‘Ugh, kill me now,’ is the only thing Jihye finds herself repeatedly chanting in her mind all day from the moment she wakes up to when she's getting ready for the day to when she's hanging out at the studio for a bit to when she's eating to when she's changing from work clothes to normal clothes all the way to when she's basically being dragged from her apartment to the car that Sujeong is driving to the venue of the CNBLUE concert.

The car ride is uneventful aside from Jihye's complaints filling the silence that Sujeong left in order to ignore her friend's negativity because nothing could rain on her parade. She was finally going to see Jonghyun in person and she could put up with Jihye for the sake of meeting her future husband.

 

When they arrive at the concert, Sujeong parks and quickly pulls Jihye out of the vehicle so they can line up to enter the stadium along with all the other fans. During this, all Jihye can do is blankly stare in the direction of the entrance because she really had no idea what the hell she was going to do after. ‘Is it too late to run?,’ she wonders. ‘Maybe I can slip out right after the concert ends and merge with the crowd so I can’t be found...’

As the line starts moving, Sujeong notices her friend in a dream-like state so to not lose her as people around them start moving, she grabs a hold of Jihye’s arms and shakes her friend violently. “KANG JIHYE!” she yells into the other’s ear, making the mentioned stumble backwards, a dazed and confused look on her face.

Frantically whipping her head around as she gains her bearings and showing a side of herself that's not commonly seen, Jihye’s current state is comparable to a mess. Despite preparing herself all week she still can't deal with the fact that her biggest secret could be revealed tonight.

“I’m okay, I’m okay!” the frazzled brunette promises in a way that she hopes convinces her best friend. In all hoenstly, Jihye was one surprise away from having a mental breakdown but no one needed to know that.

 

Pursing her lips as she fixed a look on her friend, Sujeong didn’t believe Jihye a second. But because she's a good friend, she didn't press the issue; besides, she wouldn't have had a chance to say anything even if she wanted to because the two soon find themselves being pushed by the girls behind them.

Sujeong gives the girls a hard glare for pushing them and because she knew she could get pretty scary at times,  it was no surprise that the offenders slightly cowered in fear and backed away, giving the two plenty of room. Satisfied with their reaction, the auburn-hued female hooks her arms with Jihye’s. “Let’s go!” she cheers, dragging a very reluctant best friend with her once again.

 

 

 

Once the two get their tickets checked and find their seats, they notice that they're literally front row and most likely, the band could see them right away and quite clearly at that which made Jihye chant a string of curse words in her head as a response.

 

However, Jihye can't really hear herself anymore as the crowds around her start getting louder and louder and in a blink of an eye, the lights go out, sending the concert hall into a pitch black state. The cheers get increase in volume even more so once a loud siren sound emerges from the speakers positioned around the stadium and Jihye swears she's going to go deaf by the time the show is over.

Four songs later, the pessimistic thoughts before before quickly slip away and are replaced with praises as Jihye watches the band in awe. Not because the man in front of her, whoever he was--maybe the lead singer, she thinks to herself--was drenched in sweat and had quickly shed his jacket so he was now sporting a t-shirt instead (an action Jihye noticed made a lot of girls scream) but because the performance is--simply put--amazing.

Jihye knows that CNBLUE may not be the most talented group in the world but that didn’t stop them from putting a huge amount of effort and passion into playing music with their all, a trait that Jihye quite admires. The ability to keep putting work into something you like, not just because of goals you may want to achieve or despite not being able to get anywhere but because you simply love it is not something a lot of people can admit to doing and Jihye liked that aspect of people.

After only twenty minutes since the start of the concert, Jihye is already hooked on the band. Before she was barely a fan, only having listened to a few songs that her brother had showed her and whenever she heard the songs playing around Seoul (not that she knew it was CNBLUE at the time) but now as she makes a mental note to check out more of their songs and as Minhyuk for some recommendations later, she thinks she may start to like CNBLUE more.

Suddenly, Jihye remembers her friend and turns to Sujeong, words ready on the tip of her tongue to tell her about the newfound appreciation she has for the group when she catches the look in Sujeong’s eyes. Understanding what that look meant, Jihye knows it's a lost cause to try and talk to Sujeong now because she's clearly too busy staring at Jonghyun’s face and already planning their wedding to give her the time and day.
 

