Interlude: Mia

It makes me sick
to have my heart hurt so much
when I'm thinking of you
guilt wears me down...
-translated from “Missed”
from Future Colors' first album Future Colors

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Some time earlier...

“Hyung, you know my thoughts on this matter already.” Jae folded his arms across his chest and scowled at his former manager. “I don't like the idea of Oh Dongmin still hanging around the company.”

President Kang sighed. 

“Jae-ya, you already know why I can't just fire him altogether,” he answered. “He's not just my school sunbae, but also my sunbae when I was just starting out as a road manager in BD Ent. He helped me a lot. I owe him for that. And he still knows a lot of people in the business, contacts we need.”

“He doesn't know about the internal management stuff though, does he?” Shingu asked from where he was leaning against the wall by the door of Jae's study. 

“No. Despite what he claims, he never needed to know. There's no problem in that area.”

“Good,” Jae said, drumming his fingers on his desk. “He's enough of a problem as it is. Sorry, hyung.”

“I suppose as long as he stays away from the talents now, it might be all right,” Mia spoke up. “That's what you mean, right, Ahjusshi?” 

“As long as he stays away from them,” Jae stated. “He might have gotten away with what he's doing, if he was still in BD Ent., but not here.”

“Gotten away with it?” Shingu snorted. “He'd have been running the whole show and everyone else would have been clamoring to get in on the action and trampling on all their talents just to get there. That's BD Ent. you're talking about.”

“And that's why we're not there anymore.” Jae waved a hand. “Where are you putting Oh Dongmin, hyung?”

“I thought we could use him in the publicity department because of his connections,” President Kang said. “That way the publicity director gets to ride herd on him.” He gave Jae a sly look.

“Huh. Jaera noona won't hesitate to smack him down if he gets out of line.” Jae chuckled. Royal's publicity director was one of his older sisters, who owned her own PR company.

Mia had no trouble at all imagining the look on Oh Dongmin's face when it sank in that his boss was a young woman. And one who wouldn't stand for any nonsense, either. 

“He'll be the one running around making coffee,” she commented. “It will be good for him.”

“Entirely right,” Jae agreed. “Of course I would be much happier if he were out of the company altogether, but... I guess this will do for now. Now who gets to tell everyone the good news?”

* * *

It might have been good news for Future Colors, but definitely not for Manager Oh, who declined to have dinner with them, although perhaps “decline” would be inadequate to describe how he did it. Mia hadn't the heart to send him off to a hotel at that hour of the evening, especially as he wasn't in his own country, and besides, he would be leaving the next day anyway. So she generously sent Myungseok up to his room with a tray. The maknae grumbled that it was a waste of good meat, and upon his return reported that his former manager had slammed the door in his face after taking the food. 

Bea and Betong were also reluctant to join them in the dining room, for entirely different reasons: both were in awe of Shingu and President Kang. 

“Pero Manang mahuya man ta ay...” Bea protested, sidling towards the kitchen door after she and Betong brought in the food.

It took Jae to settle the matter-- one look from him and the two stopped in their tracks.

“What are you two doing?” he asked mildly. “Stop standing around there. Sit down. Let's eat.”

The two sat. Mia hid a smile and handed Bea the nearest platter of rice.

The atmosphere at dinner was strange. The younger boys (Stop thinking of them as boys, Mia-- they're all in their early twenties now!) were in high spirits, talking excitedly with Shingu. Jungkyu, who sat nearest to Jae and President Kang, joined in his elders' conversation once in a while, although he mostly listened, and occasionally elbowed Junhee in the ribs as a warning when the younger ones got too ebullient. 

Bea and Betong, who sat near Mia, ate silently. So did Minha. Occasionally, Mia caught him and Bea exchanging glances when they thought they were unobserved, and then looking away quickly whenever Betong glanced at them. 

Why are those two acting like that? I'd have thought Minha would be reacting more like the maknaes to the news that Manager Oh wouldn't be around them anymore. And Bebeh looks worried. Ah, right. She doesn't know why the boys were called to a meeting. Does she think her friends are in trouble?

Bebeh seems to be worrying over them a little too much though. Or is it just Minha? They seem to have gravitated toward each other somehow. We all accepted the explanation that he was helping out a friend, but... this is Minha we're talking about. Since when had he cared so much about a person to jump in and lend a hand to that extent?

She thought back over the past and winced. Minha helping Bea with the plates, that first night at the farm. Minha sitting beside Bea on the beach. Minha sitting beside Bea at the cottage. Minha disappearing with Bea. Minha falling into a rice paddy with Bea. Minha asking for Bea's cellphone number. And last but not least, Minha running away to the Philippines-- to Bea. Right from the first day they got here, three years ago. And it passed entirely under my radar. How blind I was. 

Bebeh and Minha. Was Manager Oh not so far from the truth after all?

If my suspicions are right... Jae and President Kang are not going to like this.

She was still mulling over this when she sat down in the living room after dinner, so that she started when Jae draped an arm over her shoulder.

“Sleepy yet? What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“Unlikely associations,” she answered, looking up at him.

“Like...?”

“You and me...?”

“After all this time, is it still that unlikely?”

She smiled.

“Not anymore, I guess. Are you sleepy?”

