Patrick’s concert venue was a large performance hall that could accommodate up to 20,000 people. From the nearby subway station, it was swarming with people looking for Patrick’s concert. Fans heading to Patrick’s performance venue were instantly identifiable. Despite tomorrow being Monday, they all walked with energetic steps and held various things in their hands.
The nearby streets were filled with banners, flags, and other items related to Patrick. On the large banner hanging on the concert hall building wall was Patrick’s face with heavy eye makeup and an intense expression staring at the camera lens—he looked like a completely different person, 180 degrees from the one they’d seen before. Gone was the puppy-like mischievous younger brother image, replaced by overflowing charisma.
People who received personal invitations tended to visit him first to greet him, and Gi Siyoung and Im Seungun were no exception. Seungun followed behind Gi Siyoung, who walked ahead guided by security guards, holding a bouquet as big as his body.
When Gi Siyoung, who had gotten out of the car in the parking lot, opened the car trunk, the fresh and abundant bouquet he had ordered was lying there obediently. It was something he hadn’t even thought about—that they should buy a bouquet to come to a place like this—but Gi Siyoung had prepared it in advance.
“Wow. There really are a lot of people.”
The corridor leading to Patrick’s waiting room was hectic. Countless staff members were bustling about, and backup dancers wearing clothes as flashy as the singer were also out in the corridor practicing. After passing walls lined with countless promotional posters for Patrick’s individual concert, they saw a place where bouquets, flower wreaths, and gifts delivered to him filled one room to capacity and even spilled out.
There were also many people coming and going around that area. That place was Patrick’s waiting room. Inside the waiting room, unlike the busy corridor, the atmosphere was quite comfortable—on one side was a section where performance costumes and props that Patrick would wear throughout the show were gathered, and A4 papers with movement routes drawn on them were noticeably posted on the wall.
On the low oval table, simple foods that could be picked at intermittently were also arranged with cute decorations. Standing around that table, Patrick was holding a giant balloon filled with various colored balloons in front of a large three-tier cake celebrating his concert. He was in the middle of taking various selfies with group members who had attended the concert.
“Patrick! Look who’s here!”
As soon as the manager saw Gi Siyoung, he ran into the waiting room. At that commotion, people checked the waiting room entrance.
“Siyoung sunbae-nim! Seungun Manager-nim!”
Patrick greeted them with a smile so wide it looked like his mouth would tear.
“Huk, hello!”
“Nice to meet you!”
“Aah, what do we do!”
Patrick’s members seemed to be fans of Gi Siyoung too. Patrick proudly puffed out his chest in front of the members. Gi Siyoung smiled slightly and extended a handshake.
“I heard it’s your first concert. Congratulations. I wish you good luck.”
“Really, really, I never thought you’d visit like this…. Thank you. Hah, I’m so moved. Seungun Manager-nim! I’m really grateful to you too, Manager-nim!”
“No, what did I do…. Here’s a bouquet. Congratulations.”
“How could you go to such lengths? Just coming is enough to be grateful for.”
Patrick happily received the abundant bouquet.
“That sunbae prepared it.”
Seungun whispered secretly. Then Patrick’s ears turned red. Patrick was happy enough to make one wonder what it would feel like to receive a bouquet from someone who had been a lifelong idol. Patrick deliberately made space on the now-full table and carefully set down Gi Siyoung’s bouquet.
Even though Patrick was the main character of this occasion, the people gathered there stared at Gi Siyoung as if enchanted every time he moved or spoke. Even the staff outside the waiting room glanced over after hearing news of Gi Siyoung.
“As expected, since sunbae-nim prepared it, it stands out the most here! But Manager-nim, why do you look so cool today?”
“What? Me?”
“I didn’t recognize you at first! I thought a fellow actor was coming in!”
“Hey. Don’t do that.”
Seungun scratched near his eyes with an embarrassed expression.
“Um! If, if you could take a photo with us…!”
Just then, one of Patrick’s members gathered courage.
“Let’s take one together.”
