Chapter nine
authors note: not sure i can update next week for one reason or another so i thought id upload this chapter since it doesnt leave much of a cliff hanger... hopefully. anyways please enjoy and please anticipate my future chapters, there will be much more instore! =) p.s sorry for the long chapter!
Jupiter’s tour was coming to an end after 3 weeks and Shin Hye was watching her Unnis as they all sat around a table at dinner.
“It’s been a good 3 weeks. I’m so thankful for our fans support and very proud of all your efforts” smiles Chloe as she looks at her members. “So lets toast to hoping our next album will be as well received” They all clink their glasses in agreement.
Shin Hye thinks back to their time spent in Japan, Singapore and their recent adventures in Malaysia and even though it been a lot of work, its been good to get away from Seoul and ultimately even though she didn’t want to admit it – having to face Geun Suk.
Being on tour has allowed her to not dwell on certain issues and run away from her problems however being the last night, it was time to face reality.
“Girls we have some time after dinner, so if you need to do some last minute shopping for your family then you can do so. Remember your flights back to Seoul is at 3pm so we have to be leave for the airport at 12pm tomorrow.” Read Manager Song from the schedule sheet.
“Fantastic I want to go back to the store we went past this morning!” says Jessica Unni
-
Dinner ended and the members split up into two groups – Sandra and Chloe went off to spa treatment at the hotel while Jessica and Shin Hye decided to go shopping.
“Is there anything you want to buy?” says Jessica as she takes a basket and instantly starts filling it with gifts.
“hmmm ill see” says Shin Hye as she thinks about what to buy for Hong Ki. She walks past a set of neck massagers that vibrate when your clamp them. They came in a set of 3 different colours and instantly thought how useful this would be for Hong Ki, Changsu and Nic. However if she bought something for them, she would definitely have to buy something for Geun Suk-ssi. Picking up the set of neck massagers Shin Hye pays at the counter.
“Unni – im going to walk to the store next door. Call me when your done”
“Arraso Shin Hye.” Jessica absentmindedly says while browsing.
Shin Hye walks past the a few stores when she stops and sees a black metal buckle braclet and immediately reminds her of Geun Suk.
“Can you show me that bracelet”
“This is a men’s bracelet however it comes as a set. Are you buying this for someone special?”
“ah… what does it say underneath?”
“It a chinese character. Basically it symbolises the giver wishing the giftee fortune&luck"
“Please wrap one of them for me. But ill take the other one separately” Shin Hye thinks that Geun Suk doesn’t need to know its part of a set.
-
“Jessica Nuna! Are you all back already?!” Hong Ki is yelling in surprise so loudly that everyone can hear their phone conversation.
“Nei- we got in about 2 hours ago. Did you miss us?” teases Jessica.
“Nuna~~~ Girls should be more subtle!” retorts Hong Ki
“haha Hong Ki-ah say hi to all the other members for us. We’ll be seeing each other soon I assume” and with that Hong Ki closes his mobile.
“Jupiter just landed in Seoul and Jessica Nuna says hi to you all” recites Hong Ki
“We already know Hong Ki” Changsu and Nic are engrossed by playing their computer game. Changsu answers Hong Ki without looking up at him and merely holds up his mobile indicating they both received a text message.
“Breaks over. Lets start our routine from the top. Turn off your phones.” Geun Suk is gathering his thoughts after hearing Hong Ki’s news. His thoughts are drawn back to that night at Place where the argued and he drove her home. He has not been able to forget that look odd in her eyes as she walked into her dorm. He hates having to find out everything about Shin Hye from Hong Ki.
“Geun Suk is right. You boys should practice more since your Sky Mobile activities are starting again tomorrow. But please remember to stay low key with the Jupiter off screen… don’t forget about the whole LEX scandal.” Says Manager Ma as he answers his phone.
-
“Im sorry you girls didn’t have more time to recover after your very successful tour but the life of a rising idol group is never easy. Today you will be re-commencing your Sky Mobile activities with R20. All couples will be on show at Lotte Shopping Complex where you will do a fan signing and promoting your concepts. Media will be present and may ask you few questions about the Couple Phone concept. Ok be ready in 10 minutes.”
