17 June 2018, 12:13 pm

I could still feel her smell on the bedsheets, and the feel of her soft skin was still left on my fingers. I remember seeing an expression that I have never ever seen on her face ever before. And I opened my eyes and woke up and sat upon the bed. And zoned out for a minute...

Eh... What was this feeling???

I looked around. I was in my bedroom alright. And it felt like it was already approaching midday. The light from the window indicated that. And as I looked around the room looked like the usual. Then the headache started.

Ugh..... Just how much did I drink last night???? And how the hell did I get back home yesterday?? Blackouts after drinking are not that common with me. In fact, I don't even drink usually. But I can't exactly remember much from last night. I got up from the bed and found that I was wearing only my boxer shorts and t-shirt. The huge mirror in the room reflected my messy hair. I looked like a local beggar. Great. Who would believe this is one of the top stars of South Korea? I better not get caught by one of my fans in this state. They will run off in the opposite direction and never look back.

I scratched my head and walked to the bathroom.

But then...how did I get back home last night? And what is this feeling like I have kind of forgotten something really important? There was this funny feeling left-back... Like.... I was not sure if it was a dream or...

I came out of the bathroom and looked around. I came out of the bedroom and looked around in the living room and kitchen as well. Nope, I was alone in the house. It was strange. Coz if it was real, would she just leave like that? Shouldn't she be here now?? If it was real... But...

The smell of her, and the feel of her long hair through my fingers. The feel of her skin under my lips. The intensity of the feeling I felt as I held her naked body close to mine. She had a bit on her lips as we...

Why am I getting flashes of images like this???? This...can't have been a dream. This was real... It had happened. I slept with her last night. I scratched my head. I searched my mobile. It was on the table beside the bed. I called her number immediately. And I was feeling super nervous.

"Hello," YuBin's voice answered. My heart started to pound a little bit too loud. And I was tongue-tied for a second. What the hell was I supposed to tell her? Should I like ask her if we did something last night straight out? Would she be angry if I say, I don't exactly remember much of it. Of course, she will be, you idiot.

"Hello, Hyun aa." But her voice sounded really casually.

"Hm... It's me." I started really hesitating, trying to figure out how to bring up that topic. "I just woke up now."

"Good. You were wasted last night." She teased in her usual insulting tone.

"Eh...you brought me home last night, didn't you?" I asked with hesitation. I really remember meeting her at the bar last night and her angry face. I do remember that much clearly. YuBin was angry seeing me drunk publically like that.

"Of course I dropped you home. Who else would? What the hell do you think you are going to do without me, you ass."

"Don't curse from morning itself."

"Morning? It's noon."

Something is strange. If we did...do it last night...she...won't be behaving this way with me, will she? I mean, she is like nothing ever happened. She is like normal as every day... What is this? I still can remember her face when we were...

"Wait a second..." I said. "Did I do something... last night?" Like sleep with you perhaps? Have sex with you, who is not romantically involved with me in any way?? Like while we are really just friends and in a professional relationship for the past ten years.

"Like what?" She asked, sounding totally cool.

"Eh... I don't know. I mean...like something out of ordinary or..." Like sex. Or even a kiss.... "Did something happen?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" She asked, sounding clueless.

"Huh?" Now I was lost. I mean, there was no way that last night was not real. Because I could not just forget sleeping with Kang YuBin. How can someone just forget something as important as that? Surely we both were not virgins before it or anything. However...it was actually my first time with someone...someone...like Kang Yu Bin. I mean...YuBin was...important. YuBin is YuBin

"Hyun, have you gone mad or something? Why are you asking stupid questions?" She asked.

It's not possible. I, kind of, do remember it. She had come to take me home last night. And she was angry that I had got myself drunk. All the drive back home, I had kind of dozed off and had woken up when we reached home. And she supported me to walk till my bed and as she dropped me to the bed, she dropped down along with me, by my weight. And I remember looking into her face. And her expression had changed as she looked into my eyes. And she had said in a loving tone, "really what are you going to do without me?" And I had smiled and said "Yeah... Actually, I have only you..." And put my hand to her cheeks. She had got a bit surprised upon that. Her eyes turned to my hand on her cheek. And her cheek had felt warm. "Your fingers are cold." She had whispered. And I remember how that moment I felt that intense desire to kiss her. My YuBin...

