chapter eight point five
〈 ♞ 〉NIGHT CIRCUS04 JUNE 2015
11:22 AM
11:22 AM
THE EIGHTH (POINT FIVE) CHAPTER
“You’ve been ignoring me.”
Hyemi looks up from where she’s been sitting in one of their old hangouts, one of the older underground scenes where they used to rap, and rolls her eyes when she sees Minho with his face mask pulled under his chin and pouting at her. There’s really more than enough room for both of them to sit but when Minho moves to sit next to her, he moves in until they’re bumping hips and he keeps pushing her until they’re flush side-by-side.
“I have not been ignoring you,” Hyemi finally answers back when Minho gets comfortable enough. She laughs when he wiggles against her arm. “I’ve just been busy.”
“Busy with what though?” Minho whines, leaning his head on her shoulder, “You have been ignoring me and that’s not a good thing to do to your best friend.”
Hyemi rolls her eyes, again. “Are you kidding me?”
“I do not kid.”
“You are a kid,” Hyemi retorts, laughing when Minho grumbles and moves away from her. She watches him, completely amused, as he pulls his mask up to cover the lower half of his face again. Her own is still in place, and she briefly wonders if he has plans for the day and if he’s worried about the MERS virus as everyone else.
“I can’t hang out long today,” Minho softly says, “President Yang is opening up a new restaurant, so WINNER is going to show support for him.”
Hyemi stares at him a bit longer before humming, nodding, as she looks back out to the empty venue, a few staff personnel walking around. Even though she’s close with Minho, she hasn’t even personally met the other members of WINNER and iKON yet. It’s such a shame too because she thinks she could get along with, at least, some of them. “Why don’t I go with you to the opening?” She wants to say she’s prepared for the attack of a tight hug.
But she’s not.
She whines when Minho squeezes his arms around her and shakes them back and forth. Trying to shake him off, she groans when it only makes him practically suffocate her. “Minho! Stop it!”
“You are not meeting them!” Minho shouts back, declaring it for the world to hear. “They’re going to take you away from me and I’m not prepared for that yet!”
“Oh my God,” Hyemi groans, trying to reach up and smack him on the face. “Stop it. I can’t breathe.” And then she squeaks when he rubs his cheek against hers. Why is she dealing with such a kid?
“Nope!” he chirps, laughing happily to himself. But then he loosens his hold, Hyemi breathing out a sigh of relief, until he’s just leaning against her with his arm around her shoulders. Hyemi has to use more strength to balance both of them, but she doesn’t mind, not anymore. She’s gotten used to his odd, touchy ways. “Besides,” he says, “You’re mine. They can’t be friends with my best friend too.”
“You’re so over-protective,” Hyemi complains, even though she makes no move to get out from under him, “One day, you’re not going to be able to protect me so much.”
“And how can I?” Minho practically screams, pulling away to glare at her, “You’ve been ignoring me!”
“Can we give that a break?” Hyemi mumbles, voice hinting away to a whine, “When’s your supporting thing anyways?”
The question distracts Minho enough to pull his arm away and search for his phone, checking the time briefly before hanging his head in defeat. Hyemi tries not to laugh at the gesture, knowing it’s partially to add effect since she can’t see his mouth, and tries not to look too amused when he looks back up to her. “Let me walk you home?”
It’s nothing new, their friendship. It’s been like this since their high school days, and Hyemi’s surprised nobody’s found out about their relationship sooner. Although, she knocks on a bench as they walk by it, hoping that old superstition works and knocking on wood decreases their chances of getting caught. She doesn’t want to add stress to Minho and WINNER and she doesn’t want to bring in unnecessary, bad attention to Night Circus before they even become… Night Circus.
She laughs when Minho bumps shoulders with her again, his eyes turning into crescents when he stares at her.
“Tell me what you’ve been doing.”
“Hmm?” Hyemi answers back, staring up at him curiously. “Same old.”
Minho sighs, looking away to search the area for anybody staring at them. “You must be doing something to occupy your time. Are you going to school again?”
Biting her lip, Hyemi shakes her head, knowing Minho can’t see anything underneath the mask. She’s been doing so much since she’s been training, but a lot of it she can’t tell her friend. They’re prohibited until they debut and she’s still surprised the CEOs let the others create videos before they’ve even hit the stage. “I’ve still been writing lyrics, raps, you know? But I’m not in school again.”
“Really? Are they good?” Minho asks, voice genuinely interested. “You should rap for me sometime. Maybe we can hit the underground stage or go to a karaoke bar or something.”
Hyemi laughs softly, giving him a look before looking away again. “You know you can’t do that when so many people will recognize you.”
“Then rap for me at your house. Your family loves me.”
Hyemi frowns. She knows all about that. Her mother and sister still make bets from time to time asking if she’s going to meet up with Minho and if he’s going to walk her home again afterwards. She can practically hear them now and she doesn’t know whether to yell at them in embarrassment or just hide away forever. But Minho looks so hopeful when she turns to stare up at him. She sighs in defeat and Minho cheers quietly at the win.
“So, what’s the title of this song?”
“Unknown.”
“Seriously?” Minho asks, eyes widening.
Hyemi laughs, shaking her head as she bumps shoulders with him. She misses hanging out with her best friend. “No.”
The café is empty and Sookhyun is bored. Usually, this wouldn’t be a problem, but today it is, only because he’s been doing nothing for the past two days and he’s bored. He’s already tried texting Seungheon and all he got in response were a same and a so freaking bored and then the conversation died after a few minutes with Seungheon responding back with a sorry, my cousin is beating me at mario kart and this is nOT OKAY.
Since then, his boredom has returned tenfold, playing with a bunch of napkins and trying to make them form objects and animals in an act of origami, but it isn’t doing much after being here for so long. His eyes light up when he finally sees his sister coming out from the back of the café, freshly made bread on the metal pan she’s carrying. “Soojin-noona!” he calls out, waving from his spot by the window.
His call has her looking over before she’s laughing, setting the pan down on the back counter, before telling her employee to place them in their appropriate spots inside the glass case. He’s beaming at her, smile bright, and it makes her laugh even more. “What are you doing here, Sookhyun? Shouldn’t you be doing something else?”
There’s a knowing look in her gaze and it makes Sookhyun pout, putting his hands in his coat pockets and slumping back into his chair. “No,” he mumbles, staring at the table and his deformed masterpieces in front of him, “We’re banned for a week.”
“What?” Soojin gasps, quickly moving to sit in the chair opposite of him. “Why? What happened?”
“It’s because of the MERS scare,” he continues on in a murmur, looking up confused when his sister lets out a sigh. “What’s wrong?” His sister looks relieved, taking off her waist apron to sit more comfortably in the chair.
“Nothing,” she says, quickly scanning her café to make sure nobody was close or could easily hear them before she looks back to her little brother. Sookhyun looks confused, staring at her with wide eyes, and it makes her smile. “How has training been? I haven’t seen you lately.”
The thought of training and his group makes him smile, eyes lighting up, as he thinks about their last day together even though they did nothing but worry about their health and Min. His sister laughs softly in front of him and his smile brightens. “It’s been going great!” he exclaims, jumping a bit in his seat excitedly, “I’ve been getting better and I think I’m getting healthier too? All the dancing is helping me with my body and everybody’s so nice!”
“Really?” Soojin asks with a laugh, leaning forward to place her chin in her hand and stare fondly at her brother. “Nobody’s being mean to you, right?” There’s a teasing glint in her eyes and Sookhyun pouts once he recognizes it.
“Of course nobody is being mean to me! All my group mates take care of me!” He hums as he thinks about them, smile softening when he thinks about the eldest ones in the group. “Min-noona is really nice,” he says, “I really like her. She reminds me of you and Soomi-noona.” He trails off at the end, voice getting softer. “Everybody else is worried about her though.”
“Why?”
When he looks up, Soojin is looking at him with wide eyes, surprised. He gives her a sad smile, slumping over on the table and placing his chin on top of his arms. “Min is friends with Lu Han, one of the two guys who left EXO?” he says softly. When he receives a nod of understanding, he continues, remembering he asked Jiwool and Jaesun about it before looking up all the articles surrounding it. “She’s really good friends with him because they’re both from Beijing and they can relate. The others are worried that she might follow in his footsteps when we debut.”
“Do you really think that?” Soojin questions, reaching out to hold his hand, “Wouldn’t she have left by now to pursue her own career?”
Sookhyun immediately shakes his head, frowning as he lets his sister pull his hand closer to her to hold. “No. I think she’s going to stay with us.”
“And why is that?”
“Because she loves us.”
There’s a moment of silence between them, Sookhyun looking at his sister’s smaller hands holding his larger one. It reminds him of the time Hyemi and Jiwool kept tugging on his hands because there was something on them he couldn’t get off on his own.
“Does she?” Soojin quietly asks, causing him to look up at her shocked. “Or is this just you being stubborn about the situation?”
Sookhyun doesn’t like where the conversation is going, trying to pull his hand away from his sister’s. He’s spent so much time with Min. She wouldn’t do anything to upset or hurt him. “I’m sure,” he says, sounding resolute, “She loves us because we’re a group. We’ve already formed bonds with each other. She can’t just leave because her friend left.”
There’s an expression of uncertainty on his sister’s face and he wants to shake it off of her. Jaesun doesn’t think Min would leave, he’s told him that before in privacy. He’s probably the only one besides Jiwool who believes Min won’t leave. He jumps when his phone sounds at the same time someone calls his sister’s name. They both look around surprised, Sookhyun finally pulling his hand away from his sister’s and moving to check his phone.
Min: Don’t forget to drink a glass of warm water with honey and lemon!
The reminder shocks Sookhyun before he starts laughing, smiling brightly and feeling his heart warm. It makes his sister curious, walking around the table to drape arms over his shoulders from behind and lean down to see what he’s laughing about. She smiles and he can hear it in her voice.
“Does she always do this?”
Sookhyun nods, quickly typing out a response – I won’t noona! – before Soojin is pulling away to get back to work.
“Then she’s not going to leave.”
“I’m bored.”
Kyehoon scoffs from the recliner, side-eyeing his cousin when Seungheon twists too far and falls sideways on the couch. They’re currently playing a racing game on the Wii, Mario Kart, to be specific, and Kyehoon is winning. He doesn’t even have to say anything before his cousin is speaking again.
“You’re not even trying,” Seungheon complains, quickly sitting back up again so he doesn’t fall off the course, “So, I’m bored.”
