CHAPTER 19
⤫ AEON : END OF AN ERAChapter 19
“Cha Wonwoo!”
Wonwoo smiled at the ahjumma at his favourite noodle bar, he liked it when people used his real name. She smiled back. She knew who he was but had always been nice and not weird about it and Wonwoo appreciated that. He’d given her a signed album once, just because he happened to have one in his bag and she seemed like she’d been having a bad day. He was pretty sure that she considered him one of her favorite customers since then, or at least she was very good at making him feel like it.
He smiled back. “Hello ahjumma! Do you have two portions of spicy buckwheat noodles for me?”
“For you of course I do!”
He leaned on the counter as she worked. The place was quite busy for a wednesday evening. Some couples and a group of tourists were enjoying their noodles, and there were a few more people waiting for their takeaway. The purple neon lights installed in the restaurant painted all of them in unnatural colours. It made them seem lonely. What it was about neon lights that drained all of the warmth from everything they touched?
Some of the other customers looked his way and Wonwoo instinctively pulled his scarf back over his nose. Today was not a day where he felt like being recognized. Sometimes he had all the time in the world for taking selfies and giving autographs, but not tonight. Tonight he just wanted to be Cha Wonwoo who bringing some tasty ramyun to see an old friend.
He scrolled instagram while he waited, absentmindedly liking a selfie here, a comeback teaser there. Nothing all that important, but might as well give some support where he could. Chanhee had posted another selfie yesterday. It had their fansign poster in the background as he thanked the fans for coming Nothing out of the ordinary, but Wonwoo always admired Chanhee for remembering to post things like that. He ought to reply to it, put his two cents somewhere between the throng of fans who were fawning over Chanhee’s face.
Thanks to all the fans who went out of their way to see our fansign, or who supported us during the comeback, we could not have done it without you~~!!
It felt so much more natural when Chanhee did it. It felt disingenuous coming from himself, but he pressed post anyway. Empty words to placate a faceless mass.
“Here’s your order, Wonwoo.” The ahjumma had returned with a plastic bag filled with delicious food. He knew she’d slipped in some free sides, too. She always did.
“Thank you so much, I will cherish the food.”
“Enjoy, and take care of your health, dear.”
He hurried from the restaurant to his car, holding the takeout package close to shield it from the rain. He almost missed his own nondescript black car in the dark, thank god for remote unlocking and the flash of lights to guide him. He put the food on the passenger seat and started his journey through Seoul. His destination wasn’t even all that far away but the traffic always made things more of a hassle than they had to be.
The rain had stopped by the time the apartment complex finally came into view. The license plate recognition opened the garage door for him no problem, and before he knew it he was in the elevator punching in the ‘11’ to his destination. A little ding and there he was, the doors opened, and Wonwoo was in front of a vault of a door. He rang the bell and he waited.
It still felt weird, this journey. It felt like a betrayal, even though he knew that was silly. Maybe it would feel less like a betrayal once he actually told the others that he was doing this, but he hadn’t quite managed that kind of bravery yet.
“Right on time,” Joowon said when he opened the door.
Wonwoo held up the bag of food. “I brought ramyun.”
“You’re heaven sent as usual.” Joowon stepped aside to let him into the apartment. No bro hugs or anything, they were still on too thin ice for that stuff and Wonwoo had never quite figured out how effortless physical interaction went. He stepped past Joowon into the apartment and set the food onto the little coffee table. The place looked haphazardly cleaned, obviously something of a quick job, but Wonwoo was giving him the courtesy of not looking at the brushed together music sheets, the film of dust that remained on the tv, or the mess just beyond the slightly ajar bedroom door.
“Do you want some soju?” Joowon asked as he went to the kitchen.
“Do you have beer instead?”
“One beer, coming up!” As usual, Joowon sounded too bright. Too eager to please. It grated on Wonwoo.
It still felt weird, this whole thing. Fragile. Awkward. Joowon returned and passed him a can of beer and a glass. “How have you been doing?” Wonwoo asked, opening the container with his own spicy black bean noodles. The ahjumma running the shop had added some extra chili just the way he liked it.
