THE APÉRITIF
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JANUARY 19, 2020
Pyo Kyumin was not having a good time.
This wasn't a very rare occurance. Pyo Kyumin was notoriously bad at having a good time on the job. This was of course by no means his fault. Anyone who had to deal with mercurial CEOs; pushy corporate overlords; hubristic idols; and, worst of all, teenage trainees would go gray by their 30s. Truly genetics had nothing to do with it.
This time, extremely unfortunately, it was an unholy combination of all of the above.
"Excuse me, right this way please."
Kyumin tensed at the familiar voice calling out behind him. A woman in immaculate pantsuit, heels, and little colourful neckscarf was click clacking right toward him, a handful of workers carrying various banners and board and materials following her. She tensed as well at the sight of him before turning towards her entourage. "The room is right at the end to the left, please wait for me before starting. Everything must be just so."
"Jung Miran," Kyumin said, trying to convey exactly how thrilled he was to see her. That is to say, not at all.
"Pro Kyumin," Miran said, returning with the same level of ice. "I trust you've been informed about the protect."
"I have. Dream For You, hideous name," he said.
"Marketing has assured us it is the perfect level of catchy both domestic and abroad," she said. "But I'm sure your opinions should weigh heavier than an effective marketing team."
"As long as there is no voting this time," Kyumin said. "That went so well last time."
She waved his comment away. "They didn't have me back then. I've been informed you're to manage the girls? I thought you were going to manage Helix's new girl group?"
"As did I." In fact, he had just returned from informing the trainees that their project group was being disbanded and put in indefinite hold. Such was the trainee part of his very bad day. He never did feel comfortable around crying children. "Our CEO has decided that, since we'll be managing your girls, we don't need to debut our own for at least the 2 years of your project."
"Your CEO has decided that," Miran pointed out. "His idiotic decisions hold no power over me anymore." She smiled her best fake smile. "But don't let me hold you up anymore, I'm sure you're very busy with no group to manage."
Kyumin smiled his best fake smile in return. "I'm sure the board of CJ E&M makes far fewer idiotic decisions. This project was simply a fluke."
"Sorry sorry excuse me sorry!" another headache made her way past Miran's henchmen. Tali Wang pulled up to them, all short cropped hair and arms filled with tattoos. Kyumin wrinkled his nose at the sight. Truly gyopo had gone too far. "Hey, what are all these guys doing here? Either of you know. Oh hi Miran! Been a while!"
"Hello Tali, you look lively as ever. It's good to see you're well," Miran said with a sincere smile. "We're setting up some of the branding materials and decorations for the new show I'm heading, have you heard for it?"
"The dreamers? I have, but I didn't know it was gonna be filmed here! That's rad, girl, welcome back home!"
"It is extremely rad," Miran agreed. "Filming won't start for a month or so but we're just setting up some promo shots today. What brings you here?"
"Just coordinating some stuff for Hana's Europe showcase tour next month," Tali said. Hana. The hubristic idol of his very very bad day. She had sworn up a storm at the news of this silly girl group reality project.
"Hey did you guys hear about that crazy Chinese virus going on?" Tali asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Nuts. Hope they can fix that soon, I feel bad for em."
A crash shook all three of them."Ah, if you'll excuse me, I have to make sure they don't much everything up in there. You have a nice day Tali. Kyumin." Miran swiftly brushed past them toward what Kyumin supposed used to be the girl trainee's practice room.
He and Tali looked at each other. "I'm going to go," Kyumin said.
"Sure thing, boss, talk to you later!"
Kyumin glanced behind him to watch her go and was just in time to see two heads disappearing back into the boy's practice room.
He sighed very long and very deep.
He did not have the patience for this .
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Sihyuk quickly closed the door and leaned against it. "Do you think he saw us???"
"No way, we were super slick," Heon said, reopening the door just a crack to peek through.
"Is he gone??"
"I think so. Did you hear what he said about the girls?"
"Do you think they really shelved them?"
"What are you two muttering about over there?" Mansae called out. He'd been doing some stretches with Woobyul and Yoochan.
"We were just spying on Cumin," Heon called back. "Something about some new girl group mystery project."
"You were- didn't I tell you to stop spying on people???"
"Doesn't ring a bell," Heon said, sauntering over to the water bottles. "Nope, never heard it before."
"A girl group?" Yoochan inched closer. "The girls are finally debuting??"
"I don't think so," Sihyuk said. "This lady was all like-" he pitched his voice high. "'I thought you were managing the Helix girls' and then Kyumin was all like-" he pitched his voice super low. "'I thought so too but noooo'."
"Guys, guys, we should just get back to practice," Mansae said, he clapped his hands. "Come on, let's get to work! Wait, does anyone know where Howon is?"
The door opened and Jack and Minseok walked in with snacks. "Woah, weird vibe," Minseok said.
"We think the girls aren't debuting," Yoochan said.
"The girls aren't debuting?" Woobyul froze half-way through his stretch. "They can do that."
"Of course they can do that, they can do anything," Sihyuk said impatiently. "Wait do you think that means we'll debut sooner."
Heon gave him a smack. "What the whatever happened to solidarity??"
"It's every man for himself in show biz!" Sihyuk protested. "Like ehhh sharks and water or something?"
"Give him a second," Jack said, sipping a coffee.
"Wait, so why aren't they debuting?" Mansae asked despite himself.
"Some dream project or something," Heon said. "I think they mentioned CJ? I dunno."
"Oh the Dream4U project?" Minseok asked. "Yeah I heard our company's gonna do the managing. Some Mnet reality show or something. , they're shelving our girls for that?"
Mansae narrowed his eyes. "How do you know that?"
"So where's Howon?" Minseok asked. "Did he ditch again?"
"So where's Howon?" Minseok asked. "Did he ditch again?"
"I hope he brings back bubble waffles again like last time," Yoochan said. "Ahhhh remember the bubble waffles?"
"GUYS, FOCUS. Oh I am going to kill Howon," Mansae grumbled.
"Kyumin would be upset if you killed his little star," Jack pointed out.
"Honestly he can do whatever he wants if he brings back bubble waffles," Minseok said.
"Oh hey, Tali mentioned Hana is in the building," Heon said with a little knowing smirk.
Many pairs of eyes widened. "HANA IS HERE???" Sihyuk whispered louder than if he'd yelled.
"Hana is here," Heon confirmed.
"Hana is here!" Woobyul said excitedly.
"Hana is here," Yoochan said reverently.
"Hana is here," Mansae said, utterly defeated.
"Who wants to go stalk Hana??" Minseok asked.
Jack glanced at Heon. "You did this on purpose."
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," Heon said, taking a sip of water to hide his grin. "You heard them, we're stalking Hana!"
man, looking up the covid timeline gave me some real feelings of any and all sorts. can you believe that january 2020 things still felt like they'd be relatively normal?
nuts.
Anywhere he is a little teaser i unexpectedly pulled out of my ! to meet some of the side cast and have a lil taste of my writing if you haven't snooped at the big ol' produce 99 yet.
♡
D4U - Also! Since it's been A While since applications were a thing and there are lots of new faces abound, if anybody does want to change up a FC let me know it's cool!
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