“What are you even doing home?”
“I’m spending time with my lazy cousin,” Seungheon immediately answers, this time side-eyeing him, “What else?”
Kyehoon frowns, aiming and steadying his character before he releases a banana that makes Seungheon’s character spin and get bumped off of the road.
“Kyehoon! Why–”
“Aren’t you at your secret job?” Kyehoon finishes, pausing the game to raise an inquisitive brow at him. “Don’t tell me you quit already.”
“Now why would I quit?” Seungheon retaliates, staring at the man head-on. He only wants to play this game and actually beat his cousin at least a half amount of the times he’s won against him, but he can’t if Kyehoon won’t stop talking and pausing the game. “Why aren’t you in school?” The shrug he receives makes him feel a little bit annoyed.
“I’m already done for the day.”
And then Kyehoon is resuming the game and Seungheon screams when he gets slammed again. It makes Kyehoon laugh, body wracking the recliner into leaning back with him, but he still manages to win first place anyways.
It’s been a long time since they’ve hung out like this, not going to clubs and actually being in the same room with each other. It’s the first time they’ve seen each other’s faces besides their updates on their SNS accounts and Seungheon has to admit that it’s been pretty weird. He cheers when he wins the next round.
“Rainbow Road is so my road!”
“How can anybody win on this road, honestly,” Kyehoon exclaims, already setting up the next round of random tracks. “That’s just insane.”
“Only because I beat you at it!”
“That’s the only road you can beat me at!” Kyehoon retaliates, frowning at him. “How is that even possible?”
Seungheon shrugs as he gets into position, already stretching because he knows he’ll get a cramp if he tries to turn with his car again. He can’t help it either. It’s like a natural reaction when he’s playing these types of games, moving along with the character hoping it’ll help him out more in the end, when it really doesn’t. Kyehoon has stopped laughing about it, but now he just gives him a look instead.
“So, seriously,” Kyehoon says, catching his attention again even as they’re trying to knock each other out with red shells and bananas, “You’ve been home for two days in a row. What happened?”
“Nothing happened,” Seungheon says with a frown, glancing at him out of the corners of his eyes, wondering why he’s so insistent about this. “What do you think happened?” He screeches when he almost gets knocked off of the course. Again. “I just got some days off. What about it?”
There’s a moment of silence between them, the music and sounds from the game filling up the empty spaces, and Seungheon almost forgets they were even talking in the first place, twisting and then jumping back with his car and hitting his back against the corner of a cushion.
“Is it about the MERS scare?” Kyehoon questions quietly, easily navigating the course without much resistance, but it catches Seungheon off-guard, running into a tree before cursing and getting himself out of it.
“What about it?” he asks in return, trying to feign nonchalance.
“Two people died the other day,” Kyehoon explains, “Are you trying to make sure you don’t get it?”
Seungheon tries to shrug but, at the same time, he’s still trying to avoid the other players in the game. “Aren’t you doing the same?”
“Not because I’m still singing,” Kyehoon softly says, watching as Seungheon immediately stiffens and stares at him. He pauses the game once more. “I don’t sing or rap or dance, but I’m still being cautious wherever I go. You haven’t left the apartment, only to go get stuff from the store, and I’m wondering if something happened at your mystery job.”
Seungheon doesn’t know what to think. He hasn’t told his cousin he’s still in a company training to become an idol, and the man still thinks that he has a separate, mysterious job instead. The only people who know he’s still training are his parents and they know they’re not supposed to say any of it to anyone until he debuts.
He doesn’t even know what to say, so he presses play instead and continues on with the game, Kyehoon frantically keeping up to keep his place as second to Bowser.
“Judging by your expression,” Kyehoon says minutes later, frowning when they both lose to Bowser in the end, “I’m hoping you didn’t get fired from your job and you’re seriously just taking a break.”
Seungheon never liked it when his father always compared him to his smarter cousin. Kyehoon was always talented when it came to academics, causing him to do better in school compared to him, but it wasn’t because he studied all the time. It was like it all came naturally to him and Seungheon had to study twice as much to keep up.
“You know I won’t say anything. I’m just going to wait until you debut to see if I was right.”
But he did always like his cousin for a reason. He smiles as he gets back into the game, trying to beat his cousin and losing again for the nth time.
“Jiwool,” Min pleads, “Please stop sending me pictures of them in baseball uniforms. It does not do well with my health.”
“But unnie!” Jiwool screeches, staring wide-eyed at the television screen, “They look good!”
“But I don’t need to know that when I’m in another country!”
“Unnie!”
“Jiwool!”
“Unnie!” Jiwool says louder, whining when she remembers the look Junmyeon gave to the camera while shaking his hips. “I’m weak!”
“I’m weak against baseball uniforms too, Jiwool!”
“But look at them!”
There’s a pause before Min speaks again, voice void of emotion. “I can’t. YouTube is banned in Beijing.”
“There are other ways to watch it!”
“But I can’t right now!”
“Who’s your favorite?” Jiwool suddenly questions, watching the ending of Music Core and ignoring Sohyun’s snickering of ‘of course Jiwool’s is Suho,’ “And don’t say Minseok-oppa because you two are already good friends!” She also ignores Sohyun’s questions of ‘how did you even meet this girl and how are both of you friends with EXO?’
“Does he look good though? He’s been working on his body constantly. He must look good in a uniform.”
“That’s beside the point!”
Min sighs. “Then out of the pictures – Sehun. His broad shoulders are a nice thing.” There’s rustling in the background before she’s speaking again. “Okay, Jiwool. I have to go. I’ll message you in a bit! My parents say ‘hi,’ by the way.”
Jiwool releases her own sigh at the answer, pouting as she thinks Chanyeol looks pretty good too, but they’re friends already. “My answer is Lay-oppa,” she says, pouting at her roommate when she laughs, “Okay. I’ll talk to you later. I said ‘hi’ back!”
“Stay safe. Don’t let Junna hurt you!”
“Junmyeon!” Jiwool screeches, groaning when Min simply laughs before they hang up on each other. She stares petulantly at the television, eyeing EXO as they leave the stage so the winners can do their encore. They look good, they all do, but it’s been days since she was supposed to talk to Junmyeon and they still haven’t found time to talk yet.
The program cuts off and switches to another, Jiwool handing the remote over to her roommate who just stares at her curiously before she’s changing the channel. Jiwool’s phone rings and she looks over surprised to see Junmyeon’s name popping up on the screen. But unlike all the other times when she’s let it go to voicemail, she sighs and looks to her roommate for support.
Sohyun simply gives her a smile before getting up to leave the room, whispering a quiet ‘fighting!’ for her. Jiwool doesn’t glare at her roommate. She doesn’t.
“Hello?” she says when she answers the phone, heart palpitating wildly in her chest. There’s a moment of silence and she frowns as she pulls the phone away to see if she actually answered the call or not. When she puts it back up to her ear, she hears Chanyeol’s voice instead.
“You actually answered!”
Jiwool is confused. “Yeollie? What are you doing?”
“You answered!” Chanyeol bellows before there’s fighting in the background.
“She answered? Give me the phone!”
“No, wait! I need to know why!”
“Chanyeol, dammit, give me the phone!”
“Children,” she can hear Jongdae in the background, chiding both of them. She laughs as she starts to think that they were right in saying Jongdae is like their mother in the group. “Stop fighting. Don’t we have another schedule to get to?”
“No!” the other two scream back and Jiwool winces at the shout in her ear.
“Hello?” she tries again, sighing when there’s more arguing and she’s getting up to follow her roommate into her room. She knocks on the door before entering the open doorway, seeing Sohyun on her laptop looking up pictures and videos of EXO’s previous performance from the day before. She smiles when Sohyun lets out a wistful sigh at seeing Chanyeol on her screen.
“What is it, Jiwool?” Sohyun questions, not bothering to look away from her screen, “What happened?”
“They’re arguing,” Jiwool simply states, sitting on the bed next to her. “Chanyeol won’t let him have the phone.”
That gets her roommate’s attention immediately, turning around to face her with bright eyes as she holds out her hands. She opens and closes them repeatedly, silently asking her for her phone. “Let me hear him. I bet Chanyeol’s voice sounds amazing on the phone!”
Jiwool laughs, holding the phone out and indulging in her fangirl ways. “I guess,” she says, watching as Sohyun happily puts the phone up to her ear and then squeal loudly before she pulls the phone away to bounce on her bed.
“He’s so protective! Why would his past girlfriend break up with him?! Oh my gosh!”
Sohyun puts the phone back up to her ear but then her nose scrunches in confusion, staring at the phone briefly before holding it back out to her. “It’s your… whatever he is,” she mutters, mood suddenly sullen before going back to her laptop. “I’m done with that.” But then she gives her a look over her shoulder. “Let me know how that goes.”
It has Jiwool becoming confused before she puts the phone up to her ear again. She waits a few minutes, taking her time to walk out of the room, and when she makes it to the living room again, she hears a timid voice speaking to her. “Hello?”
Jiwool’s heart feels like it’s about to explode.
“Jiwool? Woolie-ah?”
“You have no right to call her that right now!” Chanyeol screeches from somewhere in the back, causing Jiwool to smile despite the feeling of fainting any minute now. There’s more arguing and she can swear she can hear Yixing in the background, wondering what’s going on.
She thought this phone call was supposed to sign hers and Junmyeon’s fate, if they can’t actually meet in person, but it seems like the world is against them when the phone is dropped and somebody else is picking it up instead.
“Hello? Is this Jiwool? Min’s friend?”
“Lay-oppa?” Jiwool gasps out in surprise, looking to the television hoping to find some answers with what’s going on right now. She’s only ever talked to him once, but it was in passing on Chanyeol’s past birthday. He only really talked to Min, and that made sense then.
“Hi!” Yixing says brightly. “I didn’t get to meet you properly while you trained at SM, but I saw that you were a dancer too! Do you still practice?”
Jiwool laughs at the excitement in his voice, relaxing against the couch as she talks to him instead. She doesn’t mind at all. She thinks he’s a good dancer too. “Hi, oppa,” she greets, smiling, “Yeah, I still practice! We were in the same class before, I think, when I was still at SM!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! We had the same teacher and lessons and everything!” Yixing laughs and it makes Jiwool smile as well. “But I’m curious,” she says, hearing a hum in response, “Are you okay? Are you tired?” She knows how busy he is, with his personal studio in China and continuously flying back and forth to meet EXO’s schedules as well as his own. It should be tiring. She doesn’t know how he does it.
