chapter nine
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[COVER] Suhwan & Sookhyun - When I Can’t Sing (O...
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Vocal by Sookhyun (right) & Vocal/Rap by Suhwan (left)
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Vocal by Sookhyun (right) & Vocal/Rap by Suhwan (left)
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25 SEPTEMBER 2015
03:09 AM
03:09 AM
THE NINTH CHAPTER
Min is lying on the couch in the recording room, still sweating from practice, when she calls Minseok. It’s a little after three in the morning, but he should still be awake, considering how busy EXO’s schedules have been lately. She’s busy patting away the sweat on her face and fixing her hair as the camera focuses on her, that she actually looks surprised when her friend answers on the second to last ring. Her smile is bright as Minseok’s curious face enters the screen.
“Minnie,” he greets, and it’s then that Min notices he actually looks tired instead of curious.
“Did I wake you up?” Min quietly asks, shifting the ear buds in her ears so the microphone is right next to . “I’m sorry.”
“No,” the other reassures, even though he’s already lying in bed, “I just finished working out at the gym and showered.”
“Oh.” Min goes silent at the answer, staring up at him before turning onto her side and bringing her phone with her. Her heart is still beating faster than normal from practice, but she’s glad her breathing has already evened out.
“It’s okay,” Minseok says with soft laughter, making Min’s heart skip a beat. He’s actually really handsome to her. She can’t deny that. “Why did you call? We haven’t talked in a long time.” But then he blinks a couple more times, seeming to stare hard at her for some reason. “Did you just work out too? When did you start working out?”
Min flushes at the questions, looking down to her reflection in the corner of her phone. Is the sweat still that visible? “Somewhat,” she says, fanning herself with her shirt, “I just wanted to call to see how you were doing.”
“That shirt says LH7,” Minseok continues on, eyes narrowing into a glare at her, “What has Lu Han been doing? Has he been sending you things?”
“Minseok,” Min whines, turning to lie on her back again, her ponytail pushing into her head uncomfortably, “Stop. I just want to know how you’ve been doing. Have you been getting enough sleep? Eating a lot?”
Minseok is giving her a look, one that she knows she would easily succumb to if they were talking together in person, and she takes the chance when Hyemi opens the door to tell her they have food.
“Min, you called me,” Minseok suddenly says, “What did you need?”
She’s in the middle of getting up to go to the next room for a late-night dinner when she remembers he doesn’t know she’s in a company. She quickly looks around, bringing her phone to her chest to block the screen, and she finds a place against a wall that has no markers on it and sits against it. When she pulls her phone back out to see her friend, she stares at him weirdly because now he looks pink.
“You pretty much, um,” he says, fumbling with his words, “Your chest? Your phone…”
Min waves him off. “I was just wanting to see how you were doing. Honest.” She gives him a smile, one that has Minseok sighing in defeat because she can be just as intimidating as he is if he gives her the chance. “I miss you. I miss hanging out with you.”
The look he gives her makes her smile brighter, laughing because she feels like they’re being complete idiots together. “I miss you too, Socks.”
Min laughs at the new nickname. “When did Seok become Socks?”
“Since you called me in the middle of the night just to see how I was doing,” Minseok retaliates, laughing, “I’m doing fine, by the way. We just got back from our mini-vacation.”
That peaks Min’s interest, jumping when the door opens next to her and Jiwool and Jaesun are staring down at her instead, curious expressions on their faces. “You did?” she questions, turning to look back at Minseok, “Where did you go?” She stares up at her friends weirdly when Jaesun fights Jiwool to point at Minseok even though Jiwool is covering his mouth with both hands to keep him from saying whatever it is he’s about to say. “Or don’t tell me. Send me all the pictures you took while you were there.” She turns to smile at Minseok again, but now he’s looking suspicious.
“You’re doing okay by yourself, right? How’s Jiwool? I hear hers and Junmyeon’s situation is getting a little better?”
Min’s brows furrow at the question, looking to Jiwool next to her who finally has Jaesun shoved out of the room and locking the door behind her. They jump when he bangs on the door. “Jiwool is actually pretty peeved with Junma right now.”
“Junmyeon!”
The way Jiwool flinches and covers her own mouth right when Min glares at her should make the situation funny, but Minseok is having none of that, clearly hearing her screech through Min’s small microphone. “Hearing about your schedule and Jiwool’s schedule,” he says, “I’d assume you were doing something highly suspicious at this time of night.” He stares hard at her. “Like training. It sounds like both of you are training with how busy your schedules are and how much limited time you have in talking to any of us.”
