Secrets of Attraction

Twelve: JOOHYUK

I'm stuck between coding a software or producing a song. . . you guys might be confused (cause I am too, I'm writing without a plot line in mind; just typing as I go).

✿ Secrets of Attraction ✿

"Joohyuk's not even a girl, and he gets to dye his hair, not fair."

The debate had been going on since I came home on Wednesday night from Suzy's. Josie pouted, looking from eomeoni to me. Tax season was never a time to negotiate with eomeoni, her last nerve always on the verge of being fried. I tried to communicate this with narrowed Cut the crap eyes to Josie, but she ignored me. Joon had finally gotten used to me new look, but still eyed me while nibbling on his pancake, as if he were waiting for something else to change. "Both boys and girls can dye their hair. If you want a streak, that's fine, but I'm done with this argument. You can't dye your hair pink like the girl on YouTube."

TKO, Eomeoni.

Josie grumbled. Abeoji changed the subject.

"You guys sounded pretty tight the other day. Are you ready for next week?"

Were we ready? We'd been practicing together six times a week, dividing our time between Lot 23 and the garage. We were sore, fingers bleeding, throats raspy, but the fifteen songs we had sounded good, all except the original - we were still fumbling through the sound, and the guys wanted to cut it. I swallowed a mouthful of maple-syrup-soaked pancake before answering.

"I think so, but you know, if you're gonna blow it, blow it big."

Abeoji laughed and looked at Eomeoni. "I have not heard that in years."

"You know it?" I asked.

"Jasper's motto? Yes," eomeoni said, cutting another piece of pancake for Joon. "He justified more than managing with that saying."

"What does it mean?"

"He had this voice instructor, real dramatic, old-school guy, and he used to say that. Cracked us up. We started using it for everything. But you know, he had a point. If you crash, own it. People will respect you more," abeoji said.

"I don't plan on crashing. We're cool." At least I sounded confident.

"Reminded me to call the sitter, yeobo."

The pancake hung from my chopstick as I stopped mid-bite, staring at eomeoni.

"You guys are coming to see us?"

"Of course, why?"

"I'm not a baby, I don't need a sitter," Josie said. "Why can't I go?"

"Hell no," I said.

Eomeoni frowned. "What did I tell you about that word at my table?"

"Joohyuk, we'll leave the foam fingers and poms poms at home, but as chief financiers and investors of Samsan, of course we're coming. We want to support you. So we can say we knew you when," Abeoji said.

I had certain expectations of 2STO and what the crowd would be like, and it didn't include my parents. But what if they were only people there?

"Sorry, I'm just nervous. What if no one shows up?"

"What if a ton of people show up and hate you?" Josie said, sticking out her tongue so quick that eomeoni didn't notice. I hadn't thought of that.

"Jitters are part of it. If you weren't nervous, you wouldn't be normal. And that stuff you're talking about? It'll all happen if you're in a band long enough. Those will be your road stories. See this?" Abeoji pointed to a scar that cut through his right eyebrow. "That's from a beer cap flung at me when we performed this dump in Gangseo."