Chapter 1
YeoHo YeoHo A Pirate's Life
The halls of every studio were mostly the same, Yeoreum thought. They were filled with people, and yet they were empty. People with things to do did not turn their attention to a wandering soul, and not many idols wandered. Usually they’d stick together in their own rooms, or go visit a friendly group, or go to the cafetaria to grab a complementary sandwich.
Yeoreum liked to wander. She liked to be on her own and observe her own little biome. You could see rookies walking around with wide eyes, sometimes not even noticing her for a polite bow. Sometimes more senior idols would come by walking these halls like they’d never done anything else in their lives. Sometimes a truly veteran idol was there and often they wouldn’t even acknowledge her existence. This was fine with her, Yeoreum didn’t need to be acknowledged. She just wanted to observe and pass the time.
And maybe grab a sandwich, Inkigayo had the best sandwiches.
She meandered slowly back, sandwich in hand. The longer she’d take, the less time she’d have to spend in the cramped waiting room staring at her instagram feed which must not have significantly changed since she’d checked it before setting off on her adventure. Waiting rooms were awkward when she didn’t particularly get on with her group. The hallways were safer, they were familiar. People knew her but didn’t know her. She didn’t even feel silly walking around in the frilled skirts and crop tops of her stage costumes after 5 years of this job.
She bit into the delicious mix of potato salad, egg, and jam that was the winning combination of this delicious sandwich. She checked a clock on the wall. Only 15 minutes until they had to go in for vocal pre-recording and dress rehearsal. Maybe there was still time to go past the vending machine and grab a soda with the change she’d snuck into her mic pocket?
“Oh my god, hyung, you’re such a !” She startled in her tracks, for a second wondering if someone was talking about her before the *hyung filtered through. One of the dressing rooms was slightly ajar and very loud voices were escapin its clutches. “How many girls have you dated since the ban was lifted 2 years ago? Like one a month?”
“I wouldn’t really call any of that dating,” another voice chimed in a little disinterested.
“More than one a month if we count that time Hana snogged him for a week and dumped him,” another voice chimed in.
“Hey! I was very hurt about that! She’s really cool.”
Yeoreum couldn’t help but lean a little closer, taking a bit from her sandwich. The halls were absolutely deserted, and the voices so utterly shameless.
“Seriously though,” the first voice said again. “You have a problem.”
“I do not!”
“I bet you can’t date the same girl for 6 months.”
“Oh!” A new voice all but yelled. “I bet you all the meat you want for a YEAR you can’t do it.”
“I could do it!” the defensive voice protested. “I could totally do it!!”
“Sure, Jan.” a new voice remarked rather sarcastically.
“Alright, it’s decided,” another new this one more authoritative voice declared. Yeoreum new the voice of A Leader when she heard one. “We’ll give you all the meat for one year if you can date a girl for 6 months without getting bored of her.”
“DONE!!!!”
“Guys.” the deeper, more mature voice of A Manager said. “Careful, the door is open.” Said door was firmly pressed close and the voices beyond it reduced to a vague murmur.
Yeoreum blinked. What a weird bunch. The paper on the door read R.E.X., a boy group she vaguely knew was mostly catered to thirsty women with aggressive appeal. Two of her group members liked them, but that’s about all she really knew about it.
Ah well. Yeoreum shrugged and moved on. Wait, what time was it? Oh no, only 7 more minutes until rehearsal, definitely not enough time to grab and down that soda. Manager Hwang was going to kill her if she was late. She pushed the curious boys out of her mind and rushed to her own waiting room just in time to get annoyed looks from the manager and the leader and have a mic shoved into her hands. Time for another rehearsal of another sweet sugary song she couldn’t really sing that well. Business as usual
He could do this. He could totally date a girl longer than 6 months. Easy! Sure, he’d never ever in his life done it before, but like how hard could it be? Yeah, okay, maybe Seokho was a bit of a , so what? He looked good and girls liked him and he liked girls. Flirting was fun, kissing was also fun, and no harm was ever really done if nothing much more came of it, right? And it wasn’t his fault that he could look at a pretty girl from across the stage during an encore and before he knew it she pressed an inkigayo sandwich into his hands with her number written on the napkin. Great way of getting some extra gains too. Wait, was there protein in sandwiches? He hadn’t a clue.
But who was he going to date? The stylist unnie was really cute but maybe that would get kinda awkward if it went bad. He didn’t really look forward to having a crimped bowl cut again like last time. Another idol might get messy, but it would also be easier with packed schedules. Maybe there were some rookies he hadn’t flirted with yet? Oh but those always had managers like hawks. Last time it had been very messy. He was never messing with a rookie manager again.
