chapter five
〈 ♞ 〉NIGHT CIRCUS27 NOVEMBER 2014
08:56 AM
08:56 AM
THE FIFTH CHAPTER
“Again,” Jiho orders as Shinsuke simply nods, taking in a deep breath before rehearsing his rap again. He tries to bring out the heavy charisma he needs to be a great rapper but he feels himself faltering after the second verse. He feels a brief flash of panic enter his chest before he tries to push it away, rapping stronger until the very end. He immediately frowns when he finishes, staring down at the lyrics to one of Hyemi’s older raps in his hands. He hears Jiho sigh, sounding annoyed with him. “This is the twelfth time, Shinsuke. Go take a break. You can do better than that.”
Shinsuke frowns even harder at the comments, nodding before leaving the recording room where he can hear Jiho pulling out his cell phone probably to call Minkyung to get to the building soon. He almost screams when somebody bumps into him and runs past him.
“I’m so sorry, Shi! I’m late for something!” Jiwool screams back at him as she struggles to button up her jacket, put on her bag correctly, and fix the scarf around her neck securely all at the same time as she treks out into the cold winter. “Come on, Min-unnie! He said I could bring a close friend of mine! I need your support for this!”
Shinsuke just looks back at her confused, too stunned to respond back, before he feels someone throw an arm around his shoulders and then he sees the smaller Min running after her past them trying to put her own scarf around her neck while trying to secure her backpack on her shoulders.
“Wait! Jiwool, hang on!”
“Sorry about that,” Jaesun suddenly says, making Shinsuke look up next to him as he mainly supports the other’s larger weight, “Minseok gave us an hour break before he relented and then gave us two when Jiwool kept complaining that it’s her best friend’s birthday today.”
“Really?” Shinsuke asks, letting the man turn him around to go into the practice room instead, “He let you go that easily?”
Jaesun shrugs. “He’s also trying to figure out the choreography for our song,” then he points to Taeksoo and Shinsuke’s friend Shiyeon standing in the middle of the room with Minseok banging the side of his head with his own fist in what looks like frustration, “Your friend is there too. Minseok looks like he’s having some trouble.”
Shinsuke refrains from bursting out into laughter, watching as his friend goes up to the choreographer to probably try and cheer him up. And then Jaesun shakes him with his arm around his shoulders again, causing his train of thoughts to become scrambled up in his head.
“So, how’s training for you?”
Shinsuke frowns at the question, heaving out a heavy sigh as he looks around to see Soohyun and Kisumi singing together off in a corner trying to harmonize correctly. “Same as them I guess?” Then Jiho’s words come ringing back in his ears and he pouts. “I don’t know why they think I can be a solo artist. I can’t even get the raps down right anymore.”
Jaesun doesn’t know why either, but he can see the potential in his friend, especially since he’s still so young compared to the rest of them. “You still have at least two years until you debut. Your charm will grow exponentially by then.” He then quickly looks around and spots Hyemi off to the side with Suhwan and Sookhyun. “Hey, Hyemi!” he calls out, and it startles Shinsuke.
The younger boy’s eyes widen at the shout, quickly looking over to his future senior in the company whose song he couldn’t get right at all today. His gaze makes contact with hers and he freaks out a little bit on the inside, about to turn and speedily walk away to go back to practice instead until Jaesun tightens his grip around him before forcing him to turn around and the older is back-hugging the younger boy instead to keep him in place. “Hyung!” he squeaks out, almost speaking in Japanese last minute.
“What do you need?” Hyemi questions as she leaves the two youngest by themselves and walks over to them, “Do you help with something?”
Jaesun gives a bright smile that Shinsuke can definitely feel even though he can’t see him at all from his position. “Well, you see–”
“It’s nothing, sunbae!” Shinsuke yelps out before trying to ineffectively turn out from under Jaesun’s arms, “I need to go back to practice, hyung.”
“Ah,” Jaesun breathes out, and Hyemi looks mildly confused, “But your sunbae here can help you out.”
“Oh,” Hyemi immediately says afterwards, eyes widening a bit as she looks at each of them, “Sorry. I’m going to grab lunch with Minho since he has a quick break too.”
Shinsuke almost squeaks again when he feels Jaesun’s hand tighten on his shoulder. Why is he in the middle of this? “He doesn’t know you’re training, right?”
Hyemi rolls her eyes, reaching out to pat Shinsuke’s shoulder apologetically. “Of course not. I’m not like your other friends.”
“They keep telling me EXO doesn’t know either.”
A silence falls between them and Shinsuke keeps looking over his shoulder to Jaesun before looking to Hyemi, now trying to wriggle his way out. He almost whines in a futile attempt to get the future Night Circus member to let go, but thankfully, Minseok calls him out.
“Shinsuke! I need your help!”
“I’m coming!” Shinsuke immediately answers back, tapping Jaesun’s hand repeatedly until he’s let go.
“Sorry, Shi,” Jaesun quietly says.
Shinsuke watches as Hyemi grabs her necessities and leaves the building while Jaesun disappears into the recording room. He has no idea what that was about. He turns back around when Minseok calls for him again, waving to Kisumi and Soohyun at the far side of the room where they’re looking at all of them curiously with Suhwan and Sookhyun. Kisumi immediately waves back, the others taking a bit longer to react. Shinsuke laughs as he goes to Minseok to see what he needs help with.
“Okay,” Minseok starts off when he gets there. He grabs him by the shoulders and makes him stand in a certain spot. “Stand here for a minute. I need to figure something out.”
Shinsuke nods easily enough, just watching the choreographer do his thing with his friend Shiyeon and Taeksoo.
“Kisumi,” Jaesun suddenly calls out thirty minutes later over the loud sound of music and the dancers trying to figure out Night Circus’ future choreography.
The mentioned girl perks up at her name, looking to the group in front of her first before looking over to the opened doorway where Jaesun is peeking his head out and staring at her. “Yes?” she tries to yell back, standing up when he beckons her to walk over to him. She looks back over her shoulder to see Soohyun, Sookhyun, Suhwan, and Seungheon dancing along with the three other trainees so Minseok can see everything from every angle he can. She turns back to Jaesun last minute. “What is it?”
He jerks his head back in the direction of the recording studio. “Minkyung says it’s time for you to practice again.”
Kisumi simply nods at the comment, giving him a smile and walking past him to enter the vocal room. She immediately goes straight to the couch and sits up straight, waiting for Minkyung to get off of the phone.
“Yeah. I know. Do you want us to talk to her or do you want him to?”
Kisumi gives her a curious look. The woman is faced towards her and the opened doorway but leaning onto the recording table next to her, her cell phone held up to her ear with her propped up hand.
“Are you sure about this? She would’ve left a long time ago if she didn’t plan on staying.” Minkyung gives Kisumi an apologetic look for taking up her time. “Aren’t we planning on Night Circus to debut in China after they debut here?”
That question makes Kisumi frown in confusion, but it seems to make sense since Min is in the group. They don’t have any more Japanese members. It wouldn’t make sense for them to try and expand to Japan instead.
“Yeah, we can simply ask her opinion on the matter. She will probably know more about the Chinese market, if not more than you can find out from him.”
There’s a knock on the opened door and they both look to see Sookhyun standing there, breathing harshly after dancing some more with the other trainees. He’s looking at them curiously, waiting to be spoken to first.
“I’m sorry. I have to go,” Minkyung finally says, giving Sookhyun a small smile before looking back to Kisumi, “No. I understand this is an important matter. I’ll talk to Jiho and Minseok as well before talking to her.” There are a few more minutes where they’re saying goodbye before she finally hangs up and sighs, putting her phone on the recording table next to her. “What is it you need, Sookhyun?”
“I thought Kisumi was already practicing so I wanted to practice with her,” Sookhyun quietly says, looking between both of them. Kisumi gives him an encouraging smile. “But I’ll just wait until she’s done with her scheduled time.”
Kisumi frowns at that. She liked singing with the younger boy. His voice is so nice to harmonize with.
“Thank you,” Minkyung says with a smile, both of them watching Sookhyun bow back with a small smile of his own before closing the door and disappearing from sight.
