CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
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They might have taken away our rights of having our own show, but they didn’t take away of guest starring on a game show called Playground. Now that’s what I call a stroke of luck.
We woke up at about seven in the morning, because the filming began at nine. And then, we picked up breakfast and went on the road to the set.
I remembered seeing TXT (Tomorrow by Together) in I-LAND. But then again, I didn’t think that they, too, were going to be on the show too. This gave me a lot of nerves. And slight fear. The ENHYPEN boys kept throwing us out (supposedly)…what if the TXT boys also kick us out too?
I didn’t think about it much. But after hearing an ENHYPEN member talk badly behind our backs and our show getting canceled and all that was in between. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to trust these guys any longer.
We arrived at the set. I had recognized the TXT boys’ black bus and the camera men that were already filming their behind-the-scenes video for YouTube. And ENHYPEN had their filming crew for their behind-the-scenes video. But there is one thing I know. Lara brought her purple video camera! Now we were ready to film our behind-the-scenes video.
We chanted our group chant!
Let’s go! Let’s go!
We say “borahae”, we say “saranghae”!
Let’s go! Let’s go!
All of us together! We look forward to tomorrow!
Let”s go! Let’s go!
Revving up our ENGENE! Connect like a HYPHEN!
We’ll shout out “EN o’Clock!”
Sing for the MOAs!
Join in the ARMY!
WE ARE GALWAY LONDONERS!!
WE ARE AO3!!
Our chant wasn’t that bad. It was mostly about uniting our three favorite groups from HYBE. And so…our playdate with TXT began.
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While most of the girls were outside filming a few parts of our video blog, I went inside the set. It looked like a stage. But it had a platform and a projector from the ceiling. I figured that we were going to play a gigantic board game somewhere in the show.
And the set was like a hanok, a traditional Korean house that I once went with my mum. In the end I took a few photos as a memory.
I went back to our green room, which was our tour bus. And then, I noticed TXT with ENHYPEN, even before filming. Mentally, we all felt inferior to both boy-bands. Some of us wished a few members would come to visit us.
“Aren’t we fans of TXT?” I asked.
“Isabelle, Juliet, Hinata, Jax, and I are.” said Livia.
I thought for a moment. I created a BTS group, an ENHYPEN group, and I had trouble figuring a TXT group. It’s basically a group of girls that are biased or accordingly biased to each of the members. I just began liking BTS and my bias was Kim Taehyung (or his stage name V).
We were outside discussing our group name, since we were going to be in separate episodes. Galway Londoners was up first. AO3 was after. And then, in the corner of my eye, I noticed that Huening Kai, the youngest member of TXT, was heading inside ENHYPEN’s green room. But that got me thinking. Did we even have a green room to being with?
I don’t think they even provided us a green room! Damn it!
So…we had to have our tour bus as a green room.
And then, as I was outside, I noticed Huening Kai coming out. He then spotted me and charged towards me.
“Oh, my god!” he shouted, “My god-my god, Oh, my god!”
I flinched my head toward him
Oh, boy, I thought, I never thought that even a K-Pop idol would also be a fan of us as well.
Huening Kai jumped towards me about a few feet away from when he charged upon me. His face was chiseled, but he looked more foreign. A bit like Jake, except, he was from the states.
“Huening Kai?” I said, a bit uncomfortable.
“Yup,” said the cutie, “And I’m guessing you were from I-LAND the last time I saw you.”
“I was.”
“I figured! After seeing that one performance, the boys and I were thinking, ‘Man, I can’t believe HYBE is letting talented girls like that into our agency!’ And here you are!”
“Yeah…that’s me.”
Huening Kai smiled brightly. Almost like how Jake would smile. Only…his teeth were slightly crooked.
“So…what brings you here?” I asked.
“Nothing,” said Huening Kai, “I saw you out here and I thought I would come and say hi.”
“Hi, then.”
“Hi!”
Huening Kai giggled. Of course, for a guy that is the same age as Jake. However…when I did see his crooked smile…it did reminded me of him.
Why couldn’t Jake be this sweet to me?
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The first episode began. We were actually backstage on one side, while TXT was on the latter. Once we began filming, the TXT boys ran in and were shaking their bums off as if they were in some sort of nightclub or something.
They spoke about school stuff, you know, like classes, clubs, sports, and other subjects. But we began getting boarded out. It wasn’t like we were going to make another petty appearance again, right?