It takes a few seconds, but Yixing sounds calmer, happier. “Yeah, I’m okay – it’s all tiring – but it will be worth it in the end. You don’t need to worry about me.”
The answer has Jiwool saddening, wondering why he’s burdened with all of this, but there’s another small noise before Yixing is telling her he’s going to give the phone back to Junmyeon. Jiwool doesn’t know what to say when Junmyeon gets his phone back and he sounds apologetic.
“I’m sorry, but we have to go. Can I text or call you later? I promise we’ll actually talk this time.”
“Okay,” Jiwool says, voice quiet, already succumbing to the fact that the next time they’ll actually talk is probably until after her debut, “Stay safe and take good care of your health, okay?” She can hear Junmyeon take a deep breath, sounding happier when he speaks again.
“As long as you stay happy, Woolie–”
“Hyung!” Chanyeol screeches, and then they quickly hang up after saying their goodbyes. She stares at her cell phone afterwards, watching as the blinking numbers go back to her homepage and it’s a picture of her with the rest of her group. She smiles as they all tried to make funny faces at the camera, Suhwan looking away embarrassed because he didn’t understand what was going on at the time. Her heart beats a little faster when Junmyeon randomly sends her a text that solely consists of the heart emoji.
Lu Han left months ago, Yifan months before him, and she’s surprised Zitao taking his time off from the group isn’t affecting EXO as much as the elder two’s leave did. But maybe they’re all getting better at accepting the ways of life and understanding the stress that comes with it, especially since they’ve probably all had time to heal and work through it together.
Junmyeon sends another emoji of the face with heart-eyes and it makes her smile.
He’s trying, and Jiwool is tired of trying to avoid him.
“So, I know we’re supposed to be careful with our health and everything,” Jaesun screams into his phone, trying to block out the cheers and shouts all around him, “But I was conned into this, I swear!”
“Why the hell are you yelling? Why did you even call me?!”
Jaesun frowns, plugging his finger in his free ear to hear his friend better. It really doesn’t do much though, especially when he’s standing backstage at Music Core where Hakyeon told him to come because he has special treatment. “I can’t get a hold of anybody else!” he answers back, “And I don’t want to pay the extra money to call Min in China!”
“Seriously?” Hyemi shouts back, sounding as aggravated as he is, “What are you doing?!”
“I’m backstage at Music Core! The CEOs can’t know!”
“What? Why?!”
“I was conned, I swear!” Jaesun repeats, flinching when somebody bumps into him. He immediately turns and bows. “I’m sorry!”
When he looks up, it’s a staff member holding a clipboard trying to move around him without looking up. The other gives him a slight bow in return, telling whoever is on the other side of the receiver of her earpiece to get the next group ready, and suddenly, he feels lost. He’s going to be one of the groups the staff personnel are trying to get out in time, making sure his makeup is done correctly and his hair and clothes are styled perfectly, and then, he’s going to be rushing onto the stage, being blinded by lights and deaf by everyone’s screams.
“Jaesun!” Hyemi yells, causing him to jerk to the side painfully, “You should leave before someone catches you!”
“Like who?!” Jaesun shouts back, turning back around to see Hakyeon talking next to Minho and Yerim on the stage. “Nobody knows me!”
“Uh huh,” Hyemi drawls, “You should get out though.”
“I can’t!” Another person bumps into him and he turns around, eyes widening when he bumps into Minseok from EXO. Oh. Oh wow. Instincts take over and he’s bowing again, deeply, because they are going to be his seniors in the music industry in four months. Even if he’s jaded about them from Jiwool and Min constantly talking about them, it’s still surprising being in EXO’s presence up close and personal. “I’m sorry!”
Minseok jumps in surprise, turning to face him before laughing shyly and bowing as well. He’s so small against him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”
“It’s okay,” Jaesun says, quietly, as he hears Hyemi trying to talk to him on the phone. “I’m just–”
“Jaesun!” Hakyeon suddenly screams, coming up behind him and looping his arm with his. It makes him almost drop his phone. “You’ve met Xiumin!”
“Oh,” Minseok says, eyes wide as he stares at each of them, “You two are friends?”
“Yeah!” Hakyeon answers, smile bright. “He used to train with us at Jellyfish Entertainment before he left. I don’t know why though. He would’ve been debuting soon if he stayed.”
Jaesun rolls his eyes out of habit, completely forgetting he’s on the phone with his group mate. “I’m pretty sure Jellyfish isn’t debuting a new group soon when they have you still doing things for them.”
“Now, you don’t know that!”
“EXO, get ready in two minutes!”
They all stop and stare at the staff worker, trying to organize the group, and Jaesun takes quick note of how many members are actually there. There’s nine now, and it’s odd how there used to be twelve of them.
“Big Bang! You too!”
“Big Bang?!” Jaesun exclaims, turning around to spot the five members goofing off in the back. His heart is beating wildly and there’s a rush of noise in his ears, he doesn’t even know what he’s properly feeling but he knows he’s overwhelmed. “Oh my God.”
“Hey!” Hakyeon screams, jerking Jaesun back in his direction. “I don’t need you fanboying over them. I had to pull a lot of strings to get you backstage.”
The reminder has Jaesun immediately frowning, turning to face him as Minseok laughs and waves, walking away to take the stage. It’s also then that he realizes that Hyemi has hung up on him, sending him a text saying don’t forget you’re talking on the phone with someone – that’s rude. “I didn’t want to come in the first place,” Jaesun says, watching as Hakyeon turns to greet others as they pass by them, “You threatened me to come here.”
“I haven’t seen you in forever,” Hakyeon complains, “And you actually answered your phone earlier! Plus, you should be thankful because of that virus going around. Getting in here means your sickness-free.”
“You always had a weird way with words,” Jaesun comments, looking around at all the other idols walking around them. He swears he wheezes when Big Bang walks past him because wow Taeyang is short compared to him too. “How are you even breathing?”
Hakyeon laughs. “And you say I’m the one with a weird way with words?” But then he shrugs, waiting to go back up to the stage to announce who wins the trophy this week. “You get used to it. Everybody is still a human being. Some just happen to sing and dance for a living instead of taking up office work or something else they truly enjoy.”
This moment is one of those rare times where Hakyeon gives Jaesun a little insight into the idol world, show him what he’s missing out on because he left their company. It still surprises him when he says things like this, but he’s right. Becoming an idol is like training for a new job, becoming an intern before becoming a professional businessman. Not everyone can be successful, but in the end, they’re all professional at what they do.
“Oh,” Hakyeon says, looking around to see Minho and Yerim walking up to them as well, “We’re about to go up.” He gives him a smile, pushing him away gently. “My manager knows who you are. Ask him to bring you out to the van and we’ll stop by someplace after running away from the fans.” His smile brightens as he waves at him before running towards the stage. “It’ll be a date!”
Jaesun’s eyes widen at the words, quickly looking around to see if anybody heard them, but it must be normal if nobody turns to bat an eyelash at them. He releases a sigh of relief, watching, as all three MCs get ready before they’re taking over the stage. All the artists congregate beside and behind them, all of them talking or trying to get in view of the camera, and Jaesun laughs at some of their antics before hurrying his way out of the building.
He pulls his facemask out of his pocket, as well as his phone, and dials up Hyemi’s number again, hoping she’s not busy. It doesn’t take long before he finds Hakyeon’s manager and they’re making their way out, both of them avoiding the fans leaving early or hanging around outside and trying to find a way into the van without their pictures being taken.
“Hello? You’re not going to ignore me again, are you?”
Jaesun needs to appreciate Hyemi more when he makes it into the van and sees curious eyes staring at him from the entrance of the building.
“Are you eating enough, Suhwan?”
Suhwan looks up from his food, eyes wide as he stares at his mother’s kind eyes before looking to his older brother who’s staring at him intently. He nods as he brings food up to his lips, chewing on it slowly because it’s been so long since he’s had a full meal of his mother’s food. “It’s good,” he compliments after he’s swallowed his mouthful. He’s smiling at his family, his mother smiling back brightly before going on to talk about her day, and his brother smiles back at him.
Dinner goes on like that, his mother and brother talking more than he, and he waits to help them clean the table up and wash the dishes. They joke around and Suhwan laughs when his mother jokes about his other hardworking son, Su-in glaring at them before sighing and shaking his head affectionately at them.
It takes a while before they actually finish their activities in the kitchen, his mother going off to do some more household chores and Suhwan settles on the couch because his mother told him to relax. His brother is another story though when he comes in to sit next to him, staring at him briefly before turning on the television. It’s set to some drama, but they don’t mind, Suhwan getting into it before his brother speaks up again.
“When are you going to debut?”
It snaps Suhwan out of his drama-induced daydreams, looking away from the screen to stare at his brother. Su-in is staring at him again and Suhwan looks back briefly before leaning back further into the couch. “October 31.”
“That’s still four months away.”
“It is, hyung,” Suhwan says quietly, looking over at him curiously. “Why?”
“Are you taking a break now because of the MERS scare?” Su-in questions, leaning forward to hear his younger brother better, “Are they really taking good care of you there?”
Suhwan nods his answer, staring at his brother strangely because of course they’re taking good care of him there. Why wouldn’t they? They’re his friends and don’t friends always treat each other nicely?
“I’m just making sure,” Su-in says slowly, relaxing more when he sees the innocence in his brother’s eyes, “I want to know they’re treating you right. I’d like to meet them some time.”
“Kwangsun and Jaehyuk met my friend Sookhyun,” Suhwan softly says, smile on his face, “They like him. He’s nice.” He sees the way his brother relaxes completely, smile growing on his own face in encouragement, and he keeps talking. “You’ll like him, hyung.” Although, he’s not used to talking so much, so he stops there, quickly looking away because he has nothing else to say really. He looks up when Su-in gets up, the other smiling at him before moving to ruffle his hair.
“I have some work to do,” Su-in says before they both hear their mother struggling with something down the hall, “I’m going to go help mom before that though. Why don’t you make some tea for her and I’ll take care of the rest of the things in the house?”
Suhwan nods easily, getting up from the couch and letting Su-in turn off the TV before going into the kitchen. He jumps when the doorbell sounds and he looks over curiously to hear his brother open the door, and then the excited chatter of his friends fills the quiet space. He didn’t expect them coming over.
