The events in this chapter have been in my story plan since I started writing it. They are in no way related to anything currently going on in the K-Pop world. This storyline was inspired by what happened to Wonho. This is my wish for the boys.
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I awoke in Minhyuk's arms, just like every morning. It was a feeling I cannot describe. Contentment, joy, safety, warmth, home, happiness... all those combined could not do it justice. The morning light was trying to invade our room and take us away from this precious time. He was still asleep and I just lay still, looking at him. I had memorized these perfect features long ago, but up close and in person, they were even more magnificent. A stray sunbeam illuminated the blue tint in his black hair. His eyelashes lightly kissed his cheeks, ready to flutter open any moment revealing those gorgeous brown eyes. He says they are too dark, but I think they are the most beautiful eyes in the world. I get lost in them every time he looks at me. I studied the shape of his ear. I love the way it kind of angles toward his face instead of dropping down like average ears... I followed his sharp jawline to his famous Adam's Apple and the tiny mole on the side of it. I smiled as I had to restrain myself from reaching out to touch it.
As if he could feel me watching him, he tightened his arm and pulled me closer. He nuzzled his face into my hair and moaned softly as he began to awaken. I nestled in closer to him and wrapped my arm around his chest. Neither of us spoke yet, we simply held each other. He turned to me and draped his leg over me, pulling me completely into his embrace. Neither of us had to be anywhere for a while, surprisingly, so we just held each other and dozed back off.
When we finally did get up, we went for a short walk and stopped in a café for coffee. The craziness of our life was pushed to the side for just a short while and we enjoyed some rare free time. We encountered some Monbebes, which was expected, and they giggled and swooned when they saw him. Minhyuk gave them finger hearts and they gave them back. They went on their way, walking on air. I just smiled because I knew that feeling. I feel that feeling every day now. He turned back to me and caught me with what I assume was a silly smile on my face. He grinned and asked me what I was thinking.
"Oh, just about how I understand how those girls feel."
"What do you mean?"
"You really have no clue, do you?" I realized that as much as he knows how to feed Monbebes well and flirt with them, he does not really understand the effect those things have on us. "When Monbebes see you, or the other members, and you acknowledge us or do something like what you just did, or pass out flowers from your awards show, or even just smile at them... it is so hard to describe the feeling." I thought for a moment how to explain it in a way he would really understand. "Remember how you felt when Junsu was on your show a few years ago?" he nodded, "well it is sort of like that. You create a connection that your fan feels down to their toes."
"I never really thought about it that way. I guess it makes sense though."
"Seeing you in person and getting attention from you directly is different than seeing you online or in fancafe or Universe. Those girls will never forget that." He reached over and touched my cheek.
"Thank you, Sunny-ah. I love how you show me a new perspective on things. I love you."
"I love you too, Minmin," I smiled into his hand and kissed his palm.
Sadly, our free time was ending, and it was time to get back to work. He had a group meeting at the dorm before practice. He said he would finally be able to tell me about the thing Kihyun had been working on... the thing he had been holding close to his chest for months... the thing I had tried many a time to get out of him, but no amount of aegyo, pouting, or kissing would make him budge. He seemed a little nervous, but excited. That made me nervous and excited. But the wait was almost over.
I was trying to focus on the time we had together. They were going to have an anniversary concert in less than 2 weeks and then the comeback and tour were coming up right after. I was not looking forward to the tour. It meant he would be gone for 3 months, so I was even more thankful for this morning that we had together. I was just beginning to adjust to the idea of sharing him with millions of other women, and now they were going to have him again.
I would have work to keep me occupied and I would be able to hang out with Halmeoni while he was gone. I had not spent the night alone since I came to Korea, I was always at someone's home. Being the self-sufficient adult woman that I am, I was confident I would be fine... or so I told myself. I knew that in reality, I would be curled up on the couch, watching Monsta X videos and variety shows, eating too much ice cream, and missing him like crazy. Yeah, I wasn't looking forward to this at all.
My thoughts must have shown on my face because Minhyuk stopped walking and stood in front of me. He tilted his head down to look into my eyes and held my face with his hands.
"I won't be gone that long, jagi. Three months will pass before you know it. We will Face Time every day, I promise." I smiled weakly and nodded.
"This part sucks. I knew this was part of being with you, but that doesn't make it any easier."
"I know. I am struggling too. I have never had to leave anyone behind like this." I hadn't thought of it from his side, only mine. Now I felt selfish for only thinking of myself.
"Minhyukkah, I would never ask or expect you to stop doing what you do for me. I hope you know that. I just feel like we have missed so much time together and I hate being apart from you. I will cherish every moment that I am able to be with you." I slipped my arms around his waist and laid my head on his chest. "But maybe you could pack me up in one of your suitcases and take me along," He pulled me closer and stroked my hair, kissing the top of my head. "And then, I have to go back to Atlanta soon after you get back. I don't want to be away from you. Now that I have you, I am greedy for you." I looked up at him and he kissed me gently.
"I don't like it either. I waited so long to find you... to hold you. Now I will never let you go. We may have to be apart from time to time, but I will always come home to you. I will always be thinking of you while I am away. I will always be by your side." He winked and made me giggle, breaking the sadness I was feeling.
"You always know how to make me smile. I love you so much, Minmin. You promise you will be thinking only of me when all those horny Monbebes are screaming your name?" I raised an eyebrow at him, and he laughed.
"I promise. They have nothing on you. You are Minbebe #1, remember?" I was surprised that he remembered my t-shirt. I don't know why I was surprised, but I was.
