Onyx: Love

by J. S. Lee

  I forced a smile as I held up my AAA pass, trying to keep back the wince from the action. “First of all, I’m doing my job. Secondly, excuse me, goes a long way.” As that was as polite as I was going to get, I moved away, ignoring whatever stupid comment she was making as I tried to clench my fist. There was some movement, but lord, the pain!

  The song ended, and the lights faded. For a split second, I contemplated finding a medic, but it was my non-dominant hand. I didn’t need it that much, and hopefully the pain would ease off quickly.

  The lights came up and I found the ever-observant Xiao with his gaze locked on me once more, concern radiating from him. I gave him a subtle shake of my head: there was no sense in letting him get worried over nothing.

  Sungmin briefly stepped on stage to hand out some napkins for them to dab at their sweaty faces, while someone from the tour team handed over some fans. Then, Onyx bowed to the audience and introduced themselves.

  Like in the US, JongB and Xiao took charge of the translations. Youngbin had told me that they were all learning English for me, seeing as I was learning Korean, and it showed. Youngbin and CX in particular were much more proficient in their speaking than they had been only a few days ago. Jiwon and MinMin could manage a few more simple sentences and relied on the others for translations.

  After a brief chat, they performed their third number, Black Heart, and Xiao almost lost his shirt.

  And by lost, I mean, ripped it off.

  He ripped it open, but it never got off him. Ina was going to freak later.

  I, along with several thousand audience members didn’t give a shit. In fact, I actually snorted when someone yelled “Just take the damn thing off, already!” when the lights dimmed at the end of the song.

  I mean, they had a point…

  From each side of the wings, someone brought out a table, putting them in the center, but leaving a decent sized gap between the two. A pile of papers was placed on top of each.

  JongB bounded over and picked up a card which had been placed on one of the tables. “OK, you guys sent in a list of questions,” he pointed at one of the piles of paper. “We’re going to play the paper kiss game, and for each piece of paper we drop, the team that drops it has to answer the question.”

  I’ll be honest, this sounded like a lame ass game.

  Until it started.

  Onyx played Rock, Scissors, Paper, (or Kai, Bai, Bo) to pick the teams. The winners, Youngbin, JongB, and CX, formed the first team, and the losers made the second team. Each team lined up behind the table, but so the audience could see all of them. Then the translator (who had been doing very little at this point thanks to JongB and Xiao) yelled for them to start.

  Once they started going, it was rather hilarious. I was struggling to take pictures because I was laughing so much. The goal was for them to move a pile of papers from one end of the table to the other. They had to pick it up with their mouths, pass it along to the next person, and then the next, before putting the paper in a new pile. Each piece of paper had a question on it.

  Despite kicking ass at Kai, Bai, Bo, Youngbin’s team were pretty shit at the Paper Kiss Game. Mainly because JongB was laughing too much. There were several near-miss kisses as the paper fell to the floor. Each time, the translator would pause the game for the question to be read.

  “Who takes the longest in the shower?” he read.

  “JongB,” all three of them unanimously agreed.

  “Who is the messiest member.”

  “Xiao!” everyone but Xiao yelled.

  “If the members were a Pokémon, what would they be?”

  JongB held his hand up. “I’ve got this. Youngbin is a Jigglypuff because he loves to sing. Jiwon is a Growlithe because he’s cute but grumpy while also being strong. Xiao is Charizard because he kicks butt when he wants – but most of the time he doesn’t want to. Because CX is new and we’re not sure what he’s going to evolve into, he’s an Eevee. But he is good at impressions, so he could be a Ditto. MinMin is loyal like Pikachu. And I,” he puffed out his chest. “I am Mew.”

  “You’re a Psyduck,” Jiwon snorted making half the audience and me applaud, and the other half make sympathetic noises for JongB.

  I thought his interpretations were quite accurate. Apart from Jiwon. Personally, I was willing to dub Jiwon as the Lickitung… but I wasn’t going to shout that one out!

