We’re at Inch’eon, our last stop for our tour to promote the new single. Inch’eon is another metropolitan city like all the others we’d promoted in and it is also a major seaport on the west coast of South Korea. In fact, Inch’eon is regarded as part of the greater Seoul metropolitan area because it was very close to Seoul, and that’s why it was also our last destination of our promotional tour since it was convenient for us to zip back and make it on time for a show taping we had at the end of today.
“Wassup Inch’eon!” Shoei shouted as we ran onto the stage they’d erected within the grounds of Inha University in Inch’eon.
An impressive crowd had assembled in front of the stage, probably consisting of some of the fans who’d traveled here from Seoul. Blue-silver balloons were seen everywhere, and there was even a mini hot air balloon which was made of blue and silver stripes at the corner of the field they’d set up the stage on.
“Inch’eon is the last destination of our nationwide tour, and we couldn’t be prouder of the turnout today,” I said.
“Ye… we’d like to thank SM for giving us the opportunity to do this tour, cos if we didn’t, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get closer to our fans,” Skye added, amidst squealing from his fans.
“Let’s not forget the Super Junior fans too,” Hee Chul piped in.
“You mean Hee Chul’s fans,” I laughed.
“Them too,” he said, and the crowd screamed his name.
“Let’s get on with our first song,” I said. “I know this song is already seriously overplayed over the years, but it was without any doubt the best song we had, and today, we get to sing it with another great rapper since Jun Jin isn’t around…” the crowd cheered at the reference to Jun Jin’s name, since they recognized which song it was already.
“Yeoreobun, we give you… 'Ghosts'!” we announced together.
Hee Chul: This is Hee Chul, baby, puttin’ it in for S-Cube…
Haha…
Sierra baby… do your thing…
Sierra: I turned around as I felt your presence
I was disappointed when I saw, there was no one there
I continued to walk and I heard you whisper
The ghosts of our past are haunting me, haunting me
Skye: I was walking in a crowd when I saw you
Standing right in the middle, as people passed by
I called your name and all at once you disappeared
The ghosts of our past are driving me mad, driving me mad
Shoei: Why can’t I exorcise these thoughts away
They’re driving me to insanity,
Why do they torture me
Sierra: I scream in silence as the ghosts ravage my mind
I wish I can end this torture by ending my life
S-Cube: I wish you didn’t walk away
Without a word, without a care
The memories we shared are suffocating me
Only if you came back, you’d be able to save me
I wish you didn’t walk away
Without a word, without a care
The times we spent together keep reminding me
Only if you came back, you’d be able to save me
Hee Chul: Yeah~ yeah~ here we go…
The ghosts of our pasts just won’t go away
How much more do I need to beg
For you to come back, to stay
Only you can save my sanity, baby
Only you can cure me
Without you I’d go mad
As I drown in my screams
Shoei: Why can’t I exorcise you from my head
You’re driving me mad, you’re torturing me
Sierra: I scream in silence as your ghosts ravage my mind
Stop haunting me, I beg you, if you’re not coming back
Skye: Just take my life, and end this right now
S-Cube:I wish you didn’t walk away
Without a word, without a care
The memories we shared are suffocating me
Only if you came back, you’d be able to save me
I wish you didn’t walk away
Without a word, without a care
The times we spent together keep reminding me
Only if you came back, you’d be able to save me
Hee Chul: You heard me, baby…
Come back to me
The audience cheered wildly as the song ended and the four of us bowed.
“Kamsahamnida!” we said as we took our bows at the 3 sides of the stage where the audience crowded.
“Since this is the last destination of our little tour, we’ve decided to give you a little entertainment,” Hee Chul said.
“Who wants some entertainment?” Skye shouted, and we could hear lots of screaming.
“Actually… the entertainers today will be the guys,” I added. “So without much ado, here’s the special performance for today. I give you… Skye, Shoei and Hee Chul!”