“Don’t be too loud,” Su-in calls after them as they enter the kitchen, Suhwan still standing there staring at them.
“We won’t!” Kwangsun and Jaehyuk chorus back, sounding like children even though they’re well into their twenties now. Well, they all just turned twenty, but that’s not as important. “Suhwan!”
“What did I say?” Su-in says louder, across the entire apartment, “Don’t be too loud!”
Suhwan smiles at his brother’s warning, turning back to his original task of making tea for his mother. He doesn’t say anything but with the way Jaehyuk walks up to him and back-hugs him, they know his quiet question.
“I want some tea,” Kwangsun says, leaning against the counter and watching him work.
“I don’t,” Jaehyuk answers in return before he’s leaning away when Suhwan moves to put the pot on the stove.
“Okay,” Suhwan mumbles, getting everything prepared before going to sit at the kitchen table to stare at his friends curiously. “Why are you here?”
“I called your mom!” Jaehyuk exclaims, smiling as he sits next to him. “She says you’re free for this entire week, so I decided to come over and bring Kwangsun with me!”
It makes Suhwan smile, the way his best friend still contacts his mom when he’s not home, and he looks to Kwangsun to see him shaking his head at them with a small smile on his face. Suhwan and Jaehyuk have been friends ever since they were born, although Jaehyuk always brings up he should’ve been the older friend by two weeks instead of him, and they’ve kept their friendship ever since then.
Well, he’s had problems in the past with his feelings, confusing them sometimes when Jaehyuk latches onto him during movies and whenever they hang out, and he can catch the weird glint in Kwangsun’s eyes when he stares at them briefly before turning around to watch the pot of water carefully for him.
“How’s my best friend doing?” Jaehyuk asks, leaning over to place his chin on his shoulder, “You’re not sick are you? This is the only time we’re meeting and I don’t want to be next to you if you’re sick.”
That makes Suhwan pout, blushing at the close proximity. “I’m not sick,” he mumbles, not knowing what to do in this situation. Should he lean away or lean in closer so his friend is more comfortable? But leaning in closer is too close for comfort – he’s not even okay with Sookhyun being this close to him yet – but comfort, for his friend. He bites his lip as he leans over so Jaehyuk is more comfortable leaning against him.
“Good! I don’t think we’d get sick anyways,” Jaehyuk says, sighing contently as he moves to rest his head on his shoulder, “We’re too young to get sick.”
“Plus, I heard it only affects the elderly and those already with severe health problems,” Kwangsun adds, getting the mugs out, “Did you want one, Suhwan? I can’t tell if you made enough for two or three.”
“No,” Suhwan answers, shaking his head despite bumping it against Jaehyuk’s. He doesn’t even think about being in his own house, sometimes allowing him to act however he likes, but his brother and mother always taught him to be polite. “Thank you.”
His answer has his friends laughing but he doesn’t understand why, because he wasn’t funny. Was he? But he goes along with it anyways, smiling as Kwangsun finishes pouring the water to let the tea leaves do their thing. He wonders how long his friends are going to stay over today.
There are a few people standing outside the apartment complex, most of them sitting around with cameras, and Min frowns as she plucks her phone from her back pocket and dials a certain number, walking further down the street before stopping to stare at the girls waiting around outside. She’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt with shorts and high-tops, and it’s getting hot outside.
“Hello?”
“Lao Gao-ge,” Min immediately whispers, looking to the other side of her to make sure nobody was near her. The sun is bright and it still makes her eyes hurt even behind her sunglasses. “Did you know you have fans waiting outside?”
“There’s always people waiting outside,” Lao Gao breathes out, sounding tired himself. “It’s practically Lu Han’s life.”
“How do I even get in?”
“Oh. Are you at the apartment already? Just enter like you live there.”
Min frowns because where else did he think she was? She sighs as she takes his advice and goes towards the building, openly staring at the girls ahead of her before simply walking through like she actually does live there when she really doesn’t. The girls don’t even look in her direction and she’s glad for that.
“Oh, but you don’t have a key.”
Groaning, Min stops in the lobby, looking around because – “No, I don’t. Aren’t you here?”
“No, we’re still at the studio.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Lu Han doesn’t want you to come here,” Lao Gao quietly says, “But I’ll tell you the code to get in. We’ll just change it later today.”
Min bites her lip as she continues towards the elevators, pushing the button and waiting for it to open. Luckily, she’s by herself so when she enters, she feels like she can breathe normally again. “When are you coming back?”
“In an hour or two. Just make yourself comfortable.” There’s a bit of rustling after he says the code before he speaks again. “What’s your favorite coffee-related drink?”
Min hums at the question, walking down the corridor to the room and looking around to make sure nobody sees her, before putting in the code and entering. “I don’t like coffee,” she answers once she’s safely inside the apartment, “I don’t really like hot liquids honestly. Soup is okay though, sometimes.”
When she hears Lao Gao telling that to somebody else, she winces when she hears Lu Han’s gasp. “Lu Han doesn’t believe you.”
“I only like the cold drinks, preferably with chocolate,” she says, looking around and gently putting her bag down on a table before going straight to the DVD collection. If she’s on vacation, she’s going to spend it right. “The colder drinks are okay too, like those iced Americanos and frappuccinos. I’m going to watch Avengers, by the way.”
“Okay,” Lao Gao says, “We’ll be there soon.”
The call ends and Min looks around curiously. She’s never been in Lu Han’s apartment before so it’s a tad weird, but there was nowhere else they could meet and hang out without resorting to his studio and he doesn’t want her near the place like it’s some deathly disease. That, and she didn’t want him going anywhere when he’s probably tired from his recent activities for his Hollywood movie.
The beginning of the movie plays and she smiles as she gets comfortable on the couch, texting her mom that she’s made the trip safe and sound. It doesn’t take long to get into the movie afterwards, loving every single Marvel movie that’s come out since Ironman, but the excitement doesn’t last long against how soft the couch is and how tired she is thinking about traveling back to Korea in the morning. She’s going to be an hour late for practice because she couldn’t get an earlier flight and she knows she’s going to stay longer to try and catch up to the rest.
She doesn’t even realize it when she dozes off, after the Hulk smashes Loki into the ground, and she jumps when someone drapes a blanket over her legs.
“Sorry,” Lao Gao instantly says, giving her an apologetic smile before Lu Han pops up behind him holding drinks.
“We have drinks!” Lu Han announces, but the drinks don’t wake up Min. What wakes her up is the striking amount of blonde hair on Lu Han’s head, bright and vibrant and wow that’s bright. “I got you the most chocolate-y one they had on the menu.”
When he sits down on the coffee table in front of her, she can’t help but reach out and touch his hair, gently pulling on his fringe because that’s really bright. “You’re blonde,” she comments, Lu Han’s eyes widening at her actions, “Seriously blonde.”
“That’s what I said,” Lao Gao says from the kitchen, “But he’s been that blonde before. It’s just weird.”
“It’s not weird,” Lu Han mumbles, bringing his drink up to his lips again. “I had to have blonde hair for that commercial.”
“Well,” Min says, leaning back and pulling the blanket up higher to her stomach, “It looks nice. It makes you look younger.” She moves so there’s enough room on either side of her, a space for Lu Han and Lao Gao each. She eyes her friend, watching as he moves to sit next to her and hand her drink to her to finish the ending of the movie. “How have you been doing?”
“Busy,” Lu Han instantly says, getting comfortable on the furniture, “But we finally finished filming the movie and it feels great.”
Min smiles at the news, taking a sip of her cold drink and humming in appreciation. She can hear the ruckus of pans clanking together in the kitchen and it makes her laugh realizing Lao Gao is going to be cooking for them.
“What have you been doing in Korea?” Lu Han quietly asks, staring at her curiously. “Are you leaving again soon?” He shivers at the thought of airplanes but Min doesn’t bring it up, knowing his fear reached an all-time high that he can’t even go near airports or see them before his anxiety takes over.
“Yeah,” she says, looking back over to him but his hair takes her attention away, “Tomorrow morning I’m going back.”
“Why?”
Min shrugs. “I have business over there. I can’t leave when I’m in the middle of doing something.” She looks back to the television screen, placing her drink on the table in front of them. She wants to pull her hair up but she can’t, knowing she’s going to have to deal with a certain image when she debuts. “I’ll come back to visit soon though.”
“Are you going to be here next month?” Lu Han questions, “Or August or something?”
“Huh?” Min answers, looking over to him curiously. She doesn’t know if they’re going to have free time so soon again, or if they’re even going to have another few days off before their debut to do whatever they want. “I don’t know, Han. Why?”
Lu Han frowns, moving around until he can face her comfortably with one leg hanging off of the couch. He looks like a miffed puppy sometimes and Min never knows whether to laugh or coo at him. “I’m making a solo debut, you know,” he starts off, looking over her shoulder towards the kitchen to make sure Lao Gao isn’t coming out, “I plan on filming the music video in August if my next schedule for my next movie takes up all my time in July and then I’m having a mini-concert on September 25.“
That catches Min off-guard, staring at him with wide-eyes, because she didn’t know that at all. Her friend has been working hard in the studio, and it makes sense now why he’s been so busy lately. But she doesn’t know if she can make those dates.
“It’s supposed to be a secret,” Lu Han continues with a smile, eyes lighting up as he covers his mouth with his coffee cup, “Nobody knows except my team and Lao Gao.”
“I can’t believe you told her,” Lao Gao comments, voice void of emotion as he stands at the entrance of the kitchen, “You even saw me give you a disapproving look and you still told her.”
The way Lu Han laughs, embarrassed yet happy, makes Min smile happily. It has Lao Gao chuckling too before he’s disappearing into the kitchen again. The credits are rolling on the screen but Min can’t look away from her friend, thinking about all the hardships he went through but living life as though it was somewhat normal for him. He’s still the same bright, kind guy she met two years ago, and she hopes she’ll be the same way after she debuts too.
“I’ll try,” she finally says, reaching out to touch his hair again, “Are you going to be blonde for it too?”
“No way,” Lu Han laughs out, red tinting his cheeks, “I’m dying my hair back to a dark color. That’s what I prefer.”
She wonders what he’s going to do when she debuts in another country.
