Kim Myungsoo woke up that morning as usual, yawning and stretching before he got off his bed to prepare himself for the day. He was completely oblivious to the bad luck that would envelope him on that very day.

Myungsoo slumped off his bed, still half-awake, and slowly crept out of his room, going towards the bathroom. On his way there, he saw Sungjong, the youngest member in Infinite, walking out of the bathroom, his hair and shirt wet. Myungsoo heard a sigh from him. He also noticed that he rolled up his sleeves and the way his thin frame dragged him across the floor told him that Sungjong was exhausted.

Then, he noticed a puppy following Sungjong behind from inside the bathroom, also wet. The puppy had a cocoa-coloured fur, yellow-golden fur coated each of its paws and there were two yellow-golden spots on the dog’s face, each of them above its eyes, that made it look as if it had eyebrows. He recognised the puppy as Coco, one of the three puppies Myungsoo and his fellow Infinite members were supposed to take care of for three months- or at least until they could be adopted.

When Sungjong’s gaze was onto him, he raised an eyebrow, asking what he was doing early in the morning with Coco in the bathroom. As far as he knew, the puppies were supposed to be bathed at night, when everyone was at home after a packed schedule.

Sungjong explained that Coco accidentally rolled on one of the puppies’ urine while playing that morning. Myungsoo nodded, understanding the fact that the puppies they took care of were still too young to differentiate each other’s urine and the fact that the puppies were still untrained. Sungjong stepped into a room, probably to dry Coco off properly.

Myungsoo stepped into the bathroom, which was now full of puddles of water. He took a quick shower, taking note to step carefully in the bathroom while he did to not have another incident with the floor. He always had his ways of slipping, most of the time unintentionally, and he has slipped quite a number of times during performances. One time he fell down, he almost sprained his leg. He always smiled it off in front of the fans but the worst part of it was that every time he slipped, the CEO would come and give him a ‘talk’.

Myungsoo wore a simple black t-shirt and track bottom. With the little time he had before he had to go down to practice with all other six members of Infinite, he took out the script for his upcoming drama “Shut Up! Flower Boy Band” and began to rehearse his lines. He was quite surprised but nevertheless very glad when he was accepted into the line of cast of the drama. Even though he recently acted in a Japanese drama, he was still insecure of his acting skills. He remembered when he acted for the first time as an extra, and he ended up being edited out instead. He shuddered at the thought and focused on memorising his lines instead, leaving the past behind.

The first streak of his bad luck began when he heard a loud shriek calling his name from behind. He turned around and saw it was his older roommate, Sungyeol, who shrieked. Sungyeol looked disgusted, pinching his nose with one hand and pointing to an object with the other. Myungsoo’s eyes looked at where he pointed. He saw his cell phone, on the floor, covered with an unknown yellow liquid substance. Myungsoo widened his eyes in shock and quickly rushed to his phone’s side, throwing the script book aside. He grabbed his phone, clicking and pressing buttons on the phone, hoping the screen would light up like it always would, but the screen remained blank. Then, a peculiar smell entered his nose. It smelled like dog’s urine, and it came from the yellow liquid that covered his phone.

Myungsoo’s blood boiled inside him. He thundered out of his room and into the common room of the apartment he lived along with the other six members of Infinite, looking for the three perpetrators who ‘killed’ his phone. The three puppies, Coco, Nurung and Dubu, were fighting among themselves at one corner of the room. Myungsoo went towards them furiously and grabbed Nurung— the puppy with a yellow-golden coat and white coloured paws— in the neck, breaking up the fight between the three puppies to shift their attention onto him.

He shouted at them in anger, demanding to know which dog was the one that peed on his phone. Instead of answering him like he wanted, the dogs just stared back at him with an innocent expression. It hadn’t occurred to him then, in his angered state, that dogs couldn’t talk and they couldn’t understand a word of the Korean language.

Because of the commotion Myungsoo made in the common room, all other members of Infinite came out of their room, curious of why Myungsoo made quite a commotion. First came out Sunggyu, the oldest out of all of them in their dorm, which is also the one with the smallest eyes in the group and possessed the sweetest voice out of them all. Then, Woohyun, slightly older than Myungsoo by just a year, came trotting behind Sunggyu from their room. After Woohyun, then came out Sungyeol, his roommate. Soon, the two members Myungsoo knew as Dongwoo and Hoya, came out from another room, followed by Sungjong from behind them.