Kisumi looks back to her vocal coach, watching as she relaxes against her chair and heaves another sigh. “Are you okay, unnie?” She frowns slightly when the elder woman turns to stare at her for a few minutes, seeming to be thinking about something. “Should I start with ‘Painted Heart’ by Jane Zhang?” It was one of her favorite songs even though it was in another language.
“Would you think Min would leave eventually?” Minkyung suddenly blurts out, and Kisumi’s eyes widen in surprise, “Like her friends. Would she leave?”
“What?” Kisumi breathes out, suddenly understanding what was going on, “No! Min wouldn’t. I don’t think–” She frowns as she thinks more about it. “Not like… Not them…”
The fumbling of her words has Minkyung’s eyes widening and reaching forward to apologize. “I’m so sorry, Kisumi. I shouldn’t be discussing this with you. We should be focusing on your training.”
Kisumi feels doubt well inside of her at the odd, extremely worried look in her trainer’s eyes. Then she thinks back to the song she requested to sing at first before changing her mind. “What song would you like me to start with first?” she questions instead, watching as relief seems to flood Minkyung’s entire body and she relaxes again.
“How about one of the songs SISTAR’s Soyou has sung?” Minkyung suggests, giving the trainee a grateful look. “Let’s warm up your vocals first and then try one of her songs.”
Kisumi nods before she clears some and watches as Minkyung gets up and goes over to the mini-fridge in the corner of the room to get her a fresh bottle of water. She smiles her thanks before starting to sing out the scales needed to warm up.
Soohyun pants as she tries to keep up with the other dancers of the company, learning parts of Night Circus’ debut choreography to help Minseok figure out the perfect moves for them to do. She looks over to see Jaesun practicing as well, taking care of his own moves while Shiyeon covers Jiwool’s part. The height proportions are all off but it apparently doesn’t bother Minseok one bit. She stumbles as she tries to get into place for the next part.
She frowns when she feels a hand land on her shoulder immediately afterwards. “Take a break,” Seungheon says, “You’ve been helping us too much. Go rest.”
“But I can keep up just as much as you guys,” Soohyun says back even though she has to catch her breath every other word.
“You joined us late,” Seungheon simply states, looking down at her curiously. “Weren’t you also the one with the health problems?”
Soohyun frowns at the question. She only had health problems because SM’s training was rigorous. She’s about to open to retort back when she notices everybody’s stopped dancing too, Jaesun quickly jogging up to them and grabbing Seungheon’s hand off of her shoulder.
“Come on, Chai. Help me with this,” Jaesun requests before dragging the man off with him to go to Minseok, Sookhyun, and Suhwan. “Suhwan needs some help too.”
Soohyun wonders if the others have anybody else they want to meet like the girls.
“Wait!” Sookhyun sudden shouts out, hurriedly running over to his cell phone that’s ringing on the couch.
She laughs at his attitude before turning to the other remaining trainees Taeksoo, Shinsuke, and Shiyeon while the other two men talk amongst themselves and Suhwan quietly responds back when needed.
“Are you okay?” Shiyeon asks her, looking up at her worriedly. Soohyun doesn’t know how the woman is so small and cute. She’s only 153 centimeters tall, although Min is only two centimeters taller than her. “You learned the choreography so quickly!”
Soohyun smiles at the compliment, teeth peeking out because she’s trying to stop from smiling so widely. “Thank you. I’m a fast learner.” She looks over to Taeksoo who’s just staring at her before looking over her shoulder to the opened doorway. She watches her curiously before she gives a small smile and a wave not directed at her and when she turns around, she sees Kisumi smiling and waving excitedly in return too.
“Soohyun!” Kisumi shouts out next, causing everybody to look at the other girl shocked briefly before returning to what they’re doing. “It’s time to train as a duet again.”
“Oh,” Soohyun softly says before saying louder, “I’m coming!”
“You have an hour left, you guys,” they hear Minseok say next, and Soohyun looks over to see him talking to the four remaining guys, “Go meet up with your other friends or get a quick lunch or something.”
Jaesun frowns as Seungheon immediately leaves the area and picks up his phone. “I’ll be trying to hang out with Hyunah then.”
“Cover your face! Think about her life too!”
“Let’s go see VIXX, hyung!” Sookhyun shouts out next, going over to cling onto his arm, “Since you know N, and I know everyone else.” He then looks to Suhwan who looks a little bit lost before reaching out and grabbing onto his arm as well. “Come join us! You and Taekwoonie-hyung can talk or something.”
“You know we can’t let them know we all know each other, right?” Jaesun asks, “Because then that’d totally give us away. Probably like what Min and Jiwool are trying to prevent right about now.”
“Oh.”
Soohyun watches as they all pass by Kisumi before it’s just the actual trainees left in the room. There are only five trainees and she wonders if there are ever going to be more. They could even form their own group – a four-membered girl group and a male soloist – but she doesn’t know if that would even work in the future. It’s a possibility though.
“Soohyun?” Kisumi questions again.
“Sorry,” Soohyun immediately answers back, turning to quickly go towards her to start their training of the day. This is what they’re going to be doing all day since the members of Night Circus are dancing the whole day. How can they even dance for more than four hours? Her muscles are usually aching by then. “I’m here,” she announces as she enters the vocal room with Kisumi right behind her.
“Great,” Minkyung says in response before tossing her an extra water bottle, “Let’s get started with your harmonization.”
Kisumi smiles at the sight of her trainer back to her usual self, taking a seat next to Soohyun who’s looking at her strangely. “What song should we start with?” she asks as her partner takes a gulp of her water.
“Something by Davichi?” Soohyun questions back, “Fly to the Sky?”
“Try Davichi first,” Minkyung suggests, sitting back in her chair and turning to her laptop to pick out a song. Once she does, she pulls it up on YouTube, telling them the title to pull up the lyrics onto their own phones to be able to sing along. “Read through it once and listen to how they sing it. I’ll pull up an instrumental afterwards and you two will adapt it to your own ranges.”
Both Kisumi and Soohyun nod, already skimming through the lyrics easily before Davichi actually starts singing. It’s only the first hour of many before Shinsuke comes to join them too.
Bonus:
“You two know each other?!” Chanyeol and Minseok exclaim at the same time, eyes wide as they stare at a panting Jiwool and Min in front of them – they had to run to Chanyeol’s father’s restaurant instead of his mother’s today. Both of the girls look at them shocked, not really comprehending what was going on until a few minutes later when they realized – Oh. They’re not supposed to know each other. Really.
“Ah,” Jiwool breathes out, instinctively going to hide partly behind Min when she catches sight of Junmyeon off to the side staring intently at her. It doesn’t exactly work since Min is so short in comparison, but she feels slightly better. “Yeah. You know. I met her after I left SM.”
“It’s an interesting story really,” Min continues on with a bright smile, earning two very dubious looks directed towards them. “But it’s not about us today!”
“It’s about my best friend’s birthday!” Jiwool exclaims afterwards, running around Min to tackle her best friend in a hug. “Happy birthday, Yeollie!”
The hug has all of them relaxing, smiling as Chanyeol crushes her back with a loud laugh, Baekhyun coming up to play with her hair until he can get a quick hug too. Any best friend of his is his friend too.
Min laughs at the sudden change in attitude, unwrapping her scarf and taking off her backpack only for Minseok to help her put them somewhere far from the main group. She smiles at him happily before noticing his concerned stare towards her. “What?” she questions.
“You’re hiding something from us,” Minseok quietly states, looking over her shoulder briefly to see Jiwool talking to Chanyeol and Baekhyun and Junmyeon awkwardly standing off to the side staring at them, “And those two are hiding something too.”
Min looks over her shoulder to see what he’s talking about and she sighs in response. “Yeah,” she answers, and she sounds tired, “I don’t know. Maybe they can fix whatever it is he did.”
“He?” Minseok questions back confused, “Why would he be the one at fault?”
“Because he is,” Min answers roughly, lightly glaring at the man before catching sight of Yixing. She looks back to see Minseok looking at her shocked. “What?”