“Good, good,” Joowon said absently. “Work’s been keeping me busy. We’re in talks for a one-off return to Gag Concert for a best of episode, and I think my manager’s been discussing terms with a travel program too. It’ll be nice to see a bit of the world.”
Wonwoo nodded. “It’s nice to see other cultures. I always liked that about doing so many concerts everywhere, even if we never got to see that much of the cities. You’d be amazed how much a hotel room can tell you about a country.”
He took a bit of his wonderfully sweet and spicy noodles as the silence stretched on a little too long for comfort. Joowon was the one who broke it. “How are you doing?”
Wonwoo took a moment to consider how much to tell Joowon. “We just finished promotions,” he said instead. “So I’m enjoying the usual break that comes after. We still have some schedules dotted throughout and my radio show isn’t going anywhere, but that aside it’s quiet.”
Joowon nodded. “I remember that. The calm after the storm that is promotions.” Another silence stretched on.
“Yeah.” Wonwoo set down his chopsticks and reached for the beer. He liked the bubbling sound it made when he opened the can, liked the fizz as he poured its contents into the glass. He refrained from pointing out that the promotions Joowon remembered were the bare bones, only the hint of the schedules they got nowadays. Or used to. He supposed success ebbed and flowed.
“How’s the group?” Joowon ended up asking. There was such a hunger for information there in his eyes.
“Hyung, you know the terms. We don’t talk about the others.” It was the first rule Wonwoo had put down when he’d reached out to his former group member. While Wonwoo himself was okay with talking to Joowon, he knew very well that not everyone was. It would be even more of a betrayal if he also started telling Joowon all about them.
“Right. Sorry.” He had the good sense to look apologetic for asking.
Wonwoo took a sip of his beer, letting the bubbles tickle his throat. “You’re working on more music?” He nodded at the pile of sheets discarded by the keyboard.
Joowon nodded. “Working on some music for Snuper, you know, my company’s boy group.”
Wonwoo nodded. He’d heard of them. By all accounts they weren’t doing very well and he felt for them. “Is it going well?”
“It’s going. I like to work here, it’s quieter and the place has one hell of a view.”
Wonwoo nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Do you, eh, want to watch something while we eat?”
“Yeah. I’d like that.”
They spent the rest of the meal watching some variety show and eating mostly in silence. Then the food was done, the beer was finished, and there was no more reason to stay.
“Do you want me to help you clean up?” Wonwoo offered.
“No that’s okay,” Joowon answered. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Then I should go, it’ll be time for my radio show soon and the writer noona will want to go over the topics of today..” Wonwoo grabbed his things and Joowon walked him to the door. “It was nice to see you again, hyung.”
“Thanks for the food. See you again soon?”
“I’ll call when I’ve got some time. Take care.”
“You too.”
The whole thing had lasted little over an hour before Wonwoo was right back in that elevator again.
He got back into his car and drove away into the rain.
Here Jinyoung was, sweating way too much in the waiting room of their first music show. Why did it feel like he was debuting all over again?? He pulled at the sleeve of his ridiculous leopard print blazer. Truly, the fashion choices of the stylist were so 2011.
Opposite him Hana was tapping her foot impatiently wearing the shortest black dress allowed on national broadcast, the sheer overskirt doing nothing to add modesty. Her hair was cascading over her shoulders in the kind of wavy hairstyle that looked amazing on any girl but because it was Hana of course it made her look like a straight goddess.
He was kind of astonished to realize that he was getting used to it. He hadn’t thought being in the room with the hottest most beautiful person in the whole world was something you could just get used to but he could look at her now without feeling like he was staring into the sun so maybe it was? Desensitized to perfection?? Was that a thing? Though he could still feel the spots on his body she touched during the dance like they were burnt onto his skin.
She noticed him staring and smiled and he quickly looked away and grabbed for his phone.
, he’d forgotten he’d been reading that.
