002

Rich Girls Love Trouble (Discontinued)
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Warning(s): cursing
Length: 4.6k words

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  02 Eight years gone  

SEUNGEUN PRO-TIP #02:

When you’re meeting an old friend, it’s best to go about that whole business informed and educated. Hire a private investigator. You don’t want to reconnect with a murderer or an ex-felon, do you?

Note: Go big or go home.

 

“I gathered up some information,” Minseok says, holding up two manila folders, “on your mystery man Byun Baekhyun.”

 

He and Seungeun are sitting in one of his favorite meetup places—parked atop a mountain, under the grove of trees by an unmarked road—so he’s freer with holding up his pieces of intelligence. In fact, he takes out a picture with a sense of pride and shows it to Seungeun. The photo is of undoubtedly Baekhyun from last night’s performance. It’s grainy and poorly lit, but to anyone who knows what Baekhyun looks like wouldn’t have trouble distinguishing him.

 

“He was hard to track,” Minseok continues, “but it’s never impossible for me.” He takes out another grainy picture of Baekhyun, but this one is from longer ago. In this one, Baekhyun’s hair isn’t gray; it’s the dark brown—black, even—that Seungeun remembers him to have when she last talked to him over eight years ago. He looks a lot younger too; his shoulders haven’t broadened out yet, his face still has a lot of baby fat, and his hair is styled in a boyish and ruffled way, which in retrospect is so ugly. “This was him from about seven, almost eight, years ago. Did you know he was a trainee for SM?”

 

“Yeah, I remember he got casted, but that’s about it.” Seungeun recalls that summer once more. “I don’t know what happened to him after that, though.”

 

“Well, he left SM after 11 months.” Seungeun raises her brows in surprise, and Minseok resumes showing her pictures of Baekhyun throughout the lost years. “I don’t have much information about his time at SM, but I know that when he left, he enlisted himself,” Minseok says as he takes out a sheet of paper with several names. Baekhyun’s is circled and red, and Seungeun wants to ask Minseok where he even got this paper, but she keeps shut. “After that, he signed with a small record company called Rhyll Records in the United States in June 2015.”

 

“What?” Seungeun exclaims. “2015? I thought we were still around 2014? And since when did that learn how to speak English fluently enough?”

 

Minseok shrugs and raises his hands. “Listen, this guy has a really spotty record. He’s here and he’s there like this.” He snaps his fingers for effect. “I did my best, but I can’t find out everything within the 20 hours you gave me.”

 

“So what happened to him in 2014?”

 

“I honestly don’t know,” Minseok admits with a sharp intake of breath. It’s unlike him to blatantly not know of a person’s whereabouts without reason. “He was completely offline during a good part of that year, so I don’t know a lot about what happened to him then,” Minseok continues, pulling out a screenshot printed on a piece of paper. “The next I found about him happened in November 2016.” It’s a screenshot of website featuring a photograph of a blond-haired Baekhyun alongside some text. “He got signed to Capitol Records as a producer and songwriter.”

 

Seungeun nearly chokes. “Capitol Records?” she manages to croak. “What? That’s insane. They’re like a hundred times bigger than SM.”

 

“Too bad it didn’t last long.” Minseok shows her another screenshot. This time, it’s of an error page. “His website got taken before February 2017. I wish I was able to find any of the stuff he actually produced, but his stage name was BHB, and he wasn’t known yet, so it’ll take more time.” Minseok shifts in his seat to organize his papers before closing the manila folder and opening the second one. “He sorta disappears online from that point since I couldn’t find any of his social media, but luckily for us, he has a lot of friends who use Instagram.” Minseok takes out several photos of Baekhyun in different settings. “LA. Paris. Amsterdam. Macau. Seoul.”

 

Seungeun stares at the latest picture of Baekhyun standing next to Dean and frowns. She usually hires private investigators to get dirt on other people or to informally brief them before meeting them in person, but what she’s learned from the past 15 minutes is that Baekhyun is still a mystery. If anything, she’s as confused as ever.