“I forgot you don’t like him.”
“That is true,” Min agrees before she feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns around to see Yixing staring down at her curiously. A small smile finds it way to her face as she immediately switches languages. “Hello, Yixing.”
The surprise on the other member’s face lights up her own, and then she feels Minseok’s hand wrapping around her arm to pull her closer to him protectively. “He told me to talk to you whenever I could,” Yixing quietly says so Zitao wouldn’t be able to hear him even though he’s messing around with Sehun at the other side of the room. He bows. “I’m Yixing.”
Min bows back with a smile. “I’m Shi Min.”
“Okay. You can go now.” Minseok hurriedly says. “None of you have even met my real little sister yet. I’m not going to start now.”
“Minseok,” Min says with a little whine in her voice, turning to look up at him with a contradicting glare in her eyes.
“Shi Min,” he simply says back, not letting up at all.
“Min-unnie!” Jiwool suddenly calls out, causing half of the guys to turn to them.
Min looks over at her questioningly only to see her helping light up Chanyeol’s birthday candles. She laughs as the younger waves at her excitedly to join her. She looks at Minseok over her shoulder before the other finally lets go of her and she walks around Yixing to join her friend, linking arms as Jiwool stays between her and Chanyeol. She shoots a glare when Junmyeon tries to get too close to them and she swears she hears Chanyeol sigh in exasperation next to them.
Min continues to get curious stares for the rest of the hour and a half they’re there, almost all of them already knowing Jiwool from her previous history at SM, and she has to laugh when Minseok tries to keep her protected from all his band mates. Apparently, he deems Yixing the safest out of all of them when Jongdae and Baekhyun continuously try to talk to her. “You’re dating Taeyeon-noona! Stop talking to her!” he ends up blurting out before he shoves Min to Yixing. “Help me!”
His panic causes all of them to laugh before Chanyeol loops an arm around Jiwool’s shoulders to bring her close before leaning down to whisper in her ear. “You’re being mean.”
Jiwool frowns at his statement before briefly looking around to see Junmyeon talking to Sehun and Zitao while glancing over at them every few seconds. “Yeah, well,” she mutters back, turning her back to the man, “He needs to try harder.”
“Jiwool,” Chanyeol warns, looking over their shoulders again when he sees Junmyeon finally making his way towards them. He straightens considerably, causing her to look up at him confused, before he makes them turn. He’s caught off-guard when Min suddenly walks between the two parties.
“Junmyeon,” Min greets politely, “I’ve heard a lot about you. My name is Min.”
The surprise on Junmyeon’s face morphs into one of a glare. “You’re their friend. I’ve heard of you from Lu Han as well.”
The mention of the Chinese member’s name has those closest to him saddening, looking to her and wondering about her relation to him. Junmyeon only knows because Lu Han had to explain to him why he and Minseok were out late during their ‘Growl’ promotion era.
Min simply glares right back. She’s never liked him.
“Unnie,” Jiwool quietly says, reaching out to touch her shoulder, “It’s okay.” She quickly looks around to see Chanyeol’s family also looking at them in a mixture of sadness and curiosity. “I’m fine.”
Min and Junmyeon continue to glare at each other until the former takes a quick look behind her to see Jiwool giving her a pleading look. She softens at the stare before looking to Chanyeol next who’s giving her a lopsided, half-hearted grin. “Jiwool,” she softly says, still acting as the barrier between her and Junmyeon, “We have to go soon.”
“What?” Chanyeol questions in shock, “You do?”
“I know,” Jiwool quietly says back, “Just a few more minutes.”
Chanyeol, Minseok, Junmyeon, and Yixing have no idea what they’re talking about.
“Hyemi!” Minho screams as he runs towards her with a facemask and a snapback on. He has half a mind left to quickly look around and make sure nobody actually heard him scream and recognized him.
Hyemi laughs as she waves at him, meeting him almost halfway as he runs over only to stand in front of her awkwardly. She knows he wants to hug her but she also knows he can’t because they’re in public. It’s somewhat amusing. “Hey, Minho,” she greets with a smile of her own, even though it was hidden behind her own mask. “You’re not busy today?”
“Never for you,” Minho responds back cheekily, tilting his head in the direction of where they’re supposed to grab lunch, “There’s a nice place where not a lot of people go. Even those who happen to recognize me don’t do anything crazy or take pictures.”
Hyemi rolls her eyes at the first statement before following his lead, hands in their pockets and smiling when he playfully bumps into her every few minutes.
“So, how have you been doing?” he questions quietly, carefully looking around to make sure they aren’t noticed, “I’ve been scoping some of the underground places we used to go to. The regulars say they haven’t seen you in a while either.”
“I was just there the other week,” Hyemi answers back, “It’s still the same as ever.”
“Still,” Minho says, “Where have you been?”
Hyemi looks up at him and gives him a look. “Says the one who’s been traveling and opening for Big Bang and everything.”
“Hey! I just want to make sure my best friend is doing okay.”
“Well, I’m fine,” Hyemi laughs back, “I’m just here.”
Minho frowns behind the mask. “If you were just here, we would be having lunch together more often.”
“Are you kidding me?” Hyemi questions back, turning when Minho pushes her to turn onto another street.
“I keep calling and texting you!” Minho exclaims back, pouting at her even though everything is ineffective because she can barely see his face, “You take hours to respond back!”
“Minho,” Hyemi sighs, almost forgetting how overprotective her best friend is, “Where’s this place?
“Hyemi,” Minho whines back, pulling a hand out of his pocket to place at the small of her back and direct her to a small little café across the street.
“At least I respond back, right?”
“But what have you been doing? You can’t even stay and hang out for long.”
“Neither can you,” Hyemi retorts, taking in a deep breath and blinking profusely when a huge wave of warm air hits her face when they finally step inside the store. She looks around the place, letting Minho lead her to the front counter where they can see the menu better. She feels Minho’s hand slip from her back and when she glances at him, he’s quickly checking his phone before putting it back into his pocket. “What are you getting?” she asks him, lifting a hand to take off her facemask to speak better. “Their sandwich sounds good.”
“Then I’ll get one too,” Minho says before walking the one step forward to tell the worker what they want. Hyemi waits next to him, habit by now, as she lets him pay for their meals before walking with him to a far corner table to wait for their food. She smiles politely when a waiter immediately comes out to give them their glasses of water, Minho only pulling down his mask to his chin when the man walks away and he can finally drink some water too.
“Let’s hang out again soon,” Minho suddenly says with a bright smile directed towards her.
Hyemi simply rolls her eyes. “We haven’t even properly hung out today yet.”
“Well, we need to do it again.”
Hyemi laughs. “Yeah, yeah.”
Seungheon breathes in the familiar scent of pastries and sweet things, almost choking on the intense smell of that and coffee if it weren’t for him quickly walking past the café to get to the main rooms upstairs. He hasn’t stepped foot into CUBE Entertainment since he left and it almost feels a bit foreign if he didn’t pass by trainees he recognized and artists he used to hang out with every day.
“Looking for Hyunah?” somebody asks him and he recognizes the girl as an old friend of his when he was in the company. He gives an affirmative grin. “In the practice room with the rest of 4MINUTE,” the girl laughs back before walking away.
Seungheon quickly makes his way for 4MINUTE’s regular practice room, going up another flight of stairs before walking down the hall and peeking in through the window to see them practicing some new choreography he’s never seen before. The music doesn’t even sound familiar the longer he listens to it. He waits until they take a break and Hyunah looks out the window and sees him waving at her desperately. He jumps back when she runs over and throws the door open.
“Chai!”
“Hyunah!” He narrowly avoids a supremely sweaty Hyunah. “You’re sweating buckets.”
“Awh!” Hyunah exclaims disappointedly, pouting up at him before dragging him into the practice room to join her and the rest of the members and backup dancers. “Look who decided to visit today!”
Seungheon lightly blushes as he waves at those who recognize him, the 4MINUTE members laughing as they greet him as well. “What have you been doing with your time?” Jiyoon questions him and he has to think before he can respond.
“Probably wasting it by not training with some company,” Hyunah mumbles out, still sad her friend left the company before he could debut.