“Oh, it’s time to eat, Jiwool?” Min says, laughing as she gets up. It sounds forced though and she knows it. “I have to go Minseok. She’s staying over for the night and we got hungry.” She flinches when she looks back to the screen and sees Minseok’s glare directed at her.
“I told you I would support you 100%, right?” Min nods, biting her lip in worry. “I’m going to get the information out of you the next time I see you.”
“Sleep well!” Min shouts as she gives him a small heart with her index finger and thumb, waving it back and forth cutely before grimacing when she realizes she’s trying to be cute and she thinks she looks, more or less, dumb. “Don’t forget to send me pictures!”
Min hangs up on him immediately, squeezing her eyes shut apologetically, before apologizing to him in text form. All she gets is an angry emoji and she whines, going over to Jiwool and clinging onto her instead.
“It’s your fault for calling him,” Jiwool says with a laugh, patting her back in what’s supposed to be a consoling matter, “Am I right?”
“It’s your fault for screeching Junmyeon’s name,” Min retaliates, voice muffled in Jiwool’s shirt.
“It’s Junmy– Wait, what?”
Min stifles a laugh in Jiwool’s shoulder, smiling at her amused when she finally pulls away to open the door and catch Jaesun when he falls, trying to listen in on their conversation through the door. He looks embarrassed, and Min wonders how they’re going to become leaders to the rest of their members.
“I saw him in June!” Jaesun exclaims, pointing to her phone, “I saw him in person and he’s tiny!”
“Compared to a giant like you?” Jiwool questions back, laughing when Jaesun turns even redder, “Every one of us is tiny.”
“Hey, I’m almost the same height as him,” Seungheon complains, walking up to them and giving them strange looks. “Come on. The rest are already eating. The managers said they’re going to give us more interview questions.”
“Do we have to?” Jiwool whines, following after the older three, “I’m still surprised Min said Junmyeon’s name correctly.”
“About that!” Jaesun suddenly exclaims, turning and planting a hand on top of her head and causing her to squeak at the action. He’s staring at her, intently, and Min and Seungheon stop in their tracks, entranced by what’s possibly going to happen next. “What is going on between you two? You haven’t come to me in two weeks and I’m curious as to what’s been happening in your life.”
Jiwool pouts, staring back up at him. “Min hasn’t said–”
“She’s already told me Lu Han and his studio sent his personalized shirt and Puma gear yesterday and it’s the reason why she’s wearing it today,” Jaesun answers, “She’s also told me about how she can’t go back home before we debut to see him and that Lao person once more.” He pauses. “And how she missed that other thing she didn’t want to explicitly say but Lu Han wanted her to go to, so all I’m missing now if your personal life update.”
At the information, Seungheon and Jiwool immediately look to Min who’s giving them sheepish smiles, Seungheon taking the chance to poke her thigh where the Puma logo resides on her sweatpants. “So, that’s the reason why you’re wearing these Puma things. You usually wear Nike or some off-brand sweats.” He laughs when Min squirms away from him, closing in on her until she tries to run around them, and he simply picks her up from behind and tickles her. “Come on, miss leader. Let’s go eat.”
“Hey, wait!” Min shouts, kicking her feet out trying to get him to put her down, “I want to know Jiwool’s story. She hasn’t told me yet!”
Jiwool whines at the loss of her best friend, glaring up at Jaesun when he simply smiles victoriously at her. “I was going to come to you soon with my problems,” she mutters, shaking his hand off of her head. “But I didn’t even know if it was a problem or not and I usually say it if Min is here too.”
Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Jaesun just stands there, staring at her as she thinks it over in her head. She hasn’t mentioned much about Junmyeon recently and he can’t tell if it’s because she’s been too busy dancing too much and trying not to get injured or if it’s because they’re in another fight if they did get back together. He sighs, looking over his shoulder to see Min in perfect view of the opened doorway leading to the hallway. “Min,” he calls, “Get in here. Ten minutes.”
“You have five!” Hyunchul shouts in return as Min scrambles back to them. “Then you three are eating.”
“Now, spill,” Min quietly says, staring at her best friend.
It doesn’t take long after that, Jiwool whining when she says, “Junmyeon’s been flirting with Krystal lately. He’s been flirting with all these other SM artists and I don’t know if I still want to get back together with him. He seems like he’s having fun, and I don’t want to date him if he doesn’t have feelings for me anymore.”
That wasn’t the answer they were expecting, Jaesun and Min staring at Jiwool softly because they don’t really know what to say. Except the anger towards Junmyeon is intensifying in Min when she finally thought it was dissipating since she thought things were going well between them.
