chapter thirty-four - red lights.
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unedited
Fever Dream were all situated in their van, heading towards the competition's filming studio for their next mission. However, it seemed like they didn't care about the following events as they were much more focused on another topic.
Donghyuck's hand shot up in the air, garnering the attention of his band. "Guys, I got it," He shouted excitedly, eyes trained to the screen of his phone in his free hand.
From shotgun, Aeri turned in her seat, groaning at their out of pocket antics. "Oh my god, just because I'm friends with Suyin doesn't mean you can just now go deep dive into her history,"
"We gotta make sure she's good news for our girl," Jaemin reminded, leaning over into Donghyuck to see what he had discovered.
"Thanks but—" Their so-called "our girl" began to apologize, but the tanned male was quick to speak again. He continued to talk about what he had found in his old photo gallery.
"Okay so we thought she liked Mark, but I think she liked Chenle," Shoving his phone in every direction, Donghyuck showed an image of Chenle and Suyin playing Beer pong together at one of their old houses.
"Yeah, remember all the times we played those games and when it came to pairs she'd ask me!" Chenle screeched, snapping his fingers in a eureka moment.
"Guys, leave her love life alone. Why don't you deep dive into Sooyun's love life? Aren't y'all friends now?" Aeri tried to avert the attention to somewhere else, but she failed miserably as the boys gave her uninterested looks.
"That's easy, Sooyun is dating some girl named Hana," Mark quipped, quickly glancing up from his own device.
"Boring! next!" Jaemin screamed, causing Donghyuck to speak again. They looked like little girls gossiping as they all tried to huddle together in a circle, however it was a pathetic attempt due to being separated by the van's seating rows.
"Okay back onto Suyin—"
"Just because she's related to Renjun and was affiliated with Haneul, doesn't mean she's bad," Aeri tried once more, but the boys always had a comeback to deflect her statements.
"But we don't know if she's good either," Jeno chimed.
The brunette tiredly looked to her side, where Jisung drove in the front seat. With her eyes she asked him to help, but he only shrugged and turned to look back onto the road.
"She payed for my food the other day," She sighed. She thought this attempt would enter their ears and pass out the other, but seeing their heads perk up and their interests peak, she knew she got them.
"Okay, she's good, now next level is she buys all of us-" Donghyuck began again, but Aeri was fast enough to interject with another groan of annoyance.
"You guys are impossible," She grumbled, turning around to the front— having enough of their games.
Ignoring the continuing banter, Mark looked outside of the Van's window, noticing that they had already arrive. As their manager, he had to give a pep talk to them before they leave. He knew what a rowdy bunch they were. "Okay we're here at the set for the mission, beware we're filming an introduction with all the other bands so play nice when you see Renjun,"
Dismissing their manager's warning, the group of men had already began with their threats.
"I'll break his jaw,"
"I hope both sides of his pillow are hot,"
"I'll make sure he can't walk,"
"I'll spray pepper spray,"
"I'll slap him again,"
"That's the spirit!"
"No!" Mark fussed, although he knew they wouldn't listen.
"Guys," Jeno called for their attention, he peaked out of his window as well, but something new had happened in the span of their conversation.
"What? What's wrong?" Chenle asked, he peaked out of his own, and let out a loud cuss. "Holy fuck,"
"Yah, language,"
"There's like a sea of fans outside," Aeri exclaimed. Suddenly, all of her nerves and jitters that left her body had rejoined together and made her 100x more nervous than before.
"Okay, the boy's will exit first. Jisung go to her side and help her out, then the rest of you surround her. I've heard many horror stories about this, let's not have anything bad happen," Mark designated their assigned roles and one by one they each exited the car, and with every door opened, the screams got louder and the fans become more aggressive to get to their favorites.
Before she knew it, Aeri was the only one left in the car. Luckily, the windows were tinted, and allowed her to panic without worrying that someone would take a picture.
Without noticing, Jisung had made his way through the crowd, his back faced the fans as he was at her door.
Aeri finally saw the male, and knew it was time to head inside. Sharply she inhaled a breath, and with her free hand she gripped the car door and pushed it open.
It all happened too fast. She was pulled out of the van by Jisung, and immediately under his right arm. With his left hand he held her head down, to prevent her eyes from being hurt by the numerous flashes of cameras.
Fans couldn't control themselves. They screamed and they jumped forward, hands reaching out to grab them. They clawed at Jisung's back, and grabbed at the hand that held Aeri's shoulder. He only smiled and told them to not hurt themselves as he pushed through towards the building's entrance.
Unluckily, a fan had long nails, and reached towards Aeri's hair but mistakenly scratched her cheek.
The woman hissed in pain, yet she couldn't stop and check it. She only fastened her pace with Jisung's.
As soon as they made it into the safe space of the building, Jisung pushed Aeri at arm's length. His tall stature sized down, as he leant down to her face. He ignored the flashes and the screams. He needed to check her thoroughly in case of any injuries.
With his index finger and thumb, he gripped Aeri's chin softly. He lifted her head up, and met her shaky eyes. He knew she was panicking. The other boys hurried up to them, crowding around— just as worried.
With his free hand, Jisung licked his thumb, and brushed away the newly formed blood on her cheekbone.
Once satisfied, he kissed the scratch, and leaned away.
Aeri was in a daze. She couldn't breathe properly. Her eyes were trained on him as he nonchalantly layered his arm over her shoulder, and guided her to where they were filming the competition's introduction.
She was confused. She didn't know whether or not he had done it for the fans, or if he was genuinely concerned.
But as she looked up to his side profile and gained a glimpse of the nape of neck, she saw his numerous scratches.
A sudden ache filled her chest.
Aeri didn't know what to feel.
. . .
"Today, you are all gathered here to start your next mission. You will each come up one by one and pick a random topic to write a song about in the next 24 hours. Once that 24 hours is over, you will meet back here and perform it to be judged by a special set of guests!"
"Their verdict is what decides your place in the next ranking! Remember, the higher your rank, the higher budget you receive for your next mystery mission. Mind you, it will be a lot,"
One by one, each band came up to the large illuminated platform. Their leaders stuck their hands into the tinted clear box, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. They undid it and were required to read it aloud.
The rose, ironically had picked love, something Renjun was particularly bad at. Aeri couldn't help but chuckle into her hands.
Jisung had to pinch her side and whisper for her to behave— to which she slyly complied.
"Fever Dream, come up on stage,"
Slowly, the team filed up towards the table, and pushed the Park forward to retrieve their topic. The stood behind him, peering over his tall frame to get a glimpse of his hand as it delved into the box.
After rummaging through the spare pieces of paper, he took one out and unfolded it— reading aloud it's contents.
Suddenly, the room dimmed dark red, as his low rasp, filtered into his mic and echoed in the set. "Making Love,"
. . .
a little spice