"I'm eighteen years old and haven't done anything with my life... I don't have someone who I can make happy every day,"
"Jay-ah, you don't need to worry about that stuff yet," Heeseung comforted. He threw an arm over my shoulder with a reassuring sm...
The three of us flinched at the screeching coming from the door of the event hall. My eyes were drawn to the steaming figure of my mother who glared at grandmother. She had one hand balled in a fist and the other pointing at us like we were the next people on earth to die. The last time I saw mother this angry was when my father left for his last business trip.
"Why is it that I'm not surprised you are exploiting my son to this nonsense?" her shrilling voice grew louder as she stomped towards us.
"Will you relax, your boy is eighteen - practically an adult. One day in his life he will need to learn to put such feelings aside and be professional," grandmother tried to brush off her yelling, but it only made things worse.
"Are you kidding me right now?! You trick us into coming here now only to force him to kiss a stranger in front of how many people? ARE YOU INSANE!"
"Yah! Don't speak to your mother-in-law like that. Jay knows what he is doing and I have his consent," she turned to me with a convincing smile, "Isn't that right, Jongseongie?"
"U-uhh,"
"He can't even say no now you have put him on the spot. Jay-ah, come on we are leaving. Get the others," mother motioned for me to come down from the stage, but was blocked by my grandmother forcing me back up.
"You can't leave now! The event starts in thirty minutes. This is so unprofessional!" grandmother was now stressing.
"I agree, it's too late to cancel," Hyerin spoke from beside me, "We should go ahead and carry on. Just to get things over with."
"I'm not talking to you, Miss. I don't know who you are but you should be ashamed to take advantage of someone for business purposes!" mother directed her yelling at Hyerin who bowed her head apologetically.
"I would never do that to someone. This event is really important to my father's business and its important to me that we do this. Kiss or no kiss, the show must go on," she fought back her words getting quieter towards the end. No doubt because of the evils my mother were shooting at her.
"You're a child. What do you know about business? Don't talk to me about that rubbish,"
"Eomma!"
"I don't want to hear it Park Jongseong, we're leaving!" She stepped up onto the runway and grabbed my arm forcefully. I stumbled down off the platform and she dragged me away.
"NO!"
I yanked my arm out of her hold. She gave me the worst look I have ever seen. Her eyes may as well have turned red in fire. However, she was wrong and I was not going to let her antics take over. I gave her a serious look before speaking to her calmly.
"You and Halmeoni are both wrong. Her for lying to us about this, and you for demanding things out of nowhere and insulting someone you barely know. You may be unhappy about all of this, but it is not your place to drag me anywhere,"
Smack.
A hand whipped across my face with an echoing slap. I heard grandmother yelling whilst I clutched at the stinging skin on my face. Taking a step back, my mother's expression changed from her anger filled frown to one of regret. Words were coming out of her mouth and her hands reached for mine but I flinched and moved away.
"Jay-ah, Eomma's sorry! I didn't mean to-,"
"How dare you hit my grandson!"
"Jongseong, are you alright?" Hyerin stepped in front of me and held my shoulders. I kept avoiding her gaze, just wanting to leave the room, but she held me quite strongly. I was surprised at how persistent she was.
"Jongseong," Hyerin said again, this time with more hurt and concern in her voice. I didn't want her to worry about me though.
"I'm fine, I just need some air,"
She nodded and released her grip, letting me leave the room.
***
I sat with the boys in the waiting area for the models. Turns out it wasn't just us here. There were other professional models, older and mature. They had agents waiting on them as if they were servants with three to four stylists attending to our every second. Meanwhile, I had to rely on Sunoo's honesty when asking if my hair looked alright.
"We really don't belong here," Jake almost laughed. He watched in awe as one male model had six people attending to him at one time. I didn't know that was physically possible.
"You don't have to say that twice," I mumbled earning a few laughs.
"How did your rehearsal with Hyerin go?" Heeseung hyung asked as he patted my back.
"Awful. I just want it to be over with," I huffed and he rubbed my shoulders comfortingly.
"Don't worry, Jay-ah. We have plenty of time to vacation now and in our futures,"
"I guess,"
We continued sitting, waiting and small talking to fill the time before we were on stage. From where we were sat we could see the side wings of the stage and a small portion of the audience. I watched closely as the professional models did their part. Their entourage backed off and they took a second before composing themselves. In a split second their facial expression changed and they held their head up higher. It was as if a hidden button was pressed and they snapped into action.
"Hey guys!"
"Hyerin-ah!" Sunghoon invited loudly. He stood up as she walked towards us and bowed to her with a small wave. She returned it and smiled sweetly. He seemed so excited by her presence, even more excited than when he ate his favourite food. They conversed for a while and I payed close attention to Sunghoon. His smile never left his face and he fiddled with his fingers behind his back.
Did he like her?
"Please, sit down you must be tired," he offered her his seat on the couch and she gladly took it.
"Noona, is it true you and Jay are doing a couples shoot?" Sunoo perked up from across the couch.
"Yes, it was quite sudden actually. This dress doesn't even fit me well," she said shyly.
"Well, you look very nice," Sunghoon mentioned with a coy look on his face. I tried to hide the laugh that was threatening to escape my mouth. I had not seen Sunghoon this infatuated before.
"What's funny," Jake nudged me with a whisper.
"Have you seen him? He's gone loopy,"
"Don't act like you haven't liked someone before," he teased, referring to the events with Amy. I could agree that liking someone changes the way you act, but it was weird seeing it on someone else, let alone it being Sunghoon.
"I hope I didn't look like that," I played along pointing at the involved pair. Sunghoon sat on the arm rest next to Hyerin as they talked quite openly about their childhoods. I tried to pay no attention to them, but I couldn't help it. She had so many interesting things about her. It almost made me want to join in.
In my head, I could remember the way she looked so closely in front of me. I couldn't stop thinking about how elegant she walked and the way she looked into my eyes. She was like a muse that everyone was attracted to.
But I refused to do this again.
"Showtime in two, let's go," A producer called to us all to prepare and soon we were lined up and ready to flounce ourselves in bunch of a load of people. How exciting.
