Two | Hidden in Heaven

 

Pastel Heart: The Second Chapter

 

 

 

There were a few reasons why Jongdae felt suffocated under the care of the hospital and his beloved Manager Do. One of the reasons would be because he missed his home too much that he felt like the whole hospital room was a hell in the heaven disguise. Jongdae couldn’t play with his laptop because Kyungsoo insisted that he wanted Jongdae to relax and take a chill pill.

 

“Relax my ,” Jongdae said to himself before he threw his blanket away from his body; it was making him more suffocated. “I need something,” his eyes lingered around the room, “anything.” His eyes landed on a pile of magazines and he was hesitating at first before he got up from his bed to grab one.

 

The magazine had a really shiny cover- just like any other magazines out there, but what caught Jongdae’s attention the most was the cover girl. The girl had a short black hair, which was very shiny and silky judging from the photo. But of course, having experiences with photo-shoots himself, Jongdae acknowledged the magic of photo editing programs.

 

The cover girl’s eyes were very catlike, and they were staring soullessly into Jongdae’s eyes. Jongdae used his fingers to trace the magazine cover, feeling how his fingers were rubbing against it. He smiled, feeling like he had cracked the code. He should’ve known why the cover girl looked quite familiar.

 

The door suddenly cracked open and Kyungsoo’s figure appeared. “Hey Jongdae, I brought- what the hell, put that down,” Kyungsoo said abruptly when he saw the magazine Jongdae’s holding. The porridge in his hands was quickly being put aside before he headed towards Jongdae, snatching the magazine away. “I told you to relax.”

 

“I was relaxing before you stormed inside and scolded me,” Jongdae folded his arms in a childish manner before he snatched the magazine back from Kyungsoo. “I wanna read this.”

 

Kyungsoo looked really bothered as he kept glancing at the magazine in Jongdae’s hand. He reluctantly spoke, “What’s the magazine about? ?”

 

“The hospital won’t supply magazines for god’s sake.”

 

“Then what is it about?”

 

Jongdae threw his pillow at Kyungsoo, “How am I supposed to know? I haven’t even flipped to the first page,” Jongdae said, while laughing mentally at how troublesome Kyungsoo looked when he was trying to get rid of the pillow, yet it still hit him. “Now Manager Do, aren’t you supposed to take care of me?”

 

Kyungsoo’s eyes were still on the magazine in Jongdae’s hand, but he proceeded to take the porridge he had left somewhere-“Damn it, I dropped it on the floor!” 

 

Jongdae lifted an eyebrow, “Did it burst?”

 

Kyungsoo bit his lips while bending his knees to look at the porridge, “Yeah, it’s spilled.” He turned his body to face Jongdae, “Sorry.”

 

Jongdae shrugged before he put the magazine in front of him, flipping to read the contents, “Guess you need to buy it for me again,” he said nonchalantly, and he tried to hide the smile from Kyungsoo’s view when he heard the latter sighed.

 

“Fine,” Kyungsoo said spitefully, “just because you’re a very hard celebrity to be taken care of.”

 

“Whatever. Admit it Kyungsoo, you would do that even without me demanding you.”

 

Kyungsoo cringed, “Take that back,” he said. “Your conversational skill is getting really rusty. I wonder what the public relation team is gonna think of you.” 

 

“I don’t really need any public relation knowledge,” Jongdae replied, “and you know that too.”

 

Kyungsoo fell into silent and he chose to change the topic, because he didn’t want to have another of this kind of conversation with Jongdae. “When did that magazine get published?”

 

Jongdae seemed to not noticing Kyungsoo’s smooth transition, and he pointed his index finger at the magazine in his hand, “This?” he asked, and Kyungsoo nodded. “Let me see,” Jongdae muttered while searching for the published date. “It’s published during December last year,” Jongdae finally answered to Kyungsoo’s original question, “and why are you interested on that?”

 

Kyungsoo felt like a slight burden was lifted from his shoulders, “Nothing,” he said while hunching his shoulders. “I’m taking my leave for a while, and please- just please, don’t cause any trouble. We wouldn’t want you to be caught in a nasty scandal.”

