Looking out of the window at the number of people that had gathered outside the stadium for BAP’s concert filled you with a sense of pride. It was the second night, and you’d already felt the crowd’s energy and love for the boys the previous night, but it still felt kind of surreal. You’d never imagined that Yongguk would one day live his dream in this way. You could hardly imagine how so many people were so crazy about these boys that you’d known for so long. In fact, it was even more amazing for you as Himchan’s sister. While Yongguk had always known that this was what he wanted to do, your brother had been serious about his traditional music, and only started considering pop music as an option not too long ago. It was amazing how much they’d achieved in such a short time, and you couldn’t help but feel emotional when you watched their mothers tear up the night before.

“It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?”

A deep voice snapped you out of your reverie and for a moment, you thought it was Yongguk, but remembered that the boys were downstairs preparing for the concert. It was Yongnam, his twin brother, who came up beside you.

“Oppa,” you acknowledged, turning to smile at him. Since you’d dated Yongguk in high school, you were quite well acquainted with his twin, although you hadn’t contacted each other since you and Yongguk broke up. Things were naturally quite awkward, since he would have heard Yongguk’s side of the story at the time, and you weren’t sure if he was clued in about all that had happened since then, but he’d greeted you like an old friend the previous night, which relieved you. “Yeah, it still feels weird seeing that so many people would pay and queue for hours to see my annoying brother.”

Yongnam laughed. “And your annoying boyfriend?”

You blinked at him, not knowing what to say for a moment. “Well, I…”

“He told us last night,” he said, seeing that you were struggling for words. “He doesn’t tell us much. Hell, I talk to him on the phone so often and he’s never told me much about his love life, but we sat down for a meal last night, with the whole family, and he told us he was back together with you.”

You felt your face coloring. “He told your parents?”

Yongnam laughed again at your discomfort. “Don’t worry, our mother was totally happy. Yongguk’s fans seem to find his angsty, emotional lyrics really y, but for a parent listening to a son’s pain, it was really hurtful.” At this point, you couldn’t help but feel guilty, realizing how much trouble you’d inadvertently caused. “But he seems really happy now. I mean, he did date other girls after you guys broke up, but I don’t think it’s ever felt the same for us. I think our omma had her heart set on you as her daughter-in-law all those years ago, and no girl has been able to match up.” He paused to give you a meaningful look. “I really hope things work out for you two this time.”

You your lips, feeling your mouth turn dry for a moment, and nodded. You felt a tremendous amount of pressure from what you were hearing, and instinctively, you felt the urge to run. But then something inside you halted that initial urge. You owed it to Yongguk not to take flight whenever you felt afraid. The two of you had come too far for you to ruin it all in a moment of panic. “I hope it works out too.”

Yongnam grinned and patted you on the back gently. “Wanna head down? We should catch them before the fans start coming in.”

You nodded and followed him down the stairs to the boys’ dressing room, where all the families were gathered, along with the staff preparing for the concert. There were so many people running around looking busy, and you had to search the room before you found your brother standing with your parents. You tapped Yongnam on the arm and gestured to your family, letting him know that you were going to join them, and he nodded before moving off to find his own family members. Himchan was looking solemn as your mother spoke to him. He was in a suit, with the jacket hanging off his shoulders because his arm was still in a sling. You knew your parents were worried because it was obvious from the previous night that he’d been in pain while performing, but he’d insisted on going through with the concert.

“Omma, Appa, Oppa,” you came up to your family and linked arms with your mother affectionately.

“Hana ah, tell your oppa to take his painkillers,” your mother nagged, and you could see Himchan frowning. “How is he going to get better if he doesn’t listen to what the doctor says?”

“Omma, I said I’m not taking them,” he insisted, looking at you beseechingly for help. “They make me groggy. Do you want me to hurt myself on stage?”

“You shouldn’t move around then. I’ve watched injured idols on TV and they just sit on a chair at the side of the stage and lip sync. Can’t you do that too?”

“Omma, that’s other people. Our band is different.”

Sensing a battle beginning between the two, you quickly intervened. Your brother clearly got his tendency to nag from your mother, and neither was going to back down once they started lecturing. “Omma, painkillers aren’t so good for the body.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” your mother retorted. “If he hadn’t insisted on moving back to the dorms, I could have made him soups and tonics, but since I can’t do that for him, he should at least take his medicine and not make us worry like that. Himchan ah, omma is saying this for your own good…”

Your father could only sigh. “Just listen to your mother for once.”