“I’m sure he still has feelings for you though,” Jaesun finally says, reaching out to pull Jiwool into a hug, keeping her to him with an arm around her shoulders and a hand cupping the back of her head, “He still tries to talk to you any chance he gets, right? Why don’t you ask him about how he feels?”
“But I’ve seen the videos,” Jiwool mumbles, holding onto the back of his shirt, “He called her the prettiest in the world. How do I compete with that?”
“You don’t compete with anybody,” Jaesun immediately says, pushing her away enough to look at her, “Yeah, we’re going to try and compete against everyone else in the idol world, but when it comes to relationships, you shouldn’t try to compete with anybody for anyone’s attention. That other person isn’t worth your time if you have to compete with somebody else and–”
“Junma, what’s good?” Min suddenly says, and Jiwool and Jaesun would burst into laughter at the reference to Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus, but Jiwool looks horrified and Jaesun looks completely confused with the new situation at hand. “Have you been mistreating Ji–”
Jaesun watches as Jiwool attacks Min with lightning speed, rushing around him to grab the elder’s phone and snatch it away from her. Within the next ten seconds, the recording room is being locked again and Min and Jaesun stare at it confused, hearing Jiwool start to yell behind the door.
Seungheon is standing next to them again, chewing on some fried chicken, and he simply stares at them and the door and back again. “Five minutes is almost up.”
“I thought you didn’t have his number in your phone,” Jaesun comments instead, looking over to Seungheon and eyeing the piece of chicken. “Since when did you have it?”
“For emergencies like this,” Min answers with a shrug, turning to actually get some dinner now, “She’ll come out in six minutes.”
“Six–”
“I think that Suho guy has a thing for Americans,” Seungheon says, moving aside to let the two pass him by first before following after them, “Or at least Canadians. He had a weird thing with that Kris guy who left. He’s Canadian like Jiwool.” He bumps into Jaesun and Min when they suddenly stop in their tracks and he almost loses his chicken at the act. “Hey. Why did you guys stop?”
“Oh,” they both chorus, turning back around to go to the recording studio with Seungheon following closely behind.
“Hey, wait. What are you guys doing?”
“Jiwool?” they both call out instead, knocking on the door. “Jiwool, come on.”
Minutes later, Hyemi, Sookhyun, and Suhwan watch with wide eyes as the four of them tumble back into the room, all landing on top of each other and Min’s phone sliding across the floor towards Sunyoung. It rings with various messages and she laughs when she sees Junma’s name come up multiple times with Minseok’s occasional two.
The four oldest are laughing and playing with each other randomly, tickling one while another tries to sit on another’s back, and then Hyemi and Sookhyun wonder out loud how they’re the youngest and those four are the oldest.
“EXO’s Chanyeol and VIXX’s N and Hongbin have shown close friendship with some of you,” Sunyoung starts off, “Since you seemed to have appeared overnight, did they have an idea that you would be debuting?”
Jiwool smiles after swallowing a piece of chicken, looking to Jaesun next to her who speaks up first. “They honestly had no idea. They were surprised when we showed up and told them to tune into the show.”
“We’ve been keeping this as a secret from our longtime friends and peers, only our family knew,” Jiwool continues on, “We wanted to keep it as a surprise for them.”
The managers nod at the decent response, switching to another topic. “Our reporters have managed to dig up some information on all of you. Each of you was from a different company before joining KB Entertainment except Min, Hyemi, and Suhwan. Where did the rest of you originally train?”
Min and Suhwan continue to stare at the managers, remaining quiet as they eat the remainders of their food. They’re not supposed to look down or avoid eye contact for long periods of time, and this is probably Suhwan’s weakest point. He keeps wanting to look down at his food and savor the taste, but Hyemi next to him keeps tapping his leg to make him look up instead.
“I was a CUBE trainee,” Seungheon answers first, after Jaesun gestures for the others to start, “I trained five years with them before leaving the company.”
“Why did you leave the company?”
“My family wanted me to–”
“Try again,” Hyunchul interrupts, giving him a knowing stare.
“Five years passed by without any hints of a new group debuting, so I left to start trying to live a normal life instead,” Seungheon says, trying to memorize what he’s about to say, “But one thing led to another, and I was scouted by the officials of KB Entertainment. I missed the day-to-day life of training and doing something that I really love, so I accepted their offer to join the company that same day.”
The smiles on their managers’ faces tell them that Seungheon said something right, making the rest smile in relief. But then it falls when Hyunchul looks to Min next, her gaze quickly becoming blank at the attention, no emotion seen in her eyes. It’s become her default recently when anybody but her friends tried to question her about her personal life.
“They’ve also discovered Min’s connections with EXO’s past members, Lu Han and Wu Yifan otherwise known as Kris. They’ve recovered past photos of all of you together within the past year.”
