Chap 6 The Soy's Debut

Baekhyun frowned as his call to Chanyeol went to an answering machine for the ninth time. He couldn't reach him since the day Chanyeol suddenly walk out on him in the ministore a couple of nights ago. It made him rethinking about his decision of roleplaying as Chanyeol's bestfriend. If the giant rapper really didn't want him to do it, then maybe it was the best for the both of them if Baekhyun do what Chanyeol wanted. He was about to call Dara and cancelled it when Kyungsoo suddenly appeared in the ministore on his shift.  

"He's not mad," Kyungsoo began as he took a sip of his instant frapuccino. The store was almost empty if not for two teenagers eating their ramyeon by the corner, but Baekhyun and Kyungsoo took the seats two tables away from them for the sake of secrecy, "He's just genuinely worried about you. He really think of you as his friend, so.."

Baekhyun smiled beside him, trying hard to not looked sad nor upset, kiwi juice in his hand. There're also frozen salmon kimbap rolls in front of them on the table and a bag of opened squid flavored snacks, "It's okay. If that what he told you to say to me, I mean- he didn't even answer any of my calls so I pretty much got the hint to stay away from his problem."

"He's just busy,"

"Of course," Baekhyun nodded, completely understood that Chanyeol the superstar must be so busy nowadays, it's still their comeback era afterall, "But don't worry, I was about to call Dara-nim to cancel-"

"No!" Kyungsoo suddenly cut him off, eyes widened even more when he realized that he just raised his voice desperately, "I came by myself, Chanyeol didn't even know,"

Baekhyun was listening to him wordlessly and Kyungsoo sighed. "How am I supposed to say this? He- that idiot tall guy didn't mad at you even for a bit. He's just too worried that he'll drag you down into the hell hole of the spotlight world that he's living in right now. You know, being an artist, a singer-- a rapper, is what Chanyeol always wanted and he's living his dream right now. But it came with a big price, he had to give up his privacy and peacefulness and sometimes even his safety. There're always some fans who often almost crossed the line, disturbing even those people around him. And you, Baekhyun, you're one of his rare precious friend. He really didn't want you to get into trouble because of him, but I think-"

Baekhyun was speechless when Kyungsoo suddenly sipped his coffee afterthat. As if he was trying to gulped his next words down with it, washed it away with the caffeine. Baekhyun understood that this might be hard for Kyungsoo too, that the petite manager just want to do his best for his bestfriend and Baekhyun could-- wanted do nothing but offered his hand too, "Okay.. I'll do it," he began and Kyungsoo was looking expectantly at him, "But what if Chanyeol hated me after this? For ignoring his request and keep going on with the plan?"

The guy with the big eyes sighed, he rubbed his face with his free hand and bit his lower lip at the same time. It was clear that Kyungsoo was having a hard time to decide the matter at hand. "Chanyeol's right, you could endanger your own privacy and life but at the same time, Dara's plan is not bad either. Chanyeol didn't need a romantic scandal at the moment, not when he's still building his career. People needed distraction. And what could be safer than a 'mysterious friend' kind of distraction? Fangirls wouldn't burn in jealousy, and fanboys, well fanboys wouldn't give enough -- hopefully. It reallly sounded better than a romantic scandal, with Park Dara on top of that,"

Baekhyun nodded in agreement, he heard it allready because that's exactly what Dara said to him couple of days ago. And that's why he wanted to help, throwing away all the risks that might happened to him with no care in the world.

The black haired guy sighed a little bit more before said with finality in his tone and an assuring eyes when he looked at Baekhyun again, "I'll try to talk to Chanyeol about this. He might needed time to process it all, but I'm sure in the end he'll know that we're-- you specially, are just trying to help him," Kyungsoo smiled softly. "But are you sure? There's no guarantee that the fans might leave you alone after this, let alone if something out of plan happened, no matter what Dara said, you could be--"

But Baekhyun shook his head, small smile grew on his thin lips when he cut the manager's worried spiell, he really didn't need to hear Kyungsoo listed the bad things, afterall, it's a fifty-fifty chance. It could happen but it also couldn't, so,  "You don't have to worry about me, Kyungsoo. I'm sure I'll be fine. Everything's will be alright."

Kyungsoo frowned as if he's still doubting that everything will be alright, that everything would suddenly turn for the bad. But he sighed for the ninth time that day before finally stood up from the stool, "Thanks Baekhyun. Chanyeol's really lucky to have you as his friend," The manager suddenly pulled the speechless Baekhyun in a hug and smiled warmly before he stepped out of 365.

Baekhyun watched in silence as Kyungsoo walked away and disappeared behind throngs of people on the street.

'No.. The lucky one is actually me,'

.................  

From: [email protected]

Hey, Baek? How are you? L.A is awesome. Their rib eye steak is a-ma-zzzzing, I tell you. I wish you were here. Anw, don't forget to send your cv for the scholarship. I'll be waiting.

Take care... :))

.................

Baekhyun gulped nervously as he watched himself turned into someone that he barely recognized. How Mint and Pepper skillfully worked their hand on Baekhyun's face and hair that slowly but sure, the man before him on the mirror looked less and less like the ministore employee that he knew so well.

