It didn’t take Jonghyun long to find Shin Bomi and her manager. She was in the middle of a vocal lesson and he could tell from the little that he heard that she had a really nice voice. Hmm… at least her voice isn’t bad. It would be really cruel to tell me to make a hit song but give me someone who can’t sing. When he heard the piano stop, signaling that the lesson was over, he entered the room to go and greet her. Her manager noticed him first and was quick to go over and greet him.

            “Kim Jonghyun-ssi. It’s so nice to meet you. I hope you will take care of Bomi-ssi,” He said with a bow, “I’m her manager Seo Jungmin.”

            “Nice to meet you Jungmin-ssi but aren’t you the one that is supposed to be taking care of her? I’m only here to write a couple of songs.” Jonghyun said with a smile but his statement seemed to fluster the young new manager.

            “I…Ah what I mean is…”

            “Calm down Jungmin-ssi, I’m just messing with you.” He said as he walked towards the young girl in the room that was getting a drink of water. She had long black hair tied up in a ponytail and as Jonghyun got closer to her he noticed she was also shorter than him but not by a lot. She noticed him come near and put the bottle down before bowing a full ninety degrees.

            “Kim Jonghyun-nim. I’m so happy to be working with you and I’m glad that you choose to write my mini album for me.” She said while bowing but Jonghyun could still see the smile on her face. Was she really that happy to have me writing her songs? Wait, she also thinks I’m doing this voluntarily. That damn old man. Whatever, let’s just make the best of this Jonghyun.

            “Please stand up,” he told her, “It’s nice to meet you, Shin Bomi is it?”

            “Yes. I’m Shin Bomi, age 17. Please take care of me.” She said as she bowed again.

            “Alright, alright. Stop bowing. You’re supposed to debut soon, right?”

            “Yes. In three months.”

            “Three months…Ok then we needed to get started soon.”

            “We?” She asked confused.

            “Yes, we. I know nothing about you and I need to get a sense of your personality before writing your songs. Do you know if they already have an image picked out for you?”

            “Ah yes we do. Her image is supposed to be someone that is cute and sweet but can take care of herself and is independent.” Her manager spoke up.

            Jonghyun’s thoughts were running about a hundred miles per minute before he nodded to the both of them. “Ok. So Bomi-ssi when are you free today?” She looked to her manager and he answered that she was done at ten tonight. Wow I forgot how long the days of trainees were. I guess I won’t be coming home on time today.

            “Alright, so at ten how about we go out to dinner and I can get to know you a little better. How does that sound?” He could see the blush on her face as she put her head down before nodding. Does she idolize me that much? “So I will see you then. Meet me at the front of the building when you’re done.” He said before bowing to both her and her manager and leaving to go back to his office.

            When he reached his office he decided to call Key to let him know that he wouldn’t be making it home for dinner. Unfortunately Key didn’t pick up so Jonghyun had to leave a message. He figured that Key was at work by now and probably away from his phone. With that done, he sat down and started free writing some ideas for songs that he could write for Bomi. I will come up with a hit song. Just you wait and see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            The school day soon came to an end and Himchan was waiting outside of Ricky’s classroom so they could walk to the auditorium together. The results of who got into the play were out and he wanted to see them with the younger boy. Ricky was one of the last few students to walk out of the classroom but once out Himchan made his way over to him.

            “Ricky-ah, what took so long?” He asked as he put his arm around Ricky’s shoulders.

            “Ah… it was nothing hyung.” Ricky put his head down to hide the blush forming on his face. He wasn’t used to this type of attention but he had to admit that it was nice.

            “Hmm… ok. Are you ready to go see the results of the audition?”

            “Not really. I don’t think I made it.”

            “What are you talking about? You were probably amazing! Plus these are only callbacks. Remember Ms. Jun said that she will be picking two to three people for each character. You probably got picked.”

            “I don’t know. We’ll see hyung.”

            They continued walking until they reached the auditorium. The list of who made it was outside and the people that did make it walked inside of the room while the people that didn’t left with their heads down. Ricky and Himchan made their way closer to the door and the closer they got the more nervous Ricky got. Himchan could tell he was nervous because his shoulders started to tense up as they got closer. He gently messaged the younger boys’ stiff muscles and planted a small kiss on his temple.

            “Stop being so nervous, I’m confident that you made it.” He said as they came up to the list. Himchan quickly found his name next to the character he tried out for before searching for Ricky’s name.

            “Ricky you made it! You got a callback!!”

            “Really?! Really hyung!!” Ricky looked at the list and became ecstatic to see his name there under ‘Roger’ the character he tried out for. He also saw Himchan’s name under ‘Mark’ the main character but he wasn’t surprised. He knew that Himchan would definitely make it.

            “See you were all nervous for nothing. Now let’s go inside.” Himchan interlaced their fingers and led them inside so that they could try out again for their characters. Except this time they had to sing.

            Each person went up one by one; some had very nice singing voices, while some should never try to sing again. Himchan was called up first and he sang the song given to him. As he was singing Ricky became entranced by his voice. It was smooth and deep. He had no clue that Himchan could sing like that. Ricky was called up next and Himchan whispered a small ‘Good luck’ as he passed him on stage. Ricky was never confident in his singing abilities. He felt like he had an alright voice but it definitely wasn’t something outstanding.