"YuBin aa..., I am asking for real," I said as tenderly as I can. Now that I was sober it was a bit weird to be tender with her. "Didn't something happen last night? Really?"

"Yeah. Nothing happened," She said, sounding confident. "What happened? Did you have a dream or something?"

Dream? That was a dream?

No... I still can feel it though. Everything felt so real. There was no way that it was a dream.

"It seems like you had a dream," YuBin said. "What did you dream about?" She laughed.

"Eh...." I was lost. Was it really a dream? Just a dream... But then... if it was not, then why would she lie to me? I mean there was no reason for her to lie to me about that right? What girl in the right mind would deny having sex when they actually did? On the contrary, any normal girl would get angry with the guy for forgetting it. And with YuBin's quick-tempered personality, I should have been getting beaten up by now for forgetting it.

"No... Never mind." I said. So it was a dream. "But why are you not here yet?" It's almost 1 pm. On normal days she would kick my butt if I am not awake by 10 am. But she is not here. Does that mean... did something really did happen?

"It's Sunday." She said plainly.

"Huh?"

"It's Sunday. You don't have anything on your schedule today." She said.

Ah...right.

"What? Do you need anything? I can come if you want me to."

"No. No. It's fine... I forgot it was Sunday. Take rest."

"Hey wait..." She said. I did not hang up yet. So I waited.

"Hm?"

"I have ordered hang-over soup for you. Will be delivered to your house. I have not paid yet. You pay."

"Hm. Okay."

I hung up the call. So it really was just a dream??

Well if YuBin is saying that nothing happened, then that must be the truth, right?? And she really doesn't have a reason to lie to me. And no one would lie about something like that. And it's YuBin. She was my manager. She had been my manager for the past ten years. If we really did something like that, our relationship is going to get really awkward from now on.

So I paid for the hang-over soup and sat in front of the TV to eat it. I browsed through the channels and saw that one of the channels was playing the drama I currently star in. It was a re-run from last night's episode. I watched that for a while. Well, I looked good in that scene. The costume coordinators had done a really good job. I looked good in that shirt. I felt a bit shameless on my own pompousness. Well, then you have to agree on what is truth. I am kind of really good looking. I scratched my head...and stopped.

I looked at my hands. No... It really can't be a dream. If it is...why am I still left with a reminiscent of the feel of her on my fingers? Why do I still remember the feel of her lips as we kissed...???

I felt really uneasy.

I met Kang Yu Bin for the first time when I was twenty years old. [Korean Age 20. In Global Aging system that becomes 18 to 19].

At that time I was a member of a K-pop Idol group named BLUE. I had been an idol trainee for most of my life. I had been good at singing and dancing and acting from an early age itself. And hence my mother wanted me to become a celebrity. I passed the audition for HG Entertainment Company at the age of 11 and had been an Idol trainee ever since. And at the age of 17, I debuted with the group BLUE. And BLUE was really popular at that time. We were six boys. And we had like six million fans or something all around the world.

Those days are like cut out of diamonds, still shine so brightly in all our hearts. But unfortunately, the fame did not really last that long. An incident happened. YuJin Hyung died.

Kang YuJin Hyung was our eldest one in the group. And the one who had the least number of fans. He came into our group after a lot of struggles. As of I know, YuJin Hyung had struggled a lot as an idol trainee. He was one of the oldest trainees who had yet to debut. He was a hard worker. And he could sing really well. But...he was not really good looking. And the cruel K-pop world did not really turn to look at someone who is not pleasing to the eyes.

YuJin Hyung somehow managed to debut after a few plastic surgeries. But after two years of work, Hyung was struggling. He had more anti-fans than fans. People were calling him 'Plastic surgery monster'. Nobody really wanted to hear his angelic voice. He was judged to the core by his pics before surgeries and his current face...

YuJin Hyung committed suicide...

And I saw her, YuBin properly for the first time after that. I mean, I had seen her before. YuJin Hyung's family had come a few times for our concerts, and he had introduced us to them. And YuJin Hyung was always very talkative about his two younger sisters. They had much age gap. The first sister was my age, according to YuJin Hyung. The second one was much younger and only 9 years old then. I especially remember the little girl coming to her brother's concert. Her name was Yuri. We all had petted her when YuJin Hyung introduced us to his family. She was such a cute girl. So I only remembered Yuri when I thought about meeting Hyung's family. YuBin had not really left an impression in my memory.

