“I mean, if you don’t want to go, I’ll just give our spots to someone else…,” Leah says, stepping back toward my bed with a mischievous grin on her face.

“Don’t even think about it, you demon!” I yell, grabbing her and pulling her back into bed with me. “I guess… we can go to the fan signing. But it’s only because I’m the best sister in the world, understood?”

Leah screams, throwing her arms around me. “Yes, yes, yes, you are the best! I can’t believe I’m going to meet Jason!”

And I can’t believe I’m going to Style Dome!

* * *

Three hours later the excitement has worn off for both of us.

It was still dark outside when Leah and I left the apartment—a fact I hadn’t realized when she woke me up at 4:00 a.m. But, according to Leah, even when you have a guaranteed spot at a fan signing, you still have to wake up at the crack of dawn because it’s not enough just to be there. You have to be at the front of the line when you get there too.

There are already a handful of people in line by the time we get to Style Dome, and we settle in to wait, but Leah’s so tired she keeps nodding off and dropping her poster—a giant handmade one complete with a photo timeline of Jason’s journey from local Toronto YouTube singer to worldwide K-pop sensation and covered in glitter, pink washi tape, and handwritten notes.

“Here, let me hold that for you,” I say, taking the poster from her.

“Thanks, Unni.” She stifles a yawn, her eyelids drooping.

The line grows, winding down the block behind us, and I glance at my watch. Still an hour to go before the signing starts. “I’m gonna go get us some drinks at that café over there,” I say, pointing across the street. Maybe some sugar will get her energy up. “Be right back, okay?”

She nods, her eyes half-closed.

I sprint across the street, poster in hand. I take a quick scope around as I enter the café. The last thing I want is for Goo Kyungmi to pop up and snap a picture of me holding some Jason Lee fan poster. Luckily, the coast is clear. Just a few early birds drinking coffee and an employee mopping the floor.

I order an iced coffee for myself and a strawberry cream frappé for Leah. Just as I step to the side to wait for my order, someone in a hoodie runs by, knocking right into me. I slip on the freshly mopped floor, the poster falling from my hand as I reach out to balance myself on a nearby counter.

“Are you okay?” a voice says from behind. Wait. Not just any voice.

Turning my head up, I see Jason looking down at me. “Rachel?” he says incredulously, pushing down the hood of his sweatshirt.

“Hey.” I smile, trying to use my foot to slowly slide the poster behind me, but he’s too quick.

“Here, let me get that for you,” he says as he swoops down and picks it up. He flips it over, a huge cocky smile spreading across his face.

“Is that for me?” he says in delight. “Handmade by the Rachel Kim herself?”

This can’t be happening to me.

I grab the poster out of his hands, noticing a rip at the bottom of it. “I… it’s not—” I sputter, tripping over my tongue-tied words. “It’s my sister’s. She made it. And she’s here with me! I mean, I’m here with her. I wouldn’t be here if she didn’t want to come. It’s school break and I said I would.”

Oh god. Why can’t I stop talking?

“So yeah. Got it? Let’s just go through the points one more time so you really understand. The poster is my younger sister’s. I’m only here because of her, and now it’s ruined and she’s going to be so—”

“Order number seventeen!” the barista calls.

Saved by the barista. I turn my back on Jason and grab my drinks, tucking the poster under my arm.

Jason grins. “Well, I gotta get to the signing. I guess I’ll see you in line.” He winks and jogs out of the café.

I make my way back to the line and spot Leah surrounded by a group of girls. I’m smiling, thinking Leah has made some friends in line, but as I get closer, I see Leah’s arms are crossed and she looks like she’s about to cry. “If your sister’s really DB’s ‘best trainee’ like you’re always claiming, why did you have to come to a fansign to meet Jason Lee?” The group of girls around her bursts into a fit of giggles as Leah’s face turns a deep red. “Your sister’s probably the worst trainee they have—that’s why they keep her so far away from the real stars like Jason.”

I’m almost at the line, and I get a good look at the familiar heart-shaped face of one of the girls. My heart drops into my stomach. The girls from our apartment.

I march up to Leah, balancing the drinks in one hand and steering her forward with the other. With a smile I turn toward Heart Face. “The line is moving. You girls better get back to your place in the back of the line.”

She scowls at me but starts to walk away. Suddenly, she whips around, a sickly sweet smile on her face. “By the way, Leah, thanks so much for telling us about this fansign. It’s just too bad none of us wanted to go with you—although I might have reconsidered if I knew you didn’t have any other friends to invite and would have to bring your sister!” She throws her head back in laughter as she runs to catch up to the rest of her friends.

I look down at Leah and her crumpled, tearstained face. “Leah,” I say hesitantly, but she doesn’t look at me, instead forging ahead through the double doors of the Style Dome. I trail behind her, the weight of what just happened settling into my shoulders like a backpack filled with bricks. Leah was too young to have much of a social life in New York, but I know moving to Korea made things even harder. Everyone at school knows who Leah is because they know who I am—the rumored DB trainee, the future K-pop star. Half of them want nothing to do with her because of it (K-pop fame—really any kind of fame—is way too nouveau riche for some of the snobs at our school), and the other half only want to use her to get the latest K-pop gossip or peddle conspiracy theories about me.

I’m barely paying attention as the line pushes me forward into the Style Dome. But as I look up, Leah’s brush with her middle-school mean girls goes right out of my head. A huge glass-and-bamboo elevator cuts through the center of the store, which stretches up seven floors to a giant skylight. Each floor features a different color, from white on the first floor to black on the seventh. All around us, racks and racks of clothes are lined up in a perfect gradient from cream to pearl to ivory to blinding, fluorescent white so bright I can barely look at it.

I want to fling myself in it. All of it.

I’m so distracted that I don’t realize we’ve made it to the front of the line. A signing table has been set up right in front of the elevator, all silky off-white with mini pom-poms and Lucite chairs.

Minjun notices me first. He taps Jason on the shoulder. “You didn’t tell us your girlfriend was coming.”

Jason smiles just as wide, wiggling his fingers in a wave. “Why, hello there, loyal fans. Fancy seeing you here.”

Leah’s entire body is vibrating next to me, and she elbows me hard. I look down to see her face split into a grin so big I can practically see her molars. Looks like the mean girls are forgotten.