Hello Mr. Crow

Friday afternoon rolled in and the members of the greatest group of South Korea, Dong Bang Shin Ki, stayed cooped up in their hotel room with only the dry air to accompany them. It was a nice summer day, fit for roaming the streets of downtown Tokyo or maybe do some shopping or some sight seeing. In fact it was a perfect day to do just that – go out and live. But the gloomy members couldn’t even enjoy the satisfaction of being in a foreign country for the first time.

They were not allowed to.

Manager Choi meant well and was a very knowledgeable man; he had to be for staying their manager since they first debuted. So they didn’t argue with him when he told them not leave the hotel premises. And what could they have done outside anyways? No one spoke Korean, so they’d no doubt get lost as soon as they step out of the lobby doors. In addition to the quarantine, no phone, no checking email, no letters, no nothing. It was a miracle they that they still had their cell phones. They needed their cell phones to communicate with each other when one was off doing a photo shoot while another was in the recording studio.

All these limitation certainly took its toll on Korea’s heartthrobs. It was few and far in between when any of them laughed or joked. Sure, their lovable JunSu tried his best to cheer them up, but none of it worked for long. They never showed it to the outside world, but the members of Dong Bang Shin Ki suffered from acute depression. If they didn’t throw themselves into their work for hours and hours, they slept, and even when they were presented with the best food, they ate very little. They wore their charismatic and charming smiles in front of the camera and to the people, but in the safety of their hotel room, they cried and hurt.

Resting was not an option. In just two weeks, they needed to complete 3 music videos and promote them as well. The hours of dance practice and recording averaged larger than the hours they rested. They only managed to practice and shoot two songs out of the three and were still on their way to learning the last dance for the last music video. If YooChun hadn’t collapse in exhaustion while they were practicing earlier in the day, they wouldn’t have the small reprieve this afternoon. He took some much needed rest and ate a bunch to obtain enough strength to continue later in the evening.

It was on this particular Friday that the fearless leader and the tall dark and handsome youngest seemed to snap from all the stress around them.

YunHo was out in the balcony, leaning dangerously over the slick black railing. His once twinkling eyes were red and puffy and were transfixed on the little black crows sitting comfortably with the rest on the cable wires that ran down the streets of Tokyo.

          “Annyong,” he greeted the crow nearest to him, “How are you?”

The black crow cawed as if acknowledging his words.

          “How’s Korea?” YunHo asked wistfully, “Is everyone ok?”

YunHo leaned even more against the railing as the crow neared him, like it was going to tell the hopeful leader something. “Don’t be frightened Mr. Bird, I just want to know how everyone is doing back home.” Yet, as YunHo leaned out to touch it, the black crow flew away with the other birds in tow. He retracted his outstretched arm and laughed.

          “Great, now I’m talking to animals,” he scratched the back of his head with a sigh, “I really need to get some sleep.” He turned around and with a slide of the glass door, he was inside their room.

ChangMin was just as bad, if not worse off. He walked around the hotel room carrying his right slipper to his ear. He’d stay still just listening to his slipper as if it was a radio. Occasionally, he would move around and wave it above him as if to get some kind of signal. When he didn’t seem to, he’d move from his spot. Whether it was ChangMin’s weird attempt to be funny or if he seriously snapped, the other members could only speculate.

          “Enough!” JaeJoong screeched as he lunged for ChangMin’s hands and yanked the slipper away. With all his might, he chucked it across the room, hitting the hotel door. It would irritate him when the younger one would walk in front of the TV that he and YooChun watched.

The noise seemed to snap ChangMin out of his daze and he turned over to JaeJoong and asked, “What’s for lunch?”

When no one answered him, he shrugged and left the hotel room in search of a vending machine.

          “Look what the front desk sent us!” Manager Choi exclaimed, coming in after ChangMin left. He stepped inside carrying a large box that was addressed to Dong Bang Shin Ki, Rm. 136. He set the box on the bed and the members, minus the youngest, scampered around it, forming a semi-circle around the bed.

          “Who’s it from?” JunSu wondered as he clamored to get a better view.

          “I dunno,” YunHo mumbled, as he turned the box over trying to find the return address, “I can’t read it, it’s in English.”

Everyone turned to YooChun expectantly. With their stares, YooChun rolled his eyes.

          “Just because I lived in the U.S. for a few years…You all expect me to translate everything.” He took the box from YunHo’s hands and examined it. As he read the return address, his eyes grew as big as saucers. “It’s from our address!”

          “Huh?! Really?!”

          “ChoMinnie!” JunSu let out excitedly. But as soon as he let it out, he covered his mouth with both of his hands. Their manager eyed JunSu strangely.