And then, after a long wait of their conversations (and Yeonjun literally shaking his bum in the air), along with their tedious so-called “activities”…it was finally our turn to appear.
“They could have let us go once the show began,” I snapped as I gritted my teeth, “But no…the ‘nice’ guys HAD to go first!”
We chose our opener “Blue Orangeade” by TXT. And the boys had their jaws drop to the floor the entire time of our performance. Even though we didn’t dance completely like them, they took us as though we were much more famous than them. And to be honest…it was pretty discomforting to see their reactions like that.
Our performance ended successfully. The boys cheered and clapped. But I turned to Jake and he scowled at me.
Again? What did I do this time?
Jay was also mad too. They both pointed the way out of the stage. Once we left stage left, I frowned deeply. It was no wonder we had a small appearance. Because it was originally for the boys only. It didn’t have to do with the whole “boys will be boys” mentality. Only…maybe it has to do with “HYBE will be HYBE”.
It became deadly silent backstage. There was barely any talking. Not even a whisper. I’m sure TXT didn’t mind us being on stage with them. Only…it is certain that the ENHYPEN boys didn’t like us on stage either. I wanted to do something to make them pay for what they had done to me and my girl groups. Kind of like a revenge scheme.
During a dance off, me and the girl groups performed yet another song. AO3 sang a SHINee song called “Replay | 누난 너무 예뻐”. And our choreography was like how boy K-Pop idols would dance. We would pop our joints and quickly switch spots at different times. Again, the boys were so shocked about this.
Halfway to the end of the first episode, it was time for the K-Drama trivia question. But most of the boys looked like they haven’t watched ANY K-Dramas (and probably, actually didn’t). Even though I couldn’t speak in Korean, I actually knew which shows they were talking about, since I was the one who had to watch the telly every so often until at about two in the morning.
Love Boomarang, It’s Okay to NOT Be Okay, When the Camellia Blooms. My mum would binge watch them while I was doing school (since we couldn’t bear the expectations at in-person schools in Korea). A lot. But on special occasions, whenever I woke up at six or seven, before the sun rose even, I would secretly watch those shows too. But my mum eventually found out anyway and thought that I was a fan too.
But when it came for the soundtrack, the boys looked bewildered and kept looking at each other.
Really…? They actually never watch anything K-Drama related? Not even listening to the soundtracks?!
If you ask me, it was starting to get annoying. After the boys showed their (very) wrong answers…the real answer was “PRLM”. I rolled my eyes and was becoming pretty tedious about how this was going.
I am so making them watch each and every K-Drama there is…so they feel the taste of their Korean-ness inside of them.
After that is the telepathy game. Each team of two had to say what the other person is literally thinking. And the boys took it too far on this one. It all turned into this one big, (and pretty vocal) debate, also known as a gigantic and very petty fight over a simple thought from someone. That one, I could laugh about.
In the end, Yeonjun, Ni-Ki, Sunoo, and Heeseung ended up winning in the first episode. Even though they barely did ANYTHING!
Seriously?
As we took a break, I thought about what we should do for Part 2 of Playground.
“It shouldn’t be too flashy,” said Maeve.
“And it shouldn’t be too over-the-top.” said Leila.
Suddenly, I formed an idea.
I told everyone (and they agreed) that we should help out for the yut nori segment at the end of the episode! But it would be a lot of work too. All we needed to do was to pick out a name for the teams, since they were going to mix and match up the members this time.
Luckily, I thought of the perfect name, writting them down as I smirked.
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None of us knew that the second episode would be more of a living Hell than the first one. It was so bad that every one of us girls…were just finished. We were appearing halfway into the episode. So we had to watch half of the show from backstage… again…fun…!
The most strangest thing was the boys had to compete whose team they are in, only using a red hopper ball or a blue cushion. Each time, the members had to fight over who gets the hopper ball and who gets the cushions.
Eventually, all of the teams were sorted out. Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Ni-Ki, Sunoo, Jay, and Jake were the red team, while Soobin, Taehyun, Heeseung, Sunghoon, Jungwon, and Huening Kai were the yellow team. And I could tell that this was going to be the most chaotic crossover experiance that ever was in the history of K-Pop.
They didn’t know that we picked out the names for them. And now it was our time to reveal their names. It had to be provocative and fitting. As we entered with white boards and markers, the boys took it as though they were ready. And so were we.
The yellow team said, “Even if we lose we are–”
“The Handsome Princes!” said Hinata.