 

“This guy is pretty hard to track,” Minseok starts, “but thankfully you know his stage name now because ‘B. Hundred’ is a pretty legendary producer—on SoundCloud.” He pulls out a list of paper with names and what appears to be song titles. “Most of the stuff he makes now is on SoundCloud or YouTube, but there’s a lot.” Minseok flips over the paper to reveal another few dozen names and song titles. “When you called me, I wasn’t even done compiling all of the tracks he’s done for smaller artists.”

 

When Minseok hands Seungeun the piece of paper, a wave of sadness and desperation overwhelms her. She left Baekhyun and Bucheon all those years ago with the idea that they would both become successful in their separate ways. Unfortunately, such is not the case. Now, Baekhyun is making songs for small SoundCloud “artists” with stupid stage names like “Lay” while simultaneously wearing baggy clothes that look like the came out of a donation bin. It’s sad, honestly, but she doesn’t voice out any of this to Minseok.

 

“I wonder what happened,” Seungeun wonders aloud. “How can someone go from being casted by SM to signing with Capitol Records to finally…” She shudders as she hands the paper back to Minseok. “…producing songs for cringeworthy SoundCloud artists?” She takes a deep breath of fresh air and exhales disappointment. “I always thought he’d be someone famous by now.”

 

This is the part where Seungeun wishes she was friends with Minseok because she wants him to say something that’ll comfort her, but he stays silent because it’s not his place to comment.

 

“Let’s go,” Seungeun says, breaking the silence. “Drive me to Club Key.”

 

 

- - - - -

 

 

Club Key isn’t as filled with as much people as it was yesterday, but perhaps it’s because it’s Sunday night. Seungeun is thankful for that, however, because she spots Baekhyun almost immediately after she walks inside. He’s at the very edge of the main scene; he’s sitting alone at a corner booth by a window that lets the lights of a neon red sign to paint his face. On the table before him is a stack of papers that he’s incessantly frowning at—which leads Seungeun to believe he’s probably writing another song. It makes her debate herself about whether or not she should go and disturb his process, but she ultimately decides that she has already gone too far to not at least talk to him.

 

Seungeun slowly approaches Baekhyun’s table, and he’s too occupied with his songwriting to notice that she’s standing in front of him until she clears and introduces herself.

 

“Hey,” Seungeun half-yells over the bustle of the crowd behind her. Baekhyun looks up and stares at her right in the eyes through the locks of his loose fringe. Eight years ago, his eyes would have lit up, and he would have broken into a heartbreaking smile, but now he just tilts his head in question and confusion. “You don’t recognize me?” Seungeun asks, feigning a laugh to conceal her hurt. “Really? It’s me. Son Seungeun.”

 

Baekhyun continues to look at her emptily until he nods once. “I thought you looked familiar,” he says rather blankly—until he does that cheesy grin that honestly hasn’t changed even after all these years. “Why didn’t you say ‘hi’ to me last night?”

 

Some things really don’t change.

 

“Why didn’t you?” Seungeun retorts as she sits across Baekhyun. “If I looked familiar, you should have said something. Maybe we could have this conversation then instead of now when you’re busy.”

 

“Oh this?” Baekhyun abruptly shoves all his papers onto the empty seat beside him and forces a laugh. “That’s nothing. I’m not busy.” Seungeun arches a brow but doesn’t have the chance to question it because Baekhyun is already running his mouth. “What are you doing here?” he asks, motioning towards the club’s dance floor. “This doesn’t seem like a place where you’d want to willingly spend your time at, Miss Moneybags.”

 

Seungeun draws her head back in shock. “What did you just call me?”

 

“Miss Moneybags.” Baekhyun twists one of the several rings on his fingers and clicks his tongue when Seungeun continues to refuse laughing at the (horrible) nickname. “Come onnnnn,” he teasingly whines. “Don’t tell me that you forgot how to take a joke.”

 

“It’s a pretty terrible joke,” Seungeun bites back. “Why’d you even call me that?”

