chapter eleven (93.513485930% new)
〈 ♞ 〉NIGHT CIRCUS28 OCTOBER 2015
05:28 AM KST
05:28 AM KST
THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER
Jaesun doesn’t expect to wake up at five-thirty in the morning to see his younger brother waving his phone in his face. He doesn’t expect to open his eyes and see an unflattering image of Hyunchul about to sneeze on his phone screen, and he doesn’t expect to hear the obnoxious standard iPhone ringtone blaring in his ear along with Jaemin contributing nonsense mumbling along with it. He groans at the extra weight on his thighs, trying to move when the ringing finally stops, only to groan again when the same image and ringtone appear less than a second later.
“Make your phone stop ringing,” Jaemin whines, dark hair sticking out in all directions, “I stayed up late to complete three assignments and now your stupid phone won’t stop ringing when I only got two hours of sleep.”
Jaesun ignores his phone for another minute, registering his brother’s words in his mind first. “But you did complete all your assignments, right?” He tries to blink the blurriness of sleep out of his eyes to properly stare at his brother, make sure he’s speaking the truth.
“Yes,” Jaemin breathes out, whining again when Jaesun’s phone won’t stop ringing, “I finished everything. Now take your phone and make it stop.”
Jaesun does as told, taking his cell phone held out in front of him, and grunts when Jaemin moves and gets off of him, shuffling his way towards his opened door and shutting it on his way out. By the fourth ring, Jaesun is sitting up and sighing, sliding his thumb across the screen to answer the call. It’s not even 5:45 yet. He expected himself to wake up just in time to shower and make it to the company building by 6:30. “Hello?” he says, wincing when he can hear Hyunchul breathe in deeply at the other end.
“We need you to come in earlier than expected,” Hyunchul informs, sounding strangely more awake than Jaesun would have expected, “We need to hurry and get moving so we have enough time to dye your hair.”
Jaesun has decided it is too early for any of this. “What? Why?”
“Because we’re dying your hair red for this promotion period. Get here in ten minutes.”
Hyunchul hangs up and Jaesun looks down at his phone shocked and considerably more awake than he’d like to be at 5:43 in the morning. His hair is going to be red for their debut? He flinches when he receives a text message, of course, from Hyunchul.
Get your here, slacker.
It takes twelve minutes for Jaesun to shower and rush past his parents and younger brother to make it to the company with little scolding, considering that the rest of his group is already there. He’s surprised to see Min dozing in the corner of the room, Sookhyun and Suhwan staying next to her and watching Jiwool, Hyemi, and Seungheon actually talk civilly next to the mirrors with the managers and trainers, though he guesses it’s because it’s still early and they’re still tired. He can’t believe he’s the last one to join them this time. It’s usually Min or Seungheon who shows up last.
“Finally,” Hyunchul grumbles out, turning to him and ceasing all conversation with the group he’s with. He has a thin stack of papers in his hand that appears to have been folded and unfolded multiple times. “Now that you’re all here, we need to load up and go to the studio for your pictorials.” He looks disgruntled now, turning back to the papers in his hand.
“We’ve already established all your stylists and they have been told to meet us there at six am,” Sunyoung continues with a soft smile. She already has her bag hooked over her shoulder, arms open to gesture for all of them to get up and going. “Let’s go. We’re going to be late.”
For some reason, Hyunchul is the one who appears frazzled, looking at each of them briefly before shouting, “Min! Wake up!”
Everybody in the room flinches at the yell, Jaesun watching as Min jolts awake through the mirror’s reflection. She knocks her head against the back of the wall and he can hear her groan in pain. “Hyung,” Jaesun says, giving him a look. He doesn’t need to say anything else when all Hyunchul does is wave him off and Sunyoung is the one reaching out to gently touch the back of Min’s head when they file out of the room.
They’re surprised to see one large grey van waiting for them when they exit the building, one Jaesun’s pretty sure wasn’t there fifteen minutes ago, and he hangs in the back of the group with Min as the rest file in one by one.
The sun is already rising and Jaesun squints as their members and Hyunchul try and argue where each one of them should sit. He guesses they never really had a fixed seating chart for a van they’ve never taken before. It’s too early.
“It’s too early,” Min announces, echoing his thoughts. She lets out a soft hum as she releases a deep breath while closing her eyes. “It’s too bright.”
“It’s not that bright,” he counters easily, sighing himself. So far, it looks like the rest of the members are settling seats by playing rock-paper-scissors and Hyemi, Sookhyun, and Jiwool are in the back row with Suhwan and Seungheon taking the second to last row. Jaesun raises an eyebrow when he sees Hyunchul finally settling into the driver’s seat with Sunyoung already waiting for all of them to settle down. “I guess we get the leftover seats, huh?”
Min shrugs, heading into the van first. “Pretty much.”
Jaesun stares after her, watching as she climbs in, and he doesn’t need to look down as much as he’s used to when he looks at her. It makes him do a double take, quickly following after her and closing the door after he sits down. “Min?” he calls, staring her up and down confused.
“Everyone, buckle up,” Sunyoung calls before the car starts moving.
Jaesun does so quickly before looking over to Min who’s not paying him any attention and focusing on her cell phone instead. He frowns, reaching over to poke her in the head. “Hey, Min.”
