The cold breeze of autumn's night air blew past me as I crossed my leg on the pavement ground of Han river bank. I zipped on my coat to shield me from the cold and pulled out my phone that wouldn't stop ringing since an hour ago. I pushed the reject call button without even checking the caller ID. I knew who was calling anyway..
Jonghyun should really stop worrying. It's not like I'm going to run off and abandoned them or anything. I was just... tired and I need some time for myself. Being a leader for three other guys wasn't easy, especially these days when the preparation of our upcoming tour made everyone always seem to be on edge. We never really fight, but I think that was the problem, we keep our disatisfaction within ourself and it would just build up until someone finally explode. And this time, I was the one who exploded first.
With the growing tension between everyone, I walked out the door in the middle of our practice.
I let out a heavy sigh and pulled out a cigarette from the box and put it between my lips. As I search inside my pocket for a lighter, a delicate voice greeted me from behind my back, "I wouldn't do that if I were you.."
I turned my head and saw a young woman, dressed in a leather black pants and an off-shoulder grey sweater, smiled at me from two meters away. Ignoring my confused expression, she sat besides me on the ground and pulled her feet to her chest as she tilted her head and continued, "You're an idol right? It'd be bad if you're caught smoking." She took the white cancer stick from my lips and put it in between her own.
"Wh..who are you?" I asked in confusion as I watched her lit my stolen cigarette and let out a thick white smoke into the air.
"No one important.." She shrugged and look at me as she continued, "I saw you sighing earlier, bad day?" That's when I saw something I didn't notice about her earlier, her eyes. It was blue, a very light blue. The kind of eyes you'd see in foreign movies and makes you wonder whether they were real. But the girl in front of me wasn't a foreigner, she has ordinary traits of a Korean girl I see everyday. But, what's with the eyes?
"You can say that.." I answered without taking off my eyes from hers. It seemed like she noticed that I was staring because then she gave me a light chuckle.
"I know what's on your mind right now. You're asking yourself 'Is she a blue-eyed gumiho?' but too bad, I'm not. I'm 100% human."
"Ah! I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to stare." I looked away from her, afraid that I offended her.
"It's okay. I get that all the time." She said lightly. We sat there in silence as she finished off her cigarette but I couldn't help but glanced at her several times.
"Your eyes.. are they real?" I unknowingly blurted out.
"Yeah.." She stomped her cigarette on the ground, "I get them from my mom, she said it was a genetic disorder. Well, I don't really care. I usually use lenses but I lost them at work today, so yeah.. You're scared?"
"No.. I was just curious." I said and smiled at her.
"Anyway, back to the topic. What's bothering you? I mean, if you don't mind me asking." She asked me. I smiled weakly and shifted my gaze to the night view in front of me. I didn't mind her asking, in fact, I found her presence soothing me. Maybe this was what I needed, a listening ear that would just listen and gave me a new point of view of things. But as I saw her staring at the sky with the moon reflected on her blue eyes, a new wave of thoughts ran through my mind. What kind of life she has?
Living in the entertainment industry gave me no room for thinking about any other things. It was always about myself and work. Somehow, I forgot that there's more out there besides the glamorous but unforgiving celebrity life. So, instead of feeding up her curiousity about my day, I shot her the question back, "How about you? How was your day?"
"Me? Why do you even want to know about me?" She frowned in confusion.
"Let's just say I need a distraction now. Talking about my problem would only make me feel worse, so why don't you say something about yourself so I could take my mind off things?" Lies. I asked because I wanted to know. I want to know about her. The girl with blue eyes that makes my heart leaped everytime they land on mine.
"Well, okay. What do you want to know?" She asked me flatly.
"First off all, what are you doing here at this hour? You're sure you're not a supernatural being looking for prey?" I raised one of my eyebrows playfully and she laughed.
"Hahaha no. I was just looking for a fresh air, and tried to get away from..." She trailed off her words, perking up my curiousity.
"From what?"
"Abusive boyfriend, haha." She let out a dry laugh. What? What did she just say? "Stupid, isn't it? In this day and age of women empowerment, I still having problems with my abusive boyfriend. Pathetic." For the first time tonight, her voice shook and the gleam in her eyes turned dark.
I opened my mouth and tried to say something but nothing came out. Her confession left me frozen in my place as she continued, "This is not what you're expecting for a 'distraction', huh? Sorry.. I'll just go." She stood up from her seat and turned away, but my hand was faster in griping her wrist.