 

 

Three hours later and the concert is finally over yet Jihye realizes that she's still floored by the performance. Of all the concerts she's been to, she's never seen or experienced anything like what she just had and in short, she's amazed. For one thing, she wondered why she never paid too much attention to CNBLUE aside from her brother because judging by the concert and their talks in between, they seemed like pretty fun people.

Another thing, she couldn’t believe that her brother could be so... charismatic but also sweet at the same time while playing the drums. It was weird because that goofy little boy she had grown up with, taking care of him when she had to babysit him or when he scraped himself from falling or when he cried had become a man and it was weird to Jihye.

“Hey, hey, hurry up!” she hears from beside her and snapping out of her thoughts, Jihye is quickly being pushed towards the backstage area by Sujeong. They're in line with a few other people who she assumed also got their hands on backstage passes.

 

It wasn’t long until they're being asked to show their passes and ID cards to be let in. Still under the spell and after effects of the concert, Jihye completely forgets about her initial doubts and resistance to the meet and greet. It's only when she's past security that Jihye remembers and she has to stop herself from hitting her head.

 

A sense of dread settles in the pit of her stomach as Jihye sighs. "There's no going back now," she mumbles to herself as she, Sujeong. and the other fans who were verified and checked by security are told to wait inside an empty lounge room until the guys come out.

 

It's around ten minutes later when a girl comes rushing into the room with a very shocked and confused expression. She's accompanied by a tissue pushed against her nose and anyone near her could see blood seeping through. “What happened, Yuna? Are you okay?” another female asks the moment the apparently injured girl walks towards her.

“I... I think just ran into Jonghyun?” she responds slowly as if she herself wasn't sure what had just happened. Her answer sounds like a question so her friend asks Yuna to elaborate. “I was just going to the washroom when I ran right into him and fell backwards and the next thing I know, my nose was bleeding and wow," the girl pauses, tone suddenly changing from panic to sarcasm in a blink of an eye. "I must’ve left a great impression.”

The Yuna girl's friend laughs then and says something about taking a look at her nose so Jihye tunes out of the conversation, no longer interested. Instead, she glances over at Sujeong and exchanges a look with her. Upon hearing the development, the two best friends questioned the legitimacy of the story but since the girl did have a bloody nose, they concluded that it could be true.

 

Either way, it didn't stop Sujeong from seething with mild jealousy.

Luckily for this Yuna chick, Sujeong didn’t have much time to dwell on plans for the girl’s demise as the door to the lounge soon opens for a second time in the past fifteen minutes. A moment later, four gorgeous albeit still slightly sweaty guys walk in and immediately steal the attention of every girl in the room.

Bowing once, they chorus, “Hello, we are CNBLUE!”

The lucky girls all bow in response, some squealing to their friends, some about to pass out or on the verge of tears and some smiling widely. The only exception is Jihye who looks quite uneasy and steadily avoids eye contact with any of them, more specifically with Minhyuk.

 

Being the ever observant guy he is, the action doesn't go unnoticed by Yonghwa who quickly whispers something to the guy beside him. Said guy's eyes dart towards the girl in question  and upon seeing the female turn out to be Jihye, his eyes bug out before a big grin appears on his face.

“Ji--” he's about to exclaim before stopping himself as his eyes land on the girl standing beside his sister. Minhyuk thinks she's absolutely beautiful. “Whoa,” the drummer breathes out instead, almost slipping into a mesmerized daze as he stares at her.

 

Once his bandmates catch on to the situation, they laugh at his sudden mood switch while the other girls in the room look on in confusion. On the other hand, Jihye chooses that exact moment to glance over at her brother and is surprised to see her brother acting so calm and so spaced out, especially because it seemed like the cause of this was her best friend.

Letting out a very obvious cough intending to break Minhyuk out of his daze, Jihye ends up with the attention shifted to herself. She blushes at the realization and quickly looks away to take a sudden interest in the wall.

 

Chuckling to himself, the leader turns his attention to the other girls and gives them a charming smile. “We should start with introductions, shouldn’t we?” he asks to no one in particular, stealing the attention back. Everyone nods, agreeing with the suggestion. “Alright!" Yonghwa yells out, bowing after. "I’m Yonghwa and I'm the leader of CNBLUE,” he greets, giving a quick wave and nodding towards the guy on his left.

