The Hunt

"JayB-ah, get off the phone already. We're about to get on stage." Seiji-hyung reminded me.

I gave him a nod while giving a small bow as a sign of my apology. He just chuckled at me while patting my shoulder.

"I'm going to get Yo Chul to stop too. Don't worry." He said.

I gave him a smile and nodded at him.

"Seiji's telling you to get off your phone again, isn't he?" IU was on the phone with me.

It's been almost 3 weeks since we started dating. But because of the fan incident last December, she suggested to keep it a secret for now. She's quite understanding towards the situation as well. Since she'll be on tour, we can't really know if she's safe especially if we'll announce it to the world.

"Yeah. I should go. You should rest and enjoy your day off. You just got back from Taiwan and will be leaving again in 2 days to continue your tour." I told her.

She giggled over the other line which sounded really cute. "I know. When can we idols really have a good break?"

"Umm. When we retire." I answered her.

"Ya! That was a rhetorical question." She answered in a stern tone which made me chuckle.

"Rest up, okay? I'll call you once we finish our schedule for today." I told her.

She then grew silent for a while. "I wish you'd actually have the same day off as me. We could spend time here at home."

I shook my head and chuckled a bit. "Ya… Ji Eun-ah… Stop being cute. How can I leave you and go promote if you keep on acting this way?"

"Then don't promote. Why don't you come here then?~"

I had goosebumps with what she did. "I didn't know you could do aegyo."

"There's a lot you don't know about me." She chuckled.

The manager then went inside the dressing room. "JayB-ssi! We're going to start."

I heard her sigh over the phone. "You should go. Do well on your first fan sign event. Oh! And don't hold any fan's hand. Got it?"

I was shocked at what she said. I didn't know she knows how to be jelous. "But Ji Eun-ah… it's…"

"I'm just kidding! You're so gullible, JayB-ah. Go and make your fans happy! Got it? Fighting!" She replied really cheerfully.

"Thanks! Bye!" I replied before hanging up.

Seriously...

What did I ever do to deserve such an amazing girlfriend?

_______

"1… 2… 3…"

"Take the lead! Hello! We are Alpha!"

The fan sign event officially started…

"So… we've really been looking forward to our first fan sign event after a year of being rookies." I said.

The crowd cheered and it showed that they too were excited for this event.

"Does anybody want to say something before we take a picture and start the event?" I asked the members.

Zee raised his hand and I gave him the signal to speak.

And so he did. "I'm really nervous right now so please bear with me. But I'm also excited to meet you all and get to know the Pack better. I love you guys~"

The moment he did that, the ladies in the crowd, which is 95% of the crowd, squealed and screamed. Zee really knows how to impress the crowd and hype them up. He can either be adorable or be a mean rapper at will. But the members and I just cringed. Yo Chul-hyung even did a face palm.

After the fans took our videos and photos as a group, we all sat down and started meeting our fans.

I met a lot of fans along the way and started a couple of conversations with them. Most of them wanted to touch my face while some wanted to hold my hand. Of course, I did all that. I wanted to make the fans happy.

Some of the fans even handed us some gifts. I got a remote control racing car. That's probably one of the most expensive gifts I got so far from the fans. Zhang got a really expensive Taylor Guitar which is just insane. There were some who gave us hairbands and hair clips. I really appreciated the gestures.

Then someone familiar came…

"How's the idol life, oppa?" The fan asked.

"Oh? Yuna? Don't you have classes today?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "Nope. I'm just here for the event itself."

She handed me her copy of the album and I happily signed it. I then asked her what she wanted to do. She said she wanted to know the perfume I'm using because it smelled good.

I chuckled as I gave her a chance to smell my wrist. "Here smell it. It's Dulce & Gabbana light blue for male. I know it's not that expensive but I find the smell really attractive and unique."

She was astonished and surprised. "Now that you mentioned it, the perfume really suits your personality."

I smiled at her compliment. "I really appreciate that. Thank you."

"I guess I'll see you around, oppa." She said as she pinched my cheek.

"Alright. Work hard to be an idol." I encouraged her.

She gave me a wide smile with gesturing an okay sign. She's really adorable.

More fans came to see me. Even Joy and Lisa came to show their support. They went there as fans. Joy was wearing her disguise while Lisa was out in the open. Not for long I guess. She'll be debuting next year. Both of them didn't know between Ji-Eun and I. I'll find the right time to tell them.

Eunbi also came to support our album promotions. She was so happy to see me and I was too. She told me that she came to train under JYP together with a couple of her friends. They wanted to debut together. Of course I wanted that to happen as well. She gave me a picture of me and IU on the set of Dream High and whispered that she knows about the two us since they were also close with my girlfriend.

