Control

The host preened at her blouse as the round of applause welcomed the next phase of the show and the cameramen indicated that the show was back on air. She turned her impossibly bright smile back onto the hot seat, as the next guest smiled and waved at the audience and at the cameras. He was a very cute kind of character, humble and sincere as he nodded and grinned that certain adorable eye smile that he was so well known for. Kang MinHyuk of CN BLUE, it was his second time appearing on the talk show in the past year. Tonight's topics were to be particularly interesting this time, and he was slightly nervous about how it was going to be received. He would put a comment out there, like the company had instructed him to, and see where it went from there.

"So, tonight on the show we also have the very popular flower boy drummer of indie rock and pop sensation CN BLUE!" called out the host, Kerri, with all the drama and volume that a talk show host must deliver. She applauded with the rest of the audience and turned to MinHyuk, the same huge white smile plastered on her face.

"Annyeong!" MinHyuk gave another wave and nodded cheerfully to the audience as many girls in the studio let out high pitched screams.

Kerri sidled closer to MinHyuk, looking like she were about to discuss something juicy. "MinHyuk, the girls in the audience tonight have put forth a question that they would like an answer to for starters. Are you ready for it?"

MinHyuk nodded apprehensively, he his lips and grinned again, hands clasped in his lap as he waited to hear what that question might be. However, they had rehearsed earlier, and he already knew the contents of the discussion so he wouldn't be caught off guard. He only had to make it look like it was his first time hearing it. As something flashed on the screen behind him, the writing on an envelope with hearts all around it, the audience let out an excited "Ooooooh!"

Kerri unfolded the envelope in her perfectly manicured hands and held out the paper that had been inside so she could read it to the audience. "MinHyuk Oppa, the letter says, we would really like to know what type of girl you like. Also, if you have any girl in mind that you like at the moment?" The audience erupted into more excited "Ooohs," and girls gasped and hushed in waiting of their idol's answer.

MinHyuk shifted uncomfortably in his chair and looked around the studio mysteriously. Kerri leaned forward and looked him in the eye, putting the letter aside and touching him on the arm as if it was just them two discussing something secretive between friends. "Well, MinHyuk. The fans would like to know. Is there anyone out there that you have your eyes on? Who is that lucky girl and what type of girl is she? Does she fit your type? Tell us everything!" She threw her hands into the air and laughed along with the audience.

MinHyuk put his hand over his mouth and giggled, he seemed to be going red. Kerri latched onto this immediately. "Oh! There is a girl! Who is she? Quick, tell us! Is she pretty?"

"Neh," MinHyuk hung his head in defeat, looking somewhat embarrassed and the girls voices all over the studio became much louder and shrill. This was shocking news! Nobody was expecting MinHyuk to have chosen a girl he liked, he was usually so quiet about such topics. Was it true? Girls in the audience had their eyes popping and mouths hanging open, clutching at their friends' shoulders.

"Come on MinHyuk, don't be so shy. We're all so curious! There's clearly someone special in your life, just give us some of the details!" Kerri nudged MinHyuk and he giggled some more, falling back into his chair and blushing before eventually composing himself and the room went quiet again.

MinHyuk straightened up, put his hands back into his lap and fidgeted. "Have you seen the teaser for hyung's new collaboration with the new up-and-coming starlet within our company?" Whispers rippled through the audience at his words.

"You mean the debut song of FNC's young and sassy foreign newcomer ________?" Kerri caught the eyes of the audience before she went on. "I believe we do know about that, Jung YongHwa's new look in that teaser was very handsome. The newcomer _________ was looking very pretty in the MV too. She looks like she has a lot of talent, we're really looking forward to hearing the full song when it's released, all of us here in the studio. Aren't we?" There was a general murmur of agreement. "I believe YongHwa is producing that song, is that right?"

MinHyuk nodded, "Yes he is. Hyung writes and producers quite a lot of other artist's work around our company. Not just for CN BLUE. He's very serious about his career as a musician. I really admire him as my hyung."

