No amount of surfing the ENTRY waves on the internet could have prepared Sky for the pure, unbridled chaos that was the livestream. And half of it wasn’t even the stream itself.
“Oh, hi!” The second they stepped over to the separate group, also wearing guest badges clipped to their various belt loops, collars and lapels of their jackets, Sky, Prapai and Phayu were somewhat flooded with welcomes. A bright, Bambi eyed honey blonde bounced up towards them with a smile so wide that Sky was concerned would tear at her cheeks. To the torso of her sundress, she desperately hugged with a protective grip what looked like a book. "You came with Lee No Eul, right?! We came with Team- I mean, In Ho! I’m Manaow, does No Eul act as cute as he looks when the cameras are off?! I bet he does-“
“Manaow,” Out of the crowd stepped a shorter boy, about the same height as Manaow herself, with milk chocolate coloured hair and gentle facial features. He spared the trio a sorry glance, wrapping an arm around her and guiding her back a bit. The sudden space making Sky realise at some point he had shuffled backwards in the attack, Pai’s hand resting on the small of his back. “remember to breathe. Don’t harass them so quickly, they just got here!”
“Ahhh, Pharm!” Manaow’s cheeks flushed as she shuffled back even further, into the side of a shy looking senior with glasses. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s alright.” Ever the business diplomat, Pai wore his most charming smile – offering out a hand in front of him in a wave of dismissal. “Everyone’s excited, we get it! We are here with No Eul, though we know him as Rain. This is my boyfriend, Sky, who is Rain’s best friend and this is Phayu, Rain’s boyfriend.”
Manaow and another figure of the group stood with men more finely dressed snapped up straight, darting their eyes to Phayu’s presence. If Phayu was any less of a man, he may have stumbled back in surprise, instead just solidifying his feet and raising an eyebrow with a teasing tilt of his head – making sure not to forget the smile.
“Boyfriend, huh?” The longer haired blonde of what seemed like Team’s little section of the group crossed his arms, a slight smile at the corner of his mouth and turning his attention entirely to Phayu. “Yours didn’t tell you either, I’m guessing.”
“Mine?” Phayu questioned. The blonde offered his hand for a shake.
“I’m Win.” He introduced. “Team’s boyfriend.”
“Ah, it’s the meeting of the boyfriends!” The sweet looking form with big eyes and chestnut almost mullet hair also with an album clutched in his arms jumped on the spot, turning to the tall, suited man of their three who didn’t have their arm around him and smiled brightly. “Hia Lian, this is your time to shine!”
Shaking his head slightly but not hiding the shudder of his shoulders in a chuckle, Hia Lian offered his hand too towards Phayu.
“It’s nice to meet you, Ai’Phayu, Ai’ Win.” He respectfully greeted. “I’m Lian Kilen Wang, Kuea’s fiancé.”
“Oh!” Manaow leaned forward in a stage whisper towards Sky. “Kuea is Hyun-Ki, by the way!”
“Fiancé.” Phayu echoed with a solid shake of the hand. “Congratulations. Have you been together long?”
“Since children.” Lian shrugged, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Arranged marriage that worked out for the best. What about you two?”
Sky did not miss how Lian had slowly led the two away towards the coffee table, leaving Sky and Prapai in the mess that was…the friends, Sky assumed? Jumping forward once more, Sky leaned back with wide eyes as his personal space was invaded.
“So, you didn’t know about No Eul being No Eul either?” Manaow gasped. “We didn’t know about Team either, it’s mean of them, right?!” The same senior she had slunk into before laid an exasperated hand on her shoulder and distracted her once more.
“Sorry about her.” The smaller form from before – Pharm, Manaow had called him – smiled in sympathy. “She can be a lot sometimes. Pruek is really good with her. I’m Pharm, Team’s best friend.” Sky shook his hand. “And that was Manaow, obviously. That’s Manaow’s boyfriend, Pruek, and this is my boyfriend Dean!”