Apparently, she was a trainee who studied singing under IU for a while and she told her of how I rescued her from her previous boss. At that time, IU was still a friend of mine. That's how they became close.

"IU-unnie told me to watch over you today so that you won't flirt with other girls." She whispered.

I smiled wryly at her comment while I watched her laugh at me.

Well, at least she's healthier and happy now compared to when she was still under that boss of hers. I'm just glad she's okay.

There were a lot of fans today. We just allowed 100 people today, but there were so many fans that came over that we had to expand it to 150 people. The fans appreciated us going the extra mile to really meet them. They knew that we still had a schedule after this one but we chose to be with them still.

It was almost the end of the signing event and we were about to perform our title track called "Call me Baby" for our album 'The Hunt'. Of course, this was EXO's Call me Baby from their album EXODUS in the previous world.

We named it The Hunt because we wanted to show our fans that we were going to move forward together with them. As the Alpha, we need the Pack to go and make a move with us as we journey in this industry. That's the meaning of this album's title.

Some of the fans thought that the album's name was because we were hunting the saesang that was after me. Of course, that theory was soon debunked because we created the album way before we had the saesang incident. Some of them thought that we were out to take the top spot in this industry. But we quickly told them in our New Year's VLIVE that although it would be great to actually be on top, we were still friends with people from this industry so this album was not aimed at them.

Of course, only our fans believed us while most haters were still bashing and criticizing us for our album title. Other idol groups then came out and protected us which helped in putting out the fire. This scandal wasn't all that bad since it helped in creating the hype for our album sales.

"We're in the last row now. Just hang in there a little more." One of our managers said.

It was really tiring to talk to 150 people after all. Right? Getting to know them was still a joy for us though. Even though it's just draining on our part.

It's still 11AM in the morning and I already feel like it's 12MN.

Suddenly, I notice that there was a person wearing a black face mask while wearing a black hoodie and a black cap. I became wary the moment I saw this person. It's not that I'm discriminating anyone, but after the saesang incident, I became really cautious towards people.

It's not because I'm scared for myself, but I'm scared for what that person will do to the fans, to my members, and to IU. I know the members would be fine since they had self-defense training. But they can't fight back against a fan. Saesang or not, it's still a fan which would make headlines.

We don't want to one day wake up to see the news of one of our members beating someone up. Even if it's self-defense, we still have to maintain our image.

"Manager-nim, please check that person." I said as I pointed out to the person.

I was on the last end of the row to sign for our fans, so it would still take time before that person comes to me.

The manager quickly approached that person. I was casually chatting with the fan in front of me while glancing from time to time at that person. That person must be innocent since the person got through my manager and started having her album signed by the members. I guess I've been judging it too much. The members were even laughing and enjoying their conversation with that person.

Oh well…

It helped calm me down and I began to focus on signing and entertaining the fans that went over to me. After a few minutes, that person was finally in front of me.

"Hey there. What's your name?" I asked.

She didn't answer but instead, she grabbed something from her bag. I freaked out a bit before she pulled out another copy of the album "The Hunt" and another album that was familiar to me.

I was about to grab and sign the album from that person's hand when she pulled it back a little. She then gave me a note.

"I can't believe you couldn't even recognize me. I guess my disguise is working." The note read.

I immediately looked towards her as she showed the face behind the mask. When I saw her, my eyes widened in surprise.

I smiled at her. "What should I write on the cover?"

She giggled and responded. "Just write, 'To my beloved. I hope these songs will give you the courage and strength every time you listen to it. I love you Ji Eun-i.'"

I chuckled. "This is really a wonderful surprise. So did you really just arrive this morning?"

She shook her head. "No. I arrived last night. I really wanted to see you, but I couldn't spoil my surprise now, can I?"

I held her hand tightly. I was speechless with how sweet she was towards me.

"JayB-ah…" She called out.

"Yes?" I replied.

"Let's tell the fans now." She suggested.

I was taken a back for a few seconds. "Are you sure? What if you'll be in danger? What if you're going to be attacked?"

"It's okay. I know you'll be there to protect me. Besides, we have our bodyguards all the time." She told me.

I gave her a nod. "Okay. If my girlfriend says so. We'll tell them here. But we have to finish the event first."

She smiled and nodded. Afterwards, she headed back to her seat. I asked one of the managers to have one of the security personnel watch over her.

We did some games with the fans. It was really fun for us to do these things for the first time. They also won some prizes from us. Some fans didn't want anything, instead, they either wanted a hug, a pat on the head or a kiss at some point. Thank God, I was only doing hugs. My girlfriend was already staring weirdly at me.