Hana sighed, got up, and snatched the phone out of his hand. “‘AEON’s Seojin and Min Hana debut concept in Trouble Maker’,” she read out. “Oh, there are comments! ‘Such a bad influence to the youth.......’.’I wonder what their rehearsals are like....’. ‘Pretty much an AV’, ‘Seriously... I'm thankful for this picture as a man but I don't think this is appropriate at all.. Girls doing the spread leg look so dirty..’, that one must have a lot of female friends. ‘Aigoo, just do it on stage already, will you?’ Oh they should be so lucky.” She winked at Jinyoung and he felt like he could melt into the earth, not for the first time since this whole duo thing started.
“Stooop,” He whined. “It's worse when you say it out loud!”
“‘I feel like they would've already touched each other everywhere already’, ooh that one has over 2000 upvotes that’s a popular one.” She snorted at the next comment. “‘ Child: Mom, where do babies come from? / Mom: Like that’”, she laughed. “Ooh I like that one!”
“Why are you being like this?!” Jinyoung whined.
Hana looked up sharply. “Like what?”
“Pretending you’re okay with all of that!”
“You think I’m pretending?” Hana laughed. “You really think- I don’t give a what these low lives have to say on the internet.”
“Hana,” Seokmin warned from the corner of the room. “Do not swear in front of the cameras.”
She waved him away, her attention still wholly on Jinyoung in that way that made him feel like he was being scrutinized in every way but also extremely lucky to be given her time of day anyway. “The fact that these idiots are even talking about us at all means that we’ve hit a snare. We’re uncomfortable to them, something that they can’t quickly put away in a box and forget about. We’re challenging the nice and proper norms they’re used to and it’s making them sweat and itch and they do the first thing that comes into their simple little minds: attack it, destroy the other.” She spat out the words with an anger and resentment he’d never seen her inhabit before, her grip on the phone tightened until the knuckles showed white. “They’re the lowest forms of life this country has to offer, incapable of facing the winds of change, incapable of facing that which is unpleasant to their boring and proper little lives. Why should we bother with them? Do you think the tiger bothers with the insects she crushes under her feet? We are doing great things, Jinyoung, and we will not let the world shame us.”
Jinyoung gulped. “Eh- okay.”
Hana took a little breath, tossed the phone onto the sofa, and let herself drop next to him. He wasn’t sure if it was okay to grab the phone again or if she would turn all intense again… He caught Seokmin looking up warily from the newspaper he’d been reading and sigh. “Come on,” Seokmin said. “It’s time to get ready for your pre-recording.
Jin noticed that his hands were shaking and tried to bury them in the pockets of his ridiculous blazer only to find out it didn’t have any. Hana probably pretended she hadn’t seen it, just pulled her dress down (not very gracefully), arranged the sheer layer, brushed a hand through her fringe to make sure it fell perfectly, and marched towards the door. She looked over her shoulder at him and half the curls fell slid from her perfect shoulder. “Are you coming?”
“What? Right!” Jinyoung took a breath. Come on Jin, you can do this. You know the stage, you’ve practiced to perfection, there’s nothing that can go wrong.
Well, there was a lot that could go wrong.
At least this part was more than familiar to him. Mic checks, dry and dress rehearsals, waiting in packed hallways. These were all evils he knew, he could deal with. They were outfitted with microphones and before he knew it it was their stage was ready for them.
The stage looked beautiful. A big golden chandelier hung as centerpiece with red cloth hanging from the ceiling as rich curtains. The set was much better than AEON had ever gotten and this time it was just for him.
He sneaked a look, ever so subtly, at the crowd and gulped. It was too dark to see well but he could see the outlines of people, he could feel how full the hall was, could just see the shapes of banners and hear the hushed whispers of an excited crowd.
Hana stepped out and waved and the crowd gathered cheered. She was positively glowing, he could see how her smile widened at the adoration, could see how it fed her. She turned to look back at him, grinned, and held her hand out.
Jinyoung stepped out too though he didn’t take her hand (how would that look? Far too intimate, right? ‘I feel like they would've already touched each other everywhere already’). “Do you see them?” She whispered, hand covering her mic. “ They love us!” She blew them a kiss and the crowd screamed, men and girls alike.