5 April 2008

At YuJin Hyung's funeral, I watched little Yuri sat leaning on to her mother's hands, looking really tired. The funeral process was a bit too hard for the 9-year-old to handle. And YuJin Hyung's mom was still crying so badly. And his father was nowhere to be seen. And I did not find that surprising. YuJin Hyung's father was such a scumbag. According to YuJin Hyung, the father searched for the family only when he required money.

The one who played the role of the host and stood strong at that funeral was Kang Yu Bin. It had not been that long since Yu Bin turned twenty years old. It had not been even a month since we had turned legal adults. [In the Korean age system you turn adult when you reach twenty, since well, twenty is actually 18/19 by global age system]. 

And even when we were the same age, I did not even feel like an adult even one bit. I still felt like a child. And I felt unbearably broken and hurt at the death of YuJin Hyung who was close to me.

So I watched as that twenty-year-old Kang YuBin stood strong and tried to get her mother to eat food, and greeted everyone who came to say condolence. I felt she was really incredible. It was respect and admiration.

BLUE did not do really well after the death of YuJin Hyung. There were public accusations of bullying. There were a couple of members in our group who did not treat YuJin Hyung that well. After his death, we began to accuse each other of the cause. And our entertainment company could not really stop all the catastrophes that followed. Eric Hyung who had always been the one to treat YuJin Hyung badly went on to a guilt ride and got caught by police for drinking and driving and hit and run. And Eric Hyung went to prison. There was no way to save BLUE after that. It totally shattered. The group disbanded.

However, the company decided to keep the rest of the members. SungMin Hyung, DoYoung Hyung, our youngest one Kay and I was kept back. SungMin Hyung decided to lead a solo artist career. DoYoung Hyung went to music composing career as he had that talent. Kay and I went to an acting career. And I had just signed a new contract with the same Entertainment agency I was in...

And that is when I saw Kang Yu Bin once more.

She had barged into our CEO's room.

3 February 2008

I had heard that YuJin Hyung's family had issues with the company regarding YuJin Hyung's death and holds the company responsible for YuJin Hyung's death. They were not really wrong either. I could not deny that our Taepyonim [Taepyonim : CEO of a company] and other officials did not hold any responsibility.

It was just after I left Taepyonim's room after signing a new contract with him, that I saw Yu Bin barging into that room with the security staff following her. She was caught by them as she opened the door, and she struggled with the security staff crying, "Let go of me... I need to talk to the CEO."

I stopped to watch the scene. And our Taepyonim had got up from his seat on seeing her.

"Let her talk. It's okay," He said.

The security staff let go of YuBin and returned. She was still standing at the open door. A few feet away from me. And I saw the fire of anger in her face. And taepyonim was telling her some crap about how extremely sorry he feels for the loss of the family and how he can compensate them in whatever way. He did not want any legal trouble. It was a mess already with the media and public talking. So he was talking about giving money to the family as condolence.

"We don't need your dirty money," YuBin said in spite. "But ironically, we really need money right now. We are on the verge of starvation. We don't really even have money to buy rice for the next day. I have no idea how to give Yuri's school fees." She seemed really desperate. I felt a sharp pain inside me. I was really close with YuJin Hyung. To see his family like this was something painful even for me.

"So what do you suggest?" Taepyonim asked her.

"I need a job." She said. "Since our house's breadwinner should be me right now." I had heard that YuJin Hyung's mother used to run a small tiny canteen that was not going that well. Then aunty developed a back problem that made her difficult to continue her work. So she had to close the shop recently, before Hyung's death.

"Job?" Taepyonim wondered.

"Yes. I have passed High School Exam with top marks." YuBin was saying with confidence. "I had got accepted to a few universities. However, I am not in a position to go to university at this moment. I need a job. So... Give me a Job."

"Look, miss..." Taepyonim's face went a bit troubled. "You can't be unaware of the society. There is a limit on the jobs you can get just with a High School Degree. The world is not that easy."

