[A/N: This is probably going to be the last update for a while TT_TT i'm really sorry, my holidays end soon(two days) and I still need to work my way through the mountain of homework i've been set (DEFINITELY needing more than 2 days -_-'''). Why i decided to take calculus of all things... DX I apologize for my inconsistent updating due to that error in judgement orz
moving on from my school issues... So much musical happiness in the last few months, Infinite being in love with inanimate objects, CNBlue AND FTIsland releasing awesome singles, SHINee (Minus Jonghyun the second time unfortunately...) having a drugged out time in their music videos, U-Kiss losing their house and becoming squatters... AGAIN! (Seriously Kevin, you didn't really need the rest of that giant chess set, no matter how awesome it was XD) and Nemesis releasing a new album, and so much more that will take too much space to type and make this long (and extremely off topic ^_^) authors note even longer. 2013 has been a good year :D I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Please read, hopefully enjoy, and review?they're a great motivator, you know ;P]
[EDITED]
Disclaimer: I do not own You're Beautiful or its Characters.
I use italics for thoughts, and horizontal line-breaks for time lapses and/or perspective change.
Shin Woo pulled out the bottle of tealeaves, the third time he had done so that day, considering how to let Mi Nam know he knew about her gender. As he set a tray with cups and teapot, he remembered her face when he was about to tell her before.
She looked so shocked and scared, I just couldn't say it… it wasn't the right time… I really want to know what her reason is for doing this though… I don't think the other two have noticed yet… well, for now this is our little secret… she just doesn't know I'm in on it yet. He chuckled as he poured boiled water into the pot.
I don't know how she could have thought to get away with disguising her gender… if she wanted to become famous, she could have made it easier for herself and applied to Ahn as a female… there must be more to this…. He picked up the tray and walked out of the kitchen, back towards the staircase.
Well, until I find a better time to let her know, I'll just help her out a little so she doesn't get found out… Starting with helping her hide her emotions a bit better, at least enough that people don't assume she's lying to protect herself from Tae Kyung…
He climbed the stairs, and went on to the rooftop, setting the tray down on the small table that was beside the wall, and sat down. Looking out at the city from this point, Shin Woo settled in to wait for Mi Nam to emerge from the house.
He eventually heard footsteps, and turned in his seat to see Mi Nam shuffling towards him, looking slightly nervous.
She looks stressed… I wonder what the President had to say to her…
He smiled at her, and indicated the chair across the table from him. He silently busied himself with brewing the tea as she fell into the chair. She was also silent, sitting still, not moving. As he handed her a cup, she finally spoke.
"Thank you for the tea" She smiled slightly as she took a sip of the hot tea, "But… what did you want to talk about exactly?" Surprisingly straight to the point…interesting...
"What indeed," he replied, also taking a sip from his cup before continuing. She looked a bit nervous, so he smiled at her again. She visibly relaxed, and her expression became slightly more normal. This is so entertaining, I can see exactly what she's thinking, she expresses everything on her face… Not now Shin Woo. Time to act like a good Sunbae.
He leaned towards her over the table, and watched her as she got visibly more conscious of him. And uncomfortable. He laughed quietly before moving back.
"That is something we need to work on." She looked confused. She seems to be confused a lot… Surely not. No one can be that confused all the time. Maybe just when she's with me…? Interesting. He fought the amused smile that was starting to grow on his face. Succeeding at keeping his face serious, he spoke.
"As an idol, you can never appear to look uncomfortable with the members of your group," He explained carefully. When she looked at him questioningly, he elaborated,
"Fans will notice if you are, and fans talk. You already have a lot of them against you." He watched as her face grew down cast, and she looked away, before replying quietly,
"…Yes…I discovered that about an hour ago…" She... discovered it...? Did they protest outside the building or something?
"I see… do you want to talk about it?" She looked up at him, before fixing her expression into a happier one,
"It's okay… I was just surprised by how… vocal they were, and how violently they were against me…"
Her face is slipping… and her chin is wobbling… she must have had a hard time… I wonder what she saw… Shin Woo felt the compulsion to make her feel better, as well as an unusual compulsion to share some of his experiences with her. He felt his hand lift, and watched as it settled on top of her head. He ruffled her hair gently as he said,
"You know… I had a similar reaction the first time I saw how… passionate our fans could be. It's fine to feel a little scared of that." He smiled at her.