Hyemi looks up from where she’s been sitting in one of their old hangouts, one of the older underground scenes where they used to rap, and rolls her eyes when she sees Minho with his face mask pulled under his chin and pouting at her. There’s really more than enough room for both of them to sit but when Minho moves to sit next to her, he moves in until they’re bumping hips and he keeps pushing her until they’re flush side-by-side.
“I have not been ignoring you,” Hyemi finally answers back when Minho gets comfortable enough. She laughs when he wiggles against her arm. “I’ve just been busy.”
“Busy with what though?” Minho whines, leaning his head on her shoulder, “You have been ignoring me and that’s not a good thing to do to your best friend.”
Hyemi rolls her eyes, again. “Are you kidding me?”
“I do not kid.”
“You are a kid,” Hyemi retorts, laughing when Minho grumbles and moves away from her. She watches him, completely amused, as he pulls his mask up to cover the lower half of his face again. Her own is still in place, and she briefly wonders if he has plans for the day and if he’s worried about the MERS virus as everyone else.
“I can’t hang out long today,” Minho softly says, “President Yang is opening up a new restaurant, so WINNER is going to show support for him.”
Hyemi stares at him a bit longer before humming, nodding, as she looks back out to the empty venue, a few staff personnel walking around. Even though she’s close with Minho, she hasn’t even personally met the other members of WINNER and iKON yet. It’s such a shame too because she thinks she could get along with, at least, some of them. “Why don’t I go with you to the opening?” She wants to say she’s prepared for the attack of a tight hug.
But she’s not.
She whines when Minho squeezes his arms around her and shakes them back and forth. Trying to shake him off, she groans when it only makes him practically suffocate her. “Minho! Stop it!”
“You are not meeting them!” Minho shouts back, declaring it for the world to hear. “They’re going to take you away from me and I’m not prepared for that yet!”
“Oh my God,” Hyemi groans, trying to reach up and smack him on the face. “Stop it. I can’t breathe.” And then she squeaks when he rubs his cheek against hers. Why is she dealing with such a kid?
“Nope!” he chirps, laughing happily to himself. But then he loosens his hold, Hyemi breathing out a sigh of relief, until he’s just leaning against her with his arm around her shoulders. Hyemi has to use more strength to balance both of them, but she doesn’t mind, not anymore. She’s gotten used to his odd, touchy ways. “Besides,” he says, “You’re mine. They can’t be friends with my best friend too.”
“You’re so over-protective,” Hyemi complains, even though she makes no move to get out from under him, “One day, you’re not going to be able to protect me so much.”
“And how can I?” Minho practically screams, pulling away to glare at her, “You’ve been ignoring me!”
“Can we give that a break?” Hyemi mumbles, voice hinting away to a whine, “When’s your supporting thing anyways?”
The question distracts Minho enough to pull his arm away and search for his phone, checking the time briefly before hanging his head in defeat. Hyemi tries not to laugh at the gesture, knowing it’s partially to add effect since she can’t see his mouth, and tries not to look too amused when he looks back up to her. “Let me walk you home?”
It’s nothing new, their friendship. It’s been like this since their high school days, and Hyemi’s surprised nobody’s found out about their relationship sooner. Although, she knocks on a bench as they walk by it, hoping that old superstition works and knocking on wood decreases their chances of getting caught. She doesn’t want to add stress to Minho and WINNER and she doesn’t want to bring in unnecessary, bad attention to Night Circus before they even become… Night Circus.
She laughs when Minho bumps shoulders with her again, his eyes turning into crescents when he stares at her.
“Tell me what you’ve been doing.”
“Hmm?” Hyemi answers back, staring up at him curiously. “Same old.”
Minho sighs, looking away to search the area for anybody staring at them. “You must be doing something to occupy your time. Are you going to school again?”
Biting her lip, Hyemi shakes her head, knowing Minho can’t see anything underneath the mask. She’s been doing so much since she’s been training, but a lot of it she can’t tell her friend. They’re prohibited until they debut and she’s still surprised the CEOs let the others create videos before they’ve even hit the stage. “I’ve still been writing lyrics, raps, you know? But I’m not in school again.”
“Really? Are they good?” Minho asks, voice genuinely interested. “You should rap for me sometime. Maybe we can hit the underground stage or go to a karaoke bar or something.”
Hyemi laughs softly, giving him a look before looking away again. “You know you can’t do that when so many people will recognize you.”
“Then rap for me at your house. Your family loves me.”
Hyemi frowns. She knows all about that. Her mother and sister still make bets from time to time asking if she’s going to meet up with Minho and if he’s going to walk her home again afterwards. She can practically hear them now and she doesn’t know whether to yell at them in embarrassment or just hide away forever. But Minho looks so hopeful when she turns to stare up at him. She sighs in defeat and Minho cheers quietly at the win.
“So, what’s the title of this song?”
“Unknown.”
“Seriously?” Minho asks, eyes widening.
Hyemi laughs, shaking her head as she bumps shoulders with him. She misses hanging out with her best friend. “No.”
The café is empty and Sookhyun is bored. Usually, this wouldn’t be a problem, but today it is, only because he’s been doing nothing for the past two days and he’s bored. He’s already tried texting Seungheon and all he got in response were a same and a so freaking bored and then the conversation died after a few minutes with Seungheon responding back with a sorry, my cousin is beating me at mario kart and this is nOT OKAY.
Since then, his boredom has returned tenfold, playing with a bunch of napkins and trying to make them form objects and animals in an act of origami, but it isn’t doing much after being here for so long. His eyes light up when he finally sees his sister coming out from the back of the café, freshly made bread on the metal pan she’s carrying. “Soojin-noona!” he calls out, waving from his spot by the window.
His call has her looking over before she’s laughing, setting the pan down on the back counter, before telling her employee to place them in their appropriate spots inside the glass case. He’s beaming at her, smile bright, and it makes her laugh even more. “What are you doing here, Sookhyun? Shouldn’t you be doing something else?”
There’s a knowing look in her gaze and it makes Sookhyun pout, putting his hands in his coat pockets and slumping back into his chair. “No,” he mumbles, staring at the table and his deformed masterpieces in front of him, “We’re banned for a week.”
“What?” Soojin gasps, quickly moving to sit in the chair opposite of him. “Why? What happened?”
“It’s because of the MERS scare,” he continues on in a murmur, looking up confused when his sister lets out a sigh. “What’s wrong?” His sister looks relieved, taking off her waist apron to sit more comfortably in the chair.
“Nothing,” she says, quickly scanning her café to make sure nobody was close or could easily hear them before she looks back to her little brother. Sookhyun looks confused, staring at her with wide eyes, and it makes her smile. “How has training been? I haven’t seen you lately.”
The thought of training and his group makes him smile, eyes lighting up, as he thinks about their last day together even though they did nothing but worry about their health and Min. His sister laughs softly in front of him and his smile brightens. “It’s been going great!” he exclaims, jumping a bit in his seat excitedly, “I’ve been getting better and I think I’m getting healthier too? All the dancing is helping me with my body and everybody’s so nice!”
“Really?” Soojin asks with a laugh, leaning forward to place her chin in her hand and stare fondly at her brother. “Nobody’s being mean to you, right?” There’s a teasing glint in her eyes and Sookhyun pouts once he recognizes it.
“Of course nobody is being mean to me! All my group mates take care of me!” He hums as he thinks about them, smile softening when he thinks about the eldest ones in the group. “Min-noona is really nice,” he says, “I really like her. She reminds me of you and Soomi-noona.” He trails off at the end, voice getting softer. “Everybody else is worried about her though.”
“Why?”
When he looks up, Soojin is looking at him with wide eyes, surprised. He gives her a sad smile, slumping over on the table and placing his chin on top of his arms. “Min is friends with Lu Han, one of the two guys who left EXO?” he says softly. When he receives a nod of understanding, he continues, remembering he asked Jiwool and Jaesun about it before looking up all the articles surrounding it. “She’s really good friends with him because they’re both from Beijing and they can relate. The others are worried that she might follow in his footsteps when we debut.”
“Do you really think that?” Soojin questions, reaching out to hold his hand, “Wouldn’t she have left by now to pursue her own career?”
Sookhyun immediately shakes his head, frowning as he lets his sister pull his hand closer to her to hold. “No. I think she’s going to stay with us.”
“And why is that?”
“Because she loves us.”
There’s a moment of silence between them, Sookhyun looking at his sister’s smaller hands holding his larger one. It reminds him of the time Hyemi and Jiwool kept tugging on his hands because there was something on them he couldn’t get off on his own.
“Does she?” Soojin quietly asks, causing him to look up at her shocked. “Or is this just you being stubborn about the situation?”
Sookhyun doesn’t like where the conversation is going, trying to pull his hand away from his sister’s. He’s spent so much time with Min. She wouldn’t do anything to upset or hurt him. “I’m sure,” he says, sounding resolute, “She loves us because we’re a group. We’ve already formed bonds with each other. She can’t just leave because her friend left.”
There’s an expression of uncertainty on his sister’s face and he wants to shake it off of her. Jaesun doesn’t think Min would leave, he’s told him that before in privacy. He’s probably the only one besides Jiwool who believes Min won’t leave. He jumps when his phone sounds at the same time someone calls his sister’s name. They both look around surprised, Sookhyun finally pulling his hand away from his sister’s and moving to check his phone.
Min: Don’t forget to drink a glass of warm water with honey and lemon!
The reminder shocks Sookhyun before he starts laughing, smiling brightly and feeling his heart warm. It makes his sister curious, walking around the table to drape arms over his shoulders from behind and lean down to see what he’s laughing about. She smiles and he can hear it in her voice.
“Does she always do this?”
Sookhyun nods, quickly typing out a response – I won’t noona! – before Soojin is pulling away to get back to work.
“Then she’s not going to leave.”
“I’m bored.”
Kyehoon scoffs from the recliner, side-eyeing his cousin when Seungheon twists too far and falls sideways on the couch. They’re currently playing a racing game on the Wii, Mario Kart, to be specific, and Kyehoon is winning. He doesn’t even have to say anything before his cousin is speaking again.
“You’re not even trying,” Seungheon complains, quickly sitting back up again so he doesn’t fall off the course, “So, I’m bored.”
“What are you even doing home?”
“I’m spending time with my lazy cousin,” Seungheon immediately answers, this time side-eyeing him, “What else?”
Kyehoon frowns, aiming and steadying his character before he releases a banana that makes Seungheon’s character spin and get bumped off of the road.