 

Baekhyun shrugs. “Because it’s not that hard to open up Dispatch and see your name on the headlines.”  Seungeun’s mouth opens in realization. He saw her on the ing news. “Yeah,” Baekhyun continues, “I feel like we’ve kept in contact all these years because of all the times I’ve seen you trending online.” He frowns for a second before breaking into another grin. “Hey, was it true that you—”

 

“Anyways,” Seungeun interrupts, “let’s not talk about me. Let’s talk about you. How have you been?”

 

Baekhyun looks at his folded hands wordlessly, and Seungeun can almost see the gears in his head turn. “I’m doing okay,” he finally answers after at least ten seconds of thought. “I could be better, but it’s not terrible.”

 

Seungeun waits for him to elaborate, but he just looks at her so emptily that it’s frankly disconcerting. The Baekhyun she used to know was reserved, but he was also so damn talkative if you knew him. That boy could run his mouth for ages about the most trivial things; the fact that he has nothing to say about the last eight years of his life isn’t just worrying… It’s saddening. Though Seungeun knows that it’s understandable since at this point the two of them are strangers to each other, she still feels upset. Eight years disappeared, and a part of him did too, it seems.

 

“I thought you went to SM,” Seungeun continues for the two of them. She wants to talk about how he got signed to Capitol Records, but she can’t have him knowing that she hired a private investigator for him. “I thought you would be a certified platinum singer. But instead,” she motions towards their surroundings, “you’re here.”

 

“Well, happens.” Baekhyun leans back in his seat to stretch his arms behind his back. “I left because it wasn’t working out for me.” What does that even mean? He nudges a shoulder towards Seungeun as he yawns. “What about you? Please don’t tell me that you’re here just to see me.”

 

“Actually, I am,” Seungeun confesses. Her reply makes Baekhyun raise his brows, but Seungeun is quick to explain herself. “Don’t think you’re that important that I tracked you down out of the blue. My sister took me to this club last night, and when I recognized you, I knew that I wanted to talk to you again. So here I am, I guess—asking you how you’ve been.”

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✧ RICH GIRLS LOVE TROUBLE ✧
Updated with chapter 3!
Slowly replying to everyone ♥ let me know what you think of the story :-)

Comments

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Sey-ra
45 streak #1
Chapter 3: this is so interesting .But what happened to baekhyun in the past actually.
sayKWANGIE #2
Chapter 3: he probably didn't have money to pay for the motel and begged them for a free night therefore being thrown out and punched. i feel his frustration... being broke (and broken) and having someone from your past who is rather successful to see you at your low like that.
Pancakes4
#3
Chapter 3: Wooow when he got pushed out of his motel room - that really caught me of guard, couldn’t help but actually gasp out loud (I was alone don’t worry). I am so intrigued now, who did he become and what was that attack about?? Did he get into money trouble and he owes and now they are chasing him down? Threatening?
Oh and also this Baekhyun doing gigs? Whew definitely received them y vibes haha, I love the way this story is written and I really like them bickering like that!! And I really liked the “goodnight” part and ah I’m just intrigued with this story! ^^
potatoface7894
#4
Chapter 3: I really like this story so far! The plot's honestly so unique it got me hooked since the beginning. The characters are amazing too, it's so interesting how things are developing between them! Can't wait for the next chapter! Already excited :D Till then!
Hobbitacikel #5
Chapter 3: Your stories are so different. I don’t know if its because of the plot or the style you write them but it is so refreshing to read. I really loved this chapter and I’m very curious for the following ones :)
purplebxtch #6
Chapter 3: Um, this story so far is like...so good. So looking forward to see how it turns out :)
Sabrinaaaa_88
#7
This story is so good. ?
noonimm
#8
Chapter 3: Wo.. a lot sure happened back then and literally no . I think she dumped him cause she though it would be better for him to persuade his dream being a singer without her? But damn, what really happened with him for past 7-8 years
baekkingdom
#9
Chapter 3: It's only 3rd chapter but I'm already liking it ^^
You have this touch of reality in your stories even though they are fictions, that's what makes you unique and an amazing writer :)
Really looking forward for the future chapters. Best of luck!