Twenty-seventh Verse

I know I might get hurt
and I might get left behind
I might end up
with a broken heart
that's what I'll get
for loving this foolish love...
-translated from “Foolish Love”
from Future Colors' second mini-album Rainbow / Sadness

------------------------------------------

Both froze at the sound of Mia noona's voice. Minha was so startled that he let go of Bea. Overbalanced, she flailed for a moment and he had to catch her again before she fell over backwards.

“N-noona!” Minha found himself stuttering.

“Downstairs. Right now.” And Mia noona stalked off like an angry penguin, not even looking back to see if they were following.

Junhee poked his head out of the boys' room as they went past. He looked from his hyung to Mia noona and asked, “What's happening?”

“Noona found out,” Minha said out of the corner of his mouth.

“Found out what?” Junhee asked in bewilderment. Realization struck when Mia noona turned to look at him. He hastily dived back into the room, calling “Jungie hyung...!”

And so Minha found himself sitting in Jae sunbae's office for the second time that night. Only this time, Bea was beside him, her hand in his, and Jae sunbae, Shingu sunbae, President Kang, and Mia noona were all staring coldly at them both.

Mia noona, who was unable to keep still and kept stalking back and forth between the sofa and the door, paused mid-stride and yanked the door open as she passed it. Jungkyu, Junhee, and Betong fell into the room. She pointed to the couch and stalked off up the room again. Betong glared at Minha, who refused to move aside and let him sit between them. He finally sat down on the other side of his sister.

“Dude, you know the rules,” Jae sunbae said, eyeing Minha. “I'm the one who gave you guys the talk on what to do if you're dating someone.” He turned and pointed at Junhee, who obligingly recited them.

“Tell your manager if you're dating or you intend to date someone. Your manager can inform the agency president. If you don't want the relationship to be made public, the agency will protect your privacy. If you want to go public, the agency will issue a statement on your behalf and will protect the identity of the other person if he/she is not a celebrity, but you also have to be ready to face the public reaction.”

“You know the agency needs to know about things like this,” Mia noona said, stalking up and down in front of the couch. “Three years!”

“Um, noona,” Minha said. “You know there was no chance in hell I'd ever tell Manager Oh...”

“You could have told your Jae sunbae! Or you could have told me!” She glared at him and Bea in turn. “Why did neither of you tell me?”

Bea ducked her head and muttered something about “school” and “busy.”

“Of course you all knew about this too,” Jae sunbae said in Korean, looking at Jungkyu. Jungkyu turned red and looked at the floor. “So everyone else knew but us.”

Minha tried again. 'Sunbae, you saw how Manager Oh reacted when he only suspected. If he had confirmed it...”

“That still doesn't change the fact that you didn't tell me,” Mia noona said in English. She looked at Betong. “I suppose you also knew.”

“He was very obvious,” Betong answered, still glaring at Minha. 

“Mia-ya, calm yourself,” President Kang said. “Let's talk about this peacefully now. We don't forbid our talents to date, after all.”

“They do need to tell us when they are dating, though,” Jae sunbae said. “So the agency doesn't get blindsided in case there are any scandals.”

“As it is, if the fans ever got wind of this, we'd better be prepared for the public reaction,” President Kang commented.

“The crying fans, the angry fans, the disappointed fans, the 'Oppa don't date!' fans, the anti-fans,” Junhee murmured under his breath. Mia noona gave him a quelling look, but President Kang nodded at him.

“Precisely, Junhee-ya,” he said. “We've already had our hands full, that time when rumors came out about Youngmin and Jangmi dating. Remember what happened, Minha?”

“Yes, sir,” Minha muttered. Youngmin was cuSKYE's band leader and quite popular, and Jangmi was much-sought-after as a young actress and model, so naturally the fans of both made a big fuss about the issue. Royal had been so besieged by fans and reporters that it had been forced to increase security on its residential compound and office building, and it had ended up making an agreement with Jangmi's agency to keep the two from meeting in the public eye. No matter that the rumors were true. Youngmin and Jangmi had finally agreed that all the trouble wasn't worth being hounded every time they stepped out of doors, so no more public dates, even innocuous ones like going to an awards show together.

Minha began to relax cautiously, since it seemed they were mellowing. But then Mia noona flung her hands up in the air.

“But he wants to get married!” she cried.

Almost everyone in the room turned to look at Minha and Bea.

“Obviously you knew about this too,” Jae sunbae said to Jungkyu, the only one who didn't look surprised.

Jungkyu looked uncomfortable.

“Well, he did talk about it,” he said. “But I figured it was just talk... we were there, and she was here, and with our schedule and the way things were, there was no way it could possibly happen any time soon...”

Minha glared at him.

“I guess now we know the real reason he went all the way over here,” Jae sunbae said, and looked at Mia noona.

“Don't look at me, yeobo, I'm still agitated,” Mia noona huffed. Jae sunbae sighed and went over and made her sit down. Although she finally complied, she still kept glaring resentfully over at Minha and Bea.

Minha felt Bea's fingers tighten on his hand and she scooted backwards in her seat as if retreating from Mia noona.