Music to a famous children song, ‘the tadpole’ started playing, and the 3 of them did this really goofy dance that got the crowd screaming with laughter. As the song progressed halfway, the beat changed to a strong Hip Hop beat and the guys changed their stance and each jumped into a ‘freeze’, which is a breakdance technique of holding a pose, whether balancing on hands, elbow or head. Everyone clapped and whooped when that happened, and the song changed into Ice Cube’s ‘You Can Do It’ and they started dancing in unison. At every interval, they’d all stop and pose and there was even a bit where Skye did the ‘windmill’, and Shoei did the ‘caterpillar’.
The song eventually ended with a bang, as always, and they each ended their routine with a ‘suicide’, which meant they’d do a flip or a pose and end up falling on the ground. It looks really painful, but when done by a pro, the main is minimal or almost non-existent. The last time I attempted to learn such moves, I ended up black and blue all over.
“I don’t think you’re cut out for it, Sierra,” Lex oppa told me. “You really need that lower body strength.”
After that, I gave up trying to learn freezes and suicides, in case I broke anything for real, and that meant that I'd be stereotyped as a ‘style-head’ since I focused more on choreography and sharp execution of it, while Skye and Shoei were able to alternate from ‘style-head’ to ‘power-head’. ‘Power-head’ referred to those who specialize in gymnastics and forgo the focus on the neatness of choreography. For today’s performance, they did a mixture of both choreography and simply showing off their moves, which was usually how the audience liked it. The ‘freeze’ bits and ‘power moves’, like Skye’s ‘windmill’, they did today were all unplanned. They decided what they wanted to do there and then.
“Whoo!” I jumped in front of the guys who were still in position on the ground and they started to get up slowly. The three of them were breathing heavily. “Was that some entertainment or what?” I asked the crowd, and they cheered.
“Kamsahamnida…” Shoei said breathlessly into the microphone as soon as he received it from the stagehand.
“Did you like that?” I asked the crowd and I could hear a few scattered ‘Ne’.
“Aww… come on…” Skye said. “Is that all we get for such a great performance? Or did you think we were bad? Did you like it?” Skye shouted.
“Ne!” the crowd shouted loudly in reply this time.
“Good… cos now we’re gonna sing the song everyone’s here for today,” Hee Chul said.
“This is ‘Waiting for You’,” Shoei said and the music started playing.
Shoei: My mind tells me to go
But my heart says stay,
You’ll never know
Skye: Won’t you tell me to stay
Ask me again tomorrow,
and I may not be there
Hee Chul: Battle after battle, we fight each day
Every night before I go to bed for you, I pray
Do you still need me, baby, the way you used to
Tell me quick, baby, for I still love you
Let’s have it out, let’s pick it up, where we left off
Don’t play with me, honey, for you I care for
I don’t have much time, for us to play around
If you truly love me, then just say it out loud
Sierra: Baby turn back, if you don’t know what lies ahead
Don’t go too far, or you may be lost forever
Tried to tell you, no matter what you do, you’ll have my love
But time does not permit, baby I may not be waiting for you
Skye: My plane takes off in an hour
I kept waiting for you,
But you never showed up
Shoei: When I woke up this morning
I was suddenly reminded
that you belonged to me no more
Hee Chul: I look around, don’t see you there
I tried to pretend that I didn’t care
But I feel so lost, I feel so sad
You were the kind of love I wanted to have
Pick myself up and walk again
I swore to myself it wasn’t the end
Each day is a new day in this world without you
No matter what happened I’m grateful for you
Sierra: Baby turn back, if you don’t know what lies ahead
Don’t go too far, or you may be lost forever
Tried to tell you, no matter what you do, you’ll have my love
But time does not permit, baby I may not be waiting for you
Sierra: Baby turn back, if you don’t know what lies ahead
[Shoei: Baby, yeah…]
Don’t go too far, or you may be lost forever
[Skye: Forever…]
Tried to tell you, no matter what you do, you’ll have my love
[Shoei: You’ll have my love]
Sierra: But time does not permit, baby I may not be waiting for you
[Skye and Shoei: Waiting for you]
After singing ‘Waiting for You’, we had out autograph signing session. The fans lined up to get our signatures, pictures taken with us, and some of the girls asked for hugs from the guys and from me as well. Some of the fans came bearing gifts for us. There were stuffed toys, wrapped up packages, flowers and some offered us food and beverages, which we set aside for later. Ever since Yun Ho’s incident with the anti-fan, we’ve been instructed to never consume food given by fans immediately without first inspecting it. Instead of tossing them out immediately, we put them aside and we’d check them before we consumed them later on.
