[KPOP] Map the Soul
Dec. 25th, 2010 12:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mostotherthingsMap the Soul
Ji Eun (IU) / Hyukjae ; Kang Hye Jung / Tablo
7,558 words AU
Summary: When Tablo meets young, talented rapper Hyukjae in a club, he's blown away by the younger boy's talent. But Hyukjae isn't that impressed by Tablo and his offer of a record deal...
Notes: I started writing this after reading the booklet that came with Map the Soul that kat lent me. This is kind of an alternate reality, where Tablo and Hyejung date for longer than they did in real life, and Hyukjae doesn’t belong to Super Junior (but everyone else does), and Jieun isn’t IU but a regular high school student (and Donghae’s baby cousin). Everyone is OOC, and other details might not match with real life. Whatever, it’s an AU.
Posting this is a Christmas present to myself.
Tablo saw the boy for the first time in a club at Hongdae. He was on stage, rapping so fast Tablo had no clue what he was saying, but the crowd was going wild, and that was really all that mattered.
The boy had a quality- something about him that Tablo couldn’t quite place, but he liked a lot.
“Who’s the boy?” Tablo asked the friend who was with him.
“Him? Goes by Eun… something,” he said. “I could introduce you. He’s pretty well known in these parts.”
So that was their first meeting, in a stuffy “backstage” area of a club that was actually more of a closet.
“My name is Hyukjae, but I go by Eunhyuk,” the boy with the extremely wide smile said as he shook Tablo’s hand. “I know you, you’re Tablo from Epik High.”
“Right, but I’m actually Daniel,” he nodded, shaking Hyukjae’s hand. “That thing you did out there, was it all you?”
“All me?” Hyukjae looked confused, but the lead singer of the band he had been rapping with explained. “Oh! Yeah I wrote it, if that’s what you meant. I made it up today.”
Tablo sucked in a deep breath. He wanted this boy more than anything on his label, and before he knew it he was whipping out a name card and handing it to him. (Later on, he would reflect and realize that it wasn’t maybe the best move he should have made, but then again anyone besides Hyukjae would have jumped at the chance offered)
“I have a record label. I’d like to ask if you’d like to join us.”
Hyejung, in the middle of pouring him a cup of coffee, gasped in surprise. “You mean, he said no.”
“He said no,” Tablo said, holding his hands out. “He said he’s not interested in bloodsucking music companies.”
“He called your company a bloodsucking company,” Hyejung deadpanned as she handed him his coffee.
“Not in those exact terms, but that's pretty much what he meant,” Tablo nodded, taking a sip of coffee. “Hye, the boy’s got talent and it’s coming off him in waves. I talked to the lead singer, that Jiheon guy, and even he thinks the boy’s got more talent than just a Hongdae club. I have to convince him.”
“Just don’t become so obsessed with him and miss out on your meals,” Hyejung said, leaning over to give Tablo a kiss on the forehead before heading to their bedroom to get ready for work.
Tablo loved Hyejung. Everyone they knew could see that. He hoped Hyejung did. He’d been wanting to move their relationship to the next step for a while, but there was something that seemed to be holding him back. He wasn’t quite sure what it was, he mused as he took another sip of coffee. But he certainly hoped he could find out soon.
“I have two recordings today so I won’t be home until late,” Hyejung stepped out of the bedroom, dressed in a fetching pink dress which looked funny with her fuzzy panda slippers. “Where’re you going to be?”
“The club. I’m going to look for that boy again,” Tablo nodded.
Hyejung laughed. She slipped on her watch, hopped on one foot as she clipped on her earrings and grabbed the cardigan and bag she laid out earlier on the couch. “I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Right,” Tablo got out of his seat and walked her to the door, giving her a kiss as she opened the door.
“Daniel…” she paused at the door, holding the doorknob and turning in, biting her lower lip.
“Hmm?” he asked, scratching his head.
She shook her head. “No, it’s nothing. Have a good day.”
Tablo brought Mithra with him the next time. His friend had tipped him off, saying that Hyukjae worked nights in another club. Hyukjae looked angry when he saw them, but turned to Mithra and asked for his order.
“He doesn’t like you.”
“He thinks all recording company heads are bloodthirsty son of bitches,” Tablo state mildly, and Mithra laughed.
“If you were blood thirsty, the world is at its end,” Mithra shook his head. It was also a well known fact in their own circle that Map the Soul wasn’t about profit, and the last two CDs Tablo had worked on with two new artists had bombed in the market.
Tablo shrugged. Hyukjae returned with their orders, and Tablo held the boy back when he made to turn away. “Listen, no obligations. You can just come down to the studios and take a look, see how we work.”
“I told you, I’m not interested,” Hyukjae said, holding his tray over his body like a protective cover. “I don’t like the recording business. Nobody makes real music anymore.”
“Hey boy, that’s something big you’re saying right there, you know what you’re doing?” Mithra grinned. He liked this boy and his attitude, and he could see why Tablo wanted to get through to him. Tablo was passionate about music, and even more passionate about people who spoke of the recording business as a thing that’s killing music, because he thought that way too. “Map the Soul’s different, I can promise you that.”
“Does he have a name card too?” Hyukjae looked warily at Mithra.
Tablo shook his hand. “He’s in my band. Epik High.”
Hyukjae squinted at Mithra again, and nodded. “Sorry, it’s the lights here,” he said as he held out his hand. Mithra shook his hand as he said, “I’m a big fan, actually.”
“Oh, so what’s the problem?” Mithra looked amused.
“I…” Hyukjae stammered. “Look, I tried it all before, okay? The auditions, the training, the dancing. But I couldn’t last the journey and I realised it isn’t for me.”
“Boy, are you telling me you were in a boy band?” Mithra raised an eyebrow.
“Yea. I know a couple of people still in that. They’re doing well, but I don’t want to be them. I like doing my own shows, writing my own music. I feel like my own boss,” Hyukjae grinned. Then he stopped. “I shouldn’t be…” he stopped. “Enjoy your night,” he said, before walking away.
“Damn it, so close,” Tablo slapped his thigh in frustration. “He just closed off like that!”
“He’s a wary kid, Tablo. But I think deep down inside, he really wants it too,” Mithra observed.
The next morning, he woke to an empty bed. Tablo wondered if Hyejung had gotten home the night before, so he picked up his phone and sent her a message. Then he stepped into the bathroom and realised she was right there.
“What are you do…” he asked before he stopped. She was sitting on the toilet bowl, holding a pregnancy test kit in her hands.
“I’m late,” she looked up at him. “I… needed to check.”
“And?” his breath caught in his throat, and a million thoughts ran through Tablo’s mind at the moment. Most of them involved whether he could leave his music and focus on a baby. He loved Hyejung, he really did, but was it the right time?
Suddenly, moving on to the next step was scaring the shit out of him. He lost his breath.
“What will you do if it’s positive?” she asked.
“I’ll marry you,” he said in a heartbeat.
“And if it isn’t?”
This answer took a longer time. Hyejung sighed, getting up from the toilet seat. “I knew it.”
“Knew what?’
“Daniel, I love you. We’ve been together for a while. Was it wrong to hope that you’re thinking of marrying me?” she looked so hopeful, that Tablo wasn’t quite sure what to say. And it was ridiculous, because all Tablo had been thinking of the past couple of weeks was how he was going to pop the question, and now that she was here, the question wouldn’t get past his lips.
“I… I want to,” he stammered. “I’ve been… I… It’s just, I thought… we would…” the words died in his throat, and he couldn’t go on. They stood like that for like an eternity, just not looking at each other, him trying to get his throat to work, and her waiting for him to say something.
Finally, she shook her head, tossing the kit into the trash. “It’s negative Dan. I’m sorry, maybe you’re just… I shouldn’t have pushed this. I’ve had a hard day,” she explained, before turning to walk out of the bathroom, leaving Tablo standing in there like an idiot.
That night, Tablo decided the only thing to do was to get roaring drunk, so he headed to the club where Hyukjae worked.
“Is there something wrong with you?” Hyukjae frowned as Tablo downed his sixth bottle of the night. “I don’t want to have to call the hospital. Alcohol poisioning’s not the way to die.”
“Tell me about it!” Tablo cried. Hyukjae went back to work, but Tablo of them stayed until closing time and by then he was so drunk he probably wasn’t able to walk at all.
Hyukjae sighed. He frisked Tablo’s pockets and pulled out his phone, hoping to dial someone who could help him. He found Mithra’s number, but when he picked up he said he was somewhere in the vicinity of Andong and unable to return that night, so could Hyukjae just take care of him for that evening?
“You bastard,” Hyukjae kicked Tablo’s chair, but the man didn’t even react. Just slumped over like deadweight. He was just thinking about leaving Tablo to sleep there for the night when a motion at the door made him turn around.
“Oh you,” he sighed when he saw who it was. “Why are you here tonight?”
“Do you think he’s awake?”
“Let him sleep it off.”
CRASH.
“Oppa~!”
“Shh!”
Tablo squinted. The loud crash woke him up and he struggled to keep his eyes open long enough for him to see exactly where he was. He was definitely not home, he thought, looking down at the yellow quilt over him and posters of a male idol group on the wall.
“Oh, you’re up,” the door opened a crack. “Tablo-ssi?”
He mumbled something in response. It was supposed to be yes.
“There’s breakfast if you want it… we’ll be outside,” the boy said before closing the door behind him.
Ten minutes later, when Tablo felt a little more human he shuffled out of the room. “Oh thank god,” he muttered when he finally recognized the person who had taken him in for the night.
Hyukjae smiled back at him. “Good morning Tablo-ssi.”
“Thank God it’s you,” Tablo muttered, walking over to the table and taking the mug Hyukjae held out to him. Coffee. He took a sip and felt a little more awake than he was a moment ago. He frowned as his head cleared. “They mentioned you work a midnight shift and always slept until the afternoon. Why are you up so early?”