Pepper cut a bit of his hair and colored it with a golden highlight that could only appear when they brushed his hair to the left direction, completely different than what Baekhyun usually did to his hair- just let it down to covered up his scar, that is. While Mint was doing magic on his face, with a little bit of shading here and there, Baekhyun's features were all complimented and he became more handsome. The kohl eyeliner made his usually small eyes sharper and somehow sparkled. She didn't even forget to put the magic concealer to covered up Baekhyun's biggest insecurity- the scar that he got from his mother. All done professionally and not too much that he'll looked ridiculous. Their fingers work magic on Baekhyun, as if they're a team of fairy godmothers trying to make him looked dazzling. And just like that, two hours passed, and there's no longer Baekhyun sitting before the mirror- it's Hyun, his new persona, Park Chanyeol's mysterious friend who will stole the limelight tonight and stirred the growing hush-hush scandal about Chanyeol's love life into Hyun's mysteriousness.

"So, what do you think?" Pepper asked, she didn't even masked her proud grin when the three of them were looking at his final appearance.

Dara didn't even kidding when she said she'll provide everything, from the team to help Baekhyun's make over, to clothing and rides. Baekhyun could only blink silently on his seat when Mint said that his limo was already waiting outside, ready to drive him to Chanyeol's usual hangout place.

"I think he looked cool if only he didn't gape like a fish out of water like that," Mint chuckled. The pink haired make up artist then raised her finger to lift Baekhyun's lower jaw back to its place, "Close your mouth, honestly, you looked stupid,"

"But-"

"I know we're great, but it's time to be Hyun, Baekhyun-ah," Pepper commented from his other side, hands pulling his shoulder so he would facing the purple girl. "Your pumpkin carriage and the goose driver are waiting for you. Don't waste anymore time to admire yourself, or the magic will be running out,"

"That means you have curfew," Mint added and she laughed when Baekhyun's eyes widening, "Nah, I'm just messing around to make you loosened up," she took a good pause to create the best effect before calling him out teasingly, '-Hyunella'," The pink haired girl smirked while Pepper was laughing.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes at the two but then a small smile crept slowly on his handsome face. Come to think of it, these whole things felt like a dream- more like a fairy tale to be exact. He's being pampered into a prince who's going to a ball of royal bachelors or something. He didn't realize he was breathing really carefully as if he's breathing too hard or too carelessly then everything would be back to normal-- or even worse, turned to 'ugly'.

To say that he's a little bit nervous right now would be an understatement. His heart full of doubt about himself whether he could pulled off his persona to deceive people successfully or not. The insecurity could rival a guy's- who was going to be fed to a pond full of hungry piranhas- feeling of life and death. In short, Baekhyun felt like he's going to puke his dinner.

"Don't worry too much, Baekhyun," Pepper, who heard his mega nervous breathing, said while she was collecting her tools and put it all in the make up compartment. "All you have to do now is just breathing normally so your brain could get enough supply of oxygen. It would make sure you won't do anything foolish by then," she ended up with a comforting smile. Somehow, Baekhyun always felt that Pepper was like the 'kind noona' he never had.

"Yea, and it surely prevented you looked like a guy who suffered a three years constipation and made our hard work useless," And Baekhyun always thought Mint as the 'sister he wanna smack on the head most of the time' who always did the opposite thing of boosting up his confidence level- but loved him equally too nonetheless.

"Be brave, be confident!" Pepper said while pulling Baekhyun up. Escorting him to the door and opened it widely, "But the most important thing is, be yourself. The better one that is. Bring out your best-self because initially, Baekhyun is already a very special and great person,"

Mint then walked up to the pair and poked his sensitive waist that made Baekhyun jolt out of his nervous statue stance, "Nah, the most important thing is: enjoy and have fun," she then pushed Baekhyun's hesitance body out of their studio and added, "Flaunt your beauty in front of them, Baek,"

'Make us proud.'

.................

The place where Chanyeol was usually hang out with his friends was actually a game centre. Baekhyun thought it would be a highclass club in Gangnam or something- not that he's disappointed- but no, Park Chanyeol was actually a gamer. It explained his own outfit actually, when Pepper and Mint were doing their best on his make up and hairdo, the outfits were kinda too plain to go clubbing or doing whatever things he thought the stars usually doing. He was wearing a grey hoodie- an expensive one because it's Nike- and a skinny jeans- which was also branded, LV or something. The 8thBall was located in one of the crowded student district in Seoul, Hongdae. It looked humble from the outside, just like an ordinary two stories game centre with lots of online game posters pasted on the wall. There were also places to played billiard and bowling too.

Baekhyun went straight up to the second floor because Mint said that's where he could find Chanyeol playing billiard with his friends. The sound of the balls hittting another balls was heard over all the chatters and the soft background music of some indie band. The billiard room was actually huge with white walls and green pool tables lining up to the back. Baekhyun didn't stop by the door because it would make him looked awkward and out of place, instead he walked ahead through throngs of people while searching for the familiar brown and fluffy head.

It wasn't difficult to find Chanyeol actually, Bae