“What’s wrong, Myungsoo-ya?” Sunggyu asked, worried of the younger. Myungsoo explained, showing his phone and stressed on the dogs’ faults for ruining his phone. Sunggyu nodded as he explained but looked slightly disturbed by the way Myungsoo waved his phone in the air.

“Myungsoo-ya, don’t be too sad. We can always send it for repair, right? Besides, they’re just puppies. They can’t understand you,” Woohyun crept from behind Sunggyu, trying to comfort the younger. All other members nodded in agreement, patting Myungsoo’s back encouragingly.

Myungsoo nodded in defeat, taking the older’s advice. All other members returned back to their rooms, spending their time before their first schedule began on that day, leaving him to his own wounds. As he stared longingly at his phone, he heard a sigh from behind him.

“Hyung, you didn’t wipe it dry before you brought your phone around, didn’t you?” Sungjong said. He pointed to the floor, which was now dripped with the yellow substance from his phone. Sungjong started to go into a room, grabbing the tissue roll to clean it up but Myungsoo stopped him. He pitied the member a year younger than him. It was his fault it dripped but the youngest member had to clean up his mess.

“You go on. I’ll clean it up,” Myungsoo insisted. Sungjong gave him a meek smile, thanked him and retreated to his room. Myungsoo grabbed the tissue roll and cleaned up the mess he made. He wiped his phone clean and wiped off the trails of the pee from his room. Then, he just realised his hands reeked of dog’s urine. He regretted when he mindlessly touched his phone earlier without bothering that was covered by the pee. Now, he had to scrub his hand as well.

As he washed his hands, he wondered how his phone ended up on the floor. As far as he could remember, he placed it beside his pillow before he slept. The puppies couldn’t have grabbed the phone. There weren’t any bite marks on the phone. He waved the thought off, concluding it as his own mistake as it must have dropped while he slept. He made a mental note to himself to place his cell phone above or under his pillow, or somewhere far from the side of the bed so that it wouldn’t fall the next time.

His second streak of bad luck began when they performed Paradise that evening. After sending his phone for repair, Infinite was scheduled to perform Paradise. They had practised a little while before moving to the location of the performance. Everything went well during the practice but an unexpected accident occurred while they performed. Myungsoo slipped while performing once again. While he slipped, the CEO popped at the back of his mind. The CEO would probably have that ‘talk’ with him again.

To add up the bad luck he had, he momentarily forgot his lines on stage when his part came because his mind was too preoccupied with his phone— how was it doing in the hands of the repair man and could it be saved. Instead, he just blurted out whatever his mind remembered, but luckily enough, the fans or the members didn’t realise anything as whatever he blurted sounded quite close to his line. He mentally hit himself in the head while he danced. His line came in first, and how could he forget?

When they got off the stage, Sungyeol came up to him.

“Ya, slipping again? Aigoo, Soo-yah, where did your mind go while you danced?” Sungyeol draped his arm over Myungsoo’s shoulder, his facial expression and the mischievous grin on his face clearly showing that he was just playfully teasing him. However, Myungsoo reacted harshly to his comment. He shoved Sungyeol’s arm away from him.

“Mind your own business, will you, you tree! You’re so tall that you can’t even dance that well yourself,” he blurted. Myungsoo’s words pierced Sungyeol like a knife in his heart. Sungyeol’s smile turned upside down and he returned Myungsoo a glare. He replied him with an equally harsh comment.

“Ya, did I say you danced like ? Gee, can’t even take a joke.” Sungyeol walked away, leaving him alone. Myungsoo stared at Sungyeol’s back until he disappeared from his view. All of a sudden, he regretted saying all of that. He shouldn’t have done that just now. Now, he’s lost his friend.

As Myungsoo walked back to Infinite’s dressing room to change, his mind remembered all of the bad luck he had that day. First, his phone, then the slip, and now his friend was gone. His heart wrenched at the last thought. He mentally noted to himself to apologise to Sungyeol later. He sighed. That day was a bad day indeed. But he thought yet again. He hoped that day wouldn’t get any worse than that.