 

“Yeah, Manager Do.”

 

“I told you to stop the Manager Do thing.”

 

“Can’t help it,” Jongdae smiled, “it reminded me of our first meeting.”

 

Kyungsoo’s expression remained expressionless before he smiled and answered, “Cheesy singer like you makes me happy.” After he said those words, he disappeared from Jongdae’s sight.

 

It was then when a realization hit Jongdae, “I forgot to request for Kyungsoo to put the television back in this room,” he groaned.

 

A missing television? Of course it was Kyungsoo’s doing. Who would be insane and intense enough to ask the hospital staffs to remove the television from his room? It was Jongdae’s beloved Manager Do.  

 

He really appreciated all the cares and affections Kyungsoo had given him, but there were really things that were deemed as unnecessary and inappropriate by Jongdae. There were times when Kyungsoo- foolishly- kept Jongdae in his own home, because Kyungsoo claimed that ‘You’re not going to relax in your own home’. It was rather ridiculous, but he obeyed because although Kyungsoo’s sometimes being absurd, his Manager Do was the only person who was still by his side.   

 

Jongdae won’t be able to forget the heated argument he had had with Kyungsoo when Kyungsoo decided to sell Jongdae’s precious television and laptop with the excuse of ‘We can celebrate your comeback with this money’. Jongdae ended up being gloomy during his whole promotion because he wasn’t able to feel like he’s a real celebrity with his face on the television and internet.

 

Kyungsoo was really impossible and unpredictable, but Jongdae accepted everything because in the end, he knew that Kyungsoo had a good intention. Although his ways were sometimes irritating, of course.

 

Jongdae sighed while shaking in his head, remembering how strange his manager was. His fingers flicked every page of the magazine, before he stopped on a certain page with the face of the cover girl printed on it. This time the girl still had the same hair style and same smoky eyes make-up, but it was no doubt that the girl was wearing a different outfit.

 

The previous outfit was an oversized black top, which fortunately happened to fit the girl’s model-like body perfectly. The current image in front of Jongdae’s eyes was however of the girl wearing an outfit which screamed ‘summer’ while her fingers were holding a brush gently. Jongdae flipped back to the magazine’s cover, and he snorted when he confirmed that the magazine was really published in December. It was amusing to think about some things that people did. 

 

“So she’s an artist,” Jongdae spoke to himself, his voice low and soft as he focused on the written article about the girl. It felt like years since the last time he had allowed himself to read written articles about thing, since– of course- Kyungsoo said that he needed to focus on doing promotions.

 

The article was about three pages long, and it was really lucky of Jongdae that he at least was still given the privilege to distract his eyes from the many alphabets by serving his eyes with the beautiful images accompanying the article. One of the captions of the images said ‘beauty’s not defined by how high things are placed, but how we genuinely appreciate them’. Jongdae giggled, “Well, with this kind of painting, everybody will call it a beauty.”

 

The images, which were actually pictures of the paintings made by the cover girl- Jongdae found out that her name was Park Suin-, were really beautiful. Jongdae understood why people seemed to look up at the girl, since it wasn’t only her talent that boosted her up; her achievements accompanied her reputation as well. Park Suin seemed to have all of the arts awards wrapped in her hands, and it was really understandable why people paid their attention on the scene which had happened yesterday. Jongdae must be the only one who was clueless about the girl, and he kind of blaming it on Kyungsoo.

 

But Jongdae couldn’t deny that he figured out why Kyungsoo was not fond of letting him reading him any article; Jongdae felt a bit down to see that his own talent was not acknowledged and appreciated. It hurt him to process the information about how certain people could make it, yet he was still stuck in the bottom, as if his feet were glued on the ground, preventing him from soaring high.

