Chapter 3

Mino’s car arrived in front of Joyous Dance. He knew a shoot is ongoing and Jinu was being interviewed for a docuseries vlog by Gabby. He was supposed to come after Jinu was done with the interview but his previous schedule ended earlier than expected that he opted to just come early.

Mino messaged Seulgi, “Seulgi, I’m already here outside. Is the interview already done?”

He was there for a collab they are preparing in support of his sunbae’s title track that he is also featuring in. His agency commissioned two crew to do a promotional video for the title track, one of them being Joyous Dance. His sunbae is to feature in the other crew’s promotional video, while Mino will join Joyous Dance. Actually, him joining Joyous Dance is a given.

*Ding* Mino looked on his phone screen and opened Seulgi’s response. “Almost done, you can come inside if you want. 😊”

Mino looked at his manager, Simon-hyung. “I’ll go ahead inside, hyung, so you can already park at the back. I’ll see how many are they in there and can you order coffee for everyone?”

“Alright, I’ll park at the back. Just call me about what to order.”

“Thank you, hyung.” Mino put on his cap, opened the car and quickly ran towards Joyous Dance studio. He opened the door and he greeted Jay as he saw him at the front desk.

“They are in studio 2.” Jay said as he smiles.

Mino gestured his hand towards studio 2 as a way of telling Jay he’ll proceed to go inside. Jay nodded.

Mino opened the door. There were about 10 people inside, Jinu, Seulgi, Don, Gabby and her crew. As silently as possible, he entered the studio, tapped everyone he knew on the shoulder as a way of greeting and bowed to everyone.

“… He is a nice person and it’s not difficult to genuinely like his person.” Mino saw Jinu quickly glanced at him and gave him a small smile. Mino smiled back. “After working with Mino, we were introduced to different artists. His friend, Bobby, also hired us for his song ‘Looking for Love’. A lot of opportunities came after we worked with Mino.”

As Mino heard this, he went out to call Simon-hyung. “Hyung, can you order 15 Iced Americano and 1 Cappuccino?... Hmm, yes…. Thanks, hyung.”

Honestly, Mino was not comfortable whenever Jinu attribute their success to him in any way. He remembered the first time he saw Jinu in Korea All Dance Competition. Jinu performed his solo entitled “If Only” and he was mesmerized, inside Jinu’s emotions through his movements. He remembers vividly Jinu’s soft but gripping moves along with the song lyrics, ‘Blame it all on me, being silent when I shouldn’t be. Being feeble when I should be brave.’

He knows how talented Jinu is and Mino always deny he is the reason for any attention Jinu and Joyous Dance is receiving. So every chance he gets, Mino praises Jinu even during his interviews to a point his labelmates and even fans is teasing him as Jinu’s cheerleader.

Joyous Dance performance earned them first place. Though Jinu’s solo did not win the solo category, Mino knows Jinu’s dance touched a lot of people’s heart that night. And that night, as he was a judge, he voted both performances to win.

Mino re-entered the studio and heard Jinu say, “Thank you for liking the piece. That piece was memorable to me as well”

“Wow. Just, wow, Jinu.” Gabby said. “You don’t fail to amaze me. I guess I’ll be looking for videos of your old performances after seeing this.” Gabby looked at the camera lens as if talking to her subscribers, “I advise everyone to do the same, it is art, really.” Gabby looked at Jinu again. “I will, I promise I will watch a lot of your old performances but is there a new project we should be excited about? Anything you want to share?” Gabby looked at Mino as she said her last question.

Jinu smiled. He knew Gabby was expecting him to share why Mino is here. “I am working on a special project I can’t share yet.” Over time, Jinu learned how to evading giving any details on projects under NDA by promoting Joyous Dance instead. “But my friends and I in Joyous Dance will continue holding classes and share those videos for everyone on our website where we also post schedules. I hope your subscribers can go check that out.” Jinu beamed.

“Thank you so much Jinu for allowing us to interview you for our series.” Gabby smiled back.

“It’s my pleasure, Gabby.” Jinu answered.

Gabby looked at the camera lens. “That was my interview with the CEO of Joyous Dance, Kim Jinu. You may check out their website. Go enroll in their classes or watch their videos. I’ll put a link on the description box for everyone. Thank you for watching. Bye!”

Jinu likewise looked at the camera and waved goodbye.

“And cut.” One of Gabby’s staff announced with a clap of his hands.

The staff was packing everything up when Simon-hyung entered with someone who looked like he worked in a coffee shop carrying the coffee they ordered. Everyone took their coffee.

Simon-hyung handed Mino his iced americano and a cup of cappuccino. Mino approached Jinu as he sees him handing a staff member his microphone. Mino handed the cappuccino to Jinu and they heard Gabby asked, “So this new special project you are working on, does it involve Mr. Song Mino?”

“Every project we did or will do for Mino is special.” Jinu lifted his coffee and Mino did the same in response.

Gabby laughed, “Okay, I understand I won’t force you to tell me. I know legal and NDA is complicated so I’ll leave it at that.”

“What was that video you watched?” Mino was outside when they were watching the video and all he heard when he entered is that the piece was memorable to Jinu.

“Wait for my video to come out to find out.” Gabby answered Mino. “Hmm, the team will edit the video and your interview is set to be released on Saturday. Again, thank you, Jinu but I gotta go.” Gabby gave Jinu a light tap on his back. She faced Mino and lifted the coffee on her hand, “Thank you for the coffee, Mino.” Gabby returned to her team leaving Jinu and Mino behind.

“So what was the video about?” Mino asked Jinu.

“Don’t watch it.” Jinu shook his head and walked towards Seulgi.

“Impossible. I’m too curious not to watch.” Mino smirked knowing Jinu is too far away now to hear him.

In a few, everyone from Gabby’s team was gone. Joyous Dance, Mino and Simon transferred to the conference room.

“So what do you think of the song, Jinu-senpai?” Mino asked Jinu. Mino likes to call Jinu senpai whenever they are working on projects which means teacher in Japanese.

“It sounds great, sunbae.” Jinu was now teasing. Whenever Mino calls him senpai, Jinu would retort back by calling Mino sunbae. Because Mino debuted at a young age, he really is technically their sunbae.

Seulgi gave a small cough. “We have a draft concept we’d like to share. As usual, we can change it during our rehearsals if new ideas came up.”

Jinu looked at Seulgi, knowing what runs inside his bestfriend’s mind, “The song’s definitely Seungri’s style, more of a celebratory vibe. Seulgi.” Jinu looked at Seulgi to start explaining the concept.