Royal Colors (OPEN APPLY FIC)

Chapter 78: RC Members' Sixth Birthday Together

Languages:
Korean - Normal Text
English - Bolded
Chinese - Bolded & Slanted
Japanese - Slanted
Thai - Bolded, Slanted, Underlined
Other - Underlined
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-Friday, June 7, 2024~6:09PM-

~James's POV~

Everyone was sitting around the large practice room that was full of tables for such a large event, everyone with food and champagne glasses in hand. I walked up to the microphone that was sitting against our small center stage on one side of the room and tapped it.

"Testing, testing." I said into the mic.

My loud booming voice through the microphone got everyone's attention as they stopped talking and all faced me.

"Good evening everyone." I said. "I want to thank everyone for being here as I know this might be a bit anti-climactic for some of you who have just arrived in Royal Colors. But as for those of us who have been here a while, this is a special day. For those of you who don't quite know me yet, I am James, the apparent leader of RC."

"Woo!" Somebody shouted from the crowd, making everyone else chuckle softly.

"Although I haven't had much time on stage, today is still very special to me because six years ago, I got to be there for RC's debut." I said, reminiscing the times. "I've got the chance to watch most of you live your dream while debuting and hopefully soon the rest of you will too. This has made me such a proud leader to see everyone come so far and despite having over sixty members, it feels like a large close-knit family as we get to spend most days with one another. These past six years have been amazing and let's have plenty more amazing ones to come. Cheers to Royal Colors."

I raised my glass and as did everyone else. "Cheers!"

"Thank you." I nodded. "Please enjoy your meals tonight and have a fun time."

I stepped off stage and sat down next to Scout.

"That was beautiful, oppa." She smiled at me.

I smiled back. "Thank you. I just hope everyone believes me."

"Do they have a reason not to?"

I shrugged. "When you've been around as long as I have with no comeback, I would start losing hope in my leader."

"I haven't." Scout said, grabbing my hand.

"Neither have I." Barae chimed in. "I never did."

He was somebody that had a similar situation to me, only that rather than debuting and not having a comeback, instead he had been placed in RC and had gone years without debuting.

I smiled at Barae who put tears in my eyes. I looked around at everyone at my table who all had such heartwarming smiles on their faces. They all seemed to agree with Scout and Barae.

"We couldn't have asked for a better leader." Scout said, everyone nodding in agreement.

"Thank you guys." I said. "You guys, all the members, are the reason I still have hope."

"As you are our's." Kaoru smiled, raising her glass. "To Leader James!"

Everyone at my table raised their glasses and repeated the words. "To Leader James!"

They all took a swig and I laughed. They truly were the reason I had hope everyday and hopefully that hope would never run out as it never has in the past six years.

*****

-Wednesday, June 12, 2024~1:31PM-

~Changwoo's POV~

Blue, Soeun, Changbin, and I were all sat down eating together, although it didn't seem like much togetherness. I noticed Soeun and Changbin had each other's attention a lot more than normal. Then they finished eating and got up to go do something else. I watched them with disgusted hawk eyes.

"What's wrong, oppa?" Blue said, taking a bite of her meal.

"Do they seem closer to you?" I asked, still looking at my brother and Soeun from across the room.

"Yeah, so what?" Blue replied.

"I don't know." I shrugged, still glaring.

"Maybe they had a moment when recording their duet."

"Duet!" This was the first time I actually looked at Blue in the entire conversation. She didn't seem phased by her words or my actions.

"You didn't know they had a duet for the upcoming album?"

I shook my head. "What kind of duet is it?"

"A love song." Blue grinned. "It's really cute actually. The lyrics are beautiful and their voices compliment each other so well for being a Vocalist and Rapper."

I huffed a bit and sat back in my chair.

"Why does it bother you so much?" Blue asked. "Did you like...have feelings for Soeun or something?"

Blue's voice got a bit shaky and quiet at the last question.

"No, I like somebody else." I said unconsciously.

"Really?" She chirped up again. "Who is it?!"

I looked at her and saw so much excitement and curiosity in her eyes. I suddenly felt embarrassed I realized what I had just said. I don't think I was ready to tell her she was the person I had feelings for.

"It's none of your business." I said in a confident silly manner.

"Oh." Her voice cracked. She then cleared her throat. "Well fine then, I didn't really want to know anyway."

She put up a facade and I couldn't help but wonder if she really did care or not. I mean she had to of, right? Everyone always wants to know who other people are crushing on. It's called gossip for a reason.

My thoughts were interrupted by Changbin and Soeun in the distance again. I heard and saw them both laughing a lot. It was weird to see Soeun smile and laugh so much. But then I saw my brother and I saw his genuine smile, something I hadn't ever seen him do with girls in a long time. It made me smile and I guess I must have chuckled to myself because Blue looked at me and then looked at the direction I was looking, noticing Changbin and Soeun herself.

"They seem happy." Blue said, not taking her eyes off of them.

"Yeah, they do." I said. "It's nice to see my brother genuinely interested in a girl. It doesn't happen often."

I heard Blue sigh and then she pushed out her chair and stood up.

"I'm tired of you focusing so much on those two." She said, holding her hand out. "It's your birthday, too. You should focus on yourself as well. So come on, let's go have some fun of our own."

I looked up at Blue and saw the confident smile I so adored of her's. It made me snicker and I took her hand, allowing her to drag me to the dance floor where she started dancing and forcing me to dance too. Thanks to her, I remembered to focus on myself too on my own birthday.

~Author's Note~

Hey guys! I was going to add one more birthday scene but it would have included a love interest that is outside of Royal Colors in one of my other groups and I'm not exactly sure what I've decided on those groups yet, whether to continue them or not so I decided to pass on it for now. Besides, this chapter was already long enough. Next chapter should hopefully be the new members and comeback so look forward to that (because I am!). Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed and I will see you soon. Biez!