She had started at his touch, eyes widening in surprise, but she quickly accepted the comfort it had brought to her and relaxed into it. She looked up at him, seeing his gentle smile, and felt better. Better because she felt she now had at least one person near her that wasn't upset with her or hating her. Other than Manager Ma maybe, but he had never asked her how she felt about the situation she was in, just pushed her to continue it. She felt that she had gained a friend.
She smiled at him and thanked him genuinely, before looking down at the table, a slight blush on her cheeks.
Shin Woo couldn't help but notice how soft her hair was as he ruffled it, and retracted his hand from her head as soon as he could without it appearing he hadn't meant what he said, or that he didn't like it. Which he did, more so than he cared to admit. Quickly picking up his cup to occupy his hands, he took another sip as he observed her over the rim. She appeared to have relaxed somewhat in his presence, and she looked happier as she also took another gulp of her tea.
I've helped her a bit at least… now… It's time for me to learn something about her…
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, both looking out at the cityscape as they sipped at their tea. Shin Woo planned his questions in his mind, mulling over what was appropriate to ask at the moment. Just one question for now I think… Deciding on his question for the evening, he looked back over at her. She appeared to be lost in her thoughts. Not for long…
Setting down his teacup, he cleared his throat to get her attention, and began his interrogation.
"So, care to tell me why you want to be an idol?" She coughed over her tea before looking up at him with wide eyes,
"E-Eh?" Such an amusing reaction… He found himself grinning at her.
"Your reason for wanting to become an idol" he repeated, "Somehow, you don't come across as someone looking for fame to me." Which just deepens the mystery… why are you here?
She shuffled uncomfortably in her seat, looking anywhere but his face. Hmm… not easy to talk about then…
"It's been Oppa's-" She broke off "I-I mean, my dream, since I was a kid. I've just loved singing and music since the first time I heard my father singing." She spoke quickly in an attempt to cover her slip up. Too bad I caught it… Her Oppa huh? I wonder how he comes into this…
"I see… so it's something you've wanted for your whole life…" He said smoothly, acting as if he didn't notice her little slip. She nodded hard. Her reactions are too amusing… I'm going to be sad when I tell her, if it means she stops doing such entertaining actions… But I should do it now, before she get's too deep into this lie… She doesn't seem to be the best liar... and better I tell her now, and get an explanation, than her finding out later and running...
He straightened in his chair, and looked her in the eyes, before speaking,
"You know, you don't have to-" He was cut off by a loud crash, and they both whipped their heads around to the source. ...Manager…Ma? He sighed slightly, you have the most impeccable timing, you know that? He watched as the manager attempted to pass off his fall as intentional, acting totally 'cool' as he shakily sauntered over to them. Dropping a hand onto Mi Nam's shoulder, he informed her of her schedule.
"Come, President Ahn has planned a lot for you to do today, first we're going to get some photos taken, then he wants you to drop into the dance studio afterwards." She looked up at him, surprised. He missed the look, as he was looking over at Shin Woo, who was just staring at him. Taking her away as well as interrupting us as I was about to tell her I knew… wait…Something clicked in his mind, Manager Ma must know about her real gender as well!
"Ah… Shin Woo… I'll be borrowing Mi Nam-ah for a bit…" He trailed off as Shin Woo didn't respond, absorbing his new revelation. Shaking his head slightly to clear his thoughts, he looked up at Manager Ma and fixed his professional smile on his face, before saying,
"Ah, of course. Mi Nam-ah probably needs to prepare a lot." He looked back at her, "I was planning on going to the studio later tonight, I might come visit you, is that okay?" I might be able to catch her after her practice is over...Shin Woo, you need to do this today!
She gave her assent, and he stood to walk her out, making a mental note to get Jeremy to help him clean up Tae Kyung's room, as Mi Nam was going to be occupied for the next few hours…
"There was some improvement, some." The teacher told her as the trainees clapped for her successful completion of the dance they were practicing. Mi Nyu grinned as she panted hard, feeling absolutely exhausted from the work she had done in the last few hours. After being picked up from the dorm by Manager Ma and ANJELL's Coordinator Wang (Whom she secretly thought of as her Unni... calling someone Noona at this point still felt unnatural), she had spend the rest of the afternoon in a hot, brightly lit room, having photo after photo taken of her, from every angle possible, and with her in more awkward positions than she could remember. When the photographer had finally told her he had 'enough to work with for the time being', she was whisked back to Ahn Entertainment, and introduced to some of the trainees. They had never met her brother, Manager Ma assured in the car, as Mi Nam had been given special, separate training as a soon to debut star. Feeling somewhat relieved at that, she was quickly accepted by the trainees, who were about to start practicing a dance routine. They invited her to join them, and she accepted happily, feeling that she might be able to do at least this for her Oppa.