That was true. She won't get any office jobs with just High School Degree. But I did not want to let her go back like that. I wanted to help in any way.

"Well, she can be a manager," I said out loud to the CEO. That is just when he noticed that I was still there. There was no need for university education for someone to be a manager. And in our company managers get paid well as well.

"Yes." The CEO said, "However we have managers assigned to every artist in the company right now."

"You don't have," I said.

"WooHyun aa..." He began to argue.

"You don't have. You have me. I just signed the contract. I don't have a manager yet." I said. YuBin looked at me with a bit of hope. "She can be my manager."

"I am not mad enough to stick a young boy and girl together like that," Taepyonim said.

"Oh Come on..." I was pissed.

"It's you who is not making any sense. Ask anyone... Do any of them assign a young girl like this as personal manager for a young boy like you? That will be an invitation for scandals."

"You don't have to worry." YuBin suddenly said. "What you are worrying about will definitely never happen."

"Yeah," I added in desperation. "And don't talk absurd things, Sir. And there is no way I will get involved with YuJin Hyung's sister. I promise you that is not going to happen. Are you okay with it now?"

"Yeah," YuBin added in to make our point stronger.

Taepyonim felt left out of words. Then he looked at YuBin, "Are you sure? You don't know what you are getting into. That WooHyun, he is a pain in the ass. He won't listen to people, and is stubborn and does what he wants." Since I had been a trainee since I was 11, Taepyonim really did know me well. "And gets late to everywhere. And sleeps like a dead person. He is a real lost cause. I was going to assign the toughest man as his manager to control him a bit."

"Don't worry." YuBin said with confidence, "I can do a good job. I will make sure you won't regret your decision."

"Hm... Well, Okay... You get the job then." He said strictly. "Come write your contract tomorrow."

Well, it was like that Kang YuBin became my manager. But I sometimes, well not sometimes, mostly just regret being over-enthusiastic and giving that idea of her being my manager that time. Because she was just savage. She did keep her word with Taepyonim and had me on a leash.

Ah...really. I can't even fire her after I personally asked for her to be my Manager. And besides, how can I fire YuJin Hyung's sister?? But it was unbearable torture.

Okay, so I sleep in a bit. Like I hate to wake up in the morning. If I can, I would go sleeping on and on till it's the night or the next morning. Alarms don't really work for me, as I won't hear them ring when I am asleep.

So every morning was like pulling the blanket off and pouring water to my face, or straight kicking in my guts.

Well, there was a period of being awkward with each other and talking really softly and with honour to each other. But we had dropped the honorifics after about a month itself and decided to be friends since we were of the same age. And we had got along really well and become real friends with each other by two months. So after that, every morning was a war.

"Get up. Kim WooHyun..." I would get kicked and slapped and I would struggle with her for my blanket. "If you don't get up I would really pour water on you."

"Just 10 more minutes..." I would beg with her. "No 5 Minutes. 5 minutes??"

She would scowl.

"2 mins??"

And she would hit my head, "Just get up already."

And if I make a fuss about anything at the shoot, she would control me there as well. I really can't handle it when they call us for a shoot and make us wait for hours, or just take a hundred retakes. It just pisses me. There had been hundred times when I just wanted to walk out. But YuBin will push me back in.

And well, hell she is kind of powerful. If a tiger and she fight she would win. She was that fierce.

YuBin being the most savage ever manager among all the managers in the industry was a piece of news among everyone. Other artists made fun of me or found me pitiful.

But the truth was that if not for YuBin I would have been nothing. She really does her job well. She is meticulous, and an expert in multi-tasking, and have amazing people skills. She is hardworking and even a bit of a workaholic. Sometimes I feel all she thinks about is 'how to make WooHyun the best star in South Korea'.

Because of her, I had become one of the top stars in Korea in just 10 years. And I can't deny that she and I had some magical thing together. Friendship. A loyalty. Something we can't describe with words.

(Thank you for reading. Please Vote and comment. Hope you liked the story so far. )

Preview of Next Part : 

"Hm...YuBin aa..." He called in a serious but gentle voice. "Hm...about Saturday Night, are you sure nothing happened...?" When I looked at him, he was looking at me with this troubled confusion.

"Like what?" I asked. I was glad I was driving since I can turn my eyes back to the road immediately.