MKR II: Chapter 3

“Stop that!” Shoei said as he smacked my hand away from my lips.

They had started drying up due to the cold and dry weather at this time of the year, and I was so engrossed in my habit of picking at them. I get yelled at very often at this time of the year whenever Ji Young nuna does my makeup.

“Aigoo…” she’d exclaim. “Do you not love your looks? Why would you do this to your lips? See how much work you’re giving me to cover up the wound?”

I’ve always had this habit. It’s a nervous reaction whenever I’m thinking, or stressed out. I’m just lucky I’ve never had an infected wound from doing this. On the days when we’re busy, especially when we had lots of dance practices and performances, I’d barely have time to bring my hands to my lips. It’s when we do a lot of sitting around and talking that I do it. But I don’t do it when I’m on a live show.

“It’s bleeding now,” Skye said as he passed me a tissue.

“Komawo,” I said as I took the tissue and dabbed away the blood before applying pressure on it to stop the bleeding.

Another day was ending. We had spent the whole week promoting our new album. The night was about to end with a mini-concert for a charitable organization. It was December and Christmas was coming. We thought it would reflect well on us to support a good cause during this time of the year.

We arrived at the hall that had been done up ready for the concert. Our team had been there ahead to prepare the dressing room and test the sound before we arrived for our sound check. We slipped into the hall through the back as there was already a crowd lined up outside the hall, waiting to be allowed in.

“Yo!” Ssamdi aka Simon D of Supreme Team greeted us as he walked into the hair and makeup area.

We’d gotten him and a few other friends to join in for this charity event. It was great to see that celebrities still had enough compassion to sacrifice time without payment, even when they were so busy.

Ssamdi was a true comedian. He can be so serious when recording, or working, but when he’s goofy, he totally cracks you up. We invited him and a few other rappers because S-Cube usually had other rappers to collaborate on a song. Since rap wasn’t exactly our forte, even though Skye and Shoei did have the basics, we decided to get a few other rappers to join us for the night. The only other singer who RSVP-ed was Kim Hyun Joong of SS501. He was super busy at this time of the year, of course, but I think he decided to come just because I was Jae Joong’s ex-girlfriend.

“Ssamdi!” I exclaimed and slapped him on the arm at the same time.

“Yah! That hurts!” he complained.

“You ready for tonight, hyung?” Skye asked him.

“Am I never?” he scoffed and brushed an imaginary lint off his shoulder.

We moved on to our makeup artistes and stylists to get ready while we chattered to each other from across the room. Skye and Ssamdi started to have a rap battle of their own. I think Skye secretly wanted to be a rapper just because it felt very cool and badass to be one. But so far he’s not complained whenever we brought in other rappers to put in the rap for our songs.

“Hey Sierra,” Hyun Joong greeted me as he came to stand beside me.

“Hey,” I smiled.

Hyun Joong spoke in that quiet, gentle and polite voice that Jae Joong did, but not quite as breathy. Of course he too was prone to exhibiting some craziness sometimes, but he can be quite proper like his persona on Boys Over Flowers or even when he was on We Got Married would suggest.

Hyun Joong and I had decided on a duet, but up till now, we have not decided on the song. Rather than choose one of S-Cube’s songs, we had narrowed down to a few done by other artistes. ‘She Is’ by Clazziquai, ‘If You Can Not’ by Jisun and SS501’s Jung Min and ‘Flowerpot’ by Loveholic. ‘Flowerpot’ wasn’t exactly a duet, but since there were 2 versions done before, one by Loveholic and one by Alex of Clazziquai, we thought we could do a duet.

“Which song have we decided on?” he asked me.

“I still can’t decide?” I laughed.

“How about we do ‘Insa’?” he said, smiling slyly.

‘Insa’ was a duet Jae Joong I did few years back. It was the song that brought us together as a couple. I knew he meant it as a joke, but hearing the name of the song really stirred something within me, especially when I had just seen him less than a week ago.

I marveled how I let a person come into my life in this way. We didn’t have all the time in the world for each other. We spend long hours together each day or even depended on each other for anything other than the minimal emotional support to get through our tough times during our very taxing career. Somehow I had let this person become a part of everything in my life. He had touched every single thing in my life that I am reminded wherever I go and whatever I do.