The boys turned to the white board on their side.
“Oh, my god, I love that name even better than our first one!” said Huening Kai, jumping up and down.
The rest of the yellow team scowled at him. Sheepishly, he faked a smile.
The red team said, “Brave–”
“Brave Baby Boys!” I yelled.
“Yay! I’m a baby boy!” said Sunoo, also jumping up and down.
Jake scowled at both team names. I knew he was pretty upset about the results. But I couldn’t help what was going on this episode. I just wanted everybody to not fight in front of the camera anymore.
“Brave Baby Boys…Handsome Princes…?! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!”
“Storytime!” Lara announced.
“It’s time to tell the backstories of your teams!” I said, teasingly.
“What do you mean?” asked Yeonjun.
“I guess it’s our origin, how we came to be.” said Huening Kai, giving a wink at me.
Up first, was the Brave Baby Boys!
Once upon a time, there were six little boys who were given birth from a pauper family in the 16th century. Their names were Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Ni-Ki, Sunoo, Jay, and the youngest, Jake. Each baby was born beautiful and noble, signifying their bravery.
But one day changed horrifically. King Soobin I (the one who gave birth to the Handsome Princes) stole all of the babies after the mother who gave birth to them refused to send him the last of the money that she had. The family had no choice but to let them away.
The six babies cried and cried because their birth mother was not there to cradle them to sleep.
Annoyingly, the red team faked cried, literally like little babies. I rolled my eyes and waited for them to stop so I could finish the story.
“Ahem…anyways…”
The king was single and struggled to find a young noblewoman to marry so the country of England would be at ease. But it was not an easy thing to do.
As the babies grew to toddlerhood, King Soobin I became crueler and impatient. He hated Jake the most. And so did his five older brothers (well, except Sunoo, who was gentle and kind). While he was emotionally, verbally and physically abused, humiliated, and eventually forced to become a servant in his own home. But he still remained ever so gentle and kind to everyone.
And then, after a long while, they became closer and then overcame their differences. Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Ni-Ki and Jay were jealous of Jake’s beauty, but not Sunoo. And eventually, they were in their teens. But King Soobin I did not change a thing. The Handsome Princes were involved and declared war between them and the six boys.
Both teams realized that there was an Olympic event that was upcoming. And the twelve Princesses of Golden Gates would judge. This happened because the King wanted to marry off one of his sons to one of the Princesses to ease the subjects of England. And this excited them. But it meant they had to compete against each other as well.
And so, though they were quite dumb at most things, they officially named themselves the Brave Baby Boys, because they were so adorable and baby-faced.
“The end,” I said, immediately ending the story.
The boys looked confused. Except Huening Kai.
“That was a beautiful story, it nearly made me cry!” he exclaimed before Soobin harshly nudged him on the shoulder.
Next, Hinata wrote the story for the yellow team.
During the 16th century, King Soobin I and the Queen of the Hearts gave birth to six beautiful baby boys. Their names were Soobin, Taehyun, Heeseung, Sunghoon, Jungwon, and the youngest Huening Kai.
But the king’s country could not be at peace. They were under fire for not providing any food or payment for the unwealthy and the meek. They all consider him greedy and unkind.
His biggest client was the mother of the Brave Baby Boys. But even he stole from her too. He took away the six sons she birthed and raised them as his own. But this made the country even worse!
The people thought of him as a child abuser. And it was true! He always reprimanded them as if they were middle-class people. But Jake was who he despised the most.
Because they had no mother to go to, they only had each other. Huening Kai saw the way they were treated. While Jake was at his worst times, the little prince Huening Kai was always there to comfort him like a little brother.
“Aww…!” said Huening Kai as he glanced towards a scrunchy Jake.
“How come I always have to be the youngest?” Jake silently pouted, crossing his arms and huffing.
Meanwhile, Soobin II was a Father’s Pet. He was terribly snooty and always pinned the blame on the one of the Brave Baby Boys.
“An dwae!” shouted Soobin.
“But it does sound like you, Soobin-hyung.” said Taehyun, snickering.
Jake saw it as a way to gain more attention from Soobin I. No matter how much the boys tried to tell him to truth, they just couldn’t get through to him.
Heeseung, Sunghoon, Jungwon were triplets and often played with Jake and Sunoo. One late night, they were playing hide-and-seek in the dungeon and by mistake, a frightened Sunoo walked in the torture chamber. Luckily, the other boys were able to track down his sweet voice.
