Amber was running, she couldn't even feel her legs pumping beneath her feet but she knew that she was moving. She was within the standing section in a heartbeat, her fingers wrapped around the railings. Miri was hot on her heels, laughing and talking excitedly behind her. Amber barely registered her words in her head.
Her emotions were wild. It swirled in her body, taking a hold of her heart and sending it flying in her chest.
The minute IDOL stepped out to sing Destiny.
Something changed.
It was like going underwater. The sound of screaming from the girls around her was somehow muffled in her brain. She was far away, the voices becoming a low squeak at the back of her head.
Just like the sound, all those physical feelings that she had been experiencing—the dehydration, the fear, the excitement, the adrenaline— they washed away in the very next beat of her heart.
Her mind barely registered the feeling of exhilaration as she stood there watching the seven men step out from the sea of smoke to greet fans.
It felt as if she had dived into the water and now sat at the bottom of the pool, watching the undulations of light on the blue tiles. It felt as if she were listening to the sound of the waves at the beach. It felt as if she were sitting on a patch of grass and just daydreaming while looking at white clouds drift over blue horizons.
Calming, peaceful, tranquillity.
It was weird. The weirdest feeling ever. It was probably what you would describe as the feeling of being high on drugs. And this came from just looking at the boys. They were her marijuana, her cocaine, her drug.
At first, her vision swam with the scene before her, her mind barely able to absorb the information. Then her gaze was travelling across their features, pinpointing the ones that stood out to her the most.
Ezra and his snow-white skin.
MinJae and his plump pouty lips.
Sieon and his heart-stopping smile.
Casper and his deep, beautiful dimples.
Oliver and his rainbow shaped eyes.
Hikaru and his broad angular shoulders.
JieMi and his large doe eyes.
The seven men were beautiful in their own way, exuding a different type of charisma as they spread across the stage. Amber appreciated them for everything, finding beauty even in the little flaws that were once concealed by Photoshop.
She used to see them as otherworldly beings, had placed them on a pedestal that was deemed untouchable and unreachable. Now, with each boy right before her, she was finally able to see the human in them and it made them even more beautiful to her.
Her best analogy would be an oil painting. With a picture, one was incapable of really noticing each brushstroke and raised bump of paint. The hard work and dedication of the artist could only be deciphered when one had the actual physical painting and could then distinguish each stroke and smear of paint.
Amber snapped back to reality as the heavy bass began to play. The vibrations hummed in the air and travelled up her body. It was scary, the way it moved through her internal organs and rested in her heart. However, the minute they began to sing, the bass died down and what played was the mixture of beautiful voices.
Amber pressed her fingers to her lips. Her body was trembling with her exhilaration.
Honey coffee and Sea-salt caramel latte...Americano and Sweet yoghurt coffee...Mocha frappuccino and Matcha latte. Mellifluous with bass, high with low, smooth with gruff. Their voices were blended in harmony, the sounds practically forced goose bumps to pop over her skin.
Amber's mind was blown a thousand times as they stood before her on stage. This was not a radio recorded song that was auto-tuned and perfected thousands of times for the promise of profit. This was them trying their best to sing as well as they could for their fans. This was them putting their heart and soul into each note to impress the people they were singing to. This was them working hard to perform for the people before them.
Amber inhaled sharply, willing back the tears threatening to spill from her watery eyes. She blinked rapidly, smiling as she watched them silently. The girls around her were busy waving madly and screaming trying their best to grab their attention. Some were filming the scene, others were waving their light sticks.
But not Amber.
Amber was happy just watching them right then and there. She watched as Oliver spun around, holding up his phone to record himself as he sang. It was no doubt for their international fans watching the live stream of the sound check.
He was truly a very handsome male of unconventional beauty.
There was something about the way those double-lidded eyes stretched upwards into little rainbows that screamed with mischief.
His nose was probably his most discussed feature. Amber called it Peter Pan's nose because it seriously looked exactly like the Disney character's. It was extremely adorable and the way it tilted upwards gave him a naughty air that no other male she had ever met in her life could possibly achieve. It didn't help that he was one of the goofiest of the group which solidified the common assumption that he was the group's clown.
But to Amber, Oliver was her sun god.
With those heart-shaped lips and sweet eyes, he had a smile that started from his mouth and consumed his entire being. His smiles were the kind that sent Amber's heart racing in her ribcage, slamming into the prison bars of bone desperate to get out. It was the kind of smile that caused her to lose a few brain cells and melt into a mindless heap at his grin. It was the kind of smile that made her grin involuntarily even when she was really sad.
With the real-life package standing before her, she was speechless when he moved to her side of the crowd. There was a bright grin on his face as he jumped to the tune, laughing happily. He was breath-taking in his joy and she smiled along with him.
She swore her eyes automatically added a filter over him like a stupid K-Drama rom-com. Her mind blurred out the background, shining ethereal light over his skin and adding in fake sparkles over his body. There was a chorus of angels singing in her head as he stalked up towards her. He stepped forward dangerously close to the edge.
He was so close to her that if Amber had a selfie stick she could technically bump it against his feet.
He began rapping out his lines in smooth flows mixed in with gruff throaty moans. Each sound was controlled.
"Our destiny was written in the stars, you can't deny that I am the answer to your formula~"
His lips were moving so fast, her mind spun in her attempt to understand the Korean. Her breath hitched as he knelt before her, merely a metre from her own body, his eyes scanning the crowd as he rapped into his microphone with ease.
The girls around her were waving frantically, raising light sticks in the air trying in vain to grab his attention. And so it must have been easy to spot the single lone figure in the crowd who was not doing anything except staring and crying.
Their eyes met.
"Like a line that connects the dots in a heart-shaped scribble. This is a string that ties us together~"
It was familiar, his gaze. And her breath hitched when an absolutely breath-taking smile enveloped his entire face. It was spellbinding and knocked the wind from her lungs. He was staring at her so intensely that she could scarcely breathe. A hot full-body shiver ran over her skin from his gaze.
Why?