          “Jung ChoMin? Why is she sending a package from your apartment’s address?”

Xiah JunSu gave out a nervous laugh, “Hyung, you must be hearing things! I didn’t say that…heh heh…”

          “Nice save…” YooChun laughed sarcastically under his breath.

          “Is there something you guys are not telling me?” Manager Choi eyed them individually, searching for some truth.

          “Psshhh, no!” JaeJoong denied, slinging his arm Manager Choi’s shoulder, “Aren’t you curious to know what’s inside? Let’s open this baby up!”

Choi removed JaeJoong’s arm from around him and eyed him one last time. “If something is going on, oh, I will find out about it.”

JaeJoong slapped Manager Choi’s back playfully, “Trust me Hyungnim,” he smiled, “Would this face lie to you?” he pointed to his adorable pout and sad eyes.

          “Neh.”

YooChun and JunSu snickered at JaeJoong’s feign hurt expression when their manager didn’t believe him. YunHo, being the leader as well as the cousin of the sender had the privilege of opening the box.

He d around those pink foamy things to find the content and once his hands did, his face lit up for the first time in weeks. “Jackpot.”

Deciding it would be faster to dump everything onto the bed, YunHo flipped over the open box and all the pink foamy things and the stuff inside bounced lightly on the big bed. Almost immediately, the other members scavenged through the items like hungry vultures honing in on road-kill.

Manager Choi was as fast as lightning when he scooped up most of the wrapped food. It had been weeks since he last tasted authentic Korean food and he was damned if he was going to share it. Especially since some of it was Gukhwappang^(*) – it was his all time favorite pastry. Making a mad dash to his room, he shut himself in to finish off his precious rations.

          “Look!” JaeJoong exclaimed excitedly, “Our flag!” he gave the miniature Korean flag a wave before setting it down. He then picked up a snow globe with two miniature people, one male and one female, wearing a hanbok^(*). Placing that down, he picked up a copy of a popular manhwa. “Ahhh,” he closed his eyes as he rubbed the comic against his cheek lovingly. “Hangul^(*)! Oh have I missed you so!”

          “Wah! I could kiss ChoMinnie! – Umm I mean who ever sent this!” JunSu laughed nervously, hoping their manager didn’t hear him. He hugged the soccer ball close to his chest, mentally kicking himself for not bringing one in the first place.

          “Once again Su,” YooChun laughed and retorted sarcastically, “Nice save.” He looked down at his stack, “Lookie here! We got letters!”

YunHo put down some packaged treats that Manager Choi failed to take and some empty postcards with Korean scenery to crawl over to where YooChun sat with his pile. Looking over to the good-sized stack of envelopes, he saw his name written on the first one. Not waiting for YooChun to pass them out, he took his out of the pile and tore it open. His happy glee turned sour as soon as he finished reading the first couple of lines from his letter.

          “MUH!?” He screamed, clutching the paper tightly causing it to wrinkle, “I am gonna kill that DongHae as soon as we get back!”

          “What is it?” YooChun pried the letter from YunHo’s grasps. His eyes scanned it quickly, a growing smile at every line. “Haha, he’s just kidding. He already has Sica.” He patted the calming YunHo at the back, “But he's is right. You’re cousin is pretty damn hot.”

          “Aish!” YunHo cussed, raising a fist at YooChun’s laughing face, “Shut up and read your letter.”

          “ChoMin-ah wrote one for all of us!” JunSu exclaimed excitedly, dramatically clearing his throat, he read the contents of the messy letter out loud. “Let’s see... Hey there Dong Bang Shin Ki! I hope you liked my little presents. There’s a little happy face,” JunSu added, “A little birdie told me that you felt a bit homesick so I tried sending things that will remind you of Korea. Haha I was even thinking of including a jar of good ol’ Korean dirt, but I went to a gift shop instead. I even asked your friends from Super Junior to write you some letters! EunHyuk oppa was really NICE?! When is HyukJae nice?!” he looked up from the letter, “Hyukie is spoiled and-and annoying and – a”

          “JunSu-ah!” the four yelled in unison.

          “Aish, fine. Where was I? Oh yeah,” he scanned the letter, “EunHyuk oppa – blagh – was really nice to tell everyone to write a letter too. So before I start rambling on and on, do your best! All of us, Cassiopeia and Super Junior, are rooting for you. Dong Bang Shin Ki! Fighting! And there are cute hearts.” JunSu lowered the paper and looked at the other members with a watery smile.

The others felt nostalgic and wished to be home too, but the encouragement from ChoMin and SuJu cheered them up from their minute depression. It was a nice feeling to know that people across the sea cheered and prayed for them to succeed in Japan. It wasn’t much, but the kind gesture from ChoMin helped clear their minds and refocus.

