Chapter eight.
authors note: its long weekend for us! so im going to bless you guys with another chapter! pretty quick of me right? lol anyways i think you guys should hold tight for the next chapter. some things you have been waiting for will happen!
“Good Concert tonight girls! Sandra, thankgod you remembered the turn at the end. I totally forgot to remind you before we started” says Chloe. Their final Concert in Singapore had just concluded to a grand applause and Jupiter were in their dressing room getting changed.
“That’s why im always the one who wants to practice these things” smiles Sandra.
“Shin Hye-ssi you have someone waiting for you outside the back door” a backstage staff mentions as she walks into their dressing room.
“Sorry no personal fan meetings. Tell them to go to the foyer, the girls will make a brief appearance” says Manager Song without looking up from their schedule.
“They said they didn’t finish their conversation with you at 711” the backstage staff looks confused at the message she is relaying..
Shin Hye stares at them and quickly puts a hoodie on and hurriedly covers her face with a cap.
“711? Whats going on Shin Hye?” asks Manager Song
“Nothing. I’ll deal with it, where did you say they were again?” Shin Hye runs towards the back doors. As she opens the door she sees a figure standing under a street pole and almost instantly her past comes flooding back to her in the wind.
-
“Does anyone know whats going on?” asks Chloe as she fixes her eye makeup. “Jessica?”
“No, she never mentioned anything. What about you Unni?” Jessica looks at Sandra.
“I’ll be right back” says Sandra. She rushes out of the change room towards the back door. Unsure of where to look, she quietly opens the door and immediately finds Shin Hye talking to a dark figure.
“Sang Woo-ssi, what are you doing here? Why did you come to Singapore? Please just leave me alone. That’s all I came out here to say.” she hears Shin Hye say as she tries to turn around.
“Shin Hye-ah, I’m cut that you don’t even acknowledge me as Oppa anymore” the dark figure states with a smirk.
“You stopped being my Oppa 4 years ago. People generally can trust their Oppa’s. Please leave.” Shin Hye sounded really angry.
“Shin Hye, don’t make this hard on me. I came back to apologise to you. Cant you see im being sincere?” as he takes a step towards Shin Hye who instinctly takes a step backwards.
“I’m trying to make amends to everyone I hurt back then.”
“Why do you keep mentioning that as if I should know these people you are referring to!”
“Shin Hye, you’re just as innocent as the first time I met you.”
“I don’t know who you are talking about nor do I want to get involved in your life again!”
“Look at me, don’t I resemble someone you know?” as he smiles a sly smile.
“I don’t know you nor do I want to know anyone related to you”.
-
“Manager Ma wants me to pass on this message to you guys. J&J are currently being under a lot of pressure from LEX’s Scandal as you can tell. So two things, stay out of potential gossip magazines and two, don’t make any close relations with female people at the moment. Even as friends.” Geun Suk was staring at Hong Ki who was blatantly not listening.
“I’m not saying this is forever but until the scandal cools down abit. Arasso?” Geun Suk yawns while all the others mumble in agreement. He notices that Nic has a sour look on his face and realises that he too was friends with Joo Yung during his trainee days too.
“Nic, Joo Yung is going to be ok. Lex will survive. They are successful in their own right. J&J wont dump them – their fanbase will rebel.” Comforts Geun Suk
“Thanks Hyung” Nic walks away
“I don’t think that’s what bothering Hyung” says Changsu as stands next to Geun Suk watching Nic.
-
Jupiter had a free day to sightsee around Singapore before heading off to Malaysia the next day. Manager Song had arranged for them to be transported to one of the major tourist spots for a day of sun, beach and fun – Sentosa Island.
They had fun riding the free train transport around the island and took pictures with the stone figure spelling out Sentosa while playing around in the water. Trying to avoid the crowd of fans following them, Shin Hye wanted to try the fish therapy treatment.
“Unni do you want to try fish therapy?” Shin Hye notices a sign.
“What is fish therapy?”
“You put your feet into a pool of water and the fishes eat at your dead skin. Its meant to make your feet really smooth!”