Immediately, her hand comes flying out to swat his hand away. “Hey, what,” she echoes back, though it doesn’t even sound like a question. She doesn’t even turn to look at him as he pointedly stares her down. It takes a few silent minutes from him to get her attention, but then she’s giving him a blank look, obviously annoyed with him. “What is it, English boy?”
“Are we reverting back to that now?” Jaesun asks, exasperated. He reaches out to poke her again when they start swatting each other’s hands away. “I have a serious question,” he says in the midst of suffering a slap to the arm from her.
It causes Min to still, looking at him with furrowed eyebrows. “What is it?”
“Did you literally grow overnight?”
“What?” Now, Min looks confused. “Did I?”
Sighing, Jaesun rolls his eyes before settling back down in his own chair. He looks out the window briefly to see buildings and cars flying past them before looking back to her. “I don’t know. That’s why I asked you.” He frowns at her. “It’s like you just grew seven centimeters within five hours.”
Suddenly, it looks like a light flickers on within Min’s eyes, her jaw dropping slightly in understanding. “Oh!” she exclaims, shifting until she can pick up a leg and drop it on top of Jaesun’s lap. She smiles as she points down to her shoes. “The new shoes give me an added boost.”
Jaesun grunts at the added weight. “New shoes?” he repeats, looking down to see that there are – indeed – new shoes on Min’s petite feet. “Those are Nike Dunk Sky Hi heels,” he blurts, eyes widening in shock before looking back to her. “How could you afford those?”
“Panny jie bought them for me,” Min explains happily before she makes a soured expression. “It’s to help balance my height against the rest of you tall people.”
Jaesun would laugh, but he’s slightly concerned. “Can you even dance in these?”
“Not sure,” Min simply says, shrugging, as she lets Jaesun shove her leg off his own. “I’m sure I’ll be able to though. I used to train in heels a few months ago.”
“Yeah, but that was a few months ago.”
“I’m sure Minnie here will be able to adapt quickly,” Seungheon comments, both he and Suhwan looking over the backs of their seats curiously. It startles both of the leaders and Min breathes a sigh of relief when she sees it’s Suhwan behind her, reaching up a hand to gently cup the side of his face as his chin hooks onto the edge of the seat.
“You put too much confidence in her,” Jaesun retorts, scoffing.
“So do you!” Sookhyun and Jiwool shout from the back, causing Seungheon and Min to laugh despite the latter leaning her head closer to gently bump against Suhwan’s.
Jaesun is offended. “Oh, be quiet, you two!”
After that, the noise in the van rises in volume and both Hyunchul and Sunyoung sigh as they can hear Suhwan finally adding into the multiple conversations happening behind them.
The studio is about an hour away from KB Entertainment, in a less crowded part of the city. Shops and restaurants are opening when they arrive and Min’s instinct is to look around for a café and good (cheap) food. She blames Minseok for it, but Jiwool says it’s probably all because of Lu Han and Minseok combined – maybe even Baekhyun and Jongdae too since they’ve been tagging along with Minseok wherever he went recently.
“Come on,” Hyunchul calls out when they all finally get out of the van. They’re all crowded on the side of the street with Hyemi, Jiwool, and Sookhyun stretching their arms above their heads and twisting and turning every which way, and Min guesses it’s because they were squished in the back for the entire time.
Hyunchul has his own bag on his shoulder but he reaches out to take Sunyoung’s too, allowing her to go into the building first only because she’s older than me, which earns him a slap on the arm too.
Min leads the group in because of her height while Jaesun and Hyunchul round up the back, and they’re all surprised to see the minimalist interior of the studio. Granted, they can only see the front desk, but everything is still neat and orderly, even as Sunyoung talks to the receptionist before they’re heading through another door to the right.
The sight that greets them is a wide space filled with computers and screens in the middle of it and a white backdrop with various lights in front of it. Most of Night Circus looks amazed while the managers quickly venture off to find the photographer and the rest of their crew, but Min and Suhwan stay behind the rest of them.
Suhwan feels overwhelmed all of a sudden, seeing all the lights directed to the blank screen. Jiwool, Hyemi, and Seungheon are exploring the computers and the lights while Jaesun tries to reel all of them back in, but he doesn’t think he can do this. He doesn’t think he can be in the limelight by himself and he doesn’t think he can– He jumps when he feels a hand land gently on his arm.
“Hey,” Min calls softly, but when Suhwan turns to stare at her, he has to look away immediately because she’s staring right at him. “Hey, Soo. Try and look at me.”
Suhwan tries. He really does. But after a few seconds of staring back at her, he feels like crawling under a rock. He swallows hard trying to get rid of all the nerves in his body.
“Suhwan,” Min says, moving to stand in front of him, and Jaesun was right. She does look taller than normal today. “We’re going to be in this together, okay?” She’s still staring up at him, but Suhwan tries to stare at instead of her eyes, watching as her lips form foreign words as they slip them. She’s smiling now and she looks pretty when she smiles. “Soo, just stare at one of us when it’s your turn. Okay?”
Suhwan nods immediately, shifting his gaze up to her eyes to see her giving him a kind look, before looking over her shoulder to see Hyemi and Jiwool messing around and making funny poses. “Okay, noona,” he quietly says, looking back to her briefly when she gently grabs his hand.
“Stare at one of us,” she repeats, before she’s pulling him closer to the equipment.