"That's really sweet. Have you had much to do with the newcomer _______? I suppose you've gotten to meet her around the company since she started, and seeing as she is working so closely with Jung YongHwa you would have come into contact with her at some stage?" Kerri went on like a business woman, carefully guiding the conversation and the facts that came with it.

"Neh," MinHyuk smiled shyly, "We see her around the company a lot. She often works with us, with the CN BLUE members, and sometimes we share music together. She plays the guitar like hyung, and has a really great voice. We're all becoming very close as friends."

There were more excited echoes thrown forth by the audience. When these shouts and screams died down again Kerri winked at the audience. "She sounds like a wonderful and talented young lady. Also how lucky of her to be making friends with the boys from CN BLUE! Am I right?" she addressed the audience and they cheered in agreement. Then she went on, "Ommo, but we are talking about her for a reason aren't we? MinHyuk, is this the girl you are saying is your ideal type?"

MinHyuk shyly looked down at his hands in his lap, his cheeks growing pink again and the audience erupted into adoring cooing sounds. Kerri's mouth fell open and she raised her eyebrows at the audience as the cooing escalated. "Oh my! I think we've hit it right on the head!" Kerri held MinHyuk by the arm and tugged at him. "Jincha? ________ is your type of girl, MinHyuk? And the two of you are just friends, right?"

MinHyuk nodded. "Neh, we are all really good friends with her."

"What is it that you like about her?"  Kerri pressed on.

MinHyuk scratched the side of his head and pursed his lips in thought. "Hmm, I don't really know. She's really pretty, she's also really cool and interesting, and lastly, she's very talented. I think we were all very impressed with her when she entered the company."

The mini clip of the new teaser was shown and as it finished the audience applauded and the cameras cut back to MinHyuk looking bashfully sweet on the couch, looking like he wanted to hide somewhere. Kerri turned to the audience then in appeal, "What do you think guys? Do you think MinHyuk and _______ would make a cute couple?"

"Neh!" cried what sounded like the entire audience.

Kerri looked at MinHyuk playfully. "Do you think you could be a couple with her?"

"If she likes me," MinHyuk laughed and hid his face, and the audience lapped it up with more expressions of adoration and cooing. "I would like it, and if the fans didn't mind it. I think I could try being a couple with ________."

Kerri clapped her hands together. "I think you should! We all think you should!" she looked to the audience and they cheered in reply. "Listen to them! We all think you and _______ would make an adorable couple! Why don't you start by doing a duet with _______? I think the fans would really love it! How about you join her with her new song? Wouldn't that be great guys?" More cheers from the audience, the volume was deafening. "Right! It's settled! Go and tell your company that we want you and ________ together!"

MinHyuk rolled backwards onto the couch clutching his stomach and laughing hysterically. The cheering and the screams sounded as if they were going to crack all the glass in the studio. Kerri leaned in and poked him to sit back up but he rolled away from her and it was all madness and laughing from everyone. Such an elated, happy atmosphere; everyone either giggling, cooing or cheering for a sweet new love that may be on the horizon, full of promise and cuteness and pure giddy happiness, everything that was actually positively sickening.

Well it wasn't sickening to anyone else but the one man that was completely against the entire conversation and all it proposed. The man that was sitting on the stool beside the blushing and giggling real-life MinHyuk, watching along with him the mini televised version of blushing and giggling MinHyuk who was starring in the show they were now watching through YouTube.

YongHwa waited for the show to cut off and continued to stare in the space where the screen had been even after MinHyuk lowered his smart phone onto the kitchen bench. He was in utter shock, his brain either blank or buzzing, it was hard to tell which. He didn't know where to even start processing what he had just seen. Halfway through he had gritted his teeth and wanted to stop the video from playing any further, but he had stopped himself with all the strength he could muster and seemed to blank off after that as if it was the only other way of coping.