The topic is one that they all dread, Hyemi, Sookhyun, and Suhwan look at her worriedly, but they all know it’s going to happen one way or another. Even if Min still hasn’t seen Yifan since he left South Korea, so she doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
“What are your plans with this group? You are also a leader, correct?”
“I am,” Min answers, voice gentle yet firm in her answers, “I am the second half of Jaesun. I hope to be a kind leader, one that my members will never fear of coming to me with their problems and one that my members can have fun with without burden. My plan with this group is to become a family with them, one where we can lean on each other together, especially when times become tough.”
There is the silent question of if she’s going to follow in their footsteps, even if the first question was a roundabout way of answering it, but Min just smiles softly at them.
“My priority is my group, my second family,” she says, “I will be their rock and Jaesun will be their wall. I have no intentions of leaving.”
The answer has the rest surprised, some of them with their mouths open, and Min squeaks when Jiwool suddenly attacks her with a hug, her back smacking the floor painfully and chicken sauce in her hair.
“That’s good,” Hyunchul breathes out, getting up to go to his bag, “That’s actually pretty good.”
“Memorize that,” Sunyoung says, clapping weakly, “They chose right.”
Min wants to ask ‘Who chose what right?’ but Hyunchul is throwing something on top of her and Jiwool and when they can finally sit up again, Sookhyun is reading the papers. His eyes light up before he gives them to Min.
“You’re going back home to Beijing, noona,” Sookhyun whispers, giving her his own hug, “With Jiwool-noona.”
“What?” They question simultaneously, looking down at the tickets.
“Jaesun kept telling us how you wanted to go back home today,” Sunyoung says, smiling at them, “We compromised for a day only and if Jiwool goes with you to make sure nothing bad happens since she’s the one who knows Chinese more than the rest.”
“I’ll keep the group intact for the day so you don’t have to worry,” Jaesun adds on, laughing when Min gets up to formally bow to them, “Have fun over there.”
The thought of seeing Lu Han’s concert live and her parents put a smile to her face, but it doesn’t compare to the smile that blossoms when Hyemi gets up and suddenly brings her in for a tight hug as well.
It’ll be weird being the only girl in the group for the day, but Hyemi thinks she can manage, especially when they pull away from the hug and she can see the way the thoughts of going back home for a day lights Min up like a star. “I’ll keep the group intact for the day so you don’t have to worry,” she corrects, earning a laugh from the others in the room and a whine from Jaesun, “Make sure you watch Jiwool too. She’s going to be a handful.”
“Excuse you!” Jiwool exclaims, pouting at her. “Not that much.” But when she looks back down to the tickets in her hands, she looks to Min’s phone and presses the home button on it to light up the screen. The time reads close to five in the morning and she looks up at Min shocked. “The tickets say our plane is in three hours!”
“What?” Min gasps back, moving away from Hyemi to grab the tickets from her. “We need to be there at least two hours before the flight. We have to go home and–”
“Come on,” Sunyoung interrupts, getting up to grab her bag. She’s smiling at them as they hurry to get their own things. “I’ll drop you off at your places and bring you to the airport.”
Min and Jiwool look grateful, quickly packing their extra clothes and towels, before their other manager interrupts them. They look at him confused, a strange caring expression in his gaze, before he rolls his eyes. “Do Suhwan and Sookhyun know about the extra video on the Internet?”
“What?” Sookhyun immediately questions, staring at them confused. “What video?”
The way Jiwool grabs Min and Sunyoung’s hands before dashing out of the studio makes Jaesun laugh in disbelief, looking to Seungheon who looks like he’s trying too hard to avoid any suspicion on him by whistling and poking Jaesun to keep him laughing.
Hyemi simply rolls her eyes at the eldest before going over with Sookhyun and Suhwan to see what this new video is. She remembers Seungheon having his phone out during this particular recording on the Internet, where their youngest were singing random songs, and she thinks it’s adorable Suhwan tries to hide his face between Sookhyun’s shoulder blades and flinches when he hears himself rap or sing through the computer.
“It sounds so weird,” Suhwan mumbles, tightening his hold on Sookhyun, and Hyemi thinks they’re going to be okay for a day without two of their members.
“Minnie,” he greets, and it’s then that Min notices he actually looks tired instead of curious.
“Did I wake you up?” Min quietly asks, shifting the ear buds in her ears so the microphone is right next to . “I’m sorry.”
“No,” the other reassures, even though he’s already lying in bed, “I just finished working out at the gym and showered.”
