"Stop it with that racket!"

Li Jun clutched his ears tight as Lee Chang-Min sang an old k-pop song's lyrics at full volume.

"Come on! Wasn't this one of your former band's songs?", Lee Chang-Min teased.

"Exactly. I don't need a reminder of those days," Li Jun commented, rolling his eyes as he went back to lounging on the couch. Retrieving a set of white headphones, he was about to turn his favorite ballad playlist on when he heard the doorbell ring.

"Freeze," he whispered.

It was a common habit of him to hide from solicitors who knocked at the door.

The door creaked open; a jangle of keys was heard before Lee Chang-Min pounced on the home invader.

"Treated like an intruder in my own home, plain rude if you ask me," stated an adult male in Mandarin, shrugging off the athletic idol as he took off copper sunglasses before greeting Li Jun with a smile.

"Who are you?", asked Lee Chang-Min.

"Richard, long time no see," said Li Jun, standing up to embrace his cousin, the real homeowner.

"See? We saw each other last week through video call. You'll have to call your doctor to check on your eyes as well as your ears," joked Li Jun's cousin.

"Why?", inquired Chang-Min.

"Because he's a little bit...hard of hearing," teased Xiao Jun's cousin.

"No, I am not."

"Then you would have heard the doorbell and the knock, right? Or were you holed up in my house again?"

"We were rehearsing songs for our upcoming concert together next week," said Lee Chang-Min.

"Well, we were practicing till Chang-Min got us off track," Li Jun explained, sighing afterwards.

"X-PLOSION's the opening act," squealed Lee Chang-Min.

"Wonderful," replied the cousin. "Then, I'm guessing you're Lee Tien-Sing."

"How..."

"I'm Richard Chen. Nice to meet you," Richard said while shaking the best friend's hand.

"Wait...You must be the cousin that Li Jun doesn't hate!"

He chuckled. "Apparently."

"Chen...you look a lot like a famous extreme sports enthusiast. Are you perchance the same Chen Bojing that completed an Iron Man Triathlon in record time and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro last year?", asked Lee Chang-Min.

Raising his eyebrows, Richard Chen reluctantly answered, "Yep, that's me."

"I thought you avoided cameras," quipped Li Jun.

"I'm a part of the Public Relations Department in the American branch of the Li company, I can't exactly do that. But I purposely separate my extracurricular hobbies from my work, Jun. That's why I entered with my Chinese name. Didn't think they would snap my picture at the end though," clarified Richard Chen.

"I thought it was the Canadian branch you worked at?"

"Recently, I was transferred to New York. More responsibility and such. Obviously, I like Canada better as that's where I'm from, and where I studied, but...what you gonna say to the old man?", he said, shrugging.

"You could always refuse," Li Jun nonchalantly remarked.

Richard responded back, "Why? I'm good at socializing with people and have a passion for what I do. As long as I'm far away from China, I'm golden."

"Then why did you come back?", asked Lee Tien-Sing. "Not being fond of China as you are?"

Li Jun waved Lee Chang-Min away, motioning his cousin to continue the conversation in private.

"Does he know you're a part of the jianghu yet?", whispered Richard Chen.

"No."

"Keep it that way," cautioned Chen. "The better off he will be."

"Why did you come back to China? You hate it here."

Richard Chen glanced over to the young k-pop star lost in his own world of music, then cleared his throat.

"Enemies of the Lis abducted and ransomed me. Luckily, I made my way out of there on my own and escaped."

Li Jun pressed on his dear cousin's shoulders and hugged him. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault..."

"Out of the two of us, I was sure...no, I hoped you would live your dream out for the both of us. And now..." Li Jun's tears mixed with the redness of his face as he thought about Chen's ordeal.

"It's put on hold. I got a call when I got out from the old man. He said, 'Come back home for Li Jun's wedding' and hung up. That's it."

"That...", Li Jun almost swore under his breath thinking about his cold, indifferent father.

"Is it true? You're getting married?"

"That's what he wants," remarked Jun.

Growing up, Richard Chen and he had practically been raised as brothers.

After Chen Senior, a cousin of Chairman Li, had passed, Richard had fallen under the Li's guardianship, dropped off at the Li's family household of...indifference.

Jun couldn't exactly call his household a house of horrors, but it was not definitely a welcoming place for an orphan, or anyone for that matter. When she was around, Madame Li had made sure to show her disdain for the adolescent, scolding him for not stacking up to Li Jun.

