mr. socialite. | 희승 √

CHAPTER 3

I'm frantically searching for the boy behind the curtains when I see Sunghoon bending over a trash can, hurling as Sunoo pats his back. Sunoo smiles uneasily before moving away as I pat Sunghoon even more, him looking up at me. "What happened to you?!" Before the boy can even answer, he's back to hunching over that trash can, holding his stomach.

So, Sunoo answers for him. "It must've been that ice cream you both bought- or he got food poisoning from something else." Ah, the guilt I feel right now. I pull the water bottle out of my backpack, shoving it into Sunghoon. He quickly takes a swift sip of it, wiping his mouth as he takes a seat. "Hyung, do you think you can still play tonight?"

"Absolutely not," Sunghoon and I synchronize, causing him to look my way. I sigh in frustration. "Listen, Iseul, I need you to go out there and play guitar for me." My eyes widen in frustration, shaking my head immediately.

Oh hell no. I can't play instruments for crap. "Nope, nope-" Ice Prince grabs my hand, pulling me towards him. "Sunghoon, you know I can't play guitar."

"I've taught you before," He moves his guitar to me, pointing to the chords I need to play. "Just play these. That's all you have to do- the notes will be in front of you on the stand."

"She has to sing too!" Sunoo mentions, crossing his arms. I widen my eyes, gasping. "Iseul, listen- you can sing. Don't doubt yourself- and besides, I'll be playing the piano next to you. If you need help, I'm here."

He obviously made this worse. Singing... playing guitar... I will wreck this gig.

"But... I-" Sunghoon and Sunoo look eagerly in a plead- and soon, the rest of the band enter and plead too. Well, except a dull Heeseung, who can't even make eye contact with me. 

"C'mon, Iseul..." Jungwon pleads cutely, blinking his eyes making me fake a hurl. "Hey!"

"Alright, alright, I'll do it," I huff, making the band clap happily. "But Jungwon, please never~ do that in front of me again."

"Haters gonna hate," He quotes, swiping his thumb over his lip before going back on stage. I look at Sunghoon and his eye smile- watching as he giggles before covering his mouth. Hunching back over the trash can, I grab his white guitar, placing my fingers over the chords and strumming softly. 

Then, I remember- taking out Heeseung's lucky purple pick, using it. It's actually super pretty- maybe I'll keep it and never give it back to him. (Unless I have to sell it to his fangirls, of course...)

"Alright, we're on," Jungwon mentions, pushing me forward as I exit first, causing silence in the crowd. My knees are about to give up on me.

OhmygodwhatdoIdoohmygodwillIgetharassedonMondayatschool????? 
IhaveacrushamotherafatherasisterIdon'twanttodiepleasepleaseplease-

Someone brushes their hand on my shoulders- and on either side is Jake and Heeseung- causing me to widen my eyes. They make eye contact before I'm a blushing mess because of this handsome (utterly perfect, amazing, show-stopping boy) Jake next to me- his smile glowing before he goes to his position at center mic. 

Heeseung meets my eyes before walking forward- while I walk backward next to Sunoo. Looking at the name of the song, I read the notes. Drunk-Dazed... on a guitar? These chords look... difficult. By the way, Sunghoon owes me so much free food with all these girls watching me in envy. I'm going to die before I can even eat a free meal by the palms of Sunghoon's hands.

"Sadly, Sunghoon won't be able to be on stage- he's sick," Jake mentions- but as Sunghoon has mentioned once before, nobody comes to watch him- just that sick socialite of his. So, nobody mourns his disappearance and continues to fangirl over Heeseung. "So, we have one of his friends stepping in, Jae Iseul."

Jake, I love you so, so, so~ much- but with the stares, I'm pretty sure you just ratted me out to the entire university. "Let's do this!"

Sunoo cues me in as Jay drums hard, causing me to look at the paper in a frantic eye movement. Jungwon starts first, causing me to start strumming a little faster.

"Sing!" Sunoo whispers before I stand up to the standing mic, grabbing it for a second. "In a world with no rules, everything's been turned upside down."

They all look back at me and I think I did something wrong, but Jake smiles and continues to sing- then Heeseung does. I popped a few eardrums from this concert already, but with the fangirls, I'm deaf. So, singing along for the rest of the concert and depending on Sunoo to cue me in because I'm literal crap in the music industry, we're finished with our first song.

Placing down Sunghoon's guitar next to his sitting body, he looks up at me- one raised eyebrow, one hand on mine, and eyes looking me up and down. "Stop checking me out and tell me how I did," I point at him, Sunghoon rolling his eyes as he sits up.

"You did better than I could've- It's a surprise you kept the tempo."

"You've done this song before in your spare time. All I know is your part anyways," I reply, crossing my arms and sitting next to him. "Besides that, do you feel better? Do you think you can get on for the last two songs?"

"Probably not," He yawns, covering his mouth. Sunoo enters, dropping down next to us. "I don't want to go out there to replace you, too."

Sunoo's slight giggles fill up the room before passing me a water bottle. "You should be a soloist or be an extra drummer with Jay hyung."

"I'll pass," I scoff, shaking my head. "I can strum a guitar, but hitting a drum and having it sound nice... I'll leave that up to the professional."

"It's not that hard," Jay mentions from afar, walking over to us. 

"Keyword is 'that', stupid," I huff, causing the three boys to chuckle. Heeseung joins in, sitting on the extra sofa. He's eyeing me and I squint my eyes at him- making Heeseung chuckle. Wow, so glad he can bust out in laughter. "What? Are you here to mock me too?"

"I wish, but you put on quite the show, Iseul."

"I'm honored that my name even leaves your mouth now, Heeseung."

"You should be."

"And that's enough of that for one day." Sunghoon intervenes, forming his lips into a straight line. "Aren't you both tired? You argued during practice, talked right before the show, and now arguing when it's almost over? How tiring."

"Yeah, don't do that to our stand-in, hyung," Jake enters with his hair laced back- and I'm going to actually faint. "She did great. Can't we put her in at center mic for the rest of the show?" He winks at me.

Oh my god.

He winked at me.

ohmygodohmygodohmygodsomeonehelpme.

Sunghoon snorts as he points at my tomato-red face, causing me to lay back on the sofa.

"Am I dreaming?"

"This again..."

"Sunghoon, pinch me..."

"Iseul-"

"I think I'm going to-"

"Iseul!"

"Faint." My eyes give up on me as I can hear Sunghoon shuffle and the rest of them laugh, Jake gasping slightly.

"Did I do something wrong?!" No, no sweetie. Not at all. 

"You're so clueless, hyung..."

"Someone get her to wake up! We have to go on soon!"

"I'm alive," I whisper out, opening my eyes again. However, my eyes clasp closed again when Jake's only a few inches towering over me, his face up in mine. "Nevermind, I'm not."

"Jae Iseul!" I sigh before getting up, snatching Sunghoon's hanging guitar from his hanging hands. "Go get them, tiger!"

"Shut your literal mouth, you piece of vomiting crap. Go brush your teeth or something."

"Hey, Iseul?" Heeseung mentions as he puts his hand (not to mention, big and pretty hand with a bunch of rings- wait, I'm a Jake fangirl. Not a Heeseung one.) on my shoulder, smiling. "You'll do great! Fighting!"

I continue to believe he has two sides of him- but maybe this time, he's genuine.