“Kyehoon! Why–”
“Aren’t you at your secret job?” Kyehoon finishes, pausing the game to raise an inquisitive brow at him. “Don’t tell me you quit already.”
“Now why would I quit?” Seungheon retaliates, staring at the man head-on. He only wants to play this game and actually beat his cousin at least a half amount of the times he’s won against him, but he can’t if Kyehoon won’t stop talking and pausing the game. “Why aren’t you in school?” The shrug he receives makes him feel a little bit annoyed.
“I’m already done for the day.”
And then Kyehoon is resuming the game and Seungheon screams when he gets slammed again. It makes Kyehoon laugh, body wracking the recliner into leaning back with him, but he still manages to win first place anyways.
It’s been a long time since they’ve hung out like this, not going to clubs and actually being in the same room with each other. It’s the first time they’ve seen each other’s faces besides their updates on their SNS accounts and Seungheon has to admit that it’s been pretty weird. He cheers when he wins the next round.
“Rainbow Road is so my road!”
“How can anybody win on this road, honestly,” Kyehoon exclaims, already setting up the next round of random tracks. “That’s just insane.”
“Only because I beat you at it!”
“That’s the only road you can beat me at!” Kyehoon retaliates, frowning at him. “How is that even possible?”
Seungheon shrugs as he gets into position, already stretching because he knows he’ll get a cramp if he tries to turn with his car again. He can’t help it either. It’s like a natural reaction when he’s playing these types of games, moving along with the character hoping it’ll help him out more in the end, when it really doesn’t. Kyehoon has stopped laughing about it, but now he just gives him a look instead.
“So, seriously,” Kyehoon says, catching his attention again even as they’re trying to knock each other out with red shells and bananas, “You’ve been home for two days in a row. What happened?”
“Nothing happened,” Seungheon says with a frown, glancing at him out of the corners of his eyes, wondering why he’s so insistent about this. “What do you think happened?” He screeches when he almost gets knocked off of the course. Again. “I just got some days off. What about it?”
There’s a moment of silence between them, the music and sounds from the game filling up the empty spaces, and Seungheon almost forgets they were even talking in the first place, twisting and then jumping back with his car and hitting his back against the corner of a cushion.
“Is it about the MERS scare?” Kyehoon questions quietly, easily navigating the course without much resistance, but it catches Seungheon off-guard, running into a tree before cursing and getting himself out of it.
“What about it?” he asks in return, trying to feign nonchalance.
“Two people died the other day,” Kyehoon explains, “Are you trying to make sure you don’t get it?”
Seungheon tries to shrug but, at the same time, he’s still trying to avoid the other players in the game. “Aren’t you doing the same?”
“Not because I’m still singing,” Kyehoon softly says, watching as Seungheon immediately stiffens and stares at him. He pauses the game once more. “I don’t sing or rap or dance, but I’m still being cautious wherever I go. You haven’t left the apartment, only to go get stuff from the store, and I’m wondering if something happened at your mystery job.”
Seungheon doesn’t know what to think. He hasn’t told his cousin he’s still in a company training to become an idol, and the man still thinks that he has a separate, mysterious job instead. The only people who know he’s still training are his parents and they know they’re not supposed to say any of it to anyone until he debuts.
He doesn’t even know what to say, so he presses play instead and continues on with the game, Kyehoon frantically keeping up to keep his place as second to Bowser.
“Judging by your expression,” Kyehoon says minutes later, frowning when they both lose to Bowser in the end, “I’m hoping you didn’t get fired from your job and you’re seriously just taking a break.”
Seungheon never liked it when his father always compared him to his smarter cousin. Kyehoon was always talented when it came to academics, causing him to do better in school compared to him, but it wasn’t because he studied all the time. It was like it all came naturally to him and Seungheon had to study twice as much to keep up.
“You know I won’t say anything. I’m just going to wait until you debut to see if I was right.”
But he did always like his cousin for a reason. He smiles as he gets back into the game, trying to beat his cousin and losing again for the nth time.
06 JUNE 2015
4:42 PM
4:42 PM
“Jiwool,” Min pleads, “Please stop sending me pictures of them in baseball uniforms. It does not do well with my health.”
“But unnie!” Jiwool screeches, staring wide-eyed at the television screen, “They look good!”
“But I don’t need to know that when I’m in another country!”
“Unnie!”
“Jiwool!”
“Unnie!” Jiwool says louder, whining when she remembers the look Junmyeon gave to the camera while shaking his hips. “I’m weak!”
“I’m weak against baseball uniforms too, Jiwool!”
“But look at them!”
There’s a pause before Min speaks again, voice void of emotion. “I can’t. YouTube is banned in Beijing.”
“There are other ways to watch it!”
“But I can’t right now!”
“Who’s your favorite?” Jiwool suddenly questions, watching the ending of Music Core and ignoring Sohyun’s snickering of ‘of course Jiwool’s is Suho,’ “And don’t say Minseok-oppa because you two are already good friends!” She also ignores Sohyun’s questions of ‘how did you even meet this girl and how are both of you friends with EXO?’
“Does he look good though? He’s been working on his body constantly. He must look good in a uniform.”
“That’s beside the point!”
Min sighs. “Then out of the pictures – Sehun. His broad shoulders are a nice thing.” There’s rustling in the background before she’s speaking again. “Okay, Jiwool. I have to go. I’ll message you in a bit! My parents say ‘hi,’ by the way.”
Jiwool releases her own sigh at the answer, pouting as she thinks Chanyeol looks pretty good too, but they’re friends already. “My answer is Lay-oppa,” she says, pouting at her roommate when she laughs, “Okay. I’ll talk to you later. I said ‘hi’ back!”
“Stay safe. Don’t let Junna hurt you!”
“Junmyeon!” Jiwool screeches, groaning when Min simply laughs before they hang up on each other. She stares petulantly at the television, eyeing EXO as they leave the stage so the winners can do their encore. They look good, they all do, but it’s been days since she was supposed to talk to Junmyeon and they still haven’t found time to talk yet.
The program cuts off and switches to another, Jiwool handing the remote over to her roommate who just stares at her curiously before she’s changing the channel. Jiwool’s phone rings and she looks over surprised to see Junmyeon’s name popping up on the screen. But unlike all the other times when she’s let it go to voicemail, she sighs and looks to her roommate for support.
Sohyun simply gives her a smile before getting up to leave the room, whispering a quiet ‘fighting!’ for her. Jiwool doesn’t glare at her roommate. She doesn’t.
“Hello?” she says when she answers the phone, heart palpitating wildly in her chest. There’s a moment of silence and she frowns as she pulls the phone away to see if she actually answered the call or not. When she puts it back up to her ear, she hears Chanyeol’s voice instead.
“You actually answered!”
Jiwool is confused. “Yeollie? What are you doing?”
“You answered!” Chanyeol bellows before there’s fighting in the background.
“She answered? Give me the phone!”
“No, wait! I need to know why!”
“Chanyeol, dammit, give me the phone!”
“Children,” she can hear Jongdae in the background, chiding both of them. She laughs as she starts to think that they were right in saying Jongdae is like their mother in the group. “Stop fighting. Don’t we have another schedule to get to?”
“No!” the other two scream back and Jiwool winces at the shout in her ear.
“Hello?” she tries again, sighing when there’s more arguing and she’s getting up to follow her roommate into her room. She knocks on the door before entering the open doorway, seeing Sohyun on her laptop looking up pictures and videos of EXO’s previous performance from the day before. She smiles when Sohyun lets out a wistful sigh at seeing Chanyeol on her screen.
“What is it, Jiwool?” Sohyun questions, not bothering to look away from her screen, “What happened?”
“They’re arguing,” Jiwool simply states, sitting on the bed next to her. “Chanyeol won’t let him have the phone.”
That gets her roommate’s attention immediately, turning around to face her with bright eyes as she holds out her hands. She opens and closes them repeatedly, silently asking her for her phone. “Let me hear him. I bet Chanyeol’s voice sounds amazing on the phone!”
Jiwool laughs, holding the phone out and indulging in her fangirl ways. “I guess,” she says, watching as Sohyun happily puts the phone up to her ear and then squeal loudly before she pulls the phone away to bounce on her bed.
“He’s so protective! Why would his past girlfriend break up with him?! Oh my gosh!”
Sohyun puts the phone back up to her ear but then her nose scrunches in confusion, staring at the phone briefly before holding it back out to her. “It’s your… whatever he is,” she mutters, mood suddenly sullen before going back to her laptop. “I’m done with that.” But then she gives her a look over her shoulder. “Let me know how that goes.”
It has Jiwool becoming confused before she puts the phone up to her ear again. She waits a few minutes, taking her time to walk out of the room, and when she makes it to the living room again, she hears a timid voice speaking to her. “Hello?”
Jiwool’s heart feels like it’s about to explode.
“Jiwool? Woolie-ah?”
“You have no right to call her that right now!” Chanyeol screeches from somewhere in the back, causing Jiwool to smile despite the feeling of fainting any minute now. There’s more arguing and she can swear she can hear Yixing in the background, wondering what’s going on.
She thought this phone call was supposed to sign hers and Junmyeon’s fate, if they can’t actually meet in person, but it seems like the world is against them when the phone is dropped and somebody else is picking it up instead.
“Hello? Is this Jiwool? Min’s friend?”
“Lay-oppa?” Jiwool gasps out in surprise, looking to the television hoping to find some answers with what’s going on right now. She’s only ever talked to him once, but it was in passing on Chanyeol’s past birthday. He only really talked to Min, and that made sense then.
“Hi!” Yixing says brightly. “I didn’t get to meet you properly while you trained at SM, but I saw that you were a dancer too! Do you still practice?”
Jiwool laughs at the excitement in his voice, relaxing against the couch as she talks to him instead. She doesn’t mind at all. She thinks he’s a good dancer too. “Hi, oppa,” she greets, smiling, “Yeah, I still practice! We were in the same class before, I think, when I was still at SM!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! We had the same teacher and lessons and everything!” Yixing laughs and it makes Jiwool smile as well. “But I’m curious,” she says, hearing a hum in response, “Are you okay? Are you tired?” She knows how busy he is, with his personal studio in China and continuously flying back and forth to meet EXO’s schedules as well as his own. It should be tiring. She doesn’t know how he does it.
It takes a few seconds, but Yixing sounds calmer, happier. “Yeah, I’m okay – it’s all tiring – but it will be worth it in the end. You don’t need to worry about me.”
