Page 62 of Wish Upon a K-Star

M inseok is getting antsy. Where is Hyeri? She hasn’t come back since she accepted her award.

His fingers tap on the table impatiently as he checks his watch again. Usually he doesn’t wear one, but this was sent to his stylist by a designer, requesting he wear it to the awards show. An unofficial kind of sponsorship that he’s gotten used to. And he is grateful for it right now. Because it would be too obvious for him to check his phone. If a wayward wide shot were shown at the wrong time, avid fans might be able to zoom in and claim that WDB’s Moonster was fooling around on his phone during the show instead of paying attention to his sunbaes.

Hyeri has been gone for almost twenty minutes now. That’s too long. She’d never let her anger at Minseok make her look unprofessional.

The music for the commercial break starts, and he pushes back from the table. He mutters an excuse about the bathroom and hurries off.

Is she really just hiding somewhere because she doesn’t want to see him? Or is something wrong?

He made a mistake trying to kiss her earlier. No, actually, the mistake had been breaking up with her to begin with—or the non-breakup, because the original mistake had been letting her convince him to keep things undefined. He wants to define them. He wants to tell her that she can go to LA and have him too. That he’ll wait for her.

Minseok steps into the backstage area and almost collides with a tall gangly man wearing a low baseball cap. No, wait, not a man, or barely one at least. It’s that antifan that keeps bothering Hyeri. What was his name again? Kwang Donghwa? Kwak Dongeun?

“Kwak Dongha.” Minseok snaps out the name, and the boy’s head jerks up before he dashes away. But Minseok is fast enough to grab the other guy by the shoulder, trapping him against the wall.

“Where’s Hyeri?”

“How should I know?” Dongha struggles against Minseok’s hold.

“Security!” Minseok shouts.

“Fine, fine! She and Kim Ana went to go talk to some hairdresser guy. Dave or something.”

“Why?” Minseok scowls.

“They think he’s HyeriTopAnti.”

“What?” The surprise is enough to make Minseok’s grip loosen. Dongha pushes away, causing Minseok to slam into the opposite wall.

When Dongha races out of an emergency exit Minseok doesn’t try to go after him. He has to find Hyeri.