It was almost 6pm by the time we started packing up. The 4 of us sat in the van with the doors open while waiting for Shi Kyung hyung to wrap things up before we headed to our next destination, an interview taping at Arirang, which would be aired on one of the coming episodes of Pops in Seoul. Interviewing us is VJ Isak. In case no one remembers, Isak was one half of the duo, Isak N Jiyeon, created by SM. Jiyeon is now Lina of TSZX, and Isak is now a VJ and DJ for Arirang TV and she also emcees for other cable television programs.
Initially, they’d planned to come to Inch’eon to interview us as it is more common for them to interview us on location, but since we wanted to head back to Seoul earlier, we asked to be interviewed at the Arirang studios.
“Welcome, welcome!” Isak said as soon as we walked into this small waiting room where they were interviewing us.
“Hi Isak!” I greeted her.
I’d met Isak on several occasions and have managed to have short conversations with her. Sometimes it’s a bit hard for me to imagine that she’s younger than me; 2 years to be exact. She always seemed a bit more mature to me, probably because of the years she spent in the entertainment business. She’s a great VJ, and I say that because ever since she replaced VJ Julie on Pops in Seoul, I’ve started watching it again. VJ Julie put me off because she was so stiff, and there was nothing personable about her.
“Hey Sierra,” she greeted me in English. “How’s it going?”
“Same old,” I smiled. “So this is the setup?”
“Pretty much,” she said. “Hey guys!”
“Isak…” Hee Chul drawled. “Wassup momma!”
“I ain’t your momma,” Isak replied, and that cracked us up.
After getting our makeup touched up, the 4 of us squeezed onto the longer couch in the room, while Isak sat in the armchair beside us.
“Ready?” she asked us, and we nodded.
“Action,” the producer called out.
Isak: Hey there! This is VJ Isak and I am here now with this season’s hottest R&B act, S-Cube, and a special addition to their latest project, Hee Chul of Super Junior.
S-Cube & Hee Chul: Annyeong haseyo! (bowing)
Sierra: S-Cube-ui, Sierra-imnida.
Skye: S-Cube-ui, Skye-imnida.
Shoei: S-Cube-ui, Shoei-imnida.
Hee Chul: S... I mean, Super Junior-ui, Hee Chul-imnida. (everyone laughs)
Skye: I knew it… you want so much to join us permanently, don’t you?
Hee Chul: You wish…
Isak: So… I understand that you guys have just completed your weeklong nationwide tour for the single, ‘Waiting for You’. Tell us a bit more about it.
Skye: ‘Waiting for You’ is a song that all 4 of us wrote together.
Sierra: I wrote the rap, which is a first for me.
Hee Chul: And us guys wrote the rest.
Isak: So what’s the meaning of the song? I’ve seen the MV and it looks rather serious and pensive.
Hee Chul: I’m gonna explain the meaning in the first person perspective, so please imagine I’m the only one singing this song. (laughs) This song is about telling this person that I love, or loved that as much as I love her, I can’t wait forever, and even though it’s difficult, eventually, I will have to get over her.
Sierra: Yep… that’s about it. So it’s like, ‘if you love me, then you’d better not be playing with me now, cos eventually, I will forget about you… I will try to forget about you’.
Isak: Anyone in particular in your life who inspired this song?
[To be continued…]
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Sunday, 5 August 2007
Chapter 109: L.O.V.E
[Skye’s POV]
I walked out of the room as the program ended. Today had been eventful and I was ready to go to bed, but first, I had to call Hae Rin. I’d only had yesterday night to spend with her, and it felt like I hadn’t come back at all.