Shin Hye runs back to her room to find her sunglasses and stumbles across her unpacked suitcase lying on the floor open with R20s present sprawled on the floor.
“Should I give it to them today?” she thinks to herself. Shin Hye decides to bring the presents along and tucks Geun Suk’s present separately in her bag.
-
“Do you all like the new mobile? Which couple do you think looks the best?” Geun Suk is interacting with the crowd and the fangirls are going crazy at his smile and his soft laughter.
Shin Hye isn’t sure whether the fans are here for R20 or for Jupiter but is starting to realise fangirls are definitely here for R20.
“Promise us to look around and sample the new Sky Mobile. We’ll be back to quiz you all about the new phone and whichever fan answers the most questions correctly will win a signed photograph and presents from us!” finishes Chloe with her warm smile which cues them all for a break.
They all return to their dressing room and are being prepped for what will happen after their break – each couple will have an interactive time with their fans in the order of Chloe&Nic, Changsu&Sandra, Jessica&Hong Ki and Geun Suk&Shin Hye,
As such, the first two couples were asked to go to wardrobe to get changed while Jessica&Hong Ki had to fix their makeup. This left Shin Hye alone in the room with Geun Suk.
Shin Hye sat down on the couch furthest away from Geun Suk and realised that she should probably say something. Ever since they met each other this morning, Shin Hye has been really anxious about giving Geun Suk his present. She was so nervous even her Unnis thought she was sick. However she knew this would be the only time she could do it, so she swallowed her pride.
“Geun Suk-ssi, one moment please” says Shin Hye as she walks towards her bag and brings something out of her bag and walks back towards Geun Suk.
“As you know we have been on tour for the past month. I hope you have been well. I bought a little present for you….” Shin Hye drifts off and holds out a black box.
“I understand if you don’t like it, but its meant to symbolise –“ she continued.
“Shin Hye-ssi. I’m sorry. I cant accept this.” Geun Suk cuts Shin Hye off, closes the box and hands it back to her.
“Do you not like it?” Shin Hye cant help but feel the sting and her eyes start to shine from tears.
“It’s not that. I just don’t believe its appropriate for you to give me gifts. I don’t want you to misinterpret our relationship.” Geun Suk’s face is emotionless .
-
[Geun Suk’s point of view]
“Geun Suk-ssi, one moment please” Geun Suk is surprised by Shin Hye’s sudden voice. She walks towards her bag and he notes how pretty she looks today in her red dress. He also notices the dark circles under her eyes and worries that she isn’t getting enough rest – obviously the tour wasn’t a holiday like Manager Ma lead on. He also realises how long he hasn’t seen her and in a way missed the way she always looks at him as if she is trying to figure him out.
“As you know we have been on tour for the past month. I hope you have been well. I bought a little present for you….” Geun Suk is shocked by her present and wonders what it means. Slowly he takes the box from her out stretched hands and opens it slowly. He sees a familiar object. A black clamp bracelet which he too considered purchasing last year on tour till the shop keeper said it was a couple set and immediately Jay Hee’s memories slapped him.
“I understand if you don’t like it, but its meant to symbolise –“
“Shin Hye-ssi. I’m sorry. I cant accept this.” He knows it sounds cold as he closes the box.
“Do you not like it?” Geun Suk sees her face fall ever so slightly and her eyes start to glisten. Is she crying? Geun Suk wanted to reach out to her but knew it was inappropriate. He wanted to explain but restrained himself. Making a girl cry, can he get any lower? He cannot afford to be close to her at this event, especially with the media here. He reminds himself that he is a leader first and a friend second,
but that’s if Shin Hye even considers him “a friend”.
“It’s not that. I just don’t believe its appropriate for you to give me gifts. I don’t want you to misinterpret our relationship.” Geun Suk can feel his referral to being professional is starting to sound like a broken record to Shin Hye’s ears.
“That’s ok. I know someone else who would like this too.” Without looking him in the eyes, Shin Hye excuse herself to retouch her makeup.
-
Shin Hye walks out of the dressing room, turns a few corners and heads down towards a quiet corridor. She starts to breathe deeply in an attempt to stop the tears from flowing out and ruining her eye makeup.
“I was so stupid. As if he would accept a gift from me.