“I’ve been hanging around,” Seungheon simply answers back with a smile, swinging his and Hyunah’s hands back and forth, “Come on. I have free time now. Why don’t you all go back to practice and I’ll just watch like the old times? Or I can even join in?”
“Are you sure you haven’t lost your touch?” Jiyoon asks with a small smirk, “How long have you been gone now?”
“Yeah!” Hyunah exclaims, letting go of his hand to stand in front of him and point at his face. “You’re probably really rusty and don’t know how to dance anymore.”
“I bet he hasn’t even been counting,” Sohyun says off-handedly, walking over to talk to some of the backup dancers. “It’s been that long.”
“Hey! I know how long it’s been!” Seungheon shouts back, frowning when they suddenly turn the music back on. “It’s been three years, and what is that new song anyways? Are you guys having a comeback?”
“Nope,” Jiyoon easily says, gesturing for Sohyun to change the song to something else.
Seungheon pouts. “It looks like you guys are getting ready for a comeback.”
“We’re not,” Hyunah denies, eyes lighting up when ‘Red’ suddenly comes on. She looks to Seungheon excitedly. “Did you learn my dance?”
“I haven’t been out of practice that long,” Seungheon counters back, following Hyunah to the middle of the dance floor where the rest of 4MINUTE were just lounging around while waiting to try and copy Hyunah’s dance. A smile lights up his face when he sees Hyunah get into position before starting her choreography with her arm in the air and putting her hand over . He watches her briefly before quickly joining in, causing both of them to laugh at how he actually does know the choreography for ‘Red.’
“My lovely dongsaeng!” Hakyeon screeches into the phone as Jaesun winces while he tries and orders his lunch by himself. “What is it you need at this lovely hour I don’t know the time of currently?”
“What are you even talking about?” Jaesun questions back, politely thanking the cashier before taking a seat near the front counter in the food court. Apparently, Hakyeon is busy getting ready for a performance in Suwon and can’t really meet up for a quick lunch outing. He wonders if Suhwan was able to meet up with his friends with Sookhyun too. “You need to stop with the weird phrasing.”
“But then you would be worried because I’m not saying something weird.”
Jaesun sighs. “This is true.”
“See!”
“How were we even able to stay friends for so long?”
“That is a good question too,” Hakyeon answers, sounding thoughtful, “I don’t know really. Probably has something to do with the fact you would die without my companionship.”
Jaesun stares at nothing in particular. “Of course you would say that.”
“Do I lie, Jaesun? I think not.”
“Oh my god, I hate you.”
“You love me and you know it.”
“Why did I even call you in the first place?”
“Because you were lonely and you wanted to hear my beautiful voice.”
Jaesun really wants to hurt his best friend. “Hyung–”
“Number 97!”
“Oh,” Jaesun mumbles instead, quickly getting up to show the lady his ticket so he can get his food and sit back down again. He juggles the phone between his hands and the tray before settling down again. He smiles at his steaming meal.
“–sun!”
“Oh,” Jaesun says again, almost forgetting he was on the phone with his friend. He frowns as he picks his phone back up. “What? I’m about to eat now.”
“You were ignoring me,” Hakyeon simply says before sighing loudly and deliberately. “I have to go too. Our break is over.”
Jaesun hums in response, taking a sip of his soup. “I’ll see you guys when you get back?”
“Yeah. Watch our performances online. They should be up by the end of tonight or tomorrow. You know how fans are. Let me know your thoughts.”
“Sure thing,” Jaesun says easily enough, both of them calmer now and quickly saying their goodbyes before hanging up. He hums again as he quietly eats his food. He wonders what Hakyeon will think when he finally debuts.
“Hello! I’m Park Jaehyuk! The self-declared best friend of Suhwan. Nice to meet you!”
Sookhyun looks at the two men in front of him curiously, still clinging onto Suhwan’s arm as the other man gives his two friends a smile.
“Yeah, I’m Shin Kwangsun, the one helping to keep this one in line,” the second man introduces himself, both of them bowing to Sookhyun politely.
“Hi,” Sookhyun quietly says, letting go of Suhwan to bow himself, “I’m Park Sookhyun.” He watches, as Kwangsun seems to give him a knowing look, before looking to Jaehyuk who takes a step forward to pull Suhwan into a tight hug. He hears a small squeak escape Suhwan’s mouth and his own smile starts to show on his face. “It’s nice to meet both of you.”
Jaehyuk gives him a bright smile before turning back to Suhwan. “I haven’t seen you in forever! How’s my best friend doing being a bum at home? Where did you even meet Sookhyun? He’s nice.”
Sookhyun sputters as Suhwan blushes, quietly talking to him even though Sookhyun’s exclaiming, “But you just met me!”
Kwangsun laughs at the turn of events before turning to Sookhyun and pulling him a bit farther away from the other two. The other gives him a curious look before he smiles at him. “He met you in the company, right?” he quietly asks, watching as Sookhyun’s eyes widen considerably in shock, “Is he doing okay in there?”
Sookhyun doesn’t know how to respond, quickly looking over to where Suhwan’s now laughing with Jaehyuk happily. He doesn’t think he’s seen his friend look so happy like he is now. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he eventually ends up saying, looking back to see Kwangsun giving him ‘the look.’ He pouts. “What?”
“I was the one who got Suhwan his audition with KB Entertainment, so I know he’s been training instead of being a bum like Jaehyuk said.”
That information catches Sookhyun off-guard, looking over to his friend briefly before looking back to the other. “What? Really? He wasn’t scouted?”
Kwangsun laughs softly as he shakes his head. “Nope. I was the one who got scouted.”
“Really?”
“But I didn’t want to become an idol so I begged your CEO to give Suhwan an audition instead.” Kwangsun smiles at his two friends. “And I guess he passed so well now you two are going to debut soon.”
Sookhyun smiles at the slight admiration he hears in Kwangsun’s voice. “I think he’s doing great,” he says softly, thinking it’s amazing Suhwan has such nice friends as these two men, “I think he’s going to surprise you when we debut.”
“Mhm,” Kwangsun agrees quietly, staring at him curiously, “What’s your talent?”
“Me?” Sookhyun asks, pointing to himself just to make sure, “Singing.”
“Ah,” the other says, smiling before looking over to his friends to see Jaehyuk now looping his arm with Suhwan as well, “So, you must be the main vocalist since Suhwan’s the lead.”
“Yeah? But he’s really good,” Sookhyun says in reply, looking over to see the other two coming towards them instead. “And he keeps getting better.”
“Suhwan says you guys have about an hour left before you have to leave and become bums again. Have you two eaten yet?” Jaehyuk questions while he holds Suhwan’s hand childishly instead. He looks at each of them curiously. “So, Suhwan doesn’t go to university, but do you, Sookhyun?”
They all look to the youngest and he smiles, nodding as he messes with his hair nervously. “I do actually.”
“Really? Where do you go?” There’s clear excitement at finding out something new about him.
“Um, Dong Ah Institute of Media and Arts.”
“Really?” Jaehyuk asks again, looking thoughtful. “That’s pretty cool.” Then he nudges Suhwan’s shoulder with his own. “Why don’t you try going there? You like singing, right?”
“Um,” Suhwan mumbles out, starting to feel a bit flustered, “I do like singing, but… I don’t– I don’t know.”
Kwangsun gives the two trainees a sympathetic smile before suddenly raising his voice. “Come on! Let’s go get something quick to eat. You said you have an hour left to see us, right? Let’s go somewhere close.”
“I call sitting next to Suhwan!” Jaehyuk exclaims, suddenly taking off in a random direction with Suhwan sputtering nonsense next to him and Kwangsun quickly running after them to lead them in an appropriate direction.
Sookhyun laughs as he quickly follows after them, reaching out to cling onto Suhwan’s free side as he goes wherever they go. He’s glad VIXX is out of town. He wouldn’t have been able to meet these two new friends of his otherwise.
Shinsuke frowns even harder at the comments, nodding before leaving the recording room where he can hear Jiho pulling out his cell phone probably to call Minkyung to get to the building soon. He almost screams when somebody bumps into him and runs past him.
