The dinner with the whole of his family (save for his sister in America) left Jongin in bright spirits. It had been a long time since something like that had happened, especially since his Minseok hyung had been gone for quite a while. His Uncle was doing well too, it seemed, which was good.

He lay carelessly on his bed, long limbs hanging off it as he pondered over the situation with Kyungsoo. How would he tell the elder? Hey hyung, just wanted to tell you that I’m part of Kim Entertainment and yeah, do you want to audition to be a trainee?

Haha, how about no. Kyungsoo would probably laugh in his face and treat it like a joke. Jongin really wouldn’t blame him for doing that, to be honest. Who would expect him to be the son of the CEO of Kim Entertainment? The same Kim Entertainment which presently is the largest and most successful entertainment label in Korea.

“I need to approach the subject carefully,” he muttered under his breath, rolling to his side to stare at the phone in his hands. “I might scare him off if I do it too abruptly.” He laughed to himself, remembering the time in the café when he had told the older that they should hang out more so suddenly. He got a mouthful of cake in his face after that, and he was pretty sure he didn’t want that happening again.

Initially, Jongin’s father had suggested that one of the other employees should scout Kyungsoo, but Jongin refused the offer, wanting to do it himself. He was honestly not quite sure why he wanted to do it himself since they would inevitably meet again if Kyungsoo decided to do the audition. Maybe it was just because he was feeling pretty good at the time, maybe it was because he just wanted to impress the shorter man—either way he wasn’t that sure.

Jongin stared at his phone for a good eight seconds—maybe he should call. Would he still be awake though? He checked the clock on his wall. It’s eleven at night, he might be sleeping already. He bit his lips, should he send a message? Wouldn’t that be too insince—

His train of thought was cut off suddenly when his phone’s ringtone went off and his screen flashed brightly, almost bringing his tired eyes which had already adjusted to the dim surroundings to tears. 
Ring ding dong ring ding dong ring digiding digidi—

“Yo, tree. What’s up?” greeted Jongin, placing the phone to his ear.

“Guess who got a date with Baekhyun?” came Chanyeol’s voice.

“Whoa man, you’re fast. Are you sure you’re not coming off as desperate?” Jongin smirked.

“Excuse me, I am not desperate.”

“Sure, sure. Whatever you say, Mr Despo.”

“What the fu—“

“Anyways, when is this date you speak of?”

“It’s tomorrow, why do you wanna know?”

“Because I want to stalk you two and throw potatoes at you from the shadows as I do so, what do you think?” Jongin stood up from his bed and walked over to the sliding doors he opened before stepping out into the balcony, fresh air flowing comfortably into his lungs.

“Anticipate death by castration if you choose to do so, Kim Jongin.”

"Calm your , I was kidding," he laughed, leaning against the railings as he stared at the starless night sky. The pollution in the city really left nothing to see at night except the moon, it was disappointing really. Stars are beautiful.

"You better have been. Anyways, how was the dinner with Minseok hyung?"

"Great actually, uncle is as strange as ever and I haven't seen my family as lively as they were then in a while--" then he paused, remembering Kyungsoo. "Wait, will you be meeting Baekhyun hyung at the University tomorrow? Then that means Kyungsoo hyung will probably be there too right? Well I think he will be, they look like the type of friends who're nosy with each other's business. Can I come with you?"

"Uhh, okay I guess? He didn't want to tell me his address so he just told me to pick him up at the University, my feelings are hurt," said Chanyeol, mocking a sob from the other end of the line.

"Feelings? What feelings?" Jongin smirked.

"YAH!"

Their conversation went on for a while, Chanyeol's deep voice soothing in Jongin's ears and soon without realising an hour had passed by.

Jongin sat on the mini couch on the balcony after hanging up, letting the cool breeze lull him to sleep.

He would tell Kyungsoo tomorrow.

----

Jongin woke up with a start, his loud ringtone screaming at him to wake up.

Ring ding dong ring ding dong ring digiding digiding ding ding di-

Taking note of the fact that he had been sleeping on the chair all night that that his body was sore in some places, he looked at the caller ID and accepted it, placing the phone against his ear.

"I'm gonna go pick up Baekhyun hyung now, are you still coming?"

Wait. Why was Chanyeol asking if he was coming? Wh--Oh.