  It wasn’t until another two questions had been asked before Xiao’s team finally dropped a piece of paper. In the middle, MinMin had taken the paper off Xiao and turned to Jiwon, but the paper had fluttered to the ground. The translator swooped in. “Who has the best body?”

  Xiao’s expression was clearly telling everyone that the answer was obvious. “Me.”

  Jiwon nodded his agreement. “Xiao.”

  “I think Jiwon,” MinMin disagreed.

  Somehow, that got a couple of wolf whistles from the audience.

  I wasn’t sure why; my guess would be that Jiwon was still prickly from JongB walking in on us earlier, but he shot an unimpressed look in the general direction of the whistler. It was brief, but it was the first time I’d witnessed that to a friendly audience. Even when Shanghai had been acting hateful because Xiao hadn’t been able to attend, none of Onyx had looked that annoyed – on stage at least.

  I blew out a breath, thankful that MinMin hadn’t seen it, but wishing Jiwon hadn’t done that.

  They started the game again. Xiao picked up a piece of paper, placed his hands on MinMin’s shoulders and passed the paper. Then, MinMin turned to Jiwon. I knew at that moment, MinMin had seen Jiwon’s expression, because MinMin looked nervous. He stood on his toes, started to pass the paper, and then lost his balance. The result was his lips landing on Jiwon’s.

  With the losing streak on the other team, there had been a few kisses, mainly between JongB and CX, so, by this point, it wasn’t a new sight. However, whereas JongB, CX, and even Youngbin on the odd occasion, had reacted with good humor when acting a little grossed out by the action, Jiwon almost leaped backwards, shoving MinMin into Xiao as he wiped his lips.

  The audience didn’t seem to notice the fact that the disgust was real, instead clapping and catcalling. Jiwon glanced at the audience, half scowling before he realized what he was doing, and instead took a large step away from MinMin.

  Unaware of the sudden tension at that end of the stage, the translator swooped in, picking up the paper. “Which member of Onyx would you allow your sister to date?”

  Xiao, who had picked up on the weird vibes on stage, stepped between Jiwon and MinMin, making the action look completely effortless, and draped an arm over each member’s shoulders.

  “None of them,” he declared after a dramatic pause.

  I sniggered as the audience laughed. If only they knew…

  Jiwon leaned forward and looked down the line, frowning. “Probably CX. He’s innocent.”

  I really did snort at that. At least I wasn’t the only one under that impression.

  “And MinMin?” the translator asked in English. “Who would you let date your sister?”

  I could see the confusion on MinMin’s face. As I was quite close to the translator, I was about to point out that he’d need to actually translate the question for MinMin rather than for the audience, but MinMin responded. “I’d date Jiwon,” he said, in English, shyly.

  The audience exploded into noise: cheers, whistles, catcalls, whooping.

  MinMin – the MinMin who came alive on stage, the MinMin who was only quiet but not shy off stage – shrank into Xiao. He looked up at Xiao and although I couldn’t hear it over the noise, I could see him ask Xiao what he had just said.

  He looked like he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him when Xiao responded. To give Xiao credit, he was joking around with the younger member as he explained, doing his best to keep the conversation light. MinMin was too mortified to care, frozen like a deer in headlights.

  Meanwhile, the glower was back on Jiwon’s face.
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br />   And then, as the translator held his hands up to get the audience to quieten, and they became a little less rowdy, someone from the opposite side of the room yelled “Gay!”

  It was one of those weird comments which I could tell, from the tone it was said, wasn’t meant maliciously. In fact, the person shouting seemed to approve of this, rather than use it as an insult, as did the audience when they again erupted into cheers. However, it wasn’t the right thing to yell.

  I could see Jiwon’s back straighten as he lifted his hand to his mouth. I was wincing before his words left his mouth. “I’m not gay,” he declared, in Korean.

  The remaining members of Onyx froze. Youngbin’s eyes went wide. JongB and CX looked at each other in panic. MinMin looked like he was about to bolt off the stage.

  The cheers started to die off as people looked expectantly at the translator.