Then the segment for the fans to beat Jeong Do in acrostic poems came…

They were really excited with this because Jeong Do is really good at it. There were a total of 7 brave fans who wanted to compete. One of them was even a guy.

In the end, Jeong Do won this game by a land slide. It was so good that any girl would fall in love with all those cheesy lines. He didn't even give a chance for the fans to win. But he didn't let them go back with nothing though. He hugged all the ladies for 5 seconds which made some of them cry. The guy got Jeong Do's PSP which made him really happy.

The guy thought that we weren't making any money yet since we just finished our rookie year so he was hesitant at first. If he only knew the truth then he wouldn't have given it a second thought. And so, that's how it went.

It was almost lunch time and we were about to end. One of the managers then came up on stage with a mic. "Alpha will now be performing their title track called 'Call Me Baby'. So please be ready with your phones and cameras to capture this moment."

He tried to hype up the crowd which surprisingly worked for someone who spoke it in a monotonous way.

Before we performed, I asked the managers to double the security for IU since I'd be calling her up on stage later on after we perform.

"By the way, one of the members will be giving an important announcement after they perform. Please be excited about it." The manager continued to announce.

We then performed the song for the first time in front of everyone. This was the first time where we did a fan signing event performance before performing it on national TV. But the fans really received it well. We were performing it on KBS Music Bank later today anyway.

After the performance the fans went on to chant our names. We were really happy with the performance. But we decided to joke around.

"Did you guys like our performance?" Matt-hyung asked which the crowd responded to with a loud yes.

Dominic on the other hand wanted get revenge from last time. "So did anybody make a mistake?"

The fans laughed while some of them were calling out the member's names as a joke. This lightened up the mood a bit.

"So… finally, we're done for today." Seiji-hyung said.

The crowd reacted sadly.

"But don't worry. Though this is our first fan sign event, we'll have more of it this year. So we hope to see you guys there and even meet more of the Pack." Zee said.

The fans then happily cheered.

"Now… for the announcement." Yo Chul-hyung said.

The fans became more expectant. The members all took a step back which caught me off guard. They gave me a thumbs up while the crowd went wild.

"Oppa! We love you!" One of the fans yelled which made the others cheer.

I chuckled and gave them a wide smile. "I have something to announce to everyone. I hope you'll bear with me."

The crowd went silent and were expectant to what I wanted to say to them. I gave a nod to IU when a group of security guards escorted her towards the stage.

On her way to the stage, murmurs and whispers could be heard. I didn't want them to talk badly about her so I decided to speak up before this gets out of hand.

"Last year. I was with a drama with someone. And she's actually here to support me on our album promotion." I said. IU was finally on stage beside me.

She slowly revealed herself to the people by removing her disguise.

The audience gasped as they saw who it was.

Afterwards she gave a deep bow, "Hello everyone. My name is IU."

The audience cheered and applauded. I waited for them to calm down so I could continue speaking.

"Now, I hope that this won't come as much of a surprise, and I really hope that you would continue to support me as a member of the Alpha with my decision." After I said that, I intertwined my hand with hers.

The crowd started cheering even though I didn't announce anything yet. Some were crying out of joy. The rest didn't quite understand what was going on yet.

"Pack… meet my girlfriend… Lee Ji-Eun also known as IU." I said.

The crowd went wild with cheers and congratulations. I became worried at first because they might not like her and would respond in hate. They surprisingly support our relationship. If it was in the other world, I bet we'd be mocked on sight.

They also wanted us to kiss in front of them but we really had to deny it which the fans respected. We can't be like this in public. All I did was hug her though which fans cheered out.

This day could not be any more perfect than this…

Well…

I could never be more wrong…

As the crowd continued with their cheering, I saw a couple of fans in the front row seat remove something from their bags. Those were staplers, hard-covered books and some even brought out rocks. Basically, they were pulling out something hard.

They were staring angrily at Ji-Eun which alarmed me a little. The moment they were about to throw the objects at her I immediately pulled her into a hug while facing my back to the crowd in order to shield her.

It took a few seconds before the audience realized what was happening which made them tackle these people who were throwing the objects. The security also helped in mediating the chaos.

When I felt like it was okay to let Ji-Eun go, I pulled away to check her frantically. "Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"

She shook her head while caressing my face, "I'm fine. Don't worry. I'm good."

"That's good…" were the last words that I said before I started losing consciousness.

The last thing I heard was Ji-Eun noticing the blood on her hand and calling out for help…

___________