The lights seem to get brighter the closer they get to the computers and Suhwan really wants to crawl under a rock and probably stay there for the rest of his life. He jumps – again – when an arm gently wraps around his shoulders. He looks up alarmed to see Jaesun staring ahead of them but a soft smile on his face.
“Are you ready for this?” he asks, chuckling when Jiwool pushes Seungheon away from her. “It’s going to be the first of many.”
“Do you have to say that?” asks Min, exasperated. Suhwan catches her rolling her eyes before turning to stare at Jaesun on the other side of him. “I just got done making sure he’s okay. Don’t go and remind him of other things.”
“Hey, I’m just making sure he’s going to keep it in mind because we’re no longer unknown names after this.”
“We know that, but this is still pretty new to us. This isn’t us just fooling around with a camera and only having our friends see the goofy results – this is us taking professional photos for the rest of the world to see.”
“We’re here, aren’t we?” Jaesun says, tilting his head in the direction of the rest of their group. He smiles at them next, bright and young. “We’re going to help you.”
When Min reaches over to push his face away, she tugs on Suhwan’s hand still attached to hers. It makes him smile, feeling like he’s at home with his family even if neither of them act like his mother or brother. It warms him from the inside out and he’s comfortable with them as they start to bicker again, still attached to his sides, and he moves wherever they move, simply content with being in the middle and somewhat unnoticed.
Though, he does notice something missing when he looks back to the others now talking in front of the white screen, or rather someone. “Where’s Sookhyunnie?” he asks, voice quiet but significant enough to gain the leaders’ attentions.
They both pause in the middle of whatever they’re saying to look over to the trio at the far side of the room. True enough, it’s just Hyemi, Jiwool, and Seungheon standing there, occasionally making weird poses, and Sookhyun is nowhere in sight.
“How could you lose our youngest?!” Min suddenly shouts, lashing out and slapping Jaesun on the chest. Suhwan is starting to think this is how Min handles her nerves. Both he and Jaesun flinch at the move before Jaesun retaliates, though with words because Suhwan would frown heavily if he hit a woman.
“I didn’t!” Jaesun sweeps the floor once more with his gaze. “I just–”
“Jiwool!” Min calls out, completely ignoring him, even as he says, “Wait! Isn’t he in makeup?” “Is Sookhyun getting his makeup and hair done?”
In front of them, all remaining three members stop what they’re doing to stare at her curiously. It takes a few seconds before realization dawns on Jiwool. “Yeah, unnie,” she says, smiling brightly at them. “Mean Hyunchul came out and grabbed him first.”
“I heard that,” came Hyunchul’s voice in the distance. “Seungheon, you’re next. The rest of you better be behaving out there.”
“We are,” they all chorus back at once, Seungheon leaving their group and heading for one of the opened side doors.
They all fall quiet after that and Suhwan lets go of Min when she turns to give him a small smile and squeeze of the hand. “Stare at one of us,” she repeats before walking away to join the rest of the girls. He watches her go before Jiwool is called next a few long minutes later and then Sunyoung is walking out with Sookhyun and another older man they assume is the photographer. The others rush to where Suhwan and Jaesun are standing behind the equipment.
“Sir,” Sunyoung starts out with a smile before gesturing to the rest of them. They all bow in sync as the photographer bows in return. “These are the people who will be doing photoshoots today.”
The photographer takes a few minutes to stare at each one of them before focusing his gaze on Sookhyun, appraising him before he nods in approval. “We are doing a basic concept first, correct? You also have the extra set of clothes for them?”
“Yes, sir,” Sunyoung quickly says, nodding. “Jeanne and Yongha have prepared the rest of the outfits for them.”
None of them know what she’s talking about but Suhwan watches as Sookhyun quickly goes in the front of the camera. He simply stands there and smiles, waiting for instructions, and Suhwan flinches when the photographer takes one photo of his friend to test out the lighting.
A couple of assistants enter the room after a few test shots and orders are barked at them to change the lighting and bring in chairs for Sookhyun to sit in. The assistants clean up the floor too between every other take and Suhwan doesn’t understand. Though, it’s interesting to see his normally smiling friend lose his smile in front of the camera and do poses that, apparently, the photographer likes.
“Don’t worry,” Jaesun murmurs to him, a smile in his voice. “We’ll go last so you can see everything.”
Suhwan doesn’t know about that, but he quickly looks to Min when her name is called, watching as she disappears behind the now closed door.
Hyemi opens an eye when the door closes, seeing Min walking in and sitting down in the available chair. She’s currently getting her hair done by Jeanne, their new stylist who apparently does hair as well, and closes her eye again when she moves to the front of her head.
It’s mostly quiet in their room, the only sounds coming from the soft taps of makeup brushes and brush going through her hair. It’s such a tranquil space compared to whatever is going on outside. She almost flinches when Hyunchul finally speaks up after being quiet for the longest time.
“Either of you interested in Unpretty Rapstar?”
“No,” Hyemi answers immediately, frown on her face. She’s spun around, indicating her hair is done, and follows the stylist to the other side of the room where there’s a rack of clothes and another door to the side.
“Why?” Min murmurs after a minute, too focused on trying to keep still for Yongha.
