#5

Days afterwards, such chorus went on and on and on. Getting up – eating – cleaning up – practicing or doing anything relating to careers – going home – eating again – cleaning up again – going to bed. If there was anything different, it should be the new parts added such as revising learned knowledge within the whole week, giving and receiving feedback and training new skills. However, there were only Ricky and Ljoe taking part in as the other four, after cleaning up stage, all went to bed even though they had not gone to sleep that early. Even the-one-who-supposed-to-be-responsible – the leader.

One week passed, Niel-and-accomplices even found a way to sleep more. They took turn to wake up on time to prevent Sujin from getting inside the house, allowing the others sleep for about 10 or 15 minutes more and as soon as Sujin got out from their blocking (usually two of them as CAP was not so interested in what his boys were trying to do – that’s the matter!), the ones inside the house were able to last their dream for a bit more.

 

- You’ll have to pay for this!

 

Sujin furiously turned her back and left, making Niel and Chunji – the two who were in charge of blocking Sujin that day – feel happier than ever. They hurried into the house and announced with joy:

 

- Guys, that is gone!

- ? You mean… Sujin noona?

 

Ricky asked back, combing his hair. Since Sujin’s appearance, he was motivated to implement the healthy lifestyle that his mom urged him to follow everytime he was home from work. It was simple going to bed on time, sleeping enough, taking good care of themselves but so far, none of them six bored to care.

 

- Who else but her!

 

Niel waved his hand, grinning. The more he could avoid Sujin, the more he enjoyed his life as there would be no one to complain him about his habit of putting his leg on the chair everytime and everywhere.

 

- Why letting her go? – Ljoe sighed from the other side of the room – Without her, what will we have for breakfast? Hope?

 

In a second, their mouth all agaped and LJoe ended with another sigh:

 

- We’re done.

 

That meant that morning, all of them had to skip breakfast as they couldn’t think of any dish looking at the bunch of canned food in the fridge. Suho easily recognized the difference:

 

- Did you guys fight with Sujin?

- Nothing hyung – Niel denied at once – It’s her to leave first.

 

Suho sighed. It seemed that Sujin had not been able to tame those stubborn boys. He replied shortly before Teen Top went on a live program:

 

- Fix yourself. You’re gonna go mad without her.

 

Who could expect Suho to be that right. It was true that if it had not been Sujin, Teen Top would have got themselves into trouble.

All because of CAP. Yep, CAP again. Why “again?”

***

- Minsoo, don’t you think it’s ok to answer them that way?

 

Suho threw the newspaper onto the floor, looking extremely angry. As a manager, he could interfere to fix mistake in pre-recorded programs or interviews in which questions were prepared. But for a live broadcasting or pop-up questions, everything all relied on communication skill of Teen Top, especially the leader. But once again, CAP let him down.

CAP lowered his head while the other members sitting next to him were like having their hearts sank.

 

- I’m sorry hung. I didn’t think it went that far.

- And – Chunji spoke up to protect the leader – it was because they assumed such the thing. Every group all wants it. The thing is Minsoo hyung was overly honest.

- But didn’t you remember anything about that kind of questions? Isn’t it a waste of time to educate you guys to communicate publicly before debuting?

 

Sujin suddenly raised her voice from the threshold, making Teen Top and even Suho startle. With the cold facial expression still on her face, Sujin took large steps to stand in front of CAP and gave him a wad of A4-sized papers full of words:

 

- Read it.

 

It was a summary of the incident in which CAP was considered “arrogant” along with comments from fans.

An online news narrated:

 

“During today’s live broadcasted interview with the two groups who are preparing to come back at the same time – Teen Top and Infinite – Teen Top’s leader CAP once again let the fans down for his inappropriate manner of communication.

When asked “ What do you think about the current position of Teen Top and Infinite?”, CAP replied “They [Infinite] have gained lots of success and they deserved that but we are also achieving success in our own way.” And when reporter asked back “And soon you will take over Infinite’s spot?”, he said “I think they don’t want so.”

Another website wrote:

“Even though CAP’s reply created humor but at the same time, different opinions have been raised. Many fans thought that CAP was excessively confident to talk about Teen Top’s recently growing fame.”

Then came comments.

“Look how Infinite Sunggyu responded. “We highly recommend what Teen Top has achieved so far. Honestly, we Infinite do not have any thought about rivaling with Teen Top. We just want to create music to satisfy audiences.” What a difference between the two leaders.”

“CAP is not humble at all.”

“CAP doesn’t seem to deserve the leader title. He’s way too over-confident.”

“I’m wondering where Teen Top was when Infinite won their trophies in 2011? Back then, Supa Luv sounded ridiculous.”

“It’s been the second time CAP stirred it up with his words. Let’s see how many times he would do this way.”

“I have got good impression on them since Miss Right but CAP ruined it all. Surely they are still kids and never mature.”

Articles and comments were captured, compiled and printed out. Not so much but enough to make CAP sweat. As he knew it himself that those A4-sized papers would become a huge bundle of papers in the next one or two days, not to mention those in other languages. He knew that Sujin did have intention to tell him to read these. She didn’t want to emphasize the importance of effective communication training that she had conducted for Ricky and LJoe. She didn’t want to humiliate CAP in front of s, too. So, was there any chance that she wanted him to take responsibility with all he had done?

But CAP was too embarrassed to ask Sujin directly. His ego was still so huge that he didn’t want to lower himself to ask a girl who was the same age as him whether he would do that or not, especially in front of his younger brothers. If Sujin were Suho, everything would be much easier but at the current situation, it seemed like only Sujin knew the solution.

He needed some air. Everything around him had become so tense and suffocating. Thinking so, CAP stood up and left the room, ignoring the curious looks from everyone. Except for Sujin. She just smiled.

 

- It’s ok that he left. He needs to think about it anyway but – She turned to Suho and once again, made the guys in the room surprised, shrugging – solving this is easy.

- Noo… noona. – Ricky stuttered as if he couldn’t believe in what he had just heard. – Are you kidding?

- Are you sure? – Suho asked back doubtfully – I think we should ask president… Anyway, this issue relates to group’s image.

 

Suho’s mentioning the president did make Sujin a bit hesitated. However, she took a short breath and exhaled when tiptoe-ing to whisper into Suho’s ear:

 

- If you believe me,then try to believe til the end, cousin!

 

Once again, Suho repeated the question:

 

- Are you sure?

 

And Sujin nodded confidently with a smile as if she wanted to reassure with her cousin Jang Suho.

 

- Sure. But we gotta be hurried.