"You know it. I am Minbebe #1."
His phone rang just as we got back within sight of the building. He had put it on silent, but when we headed back he had turned it back on. He couldn't be out of pocket too long without causing problems, especially when it was unplanned. This was another thing I was becoming used to. He glanced at it and looked at me apologetically. I told him to go ahead, without him having to say anything.
It was a short conversation, mostly one-sided with him acknowledging whatever they were saying. He asked "when?" near the end. After he ended the call, he looked at me and smiled. "Melody Reign is coming to Korea to film part of her movie and she wants to meet me. Apparently, she really liked my part of the song."
"Wow! That is great! She is huge everywhere, according to the internet. Her voice is incredible. I never realized until you were asked to do the OST with her." I had lived in a Monsta X bubble for the past few years that I hadn't gotten into Western music much. I had to look her up to find out who she was.
Melody Reign, stage name obviously, was a gorgeous songbird/actress with a penchant for dating her costars. She ranked in the vocal diva category with Adele and Celine Dion, and she just happened to be a good actress too. HyunBin was the male lead in this movie, so I was curious how that would go over. He is incredibly handsome and in a relationship... just her type.
"She will be here next week, and they will send details to the agency. She wants to see Honey's studio where he mixed the song."
"Maybe we could invite her for dinner while she is here. I could use some American female interaction," I giggled.
"I don't know if she will go for it, she probably likes expensive restaurants," he joked. "The company will probably set something up."
"She would be crazy not to want to have dinner with the most handsome, sexiest, talented man in Korea. Hmm, that is incorrect... in the world, not just Korea." He looked at me with that shy smile and I squeezed his hand.
He got off the elevator at the dorm and I went on upstairs. I was feeling like a swim. Just as I got changed into my swimsuit and got my hair pulled up, Minhyuk called and asked me to come to the dorm. I slipped on some shorts and a T-shirt over my swimsuit and headed down.
When I stepped inside, they were all dancing around and Minhyuk was bouncing around the room and yelling excitedly. I wasn't sure what I had just walked in on, but they were obviously celebrating something. Min ran over to me and spun me around and then everyone joined in. They were bouncing and laughing, so I did too. Finally, I asked what we were celebrating.
"We are free!" Kihyun announced.
"Free? What do you mean? Free from what?"
"Free from the company! Free from Starship!"
"What? How? You are not messing with me, are you?" They finally settled down enough to explain what had happened. Kihyun did most of the talking, since he was the leader of this venture.
"You are aware how the company handles things and how they mishandled that shit with Wonho a few years ago. Things have only gotten worse. They were running us into the ground. We are constantly moving to the next thing without breaks. The hiatus came about because we gave them no choice. And when we had all those problems on set and that light almost hit Hyungwon a few weeks ago and they told us to keep going, well that was the leverage we needed.
We have all been saving our money and investing as much as we can to make it grow. I contacted an attorney on our behalf, and we met with a couple of banks to secure a loan to cover the remaining money." He paused and I leaned forward, waiting for the rest.
Minhyuk took my hand and grinned as he finished, "we bought our name and the rights to our name. All the rights to the music, the content, the merchandise, the images... everything associated with the name Monsta X and each individual member. We are independent of them now and we can keep performing the music we have made over the years."
I screamed and threw my arms around him, then stood up and hugged each of them. Joohoney touched my arm, "that is not all, noona. There's more."
Kihyun continued, "the extra money was to start our own label." They all stood together, "you are looking at the founding members of X-Ray Entertainment. We are still Monsta X, but we are also X-Ray Ent." I screamed again and started bouncing.
"I can't believe it!" I turned to Minhyuk, "how were you able to keep this secret? Not just from me, but from the media?"
"It wasn't easy. We only talked about it here or upstairs. We kept the people we met with to a minimum and made those few sign confidentiality agreements. It was worth all of it though."
"But what about the tour and the new album promotions? Are you going to keep making albums and touring?" I asked.
"We are obligated to finish those and then we are done. We are not making the announcement yet. We want to wrap all that up first. Hopefully, we can keep it under wraps until we are ready, but you know how likely that is. We are scouting locations right now to set up after the first of the year. Once this tour is over, we are all taking some time off. We will still release music and do the things we love to do, but the pressure will not be on us and we can focus on new talent. We will tour when we are ready, and only when we want to."
I was still in shock and was not able to process what this meant. Minhyuk put his arm around me and pulled me to his chest. "This means I will be home a lot more. We can finally start our family when we get back from the tour." He kissed my forehead as tears began falling onto my cheeks.
"That is the best thing I have heard since 'I do'," I said as I kissed him. "You could have told me though. I would not have said anything." I pouted at him.
"I wanted to, but we made a promise to each other that the only people we would tell were the ones who were able to help us make it happen. This started before you were in the picture."
"But don't you..." he put his finger against my lips. He already knew what I was going to ask.
"I do trust you. That has nothing to do with it. I made a promise to my brothers and I keep my promises. That is one of the things you love about me, isn't it?" He stroked my cheek as he cocked his head to the side and smiled... that disarmingly charming smile.
"Well, yes. It is..." I swooned over that smile.
"And if I had told you and it fell through, you would have been devastated... wouldn't you?" He lowered his face to get even with mine and looked at me. "We were not sure this was going to work. This was the best way."
"Ok, fine," I crossed my arms and looked at him with my chin in the air. "I suppose you will just have to make it up to me later."
"Count on it," his smile widened as he winky blinked at me.