“Spying on me?” Hyukjae asked, turning back to what he was doing. It looked like he was packing a lunchbox.
“No, just interested to know where you are every second of the day. I want to sink my bloodthirsty claws in you. Considering my company and all,” Tablo said and he was rewarded with Hyukjae’s laugh.
The reason why Hyukjae was awake revealed itself a moment later when a girl ran out of the bathroom, dressed in her high school uniform, bag hanging haphazardly over her left shoulder. “Oppa, where are my socks?”
“I don’t know, you should have brought them with you,” Hyukjae said, and Tablo watched as the boy quickly grabbed the lunch box he finished preparing a moment ago and handing them to the girl.
She found her socks and pulled them on, grabbed the lunch box from Hyukjae and cried out, “See you later, Tablo-ssi!” before running out of the apartment in three seconds flat.
“Who’s that?” Tablo asked, once the dust settled.
“My roommate’s cousin,” Hyukjae said, turning to look at the dishes in his sink with a sigh. “She stays here sometimes. We live closer to her school.”
“Ah…” Tablo said, before going back to his coffee. It was too early to think of anything else.
“How’s it going?”
“How’s what going?” Tablo asked, not looking up from his Mac. It might look like he was hard at work, but one glance over and Mithra could see that Tablo was playing Pac-Man with his emulator.
“Everything.”
“The girl, the boy, or the music?”
Mithra laughed. “All of them.”
“Not too good, yes!” Tablo exclaimed, punching his fists into the air as he cleared another level. He turned to Mithra. “You were the one who made the boy bring me home yesterday, right?”
“What, anything naughty happen?” Mithra laughed, taking another sip of his latte before putting it down. “I didn’t know you swung that way.”
“Asshole,” Tablo said, kicking the leg of Mithra’s chair. “Nothing naughty happen. But apparently the boy sometimes lives with a teenage girl. Probably underaged. If anything naughty happens, it’s between them.”
Mithra raised an eyebrow. “A teenage girl?”
“I didn’t ask,” Tablo said, finally shutting down Pac Man and pulling up the document he was working on before he started playing. “Hey.”
“What.”
“You think at least I could do one of those three things?”
Mithra laughed. “Because each one of them is biting up that stick up your ass? Oh certainly, I wish you’d do at least one of them. Lightens the mood. Makes us all happier.”
Tablo laughed. “Shut up.”
“Don’t stress yourself,” Mithra leaned back on his chair and grinned. “It’d all make sense in a while.”
“Yea,” Tablo nodded, looking at the picture of him and Hyejung on his desktop. “I hope it will.”
Hyukjae waved absently as Tablo walked in with Junki. He gestured for them to take a seat and returned to the customer he had been serving. He pulled two beers from the tap and handed them to the customer.
A moment later he was at their table, with their drinks and holding a hand out. Tablo chuckled and handed him his card.
“Give yourself a big tip,” Tablo said. “For helping me out.”
Hyukjae scoffed. “If you were giving me a tip, cash would be useful. And I didn’t drag your sorry ass home because I was helping you out. Just for the record, I still don’t trust people like you.”
Tablo raised an eyebrow. “No? Then why did you help me out?”
Hyukjae paused for a moment, as though contemplating if he should tell Tablo. “Because Jieun said I should. She didn’t think it’d be good for a well known musician for you to be caught by tabloid papers in the morning looking drunk out of your mind.”
“Jieun? The girl you were talking about?” Junki asked, turning to Tablo. Tablo grinned and nodded.
Hyukjae frowned, arms crossed over his chest. “What.”
“Hey,” Tablo laughed, both arms out. “Seriously, I told Junki about her, but I just talked. I have a woman. Chill, big brother. She’s like an extension of you, and haven’t you realized how interested I am in you to stalk you like this? I tell all my friends about you, and Junki here’s part of Map the Soul. He’s got a name card too.”
Hyukjae opened his mouth as though to say something- then stopped. He turned and stalked off to the counter with Tablo’s credit card, and for a fleeting moment Tablo wondered how much the charge that night would be.
Junki grinned. “Looks like he’s got a crush.”
“She’s in high school,” Tablo turned to Junki in shock, but what Junki said made sense.
“Ah… there’s your complex.”
Tablo stared at Junki a moment before he burst into laughter.
Hyukjae was performing again, and this time Tablo decided to bring Hyejung with him. She had been curious about who this boy that had so much of Tablo’s attention was.
“There he is,” Tablo said, when the boy got on stage to the cheers of the crowd (his own, personal fanclub). He danced and rapped and even sang a bit, much to the amusement of the crowd. The lead singer of the band on stage promised a “painful punishment” the next time Hyukjae sang the next time they were on the same stage.
“He’s like you,” Hyejung said, after the crowd cheered the last of Hyukjae’s rap and the boy ran up to give the lead singer a hug.
“Hmm?”
“He’s a lot like you when we first met. Young, brash, crazy talented,” Hyejung laughed. “No wonder you’re so attracted to him.”
Tablo sighed. “’You make it sound like a bad thing.”
“It isn’t,” Hyejung shook her head. She paused for a moment, before adding, “Well at least, I’ve never thought it was.”
They were just leaving the club when they spotted a girl in her high school uniform sitting outside, waiting. Tablo thought she looked familiar and a closer look confirmed his suspicious. “It’s you!” he exclaimed.
“Who?” Hyejung asked curiously.
“Tablo-ssi?” the girl asked, getting up.
“Hyukjae’s…”
“Jieun,” she provided helpfully.
“Hyukjae’s Jieun?” Hyejung chuckled.
Tablo frowned. “Jieun-ssi… what are you doing here?”
“Waiting for oppa,” Jieun said, hugging her backpack closer to her chest. She looked tired, and it was late. A quick check on his watch told Tablo it was almost two AM in the morning.
“You really shouldn’t be out here this late,” Tablo muttered. He picked up his cellphone and made to call Tukutz, who was still inside the club. Jieun squeaked and grabbed his phone. Hyejung continued to watch the proceedings with one hand in Tablo’s, the other trying to hide the smile on her face.
“No, please, don’t call him,” Jieun pleaded, the phone clasped in her hands.
“But you’re waiting for him,” Tablo said sternly. “And a girl like you shouldn’t be here alone.”
“But…” Jieun sighed, before handing the phone back to Tablo. “He’d be angry that I was waiting for him here.”
Hyejung finally let out a giggle, and the younger girl turned to her. “Well, whatever it is, you really shouldn’t be here, and there’s no way we can get you home unless we get your friend out here. So, I’m sorry. Let Tablo be the gentleman. For once,” she added as an afterthought.
So it was that ten minutes later, Hyukjae ran out of the club, cellphone and bag in hand. Jieun winced at the withering look that Hyukjae shot her once he walked over. “You’re supposed to be going home tonight,” Hyukjae panted. “Donghae said you weren’t staying over. He isn’t here either.”
“I know, I know, but I told Mom that I had an early test tomorrow so I was going to stay at oppa’s place…”
Hyukjae grimaced. Donghae, pop star extraordinaire and one-time fellow trainee was currently with his group in Hong Kong. He wondered what lie Jieun had told her mother to enable her to stay over when Donghae wasn't around. “Come on, let’s go home,” he muttered, before turning to Tablo. “Looks like I owe you one now.”
Tablo shrugged. “Hey,” he laughed. “I owed you. Consider this some sort of repayment? My credit card can’t take the abuse.”
Hyukjae grinned. They shared a handshake, one that Hyejung saw that meant that the two boys were now willing to truce and actually become friends. Then Hyukjae took Jieun’s backpack, much to her protest, and the two of them started walking towards the parking garage.
“They’re cute together,” Hyejung smiled.
“Try telling it to Hyukjae. Maybe he’ll stop feeling too guilty one day when he realizes the feelings they have are mutual,” Tablo laughed, before wrapping an arm around Hyejung’s shoulders and walking out to the main street in search of a cab.
Hyukjae didn’t say a word on the ride back to his apartment, so Jieun didn’t say anything either, hugging her backpack close to her chest and hoping she hadn’t made him too angry. When they got back to his apartment, he tossed his keys on the table and walked into his room, closing the door behind him.
Jieun waited out in the living room for him, and after a moment she walked over to his door and knocked. “Oppa. Hyukjae-oppa?”
No response.
“I’m sorry,” she tried again.
Still no response.
With a sigh, she walked into Donghae’s room and grabbed her clothes, took a quick shower and sat down on the couch waiting for her hair to dry and hoping that Hyukjae would come out of his room. But he didn’t and she fell asleep waiting.
The next morning she woke up with a start, thinking she was going to be late for school. She realised the light she was squinting from was coming from the kitchen. She got up from the couch, folded the blanket she didn't remember using the night before bfore tip-toeing into the kitchen. At the doorway, she watched Hyukjae made breakfast and her lunchbox for her. She sighed.
He turned around, brandishing a pair of chopsticks. “I’m still mad at you.”
“I’m sorry,” she shrank back behind the wall.
He had one hand on the spatula; the other perched on his waist. He looked at her for a moment, before turning up at the ceiling, closing his eyes and letting out a long sigh. “Go shower, change, get ready for school. Breakfast will be ready in a second,” he muttered, before turning back to the eggs he was frying.
When Jieun came back to the kitchen, breakfast was on the table and Hyukjae was hard at work scrubbing what looked like a stain out of the counter top. She wanted to say something but decided against it, and he kept scrubbing as she ate. When she was done, she made to pick up the dishes but Hyukjae asked her to leave them and hurry to school.
“Oppa,” she said finally, standing at the door holding the lunch that Hyukjae had made for her. “I’m sorry. But, I… I just wanted to…”
Hyukjae didn’t reply. He was washing the plates.
