We met at that highly anticipated concert.

The ticket wasn't bought by me, it was given by a fellow streamer from the same MCN. She had extra live streams added to her schedule and couldn't make it to Thailand, so I happened to pick up this opportunity.

If I had known that concert would uncover so many dark secrets in the entertainment industry, I wouldn't have gone. Even if I had gone, I shouldn't have stepped onto the stage when he reached out his hand for interaction.

That day, he wore a blue suit embedded with countless shimmering stars.

To be honest, I wasn't a fan of his before, but the way he shone on stage, even a passerby like me would be dazzled by his brilliance.

That day, my friends and I had visited the night market before heading to his concert. Although Thailand was hot, the temperature dropped slightly in the morning and evening, so I wore a smoky purple camisole with a denim jacket over it.

When we reached the front row of the VIP section that night, it was still hot with so many people around. I listened to the girls next to me screaming his name, "Kyle! Kyle!" It was quite overwhelming. I didn't know the lyrics to his songs, but I could feel the rhythm, so I swayed with the crowd.

I never expected that when he turned in our direction, his gaze seemed to lock onto me and he began to walk towards us.

It must have been an illusion. There were so many people in my direction. I watched him walk towards me and glanced at the fans beside me, who were screaming his name and instinctively stepped back.

I thought he was reaching out to interact with his fans, not with someone like me who just happened to be there.

But I was wrong. He stared into my eyes. Even though I avoided his gaze, he kept walking towards me, step by step, descending from the stage, surrounded by four security guards who shielded him closely.

As he sang into the microphone, he extended his hand towards me. It was an inviting gesture.

I panicked and felt utterly lost, my eardrums nearly bursting from the screams of the fans beside me.

"He's calling you up, girl! Ahhh, I'm so jealous!" A fan beside me patted my shoulder, pushing me forward just as I was about to step back.

I didn't remember how he took my hand or how he led me onto the stage under the security's protection.

At that moment, my heart seemed to stop. In a concert with tens of thousands of people, the lights and the fans' screams overwhelmed me. It was his hand holding mine, his gaze fixed on me and he whispered in my ear, "Don't be afraid."

His hand was warm and comforting, like soothing a frightened fawn. He led me onto the stage, guiding me to a tall stool and gesturing for me to sit.

It wasn't until I was on stage that I realized how different the view was compared to being in the audience. The lights shone directly on the stage, blindingly bright. The audience below was just a vast white blur, with only the glowing support lights visible in the distance. In this venue of tens of thousands, he was the only person I could see, this dazzling star.

It was my first time standing on such a grand stage and I was face-to-face with a top-tier star. I was so nervous that I was trembling, clutching my denim jacket while sitting on the stool, wrapping my arms around myself to hide my anxiety.

He held a red diamond microphone, continuing to sing. By then, I had no idea what song he was singing. I just remembered him circling around me, moving from front to back. His right hand brushed through my hair, resting lightly on my shoulder. I wondered if he noticed how much I was trembling at that moment.

When he came around to the front again, he pulled me up from the stool with one hand, taking my denim jacket from my arms, where I had been holding it to hide my nerves and placing it on the stool.

I felt even more helpless and in the next moment, he embraced me in front of tens of thousands of people, under countless lights.

He gently patted my back with his right hand, signaling me not to be nervous.

At that moment, I knew I was falling for him.

My arms were wrapped around his waist and his voice resonated in my ears. I heard the waves of screams from the audience, which would have terrified me before, but being held in his arms as he sang brought me a strange sense of comfort.

He held me as he finished the song and at the end, I noticed him pushing the microphone switch down, it was off.

"Wait for me in the VIP lounge in the work area. My manager is there too," he whispered in my ear, so close that I could feel his warm breath against it.

I was escorted off the stage by security and staff, not back to the previous VIP section, but to the work area instead.

The security cleared the crowd for me and I was surrounded by a human barrier as we squeezed through to the backstage area. In the bustling crowd, I overheard a few fans shouting, "Is she a planted interaction? Why wasn't it me?"

To be honest, I was puzzled too, why me? I wasn't even a fan of his and I didn't even buy the VIP ticket myself.

It was late, very late by the time the concert ended. I watched the rest of it on a large monitor in the backstage work area.

The monitor had several screens, each focused on prime camera angles of the concert. There were some more interactions later, but none like mine, being pulled onto the stage and held in his arms while he sang.

Kyle's manager, known as Kellan Ludwig, told me not to be nervous, saying I was the lucky audience member of the night and that Kyle had a surprise for me, which was why he asked me to wait backstage.

Then he took my phone, saying it was for confidentiality and that it would be returned later, urging me to relax and wait for Kyle to finish.

I waited obediently, feeling a mix of confusion and anxiety, but none of the near-manic excitement that the fans outside had. After all, before being pulled onto the stage, I hadn't even listened to one of his songs in its entirety.