“It’s me,” I said as soon as the call was connected.
“I saw you on Sound Bites,” she said.
“Did I look okay?” I asked her.
“Is that all you think about?” she giggled.
“Kinda,” I laughed.
“Tired?” she asked me.
“A little,” I said. “I’ll head back to my room after this.”
“Where are you now?”
“We’re all in nuna’s room, watching TV.”
“I see,” she said and was silent for a moment. “You know…” she started. “Seeing you just for that few hours yesterday… it feels as if you never came back from Taiwan,” she laughed softly.
“Arayo…” I said. “I miss you too.”
“Skye…” she said. “There’s something else I wanted to ask you about.”
“What?”
“Have you seen the tabloids today?”
“No I haven’t. I was traveling and performing all day. What’s wrong? Is it something about nuna again?”
“No… it’s you. There’s this photo of you walking out of the arrival hall, with a girl hanging on your arm.”
“What?” I exclaimed.
“Who is she, Skye?”
“I really didn’t think they’d put that in the tabloids.”
“Well they did, so who is she?” she said, and I could sense she was getting impatient.
“That’s Yuk Hee,” I said.
“So you know her?”
“She’s a childhood friend of mine. I met her in Taiwan and we decided to fly back together.”
“Looking at the photo, you guys looked more like a couple just returning from their honeymoon.”
“Don’t say that, Hae Rin. You know it’s not true. I’d never betray you like that.”
“I’m just saying… that’s how it looked to me.”
“So what would you have me do? Do you want me to send our photos to the tabloids so that they know it’s you I love? Are you willing to put your career on the line just to quell your jealousy?”
“Mian… I was a little…”
“It’s alright,” I said. “Just have a little more faith in me, in us. Okay?”
“Araso…” she sighed. “So does she know you have a girlfriend?”
“I told her about you. She knows I’m very serious about you.”
“Good.”
“How was your day?”
“Same old… they’re working on a new song for me, and I have to dance in the new MV.”
“That should be fun… since you’ve been singing mostly ballads for so long.”
“I guess…” she said. “You know… you should go to bed. It’s almost 12am.”
“Yea… I’ll wash up and go to bed. I’ll call you tomorrow night?”
“Ne,” she said, and there was another moment of silence on both sides.
“Hae Rin-ah…” I said.
“O…” she replied.
“Saranghae,” I said.
“Saranghae,” she replied, and I could hear a hint of happiness in her voice.
I opened the glass door that closed off the balcony and the room, and walked in. Hee Chul hyung and Shoei had gone back to their room.
“They went to bed?” I asked nuna.
“Yea,” she answered. She was already in her pajamas and toweling-dry her hair, which meant they had left sometime ago. “You look troubled. What’s up?”
“Hae Rin saw a photo of me and Yuk Hee in the tabloids today.”
“You and Yuk Hee? Was it taken at the airport?”
“Yep,” I said as I flopped onto her bed. “She sounds upset.”
“Well… she was kinda hanging on you. Even we were a little agog when we saw the both of you together.”
“I could hardly shove her off me, right?”
“Hmm… does Yuk Hee know you’re dating Hae Rin?”
“She knows. I told her on the plane.”
“Do you think Yuk Hee likes you?”
“Come on, nuna! We’re just childhood friends. It’s platonic.”
“What if she doesn’t think so?” she said as she hung up her towel on the rack in the bathroom.
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
“You know… since you both had such a bond when you were younger, she might want to rekindle the relationship and make it something more.”
“That’s crazy!” I exclaimed.
“That could be what she was thinking. You should know what Hae Rin was like back when she was obsessed with Jae Joong. Why would Yuk Hee be different?”
“I just don’t think it’s possible.”
“Skye… you’re no longer Skye Jang Kyu Jin from Kwangju. You’re Skye of S-Cube now… you shouldn’t be surprised if girls throw themselves at you; even those who used to laugh at you or ignored you when you were a kid,” she explained.
