A Fish Story written by LYA's fans in 2006

Below is a half-true story written by the fans of LYA's official fansite. It was written by a fan first, and then the second, and so on in free form without knowing the end of it. Any fan could write on. The story was mostly written by Lala Wijaya, Shenzheni and Rosel. The official fansite is leeyoungae.net. The China fansite is withyoungae.com.

The Chinese introduction of the story was specially written by a Chinese fan, Shenzheni, for the Chinese fans on China fansite.

故事大致就是：

有个住在加州的男人，感到生活的沉闷和平淡，一天，他在海边散步的时候，遥望无穷的大海，希望发生点什么．这时他突然看到海里有一个瓶子，他把它捡起来，看到内中有张字条，写下字条的是一位女子，她当时正在东半球韩国一个叫济州岛的地方作为女主角拍摄一部描写韩国古代宫廷膳食和医道的戏剧，经过一天疲累的工作后，望着日落大海（她喜欢静静观赏大自然的美丽风景），她的心灵蒙上了一层诗意，决定投下一个漂流瓶，捡到这个瓶子和内中字条的人就是她的有缘人，只要在她的官方网站www.leeyoungae.net的love letter版上留下一封信，她就会认出他，然后会想法来跟他见面．这个生活在美国加州的男人之前从未听说过这位女演员，就在他犹豫不决，还来不及记下网站网址的时候，一只带有神性的鱼看不下去了，抢走了这个瓶子，留下了一系列预言，然后就游走了．而这个男人为了寻回瓶子，也是为了夺回他跟美丽女演员的缘分，经历了一系列事情，只身到了几个国家（当然包括我们中国），几次与她擦肩而过，最终．．．

你猜最终会怎么样呢？ ．．.

Read the complete story below.

*********A Letter in a Bottle*********************

There was a very boring guy living in California. He was very bored every day. Most the time after the work, he had nothing to do. Only once a while, he went to the coast next to the Pacific Ocean. He looked at the ocean. There was nothing there. Of course, it was not true. There was water in the ocean….

Oh… He looked at the ocean. This humble but very talented guy suddenly noticed there was a unique bottle floating on the sea. The bottle got nearer and nearer to the seaside where he was standing. He stretched his arm and grabbed the bottle from the water. There was a note in it.

Curiously he opened the cap and read the note. “I am a Korean actress sitting at the seaside of Jeju Island. I have just finished my 8 months acting work with director Lee Byung Hun and actor Ji Jin He. I am glad I have finished the shooting. The story is about a kitchen maid who became the first Korean female doctor. I am the main lead in it. I have to memorize a lot of scripts in my appearances so that I am now long for a rest. Whoever finds this bottle is considered a friend God send to me. If you receive this message, please send a letter to me through www.leeyoungae.net‘s Love Letter column. Put the subject: A letter in a bottle, and put your e-mail address there. I occasionally visit the site so I will notice your message and will write to you to arrange your visit to Seoul to meet me in person immediately.”

This bored guy’s eyes were wide opened. He said, “There is not just water in the ocean, but also a bottle and a note. Phew….life is full of excitements”.
He stared at the bottle. Then he was staring at note for a long time.
“Who is this actress? How can I send a letter to a stranger? I don’t know her. Should I give my e-mail address to her?” Again, he was sitting at seaside and looking out to the ocean. There is nothing else out there.

Suddenly something jumped out the water. It was a fish. The fish talked.
“You are so bored. Even a fish cannot stand it. Usually, I do not talk but I cannot stand you just sitting there in front of me. Go there and do something”. The fish pointed to far side of the ocean. The bored guy looked in the horizon where the ocean and sky meet. There is nothing there…..

Then a face started to form from the sky. Then it stared at the bored guy...and said: You really are boring. What are you still doing here looking at us? Go now and find that beautiful lady!

The boring guy put the note back into the bottle. When he was still thinking the idea over, the fish could not bear anymore, it jumped up from the sea water and robbed the bottle and dived into the water again. Before its leaving, the fish said to the guy: "I'll send the bottle to another one. I know a Chinese girl who is eager to see the beautiful actress so much; I'll let her to have this chance."

The guy felt something important was lost, his heart ached. Why? Why I feel so blue? Who is the actress? Which kind of woman is she? No! She may be the gift God bless me. I may lose the gift! He thought and became full of energy. He shouted at the fish: Wait! Wait! I want to have a try. Which net is it?

The fish just answered: "You do not know the note's value, right? The man who gets it will be predestined to be the beautiful actress' true love. You have to face a lot of difficulties and at last if your love is true and enduring, after a series of probation, you may get the bottle back!" Then it swam away.

Even the bored guy didn’t have the note, he roughly remembered the name, leeyoungae something like that. He was not that dumb. He went home and got online to search for that name. He actually found that site, www.leeyoungae.net. It needed registration. He said, “What kind of website it is, it is hazardous”. He finally got in.

