Stardom For Dummies

Lesson 1: How to get kidnapped by your bandmate

CHAPTER 1

< How to get kidnapped by your bandmate >

The funny thing about life is, it throws things you don't want smack across your face. No pity whatsoever.

"Like I was saying, hyung, today is Purple Skyes' come-back," Do Hyun says. His excited voice carries through the summer heat like a shot of lemonade with too much sugar. The pubertal nasal drawl to it just makes it sound worse.

But that isn't why I freeze when the words escape his lips. I swallow back a sigh as his statement echoes through my mind. There are quite a few words that I manually deleted from my dictionary the day I left PBS, my old entertainment agency. And those precisely included: PBS, Purple Skyes, Best Friend and mainly, Liu Xuejun.

And right now, having Do Hyun, my fellow trainee, yap on and on about Xuejun and his group's comeback wasn't how I was expecting to spend my weekend. "Look at that hair!" Do Hyun cries and I wince. "Honestly, Jun hyung is hands down the top visual of this generation of male idols."

I don't argue back but fanboy Do Hyun takes it upon himself to lay out each best thing about Liu Xuejun and his exceptional qualities in bullet points —minus the PowerPoint, thank God. You know what's worse than having a friend idolise someone like a crazy person? It's to have a friend who idolises your ex-best friend.

Xuejun —or more like Purple Skyes' Jun and I go way back. We were peanut butter and jelly, pizza and cheese, fish and chips . . .  the world's best duo according to thirteen-year-old me. But our ending was pretty meh considering everything we went through. And though it's been two years since I left my old life back at PBS, the topic of Liu Xuejun was still a sour one. It didn't help that except for Ha Joon hyung, no one in my new agency knew my past history with Xuejun.

"So is this top visual of the industry going to save you when I tell Mr. Park Tae Joo that you weren't here for today's practise?"

This effectively scares Do Hyun and just like that, his fanboy fuelled eyes dim and he looks at me like a pitiful puppy. But I've years with him under my belt and that's enough time to turn anyone immune to such tactics. I shoot him my most unimpressed look. "You can't just up and disappear during practise."

At once, Do Hyun's face falls. He is still young. Barely fifteen. His baby features still hang onto him like a second skin and the sudden growth spurt just made everything about him awkward in that pitiful mangy way. Double awkward.

I fight my urge to ruffle his soft curls. "It was just an hour," he whines. "The fanclub leader noona had to pull all her strings to get me those tickets. It's not like I can ask her to deliver it to our doorstep."

I know I'm about to sound like one of those neighbourhood grandpas who always has one of those 'back in my time, we had to crush stone with bare hands to make a house' speeches ready but really, I've been there before. Ditching practise to break more rules; turning off the dance studio lights and locking the doors to play cellphone video games; dozing off during morning stretching. My heart falls with a sick thud as unwanted memories of me breaking rules with Liu Xuejun in PBS' basement flit through my mind. With a tight fist, I turn to Do Hyun.

"Don't make me give the old-man speech," I tell him. "I'm not even that old yet."

Do Hyun goes stiff and then smiles. There isn't much humour to it. I try to ignore the way my chest pangs at the sight but this is for the best. Do Hyun, Ha Joon hyung, Ryuu, and I didn't have much of a choice. This is our last chance. We gave up on luxuries like slacking off during practise the day all of us left our old 'more popular' entertainment companies.