MinHyuk clapped his hands onto his knees and turned in YongHwa's direction. "So! That's why the company decided to put us together on the debut duet. They think it's a great idea to market the both of us this way. It's a great opportunity, isn't it hyung?"

YongHwa was still staring into space, so MinHyuk waved his hand up and down in front of his face.

"Hyung? Are you in there?" MinHyuk pouted. "Was it really that boring to make you space out?"

YongHwa blinked as if he had just been slapped in the face, and he turned his stunned expression to look at MinHyuk. "Ahh... ani. I was just..." YongHwa frowned slowly, he looked at his donsaeng anxiously. "Do you really feel that way about _______? You want to be a couple?"

MinHyuk's eyes darted away and he fidgeted nervously. "I really like noona. I don't know about the whole couple thing but... I wouldn't complain if the company wanted to market us that way if it turned out like that. Who wouldn't want to couple with noona?" MinHyuk grinned at his hyung brightly, oblivious to the look of shock and confusion that was still tripping his leader's face. "You wouldn't say no, would you hyung? If you could be next to noona?"

YongHwa shook his head slowly in response. He tried to speak but no words came out. He reached for his glass of milk but it was empty. He tipped the glass over his tongue regardless, waiting for the last two drops. Then, in a daze, he shifted from his stool and dragged his feet to his bedroom. Staring straight ahead, his eyes wide and distant, his mouth hanging open slightly he looked like a zombie drifting mindlessly through the room. MinHyuk watched him with a puzzled expression until YongHwa managed to fumble his door open, slip inside his room, and close the door slowly, quietly, absently. It rattled a bit, opened a little, rattled some more and then eventually closed shut completely for the night. MinHyuk frowned down at his phone and wondered why YongHwa had become so lifeless all of a sudden. He must have been really tired from working hard with you all day. Really he should be thankful for his hyung doing all the hard work for him. With a dismissive shrug, the bright young drummer hopped down from his stool and made his way to his own bedroom for the night.

____________________________________________________________________________

When you woke up in the morning you thought to shoot YongHwa a text message as you took breakfast. Seeing as you didn't know when the next chance you would have to meet up with him would be, you thought you would take the initiative and ask him if he would be free to have lunch with you today. No message came in reply so you assumed he was still sleeping, and so you got ready with your things for the day and went about making your way to the company building. Today you were to begin working on your debut with MinHyuk, YongHwa was free to make appearances but because it was so close to debut time, all activity was to be closely monitored. In other words, there really wasn't any reason for YongHwa to make an appearance unless he just wanted to make a friendly visit, or if he could really think of a legitimate excuse. On your way to the company you tried to think of ideas for him, and if you came up with anything good you could text this as well. However nothing worthwhile came to mind so you took a deep breath of acceptance as you stepped through the big glass doors of the FNC building, shoulders back and head held high.

MinHyuk, your manager, and Manager Kim were already waiting for you upstairs. And when you made your appearance the two managers launched straight into their suggestions for you to begin rehearsing before you even thought about recording. So both you and MinHyuk heeded their advice and took to one of the rehearsal rooms to begin working on your duet together. For this piece you were quite bothered that this meant the second guitar's intricate complimentary lines would not be played live, as you were playing the chords with your guitar while you sung, and YongHwa was to accompany you with some delicate underlying melodies as he sung in parts too. It would be too difficult to make a duet with MinHyuk playing the drums, the romantic, soft feel would all be lost to clashing and stretched lyrics, so MinHyuk would be sitting beside you and taking a more active role in the singing parts than YongHwa would have, though you would still be singing the parts you had and playing your guitar as well.