There were so many of them! He waved at the crowd and they screamed back.
They really did love him.
“I can't believe I've only just debuted and they're already sidelining us for some subunit,” Minjun whined, splayed out on the floor of the dorm. He was so bored! Wasn't being an idol supposed to be super busy and stuff?? They’d had one promotional cycle which had been great but then it was just a couple festivals here and there and practice practice practice.
“Shut it,” Chanhee threw a pillow at his face from his unfair advantage of the sofa. Age hierarchy . “Jinyoung deserves this, let him have it.”
“I'm not sure if he actually wants to have it,” As Seunghoon called out from his room.
“And whose fault is that?!” Chanhee called back.
“Who wouldn’t want to be in a subunit with freaking Hana??” Minjun spat back. Did they not have eyes?? “I mean she’s no G.NA but she comes close.”
“I hope he's okay,” Youngbae fretted from the other side of the living room floor. “He looked so nervous when he left this morning.”
“I guess they have to figure out something to do for the past visual,” Minjun said without salt whatsoever. Chanhee tossed another pillow at him and Minjun caught it this time. He propped the pillow under his head. “All you're doing is making it more comfortable for me.”
“Did we have an official visual?” Youngbae wondered. “I don’t think we were ever told.”
“I assumed it was Jinyoung,” Minjun said.
Chanhee gave him a kick. “Gosh, thanks!”
“Hey did their MV come out yet?” Youngbae wondered.
“Yesterday,” Chanhee replied. He shot up and dramatically turned to their infallible leader. “Wait. Hang on. Hollup. Hold the phone. You haven’t seen it yet?!”
Youngbae shook his head, clueless as ever.
Chanhee grinned as he lunged for their singular shared laptop. “Oh you have no idea. Hoonie, come here we’re gonna give Minjun some education- oh I thought I was gonna have to try way harder-”
Seunghoon had already come out of his den, he grinned and leaned on the back of the sofa. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
All of them gathered around the laptop as the click clack of heels filled the stuffy dorm room and Hana walked on screen in the tightest white dress known to humanity.
Minjun whistled. “That’s South Korea’s right there.”
“Minjun!” Youngbae exclaimed, voice raising 4 octaves.
“Oooh it’s a spy flick?!” Youngbae perked up instantly as on screen Hana and Jinyoung started doing. vaguely spy related things.. “Oh that’s so cool!”
“Oh man every time I’m at the company I hear the whistle it’s impossible to get out of your head,” Chanhee said, already whistling along.
“Yeah it’s a really clever hook,” Seunghoon said. “And do you hear that sick baseline? Those songwriters knew what they were doing.”
The MV continued mostly with various shots of Hana’s and Jinyoung trying his best to look hot to match her. “I wonder how many times they practiced that arm kiss thing and accidentally kissed,” Minjun wondered almost gleeful.
“None or Jinyoung would already be dead from a heart attack,” Seunghoon said and Chanhee snorted.
“Are they sure this is a good idea?” Youngbae looked concerned. “This is… very mature…”
“With that melody even the biggest purists in Korea are going to be whistling that tune,” Seunghoon said. “Well played, Helix.”
“Oh, she raps!” Youngbae looked surprised.
“It’s…. She’s lucky she’s hot,” Minjun said.
“Rude,” Chanhee said.
“Isn’t she supposed to be from SM?” Minjun asked, eyes glued to the screen as Hana her perfectly contoured mini-skirted at the camera. “How the hell did they breed that?!”
Youngbae had his hands in front of his eyes. “Should we show him this?!”
“It’s educational!” Chanhee was grinning his most -eating grin.
“Oh she has a gun now! Go kill Jinyoung!”
“MINJUN!”
“He sounds really good though I have to admit,” Chanhee says. “Like damn.”
“Hana is very hot yes,” Minjun agreed.
Chanhee threw another pillow.
“Oooh look at those moves!” Youngbae said as the on-screen Jinyoung started a slick dance solo.
“I love how they inserted Hana biting her lip in the middle to remind you this is still a y MV,” Chanhee said.
