CHAPTER FIVE
Practicality
"Now I can't help my feelings..."
Ring! Ring!
"Yeoboseyo?"
Hyuna takes in a deep breath. "Yeoboseyo," she greets, recognising the voice of the person who answered, "Yoseob-oppa?"
She had barely reached 4minute's dorm when the thought of that guy in the coffee appeared once again, and refused to go away. It felt like there was something inside her brain urging her find out more, to put this question to rest, to give herself some closure. Eventually, after a long while, she caved in and called B2ST's dorm number.
"Ne, annyeonghaseyo, Hyuna. What's up?"
If Hyunseung was at home he'd be the one to pick up, right? She thinks, before shaking her head and correcting herself mentally. No, he's ill. Couldn't get out of bed, maybe. Yoseob might be staying back to watch over him.
"Annyeonghaseyo. Ah, nothing much. I was just calling to ask if Hyunseung is at the dorm?"
"Uh, yeah. But he's really sick right now."
"Oh, yes, I heard from Junhyung."
"Oh, I see."
Hyuna frowns. He sounds a little unusual.
"Are you okay, Yoseob-oppa?"
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you."
"Are you sure you don't need someone to check on you both?"
"No, it's okay, really."
She sighs quietly before deciding to accept his answer, the sound of a pot bubbling in the kitchen reminding her she had other things to do.
"Okay. Talk to you some other time."
"Sure."
"Tell Hyunseung I said 'get well soon'."
"I will."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Hyuna puts down her phone before walking across the room to attend to her cooking, the thoughts in her mind slightly louder than usual as the girls were out doing their schedules, leaving the house silent and empty of their usual excited chatter. Her mind skims over the conversation she just had with Yoseob, reconsidering the things they both said. Her eyes widen a little as she remembers the sound of her senior's voice. It wouldn't be wrong to say he seemed…precarious? He definitely seemed slightly out of character -- unlike himself.
She put her chopsticks down on the kitchen-top, turns off the gas and heads towards the door, feeling resolute about her instincts.
Hyunseung scrunches his nose in slight disgust as he touches a paper cup to his lips. His coffee had long since gone cold.
"Want me to buy you another one?"
He shakes his head 'no' at his companion, and gives a small smile before releasing a quiet sigh. "I should be getting you one, if anything."
GD laughs a little, leaning back against his chair. "Yeah, I guess. Congratulate me on all of BIGBANG awards this year with 'Blue', huh?" he asks with a joking undertone, earning him a chuckle from his longtime B2ST friend. His face quickly changes to a serious one. "I'm just kidding. But I should be the sorry one. It was all my fault that you had to go through all that, especially before preparing for your comeback."
"No, it's not. I just have a messed up mind like that," Hyunseung insists, patting GD on the shoulder, "So. How about that second coffee, eh?" he asks with a smile, and GD grins in mock defeat, gesturing an 'okay' with the hand not wrapped around the mug in front of him.
Hyunseung moves to stand up from his seat, his eyes gliding naturally across his chair and travelling up the glass window as he did so. They skim briefly across the view of the street and the people passing by before--
Dark, hazel eyes.
His body immediately freezes at the sight of Hyuna staring right back at him, the look on her face telling him she knows he lied.
Her brows furrow deeply with frustration as she makes eye contact with him for another heartbeat. So Hyunseung lied just to go out and have fun? Chose to leave her to do all the work?
"Hyunseung, gwaenchanha?"
GD's words didn't register in his head. Instead, he stands speechless in the middle of coffee shop, frozen by what he had just seen, and starts to feel anxiety building up from the pit of his stomach. Did she…
His hand flies up to his forehead in nervousness.
"Uh, sorry, hyung," he says quickly, before heading out the front door, "I've got to go."
"So you've left me to do everything on my own?" asks Hyuna, with a slightly dubious undertone, "While you go out and have fun?"
"No, it's just--" Hyunseung hesitates, and furrows his eyebrows a little. He didn't like the sound of this. "It's late. Can't we wait until tomorrow to talk about all this? Just...it's kind of rash making a decision straight away."
After he had run out of the coffee shop and apologised to her, she had in a deep breath, and insisted that they (mainly he) begin working on the comeback straight away -- "immediately, now." So they're currently in a rehearsal room in Cube, supposedly being 'productive' -- more argumentative, really: with him trying to explain his truancy and her attempting to force him to do produce work to make up for it, they're hurtling towards murky waters.
