(Rewrite) Chapter 1: First Snow Meeting

Byeolhaneul Manga Café

December 17th, 7:14 PM

The first snow of December dusted Seoul in quiet, and Jang Beom-seok disappear in it.

From the steamed-up window of booth #7, he watched flakes swirl in the orange glow of streetlamps. Inside, the café was a pocket of warmth, the low hum of heaters, the smell of old paper and instant ramyeon.

Manga café, Nozomu-hyung's instructions echoed. Best place. Rare for idol fans there. Even if fans exist, they're there for anime or voice actors who sing character songs. Not idols. Safe. You can relax.

Relax. That was the goal. The dorm was chaotic, loving, but still work. The acting sets were work. The waiting between scenes was work. Here, he could practice being nobody.

Beom-seok unzipped his hoodie halfway, revealing the crisp white dress shirt beneath. The collar stood sharp against the grey cotton. He spread open the medical textbook on the table, Gray's Anatomy for Students, borrowed from the dorm's "disguise props" shelf. The pages were pristine. He'd bookmarked a random page about the brachial plexus because Nozomu-hyung said it "looked complicated and medical."

This should be easy, he thought. I'm an actor.

But that was the problem. When he played a doctor on screen, he performed doctor. Now he had to perform not performing. He had to be invisible. Unremarkable.

And Beom-seok had never been forgettable in his life.

He tried to slouch. His spine rebelled—twenty-five years of "stand tall for the camera." He tried to look tired. His face defaulted to "thoughtfully handsome"—an expression that sold skincare products.

Don't pose, Nozomu-hyung's voice echoed. Don't check your reflection. Don't smile like a CF model.

But smiling like a CF model was his default. His vanity wasn't a choice, it was muscle memory. A lifetime being told he was special, being paid to be beautiful.

Now he had to be ordinary. And for an idol whose identity was built on being extraordinary, ordinary felt like the hardest role he'd ever played.

He glanced at the window, caught the blurred suggestion of his reflection. His hand twitched toward his hair, a habit. He forced it down. Don't.

Act natural, he told himself. But my natural is performing. So act like you're not acting. Which is acting.

His head hurt.

The café door chimed, slicing through the quiet with a gust of cold air that made the hanging lanterns sway, bringing with it the scent of snow and the distant smell of roasting chestnuts from the street vendor outside.

He didn't look up, good, normal people don't look up when someone enters. But his peripheral vision tracked her anyway. Frizzy dark hair escaping a black beanie, cheeks and the tip of her nose flushed pink from the cold, a faded navy hoodie with a barely-visible Uzumaki swirl peeking out from under her unzipped winter coat. In one hand, a volume of manga with a well-worn spine. In the other, a takeout cup that steamed faintly and smelled of hot chocolate and maybe a hint of cinnamon.

She walked in like she owned the place, and judging by the way the barista nodded without looking up from his phone, she practically did. She didn't scan for a seat. Didn't hesitate. Didn't look around at all. Just walked straight to booth #7 and slid into the seat opposite him without a word, without a glance, as if the space had been waiting for her, as if he weren't even there.

Beom-seok froze. The booths were supposed to be private. They had high walls, curtains you could draw. Was she...? No, she clearly didn't care he was there. Just needed a seat. The café was mostly empty anyway, a couple in the corner sharing headphones, one guy sleeping with his head on a table, the barista scrolling through his phone. But she'd chosen his booth.

Perfect, he thought. She doesn't see me. The disguise is working.

Then immediately: Wait, why doesn't she see me?

The vanity, ever-present, prickled. I'm right here. Look at me.

He shoved it down. That's the point, idiot. She's not supposed to.

He watched her over the top of his textbook. She pulled off her gloves—fingerless, grey wool—and set them aside. Took a long sip from her cup, winced at the heat, blew on it, tried again. Satisfied, she opened her manga to a bookmarked page and started reading. Completely absorbed. Completely... present.

Her eyes moved quickly across the page. She laughed suddenly—a real, unfiltered sound that made him jump—then immediately groaned, muttering under her breath, "Kakashi, you absolute idiot. Why would you even—" She shook her head, turned the page.