“Are you saying our Jin isn’t y?” Seunghoon asked, his own -eating grin hadn’t wavered once.
“Men can’t be y,” Minjun said in a tone that he tried very hard to say ‘why am I explaining this super obvious thing to you’. Idiots.
“I don’t know about you but I’m super y,” Seunghoon countered. “Have you seen Standing Still?”
“HELL YEAH WE WERE Y AS HELL!” Chanhee and Seunghoon high fived while Minjun grumbled about idiot hyungs and something about trying to forget he ever saw that MV.
“Wait that’s it?” Minjun was at the edge of his seat now. “They just make out?? What happened to the spy- oh there we go she really does kill him. Good on you, Hana!”
“He has a gun too!!” Bae’s eyes were huge as he pointed to the screen. “He wouldn’t! DON’T DO IT JIN!”
A gunshot rings out and the MV fades to black and the livingroom of the ty tiny Mapo dorm room erupted with noise of various EEEEYYYYYs, YOOOOOOs, and WHOOOTs (and a single NOOO WHYYYY).
“Cinematic perfection!” Minjun cheered, already leaning forward to press the replay button. He was going to watch this until it was burned into his brain.
Chanhee turned around in his seat to beam at Seunghoon. “So I bet you’re devastated that that wasn’t you.”
“Oh yeah,” Seunghoon said super convincingly. “I’m positively heartbroken.”
And, just like that, their debut week of promotions were over! Hana felt exhausted and elated at the same time. She had debuted! She had actually finally debuted! Years of training and disappointments were finally done and she was exactly where she belonged. She was on stage.
Take that, SM. Writing her off just because she didn’t fit into their purity box. And here she stood strong, one half of Korea’s most scandalous duo, charted at #19 on the real time charts and still climbing. She could almost taste that #1 position. Just a little more.
Would she have picked a debut like this? Probably not, but what did that matter when the results were tangible?
She and Jinyoung completed their final bow for the Inkigayo producers and they were free to go! She could finally get out of this dress, it kept riding up and those heels were killing her feet, she was so over it.
About an hour later and some sneakers under her comfortable (yet trendy) jeans later and she joined Jin and Seokmin. For modesty’s sake she’d shared the changing room with Ivy most shows which was pretty cool, Hana was always here to support another strong with great music, but she was ready to not see the girl for, well, like three days.
She was going to sleep so well tonight, but before that she knew exactly what she wanted to do. “Let’s go have some drinks and chicken to celebrate!” Hana said, linking arms with both Jin and Seokmin.
“Hana…” Seokmin chided, pulling his arm loose. Kill joy, they were still in the backstage halls. “I’m not taking the two most controversial idols out to some chicken restaurant so they can get drunk and add more scandals to the pile!”
Hana’s face fell instantly. “Helix created these scandals themselves, this is what they wanted. Don’t turn it around like I’m the one going around besmirching my own good name.”
Seokmin opened and closed his mouth. “Eh- sorry-”
She smiled. Good, be sorry. She’d get this kind of bull from netizens enough without also being shamed by her own manager. “Why don’t we just order some chicken and soju and bring it to Helix HQ? There’s not going to be anyone around except for trainees and interns and there’s the rooftop terrace. A perfect scandalless celebration!”
“Can we?” Jinyoung asked. He was looking at Seokmin like a hungry puppy looked at a buffet, all wide eyed barely concealed hunger.
“I won’t eat much I promise,” Hana added. “I’ll fast all of tomorrow to make up for it.” It would be worth it (and she had her secret snack stash hidden in the women’s upstairs bathroom).
Seokmin looked at both of them and sighed. “Fine. Fine. Just this once.”
Hana smiled. “Of course,” she said. Both of them knew it would not be just this once.
And that was how, a few hours and a pit stop at a convenience store later, the three of them were sitting on the rooftop terrace sloshing soju all over each other with every cheers. Hana’s head was starting to swim and her laugh boomed in the evening air.
“And then he was staring at you so hard that he ran into a door!” Jin was telling the story with wide gestures and an uncharacteristically free grin.
