Monday 27 November 2006

Chapter 3: Obsessions

5 minutes later, Jeong Hoon emerged from the bathroom.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I asked him through gritted teeth.

“Mian,” he said as he kissed me on the cheek. “I’ve no time to explain now. I’ll call you tonight,” and he walked out of my room.

I finally get the job I want, live in the apartment I want and now there is the possibility that my boyfriend is cheating on me. So much for the first day of my supposedly new life. I walked out of my room and found Danae and Dong Wook eating their cereal in front of the TV.

“Where did John Hoon run off to?” Danae asked.

“I have no idea. Some girl called and off he ran,” I sighed. “I see you’ve got the TV hooked up.”

“Dong Wook needs his weekly dose of cartoons,” Danae said and Dong Wook kicked her feet playfully.

“I’m going back to sleep,” I said and I went back to my room to lie on my bed. I couldn’t sleep. Who the hell was that girl? Why couldn’t Jeong Hoon take 1 minute to explain her to me? I decided to surf the Internet since I couldn’t get back to sleep. Thank god I had the sense to hookup my broadband before I moved in. I could never survive without the Internet. It was my source of entertainment. I would spend hours surfing on all the things that interested me. The latest clothes and accessories, the latest chick lit available and of course, the endless stream of celebrity news, especially those concerning my favorite Korean band, TVXQ!

My obsession with TVXQ began more than two years ago, when I happened to watch their performance at the MKMF awards. They were singing Tri-Angle and they were dressed in their gothic inspired outfits. The first member I noticed was U-Know Yun Ho because he was the most boyish looking of the bunch. On a trip to Hong Kong, I bought their first album and listened to it every single day. When their second album was finally released, my attention shifted to Hero Jae Joong. I’d seen him in their Japanese music video for the song My Destiny from the album Heart, Mind and Soul, which I’d bought when I found that Rising Sun was not available at that moment, and I’ve started to fall for his beautiful face. Don’t get me wrong, beautiful he may be, but he is every inch a man, in my opinion. Ever since their release of the third album last year, I’ve been continuously obsessed with every bit of information regarding their work and their lives and this obsession did not sit well with Jeong Hoon.

“They’re younger than you are!!” he once said.

“Lots of women date younger men. Besides, Jae Joong is technically only 2 years younger than I am. That’s not such a big difference,” I said defiantly.

“Yes… and their taller, they’re much more muscular, they sing better, they dance better, did I miss anything out?”

I could see he was upset and I felt a teensy bit sorry for upsetting him. I walked over and hugged him and whispered in his ear, “You missed something.”

“What?” he said in a surly tone.

“You’re here, and they’re not,” and I kissed him.

Sometimes I wonder, where does the fantasy stop and where does real life begin. Call it wishful thinking, or you can even say I’m mad. Sometimes, I’d want to meet them so much that I’d conjure up images of them in my head and I’d imagine they’re right in front of me. The closest I’ve ever been to them is at their first concert in Malaysia. Pretty sad, eh? And sometimes, I really want an opportunity to at least communicate with them, or get their attention. But I’m not brave like those girls who crowd at the airport with banners, screaming at the top of their lungs and trying to rush forward to get a glimpse or touch them. Would they really notice someone in a crowd? Or a crowd is simply a sea of faces to them. And because I don’t know enough Korean, I miss out on info only Korean fans would know; like how to post on their official site or read their special messages to Cassiopeia.

Cassiopeia… At times, it irks me when they only thank Cassiopeia whenever they made a speech. I’m not a member of their official fan club. But that sure the hell doesn’t mean that I love them any less. It just isn’t convenient to sign up here. Or maybe I just haven’t tried hard enough. Oh well, enough with the bitterness. All TVXQ fans unite! Cassiopeia or not, we have one thing in common; that is our love and support for them. How I wish I could tell them in person someday.

Jeong Hoon never called and Sunday quickly came to an end. Before I knew it, I’d spent the whole day in front of the PC amassing thousands of bytes of TVXQ photos and videos. Jeong Hoon would have a fit if he saw this, but at this moment, I couldn’t care less. He was the one who disappeared without a word. I’m not about to feel guilty for all that I’ve done today. By the time I went to bed that night, he still hadn’t called. I’m so ready to murder him.

The next morning, I woke up as soon as my alarm rang. My first day as editor of the entertainment section at ‘Hot!’ I looked at my mobile phone and sure enough, there was a message from Jeong Hoon.

‘Miss u baby! <3 CU 2nite.’

I flipped my phone shut. I wasn’t going to reply his message. After what he did yesterday, he’d better come prepared to grovel tonight. I got up and started flipping through my closet. What shall I wear today? Not too formal, not too casual. I’m an editor now. I need to exude some professionalism but not seem like I’m trying too hard. I finally decided on a pair of grey slacks, a peach colored three quarter sleeved, round-necked top with a colorful knitted vest on top. I showered quickly and got dressed. Then I started putting on my makeup. The truth is I hardly wear any makeup; apart from a dusting of loose powder, eye liner, mascara and lipstick. I prefer to look as natural as possible as opposed to caking on makeup on my face.

I walked out of my room and started to make my breakfast. Danae emerged from her room after as I was walking out the door. Her job at the recording studios was more flexible than mine. If she didn’t have an appointment in the morning, she’d usually sleep in.