So the time passed moderately over the morning, you and MinHyuk were working seriously on the song but it just didn't feel the same without YongHwa. You kept checking your phone to see if he had replied to your text but he still hadn't sent anything and you became more and more glum as the hours ticked by. MinHyuk's cheerful face buoyed you a little bit, but it wasn't enough to curb the worry that was building inside you but you couldn't explain. What had you done for him not to reply to your message? It wasn't like you were the one who had arranged things to work out this way. Perhaps he was displeased at you for not fighting harder to keep things the way they were. Surely he couldn't still be sleeping, you thought to yourself as the lunch hour rolled by and it was still silence on his end. And he better not be mad at you, because that would be unfair. You hoped he was just sleeping... but that would be too much of a sleep-in for a busy idol like him.

"MinHyuk-ah," you said in as casual a voice as possible as you and he finished going through the song yet another time, and it was almost perfect already. Well, as perfect as it was going to get without YongHwa being the one to do it with you. It still sounded somewhat empty without that extra guitar. However you weren't going to tell MinHyuk that, as it would surely hurt his feelings and have him think he wasn't doing a good enough job. "Do you know what schedule the rest of your band have today?"

MinHyuk looked up from the manuscript at you, his usually small smiling eyes round and questioning. "The band?"

You scratched at your arm nervously, what was the best way to go about this? "Neh, I just thought it would be nice if we could show them how we are going with the song if they aren't too busy today." That was just a small lie, you shouldn't feel so guilty about it. Of course, it was just one band member's input you were really after. Just to see his face really, to see if he was alright. The silence was killing you. It had only been a few hours, but that just wasn't acceptable. Something was going on with him, you knew it.

"Ah," MinHyuk relaxed and he smiled at you, sitting back in his chair and unscrewing the bottle top of his water bottle he had brought with him. He took a quick gulp as he made some thinking noises, frowning in thought. "Hmm," he brought the bottle back down, refreshed. "Ah that's right, I think JongHyun had gone for a script reading of a new drama he will be starring in soon. JungShin also went along because he might have a cameo role in that drama, so they just went together. YongHwa... ah he had a few things on today, I think he was meeting up with the Running Man crew in the morning to run through the next episode he will be taking part in, and then he has an interview of some kind in the afternoon."

You nodded slowly, feeling a lot better immediately at knowing even if only vaguely, YongHwa's movements for the day. So he was up and about, you scowled at your phone. Would it kill just to text you back? It was already after the lunch hour, so too bad if you had actually been waiting for him to make an appearance. He couldn't even message to say he couldn't? You thinned your lips grumpily and snatched up your guitar again, gazing intently at the music stand in front of you as if you wanted to set it on fire.

MinHyuk was looking at you with a worried expression. "Are you okay, noona? You look kind of scary all of a sudden." He was leaning away from you, as if he really was frightened of you.

You flicked your eyes in your head to look at him, then darted them back to the music stand. "Kwenchana, I am fine. Let's run through this one more time and then go and grab something to eat. I'm starving."

At the mention of food MinHyuk snapped immediately to attention, reaching under his seat for the tambourine he was playing with earlier. "Neh! You count us in this time!"

"You're really intending on using that thing?" You sounded more annoyed than you really were. It was merely a question asked out of curiosity, but it sounded like you were warning him not to dare. You cleared your throat and relaxed your shoulders, trying not to look so aggressive.

MinHyuk's frame slumped at your words and he dejectedly went to return the tambourine to where he had picked it up. "Well if you don't like it..."

"Ani," you said quickly. "It's not that I don't like it, I was only asking."

MinHyuk sniffed. "It's your song, I don't want to do anything against what you want your song to sound like. I just..." he looked like a small child who had done something wrong and was shyly trying to explain himself. "I feel like I don't have much part in this other than to sing..."

He seemed to echo what your thoughts had been. It was true, compared to what YongHwa's part had been in this song, MinHyuk's role didn't seem to come to even half of that. However it wasn't fair on MinHyuk to feel this way, it was the company who had made things like this. So you gave him a patient look, reached back under his chair and handed him his tambourine. "You play that tambourine if you want to," you said to him with an unexpected kindness, even to yourself.