“Really?” said Sunoo, giving Hinata a smug look on his face.
“Really.” said Hinata, trying not to laugh.
Taehyun was the peacemaker. Whenever the boys argued or fought dangerous duels, Taehyun would talk sense with his poetic voice and choice of words. It was while Heeseung and Soobin II conflicted over the pettiest topic that Taehyun said to them: “Devilry shall nev’r beest a solution! Bestow fairness and englut merry in thy heart!”
Taehyun tilted his head.
“Is that Shakespeare talk?” he asked the other mates in his team.
“Well, it’s the sixteenth century,” said Huening Kai, “It has to be formal and poetic.”
Upon hearing this, the boys figured that being together means getting along and not constantly conflicting with each other. Soon enough, they were in their teens.
Soobin I wanted to marry off all of his sons to the twelve young Princesses of Golden Gates. But that meant that the boys would have to compete against each other, even though they just began to get along with each other.
And so, in the end, the royal sons of Soobin I named themselves the Handsome Princes.
“And they all lived happily ever after…the end!” said Hinata, with a squeaky voice.
“I didn’t get that one either.” said Jay.
“They’re just stories,” said Huening Kai, “We don’t have to understand.”
But when the other members weren’t looking, Huening Kai kept flashing finger hearts at me. I gave him only one in return. Jake was becoming jealous. And both of us didn’t know it.
We took our leave.
During our time backstage, I could hear the young boys shouting and arguing and other things. But then, they were acting all nice for the camera.
Do they actually…hate each other?
I didn’t get to see what games they were actually doing, since I was on my phone the entire time (I do tend to get bored very easy). And then, the stage manager signaled us that it was time for the yut nori game. However, there was a prologue game before the real game. Blue Flag, White Flag. I had a terrible memory about that one.
I was playing yut nori, in a similar style like the one we were doing, and I had to play with the blue flag and the white flag. But because I couldn’t understand Korean, I only waved the flags around and, of course, ended up losing. I was pretty sure it was going to be the same for this game right now.
After everyone was doing it the right way, I had to do it the right way too. But unfortunately…I couldn’t.
I was partnered with Jake. He seemed pretty annoyed too.
The game began. I just waved the flags in various directions. As if I didn’t care about the game at all. Jake looked at me with frustration.
“Y/N!” he shouted, “You’re supposed to put them at different directions, not wave them around.”
“Well it’s not MY fault I don’t speak Korean very well!” I shouted back.
The entire room fell silent straight afterwards. I huffed quietly. Of course I lost the game. But really…it wasn’t my fault.
Our next game was who could balance on the tiniest piece of paper.
The boys folded the paper in front of them and then stepped in as they were held together. And they had to stay that way until the first or multiple people begin to slip out. Jake then cradled me to his arms as the other boys huddled in. It felt more of a group hug, rather than a game.
One second, two seconds, three seconds, four seconds, five seconds. And eventually…the Baby Boys won the game. Without fighting. But Jake still held me glued tight on his waist. It was as if…he wanted to love me on live television.
“I love you, Y/N…” he whispered, gently, before kissing the top of my head.
Now was the game of yut nori!
The floor turned into the board of the game. But this was different, since it was LED empowered.
I won’t get into detail about this. But I do remember TXT being cheaters the entire game. It was tremendous battle. Yeonjun against Heeseung, Jake against Jungwon, and Sunoo against Taehyun, and so on and so forth. And all that was in between. The girls and I felt there was no ending to this long, boring game.
After so many retakes and redemptions…Yeonjun threw the four pellets in the air…and scored gae. The Brave Baby Boys won the entire game. All I heard was the sound of victory over fifteen/twenty year old boys.
As a prize I gave Jake a lovely embroidered hanbok, that was blue on the top and white on the bottom, with gold imprints and a jade as an accessory. Filled with Happiness, he pulled me in and kissed me as I threw my arms around his neck.
Most of the other boys looked at the both of us. TXT may not have been upset, but the ENHYPEN boys seemingly did.
“Those two are dating, right?” asked Huening Kai.
“Yup!” said Holly.
It was the end of filming. The boys were taking selfies as a way of saying goodbye. But Huening Kai literally took up all of the selfies. And as we were about to head out, Kai then said:
“You know Y/N, you’re a really great girl. I think we should get together one day.”
“Really?” I asked, “But Jake will be so jealous.”
“That’s okay. At least he won’t be…you know…a big baby…?”