“I’m leaving,” I said and closed the door. As I descended in the elevator, I hooked up my MP3 player and plugged it into my ears. Call me a traitor, but these days, FTTS is all I listen to. TVXQ are my main eye candy though. I crossed the highway which separated me from the bus stop on the other side. It was about 7:45am and there were at least 7 people already waiting at the bus stop. My bus finally arrived and I cursed when I saw that it was full. I’ll probably have to stand all the way to the office today. Standing is such a physically taxing activity at such early hours in the morning.

I reached the office one hour later. After purchasing my daily cup of latte from Coffee Bean on the ground floor, I went into the elevator and hit the button for my floor. In the elevator with me was our chief editor, Lee Min Woo. I might not have mentioned this, but ‘Hot!’ was a Korean owned magazine and it had originated from Korea. Due to that fact, most of the senior positions at ‘Hot!’ were held by Koreans such as himself. He’s only 27 year old and that’s a pretty young to be a chief editor. We keep an almost informal culture at ‘Hot!’ Therefore when we met seniors like him, we’d just call him sonbaenim (senior).

“Lee sonbaenim,” I greeted him as I entered the elevator.

“Ah, Sierra. First day as an editor, I heard,” he winked. Lee sonbaenim was always full of charisma. It didn’t hurt that he had a hot body to boot. All the girls at the office fawn over him whenever he walks by. The bolder ones are always popping into his office and asking him if he needs a drink or a snack. If they keep this up, he’s going to lose his fit body and the adoration of his fans.

“Ne, sonbaenim,” I acknowledged him.

“Nervous?” he asked.

“Anieyo, sonbaenim,” I replied.

“Hmm… you seem to be a one liner,” he laughed.

“Ne?”

“Every question I’ve asked you, you replied with a short sentence.”

“Mianhamnida,” I said.

“There you go again,” he laughed. “Do I scare you?”

“Anieyo, sonbaenim.”

“Well, you’d better learn to speak in longer sentences. You seem so different today, compared to the girl I saw during the presentation last week. It was your great communication skills that got you this position. So be sure to use it well,” he smiled and oozed with charisma as he did.

“Erm… actually, the reason I have not much to say is because I’ve not had my morning coffee,” I smiled as I held up my cup.

“Oh! I see. I don’t blame you. On a bad day, I’ll need my second cup before I can think straight.”

“This is me,” I said as the elevator doors opened. Lee sonbaenim’s office is on the floor above mine.

“I’ll see you around,” he smiled and waved as the elevator doors closed, the kind of wave where he only stuck out his index and middle finger.

“Was that Lee sonbaenim?” the receptionist on my floor squealed as soon as I turned around.

“Yes, it’s him,” I rolled my eyes. Groupies…

“You got to ride in the same elevator as he did!!! How lucky are you? I bet you’ll have a great day today,” she continued squealing.

“Right…” I drawled as I walked in. As soon as I put my bag down on my desk, Skye popped up from the cubicle behind me.

“Yo!” he said.

“Stop popping up like that,” I glared at him. “I almost spilled my latte.”

“Mian,” he smiled. “So how was your weekend?”

“Don’t ask,” I said as I started to toss the files on my desk aside to make room for my coffee and laptop.

“Aah… lovers’ quarrel,” Skye laughed.

“It’s all your fault,” I pointed at him.

“And why is it my fault?” he asked, pretending to look hurt.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. You introduced Jeong Hoon to me.”

“And you should thank me,” he said. “Isn’t he like the hottest guy you’ve ever dated?”

“I’ve dated plenty of hot guys, thank you.”

“Well… they didn’t last as long as he did, did they?” he smirked.

“Wipe that expression off your face!” I said as I sat down and turned on my laptop.

“So what happened?” he asked as he came over to lean on my table.

“Some girl called yesterday, looking for her Jeong Hoon oppa.”

“And?”

“He didn’t explain who the girl was.”

“Hmm… okay. That was wrong of him.”

“Thank you.”

“Is he planning to tell you?”

“I wouldn’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”

“I will,” Skye smiled. “Now don’t get upset or your pretty face will get wrinkled.”

“Who’s wrinkled?” a voice came from behind us. It was Shoei.

“No one,” I said as I started to scroll through my email. Shoei was one-third of our group at the office. As you might have figured, Skye and Shoei are my closest friends at work. On the first day of work, none of the girls wanted to have lunch with me and till this day, I didn’t know why. Even though they’ve warmed to me and we’re all friends now, but my lunch group and sometimes weekend party group consists of me, Skye and Shoei. Before I forget, Shoei works in our IT department, maintaining our website. He’s from Japan.

“Karyn wants to see you,” Shoei said as he picked up my latte and took a sip.

“What about?” I asked him. Karyn was one of the senior editors and bitch with a capital ‘B’.

“Maybe she wants to congratulate you on your promotion?” Skye said and he’d meant that to be funny. Karyn and I were never on good terms. Before my promotion, she was always on my case and her favorite thing to do was to publish my mistakes for all to see during departmental meetings. Lucky for us, we had another senior editor, Jae Hee, who was sane and not a bitch. She would come to our rescue most of the time.

“Sierra-shi,” Karyn sang from her office. She had this annoying high-pitched voice that made our hairs stand whenever she spoke.

“You’d better go,” Shoei said as he walked off to his cubicle.

“Coming…” I groaned and started walking to Karyn’s office like my shoes were filled with lead.