The answer has Jiwool saddening, wondering why he’s burdened with all of this, but there’s another small noise before Yixing is telling her he’s going to give the phone back to Junmyeon. Jiwool doesn’t know what to say when Junmyeon gets his phone back and he sounds apologetic.
“I’m sorry, but we have to go. Can I text or call you later? I promise we’ll actually talk this time.”
“Okay,” Jiwool says, voice quiet, already succumbing to the fact that the next time they’ll actually talk is probably until after her debut, “Stay safe and take good care of your health, okay?” She can hear Junmyeon take a deep breath, sounding happier when he speaks again.
“As long as you stay happy, Woolie–”
“Hyung!” Chanyeol screeches, and then they quickly hang up after saying their goodbyes. She stares at her cell phone afterwards, watching as the blinking numbers go back to her homepage and it’s a picture of her with the rest of her group. She smiles as they all tried to make funny faces at the camera, Suhwan looking away embarrassed because he didn’t understand what was going on at the time. Her heart beats a little faster when Junmyeon randomly sends her a text that solely consists of the heart emoji.
Lu Han left months ago, Yifan months before him, and she’s surprised Zitao taking his time off from the group isn’t affecting EXO as much as the elder two’s leave did. But maybe they’re all getting better at accepting the ways of life and understanding the stress that comes with it, especially since they’ve probably all had time to heal and work through it together.
Junmyeon sends another emoji of the face with heart-eyes and it makes her smile.
He’s trying, and Jiwool is tired of trying to avoid him.
“So, I know we’re supposed to be careful with our health and everything,” Jaesun screams into his phone, trying to block out the cheers and shouts all around him, “But I was conned into this, I swear!”
“Why the hell are you yelling? Why did you even call me?!”
Jaesun frowns, plugging his finger in his free ear to hear his friend better. It really doesn’t do much though, especially when he’s standing backstage at Music Core where Hakyeon told him to come because he has special treatment. “I can’t get a hold of anybody else!” he answers back, “And I don’t want to pay the extra money to call Min in China!”
“Seriously?” Hyemi shouts back, sounding as aggravated as he is, “What are you doing?!”
“I’m backstage at Music Core! The CEOs can’t know!”
“What? Why?!”
“I was conned, I swear!” Jaesun repeats, flinching when somebody bumps into him. He immediately turns and bows. “I’m sorry!”
When he looks up, it’s a staff member holding a clipboard trying to move around him without looking up. The other gives him a slight bow in return, telling whoever is on the other side of the receiver of her earpiece to get the next group ready, and suddenly, he feels lost. He’s going to be one of the groups the staff personnel are trying to get out in time, making sure his makeup is done correctly and his hair and clothes are styled perfectly, and then, he’s going to be rushing onto the stage, being blinded by lights and deaf by everyone’s screams.
“Jaesun!” Hyemi yells, causing him to jerk to the side painfully, “You should leave before someone catches you!”
“Like who?!” Jaesun shouts back, turning back around to see Hakyeon talking next to Minho and Yerim on the stage. “Nobody knows me!”
“Uh huh,” Hyemi drawls, “You should get out though.”
“I can’t!” Another person bumps into him and he turns around, eyes widening when he bumps into Minseok from EXO. Oh. Oh wow. Instincts take over and he’s bowing again, deeply, because they are going to be his seniors in the music industry in four months. Even if he’s jaded about them from Jiwool and Min constantly talking about them, it’s still surprising being in EXO’s presence up close and personal. “I’m sorry!”
Minseok jumps in surprise, turning to face him before laughing shyly and bowing as well. He’s so small against him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”
“It’s okay,” Jaesun says, quietly, as he hears Hyemi trying to talk to him on the phone. “I’m just–”
“Jaesun!” Hakyeon suddenly screams, coming up behind him and looping his arm with his. It makes him almost drop his phone. “You’ve met Xiumin!”
“Oh,” Minseok says, eyes wide as he stares at each of them, “You two are friends?”
“Yeah!” Hakyeon answers, smile bright. “He used to train with us at Jellyfish Entertainment before he left. I don’t know why though. He would’ve been debuting soon if he stayed.”
Jaesun rolls his eyes out of habit, completely forgetting he’s on the phone with his group mate. “I’m pretty sure Jellyfish isn’t debuting a new group soon when they have you still doing things for them.”
“Now, you don’t know that!”
“EXO, get ready in two minutes!”
They all stop and stare at the staff worker, trying to organize the group, and Jaesun takes quick note of how many members are actually there. There’s nine now, and it’s odd how there used to be twelve of them.
“Big Bang! You too!”
“Big Bang?!” Jaesun exclaims, turning around to spot the five members goofing off in the back. His heart is beating wildly and there’s a rush of noise in his ears, he doesn’t even know what he’s properly feeling but he knows he’s overwhelmed. “Oh my God.”
“Hey!” Hakyeon screams, jerking Jaesun back in his direction. “I don’t need you fanboying over them. I had to pull a lot of strings to get you backstage.”
The reminder has Jaesun immediately frowning, turning to face him as Minseok laughs and waves, walking away to take the stage. It’s also then that he realizes that Hyemi has hung up on him, sending him a text saying don’t forget you’re talking on the phone with someone – that’s rude. “I didn’t want to come in the first place,” Jaesun says, watching as Hakyeon turns to greet others as they pass by them, “You threatened me to come here.”
“I haven’t seen you in forever,” Hakyeon complains, “And you actually answered your phone earlier! Plus, you should be thankful because of that virus going around. Getting in here means your sickness-free.”
“You always had a weird way with words,” Jaesun comments, looking around at all the other idols walking around them. He swears he wheezes when Big Bang walks past him because wow Taeyang is short compared to him too. “How are you even breathing?”
Hakyeon laughs. “And you say I’m the one with a weird way with words?” But then he shrugs, waiting to go back up to the stage to announce who wins the trophy this week. “You get used to it. Everybody is still a human being. Some just happen to sing and dance for a living instead of taking up office work or something else they truly enjoy.”
This moment is one of those rare times where Hakyeon gives Jaesun a little insight into the idol world, show him what he’s missing out on because he left their company. It still surprises him when he says things like this, but he’s right. Becoming an idol is like training for a new job, becoming an intern before becoming a professional businessman. Not everyone can be successful, but in the end, they’re all professional at what they do.
“Oh,” Hakyeon says, looking around to see Minho and Yerim walking up to them as well, “We’re about to go up.” He gives him a smile, pushing him away gently. “My manager knows who you are. Ask him to bring you out to the van and we’ll stop by someplace after running away from the fans.” His smile brightens as he waves at him before running towards the stage. “It’ll be a date!”
Jaesun’s eyes widen at the words, quickly looking around to see if anybody heard them, but it must be normal if nobody turns to bat an eyelash at them. He releases a sigh of relief, watching, as all three MCs get ready before they’re taking over the stage. All the artists congregate beside and behind them, all of them talking or trying to get in view of the camera, and Jaesun laughs at some of their antics before hurrying his way out of the building.
He pulls his facemask out of his pocket, as well as his phone, and dials up Hyemi’s number again, hoping she’s not busy. It doesn’t take long before he finds Hakyeon’s manager and they’re making their way out, both of them avoiding the fans leaving early or hanging around outside and trying to find a way into the van without their pictures being taken.
“Hello? You’re not going to ignore me again, are you?”
Jaesun needs to appreciate Hyemi more when he makes it into the van and sees curious eyes staring at him from the entrance of the building.
07 JUNE 2015
7:22 PM
7:22 PM
“Are you eating enough, Suhwan?”
Suhwan looks up from his food, eyes wide as he stares at his mother’s kind eyes before looking to his older brother who’s staring at him intently. He nods as he brings food up to his lips, chewing on it slowly because it’s been so long since he’s had a full meal of his mother’s food. “It’s good,” he compliments after he’s swallowed his mouthful. He’s smiling at his family, his mother smiling back brightly before going on to talk about her day, and his brother smiles back at him.
Dinner goes on like that, his mother and brother talking more than he, and he waits to help them clean the table up and wash the dishes. They joke around and Suhwan laughs when his mother jokes about his other hardworking son, Su-in glaring at them before sighing and shaking his head affectionately at them.
It takes a while before they actually finish their activities in the kitchen, his mother going off to do some more household chores and Suhwan settles on the couch because his mother told him to relax. His brother is another story though when he comes in to sit next to him, staring at him briefly before turning on the television. It’s set to some drama, but they don’t mind, Suhwan getting into it before his brother speaks up again.
“When are you going to debut?”
It snaps Suhwan out of his drama-induced daydreams, looking away from the screen to stare at his brother. Su-in is staring at him again and Suhwan looks back briefly before leaning back further into the couch. “October 31.”
“That’s still four months away.”
“It is, hyung,” Suhwan says quietly, looking over at him curiously. “Why?”
“Are you taking a break now because of the MERS scare?” Su-in questions, leaning forward to hear his younger brother better, “Are they really taking good care of you there?”
Suhwan nods his answer, staring at his brother strangely because of course they’re taking good care of him there. Why wouldn’t they? They’re his friends and don’t friends always treat each other nicely?
“I’m just making sure,” Su-in says slowly, relaxing more when he sees the innocence in his brother’s eyes, “I want to know they’re treating you right. I’d like to meet them some time.”
“Kwangsun and Jaehyuk met my friend Sookhyun,” Suhwan softly says, smile on his face, “They like him. He’s nice.” He sees the way his brother relaxes completely, smile growing on his own face in encouragement, and he keeps talking. “You’ll like him, hyung.” Although, he’s not used to talking so much, so he stops there, quickly looking away because he has nothing else to say really. He looks up when Su-in gets up, the other smiling at him before moving to ruffle his hair.
“I have some work to do,” Su-in says before they both hear their mother struggling with something down the hall, “I’m going to go help mom before that though. Why don’t you make some tea for her and I’ll take care of the rest of the things in the house?”
Suhwan nods easily, getting up from the couch and letting Su-in turn off the TV before going into the kitchen. He jumps when the doorbell sounds and he looks over curiously to hear his brother open the door, and then the excited chatter of his friends fills the quiet space. He didn’t expect them coming over.
“Don’t be too loud,” Su-in calls after them as they enter the kitchen, Suhwan still standing there staring at them.
“We won’t!” Kwangsun and Jaehyuk chorus back, sounding like children even though they’re well into their twenties now. Well, they all just turned twenty, but that’s not as important. “Suhwan!”