  Once again, Xiao jumped into the rescue. “I love you too,” he announced, in English, turning and placing a kiss on Jiwon’s cheek with an unnecessary smooch.

  Xiao’s response made little sense with Jiwon’s comment, however, given the fact Jiwon’s accent had become more pronounced, Xiao was betting most people in the audience wouldn’t have been able to translate that well. Or, at least, that’s what I was guessing.

  I held my breath, sending furtive glances at the audience.

  When the catcalls started up again as Jiwon wiped the slobber from his cheek, finally realizing that he needed to play it cool, I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Until now, MinMin’s sexuality had been purely speculative. Youngbin had told me they all thought he was gay, but he had never openly admitted it. As far as the audience was concerned, this could probably be chalked up to a translation error on the younger member’s part. However, for Onyx, I could tell they knew that, even if it was a translation issue (and to be fair to MinMin, it was), there was truth to his words.

  “I think I can declare the other team as winners,” JongB said, moments after Youngbin had elbowed him in the side. “It’s time for us to share some more of our music with you.”

  From the wings, the tour crew descended on the stage, removing the tables and piles of paper.

  By the end of that number, I didn’t think the audience had picked up on all the silent conversations that had happened on stage, instead, enjoying the music. The rest of the show ran smoothly.

  The hi-touch and group photographs afterwards didn’t go quite as well. It wasn’t a disaster, but it didn’t run to time or as effortlessly as it had in previous locations.

  “They don’t have VIP tickets!” I heard one fan complaining to a volunteer.

  The volunteer went running over to the European Tour Manager, although she looked green as she spoke to her. “Lynn, I think there are people in here with the wrong passes.”

  “Don’t come to me with problems that you should have resolved,” the woman snapped at her before storming off to talk to Sungmin.

  I hurried over to the girl. “Did we do wristbands here?”

  The girl nodded. “Silver for photo and hi-touch, black for just hi-touch, and standard was white.”

  “Go get security for me.” I turned on the spot. “YO!” I hollered over the noise. The whole room stopped and looked at me. “I want everyone to hold their arms in the air and show me your wristbands.”

  I started walking around room, pointing the black wristbands to the left of the stage and the silver to the right, filtering out the few white wristbands. I couldn’t really fault them for trying.

  And they did try.

  I caught many of them as they tried to move with people who had the right wristbands on, but they left once they had been called out. Once they were gone, I turned back to the two groups. “Right guys, until you’re ready, Onyx aren’t coming out. Either you listen to me and we get organized, or you don’t, and we get kicked out of the venue before you get to meet them.”

  The room still looked a little startled at my words, but they listened to what I was saying.

  “I want the black bands to line up in front of me in lines of ten. Behind them, the Silver bands need to line up. Black bands, you will filter round, say hi, have a high five, and then keep walking out of the door. Silver, you will file back round for the photographs.”

  I was loud, and I was bossy… but it worked.

  I had already realized that security weren’t happy. A quick check of my phone had told me it was already past the curfew time.

  And that was why they should have done all this before the show.

  That and the fact some of the girls looked a little worse for wear.

  So did Onyx. All of them looked exhausted. This was the time they would be getting out of their performance clothes and into something more comfortable. I knew both Jiwon and CX loved taking their shoes off and putting flip flops on. Youngbin wanted to get his makeup off. Xiao went for his shorts…

  Instead, they had changed into a fresh set of clothes and dutifully continued with their jobs. At least they enjoyed interacting with their fans!

  Finally, after the last photograph was taken – and I’d gone as fast I could – the venue was empty, short of the staff. Of course, most of them were complaining. We had overrun by nearly two hours. It was past midnight and I was tired and hungry.

  After making sure I had all my kit, I trundled backstage to the green room, hoping everyone was nearly ready.

  Instead, World War K had broken out.