They can hear their manager heave a sigh before more papers are rustling. “We need to ramp up your image and public interest,” he starts, Hyemi humming as she’s given clothes before disappearing into the second room. Hyunchul raises his voice loud enough for her to still hear. “With Hyemi, it’ll be easy to sign her onto the program once you all debut and more information about her is released. It’ll be harder for Min to join because she basically has no information on her and she wasn’t scouted for rapping, but then that’ll definitely raise questions and interest in the group.”
Min’s voice filters through the door as Hyemi tries to switch tank tops without messing her hair and makeup. “That’s true. I don’t know how good I’ll be since I’m still getting help from Hyemi and Jiho.” Hyemi huffs as she finally – gently – pulls the ends of her hair out of the shirt and hopes it doesn’t flatten as much as she thinks. “But if given the opportunity, I’ll definitely accept and try my hardest for it.”
“They’re going to tear you down,” Hyemi comments when she finally steps out of the room, Yongha taking a break from Suhwan to go touch up whatever she probably messed up while changing clothes. She thought she didn’t touch her face though. She can feel Min staring hard at her from her seat in front of Jeanne. “I mean,” she manages to breathe out, pausing to let Yongha apply more balm and gloss to her lips. “Have you watched this season of it? They’re brutal, unnie.”
“We were actually going to try and make one of you join this season,” Hyunchul lets slip, mouth snapping shut afterwards as both Min and Hyemi snap their heads in his direction. In the corner, Suhwan watches on quietly, fascinated.
“You were going to what?” Hyemi questions as she tries not to glare at her manager. How much older is he to her? Yongha grunts as she continues to move while he’s trying to fix up her makeup. “I refuse to join a show like that.”
“I’ll accept if given the opportunity, but I don’t know how I’ll rank compared to the other rappers,” Min reiterates, though she continues to eye Hyunchul. “Wasn’t the whole point of our group to remain unknown until our debut?”
Hyunchul glares back at each of them, his default demeanor reappearing. “Don’t give me those looks. Your entire debut was a work-in-progress at the time and the board was trying to figure out how to put your name out there.”
“It’s time for you to go,” Yongha quietly mentions to Hyemi, gently guiding her towards the door. “Then I’m going to retouch your makeup for the second shoot.”
Hyemi nods to him before she quickly leaves the room. She looks over her shoulder to give Hyunchul one last glare and she wants to laugh at how he easily returns the look.
Back in the main room, Hyemi quickly takes her spot in front of the camera, listening intently to the photographer as she moves and makes facial expressions to what he wants. It’s actually not that hard for her, but he does ask her to fix her hair every few minutes and Seungheon has to come over and do it for her since they lack the proper amount of staff members to help them out.
“Hey, Seungheon,” Hyemi quietly says, taking the chance of the photographer busying himself with his recent shots to keep Seungheon with her. She closes an eye as he brushes her bangs off to one side. “Hyunchul said he and probably the board were thinking of having me or unnie join Unpretty Rapstar.” She looks away from the photographer to stare up at Seungheon when he makes a contemplative hum.
“The one Jiyoon noona is on?” he asks. She nods. “And?”
“I refuse to go on a show like that,” she murmurs, sighing softly. “But if Min goes on that show, I don’t know how I feel about that. She’s tough, but she’s not as mean as the others can get.”
Seungheon shrugs, taking a step back to give her a once over. “Then don’t do the show if you don’t want to. We’re able to make our own choices. Let’s make them while we still can.”
Hyemi doesn’t have enough time to comprehend his words before she’s told to start posing again. Roughly, another thirty minutes pass by before she’s done and Min is moving in front of the screen next. She watches her stand there awkwardly in a large white button-up shirt and dark, tight shorts before Jiwool suddenly appears next to Hyemi making various faces and poses.
In the end, all it does is make Min laugh and the photographer snaps pictures of that instead. Minutes pass and Min finally relaxes in front of the camera and Hyemi smiles when the photographer asks her to sit down on the ground and face the side before tilting her head towards the camera and smiling softly.
“She’s pretty,” Jiwool comments, earning approving hums from Suhwan and Jaesun next to them who’ve finally finished their first round of touching up. Yongha has simply moved to their area to start fixing up Sookhyun and Seungheon’s makeup for a slightly darker look for the next round of photos.
“She’s catching on quickly,” Hyemi murmurs, before looking to the rest of the group, a thought suddenly striking her.
These pictures are going to be released to the public. This is the very beginning of their careers as idols and they’re finally going to be on television. Though it should’ve clicked when they were talking about joining Unpretty Rapstar, it finally makes sense. They’ve all waited for this and it’s finally happening.
“The photos are coming along great,” the photographer comments, pulling all of their attentions to him, even as he continues to take pictures of Min. “This is a good bunch of kids, you got. They all have the right looks.”
“Thank you,” Sunyoung says, a bright smile on her face. “You might be seeing them a lot more soon.”
Hyemi’s heart speeds at the words, suddenly feeling giddy and excited. After this, they’re going to the hair salon and then pre-recording for Music Bank.
“Is that so?” the photographer says with a laugh, pausing to take a quick look through the last round of photos. He seems to be in a much better mood, nodding every few seconds. “Then I would be happy to see all of you again soon.”
What the hell, they’re debuting.
“Make your phone stop ringing,” Jaemin whines, dark hair sticking out in all directions, “I stayed up late to complete three assignments and now your stupid phone won’t stop ringing when I only got two hours of sleep.”