“Oh.” Min goes silent at the answer, staring up at him before turning onto her side and bringing her phone with her. Her heart is still beating faster than normal from practice, but she’s glad her breathing has already evened out.
“It’s okay,” Minseok says with soft laughter, making Min’s heart skip a beat. He’s actually really handsome to her. She can’t deny that. “Why did you call? We haven’t talked in a long time.” But then he blinks a couple more times, seeming to stare hard at her for some reason. “Did you just work out too? When did you start working out?”
Min flushes at the questions, looking down to her reflection in the corner of her phone. Is the sweat still that visible? “Somewhat,” she says, fanning herself with her shirt, “I just wanted to call to see how you were doing.”
“That shirt says LH7,” Minseok continues on, eyes narrowing into a glare at her, “What has Lu Han been doing? Has he been sending you things?”
“Minseok,” Min whines, turning to lie on her back again, her ponytail pushing into her head uncomfortably, “Stop. I just want to know how you’ve been doing. Have you been getting enough sleep? Eating a lot?”
Minseok is giving her a look, one that she knows she would easily succumb to if they were talking together in person, and she takes the chance when Hyemi opens the door to tell her they have food.
“Min, you called me,” Minseok suddenly says, “What did you need?”
She’s in the middle of getting up to go to the next room for a late-night dinner when she remembers he doesn’t know she’s in a company. She quickly looks around, bringing her phone to her chest to block the screen, and she finds a place against a wall that has no markers on it and sits against it. When she pulls her phone back out to see her friend, she stares at him weirdly because now he looks pink.
“You pretty much, um,” he says, fumbling with his words, “Your chest? Your phone…”
Min waves him off. “I was just wanting to see how you were doing. Honest.” She gives him a smile, one that has Minseok sighing in defeat because she can be just as intimidating as he is if he gives her the chance. “I miss you. I miss hanging out with you.”
The look he gives her makes her smile brighter, laughing because she feels like they’re being complete idiots together. “I miss you too, Socks.”
Min laughs at the new nickname. “When did Seok become Socks?”
“Since you called me in the middle of the night just to see how I was doing,” Minseok retaliates, laughing, “I’m doing fine, by the way. We just got back from our mini-vacation.”
That peaks Min’s interest, jumping when the door opens next to her and Jiwool and Jaesun are staring down at her instead, curious expressions on their faces. “You did?” she questions, turning to look back at Minseok, “Where did you go?” She stares up at her friends weirdly when Jaesun fights Jiwool to point at Minseok even though Jiwool is covering his mouth with both hands to keep him from saying whatever it is he’s about to say. “Or don’t tell me. Send me all the pictures you took while you were there.” She turns to smile at Minseok again, but now he’s looking suspicious.
“You’re doing okay by yourself, right? How’s Jiwool? I hear hers and Junmyeon’s situation is getting a little better?”
Min’s brows furrow at the question, looking to Jiwool next to her who finally has Jaesun shoved out of the room and locking the door behind her. They jump when he bangs on the door. “Jiwool is actually pretty peeved with Junma right now.”
“Junmyeon!”
The way Jiwool flinches and covers her own mouth right when Min glares at her should make the situation funny, but Minseok is having none of that, clearly hearing her screech through Min’s small microphone. “Hearing about your schedule and Jiwool’s schedule,” he says, “I’d assume you were doing something highly suspicious at this time of night.” He stares hard at her. “Like training. It sounds like both of you are training with how busy your schedules are and how much limited time you have in talking to any of us.”
“Oh, it’s time to eat, Jiwool?” Min says, laughing as she gets up. It sounds forced though and she knows it. “I have to go Minseok. She’s staying over for the night and we got hungry.” She flinches when she looks back to the screen and sees Minseok’s glare directed at her.
“I told you I would support you 100%, right?” Min nods, biting her lip in worry. “I’m going to get the information out of you the next time I see you.”
“Sleep well!” Min shouts as she gives him a small heart with her index finger and thumb, waving it back and forth cutely before grimacing when she realizes she’s trying to be cute and she thinks she looks, more or less, dumb. “Don’t forget to send me pictures!”
Min hangs up on him immediately, squeezing her eyes shut apologetically, before apologizing to him in text form. All she gets is an angry emoji and she whines, going over to Jiwool and clinging onto her instead.
“It’s your fault for calling him,” Jiwool says with a laugh, patting her back in what’s supposed to be a consoling matter, “Am I right?”
“It’s your fault for screeching Junmyeon’s name,” Min retaliates, voice muffled in Jiwool’s shirt.
“It’s Junmy– Wait, what?”
Min stifles a laugh in Jiwool’s shoulder, smiling at her amused when she finally pulls away to open the door and catch Jaesun when he falls, trying to listen in on their conversation through the door. He looks embarrassed, and Min wonders how they’re going to become leaders to the rest of their members.
