Scream broke so many records that the girls didn't even know what it had achieved by that point. They were so busy handling their departure from JYP Entertainment and their dorm that they didn't even have time to check out the comments under the music video or the showcase, and even they didn't get to celebrate Christmas properly with the boys. They were moving their things out of the dorm and onto their new houses and had to furnish their new ones as much as they could to be able to move in without a problem, so they had a lot of work to do in truly little time.
On New Year's Eve, however, they made the effort to be at the dorm with the Stray Kids' members, as they had agreed to celebrate it together. On that same day they had scheduled the release of a lyric video for Put It Straight that Soojin had edited just so the fans could find and subscribe to the new ResQ channel, so even then they would be working.
"How much more food are we going to cook?!" Chan groaned after more than four hours in the kitchen.
"If we were less people, we'd cook less!" Lin told him. "We only have to put this in the oven and we are done, though."
"Then, I'll go to the living room. Thank God you still have the couch."
Since they had taken all their things to their houses, the only things left in the dorm were the bare furniture and the cutlery, which made the dorm look very empty.
"Lin, when was your flight?" Alix asked the youngest member. "I forgot."
"I'll leave a little after midnight. I should at the airport by half past one at most," she answered. "I can't believe I'm saying this."
"It honestly still feels like a dream of some sort." Soojin sighed. "I can't believe we are leaving everything behind in just a few hours and that we won't be seeing you in the next few months. It just doesn't feel real."
"It's going to take us a long time to get used to it, that's for sure," she agreed. "I think I'll come back for the summer and stay here for a while. Hopefully by that time the travel bans are better. Either way, I'll be coming and going, that's for sure. Even if I have to quarantine for two weeks."
"Just focus on having fun and actually being with your boyfriend. Don't worry about anything else. It's your turn to live how you want to," Alix assured her. "Don't even worry about making a comeback as a group. We'll find a way to arrange that. In between comebacks we can always release solo music and work on individual projects, anyway."
"Speaking about that!" Felix exclaimed from the living room as they could hear them. "Why didn't you tell us that you were going to act in different films and dramas?! I feel betrayed!"
Among the many job offers they were getting, the girls were offered to appear on different dramas, and surprisingly all in main actress roles. Mika, Leah, Alix and Soojin ended up agreeing to act in Korean ones, them being Youth Of May, Vincenzo, Navillera and Taxi Driver respectively; and Lin agreed to appear on a Chinese one called Crush in which she would be acting along Lin Yanjun, who she was friends with since Idol Producer. Soojin was also asked to make a special appearance in Navillera as one of the dancers, to which she agreed to, so even in that ResQ were still together.
"Let's see how we do first. We have appeared in commercials and such, but we haven't done any lead roles yet," Soojin told him. "I'm nervous, to say the least. They are all big productions, not amateur ones."
"You can do it, I'm sure of it," Felix assured her. "If there is one thing I know, it's that there's nothing ResQ can't do."
"You flatter us too much," Mika told him. "But thank you for the encouragement."
"We're just a bunch of cheerleaders," Alix said, recalling the time when the boys had claimed her as their personal cheerleader when she first joined ResQ.
"No, we are a bunch of dorks," Leah said as they all laughed yet fully agreed with her. "I get that it's the last day of the year, but it feels even more nostalgic than usual..."
"So, are we addressing the elephant in the room?" Hyunjin asked and sat properly. "Not seeing the five of you every day is going to be strange."
"I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I think I'm going to actually miss it a lot," Seungmin admitted. "Even though we are eight members, I can tell the dorm is going to feel very empty."
"Wait, did you actually just say that aloud? Am I dreaming?" Soojin said sounding genuinely shocked. "Seungmin!"
"I take that back. ¡Hasta la vista! Goodbye!"
Even if he took it back, they all knew he didn't really mean it and simply laughed except for Soojin, who tried to hug him.
"Let's try to keep the mood up!" Alix said. "No goodbyes, no crying and no anything like that. We are just moving to another neighbourhood! Well, except for Lin."
"But you'll have me back here in no time, which is just the same. We have internet, so there is nothing we need to worry about."
"That's right, we don't need to worry about a thing. It's just a new chapter in a book, right?"
"If this was just a chapter then what a chapter!" Jeongin commented. "The author should chill a little."
"Author, have you heard him!" Alix exclaimed looking at the ceiling as if she were talking to God. "Calm down a little! We had enough!"
"Let's switch genre for the next chapter and make it... I don't know... a rags to riches story!" Leah suggested. "Should we think of MusiQ as a start-up?"
"That would mean meeting villains along the way, so let's just end the book here," Lin told them. "We've had enough for a lifetime. Let's now just live our lives as peacefully as retired elderly."
"You are truly a sixty-year-old trapped in the body of a nineteen-year-old," Chan told her.
"Grandma Linlin, thank you very much," she admitted.
"Let's now sit down and eat. The food in the oven's nearly ready," Mika told them. "Come on, let's move to the table."
ººº
Although they had dinner happily and had fun together just like they always did, as midnight approached, things were much different. The girls would be finally leaving, and they couldn't even stay for the night that day because the dorm was technically no longer theirs, so it was inevitable that they were seeing it as a goodbye.
Even though they would be still seeing each other, their group dynamics would change. They were going to be living very differently from then on and, even if it were for the better, everything would change for them, the only thing that wouldn't was their friendship. The girls would stop being artists under a label to become CEOs. Even if they had been friends for a long time, it felt like they were somehow in another league. Like they were their seniors and not actually their juniors.