“Oppa, let’s just take the painkillers, okay?” you interrupted, catching his eye and tilting your head slightly to the side, hoping he caught your meaning. He hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly. You patted your mother on the arm. “Don’t worry, omma, I’ll make sure he takes them. Why don’t you guys go talk to the other parents first? Look, there’s Youngjae’s mom.”

You quickly grabbed Himchan’s arm and led him away before your mother could insist on following. The two of you walked over to a table where Himchan had left his backpack. Once he was sure you were out of earshot of your parents, he glared at you. “I’m not taking them. Even though I’m injured I still want to give a hundred percent on stage...”

“I know,” you said simply. “Take them out first. You have to pretend to take them or omma will never get off your case.” He eyed you skeptically before reaching into his bag and pulling out a bottle of pills. “Give me your hand.” He stretched his palm towards you and you shook the bottle, pretending to pour the pills into his hand, but made sure to shake gently enough such that the pills remained within the bottle. “Okay, quick, pretend you’re putting them into your mouth.” He followed your instructions, moving his hand towards his mouth swiftly and pretending that he was popping the pills into his mouth. You grabbed a bottle of water and opened it, passing it to him, and he drank.

“I don’t know if I’m helping you or hurting you,” you admitted when he put the bottle down. “But I’m assuming you know your limits. Just don’t let omma worry unnecessarily.”

Himchan looked at you strangely. “Why do you sound so mature all of a sudden?”

“I’ve always been mature,” you returned, grinning at him. “Oppa, seriously. If it hurts, don’t push yourself too hard, okay? I’m sure your fans will understand.”

“I know, I know,” he said, messing up your hair with his good hand. “You guys should head out soon and get seated before the fans come in.”

You looked at your watch. It was almost time. You scanned the room, searching for your parents, but caught sight of Yongguk instead. He was looking at you and smiling. He looked shiftily around him, then raised his hand slightly and gestured for you to go over. Like a fugitive, your eyes darted around to check that the coast was clear before walking towards him. As you neared him, he moved a few steps away so that he was obscured by the curtain that had been pulled across a section of the room for the boys to change behind. Checking again to make sure nobody was looking, you followed him behind the curtain.

“You didn’t give me a kiss for luck yesterday,” he accused, wrapping his arms around you the moment the both of you were safely out of sight.

“You did fine though,” you pointed out, sliding your arms around his waist. You smiled lovingly at him as you fiddled with the gold chains on his all-white outfit. “I heard from your brother that you told your family about me.”

He smiled. “I did. Did you not want me to?”

You paused, wondering how you felt. “I don’t know,” you said honestly. “It’s just… there’s so much more pressure now.”

He cupped your cheek with one hand. “Don’t be silly, there’s no pressure. As long as I’m happy, they’re happy. And I’m only happy if you’re happy. Are you?”

You nodded, sincerely meaning it. “I am.”

“Good,” he said, smiling as he kissed you on the forehead. “I’ll have the day free tomorrow. Wait for me at home after the concert tonight and I’ll come over, okay?”

You nodded again, feeling a warm fuzziness. With him being so busy with the concert, he hadn’t had much time for you even though he lived just down the hallway. Now you had something to look forward to, even though you were sure he’d be so tired out from the concert that he’d just collapse on your bed and fall asleep.

He picked up your wrist to look at your watch. “You should be getting seated now. Quick, give me my good luck kiss!”

You laughed and lifted your head, pressing your lips to his. “There, now go out and bring the house down again.”

Yongguk was grinning like a child when you pulled away from him. “Thanks, babe. You go out first. It’ll look less suspicious.”

You stepped out from behind the curtain and immediately caught sight of your father waving you over. The rest of the families were already heading out for the stands, and you hurried over to your parents, hugging your brother quickly before following them out. All the family members were led to a VIP area, where you would be seated. From the previous night’s experience, you were sure nobody would actually hassle the family members, although Yongnam did draw a fair bit of attention because he looked exactly like Yongguk. As you shuffled to your seat, you realized that you were right next to Yongguk’s mother. The previous night, you’d been beside Yongnam, which had been okay for you, but in the wake of what you’d been just told, you could feel yourself panicking slightly.

You greeted her nervously, making sure to bow a full ninety degrees before sitting down. However, her cheerful demeanor set you at ease. She clasped your hand in hers and smiled at you the whole night, looking genuinely happy that you were beside her. Or that you were back together with her son, you couldn’t tell. Even though you could tell that the parents didn’t fully appreciate the music, just being around them, you could feel the overwhelming pride that they felt each time their sons drew screams and cheers from the crowd.

