You know it's going to be an awkward day at work when you see your ex getting all cozy with the girl you dumped her for and the girl you were just checking out five minutes ago.

"Dude, isn't that Minah?"

"I know." 

 An E string pops.

"Didn’t you use to date her back in senior high?"

"I did."

"And isn't that Hyeri? The girl you used to give drumming lessons to? Didn’t  you nail her too?"

"Yes. Yes. No."

Hakyeon's questions weren't really helping Ravi's semi mental breakdown. On the other side of the room, Ken was having a mental breakdown of his own because his hair wouldn’t stay in place; lord knows he can't concentrate on singing if his fringe isn’t in a perfect twenty-four degree angle tilt. Hongbin was trying to help him fix it but Ken was reluctant to let him anywhere near his precious hair. With what? His arsenal of hair products that had shady Japanese brands and google translate English instructions on them? No sir.

On the more peaceful side of the backstage dressing room, Han Sanghyuk was questioning his life's decisions and wondering where he went wrong to have ended up in a dingy backstage of a bar, an axe bass guitar on hand and a potential axe murderer masquerading as a penny musician changing shirts in front of him.

"Hyuk." First word for the night.

Hyuk doesn’t know if he should feel honored or threatened as he reached for the tuner that Leo was handing him. Leo says a maximum of four words a day and Hyuk feels that each of those words should be legally valid threats on their own. Maybe he's just being the overly sheltered suburban boy that he is.

Nineteen year old Han Sanghyuk doesn't really meet long haired musicians with tattoos covering up both their arms on a daily basis. But now of course he does, by the name of Jung Taekwoon, resident guitar god and part time tattoo artist. Hyuk doesn’t understand why they call him Leo when according to western astrology, he was a Scorpio. Scorpio seemed more of a badass name to Hyuk. Not that it would reflect how badass their guitarist is in Hyuk's eyes. Hyuk suspects that Leo got his mad musical skills by drinking the blood of a demon he slew himself and those tattoos represent how many people he has offered to the darkness.

He also gets to hang out with red haired human voodoo doll, Ravi, the surprisingly friendly drummer who seems to have more holes in his ears than a woodwind instrument has on its body.  Hyuk's mom would probably pass out if she saw a glimpse of Leo piercing Ravi's tragus this morning  'to calm his nerves'. The youngest didn’t know that self maiming counts as a legit RnR activity. Aside from getting himself impaled with Leo's needles, Ravi's other hobbies include ogling girls and watching preferably while stoned.

Across the room, there's the self proclaimed rock legend, Lee Jaehwan a.k.a.  Ken, who believes that he is the best thing that ever happened since sliced bread. To be completely fair, he hits those high notes like a pro and Hyuk can't say that he has seen anyone do better. But still, he thinks that it doesn’t warrant the larger than life attitude of the HYDE's singer and frontman. He has been freaking out all morning because of a pimple. He acts like Hyuk's sister on the day before her period after watching something like The Fault In Our Stars; which reminds Hyuk of how he ended up with these people. But that's a story for another day.

"Hey guys! Who wants this pink egg ? I already got three of these at home."

Opening another box of fan gift is the group's official casanova and unwanted ual innuendo machine, Lee Hongbin. Hyuk has never seen anyone as good looking as Hongbin so he guesses it's just normal that all the girls are creaming their pants at the sight of him, especially that he plays piano well enough to perform the Bumblebee while half asleep at seven in the morning. Pianists finger faster, he says. Large manhwa eyes, symmetrical dimples accentuating a killer smile; he was perfection incarnate. But what's beyond Hyuk is why all Hongbin ever receives are boxes and boxes of condoms, s, s, flavored lube and other strange items that Hyuk doesn’t even want to find out the uses for.

He gets that Hongbin just recently moved from Japan so his threshold for the weird must be somewhat higher than a regular Korean. But receiving a 'fanart' of him being plowed by their guitarist should be crossing the line,  right? Nope. He just tossed the framed painting to Ravi and said "Look, Leo's tatts look accurate." Hakyeon destroyed the said painting in a fire. Along with twenty manuscripts tagged LeoBin, Keo, WonTaek and Luck.

Cha Hakyeon, more commonly referred to as N, is Hyde's self-assigned manager, benefactor, groupie,  or stalker, depending on who you ask. Also, depending on who you ask, N varyingly means Nutcase, Nitwit, Nightcrawler, or whatever racist Ken could come up with that day. If Hyuk is to be asked, N's job description consists of buying the group food, fussing over Leo, and being Leo's biggest fan in general. He doesn’t really get a cut from the group's earnings (which is usually just enough to cover gas money or the night's hospital bill whichever of the two is more urgent) but wherever the band is, N would be there, along with this pretty girl who doesn’t seem to talk all that much. According to Ravi this girl's IQ is 160 and she knows everything. Hyuk has never gotten around to asking who she is and what her relation to N is. She is just like air, just like the weather, just like N, just another fact of life that you simply accept without asking.

"You alright, kid?" It was Ken.

This doesn't sound good. Ken never asks if anyone else is alright. He only cares that his hair is alright. He only cares that his makeup is alright.

A heavily tattooed blonde woman was talking to N. It must be Natasha, Hyuk thought. The bar's talent coordinator. Apparently, nobody informed them that they have been replaced for their post by this all girl punk band called Minah For President.

While Ken proceeds to consummate his mental breakdown at the corner, Ravi seemed to be seething with rage from all thirty-nine holes. Maybe the fact that Hyde had been replaced by a band with his ex girlfriend as the vocalist was a good reason for the normally cheerful drummer to turn into a fuming pin cushion. Leo looks more murderous than usual and Hongbin flirting with the enemy's bassist wasn't helping at all.

"Look kids, I'm really sorry for not informing you beforehand. But what do you expect?  You just didn’t show up for three weeks and you come back here with a new bassist expecting that your gig is still up? I'm lucky that my cousin had a band. All they do for now are covers but at least we got a live band in a live band bar. Jeebus knows that Brian would cut es if Fly To The Sky didn’t have a live band playing for three weeks. What do you expect us to do? Play some EDM from Prince Mak's vinyl collection like some heathen bastards?"

Well, that explained a lot.

The woman named Natasha walked out of the backstage and yelled at some other poor soul at the sound engineering department.  N goes chasing after her. Ken starts to breathe in a paperbag. Ravi breaks a second drum stick. Leo drags Hongbin away from the busty bassist of the girl band.

"Hi." Hyuk wasn’t really sure if the brown haired lady was talking to him.

"Hello?" He wasn’t sure either if Leo would see this as grounds to murder him in his sleep.

"You're the new guy? I'm Sojin. Keyboardist. Sorry about that. I didn’t know that we were stealing the spot from you guys."

"I guess I am. No. It isn't your fault."

To be really honest, Hyuk think it's his fault. Partly. It's mostly Thomas' fault but he isn’t here now to be blamed. But if he were here, Hyuk would probably be at home and watching a Naruto rerun.

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