Jaesun ignores his phone for another minute, registering his brother’s words in his mind first. “But you did complete all your assignments, right?” He tries to blink the blurriness of sleep out of his eyes to properly stare at his brother, make sure he’s speaking the truth.
“Yes,” Jaemin breathes out, whining again when Jaesun’s phone won’t stop ringing, “I finished everything. Now take your phone and make it stop.”
Jaesun does as told, taking his cell phone held out in front of him, and grunts when Jaemin moves and gets off of him, shuffling his way towards his opened door and shutting it on his way out. By the fourth ring, Jaesun is sitting up and sighing, sliding his thumb across the screen to answer the call. It’s not even 5:45 yet. He expected himself to wake up just in time to shower and make it to the company building by 6:30. “Hello?” he says, wincing when he can hear Hyunchul breathe in deeply at the other end.
“We need you to come in earlier than expected,” Hyunchul informs, sounding strangely more awake than Jaesun would have expected, “We need to hurry and get moving so we have enough time to dye your hair.”
Jaesun has decided it is too early for any of this. “What? Why?”
“Because we’re dying your hair red for this promotion period. Get here in ten minutes.”
Hyunchul hangs up and Jaesun looks down at his phone shocked and considerably more awake than he’d like to be at 5:43 in the morning. His hair is going to be red for their debut? He flinches when he receives a text message, of course, from Hyunchul.
Get your here, slacker.
It takes twelve minutes for Jaesun to shower and rush past his parents and younger brother to make it to the company with little scolding, considering that the rest of his group is already there. He’s surprised to see Min dozing in the corner of the room, Sookhyun and Suhwan staying next to her and watching Jiwool, Hyemi, and Seungheon actually talk civilly next to the mirrors with the managers and trainers, though he guesses it’s because it’s still early and they’re still tired. He can’t believe he’s the last one to join them this time. It’s usually Min or Seungheon who shows up last.
“Finally,” Hyunchul grumbles out, turning to him and ceasing all conversation with the group he’s with. He has a thin stack of papers in his hand that appears to have been folded and unfolded multiple times. “Now that you’re all here, we need to load up and go to the studio for your pictorials.” He looks disgruntled now, turning back to the papers in his hand.
“We’ve already established all your stylists and they have been told to meet us there at six am,” Sunyoung continues with a soft smile. She already has her bag hooked over her shoulder, arms open to gesture for all of them to get up and going. “Let’s go. We’re going to be late.”
For some reason, Hyunchul is the one who appears frazzled, looking at each of them briefly before shouting, “Min! Wake up!”
Everybody in the room flinches at the yell, Jaesun watching as Min jolts awake through the mirror’s reflection. She knocks her head against the back of the wall and he can hear her groan in pain. “Hyung,” Jaesun says, giving him a look. He doesn’t need to say anything else when all Hyunchul does is wave him off and Sunyoung is the one reaching out to gently touch the back of Min’s head when they file out of the room.
They’re surprised to see one large grey van waiting for them when they exit the building, one Jaesun’s pretty sure wasn’t there fifteen minutes ago, and he hangs in the back of the group with Min as the rest file in one by one.
The sun is already rising and Jaesun squints as their members and Hyunchul try and argue where each one of them should sit. He guesses they never really had a fixed seating chart for a van they’ve never taken before. It’s too early.
“It’s too early,” Min announces, echoing his thoughts. She lets out a soft hum as she releases a deep breath while closing her eyes. “It’s too bright.”
“It’s not that bright,” he counters easily, sighing himself. So far, it looks like the rest of the members are settling seats by playing rock-paper-scissors and Hyemi, Sookhyun, and Jiwool are in the back row with Suhwan and Seungheon taking the second to last row. Jaesun raises an eyebrow when he sees Hyunchul finally settling into the driver’s seat with Sunyoung already waiting for all of them to settle down. “I guess we get the leftover seats, huh?”
Min shrugs, heading into the van first. “Pretty much.”
Jaesun stares after her, watching as she climbs in, and he doesn’t need to look down as much as he’s used to when he looks at her. It makes him do a double take, quickly following after her and closing the door after he sits down. “Min?” he calls, staring her up and down confused.
“Everyone, buckle up,” Sunyoung calls before the car starts moving.
Jaesun does so quickly before looking over to Min who’s not paying him any attention and focusing on her cell phone instead. He frowns, reaching over to poke her in the head. “Hey, Min.”
Immediately, her hand comes flying out to swat his hand away. “Hey, what,” she echoes back, though it doesn’t even sound like a question. She doesn’t even turn to look at him as he pointedly stares her down. It takes a few silent minutes from him to get her attention, but then she’s giving him a blank look, obviously annoyed with him. “What is it, English boy?”
“Are we reverting back to that now?” Jaesun asks, exasperated. He reaches out to poke her again when they start swatting each other’s hands away. “I have a serious question,” he says in the midst of suffering a slap to the arm from her.
It causes Min to still, looking at him with furrowed eyebrows. “What is it?”
“Did you literally grow overnight?”
“What?” Now, Min looks confused. “Did I?”
Sighing, Jaesun rolls his eyes before settling back down in his own chair. He looks out the window briefly to see buildings and cars flying past them before looking back to her. “I don’t know. That’s why I asked you.” He frowns at her. “It’s like you just grew seven centimeters within five hours.”