Honestly, you really enjoyed their performances. The boys were natural born entertainers, and they poured all of themselves into each song that they stepped up to perform. It made you especially happy that Yongguk had chosen to rearrange I Remember, which had caused you so much unhappiness, such that it was a slow acoustic number rather than the original powerful, angry rock version. He clearly meant to show you how he no longer felt the same anger that he felt towards you, and even though he didn’t overtly promise you that he wasn’t going to do the original song again, you knew that he wouldn’t because he couldn’t channel the same emotions.

When Yongguk stepped up for his solo performance, his mom turned to you. “You know, I thought he was mute because he couldn’t talk until he was five. Look at him now!”

“Now he won’t stop talking, right?” Yongnam leaned over, laughing, and his mother swatted at him. The crowd went crazy as the dancers went up to Yongguk and ripped off the flimsy wifebeater he was wearing, revealing his upper body, and his mother leaned towards you. “Hana, I know he’s doing this for… fan service or whatever it is that you call it these days, but tell him not to expose himself too excessively. If he’s a musician, why does he need to keep showing his body?”

You stifled a laugh, remembering why his mother used to like you. You had been on her side when she was nagging Yongguk about his education, and you’d forced him to study with you even when all he wanted to do was focus on his music. She’d turned to you quite often when she’d felt that her words were falling on deaf ears, and it felt strange but pleasant at the same time that she was turning to you to take care of her son again. “I’ll make sure to tell him that.”

“And he’s too skinny,” she continued, patting your hand as she spoke. “Is he not eating regularly or sleeping enough? He’s a grown man, but he doesn’t even know how to take care of himself. If you don’t remind him to eat, he can even forget to have his meals. And he likes all these junk food like ramyeon, which have no nutrition. If you can, make sure he eats healthily…”

“Stop, Omma,” Yongnam interrupted his mother before she went overboard. “She’s not his wife. How can she control what he’s eating?”

She laughed, realizing she was getting carried away. “Well, she sees him more than I do, and he’s more likely to listen to her than to me, isn’t he? You’ll take care of him, won’t you, Hana?”

You nodded, not really knowing what to say. At this point, your mother, who was sitting on your other side, leaned over. “You and Yongguk are back together?”

Yongguk’s mother answered for you before you could say a word. “You didn’t know? My son just told me last night.”

“She never tells me anything,” your mother complained, and you sat back, sighing as the two mothers started talking to each other over you. You glanced at Yongnam, who made a face and held his hands upwards in a “what can we do?” gesture. They didn’t stop until the talk segment of the show when Himchan stepped up to read his letter.

“I felt like I didn’t get a chance to say a lot before, so I wrote a letter last night…”

Author's note:

So, after a long hiatus, I am back! My Korean holiday was AWESOME, if anyone cares! Hahahaha! Had so much fun exploring and eating and SHOPPING omg. I shopped myself into such a huge credit card debt that I will probably be hiding at home for a while until I earn back the money I spent, which will probably be a good thing for my readers since it means I'll be spending lots of time writing (or trying to write, at least).

I think I usually end my parts quite nicely so the next part looks like another scene, but this time I had too much to write about the concert and decided to just chop it up into two parts. The next part will pick up from Himchan's speech and move on to... something else. ;)

Anyway, on the question that I posted up with the last chapter, the results seem to swing quite strongly in the direction of continuing WMHTMTD. Honestly, I was kinda hoping more people would pick option 3 since I was really on a streak with that story, but sadly, it was the least popular option :( Either ways, I am going to listen to my readers and continue this story, but I have to warn you guys, my ideas are seriously running dry for this couple. I can stretch it a few more parts, but if my inspiration doesn't strike with another huge dramatic crisis that I can throw into the story, I am going to end it and go with the next most popular option, which is the music story. It's going to be a rated story, and will deal with quite heavy themes, so I don't know how readers who loved WMHTMTD will receive it, but I hope you guys will respect my artistic license. If it's not your cup of tea, I suppose I can't keep you, but hopefully I can show another dimension to my writing.

I thank everyone who commented and gave me suggestions, and I do read and respect every comment, and please don't feel bad if you don't see your suggestions being written into my stories. Ultimately, my writing process is very much just whatever my heart tells me to write (bad pun, sorry) and a lot of times, I have scenarios for future chapters already planned out in my head, so it might be hard to factor other stuff in. Trust me, there is a method to my madness. I'm probably rambling now, so I'm going to end this with the usual thank you's. Love you guys!

xx.