“I’m so sorry, Shi! I’m late for something!” Jiwool screams back at him as she struggles to button up her jacket, put on her bag correctly, and fix the scarf around her neck securely all at the same time as she treks out into the cold winter. “Come on, Min-unnie! He said I could bring a close friend of mine! I need your support for this!”
Shinsuke just looks back at her confused, too stunned to respond back, before he feels someone throw an arm around his shoulders and then he sees the smaller Min running after her past them trying to put her own scarf around her neck while trying to secure her backpack on her shoulders.
“Wait! Jiwool, hang on!”
“Sorry about that,” Jaesun suddenly says, making Shinsuke look up next to him as he mainly supports the other’s larger weight, “Minseok gave us an hour break before he relented and then gave us two when Jiwool kept complaining that it’s her best friend’s birthday today.”
“Really?” Shinsuke asks, letting the man turn him around to go into the practice room instead, “He let you go that easily?”
Jaesun shrugs. “He’s also trying to figure out the choreography for our song,” then he points to Taeksoo and Shinsuke’s friend Shiyeon standing in the middle of the room with Minseok banging the side of his head with his own fist in what looks like frustration, “Your friend is there too. Minseok looks like he’s having some trouble.”
Shinsuke refrains from bursting out into laughter, watching as his friend goes up to the choreographer to probably try and cheer him up. And then Jaesun shakes him with his arm around his shoulders again, causing his train of thoughts to become scrambled up in his head.
“So, how’s training for you?”
Shinsuke frowns at the question, heaving out a heavy sigh as he looks around to see Soohyun and Kisumi singing together off in a corner trying to harmonize correctly. “Same as them I guess?” Then Jiho’s words come ringing back in his ears and he pouts. “I don’t know why they think I can be a solo artist. I can’t even get the raps down right anymore.”
Jaesun doesn’t know why either, but he can see the potential in his friend, especially since he’s still so young compared to the rest of them. “You still have at least two years until you debut. Your charm will grow exponentially by then.” He then quickly looks around and spots Hyemi off to the side with Suhwan and Sookhyun. “Hey, Hyemi!” he calls out, and it startles Shinsuke.
The younger boy’s eyes widen at the shout, quickly looking over to his future senior in the company whose song he couldn’t get right at all today. His gaze makes contact with hers and he freaks out a little bit on the inside, about to turn and speedily walk away to go back to practice instead until Jaesun tightens his grip around him before forcing him to turn around and the older is back-hugging the younger boy instead to keep him in place. “Hyung!” he squeaks out, almost speaking in Japanese last minute.
“What do you need?” Hyemi questions as she leaves the two youngest by themselves and walks over to them, “Do you help with something?”
Jaesun gives a bright smile that Shinsuke can definitely feel even though he can’t see him at all from his position. “Well, you see–”
“It’s nothing, sunbae!” Shinsuke yelps out before trying to ineffectively turn out from under Jaesun’s arms, “I need to go back to practice, hyung.”
“Ah,” Jaesun breathes out, and Hyemi looks mildly confused, “But your sunbae here can help you out.”
“Oh,” Hyemi immediately says afterwards, eyes widening a bit as she looks at each of them, “Sorry. I’m going to grab lunch with Minho since he has a quick break too.”
Shinsuke almost squeaks again when he feels Jaesun’s hand tighten on his shoulder. Why is he in the middle of this? “He doesn’t know you’re training, right?”
Hyemi rolls her eyes, reaching out to pat Shinsuke’s shoulder apologetically. “Of course not. I’m not like your other friends.”
“They keep telling me EXO doesn’t know either.”
A silence falls between them and Shinsuke keeps looking over his shoulder to Jaesun before looking to Hyemi, now trying to wriggle his way out. He almost whines in a futile attempt to get the future Night Circus member to let go, but thankfully, Minseok calls him out.
“Shinsuke! I need your help!”
“I’m coming!” Shinsuke immediately answers back, tapping Jaesun’s hand repeatedly until he’s let go.
“Sorry, Shi,” Jaesun quietly says.
Shinsuke watches as Hyemi grabs her necessities and leaves the building while Jaesun disappears into the recording room. He has no idea what that was about. He turns back around when Minseok calls for him again, waving to Kisumi and Soohyun at the far side of the room where they’re looking at all of them curiously with Suhwan and Sookhyun. Kisumi immediately waves back, the others taking a bit longer to react. Shinsuke laughs as he goes to Minseok to see what he needs help with.
“Okay,” Minseok starts off when he gets there. He grabs him by the shoulders and makes him stand in a certain spot. “Stand here for a minute. I need to figure something out.”
Shinsuke nods easily enough, just watching the choreographer do his thing with his friend Shiyeon and Taeksoo.
“Kisumi,” Jaesun suddenly calls out thirty minutes later over the loud sound of music and the dancers trying to figure out Night Circus’ future choreography.
The mentioned girl perks up at her name, looking to the group in front of her first before looking over to the opened doorway where Jaesun is peeking his head out and staring at her. “Yes?” she tries to yell back, standing up when he beckons her to walk over to him. She looks back over her shoulder to see Soohyun, Sookhyun, Suhwan, and Seungheon dancing along with the three other trainees so Minseok can see everything from every angle he can. She turns back to Jaesun last minute. “What is it?”
He jerks his head back in the direction of the recording studio. “Minkyung says it’s time for you to practice again.”
Kisumi simply nods at the comment, giving him a smile and walking past him to enter the vocal room. She immediately goes straight to the couch and sits up straight, waiting for Minkyung to get off of the phone.
“Yeah. I know. Do you want us to talk to her or do you want him to?”
Kisumi gives her a curious look. The woman is faced towards her and the opened doorway but leaning onto the recording table next to her, her cell phone held up to her ear with her propped up hand.
“Are you sure about this? She would’ve left a long time ago if she didn’t plan on staying.” Minkyung gives Kisumi an apologetic look for taking up her time. “Aren’t we planning on Night Circus to debut in China after they debut here?”
That question makes Kisumi frown in confusion, but it seems to make sense since Min is in the group. They don’t have any more Japanese members. It wouldn’t make sense for them to try and expand to Japan instead.
“Yeah, we can simply ask her opinion on the matter. She will probably know more about the Chinese market, if not more than you can find out from him.”
There’s a knock on the opened door and they both look to see Sookhyun standing there, breathing harshly after dancing some more with the other trainees. He’s looking at them curiously, waiting to be spoken to first.
“I’m sorry. I have to go,” Minkyung finally says, giving Sookhyun a small smile before looking back to Kisumi, “No. I understand this is an important matter. I’ll talk to Jiho and Minseok as well before talking to her.” There are a few more minutes where they’re saying goodbye before she finally hangs up and sighs, putting her phone on the recording table next to her. “What is it you need, Sookhyun?”
“I thought Kisumi was already practicing so I wanted to practice with her,” Sookhyun quietly says, looking between both of them. Kisumi gives him an encouraging smile. “But I’ll just wait until she’s done with her scheduled time.”
Kisumi frowns at that. She liked singing with the younger boy. His voice is so nice to harmonize with.
“Thank you,” Minkyung says with a smile, both of them watching Sookhyun bow back with a small smile of his own before closing the door and disappearing from sight.
Kisumi looks back to her vocal coach, watching as she relaxes against her chair and heaves another sigh. “Are you okay, unnie?” She frowns slightly when the elder woman turns to stare at her for a few minutes, seeming to be thinking about something. “Should I start with ‘Painted Heart’ by Jane Zhang?” It was one of her favorite songs even though it was in another language.
“Would you think Min would leave eventually?” Minkyung suddenly blurts out, and Kisumi’s eyes widen in surprise, “Like her friends. Would she leave?”
“What?” Kisumi breathes out, suddenly understanding what was going on, “No! Min wouldn’t. I don’t think–” She frowns as she thinks more about it. “Not like… Not them…”
The fumbling of her words has Minkyung’s eyes widening and reaching forward to apologize. “I’m so sorry, Kisumi. I shouldn’t be discussing this with you. We should be focusing on your training.”