MinHyuk looked up at you as you placed the tambourine in his lap, he clutched at it cautiously as if he half expected you to pull it away again the moment his fingers enclosed around it. When you didn't do that, but instead turned back to your guitar and began a light strumming version of the chorus, humming to yourself the tune, his face slowly took on the look of a dreamy cartoon character that might have been in love. He watched you strum at your guitar, frowning and humming, stopping to check something, and starting again. You didn't notice the look of utter adoration that was radiating from the boy's face beside you. He heaved a sigh of contentment and turned back to the manuscript so he could follow along with where you were at with the song and join in with you.

After lunch MinHyuk had to attend to some business outside of the company and left you to practice on your own for a while, but he promised to be back as soon as possible. Three and a half hours ticked by as you worked quietly on your own in your practice room, still checking your phone every time you stopped to take a brain break. Still nothing from YongHwa. This was really starting to annoy you. What made him think he could treat you this way was beyond you. So in your anger you sent him a message saying something along the lines of: "You better have a good reason for not messaging me back all day." Instantly you regretted writing it after you had hit the send button. So you were left agonising over that while you tried to focus on your practice. It was like a breath of fresh air when MinHyuk finally came back to take your mind off things, slightly off things at best but still enough to ground you again, and so then you worked solidly together well into the evening.

"Well I think we can leave things here for the day," you yawned tiredly to MinHyuk after another two hours steady practice. "I think you know the song pretty well by now, we should be good to record soon." Really this song did not take a lot of practice time for MinHyuk as his main parts were just to sing, and he had added in his own tambourine beat but even that was relatively simple.

MinHyuk wasn't listening to you, he was staring at his phone as he scrolled through his social apps. His mouth flew open in surprise. "Anduweh!" he cried, and scrolled madly some more. "Hyung... What are you thinking?"

Your attention immediately snapped to MinHyuk's phone. You straightened in your seat where you had been slouching and stretching only a moment ago. Hyung? Which hyung was he talking about? "MinHyuk, what is it?" You craned your neck to see the screen, hoping MinHyuk wouldn't think it was too rude of you to do so.

"It's YongHwa!" MinHyuk exclaimed, then he put his hand over his mouth and looked at you as if he had seconds thoughts about telling you. Was there something you shouldn't know? Your heart plummeted and you held fast to MinHyuk's hand that was holding up the phone so you could read what it said on the screen.

Celebrity Headlines: Is CN BLUE at war? The battle of love between front man Jung YongHwa and drummer Kang MinHyuk in their feud over seductress __________, newcomer to FNC Entertainment.

Your eyes widened and MinHyuk fought to snatch his phone away from you but you slipped it downwards out of his grasp and ducked under his arm, pulling the phone away and giving your back to MinHyuk as you quickly read on with the article. You batted away his weak attempts to stop you.

Fans were shocked this afternoon as viewers all over Korea clocked on to watch today's episode of popular Talk Show: Up Close With The Stars - the most awaited guest being Jung YongHwa of CN BLUE. As the topic turned to his band members and their own endeavours in the music industry, YongHwa surprised viewers by reacting unexpectedly to his drummer's latest shift within the music sector and co-artist collaboration. Things took an interesting turn from that point on. Read on:

Jung YongHwa: We were doing well working on the project, I just really hoped to continue with it.

 Host: Is it that you have hard feelings your drummer took away something you were working on?

Jung YongHwa: It's not that I have hard feelings towards MinHyuk, he is my donsaeng and I will support whatever he wants to do. It's just that I wished ________ and I could finish what we started. It was turning into a really good thing. I don't approve of how things were blown out of proportion when MinHyuk said he thought ________ is a pretty and talented girl. Every guy would say that.

Host: Is it perhaps you are jealous?

Jung YongHwa: J-Jealous? What about?

Host: You said every guy would say that _________ is a pretty and talented girl. This must mean you think that about her as well.

Jung YongHwa: Well of course, but when I said that I meant that she is the type of girl that any guy would call his type of girl. This doesn't mean she should be coupled with any guy that says he admires her.