“Keundae… ottoke!” I yelled in frustration as I covered my face with a pillow.
“Stay away from Yuk Hee. That’s the safest route. Don’t allow her to even imagine she has a shot at you.”
“You seem to be speaking from a very personal point of view,” I laughed.
“I am…”
“Does this have anything to do with what Hae Rin did in the past?”
“It does. But I know Hae Rin is true to you now. You’d better be true to her too.”
“I am!” I protested. “What makes you think I’m not?”
“Don’t blame me… people would generally see you as a playboy, even if we don’t.”
“Nuna…” I whined. “How can you say that about me?”
“Just telling you the truth.”
If that was what nuna thought the world thinks of me, I wonder how warped Yuk Hee’s perception of me would be. Do I really need to sever ties with her? Have I really been giving her the wrong signals?
[Hae Rin’s POV]
I hung up the phone and tossed it aside. It’s been another taxing day at work, coupled with me seeing that stupid photo in the tabloids. I’d been holding it in the whole day, waiting for Skye to call before I could ask him about it since he didn’t have the time to call me or answer my calls for the whole day.
I used to think that I could only love 1 person, and that was Jae Joong oppa, but Skye changed everything. I could feel my feelings for him grow deeper and deeper as the days go by, even though we hardly had time to see each other. Still, that would be only part of whole picture of our problems. The main issue wasn’t really our schedule, but the fact that we had to keep our relationship a secret, for me. Skye’s career will not suffer much if he has a girlfriend, but for me, since I was a newcomer, and still building my fan base, I couldn’t afford to reveal my personal relationship with Skye to the world. That, and the fact that my manager, Ryu Ji Tae, will kill me for that.
I owe Ji Tae oppa the world. He was the one who saw the star in me and worked hard to make sure I graduated from SM Academy and secured me a contract with SM. If it wasn’t for his faith in me, I’d still be a trainee, or someone’s backup dancer. I never listened to anyone’s instructions other than his, but this time, I had another instruction to follow… my heart’s.
It’s still unexpected how Skye won over me with his sincerity, and now that I feel that this Yuk Hee girl is threatening our relationship, I finally know how Sierra onni felt when I had designs on Jae Joong oppa. Even if you’re pretty confident that this girl has nothing on you, it’s still hard to sit back and just let it play out or go away. You’d want to do something to stake your claim. How do I do that?
I sat up and slid to the edge of my bed, then I opened my bedside drawer and took out a box, in it was a locket. Skye had given the locket to me on our 100th day.
“Igot mwoya?” I asked him when he thrust the package at me.
He’d asked me to meet him on the rooftop of the studios’ building.
“What do you think? Seunmul, of course,” he laughed. “It’s for you.”
“Yea… what’s inside?” I asked him.
“Aigoo… just open it,” he said. “Like this,” he added as he reached out and ripped open a corner of the package for me.
“Araso… araso…” I laughed and I continued where he’d left off.
The first layer of paper was off, and beneath it was… another layer of wrapper.
“What the…” I said and he laughed.
“It’s to add to the suspense,” he said.
“This is so not environmentally friendly, and a waste of time,” I complained.
“Yaa… where’s your sense of adventure?”
I ripped the next wrapper open to find another layer waiting. The package, at this moment, was the size of a brick. I wondered just how many more layers did I have to go?
“Jang Kyu Jin!” I yelled at him and tossed the package at him. “You can unwrap it, or I’m not accepting it.”
“Hae Rin-ah… how can you do this? It’s our 100th day! Must you spoil the romantic purpose of the gift?”
“You spoilt it by wrapping the gift with a hundred layers of wrapping paper!” I protested. “Shiro… I’m not gonna unwrap it myself,” I said with a stomp, for effect.
“Araso… araso…” he grumbled and started unwrapping the gift himself.
After, literally, a hundred layers of wrapping paper ripped off and strewn all over the floor, he finally handed me a velvet box; the gift itself.
“Komawo,” I smiled sweetly as I accepted it, and I kissed him on the cheek.