 

Jongdae dropped the magazine on his lap, before he collapsed his back against the wall, but it was not too long before he straightened his body back, “This is ridiculous,” he told himself. “I’m gonna inhale some fresh air,” he continued talking to himself, and before he knew it, he was already walking out from the room through the door. He glanced back into his room to spot the remaining of the porridge on the floor, and he suddenly remembered about Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo told him to stay out of troubles, and Jongdae didn’t think that walking around the hospital could do any damage. Furthermore, it seemed like Kyungsoo wouldn’t be back so soon; the guy seemed to have gotten himself into a trouble, ironically.

 

Jongdae’s feet brought him to the elevator, and he was actually relieved to find that he was alone in the elevator. He pressed the button to go to the ground floor, but he was suddenly startled by a booming male voice.

 

“Wait!” the male exclaimed, and it was only lucky for Jongdae- and unlucky for the male that the elevator’s door was already sealed tightly.

 

“Better luck next time,” Jongdae said, but he couldn’t contain the smile from curving on his lips. He stood still, and he stopped at several floors with the expectance of having a few people joining him in the elevator, but for a strange reason, there wasn’t anyone. Jongdae didn’t really think much of that, though, since he always did that kind of prank when he was a kid. When he was younger, he always did that to annoy the people who were in the elevator, but he never thought of the people who were actually expecting a person to accompany them. Jongdae ducked his head, silently thinking about several things before he was shocked by the sound of the elevator door opening. Jongdae raised his head to look at the floor’s stage, and he was shocked to see that he was already at the ground floor.

 

He quickly made his way out right before the elevator door was closed, and he automatically headed towards the vending machine. He stopped half-way when he saw a figure of a girl- Park Suin, to be exact- leaning against a wall while drinking something which seemed to be coffee. Her hair was still short, but it was now curled, and she was wearing no other but a patient robe. It came to Jongdae’s curiosity as to why no one was asking for the girl for any autograph. Was it possible that Park Suin was a big-headed woman? That thought actually made Jongdae hesitated from approaching the vending machine, but he proceeded on walking anyway because he was desperate to have the taste of coffee.

 

“That coffee doesn’t taste good,” Suin suddenly said when Jongdae was about to pick a coffee for himself. Suin wasn’t even looking at Jongdae as she raised her coffee can a bit higher, “This one, on the other hand, is marvellous.”

 

Jongdae gulped, not knowing whether it was a wise movement to give his part of the conversation, “Oh, really?” it came out sounding like a mockery to Jongdae’s ears, but he hoped that he didn’t offend the Park Suin. Kyungsoo would strangle him if he got himself in an argument with a superior public figure.  

 

Park Suin finally faced Jongdae while furrowing her eyebrows, “Is your tongue working properly?” she asked. “Because this one,” she raised her coffee can again, “and that one” she referred to the coffee brand Jongdae was about to choose, “definitely have distinct tastes.”  

 

Jongdae was actually feeling lost, and this time, he knew that the blame was on him for not taking his public relation lesson seriously. Everybody knew that dealing with a superior public figure was a huge deal, and offending them was not supposed to happen, especially for an undiscovered singer like him.

 

“Don’t worry, though,” Suin said, “everybody has different preferences. While I, standing here, prefer a bitter coffee, you are probably fond of a sweeter sugary one.” She shook her empty coffee can, “Just like this empty can, it will turn pretty once the image of it got manipulated in others’ minds.” She smiled at Jongdae, but the smile didn’t seem genuine at all, “In the end, it’s all about the image in one’s mind.”

 

 

 

Author’s Note

 

Hello there, lovelies! So this is the second chapter of Pastel Heart! I used to be really passionate on writing this story, but now I feel like I couldn’t enjoy writing it anymore otl. I don’t know why, though. As you can see, chensoo has a very close relationship. I hope that everything is crystal clear in this chapter, such as chensoo’s relationship, Chen’s life, and Suin’s character. I would like to read your comments to motivate me (: Feel free to ask me if you spot a plot hole or feel like some things are very confusing.

 

Subscribe to me if you wanna read more exomember-centric stories!

 

Go to my ask.fm to talk to me C:

 

Words count: 2.168 K

 

Written on 05^th November 2014