Chapter 108: 노을(You...)

The lights brightened as the MV ended, and all those present started clapping, and some were whooping.

“Ye… That was S-Cube and Hee Chul’s new single, ‘Waiting for You’. I understand you will be performing it live at the end of today’s event?” the emcee looked at us.

“Ne,” I said as I leant into the microphone in front of me, and there was another round of enthusiastic applause.

“Right… Before we continue with the autograph session, we’ll have a Q&A session with S-Cube and Hee Chul. Earlier on, we’ve asked those present to fill out their names on numbered papers we’ve provided and we shall do a draw to determine who should be given the chance to ask S-Cube a question. After the event, these lucky few should come forward and you will receive a special poster autographed by S-Cube and Hee Chul, so listen out carefully for your number… the first number is 104… 104.”

A girl raised her hand and was handed one of the many cordless microphones that the assistants are holding. They’ve positioned them around the crowd so that they could facilitate the Q&A session.

“Annyeong haseyo,” the girl greeted, and the 4 of us greeted her in return. “My question is for Hee Chul oppa,” she said, and Skye started poking Hee Chul and smiling suggestively, which made the girl laugh nervously.

“Ne,” Hee Chul said into the microphone. “Your question.”

“Who’s your favorite member in S-Cube and why do you like him/her the most?” she said, and we all turned to look at Hee Chul, eliciting laughter from everyone.

“Yah… Hee Chul… who do you like better?” I said.

“It’s me, isn’t it, hyung,” Skye said as he wrapped an arm around Hee Chul’s shoulders.

“Erm…” Hee Chul started. “The S-Cube member I like best… would have to be Shoei,” he said.

“Why?” the emcee asked.

“He doesn’t say a lot… he doesn’t bug me. He lets me have peaceful times… unlike the other two,” he laughed, and everyone laughed with him. “Is my answer alright?” he asked the girl.

“Ne. It’s good,” she smiled and returned the microphone to the assistant.

“Okay… that was a fun question. Next number is 43,” the emcee announced. “Another young lady…” he said as another girl raised her hand holding her paper with the number. “What’s your question agasshi?”

“Can you tell us about a difficult experience you faced while filming the MV for this single?” she said.

“Hmm… difficult experience,” Skye said. “What was difficult?”

“I think the last part there,” I piped in. “The part on the platform.”

“Oh yea…” Hee Chul said. “That was difficult.”

“How so?” the emcee asked.

“Well…” Shoei said. “I know it looks fine, but the platform wasn’t very stable. We could move a little and all, but we were told not to jump or whatever, and it wasn’t really wide, so it was pretty scary. We could’ve fallen into the water.”

“No one fell?” the emcee asked.

“Skye nearly fell,” Hee Chul said.

“Being the monkey he is,” I laughed.

“Yah…” Skye exclaimed. “I didn’t almost fall. I was just kidding with you guys.”

“Sure you were,” Shoei said. “And your face looking deathly pale after that was just the makeup, right?” he laughed, and we all laughed with him, except for Skye.

“Next question please,” I laughed into the microphone, and the emcee drew another number from the box.

“233,” he announced, and this time, a guy raised his hand.

“This is for Sierra,” he said, and the guys started nudging each other, as if it were the most interesting thing to have happened today. “Will you marry me?” he said, and laughed, “I was joking,” he smiled, and everyone laughed.

“Please don’t do that again,” I said, pretending to sound like I was short of breath. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Ne,” he smiled. “My question is… being the only girl in this band, and having to work with one more guy apart from Skye and Shoei… is it taxing?”

“You mean physically or mentally?” I asked him.

“Both…” he laughed.

“Keunyang…” I started. “Working with 2 guys is never easy, but since Shoei is a good boy, and Skye is… well… the opposite, they cancel out each other’s negatives. Throw Hee Chul into the fray, and you have an imbalance,” I smiled.

“And on which side does Hee Chul tip the scale?”

“Well… it depends,” I said. “Some days he’s all business, so he makes the atmosphere a bit more somber. Some days he goes nuts, and he makes the atmosphere lighter. But when he teams up with Skye… you can imagine the mayhem they cause,” I laughed.

“So does he make things more taxing for you?”

