Khun woke up with a slight pain on his ribs. Carefully he got out from the bed without disturbing the sleeping Seulong next to him. He went into the bathroom and closed the door behind. Wiping the fog off the huge mirror stuck on the wall, he turned and saw bluish bruise formed on the side of his right rib.

He touched the skin and it stings so much. The things happened last night flashed in front of him…Seulong came back drunk after his usual company get together. Because he was late to open the door when he called, a nice kick landed on him after a slap that almost knocked Khun over. He quickly washed his face and hope for a better day today.

            “Yaa! What the hell you’re doing in there?” Seulong banged on the door caused Khun to startle.

            “Just a minute…” Khun grabbed a small towel from the cabinet and opened the door.

            “Get my breakfast done…I’m leaving in half an hour…” Seulong said and slammed the door.

Khun was done getting the breakfast ready when Seulong came into the kitchen.

            “What the is this crap?” He yelled.

            “Break…breakfast…” Khun stuttered.

            “Do you expect me to eat this?” Seulong flipped the bowl of rice and it fell on the floor.

            “I’ll…I’ll…make something else…” Khun scrambled to the fridge trying to find another food item.

            “Forget it! I’m not in the mood anymore…you’re just hopeless…” grabbing his briefcase, Seulong headed to the door. “I might be late tonight…if you don’t want last night to happen again, open the door when I told you too…” he said and left.

Khun went back to the kitchen and picked up the scattered glass and rice from the floor. He sighed at the sight…Seulong becoming more and more violent these days…nothing he did seem to please him. They were together for two years and things are fine at the beginning. Along the way, things changed and now, their relationship becomes abusive with Khun at the receiving side.

            “Morning…” Khun said and went directly to the reception counter.

            “Morning sunshine…” Vicky, his best friend greeted him with a smile.

Khun worked at music learning centre and he was the main piano teacher there.

            “Your class for 11a.m just got cancelled. Jimin had a doctor’s appointment but her replacement would be tomorrow at noon…” Nina said handing him a file. “And here’s a list of new students…I’ve already selected a few for you…”

            “Thanks Nina…”

Couple of hours later…

            “Kamsahamnida saem…” Byunghee bowed to Khun and left the practise room.

            “Don’t forget tomorrow…” Khun smiled looking at his student.

            “Nae…”

Khun grabbed his music sheet and head out. Walking inside the pantry, he saw Vicky standing on a chair stacking cups into the higher shelve of the cabinet.

            “Yaa! Why are you doing this? Where’s JB?”

            “He’s out with Nina…”

            “Let me…come on down…”

Vicky stepped down and Khun took over. As he raised his hands, a tugging pain hit him.

            “Aww…”he winced.

            “What’s wrong?” Vicky asked.

            “Nothing…there…all done…” he closed the cabinet and stepped down from the chair.

            “You want some coffee?”

            “Sure…”

While having coffee…

            “He hit you again didn’t he?” Vicky looked at Khun. She knew him since college and there’s nothing he can hide from her watchful eyes.

            “Huh? What are you talking about?” Khun said avoiding Vicky’s eyes.

Vicky put her mug on the table and went towards Khun.

            “Stand up…” she commanded.

            “Why?”

            “Just do it…”

Khun complied and Vicky started to un-tuck his shirt.

            “Yaa, what are you doing?” Khun tried to push Vicky’s hands away but she was persistent.            

Vicky pulled Khun’s shirt up and her face paled at the sight.

            “See…I knew it! He hit you again!”

            “He was drunk…”

            “That’s not an excuse Khun ah! I swear to you…if I ever saw him again, I will stick my heels up his so high that it will come out from his mouth…” Vicky let’s out her rage.

            “Calm down Victoria Song Qian…you might have high blood pressure at young age soon…”

            “Well…it better than seeing you hurt like this because a man like him…”

At the other side of the town…

            “So, you want to debut?” Taecyeon crossed his legs looking at a young guy sitting in front of him.

            “Yea…why can’t I debut like Jackson and JB hyung? I’m more popular than them…I have more fans than them…” said Kay, the idol in training under his entertainment agency TY Music.

            “But you’re missing something important…humble. I don’t think you gonna debut anytime soon with this kind of attitude…”

            “You’ve gotta be kidding me?”

            “Nope…do you know why Jackson and JB debuted early when they came in at the same time as you are? They worked hard and honestly, their attitude brought them this far…”

            “You know that I got offers from other agency right?” Kay said with a smug grin on his face.

            “Yeah…and frankly, I don’t care if you want to go for any one of them…maybe they can give you what my agency can’t…”

            “Sajangnim!”

            “Look Kay, I really like you but if you think you can do better with other agency, go for it…I won’t hold you back. Now, if you don’t have anything else to say, please leave my office…I have other appointment to do…”

When Kay left, his assistant came in.

            “Still complaining about his debut?” Eunjung said sitting in front of him.

            “Yeah…” Taecyeon sigh. “Kids these days…things like this are beyond imagine during my days…Jin Young hyung would chop off our head if we did that…”

            “Generation changed so does people…anyway, your meeting with the US branch rep is cancelled…Minjun already flown there to get things settled….and there’s staff recruitment notice that you need to sign.” She put a file in front of him.

            “Staff recruitment?”

            “Yeah…we’re short of music teachers and we need more soon since the next open audition is just around the corner…”

            “Okay…anything else?”

            “Yeah…don’t forget about your date tonight…”

            “Date? What date?”

            “You’ve forgot about it didn’t you?”

Taecyeon looked at Eunjung with a blank expression on his face.

            “I’m setting you up with a date with one of my juniors from college…you’ve agreed to go…”

            “Fine…what time?”

            “7pm at Kristabelli…don’t be late…”

Later that day…

            “So, you saw idols every day? What are they like in real life? I never seen one up close…I bet it must be fun…”

The woman in front of him keeps on yapping nonstop and Taecyeon is getting bored. This is why he hated going out on blind dates but since Eunjung begged him to go, he just shut his mouth and agreed.

            “I have a brother and he wanted to be an idol…do you think if he could join your agency?” the woman said.

            “Sure…but he need to pass the audition first…if he did then he will become our trainee…”

            “I’ll tell him that…but I just let you know his name so you could pass him…his name is Lee Jung Bu…really good looking kid, you never gonna miss him…”

The date ended and Taecyeon swear that he would never go out on a blind date ever again.

Reaching his luxurious apartment in Apgujung, he took off his coat and hung it on the rack.        He pressed the answering machine and his mom voice were heard.

            “Taecyeon ah…it’s mom…I’m coming back to Korea in two weeks…make sure you’re available…I don’t care if you’re a CEO or anything, but your mom is more important…I gotta go…love you son!” the beep went on.

He smiled listening to his mom’s voice. She’s always been on the strict side since he was little.

            “Taecyeon ah…noona here…mom’s coming back and I’m sure she’s gonna brought up my marriage issue…so you know what to do…love ya bro!” Jihyen noona is the only sibling he has and they were close. Since she was older and still single, their mom has been pestering her about marriage related stuff and Taecyeon have to be the middleman.

He looked around his empty apartment and think when he will find the one that he would spend the rest of his life with…