“Is that all I get?”
“You were close to getting nothing with that stunt you’d just pulled,” I said as I stuck out my tongue.
I opened the box and inside was a locket. A triangular locket engraved with our names on it, in Hangeul; 규진(Kyu Jin) and 해린(Hae Rin). The idea was a little cheesy, but I loved the locket anyway. Inside was a black and white photo of the two of us that we’d taken sometime back. He was kissing my cheek, his eyes looking at the camera, and I was laughing, my mouth wide open and eyes scrunched closed because he was actually tickling me when the photo was taken.
“I love it,” I said as I turned to him. “Komapda,” I said as I leaned towards him and kissed him on the lips.
I was sitting on a railing and he was standing beside me when I kissed him, and he wrapped his arms around my waist to pull me closer so that I leant on him. I’ll never forget that kiss, even if it wasn’t the first. It was one of the most romantic occasions we’d ever experience.
I lay back on the bed and swung the pendant on its chain like a pendulum, willing it to hypnotize me into forgetting about today, about how much it hurt to imagine Skye would leave me for another girl. She was pretty, and tall… not that I’m not pretty. I know that I’m pretty, but something about her screams uljjang. She could easily get popular if she had the right connections and opportunity. She could easily work her charm on Skye if his love for me isn’t as strong as I thought it was.
I slowly drifted to sleep, a dreamless slumber… the next morning, I woke up feeling more tired than ever, but I had to toughen up and face the day. There’s no room for self-pity when you’re a kasu. You either move on, or get left behind.
[Yuk Hee’s POV]
I roamed the stores alone today, and shopped like crazy to cure my boredom. As I walked past a music store, I saw S-Cube’s new MV playing on the huge LCD screens at the display window. Skye looked hot as usual, and I couldn’t help but wish I could see him again at that moment. He’ll be gone for the week, and by the end of this week, he’d be heading back to Taipei. Maybe I’ll go back with him, and work from there.
I walked out of the room as the program ended. Today had been eventful and I was ready to go to bed, but first, I had to call Hae Rin. I’d only had yesterday night to spend with her, and it felt like I hadn’t come back at all.
“It’s me,” I said as soon as the call was connected.
“I saw you on Sound Bites,” she said.
“Did I look okay?” I asked her.
“Is that all you think about?” she giggled.
“Kinda,” I laughed.
“Tired?” she asked me.
“A little,” I said. “I’ll head back to my room after this.”
“Where are you now?”
“We’re all in nuna’s room, watching TV.”
“I see,” she said and was silent for a moment. “You know…” she started. “Seeing you just for that few hours yesterday… it feels as if you never came back from Taiwan,” she laughed softly.
“Arayo…” I said. “I miss you too.”
“Skye…” she said. “There’s something else I wanted to ask you about.”
“What?”
“Have you seen the tabloids today?”
“No I haven’t. I was traveling and performing all day. What’s wrong? Is it something about nuna again?”
“No… it’s you. There’s this photo of you walking out of the arrival hall, with a girl hanging on your arm.”
“What?” I exclaimed.
“Who is she, Skye?”
“I really didn’t think they’d put that in the tabloids.”
“Well they did, so who is she?” she said, and I could sense she was getting impatient.
“That’s Yuk Hee,” I said.
“So you know her?”
“She’s a childhood friend of mine. I met her in Taiwan and we decided to fly back together.”
“Looking at the photo, you guys looked more like a couple just returning from their honeymoon.”
“Don’t say that, Hae Rin. You know it’s not true. I’d never betray you like that.”
“I’m just saying… that’s how it looked to me.”
“So what would you have me do? Do you want me to send our photos to the tabloids so that they know it’s you I love? Are you willing to put your career on the line just to quell your jealousy?”
“Mian… I was a little…”
“It’s alright,” I said. “Just have a little more faith in me, in us. Okay?”
“Araso…” she sighed. “So does she know you have a girlfriend?”
“I told her about you. She knows I’m very serious about you.”
“Good.”
“How was your day?”