“I don’t think so,” I smiled. “I’m Sierra,” I said. “I hold my own against them… be they men, or boys.”

Upon hearing my last statement, Skye and Hee Chul stuck their tongues out at me.

“Don’t listen to her,” Skye said. “I’m a very professional kasu.”

“She’s the one who’s always fooling around and disrupting our work,” Hee Chul said.

“Do you think that’s true?” the emcee asked the crowd, and his question was met with a resounding ‘No!’.

“See! People believe in me,” I laughed as I clapped my hands. “Yeoreobun… kamsahamnida!” I stood up and bowed while the crowd cheered for me.

“Alright! Let’s not waste precious time… next question will come from No. 135! Yes, the agasshi in the pink dress.”

“This is a question for Shoei,” the girl said shyly. “Why don’t we ever hear rumors of you having a girlfriend?”

“That’s because I don’t have one,” Shoei replied coolly.

“Chintcha?” the emcee exclaimed. “Ein opso?”

“Opseumnida,” Shoei said.

“Shoei’s very focused on his career now,” Skye interjected. “If he ever wants a girlfriend, we can probably have a special competition on television where we allow girls to audition and fight to be his girlfriend, ne?”

“Ne…” Shoei laughed.

“Shoei! Aishiteiru!” someone shouted from the crowd, and we all laughed.

“Aishiteiru,” Shoei replied, and the person squealed in delight.

“What about you Skye?” the emcee asked. “You’re teasing Shoei… but what about you? We’ve heard lots of whisperings about you having a girlfriend, but up till now, no one has guessed who she is.”

“Keugo… Skye chintcha paramdung-i,” I said, and everyone laughed. “He’s seen with so many different girls, so you’ll never know which the real girlfriend is.”

“It’s just my tactic to keep you all in suspense,” Skye said.

“So are you saying that you do have a girlfriend?” Hee Chul said.

“No… I didn’t say that… you can keep guessing,” Skye said, and everyone let out exclamations of disappointment.

“And here I thought we were on to a huge exposé today,” the emcee laughed.

Time passed on, and we were finally at the last question of the session.

“So the last question will be from No. 333, nice number,” the emcee announced. “333, where are you?”

“That would be me,” a familiar voice said, and I wasn’t surprised to see who it was… Jae Joong.

“Yong-ung Jae Joong!” the emcee exclaimed and we could hear squeals from the crowd.

“Ne!” he smiled. “Pangapseumnida…”

“I’ve so often heard of you appearing at album launches to support Sierra, but this is the first time I’ve witnessed it myself,” the emcee said.

“Then you should buy yourself a lottery ticket today,” Jae Joong smiled.

“That’s so typical of you, Jae Joong,” Hee Chul exclaimed. “You even picked your favorite numbers.”

“I picked my ticket, but it was still luck that the emcee picked mine,” Jae Joong smiled.

“Let’s not get sidetracked,” the emcee said. “Jae Joong… what’s your question?”

“My question is a question I’ve wanted to ask for a long, long time, but I know that if I asked Sierra in person, she would brush me off. Here, she can’t,” he smiled mischievously.

“Kim Jae Joong,” I said. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Please continue Jae Joong,” the emcee cut me off.

“Here’s my question… if I were to ask you to marry me, and because of contractual issues, you’d have to quit S-Cube if you married me, would you?”

The moment Jae Joong asked his question, the whole room became silent, and everyone waited, all eyes trained on me as they anticipated my answer.

“Yah… what kind of question is that?” I said.

“You see,” Jae Joong smiled. “I knew she’d try to brush it off.”

“Hyung,” Shoei piped in. “How can you ask her to choose between us all? You know how much she loves both S-Cube and you.”

“You know what?” I said. “I have my answer ready.”

“Ne,” the emcee said. “What’s your answer, Sierra?”

“Until I’m ready to quit S-Cube, I won’t marry anyone,” I said, and the fans started to applause. “If you love me that much, you’ll wait for me, Jae Joong. Ne?”

Jae Joong looked straight at me, and he smiled.

“Ne,” he replied, and the applause became louder.