Kisumi feels doubt well inside of her at the odd, extremely worried look in her trainer’s eyes. Then she thinks back to the song she requested to sing at first before changing her mind. “What song would you like me to start with first?” she questions instead, watching as relief seems to flood Minkyung’s entire body and she relaxes again.
“How about one of the songs SISTAR’s Soyou has sung?” Minkyung suggests, giving the trainee a grateful look. “Let’s warm up your vocals first and then try one of her songs.”
Kisumi nods before she clears some and watches as Minkyung gets up and goes over to the mini-fridge in the corner of the room to get her a fresh bottle of water. She smiles her thanks before starting to sing out the scales needed to warm up.
Soohyun pants as she tries to keep up with the other dancers of the company, learning parts of Night Circus’ debut choreography to help Minseok figure out the perfect moves for them to do. She looks over to see Jaesun practicing as well, taking care of his own moves while Shiyeon covers Jiwool’s part. The height proportions are all off but it apparently doesn’t bother Minseok one bit. She stumbles as she tries to get into place for the next part.
She frowns when she feels a hand land on her shoulder immediately afterwards. “Take a break,” Seungheon says, “You’ve been helping us too much. Go rest.”
“But I can keep up just as much as you guys,” Soohyun says back even though she has to catch her breath every other word.
“You joined us late,” Seungheon simply states, looking down at her curiously. “Weren’t you also the one with the health problems?”
Soohyun frowns at the question. She only had health problems because SM’s training was rigorous. She’s about to open to retort back when she notices everybody’s stopped dancing too, Jaesun quickly jogging up to them and grabbing Seungheon’s hand off of her shoulder.
“Come on, Chai. Help me with this,” Jaesun requests before dragging the man off with him to go to Minseok, Sookhyun, and Suhwan. “Suhwan needs some help too.”
Soohyun wonders if the others have anybody else they want to meet like the girls.
“Wait!” Sookhyun sudden shouts out, hurriedly running over to his cell phone that’s ringing on the couch.
She laughs at his attitude before turning to the other remaining trainees Taeksoo, Shinsuke, and Shiyeon while the other two men talk amongst themselves and Suhwan quietly responds back when needed.
“Are you okay?” Shiyeon asks her, looking up at her worriedly. Soohyun doesn’t know how the woman is so small and cute. She’s only 153 centimeters tall, although Min is only two centimeters taller than her. “You learned the choreography so quickly!”
Soohyun smiles at the compliment, teeth peeking out because she’s trying to stop from smiling so widely. “Thank you. I’m a fast learner.” She looks over to Taeksoo who’s just staring at her before looking over her shoulder to the opened doorway. She watches her curiously before she gives a small smile and a wave not directed at her and when she turns around, she sees Kisumi smiling and waving excitedly in return too.
“Soohyun!” Kisumi shouts out next, causing everybody to look at the other girl shocked briefly before returning to what they’re doing. “It’s time to train as a duet again.”
“Oh,” Soohyun softly says before saying louder, “I’m coming!”
“You have an hour left, you guys,” they hear Minseok say next, and Soohyun looks over to see him talking to the four remaining guys, “Go meet up with your other friends or get a quick lunch or something.”
Jaesun frowns as Seungheon immediately leaves the area and picks up his phone. “I’ll be trying to hang out with Hyunah then.”
“Cover your face! Think about her life too!”
“Let’s go see VIXX, hyung!” Sookhyun shouts out next, going over to cling onto his arm, “Since you know N, and I know everyone else.” He then looks to Suhwan who looks a little bit lost before reaching out and grabbing onto his arm as well. “Come join us! You and Taekwoonie-hyung can talk or something.”
“You know we can’t let them know we all know each other, right?” Jaesun asks, “Because then that’d totally give us away. Probably like what Min and Jiwool are trying to prevent right about now.”
“Oh.”
Soohyun watches as they all pass by Kisumi before it’s just the actual trainees left in the room. There are only five trainees and she wonders if there are ever going to be more. They could even form their own group – a four-membered girl group and a male soloist – but she doesn’t know if that would even work in the future. It’s a possibility though.
“Soohyun?” Kisumi questions again.
“Sorry,” Soohyun immediately answers back, turning to quickly go towards her to start their training of the day. This is what they’re going to be doing all day since the members of Night Circus are dancing the whole day. How can they even dance for more than four hours? Her muscles are usually aching by then. “I’m here,” she announces as she enters the vocal room with Kisumi right behind her.
“Great,” Minkyung says in response before tossing her an extra water bottle, “Let’s get started with your harmonization.”
Kisumi smiles at the sight of her trainer back to her usual self, taking a seat next to Soohyun who’s looking at her strangely. “What song should we start with?” she asks as her partner takes a gulp of her water.
“Something by Davichi?” Soohyun questions back, “Fly to the Sky?”
“Try Davichi first,” Minkyung suggests, sitting back in her chair and turning to her laptop to pick out a song. Once she does, she pulls it up on YouTube, telling them the title to pull up the lyrics onto their own phones to be able to sing along. “Read through it once and listen to how they sing it. I’ll pull up an instrumental afterwards and you two will adapt it to your own ranges.”
Both Kisumi and Soohyun nod, already skimming through the lyrics easily before Davichi actually starts singing. It’s only the first hour of many before Shinsuke comes to join them too.
Bonus:
“You two know each other?!” Chanyeol and Minseok exclaim at the same time, eyes wide as they stare at a panting Jiwool and Min in front of them – they had to run to Chanyeol’s father’s restaurant instead of his mother’s today. Both of the girls look at them shocked, not really comprehending what was going on until a few minutes later when they realized – Oh. They’re not supposed to know each other. Really.
“Ah,” Jiwool breathes out, instinctively going to hide partly behind Min when she catches sight of Junmyeon off to the side staring intently at her. It doesn’t exactly work since Min is so short in comparison, but she feels slightly better. “Yeah. You know. I met her after I left SM.”
“It’s an interesting story really,” Min continues on with a bright smile, earning two very dubious looks directed towards them. “But it’s not about us today!”
“It’s about my best friend’s birthday!” Jiwool exclaims afterwards, running around Min to tackle her best friend in a hug. “Happy birthday, Yeollie!”
The hug has all of them relaxing, smiling as Chanyeol crushes her back with a loud laugh, Baekhyun coming up to play with her hair until he can get a quick hug too. Any best friend of his is his friend too.
Min laughs at the sudden change in attitude, unwrapping her scarf and taking off her backpack only for Minseok to help her put them somewhere far from the main group. She smiles at him happily before noticing his concerned stare towards her. “What?” she questions.
“You’re hiding something from us,” Minseok quietly states, looking over her shoulder briefly to see Jiwool talking to Chanyeol and Baekhyun and Junmyeon awkwardly standing off to the side staring at them, “And those two are hiding something too.”
Min looks over her shoulder to see what he’s talking about and she sighs in response. “Yeah,” she answers, and she sounds tired, “I don’t know. Maybe they can fix whatever it is he did.”
“He?” Minseok questions back confused, “Why would he be the one at fault?”
“Because he is,” Min answers roughly, lightly glaring at the man before catching sight of Yixing. She looks back to see Minseok looking at her shocked. “What?”
“I forgot you don’t like him.”
“That is true,” Min agrees before she feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns around to see Yixing staring down at her curiously. A small smile finds it way to her face as she immediately switches languages. “Hello, Yixing.”
The surprise on the other member’s face lights up her own, and then she feels Minseok’s hand wrapping around her arm to pull her closer to him protectively. “He told me to talk to you whenever I could,” Yixing quietly says so Zitao wouldn’t be able to hear him even though he’s messing around with Sehun at the other side of the room. He bows. “I’m Yixing.”
Min bows back with a smile. “I’m Shi Min.”
“Okay. You can go now.” Minseok hurriedly says. “None of you have even met my real little sister yet. I’m not going to start now.”
“Minseok,” Min says with a little whine in her voice, turning to look up at him with a contradicting glare in her eyes.
“Shi Min,” he simply says back, not letting up at all.