“Hi, I'm Minhyuk and I play the drums,” the next member continues, sending a shy smile towards the girls (but mostly  at Sujeong although the girl doesn't notice, yes too busy oggling another member).

“I’m Jonghyun, one of the guitarists,” a guy with black hair says after, nodding his head and exuding a cool aura that can render any girl speechless and probably have them swooning over him in seconds.

Recognizing his name, Jihye glances at the girl beside her and sees Sujeong in some sort of trance as she openly stares at the guitarist.

 

Jonghyun looks over then and catches her gaze. As if thinking for a moment, he decides to give her a small smile (did Jihye sense a bit of smugness in that smile?) that has Sujeong figuratively tripping over herself before averting his attention elsewhere. Jihye has to rub a hand on Sujeong's back to calm her down as the last member introduces himself.

“And I'm Jungshin, the bassist and maknae!” a very tall male finishes, beaming at everyone.

Seeing that Sujeong was okay, she draws her hand back and manages to catch the last bit of Jungshin's introduction. ‘Aw, he’s really adorable,’ Jihye thinks to herself.

“Now that you know our names, we want to know yours,” Yonghwa says suddenly. “Let’s start with the girl on the end over there,” he suggests, pointing to Jihye.

 

Surprised, she gives him a questioning look to which he smiles (or was it a smirk?). All of a sudden, Jihye's previous dread is replaced with an unsettled feeling of nerves. She knows very well that she can't outright deny him so she mentally curses Yonghwa before introducing herself with a simple, “I’m Jihye,” and bowing once.

“And last name?” Yonghwa prods, not missing a beat. Jihye falters for a moment, caught off guard and hesitant to say it because of obvious reasons and she couldn't help but wonder if he knew that they were related and was putting her on the spot intentionally.

 

But as if luck was on her side that day, Minhyuk cuts in before Jihye could properly respond.

“Hyung, don’t you think that’s a bit personal?” he asks innocently, sending a side look to Jihye. She secretly smiles gratefully at her little brother but nothing gets past the leader who only nods, the neutral expression on his face betraying the mischievous look in his eyes.

“You're right,” he concedes, quickly sending Jihye another smirk before moving on to the rest of the girls who all introduced themselves one by one.

 

The uneasy feeling Jihye had experienced a minute earlier did not subside at all as she watches how he responds to the others. Frankly, she really couldn't wait until this entire thing was over.

 

Unfortunately, the teasing never stopped.

When they were talking about random things, Yonghwa always managed to slip in some sort of side comment directed to Jihye. At first she thought little of it but the more he did it, the more suspicious she got of him.

 

 

It's when he gives her a knowing look after glancing from Minhyuk to her that Jihye knew he must have figured out their secret.

Sending him a glare, he chuckles in response. Yonghwa finds that he's really amused by Jihye's reactions to his teasing and he enjoys seeing her squirm uncomfortably in her seat all while trying to avoid eye contact with Minhyuk and not participating in the conversations a lot.

 

Half an hour later, the meet and greet comes to an end and to commemorate it, they decide to take photos.

 

While they're setting up for the group shot and positioning themselves, Yonghwa notices Jihye trying to take a spot near the outside of the group clearly with the intention of being as far away from everyone as she can manage. Not having any of that, Yonghwa grabs a hold of Jihye's arm and lightly tugs her, pulling the girl in between himself and Minhyuk, catching his bandmate and Jihye off guard.

As the manager calls out that he's about to take the picture, Jihye tries to find a way out as everyone prepares and puts on their best smiles. Right before the flash goes off, Jihey frowns once she realizes that she's trapped and shortly after hears a whisper of “I didn’t know Minhyuk had a sister” coming from her right where Yonghwa stands.

 

opens in shock right at the moment the telltale sound of a picture being taken rings out and she hates how Yonghwa still manages to smile while she no doubt looked horrible in the photo.

 

After looking over the photo with everyone, Yonghwa winks at Jihye when she finally sees how she looks in the snapshot. She's clearly glaring at the male who but he simply flashes a cocky grin before turning away to do their final greeting.