“I saw him in June!” Jaesun exclaims, pointing to her phone, “I saw him in person and he’s tiny!”
“Compared to a giant like you?” Jiwool questions back, laughing when Jaesun turns even redder, “Every one of us is tiny.”
“Hey, I’m almost the same height as him,” Seungheon complains, walking up to them and giving them strange looks. “Come on. The rest are already eating. The managers said they’re going to give us more interview questions.”
“Do we have to?” Jiwool whines, following after the older three, “I’m still surprised Min said Junmyeon’s name correctly.”
“About that!” Jaesun suddenly exclaims, turning and planting a hand on top of her head and causing her to squeak at the action. He’s staring at her, intently, and Min and Seungheon stop in their tracks, entranced by what’s possibly going to happen next. “What is going on between you two? You haven’t come to me in two weeks and I’m curious as to what’s been happening in your life.”
Jiwool pouts, staring back up at him. “Min hasn’t said–”
“She’s already told me Lu Han and his studio sent his personalized shirt and Puma gear yesterday and it’s the reason why she’s wearing it today,” Jaesun answers, “She’s also told me about how she can’t go back home before we debut to see him and that Lao person once more.” He pauses. “And how she missed that other thing she didn’t want to explicitly say but Lu Han wanted her to go to, so all I’m missing now if your personal life update.”
At the information, Seungheon and Jiwool immediately look to Min who’s giving them sheepish smiles, Seungheon taking the chance to poke her thigh where the Puma logo resides on her sweatpants. “So, that’s the reason why you’re wearing these Puma things. You usually wear Nike or some off-brand sweats.” He laughs when Min squirms away from him, closing in on her until she tries to run around them, and he simply picks her up from behind and tickles her. “Come on, miss leader. Let’s go eat.”
“Hey, wait!” Min shouts, kicking her feet out trying to get him to put her down, “I want to know Jiwool’s story. She hasn’t told me yet!”
Jiwool whines at the loss of her best friend, glaring up at Jaesun when he simply smiles victoriously at her. “I was going to come to you soon with my problems,” she mutters, shaking his hand off of her head. “But I didn’t even know if it was a problem or not and I usually say it if Min is here too.”
Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Jaesun just stands there, staring at her as she thinks it over in her head. She hasn’t mentioned much about Junmyeon recently and he can’t tell if it’s because she’s been too busy dancing too much and trying not to get injured or if it’s because they’re in another fight if they did get back together. He sighs, looking over his shoulder to see Min in perfect view of the opened doorway leading to the hallway. “Min,” he calls, “Get in here. Ten minutes.”
“You have five!” Hyunchul shouts in return as Min scrambles back to them. “Then you three are eating.”
“Now, spill,” Min quietly says, staring at her best friend.
It doesn’t take long after that, Jiwool whining when she says, “Junmyeon’s been flirting with Krystal lately. He’s been flirting with all these other SM artists and I don’t know if I still want to get back together with him. He seems like he’s having fun, and I don’t want to date him if he doesn’t have feelings for me anymore.”
That wasn’t the answer they were expecting, Jaesun and Min staring at Jiwool softly because they don’t really know what to say. Except the anger towards Junmyeon is intensifying in Min when she finally thought it was dissipating since she thought things were going well between them.
“I’m sure he still has feelings for you though,” Jaesun finally says, reaching out to pull Jiwool into a hug, keeping her to him with an arm around her shoulders and a hand cupping the back of her head, “He still tries to talk to you any chance he gets, right? Why don’t you ask him about how he feels?”
“But I’ve seen the videos,” Jiwool mumbles, holding onto the back of his shirt, “He called her the prettiest in the world. How do I compete with that?”
“You don’t compete with anybody,” Jaesun immediately says, pushing her away enough to look at her, “Yeah, we’re going to try and compete against everyone else in the idol world, but when it comes to relationships, you shouldn’t try to compete with anybody for anyone’s attention. That other person isn’t worth your time if you have to compete with somebody else and–”
“Junma, what’s good?” Min suddenly says, and Jiwool and Jaesun would burst into laughter at the reference to Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus, but Jiwool looks horrified and Jaesun looks completely confused with the new situation at hand. “Have you been mistreating Ji–”
Jaesun watches as Jiwool attacks Min with lightning speed, rushing around him to grab the elder’s phone and snatch it away from her. Within the next ten seconds, the recording room is being locked again and Min and Jaesun stare at it confused, hearing Jiwool start to yell behind the door.