She was... bright. In the grey winter afternoon, in his grey disguise, in the muted tones of the café with its dark wood and dim lighting, she was a splash of color. Not literally—her clothes were dark too—but something about her. The way she existed in the space. The way she took it up without apology.

Her phone buzzed against the table, vibrating on the wood. A YouTube ad auto-played, the opening synth swell of a BTSB song. His song, from their winter comeback single, Frostflower. The one they'd filmed the music video for in a fake snowstorm that left them all coughing for days. The one that was currently number three on the charts.

She didn't look down. Didn't open her eyes. Didn't even pause in her reading. Her thumb shot out, tapped the exact center of her screen with practiced precision, and the music died mid-note, cut off before the first lyric could even begin.

"Ugh," she muttered to her hot chocolate, not looking up from her manga. "Algorithm's broken again. Why does it keep using idol songs as ads? I don't want my search history polluted with this."

The song was gone. Just like that. People paid to hear that song. They streamed it millions of times. They analyzed every note, every breath, every harmony.

Beom-seok stared. He couldn't help it.

"You... don't like that song?" The words slipped out before he could stop them. Too interested. Too familiar.

She glanced up, blinking as if noticing him for the first time. Her eyes were a warm brown, direct and unapologetic. "Huh? Oh." She gestured vaguely at her phone with her free hand. "BTSB or whatever. It's everywhere this time of year. Can't escape it even if you try. My YouTube's been hijacked. One accidental click on a fancam and now..." She shuddered dramatically. "My recommendations are a warzone."

"You don't know them?"

She shrugged, marking her page with a finger. "Idol groups all blur together for me. Too much real person, not that I will met them or make them fall to me anyway..." She took another sip, studying him over the rim of her cup. "You a fan or something?"

"I... know of them." The understatement of the century. He could feel the weight of his own stage name on his tongue. Bomsok. Say it. I'm right here.

"Lucky you." She grinned suddenly, and it transformed her face, less tired, more mischievous. "Me, I only know the funny names that keep popping up." She counted them off on her fingers. "There's Nope, and Luo, and Secretary, Baek Jae-min..." Her brow furrowed as she tried to remember. "And lastly Bomb Sock."

Beom-seok's breath caught in his throat. Did she'd just called him Bomb Sock?

"Bomb... Sock?" he managed, his voice tight behind his scarf and mask.

"범석, right?" She wrote the characters in the air with her fingertip. "I saw it written in English on some ad that popped up. B-O-M-S-O-K. Read it as 'Bomb Sock.'" She laughed, a bright, clear sound that seemed too loud for the quiet café. "폭탄 양말. Honestly, at least it's memorable."

Behind his scarf and mask and foggy glasses, Beom-seok felt a real smile spreading, the kind that started in his chest and crinkled the corners of his eyes, the kind he hadn't felt in weeks, maybe months. It was absurd. It was hilarious. It was the most honest thing anyone had said to him in years.

"It's... Bomsok," he said, the laughter leaking into his voice despite his best efforts.

"Same difference." She waved a dismissive hand, already turning back to her manga. "Anyway, they all blur together. Too much glitter."

"But..." he couldn't help himself, "Nope is actually Hope."

She frowned, looking up from her page. "Really? I only ever catch the '-ope' part. Figured it was Nope. Like, 'nope, not doing that today.'"

In Ha-joon-hyung's words, Beom Seok thought, Nozomu-hyung is "hopelessly in love with teasing," the kind that leaves everyone in despair. That's why Ha-joon-hyung once said he should've been called "Nope" instead of "Hope." Still... what a weird coincidence.

"It's Hope. Like... optimism," he said, trying not to sound defensive. Her confidence in her wrongness was... astonishing.

"Right." She didn't sound convinced. She kept going. "And Luwo?"

"LUO," he muttered, almost under his breath. "It's Seoul reversed. Kind of. Stylized."

"Sure," she said, clearly unimpressed. "Idols and their stage names." She took another sip of her hot chocolate, thinking. "And Secretary? Or is it just S? And then... Jaem-in or maybe Baek... oh, right—Baek Jae-min? Surprisingly normal name, for how it sounds."