Even as they all bow and thank each other for the time, Jihye  is still ifrustrated with Yonghwa and his behavior. Never in her life had she been called out like that nor had she dealt with someone like this Yonghwa guy who had apparently taken a liking to picking on Jihye, despite only knowing her for less than an hour.
 

 

 

 

After CNBLUE leaves, the rest of the girls starting gathering their things and heading out of the room. Immediately clinging on to her best friend’s arm, Sujeong starts blabbing on and on about how perfect Jonghyun looked, Jonghyun this, and Jonghyun that.

Jihye couldn't help but pity her brother as it was clear as day that Sujeong didn’t notice Minhyuk staring at her not-so-subtly the entire time.

Once they exited the backstage area and the arena itself, the two girls walk back to Sujeong’s car while conversing about the concert they had just watched and the meet & greet.

“That was pretty amazing, huh?” Sujeong asks, clicking the button on her car keys that unlocked her vehicle.

“I was shocked, honestly. I didn’t expect to like them so much,” Jihye replies as she slides into the passenger seat of the car.

 

Sujeong slips in through the driver’s side at the same time, shoving her keys into the ignition. “They were really cool though.”

“Wait, what?” Jihye pauses, looking over at her best friend with a look of mock disbelief. “You were actually paying attention to something that wasn’t Jonghyun?”

“HEY!” Sujeong retorts defensively, lightly shoving Jihye in the arm before checking her surroundings and pulling the car out of the parking space. “I’m not that biased, okay?”

“Sure, sure, whatever you say,” the other responds, shooting a sly grin at Sujeong. Her friend laughs louder and shakes her head, stepping on the gas pedal and merging onto the roads of Seoul with the other cars.

It was when the two were safely driving down the streets, the atmosphere semi quiet as they only had the sound of the radio to fill the silence, that Jihye suddenly got an idea.

“I just thought of something,” she states out of the blue, turning to look at her best friend.

Sujeong glances sideways at Jihye to show she's listening since she's supposed to be keeping her eyes on the road and motions for her to continue talking.

“What if we started our own band?” Jihye suggests, speaking slowly and carefully as she begins to think more and more about the iimpulsive idea. “We could cover CNBLUE songs and maybe even write our own music! Plus we can hold auditions to fill out the other spots in the group and it could be fun, wouldn’t it?”

Jihye was strangely getting excited about the band ("It'll be all girls, of course," she answers when Sujeong asks) and the more she mulls the thought over, voicing her thoughts outloud, Sujeong starts getting excited .

“It does sound like it could be fun,” Sujeong agrees as she turns down the familiar side streeet she knew to be where Jihye lived.

“Right?” she returns, smiling widely as she settles back into her seat. “Can we meet up again tomorrow to talk more? I’m too tired tonight to do anything else.”

Sujeong laughs. “Yeah, it’s fine. Just text me, okay?”

“I will!” Jihye promises just as the car pulls up the front of the studio that was below Jihye’s apartment. “Goodnight, then!” she tells Sujeong as she gets out of the car.

 

As she waves to to retreating back of her best friend's card, Jihye smiles to herself, suddenly looking forward to the day after.

 

 

 

...Okay so I'm not sure why this chapter was marked as hidden when it seems like it's been done for a while... OTL But whatever, it's public now. Uh, this chapter totals up to about 2700+ words! Amazing, right? I hope it's not too long for your tastes! But this might be the regular size for chapters, more or less just because there's a lot I'm going to have to get in for this fic.

ANYWAYS. This next part is for the CHOSEN APPLICANTS ONLY! Please PM me with your character's name and explain to me how their audition for the band went. This can include (but are definitely not limited to): whether they brought their own instrument or not, what song they performed, any specific moments/scenes that happened during the audition, things like that. For the applicants who are not around anymore, I will make up their audition process myself but it would be really helpful if the remaining applicants could help out by providing me with some ideas to work with for their own characters.

And uh, that's all I have to say for now. Thank you! ♥

 

( EDIT ON 05/21/14 ) :: If you checked out the other chapters, or more specifically, the bottom addition of the author's note in chapter one, you may know already what  I've been up to. If you don't, go read! It's nothing super important but it is related to my plans for this story as yes, I will be continuing this. At the moment, I still need to write the next chapter but I really do hope to have it up by next week. SO stay tuned! This won't be the last you hear of me~ n__nv