I Hope Love Is... [On Hold]

Interlude: Jae

Interlude: Jae

It's not good for you
It's not good for me
Baby, saying goodbye is the only way to make things better
between you and me...

-translated from “Missed”
from Future Colors' first album Future Colors

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Present day...

“Yes. Thank you, hyung. You will keep me informed? Yes. Bye.” Seo Jae-seung put down the phone and looked around as his wife came into his study.

“Bebeh dropped me a Facebook message,” she said.

“And...?” Jae dialed another number. “Hello? Yes, ma'am, it's me. No, we haven't had any news yet. How about you? Oh. Well, we will keep you informed. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. We'll find him, don't worry about it.” 

“He's there,” Mia said after he ended the call.

“Huh?”

“At our house. That was the message Bebeh sent.”

Jae picked up the phone, put it back down, and went to the door.

“Sam-dong-ah!” he called. His assistant arrived on the run, still clutching a sandwich. “I need you to book me the earliest flight to Manila.”

“I'm coming with you,” Mia put in, coming to his side.

Jae placed a gentle hand over her swelling belly.

“No,” he said. “You and baby stay here and rest. I'll bring him back.”

“But, yeobo...”

“Besides, someone has to stay here and keep tabs on everything else.” He smiled down at her. “There are four other members of the band, in case you've forgotten.”

“Huh, why do I suddenly have the feeling you're leaving me with the harder task?” Mia pouted, sitting down on the couch and pulling him down beside her.

“Not quite. If I don't miss my guess, Oh Dong-min will want to go along.”

“Ugh,” she said. “You will keep him from making this worse, right?”

He dropped a kiss on her nose. “I'll try my best,” he promised.

“I hope Minha's all right,” Mia murmured. “Everything had been going so well-- and then suddenly, boom. Poor kid.”

“It happens,” Jae said, leaning back and running his fingers through his hair. 

“He reminds you of yourself at times, doesn't he?”

“He reminds me of me at that age,” Jae answered. “What I was going through in Divinity, and what people were doing to my other bandmates.”

“That's what I thought too,” Mia said. “Even being called a troublemaker, a bad influence and a rebel-- it was the same.”

“Well, except what happened to us was all behind the scenes. At least I didn't screw up spectacularly in the most public way imaginable. The resulting flak was awful enough though.”

“At least the other boys seem to be coping,” Mia commented. “Jungkyu handled the interviews quite well, and they've all been very supportive. Or at least I hope they really were. I couldn't see any tension between them, aside from Minha being surly about what happened.”

“Future Colors always sticks together,” her husband assured her. “If there was one good thing that Royal did for them, it was making them into a team. The one thing I regretted about the whole thing with Divinity was that only Shingu and I were able to get away. The other three were too afraid to leave. But it looks as though Future Colors is doing what we couldn't.”

“It's Jungkyu's doing,” Mia said. “I was surprised at first that Jungkyu and not Minha was chosen to be band leader. But it was a good choice. Jungkyu holds the group together in ways that Minha can't, even though I can see that Minha is the more talented one.”

“It's because Minha's talent is in the creative part-- composing in addition to playing, acting and singing. He isn't comfortable about being burdened with the more practical side, such as relating to people or worrying over the finances,” Jae pointed out. “He wants to be able to create and emote and dream all he wants within the band without having to worry about the day-to-day things. Jungkyu does that, because he relies on Minha to worry about the performances and the albums.” His own personal Jungkyu had been Dong-hae, and Dong-hae was still doing the same for Divinity until now, even when Jae was no longer there.

Even later that night, with Mia already asleep, Jae lay awake, remembering...

He had been a sixteen-year-old newcomer to Seoul on his way to an audition, waiting for the lights to change at a pedestrian crossing, when he looked up at an electronic billboard that was playing a commercial for ice cream. That was the first time he saw Minha, then a tiny eight-year-old, stealing everyone's hearts with his wide-eyed wonder, bright smile and angelic singing voice. That was also the day that Jae had been accepted as an idol trainee for the agency that would later launch him as Prince Jae in the boy band known worldwide as Divinity.

While Jae's own idol career progressed, he had noticed “that little boy from the ice cream commercial” from time to time. There had been many more commercials after the ice cream one, and then guest performances on a variety show from age ten to eleven, with Minha playing the drums, then keyboards, and finally the acoustic guitar. And then, when Royal Ent. was established, a fourteen-year-old Minha showed up at one of their first trainee auditions with his new voice-- he'd had trouble finding projects while going through the awkward tween stage, when his voice was still cracking and settling into its new identity. 

“No matter who else you sign, hyung, make sure you sign that kid,” Jae had told Kang Namseok, better known as Royal's President. And President Kang had.

Their paths had first crossed in person when Jae agreed to teach one of the trainee classes for a few days when the regular teacher couldn't make it. Minha back then was cheerful, always smiling, doing his lessons with enthusiasm, taking corrections with good grace. He was so energetic that you could measure the group's general mood just by looking at him-- if Minha was in the zone, everyone was in good spirits, even playing pranks, making impertinent (but surprisingly insightful, Jae thought) comments, or just simply hamming everything up. If Minha was in low spirits, everyone drooped.

Minha back then, for all his mischief, was polite and quick to apologize and try to atone for his transgressions. He'd gradually changed, though, after the band was launched and became famous-- he became demanding, difficult, and in some instances even reluctant to work, and his music suffered. Jae had thought that he'd reverted to his old self after they'd gone to the Philippines to shoot their video, though.

Their conversation that night after Minha and Bea had been left behind on the beach was probably the only time that the boy attempted to explain his behavior. Despite that, however, Oh Dongmin was still their manager. He must have said something to President Kang, who was hesitant to replace him without a compelling enough reason, and Jae was reluctant to interfere in Royal's management decisions. Still, it was clear that there was no love lost between Future Colors and their long-time manager.

Should I have interfered? Jae asked himself. I know Mia has always felt that I'd be justified in interfering. She thinks the boys' welfare-- or that of any of Royal's talents-- outweigh any inconvenience that my interference would cause. Perhaps I have to talk to Namseok hyung. Or Shingu. No, Shingu first before Namseok hyung. Tomorrow. Tomorrow at the earliest.

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Vocabulary

Yeobo - Korean, commonly used to address one's spouse, usually translated as "honey" or "dear"