“As long as its inside, its really hot our here” Chloe starts walking into the fish therapy centre.
The girls were welcomed and told to wash their feet in a separate stone basin before shown slippers to wear. They were instructed after they washed their feet to place them into a see-through tank and enjoy the experience.
Shin Hye took the seat furthest away from the window and in the deepest end. Sandra sat next to her while Chloe and Jessica sat a few seats away giggling at the tickling sensation.
“Ahh this is nice isn’t it Shin Hye? We haven’t had a holiday since we started being trainees”
“That’s true Unni. This is one of the best days ive had in a long time” Shin Hye closes her eyes.
“Shin Hye?” Sandra looks at Shin Hye with uncertain but warm eyes.
“Yes?”
“If you ever need to talk to someone or… if something happens and you don’t know who turn to. You can always come to me. You know that right? I wont tell anyone”
“Kamsamnida Unni” Shin Hye looks at her Unni. She is unsure specifically what she is talking about but deep inside she could feel the knot that she has been trying to forget, once again tighten.
“30 minutes is over. Thankyou for enjoying our fish therapy. We hope to see you again”
Jupiter said their thanks and headed over to the pristine beach to soak up some rays before the sunset. Shin Hye remembered her promise to Hong Ki and ran over to their bags to get her mobile.
“Jessica Unni – give me a smile!” Jessica in her typical show girl manner jokingly struck a sexy pose which made a lot of fans in the distance cheer.
“What are you doing Shin Hye? Come in the water, we want to play Marco Polo!” yells Sandra from the water.
“Coming Unni!” Shin Hye quickly types a message and hits send before running into the water to join her members.
-
It was just after 11pm when R20 got back to their dorm. Exhausted they all heaved themselves to the couch and sat down.
“If I dance anymore I think my legs are going to cramp” complains Hong Ki
“They really kicked up the choreography level this time round” Changsu places his feet on the coffee table.
Geun Suk is so tired but realises they cant all just fall asleep on the couch.
“Ya – go and shower then sleep. We have to get up at 5am tomorrow. We have a style appointment” Geun Suk started walking towards the stairs when he hears Hong Ki heavily choking on his water.
“Hong Ki-ah show your Hyung” says Nic as he takes the phone from Hong Ki’s frozen hand.
“ * Picture Of Jessica Unni in a bathing suit with sexy pose *
As promised Oppa kekekeke~.
This is us holiday on Sentosa Island – Singapore.
Concerts have been tiring but enjoying it so far! We’ll be back in about a week!~~
Shin Hye.”
Changsu, Nic and Hong Ki were gathered around examining the photo.
“Wow the erm… beach.. it really looks really… umm… beautiful” says Changsu
“Yea… the sand looks really…… pale. I want to go to Thailand too.. ” utters Hong Ki
“Singapore Hong ki, not Thailand” Nic laughs at his naive dongseang.
“You know where the tissues are if you need them.” Smirks Changsu. “By the way Jessica Nuna is hot!” Changsu laughs as he starts walking up the stairs
“YAH! She’s my girlfriend – don’t talk about her like that!” Hong Ki yells offended.
“If she doesn’t have a ring on her, she’s fair game Hong Ki” says Nic as he ruffles Hong Ki’s hair as he gets up from the couch.
“HYUNG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” cries Hong Ki as he chases him into their room.
“YA- doesn’t anyone remember what I said earlier today about these type of relationships??!” however Geun Suk was left standing by himself in the living room.
“Hyung, its all just abit of fun. We wont fall for the Jupiter Nunas.” Changsu winks at Geun Suk over the 2nd floor hand rail. “But then again, I cant speak for you”
“Ya – you little –“ Geun Suk was about to reprimand Changsu but he had already closed the bathroom door. “Sandra really has changed Changsu.” Geun Suk thinks to himself.
-
“Arasso Hong Ki-ah Mianhe. Happy now?” says Nic who has been tickled by Hong Ki for saying inappropriate things about Jessica.
“Yes. But watch what you say Hyung. If she hears you’re interested she might actually start to like you. Remember what Geun Suk Hyung said to us earlier today?? I don’t want to end up like LEX- I trained too long and hard to be where we are now.”
