KIBA ; STRAY KIDS

35 ; KIBA

This week wasn't a great week at all. Something had happened - a person has accused Hyunjin of bullying. This in K-pop, is classed as a scandal, and a really bad one. This meant that Hyunjin has been pulled out of Kingdom completely, and he won't be able to perform or appear in videos. 

I was sad for him. I tried my best to comfort him, but the last few days for him have been rough. He's been pretty depressed about the whole situation, and he finally decided to go home till it's all sorted. The group have been pretty affected by the news too, but we also have been working hard on Kingdom.

"Okay, so as you all know, the second round has to be bigger and better." Chan said in the meeting room.

I was busy looking at the cast which sat tightly on my fingers and wrist. Seungmin wanted me to back out of Kingdom but when the scandal happened, I decided to stay in Kingdom and do my best with a broken finger. The staff, of course, weren't that bothered but said I needed to be careful because they'll get called out for letting me perform.

The meeting was boring. All meetings were boring. We did, however, decided to mix our two songs, God's Menu and Side Effects. Then the meeting was over, and Chan surprisingly wanted me in the studio with him to help out. I said a quiet goodbye to Seungmin who wasn't too happy with me performing and was giving me some sort of silent treatment.

I sat in Chan's office where there was a camera set up for Kingdom to use when the episode comes out in a few weeks.

"Side effects and God's Menu..." Chan contemplated.

Since Chan was practically teaching me to get better at producing, I just watched him work for a while and slipped in some of my own ideas for the new song which mixed two different songs with different BPM. It took us nearly 90 minutes to complete the full thing which was actually pretty good.

"Yay! It sounds scary." I said with a smile.

"What's got you so down?" Chan asked as he turned towards me.

"Huh?"

"Come on. You never talk to me you know?" Chan pushed and I rolled my eyes. Does he even know how hard it is? What am I kidding?

"Neither do you, idiot." I said back in English. He rolled his eyes but stopped pressing on the matter.

Plus, I wasn't upset. I was mainly worried for Hyunjin, I don't want him to do anything silly about the situation he's in. I know for a fact he's going to be proven innocent and when he comes back, I'll hug him the hardest I've ever hugged him. I was also sad about Seungmin - he had been pretty distant because of my decision to still do Kingdom.

"Okay, well then. It's done, now the next two weeks are for practising every day." Chan sighed as he closed down the computer and turned off the camera.

"Ugh, may as well kill me now." I complained.

"Come on, you've been doing well. You're getting abs again." Chan smiled as he poked my stomach. I laughed, but honestly, I was feeling kind of empty. Since the scandal at the start of the week - I had been finding it hard to eat because I was too worried about Hyunjin.

"I want maccies." I said in English, I really need to get out of the bad habit of switching in and out of languages.

We left Chan's office and made our way to the dance practise room where everyone was on their phones waiting for us. Chan played the new version, and as a group we sat and brainstormed ideas for our new concept.

"Since it's Gods Menu, I feel like we should have the same concept of us being creators in some sort of way..." Han suggested and we nodded along.

"But for side effects, let's do a concept where it's controlling." I piped in and Chan nodded.

"How about something like... we're being controlled but somehow we come out on top?" Chan summarised and we nodded as a group.

I looked at the hard-working boys. Seungmin wasn't that invested, and I wondered if he felt tired because of the scandal or if I was still bothering him. I know I promised to not worry him, but I'm fine. It's just a broken finger and it'll heal so quickly. I bet my finger will be ten times better when we perform for the second round in a few weeks.

He just worries to much...It's a little tiring.

I was confused by it all. One time I like that he worries, but then he worries too much, and I get overwhelmed. I know I've had no one to worry about me like that but sometimes I don't like it and I don't know how to tell him without offending him. I sighed as I looked at him - he's too precious to me for me to tell him. I need to find the right time.

We got the basics down for the concept. A choreographer was coming in soon to help us plan out our vision - but majority of it would be up to us to fix and sort out. It would be a lot of meetings for Chan and our manager for the next few weeks. 

I decided to calm down and focus on some choreography and keep a distance from Seungmin. 

Seems the space between was wedging bigger and bigger.