Chapter 5

Mannequin

The next weeks passed faster than I thought. I went to an interview with Secret's Ji Eun, a photoshoot with Sonamoo, and even helped with Kye Rin's group's debut and promotions. A lot of people looked forward to their debut and I guess you can say their debut was successful. Kye Rin was really fascinated and I was happy to see her like that. Her groupmates were still cold to me but I was kinda used to it by now.

The next two weeks were really tough, but at least it went fast. There were some days when I didn't have any specific tasks to do so I went around the company and asked everyone if they needed anything.

"Minseo" Shin Ra turned to me one day "we have a few new male trainees. Actually, they've been here for a year, but we had to make sure that they're good. They don't know how to apply make-up by themselves. Go and teach them. They're on the first floor."

I took some make-up with me and headed to the first floor. There were three boys who were pretty comfortable with each other. They were joking around, probably having a break.

"Good afternoon" I said just loud enough to let the boys hear me. They didn't stop what they were doing, so I repeated myself a bit louder. They looked at me, a bit surprised, realizing that I was actually there.

"Oh, guys, I know this girl. Just the other day, she made B.A.P carry a few bags for her." They looked unapprovingly, and telling the story like this, it was actually right. No one would make other people carry bags for them, especially when they're in my position. However, I didn't say anything, knowing that arguing would be useless.

"What are you doing here?" asked one of them.

"I'm a stylist and I'm here to teach you how to use make-up properly. Here you go." I handed each of them a primer, an eyeliner, a lip gloss and a pencil to draw their eyebrows. They started smelling the make-up, one of them even tried to taste it. The other two laughed, and I even giggled a bit.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, you were just funny… I mean, I don't want to hurt you, but I haven't seen anyone yet who tried to eat the make-up." I hurriedly replied. I realized that when it came to being rough, the trainees were always worse than the actual idols.

"Noona, I heard that you didn't attend university. Is that true? Than how can we make sure that you know what you're doing?" one of them asked.

"Yes, that's true. But I think there's no need to go to university to know how to apply some basic make-up. And now please listen. I'll teach you how to use primer." I told them everything I thought they need to know.

After that, I taught them how to clean the make-up from their faces.

"And now, apply it for yourself so that I can see if anything's unclear." I told them. They somehow managed to complete this rather easy task. "Make sure you practice applying it every day. And by the day of your debut, it will be flawless" I smiled. No matter of others roughness, I still had to be kind with them.

"You're not our mother, nor our boss. Don't tell us what to do." one of the boys answered. He was the oldest, but still younger than me. And also he was the one that looked the sassiest. "And tell me one thing, noona. Actually, who did you sleep together with to get this job? Oh wait. You're not even pretty. Nobody would sleep with you."

I felt tears in my eyes. I could bear anything to this point, but this guy was just too much. I bowed and left the room without saying anything.

I entered the first bathroom I saw. I went to one of the toilets, sat down and cried. I actually didn't notice that it was a men's bathroom.

~~

"Get me some cheesecakes. I'll go after you, just a few minutes." Daehyun told B.A.P as he entered the bathroom. It was already late in the afternoon, and they decided to go and get a bite at the cantina.

As he entered the bathroom, he just noticed that something was different. He heard silent sobs from one of the toilets. What was even weirder, is that it was definitely a woman's cry. He went out and checked - yep, it was a men's bathroom. He went to the ominous toilet and knocked on the door. It was not closed, so he could go in easily.

He was surprised to see Minseo sitting on the toilet, crying.

"What happened?" Daehyun asked immediately, kneeling down to see the girl's face. She just shook her head, signaling that she didn't want to talk about it. "You can tell me. Really."

Minseo wiped her eyes, and slowly started to tell the story to Daehyun. By the end, she was just crying even more, and Daehyun felt incredibly angry.

"I'll talk to them." he said.

"No, please don't do it." Minseo looked frightened. "If you go and talk to them about it, people will think that I make my sunbaes do things for me. That's not right."

Daehyun still wanted to teach the boys a lesson, but he understood Minseo's point of view and just nodded. He gave the girl a tissue and waited patiently until she calmed down.

~~

Luckily, when we went out of the bathroom, no one was on the corridor. I thanked the gods for this. If someone would have been there at that time, I'm sure that tomorrow the whole company would speak about how we were doing inappropriate things in the bathroom.

I thanked Daehyun for helping me once again and he asked me if I was alright. Then we parted ways.

I looked at my phone. It took half an hour to calm down. Shin Ra might be looking for me.

I was right.

"Where the hell have you been? The boys told me that you've ended working with them half an hour ago."

"I'm sorry. I felt pretty bad, and I went to the bathroom. My stomach was hurting crazily and it took a bit long for the medicine to process."

She just shook her head, and I asked timidly if there's any job she'd like me to do. She shook her head again. So I started my way around the company, making sure to avoid the first floor's practice room.