"Stay." She winced from my grip and I instinctively raised up her long sleeve to her elbow, where I found an obvious bruises on her wrist. "You're serious.." I mumbled, realizing that she wasn't lying to me about her boyfriend being abusive.
"I shouldn't have said anything, this is not your problem. I'm sorry Yonghwa-ssi, but I think I should just go." She walked away and tried to let go from my grip but failed.
"No, don't go." I pulled her back, "You're going home to him again? You're crazy.." I shook my head as she looked up at me with pleading eyes. She regretted ever said anything, but I was not. I didn't regret to hear what happen in this stranger's life.
No, she wasn't a stranger anymore for me. She's the owner of the blue eyes I came to love in our short encounter. "Stay here, and tell me everything." I said in a final tone. We sat back on our previous seat and she closed her eyes tightly, hesitating on her choice of words.
"He hates my eyes, he said they are eyes of a monster." She looked down and sighed, "If you're asking why I never leave him, I did once. But Seoul wasn't that big, he found me one day and threaten me to never leave him again. I have no one in this city, so I got no choice but be with him."
"Since when?"
"Three years. When I met him, I was happy that I have someone who want to be with me despite of my eyes. But somehow, his friends words got to him and he turned to hate my eyes too."
"What are you going to do now?" I asked, afraid of her answer.
"Honestly, I don't know.." She said weakly, confirming my worries. It hurts me to know that someone was having this kind of problem. Now all my problem seem so far away and irrelevant. The only important thing right now for me was the girl sat besides me with her tears threaten to fall any time soon.
"Let me help you.." I voiced out my thought.
"Ahrang! Shin Ahrang! Where the hell are you?!" A shout echoed throughout the empty street above us. I saw her eyes widen in fear and she stood up in a lightning speed.
"That's him. I should go."
"Wait." I turned her by her shoulder so that she was facing me, "I said, let me help you.."
"How? You don't know what he will do. You're an idol for God's sake! What can you do?" She hissed almost in frustration.
"Come to our concert." I chose to say. I couldn't think of anything else besides the fact that I should see her again. I need to see her again.
"Your concert?" She asked, her blue eyes flickered in confusion.
"Yes. And don't wear your lenses."
"Shin Ahrang!!" That heavy voice of a guy rang once again, this time closer.
"I should go." She let go of my hands which were holding her shoulder and ran towards the stairs leading her to the street. Leaving me stood still in my place, with my hopes high that this wouldn't be our last meeting.
* * * *
"Hyung! Hyung!" Our maknae's voice felt like it came from a faraway place when I finally realized that I was in the meeting room, along with everyone and some of concert's production staffs.
"Ah, nae? What is it?" I shifted my focus back on what's going on in the room.
"You seem out of place, something's on your mind?" Jonghyun asked.
"Nothing..let's continue, where were we?" I answered, leaving out the fact that my mind was wondering off to that night at Han river bank. Where is she right now? It was just few weeks before our concert, and I really couldn't wait anymore. Will she come?
"We were still brainstorming about the official name, you have any idea?" Jungshin spoke up. My mind trailed off again to that night, to the image of her face which was still clear in my mind. How the night wind blew through her hair, how she put her legs close to her chest shielding her from cold, and how the moon reflected on her blue eyes creating a magestic sight of a...
"Blue Moon.." I mumbled
"What did you say?" Jonghyun furrowed his eyebrows.
"I said Blue Moon.." I said, louder this time, "How about we titled it Blue Moon?"
I could sense everyone's brains working in their heads as they look at each other and finally I saw small nods here and there, "It's... good actually. So, how about it? Blue Moon, everyone?" The production chief look around waiting for any disagreement but found none. He smiled and look at me, "Blue Moon it is."
I smiled in satisfaction. One of the staffs then asked us about our VIP guest list that we're going to invite. I scribbled down some names on the list he gave and passed it to Minhyuk who was sitting on my left.
"'Shin Ahrang (the girl with blue eyes)'?" He read what I wrote earlier, "Who's that hyung?"
"Someone." I answered lightly, "Ah, and can you please watch the entrance and make sure that she got into the VIP section? It's not hard to find her." I asked the staff for a favor and fortunately she agreed.
"Yah! Who is it?" Jonghyun whispered at me, which I replied by a meaningful smile.
"Someone." I said, and hopefully.. my someone.
