K-pop idols. You never see them often.
Not even for one whole second could you have a normal conversation with them.
Not only are they busy all the time, they just try to laugh everything off, thinking they are living the dream, when in reality they are living under pressure a lot.
And I think the cause is because of their overbearing managers and their agencies!
But that is what I believe.
What I truly believe is that they work hard enough to at least make a little for themselves and their families. And that is what I do! I try to make the money to provide for me and my mum and dad. But…it gets pressuring.
It was while I was coming home from work at the little café down the street, when suddenly Eugene, the eldest of our band, frantically called me.
I had to answer.
“What is it now, Eugene?” I asked in irritation.
“Soule, you have to come down to UVIC Entertainment this instant! Our agent is having a fit!” said Eugene.
“So what? It can’t be that bad.”
I was wringing my hands in anxious anticipation. I knew it was worse than I expected. Because when I rode my bicycle, all the way to the agency…I was already nervous.
The CEO and our manager Kim Beon-myung gave us a scowl. I knew he was not happy about us or something. Whatever it was, it wasn’t approveable with his fiery expression. It was so embarrassing as the middle member of the Star Seekers to see our manager/CEO of the company angry with all of us. And it was only for one reason: we don’t have any special abilities.
“Your manifested supernatural abilities should have appeared by now.” Beon-myung scolded, “The five of you are nearly off to college and you still haven’t gained any powers at all! Because of this, we have lost ₩7.9 Billion ($6.6 Million).”
He then stood up and walked around his office.
“Since we are not through with your contract, I’m reducing your support to the minimum!”
“And that means…” I said softly.
“You only have me…as your manager.”
I almost began to cry. It was because his voice was so soft, yet stern. I never liked the way he spoke to any of us. This was one of the reasons that I never chose to become a worldwide famous K-pop idol.
Before we walked out, Beon-myung added, “And by the way, I am confiscating your company car.”
And that is when my mother Athena entered.
“Is there a problem here?” she asked.
Beon-myung chuckled. “No, of course not! I was just telling them what a great job they are doing!”
“Really,” said my mother, “Because my husband Heli had heard vigorous shouting coming all the way from this room.”
He then groaned. “I can assure you, ma’am that there is nothing going on. I was just giving these famous boys a piece of my mind.”
“Famous? A piece of your mind?” asked my mother, “It’s been almost three months after their debut, no one has even noticed a thing about them! No one even bothered to take a selfie with my beautiful son!”
Beon-myung then felt defeated. “I am just thoroughly disappointed that we have just lost a lot of money for this agency.”
“And so you blame the boys for this?”
“Well…it’s not our fault that they are the only ones that have no powers at all.”
My mother had had enough.
“No powers at all, you say?”
And so, we all stood at the main room of the agency, hearing my own mom shout at the “famous” Kim Beon-myung. She certainly gave that guy a piece of her mind.
“Your mother was the princess of the Serpentine,” said Viken as he chuckled, “And now she is married and a working mom with a working son. How ironic.”
“It’s not really…ironic,” I replied, “I wouldn’t call it anything at all. It’s just…difficult for us, since we’ve just moved here to Seoul.”
“That actually says a lot,” said Taho, “And I’m sorry you have to go through all of this.”
“Yeah,” Avys added, “If I were you, and if anything would happen to me or my parents and family, then I would have been like a baby and cried.”
“I’m afraid Avys has a point,” said Eugene, “There is a reason you two are best friends. You both share emotion and you would take anything to heart.”
“And we are sensitive as well.”
“Yes…that too!”
*~*~*~*~*~*
“Your son has disappointed me the most,” said Beon-myung, “I spent all of that money the government provided us, because he is your son! Little did we all know that he would be nothing but a worthless person with no magical abilities!”
Athena and Heli were shocked.
“I’m sorry, how could you ever say that about our son?!” Athena asked in outrage, “Do you not know how hard that boy worked to get to where he is today?”
“His non-magical personality is the reason the Star Seekers are not recognized. And really, they didn’t perform that great in the MMAs.”
“Athena,” said Heli, “Am I really hearing someone criticizing our son’s hard work?”
“This is the reason why I couldn’t tell him,” said Athena, “I didn’t want him to find out about anything. Not even the fact that there is a creepy idol terrorist running rampantly.”