Gi Siyoung readily accepted the request. Naturally, Seungun was going to take the photo. However, when Gi Siyoung very naturally stood next to Seungun, Patrick and the rest of the members stood next to them in a chain. Patrick’s manager took the phone and captured them on screen.
“Okay, then I’ll take it? One, two, three!”
Patrick’s manager counted.
“I’ll take one more. One, two, three! I’ve taken them all. Please check and if you don’t like them, I’ll take them again.”
How could they not like them? No matter how they were taken, they were all faces that lived up to their reputations, so they wouldn’t turn out bad. Patrick’s manager returned the phone, thinking that Gi Siyoung’s manager was also quite something.
“We’re going to post this photo on our kids’ official SNS, is that okay?”
“Of course.”
“Manager-nim, if it’s burdensome, should we put a sticker on your face?”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Oh! Really? Thank you. It’s better not to put a sticker on anyway.”
Patrick and the members gathered closely to look at the photo. Seungun also peeked over their shoulders. He immediately checked Gi Siyoung’s condition in the photo. He was perfect without needing any retouching, to the extent that one would say today’s main character wasn’t Patrick but Gi Siyoung.
“Then please enjoy my performance!”
Patrick struck a fighting pose toward the two people stepping out of the waiting room. They followed the security guards through the backstage toward the lobby to enter the concert hall. The closer they got there, the more they could feel the hot energy of fans who came to see Patrick.
In the lobby, a large section selling Patrick’s goods was set up, and even though there wasn’t much time left until the performance start time, the winding line of people trying to buy goods extended all the way outside the concert hall’s glass doors. Everyone had tremendous passion.
“Whoa, it’s Gi Siyoung.”
“Where?”
“Wow, it really is?”
“Was he invited?”
“Hey, photo, photo.”
When the security guards appeared escorting the two, the lobby instantly stirred. People recognized Gi Siyoung here and there and murmured, then thrust camera lenses at him to photograph him. In the quieted concert hall lobby, shutter sounds clicked continuously. When Seungun instinctively raised his hand to block the filming, Gi Siyoung overlapped and lowered that hand.
“You didn’t come as my manager today. Did you forget?”
“Ah…”
Seungun made an awkward sound. He still wasn’t used to it. Probably even if he shouted in this place that he was on a date with Gi Siyoung, not a single person would believe those words.
Gi Siyoung smiled good-naturedly and bowed his head in greeting toward the surroundings. With the thumping music flowing from the concert hall and the voices of people chattering in happy spirits, somehow Seungun’s mood also seemed to float up together.
The security guards quickly headed to the second floor with them. The second floor was much quieter than the first floor. In that corridor, there were several entrances to facilitate entry by section. From the entrance they followed the security guards into, Seungun was immediately captivated.
A T-shaped stage. Standing sections packed with fans on both sides. Behind that were seats where the stage could be seen closely. The obstructed view seats around the large, long screens installed on both sides of the stage were also completely sold out. Fans were already wearing goods on their heads or draped around their necks and shoulders, shaking light sticks in the air as if by agreement.
Security guards standing between the standing sections and between the audience seats exchanged radios with each other and moved busily, and in the place protruding like a terrace between the first and second floors, the production staff directing today’s concert overall had short, simple conversations in front of various equipment and monitors.
Throughout the concert hall were noticeable installations—mobile equipment for fans sitting in the second floor and obstructed view seats who wouldn’t be able to see the stage well. The concert hall was decorated with incessantly blaring music and lights.
Even while Seungun was busily moving his eyes here and there, he immediately became sensitive when someone mentioned Gi Siyoung’s name. It was an unavoidable occupational hazard.
“It’s Gi Siyoung!”
“Where?”
“There, on the second floor!”
The two people’s seats were in the back center of the second floor. There, many celebrities who had received tickets because they were already acquainted with Patrick were sitting. When Gi Siyoung entered the concert hall, the audience members sitting on the second floor as well as the first floor all turned around to look. Colleagues who recognized Gi Siyoung acknowledged him first.