A defensive expression crosses Hyuna's face as she tries to comprehend her unit partner's implicature. "So you can leave me and Junhyung to do all the work again."
"No," he replies simply, "Honestly, I--"
"What do you intend to do for the next few weeks, then?" she asks proprietorially, chucking the many Korean rules of respect and manner she had been brought up with out of the window in the throes of her indignation, "Meet up with friends? Drink? Why are you so lazy?"
Hyuna couldn't help but feel agitated when she discovered him where she had hoped he wouldn't be -- at that shop. First of all, he had no idea how much stress she's been going through with him going AWOL and time ticking away before their summer comeback stage.
A girl can only do so much, she sniffs.
Second of all, he doesn't even seem remotely apologetic about his actions. In fact, she thinks with lips frowning, it looks like he's trying to convince me he's right about what he did!
"I have my own reasons," snaps Hyunseung in answer to her question, angered by the way she interrupted him, "And in no way am I obliged to listen to you."
She fumes. "Excuse me, may I remind you that you're the one who has been absent from our studio sessions and more. I'm working much harder than you are for our comeback."
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm here right now."
"Right. So? You might be here today, but you've missed so many valuable sessions where I needed your input. Wasted so much time doing -- what? Lying just to sleep in and grab a coffee? While I work my off coming up with ideas for our comeback, you're--"
"I have my own life, okay?" he flares, "I deserve a break from all this drama."
"What have you done this past week?" questioned Hyuna defiantly, "What have you written? What have you produced that's worthy of justifying your actions? I haven't even mentioned last week when I was busy freaking out over planning for our comeback and you--"
"Where's your respect?" growls Hyunseung angrily, standing up and casting a dark shadow over her as his body blocks the ceiling light. The young rapper is immediately silenced, but her hazel eyes glare fiercely at him, speaking a thousand accusations. Fine, he might be older than her, but she doesn't intend to lose anytime soon. No way is she going to let herself get walked all over like a doormat just because of this stupid thing called society's heirarchy.
"Tell me then. Tell me what you've done so far," she challenges, before letting out a guileful chuckle, "I guess all those rumours about you being lazy are true, huh? And the B2ST members are having to cover up for you. Is this why you got kicked out of BIGBANG? Because you're not good enough?"
Hyunseung gets dangerously close to Hyuna then slams his two hands forward into the mirrored wall of the rehearsal room, centimetres away from her head, his incandescent breath fanning her cheek and his body almost pinning her, eyes glaring darkly into hers -- conveying a hundred of his ominous emotions with just one look.
Something in the back of his mind is urging him to calm down and regain his usual gentlemanly demeanour, but it's blurry and he simply pushes it aside, the forefront of his brain focusing on Hyuna's words and the rage burning through his chest. How could she say that when she know absolutely nothing about it?
"Watch your words," snarls Hyunseung to Hyuna, who continues standing her ground with a fiery stare, "Who are you to say anything, Kim Hyuna?" he asks, with a mocking smirk on his face, "Kicked out of the Wonder Girls, who's busy touring the US right now, making oegugin friends and earning the buckets of money and respect you'll never have while you just--"
What?
A loud smack sound rings loudly in his ears, reverberating as it bounces off the walls of the room, and he briefly wonders where it came from before the pain on his right cheek begins to register and the awkward way Hyuna's hand is hovering so close to his side-flung face dawns on him. He inhales a sharp breath, gritting his teeth.
Hyuna quickly jerks her hand away from the confines of his jaw as if she had just touched a flame, angry tears streaming furiously from her hazel eyes, an exasperated blush permeating her skin and a shocked expression on her face. She stares, horrified, at the scarlet mark on Hyunseung's face and immediately ducks out, heading towards the door.
"I--" she stutters, turning around to face him before she leaves, voice croaky from her tears, "You…you know my situation was different to yours."
With that, she closes the door with a bang, leaving her words resonating in his mind.