Sky followed the gesture of Pharm’s hand towards a ridiculously tall – like, seriously, is he human or Big Foot – man who was already engrossed into a conversation with Prapai and the other man in the suit who came with Lian. Sky blinked, flicking his eyes between the two.
Tiny Pharm…and...Dean?
Sky startled at a slow pat on his shoulder, turning his face to the understanding smile of Lian’s other companion.
“Don’t worry, it took me a minute too.” He confessed. “I’m Kon Diao, Kuea’s friend. And that’s Yi Chen, he’s my fiancé.”
“It’s nice to meet you all.” Sky gave a wai. “I’m Sky.”
“Say, Sky,” Diao gasped. “how long ago did you learn about Rain being No Eul? If it was recent, you’ve not seen the albums yet have you? Here.”
Sky reached out, gingerly taking the album Diao offered into the space – the album he had been protecting so vigilantly. He intently analysed the cover; a chess board with the centre piece – the king – set aflame. The fire, the title – ‘Aristocracy’ - in old style text and the credit list that rested at the bottom being the only glossy areas on the album, shining away unashamedly in the light.
Admittedly, holding it in his hands, Sky felt his entire understanding of the situation rock as it felt more real than ever before.
“Rain…” He gasped. “Rain was part of this?”
He missed the looks shared within the rest of the group. Pharm reached out, taking a slight and gentle hold of Sky with great care.
“Let’s sit you down and get you some water.” Pharm guided. “Manaow can catch you up on all the ENTRY lore. Oh, that means the storyline within all the music videos.”
“There’s lore?”
“Apparently!”
For all intents and purposes, the stream was becoming a disaster. An uncontrollable train wreck on fire hurtling towards the thickest brick wall at the highest of speeds with all sort of things being thrown off while bass bosting ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ on earth shaking volume. Pure havoc and Phayu felt privileged to be a witness to it.
His stomach burned with an undeniable ache, watching with a hand over his mouth to silence his laughter desperately as Rain – his perfect, beautiful boyfriend – scrunched up his cute little face in utter desperation not to react with Team using just the gentle move of his fingers to scratch under his chin.
Team let out a cheer as the mechanical cat ears, engineered to react to Rain’s emotional state and brain signals through sensors, twitched ever so slightly. Managing to keep his laughter quiet, Phayu couldn’t stop the grin he shared with Prapai over by where Sky was sitting.
This stream was a mess, and it was perfection.
“Alright, alright.” Phayu scanned Sun-Jung out the corner of his eye with growing sympathy and remark. Initially meeting her, Phayu – though he would never say out loud – felt a little on guard. As kind as she was, Sun-Jung was almost the perfect combination of Manaow’s energy (albeit less chaotic, from what he could tell) and Prapai’s sly nature. A volatile combination should you be on the wrong end. Though, she managed to wrangle these three into compliance and, for that, Phayu was impressed. Cautious, but impressed. “Settle down; we have one last segment.”
“Okay, okay.” Team gave in, heading back towards his seat. “But he’s keeping the ears on.”
“Huh?! Why?”
“Cause it’s funny.” Though there was some irony in the fact that Kuea gave that statement with a flat, expressionless face.
“He keeps the ears on.” Sun-Jung commanded before bickering could break down. Phayu couldn’t stop the smile that flitted to his face, watching his boys cheeks puff out once more and eyes narrow at the order. Yet, he kept on the ears and shuffled back to his seat on the couch – taking the rain cloud plushie (Phayu was still sort of reeling that the boys of the group were popular enough to have trademark member plushes-) and hugging it to his chest with his knees up. “Alrightie! So, earlier on in the week, we tweeted at Arrivals to send in their questions for the group and No Eul with the hashtag ‘AskPrincePretty’!”
“Still can’t believe that name stuck.” Kuea gave an eyeroll.
“It’s not like I gave it to myself!” Rain protested. The elder’s only response was to stick his tongue out.
“Green_dino asks to you all,” At the stern tone of their manager, the boys snap to attention. Yeah, Phayu thought, impressed indeed. “Oh, my god! This is actually happening; I miss you guys so much. Are you coming back soon? How are you guys doing? What are you doing now?”
