly began their ascent.

The platform leveled with the floor of the stage and came to a stop. Tae-joon adjusted his earpiece and walked toward his left. They always did this. Before the performance, they would walk around and try to connect with as many of their fans that they could.

As he walked toward the edge of the stage he looked out into the audience. The stage was lit by a deep purple as thousands of fans waved around their light sticks. Pulling his attention back to the fans in the pit where he was headed, pink caught his attention.

One of the people down there was a girl wearing a pink floral dress with the matching jacket. She was going to catch Chan-woo's eye, he knew it. He drew his gaze away from her and took in the others. His breath hitched and butterflies took flight in his stomach.

Standing by the girl in pink was a girl wearing a dark green dress with a black leather jacket. She was talking to the guy beside her who looked like he was hyperventilating. Her long black hair cascaded down, obscuring his view of her face. A pale slender hand reached up and tucked the hair behind her ear. The edges of her lips were pulled down and she rubbed a finger against her nose. She was beautiful and so familiar. He thought maybe she had been to one of their concerts before but no, he would have remembered her. Where had he seen her before?

. . . .

Emily leaned in through the open window. "Thank you again, dad."

"Yeah, thank you." Melissa raised a hand in thanks even though she was pretty sure that he couldn't see her.

"No problem. Let me know when they perform the last song." He waved to them before driving off.

Melissa stood outside the stadium with Emily and Connor. People crowded in lines, surrounding the front of the building and curling around it. Some of the people were rolling up sleeping bags and taking down tents. Melissa never seen so many people gathered in one place before. It was both enthralling and terrifying.

They found where they were supposed to wait in line and eagerly waited. "This is madness," Melissa whispered in awe.

Emily slung an arm around her. "Yep, and we're apart of it." Her voice held barely contained excitement.

"Tae-joon." Connor's broken voice startled the girls. He had been quiet the whole way there and during the time that it took them to figure their way through the mess and to which line they were supposed to wait in that they had forgotten about him. "Tae-joon." He repeated in that same broken whisper.

"Great, now he's broken." Emily's tone may have been sarcastic but Melissa wondered if there was truth to her words. Connor stood positioned slightly behind them. His blue eyes were wide and unseeing. His mouth was hanging open and she was afraid that a bug might take advantage and fly in. Emily tapped him square in the chest. "Don't worry bro, you'll see your man soon enough."

How true her words were. The lines began moving quickly as everyone was ushered in. When they shuffled in the building was already halfway filled. The people who were standing for hours gratefully sunk into their seats. How lucky.

She wasn't jealous that they got to sit down but she knew she would be by the end of the show. There were no seats down in the pits which was fine except for the heels. Her feet were going to kill her later on. At least she was wearing low heels.

A while later, a lot less than what she would have expected, everyone who had tickets were now inside. The lights dimmed and the monitors up front turned on. The fans that were prepared brought out their Vortex light sticks which was a small tornado resting on top of a dark purple stick.

The cameramen ran back and forth filming the stage and the audience. The sound of gears creaking could be heard under the chanting of the members' names. A small section in the center of the stage opened and a platform slowly rose to reveal the six people that they were all there to watch.

Each member stepped away from the center, heading in different directions. They walked around the stage touching the hands of reaching fans before walking back to the center to take their positions. As soon as each member was in position, the lights focused on them and the music started.