“I just wanted to see you perform again. I think… you’re really great, oppa,” she whispered.
She turned and walked out of the apartment. Once the door closed, Hyukjae sighed, and the plate slipped out of his hands to crash onto the ground.
“Well, shit.”
Tablo looked up, pleasantly surprised at his visitor. He pondered for a second how the boy had managed to find him, but questions about that could come later. “Hyukjae!” he greeted cheerfully.
Hyukjae nodded. He was wearing a hoodie with the hood up and hands stuffed in its pockets. He looked like a mobster. “I’m a pervert,” he muttered. He tilted his head a little, a silent question to ask if he could sit, and Tablo nodded and gestured for him to.
“Why?”
“She’s my friend’s cousin. She’s sixteen, and she doesn’t know…”
Tablo started to hum a song, and it took Hyukjae a while to recognize it, and he was surprised he even recognized it at all, considering it was English and all…
“You are sixteen going on seventeen,” Tablo suddenly started to sing, and Hyukjae cringed as he mangled the song, ending with, “I am seventeen going on eighteen, I’ll take care of yoouuuu~~”
“SHUT UP,” Hyukjae cried, holding his hands over his ears, still under his hood. “And I am not seventeen. I’m twenty-four,” he glowered.
“She likes you. Hyejung said it’s radiating off her. Her crush on you,” Tablo laughed.
“You think I don’t know? And she goes and does something stupid like that… what if she’d gotten hurt? What if… you didn’t bump into her? She would have been waiting until the club closed because that was definitely when I was going to stay 'till,” Hyukjae sighed, closing his eyes.
Tablo put his notebook and pen aside and handed Hyukjae a glass of water. The boy took it suspiciously but with thanks before drinking the whole glass at one go.
“She’ll grow up, you know,” Tablo said.
“I know,” Hyukjae whispered, looking down at the empty glass in his hands.
“Are you… this is why you don’t want to leave, isn’t it?” Tablo grinned when he realised the answer was finally clear-as-day in front of him. “She’s the reason why you still perform… the reason you still make music, isn’t it?”
Hyukjae only put the glass back on the table and stuffed his hands back into his pockets. “When I was a trainee, I got to know Lee Donghae. You know, part of…”
“Super Junior, yes,” Tablo nodded. He frowned when Hyukjae looked surprised. “I met him once, at a music program. I don’t live under a rock, for God’s sake.”
“Yea, so… Jieun, she was only 10 but I’ll never forget what she told me that day,” Hyukjae smiled lightly. “She said, ‘Oppa, you sing so well! I hope you become a big star!’. So, even after I left that company, I never stopped performing.”
Tablo smiled. “Map the Soul can be the place you’re looking for to make that happen.”
Hyukjae looked up. “Really? Even if I don’t sell records?”
“My record company puts money into music that’s great but nobody seems to like,” Tablo said simply. “Look, I wouldn’t have asked you, if you hadn’t blown me away with your talent. I think you’ve got more here,” he tapped his forehead. “I think you just need a little push.”
Hyukjae hesitated for a moment. “You… I think…”
Tablo grinned and leaned forward.
“If you really believe in me,” Hyukjae whispered. “Then I’d like to try. But Tablo-ssi…”
Tablo nodded. “Yea?”
“I’d like you to listen to Jieun sing too.”
“He didn’t say anything about her,” Tukutz frowned, as he watched Hyukjae talk to Jieun on stage as they set up the guitars and microphones.
“They’re just one surprise after another,” Tablo grinned, folding his arms over his chest.
A moment later, both men watched, stunned as the girl strummed her way and sang an English song that Tablo did not recognise. The rest of the club had quiet down to listen to her sing and when she was finished there was a rousing round of applause.
“I think she’s bigger than us,” Tukutz confessed.
Tablo nodded. “Yes, I think so too.”
Hyukjae introduced Jieun formally to them afterwards, and when Tukutz asked, Jieun said she had been learning the guitar since she was twelve.
“Oppa bought me my first guitar,” she said, and the boys turned to Hyukjae, who started shaking his head. “Oh,” she laughed. “I mean, Donghae-oppa.”
“Ah, the Super Junior one,” Tablo nodded, and Tukutz laughed.
“If you want real talent,” Hyukjae said. “You should help Jieun.”
“Oppa,” Jieun looked confused. “Didn’t you ask me to perform because… you said you wanted your friends to listen to the song you wrote?”
“You wrote that?” Tablo asked. They were truly one surprise after another. Did the boy know how to compose music too?
“Yes, no, that’s not the point,” Hyukje said. “Tablo-ssi, you saw what she has. That’s raw talent. You should sign her on.”
“And not you?” Tukutz scoffed. “Boy, you think you’re making a sacrifice, but I don’t think you get the point…”
Tablo watched the two kids in front of him and moved backwards, raising his arms up. This was going to get ugly. Tukutz seemed to get the idea, and chose not to speak either, as Jieun continued to stare daggers at Hyukjae as she realised what was going on.
“I don’t want it,” Hyukjae whispered, turning to Jieun.
“What makes you think I want it either?” Jieun asked. “You never ask me if I want anything. I’m not a little girl anymore, no matter what you think,” she fisted her hands, scrunched her face before bursting out, “I… I hate you!” she cried angrily, before picking up her guitar and running out of the club.
“Uh oh,” Tukutz whispered.
Hyukjae watched her go, and Tablo watched him for a moment, until he couldn’t take it anymore and yelled, “Why aren’t you going after her?”
Hyukjae nodded and ran.
“Jieun!”
Jieun gripped the strap of her guitar case and forced herself not to look back. She walked faster.
“Jieun, wait!”
She spun around and almost crashed headfirst into him. “Go away! I can get home on my own,” she said angrily. “I’m not a child anymore. I can take the bus on my own. I can even walk home on my own. You don’t have to do anything for me. I don’t want you to do anything for me anymore.”
Hyukjae sighed. “I’m sorry, okay. But Tablo-ssi’s the most honest man I’ve seen in this business, and I thought…”
“You thought… you always do that!” Jieun cried. “You always think what you’re doing is the best thing for me, then what’s the best for you? Tablo-ssi, he wants you on his label, not me. Do you think it’s fair to Tablo-ssi, what you’ve done today? Is it fair to me too?”
Hyukjae ran his fingers through his hair. “I just… want what’s best for you.”
“What’s best for me… maybe that’s not what I want!” she screamed in return. Everyone on the street was starring at them, but Jieun did not seem to care. “You’re not my father. I can’t take this anymore,” she said, tears running down her cheeks.
Hyukjae didn’t know what to say. Jieun turned around and continued to walk. This time, he didn’t try to follow.
Jieun was crying over the phone when she called Donghae. He was in the middle of a recording, and had to tell her that he would call her back. Forty nerve-wracking minutes later after they had finally finished recording he called her up again and she sounded reasonably calmer.
“Oppa, can you come and get me?” she said in a tiny voice.
He was away in an instant.
She was waiting for him inside outside a 7 Eleven with her guitar case. He got out of his car and went to sit next to her on the steps. “Jieun?”
“Oppa,” she whispered. “How I wish… that I was older. I want to grow up.”
“You don’t want that,” Donghae laughed. “Are you cold? Let’s get you some tea,” he said, before dashing into the convenience store and coming out with two cups of tea. He handed one to Jieun, who placed it between her hands.
“Oppa,” Jieun said softly. “I like Hyukjae-oppa.”
“I know, kiddo,” Donghae grinned, and Jieun turned to him in surprise. “Don’t look that shocked. You probably have no idea your little crush is so obvious we all know it.”
“Does… does umma know?”
Donghae shook his head. He placed his cup aside and his hands on his knees, rubbing his thighs absently as he spoke. “Hyukjae, he’s a good guy. I trust him with you. I mean, that’s why I let you come over, even when I’m not around.”
“So… you’re okay with me liking him?” Jieun asked.
“Only because he’s the most righteous guy I know who wouldn’t take advantage of you,” Donghae nodded. “What’s he done this time?”
Jieun told Donghae about Tablo, from the first day they met in the club and Jieun had insisted Hyukjae bring Tablo home, up to the record deal that Hyukjae wanted to give her. Donghae laughed when she finished, and she looked a little angry. This wasn’t something he should be laughing at, she thought.
“Jieun-ah,” Donghae said, leaning over so that their knees bumped each other’s. “He’s really a good guy, isn’t he? A bit thick in the head… but I can see why you’re crazy about him.”
Jieun sighed, looked down at her rapidly cooling tea, and sighed again. “I guess,” she whispered. Donghae just reached over and gave her a one-armed hug.
This was her battle, and she was going to have to figure it out on her own.
Two weeks later, Hyukjae was moping about at home, cleaning the living room when Jieun arrived. He dropped the disinfectant and the rag when she walked in.
“What are you doing here?” Hyukjae asked.
“My parents are visiting my uncle in Pusan in the weekend. Didn’t Donghae-oppa tell you?”
Hyukjae stared. “No. No, he didn’t say it,” he muttered, bending down to pick up the stuff he had dropped.
“Oppa, I…” she began, but she didn’t get to finish because there was a loud knock on the door. Hyukjae, thankful for the distraction, went to get it. It was Mithra.
“Ah, Jieun-ssi, even better! Hyukjae, what are you doing today, tomorrow?” Mithra asked.
“Erm, work?”
“Take some urgent leave. It’s an emergency. Some sort of problem with family down South,” Mithra said simply. “Jieun-ssi, I’ve been informed that you’re terribly smart, but will your mother object to you taking a short vacation for the weekend?”
“I… my mother is out of town this weekend. She and my father had gone to Pusan… that’s why I’m here,” Jieun stammered.