Suddenly, it looks like a light flickers on within Min’s eyes, her jaw dropping slightly in understanding. “Oh!” she exclaims, shifting until she can pick up a leg and drop it on top of Jaesun’s lap. She smiles as she points down to her shoes. “The new shoes give me an added boost.”
Jaesun grunts at the added weight. “New shoes?” he repeats, looking down to see that there are – indeed – new shoes on Min’s petite feet. “Those are Nike Dunk Sky Hi heels,” he blurts, eyes widening in shock before looking back to her. “How could you afford those?”
“Panny jie bought them for me,” Min explains happily before she makes a soured expression. “It’s to help balance my height against the rest of you tall people.”
Jaesun would laugh, but he’s slightly concerned. “Can you even dance in these?”
“Not sure,” Min simply says, shrugging, as she lets Jaesun shove her leg off his own. “I’m sure I’ll be able to though. I used to train in heels a few months ago.”
“Yeah, but that was a few months ago.”
“I’m sure Minnie here will be able to adapt quickly,” Seungheon comments, both he and Suhwan looking over the backs of their seats curiously. It startles both of the leaders and Min breathes a sigh of relief when she sees it’s Suhwan behind her, reaching up a hand to gently cup the side of his face as his chin hooks onto the edge of the seat.
“You put too much confidence in her,” Jaesun retorts, scoffing.
“So do you!” Sookhyun and Jiwool shout from the back, causing Seungheon and Min to laugh despite the latter leaning her head closer to gently bump against Suhwan’s.
Jaesun is offended. “Oh, be quiet, you two!”
After that, the noise in the van rises in volume and both Hyunchul and Sunyoung sigh as they can hear Suhwan finally adding into the multiple conversations happening behind them.
The studio is about an hour away from KB Entertainment, in a less crowded part of the city. Shops and restaurants are opening when they arrive and Min’s instinct is to look around for a café and good (cheap) food. She blames Minseok for it, but Jiwool says it’s probably all because of Lu Han and Minseok combined – maybe even Baekhyun and Jongdae too since they’ve been tagging along with Minseok wherever he went recently.
“Come on,” Hyunchul calls out when they all finally get out of the van. They’re all crowded on the side of the street with Hyemi, Jiwool, and Sookhyun stretching their arms above their heads and twisting and turning every which way, and Min guesses it’s because they were squished in the back for the entire time.
Hyunchul has his own bag on his shoulder but he reaches out to take Sunyoung’s too, allowing her to go into the building first only because she’s older than me, which earns him a slap on the arm too.
Min leads the group in because of her height while Jaesun and Hyunchul round up the back, and they’re all surprised to see the minimalist interior of the studio. Granted, they can only see the front desk, but everything is still neat and orderly, even as Sunyoung talks to the receptionist before they’re heading through another door to the right.
The sight that greets them is a wide space filled with computers and screens in the middle of it and a white backdrop with various lights in front of it. Most of Night Circus looks amazed while the managers quickly venture off to find the photographer and the rest of their crew, but Min and Suhwan stay behind the rest of them.
Suhwan feels overwhelmed all of a sudden, seeing all the lights directed to the blank screen. Jiwool, Hyemi, and Seungheon are exploring the computers and the lights while Jaesun tries to reel all of them back in, but he doesn’t think he can do this. He doesn’t think he can be in the limelight by himself and he doesn’t think he can– He jumps when he feels a hand land gently on his arm.
“Hey,” Min calls softly, but when Suhwan turns to stare at her, he has to look away immediately because she’s staring right at him. “Hey, Soo. Try and look at me.”
Suhwan tries. He really does. But after a few seconds of staring back at her, he feels like crawling under a rock. He swallows hard trying to get rid of all the nerves in his body.
“Suhwan,” Min says, moving to stand in front of him, and Jaesun was right. She does look taller than normal today. “We’re going to be in this together, okay?” She’s still staring up at him, but Suhwan tries to stare at instead of her eyes, watching as her lips form foreign words as they slip them. She’s smiling now and she looks pretty when she smiles. “Soo, just stare at one of us when it’s your turn. Okay?”
Suhwan nods immediately, shifting his gaze up to her eyes to see her giving him a kind look, before looking over her shoulder to see Hyemi and Jiwool messing around and making funny poses. “Okay, noona,” he quietly says, looking back to her briefly when she gently grabs his hand.
“Stare at one of us,” she repeats, before she’s pulling him closer to the equipment.
The lights seem to get brighter the closer they get to the computers and Suhwan really wants to crawl under a rock and probably stay there for the rest of his life. He jumps – again – when an arm gently wraps around his shoulders. He looks up alarmed to see Jaesun staring ahead of them but a soft smile on his face.
“Are you ready for this?” he asks, chuckling when Jiwool pushes Seungheon away from her. “It’s going to be the first of many.”
“Do you have to say that?” asks Min, exasperated. Suhwan catches her rolling her eyes before turning to stare at Jaesun on the other side of him. “I just got done making sure he’s okay. Don’t go and remind him of other things.”
“Hey, I’m just making sure he’s going to keep it in mind because we’re no longer unknown names after this.”
“We know that, but this is still pretty new to us. This isn’t us just fooling around with a camera and only having our friends see the goofy results – this is us taking professional photos for the rest of the world to see.”
“We’re here, aren’t we?” Jaesun says, tilting his head in the direction of the rest of their group. He smiles at them next, bright and young. “We’re going to help you.”
