#heheheh

Normally after a work out, Chan felt relaxed. It helped clear his mind, to refocus on whatever he had on his plate.

Right now, though, his mind felt like it was coated in fog.

He honestly wasn’t sure how he made it back to his hotel room. Next thing he knew he was standing in the bathroom, under the rain of the shower head.

He blinked, feeling the world come back in focus around him.

God what was he doing?

He was really just, texting a random girl and trusting it? 

What if she knew who he was? What if he was being blind sided? Was he being an idiot? She could be a sasaeng!

His thoughts spiralled as he went through his shower routine.

Chan considered himself someone who was good at reading people. Her friend had seemed nice enough, but he had never even met this girl. All he’d seen was some pictures of her-

-which she was very pretty in.

Sure she was fun to talk to. I mean, he hadn’t even realized how long their phone call had lasted until she pointed out the time after he yawned. It just felt so natural to chat with her. Hell, he got a little excited every time his phone buzzed on the off-chance it was a text from her.

But what if that was her plan all along? What if she knew exactly who he was and was just trying to learn more about him to get him to let his guard down? She already had one of his phone numbers. What if she shared it online? What if she’d recorded their phone conversations?

It’s not like he told her secrets about his job, but he hadn’t exactly been checking his words constantly either.

The shower faucet squeaked softly as Chan turned the water off. He pushed open the shower door, snatching up one of the fluffy towels nearby and quickly drying off his body.

He needed someone else’s opinion on this.

The second his hands were dry enough, Chan was unlocking his phone and going to his contacts. Before he could overthink it, he clicked on the one person’s name who he knew would give it to him straight.

Minho.

Chan wrapped himself in the towel as he headed back out into the main room.

It took a few rings before he finally answered.

The voice that came through the phone was rough with sleep. “You better be dying, hyung,” Minho grumbled.

“I’m talking to this girl and I’m worried she’s a sasaeng,” he blurted out before his mind could catch up.

Oh yeah, fuck, it was probably like 6am back in Seoul.

“I- shit, I’m sorry Minho, it’s not-”

“Stop,” Minho grumbles. He sighs and Chan can hear some shuffling on the other end of the line. “Just… give me two seconds.”

Chan sits down on the edge of his hotel bed, his free hand fiddling with the edge of his towel. He should probably get dressed. It was late for him too, but honestly he knew he couldn’t sleep with all of this running through his head.

As he was about to stand up, he heard Minho huff through the phone. “Okay, start from the beginning.”

“So you know how I was in the States recently?” 

Minho hummed in affirmation. 

“Well one of the evenings, I decided to go out to a bar. It was just a local place, I wore simple clothes and a hat, and I sat at the bar and drank a bit.” Chris ran a hand through his hair as he recalled the night. “Honestly it was nice. I chatted with the bartender. No one bothered me. I was just a guy.”

“Eventually this girl came up to the bar to order a drink. She was pretty, ya know? But also I wasn’t like interested interested in her.” He shrugged even though Minho couldn’t see it. “She ended up striking up a conversation with me, and when she said she had a boyfriend, I honestly felt relieved?”

“I’m guessing this isn’t the girl you’re worried about then,” Minho mused.

“No, but she’s related,” he replied. “We kept chatting, and it was really nice. It’s half of why I go out, I just want to connect. She was traveling for work, too, apparently, so we bonded over that.”

“And then she got this look in her eyes,” he continued. “I mean, I can usually clock when someone recognizes me. They all act one of a few ways, but this wasn’t that look. She sort of looked… like Seungmin before he starts to be a little shit, you know?”

Minho snorted, and Chan chuckled, too.

“She asked me if I was single, which instantly threw me off. I was worried she was going to ask to fuck, still, so I told her I wouldn’t help someone cheat.” He huffed as he remembered her offended look. “Thankfully that wasn’t what she wanted and she swiftly told me so. No, apparently she thought I would get along super well with her best friend, so she wanted to check before she showed me pictures of her.”

“So you saw pictures of this girl..?”

“I did,” Chan replied. “God she was so pretty Minho. I don’t know. Maybe I was more drunk than I thought, but I agreed and then I had her number.”

He thought for a moment and Minho waited patiently.

“I didn’t text her until the next day. I’m not- I thought maybe I should give it a shot,” he admitted. “I think… I’ve always had this idea of a perfect romance. How you just, meet someone at the right time, and that’s your person, you know? I thought, ‘maybe this is that sign,’ so I figured it was worth a shot.”

“So did she give off weird vibes when you texted her?”

Chan huffed. “No, she didn’t even know my name, but she was so sweet. Like, her friend had let her know that she’d given her number out, but that’s all she knew about me.” He paused, licking his lips. “Honestly, it’s been really nice talking to her. I… I truthfully hadn’t even considered that she could be a sasaeng until today.”

He stood up and started pacing the room.

“But, I mean, this whole time I’ve been thinking about the chance that she knows me. Like, she hasn’t seen my face yet, and I’m worried how she’ll react if she does! I was trying to figure out how to bring up Stray Kids organically. I mean, we have over 100 million listeners monthly across all of the streaming platforms- it’s not out of the realm of possibility that she knows who we are. I didn’t exactly want to blindside her with that, and I wanted to make sure she was comfortable with that, too, if she does know who we are. I just…”

His mind is racing. “I managed to ask her today what her taste in music was, and she did mention Stray Kids.”

“Only Stray Kids?” Minho asked.

Chan shook his head. “No, she mentioned a lot of groups, and not all of it was kpop, either.”

“Did you ask who her bias was?” Minho teased.

Chan felt his cheeks heat up. “Ah, I mean, yeah.”

Minho laughed.