“Min-unnie!” Jiwool suddenly calls out, causing half of the guys to turn to them.
Min looks over at her questioningly only to see her helping light up Chanyeol’s birthday candles. She laughs as the younger waves at her excitedly to join her. She looks at Minseok over her shoulder before the other finally lets go of her and she walks around Yixing to join her friend, linking arms as Jiwool stays between her and Chanyeol. She shoots a glare when Junmyeon tries to get too close to them and she swears she hears Chanyeol sigh in exasperation next to them.
Min continues to get curious stares for the rest of the hour and a half they’re there, almost all of them already knowing Jiwool from her previous history at SM, and she has to laugh when Minseok tries to keep her protected from all his band mates. Apparently, he deems Yixing the safest out of all of them when Jongdae and Baekhyun continuously try to talk to her. “You’re dating Taeyeon-noona! Stop talking to her!” he ends up blurting out before he shoves Min to Yixing. “Help me!”
His panic causes all of them to laugh before Chanyeol loops an arm around Jiwool’s shoulders to bring her close before leaning down to whisper in her ear. “You’re being mean.”
Jiwool frowns at his statement before briefly looking around to see Junmyeon talking to Sehun and Zitao while glancing over at them every few seconds. “Yeah, well,” she mutters back, turning her back to the man, “He needs to try harder.”
“Jiwool,” Chanyeol warns, looking over their shoulders again when he sees Junmyeon finally making his way towards them. He straightens considerably, causing her to look up at him confused, before he makes them turn. He’s caught off-guard when Min suddenly walks between the two parties.
“Junmyeon,” Min greets politely, “I’ve heard a lot about you. My name is Min.”
The surprise on Junmyeon’s face morphs into one of a glare. “You’re their friend. I’ve heard of you from Lu Han as well.”
The mention of the Chinese member’s name has those closest to him saddening, looking to her and wondering about her relation to him. Junmyeon only knows because Lu Han had to explain to him why he and Minseok were out late during their ‘Growl’ promotion era.
Min simply glares right back. She’s never liked him.
“Unnie,” Jiwool quietly says, reaching out to touch her shoulder, “It’s okay.” She quickly looks around to see Chanyeol’s family also looking at them in a mixture of sadness and curiosity. “I’m fine.”
Min and Junmyeon continue to glare at each other until the former takes a quick look behind her to see Jiwool giving her a pleading look. She softens at the stare before looking to Chanyeol next who’s giving her a lopsided, half-hearted grin. “Jiwool,” she softly says, still acting as the barrier between her and Junmyeon, “We have to go soon.”
“What?” Chanyeol questions in shock, “You do?”
“I know,” Jiwool quietly says back, “Just a few more minutes.”
Chanyeol, Minseok, Junmyeon, and Yixing have no idea what they’re talking about.
“Hyemi!” Minho screams as he runs towards her with a facemask and a snapback on. He has half a mind left to quickly look around and make sure nobody actually heard him scream and recognized him.
Hyemi laughs as she waves at him, meeting him almost halfway as he runs over only to stand in front of her awkwardly. She knows he wants to hug her but she also knows he can’t because they’re in public. It’s somewhat amusing. “Hey, Minho,” she greets with a smile of her own, even though it was hidden behind her own mask. “You’re not busy today?”
“Never for you,” Minho responds back cheekily, tilting his head in the direction of where they’re supposed to grab lunch, “There’s a nice place where not a lot of people go. Even those who happen to recognize me don’t do anything crazy or take pictures.”
Hyemi rolls her eyes at the first statement before following his lead, hands in their pockets and smiling when he playfully bumps into her every few minutes.
“So, how have you been doing?” he questions quietly, carefully looking around to make sure they aren’t noticed, “I’ve been scoping some of the underground places we used to go to. The regulars say they haven’t seen you in a while either.”
“I was just there the other week,” Hyemi answers back, “It’s still the same as ever.”
“Still,” Minho says, “Where have you been?”
Hyemi looks up at him and gives him a look. “Says the one who’s been traveling and opening for Big Bang and everything.”
“Hey! I just want to make sure my best friend is doing okay.”
“Well, I’m fine,” Hyemi laughs back, “I’m just here.”
Minho frowns behind the mask. “If you were just here, we would be having lunch together more often.”
“Are you kidding me?” Hyemi questions back, turning when Minho pushes her to turn onto another street.
“I keep calling and texting you!” Minho exclaims back, pouting at her even though everything is ineffective because she can barely see his face, “You take hours to respond back!”
“Minho,” Hyemi sighs, almost forgetting how overprotective her best friend is, “Where’s this place?
“Hyemi,” Minho whines back, pulling a hand out of his pocket to place at the small of her back and direct her to a small little café across the street.
“At least I respond back, right?”
“But what have you been doing? You can’t even stay and hang out for long.”
“Neither can you,” Hyemi retorts, taking in a deep breath and blinking profusely when a huge wave of warm air hits her face when they finally step inside the store. She looks around the place, letting Minho lead her to the front counter where they can see the menu better. She feels Minho’s hand slip from her back and when she glances at him, he’s quickly checking his phone before putting it back into his pocket. “What are you getting?” she asks him, lifting a hand to take off her facemask to speak better. “Their sandwich sounds good.”
“Then I’ll get one too,” Minho says before walking the one step forward to tell the worker what they want. Hyemi waits next to him, habit by now, as she lets him pay for their meals before walking with him to a far corner table to wait for their food. She smiles politely when a waiter immediately comes out to give them their glasses of water, Minho only pulling down his mask to his chin when the man walks away and he can finally drink some water too.
“Let’s hang out again soon,” Minho suddenly says with a bright smile directed towards her.
Hyemi simply rolls her eyes. “We haven’t even properly hung out today yet.”
“Well, we need to do it again.”
Hyemi laughs. “Yeah, yeah.”
Seungheon breathes in the familiar scent of pastries and sweet things, almost choking on the intense smell of that and coffee if it weren’t for him quickly walking past the café to get to the main rooms upstairs. He hasn’t stepped foot into CUBE Entertainment since he left and it almost feels a bit foreign if he didn’t pass by trainees he recognized and artists he used to hang out with every day.
“Looking for Hyunah?” somebody asks him and he recognizes the girl as an old friend of his when he was in the company. He gives an affirmative grin. “In the practice room with the rest of 4MINUTE,” the girl laughs back before walking away.
Seungheon quickly makes his way for 4MINUTE’s regular practice room, going up another flight of stairs before walking down the hall and peeking in through the window to see them practicing some new choreography he’s never seen before. The music doesn’t even sound familiar the longer he listens to it. He waits until they take a break and Hyunah looks out the window and sees him waving at her desperately. He jumps back when she runs over and throws the door open.
“Chai!”
“Hyunah!” He narrowly avoids a supremely sweaty Hyunah. “You’re sweating buckets.”
“Awh!” Hyunah exclaims disappointedly, pouting up at him before dragging him into the practice room to join her and the rest of the members and backup dancers. “Look who decided to visit today!”
Seungheon lightly blushes as he waves at those who recognize him, the 4MINUTE members laughing as they greet him as well. “What have you been doing with your time?” Jiyoon questions him and he has to think before he can respond.
“Probably wasting it by not training with some company,” Hyunah mumbles out, still sad her friend left the company before he could debut.
“I’ve been hanging around,” Seungheon simply answers back with a smile, swinging his and Hyunah’s hands back and forth, “Come on. I have free time now. Why don’t you all go back to practice and I’ll just watch like the old times? Or I can even join in?”
“Are you sure you haven’t lost your touch?” Jiyoon asks with a small smirk, “How long have you been gone now?”
“Yeah!” Hyunah exclaims, letting go of his hand to stand in front of him and point at his face. “You’re probably really rusty and don’t know how to dance anymore.”
“I bet he hasn’t even been counting,” Sohyun says off-handedly, walking over to talk to some of the backup dancers. “It’s been that long.”
“Hey! I know how long it’s been!” Seungheon shouts back, frowning when they suddenly turn the music back on. “It’s been three years, and what is that new song anyways? Are you guys having a comeback?”