“oh so you were listening then.” Nic lies down on his bed and starts to play with his IPOD
“Hyung…..” Hong Ki joins Nic on his bed.
“hmmm?” he answers without looking up.
“tell me about Geun Suk Hyung and his ring” Nic looks at Hong Ki and realises there is no escaping this time round.
“Ok but you need to promise me not to tell Hyung that you know or tell anyone else including Jessica or Changsu. Arasso?” Nic says quietly. Hong Ki nods his head in agreement.
“As you know in our trainee days J&J decided to split our classes up based on our age group. Remember that’s how I got really close to your brother?”
“Dei – that’s how I first met you Hyung. I remember thinking you were so cool” grinned Hong Ki
“haha well, your brother and I were really close – we had all our classes together and in our 3rd year we met another guy who joined as a J&J trainee but only in our rap classes. He did his usual schooling in the local school during the day and joined our class in the afternoon. We became really good friends with this guy as we became really impressed by his talent. We named him Beatbox.”
“Why does that sound familiar” Hong Ki ponders.
“We became really good friends but he didn’t stay as a trainee for long. We had class together for 1 year before he started to tell us about this girl he met and wanted to marry. He started talking about getting a real job so they could run away together as certain circumstances here prohibited their relationship.”
“Your brother and I were really happy for him but never asked too many questions. We encouraged him when he asked for support and we continued our lessons together. One day however he just stopped turning up for class. We called his mobile but it was always turned off so we assumed he didn’t want to be a trainee anymore which was sad because he had more potential than anyone in the class.”
“That’s interesting and all Hyung but how does this relate at all?”
“Listen Hong Ki, im not finished. So a few weeks passed and rumours started to circulate J&J classes. Do you remember hearing any of them?”
“Yes but it didn’t make any sense to me. Something about some family feud occurred and a trainee dropped out. A lot of the teachers were sad to see him leave.” recollected Hong Ki with creased eyebrows.
“That’s correct. A family fued did occur. It turned out the circumstances which prohibited Beatbox’s relationship with this girl was because she was already someone elses. They were seeing each other in secret when they decided to run away together. Beatbox forgot his dream about being a singer for this girl”
“really? Wow. So who was the person the girl was originally seeing?”
“If I tell you that Beatbox’s real name was Jang Sang Woo does that ring a bell?”
Hong Ki paused for a long time.
“Sang woo…. His brother was………
Geun Suk Hyung!?”
“Yes. Jay Hee was Geun Suk’s first love. They dated for a long period. However at this time, selections were being made by J&J for which new bands were to be formed and who would be the members. Geun Suk was selected as the first member of R20 and subsequently our leader. Hyung was about to give her a promise ring to signify to her that he wouldn’t forget about her- especially since tough training started for R20 debut. However the night he was to give it to her, Geun Suk Hyung found out that Jay Hee had ran away with none other than his own brother. Till this day I think he hasn’t spoken to Sang Woo.”
“So that’s the ring he wears now? Why does he still wear it, doesn’t it just bring back bad memories?” asked Hong Ki quietly.
“Yes that’s the same ring. Im not too sure why he doesn’t ever take it off though - That you will have to ask Hyung yourself.”
“I never imagined Hyung to have been through such tough past” mumbled Hong Ki as he lies down on Nics bed.
“Probably explains why his behaviour is so strange around Shin Hye- he tries to act professional but he slips sometimes and thus punishes himself. If he’s not careful she will think he is bipolar or something.”
“Really? You think Hyung likes Shin Hye?”
“I not too sure yet but I definitely think this is not a good time for such ideas to be popping up” Nic refers to the LEX scandal. “Speaking of which be careful with Jessica”
“More like you and Chloe!”
Nic covers his face with the blanket and mutters from underneath “Go to sleep Hong Ki, its late and don’t forget to turn off the light!”
“I cant promise you anything.” says Shin Hye suddenly. Geun Suk freezes and turns around.
“Im not asking for much. Just look only at me, tell me what your thinking and try to open your heart....”