“What did I say?” Su-in says louder, across the entire apartment, “Don’t be too loud!”
Suhwan smiles at his brother’s warning, turning back to his original task of making tea for his mother. He doesn’t say anything but with the way Jaehyuk walks up to him and back-hugs him, they know his quiet question.
“I want some tea,” Kwangsun says, leaning against the counter and watching him work.
“I don’t,” Jaehyuk answers in return before he’s leaning away when Suhwan moves to put the pot on the stove.
“Okay,” Suhwan mumbles, getting everything prepared before going to sit at the kitchen table to stare at his friends curiously. “Why are you here?”
“I called your mom!” Jaehyuk exclaims, smiling as he sits next to him. “She says you’re free for this entire week, so I decided to come over and bring Kwangsun with me!”
It makes Suhwan smile, the way his best friend still contacts his mom when he’s not home, and he looks to Kwangsun to see him shaking his head at them with a small smile on his face. Suhwan and Jaehyuk have been friends ever since they were born, although Jaehyuk always brings up he should’ve been the older friend by two weeks instead of him, and they’ve kept their friendship ever since then.
Well, he’s had problems in the past with his feelings, confusing them sometimes when Jaehyuk latches onto him during movies and whenever they hang out, and he can catch the weird glint in Kwangsun’s eyes when he stares at them briefly before turning around to watch the pot of water carefully for him.
“How’s my best friend doing?” Jaehyuk asks, leaning over to place his chin on his shoulder, “You’re not sick are you? This is the only time we’re meeting and I don’t want to be next to you if you’re sick.”
That makes Suhwan pout, blushing at the close proximity. “I’m not sick,” he mumbles, not knowing what to do in this situation. Should he lean away or lean in closer so his friend is more comfortable? But leaning in closer is too close for comfort – he’s not even okay with Sookhyun being this close to him yet – but comfort, for his friend. He bites his lip as he leans over so Jaehyuk is more comfortable leaning against him.
“Good! I don’t think we’d get sick anyways,” Jaehyuk says, sighing contently as he moves to rest his head on his shoulder, “We’re too young to get sick.”
“Plus, I heard it only affects the elderly and those already with severe health problems,” Kwangsun adds, getting the mugs out, “Did you want one, Suhwan? I can’t tell if you made enough for two or three.”
“No,” Suhwan answers, shaking his head despite bumping it against Jaehyuk’s. He doesn’t even think about being in his own house, sometimes allowing him to act however he likes, but his brother and mother always taught him to be polite. “Thank you.”
His answer has his friends laughing but he doesn’t understand why, because he wasn’t funny. Was he? But he goes along with it anyways, smiling as Kwangsun finishes pouring the water to let the tea leaves do their thing. He wonders how long his friends are going to stay over today.
08 JUNE 2015
6:32 PM
6:32 PM
There are a few people standing outside the apartment complex, most of them sitting around with cameras, and Min frowns as she plucks her phone from her back pocket and dials a certain number, walking further down the street before stopping to stare at the girls waiting around outside. She’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt with shorts and high-tops, and it’s getting hot outside.
“Hello?”
“Lao Gao-ge,” Min immediately whispers, looking to the other side of her to make sure nobody was near her. The sun is bright and it still makes her eyes hurt even behind her sunglasses. “Did you know you have fans waiting outside?”
“There’s always people waiting outside,” Lao Gao breathes out, sounding tired himself. “It’s practically Lu Han’s life.”
“How do I even get in?”
“Oh. Are you at the apartment already? Just enter like you live there.”
Min frowns because where else did he think she was? She sighs as she takes his advice and goes towards the building, openly staring at the girls ahead of her before simply walking through like she actually does live there when she really doesn’t. The girls don’t even look in her direction and she’s glad for that.
“Oh, but you don’t have a key.”
Groaning, Min stops in the lobby, looking around because – “No, I don’t. Aren’t you here?”
“No, we’re still at the studio.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Lu Han doesn’t want you to come here,” Lao Gao quietly says, “But I’ll tell you the code to get in. We’ll just change it later today.”
Min bites her lip as she continues towards the elevators, pushing the button and waiting for it to open. Luckily, she’s by herself so when she enters, she feels like she can breathe normally again. “When are you coming back?”
“In an hour or two. Just make yourself comfortable.” There’s a bit of rustling after he says the code before he speaks again. “What’s your favorite coffee-related drink?”
Min hums at the question, walking down the corridor to the room and looking around to make sure nobody sees her, before putting in the code and entering. “I don’t like coffee,” she answers once she’s safely inside the apartment, “I don’t really like hot liquids honestly. Soup is okay though, sometimes.”
When she hears Lao Gao telling that to somebody else, she winces when she hears Lu Han’s gasp. “Lu Han doesn’t believe you.”
“I only like the cold drinks, preferably with chocolate,” she says, looking around and gently putting her bag down on a table before going straight to the DVD collection. If she’s on vacation, she’s going to spend it right. “The colder drinks are okay too, like those iced Americanos and frappuccinos. I’m going to watch Avengers, by the way.”
“Okay,” Lao Gao says, “We’ll be there soon.”
The call ends and Min looks around curiously. She’s never been in Lu Han’s apartment before so it’s a tad weird, but there was nowhere else they could meet and hang out without resorting to his studio and he doesn’t want her near the place like it’s some deathly disease. That, and she didn’t want him going anywhere when he’s probably tired from his recent activities for his Hollywood movie.
The beginning of the movie plays and she smiles as she gets comfortable on the couch, texting her mom that she’s made the trip safe and sound. It doesn’t take long to get into the movie afterwards, loving every single Marvel movie that’s come out since Ironman, but the excitement doesn’t last long against how soft the couch is and how tired she is thinking about traveling back to Korea in the morning. She’s going to be an hour late for practice because she couldn’t get an earlier flight and she knows she’s going to stay longer to try and catch up to the rest.
She doesn’t even realize it when she dozes off, after the Hulk smashes Loki into the ground, and she jumps when someone drapes a blanket over her legs.
“Sorry,” Lao Gao instantly says, giving her an apologetic smile before Lu Han pops up behind him holding drinks.
“We have drinks!” Lu Han announces, but the drinks don’t wake up Min. What wakes her up is the striking amount of blonde hair on Lu Han’s head, bright and vibrant and wow that’s bright. “I got you the most chocolate-y one they had on the menu.”
When he sits down on the coffee table in front of her, she can’t help but reach out and touch his hair, gently pulling on his fringe because that’s really bright. “You’re blonde,” she comments, Lu Han’s eyes widening at her actions, “Seriously blonde.”
“That’s what I said,” Lao Gao says from the kitchen, “But he’s been that blonde before. It’s just weird.”
“It’s not weird,” Lu Han mumbles, bringing his drink up to his lips again. “I had to have blonde hair for that commercial.”
“Well,” Min says, leaning back and pulling the blanket up higher to her stomach, “It looks nice. It makes you look younger.” She moves so there’s enough room on either side of her, a space for Lu Han and Lao Gao each. She eyes her friend, watching as he moves to sit next to her and hand her drink to her to finish the ending of the movie. “How have you been doing?”
“Busy,” Lu Han instantly says, getting comfortable on the furniture, “But we finally finished filming the movie and it feels great.”
Min smiles at the news, taking a sip of her cold drink and humming in appreciation. She can hear the ruckus of pans clanking together in the kitchen and it makes her laugh realizing Lao Gao is going to be cooking for them.
“What have you been doing in Korea?” Lu Han quietly asks, staring at her curiously. “Are you leaving again soon?” He shivers at the thought of airplanes but Min doesn’t bring it up, knowing his fear reached an all-time high that he can’t even go near airports or see them before his anxiety takes over.
“Yeah,” she says, looking back over to him but his hair takes her attention away, “Tomorrow morning I’m going back.”
“Why?”
Min shrugs. “I have business over there. I can’t leave when I’m in the middle of doing something.” She looks back to the television screen, placing her drink on the table in front of them. She wants to pull her hair up but she can’t, knowing she’s going to have to deal with a certain image when she debuts. “I’ll come back to visit soon though.”
“Are you going to be here next month?” Lu Han questions, “Or August or something?”
“Huh?” Min answers, looking over to him curiously. She doesn’t know if they’re going to have free time so soon again, or if they’re even going to have another few days off before their debut to do whatever they want. “I don’t know, Han. Why?”
Lu Han frowns, moving around until he can face her comfortably with one leg hanging off of the couch. He looks like a miffed puppy sometimes and Min never knows whether to laugh or coo at him. “I’m making a solo debut, you know,” he starts off, looking over her shoulder towards the kitchen to make sure Lao Gao isn’t coming out, “I plan on filming the music video in August if my next schedule for my next movie takes up all my time in July and then I’m having a mini-concert on September 25.“
That catches Min off-guard, staring at him with wide-eyes, because she didn’t know that at all. Her friend has been working hard in the studio, and it makes sense now why he’s been so busy lately. But she doesn’t know if she can make those dates.
“It’s supposed to be a secret,” Lu Han continues with a smile, eyes lighting up as he covers his mouth with his coffee cup, “Nobody knows except my team and Lao Gao.”
“I can’t believe you told her,” Lao Gao comments, voice void of emotion as he stands at the entrance of the kitchen, “You even saw me give you a disapproving look and you still told her.”
The way Lu Han laughs, embarrassed yet happy, makes Min smile happily. It has Lao Gao chuckling too before he’s disappearing into the kitchen again. The credits are rolling on the screen but Min can’t look away from her friend, thinking about all the hardships he went through but living life as though it was somewhat normal for him. He’s still the same bright, kind guy she met two years ago, and she hopes she’ll be the same way after she debuts too.
“I’ll try,” she finally says, reaching out to touch his hair again, “Are you going to be blonde for it too?”
“No way,” Lu Han laughs out, red tinting his cheeks, “I’m dying my hair back to a dark color. That’s what I prefer.”
She wonders what he’s going to do when she debuts in another country.
co-author's note: hi. yes. this chapter is pages on word i'm sorry???? i tried to make the parts equal but then ;;;; i'M SORRY.
question of the day: WORK IS KILLING ME. this isn't a question but yeah. talk to me about anything! (hearts)
updated: september 30, 2015
question of the day: WORK IS KILLING ME. this isn't a question but yeah. talk to me about anything! (hearts)
updated: september 30, 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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