oblivious | surene

ramen

may 2015

while eating ramen, joohyun and junmyeon discuss their worries in their first conversation in years.

Being a rookie group, Red Velvet was one of the first groups to start off the Dream Concert this year. After performing Ice Cream Cake, Joohyun felt the familiar sense of relief. There's always a feeling of satisfaction that comes from performing a stage with no problems.

Joohyun is always grateful for being able to debut and perform on the stage. There was no doubt about that. She just didn't understand the hate that was given especially to their newly added maknae. The amount they received was unnecessary and the reasoning antis gave were not valid at all.

After the staff ushered all the SM artists together to take a group photo, everyone separated back into their own groups. Seungwan has a special stage with Chanyeol so she left quickly to get ready for it. The rest of the group decided to watch the performances outside near the actual stage.

A performance or two in, Joohyun felt a bit hungry which meant some of her group mates might have felt the same.

"I'm going back in to get snacks, do you guys want anything?"

The girls proceeded to list out all the items they wanted with Yerim and Sooyoung spurting out every last food item that they could think of.

"Unnie, remember to come back early for Seungwan's stage!" Seulgi reminded Joohyun as she quickly went back into the building.

With all of the snacks piled up in her arms, Joohyun went to the next vending machine which was filled with different types of instant ramen.

But as she moved over to the neighboring machine, someone moved up in front of the vending machine causing the two to bump into each other.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—," Joohyun paused when she saw who she was talking to. "Oh, sunbaenim!" she said as she bowed.

Junmyeon raised his eyebrows. Sunbaenim. Since when did we get so formal with each other.

"Your hands seem full." he commented.

"Oh I'm just getting snacks for the members," Joohyun felt the awkwardness in this conversation already.

Junmyeon noticed Joohyun seemed to be struggling to carry everything together so he suggested,

"How about you find a seat here and I'll bring over the ramen for you."

Joohyun quickly nodded and sat in one of the tables that wasn't occupied by staff. This scenario and environment really reminded Joohyun of her trainee days when it was late at night in the SM cafeteria. When Junmyeon would bring her a cup of warm ramen.

That same image became reality when Junmyeon sat down in front of her with two cups of warm noodles.

"You still like this one right?"

She nodded and thanked him. Joohyun was surprised he remembered those times. After all, it has been many years since they last experienced those memories.

Junmyeon noticed that the atmosphere was quiet again. It wasn't like before they debuted, when the conversations were endless.

"How has the new comeback been?" he asked to spark up a conversation.

Joohyun lifts up the lid and sees that her noodle is ready.

"It's been going smoothly," she contemplated if she should tell him about her worries and decided no harm could come from expressing only some of her thoughts.

"I am a bit concerned about the members." There was a slight pause so she added, "With like some of the response we've been getting."

Junmyeon absorbs her words in as he lifts up his lid as well.

"All I can really advise you is to have more discussions as a whole group. Some of the thoughts your members share to you should also be shared to the rest of the members."

"I have thought of doing that, but I was worried about how sensitive some topics might be to specific members." Joohyun tried her best to not point out that it was Yerim who she was concerned about but she knew Junmyeon was smart enough to understand her worries.

"Her feelings shouldn't be bottled up. It's better for all her members to be there to comfort her and help her get through all this." Junmyeon didn't know if he had crossed the line, telling Joohyun what to do and what not to do.

Joohyun slowly nodded, taking in what the fellow leader said.

"I'll take that advice greatly into consideration." she said with a small smile.

He smiled back and they continued to eat their ramen. Joohyun got a good glance at him as they ate. She noticed he was wearing his stage costume already. Joohyun has to admit, Junmyeon looked really good today in the black leather jacket.

"If you don't mind me asking, how are you doing lately?" she boldly asks.

Joohyun knew it must have been stressful for him with another one of their group's members leaving. She could never imagine what he had to go through, especially as the leader.

Junmyeon was surprised that Joohyun had asked about his own feelings. The small amounts of encounters he had with her after they debuted were mostly short and cold.

"It hasn't been the best," he grimaced, "but we're all getting through it together."

Joohyun instantly regretted initiating this conversation. She didn't mean to make him uncomfortable by making him talk about it.

"I'm so sorry, you don't need to—"

"No it's alright," he cut her off, "It honestly feels better talking about it with someone not from the group. It's just sometimes there are restraints in what I should mention in case of some members feeling extra sensitive."

"I know you probably have more experience with being a leader and everything, but these days I really try my best to make sure the members feel safe. I don't want any one member to have to deal with their problems by themselves so I would ask them to come to me with any issues they're having.I want them to feel that there's always someone looking out for them. " Joohyun was embarrassed to say all this advice out loud. It sounded cheesy and it's not like Junmyeon didn't already know how to be a good leader.

Junmyeon chuckled at how shy Joohyun was acting after her little rant. It's not often to see the reserved Irene get embarrassed.

"I think you're definitely right. All these problems appearing one after another really distracted me from how to really protect my members like before. "

The two continued to talk and eat their ramen. "I'm actually going to start MCing for Music Bank soon," Joohyun added.

"Oh that sucks," Joohyun was surprised to hear his response, "You just missed our comeback," Junmyeon jokes.

"You're just going to have to find me the next comeback," Joohyun said with a big smile.

Junmyeon smirked, "I definitely will."

The two of them smiled. They finished up their food and began to return back. Both Joohyun and Junmyeon were glad to have had someone to talk to today and both of them were glad that the wall that was formed between them after debut was slowly breaking down.

"Unnie! What took you so long? Quick, Seungwan's stage is starting soon."