“Oh that's perfect!” he reached over and grabbed Jieun’s bag and gestured for Hyukjae to pack something “Let’s go.”
Two hours (and a long phone call to Jieun’s mother) later, they were on a plane to Jeju Island. They must have been too stunned to protest, Tablo chuckled to himself. He peeped over the seat in front of him to see Jieun asleep with her head on Hyukjae’s shoulder. Hyukjae was adjusting the blanket carefully over her shoulders.
“Don’t do that,” Hyejung frowned, slapping Tablo's butt with the magazine she was reading.
“Ow!” Tablo frowned, sitting back down. “But they look so cute!” he insisted.
Hyejung sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I understand why you need to take off for a while,” she said, referring to the obvious problem he was having with making the deadline for his next album. “But why are the two of them coming along?”
“So that Hyukjae can see how we work. Mithra said Jieun-ssi would have nowhere to go if she didn’t come with us because she was supposed to stay with Hyukjae for the weekend, so he asked her to come along too,” Tablo said simply. “And I have too much cash to throw away on people I like.”
Hyejung groaned. “What am I ever going to do with you?”
“Sadly, you love me,” Tablo nodded sagely, and Hyejung smacked him with her magazine again.
Mithra had explained briefly why they were in Jeju Island. Tablo said they had needed a boost, and he wanted to see the sea, so that was why they were here. But it didn’t explain why he was here, Hyukjae thought to himself.
Jieun loved it though. Freed from her books and the thoughts of upcoming exams and faced with only a warm sun and a stretch of golden sand, she ran through the sand barefooted with her arms held up in the air. Then she came back and dragged Hyejung with her, calling out “unni!”
They’d only met once before, and now they seemed like they were best friends.
“Like it here?” Tablo grinned, walking up to Hyukjae. They watched the women splash water at each other, squealing when they got hit.
“I haven’t seen her this happy in a while,” Hyukjae said. “So… so…” he stammered, before he muttered, “Thank you.”
Tablo grinned. “You’re welcome. Hyukjae, this is how I work. I give myself crazy deadlines, but at the same time, I want to have the freedom to compose the way I want. I make the music I want to hear. I never show work if it’s not something that I feel is honest to myself. You’re the same, aren’t you?”
Hyukjae kicked idly at the sand. “My best friend, he’s in an idol group. I joined the company because I thought his dream was my dream, that we were best friends because we were out looking for the same thing. But after a while, training in that place, I realised I wasn’t going anywhere. I lost heart, and I told my best friend, but he said I’ve got to stick it out. We had a fight. He called me a spineless fish and I… called him an over-manufactured idol dick. I haven’t looked back. And I haven’t called him for ages.”
Tablo chuckled. “You’re one hell of a funny guy, Hyukjae.”
“The only thing I still enjoy is being on stage, but when I left the company I thought I’d lost my chance, that I’d never be able to go back to it. I didn’t have the drive for it, I thought to myself. I chickened out of training. I gave myself too many excuses,” Hyukjae said, before turning to Tablo. “Tablo-ssi… do you really see that something in me? That thing that could make me a singer?”
Tablo grinned. “Of course.”
“Then, can you help me be a singer?”
Tablo smiled, a big wide smile, and he suddenly felt that everything, everything was going to be okay. “Yes, Hyukjae. I’m going to help you be a singer. Well maybe a rapper first. Your singing sucks.”
Jieun came running back up the beach, breathless as she asked Hyukjae to hold out his hands. He held them out, and she placed a mould of wet sand, topped with a cracked seashell on it in his hands.
“What…” Hyukjae exclaimed, before jumping and letting go of the mould of wet sand. Tablo squinted down and laughed when he saw the sea snail wiggling in it. “Why you…” Hyukjae exclaimed before he roared. Jieun squealed and made a break for it as Hyukjae raced after her.
“I’d like to be that young again,” Hyejung had snuck up next to him. Tablo jumped a little, but turned to smile at her, brushing a wet strand of hair away from her face. “I like it here. Thanks for bringing us.”
Tablo turned to the two kids (Hyukjae was now tossing sand at Jieun, and she was squealing, trying to run from his attacks). “Were we ever like that?” he wondered for a moment.
“No. We were very adult and matured when we got together, don’t you remember?” Hyejung grinned.
Tablo turned to Hyejung. It’s been a while since they dated, but to him, she had never aged. She was still the beautiful actress he met at a social party, the beautiful girl who charmed him with stories about blunders on set and went to watch English movies she half-understood with.
He loved her, and now he knew exactly what to do.
The band was supposed to be here to work on music but Jieun thought they were just out there to have fun. After splashing at the beach in the afternoon, they took a long drive, just to “look at the scenery”, Tablo said. Jieun and Hyukjae separated from the group to visit the Teddy Bear Museum but met up with everyone else at a restaurant by the beach for a barbeque dinner.
Nobody saw it coming, and certainly not Jieun. The sight of Tablo bended on one knee under the lights of the lanterns strung across the beach as he held out a ring and asked Hyejung to marry him.
They waited in bated breath until Hyejung whispered yes.
Everyone was cheering, but Jieun wasn’t really noticing because she saw Hyejung whisper something into Tablo’s ear and the grin on Tablo’s face got even wider, and he laughed, cried out, whooped, and ran off into the sea with such speed that his slippers came off as he ran.
“What is it?” Jieun asked, as Mithra and Tukutz dragged Hyukjae with them towards the water. She shuddered to think how cold the water must be now.
“Oh nothing,” Hyejung smiled, placing a hand on Jieun’s arm. “I just mentioned to him that he's going to be a father, that’s all.”
Hyukjae woke up with a start at the knock. In his sleep-fogged state of mine, he pushed his blankets off haphazardly, reached for his glasses and squinted at the console. 4:19.
Was he hallucinating?
But the knocks kept going on, soft knocks on the door, and he turned to see Tukutz bury himself under the covers. Hyukjae sighed, reached for his jacket, yawned and scratched the back of his head absently as he shuffled over to the door. “Who is it?” he whispered.
“Oppa?”
Hyukjae had the door open in a second.
Jieun almost fell forward- she had been leaning against the door as she knocked and Hyukjae grabbed her before she could topple headfirst into the room.
So it was in that awkward position, where Hyukjae was trying to hold her but trying not to get too close, and Jieun with her arms held to her chest in a position that was obviously braced for impact where she looked up at him with equally bloodshot eyes and they both started giggling.
“Out, out, before he wakes up,” Hyukjae hissed. He hastily stepped into a pair of sandals before closing the door behind him. They ran down the hallway into the stairwell where they both burst into laughter, the sound echoing off the walls.
“I’m sorry,” Jieun giggled.
“What’s up? Why are you up?” Hyukjae growned. He patted his pockets to realize he hadn’t grabbed anything- this meant he could not go back into his room for his cell phone or anything else because he did not have his key. He was also wearing Tukutz’s sandals.
“I couldn’t sleep. The pillow’s kind of lumpy and the room smells funny,” Jieun confessed. “So I thought… I thought maybe… are you awake?”
Hyukjae ran his fingers through his hair. He must look a fright. He wished he’d been able to stop for a moment and grab a comb at least. “Yes,” he slapped his cheeks a bit. “I am, okay?”
Jieun giggled. “I thought… about going to see the sunrise.”
Hyukjae paused in trying to groom himself, and he looked up as a smile started to spread over his face. “With me?”
“With you,” Jieun blushed lightly, clasping her hands together.
“Let’s go,” Hyukjae nodded.
They started down the steps, Hyukjae’s too big sandals making a din and echoing off the walls.
Hyukjae held a hand out and she held it before hoping daintily into the soft sand. He let go as soon as she was safe on the ground, and she felt a little sad as he started walking towards the beach.
They took their shoes off further down the beach. Holding their slippers and sandals by the straps, Hyukjae walked in front, making sure there was nothing Jieun could cut her feet on.
They hadn’t said anything since leaving the hotel, but it was a comfortable, reflective silence.
“I’m glad Tablo-ssi brought us here,” Jieun said softly, as they saw in a distance, the first flickering glows of the sun.
“I’m glad your mother let you come,” Hyukjae said as he watched the waves roll over their feet.
Jieun watched him for a moment, and as the tip of the sun rose over the horizon, asked, “Oppa. Would it make a difference, if you were a little younger… and I was a little older?”
Hyukjae paused.
She turned away, turning to the sunrise, biting on her lower lip absently. “I really like you,” she said as she twisted her hands.
The sun rose steadily and soon it was a bright orange glow in the sky. Jieun thought it would start to be too bright to look at in a minute and she turned around only to turn right into Hyukjae. When had he moved to stand behind her?
“I want to remember this moment forever,” he whispered, and he held a hand, trembling slightly, up to her face. He touched her cheek lightly with his knuckles.
“Now?” she asked softly.
“Now,” he nodded with a gummy smile. “With the sun shining off the top of your head, bathing you in a halo of light. The way your feet sink slightly into the sand. How you pout your lips when you’re thinking about something. The way you asked me if it would be better if we were closer in age. The way you said you like me.”
Her lips trembled, and he moved his hand away.
“I will never forget today,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on her shoulder. “I… I like you too.”
Jieun wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight as a tear ran down her cheek.
They stayed like that until the sun was high up in the sky and the waves reached their shins. Only then did they start to walk back to the hotel. This time, when Hyukjae held a hand out to help Jieun up, he did not let go.
On the return trip to Seoul, Tablo was amused to see that besides the sleeping on each other’s shoulder thing that Hyukjae and Jieun had going on, this time they were holding hands.
“I never took you to be a matchmaker,” Hyejung grinned, when Tablo returned to his seat.
“I’m a good one,” he said.
Hyejung snorted. “They were already halfway there,” she grinned. “Don’t get too cocky.”