"I uh, yeah. Just give me a second. Where are you?" asked Jongin, nearly tripping over as he rushes to his wardrobe to find some decent clothes to put on.

"Like, at your front gates."

Oh bollocks.

"Be there in five minutes," said Jongin before ending the call. He ended up putting on a white V-neck t-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans.

Looking at himself one last time in the mirror, he nodded to himself approvingly. Casual but still y.

He stumbled out of his room, making sure to grab his phone and wallet on the way out. On the way to the front door, he came across mother who was carrying a vase of flowers.

"You slept for ages! It's half past eleven now, where are you going? You should eat some breakfast first."

Jongin gave her an apologetic look and kissed her cheek. "Sorry mum, I'm going somewhere with Chanyeol and he's already outside the gates, I'll eat outside today. See you later!" He said, waving goodbye to his mother while jogging out of the house to the front gates where Chanyeol was waiting in his car.

"Dude, come on. I don't want to keep Baekhyun waiting," urged Chanyeol. "I'm only going to drive you to the University alright? After that, I'm not giving you a ride."

"It's cool, it's cool. I just need to talk to Kyungsoo hyung."

The car rumbled to a start when Chanyeol the engine. "Is this what I think this is?" Then it started moving.

"What?"

"Are you gonna talk to him about your dad's company?"

Jongin looked out of the window at the buildings passing by quickly. "Eh, close. That and something else."

"...Are you gonna ask him to audition?" asked Chanyeol, stealing a glance at Jongin.

"Bingo! Well, him and Baekhyun. Actually, can you be the one to tell him? Since you're gonna be with him basically the whole day. By the way, are you sure you don't want to audition? I know I've been asking for a while, but you're a great rapper and you've got the looks and everything. You can even sing when you will yourself to. Come on Chany--"

"Okay, number one: Baekhyun? I guess I understand, he does have a good voice after all. Fine. Number two: I've told you lots of times, Jongin. I don't want to. I've seen the idols from your company, they always have busy schedules, barely have time to sleep and they only get day offs now and then," Chanyeol shook his head, keeping his eyes on the road. "I don't want to spend a few years of my life like that. I mean I respect your company and the idols themselves but I myself don't want to put myself through that kind of thing."

Jongin smiled at his friend, understanding his point of view. His friend was right, and Jongin knew especially because he himself was personal friends of most of the idols in the company. Despite all that however, he knew that the idols themselves enjoyed what they did most of the time. Sure, there were times they felt as if some of the fans were too much--fans who are dubbed as sasaengs--and times that they felt like giving up because of haters and the criticism they get, but these people were resilient, always bouncing back. They sing because they love to sing. They dance because they love to dance. They perform because they love to perform.

Factors like that were taken into consideration whenever the management would choose a trainee to debut. They had to be the type of people who would be able to handle fame and all its repercussions; the type who would stay strong against criticism and would instead use it as their motivation to get better rather than let it bring them down.

That was probably why almost all of Kim Entertainment's artists are the most successful in the entertainment industry.

"We're here," announced Chanyeol as he parked the car in an empty spot along the side of the street in front of the University. Jongin could see Baekhyun and (just as he expected) Kyungsoo standing next to each other just outside the University gates as they chatted with each other. He thanked Chanyeol before getting out of the car and walking towards the pair, the human tree soon right behind him.

"Hey hyungs!" greeted Jongin cheerfully when he stopped in front of the Kyungsoo and Baekhyun.

"Hi Chanyeol! And Jongin..?" asked the latter, slightly confused.

"What are you doing here?" questioned Kyungsoo nicely.

"Oh don't worry Baekhyun hyung. I'm not gatecrashing your date with the tree, he just gave me a ride because I thought Kyungsoo hyung would be with you when he picked you up. I just need to talk to him," Jongin smiled.

"Oh, I se--wait, date?!" exclaimed Baekhyun, flustered with his cheeks slightly pink as he stared at Jongin with wide eyes.

The latter shrugged, gesturing to Chanyeol who hadn't spoken as of yet behind him. His cheeks were tinged a light colour of pink too and his gaze was trained on the pavement as if it was the most interesting thing in the world right at that moment. "He said it was," smirked Jongin, then he gave his attention to Kyungsoo. "Shall we go now, hyung?" He grabbed the shorter man's arm and pulled him gently away from the flustered almost-there-but-not-quite couple.