“We’re missed.” Team sighed, dramatically tossing his hand over his heart. “I knew someone loved us."
"Someone had to.” Rain shrugged.
“To actually answer the question,” At the venomous glare received from the oldest present, Rain and Team simulations leaned away – Team pressed well over the arm of the couch and Rain pressed into his side as he slowly lifted the plushie in his hands to form a shield between his face and Kuea’s eyeline. “A comeback will only happen when Jee comes back, sorry to make you wait – it wouldn’t be right to do it without him and really difficult on the production side of things.”
“Most of us are studying.” Rain gave a huff, lifting to a sitting position and crossing his legs and placing his raincloud down as he did so. Phayu watched intently, tilting his head as Rain poised himself to answer earnestly – the most genuine seriousness he’s shown since the beginning of the stream. “I’m doing architecture right now which is taking up a lot of my energy and time, it’s not easy. Innie?”
Team too sat up, his stomach letting out a quiet growl and gathered a slice of party cake in his hands on a plate.
“I’m studying Business Management so I can help out a bit more when we have a comeback.” He revealed. “it’s definitely not a walk in the park, but I think that I…probably have more spare time than you, I think? I’m managing to carry swim club at the same time, so I’d assume so.”
“Ah, probably.” Rain admitted. “I mean, I still have time for student faculty stuff but building the models and the blueprints takes up a lot of personal time. Hyun-Ki?”
“Also, studying.” Kuea nodded, fiddling with a tassel off one of the couch cushions in his lap. “I’m doing mechanics so we’re all quite busy.” With that, he tossed another of his – what Phayu was starting to recognise was infamous – flat expressions at the camera. “No, we aren’t telling you who Kirin is.”
Reply to ENTRYOfficial
MonsterMunch
Are you guys single?? Reject me so I can move ON-!
Blinking at the sudden tonal change with questions, the boys on the couch sat in silence for a moment. Win wriggled almost uncomfortably in his place. Team had never been keen on public displays of affection with him – though, he seemed more open with his friends in front of the camera, that had not escaped Win’s notice.
Honestly, Win had found it endearing. What they did in Win’s room on a regular basis before they even had a label and yet, Team would blush like a scandalised woman in the eighteen hundreds caught with her ankle out the moment someone – including themselves – acknowledged the deep love between them. The way he would light up like the traffic light colour of his bag was adorable and Win found it seriously hard not to pinch his cheeks.
So, yes. Team was simply a private person when it came to his love life. A direct question like this made the very boy squirm in the place he sat on the couch and Win couldn’t help but do so himself in sympathy.
Thankfully, their shared suffering didn’t seem to last for long.
“Move on.” Kuea blinked, simply at the camera. “Single or not – just move on.”
“So cold…” Team shivered.
“Cold like ice, ice, ice.”
What Rain started resulted in a full two-minute break of the two youngest of the group loudly screaming away to the soundless music in their minds of their own song was a blessing to Win.
A smile graced his face, watching Team dance away with Rain to Kuea’s annoyance.
Sure, Win would remind Team exactly whom he belonged to later on but in front of the camera where even he had been lectured about an ‘image’ – Team was safe.
That’s what mattered.
Reply to ENTRYofficial
LifeOnMars
What do you guys like to do for fun, in your down time? Are you taking care of yourselves?? We worry about you!!
Lian crossed his arms from where he stood towards the side of the audience – memories cascading in the recesses of his mind.
His and Kuea’s relationship, as it began, was – sadly – one sided. Yet not entirely. Kuea grew up with his admiration of Lian from their close relationship and the older reasoned with himself that the younger boy had confused his idolisation of him for love. Kuea must have been so wrapped up in his idol training that Lian had been forewarned of by Kuea’s mother that he had no one to idolise himself – thus, that affection fell on Lian.
Never did Lian even dream for a moment that he may have been wrong. Entirely wrong.
