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My girlfriend is famous!

[Sent 2:27am]

I clicked on the link. It took me to a social media post and a photo of… me. Several, actually, surrounded by Vibers from the premiere with the caption:

So happy I got to meet the lovely @Kaiya Thompson at the movie premiere and confirmed that she is one of us! #Viber #VibersUnite #Auriga

I held the phone to my chest, feeling a fizzy kind of rush.

Something new.

Chapter 39

The next few weeks were a blur of cities, airports and performances. The main stretch of the European leg was more condensed than the rest of the tour, with barely a week in between performances.

It had been a point of contention, I’d learned, because originally there hadn’t been half as many shows planned for Europe, but the members had pushed back and insisted on more stops. It meant they’d be travelling longer, pushing themselves harder, but Jihoon insisted it was worth it.

“We’ve been away for so long,” he’d murmured, dragging a finger up my arm as we’d curled up together on the back of the tour bus outside the stadium in Madrid, hiding in a pocket of time between soundcheck and the main performance.

“The pandemic, then our enlistment. Vibers waited. We wanted to prove to them we’d come back.”

That stolen ten minutes had been as close to Jihoon as I’d gotten between Berlin and Amsterdam. Though I saw him nearly every single day. Across the green room, on the other side of the stadium, or at team meals in packed rooms. He always insisted on knowing where I’d be sitting when I wasn’t backstage, and those were the nights when he spent more time on my side of the stadium. I kept telling him not to, but he kept doing it, grinning mischievously each time. He also made sure food and drink was delivered to me when I was in the suites.

“You always forget to take care of yourself when you’re working,” he’d said when I’d called him one night, after the show to ask about it. I’d had to concede his point. I rarely remembered to eat when I was in the stadiums. I hadn’t realised he’d noticed.

It was weeks of constant motion. Even on days when there were no performances there was rarely a time where they weren’t doing something, whether it was a radio show, visiting local attractions or just exploring the city. Their social media was exploding with activity, with footage from every concert, photos from every excursion and each member posting their own, individual content. It was a constant stream, and it made me very pleased to not be involved in the more online side of things. I was there for the print work, and my own personal blog, I was absolutely not up to date on what was going on in the Viber sphere.

August 11th

Amsterdam

Becka had dived head-first into her online-presence, and had taken on a couple of accounts for people she loosely described as influencers. When I’d asked what she did for them in the scope of her hybrid-PR model, she’d waved the question away and listed off a bunch of tasks that all sounded very important.

I was sitting on my bed, going through my notes from the Amsterdam concert. Sihyeon and most of the crew, had gone out for the big team dinner. I’d opted not to bother, not even for the chance to glimpse Jihoon across the crowded room, knowing it would only frustrate me. Instead, I was on a video call with Becka, while we both multi-tasked.

“Babes,” she said, splitting my attention from a note I’d made about the venue.

“Hmm?” I hummed distractedly, not looking up from my notes. Something about canals?

“Did you know you’re trending right now?”

My fingers paused on the paper. Frowning, I looked up, refocusing on Becka. “Eh?”

“Trending. You,” Becka said patiently.

“Eh?”

“Oh for the love of–” Becka sighed. “You know I’ve been tracking your online presence since London?”

I looked at her blankly. Becka pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Well, I have. Anyway. You’re trending.”

Immediately, my mind went to the worst possible scenario.

“The Paris thing?”

“What?” Becka’s nose wrinkled in confusion. “Oh! No, fuck, no! There’s been nothing about that, no footage from the car, or anything around the airport.”