Hana snorted. “Serves him right! I can’t believe millions of people have downloaded that idiot’s music.”
“Millions of people have downloaded your music,” Seokmin pointed out. He wasn’t drinking much but he looked like he was having fun.
Hana gasped exaggeratedly and threw some soju over her shirt (oops). “Is that sass, oppa? I didn’t know you had it in you!”
Jin just beamed, completely drunkenly unaware he was getting rekt in real time. “Yeah!!! YEAH THEY HAVE!!!!” He gulped down another shot and refilled all of their glasses. She liked drunk Jinyoung. This one she would keep.
Honestly, if she truly had to be, she liked all Jinyoung. He was like a page filled with faded pencil written in a trembling hand, that was quivering to be overwritten in bold ink. He was so scared to dip into life but so eager to, she could see it in his eyes. All nerves and uncertainties but there was potential there, and want. She could mold him, she could make him.
He hiccuped while trying to drink another shot and coughed all of the soju onto the ground.
Seokmin clapped his back while Hana just laughed and laughed and laughed.
What a piece of art. “I’ll drink to that.”
“Have I ever told you about the time oppa kissed me?” Hana asked and Jinyoung grew beet red, eyes saucers.
“He what?!?!” Seokmin all but yelled.
Hana laughed. “Oh it was an accident, calm down. You try to avoid kissing someone with that choreo. He stumbled with the arm kiss move and there we went. You should have seen his face, I thought ‘oh, here it is, you’ve actually managed to kill your partner, Hana’.” Oh, there it was, he actually managed to go even redder. She snorted and slapped him on the back. “Breathe, cowboy!”
Seokmin looked extremely uncomfortable, no fun. “That, eh, is a story you probably shouldn’t tell on a variety show.”
“Really?” she feigned innocence. “Oh there go all my conversation plans!”
“How are you the one actually debuting but I was the one who was a nervous wreck?!” Jinyoung exclaimed miserably, very obviously changing the subject. “Nothing phases you!”
Hana laughed so hard she almost choked, she laughed for a good minute. “Are you kidding me?! I was terrified!”
“HOW?!”
“What can I say, I’m getting ready for actress of the year award.” She took a shot of soju all at once, feeling the burn go down. “Besides, they don’t teach you things like show emotion at SM.”
“I still can’t believe you came from SM.”
“Oh really? How so?”
Jinyoung sputtered for a moment. “They’re all, like, such perfect pure little dolls.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “And I’m not perfectly pure?”
“N-no I didn’t- I mean-”
Seokmin sighed. “Hana, stop torturing him.”
“But it’s so much fun!”
“Neither of us are pure,” Jinyoung slurred out. “It’s more fun this way.”
Hana threw her arm around him and poured more soju with the other. “That’s what I’m talking about!”
~*~
She was still tipsy when Seokmin dropped her off at the dorm, her head was buzzing but she didn’t know if it was the soju or the residual hum of the fans. She took off her shoes and entered the dorm, the same old training dorm they hadn’t taken her out of yet, though to be fair all it housed was the four of them.
She tried to be quiet, oh how she tried, but the apartment was ever so crowded and she kept bumping into things.
“Unnie?” Gongjoo was there, bangs pushed up by her sleeping mask, clad in her frog pajamas. “You’re out late.”
Bongcha popped up behind her shoulder. “Hi unnie,” she waved. “Oh you smell like soju.”
“Yeah she’s definitely tipsy,” Seoyeon was leaning against the doorframe behind them, a bemused smile on her lips.
“Unnie come!” Bongcha grabbed her hands and pulled her towards the bedroom. It was all Hana could do to stop from stumbling over her own feet completely as Bongcha deposited her on her own bed ringed by the stuffed animals the other girls had given her (“What girl doesn’t have plushies on her bed?!” Boncha had exclaimed, more scandalized than anything else she’d heard of Hana. “I’m with her,” Seoyeon had said completely deadpan, “You’re obviously a sociopath.” This grievance had been rectified with many trips to the claw machine not far from their dorm). Bongcha sidled up next to her, looking at her with eager puppy eyes like saucers. “Tell us everything!!!”