He found a post people talking about love stories from different countries. “Phew….life is full of excitements”. Then he saw these pictures showing a beautiful lady. The pictures were flipping in front of him like an advertisement board.

“I can’t believe it. This lady is so beautiful. You cannot find one on earth”, he determined. Then he saw a Japanese name next to the pictures. “That Japanese lady just made them up using Photoshop something like that”. Then he closed the computer and went to sleep.



It's already past midnight but the bored guy still couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about the pictures he saw on the net. The face of that beautiful actress, he couldn't forget. He closed his eyes but his heart kept on beating so fast. He could no longer resist it. He jumped off the bed and turned on the computer again. He excitedly logged in to www.leeyoungae.net.

This time he opened the Gallery Photo section. Wow, so many beautiful pictures of the beautiful lady. He could almost hear his heart pounding. “What is going on with me?” he asked himself. “Have I fallen in love with the lady at the first sight? Can this be counted as first sight actually? I have not met her in person at all.”

He entered the Gallery VOD files section and downloaded some VODs. He did not realize his mouth was opened wide the whole time he watched the VODs. The lady spoke very softly in all her appearances. The smiles, the brown shining eyes, the laughs, the good attitude, and all the sweet expressions! Oh my... Now he understood why the fish said he did not know the value of the note in the bottle...

Thinking deeply of what the fish said, although he really wanted to send his e-mail address at the Love Letter column after watching the VODs, he decided it was not the right time. He might put his e-mail address there now and just be the beautiful lady's friend. Or if he went through the difficulties first as the fish said, he would not only be the beautiful lady's friend, but also be her true lover. He chose the second choice, so he turned off the computer and promised himself he would go to the seaside again to meet the fish.

The next day, the bored guy packed up his package and headed towards his first destination: China. When he arrived at China's capital Beijing, he felt very vast and hazy: a strange city, so huge, and he did not know even one word of Chinese. He wondered for a whole day, nothing happened, and he had no clue. Just at that moment, he stopped in front of a skyscraper, what did he see?

The beautiful actress! On the huge screen, her CF! And the name of the skyscraper is: LG Headquarters in China the Mainland. The guy thought it may be helpful to going into the skyscraper for inquiry. Just at the entrance hall, he saw a man staring at a picture of the beautiful actress. So he asked: "Do you know her?" Fortunately, the man knew English and answered him: "Of course, I am her fan"

“FAN? You’re a fan to her?” “So there must be others here too”. The man said to the bored guy “yea, may be hundreds of thousands”. The bored guy looked at the man then that picture on the skyscraper and repeated, “Thousands!”

“Wow! She has many fans here. May be she is famous,” the bored guy was thinking. He forgot why he came to China. He thought he was gong to see the fish and he ended up in China. “Um…may be I came here to stop the fish giving the bottled note to a Chinese girl,” he remembered what the fish said. That girl may be living in China.

“Right, I need that note so I can meet that beautiful actress. Only that note written by her will get to see her. I need to go to the coast of East Sea to find out if the fish swimming there, so it can give the note to that girl.”

He looked at that big beautiful picture again. “May be I should become her sincere fan so I will meet her,” he reasoned. He went to an internet cafe and logged into www.leeyoungae.net. He actually posted a question on how to meet her.

To his surprise, there is someone called Momo actually answered his question: “She is a very shy person. She needs to stay home to be with her parents. She has no time for you.” The bored guy was out of luck.

After knowing that the beautiful lady has thousands or even millions of fans...and that it's so hard to meet her...He came back to his old boring self again. He thought: Maybe I shouldn't be here. Maybe I should go back to where I came from. He's thinking so deeply that he didn't notice at all...screech...a car almost bumped him. The driver of the car got out of the car and asked him if he's okay.

But he was not really hurt and so the driver went back to the car. Inside the car, the passenger at the back asked the driver: How was he? He's okay the driver replied. The bored guy was so unlucky that he didn't see the passenger at the back seat. Little did he know that was the beautiful lady he's been trying to meet?

And so he continued walking and thinking. He decided, he'll stay one more day and if nothing will happen, he'll go back to California. But another day has passed, and he still couldn't get anything positive. He had decided and went to the airport. He said to himself: I should go back; there is nothing for me here.

But just at that moment when he reached the airport, the bored guy heard a scream: "Where is she? Where is Youngae ssi now?" He turned back and saw two girls, they were talking about her! He stopped the girls and asked them, then he knew that just the day before that day, 04-18, 2006, the beautiful lady came to Beijing to attend a LG commercial event!

The two girls just flied to Beijing from another city, and they were about to get together with the other members of their "YA Chinese Fans Club". Then they would go to the locality of the commercial event. So the bored guy went along with them. There were so many people there. But fortunately, the sponsor left very good position for the fans club. Then the beautiful lady came out!