“Sorry, Manang,” she said. Mia noona burst out in their own language, and Bea answered, with Betong occasionally making comments in a disparaging tone and getting shot down by both. But at least by the end of the exchange, Mia noona was already a good bit calmer, although she still pouted every time she glanced at them.

After she did that a couple of times, Minha sighed and pouted back.

“Noo-na-a-a-a...” he whined. 

Bea jumped and stared at him in surprise. Then she looked down as if wondering whether to drop his hand. He clutched her hand tighter, just in case.

“Don't you try that noona-pout-wiggle on me, young man,” Mia noona told him. “It's not going to work.”

“But noo-na-a-a-a-aa...”

“Keumanhae. I told you.”  She folded her arms across her chest. “Why in the world would you think that getting married at this point in time is even a good idea?”

“Yes, how about the band?” Jae sunbae added in Korean. “This is entirely different from the issue of you dating.” And when Minha opened his mouth, he added, “Don't even tell me that you can still sing. Whether you can or will sing is now beside the point.” 

“But sunbae...”

“But but? But what?” Jae sunbae gave him a cold stare, then turned and pointed at Jungkyu. “You're the band leader. Tell him what will happen to the band-- and to his career-- if he insists on doing this.”

Jungkyu refused to look at Minha.

“The fans will be very angry,” he said. “And they will probably all leave, and refuse to go to our concerts or buy our albums or support our activities.”

“And then?” Jae sunbae prodded.

“And then we won't be popular anymore and Royal won't want to produce our albums and we'll have to disband,” Jungkyu added.

“So tell me, Minha-ya, is this what you want?” Jae sunbae turned back to him. “You'll be ruining not only one career, but five. Your bandmates' careers might go down with you.”

“But sunbae you did the same thing too!” Minha burst out. Shingu sunbae made a choked sound and turned away. President Kang covered his mouth with his hand and walked over to Minha.

“But Minha,” he said calmly, “how old was Jae when he got married, and how long has he been in the business?”

Before Minha could make calculations, Shingu sunbae said, “We'd already been idols for ten years-- five with Divinity, one on hiatus, and four as Jaeshin, although we were in the army for two of those four years. While Future Colors has existed for only five years. You're still relatively new.”

“That's right,” President Kang said. He glanced at Jae sunbae and nodded. “And Minha-ya, you have to realize, Royal is also depending on the band, so naturally we are concerned. You know we make it a policy to not interfere with our talents' love lives, but in this case, you do realize, the scandal will hurt all of us.” He added in English, “Please reconsider. You cannot get married.”

Bea suddenly spoke up. Minha had been conscious of her looking back and forth at everyone's faces when they spoke, although she wouldn't have understood what they were saying.

“But,” she said in English, “I didn't say I wanted to get married, either.” She didn't look at Minha, and her hand felt cold in his grasp. “You can all stop yelling at him or whatever. We're not...” she swallowed hard. “We're not getting married now.”

“Bea!” Minha sat up indignantly and tugged her round to face him.

“I have school to finish. You can't ruin your career. That's what they're saying to you, right? That your career will be finished and the band will be over? You told me so many times, you've always wanted to be a singer. That you can't imagine your life without being in Future Colors.”

“I can no longer imagine my life without you, either!” he burst out. “Wherever I go, I think of you. Even when we were not in touch, there wasn't a day that I didn't think of you or wonder how you were. I can't stand it anymore. I want you to be with me. But how can that happen when you're here, and I'm there, and I don't know how or when I'll get the time to come here?”

“So if your career suffers, and I haven't finished school... howwill we live?” Bea demanded.

“I'll find a way! It's not like I wasn't saving my income,” he retorted. “Do you have so little faith in me?”

“It's not that I don't have faith in you. But I told you. Just because I like you doesn't mean I have to stop being practical.” By then they had stopped holding hands and were staring indignantly at each other.

“I just want to be with you a lot more! Why can't you understand that?” Minha remonstrated. “You don't need to be a teacher anymore. I'll take care of you. Didn't you say anyway, it's not really your dream?”

“I am not going to sit back and just be taken care of!” Bea glared at him. “And don't-- don't insult my chosen profession! I never said a word about yours!”

“I'm not insulting anything!” He glared back. “Why are you so angry? I didn't say anything bad! If you don't really like me enough to marry me, just say so!” And he got up and stomped out of the room.

------------------------

Vocabulary and Concepts:

Keumanhae – Korean, “Stop.”

Noona-pout-wiggle -  Mia actually borrowed this term from the K-drama watching international community. It's more commonly done by females, and in that instance is known as the "oppa-pout-wiggle." It's that little wiggle and pout accompanied by a long-drawn-out whine of "oppaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" that seems to work miracles for the girls to get what they want. (See: http://www.dramabeans.com/2010/06/glossary-oppa/ )

------------------------

Author's Note:

Mianhaeyo! 

 /gets down on knees and makes a deep bow of apology

 I somehow got busy with real life things and didn't have the time to chill out and really think about this chapter, so it took a long time before I was finally satisfied with it. Yes, all of the characters have been nagging me in my dreams, so no, it wasn't exactly fun. All those pouts and glares from Minha, I tell you.

Anyway, I hope you will forgive me. And I hope you like this chapter! As usual, I would appreciate your comments, votes, suggestions and reactions, violent or otherwise. Thank you for reading!