Addicted To You

28 - Beautiful

At 9:00 the next morning there was a soft knock at my door. I smiled at his promptness. I had been ready to go for about 10 minutes. I wanted to make sure I wasn't late. Jinki was with Wonho for the day because Changkyun and Jooheon were in the studio.

I glanced at myself in the mirror on the way to answer the door. My hair was down and in the soft waves I had been sporting quite often of late, and I had done my makeup. I winked at my reflection and opened the door. I expected Kihyun, but I wasn't expecting how handsome he looked. I think I actually gasped.

"Good morning, Noona," he smiled and I felt a bit flustered.

"Yes, it is. Wow, how can you look that good this early?" His smile grew.

"It's a gift," he laughed. "You look beautiful, as usual. Are you ready to go?" He asked, taking my coat and holding it for me. I nodded and slipped my arms inside. I took the gloves that Minhyuk had given me off the table and made sure I had my phone, wallet, and lip gloss for touch ups later. I closed the door behind me and heard the chime indicating it had engaged the lock. Kihyun hugged me and we headed to the elevator.

He opened the door for me and I was surprised to find Minhyuk and Hyungwon already in the car. They smiled and said good morning. They were heading to the office too, so we were riding together.

The drive to their offices was relatively short. Kihyun showed me around the spacious building that had room for future expansion. They conducted a lot of their business from their apartments and recorded most of their music in home studios. They had big plans for the new company and would probably outgrow this space within a couple of years, but it was plenty of space for now.

I wondered how I would ever learn my way around the building. It was like a maze, with offices, practice rooms, dorms, studios, a commissary, storage rooms, and the wardrobe department. When we reached the studios I was reminded of my visit to Hyungwon's studio a few days ago when he brought me in to record my parts on his guide track. I was anxious, but he made me feel at ease. He taught me some vocal warm-up routines that Kihyun had taught him, and it made a noticeable difference. He guided me through the vocal sections and let me rehearse multiple times until I felt comfortable with the flow of each part.

After a few tries, he smiled and nodded. He told me I had nailed it. He played the track back for me and I was shocked that I was hearing my own voice. It sounded great, and he was right about my voice suiting the song. I still hadn't told the others. I wondered how they would react when they heard it.

InHae met me in Kihyun's office with a hug. She and I were practically the same age, and we clicked right away during the tour. I was less than a year older. Her English was good enough that we had been able to communicate during the tour. I surprised her by speaking Korean. A little. My skills were still lacking and I didn't have confidence yet.

InHae was short and petite with big dark eyes and full lips. Her signature pageboy haircut was always falling into her eyes, but she just clipped it back and kept going. She had a natural beauty and a constant smile on her face, even when things got hectic. I looked forward to seeing her every day while we were on tour.

As we made our way down to the wardrobe room, I saw some staff who had not been on the tour with us. InHae said a couple were fairly new to the department, coming to them from another company. I was saddened to hear EunJung, Minhyuk's personal stylist, had suddenly quit after the tour. She didn't tell anyone why. She just left. I thought she was really sweet and she always did an amazing job with him.

We passed by a large warehouse area on our way to wardrobe. Looking inside I saw a labyrinth of towering rows of speakers, sound equipment, and road crates. Metal shelves stuffed with and elaborate stage props and lighting equipment stood sentry at the large doors where the equipment would be loaded and unloaded.