[2]

Mr. Charisma

I watched quietly in that same dark corner when they began their final run-through. It wasn’t that bad, actually it was fun watching the lights work in different patterns. Somewhere along the way though, I had fallen asleep listening to one of their ballads.

I woke up in an unfamiliar room backstage due to the rumble of noise from all the staff and stage directors. ‘Must’ve been nearing show time.’ I thought as my eyes skimmed through the unfamiliar faces.

An unexpected shadow came over me then. “Hey, Leader.” The voice called, “The young one is awake.” I tried to recognize the face and the voice of the speaker but failed to do so. It wasn’t the guy I met before.

“Thanks for telling me. Oh, the hairdresser is ready for you.” My cousin spoke. I sat up when he arrived and noticed a cotton hoodie draped on me. It looked oddly familiar.

“Here.” I said, picking it up and holding it out to him. Oppa shook his head.

“It’s not mine.” He said, “Jung Min brought you in. He said you fell dead asleep when he found you in the audience.”

I looked around, trying to look for the owner of the hoodie in the crowd but soon gave up when I noticed he wasn’t in the room.

“Who was the other guy?” I asked.

“Kim Hyung Joon.” He replied. I gave him the ‘what-the-hell’ look before he explained. “You’re not very familiar with our group are you?”

I shook my head.

“And your Korean isn’t up to par.” He spoke. It wasn’t a question.

“No duh Einstein. It’s called America.” I replied sarcastically.

“I’m Kim Hyun Joong. The other one that you saw moments ago is Kim Hyung Joon.” He replied, emphasizing the pronunciation of the ‘g.’

“Nope. Not confusing at all.” I replied sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes. “Just think of it as hyung-me and Baby-him.” I simply sighed an got up, wanting to get away from the backstage rush.

“Where’s Mr. Charisma?” I asked without eye contact. I grabbed the over-sized hoodie and headed for the door.

“Two rooms down, he’s rehearsing. You’re too young to wander around, make sure you don’t get lost.” He said, well in my case, nagged. I ignored it and made my way down the hall. When I had made it to the room that Oppa was talking about, I knocked on the door. Inside, a frustrated looking Jung Min stared up at me.

For a good five minutes he didn’t even acknowledge my existence but he didn’t seem to mind my being there either so I just sat there, staring at him and his script.

“What’re you doing here?” He asked almost suddenly. That snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Um…I don’t know. I wanted to get away from all the pre-show anxiety in the other room so I came to you. After all, you’re the Charisma right?” I then realized he was still staring at the page intently. “Is something wrong with the script?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah…well no, I just can’t get it in my head.” He replied as his gaze on the page intensified.

“That won’t do you any good.” I said and got up to stand behind him, placing my hands over his eyes.

“H-hey!”

“Just trust me.” I said and I felt his eyelids close underneath my fingertips.

“Relax,” I commanded, it took a while for his shoulders to sink. I put my hands on his shoulders and began to fix the knots in his shoulder blades and back. “Now, tell me, I’m not a huge fan of you guys so I don’t know, when did you guys debut?”

“June of 2005.” He answered.

“The five of you?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “it was always the five of us.”

“So Joongie Oppa must be the best cook.”

“No, definitely not. Young Saeng is the mother of the house.” He rplied.

‘Young Saeng. Haven’t met him yet right?’ I thought to myself. I stared at the page for the next question in their script. “Nehm Jung Minnie, you’re famous right?”

He chuckled, “Apparently, not famous enough, even my bandmate’s cousin doesn’t know me.”

I managed to crack a piece of laughter from that. “So then, how’s your love life?”

“What?--” He exclaimed.

I cut him off, “Ack, you were on a roll too. Good job with the rest of the script though. This page was the only one you couldn’t memorize?”

“You tricked me.” He accused, glaring.

“No, I helped you.” I replied innocently.

“No, you--”

There was a brief on the door.

“It’s time.”