The chilly evening wind blows against Hyuna's thin, frail body as she sits on a slab of concrete against one of the walls on top of 4minute's apartment building roof, despite the freezing cold and her lack of a jacket. Tears wet her hands as she buries her face in them, wishing that the earth would just swallow her up, so that she wouldn’t have to face tomorrow, or Hyunseung, or that inane responsibilty of a self-made comeback, or anything else in this world.
"Great, Hyuna. You’re just great. Being all sensitive and ridiculous," she says sarcastically to herself, wiping her eyes and looking out across the cityscape.
In the summer, this place has the best view of Seoul than anywhere else -- but now that it is at night, everything looks so boring, she thinks, staring at the shadowy buildings, muddy concrete, and dull black, monochrome sky. She pulls her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them, before leaning against the cold brick wall, memories running fresh through her mind.
"Appa, omma, I'm home!" Hyuna calls, slipping off the killer five-inch heels she was forced to wear for the Wonder Girls' promotions with great relief, rubbing the soles of her feets but straightening quickly as she hears someone enter the room, "Ah, omma!"
"You don't have to pretend anymore, Hyuna," her mother says, a concerned expression fixed firmly on her face, "I know."
"Aish," Hyuna sighs, as if she had just lost a game, "I'll get used to those shoes soon, don't worry. Jinyoung sajangnim made sure that I have dance practice at least once a day in those--"
"That's not what I'm talking about."
She falls silent at the sound of her mother's unusually serious tone and gives a slightly confused look, fazed by the uncomfortable tension in the atmosphere, and her gaze follows her mother perplexedly as the older woman slowly sits herself down on the living room couch.
"I know, Hyuna," she says while looking straight at her daughter, solicitude flickering across her eyes, "I know that you went to the doctor with Ye Eun last week, and," she takes a deep breath before continuing: "I know what the doctor told you."
The young rapper's eyes widen at her mother's words and she staggers backwards, her chest tight as if a wall had just slammed right into her and forced all the air out of her lungs. Her hand throws itself out to grab on to the edge of the couch for support before she could fall to the floor, and her coffee-coloured eyes fly upwards to attach upon her mom's face.
"You…how…who told you?" She asks breathlessly, her free hand clenching the hem of her shorts nervously, watching the older woman's expressions carefully.
"Park seonsaengnim, your dance teacher," her mother replies simply, before sighing, "Look, we're all really worried about the way Jinyoung sajangnim is putting so much pressure on you and your friends--"
"Wonder Girls," Hyuna corrects her.
"Yes, your fellow Wonder Girls member friends. You're only fifteen, yet you're having to deal with such a heavy schedule, high public expectation and now a permanent health condition. Don't you think it's too much?"
Hyuna takes in a breath through her teeth. "It's my dream, though," the teen insists, desperately trying to figure out the implicature of her mother's words, "I-- what are you trying to say, omma?"
Her mother scoots forward on the couch a little and takes her daughter's hands in hers, looking her in the eye. "I've discussed this with sajangnim, and we think…" she pauses in hesitation for a moment, "Well, we, your father and I, both feel it's best if you withdraw out of Wonder Girls."
What?
Hyuna shivers, not from the cold, but from her reminiscence, and presses the tips of her fingers against her closed eyelids -- willing her tears to stop flowing, willing herself to be strong and to let go of the past. Why am I so weak? Why can't I just forget about it?
Even though she knows what happened -- especially what followed her mother's words -- is done and gone, irreversible, there still remains a shard of glass in her heart that throbs in torture each time she's asked to think back to that time or touch upon that subject in interviews. The well-practised smile of Hyuna twinkling across the TV screens of hundreds of Korean families may seem adamantly grateful for what she'd learnt from going through all those troubles, but inside she was still bitter -- bitter towards herself.
And I'll always be, she thinks sadly, clutching at the thin material of her cardigan and pulling it closer to her skin to shield her from the cold. Her stomach growls softly, and emanates a dull pain that she suppresses by pressing her hand firmly against her middle, but the minute it starts to build into a nasty throb her brain clicks into alert mode, eyes widening, immediately identifying the source of the discomfort.
She scrambles towards the door like a reflex and runs down the stairs to the lifts as fast as she can, hand still pressed against her stomach, head dizzy with panic, fragile legs trembling. A thousand thoughts fly through her brain, some of them excerpts from health magazines she had read in the past, others quotes from her doctor and her mother, but there was one that remains that forefront of her mind.
