Faded Sun| SunSun

[Chapter 15]

The rink: Sunghoon's second home.

He hadn't been back here since he left for university, even though he'd returned home multiple times. It was always due to circumstance, either finding himself too busy, or not having the will to go. He was feeling good today, his first full day back in his home town. Why not pay the rink a visit? 

It was familiar in all the right ways, even that cool bite in the air. Sunghoon shivered into his white fleece, an authentic smile curving his lips. Looking around, it was all the same. He never thought he could be brought back in such a way, thinking about the memories here, as if it was only yesterday. 

The past was full of pain, there wasn't a single part of Sunghoon who wanted to relive that. Though, being here, back at the rink. He found himself missing the old days. There was once a time when this was his only escape, it was his solace, his safety, his comfort, his home. He could forget everything that hurt him, putting his whole self into his skating. He was thankful for it, he really was. This place was still so special to him. 

"Oh Sunghoon, I didn't know you were coming back." The receptionist chuckled, heading behind the desk with a pile of paper work. "Are you skating today?"

"I'm just stopping by." Sunghoon replied.

If someone told you that a single window could show you your whole world, would you believe them? Sunghoon did, because he was looking through that very window right now. He could see the ice, he could see the skaters. It use to be him out there, dreaming about making something of his life. 

Reality changes, you achieve what you dream of. 

Is it ever really what you wanted it to be?

"That's a shame." She sighed, flicking through her paper work. "It would nice to see you skate again, we miss you around here." 

Sunghoon stepped towards the window, pressing his hand against the glass. "Can I go in?"

"Of course you can."

____

A real recording studio, just like he'd seen in those behind the scenes videos. Sunoo beamed, greeting the staff, bowing politely as he entered the room. Two weeks of practice, and it was finally time to record the vocals. He was nervous, obviously, he wanted to impress them all today. It didn't help that he was the last one to record, considering he'd be compared to his fellow group members. 

"You look scared." One of the men laughed.

"I am a little, I want to do a good job." Sunoo said, his cheeks turning a shade of pink.

"I'm sure you will, head on in, and we'll start."

Sunoo nodded, hurriedly making his way into the booth. A few scattered lights littered the ceiling, set to a dim level, it made the room quite dark. There were gray panels lining the walls, made of indented materials, they matched the shade painted on the walls. A single microphone greeted him, set way too high. Probably due to Heeseung being the one before him. 

He pulled the head phones off the stand, carefully placing them over his ears.

"Okay Sunoo, we'll play the music, you sing over your lines. We'll do multiple takes, feel free to play around, try new things. Have fun with it, whilst trying to encapsulate the vibe of the song. Are you ready?"

"Yep."

____

Sunoo left the recording studio proud, he knew he did his best, and he was excited to see how the song turned out. He wasn't the most well versed in powerful, hard hitting music, but he got great direction, which helped him out a lot. 

He was now heading down the corridor, to one of the meeting rooms. Right after he finished recording, he was called to the room by his manager. He wasn't aware of what was going on, but it sounded urgent. 

As he opened the door, Sunoo was surprised, seeing his five group mates sitting along the table.

Riki noticed the boy first, ushering him in the room. "I think something really bad's happened, Junseo looked crazy stressed." He said, walking Sunoo to the table.

"Let's not discuss it, we'll only work ourselves up." Heeseung said, as Sunoo and Riki sat down across from him. 

"How can we not work ourselves up? What if they're cancelling the debut?" Doyum frantically questioned. 

"We don't know anything yet." Heeseung sighed, brushing his hand through his hair. "It's better to wait to hear it from Junseo."

Sunoo felt his heart pounding, they couldn't cancel the debut, could they? His dreams were only just coming true, he wouldn't be able to accept them ending like this. 

These thoughts echoed in all their minds, this debut meant so much to all of them, no one wanted this to end. 

With panic taking over them all, the door swung open. Every pair of eyes darted to the man, watching his fast strides to the head of the table. Junseo took his seat, clearing his throat before he spoke. 

"I've been very stressed today, as most of you have probably seen. I'm not sure if any of you have been on social media lately, dispatch has really screwed us over." Junseo huffed, pinching in between his brows. "We're the subject of a dating scandal. Your senior, Jang-Mi from Pendant, has been revealed to be dating some footballer."

Lets just say, the boys were shocked, none of them expected this. Dating scandals could be catastrophic to an idols career. Though, they were more curious to how this would affect them. 

"It's always the footballers, I swear, this is our third scandal involving a footballer." Junseo scoffed, shaking his head at the thought. "Anyway, I've been running around like a mad man today, organizing and making arrangements. We need to cover up this scandal, so we're moving up the debut. Instead of a months time, you'll be debuting in just under two weeks." 

"Two weeks?" Byeonghee gasped.

"Yes two weeks, no need to reiterate." Junseo snapped, he was clearly not in the greatest mood. "We're taking your teaser photo's tomorrow, with everything else squeezed into those two weeks. It'll be really hard, and very tiring, but if you want to debut, you'll make it work."

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