Jisoo's PoV

I stared at the camera which stood in front of me. I was in an empty room that was in our company building. The room was meant for conferences, but they ended up getting another room for the conference room leaving this one empty. I stood there having a staring contest with the camera.

“Are you ready?” I shifted my gaze from the camera towards the voice.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I sighed in response.

“Okay, here we go.” The camera made a small beeping noise before the red light on it signaled that it was recording. I looked at the camera for a second before I bowed at the small device.

“Hello, my name is Kim Jisoo.” I took in a deep breath through my nose.

“Many of you may be wondering why I am addressing you in this manner, but there is something I must tell all of you.” I took in another breath.

“This is a serious topic and I want to tell you this in a serious manner.” I paused.

“I haven’t been truthful to all of you.” I closed my eyes, thinking carefully about my next words before I reopened them.

“Four years ago I was in a car accident. Most of you probably know this, but what you don’t know is that that accident left me partially impaired in both my ears.”

“I can’t hear well, and anything I do hear sounds like whispers, or the sounds are muffled. I use hearing aids to amplify any noise.”

“Recently at the 2016 MAMA during my performance, I couldn’t hear in towards the end. I lost count of the beat, which I use when I can’t hear, and I couldn’t continue. I was devastated when it happened. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to hide, which I did. I wanted to cry, which I also did, and I just didn’t know what to do.”

“I didn’t want to tell you guys all this because I didn’t want to look weak. I didn’t want to be pitied or labeled as a handicap, so I lied. I acted like I was fine. I acted like everything was normal. I acted like an idiot.”

“Honestly, I wasn’t ready for the stage. I’ve worked for 3 years since my accident so that I would be able to stand on stage again. I missed being on stage, performing, and I missed being with all of you, but I wasn’t ready to come back.”

“I know that I just made a comeback recently, but I have decided with the guidance of those around me to stop my current promotions and go into a hiatus.”

“I don’t feel like I’m ready for the stage just yet, and I will return to you when I am 100% ready and confident that I can show you all the best Kim Jisoo that I can be. I also wanted to apologize to all my fans and all the people for lying and deceiving you. When I return, I hope that I can be a person that you are all proud of. Thank you.” I once again bowed to the camera. I watched as the red light dimmed and I let out a sigh.

“You did great, Jisoo.” I felt an arm wrap around me and take me into a hug.

“I hope so.”

I hoped that I could relax a little and continue to practice when I started my hiatus, but nope, of course, that couldn’t happen. To simply put it, I was surrounded. Surrounded by questions, surrounded by people, surrounded by phone calls, surrounded by everything. I barely had a chance to breathe. The company tried its best to divert all the people and questions so that I could have some peace, but there was always somebody else to take the place of the ones they get rid of. I felt guilty that they had to deal with all this because of me. I even felt bad for Astro for being in the same company as this mayhem. I eventually got used to all the chaos after a while and over time the number of people began to die down also. The biggest shock came when I least expected it. I guess you could say that I was in the eye of the hurricane when all of a sudden I wasn’t anymore. I was sitting with my aunt after I had finished practicing with her when I got a call from a number I hadn’t seen in a while.

“Are you going to answer that or are you just going to stare?” I looked up from my phone to see her looking at me.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? Who is it?”

“It’s...Mom.” The phone buzzed once again.

“My question still stands. Are you going to answer it?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her in so long. What would I say? What will she say?” The phone continued buzzing.

“How about ‘Hi’? I would’ve thought that you’d be ready to talk to them. I mean, you did address them when you won your first trophy.” The buzzing stopped and the phone lay inanimate in my hands.

“It’s just been so long. I don’t know if I could talk to them.”

“If there’s a will, there’s a way. If you want to talk to them, then you’ll be able to talk to them.” The screen of my phone lit up in my hand. 1 New Voicemail, was displayed across the top of the screen. “You should hear what they have to say. Well, I have to head home. Jinhwan is coming home for the dinner tonight. I finally get some quality time with my son. Maybe you can get some with your parents. Good luck!” she patted my shoulder before she stood up from her chair and left the practice room.

~

Once I was done training at the company building I was taken back to my dorm room. I tried to focus on everything exce