He smiled and took her hand, lacing their fingers together before holding it up to press a kiss on her knuckles.
Ji Eun (IU) / Hyukjae ; Kang Hye Jung / Tablo
7,558 words AU
Summary: When Tablo meets young, talented rapper Hyukjae in a club, he's blown away by the younger boy's talent. But Hyukjae isn't that impressed by Tablo and his offer of a record deal...
Notes: I started writing this after reading the booklet that came with Map the Soul that kat lent me. This is kind of an alternate reality, where Tablo and Hyejung date for longer than they did in real life, and Hyukjae doesn’t belong to Super Junior (but everyone else does), and Jieun isn’t IU but a regular high school student (and Donghae’s baby cousin). Everyone is OOC, and other details might not match with real life. Whatever, it’s an AU.
Posting this is a Christmas present to myself.
Tablo saw the boy for the first time in a club at Hongdae. He was on stage, rapping so fast Tablo had no clue what he was saying, but the crowd was going wild, and that was really all that mattered.
The boy had a quality- something about him that Tablo couldn’t quite place, but he liked a lot.
“Who’s the boy?” Tablo asked the friend who was with him.
“Him? Goes by Eun… something,” he said. “I could introduce you. He’s pretty well known in these parts.”
So that was their first meeting, in a stuffy “backstage” area of a club that was actually more of a closet.
“My name is Hyukjae, but I go by Eunhyuk,” the boy with the extremely wide smile said as he shook Tablo’s hand. “I know you, you’re Tablo from Epik High.”
“Right, but I’m actually Daniel,” he nodded, shaking Hyukjae’s hand. “That thing you did out there, was it all you?”
“All me?” Hyukjae looked confused, but the lead singer of the band he had been rapping with explained. “Oh! Yeah I wrote it, if that’s what you meant. I made it up today.”
Tablo sucked in a deep breath. He wanted this boy more than anything on his label, and before he knew it he was whipping out a name card and handing it to him. (Later on, he would reflect and realize that it wasn’t maybe the best move he should have made, but then again anyone besides Hyukjae would have jumped at the chance offered)
“I have a record label. I’d like to ask if you’d like to join us.”
Hyejung, in the middle of pouring him a cup of coffee, gasped in surprise. “You mean, he said no.”
“He said no,” Tablo said, holding his hands out. “He said he’s not interested in bloodsucking music companies.”
“He called your company a bloodsucking company,” Hyejung deadpanned as she handed him his coffee.
“Not in those exact terms, but that's pretty much what he meant,” Tablo nodded, taking a sip of coffee. “Hye, the boy’s got talent and it’s coming off him in waves. I talked to the lead singer, that Jiheon guy, and even he thinks the boy’s got more talent than just a Hongdae club. I have to convince him.”
“Just don’t become so obsessed with him and miss out on your meals,” Hyejung said, leaning over to give Tablo a kiss on the forehead before heading to their bedroom to get ready for work.
Tablo loved Hyejung. Everyone they knew could see that. He hoped Hyejung did. He’d been wanting to move their relationship to the next step for a while, but there was something that seemed to be holding him back. He wasn’t quite sure what it was, he mused as he took another sip of coffee. But he certainly hoped he could find out soon.
“I have two recordings today so I won’t be home until late,” Hyejung stepped out of the bedroom, dressed in a fetching pink dress which looked funny with her fuzzy panda slippers. “Where’re you going to be?”
“The club. I’m going to look for that boy again,” Tablo nodded.
Hyejung laughed. She slipped on her watch, hopped on one foot as she clipped on her earrings and grabbed the cardigan and bag she laid out earlier on the couch. “I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Right,” Tablo got out of his seat and walked her to the door, giving her a kiss as she opened the door.
“Daniel…” she paused at the door, holding the doorknob and turning in, biting her lower lip.
“Hmm?” he asked, scratching his head.
She shook her head. “No, it’s nothing. Have a good day.”
Tablo brought Mithra with him the next time. His friend had tipped him off, saying that Hyukjae worked nights in another club. Hyukjae looked angry when he saw them, but turned to Mithra and asked for his order.
“He doesn’t like you.”
“He thinks all recording company heads are bloodthirsty son of bitches,” Tablo state mildly, and Mithra laughed.
“If you were blood thirsty, the world is at its end,” Mithra shook his head. It was also a well known fact in their own circle that Map the Soul wasn’t about profit, and the last two CDs Tablo had worked on with two new artists had bombed in the market.
Tablo shrugged. Hyukjae returned with their orders, and Tablo held the boy back when he made to turn away. “Listen, no obligations. You can just come down to the studios and take a look, see how we work.”
“I told you, I’m not interested,” Hyukjae said, holding his tray over his body like a protective cover. “I don’t like the recording business. Nobody makes real music anymore.”
“Hey boy, that’s something big you’re saying right there, you know what you’re doing?” Mithra grinned. He liked this boy and his attitude, and he could see why Tablo wanted to get through to him. Tablo was passionate about music, and even more passionate about people who spoke of the recording business as a thing that’s killing music, because he thought that way too. “Map the Soul’s different, I can promise you that.”
“Does he have a name card too?” Hyukjae looked warily at Mithra.
Tablo shook his hand. “He’s in my band. Epik High.”
Hyukjae squinted at Mithra again, and nodded. “Sorry, it’s the lights here,” he said as he held out his hand. Mithra shook his hand as he said, “I’m a big fan, actually.”
“Oh, so what’s the problem?” Mithra looked amused.
“I…” Hyukjae stammered. “Look, I tried it all before, okay? The auditions, the training, the dancing. But I couldn’t last the journey and I realised it isn’t for me.”
“Boy, are you telling me you were in a boy band?” Mithra raised an eyebrow.
“Yea. I know a couple of people still in that. They’re doing well, but I don’t want to be them. I like doing my own shows, writing my own music. I feel like my own boss,” Hyukjae grinned. Then he stopped. “I shouldn’t be…” he stopped. “Enjoy your night,” he said, before walking away.
“Damn it, so close,” Tablo slapped his thigh in frustration. “He just closed off like that!”
“He’s a wary kid, Tablo. But I think deep down inside, he really wants it too,” Mithra observed.
The next morning, he woke to an empty bed. Tablo wondered if Hyejung had gotten home the night before, so he picked up his phone and sent her a message. Then he stepped into the bathroom and realised she was right there.
“What are you do…” he asked before he stopped. She was sitting on the toilet bowl, holding a pregnancy test kit in her hands.
“I’m late,” she looked up at him. “I… needed to check.”
“And?” his breath caught in his throat, and a million thoughts ran through Tablo’s mind at the moment. Most of them involved whether he could leave his music and focus on a baby. He loved Hyejung, he really did, but was it the right time?
Suddenly, moving on to the next step was scaring the shit out of him. He lost his breath.
“What will you do if it’s positive?” she asked.
“I’ll marry you,” he said in a heartbeat.
“And if it isn’t?”
This answer took a longer time. Hyejung sighed, getting up from the toilet seat. “I knew it.”
“Knew what?’
“Daniel, I love you. We’ve been together for a while. Was it wrong to hope that you’re thinking of marrying me?” she looked so hopeful, that Tablo wasn’t quite sure what to say. And it was ridiculous, because all Tablo had been thinking of the past couple of weeks was how he was going to pop the question, and now that she was here, the question wouldn’t get past his lips.
“I… I want to,” he stammered. “I’ve been… I… It’s just, I thought… we would…” the words died in his throat, and he couldn’t go on. They stood like that for like an eternity, just not looking at each other, him trying to get his throat to work, and her waiting for him to say something.
Finally, she shook her head, tossing the kit into the trash. “It’s negative Dan. I’m sorry, maybe you’re just… I shouldn’t have pushed this. I’ve had a hard day,” she explained, before turning to walk out of the bathroom, leaving Tablo standing in there like an idiot.
That night, Tablo decided the only thing to do was to get roaring drunk, so he headed to the club where Hyukjae worked.
“Is there something wrong with you?” Hyukjae frowned as Tablo downed his sixth bottle of the night. “I don’t want to have to call the hospital. Alcohol poisioning’s not the way to die.”
“Tell me about it!” Tablo cried. Hyukjae went back to work, but Tablo of them stayed until closing time and by then he was so drunk he probably wasn’t able to walk at all.
Hyukjae sighed. He frisked Tablo’s pockets and pulled out his phone, hoping to dial someone who could help him. He found Mithra’s number, but when he picked up he said he was somewhere in the vicinity of Andong and unable to return that night, so could Hyukjae just take care of him for that evening?
“You bastard,” Hyukjae kicked Tablo’s chair, but the man didn’t even react. Just slumped over like deadweight. He was just thinking about leaving Tablo to sleep there for the night when a motion at the door made him turn around.
“Oh you,” he sighed when he saw who it was. “Why are you here tonight?”
“Do you think he’s awake?”
“Let him sleep it off.”
CRASH.
“Oppa~!”
“Shh!”
Tablo squinted. The loud crash woke him up and he struggled to keep his eyes open long enough for him to see exactly where he was. He was definitely not home, he thought, looking down at the yellow quilt over him and posters of a male idol group on the wall.
“Oh, you’re up,” the door opened a crack. “Tablo-ssi?”
He mumbled something in response. It was supposed to be yes.
“There’s breakfast if you want it… we’ll be outside,” the boy said before closing the door behind him.
Ten minutes later, when Tablo felt a little more human he shuffled out of the room. “Oh thank god,” he muttered when he finally recognized the person who had taken him in for the night.
Hyukjae smiled back at him. “Good morning Tablo-ssi.”
“Thank God it’s you,” Tablo muttered, walking over to the table and taking the mug Hyukjae held out to him. Coffee. He took a sip and felt a little more awake than he was a moment ago. He frowned as his head cleared. “They mentioned you work a midnight shift and always slept until the afternoon. Why are you up so early?”