“Well... I haven't seen Shingu in a while, so I was thinking we'd catch up. If you're tired though...” He dropped a kiss on her nose and smiled when she grimaced.

“Not really. I guess I'll go look in on the kids.”

Instead of releasing her, though, he pulled her in even closer.

“Yeobo, I know you already said yes, but... are you sure you'll be okay with this?” he asked. “You know those boys can be a handful.”

“Yeobo,” she answered. “I think we already know those boys better than anyone else except maybe their families. And you wouldn't have consented to oversee their new album if you couldn't handle them.” She patted his hand. “It'll be all right. You'll see.”

“Still...” Jae sighed. “If it gets to be too much-- for you and baby-- I'll take over, okay?”

“Now who was it who said he wouldn't interfere?” She smiled at him.

“Where my family is concerned of course I'll damn well interfere.”

“Ya, Seo Jaeseung. You of all people know I'm not a damsel in distress and never will be.”

“Ya, Seo Mia.” But he was smiling back at her. “That doesn't stop me from wanting to protect you-- and I always will.”

She was still smiling as she went upstairs. But then instead of turning in the direction of the boys' dorm room, she hesitated and then turned in the direction of Bea's room.

No one answered her knock. After a few moments, she opened the door and looked inside. Bea's school things were scattered across the couch, her practice teacher's uniform flung across the bed, but there was no sign of her cousin.

I could have sworn she went upstairs earlier... I suppose I didn't notice that she went back downstairs again. 

Oh, well. 

Mia closed the door and went back up the hall to the boys' room at the other end of the house.   She was about to knock on the door when she heard voices coming from the balcony.

“So Manang Mia is your manager now?”

That's Bebeh.

“Yeah.” 

And that's Minha.

“And they weren't mad at you...?”

“Angry at me? No.”

“That's good then.”

Mia was wondering whether to walk in and interrupt when Bea spoke again.

“I'm glad your old manager is leaving. After everything he's done to you.”

“I'm happy too.” And then, “Bebeh-ya.”

“Mmm?”

“Look at me. I already told you we'll be staying for a while, right?”

“Maybe a couple of weeks more, you said. Until Manong and Manang go back to Korea, anyway. And you do need to go back to the doctor and get another checkup.”

“So when are you coming to Korea?”

“I told you. Graduation first. And what am I going to do there, anyway?”

“We'll go on vacation! Sight-seeing!”

How optimistic of you, Mia thought. And how are you going to do that without being trailed by a thousand fans, I wonder? 

“And you'll meet my family!” Minha added. “They will like you. I'm sure.”

“And then when I go back home?”

“Ya! What do you mean go back home?” The sounds of a brief tussle ensued. 

“Oi!” Bea protested. “I don't think that's fair! Minmin!”

“What do you mean go back home?” Minha repeated. “I was hoping-- I wanted you to make Korea your home.”

“Saranghae, Bebeh-ya,” he added. “The question I asked you three years ago-- it's still, how do you call it, available. If it's the only way I can have you to stay always with me... marry me.”

Mia's mouth dropped open. 

She'd always thought of herself as a cool noona or eonni, but at that moment, all she could think of were all the complications that Royal, and herself as the band's manager, would need to sort out. She marched onto the balcony, not caring that at that moment, Minha was in the middle of kissing Bea. 

“You two,” she said. “In Jae's study. Right now.” 

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Vocabulary:

Pero Manang mahuya man ta ay... - Hiligaynon. One translation to this would be “But oh, Manang, we would feel ashamed...” The concept of “huya” or “hiya” however, as used in this context, isn't strictly “shame”-- it is closer to “embarrassment”, more like a feeling of unworthiness that leads one to be shy or self-effacing when there are famous or eminent persons around. It doesn't carry with it the guilt that one associates with shame, but rather a wish to be humble or courteous by not drawing attention to oneself.

For that matter, “huya” also applies to Bea and Betong's reaction when Jae tells them to sit down. Jae's status in their extended family, as well as the fact that it is his and Mia's house, requires them not to offend or displease him, and that trumps the “huya” that they think they should feel with regard to his exalted guests.

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Author's Note:

Dear RingRoundRosie, I swear most of this chapter had already been written long ago, I just had to tweak it around a bit. You're a mind-reader, aren't you? :D A Mia-centric interlude-- you called it, you got it.

I don't know why it took so long for me to write this chapter. I knew where I was going-- Mia has to find out-- but it was the getting there that was hard. And yet this is a story where the characters keep me up at night and haunt me in my dreams. Minha keeps surprising me with the stuff he ends up doing-- I guess sometimes I'm just too dense and it takes a while to figure out what he's doing, lol. I certainly never originally intended him to propose-- he just up and did it, and now he's done it again!

As Rita Mae Brown said in her book Starting From Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer's Manual, "When your characters become spontaneous-- by which I mean they have a life of their own and they surprise you or even fool you-- then you're doing something right. You are no longer pulling your characters through the novel. They are knocking you around at the typewriter. Don't be surprised if they wake you up at night either."

Oh and btw I finally has Instagram! :P Sometimes I post teasers of chapters in progress :P I'm at justcallmelayamaria.

So... votes, comments, suggestions, or reactions, violent or otherwise? And thank you all for reading! I hope you liked this!