Host: So you are being protective of the newcomer? That's very sweet.

Jung YongHwa: All I meant to say was, I wish the idea of couples would die down so that _______ can focus properly on her debut. She has only just begun in the industry, and I think it's unfair for her to have to deal with all of this publicity so soon. She should make a name of herself before she becomes a couple with anybody.

Host: Do you wish that you could be a couple with ________? Is that what this is really about?

Jung YongHwa: T-That's not what I was talking about.

Host: You're looking uncomfortable YongHwa! Are we right in thinking there is something more to this than what you're saying?

Jung YongHwa: I don't think anyone should be trying to couple with _______ right now. I think things should go back to the way they were. The song we had in mind to release only next week was being perfectly honed with audiences like you in mind! We were doing all we could to make it special for everyone. But ever since this happened it seems like the importance of music has been shifted to more shallow things.

Host: So you keep repeating yourself. You've grown very red YongHwa. It sounds more like a bit of jealousy in this argument than anything else. Look at that face, everyone! Is that not the face of a jealous man or not?

Jung YongHwa: Whether I'm jealous or not doesn't come into it. I just wish things could go back to how they were supposed to be. We owe it to the fans, the fans that appreciate good music and a carefully planned collaborated effort. Not a pairing just made for publicity and coupling.

Host: The question is Jung YongHwa, if it were you and ________ that had been encouraged to couple along with this duet, would you be complaining right now?

Jung YongHwa: (long pause)

Host: Aha! There we have it! This is all just the adorable defensiveness and denial of a man in love! Oh it must be so hard for you Jung YongHwa, to have the same feelings for the woman your drummer has already claimed. If only you had got to her first. But there is still possibility! She has not yet chosen what type of guy she would like to date!

Jung YongHwa: (nervous laugh) Ah, no... that's not what I... There's no battle of love here. It's just politics of the industry. MinHyuk and I would never fight over a girl. Fans don't need to worry.

End Segment.

However fans are left with doubts about Jung YongHwa's last words as his behaviour in the interview and his words seemed to contradict themselves. Is there really a rift forming between the members of CN BLUE over a woman, and the first foreigner brought into the company at that? The company is advised to take precautions regarding the artists in question, and hope that this is not detrimental to their working together and hopefully does not make any impact on their popularity. Please follow the link for the full video of the interview.

There was a link at the bottom of the page, but the last thing you wanted was to see the content of that interview first hand. It was bad enough reading about it in that infuriating article. Just what were they trying to say? You stared with wide eyes straight ahead, and didn't notice as MinHyuk carefully took the phone away from you and put it in his pocket out of sight. You didn't really know what to make of the article. What was YongHwa trying to do by saying all of those things in the interview? Did he think he could put things back the way they were by talking about it on a talk show? Did he think he could get the fans on his side by expressing his opinion? Nobody was going to choose "good music and a carefully planned collaborated effort" over "a pairing made for publicity and coupling." You knew which of the two was more attractive to the public, the juicier option. However now everyone thought that YongHwa and MinHyuk were fighting over you. You had begun hating the way the media was capable of twisting things, controlling things. What did this mean now?

Suddenly you jumped up from your chair. MinHyuk's eyes followed you anxiously, he stood up too at your sudden movement. In light of this bad publicity, you realised YongHwa was going to be in for a hard time regarding both the fans and the company. You snatched up your bag and headed for the door as quick as a whirl of wind.

"Noona!" MinHyuk called out weakly. "Where are you going?"

You rushed out the door without another word and MinHyuk listened on glumly as he heard your urgent footsteps clatter hurriedly along the corridor. You had to get to YongHwa before he was hauled into the office of the Head of the Company. Why couldn't the Emotional Jung YongHwa just use his head more often? Your time in the company would be so much easier if only that were so. But then he wouldn't be YongHwa. You huffed angrily and urgently continued on your way.

End Chapter Fifteen