He handed the microphone the assistant standing by, and started to weave his way through the crowd to approach the table. He walked up to me and I stood up to face us, with the table between us both. Then he reached out and pulled me into a hug amidst deafening the applause.

“Good answer,” he whispered into my ear.

“You’re crazy,” I laughed.

“I had nothing better to do, and I missed you. You’re gonna be gone for a week,” he said.

“Michoso…” I said as I pulled away, and I poked him on the forehead.

“Don’t worry,” he addressed the crowd. “I’m not taking her away so soon. She belongs with S-Cube… for now.”

“I’m wondering,” the emcee said as he faced Jae Joong and me. “Is this a publicity stunt devised by your company?”

“Animida,” Jae Joong laughed as he shook his head. “This is just me having nothing better to do today.”

“I see,” the emcee laughed. “We look forward to more days like this in the future.”

Jae Joong left after that and the autograph session commenced. During the sessions, I received lots of comments from our fans.

“You shouldn’t let him go, Sierra,” a girl told me. “Jae Joong is a good man. Make sure you marry him.”

“Onni!” another said. “If I were you, I’d just marry Jae Joong oppa now and stay home for him all day.”

Most of them encouraged me to marry Jae Joong, but some did tell me I made the right choice.

“You did the right thing, onni… I can’t imagine you not singing with S-Cube and staying home to be just Jae Joong’s wife.”

Later that evening, after a few more appearances in Seoul and traveling all the way to Taejon, we were all lazing in front of the hotel room television watching the coverage of our first appearance today on Sound Bites, a new entertainment program hosted by newcomers, Choi Na Yung and Park Kwon Je.

Park Kwon Je: Annyeong haseyo, Park Kwon Je-imnida.

Choi Na Yung: Annyeong haseyo, Choi Na Yung-imnida.

Both: It’s time for Sound Bites!

The program continued with various entertainment news and the last one of the day was the coverage of our launch event earlier today.

Choi Na Yung: This is the hottest news today… S-Cube and Hee Chul’s single launch.

Park Kwon Je: Ne… S-Cube and Hee Chul of Super Junior were present at the first appearance of their single, ‘Waiting for You’, launch early today and if there was one way to describe the whole affair, it would be one of a kind.

Choi Na Yung: How so?

Park Kwon Je: Well, as usual, S-Cube had really interesting and fun answers to the questions the fans had, not matter how difficult they were, and the icing on the cake was the appearance of Yong-ung Jae Joong of TVXQ.

Choi Na Yung: Whoaa!! I wish I was there! But since we couldn’t be, let’s check out some footage of the event we’d managed to obtain.

Cuts of our interview session were shown with vocal narration in the background, then the footage zoomed in on the scene where the emcee was asking Jae Joong if his presence was a publicity stunt.

Choi Na Yung: You know… this is not the first time Jae Joong has showed up at such promotional events, and everyone can’t help wondering if he’s doing this willingly or at the instruction of the management.

Park Kwon Je: Sierra and Jae Joong are the most public celebrity couple in the business. It’s a little baffling because most of the celebrities, even after announcing their relationship, would try to keep their displays of affection and such private.

Choi Na Yung: We’ve relayed the question to SM and their representative has reported that the management has never intervened regarding their relationship and Jae Joong’s choice of appearing at such events are entirely his own.

Park Kwon Je: So they didn’t even suggest it to him?

Choi Na Yung: Nope. It seems Jae Joong is just being a devoted and supportive boyfriend. How I wish I had one…

Park Kwon Je: I could be the one.

Choi Na Yung smacks Park Kwon Je with her cue cards.

Choi Na Yung: We look forward to seeing more good things about Sierra and Jae Joong. They are a constant reminder to everyone that love is so powerful and important in our lives. Really, Sierra, you should marry him already. Don’t let him get away.

Park Kwon Je: Gosh… you’re making me tear now… I feel so lonely.

Choi Na Yung: You can’t blame anyone but yourself for being alone.

Park Kwon Je: You know… you don’t have to be so forward… you’re hurting me…

Choi Na Yung: Ara… ara… this is Choi Na Yung.

Park Kwon Je: And I’m Park Kwon Je… Tune in tomorrow for more updates from Sound Bites!

Both: Annyeong!