I don’t even think we’re friends! Yes, I shouldn’t misinterpret our relationship – pft what relationship?! Why am I even reacting like this? Why do I feel like I want to cry?
Why does it hurt?!”
Shin Hye is pacing back and forth while holding his present. She sits down with her head on her hands and thinks logically.
“I’m reacting like this because it took a lot of courage to face him again. I’m reacting like this because I feel like he didn’t even consider how hard it was for me to give him this. I’m reacting like this because….. because…
he rejected me?” Shin Hye was trying to understand why she felt rejected idea when out of nowhere Sandra sits next to her.
“Shin Hye-ah. Out with it, tell me who made you cry.” Sandra takes the box from Shin Hye’s hands.
In her state of mind, Shin Hye couldn’t keep it from her Unni so explained everything to her – what happened at filming, what happened at Place and their argument, how she didn’t understand why she felt sick afterwards, how she couldn’t bear to face him, how anxious she was to give him the present and his ultimate rejection of her present.
“Shin Hye, it sounds like you may have lost something along the way”
“What do you mean?” she asks with a pout. Shin Hye was not a fan of cryptic messages.
“I mean, I think you lost your heart. To Geun Suk-ssi” Sandra says softly as she pulls Shin Hye into a shoulder hug.
“That’s not possible. I would have known!”
“You think with your head and you feel with your heart. They are two different things. You can control what you think but you cannot control what you feel.” she laughs at Shin Hyes response as she remains silent while trying to process this information.
“So now that you know whats going on inside your heart, what are you going to do about it?” asks Sandra.
“Is there anything I can do? He out rightly rejected my present and told me not to misinterpret our relationship. Its pretty clear what he is trying to tell me. “
“Sometimes Men can be cryptic and on top of that he is R20’s leader. It must be hard for him.” Sandra tries to console the situation and can already tell there are deeper emotions involved between these two than meets the eye.
“Well I know for certain there is no way he likes me. I’ll have to reduce the amount of contact I have with him till I don’t like him anymore. Starting from right now.”
Shin Hye gets up from the ground and walks towards makeup. Along the way she drops his present into a rubbish bin
-
Geun Suk is still in the dressing room sitting in the same position since Shin Hye left for makeup.
“Maybe I was too harsh in the way I responded to her present. I should have explained myself. Bet she hates me even more now, if that’s even possible. ARGH – Geun Suk remember the situation LEX is in, you don’t want to pull this situation on Jupiter especially with their popularity right now.” Geun Suk is rubbing his forehead in annoyance. He gets up from the couch and walks towards the door in hope of explaining this to Shin Hye.
However as he exists the door he sees Shin Hye talking to Hong Ki.
“Oppa, I bought you a present! Actually it’s a set so you, Changsu and Nic can use them together!” He sees Shin Hye pass over 3 neck massagers to Hong Ki.
“You have to use the yellow one because I chose that one especially for you” smiles Shin Hye.
“Komweyo Shin Hye!!! I’ll make sure I use it between schedules!” replies Hong Ki
Like a shock, Geun Suk suddenly realises he definitely overly reacted to her present and that Shin Hye had actually bought presents for all of them.
“Pabo! Im so stupid. Although, why is my present is different from the rest?” Geun Suk is busy watching their conversation when the makeup artists summons him to get touch up.
Still engrossed with his own thoughts, he doesn’t realise the makeup artist had told him he could leave. He walks along the corridor with a heavy heart when he is interrupted by Sandra.
“Geun Suk-ssi, if I could have a moment of your time?”
“Ah dei – im actually on my way to Manager Ma if you want to accompany me”
“I know this isn’t any of my business but I want to talk to you about Shin Hye.”
“In what regards?” Geun Suk is already confused about why he feels the need to apologise to Shin Hye. His heart aches when Sandra mentions her name.
“I know everything. She told me about what happened at Place and what happened just then with the present.” He decides to remain professional.
“Sandra-ssi, you know what scandal our record label is currently facing correct? So you can understand why I have to be extra careful with whom I interact with.”
“Yes I heard about LEX. I understand your predicament as the leader of R20 however that shouldn’t be an excuse for your behaviour”
Geun Suk stopped walking. He was already trying to sort out his own behaviour and wasn’t in the mood to be lectured by Sandra.
“What are you trying to say?” he suddenly whispered in frustration..
