Seventeen-year-old Winter Chu has seen it all. Shrivelling sleep schedules, diets, his picture perfect mentor's booger, a fat zero in maths. You name it, he has seen it. Or that's what he likes to believe.
Exactly why Winter cannot fathom how he fa...
< How to be a clichéd, super rich, young CEO who preys on his PAs >
I hated summer. Period.
It is Saturday and like every other busking group, we are in Hongdae to busk. And maybe catch some new fans while we're at it.
But the sun is showing zero mercy and forget sunscreen, even an umbrella would catch on fire. Do-Hyun's heavy head nestles along the crook of my neck and I'm one second away from whacking his huge napping head off.
Ha-Joon hyung and Ryuu are out there passing flyers and advertising to bystanders that we'll be busking in half an hour while Mr. Park Tae Joo is standing with one of his colleagues trying to arrange the sound system.
I can't help but look at the broad shoulders of this haughty man. The first time I met him, I was thirteen. He had scared the heck out of me with his unsmiling eyes and cold mouth which was constantly pulled in a thin line. His shirt was ridiculously neat and not even a hair was out of place. Even with my inexperience, I knew his clothes would cost a fortune, and maybe, clumsily dropping one of Xuejun's poison coffees on them might cost a life. If my mum had ever met him, she would use the words 'chic, dandy, immaculate and elegant. Muah~'
He should've been a movie star.
Or at least a clichéd, super rich, young CEO who preyed on his PAs. You know the kind that, for some reason, young people and old ahjummas totally dig in web-novels and dramas.
Yet here he is, at present, crouching on the ground, setting up wires while not wiping away his sweat. It's quite unfair, especially from an aspiring idol's point of view, but I do like the way he makes looking cool look like a piece of cake.
Mr. Park Tae Joo's story is a strange one. Even I didn't know all the details, though I had been with him since day one. But we've heard enough whispers in dark practice rooms and near vending machines back in PBS. It was said that he had close relations with the founder. In fact, rumour has it that he's the nephew of the founder of PBS Entertainment. So you ask why a successful relative of a successful businessman was dandling with four brats who aren't worth a penny?
That's the thing. People say he was disowned. Park Tae Joo painstakingly trained the trainees from my time. And if he was still in the agency, Purple Skyes would have been the brainchild of this man. But crap happens and on the day I realised three years wasting sweat and blood on the shining basement of the agency was for naught, this man had announced that he'll be leaving the agency too. Then he had invited me to follow him.
It was an open choice. And I was willing. Not like I had much of an option when k-pop is all I know.
I gaze as Mr. Park Tae Joo straightens up and dusts off nonexistent dust from his pants. Chic, dandy, immaculate and elegant— he is still every bit of it. Though he's wearing a silky, flower printed shirt that I would never wear even in my wildest dreams.
Half an hour goes by rather quickly and I push Do Hyun and his drool off of my shoulder. The boys and I stretch and even though I've done this countless times, I still feel my legs go jelly.
As a boy with a dream to be an idol, embarrassingly enough, I have terrible stage fright. Ironic, I know. There's a fair amount of audience gathered, barely fifty people to be precise, but I feel my stomach go hollow and I want to puke. Mr. Park Tae Joo gives the cue and it's time to start but it takes immense willpower for me to swallow the nerves and compose myself.
Ha Joon hyung is the oldest and somewhere along the way, most of the responsibilities fell on him. With his reliable aura, and soft, pale features, he looks sickeningly like an angel on earth and is very pleasing to the eyes. He is an easy charmer with a honey tinged voice, and everything about him screams saccharin sweet. He is the exact, blueprinted opposite of me.
He takes the megaphone in his hands and smiles brightly, eyes effortlessly lighting up with a gentle but ardent gaze. "Good evening everyone!" Ha Joon hyung starts briskly. "My name is Lee Ha Joon and I'm a trainee from Vision M, a new entertainment agency. We'll be debuting by the end of autumn." His grip on the megaphone tightens and I know it is coming. The same words he has been speaking for three months now.
"We're aXle, a contemporary boy group and I hope when we debut, everyone here will be supporting us. Thank you."
His voice carries away in the dull summer heat and the crowd is kind enough to clap. Some of them even take out their phones to record the performance and I can't help but smile.
It's almost evening and the heat slowly molds into a bearable breeze. We start off with a dance cover of a famous song. It's by girl group 9teen, who were hella popular when I was in primary school. The crowd recognises the popular beat and excited murmurs burst.
We quickly melt into formation and start dancing. I can't help the chuckle as the song progresses, hands moving in a practiced rhythm, mouth belting the lyrics without hesitation. I've done this countless times. Sure, by the end of the day, I'll have intolerable sore muscles. But dancing in front of a crowd, albeit nerve wrecking and borderline scary, was the most satisfying thing that could ever exist.
It is as simple as that. Seeing the crowd smile at you, waving their hands in synchronisation and cheering with their hearts out is what every trainee one day wanted to achieve. It is a beautiful dream. And even though I have this humongous stage fright, I'm no different.
Time passes by and we're almost done with the setlist. After the initial dance cover, we performed vocal covers of three more popular songs from a few years ago. Later, Ryuu and I performed a duo cover while Ha Joon hyung and Do Hyun did another dance cover.
The sun was close to setting and we had one more song to perform. Our song. To be honest, it was a demo and there was no certainty if it would even make it to the debut album. Still.
Sweat rolls from the sides of my temple and my T-shirt is wet as it clings to my torso. Flimsy is an understatement. The size of the crowd has increased exponentially, almost bordering around a hundred. That's more than we've ever had. Today is easily a lucky day and I feel everything around me light up. Maybe it is the atmosphere and the welcoming nature of the crowd or it is the feeling that debut is finally right around the corner, but an irresistible happiness engulfs me, every inch sinking like talons in mud and I roll my head back, high on it.
But that's when I see a pair of very familiar brown eyes. Blank, cold and almost hidden among the crowd.
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A/N., Ahhhhh sorry for disappearing for ages. I had so much going on. Anyways, I started post grad since last Monday and finally settled in. So back with my normal schedule. I'll be posting all the updates I missed together now so please look forward to it.
Song attached: Summer Paradise by Simple Plan
Kai~
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