S I W O N

We would never forget what went on at SM Entertainment that day.

We watched with heightened anxiety, worry, fear and suspense as Lee Soo Man closed the petition book. He looked at us, adjusted his glasses and spoke. “In your contracts, it was clearly stated that for every late and absence, you have to pay a fine. Up until now, Lee Donghae hasn’t paid yet. In addition, his behavior was rude and intolerable. We want our celebrities to set good examples to trainees, to members of the entertainment industry and to the world. That is why Lee Donghae’s contract is terminated. He failed.”

“Sir,” Leeteuk began. “This petition here was signed by millions of fans and supporters of Lee Donghae. Super Junior is willing to pay the fine for now. Money is no problem. But all we are asking for is one more chance.”

“Suppose we don’t hire him back?” Mr. Lee Soo Man replied.

Leeteuk handed the boycott letter to him.

We waited for what seemed like years as Mr. Lee Soo Man read through it. It was stated in there that Super Junior and other idol groups and artists would file a lawsuit against SM Entertainment for unfair treatment. Finally the chairman cleared his throat. “You know what happened to your friend Hangeng?”

We all nodded.

I heard Heechul cough.

“And what happened to DBSK’s Hero, Micky and Xiah?”

We nodded again.

“They went through a long and grueling process in court because they tried to rebel. That’s what’s going to happen to all of the artists who signed this boycott letter,” Lee Soo Man explained as he waved the letter in the air. “And this would happen all because of one man. Are you aware of that?”

“Yes, sir,” we said in unison.

“I’m giving you a chance to back out now,” he said. “If you continue with this, all of you would be affected. If you back out, only Lee Donghae would be affected.”

“Sir, with all due respect, what you did was wrong,” Eunhyuk spoke up. “You could’ve at least met with Hae and warned him one last time before firing him just like that! Donghae’s been one of the most hard-working men I had ever known. Please give another chance!”

“So you’re not going to back out of this, are you?” Lee Soo Man sighed.

“Super Junior is solid,” it was Shindong who spoke. “We weren’t able to do anything about Hangeng because it was his own decision to file a lawsuit against you. Hae didn’t do anything against you except tend to things that were out of his control. He fell in love with someone and that someone is sick. Please, give him another chance.”

It surprised me because Shindong wasn’t as close to Hae as the rest of us. His words gave us encouragement.

“This is just temporary. Donghae will be back to himself in no time.” I spoke up. “We will make sure it would never happen again.”

“Sir, please, just give him one last chance,” Sungmin added.

The chairman of one of the biggest entertainment companies in Asia looked at us one by one. He took in the emotions our eyes were expressing. He took in the words we were not saying. He probably thought of the mess that this was going to become – a mess that no one wants to deal with.

Because in the end, he conceded. “Alright. If you can promise me that you’ll make sure that the fines will be paid for and that Donghae will not continue with his behavior, we will hire him back.”

~~~

“Here’s to Operation Fishing Rod!” Leeteuk raised his glass and we all clicked ours.

“Cheers!”

The room was drowned in laughter. We rented out a whole entire restaurant in Seoul to celebrate our success. All of Super Junior and our manager were seated around a long wooden table filled with food and drinks that could last for a week.

“I think you should’ve seduced the chairman, Heechul,” Sungmin said after his second glass of soju. “Maybe he’d forget about all that commotion and say yes automatically.”

“Ah, I tried that when Geng was in trouble,” Heechul hurriedly gulped down his drink and continued. “But as you can see, it didn’t work.”

Laughter.

I sat back in my chair and watched as everyone kidded around. We were all in high spirits and we weren’t prepared for what was about to happen next.

Ring, ring, rinnnggg...

Hastily, I slipped my hand into my pocket to take out my phone.

“Whose phone is that?” Sungmin looked around, half a pancake still hanging from his mouth.

“Not mine. My ringtone’s ‘Lonely’ by 2ne1” Eunhyuk said, grinning broadly.

“Aw, cute. But who asked you what your ringtone is? Do we need to know?” Shindong slapped Hyuk on the back before downing a bowl of noodles.

“Yoboseyo?” I spoke into the phone.

“Siwon? Hello?” Donghae.

“Hae! We got the Big Soo Man to hire you back! Isn’t it great? Where are you? Are you alright? Are you reading the Bible daily?” My words gushed out, making me sound like a child who just came home from his first day of school.

Everyone started to shout at me, calling out to Hae, making jokes and the like. But instead of the usual cheer, Donghae sounded alarmed.

“Siwon, ask the guys if they told anyone else I was in Mokpo,” Donghae requested.

I slowly put the phone down and repeated the question. Everyone shook their heads.

“Hae, we didn’t tell anyone where you went. Why?” I told him.

“For some reason, there was a huge group of fan-girls who confronted us and told us they knew we were going to be there. It looked as if they flew from all over the country to meet us. No one else should know that I was in Mokpo. How’d it leak out?” Donghae sounded frantic, desperate.

“I – I don’t know. None of us told anyone,” I answered, looking around to make sure that I was indeed telling him the truth. But the looks on the guys’ faces told me that I was. They looked as clueless and as shocked.

“Siwon, the fangirls scared Yoong into running away,” Hae reported. “She slipped and fell into a fountain. She’s in the hospital now, but I need to know who told the world that we were going to Mokpo.”

“Like I told you, none of us here betrayed you. Hae did you tell anyone else?” I asked even though deep inside me, I knew the answer.

~~~

Author’s Note: In real life, this scene with SME won’t probably happen. Actually, a lot of scenes in this story are improbable, but since this is a work of fiction, authors like me try to twist things to make them more appealing. I hope you won’t think the Entertainment Industry really works this way. I made most of the stuff up.