He stared, utterly stunned. His mouth actually fell open a little behind his mask. "They're... two different people."

She looked up from her manga, blinking. "What?"

"Jeon Jae-min and Baek Kang-min. They're two separate people. They each use part of their names as their stage names," he added, with a visible stiffening of his shoulders that he couldn't control.

She shrugged, but looked faintly apologetic. "I don't even see them. I just hear their names when girls talk at bus stops or in cafes. It's like background noise with fangirl subtitles."

Beom-seok just watched her, speechless. He didn't know what to say. He'd never met anyone like this. Not in his entire life. Not in twenty-five years of being in the public eye, of being recognized, of being known.

"What?" she said, entirely unbothered by his stunned silence. "I know Naruto's voice actor by heart. That counts for something."

"You're really Korean?" he blurted out before he could stop himself.

She slowly turned to him, her expression shifting from casual to mildly offended. "Did you just question my nationality because I don't know your favorite idol group?"

"I—okay. That was unfair." Bad Seokie. He mentally kicked himself.

He chuckled awkwardly, the sound muffled by his mask, and tried again. "Well... what about Bomsok? He's the golden maknae. You must've heard of him."

She squinted, thinking. "Golden maknae?"

"That means he's the youngest with blond-dyed hair, right?"

"...Not necessarily," said Beom-seok, who currently had black, undyed messy hair under a medical mask. Glasses. ₩15,000 sneakers. Hoodie zipped halfway. His backpack sat at his feet.

"So do you fantasize about him or something? Is that why you're shocked I don't know BTSB? I bet your bias is Bomb Sock."

"Bomsok," he corrected gently, failing to hide his grin under the mask.

"Sure," she said. "That Bomb of Socks guy."

For the next twenty minutes, they sat in silence. She read, occasionally sipping her now-cooling hot chocolate, sometimes laughing softly at something in her manga, sometimes groaning in frustration. He pretended to study, watching the snow fall thicker outside, watching her, watching the way the light changed as evening deepened into proper night. The café filled with the golden-hour glow of winter afternoons, long shadows stretching across the floor, warm light pooling on tables, the sense of time slowing down, of the world outside the steamed-up windows ceasing to exist.

Finally, she closed her manga with a soft thump and stretched her arms over her head. Her spine cracked audibly. "Aigoo, my back." She gathered her things and studied him for a moment, her eyes dropping to the medical textbook open between them.

"Oh, are you a college student? What are you studying?"

Beom-seok glanced down at the brachial plexus diagrams, the intricate nerve pathways he didn't understand. "Medical," he said, the lie automatic. Nozomu-hyung's script: If they see the book, they'll believe you. No one fakes med school.

"Medical, huh?" Jin-ah said, nodding toward the textbook. "My friend Dae is in med school, well, he's a resident now. Always complaining about how hard it is, how he has no time for anime anymore. But he really loves it. It's his dream job."

Beom-seok nodded, his fingers brushing the crisp cotton of his dress shirt collar, a nervous habit. I care how I look. I'm not really a stressed med student. I'm just playing one.

"Yeah," he managed. "It's... tough."

"No kidding," she said, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder. The strap had a small Kakashi pin on it, the copy ninja's face partially obscured by his mask. "Well, don't burn out. Even med students need breaks." A quick, crooked smile that didn't quite reach her tired eyes but was genuine nonetheless. "See you around, maybe."

And she was gone, the café door chiming behind her, leaving behind the faint scent of snow and chocolate and old paper, and the empty space where she'd been.

Beom-seok sat frozen for a full minute, just staring at the empty seat across from him. At the imprint her cup had left on the wooden table, a perfect circle of condensation slowly evaporating.

See you around, maybe.

He hoped so. He really, really hoped so.

Slowly, he packed his own things, textbook, pencil case, the medical diagrams he'd never understood. He pulled his scarf back up over his nose, adjusted his glasses, made sure his medical mask was secure. The hoodie still felt scratchy and wrong, but for the first time today, he didn't mind it as much.

As he stood to leave, he glanced at the table one last time. At where she'd been. At the space she'd occupied for less than an hour but had somehow filled completely.

Bomb Sock, he thought.

And behind his mask, he smiled.

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