When Min reaches over to push his face away, she tugs on Suhwan’s hand still attached to hers. It makes him smile, feeling like he’s at home with his family even if neither of them act like his mother or brother. It warms him from the inside out and he’s comfortable with them as they start to bicker again, still attached to his sides, and he moves wherever they move, simply content with being in the middle and somewhat unnoticed.
Though, he does notice something missing when he looks back to the others now talking in front of the white screen, or rather someone. “Where’s Sookhyunnie?” he asks, voice quiet but significant enough to gain the leaders’ attentions.
They both pause in the middle of whatever they’re saying to look over to the trio at the far side of the room. True enough, it’s just Hyemi, Jiwool, and Seungheon standing there, occasionally making weird poses, and Sookhyun is nowhere in sight.
“How could you lose our youngest?!” Min suddenly shouts, lashing out and slapping Jaesun on the chest. Suhwan is starting to think this is how Min handles her nerves. Both he and Jaesun flinch at the move before Jaesun retaliates, though with words because Suhwan would frown heavily if he hit a woman.
“I didn’t!” Jaesun sweeps the floor once more with his gaze. “I just–”
“Jiwool!” Min calls out, completely ignoring him, even as he says, “Wait! Isn’t he in makeup?” “Is Sookhyun getting his makeup and hair done?”
In front of them, all remaining three members stop what they’re doing to stare at her curiously. It takes a few seconds before realization dawns on Jiwool. “Yeah, unnie,” she says, smiling brightly at them. “Mean Hyunchul came out and grabbed him first.”
“I heard that,” came Hyunchul’s voice in the distance. “Seungheon, you’re next. The rest of you better be behaving out there.”
“We are,” they all chorus back at once, Seungheon leaving their group and heading for one of the opened side doors.
They all fall quiet after that and Suhwan lets go of Min when she turns to give him a small smile and squeeze of the hand. “Stare at one of us,” she repeats before walking away to join the rest of the girls. He watches her go before Jiwool is called next a few long minutes later and then Sunyoung is walking out with Sookhyun and another older man they assume is the photographer. The others rush to where Suhwan and Jaesun are standing behind the equipment.
“Sir,” Sunyoung starts out with a smile before gesturing to the rest of them. They all bow in sync as the photographer bows in return. “These are the people who will be doing photoshoots today.”
The photographer takes a few minutes to stare at each one of them before focusing his gaze on Sookhyun, appraising him before he nods in approval. “We are doing a basic concept first, correct? You also have the extra set of clothes for them?”
“Yes, sir,” Sunyoung quickly says, nodding. “Jeanne and Yongha have prepared the rest of the outfits for them.”
None of them know what she’s talking about but Suhwan watches as Sookhyun quickly goes in the front of the camera. He simply stands there and smiles, waiting for instructions, and Suhwan flinches when the photographer takes one photo of his friend to test out the lighting.
A couple of assistants enter the room after a few test shots and orders are barked at them to change the lighting and bring in chairs for Sookhyun to sit in. The assistants clean up the floor too between every other take and Suhwan doesn’t understand. Though, it’s interesting to see his normally smiling friend lose his smile in front of the camera and do poses that, apparently, the photographer likes.
“Don’t worry,” Jaesun murmurs to him, a smile in his voice. “We’ll go last so you can see everything.”
Suhwan doesn’t know about that, but he quickly looks to Min when her name is called, watching as she disappears behind the now closed door.
Hyemi opens an eye when the door closes, seeing Min walking in and sitting down in the available chair. She’s currently getting her hair done by Jeanne, their new stylist who apparently does hair as well, and closes her eye again when she moves to the front of her head.
It’s mostly quiet in their room, the only sounds coming from the soft taps of makeup brushes and brush going through her hair. It’s such a tranquil space compared to whatever is going on outside. She almost flinches when Hyunchul finally speaks up after being quiet for the longest time.
“Either of you interested in Unpretty Rapstar?”
“No,” Hyemi answers immediately, frown on her face. She’s spun around, indicating her hair is done, and follows the stylist to the other side of the room where there’s a rack of clothes and another door to the side.
“Why?” Min murmurs after a minute, too focused on trying to keep still for Yongha.
They can hear their manager heave a sigh before more papers are rustling. “We need to ramp up your image and public interest,” he starts, Hyemi humming as she’s given clothes before disappearing into the second room. Hyunchul raises his voice loud enough for her to still hear. “With Hyemi, it’ll be easy to sign her onto the program once you all debut and more information about her is released. It’ll be harder for Min to join because she basically has no information on her and she wasn’t scouted for rapping, but then that’ll definitely raise questions and interest in the group.”
Min’s voice filters through the door as Hyemi tries to switch tank tops without messing her hair and makeup. “That’s true. I don’t know how good I’ll be since I’m still getting help from Hyemi and Jiho.” Hyemi huffs as she finally – gently – pulls the ends of her hair out of the shirt and hopes it doesn’t flatten as much as she thinks. “But if given the opportunity, I’ll definitely accept and try my hardest for it.”
“They’re going to tear you down,” Hyemi comments when she finally steps out of the room, Yongha taking a break from Suhwan to go touch up whatever she probably messed up while changing clothes. She thought she didn’t touch her face though. She can feel Min staring hard at her from her seat in front of Jeanne. “I mean,” she manages to breathe out, pausing to let Yongha apply more balm and gloss to her lips. “Have you watched this season of it? They’re brutal, unnie.”
