The next week, the four of them were going with Suyi to the music awards. As usual, going anywhere with a celebrity required quite a bit of preparation and the five of them spent a good portion of the day in readying themselves for the coming night.
Suyi, having dyed her hair purple in honor of the occasion, was happily painting her nails to match her hair and lipstick.
Ikhan and Yuna were going to cross-dress, in keeping with Suyi's 'shock sensibility' persona. Yuna had done up her hair and hidden it under a top hat which matched her tux, and was currently helping Ikhan apply his makeup.
"I feel pretty," commented the computer nerd.
"Well, you look pretty," said Suyi. "Let's see Lee Young-In top two cross-dressers in her entourage!" Suyi's rivalry with the other celebrity was no secret, and it helped give them both some media attention.
Shinwoo was over by the vanity, putting in his red contacts, which he usually wore to draw attention away from Rai. Whenever people assumed that red eyes meant vampire, Shinwoo would step in and loudly proclaim that he was human and that they were racists. So far, this had done a good job of keeping suspicion away from Raizel.
"You should paint his nails," Shinwoo suggested. "It'd go well with his guy-liner."
Ikhan shrugged. "I'm game," he said.
The first few times they'd done things like this, they'd had a very hard time keeping straight faces. However, since Suyi had taken it upon herself to fill the 'shock-loving diva' niche, there wasn't a lot that could faze them anymore.
Indeed, ever since polyamory had become popular in the celebrity circles, things had gotten... complicated. People insisted on bringing more and more dates to events, and things got more exclusive... which was probably why Suyi had been invited to the music awards as a seat-filler: among the self-proclaimed polyamorous, she was one of the saner ones. She could be counted on to be constant and moderate with her four stable 'relationship partners,' and so was a favorite among event-planners.
In truth, very few of the celebrities who followed the currently fashionable orientation were actually polyamorous, and Suyi was no exception, but she would have been foolish to miss out on free publicity. She'd formed the habit of bringing her friends to events as dates and jumping on the latest celebrity bandwagon. Lying about her sexuality perhaps wasn't the most honest thing to do, but she didn't lose much sleep over it. Not when so many other people were doing the exact same thing.
Anyway, by six that evening, all of them were ready to go, and they piled into Suyi's limo for the ride over. Seeing as Suyi and Rai's houses were practically in Beverly Hills (Yes, Beverly Hills is in Korea), it didn't take long to get to the auditorium where the awards would be taking place. After leaving the limo in Frankenstein's hands, there was only the red carpet to be walked before they were safely inside.
"I think I'm going blind," murmured Ikhan, as what seemed like the fifteenth camera flash stung his eyes.
"I can still see," Yuna said, "I can see all these lovely stars that move about my head. I just can't see around them."
"After-images don't count," said Ikhan.
When they reached the door, they saw that the auditorium had hired a new bouncer.
Suyi smiled. This part was always fun.
"Good evening!" she greeted him.
"And to you," said the man with a nod. Then he looked up from his list at the five of them, and frowned as he saw Yuna and Ikhan's clothes... and Rai and Shinwoo's eyes. His eyebrows knitted and you could almost see the gears in his mind jamming as he tried to figure out how that relationship was supposed to work out. After a few seconds, he caught himself, and looked down at his list to confirm his suspicions. "Ms. Im and 'relationship partners'?" he asked.
"Yes, that's us," said Suyi.
The bouncer waved them past. "Enjoy the show."
"Thank you!" said Suyi.
"Thanks!" said Shinwoo.
"Have a nice evening!" said Yuna.
"Thanks!" echoed Ikhan.
Rai merely nodded, and then the five of them were inside.
Well, there were only two wardrobe malfunctions and one interruption of an awardee's speech, so, all in all, it was one of the calmer award ceremonies they'd been to. Suyi's friend, Hansu, had won the award for 'Best Music Video,' so an obligatory round of the after-parties was necessary on their part.
Now, the Hollywood advent of polyamory meant that most of the typical 'date-type' social activities were awkward by celebrity logic. A romantic dinner for five? A quiet stroll through the park with four other people? Most of it just didn't work out anymore.
Dancing, however, was not one of those things. Sure, slow-dancing was more or less out, but choreographers were making a lot more money now, because casual dancing had now become an opportunity to showboat and compete. It looked a lot cooler than duo-dancing, when done right, and a lot more ridiculous, when done wrong.
Fortunately, Suyi was one of those dancers who could dominate the scene nearly effortlessly, and Rai, Shinwoo, Ikhan, and Yuna normally didn't have to do more than shuffle back and forth in synchronization. Yuna was the only other one who genuinely enjoyed dancing, so they'd usually wind up doing some sort of 3-2 split.
Honestly, if Suyi weren't seeing it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed anything could have convinced Raizel to dance, even as minimally as he was doing.
But, then again, Rai wasn't really what you'd expect from a rich guy, or from a vampire. He had a lot of dignity, certainly, but he wasn't elitist. Whatever he did, he did it with his composure intact.
Suyi couldn't remember ever seeing him snap over anything. So she made it a point not to make fun of him for his lack of expression on the dance-floor.
Two hours later, they called it a night and went to find Frankenstein, who'd been hiding under a bridge after an encounter with the werewolf and vampire from Crombel's staff which he'd rather not recount.
"Hello, sir," said Ikhan. "What are you doing here?"
"Hello, Ikhan. I was just admiring the engineering of the lovely piece of architecture. I take it you're done for the night?"
"Yes," said Raizel, a note of suspicion in his voice. He could tell Frankenstein was hiding something, but he decided not to press the issue.
On the drive back, the five of them were still keyed up from the night, and were unable to sit in silence.
"Well," said Yuna, "that went well." Seeing as the four of them were emancipated minors, Suyi was the bread-winner of their little group, and when she had a 'good day at the office,' so to speak, it was good for all of them.
"I'll say," said Ikhan. "That director as good as offered you a song for the soundtrack of his next movie! Plus we got to upstage Lee Young-In. It's not often we can catch her off-guard."
Suyi's rival had brought a good ten people, but they were all dressed in designer clothes and hadn't attracted as much attention as Suyi's group.
"She'll up her game next time, though, so we'll have to come up with a theme, or something for the next major event." Suyi's expression was pensive as she drifted off in thought and the conversation continued around her.
There were celebrities out there who genuinely tried not to let their fame change them. They were purists who wanted to share their talents with the world while remaining humble about their accomplishments. However, these people were not Suyi. She was well-aware that she'd gotten famous on a fluke.
Her talents were average at best, but something about her persona and music had struck a chord in young girls and, all of a sudden, it was like she was the next Hannah Montana.
Suyi thought it would be two perhaps five years before she fell into obscurity again. However, she was stretching things out as long as she could by putting herself in the thick of the celebrity scene and following the latest trends.
And, while she was nothing but grateful for each extra day she got in the limelight, Suyi couldn't help but be a bit weary of her once lifetime-goal of being famous. Sure, when you're a kid, it sounds like nothing but fun, but sometimes, Suyi just wanted to go to school, she wanted to wear normal clothes, and she didn't want to have to smile for the stupid music videos.
Still, she thought, she had a job which she didn't altogether hate, and the four of them had a stockpile of money set aside for college. And she still had some time left in the spotlight.
She smiled. Things could definitely be worse.
AN: Expect Arrogant Worms references to continue to be subtle. The first chapter is what inspired the whole thing. I imagined the scenario, then tried to recreate the world in which it occurred. Each character has a song or two that I'm planning on using in their subplots. One of Frankenstein's was 'Kill the Dog Next Door" and one of Suyi's was "The Mountie Song."