He pacing the hallway and idly kicked an empty coffee cup. Why was this so hard?? Twice was promoting right now and he did flirt a little with Sana that one time but her fans scared him. He exchanged flirty texts with Liling from Paradise for a while before the whole Produce thing had happened, maybe he could text her again? Nah, they were super busy after that show imploded. Good for her, really.
But who? He could all by hear Namgi giggling behind the door, waiting for him to pick someone. He was going to show them for sure!!!
A gaggle of girls walk past in the baby blue frilly costumes of a cute brand girl group. He vaguely knows them: AdoreU, one of the last groups still doing cute concepts. One of them peels away from the others and heads towards the vending machine, digging into her mic pocket to retrieve some change. *Genius. Why didn’t he ever think of that, he could have been drinking so much soda in costume by now!!!
Wait. He kinda knew her, well like sorta? They never really talked but- yeah you know what. She was cute and seemed nice, he could definitely flirt with her. Yeoreum, right?
Seokho smoothed his (strategically cut up) shirt and quickly checked out his hair in a window. He had this. He always had this. He walked up to the machine, leaned casually against it, and gave her the smile that always worked. “Hey. You’re Yeoreum, right?”
“One sec, you can have the machine in a second.” She didn’t even look up from the soda, watching intently until she frowned. “It got stuck!”
“Hey!” Seokho jumped back as she punched the machine a little too close for comfort. “Are you allowed to do that?”
“I don’t know, but I didn’t bring any more change.” she stepped back and cocked her head, coppery dyed curls falling over her shoulder, clashing just a little with the baby blue of her outfit. She was very pretty in that like doll-like kinda way.
“Oh! I’ve seen Namgi do this before, wait.” He moved to the front of the vending machine, grabbed the top of it, and used all the might in his abs (and, like, the other inconsequential muscles) to tip the machine just a little forward. A horrendous creaking followed as the machine’s metal and plastic complained.
“Stop stop stop, you’re breaking it!” Yeoreum said in alarm.
“I am??” Seokho stopped and quickly put the machine down, to the tune of more complaints. “Did the can fall out?”
Yeoreum squinted behind him. “No. It’s still there. Thanks for trying though.”
“You’re welcome.” Wait. WAIT. She was about to leave and he’d totally forgotten to do THE THING. He brushed back his hair, leaned against the machine (which creaked in protest), and did The Smile again. “Hey, I’m Seokho. What’s your name?”
“Yeo- wait, you just called me by my name just now.” She cocked her head again, shifting the curls over her other bare shoulder.
“I- oh- yeah, I mean we’ve never really been introduced but I kinda know your name?”
“You’re from the group with the dinosaur song, aren’t you?” she asked.
Seokho blinked for a second. “Dinosaurs? No it’s called Alligator.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No it’s like a crocodile, at least that’s what Jungmin said.”
“Oh. I read somewhere that crocodiles existed at the same time is dinosaurs.”
“Really? Then maybe our song is about dinosaurs after all.”
“I think so too.”
This was not going how he thought it would be going. “Wait eh. How you doin’?”
“Wait.” She squinted and froze for a second before her eyes widened. Seokho didn’t really know what to do honestly, the pause was way too long to be comfortable. This never really happened like either girls were into it or they weren’t which was fair. She was like he had a bad connection and got the little loading wheel. “I’ll play along,” she said finally.
“Eh, what?” Seokho was very confused.
“You’re doing a bet, right?” She said. “I, eh, heard you through the door earlier sorry. But I’ll play along if you want! If you want to win the bet, that is. If you come with me to, like, dates and stuff. Just for fun. And no kissing or anything.”
“Oh.” What was even happening right now? “So you do want to go on dates with me? But no kissing?”
She nodded. “For the bet! Not like for real. And you have to share the unlimited meat with me.” She looked a little proud of adding that last bit.
“Ehh, yeah sure.”
“Great!” Yeoreum smiled for the first time. “Promotions for us ended today, let’s go to the Ihwa murals! I’ve never been there before, have you?”
“Oh yeah us, too. I mean, we stop promotions this week, I’ve never been to Ihwa. Yeah, sure, eh, I think I’m free wednesday and thursday?”
“Thursday is perfect. Let’s meet at the Jazz Story Cafe, I heard it’s really good! Maybe at 10?”
Seokho nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
KLONK
“Oh, the soda!” Yeoreum knelt down and retrieved a perfect little soda can. She gave the machine a small pat. “Thank you.” Then she turned back to Seokho. “See you Thursday at 10?”
“Y-yeah. See you Thursday at 10.”
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