  제 7 장

  Dynamite

  Lynn, the nasty little tour manager troll was arguing with someone who I’d clocked as the venue manager, but I hadn’t caught his name. He looked like he was double her height but that wasn’t stopping her, attacking like a Pitbull on a leash. Sungmin was in the middle, struggling to keep up with the conversation as it was in English. He waved me over.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Um, she’s saying the reason we’re late was because the venue wasn’t ready,” I told him.

  “Excuse me,” Sungmin said, in English, stepping between the two with his back to the troll-woman. “I apologize,” he told the venue manager. “We will pay for the employees’ time.”

  “I don’t think so!” Lynn snapped, bobbing her head from side to side. “We are not paying for the venue’s mistake!”

  “My guys were ready to go at the agreed time. You are the reason we held back the entry.”

  “You were not ready!” the woman bellowed at him, stamping her foot.

  I moved in front of her, giving her a strained smile as I looked down at her. “Excuse me, ma’am, but I don’t think shouting is going to help this situation.”

  “Excuse, me?” she looked at me in disbelief. “You are a nobody. You have no right to tell me how to handle this.” Then she shoved me to the side.

  Out of nowhere, strong arms wrapped around me, catching me before I fell. I recognized CX’s scent before I looked up and found him scowling at the woman. “Leave it,” I muttered at him. Honestly, I didn’t expect CX to say anything. She was still a woman, and older than him, and his upbringing would have been working against him. I said it more as a reassurance that I was OK.

  Sungmin, however, despite his similar beliefs when it came to respect, turned, fronting up against the woman. “I respectfully request that you leave now.”

  “Fine. You settle this.” She turned, striding over to a table where she picked up a coat, pulling it on, and then grabbed a purse. It was as she slung it over her shoulder that something fell out. A bunch of keys. Somehow, she didn’t notice them fall on the carpeted floor and walked to the door, pulling it open.

  MinMin jumped up, picking them up and hurrying after her. He tapped her on the shoulder, and she whirled around, slapping MinMin on the face. “Don’t touch me!” she shrieked. “That’s assault!”

  MinMin went flying.

  “What the actual fuck?” I snapped at her. There was a lot of movement as JongB and Youngbin leaped over to MinMin to help him up. Sungmin was
moving towards Lynn, and I was beside him.

  Thankfully, he didn’t need me to rage at her.

  “You are fired!” he yelled at her. “There is no place for violence on this tour.”

  “He hit me!” Lynn shouted back.

  “You dropped your keys,” I pointed out. “You lying bitch,” I added, unable to stop myself.

  “You would say that. You all would. But I’m calling the police.”

  “Do so,” the venue manager told her, joining in. He pointed up at something outside the room. “Security has you assaulting the boy on camera.”

  Lynn glowered at all of us before snatching the keys up from where MinMin had dropped them when she had pushed him. Then she stormed out of the room.

  Sungmin stepped out into the hallway. “And don’t come back. Consider yourself fired!” he bellowed after her.

  “Do you want me to call the police?” the venue manager asked Sungmin.

  I quickly translated it for him. Sungmin didn’t even need to look at MinMin. “Yes.”

  “It’s OK, hyungnin,” MinMin spoke up, stepping forward. He had a bright red mark on his face.

  “She assaulted you, MinMin,” Sungmin returned, firmly. “I will not stand for anyone attacking my group.”

  “Just let it go,” MinMin pleaded. “I don’t want to spend any more time in the news.”

  After Toronto, I couldn’t say I blamed him. They say there’s no such thing as bad press, but when you’re the one stuck in the middle of it, there is.

  “Can we just go home?” he requested.

  Sungmin stared him down, before turning to me. “She attacked you too.”

  “I mean, it was more of a push than a slap,” I shrugged. Part of me wanted to call the police, but then again, I too had seen enough of them. Either way, it was what MinMin wanted. “I think I just want my bed too.”

  Sungmin rubbed at his temples before turning his attention back to the venue manager. “We will go home. Please…” he turned to me and said something, but it was lost on me.

  “Please send the bill for the extra hours your people worked to me and we will pay,” JongB spoke up for me as Sungmin handed the venue manager his business card.