K A I
"WE LOVE YOU KAI!"
Kai was skimming through his feed on Instagram, looking at all the posts he was tagged in by his ever adoring fans (although, he didn't like to call them fans, more like supporters). He smiled once he saw the "we love you, Kai" shirt that a couple of his girl supporters made just for him, claiming they'd be at their tour in both America and Canada.
"Aw, isn't that so sweet?" Thorne cooed. "We love you, Kai" he mimicked in a high-pitched, squeaky voice that was supposed to be of a starstruck girl, squeezing Kai into an embrace.
Kai chuckled, gently pushing Thorne off of him before shoving his iPhone in his back jean pocket. "Oh, stop it."
"I mean, it's true!" Thorne shrugged before grabbing his electric guitar and strumming it. Kai, Thorne, Wolf, and Jacin were all on stage practicing for tonight's performance they had in Washington. "Kai, Kai, oh, Kai!" Thorne mimicked again, rolling his eyes towards the back of his head pretending like he was about to faint because truth be told, that was how Kai's fanbase operated. Either they would fling themselves on him, cry just by making eye contact or touching his hand, and always reaching for hugs during meet and greets.
Wolf crept up behind Thorne after doing a mic check and patted his large, calloused hand on his shoulder. "Don't be jealous because he's the fan favorite, Thorne. I can see how envious you are about it." Wolf joked.
Thorne shrugged Wolf's hand off before plucking his fingers against the strings to his guitar, warming up without looking down at the guitar itself. "He might be the favorite, but heck, I'm the sexiest and the second favorite." Thorne stated proudly, making Jacin glare at him from his seat behind the keyboard.
"Whatever floats your boat, Carswell. We really need to practice!" Jacin said rather blatantly, turning his keyboard on before glaring at his phone like he always did these days. His childhood best friend, Winter (though it was hinted by the rest of the group that he considered her more than best friend's just by how much he yearned to talk to her and talked about her since the beginning of their tour) never seemed to want to answer the phone or contact him these days, and Jacin didn't seem to know why. After a couple of months, you'd think the guy would get the hint. But he was still persistent, which was something Kai always admired about Jacin. He felt bad for him also, sympathizing over being rejected. He'd only known of Winter back in all of their college days, where Thorne got all of them to know each other and start a band after recognizing everyone's talent and Jacin would FaceTime the beautiful Winter everyday. That was how the Rampion Boyz was thought of.
They went from singing at bars and clubs till after college, when Kai's father recognized he and his bandmates were taking their career seriously and would do anything to reach to the top. That was when Kai's dad hooked them up with his successful and top of the line record label, Bejing (also known as BejingBeats). After quite a few promotions, interviews, songs, and connections, they had a platinum selling album and their first ever tour.
"Guys, can you believe this?" Kai said in awe.
"I know right? Our first ever tour." Thorne piped up. "Golly! Imagine all the girls that'll fling themselves onto me, the after parties, the girls, the spotlight, the girls-"
"-our first ever opening night tour going into shambles with you all procrastinating our only rehearsal until then." Jacin said rather sharply, transmitting them all back into reality. Kai despised Jacin's cold demeanor yet applauded him for it. It was needed during times like these where they were too busy in their euphoric stupor.
"Okay, sunshine." Thorne mocked, repeating what Jacin's fans would always say about his smile. That is, when he would rarely break out a smile. Jacin didn't take it too kindly at all, throwing deadly glares Thorne's way. It probably reminded him of Winter. She would always describe his smile as a "sunrise smile." Kai knew that Thorne hit a soft spot.
"Okay guys!" Kai clapped his hands with his normal cheerful voice that radiated from his cheerful personality, standing in front of his mic that was front center of the stage. "The show must go on!"
The first night of their tour was a success in Washington, and the bandmates all went backstage. Well, everyone except for Kai. Kai always wanted to say hi to the fans outside (yes, their first show was that packed) who were listening from the booming speakers inside. Of course, (although he disliked yet understood the meaning of having them around) he had four body guards circled around him. As they approached outside, he could already hear the screaming fans and made sure he could get mostly everyone's pictures and signatures in, knowing he had fans backstage inside that he'd have to cater to.
Walking back inside to backstage where he found Thorne flirting with the groupies and Wolf & Jacin by the food, Wolf eating a muffin and Jacin texting furiously on his phone, there was already a line full of girls for Kai to tend to.
When he got towards the very end of the line, getting increasingly tired by the minute, his mood perked up when a tall, dark-skinned girl with braids excitingly came up face to face with him, pulling on what Kai assumed to be her friend's wrist. The friend had tannish skin, dark brown eyes, and brown straight hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail.
Kai was already intrigued by her, making sure to accentuate his endearing, toothy smile while looking at both of the girls. Mainly, her.
"Hi!" The dark-skinned girl screeched rather loudly, causing Jacin to look up from his phone to locate the noise before continuing to surf the internet on his phone. "My name is Iko! And this is my friend, Cinder." She gestured towards the girl with the brown hair and tan skin. The girl Kai was already interested in.
Why? He didn't know exactly. If it made sense, she looked and seemed different from the girls he would encounter day to day. Most of them would be rendered starstruck and treated him like a supernatural creature. But her-Cinder, he corrected in his head-had an aura that already drew him in. Like she was telepathically saying that she would treat him like your everyday person, like a human being. Not like a prince, the favorite of the group, Kai. But the normal and real Kai. And he could tell through those eyes that while she was not completely detached from the fact that this was the Rampion Boyz Kai judging by her nervous (but adorable) smile, he could also sense her calmness and causality that he wouldn't get with other girls. Girls like her friend, Iko. Not that he was bothered by it, but sometimes Kai would desire for someone to look at him like he was normal, even if he wasn't. And with Cinder, he could almost tell.
Even though he might've just been over thinking things, from the moment she raised her prosthetic hand to shake his, as if he was just anybody she'd see on a normal day in the streets, Kai knew there was something rather special about this girl.
And he hoped-no, he knew it was safe to say that he was right.
I hope you all enjoyed this! I plan to make more chapters, just tell me in the comments if I should continue with this AU. I got inspired by regolithheart and nothingtoseehere-move-along by their tumblr post about the tic boys being in a boy band. All rights to them for coming up with this idea anyway, I just let my imagination run wild. If you have not noticed, I made sure Kai's story would be the beginning, then Wolf, Thorne, and last but not least, Jacin.