“Do you realise how hard it was for her to face you again after that night at Place? Do you realise how much courage she had to build up to give you that present that you outrightedly rejected? Are you blind - I mean do you even know how she feels right now?!!” Sandra in frustration spilled out her anger. She was always protective over her members.
Geun Suk is glaring at her “Just tell me what you want from me!”
“I want you to figure out what you want. Not as the leader of R20 but as
the man Geun Suk! From what ive been hearing I believe that you have interest in Shin Hye but for some reason you haven’t figured it out yet. All I want to say is Shin Hye may potentially feel the same way. So get your act together if you don’t want to lose her because her feelings for you are going to end up in the same place where your rejected present lies.”
Geun Suk’s eyes open in shock. The overwhelming information and his realisation behind his emotions the past couple of weeks suddenly dawns on him. He likes her.
“What? What happened to the present?” Geun Suk creased his eyebrows in confusion.
“She threw it in the bin.”
-
Geun Suk ran through corridor after corridor looking for the bin that Sandra mentioned. All the people who walked past looked in disgust as he was going through the trash looking for a black box which he found in the 10th bin he looked through.
“Geun Suk-ssi what are you doing? We should be getting ready, our couple segment is in 15mintues” asked Shin Hye baffled to see Geun Suk arm deep in rubbish.
“Why did you throw this away??!” Shin Hye could hear he sounded really angry and inturn she suddenly felt frustrated. Why would he care?!
“Why cant i? I bought it. Its my right too. Why do you even care?!” she retorted. He isn’t making this easy for her to forget about her feelings.
“What do you mean its YOUR RIGHT? You gave it to me!”
“and you didn’t want it! What’s your problem anyways?! One moment you don’t want it and the next your angry that I threw it away! THAT’S RIGHT, I THREW IT AWAY SO WHAT? EVERYTHING ENDS UP AS RUBBISH ANYWAYS.” She grabs it back from Geun Suk’s hands.
“YA- SINCE WHEN DO YOU YELL AT PEOPLE OLDER THAN YOU?”
“Since they are hypocritical jerks who don’t make ANY sense! So LEAVE ME AND MY STUPID THOUGHTS ALONE!” Shin Hye turns to walk around in frustration but Geun Suk holds onto her arm not allowing her to walk further. She pauses without turning around.
“I don’t know why you have this effect on me. But everytime I talk to you I feel like I don’t know who I am and whatever I stand for goes out the window.”
“So you are saying you’re bipolar. Im sorry I aggravate the disease. Please let go”
“Please never tell me to do that. Shin Hye, I like you.”
“What?” she turns around slowly.
“I like you, and I hope you feel the same way too. Im not too sure where this will go but I know I want you to be part of my life from now on. Please say something.”
“Geun Suk-ssi and Shin Hye-ssi, your fans await” says the backstage staff interrupts their conversation.
-
Shin Hye doesn’t remember the whole fan meeting. All she recalls is Geun Suk doing a lot of the talking and him occasionally smiling while looking at her. Next thing she knows, she is being ushered to the backroom and her Manager is saying she did a great job.
“Alright well im going to go get changed.” He bows to shin hye as he walks away.
“I cant promise you anything.” says Shin Hye suddenly. Geun Suk freezes and turns around to walks back towards her.
“Im not asking for much. Just look only at me, tell me what your thinking and try to open your heart.”Geun Suk smiles as he takes Shin Hyes hands in his.
“I think ive already lost it though.” She mumbles.
“What?! To who? Is it HONG KI??” Geun Suk starts to ramble in jealousy.
“Ani- what I meant is I think I lost my heart to you a while back. But I just never knew it.” She blushes a deep shade of red.
“I’ll take care of it from now on. Nothing will ever hurt you again Shin Hye”
“Why does it sound familiar”
“Because that’s the first thing I ever promised you at the CF filming. But back then, I didn’t know what it meant to protect someone because I was too busy protecting myself. Anyways you should go and get changed, your Manager will be waiting” he says as he plants a kiss on her forehead and watches her turn to her dressing room.
“Geun Suk – dont you ever let Shin Hye cry.” he thinks to himself as he walks back to his own dressing room.
) 
but it did leave me hanging by a moment.