Seungheon is standing next to them again, chewing on some fried chicken, and he simply stares at them and the door and back again. “Five minutes is almost up.”
“I thought you didn’t have his number in your phone,” Jaesun comments instead, looking over to Seungheon and eyeing the piece of chicken. “Since when did you have it?”
“For emergencies like this,” Min answers with a shrug, turning to actually get some dinner now, “She’ll come out in six minutes.”
“Six–”
“I think that Suho guy has a thing for Americans,” Seungheon says, moving aside to let the two pass him by first before following after them, “Or at least Canadians. He had a weird thing with that Kris guy who left. He’s Canadian like Jiwool.” He bumps into Jaesun and Min when they suddenly stop in their tracks and he almost loses his chicken at the act. “Hey. Why did you guys stop?”
“Oh,” they both chorus, turning back around to go to the recording studio with Seungheon following closely behind.
“Hey, wait. What are you guys doing?”
“Jiwool?” they both call out instead, knocking on the door. “Jiwool, come on.”
Minutes later, Hyemi, Sookhyun, and Suhwan watch with wide eyes as the four of them tumble back into the room, all landing on top of each other and Min’s phone sliding across the floor towards Sunyoung. It rings with various messages and she laughs when she sees Junma’s name come up multiple times with Minseok’s occasional two.
The four oldest are laughing and playing with each other randomly, tickling one while another tries to sit on another’s back, and then Hyemi and Sookhyun wonder out loud how they’re the youngest and those four are the oldest.
“EXO’s Chanyeol and VIXX’s N and Hongbin have shown close friendship with some of you,” Sunyoung starts off, “Since you seemed to have appeared overnight, did they have an idea that you would be debuting?”
Jiwool smiles after swallowing a piece of chicken, looking to Jaesun next to her who speaks up first. “They honestly had no idea. They were surprised when we showed up and told them to tune into the show.”
“We’ve been keeping this as a secret from our longtime friends and peers, only our family knew,” Jiwool continues on, “We wanted to keep it as a surprise for them.”
The managers nod at the decent response, switching to another topic. “Our reporters have managed to dig up some information on all of you. Each of you was from a different company before joining KB Entertainment except Min, Hyemi, and Suhwan. Where did the rest of you originally train?”
Min and Suhwan continue to stare at the managers, remaining quiet as they eat the remainders of their food. They’re not supposed to look down or avoid eye contact for long periods of time, and this is probably Suhwan’s weakest point. He keeps wanting to look down at his food and savor the taste, but Hyemi next to him keeps tapping his leg to make him look up instead.
“I was a CUBE trainee,” Seungheon answers first, after Jaesun gestures for the others to start, “I trained five years with them before leaving the company.”
“Why did you leave the company?”
“My family wanted me to–”
“Try again,” Hyunchul interrupts, giving him a knowing stare.
“Five years passed by without any hints of a new group debuting, so I left to start trying to live a normal life instead,” Seungheon says, trying to memorize what he’s about to say, “But one thing led to another, and I was scouted by the officials of KB Entertainment. I missed the day-to-day life of training and doing something that I really love, so I accepted their offer to join the company that same day.”
The smiles on their managers’ faces tell them that Seungheon said something right, making the rest smile in relief. But then it falls when Hyunchul looks to Min next, her gaze quickly becoming blank at the attention, no emotion seen in her eyes. It’s become her default recently when anybody but her friends tried to question her about her personal life.
“They’ve also discovered Min’s connections with EXO’s past members, Lu Han and Wu Yifan otherwise known as Kris. They’ve recovered past photos of all of you together within the past year.”
The topic is one that they all dread, Hyemi, Sookhyun, and Suhwan look at her worriedly, but they all know it’s going to happen one way or another. Even if Min still hasn’t seen Yifan since he left South Korea, so she doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
“What are your plans with this group? You are also a leader, correct?”
“I am,” Min answers, voice gentle yet firm in her answers, “I am the second half of Jaesun. I hope to be a kind leader, one that my members will never fear of coming to me with their problems and one that my members can have fun with without burden. My plan with this group is to become a family with them, one where we can lean on each other together, especially when times become tough.”
There is the silent question of if she’s going to follow in their footsteps, even if the first question was a roundabout way of answering it, but Min just smiles softly at them.
“My priority is my group, my second family,” she says, “I will be their rock and Jaesun will be their wall. I have no intentions of leaving.”
The answer has the rest surprised, some of them with their mouths open, and Min squeaks when Jiwool suddenly attacks her with a hug, her back smacking the floor painfully and chicken sauce in her hair.
“That’s good,” Hyunchul breathes out, getting up to go to his bag, “That’s actually pretty good.”
