The Knights of K-Pop [Kiss Me Under the Stars Continuation]

Chapter 2

~~~~~~~ November 19th: KPWT Interview: Kibum ~~~~~~~

Hyomin and I were grinning as the crowd took millions of pictures of KREST. "Where were you for the past two days?" I asked her through my grin, not moving my lips or opening my mouth.

"None of your business," she told me, speaking in the same way that I was. "Someone pissed me off so I did what I had to in order to avoid killing said people."

"Much obliged," I murmured as we were waved over to the table and sat down. "That still doesn't justify missing practice yesterday."

"That was Manager-Oppa's order," she said nonchalantly. "Just let it go Kibum. If someone hadn't been an idiot, then none of this would have had to happen." I shot her a glare and then sat up straight in my seat.

"Why are you always on the end?" I grumbled as she waved at Jung Ae Cha on the other end of the long interview table.

"Leader~" she said with a grin as the press quieted down. We had already gone through the main questioning session for the tour earlier, but now we were meant to explain our points of view on it. "Thank you all for joining us on this exciting day. Today will mark the beginning of the KREST 2012-2013 Knight Power World Tour!"

"That's right," Woohyun agreed, receiving a warning frown from Manager-Hyung. "We will have many stops and we hope to spread Korean pop music to the four corners of the world. In order for our goal to be achieved, our tour consists of several sections and covers areas of six of the world's seven continents."

"As Woohyun says, our tour will extend to the far reaches of the world and will be ending with a tour of several major cities across Korea," Hyomin agreed with a smile, hiding her annoyance at Woohyun's interjection quite well. "We hope to come back to Seoul with a new outlook on the world and also, to have given the world a new look at what Korean pop has to offer. We aren't what most people think we are, which is wannabe American pop artists. We are much more than that because we each have a unique style of music that defines our groups."

I turned to Hyomin and she nodded politely for me to speak. I quietly began, "I would just like to say that I am not only grateful to Cube Entertainment for giving us this fantastic opportunity to travel the world, but also giving us the opportunity to become even closer as a group. This tour will hopefully be a way for all of the Knights in the world and maybe even fans of other groups to come together under a common interest. As idols, we in KREST hope to be able to unite the world as one if only for a limited amount of time. This is truly a blessing for all of us here in this group as well as for all of the people in the world who want to be able to find commonalities with others who seem different. I would like to thank our Manager, Kim Dong Min-Shi, for always being a huge source of support for us and putting up with our complaining."

Manager-Hyung bowed gratefully with a smile, looking close to crying. "To my group, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart," he said with a sigh and a happy smile. "This past year and a half has been an absolute delight and I am excited to see what the upcoming years have in store for KREST. Moving on to the more pressing matters, we will not be seeing KREST back in Korea until early February for the second United Cube performance of 2013!"

"Say what?" Woohyun asked Hyomin in shock. "We have no access to Kimbap until February?!"

"Woohyun, you hate Kimbap..." Jiyeon murmured with a roll of her eyes.

"I know, but I like to know that I have access to it..." he grumbled with a pout.

"But Hyung, you really do hate Kimbap," Dongjin pointed out with a sigh. "If anything, I thought you would have been more worried about your access to Bulgogi."

"That's Hyomin," I corrected with a chuckle.

"You guys are seriously distracting me," Aecha growled with a threatening glare. "I can't hear what Manager-Oppa is saying about our tour. We know close to nothing about the whole thing."

I stuck my tongue out at her and her glare deepened. Hyomin and I bumped fists with amused smiles and then I yawned and rested my head on Woohyun's shoulder. "Does anyone ever remember Kibum being the oldest in this group?" he asked the others jokingly, receiving a chuckle from Jiyeon and Yuri.

"For the excited Knights around the world, we hope that you enjoy the next several upcoming performances. A little surprise will be coming to not only the fans, but also the members themselves!" Manager-Hyung said with an amused smile as the crowd began murmuring to themselves. "This news will be released at the February 2nd United Cube Performance in Seoul, so please look forward to it! Thank you!"

He gave Hyomin a nod to signal the end of the interview and she bowed her head slightly before standing. "Thank you everyone for coming and joining us for this interview. We hope that you will look forward to our return to Seoul on February 2nd for United Cube and we hope that you will all be waiting here for us when our tour ends." She gestured for us to stand.

"We are KREST! Thank you for coming today and thank you for your support! Please continue to believe in us!" we all exclaimed together with grins, bowing to the assembled crowd and then retreating backstage after several pictures were taken.

"Aigoo~" Eunsung groaned, flopping onto the couch with a sigh. "This is crazy! I'm exhausted and we haven't even had our performance yet!"

"We have a fan meeting to go to as well," Woohyun groaned in agreement. "Hey, did you guys find out anything about that private plane?"

"It's got Rockband!" Hyomin exclaimed with a grin, pumping a fist in the air. "I believe that Manager-Oppa mentioned something about couches and beds as well."

"Sweet!" I cheered in awe. "We have to wait until after our concert today to see it! >.< Hey, when do we get the schedules? Aren't we getting the refined ones today?"

Dongjin nodded in agreement and attempted to scratch his arm under his cast. "I finished it up so Manager-Hyung should be giving them out soon. Maybe he's giving them to us after our concert since B.A.P-Hyungs need them too." I nodded in agreement at his statement and sighed with disappointment.

