Time and Money

I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced gentleman.  He has never smelled a flower.  He has never looked at a star.  He has never done anything in his life but add up figures.  And all day he says over and over, “I am busy with matters of consequence!”

Early spring, 2015…

            We were sitting in a meeting at SM Entertainment with all of the members free of schedules that could attend along with all our main managers, a couple publicists, and various other big wigs at the company.  We were discussing everything from our demands on the upcoming Devil album to negotiating our terms to continue working with them in the future.  As you know, we were nearly sitting at ten years with the company and our contracts were nearly up.  They wanted us to continue working with them, but that wasn’t going to happen if they didn’t start working with us a hell of a lot more and giving us a greater share of the profit.  We found them to be more accommodating than expected.  For one, we made them a lot of money.  Still.  Even I’m amazed, after all this time, that our fans are still so devoted to us.  But we are very devoted to them as well.  It is a two-way street.  Secondly, I think the company preferred to keep us happy with them so that the other groups signed with them wouldn’t get any funny ideas about leaving.  It was bad enough when TVXQ split in half and then with the more recent members of EXO leaving, the company wanted to show that they have some artists still faithful to them.

            But you can’t win on every detail.  As we began to discuss the upcoming enlistments of Siwon, Eunhyuk, and Donghae—which seemed so far off at the time, but was really right around the corner—they then began to discuss Ryeowook and I. 

            “We’ll have to put the group on official hiatus at that point.  We can probably still sneak in some fan meets here and there, but an all-out concert tour is out of the question.  Not with just six members,” one of the higher-ups mentioned.  “And then Ryeowook will leave shortly thereafter.”

            I had the misfortune of drinking some of my water at that point and began choking on it.  Hyukjae, sitting next to me, began to pound on my back hard.  With eyes full of water from coughing so hard, I turned to the guy and asked, “Wait!  When were you thinking?”

            “Probably winter of 2016.”

            I looked over at Ryeowook, on the other side of me, for confirmation and he was busily looking over some paperwork, avoiding me.  He already knew and hadn’t told me.  We were going to be discussing this later.  I was getting a little tired of the things he forgot to tell me.

            “I’m not leaving until 2017!” I pointed out.

            The man looked over his notes.  “Right.”

            I seriously had to fight off the temptation to jump over the table and strangle him.  Most of them knew we were together.  How the hell would he like it if I sent his wife away from him a whole year before sending him away for two years?  That would be three years away from my boyfriend!  Three years!  The hell! 

            “That seems unnecessarily early,” I calmly responded.

            “Well, the sooner he leaves, the sooner he’ll come back.  And we could really use his vocals on the next album.  As is, having a comeback album with just Yesung’s voice for backup vocals is kind of a stretch, don’t you think?”

            Yep, I’m plotting his death…and it’s rather torturous.

            “There are a lot of other members that could help with the background vocals,” Ryeowook offered, finally speaking up.  About damn time!

            The whole table looked at him in silence, waiting for enlightenment.

            Kangin cleared his throat.  “Sungmin is pretty good,” he offered.

            “Donghae, too,” Leeteuk quickly added.

            From the corner of my eye, I could see Heechul rub his face with his hands, clearly trying to keep from saying anything.  Okay, so the man had a point, but still.

            “I’m sure,” the man only said, “but we’d prefer to have our three best vocals.  Kyuhyun will still be serving, but we hope to have Ryeowook back around that time or shortly thereafter, which would help a great deal during live performances.  You all have wonderful voices, believe me, but Ryeowook’s is very distinct and is always excellent live.”

            What a diplomatic answer.  I decided to write that one down when I got home, for future use.  Still, that didn’t help my problem.  “I want an earlier enlistment then.”

            Many of the SM employees looked at one another.  Finally, one of