I saw most of Seoul and South Korea with Jae Joong by my side. I can’t seem to go anywhere without being reminded by my first or last outing at any particular place with him. If we hadn’t moved to a new place, I probably would have found it harder to move on because even my own room reminded me of him. Thanks to him now, I can’t forget how he was in my room the other day.

“Haha… funny,” I replied sarcastically.

“Changnan… changnan…” he said, patting me on my hand to reassure me he was just joking. “I think either ‘She Is’ or Jung Min’s song would be good.”

“Actually, I like Jung Min’s song,” I smiled.

“Then it’s settled,” he said. “I’ll go let them know.”

He walked off to let the producer know what song we would be singing so that they could prepare the music.

We were 5 minutes away from starting the performance. The emcee was warming up the crowd, ready for the first performance. S-Cube will be the first to perform, and we will be singing our new single.

“Are you ready?” the emcee yelled and the audience screamed back at him. “Then get ready for the come back of S-Cube!”

The emcee walked offstage and we walk out onto the stage as the opening notes of Words³ started playing.

S-Cube: Words, words, words

             They don’t mean a damn thing to you

Shoei:  Sorry was the only word that lingered on your lips

It’s like you’re not capable of saying anything else

Tears are the only things that linger on your face

It’s like you’re not capable of doing anything else

Sierra:  (Skye: I love you…) you keep saying these words

           (Skye: I’m so sorry…) you think these would cure the hurt

            If words meant anything, you’d turn them to actions

            It’s clear that they mean nothing to you

S-Cube: Words, words, words

             They don’t mean a damn thing to you

             Love, love, love

             These feelings don’t speak to you

             Stop wasting my time, stop wasting my love

             If you actually gave a damn,

             You’d make those words come true

Skye:     Remember (Sierra: you said), remember my face my love

             Surrender (Sierra: you said), surrender your heart to me

             I can see you smile through my tears

             Your laughter keeps ringing through my ears

             Every hour, every minute, you’re everywhere to me

S-Cube: Words, words, words

             They don’t mean a damn thing to you

             Love, love, love

             These feelings don’t speak to you

             Stop wasting my time, stop wasting my love

             If you actually gave a damn,

             You make those words come true

S-Cube: (Sierra: Words…) Words, words, words

             They don’t mean a damn thing to you 
             (Sierra: A damn thing to you)

  Love, love, love (Sierra: Love…)

             These feelings don’t speak to you 
             (Sierra: These feelings don’t speak to you)

             Stop wasting my time, stop wasting my love 
             (Sierra: my love…)

             If you actually gave a damn,

             You make those words come true

Skye:     Baby you’d makes those words come true

Sierra:    Baby stop wasting our time

Shoei:    Those words, words, words

S-Cube: Words…

The audience cheered as soon as we ended and we gave a few bows before we gave our welcome speech.

“Annyeong haseyo, uri S-Cube-imnida!” we greeted, and the audience cheered in response.

“Thank you for being here tonight,” Skye said. “As we all know, tonight’s concert is for a very good cause. We hope that everyone here tonight will continue to support this cause and of course, S-Cube.”

“Enjoy the rest of the night!” I said. “We have a line-up of talented friends ready to entertain you for the next 1 hour.”

“And we hope that you enjoyed the title song from our comeback album. Yeoreobun… kamsahamnida!” Shoei said, ending our speech as we waved and left the stage.

Everyone gave their more energetic performances tonight, as they always did. Simon D pumped up the crowd with his solo rap. The very busy Seo In Young made it just in time for her number and did a rousing performance of her new single ‘Into the Rhythm’ and her ballad ‘Love is Bitter, Pain is Calling’ from her previous album.

“I can’t get over that outfit!” I told her when I saw her backstage after her performance.

“What about it?” she said.

“The rose buds!” I laughed.

“Ah… keuge,” she said, motioning to the big rosebuds strategically placed over each boob on her shirt.

“But these colors of rosebuds make the outfit less suggestive than the ones on the all black outfit,” I laughed.

“Keurae?” she smiled. “Then the outfit has gotten the effect I wanted it to.”

The performances were almost over. Hyun Joong had done his solo act earlier. After the performance of a local school choir, it would be our duet.

“You look nervous,” Ssamdi said when he spotted me on his way to get a drink.

“I’m okay,” I smiled.

“You’ll be ok,” he said, playfully punching my shoulder.

“Araso,” I smiled back.