She quickly discovered she didn't share her brothers talent for dancing.
She was also feeling horrible, she couldn't put the memory of the fans screaming for her removal from ANJELL as she had walked in. But the teacher and the rest of the trainees were patient, and after a few hours of clumsy blunders and messy falls, not to mention being dragged about by Manager Ma as he attempted to help her, everyone admitted that there was some improvement. Spurred on by this, she had pushed herself even harder, and eventually managed to learn the dance and perform the entire thing from start to end without any big mistakes.
Occasionally Shin Woo popped in while taking a break from composing to check on her and encourage her, which had made her even happier, knowing that there was a friend close by, and when she finally managed to perform the entire dance with the rest of the trainees without fault, she felt a sense of accomplishment that she had never felt before, and found that the feeling was something that she wanted to feel again. Soon.
"Here, you've earned it." She turned around to see Shin Woo offering her a towel and a bottle of water. She took them gratefully, gulping down half the bottle in one long draught. Her thirst quenched, she started wiping at her face with the towel, her breathing slowly returning to normal.
"Practice is over!" the teacher called from the front of the dance studio, "Hit the showers, then you can go home for tonight." She left the room, and chatter between the trainees increased as they made their way to the exit themselves. After extricating herself (or running away) from Jeremy and his questions, Mi Nyu started to wonder about where she could wash up, since she naturally couldn't wash with the other trainees without giving her gender away. Manager Ma and Coordinator Noona couldn't help her this time, having gone to find coffee a few minutes before the end of practice. Remembering Manager Ma mentioning the upstairs shower, Mi Nyu snuck off from the rest of the group as they chatted and wandered in the direction of the usual shower room.
Thank goodness there's more than one shower room in this building, I don't know what I would have done otherwise… maybe just waited for the shower room to be free? …but that might offend them, thinking that I don't want to shower with them… Mi Nyu's thoughts wandered off as she climbed the stairs, running through the steps she had learned today and trying to relive that feeling of triumph she had felt at her eventual success.
I wonder if this is how the rest of ANJELL feels when they succeed in a performance… or how Oppa feels when he finished his training? Hmm… I'll have to ask him tomorrow when I call… Is this the door? Mi Nyu's thoughts came back to reality as she neared the end of the hallway. Gingerly trying the door, she found it unlocked and entered the dark room. The air was humid, and there were lockers lined against walls for storing clothing, save where one open doorway led the way into the shower. Carefully closing the door behind her, she quickly undressed, peeling off the layers of sweaty clothing and bandage that she wore in an effort to conceal her chest.
That feels so much better… now, I have to be quick… now where's my shampoo?
Mi Nyu quickly entered the shower, washing off for the third time that day,
...Today certainly is a day for showers… I wonder if I'll need this many every day I'm here…? Ah… this is so comfortable...
She rinsed her hair as quickly as she could as she fought the urge to stay under the relaxing stream of hot water longer than required.
No, it doesn't matter how nice it is, Manager Ma isn't here to be a lookout for you right now, She chastised herself as twisted off the water.
The longer you stay here the more likely you are to get caught. Now out you get!
Mi Nyu walked back into the locker room, quickly drying off and beginning the process of rebinding her chest with a fresh bandage. About halfway through this task, she started to hear a general chattering sound getting steadily louder.
Could it be…? People are coming in here?! Mi Nyu looked around wildly for a place to temporarily hide. The only good place in the largely open space was in the thick pillar near the back of the room, as far from the door as you got.
It's either there or the shower… She rushed across the room, pulling her clean hoodie over her half-bound chest, trailing the rest of the bandage behind her as she moved behind the pillar. She got there not a second too late, as the door was loudly pulled open, the bubbling chatter suddenly increasing in volume and scope. How do I get out?! Mi Nam panicked as she hid.
[E/N: I feel kinda mean leaving you guys with this... I'm about halfway through Chapter 8 atm though, i'm on a roll hehe... wonder how long it's going to last... *headdesk* ...On another note, I'm completely in love with Seo In Guk's voice at the moment, I can't stop listening to with laughter or with tears...so sad :'( but beautiful :) ...I'm going off topic again D: i'm just going to shut up, post this and sleep -_-]