I Hope Love Is... [On Hold]

Twenty-first Verse

Twenty-first Verse

I wanted to believe
in all your promises
because I loved you...
-translated from “Wasted Love”
from Future Colors' first mini-album Love/Pain

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“You rotten punk.” Jae sunbae pointed a finger at Minha. “You had everyone worried, especially your mother.” He shook his head and put an arm around Minha's shoulders. “Call her soon, all right? She's been frantic. We've all been running around trying to find you!”

“Hyuuuung!”

Minha's knees almost buckled from the sudden impact as Myungseok, then Sangmin and Junhee, all piled on him and almost buried him in hugs. Jae sunbae hastily got out of the way to avoid being collateral damage.

Minha sent a how-could-you-do-this-to-me look at Bea, but she was talking to Mia noona and didn't look his way at all.

Something whacked him over the top of the head-- Jungkyu, with a rolled-up sheaf of paper. In the background, Manager Oh's voice squawked, “My schedule...!!” Minha glared at Jungkyu. Unfazed, Jungkyu stared back.

“That's for all the worry you caused us,” the band leader said. “What did you think you were doing? You couldn't even send your band leader a text message with a heads up?”

Are you still my band leader? The words hovered on Minha's lips but went unsaid because Jungkyu got him in a headlock that he couldn't get out of because the other three were still clinging to his arms.

“Next time, you tell us what you're going to do!” Jungkyu scolded. The headlock turned into a hug. “When we couldn't find you, I was even afraid to watch the news especially the ones about traffic accidents and dead bodies. You rotten punk.”

“Did I tell you to worry?” Minha grouched.

“Ya! You stinker! Did I need your permission?” Jungkyu dragged him towards the house, still with an arm around his neck. The other three followed, whooping and laughing. 

Bea was nowhere in sight when they came into the living room. Mia noona came in from the kitchen and sat down on the sofa and the boys followed suit. 

“I hope Bebeh has been looking after you?” she asked, and Minha nodded.

“Yes, noona.”

Manager Oh made a sound of disgust. “He was being cared for very well in the hospital. He could have just gone home to be looked after by his mother. Whatever possessed the child to run away across the ocean like a headless chicken, I have no idea.” He clucked like a chicken, too.

I'm not a child. Minha shot his erstwhile manager a venomous look. So did Mia noona.

“Maybe Minmin just needed to get away from all of the fuss and the media frenzy for a while,” Jungkyu suggested. The expression on his face was bland, but his eyes were steely as he looked across at his manager.

The last time I saw Jungie that pissed was when he tried to get me out of a brawl back when we were still trainees, and then everything went wrong and somehow he ended up getting blamed for the whole thing. Hm. I'd forgotten that. I guess I'm just used to him being so nice and easygoing all the time. 

Wait. Media frenzy. What media frenzy...? Is he referring to the whole thing in general, or is there something I don't know about...? 

Minha looked across at Jungkyu and opened his mouth to ask, but just then Junhee jumped into the breach.