Hongjoong takes one last deep breath and braces himself for the worst before stepping into his boss and older brother's office.
Things haven't always been tense between them. Once upon a time being a rapper under his brother's label was a dream come true for Hongjoong, but shortly after he signed the contract, things went south quickly. Most recently all Hongjoong seems to get is one piece of bad news after another.
Hongjoong finds his manager already there in the CEO's office. That's not new. San, Hongjoong's manager has been deeply involved in every step of Hongjoong's career as should he, doing his part to ease the path for Hongjoong. That's all in the past though. Nowadays there nothing and no one who can ease Hongjoong's suddenly stormy career path.
One day both Hongjoong and San woke up to the hellish reality that Hongjoong just isn't as marketable as he used to be in the industry, despite his young age. The change happened so suddenly and for no apparent reason apart from the fact that a huge chunk of Hongjoong's fans shifted interest to a newer even younger artist than Hongjoong.
That doesn't mean the agency hasn’t tried to stir Hongjoong’s popularity. Up to this point the CEO- and Hongjoong’s brother Yunho- has tried everything in his power to restore the popularity Hongjoong once had; small acting roles, variety show gigs, commercials and so much more. The only thing Hongjoong hasn't done is maybe modelling and that's probably only because he doesn't have the height for it.
In his office, Yunho is seated behind his desk when Hongjoong walks into the office. "Hongjoong, sit.” Yunho invites.

So Hongjoong joins his manager on the plush leather couch that’s situated in the far right corner of the office, not too far from the CEO’s desk. San smiles and pats Hongjoong on the back as he sits.
Never one to beat about the bush, Yunho gets right to the point as expected. “I invited you both here to let you know that a new artist will be joining our agency later this month.”
Hongjoong and San exchange a surprised glance and then San looks back at Yunho. "Is that good news for us?"

“Having a new artist on board is always good news. Our followers are already buzzing about this on social media, so while the public is attention on us, we are going to hurry up and give him a solo album. We hope to release the new music by the end of this month.”

Hongjoong frowns, confused by this news. “That’s when my new album comes out though.”

Yunho leans forward, clasping his hands at his desk. “The other investors and I sat down and we’ve decided to postpone the release of your album.”

“Again?” Hongjoong snaps in frustration

San takes hold of Hongjoong’s hand and whispers. “Calm down, Joongie.”

Hongjoong knocks his hand out of San’s. “This is the third time my album is getting postponed.” He complains but his brother’s expression remains infuriatingly clam.

“Think about it this way, you get a chance to practice for longer. After all we agreed that you would deliver a different style of music this time.”

Hongjoong shakes his head in disbelief. First his album was supposed to be released 16 months ago in January but it was postponed because Yunho haphazardly decided that it was in Hongjoong’s best interest to spend more time preparing and maybe come up with a new style of music as well since Hongjoong’s music recently haven’t been doing well on the charts.

8 months ago in July Hongjoong’s album release got pushed back again because the company felt that the timing was better suited for another one of its artist’s album release.

Now Hongjoong is being shoved aside again and he needs answers.

“Yes but all the practicing and recording has been done.  It’s been 16 months since I put music out there. My fans might forget me entirely.”

“I understand your passion and dedication to your fans, Hongjoong but this is also a business. We have to pay bills and salaries around here. The truth is that you are no longer that profitable as an artist and there is only so much we can do to help your situation. Of course you’ll release your music eventually. All I’m saying is that right now we are other better opportunities to reach for. Do you understand?”

Hongjoong presses his lips together in an effort to hold back the string of curses dying to flow out from his aching heart. Sitting here staring at the uncaring expression on his own brother’s face, Hongjoong feels like he’s just been robbed not only of career opportunities, but his pride and joy as well. He feels like less than nothing.  “Do I have much of a choice?” he asks, hating how shaky his voice sounds because he’s about to cry.

“Not really. We’ll keep you posted on when you can resume activities. For now just keep practicing and getting better. Spend some time chatting with your fans on SNS.”

*********

While making very slow steps towards the dance studio, Hongjoong’s heart keeps growing heavier and heavier. Everything inside and out of his body just hurts so damn much and it doesn’t help that Yunho’s words keep running through his mind.

Right now we have better opportunities to reach for.

This is a business indeed and there is barely any room for love and kindness, but at times such as this, Hongjoong wonders how his own brother can say such scathing words to him. After all there was a time when Hongjoong was very profitable to this company. Yunho wasn’t exactly nice to Hongjoong back then either but he wasn’t as harsh as he is now.

Back then Yunho even took Hongjoong out for meals and company parties to meet other industry hotshots. Hongjoong was Yunho’s pride and Hongjoong desperately ate up every trickle of attention, admiration and love he got from Yunho because that’s the only family he has. Their parents died a very long time ago when Hongjoong was only 13. Yunho is a lot older than Hongjoong, so he was 28 when it happened. Since then it’s just been the two of them.

Yunho always had dreams of working in the music industry, so he and some equally interested friends of his formed a partnership, set up an agency and signed the first two artists. Around the time he was 15 or 16, Hongjoong easily found himself spending time at his brother’s small agency and that’s where his rapping talent was discovered one day when he was playing around in the recording studio.

A two year period of training later, Hongjoong debuted as a solo artist with the agency at age 18 and he has been a rapper and dancer for exactly 7 years. He is set to renew his contract soon. That in itself is something Hongjoong is excited about because there are some changes he hopes to make to his working conditions.

With a busy lifestyle such as Hongjoong’s in a world where people take pretentiousness to a whole new level, it was been difficult for Hongjoong to make any friends. He lost the ones he had before debut because his training hasn’t allowed him much time for them. Most of his time is spent of meeting other celebrities than regular folks, so he’s oly managed to acquire a few fellow celebrity friends, but even those haven’t really stuck because everyone is too busy working or pretending to be something they are not.

Yunho is the only person Hongjoong can truly rely on as a friend and family, but as the years roll by, Yunho gets more and more distant. Hongjoong can’t shake off the feeling that he lost the family and friendship in Yunho a long time ago the moment they became boss and employee. Their relationship feels so forced now. They were never really close growing but Hongjoong thought that was only because for their age difference. The