Jongin and Kyungsoo giggled as they walked away, sneaking glances at the two behind them who were moving to the car but looked so awkward it kind of hurt. They were shyly smiling though, and they supposed that was a good sign.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" asked Kyungsoo after a few moments of comfortable silence as they walked.

Jongin looked at Kyungsoo, "Ah about that. Can we eat first? I haven't had breakfast and I'm starving! How about we go to the mall? It's not that far a walk from here."

"So what do you want to eat?" asked Kyungsoo while they walked around the food court trying to find a shop they can buy food that they actually felt like eating from. "It's around half past twelve, you should probably get brunch."

"Really? Okay, I actually feel like eating some tacos right now wow. Let's go! TACO BELL HERE WE COME," Jongin cheered then took Kyungsoo's hand. He felt the older tense slightly when he had done so but decided to shrug the action off of his mind and continue to drag Kyungsoo to get some heavenly tacos.

---

"Dear God, how the hell have you eaten three already?" gaped Kyungsoo as he stared astounded at Jongin. The younger had eaten three whole giant tacos and he was already up to his fourth one while Kyungsoo himself wasn't even finished with his first one. 

Jongin shrugged, giving his Kyungsoo a grin that was all teeth... and tacos. "I didn't get any breakfast though."

"Ew! Close your mouth, I can see all the salsa and the mushed up tacos in your mouth oh my God," said Kyungsoo, making puking gestures before eating the last bits of his taco. "Anyway, what was it that you wanted to tell me?" he continued before taking a swig of his lemon ice tea.

"About that. Firstly I guess I should say that I'm Kim Entertainment's heir."

Needless to say, Kyungsoo ended up spewing out all of the ice tea still in his mouth onto Jongin.

"OH MY GOD WHY DO YOU DO THIS EVERY DAMN TIME HYUNG," whined Jongin, desperately trying to wipe all the ice tea from himself and his clothes with a sad little serviette.

"Oh I'm so sorry oh God!" Kyungsoo apologised, running to get more tissues for the poor younger boy. "But wow, that was random. You're funny, hah! No, but really. What did you want to tell me?"

Jongin pouted at the older and gripped his wrist gently to stop him from trying to clean Jongin up. He had half expected the elder to think he was joking, but he was still kind of hurt. Kyungsoo gave Jongin a look, puzzled.

"But I wasn't joking... Why would I lie?"

Kyungsoo froze for a good three seconds before going back to his seat and taking a deep breath. "Look. Jongin, let's make sure we're on the same page." Jongin nodded in response. "Are we talking about Kim Entertainment? The same Kim Entertainment that's the entertainment for TVXQ and SHINee and others or..?"

"Uhuh."

Jongin could have sworn the elder's jaw had dropped right down to the floor while his eyes grew almost two times wider than normal. It was comical, really.

"That's why I've suddenly had to leave so randomly before," Jongin scrunched up the used tissues and put them aside. "My dad called me to attend a meeting that didn't even require my presence in the first place."

Jongin inwardly smiled when he noticed Kyungsoo's face light up ever so slightly.

"Oh," the older said understandingly.

A silence neither comfortable nor uncomfortable settled between them for a bit, but Kyungsoo soon squirmed in his seat, looking intently at the table in front of him. It only suddenly fully dawned to him that Jongin probably personally knew TVXQ, of course provided that the younger was telling the truth. But then again, why would he lie about something like that?

Jongin registered his hyung's mood, and decided that right then was probably the best time to bring up his offer. He cleared his throat. "So... Now that I've told you, I have something to ask you."

Kyungsoo lifted his gaze from the table to him, a slightly puzzled look gracing his face. "Yes?"

Jongin scratched the back of his neck, a habit he had never really gotten rid of no matter how much he tried. "Would... would you like to audition for our company?"

He had never seen eyes so big in his life.

Hey guys! I'm back!

(After almost two months of not updating, I'm so sorry)

This writer's block will be the death of me one day. I've finally finished with my assessments and tests, I have time to breathe now. I thank you all so much for being so patient and waiting for this stupid author to update, you have no idea how happy you guys make me--I love you all!

See you guys again soon!