“I was curious!” Chan whined. “She didn’t even want to tell me at first, but she did admit it was me.”

That made Minho focus again. “Like you you?”

“No, she said Chan. She knows me as Chris.”

He heard a sigh through the phone. “Okay, so… what about all of this has you concerned?”

How was he not getting it?

“What if this is all a ploy!” he practically shouted. “What if she’s known this whole time and her friend was in on it? What if she’s just using this to try and get secrets from me? What if… What if…”

What if the slow excitement he got every time she replied was made up?

What if none of this had been real so far?

Minho sighs again. “Okay. First, you didn’t see any pictures of you at that bar circling, right?”

Chan slows his pacing. “No, none.”

“So the odds of a sasaeng knowing you were there are low,” Minho continues calmly. “Not impossible, but we know the odds of them being around seem to go down out of the country. Anyways, I think her admitting she likes Stray Kids and biases you is actually a good thing. I don’t think a sasaeng would do that,” he huffs out a laugh, “though, who knows what they’re thinking half the time.” 

Minho pauses. When he continues, his voice comes out a bit softer. “I don’t think you’re wrong for being cautious, but I do think you’re over reacting a bit hyung.”

“I…” he trails off, finding it hard to voice what he’s feeling.

Minho hums softly. “Why don’t you just do some digging to ease your mind?”

It was true, they had contacts. Sure their company didn’t do much about paying customers, even ones who made his members wildly uncomfortable, but Chan had made it a point a few years ago to start keeping records of these things for his members safety.

They had names. They knew the “problem people” more often than not.

It felt wrong to do that to her, without her knowledge, but at the same time…

If this was all fake, then this would bring that to light.

And if it was real-

“Yeah okay, I’ll do that,” he agrees with a sigh. “Thanks Minho.”

“Hm, I’d say anytime, but I’d prefer you not to have a breakdown in the middle of the night again,” Minho mused.

Chan huffs out a laugh. “Sorry.”

“You would’ve just ruminated on this and not gotten any sleep if you hadn’t called,” Minho pointed out flatly.

He wasn’t wrong.

“You know we’re here for you.”

“I- I know…” he breathes. “I appreciate you guys more than I can express.”

Minho hums, staying quiet for a moment. “It’s okay to be afraid of feeling something,” Minho tells him softly yet firmly, “but if anyone deserves this, it’s you hyung.”

God he always knew how to get to the heart of the matter.

“Thanks for letting me talk it out,” Chan says.

“You mean panic?” Minho replies. 

“Hush,” Chan grumbles.

“I’m going back to sleep now.”

“Sorry,” Chan says again.

Minho just huffs. “Don’t be stupid next time and we’re even.”

Chan snorts. “Love you too, Minho.”

“Safe travels, see you in a couple days,” Minho says around a yawn before the call disconnects.

Chan sets his phone aside as he slips his boxers on and climbs into bed finally. His mind is still too awake, despite the late hour, so he decided to draft an email to their contact in the company. It was a member of their media team. He did some back end stuff for them when they asked, and had been for a few years.

It was someone he could trust with this task, and who would keep it on the down-low, too.

He made sure to include all of the pertinent information, including her phone number, her name, and her friend’s name, as well as what timezone he thought she was from. He explained his concerns and asked him to keep him posted.

Then, he scheduled it to send at a more reasonable hour, so he’d actually be in the office whenever the email came through.

With that done, Chan finally made himself lay down in bed.

There was nothing else he could do now but wait.

And wasn’t that the kicker? 

So he put on one of the ASMR videos he’d tried the other night that had successfully helped him go to sleep. 

One of the ones that Y/N had suggested.

He shook his head, dismissing the thought as he closed his eyes.

Eventually he succumbed to sleep.

He managed to ignore his texts throughout the day. Luckily, he was able to focus on some work-related tasks to keep his mind off of the fact that he wasn’t constantly looking for texts from Y/N.

But she still ended up texting him shortly after lunch.

He couldn’t help himself. He opened the text.

“hey, morning! hope you managed to get some sleep last night and that you have a nice day today too :)”

He stared at the text for longer than he’d like to admit.

His heart hurt a bit not replying, but he had to know first.

He wasn’t sure if finding out would make it hurt less.

Every buzz made him check his phone, praying that it was an email giving him the answers to his burning question.

It wasn’t until the end of  the day that he finally got the response.

“Re: Search Request

Chan,

I looked into both people you sent me information on. Based on all records I was able to access, including additional diving into social media accounts linked to the names, neither raised any red flags.

I was able to find Y/N’s Instagram account, and utilizing that I was able to cross check fancall backups to confirm that people who shared her first name didn’t share a resemblance. Additionally, based on the phone number you gave me, it doesn’t appear she has won any fancalls in the past before, either.

If there’s any other information you have on them, I can dive further, but I am fairly confident neither have been an issue in the past. Not enough for us to notice, at least.”

He read the email twice. And then a third time.

She wasn’t anywhere in the system. She hadn’t even won a fancall before.

Not that fancalls were the end all be all of a sasaeng, but-

Fuck, could this all actually be real then?

Some part of him wanted to panic, press further until he found something. It couldn’t be this easy. Dating had never been this easy for him.

Unless she was the one he’d been waiting for this whole time.

He took a screenshot of the email and sent it to Minho.

He responded back instantly.

Contact name: Lino

Lino: and why are you texting that to me instead of texting her back?

Chan huffed at the text, rolling his eyes fondly.

His phone buzzed again.

Lino: i know you haven’t done it yet, stop overthinking

Chan worried at his lower lip. Yeah, he should do that.

Now he just had to think of a decent apology for not texting her sooner.

“hey!! im so sorry i didnt text back last night-”

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