“Same old… they’re working on a new song for me, and I have to dance in the new MV.”
“That should be fun… since you’ve been singing mostly ballads for so long.”
“I guess…” she said. “You know… you should go to bed. It’s almost 12am.”
“Yea… I’ll wash up and go to bed. I’ll call you tomorrow night?”
“Ne,” she said, and there was another moment of silence on both sides.
“Hae Rin-ah…” I said.
“O…” she replied.
“Saranghae,” I said.
“Saranghae,” she replied, and I could hear a hint of happiness in her voice.
I opened the glass door that closed off the balcony and the room, and walked in. Hee Chul hyung and Shoei had gone back to their room.
“They went to bed?” I asked nuna.
“Yea,” she answered. She was already in her pajamas and toweling-dry her hair, which meant they had left sometime ago. “You look troubled. What’s up?”
“Hae Rin saw a photo of me and Yuk Hee in the tabloids today.”
“You and Yuk Hee? Was it taken at the airport?”
“Yep,” I said as I flopped onto her bed. “She sounds upset.”
“Well… she was kinda hanging on you. Even we were a little agog when we saw the both of you together.”
“I could hardly shove her off me, right?”
“Hmm… does Yuk Hee know you’re dating Hae Rin?”
“She knows. I told her on the plane.”
“Do you think Yuk Hee likes you?”
“Come on, nuna! We’re just childhood friends. It’s platonic.”
“What if she doesn’t think so?” she said as she hung up her towel on the rack in the bathroom.
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
“You know… since you both had such a bond when you were younger, she might want to rekindle the relationship and make it something more.”
“That’s crazy!” I exclaimed.
“That could be what she was thinking. You should know what Hae Rin was like back when she was obsessed with Jae Joong. Why would Yuk Hee be different?”
“I just don’t think it’s possible.”
“Skye… you’re no longer Skye Jang Kyu Jin from Kwangju. You’re Skye of S-Cube now… you shouldn’t be surprised if girls throw themselves at you; even those who used to laugh at you or ignored you when you were a kid,” she explained.
“Keundae… ottoke!” I yelled in frustration as I covered my face with a pillow.
“Stay away from Yuk Hee. That’s the safest route. Don’t allow her to even imagine she has a shot at you.”
“You seem to be speaking from a very personal point of view,” I laughed.
“I am…”
“Does this have anything to do with what Hae Rin did in the past?”
“It does. But I know Hae Rin is true to you now. You’d better be true to her too.”
“I am!” I protested. “What makes you think I’m not?”
“Don’t blame me… people would generally see you as a playboy, even if we don’t.”
“Nuna…” I whined. “How can you say that about me?”
“Just telling you the truth.”
If that was what nuna thought the world thinks of me, I wonder how warped Yuk Hee’s perception of me would be. Do I really need to sever ties with her? Have I really been giving her the wrong signals?
[Hae Rin’s POV]
I hung up the phone and tossed it aside. It’s been another taxing day at work, coupled with me seeing that stupid photo in the tabloids. I’d been holding it in the whole day, waiting for Skye to call before I could ask him about it since he didn’t have the time to call me or answer my calls for the whole day.
I used to think that I could only love 1 person, and that was Jae Joong oppa, but Skye changed everything. I could feel my feelings for him grow deeper and deeper as the days go by, even though we hardly had time to see each other. Still, that would be only part of whole picture of our problems. The main issue wasn’t really our schedule, but the fact that we had to keep our relationship a secret, for me. Skye’s career will not suffer much if he has a girlfriend, but for me, since I was a newcomer, and still building my fan base, I couldn’t afford to reveal my personal relationship with Skye to the world. That, and the fact that my manager, Ryu Ji Tae, will kill me for that.
I owe Ji Tae oppa the world. He was the one who saw the star in me and worked hard to make sure I graduated from SM Academy and secured me a contract with SM. If it wasn’t for his faith in me, I’d still be a trainee, or someone’s backup dancer. I never listened to anyone’s instructions other than his, but this time, I had another instruction to follow… my heart’s.