“Spying on me?” Hyukjae asked, turning back to what he was doing. It looked like he was packing a lunchbox.
“No, just interested to know where you are every second of the day. I want to sink my bloodthirsty claws in you. Considering my company and all,” Tablo said and he was rewarded with Hyukjae’s laugh.
The reason why Hyukjae was awake revealed itself a moment later when a girl ran out of the bathroom, dressed in her high school uniform, bag hanging haphazardly over her left shoulder. “Oppa, where are my socks?”
“I don’t know, you should have brought them with you,” Hyukjae said, and Tablo watched as the boy quickly grabbed the lunch box he finished preparing a moment ago and handing them to the girl.
She found her socks and pulled them on, grabbed the lunch box from Hyukjae and cried out, “See you later, Tablo-ssi!” before running out of the apartment in three seconds flat.
“Who’s that?” Tablo asked, once the dust settled.
“My roommate’s cousin,” Hyukjae said, turning to look at the dishes in his sink with a sigh. “She stays here sometimes. We live closer to her school.”
“Ah…” Tablo said, before going back to his coffee. It was too early to think of anything else.
“How’s it going?”
“How’s what going?” Tablo asked, not looking up from his Mac. It might look like he was hard at work, but one glance over and Mithra could see that Tablo was playing Pac-Man with his emulator.
“Everything.”
“The girl, the boy, or the music?”
Mithra laughed. “All of them.”
“Not too good, yes!” Tablo exclaimed, punching his fists into the air as he cleared another level. He turned to Mithra. “You were the one who made the boy bring me home yesterday, right?”
“What, anything naughty happen?” Mithra laughed, taking another sip of his latte before putting it down. “I didn’t know you swung that way.”
“Asshole,” Tablo said, kicking the leg of Mithra’s chair. “Nothing naughty happen. But apparently the boy sometimes lives with a teenage girl. Probably underaged. If anything naughty happens, it’s between them.”
Mithra raised an eyebrow. “A teenage girl?”
“I didn’t ask,” Tablo said, finally shutting down Pac Man and pulling up the document he was working on before he started playing. “Hey.”
“What.”
“You think at least I could do one of those three things?”
Mithra laughed. “Because each one of them is biting up that stick up your ass? Oh certainly, I wish you’d do at least one of them. Lightens the mood. Makes us all happier.”
Tablo laughed. “Shut up.”
“Don’t stress yourself,” Mithra leaned back on his chair and grinned. “It’d all make sense in a while.”
“Yea,” Tablo nodded, looking at the picture of him and Hyejung on his desktop. “I hope it will.”
Hyukjae waved absently as Tablo walked in with Junki. He gestured for them to take a seat and returned to the customer he had been serving. He pulled two beers from the tap and handed them to the customer.
A moment later he was at their table, with their drinks and holding a hand out. Tablo chuckled and handed him his card.
“Give yourself a big tip,” Tablo said. “For helping me out.”
Hyukjae scoffed. “If you were giving me a tip, cash would be useful. And I didn’t drag your sorry ass home because I was helping you out. Just for the record, I still don’t trust people like you.”
Tablo raised an eyebrow. “No? Then why did you help me out?”
Hyukjae paused for a moment, as though contemplating if he should tell Tablo. “Because Jieun said I should. She didn’t think it’d be good for a well known musician for you to be caught by tabloid papers in the morning looking drunk out of your mind.”
“Jieun? The girl you were talking about?” Junki asked, turning to Tablo. Tablo grinned and nodded.
Hyukjae frowned, arms crossed over his chest. “What.”
“Hey,” Tablo laughed, both arms out. “Seriously, I told Junki about her, but I just talked. I have a woman. Chill, big brother. She’s like an extension of you, and haven’t you realized how interested I am in you to stalk you like this? I tell all my friends about you, and Junki here’s part of Map the Soul. He’s got a name card too.”
Hyukjae opened his mouth as though to say something- then stopped. He turned and stalked off to the counter with Tablo’s credit card, and for a fleeting moment Tablo wondered how much the charge that night would be.
Junki grinned. “Looks like he’s got a crush.”
“She’s in high school,” Tablo turned to Junki in shock, but what Junki said made sense.
“Ah… there’s your complex.”
Tablo stared at Junki a moment before he burst into laughter.
Hyukjae was performing again, and this time Tablo decided to bring Hyejung with him. She had been curious about who this boy that had so much of Tablo’s attention was.
“There he is,” Tablo said, when the boy got on stage to the cheers of the crowd (his own, personal fanclub). He danced and rapped and even sang a bit, much to the amusement of the crowd. The lead singer of the band on stage promised a “painful punishment” the next time Hyukjae sang the next time they were on the same stage.
“He’s like you,” Hyejung said, after the crowd cheered the last of Hyukjae’s rap and the boy ran up to give the lead singer a hug.
“Hmm?”
“He’s a lot like you when we first met. Young, brash, crazy talented,” Hyejung laughed. “No wonder you’re so attracted to him.”
Tablo sighed. “’You make it sound like a bad thing.”
“It isn’t,” Hyejung shook her head. She paused for a moment, before adding, “Well at least, I’ve never thought it was.”
They were just leaving the club when they spotted a girl in her high school uniform sitting outside, waiting. Tablo thought she looked familiar and a closer look confirmed his suspicious. “It’s you!” he exclaimed.
“Who?” Hyejung asked curiously.
“Tablo-ssi?” the girl asked, getting up.
“Hyukjae’s…”
“Jieun,” she provided helpfully.
“Hyukjae’s Jieun?” Hyejung chuckled.
Tablo frowned. “Jieun-ssi… what are you doing here?”
“Waiting for oppa,” Jieun said, hugging her backpack closer to her chest. She looked tired, and it was late. A quick check on his watch told Tablo it was almost two AM in the morning.
“You really shouldn’t be out here this late,” Tablo muttered. He picked up his cellphone and made to call Tukutz, who was still inside the club. Jieun squeaked and grabbed his phone. Hyejung continued to watch the proceedings with one hand in Tablo’s, the other trying to hide the smile on her face.
“No, please, don’t call him,” Jieun pleaded, the phone clasped in her hands.
“But you’re waiting for him,” Tablo said sternly. “And a girl like you shouldn’t be here alone.”
“But…” Jieun sighed, before handing the phone back to Tablo. “He’d be angry that I was waiting for him here.”
Hyejung finally let out a giggle, and the younger girl turned to her. “Well, whatever it is, you really shouldn’t be here, and there’s no way we can get you home unless we get your friend out here. So, I’m sorry. Let Tablo be the gentleman. For once,” she added as an afterthought.
So it was that ten minutes later, Hyukjae ran out of the club, cellphone and bag in hand. Jieun winced at the withering look that Hyukjae shot her once he walked over. “You’re supposed to be going home tonight,” Hyukjae panted. “Donghae said you weren’t staying over. He isn’t here either.”
“I know, I know, but I told Mom that I had an early test tomorrow so I was going to stay at oppa’s place…”
Hyukjae grimaced. Donghae, pop star extraordinaire and one-time fellow trainee was currently with his group in Hong Kong. He wondered what lie Jieun had told her mother to enable her to stay over when Donghae wasn't around. “Come on, let’s go home,” he muttered, before turning to Tablo. “Looks like I owe you one now.”
Tablo shrugged. “Hey,” he laughed. “I owed you. Consider this some sort of repayment? My credit card can’t take the abuse.”
Hyukjae grinned. They shared a handshake, one that Hyejung saw that meant that the two boys were now willing to truce and actually become friends. Then Hyukjae took Jieun’s backpack, much to her protest, and the two of them started walking towards the parking garage.
“They’re cute together,” Hyejung smiled.
“Try telling it to Hyukjae. Maybe he’ll stop feeling too guilty one day when he realizes the feelings they have are mutual,” Tablo laughed, before wrapping an arm around Hyejung’s shoulders and walking out to the main street in search of a cab.
Hyukjae didn’t say a word on the ride back to his apartment, so Jieun didn’t say anything either, hugging her backpack close to her chest and hoping she hadn’t made him too angry. When they got back to his apartment, he tossed his keys on the table and walked into his room, closing the door behind him.
Jieun waited out in the living room for him, and after a moment she walked over to his door and knocked. “Oppa. Hyukjae-oppa?”
No response.
“I’m sorry,” she tried again.
Still no response.
With a sigh, she walked into Donghae’s room and grabbed her clothes, took a quick shower and sat down on the couch waiting for her hair to dry and hoping that Hyukjae would come out of his room. But he didn’t and she fell asleep waiting.
The next morning she woke up with a start, thinking she was going to be late for school. She realised the light she was squinting from was coming from the kitchen. She got up from the couch, folded the blanket she didn't remember using the night before bfore tip-toeing into the kitchen. At the doorway, she watched Hyukjae made breakfast and her lunchbox for her. She sighed.
He turned around, brandishing a pair of chopsticks. “I’m still mad at you.”
“I’m sorry,” she shrank back behind the wall.
He had one hand on the spatula; the other perched on his waist. He looked at her for a moment, before turning up at the ceiling, closing his eyes and letting out a long sigh. “Go shower, change, get ready for school. Breakfast will be ready in a second,” he muttered, before turning back to the eggs he was frying.
When Jieun came back to the kitchen, breakfast was on the table and Hyukjae was hard at work scrubbing what looked like a stain out of the counter top. She wanted to say something but decided against it, and he kept scrubbing as she ate. When she was done, she made to pick up the dishes but Hyukjae asked her to leave them and hurry to school.
“Oppa,” she said finally, standing at the door holding the lunch that Hyukjae had made for her. “I’m sorry. But, I… I just wanted to…”
Hyukjae didn’t reply. He was washing the plates.