Many in his position would have crumbled under the family pressure, but not Richard Chen. The young man had enrolled himself at a prestigious arts school, and even joined K-Pop idol training along with Xiao Jun.

However, the reason Richard Chen was the way he is was all due to an incident that happened while they were both deep in idol training.

On that day, Richard had been excited hearing the news he was to debut with a group, so he impatiently searched for Li Jun to tell him the good news.

His happiness was cut short when he found a ghastly sight before him to his shock.

The incident had scarred both Jun and Richard, but it was Richard who had pulled through that open door, and stopped the wrongdoing, gently helping his younger cousin get up.

"You're sick," he had said back then, looking at the grown adult with disgust in his eyes.

While Li Jun had switched companies, Richard Chen had quit the agency (as well as the entertainment industry) altogether. Then, they both witnessed the coverup by the Li family which made Richard vow to leave China and have nothing more to do with the Lis anymore.

Madame Li had been all too pleased to show him the way out when he decided to study abroad in Canada, and Richard had not been back since.

Fortunately, their friendship had endured through the years with weekly video calls.

They were mostly filled with Richard recounting his various extreme sports adventures. The Lis would highly disapprove of the adrenaline seeker's pursuits, but what could they do while he was abroad?

If he had returned back home, then that meant the threat to his life was substantial.

The escalation didn't surprise him, especially with the wedding coming up in a week.

Lee Chang-Min had slowly been creeping back to the pair by this point, so Li Jun decided to ask him more later, and change the subject once again.

"Are you still car racing?"

"As I said, I have friends who are pros. Sometimes, I race with them. But parachuting..."

"Sky-diving."

"Same difference! And Mountain climbing, now that's my passion. Not freestyle though. You only live once, I'm not that reckless."

"Thought it was BMX," joked Li Jun.

"Can't do that now. Last time I got injured, Madame Li gave me an earful through the phone. 'Think about what Lao Chen would say! Are you honoring his memory?' and so forth." Richard grinned at the memory.

It had been a long time she expressed a hint of care towards her husband's ward.

"You're gonna give her a heart attack one of these days," teased Jun.

"Please. That woman has too much Botox; she's more likely to get an infection from all that plastic surgery than anything," joked his cousin.

"So...Chen, have any embarrassing memories you can share about your cousin?", asked Lee Chang-Min as he approached the cousin.

Chen placed his arm on the idol's shoulder, saying, "I don't think so..."

"Don't you dare, Richard."

His cousin now had an urge to tell-all. "Wait...does he still have a stuffed blue bear by his side every night when he goes to sleep?"

"Yes. How did you know that?", remarked Lee Chang-Min, leaning in to hear more.

"It's the same one he used during idol training."

"You were an idol?"

"Long ago," commented Xiao Jun.

"Show me a dance," ordered Chang-Min, ignoring his best friend for a moment.

"Let me think...how about this?" Richard demonstrated a part of a dance from back in the days.

Li Jun clicked his tongue. "Show-off."

"Wow, you're more agile than Little John over here."

"No, he is not," Li Jun whined.

Richard bent down, massaging his thigh as he asked, "Have any Benghaid?"

"That's what Li Jun asked for last time when he danced!"

"He copied it from me," said Chen. "So?"

"I threw it all away," taunted Xiao Jun.

"This is my house! What a rude house guest," pouted Chen.

"Here it is," Li Jun then dropped it on his lap.

"See-you're all bark and no bite."

Li Jun tensed when Lee Tien-Sing responded in his stead.

"You'd be surprised what your cousin is capable of...wouldn't you?"

______________________________________

Author's note: The wedding's up next! (A celebratory song because why not!)

https://youtu.be/2z5un3c8hbo

What do y'all think of Richard Chen? Wanted to introduce him earlier as part of the motley crew, but he was off abroad. Fun fact: There were several theme songs I was considering for his character, and the chapter song is one of them as he's a night owl and loves adventure...well at least those are two of the reasons. Another reason is that this is the song that describes his escape from the kidnapping.

(If y'all wanna know what the incident was, it's implied. Basically, it was grooming, sexual harassment, and...well not-so-good things. I'm basing it off of stuff that has actually happened to boy bands, as well as the scandals that have happened in the k-pop industry in the past.)