The bored guy was so exciting, his heart beat quickly: She's so beautiful, full of grace, just like an angel! Then the sponsor announced that there would be 5 lucky audiences who could have the chance to go on to the stage and had a touch with the lady in a short distance. Then 5 persons were chosen and the lucky ones had a short-distant touch with the kind and beautiful lady. The bored guy did not have this fortune but he noted that one of the lucky persons, in her hand, there was the note!

Then after the beautiful lady left the stage, the bored guy found that lucky girl and asked her about the note. The girl told him that just because of the magic power of the note which the fish gave her; she had the fortune to be chosen. She listened to the bored guy and knew all the things; at last she gave the note back to him.

But she also told the guy that: the fish didn't give her the bottle but the fish emphasized that only when the man got both the note and the bottle, the bodement could turn out to be true. So where was the bottle? In another country? Or just there in Beijing? Or it was sent to Korea, the lady's homeland? The questions came up to the bored guy.

Now the bored guy had the note. Where could he find that bottle? This thing was too complicated for the simple-minded guy. “The fish must still have the bottle. It ‘s probably still in East Sea.” He figured. “Wait; there are many smart people on that net. May be I can find some answers there.” He went to an internet café again and logged in www.leeyoungae.net.

He looked at several posts in the web. There were people called Lala, Shenzheni, Rosel, Kit, Ling, Tracy and many more who were giving out good advices.
“Make good kimchi, you will impress her.”
“Write a good poem, she will love you.”
………..
Many many more advices!
The bored guys’ heart sunk. He couldn’t cook. He couldn’t write poems. What could he do? He was lost inside a wonderland…

He went out from the internet café and walked. The internet café was near to a five stars hotel. So he went there and sat at the lobby thinking what he would do next. “I don’t understand. I don’t think I match the lady. She is too good to be true. But it was the bottle that came to me first. I didn’t expect it. If I am really destined to have relationship with her, either just friend or more than it, there must be some kind of magic help from heaven for me. Otherwise I don’t think I can make it. Imagine… thousands of fans all over the world to compete for her love,” he said to himself.

Suddenly a nice looking guy came to the lobby. He was alone. The bored guy’s eyes got wide. It was the beautiful lady’s manager. He saw the manager at the LG commercial event just now. He knew the manager’s name from www.leeyoungae.net. He collected all the guts he had, and called him, “Mr. Lee. Mr. Lee. Wait…”

But Mr. Lee couldn't hear him because there were many tourists who just got out of the elevator (where Mr. Lee was waiting for a lift.) Mr. Lee felt that someone was calling him but he couldn't see the bored guy because he was trapped into a group of tourists. By the time the bored was at the elevator's door, it's already closed.

So he ran upstairs, and ran again because he couldn't catch the elevator where Mr. Lee was. Finally he reached the 7th floor, but he was already exhausted...so exhausted that he just sat on the floor near the elevator. He's so tired that he just wanted to close his eyes and sat there forever. He felt hopelessness and wanted to cry, so he covered his face and didn't mind all the people passing. By the time he opened his eyes and looked up, he saw a very beautiful lady looking back at him.

The beautiful lady smiled at him, but he was so shocked that he couldn't even smile back. The beautiful lady and her companions went inside the elevator. The bored guy was so shocked that he couldn't even say a word to the beautiful lady. He was so shocked that he didn't even notice that the beautiful lady was slipping away from him and so did his chance to finally talk to her. The elevator's door closed leaving the bored guy outside staring at the door with awe, as if the beautiful lady was still there.

After a few seconds, he got his consciousness back. He smiled happily. "It is okay I didn't have a chance to talk to her. But I had seen her at so close distance. She has very fair and smooth skin. More beautiful to see her in person rather than just see her pictures. And the most important thing is...she smiled at me. Wow, that angel's smile."

"Oh yea, I did not see any room-boys bring her luggages, I think she has not checked out. She will be back sooner or later. I will just stay at lobby and wait for her back." There was a group of people talking in the lobby. There was a lady they all called her Jane, who looked like their leader. She seemed to know many things.

“May be she has inside information of the beautiful lady, who seemed very fond of this group from my observation in that LG meeting”. He was thinking to go to ask this group. Suddenly he heard they were talking about some lake in China and some poor school. What did that to do with the beautiful lady? He hesitated.

“May be I should go to look for that fish. May be I should go home. Life is too complicated here.” He was thinking….. Just at that moment, one girl who stood beside Jane noticed the bored guy. She was just the girl who gave the note back to the bored guy. So she introduced the bored guy to the other members.

They were talking about a countryside elementary school. And the beautiful lady made a generous donation to the elementary school for its renovation. "I remember!" one of the members said, "At the day we reached the elementary school before her, and when our members also made donation to the elementary school, someone also donated some things to the children. Along with the stationeries, there was one bottle---we were curious about it, and asked the man who donated it.

