CHAPTER 42

[Sol Han Na’s POV]

One week later.

“It’s coming! It’s coming!” Sehun yelled, standing up from his seat.

“One minute!” Tao chimed in, clapping his hands in excitement.

Chanyeol, who is sitting on the floor operating the laptop on the living room mini table, began hitting the refresh button over and over at an extreme speed.

“Ya! Ya! You’re going to destroy my laptop!” Suho demanded from his seat.

Chanyeol heard him clearly but didn’t stop with what he’s doing.

Xiumin spoke beside me, “Last 30 seconds!”

My heart made a huge leap.

In about half a minute, my music video’s going to come out.

In about half a minute citizens of South Korea and probably the whole world will know about me.

My hands began to shake just as beads of sweat started forming on my forehead.

I have never been this much nervous in my whole life.

 I felt a hand touch mine.

I turned to my side and saw Baekhyun smiling comfortingly at me.

He gave my hands a gentle squeeze just as his other hand went up to my face. He wiped my sweat off using his bare hand, making my heart lurch even more.

“Calm down,” he whispered in my ear before moving his hands away to avoid the boys from noticing.

Kai suddenly began counting down in a loud voice.

“5! 4! 3! 2! 1!”

Chanyeol hit the refresh button once again and a new video appeared on SM Entertainment’s Youtube Channel.

It has my name on it.

I froze and everything around me became muted.

The only thing I can process is that Chanyeol clicked the video to open it and the views went up from 0 to 301+ - the cheering and yelling from the members around me momentarily disregarded.

The video began playing and I saw myself on the laptop screen.

I was wearing the exact same clothes I remembered wearing during the video filming but my face looked different.

I never saw myself as pretty – only normal and fair-looking. But for the first time in forever, as I watched the music video, I found myself to pass the level of beauty. Make-up really did make a big difference.

The scene shifted into the ones I filmed together with Taeyong. I felt Baekhyun tense beside me. It’s the first time he’ll be seeing what Taeyong and I actually did behind the camera, I almost forgot about it.

I took a peek at him and his eyes are focused on the screen, absorbing everything.

He looked calm enough to me and so I returned my gaze at the video.

It was really more than what I had expected.

The directors, the filming and the editing team really outdid themselves with this one.

It was perfect.

The scene where Luhan appeared came and he hooted while the other boys made a ‘booing’ sound.

In just a matter of five minutes, the music video ended.

I let go of the breath I was holding and felt myself calm down.

It was like a huge load has suddenly been lifted off of me.

My phone rang and I fished it from my sweater’s pocket.

It was Mom.

I stood up to find some quiet place. I saw Baekhyun following me with his gaze and I sneaked a chance to mouth a ‘mom’ towards him to avoid any misunderstanding.

In the end, I settled at the kitchen.

“Mom?” I spoke as I poured myself a glass of water. The whole waiting-for-the-music-video session had me drained out that I hadn’t even noticed my throat aching due to dryness. I took a gulp as I waited for Mom to answer.

“HANNA!” a booming voice sounded on the speaker. I took the phone away from my ears, getting a bit irritated.

“Ya! Ryu Jin! I was only gone for a month and you already forgotten about proper honorifics?!” I shouted back. I can almost hear Mom and Dad laughing from the background.

“Noona!” Ryu Jin corrected. “We’ve already watched the video. Oh. My. God. You look amazing! The music video was amazing! Everything’s amazing! I really can’t wait to tell my friends about this. They’ll be jealous!” he continued.

A smile spread across my face.

Nothing feels better than getting your family proud of you.

“Eww, Ryu Jin. You sounded so gay,” I teased but I was definitely smiling. I can almost imagine him rolling his eyes at me back in the house.

He answered, “Whatever. I’m going to give the phone to Mom and Dad.”

I heard a slight shuffling on the background and soon Mom’s voice echoed on the speaker.

“Hanna!” she said, her voice bright. “We saw your video, darling. We’re so proud of you!”

My smile widened but tears suddenly threatened to come out.

“Thanks, Mom. I’m so glad you liked it,” I replied shortly, not trusting myself to hold back the tears any further.

“We don’t like it, sweetie, we LOVE it,” Dad spoke on the other line. My mood immediately lightens up the moment I heard him. God, I miss Dad so much. I have been a father’s girl ever since birth and I own it.

“Thanks, Dad! God, I miss you all so much,” I spoke, my voice becoming a bit unstable. “I really wish I could go home and see all of you. How have you been so far?”

Dad chuckled. “We’re fine, darling. I am fine. Your old man’s about to get his surgery next week but you don’t have to worry. We got everything under control here.”

I bit my lip as the tears began to fall. Dad’s going to have his surgery next week and I’m not even going to be there to watch out for him and support him.

Dad seem to sense my silence and spoke, “You okay, sweetie?”

I cleared my throat and answered, “Y-Yes, Dad.”

My voice broke and I knew Dad already caught up to it. That’s how much he knows me.

He sighed. “You’re feeling bad about not being able to be here during my surgery, are you?” he asked and continued without hearing my answer, “You don’t have to be, Hanna. I’ll be okay. The doctors already assured me of a great chance in succeeding. There’s no reason for you to worry. Just stay there and continue doing what you do. We’ll see each other soon.”

A sob broke through me.

I held the phone further away to avoid Mom and Dad from hearing.

I don’t like them to know how much I miss them, how much am I aching to see them. I don’t want to burden them any longer and I know that letting them know how I am feeling would only make them as lonely as I am right now.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself before talking again.

“Just make sure to take care of yourselves, okay? Just text or call me if ever you needed anything. You’re not short of money right there, right?” I asked. Manager Song had been constantly sending them portions of my salary and I know that’d be enough for the three of them. But who knows if something came up. I don’t want them to be limiting themselves from anything especially now that I can freely provide for them.

“We’re not, dear. Don’t worry,” Mom replied in her affectionate voice. “Everything you’re sending us is definitely enough. Don’t be too hard on yourself and always find time to rest, you understand?”

“Yes, Mom,” I answered obediently.

The three of us spoke to one another for another few moments before I finally returned to the living room, the boys still crowded around the laptop.

“We’re currently checking on the comments, Hanna,” Luhan informed as I entered and sat between him and Baekhyun.

Baekhyun gave me another squeeze on the hand.

I looked at him and smiled brightly before responding to Luhan.

“How are the people reacting, oppa? Did they like it?”

He turned to me with eyes wide and bright with excitement. “They love it