What Athena had said was not a lie at all. There really was someone that was creating suspicious activity. And no one knew…that it was the famous idol star Lote.
*~*~*~*~*~*
We arrived at the studios. But most people were unhappy with us. Especially the director. He gave us a scowl.
“Come on! You guys are late!” he screamed.
“Hello!” I said, teary-eyed, “Sorry we’re late.”
“What took you so long?!”
“We were stuck in traffic.”
Luckily, the guy bought it and let us go. But that didn’t mean that Galway Londoners couldn’t find a way to obscenely bully us.
“What are the Star Seekers members doing here?”
“I thought the Tier One group was performing today?”
I may or may not have taken these questions to heart. And I know that I can become emotional about these kinds of things.
“Anyways, we called you because there was no one else available to fill in. As you can see, we have put in hard work for setting up for the music bank’s 500th episode special? You’ve never performed on a stage that looks like this before.”
And then, he pushed a script on my chest.
“We have to go straight to rehearsals.”
And then, the Galway Londoners laughed at us, made fun of us!
“Oh, they’re filling in!”
“Ha, ha, ha! What an embarrassment!”
And then, one of the members stood her ground.
“You do know that you are literally bullying them, right?!” she asked.
“Come on, Lara,” said one of the members, “They are…you know…a bunch of losers!”
She then gasped.
“I hope you take that back!”
*~*~*~*~*~*
“Anyways,” said Juliet, “The company must have been desperate.”
“Yeah,” added Holly, “They must have.”
“Guys,” said Lara, “We can’t just give them a hard time! If Lolly was here, she would literally give us a piece of her big mind! She has a heart, and I do as well!”
“You only get one chance. If you don’t do as you are told to do, then you are out of this job…all of you! Got it?”
“Yes, sir!” said the boys.
They watched the Galway Londoners rehearse Boom Boom by Momoland. Eugene felt quite in the dumps.
“We are after them, right?” he asked.
“Right,” said Avys, “I wonder what magic they use.”
The Galway Londoners had the ability to fly and produce beautiful diamonds out from the palms of their hands.
“Th-that’s awesome!” blubbered Taho.
“So epic!” added Viken.
Their powers had the boys in awe. And the most emotional one of them all was Soule.
“I think going after them will make us feel bad…right?” he asked, “Because I think so. But still…we have to give it our shot. We have to give all of our might!”
“Soule has a point,” said Eugene, “We must cheer up! This is a rare opportunity.”
The boys agreed.
“Let’s show them that we can be idols, too, even without magic and other things.”
*~*~*~*~*~*
We started our rehearsal. But while we rehearsed…I had so many negative thoughts in my head.
I only said that to encourage them…
But will we do well on screen?
I thought this was not going to be overwhelming?
What if it all goes wrong like from the previous performance?
We need something to impress the directors and our manager! We need to do something so that the Galway Londoners don’t bully us to our death!
We have to…improvise or something.
Suddenly…FWOOSH! A flash of a blue light came before my eyes. And I rose from the ground. I was in awe.
Don’t have any magic, eh? Eh?
But then, my newfound ability got out of control.
When it became too strong for me…there was an explosion, making every one of us collapse everywhere across the stage.
What did I just see?
*~*~*~*~*~*
The boys circled around Soule. They were both worried and afraid.
“Soule!” cried Avys.
“Are you alright?” Eugene asked.
Soule could not keep his vision straight. He felt as if his head was spinning around. He felt dizzy.
“I think I’m okay.” he said, “But then again…that blast of magic scared me!”
But Beon-myung and all of the directors for the evening's rehearsals were outraged.
“What…do you think…you are doing?!” Beon-myung snarled.
There was a moment of silence.
“O-our apologies…” Soule said as his voice was breaking.
But Beon-myung screamed, “GET OUT!!!”
And, right when Beon-myung was going to say any more, Athena and Heli entered the stage. But they didn’t say anything just yet. They wanted their only son to stand his ground. And he did. Just in an unexpected way.
“Please…forgive us.”
“WHY?! YOU’ll JUST MIRACULOUSLY BE ABLE TO USE DAMN MAGIC THIS TIME?! YOU JUST FELL OVER BACKWARDS!! OVER STUPID STAGE FIREWORKS!”