Her chronic problem was back.
There is a war occuring in the B2ST dormitory.
In Hyunseung's brain, specifically.
The lead vocalist stares with a blank expression at his phone, placed in arm's reach from his slumping position on the table. He is undecided on whether to call Hyuna and apologise first or not.
Logically, she should be the one to make that move, since she so rudely and impertinently labelled him with lies and libeled his image without any consideration for the fact that he was her senior or anything else. He rubs his temples with the tips of his fingers as her accusations and actions come crashing into his mind again, the scene replaying in his head and kicking off a slight headache.
"You…you know my situation was different to yours."
His heart sinks a little when he recalls the expression on her face as she said those words, and he rests his head on the cold surface of the table, revelling in the comforting coolness of the plastic against his right cheek, the place where Hyuna's hand had made painful contact with his skin.
Hyunseung takes in a deep breath before exhaling with a sigh. Perhaps she was right to confront him like that. He had noticed how her jaw stiffens and her hands clasp each other so tightly that her knuckles turn white every time she's asked about her leaving the Wonder Girls. It's clear she's still sore in that aspect of her life, and he knew that, and he had used that against her.
He looks at his phone again before closing his eyes, feeling apologetic but still too hesitant to call her.
"Hyunseung!"
He lifts his head lazily in response to the loud, excited shout of his name reverberating outside in the corridor, and stretches langorously from an hour of stiff positions and pointless waiting around for inspiration to hit. He shakes his head a little, realising that he had let his thoughts wander again.
He had spent the past remainder of his afternoon trying to get his mind of the event that transpired between Hyuna and himself earlier in the day, attempting to write lyrics and imagine possible choreography routines, but his brain just kept drawing a blank and -- even worse -- wandering back to the subject matter he was so determined to avoid: Hyuna.
"Hyunseung," Doojoon calls, poking his head around the door, "We're going to watch M! Countdown now. Gonna join us?"
"No, thanks. Got some work to do," he replies, gesturing to the notepaper in front of him. Doojoon shrugs and makes an 'okay' sign with his hand before closing the door, leaving Hyunseung to wade through the mess that was his thoughts in a comfortable silence.
Hyuna rummages through another drawer, desperately searching for her medicine bottle. The cutlery and dishes stacked all over the kitchen worktop, in some kind of orderly disarray, quivers dangerously with the force of her hands ing relentlessly into the drawer, but she takes no notice.
She hasn't had to take her medication that often since her last bout of bad chronic gastroenterisis. It was an almost permanent disease, but after her last serious attack years ago she has been able to subdue it and it hasn't been too much of a concern since.
Until now.
Her eyes flicker around the room quickly, in a panic, looking for another possible storage area, as she begins to hear the heavy, fast-paced drumming of her heart in her ears, in time with the imminent stabs of pain in her abdomen.
Call someone, her mind instructs sharply.
She grasps her phone by the glittery charm clasped onto its top with an iron grip, feeling the plastic crack a little, and randomly selects someone from her contacts list, her eyes unable to focus properly upon the words on the screen due to the pain.
"Yeo…yeoboseyo," Hyuna barely manages to get out, clutching tightly onto the island table and pressing its flat side against her stomach to dull the pain, "Who is this?"
There is a sigh before the person utters a response. "What do you mean 'who is this'?" the voice says emotionlessly, and she almost falls backwards in shock, "You're the one who's calling me."
"H-hyunseung oppa…"
He gives a sigh, telling himself to calm down, and melts a little at the sound of her trembling voice. Perhaps she's calling to apologise, he thinks. "Yes, Hyuna," he says plainly.
"Where are you?"
"At the dorm, where else would I--"
She takes in a small, quivering breath, digging her nails into the cushion of the stool she was grasping onto. "I…I understand if you…don't want to talk to me…but please, I need you to do me a favour…"
"Why?" he asks dubiously, before pausing and realising the way she was speaking was different, "What's wrong with you?"
"Say yes...first."
"Why?"
"Please…promise you'll do it first."
"Aish…" he sighs, before relenting, "Okay, I'll do it. What is it?"
"The girls are out, and…I can't find my…" involuntarily lets out a sore whimper.
"Find what? Can't find what?" his voice has an undercurrent of impatience, he knew, but he was starting to feel worried by the way she was talking over the phone. Something isn't right.