"Five minutes until midnight, everyone!" Jisung exclaimed and approached Alix. "Let's hope 2021 brings us good fortune."
"Let's hope so!" Alix told him with a smile.
Whether consciously or not, the couples slowly moved together as midnight approached. None of them had lived in the US -aside from Hyunjin but as he was young it didn't count-, but they had taken on their tradition of kissing at midnight.
As they got ready, Lin's phone rang and she quickly picked it up knowing it would be Chengcheng.
"Hello!" she said with a smile.
"Hey! It's nearly midnight over there, right?" he asked and Lin quickly nodded. "I know it's weird, but I wanted to celebrate the new year together, even if it's like this."
"Hello, Chengcheng!" the girls said quickly waving towards the camera.
"Hello, everyone!" he said.
"Who are you talking to?" they heard his mother ask him.
"Linlin. Well, and her friends and groupmates," he answered.
"Linlin!" she exclaimed and quickly snatched his phone from him to greet her. "Hello, dear! How are you?"
"I'm very well, thank you," Lin told her smiling. "About to celebrate the new year and a few hours away from going to Beijing!"
"I wish quarantine weren't so long. I swear Chengcheng hasn't stopped talking about you all night," she told her.
"That's a lie!" Chengcheng said snatching the phone back.
"No, it's not!" she exclaimed and laughed along with her husband.
"Guys, one minute," Minho said pointing towards the screen.
Everyone was nervous and excited to greet the new year, so they gathered slightly closer while waiting for the clock to hit twelve.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... Happy New Year!"
As everyone cheered and celebrated it, the couples kissed, celebrating the New Year in their own way. The rest of them didn't mind them as they were used to it from other years, but they were surprised when Mika, Chan, Alix and Jisung started celebrating it with the rest, but Hyunjin and Soojin were still kissing.
"Guys, leave some space for the holy spirit!" Changbin teased them.
They found it odd, to say the least, until Alix realised that Soojin was crying as she kissed Hyunjin. Although none of the girls had lived alone before, Soojin had always relied on people more than the rest. She was never found alone even when they were trainees, so she found it hardest to leave.
All of them had tried to be strong and not cry over it because they knew not much would change, but it was an important thing for them. Their normal would change. They would no longer wake up to the other members chatting in the living room, to Alix playing the piano with her headphones on, to the smell of the churros Leah bought from the store, to Soojin playing her favourite drama on the TV or dancing at ungodly hours, to Mika playing video games, to the boys yelling for whatever whenever... Things wouldn't be the same and, even if they were mature and ready for the change, they were still twenty year-olds.
"Things won't change, Soojin," Hyunjin told her once she finally pulled away and cried on his shoulder instead. "Nothing will change. ResQ is still going to be the same, Stray Kids is still going to be the same. We are going nowhere."
"I'm just not ready for this. Fuck, I'm twenty years old! What am I doing creating a company?" she said. "I had my youth taken away from me and now also my home."
"Remember the lyrics to your song, golden one. Wherever you go you are my home."
By that point even the members who never really cried had shredded some tears. She had voiced out what they were all thinking, and it hurt them more than they thought it would.
"We'll stay together. No matter what," Chan assured them. "We'll stay close."
"Forever," they said at the same time. "We'll always stay close."
***
A/N:
So... that was the end of the book! But don't worry, there will be an epilogue tomorrow.
How do you feel about this ending?
Tomorrow I will write a full-on letter for all of you, so be prepared for that.
Thank you very much for reading the book and see you tomorrow!
徐小雯 (Xu Xiaowen)
Q&A TIME!
Question for Mika by __acebeast__ Some groups have a storyline. If ResQ does what is it and if not, what would you like it to be if you were to start one?
Mika: ResQ does indeed have a storyline so far! All the albums we have made right now follow the journey of becoming ourselves and showing who we truly are. Let me explain with the names.
The first half is the "Me?" series. In that part we talk about the things people expect us to be or what they say we are. We are in the journey of finding who we truly are, and that is the moment when people's comments affect us the most and when we start to doubt ourselves.
Me? Part I. Selfish (Title track: Selfish)
Me? Part II. Vain (Title track: Oh! My Mistake)
Me? Part III. Deceitful (Title track: none. It's the multi-language album with Call Call Call, Regular, Realize and Girl Crush)
Me? Part IV. Unpredictable (Title track: Eung Eung %%)
Then we have the interlude "Us". That is the collaboration album we had with different artists and the one in which we start to see that we are not that different from the rest and that we have nothing to fear. They were once in our position as well. They once were us.
Interlude: Us. (Title tracks: RUN, Dinner, Fire, Dream, Spring Love)
And finally, we have the second and final part: the "Me!" series. In that part we are finally finding out true selves. We are no longer afraid of showing everyone our true nature.
Me! Part I. Honest (Title track: Lion + B-side: Deja Vu)
Me! Part II. Faithful (Title tracks: New Age, New Plan, Lyra, Girlfriends)
Me! Part III. Versatile (Title track: Scream + B-side: Yessir)
I hope this cleared things up!
(A/N: This is the link to the Spotify account with all the playlists -including the solos- https://open.spotify.com/user/b1p9666vf8hhk75dl3gubrcjz?si=bzu4dR1cQ360BlRf8j5bjw I changed the account, so if you used to follow the previous one, check this out too)