It’s still unexpected how Skye won over me with his sincerity, and now that I feel that this Yuk Hee girl is threatening our relationship, I finally know how Sierra onni felt when I had designs on Jae Joong oppa. Even if you’re pretty confident that this girl has nothing on you, it’s still hard to sit back and just let it play out or go away. You’d want to do something to stake your claim. How do I do that?
I sat up and slid to the edge of my bed, then I opened my bedside drawer and took out a box, in it was a locket. Skye had given the locket to me on our 100th day.
“Igot mwoya?” I asked him when he thrust the package at me.
He’d asked me to meet him on the rooftop of the studios’ building.
“What do you think? Seunmul, of course,” he laughed. “It’s for you.”
“Yea… what’s inside?” I asked him.
“Aigoo… just open it,” he said. “Like this,” he added as he reached out and ripped open a corner of the package for me.
“Araso… araso…” I laughed and I continued where he’d left off.
The first layer of paper was off, and beneath it was… another layer of wrapper.
“What the…” I said and he laughed.
“It’s to add to the suspense,” he said.
“This is so not environmentally friendly, and a waste of time,” I complained.
“Yaa… where’s your sense of adventure?”
I ripped the next wrapper open to find another layer waiting. The package, at this moment, was the size of a brick. I wondered just how many more layers did I have to go?
“Jang Kyu Jin!” I yelled at him and tossed the package at him. “You can unwrap it, or I’m not accepting it.”
“Hae Rin-ah… how can you do this? It’s our 100th day! Must you spoil the romantic purpose of the gift?”
“You spoilt it by wrapping the gift with a hundred layers of wrapping paper!” I protested. “Shiro… I’m not gonna unwrap it myself,” I said with a stomp, for effect.
“Araso… araso…” he grumbled and started unwrapping the gift himself.
After, literally, a hundred layers of wrapping paper ripped off and strewn all over the floor, he finally handed me a velvet box; the gift itself.
“Komawo,” I smiled sweetly as I accepted it, and I kissed him on the cheek.
“Is that all I get?”
“You were close to getting nothing with that stunt you’d just pulled,” I said as I stuck out my tongue.
I opened the box and inside was a locket. A triangular locket engraved with our names on it, in Hangeul; 규진(Kyu Jin) and 해린(Hae Rin). The idea was a little cheesy, but I loved the locket anyway. Inside was a black and white photo of the two of us that we’d taken sometime back. He was kissing my cheek, his eyes looking at the camera, and I was laughing, my mouth wide open and eyes scrunched closed because he was actually tickling me when the photo was taken.
“I love it,” I said as I turned to him. “Komapda,” I said as I leaned towards him and kissed him on the lips.
I was sitting on a railing and he was standing beside me when I kissed him, and he wrapped his arms around my waist to pull me closer so that I leant on him. I’ll never forget that kiss, even if it wasn’t the first. It was one of the most romantic occasions we’d ever experience.
I lay back on the bed and swung the pendant on its chain like a pendulum, willing it to hypnotize me into forgetting about today, about how much it hurt to imagine Skye would leave me for another girl. She was pretty, and tall… not that I’m not pretty. I know that I’m pretty, but something about her screams uljjang. She could easily get popular if she had the right connections and opportunity. She could easily work her charm on Skye if his love for me isn’t as strong as I thought it was.
I slowly drifted to sleep, a dreamless slumber… the next morning, I woke up feeling more tired than ever, but I had to toughen up and face the day. There’s no room for self-pity when you’re a kasu. You either move on, or get left behind.
[Yuk Hee’s POV]
I roamed the stores alone today, and shopped like crazy to cure my boredom. As I walked past a music store, I saw S-Cube’s new MV playing on the huge LCD screens at the display window. Skye looked hot as usual, and I couldn’t help but wish I could see him again at that moment. He’ll be gone for the week, and by the end of this week, he’d be heading back to Taipei. Maybe I’ll go back with him, and work from there.
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
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!
“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!
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