“I just wanted to see you perform again. I think… you’re really great, oppa,” she whispered.
She turned and walked out of the apartment. Once the door closed, Hyukjae sighed, and the plate slipped out of his hands to crash onto the ground.
“Well, shit.”
Tablo looked up, pleasantly surprised at his visitor. He pondered for a second how the boy had managed to find him, but questions about that could come later. “Hyukjae!” he greeted cheerfully.
Hyukjae nodded. He was wearing a hoodie with the hood up and hands stuffed in its pockets. He looked like a mobster. “I’m a pervert,” he muttered. He tilted his head a little, a silent question to ask if he could sit, and Tablo nodded and gestured for him to.
“Why?”
“She’s my friend’s cousin. She’s sixteen, and she doesn’t know…”
Tablo started to hum a song, and it took Hyukjae a while to recognize it, and he was surprised he even recognized it at all, considering it was English and all…
“You are sixteen going on seventeen,” Tablo suddenly started to sing, and Hyukjae cringed as he mangled the song, ending with, “I am seventeen going on eighteen, I’ll take care of yoouuuu~~”
“SHUT UP,” Hyukjae cried, holding his hands over his ears, still under his hood. “And I am not seventeen. I’m twenty-four,” he glowered.
“She likes you. Hyejung said it’s radiating off her. Her crush on you,” Tablo laughed.
“You think I don’t know? And she goes and does something stupid like that… what if she’d gotten hurt? What if… you didn’t bump into her? She would have been waiting until the club closed because that was definitely when I was going to stay 'till,” Hyukjae sighed, closing his eyes.
Tablo put his notebook and pen aside and handed Hyukjae a glass of water. The boy took it suspiciously but with thanks before drinking the whole glass at one go.
“She’ll grow up, you know,” Tablo said.
“I know,” Hyukjae whispered, looking down at the empty glass in his hands.
“Are you… this is why you don’t want to leave, isn’t it?” Tablo grinned when he realised the answer was finally clear-as-day in front of him. “She’s the reason why you still perform… the reason you still make music, isn’t it?”
Hyukjae only put the glass back on the table and stuffed his hands back into his pockets. “When I was a trainee, I got to know Lee Donghae. You know, part of…”
“Super Junior, yes,” Tablo nodded. He frowned when Hyukjae looked surprised. “I met him once, at a music program. I don’t live under a rock, for God’s sake.”
“Yea, so… Jieun, she was only 10 but I’ll never forget what she told me that day,” Hyukjae smiled lightly. “She said, ‘Oppa, you sing so well! I hope you become a big star!’. So, even after I left that company, I never stopped performing.”
Tablo smiled. “Map the Soul can be the place you’re looking for to make that happen.”
Hyukjae looked up. “Really? Even if I don’t sell records?”
“My record company puts money into music that’s great but nobody seems to like,” Tablo said simply. “Look, I wouldn’t have asked you, if you hadn’t blown me away with your talent. I think you’ve got more here,” he tapped his forehead. “I think you just need a little push.”
Hyukjae hesitated for a moment. “You… I think…”
Tablo grinned and leaned forward.
“If you really believe in me,” Hyukjae whispered. “Then I’d like to try. But Tablo-ssi…”
Tablo nodded. “Yea?”
“I’d like you to listen to Jieun sing too.”
“He didn’t say anything about her,” Tukutz frowned, as he watched Hyukjae talk to Jieun on stage as they set up the guitars and microphones.
“They’re just one surprise after another,” Tablo grinned, folding his arms over his chest.
A moment later, both men watched, stunned as the girl strummed her way and sang an English song that Tablo did not recognise. The rest of the club had quiet down to listen to her sing and when she was finished there was a rousing round of applause.
“I think she’s bigger than us,” Tukutz confessed.
Tablo nodded. “Yes, I think so too.”
Hyukjae introduced Jieun formally to them afterwards, and when Tukutz asked, Jieun said she had been learning the guitar since she was twelve.
“Oppa bought me my first guitar,” she said, and the boys turned to Hyukjae, who started shaking his head. “Oh,” she laughed. “I mean, Donghae-oppa.”
“Ah, the Super Junior one,” Tablo nodded, and Tukutz laughed.
“If you want real talent,” Hyukjae said. “You should help Jieun.”
“Oppa,” Jieun looked confused. “Didn’t you ask me to perform because… you said you wanted your friends to listen to the song you wrote?”
“You wrote that?” Tablo asked. They were truly one surprise after another. Did the boy know how to compose music too?
“Yes, no, that’s not the point,” Hyukje said. “Tablo-ssi, you saw what she has. That’s raw talent. You should sign her on.”
“And not you?” Tukutz scoffed. “Boy, you think you’re making a sacrifice, but I don’t think you get the point…”
Tablo watched the two kids in front of him and moved backwards, raising his arms up. This was going to get ugly. Tukutz seemed to get the idea, and chose not to speak either, as Jieun continued to stare daggers at Hyukjae as she realised what was going on.
“I don’t want it,” Hyukjae whispered, turning to Jieun.
“What makes you think I want it either?” Jieun asked. “You never ask me if I want anything. I’m not a little girl anymore, no matter what you think,” she fisted her hands, scrunched her face before bursting out, “I… I hate you!” she cried angrily, before picking up her guitar and running out of the club.
“Uh oh,” Tukutz whispered.
Hyukjae watched her go, and Tablo watched him for a moment, until he couldn’t take it anymore and yelled, “Why aren’t you going after her?”
Hyukjae nodded and ran.
“Jieun!”
Jieun gripped the strap of her guitar case and forced herself not to look back. She walked faster.
“Jieun, wait!”
She spun around and almost crashed headfirst into him. “Go away! I can get home on my own,” she said angrily. “I’m not a child anymore. I can take the bus on my own. I can even walk home on my own. You don’t have to do anything for me. I don’t want you to do anything for me anymore.”
Hyukjae sighed. “I’m sorry, okay. But Tablo-ssi’s the most honest man I’ve seen in this business, and I thought…”
“You thought… you always do that!” Jieun cried. “You always think what you’re doing is the best thing for me, then what’s the best for you? Tablo-ssi, he wants you on his label, not me. Do you think it’s fair to Tablo-ssi, what you’ve done today? Is it fair to me too?”
Hyukjae ran his fingers through his hair. “I just… want what’s best for you.”
“What’s best for me… maybe that’s not what I want!” she screamed in return. Everyone on the street was starring at them, but Jieun did not seem to care. “You’re not my father. I can’t take this anymore,” she said, tears running down her cheeks.
Hyukjae didn’t know what to say. Jieun turned around and continued to walk. This time, he didn’t try to follow.
Jieun was crying over the phone when she called Donghae. He was in the middle of a recording, and had to tell her that he would call her back. Forty nerve-wracking minutes later after they had finally finished recording he called her up again and she sounded reasonably calmer.
“Oppa, can you come and get me?” she said in a tiny voice.
He was away in an instant.
She was waiting for him inside outside a 7 Eleven with her guitar case. He got out of his car and went to sit next to her on the steps. “Jieun?”
“Oppa,” she whispered. “How I wish… that I was older. I want to grow up.”
“You don’t want that,” Donghae laughed. “Are you cold? Let’s get you some tea,” he said, before dashing into the convenience store and coming out with two cups of tea. He handed one to Jieun, who placed it between her hands.
“Oppa,” Jieun said softly. “I like Hyukjae-oppa.”
“I know, kiddo,” Donghae grinned, and Jieun turned to him in surprise. “Don’t look that shocked. You probably have no idea your little crush is so obvious we all know it.”
“Does… does umma know?”
Donghae shook his head. He placed his cup aside and his hands on his knees, rubbing his thighs absently as he spoke. “Hyukjae, he’s a good guy. I trust him with you. I mean, that’s why I let you come over, even when I’m not around.”
“So… you’re okay with me liking him?” Jieun asked.
“Only because he’s the most righteous guy I know who wouldn’t take advantage of you,” Donghae nodded. “What’s he done this time?”
Jieun told Donghae about Tablo, from the first day they met in the club and Jieun had insisted Hyukjae bring Tablo home, up to the record deal that Hyukjae wanted to give her. Donghae laughed when she finished, and she looked a little angry. This wasn’t something he should be laughing at, she thought.
“Jieun-ah,” Donghae said, leaning over so that their knees bumped each other’s. “He’s really a good guy, isn’t he? A bit thick in the head… but I can see why you’re crazy about him.”
Jieun sighed, looked down at her rapidly cooling tea, and sighed again. “I guess,” she whispered. Donghae just reached over and gave her a one-armed hug.
This was her battle, and she was going to have to figure it out on her own.
Two weeks later, Hyukjae was moping about at home, cleaning the living room when Jieun arrived. He dropped the disinfectant and the rag when she walked in.
“What are you doing here?” Hyukjae asked.
“My parents are visiting my uncle in Pusan in the weekend. Didn’t Donghae-oppa tell you?”
Hyukjae stared. “No. No, he didn’t say it,” he muttered, bending down to pick up the stuff he had dropped.
“Oppa, I…” she began, but she didn’t get to finish because there was a loud knock on the door. Hyukjae, thankful for the distraction, went to get it. It was Mithra.
“Ah, Jieun-ssi, even better! Hyukjae, what are you doing today, tomorrow?” Mithra asked.
“Erm, work?”
“Take some urgent leave. It’s an emergency. Some sort of problem with family down South,” Mithra said simply. “Jieun-ssi, I’ve been informed that you’re terribly smart, but will your mother object to you taking a short vacation for the weekend?”
“I… my mother is out of town this weekend. She and my father had gone to Pusan… that’s why I’m here,” Jieun stammered.
“Oh that's perfect!” he reached over and grabbed Jieun’s bag and gestured for Hyukjae to pack something “Let’s go.”