But the man just said he donated the cute bottle to the school as a toy for the children. Then the member described the appearance of the bottle, and that must be it! "What did the man who donated the bottle look like?" "Oh~ I don't quite remember, I just know he seemed to be a fisherman."---The truth is out! "I must go to the elementary school and get the bottle back! I must!" The bored guy thought.

The guy hang with the China fans members for a while. They were very friendly and he felt comfortable talking to them. He got a lot of information about the beautiful lady. The more he knew, the more he admired her. He is confused now whether to wait for her back to hotel, or to go search for the bottle. At last he decided, "Well, since I am so near to the lady, I think it’s worth it to wait for her first. At least I hope I can see her face once again."

He waited and waited and the lady did not come back. Suddenly he thought of the beautiful lady’s feeling. "Even I see her I do not have the bottle to offer her. She will be very happy if she sees the bottle, which was placed in the ocean herself after very hard work on DaeJungGeum drama. It is very precious for her."

"Whether she loves me or not, it is not important. As long as she is happy, I will be contented". Instead of waiting, he decided to go to that elementary school to find that bottle, so he could make her happy.

To get to the Thousand Island Lake was tough enough, not to say the 3 hour boat and 1/2 hour road trip to that school. Finally he reached that poor school. A group of children were playing on the school yard. They were so happy and lovely. At the sudden, he saw a little girl putting some wild flowers in a bottle. The bottle looked familiar.

“That’s it, the bottle the fish took from me.” He stretched his arm and tried to grab that bottle. The girl looked up and saw the bored guy. She smiled. “Wait a minute; I can’t take a toy away from a little girl, who was also loved by the beautiful lady.” He left the school.

He was actually boarding an airplane flying home to the other side of Pacific Ocean. He didn’t have the heart to take the bottle from that little girl, and he had nothing to offer to the beautiful lady to make her happy. He was very tired and felt into deep sleep quickly.

Suddenly, the airplane stopped. It landed on the airport of Tokyo. The captain announced the aircraft had some mechanical problem. All passengers needed to get out and waited until they fixed it.

A crew member told him that he would be compensated because of this accident. Instead of waiting, he was taken to a NHK Studio Park show and seated in the front row. He thought this was better than doing nothing at the airport. He did not know the show, but he saw thousands of people in the studio.

The show started and the special guest came in from the front door on the right side. She was wearing a red-colored dress. She was very beautiful. Wait! The bored guy’s eyes were wide open. That’s the lady he was looking for. She was attending a Japanese fan meeting here.

She walked in and started shaking hands with the front-row audiences. She came in front of him and was shaking his hand. She looked at him. He almost fainted when he saw her beautiful eyes so close…..



He wanted to talk to her. Suddenly he felt the studio was shaking. He woke up and he was still in the aircraft. Apparently, he just had a dream and some air turbulence jolted the aircraft and took him away from his sweat dream.

“Well, at least I was so close to her in my dream,” the bored guy was relieved. He started to look outside the window. There were beautiful clouds under the aircraft. At this time, there was announcement from the captain.

“I want to welcome all passengers to Seoul. We will be landing on the airport of Seoul very soon……” What! He thought he was flying to California and now he was heading to Korea. “What’s going on?”

He was nervous and got up from his chair to walk to the front of the aircraft. He wanted to find some crew member to ask. He didn’t see any crew at all. He kept walking and actually got into the first-class cabin.

Surprisingly, he saw the beautiful lady sitting in the first-class seat. She turned her head and saw him. She smiled to him and waved him to sit down on an empty chair next to her. The bored guy sat down and shocked, and couldn’t say a word. After a while, she started talking.

“I saw you in China and you seemed very funny. You’re probably one of those fans on that fan site I occasionally visited”. She continued to say that she loved the fans there. Though she could not fully understand the English posts, she could feel the loves from the fans. She was lucky to have some lady named Momo translating for her.

“Lately, I saw some posts talking about love stories. I haven’t have time to read it yet”. The bored guy’s heart was pounding. He wanted to tell her about the bottle and the note. He wanted to show her the note in his pocket. Instead he kept looking at her. He was totally immersed in her beauty, the smiles, the brown shining eyes, and all the sweet expressions!

There was voice from the top of the aircraft. “Why are you still waiting? Talk to her and tell her about the bottle and the note. Tell her how much you love her….”
…………….

“This is your captain. We have landed at San Francisco Airport …..” He finally woke up from a very sound sleep. He was home.


Final scene:
He went to the coast of Pacific Ocean more often. He often looked at the ocean and said, “There is not just water in the ocean, but also a fish”.

Caption: Does he want to go back to China to take that bottle from a little girl?
Caption: How can he make the beautiful lady happy without that bottle?

*********The End*********************