            After everyone was done they all sat there for a while as Ms. Jun decided on who would be playing whom. When she came up to the stage Ricky could feel his heart beat wildly with nerves. Himchan noticed that he was becoming nervous again and held onto his hand tighter to reassure him that everything would work out fine.

            “I would like to thank you all for auditioning but as I said yesterday we only have eight main characters. Each one will have an understudy just in case but for the ones that don’t make it you will all automatically become extras. I will read off the names of who made it. I will start with Roger because I made a slight change. Himchan-ssi I picked you to play Roger, I feel like that character suits you better. Do you mind the change?”

            Himchan’s eyes went wide as he looked at Ricky. Ricky gave him a small sad smile before telling him to accept it. “Who will be my understudy?”

            “Huh? Oh Hmm… Kim Hyunsoo.”  

            “Oh, I see.” He figured that if his understudy was Ricky that he wouldn’t accept and let Ricky become Roger but it wasn’t. “Yes, I accept the change.”

            “Perfect! Continuing, Mark will be played by…”

            Ricky tuned out after he realized he didn’t get a part. That was until Himchan started to shake him. Ricky looked at him confused and Himchan smiled  at him.

            “What? Why are you so happy?”

            “You’re an understudy!!”

            “What? For who?” Ricky asked confused since he missed it.

            “For Angel!”

            “The drag queen?”

            “Yea!! Too bad I’m not your lover but its fine!”

            Ricky didn’t know if he should be happy or not. He figured that he should since he became an understudy, even if it wasn’t for the character he auditioned for. Soon all the parts were announced and they were dismissed. As they were leaving Ricky felt Himchan stop walking and turned around to see what held him up since he was in front.

            “Hyung…” He stopped when he noticed that he was talking to some girl. She was standing really close to him and even whispered something in his ear that caused him to laugh. Ricky felt really awkward and decided it would be better if he went ahead. So he continued to walk out of the auditorium only to have Himchan catch up to him not even a minute later.

            “Ricky where are you going?”

            “Home.”

            “Yea but why did you walk away?”

            “Oh…you were talking to that girl and I didn’t want to get in the way.”

            “What are you talking about? You could never get in the way. That was just a friend of mine and she was talking about how funny it was that we were going to be lovers in the play.”

            “S-She’s playing Mimi?”

            “Yea. Why did you say it like that?” Himchan asked as he held Ricky’s hand again and they made their way to his car.

            “Oh it’s just that she’s really pretty.” Ricky said as he put his head down. Himchan noticed this and chuckled.

            “It’s just acting Ricky. You don’t have to worry because you’re the only one in my heart.” Himchan said before pulling Ricky into a hug and planting a kiss on his forehead. “Now come on, let’s get you home.”

            Ricky felt his heartbeat speed up slightly. Is this what it feels like to be doted on? If it is then I feel like I can get used to this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Changjo on the other hand was still at dance practice. Yongguk didn’t want to stay behind so he told him that he would see him later. All throughout practice Changjo kept making little mistakes because he was distracted. He couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Ricky and what he said. Changjo knew that he broke his promise but was that such a horrible thing for Ricky to end their friendship? He felt like Ricky blew the whole thing out of proportion and that he would get over it soon enough. He always did. Ricky would get upset, not talk to Changjo for a day, two tops, and then forgive him immediately.

            The thing that bothered Changjo the most was that so called ‘friend’ of his. Who was that guy and what did he mean that he and Ricky were ‘talking?’ Does he plan on dating Ricky? Ricky’s too innocent to be with a guy like that. What if all he wants is to take advantage of him? These thoughts kept circling his mind that he didn’t even notice when dance practice ended. The captain of the club came up to Changjo and asked him what was wrong.

            “Nothing hyung. I just had some things on my mind.”

            “Well leave whatever problems you have at the door next time and just focus on dancing, ok?”

            “Yea.”

            “Alright, now get out of here.”

            Changjo bowed to him before gathering his stuff and heading home. He couldn’t stop thinking about Ricky and Himchan though. So he decided to call Yongguk to see what he was doing and try to get his mind off of his friend. It took a while before Yongguk answered.

            “Yoboseyo?”

            “Ah hyung…were you busy?”

            “I was sleeping.”

            “Oh…I’m sorry.” There was silence between them until Yongguk spoke up.

            “Don’t tell me you just called to wake me up because if that’s the case I’m going to hang up.”

            “Ah no! I just wanted to talk to you and…and see if you wanted to come to my house for dinner tonight!” He rushed out the last bit when he realized that he really had nothing to talk about with him, also remembering that his Jjong appa suggested inviting Yongguk over for dinner.

            “Dinner? What do you want me to meet your parents already?”

            “Y-Yea, unless you’re busy then…”

            “What time?” Changjo was cut off.

            “Huh?”

            “What time should I come over?”

            “Oh. Around 6:30. That’s when we normally eat.”

            “Ok.” The next thing he heard was a dial tone and realized that Yongguk hung up on him. I guess he was really tired. Wait! He said he’ll come! Changjo became excited at the thought of his parents meeting Yongguk until he realized that he never asked his Key appa if it was ok. Oh , Key appa is going to kill me.

What?! Key is about to meet Yongguk?! There is no way that, that will end well, right? I guess we will just have to wait and see. No side talk. Sorry.

~Lolo