At that moment, I was unaware that my phone had already been blown up with messages. The interaction video had been uploaded to Instagram and X and my MCN thought this was a viral moment they could capitalize on and were frantically trying to find me. But it was too late.

Kyle finished singing and was escorted backstage by security. He was still in his heavy stage costume and sweat dripped from his forehead from the intense singing and dancing. His assistant was helping him remove his in-ear monitor.

When he saw me sitting on the sofa in the corner, he nodded and greeted me, "Wait for me, I'll go change." Then he turned to his assistant and said, "It's so hot. Bring some cold drinks and fruits over."

His assistant quickly handed the coat to a nearby makeup artist and went into the inner room to fetch a fruit platter, placing it in front of me. I felt a bit embarrassed, but since I didn't know anyone there, I could only thank them.

Kyle was ushered into the adjacent dressing room, where he seemed to be changing into casual clothes and removing his makeup.

When he came out, I didn't recognize him at first. He was wearing a short-sleeved white T-shirt, loose cargo pants, a black baseball cap and a black mask.

He sat on the sofa across from me and said, "Hi."

I hesitated for a moment before realizing who he was. Without the stage makeup, he looked a lot like the male influencers signed to my MCN.

"You're Amanda Steel, right?" He opened a bottle of water on the table, pulled down his mask and asked me as he drank.

"How did you know?" I recalled that from the moment I was on stage until now, I hadn't said who I was or what my name was.

"Kellan isn't someone to be taken lightly. He already found out which MCN you're signed with. I've even come across your live streams on Instagram before."

I felt a chill, Kellan, who had taken my phone, had been investigating me backstage. But why was this top idol asking me to sit here now? What did he want?

Seeing that I wasn't speaking, he reassured me, "Don't be afraid. It's just that, out of the crowd, I spotted you right away."

"Hm?" I was even more puzzled.

Kyle comtinued, "There were so many fans screaming and shouting nearby, yet you were sitting right in the front, so calm. I wanted to invite you on stage and see if you were really that composed."

I asked him back, "And now, do you think I was really calm?"

"More than calm. Others at this point would have asked for a photo or an autograph, but you didn't ask for anything," he replied.

In my heart, I thought, that's because I'm not your fan. If you were Tom Holland, I'd be clinging to you like a koala right now.

He finally asked, "I'm really hungry now. Would you join me for a meal?"

"Huh?" I was still lost in my own thoughts when I heard him say he was hungry. The problem was, this was our first meeting, we barely knew each other … and I didn't have the guts to get involved with such a top-tier idol.

"You're Amanda, right? Here's a document for you to sign." I heard Kellan's voice from behind me and he handed over a binder with a few sheets of A4 paper.

But before I could respond, Kyle stood up and took the binder before I could, telling Kellan, "It's not necessary. She doesn't need to sign it."

I became curious, what was this document?

"Kyle, you didn't want to arrange for a pre-selected interaction, so we went with random. The company agreed, but random interactions come with PR risks. It's company policy, the confidentiality agreement still needs to be signed." Kellan explained, but Kyle still seemed reluctant to hand over the binder.

Feeling the awkward tension, I decided to step in. After all, it was just a confidentiality agreement, no big deal. I took the papers from Kyle and skimmed through them. It basically said that details of the random interaction couldn't be disclosed to the media or used for self-promotion. Since I had no such plans, I signed it without hesitation.

"Can I get my phone back now?" I handed the signed document to Kellan and he readily pulled out my phone and gave it to me. I wanted to check the time, only to find it was turned off. When I tried to turn it on, the screen displayed 'low battery.'

"I suggest you don't turn it on right now, it's going to blow up," Kyle said with a smile, gently placing my phone into my jacket pocket. He leaned in closer, his eyes locking onto mine and I instinctively stepped back as he advanced.

By this point, Kellan had already left and the room was now just the two of us. He kept moving closer and suddenly, he wrapped an arm around my back. "There are fans outside everywhere. Let's take the VIP passage. I'll take you to a place with great marinated seafood. The restaurant is custom-only, not open to the public."

I wasn't sure if it was because I was genuinely hungry or because his proximity had me so flustered that I could almost feel his breath on my face, but I blushed and nodded.

He didn't take me out immediately, though. Instead, his assistant brought a few outfits from the stylist. He said it would be safer to change clothes since fans and paparazzi were waiting outside.

The stylist didn't have many women's outfits and a few were from the dancers' wardrobes.

I chose the simplest outfit. I didn't want to be hassled by his obsessive fans. If I had any hidden motive at all, it was to catch a glimpse of what life was like for an idol at his level.

After all, I was just a small-time influencer. I had some fans, but I was fully aware that many of them were bought by the MCN.

There wouldn't be anyone who admired me with the same passion and fervor his fans had for him.

We left through the VIP passage fifteen minutes apart.

He left first with his manager, Kellan, in a minivan. After a fifteen-minute wait, his assistant got a phone call and then led me to a business car.