November 25 2010

 

“Kim Jaejoong, Kim Junsu and Park Yoochun will no longer be promoting as part of DBSK, remaining members Jung Yunho and Shim Changmin to be returning as a duo.”

 

“Breaking news: Asia’s most successful act, DBSK, to split.”

 

“DBSK is no longer five!”

 

In this dimly lit, cluttered and claustrophobic place, a lone man sits at the counter of the bar, head against his fist and hand around his twelfth shot of the strongest soju available. A television blares - too loud and too overwhelming in the vast silence of the empty club, that it takes every ounce of Jung Yunho’s self-control not to break down into pieces. Every channel he changes to is running the same dreaded headline, the only one that has this man on his knees, ready to drown himself in all of the world’s chaos. 

 

Yunho’s phone is on the table, screen blinding in the darkness and bleeping every second with the arrival of a new article. He sits staring blankly at the search page he is on, the results of ‘DBSK’s breakup’ multiplying minute after agonizing minute. 

 

5:37 am, 234 articles found

 

5:40 am, 456 articles found

 

5:47 am, 879 articles found

 

6:00 am, 1583 articles found

 

Yunho watches as hundreds more pop up one after the other, each and every single one striking at the core of his heart until he finds it hard to breathe. He doesn’t realize that he is crying until his screen is covered with his tears, blurring out the words so that Yunho can no longer monitor how many millions of people are blogging about the recent devastating breakup of one of the best boybands in Asia.

 

His band.