“We were actually going to try and make one of you join this season,” Hyunchul lets slip, mouth snapping shut afterwards as both Min and Hyemi snap their heads in his direction. In the corner, Suhwan watches on quietly, fascinated.
“You were going to what?” Hyemi questions as she tries not to glare at her manager. How much older is he to her? Yongha grunts as she continues to move while he’s trying to fix up her makeup. “I refuse to join a show like that.”
“I’ll accept if given the opportunity, but I don’t know how I’ll rank compared to the other rappers,” Min reiterates, though she continues to eye Hyunchul. “Wasn’t the whole point of our group to remain unknown until our debut?”
Hyunchul glares back at each of them, his default demeanor reappearing. “Don’t give me those looks. Your entire debut was a work-in-progress at the time and the board was trying to figure out how to put your name out there.”
“It’s time for you to go,” Yongha quietly mentions to Hyemi, gently guiding her towards the door. “Then I’m going to retouch your makeup for the second shoot.”
Hyemi nods to him before she quickly leaves the room. She looks over her shoulder to give Hyunchul one last glare and she wants to laugh at how he easily returns the look.
Back in the main room, Hyemi quickly takes her spot in front of the camera, listening intently to the photographer as she moves and makes facial expressions to what he wants. It’s actually not that hard for her, but he does ask her to fix her hair every few minutes and Seungheon has to come over and do it for her since they lack the proper amount of staff members to help them out.
“Hey, Seungheon,” Hyemi quietly says, taking the chance of the photographer busying himself with his recent shots to keep Seungheon with her. She closes an eye as he brushes her bangs off to one side. “Hyunchul said he and probably the board were thinking of having me or unnie join Unpretty Rapstar.” She looks away from the photographer to stare up at Seungheon when he makes a contemplative hum.
“The one Jiyoon noona is on?” he asks. She nods. “And?”
“I refuse to go on a show like that,” she murmurs, sighing softly. “But if Min goes on that show, I don’t know how I feel about that. She’s tough, but she’s not as mean as the others can get.”
Seungheon shrugs, taking a step back to give her a once over. “Then don’t do the show if you don’t want to. We’re able to make our own choices. Let’s make them while we still can.”
Hyemi doesn’t have enough time to comprehend his words before she’s told to start posing again. Roughly, another thirty minutes pass by before she’s done and Min is moving in front of the screen next. She watches her stand there awkwardly in a large white button-up shirt and dark, tight shorts before Jiwool suddenly appears next to Hyemi making various faces and poses.
In the end, all it does is make Min laugh and the photographer snaps pictures of that instead. Minutes pass and Min finally relaxes in front of the camera and Hyemi smiles when the photographer asks her to sit down on the ground and face the side before tilting her head towards the camera and smiling softly.
“She’s pretty,” Jiwool comments, earning approving hums from Suhwan and Jaesun next to them who’ve finally finished their first round of touching up. Yongha has simply moved to their area to start fixing up Sookhyun and Seungheon’s makeup for a slightly darker look for the next round of photos.
“She’s catching on quickly,” Hyemi murmurs, before looking to the rest of the group, a thought suddenly striking her.
These pictures are going to be released to the public. This is the very beginning of their careers as idols and they’re finally going to be on television. Though it should’ve clicked when they were talking about joining Unpretty Rapstar, it finally makes sense. They’ve all waited for this and it’s finally happening.
“The photos are coming along great,” the photographer comments, pulling all of their attentions to him, even as he continues to take pictures of Min. “This is a good bunch of kids, you got. They all have the right looks.”
“Thank you,” Sunyoung says, a bright smile on her face. “You might be seeing them a lot more soon.”
Hyemi’s heart speeds at the words, suddenly feeling giddy and excited. After this, they’re going to the hair salon and then pre-recording for Music Bank.
“Is that so?” the photographer says with a laugh, pausing to take a quick look through the last round of photos. He seems to be in a much better mood, nodding every few seconds. “Then I would be happy to see all of you again soon.”
What the hell, they’re debuting.
co-author’s note: if you guys missed it, there is a new BEHIND THE SCENES THREAD-- found here. i've already updated it with the founding board and the current staff for night circus. i will upload their debut single with lyrics before i put up the next chapter for this story. after their debut in this story, i'll just go ahead and upload all the albums so you can get a feel for what concepts they're doing and see what hair colors they're all going to be taking on (yes, just so my life can be a little bit easier and i can just get each of them to dye their hair some odd color at least once. hopefully).
question of the day: yeah so. idk. i don't really have a question because i'm tired but!!! how's all of your summers going? or vacation or school??? let me know! i'm curious to what the creators are up to ;u; oh!!! and if any of you see staff members or future trainees that you like and want your character to maybe have a fling or date in the future, let me know as well :) i will be adding a trainees list and everything in the future too for the other thread~
updated: 5 august 2016
question of the day: yeah so. idk. i don't really have a question because i'm tired but!!! how's all of your summers going? or vacation or school??? let me know! i'm curious to what the creators are up to ;u; oh!!! and if any of you see staff members or future trainees that you like and want your character to maybe have a fling or date in the future, let me know as well :) i will be adding a trainees list and everything in the future too for the other thread~
updated: 5 august 2016
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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