Gongjoo and Seoyeon gathered around her too. “What’s it like to debut?” Gongjoo asked.
Hana smiled. “Gather around ye loves of my life and I will tell you.” Or, well, that’s what she tried to say but an unfortunate hiccup ruined everything and all of them burst into giggles. “Okay! Okay!” she tried again, gathering the last wits she had about her and throwing her arms around whoever was nearest. “It was amazing!”
“Well of course,” Bongcha said impatiently, steadying Hana. “I want details!”
“How many fans were there?” Seoyeon asked.
“What were your outfits like?” Gongjoo asked. “We weren’t allowed to watch!”
“Was it super exciting and glamorous?” Bongcha asked. “Were there glitters?”
“How was Jinyoung? Was he still terrified of touching you?” Seoyeon asked.
“Did you make any mistakes?” Gongjoo asked.
“Were there any cute boy groups?” Bongcha asked.
“Oh! I have to tell you about these absolute confused puppies who tried to give us their CD!” Hana perked up at the memory. “They looked so scared of us because of the scandal it was like they had no idea what to do with us it was hilarious! I think their manager pointed them our way before he realized it was us, the of Babylon! His face dropped when he realized but it was already too late-”
And she told them everything.
Absolutely everything.
"Here's to another good one!" Lee Hyunjung held out his glass of soju a little wilder than intended, drops sloshing over the side and sizzling onto the hot barbeque plate between them.
"Heres's to many more laughs and a lot more pay!" Joowon clinked his own glass with a bit more motor control but just as much enthusiasm before downing the little bit that's been left. Hyunjung cheered as if he'd downed the whole shot anyway and was already refilling his glass, half of which escaped the glass.
Hyunjung was the antithesis of Seokmin, a jovial and cheerful and young manager who didn't always know what he was doing and was probably a bit simple but pushed through it all with good cheer. Not a great negotiator either, but thankfully that’s what Joowon was for. They were celebrating the renegotiation of Joowon's contract with gag concert, now with added zeros. “Maybe you can finally get out of that ty apartment now,” Hyunjung said, stuffing some premium Korean beef into his mouth.
Joowon laughed. “That one? Friend I’ve been in much worse places.” But it was true, with that sum he could definitely rent a better place. And there was talk with his company about shooting some fast food CFs as well. His career was really picking up!
The music changed to a tune he had listened to far more times than he was comfortable admitting.
"Hey isn't that that group you used to be in?" Moontak asked, vaguely gesturing around.
"It is!" Joowon said, unable to keep the pride out of his voice and really not even trying.
"How are they doing?"
"Well!" Joowon said immediately. "Well, probably."
Moontak frowned. "When was the last time you saw them?"
"So when does the new contract go into effect? Does it go by air date or recording?"
“Recording I think.” Hyunjung at more beef and happily let himself be lead off the topic path. “Oh hey speaking of that idol stuff-” Or not? “I got a call this afternoon while you were talking to the Gag Concert guys about a permanent spot hosting some music show, at least for a couple of months. You interested?”
It was a good thing he had just put the soju glass down or he might have choked. “I don’t know about that. I’m not an idol anymore after all, why would they want me?”
“Cause you’re hot right now! There’s actors and such hosting em all the time, what’s a comedian? You should do it! It doesn’t pay much cause you know how anything music industry is but you’ll get to be around IU all day so you’re winning anyway. Maybe you can catch up with those idol friends of yours?”
Right…
Well.
He slammed back the shot of soju. “You know what? I think I will.”
shamefully long time no see! but i will never give up on this fic. am i like 98% sure that i'll be writing the final chapter on my death bed? yes. will i write it anyway? y e s.
anyway! gonna try to make chapters a bit shorter so it's more manageable for both you and me <3 i also have no idea who's still reading but i hope you're still with me for this dumb angsty ride <3
also check out my fic dream4u if you're wondering what horrible mismanagement helix is up to in 2020!
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