I helped sorting loads of papers, and by the end, it was already dark, but not late enough for me to go home.

I entered the next room. It was a studio. The room was dark, but the computer was on. It took me a few moments to realize someone was sitting in front of it.

"Anything I can help you with?" a really deep voice asked. The chair turned around and I saw Yongguk's silhouette.

"Actually, I came here to ask the same from you." I smiled a bit. I knew Yongguk was a good person, and he would never say something like what the others told me lately.

"There's some ramen on the shelf. You will find everything for it. Could you make it for me?"

"Yes, sure. Would you like me to put all of the spice in it?" He just nodded. I made the ramen and told him to wait for it to finish cooking. "Anything else?" I asked.

"Yes. Could you go to the convenient store? Here's the list and money. Of course only it's not a problem…"

"Oh, it's not. I'm glad I can help." He gave me the list and some money. I was about to go when he stopped me. "Don't bring it here. Go to our practice room, you'll find Jongup. And also, there's a fridge, but not here." By the end of the sentence, he was grinning and I didn't know why, but I smiled back. I bowed and left the room.

Lucikly, the grocery store was not far away from the company building. I hurried to buy the stuff from the list, which was not so long. I bought the boys some chocolate from my money. I hoped they like this brand…

When I arrived at the company, I wrote a little note to them and hid it in the bag.

After that, I headed to the boys' practice room.

I really found Jongup there. He didn't notice I entered, he was absorbed in dancing. His dance was fascinating. I envied him, because I always wanted to dance well, but I never could.

I silently made my way to the fridge. I put the things in it which were supposed to be kept cool. I also hid the note and the chocolate there. I placed the bag with the remaining stuff next to the wall. After that, I decided to stay for a bit to watch Jongup dance.

~~

Actually, Jongup noticed Minseo at the second she entered, he just didn't know how to react and wanted to avoid awkwardness. So he pretended that he haven't seen the girl.

The song which was bursting from the loudspeakers came to its end. He just stood there in silence, knowing that Minseo is still watching. Then she timidly started clapping, probably still thinking that Jongup didn't notice her entrance.

Jongup turned and did a scenic bow, which made the girl smile.

Damn, she was so pretty when she was smiling. Jongup wanted to see her smile more.

"Minseo, can you dance?" he asked.

"Well, there I've been dancing for a pretty long time by myself at home. My father told me that I was getting fatter, so I started learning choreographies, but I'm not actually good at them…"

"But try it."

"Okay, but promise not to laugh."

Jongup nodded. Minseo plugged her phone to the loudspeaker, and started a song. It was "Very nice" from Seventeen. She closed her eyes and started to dance.

It was obvious that she was uncomfortable. After the first chorus, she was getting absorbed in the music. By the second chorus, she let herself go.

Her movements were way far from perfect but with practice, she could be a lot better. And she was smiling which made her dance look way better.

When the song ended, she opened her eyes to see a wildly grinning Jongup. She probably misunderstood it, and hid her face, blushing.

"I told you not to laugh!" she said rather quietly.

"I didn't laugh. You were good."

Minseo looked up, her face still red.

~~

Jongup made his way to me.

"Look, how about we make a deal?" he asked. "I teach you how to dance better, you can come here every day at this time for two more weeks, just because after that we'll be getting ready for our comeback. But for two weeks, you can come. In return, you try to be more confident about your dancing and in addition, you'll tell me if anyone from the company tries to bully you. Deal?"

How did the bullying stuff come? However, I nodded, but made him also promise that he doesn't tell anyone if I tell him about the bullying.

"And also, thank you for the message just the other day."

"Oh, that's nothing. I felt like you needed to know." He smiled and I smiled back. "So you want to know this choreography properly or something else?"

"This." I answered.

Jongup didn't know the steps but I showed it to him. In return, he helped me correct my small mistakes.

"The first and most important thing is to let yourself absorb in the music. You have to feel like it surrounds you and there's nothing else in the world. Just you and the song." I nodded.

We danced for at least an hour. I looked at my phone and it was pretty late, and I also told Jongup that he should go home to have a rest. He shook his head and told me that he is going to stay there a little more.

"Ok," I told him "Then see you tomorrow. I think I'll drop by to dance again." I smiled and I made my way out of the room.

Jongup was still looking at the door even long after Minseo left. He finally found something that made her smile. This meant that he could see her smile every single day and just the thought made him fall for the girl even more.


Author's note: Oh my God, it has been so long! 

School has started and I have no time to write, but I'll try to :D 

Also, please leave your thoughts in the comment section after reading the chap <3

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akumu_no_musume
Skydive MV is out! Did you guess X right? I did :3

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Donnakiins
#1
Chapter 4: This is interesting so far! Jongup was my first bias (even tho Himhan is my ultimate bias now LOL) so I'm enjoying this story :)