“Nope,” Jiyoon easily says, gesturing for Sohyun to change the song to something else.
Seungheon pouts. “It looks like you guys are getting ready for a comeback.”
“We’re not,” Hyunah denies, eyes lighting up when ‘Red’ suddenly comes on. She looks to Seungheon excitedly. “Did you learn my dance?”
“I haven’t been out of practice that long,” Seungheon counters back, following Hyunah to the middle of the dance floor where the rest of 4MINUTE were just lounging around while waiting to try and copy Hyunah’s dance. A smile lights up his face when he sees Hyunah get into position before starting her choreography with her arm in the air and putting her hand over . He watches her briefly before quickly joining in, causing both of them to laugh at how he actually does know the choreography for ‘Red.’
“My lovely dongsaeng!” Hakyeon screeches into the phone as Jaesun winces while he tries and orders his lunch by himself. “What is it you need at this lovely hour I don’t know the time of currently?”
“What are you even talking about?” Jaesun questions back, politely thanking the cashier before taking a seat near the front counter in the food court. Apparently, Hakyeon is busy getting ready for a performance in Suwon and can’t really meet up for a quick lunch outing. He wonders if Suhwan was able to meet up with his friends with Sookhyun too. “You need to stop with the weird phrasing.”
“But then you would be worried because I’m not saying something weird.”
Jaesun sighs. “This is true.”
“See!”
“How were we even able to stay friends for so long?”
“That is a good question too,” Hakyeon answers, sounding thoughtful, “I don’t know really. Probably has something to do with the fact you would die without my companionship.”
Jaesun stares at nothing in particular. “Of course you would say that.”
“Do I lie, Jaesun? I think not.”
“Oh my god, I hate you.”
“You love me and you know it.”
“Why did I even call you in the first place?”
“Because you were lonely and you wanted to hear my beautiful voice.”
Jaesun really wants to hurt his best friend. “Hyung–”
“Number 97!”
“Oh,” Jaesun mumbles instead, quickly getting up to show the lady his ticket so he can get his food and sit back down again. He juggles the phone between his hands and the tray before settling down again. He smiles at his steaming meal.
“–sun!”
“Oh,” Jaesun says again, almost forgetting he was on the phone with his friend. He frowns as he picks his phone back up. “What? I’m about to eat now.”
“You were ignoring me,” Hakyeon simply says before sighing loudly and deliberately. “I have to go too. Our break is over.”
Jaesun hums in response, taking a sip of his soup. “I’ll see you guys when you get back?”
“Yeah. Watch our performances online. They should be up by the end of tonight or tomorrow. You know how fans are. Let me know your thoughts.”
“Sure thing,” Jaesun says easily enough, both of them calmer now and quickly saying their goodbyes before hanging up. He hums again as he quietly eats his food. He wonders what Hakyeon will think when he finally debuts.
“Hello! I’m Park Jaehyuk! The self-declared best friend of Suhwan. Nice to meet you!”
Sookhyun looks at the two men in front of him curiously, still clinging onto Suhwan’s arm as the other man gives his two friends a smile.
“Yeah, I’m Shin Kwangsun, the one helping to keep this one in line,” the second man introduces himself, both of them bowing to Sookhyun politely.
“Hi,” Sookhyun quietly says, letting go of Suhwan to bow himself, “I’m Park Sookhyun.” He watches, as Kwangsun seems to give him a knowing look, before looking to Jaehyuk who takes a step forward to pull Suhwan into a tight hug. He hears a small squeak escape Suhwan’s mouth and his own smile starts to show on his face. “It’s nice to meet both of you.”
Jaehyuk gives him a bright smile before turning back to Suhwan. “I haven’t seen you in forever! How’s my best friend doing being a bum at home? Where did you even meet Sookhyun? He’s nice.”
Sookhyun sputters as Suhwan blushes, quietly talking to him even though Sookhyun’s exclaiming, “But you just met me!”
Kwangsun laughs at the turn of events before turning to Sookhyun and pulling him a bit farther away from the other two. The other gives him a curious look before he smiles at him. “He met you in the company, right?” he quietly asks, watching as Sookhyun’s eyes widen considerably in shock, “Is he doing okay in there?”
Sookhyun doesn’t know how to respond, quickly looking over to where Suhwan’s now laughing with Jaehyuk happily. He doesn’t think he’s seen his friend look so happy like he is now. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he eventually ends up saying, looking back to see Kwangsun giving him ‘the look.’ He pouts. “What?”
“I was the one who got Suhwan his audition with KB Entertainment, so I know he’s been training instead of being a bum like Jaehyuk said.”
That information catches Sookhyun off-guard, looking over to his friend briefly before looking back to the other. “What? Really? He wasn’t scouted?”
Kwangsun laughs softly as he shakes his head. “Nope. I was the one who got scouted.”
“Really?”
“But I didn’t want to become an idol so I begged your CEO to give Suhwan an audition instead.” Kwangsun smiles at his two friends. “And I guess he passed so well now you two are going to debut soon.”
Sookhyun smiles at the slight admiration he hears in Kwangsun’s voice. “I think he’s doing great,” he says softly, thinking it’s amazing Suhwan has such nice friends as these two men, “I think he’s going to surprise you when we debut.”
“Mhm,” Kwangsun agrees quietly, staring at him curiously, “What’s your talent?”
“Me?” Sookhyun asks, pointing to himself just to make sure, “Singing.”
“Ah,” the other says, smiling before looking over to his friends to see Jaehyuk now looping his arm with Suhwan as well, “So, you must be the main vocalist since Suhwan’s the lead.”
“Yeah? But he’s really good,” Sookhyun says in reply, looking over to see the other two coming towards them instead. “And he keeps getting better.”
“Suhwan says you guys have about an hour left before you have to leave and become bums again. Have you two eaten yet?” Jaehyuk questions while he holds Suhwan’s hand childishly instead. He looks at each of them curiously. “So, Suhwan doesn’t go to university, but do you, Sookhyun?”
They all look to the youngest and he smiles, nodding as he messes with his hair nervously. “I do actually.”
“Really? Where do you go?” There’s clear excitement at finding out something new about him.
“Um, Dong Ah Institute of Media and Arts.”
“Really?” Jaehyuk asks again, looking thoughtful. “That’s pretty cool.” Then he nudges Suhwan’s shoulder with his own. “Why don’t you try going there? You like singing, right?”
“Um,” Suhwan mumbles out, starting to feel a bit flustered, “I do like singing, but… I don’t– I don’t know.”
Kwangsun gives the two trainees a sympathetic smile before suddenly raising his voice. “Come on! Let’s go get something quick to eat. You said you have an hour left to see us, right? Let’s go somewhere close.”
“I call sitting next to Suhwan!” Jaehyuk exclaims, suddenly taking off in a random direction with Suhwan sputtering nonsense next to him and Kwangsun quickly running after them to lead them in an appropriate direction.
Sookhyun laughs as he quickly follows after them, reaching out to cling onto Suhwan’s free side as he goes wherever they go. He’s glad VIXX is out of town. He wouldn’t have been able to meet these two new friends of his otherwise.
co-author's note: i'm kinda late? but this chapter is extra long to make up for it? otl, it was our father's birthday so we were kinda busy all day. anyways! i don't have much to say? i hope this chapter was kinda okay ;;; ( i've also been busy with work and training new hires and so ;;; i'm sorry if i haven't responded to your comments yet! i'll get to them, i promise! )
question of the day: so what do you think of everything so far? ;u;
ps. yes. i'm bringing in the fact min is chinese and everybody is starting to become skeptical of her because of everything going on with exo since she's friends with kris and luhan and yeah.
updated: april 18, 2015
question of the day: so what do you think of everything so far? ;u;
ps. yes. i'm bringing in the fact min is chinese and everybody is starting to become skeptical of her because of everything going on with exo since she's friends with kris and luhan and yeah.
updated: april 18, 2015
created by -catalyst
〈 ♞ 〉i swear i'm going to spam this entire story with new chapters by september/october! ( 1 aug 2017 )
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