"I was getting really excited too..." Aecha grumbled with a sigh. I chuckled at her Daegu Satoori and she stuck her tongue out at me. "It's not like you never have an accent when you talk Kibum~ Your family is from Jeonju. You use the Jeolla accent a lot when you talk."

"Yeah, and you mix North and South Gyeongsang accents," I retorted. Yuri began mumbling in her Jeju accent that came on an off. I stifled my laughter and she rolled her eyes. "Hyomin just has that Busan accent."

"Yah, at least I'm proud of my accent!" she countered, raging in full-on Busan Gyeongsang Satoori. "Plus, Dongjin uses Jeolla accent too because his family is from Iksan! He's proud of it!"

"I use Jeolla accent? O_o" Dongjin inquired with wide eyes. "I had no idea..."

Dongjin... -.-

"I can't believe you haven't noticed! Half the time you use 'utjeseo' for 'wae' and you use the Jeolla endings about seventy percent of the time!" Hyomin exclaimed. "You're always saying 'rau' or 'jirau' instead of 'seumnida' and 'seyo' and you say 'neungkkei' instead of 'nikka'. You also say 'dangkke' instead of 'dago' and 'rago'." I nodded in agreement at Hyomin's statements and Dongjin frowned uncertainly.

"You tend to say 'ing' at the end of your sentences too," I added with a chuckle. "I do that all the time. You also don't pronounce your diphthongs properly like most of us that speak the southern dialects. So instead of 'sagwa' and 'gwaja' you say 'saga' and 'gaja'. Hyomin, Aecha, and do the same thing. Hyomin and Aecha just use Gyeongsang dialect, which is spoken in the South like Jeolla dialect."

Jiyeon nodded slowly with a thoughtful expression. "I tend to enunciate and speak a little slower which is classic Chungcheong accent. I use North Chuncheong dialect though which isn't that different from standard Korean aside from a few things like saying 'geotda' instead of 'getda'."

"You also say 'giyeo' instead of 'matda' and 'geundi' instead of 'geureonde'," Hyomin pointed out with a chuckle. "Also, 'inikka' becomes 'inikke'.

"I have Seoul accent!" Woohyun cheered from the corner with a sigh. Eunsung nodded in agreement with a grin and I rolled my eyes.

"Yuri uses standard Gyeonggi accent too," Hyomin said with a yawn. "She just switches to Jeju every once in a while because her family is from Jeju Island."

"Jeju Island has a dialect all it's own," Eunsung sighed with a chuckle. "It's not even qualified to be a definite dialect because its only spoken on the island..."

"Well I speak it and I live in Seoul, so take that Eunsung," Yuri said defensively with a pout. "Jeju dialect forever!"

"See, we don't even know what you said because you spoke in your Jeju dialect," Dongjin teased, poking Yuri's forehead with a grin.

"I think she said 'Jeju dialect forever' in Jeju dialect," Jiyeon chuckled, shaking her head with an amused smile. "Was that right? I took a course on Jeju dialect online once and I learned quite a bit." Yuri nodded in agreement and Jiyeon nodded slowly with a grin. "Hyomin-ah, when are you starting school back up?"

"Hyomin's starting school again?" I asked in surprise, receiving a nod from Jiyeon. "When were you planning on telling us?"

"It's not like I'm halting activities with KREST or anything. I'll be kind of like Nicole-Unnie," she told me defensively. "I'm also starting courses at Kyunghee so that I can finish earlier."

"Kyunghee is a university though!" Woohyun exclaimed. "You can't attend university! You're not even 17 yet!"

"I can too and I am, so take that Woohyun," she retorted.

"Woohyun, you're really not the most fun to be around," Jiyeon sighed, now in full-on Chungcheong.

I turned to Hyomin and whispered, "The father has already been crushed by the falling rocks.* That poor guy." Hyomin burst into laughter and Dongjin who had been listening began laughing as well.

*Note: Kibum is referring to a joke about Chungcheong dialect. Since the accent uses very long and stretched out syllables, there are several jokes among many Korean speakers. This joke being about a father and son climbing a dangerous slope and by the time the son finishes warning the father about falling rocks, the father is already dead.*

"Not funny! You owe me an apology!" Hyomin glared at Jiyeon for her overly accented 'apology'.**

**Jiyeon says 'saga' instead of 'sagwa' which is classic Gyeongsang pronounciation, a clear bite at Hyomin, and over enunciates the word.**

"Yah, don't mess with Gyeongsang people! We're all close and warm and friendly and chill unlike all you central Koreans," Hyomin retorted snidely. Jiyeon furrowed her brow and Aecha bumped fists with Hyomin. "Gyeongsang people think all you Seoul and Central Korea people are cold and bitter like the winters you suffer through."

"Hey~~ >.<" Woohyun whined in protest, frowning with a hurt expression. "Seoul people aren't cold! We're just reserved~ Plus, Gyeongsang suffers the same winters as Seoul does! It's only about five degrees warmer down there!"

"Woohyun, it's just a joke~" she reassured nonchalantly with a roll of her eyes. The Stylist-Noonas began pushing us all towards the car and we sighed and followed without question.

"Alright, you all will be cross dressing for your first performance!" the Head Stylist-Noona announced with a grin.

"Say what?" we all asked in shock as we were shoved into a bus.