Untitled, 2018

Chapter 39: Gunho and Jihun

I listened to the voice coddle this Baekie over the phone, call her sweet names, tell her that he was looking forward to their date that weekend.
"But what about... Jimin?" My ear pricked at that and I covered my mouth before I could squeak audibly.
"Babe, I know that, but it's a little unfair to keep him waiting... no, no, I don't want to share. It's just, you need to tell him soon. You know I love you. I don't know what the company is saying, and I don't care. Fine, fine, let's talk somewhere else about this. Now just tell me how your vacation went."

I slowly looked around the corner into the room, and saw a dusty blond-haired idol comfortably sitting in a chair facing the mirrors in the empty dressing room. His face looked rather familiar; I'd bumped into it a couple of times now. Laundromat. He's the nervous one with Gunho.

As I reeled my head back out, I felt a little thud on the wall next to my head and reflexively turned to see Gunho staring me down. Speak of the devil.

Great stuff! Now I know who Jimin's girlfriend is probably cheating on him with, and now I've been caught peeping on this guy by master HighTen headass.

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Gunho

So this girl doesn't work for a tabloid, yet gets my senior manager demoted so he's breathing down our necks all the time, gets caught around celebrities way too often, and now is looking into my dressing room. Suspicious, don't you think?

I confronted her immediately, staring her down as she turned around. She jumped a little and tried to slide away from the door, back against the wall. I followed her, getting closer, before I planted my other hand on her other side to trap her from moving.
Her expression turned indignant.
"Can I help you, Gunho?"
"What were you doing?"
"Nothing? It's an idol's dressing room, I wanted to see idols."
"Why?"
She smiled. "Because I didn't realize it was HighTen. Thought it'd be someone exciting."
I snarled, "Were you eavesdropping? Who's in there anyway? Jihun?"
I saw her process the name in her head. "He's Jihun? The famous pretty boy of your group? I've heard his name."
"He's my best friend. Now, what's your interest in him, in us?"
Her eyes widened. "Your— Then... do you know what he's doing? Haven't you... talked to him about it?"
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"
She pressed her lips and looked at me, her eyes calculating something. "Nothing," she said conclusively.
That ticked me off. "Are you trying to break our team apart or something? First our manager, now me and Jihun?"

"No!"
She sighed. "Your directing manager was a nightmare and I did nothing to him."
"Did nothing? The man almost lost his job!"
"That was his own doing! I can't help if you have a bad team!" She was whisper-yelling at me at this point.
"Bad team?! Says who?"
"Me! You have trash managers, no trust in each other, and apparently make really bad PR choices, buddy!"
I got furious. "What are you talking about!"
She poked my chest, "Just ask your friend!"
"How are you even here? This doesn't seem like a place for research."
She calmed down a little. "I'm here with BTS. A much better team, if you must know."
I laughed a little and mocked her. "BTS, yeah right. Did you sneak in?"
Right then, I felt a very forceful pat on my back and turned around.

The Park Jimin was standing there, ignoring me, looking at the girl. They launched into an intense staring contest right then and there, so I awkwardly interjected and tried to say hi.
At first he seemed annoyed with me, but when he saw who I was, he just looked curious, if not a little upset. I tried to smile but probably looked stupid, so I excused myself quickly and bounded to the dressing room, closing the door behind me.

_______________________
Flashback, Gunho

My mom dropped me off at the front of the company, giving me a good luck kiss on the cheek before I stepped in, equally nervous and excited. I had just passed my last set of trainee auditions. It was time to join the different trainee groups and eliminate people till we had an idol group, ready to debut. My mom did not particularly like the creative director in charge of us, but when you're just young and desperate you take any chance you get. And the company was a decently established one, even if certain things ran kind of fishily.

When we were all called onstage, there were 30 boys, and I only knew around 5 of them well. The first boy to be called up was a friend from my trainee batch, Yoonjae, and it made me nervous that he was my direct competition. The next boy to be called up was a lot smaller: Jihun. He looked a little fragile, but smiled a big smile when he was chosen. I was one of the last few, and I was ecstatic when I heard my name. We could barely contain our glee, and the boys who didn't make it could barely contain their sadness. I really felt for them but didn't have time to offer my sympathy; this industry is not easy.

That evening as I headed to the bathroom during our celebratory dinner, I heard a thud by the last stall and saw Yoonjae smugly standing over the frail boy, who looked close to tears, holding his cheek. I sprung to action and pulled the taller boy back, landing a punch on him myself. I dusted Jihun off and quickly pulled him out of there, to head back to the managers. When I complained about the incident, they just stared at me, glancing at Yoonjae disapprovingly. One even snickered.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

Jihun looked like he was definitely going to cry. When we sat down quietly, I turned to him and whispered forcefully, "You can't cry. It won't help."
He nodded and wiped his nose with his sleeve. "Thanks. I owe you."

And that's how I met my best friend of the next two years. He had his head in the clouds and would invite me to his crazy world sometimes, and I kept him grounded and had his back when dealing with others. It was terrible having to pretend to be friends with a couple of members in the group when our relationship was so sour off-camera. But like I said, unfortunately, when you're young and desperate, you take any chance you get.

End flashback
_______________________

I heaved a big sigh and turned around to see Jihun quickly hang up on the phone and turn to look at me. "Dude, this chick outside thinks she so gutsy but really she's such a pain in my—" I noticed how distracted Jihun looked. It wasn't new, but it had gotten worse recently.
"Jihun, you okay?"
He nodded.
"Is there something going on?"
"No?" He burst out, suddenly angry, "what makes you think that?"

I thought for a moment about telling him about what Riti said, but something in me told me it could be a bad idea.

"Who were you on the phone with, Jihun?"
"What... why are you asking me that? Are you suspicious of something, Gunho?"

"Suspicious? What even? No, I was just asking a simple..."
"You're always doing this; I feel like I'm constantly under watch or you don't trust me. It's bad that the company checks my phone log, and now you will too?"
I stood still, surprised by his sudden outburst. I felt bad and walked to him to give him a hug. "Hey man, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that".
He reluctantly hugged me back.
"Don't you have any faith in me as your friend?" He asked sadly.
I hugged him tighter and responding with conviction, "Of course I do."
It was right after that I looked down at the desk by the mirror behind him and some of that conviction started evaporating, much to my chagrin.

The phone case was a different one from his phone. I would know, I playfully stole it and messed with him during our car ride here. Moreover I could see the bulge of what I thought was his phone in his back pocket in the mirror.
He didn't submit this other phone to the company to look through. It looked like a secret phone... and even I didn't know about it.

Riti's words about trust played in my head as I filled with worry. What was Jihun up to?