She swallows thickly, feeling the cold sweat run down the side of her face as she desperately tries to fight the pain, which was becoming more than more overwhelming. Her body had hardly enough energy left to force a couple of words out of her larynx.
"…medication and I…"
Her eyes widen, watching the room starting to sway like a ship on water, and her thoughts scatter as she begins to feel the excruciating pain in her middle increase rapidly. Her legs give way, but her hand flies out and slaps hard against something like a wall before her shoulders and head follows, smacking straight into it.
He jolts upright at the sound of her words, and the clattering that follows soon after, immediately heading out of his bedroom into the living room to alert the other B2ST members. Hyuna may have insulted him ruthlessly this afternoon, even slapped him, but he's not stupid: everyone knows about her condition, and what it can do to her. They might not be close friends but that doesn't mean he hasn't seen her take those little white-coloured pills before -- especially when they were working together last winter.
"Hyuna?"
"Hyuna! Are you there?"
She winces for a second at the feel of the cold, hard surface on the side of her head, and the pain that shoots through it. Her eyes have barely travelled across the smooth skin of her arm, down her hand and fixated themself on Hyunseung's name on the screen of her phone when the room spins in a blur and finally into a bitter darkness.
gwaenchanha? (괜찮아?) = are you okay? / you alright? / something wrong?
oegugin (외국인) = alien / foreigner
5.9.12
Hey guys!
Don't worry, this isn't the full chapter five!
It's just the first part (like a little teaser? LOL!)
I'll try my best to get the rest of the chapter up as soon as I can, but no promises,
because A2 has just started and it looks like I'm going to be in for a huge educational
whirlpool from hell or something! O.O
Nevertheless, I still love 2HYUN, love all my subscribers on here and writing this story.
Planned the plot for the upcoming chapters already, too!
So I'll definitely update super soon, don't freak out just yet ;)
Thanks for all those who voted in my polls, by the way!
I've written the lyrics and decided on a tune for Trouble Maker's comeback.
Over 57% of you wanted 2HYUN to take a more dark hip-hop stance,
but unfortunately I struggled so hard with that concept, and though I could imagine a
good music video plot, the lyrics were just so super hard to write and so I decided on
something a bit slower, with a hint of house electro~
So sorry to those who didn't get what they wanted! My abilities are only so limited :(
But there's still lots of rap in it, and the beat I wrote the lyrics to is fun and upbeat.
Here's a little tidbit for you: Junhyung is featured in it! He has a small rap verse :)
Furthermore, I'm surprised that so many of you still want a little bit of JUNAH!
In my "Who is more likely to slow down/ prevent 2HYUN" poll, Junhyung got twice as
many votes as all the other contenders! Eeeks!
I'm shocked because I thought Kikwang or someone else would win instead, since
Junnie already has Hara.
But oh well, in the world of fanfiction, anything goes ;)
Nothing is set in stone though, so if you want someone else to be 2HYUN's frenemy, go
to the link above or to this story's foreword page and vote now!
~
6.9.12
Still not done! But at least I've updated the second part where Hyuna confronts Hyunseung
about his absenteeism! Ooh~ *cue dramatic music*
You guys are so patient, it's amazing and I just want to give you each a cuddle! :3
Please keep waiting for me! My media teacher has gone berserk and suddenly decided that
insane amounts of homework on the first day of A2 is a good idea ._.
~
7.9.12
Here you go! The full chapter! This one's slightly longer than all the others, and has loads of
things going on, but hopefully you feel rewarded for your patience! :)
I'm secretly happy with myself for being able to upload the parts so quickly, haha!
I had a burst of sudden writer's unblock last night (a.k.a. inspiration) and was typing away at
this story until the early hours of the morning! But I was just so excited to write and finish this
for you guys, I didn't really care -- even if I had school the next day LOLOLOL.
Aish, I'm such a bad student xD
~
Remember to stick around or subscribe if you haven't already for the rest of the story!
Plenty of 2HYUN coming up! Trust me, I'm the one writing it, after all! ;)
And maybe even some skinskip ;)
BWAHAHAHAHAHA I know I'm killing you with the tension okay I'd better stop writing
this nonsense and start focusing on writing this fic now.
Kthanksbye! x
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