Soule began to cry. He suffered such cruelty from everyone in the studio. Athena felt for her son. And so did Heli.
“Seriously,” taunted Beon-myung, “This is the reason we never, ever, EVER…invite Tier Two groups like you. Let’s see how you do on the actual stage.”
And then, he walked away.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Athena rushed to her son’s side.
“Are you alright, darling?” she asked, “What did he do to you?”
“Nothing, Mother” Soule said, “I was just…confused about my ability that had happened during rehearsal.”
“What did you see?”
“The last thing I saw was a blue light…I was floating in the air…and then…there was a pair of eyes.”
He…he’s developing his powers, thought Athena, And my son is seventeen. Most people won’t develop powers until they are in their twenties.
“I-I’m sorry…” Soule sniffled, “It was all of my fault.”
“No, no,” said Athena, pulling Soule closer to her arms, “The floor was pretty slippery. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Soule began to think. What was that earlier…there is just no other way to tell them that I had seen something so terrifying like this.
“It was the thought of debuting on a big stage that got me all riled up.” he said once more, “I promise that I won’t make any more mistakes…ever.”
Whatever that was…nothing is as important as not messing up live on stage tonight. I can’t risk breaking my vows I had given my family.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The evening drew nigh…and so did the time for the Star Seeker’s debut…again.
Ladies and gentlemen!
We have a special guest filling in for our worldwide famous boy band Dublin Boys.
Put your hands together for…the Star Seekers!
But the audience was not impressed.
“Uh, did they not say that a special guest was coming properly?”
“Yeah! Who are they to call them special guests?!”
“I have never heard of them!”
“Ugh! This is a waste of my *flipping* time!”
All of the boys were quiet and felt discouraged. But Soule just couldn’t give up on any of them.
“Guys,” he said, “Don’t let them get you down! Let’s just do our best! Just remember what we practiced.”
The lights flashed…Soule noticed his proud parents smiling from ear to ear. He smiled back.
I won’t make a mistake this time…I can do this…I got this!
The music did not begin.
Why isn’t the music playing?
Soule heard the director shout, “AUDIO TEAM! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! TURN ON THE *flipping* MUSIC! ANSWER ME, AUDIO TEAM!”
Suddenly, there was a suspicious figure that held up an audience member high in the air and choked him to his death! Soule noticed this and was horrified!
Wh-what in the world is that? Did he just……………kill somebody? But he’s not going to kill us too, is he?
The creature had raised his hands, and a flame of fire flew out from them, approaching the boys. FWOOSH!
Soule now became terrified. “EVERYONE! RUN!” he screamed.
As they ran, “What is wrong with that guy?!” asked Taho.
“Isn’t he the one that terrorizes Idols?!” asked Viken.
“Yes,” said Eugene, “But he only preys on those that have the magic!”
Strange, thought Soule, We never used magic!
Suddenly, Avys was taken by the ankle.
“HELP!” he screamed.
“AVYS!” answered Soule.
Soule and the boys tried to break the chains off of Avys’s legs. But they would not budge open.
“What is this thing?!” asked Soule.
“I don’t know,” sobbed Avys, “But they came out of nowhere and tried to grab me!”
Eugene tried to open the chains to free Avys.
“Why isn’t it coming off?” he asked agitatedly to himself.
Soule flinched as the monster charged towards him.
Is this it for us? Soule thought, This is just swell! We get to perform on stage…after always being looked down upon by other boy bands, just because we are tier two boys…and then something bad happens! All of us had been waiting for this day to come!
Soule then stood still and waited for the monster to take charge for him. He somehow felt scared.
If only I knew how to use magic. If only I was just as capable as other people…even my mother. No…if I was really like my mother…I could use the magic…just as well as her!!!
And then…there was an explosion.
BOOM!
Soule did not know this yet…but as he thought the most vigourest things…his hands glowed. And then…he rose from the ground. And just when the Idol Terrorist was about to consume him…he threw his hands straight at him…and pushed him away, making him take the blow!
Star Seekers, thought Soule, Almost three years after our debut. For most, you are given supernatural abilities when you are born. But for the first time in a million years…was there someone at seventeen…to take the first step of using magic!