And with that mindset, they were ready to work hard and finish what they were set out to do. Knocking on their Manager’s door, they convinced him to take them back to the rehearsal studio to have their dance perfected by that Thursday. On their way out the hotel, they bumped into the clueless ChangMin and rushed back to the awaiting choreographer and their dance.

BongCha stared at the text message from JunSu, her hand shaking with anger. How dare that insolent brat contact the members of Dong Bang Shin Ki before her! She should have been the first person to have been contacted by JunSu. It should have been her who sent the – quote – ‘inspiring and motivational gifts to the members. She should have been the one to cheer them on.

BongCha collapsed on her princess-styled canopy bed, tears beginning to blur her vision. “Before that Jung ChoMin came, I was Dong Bang Princess…It should have been me…”

          “Are you still mad at us for not telling you about the package sooner?” JunSu asked the tight lipped ChangMin as he opened the door to their hotel room. “We said that we’re sorry.”

ChangMin took of his jacket and tossed it on couch. Sitting down on the coffee table, he took off his shoes, still giving JunSu the cold shoulder. JunSu sat on the table next to him as JaeJoong and YooChun tiredly walked in. “C’mon Minnie, it’s been five days. Let it go.”

          “Ani,” ChangMin turned away from JunSu, “Because you didn’t tell me sooner, Manager Hyung got all the food.”

JunSu rolled his eyes and stood up. “Aish.” He walked forward to the wooden closet and opened it. Rummaging inside, he zipped open his bag and pulled out a wrapped tteok^(*). He walked back to ChangMin and handed it to him. “Here, I was saving it as a remembrance, but seeing as you won’t forgive us…take it.”

ChangMin turned the wrapped pastry over and looked up at JunSu. He gave JunSu a big smile and lay down on the couch, the pastry on his chest. “Thanks.”

          “Aish.” JunSu shook his head and walked over to his shared bed and took off his polo shirt.

          “JaeJoong-ah?” JunSu asked the curled up blond haired man lying down on the bed. “Are you ok?”

JaeJoong was wrapped around a pillow, his clothes the same as he walked in. He sniffed as he held the tears back. They just came back from an intense practice. They meant to perfect their dance by Wednesday, so they could start shooting early, but it was a hard dance sequence and JaeJoong couldn’t keep up. Not to mention everyone was edgy because of the dwindling time. He wasn’t the best dancer and made a lot of mistakes despite the many hours spent on practicing. It didn’t help when YunHo yelled at him to try harder and to get the damn moves right. It was already 3:30 in the morning before they finished – he felt tired and sore. JaeJoong turned over on the bed, ignoring JunSu’s question. Of course he wasn’t o.k.

Finding the room stuffy, he pushed himself off the large bed and walked towards the hotel door, hoping fresh air would do him some good. He walked passed a worried JunSu and a sleeping ChangMin. The bathroom light was on, indicating that YooChun was inside.

At the door, he came face to face with YunHo. They both stood rooted to their spot and brown eyes locked. They stood there for a few seconds, not moving. Their eyes were in some kind of staring match that heldcountless unsaid feelings. YunHo was the first to look away.

          "Jae, I –”

          “Forget about it,” JaeJoong mumbled and pushed passed YunHo, bumping him in the shoulder.

          “Aish!” YunHo screamed after the retreating back of JaeJoong, “Yah! I was trying to apologize! Don’t walk away from me.”

JaeJoong turned around, “I don’t want to hear it!” He huffed and turned back around and headed for the elevators, “I’m going for a walk; I’ll be back in a few.”

YunHo shook his head, “Aish,” he turned around and punched the hallway wall, venting out his anger. Taking a few steps around in a circle to calm down, he walked through the open door and into their hotel room.

Sorry for the late update, been busy with too much of life and all of its hecticness. =P This chapter is pretty short compared to the others, but that means I'll be updating it more frequently than before. ^-^

Notes:

Gukhwappang – a flower-shaped pastry. Consists of sweet azuki bean filling known as pat, which is encased in batter and then toasted in a special appliance that performs like a waffle iron.
Hanbok – Korea’s traditional clothing. Worn for special events, like birthdays or new years. Most of the elderly wear them. Sort of like a Kimono for Japan.
Hangul – Korean writing system
Tteok – a chewy cake made from either pounded short-grain rice or pounded glutinous rice. It is served either cold (filled or covered with sweetened mung bean paste, red-bean paste, raisins, a sweetened filling made with sesame seeds, mashed red beans, sweet pumpkin, beans, dates, pine nuts, and/or honey), usually served as dessert or snack.