NOT SO SUBTLE

Chapter 6

The members are preparing for an award show, they’re supposed to attend too and they’re all dressed in nice suits.

San is the only one dressed in white suit while the rest were all in black ones. When he asked why he was the only one wearing white, he was told he needed to stand out since he’s in a dating rumour.

It’s funny to him because when people get into scandals or dating rumours, they’re supposed to lay low and stay under the radar but of course his case ends up different.

They start to walk into the hall, the huge hall were the award night is taking place.

A huge hall big enough to contain different groups, different fans of different groups and other people.

While they’re taking their seats, the lights suddenly changed to him, basically in the spotlight and he groans, the extra attention isn’t something he likes one bit.

There’s a light over Jisung too and for some reason, people are cheering for them both.

He takes his seat near Yuta who couldn’t shut up about Yuna. He keeps making jokes about how their name rhymes and they’d have the cutest babies and ship names, it’s deafening.

The MC who is an actor starts to speak and everyone is quiet, eager to hear him and the awards to be given out tonight.

“Always try to make eye contact with Jisung”

Their manager’s words echo in San’s head and he mentally scolds himself for thinking about it till his phone vibrates, a text from Jisung.

He slides his hand over the screen to unlock his phone and move to the message box to know the reason as to why his phone vibrated.

He smiles at the text, turning to glance at Jisung who he could naturally see since his own group wasn’t seated that far from them.

Jisung hyung: “They put both of us in white suits so we’ll stand out right?”

Read: 16:47

San:”I’m sure they did, it’s awkward”

Read: 16:47

Jisung hyung: “We’re matching so we’d really look like a couple if we stand together”

Read: 16:49

San is about to text a reply back before he hears his name and Yuta is rubbing his shoulders as a sign of being proud of him.

He doesn’t know what is going on and why people are applauding at the call of his name till he reads another text from Jisung.

Jisung: “You won best solo song of the year”

Read: 16:59

San looks up at the MC and he’s smiling down at him, he gets up, dropping his phone with Yuta and walks to the stage to receive his award.

He’s nervous, shocked even that he won the award despite all the hate he got for the song since he wrote it for his dead mom.

His mom passed away a year ago and it was the worst experience. San was basically a walking dead, always zoned out, face often dried with tears.

He barely ate anything, just sat in his room, writing about her till he made it into a song.

One that pushed a lot of people who listened to tears, even the staff, members and the person who helped produce the song cried like babies.

That’s just San, he pours his emotion into whatever he writes, either for himself or for his members and that’s what they loved most about him.

He was sometimes unpredictable, even a week after he lost his mom and his company requested him for a good model paying job. He took it and it was amazing, they wanted to take his mind off his mom and he didn’t appreciate it but work was work.

Those pictures are still in the TVF magazine till today, shows San is undefeated but haters will simply not leave the poor boy the hell alone.

San stands on the stage, the award in his other hand and the other hand holding onto the mic as he chuckles quietly and the crowd laughed.

“Good evening, i’m Choi San and i belong to the group ACE. I’m really honoured to receive this award and it means a lot to me. I wrote ‘GONE’ for my dead mom. She died of heart attack and while she was alone, dying, i was working to pay her heart surgery bills.”

San sniffs, chuckling to hide the way his eyes were glistening with hot tears.

“My mom always worried about me, she said she didn’t like that i was an idol and every single day, i kept reminding her why i decided to be an idol. I wanted people to hear my voice, understand me and i also genuinely wanted to be an idol to earn money for her heart surgery.”

“Every single day that she read about me, the sort of terrible things people said about me, she’d call me, crying and mentions how reading those things made her heart ache. I told her it was completely normal for terrible things to be said to idols. I should’ve listened to her when she asked me to come home often but my tight schedule never gave me a chance. She died, alone at our hometown and i only heard about it two days later.”

“It’s a terrible feeling and i think it’s my fault that i lost her, if i had given her the huge amount of attention i gave my work then maybe she would’ve been amongst the crowd, cheering me on”

San is crying now, sobbing quietly as he speaks and even people listening to him are holding back their tears, some are already crying.

“I’m sorry for getting emotional. To those who have lost their parents, their relatives or people close to them, i hope you find peace in yourself. I hope it doesn’t hurt for long and it’ll finally be fine and you’ll come in terms with what life has in stall for you. Those who haven’t lost anyone dear to them, please pay more attention to them and love them before it’s too late.”

“Finally, thank you for the award and it’s an honour to stand in front of a huge crowd and receive this award. I’m sure my mum is really proud of me wherever she is. Thank you to the company, my members and our fans ‘Luna’. Thank you” San finishes and bows to the crowd and they’re cheering for him, how strong he is.

He wipes his eyes, bowing as he walks down from the stage and when he gets to his seat, Yuta engulfs him in a side hug and the other members give him an encouraging smile which he really appreciates.

Jisung suddenly gets up from his seat and his member stare at him and wonders what he’s doing, where he’s heading to and even try to call him back but he didn’t care. He walked past a few others who are gushing over his beauty and how the suit he has on was basically made just for him.

He stops in front of San, squatting in front of him and San’s eyes widen, the spotlight is on them and Jisung gets out a handkerchief from the inside pocket of his suit and starts wiping San’s tears and the crowd is cheering.

San smiles at the action, he was bold enough to walk up to him, San could never be that bold.

“San, you were amazing up there” Jisung says and he’s pushing the handkerchief in San’s hands then gets up so he could whisper something to him. “I’ll take it back the next time we see each other”

With that, Jisung is walking back to his own members, exuding a magnificent aura as he walks away while San stares at probably the sexiest back he’s ever seen.

The award show goes on for a while and Jisung gets best producer and his group also wins few awards including best album of the year that San’s group had their eyes on.

The award show finally ends and they’re all outside, getting their pictures taken and the crowd suddenly screams when they see Jisung, now out of his suit jacket and holding the jacket on his arm. His black shirt perfectly tucked into his white pants and his sleeves rolled up to his elbow, stopping mid-way so his tattoos don’t show.

Jisung gets his picture taken, his members too and they’re all matching out before a photographer calls Jisung back and San too for a picture.

“Can i get a picture with you both? please” She begs and the two boys nod with a small smile. They both scoot closer to each other and they’re smiling, Jisung looks at San, his hand almost resting on his waist and *click*, the photograph takes the picture and she’s squealing as she looks at it.

“Are they really dating?”

“They look so good together though”

“They’re both so lucky to have each other”

“San is really pretty”

Jisung smiles at the comments and he’s turning to San one more time to bow at him and starts leaving the premises with his member.

“San-ah, are you sure it’s really a rumour?”

*

Jisung is back at their group’s dorm and they’re all surrounding him, throwing questions at him and he’s too exhausted to bother answering them.

“What was that earlier? you can’t just stand up and walk to another idol, one you’re rumoured to be dating, are you trying to get us in trouble?” Hyunjin, the eldest moment in their group asks and Jisung doesn’t answer, maybe because he doesn’t know what to say.

“I just wanted to give him a handkerchief”

“You could’ve done that after the award’s show, you’re gonna get an earful from our manager”

“I have a headache and i don’t think what i did was a big deal. He was crying and i wanted to comfort him” Jisung says in a rather unpleasant tone and it absolutely doesn’t sit well with Hyunjin.

“Comfort him? you thought it was a good idea to walk away from our table to another group’s table just to comfort him?. The same person you’re in a dating scandal with? you’re crazy Jisung”