“Memorize that,” Sunyoung says, clapping weakly, “They chose right.”
Min wants to ask ‘Who chose what right?’ but Hyunchul is throwing something on top of her and Jiwool and when they can finally sit up again, Sookhyun is reading the papers. His eyes light up before he gives them to Min.
“You’re going back home to Beijing, noona,” Sookhyun whispers, giving her his own hug, “With Jiwool-noona.”
“What?” They question simultaneously, looking down at the tickets.
“Jaesun kept telling us how you wanted to go back home today,” Sunyoung says, smiling at them, “We compromised for a day only and if Jiwool goes with you to make sure nothing bad happens since she’s the one who knows Chinese more than the rest.”
“I’ll keep the group intact for the day so you don’t have to worry,” Jaesun adds on, laughing when Min gets up to formally bow to them, “Have fun over there.”
The thought of seeing Lu Han’s concert live and her parents put a smile to her face, but it doesn’t compare to the smile that blossoms when Hyemi gets up and suddenly brings her in for a tight hug as well.
It’ll be weird being the only girl in the group for the day, but Hyemi thinks she can manage, especially when they pull away from the hug and she can see the way the thoughts of going back home for a day lights Min up like a star. “I’ll keep the group intact for the day so you don’t have to worry,” she corrects, earning a laugh from the others in the room and a whine from Jaesun, “Make sure you watch Jiwool too. She’s going to be a handful.”
“Excuse you!” Jiwool exclaims, pouting at her. “Not that much.” But when she looks back down to the tickets in her hands, she looks to Min’s phone and presses the home button on it to light up the screen. The time reads close to five in the morning and she looks up at Min shocked. “The tickets say our plane is in three hours!”
“What?” Min gasps back, moving away from Hyemi to grab the tickets from her. “We need to be there at least two hours before the flight. We have to go home and–”
“Come on,” Sunyoung interrupts, getting up to grab her bag. She’s smiling at them as they hurry to get their own things. “I’ll drop you off at your places and bring you to the airport.”
Min and Jiwool look grateful, quickly packing their extra clothes and towels, before their other manager interrupts them. They look at him confused, a strange caring expression in his gaze, before he rolls his eyes. “Do Suhwan and Sookhyun know about the extra video on the Internet?”
“What?” Sookhyun immediately questions, staring at them confused. “What video?”
The way Jiwool grabs Min and Sunyoung’s hands before dashing out of the studio makes Jaesun laugh in disbelief, looking to Seungheon who looks like he’s trying too hard to avoid any suspicion on him by whistling and poking Jaesun to keep him laughing.
Hyemi simply rolls her eyes at the eldest before going over with Sookhyun and Suhwan to see what this new video is. She remembers Seungheon having his phone out during this particular recording on the Internet, where their youngest were singing random songs, and she thinks it’s adorable Suhwan tries to hide his face between Sookhyun’s shoulder blades and flinches when he hears himself rap or sing through the computer.
“It sounds so weird,” Suhwan mumbles, tightening his hold on Sookhyun, and Hyemi thinks they’re going to be okay for a day without two of their members.
co-author's note: so. i'm sorry this chapter kinda seemed all over the place + focused on min and minseok? i feel bad writing about my own character ;; if you would like to add other (more) idols your character can/is friends with, then go ahead and add them! especially if your character becomes friends with others later on. also, out of all the votes i received, min had 3, hyemi had 2, and jaesun had like 3-4 while the rest got 1, so... the leaders seem to be min and jaesun ;;
question of the day: how would your characters answer the question: 'who/what is your ideal type?' i'm curious ;u;
ps. yeah, jiwool and seungheon secretly took a video of sookhyun and suhwan and posted it on the internet. because that's them. but slightly impolite so always ask before putting stuff on the internet that's not yours! otl
pps. i also made scenes between the oldest (min, jae, jiwool, and seungheon) and minor scenes with the youngest (hyemi, suhwan, and sookhyun). and then scenes between the original three (min, jae, jiwool). idk. i like playing around with the old and young lines and original three so ;;
updated: october 20, 2015
question of the day: how would your characters answer the question: 'who/what is your ideal type?' i'm curious ;u;
ps. yeah, jiwool and seungheon secretly took a video of sookhyun and suhwan and posted it on the internet. because that's them. but slightly impolite so always ask before putting stuff on the internet that's not yours! otl
pps. i also made scenes between the oldest (min, jae, jiwool, and seungheon) and minor scenes with the youngest (hyemi, suhwan, and sookhyun). and then scenes between the original three (min, jae, jiwool). idk. i like playing around with the old and young lines and original three so ;;
updated: october 20, 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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