As ENTRY went on their hiatus and Lian was told Kuea would live as normal of a life as possible studying computer engineering, he assumed that when he saw the boy on a more regular basis that Kuea would realise their marriage was out of convenience. That yes, their relationship was one sided, but it was because Lian was doing his best to provide as best of a life as he could for Kuea – even if that meant being away from the boy he was beginning to fall in love with, properly.
Kuea would get over his puppy crush infatuation and Lian would be working in his devotion. A marriage of one-sided love and convenience.
Lian was horribly, horribly wrong and he knew it from the moment he saw Kirin perform, Kuea get drunk and the inside of Kuea’s secret home. There was hope, after all, that if the marriage yes had been born of convenience – maybe, it wasn’t as one sided as Lian first considered.
With that realisation and understanding, Lian saw more. Particularly the pressure Kuea was under. The sleepless nights, the migraines caused from constant work, the heavy workload all with keeping up the simultaneous image of numerous people; NuKuea, the heir. Kirin, the faceless member of ENTRY. Hyun-Ki, the lead vocal and music production of one of the most popular K-pop groups of this generation. Kuea, the boy he was to the core.
Kuea did not take care of himself and, outside of the public eye, sometimes – he looked unwell.
It hurt Lian to his core and he would do anything he could to help his love not only survive but live with as little stress as possible.
“We are taking care of ourselves, we promise.” Rain smiled, his eyes squinting with the movements. “Keeping fed, keeping healthy, keeping hydrated and happy – so should you be. But for your other question, I – for one – like to play video games on my phone or redesign those stater homes on Sims.”
“I swim!” Team cheered. “And eat, and watch horror films.”
“Ironically, my way of relaxing is making music and playing drums.” Kuea shrugged. “So, I don’t really stop, I guess. But it doesn’t have any method, I just jam.”
Lian cast his eyes aside, taking note in his mind.
Kuea didn’t really know himself.
Well, what kind of fiancé would Lian call himself if he let that slide?
Reply to ENTRYofficial
RainStorm
Wife or husband?
Rain gnawed his lip and cast a betrayed look past the camera, his cheeks burning pink. Phayu simply responded with a shit eating grin.
Oh, he thought. A strike of mischief forming in his stomach.
“Well,” Rain sighed, sitting back in the couch. “it depends on the person – but why choose when I can like both?”
Why choose to be your wife or have you as my husband when I can just have you? Most of all, will you still have me?
Kuea and Team didn’t miss the opportunity to scream about how the mechanical cat ears twitched wildly, however.
The sun had begun to turn orange, the day ending. And sadly, so did the stream.
In stitches, covered in sweat from the heat of the room, mechanical ears still parked on his head and his backside feeling sore from being sat in the same place for so long – Rain gave one of the brightest smiles he had worn in months towards the camera.
“Well, this is it.” He waved. “Thank you for joining my birthday live stream-“
“Happy birthday, No Eul.” Rain gave Kuea a flat look out the corner of his eye at the interruption.
“As I was saying-“
“Hey, No Eul.” Team cut in. “Happy birthday. You’re old, now.”
“Tha-“
“Happy birthday, No Eul!”
“Hey, Hyun-Ki, come here!” Kuea leapt off the couch and dashed away before Rain could do so much more than lean in his direction. Instead, Rain turned eyes gaze to Team and imitated zipping his lips shut to the olders giggle. It may be his birthday, but once the maknae, always the maknae. With a sigh, Rain turned to the camera. “Thank you for joining us on my birthday. We love and miss you very much and, hopefully, we’ll see you soon! Annyeong! Hyun-Ki, come back and say goodbye!”
“No!” The older cried off the camera side. “That’s not how you call someone older than you! Be polite!”
“Hyunnnng~” Rain sang in the most innocent, high pitched tone as he could, batting his eyelashes for good measure. “Come say goodbye.”
Kuea leaned back into the sceen and waved with a bright grin.
“Annyeong, Arrival!”
ENTRY.Official – LEE NO EUL’S BIRHTDAY STREAM!
Ended after 4 hours 46 minutes