Two hours (and a long phone call to Jieun’s mother) later, they were on a plane to Jeju Island. They must have been too stunned to protest, Tablo chuckled to himself. He peeped over the seat in front of him to see Jieun asleep with her head on Hyukjae’s shoulder. Hyukjae was adjusting the blanket carefully over her shoulders.
“Don’t do that,” Hyejung frowned, slapping Tablo's butt with the magazine she was reading.
“Ow!” Tablo frowned, sitting back down. “But they look so cute!” he insisted.
Hyejung sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I understand why you need to take off for a while,” she said, referring to the obvious problem he was having with making the deadline for his next album. “But why are the two of them coming along?”
“So that Hyukjae can see how we work. Mithra said Jieun-ssi would have nowhere to go if she didn’t come with us because she was supposed to stay with Hyukjae for the weekend, so he asked her to come along too,” Tablo said simply. “And I have too much cash to throw away on people I like.”
Hyejung groaned. “What am I ever going to do with you?”
“Sadly, you love me,” Tablo nodded sagely, and Hyejung smacked him with her magazine again.
Mithra had explained briefly why they were in Jeju Island. Tablo said they had needed a boost, and he wanted to see the sea, so that was why they were here. But it didn’t explain why he was here, Hyukjae thought to himself.
Jieun loved it though. Freed from her books and the thoughts of upcoming exams and faced with only a warm sun and a stretch of golden sand, she ran through the sand barefooted with her arms held up in the air. Then she came back and dragged Hyejung with her, calling out “unni!”
They’d only met once before, and now they seemed like they were best friends.
“Like it here?” Tablo grinned, walking up to Hyukjae. They watched the women splash water at each other, squealing when they got hit.
“I haven’t seen her this happy in a while,” Hyukjae said. “So… so…” he stammered, before he muttered, “Thank you.”
Tablo grinned. “You’re welcome. Hyukjae, this is how I work. I give myself crazy deadlines, but at the same time, I want to have the freedom to compose the way I want. I make the music I want to hear. I never show work if it’s not something that I feel is honest to myself. You’re the same, aren’t you?”
Hyukjae kicked idly at the sand. “My best friend, he’s in an idol group. I joined the company because I thought his dream was my dream, that we were best friends because we were out looking for the same thing. But after a while, training in that place, I realised I wasn’t going anywhere. I lost heart, and I told my best friend, but he said I’ve got to stick it out. We had a fight. He called me a spineless fish and I… called him an over-manufactured idol dick. I haven’t looked back. And I haven’t called him for ages.”
Tablo chuckled. “You’re one hell of a funny guy, Hyukjae.”
“The only thing I still enjoy is being on stage, but when I left the company I thought I’d lost my chance, that I’d never be able to go back to it. I didn’t have the drive for it, I thought to myself. I chickened out of training. I gave myself too many excuses,” Hyukjae said, before turning to Tablo. “Tablo-ssi… do you really see that something in me? That thing that could make me a singer?”
Tablo grinned. “Of course.”
“Then, can you help me be a singer?”
Tablo smiled, a big wide smile, and he suddenly felt that everything, everything was going to be okay. “Yes, Hyukjae. I’m going to help you be a singer. Well maybe a rapper first. Your singing sucks.”
Jieun came running back up the beach, breathless as she asked Hyukjae to hold out his hands. He held them out, and she placed a mould of wet sand, topped with a cracked seashell on it in his hands.
“What…” Hyukjae exclaimed, before jumping and letting go of the mould of wet sand. Tablo squinted down and laughed when he saw the sea snail wiggling in it. “Why you…” Hyukjae exclaimed before he roared. Jieun squealed and made a break for it as Hyukjae raced after her.
“I’d like to be that young again,” Hyejung had snuck up next to him. Tablo jumped a little, but turned to smile at her, brushing a wet strand of hair away from her face. “I like it here. Thanks for bringing us.”
Tablo turned to the two kids (Hyukjae was now tossing sand at Jieun, and she was squealing, trying to run from his attacks). “Were we ever like that?” he wondered for a moment.
“No. We were very adult and matured when we got together, don’t you remember?” Hyejung grinned.
Tablo turned to Hyejung. It’s been a while since they dated, but to him, she had never aged. She was still the beautiful actress he met at a social party, the beautiful girl who charmed him with stories about blunders on set and went to watch English movies she half-understood with.
He loved her, and now he knew exactly what to do.
The band was supposed to be here to work on music but Jieun thought they were just out there to have fun. After splashing at the beach in the afternoon, they took a long drive, just to “look at the scenery”, Tablo said. Jieun and Hyukjae separated from the group to visit the Teddy Bear Museum but met up with everyone else at a restaurant by the beach for a barbeque dinner.
Nobody saw it coming, and certainly not Jieun. The sight of Tablo bended on one knee under the lights of the lanterns strung across the beach as he held out a ring and asked Hyejung to marry him.
They waited in bated breath until Hyejung whispered yes.
Everyone was cheering, but Jieun wasn’t really noticing because she saw Hyejung whisper something into Tablo’s ear and the grin on Tablo’s face got even wider, and he laughed, cried out, whooped, and ran off into the sea with such speed that his slippers came off as he ran.
“What is it?” Jieun asked, as Mithra and Tukutz dragged Hyukjae with them towards the water. She shuddered to think how cold the water must be now.
“Oh nothing,” Hyejung smiled, placing a hand on Jieun’s arm. “I just mentioned to him that he's going to be a father, that’s all.”
Hyukjae woke up with a start at the knock. In his sleep-fogged state of mine, he pushed his blankets off haphazardly, reached for his glasses and squinted at the console. 4:19.
Was he hallucinating?
But the knocks kept going on, soft knocks on the door, and he turned to see Tukutz bury himself under the covers. Hyukjae sighed, reached for his jacket, yawned and scratched the back of his head absently as he shuffled over to the door. “Who is it?” he whispered.
“Oppa?”
Hyukjae had the door open in a second.
Jieun almost fell forward- she had been leaning against the door as she knocked and Hyukjae grabbed her before she could topple headfirst into the room.
So it was in that awkward position, where Hyukjae was trying to hold her but trying not to get too close, and Jieun with her arms held to her chest in a position that was obviously braced for impact where she looked up at him with equally bloodshot eyes and they both started giggling.
“Out, out, before he wakes up,” Hyukjae hissed. He hastily stepped into a pair of sandals before closing the door behind him. They ran down the hallway into the stairwell where they both burst into laughter, the sound echoing off the walls.
“I’m sorry,” Jieun giggled.
“What’s up? Why are you up?” Hyukjae growned. He patted his pockets to realize he hadn’t grabbed anything- this meant he could not go back into his room for his cell phone or anything else because he did not have his key. He was also wearing Tukutz’s sandals.
“I couldn’t sleep. The pillow’s kind of lumpy and the room smells funny,” Jieun confessed. “So I thought… I thought maybe… are you awake?”
Hyukjae ran his fingers through his hair. He must look a fright. He wished he’d been able to stop for a moment and grab a comb at least. “Yes,” he slapped his cheeks a bit. “I am, okay?”
Jieun giggled. “I thought… about going to see the sunrise.”
Hyukjae paused in trying to groom himself, and he looked up as a smile started to spread over his face. “With me?”
“With you,” Jieun blushed lightly, clasping her hands together.
“Let’s go,” Hyukjae nodded.
They started down the steps, Hyukjae’s too big sandals making a din and echoing off the walls.
Hyukjae held a hand out and she held it before hoping daintily into the soft sand. He let go as soon as she was safe on the ground, and she felt a little sad as he started walking towards the beach.
They took their shoes off further down the beach. Holding their slippers and sandals by the straps, Hyukjae walked in front, making sure there was nothing Jieun could cut her feet on.
They hadn’t said anything since leaving the hotel, but it was a comfortable, reflective silence.
“I’m glad Tablo-ssi brought us here,” Jieun said softly, as they saw in a distance, the first flickering glows of the sun.
“I’m glad your mother let you come,” Hyukjae said as he watched the waves roll over their feet.
Jieun watched him for a moment, and as the tip of the sun rose over the horizon, asked, “Oppa. Would it make a difference, if you were a little younger… and I was a little older?”
Hyukjae paused.
She turned away, turning to the sunrise, biting on her lower lip absently. “I really like you,” she said as she twisted her hands.
The sun rose steadily and soon it was a bright orange glow in the sky. Jieun thought it would start to be too bright to look at in a minute and she turned around only to turn right into Hyukjae. When had he moved to stand behind her?
“I want to remember this moment forever,” he whispered, and he held a hand, trembling slightly, up to her face. He touched her cheek lightly with his knuckles.
“Now?” she asked softly.
“Now,” he nodded with a gummy smile. “With the sun shining off the top of your head, bathing you in a halo of light. The way your feet sink slightly into the sand. How you pout your lips when you’re thinking about something. The way you asked me if it would be better if we were closer in age. The way you said you like me.”
Her lips trembled, and he moved his hand away.
“I will never forget today,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on her shoulder. “I… I like you too.”
Jieun wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight as a tear ran down her cheek.
They stayed like that until the sun was high up in the sky and the waves reached their shins. Only then did they start to walk back to the hotel. This time, when Hyukjae held a hand out to help Jieun up, he did not let go.
On the return trip to Seoul, Tablo was amused to see that besides the sleeping on each other’s shoulder thing that Hyukjae and Jieun had going on, this time they were holding hands.
“I never took you to be a matchmaker,” Hyejung grinned, when Tablo returned to his seat.
“I’m a good one,” he said.
Hyejung snorted. “They were already halfway there,” she grinned. “Don’t get too cocky.”
He smiled and took her hand, lacing their fingers together before holding it up to press a kiss on her knuckles.
