Page 59 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 13-16
Su-jin groaned.
Jaewoong tried to fade into the background, but he was looking way too pleased with himself.
“We have pictures, because Su-jin fell asleep before we came back.” Jun pulled out his phone and air-dropped a photo. The techs had it up on the screen behind the stage a moment later.
It was adorable. Su-jin, dressed as a doll and asleep at the bottom of the giant bird cage, surrounded by snacks and flowers, had really been too much to not document. Jaewoong had a video somewhere.
“So as dark and hard-hitting as this album is, it seems like you had a lot of fun making it,” the host said, grasping at straws.
“We did,” Yohei agreed. “We played a lot of pranks. Made a lot of friends. Mi Hi has been amazing. Jun worked way too hard. Collin Ryker was good at making sure we could shoot where we needed to on site, and we met a lot of wonderful musicians. Some of them flew out to work with us and some of them were local to Chicago. And, of course, Gigi was there for all of it.”
“So one last question: what was the most enjoyable part of shooting these videos for each of you? We’ll start with Su-jin.”
“Just being authentically ourselves, getting to grow up as idols and musicians,” Su-jin said. “We really enjoyed a lot of what we did before, but we’ve done our military service, earlier than most, and then we came back and we were still doing a lot of these really light pop songs even though we had all of these other more mature ideas. Just finally getting them out feels good.”
“And Jaewoong?” the host kept moving.
Jaewoong screwed up his face, thinking, “Probably getting to fall into that pool of water in the video we dropped last week. That was fun. Such a mess, but I think Geun enjoyed throwing me in.”
Geun smirked and nodded.
“And Geun?” the host prompted.
Geun shrugged. “The creativity. We just pushed the envelope so much farther this time. Everything, absolutely everything in the music and the MVs, has meaning, and being able to produce a body of work that meant that much, that feels like we’ve arrived.”
“And Yohei?” the host turned.
Yohei glanced at the rest of them and the audience and smiled, widely. “Getting to share it, now. With all of you.”
The audience made happy sighs. The host turned to Jun. “And you, Junseo, what did you enjoy most about making this album?”
“The honesty of it.” Jun took a moment to gaze back, soberly. “Every single album before this, we had well-meaning people in our faces telling us what to feel, telling us what our audience was feeling and what we needed to give them.”
Jun paused to look at his fellow idols. “These last six, seven months, I’ve never felt so close to our fans as we are now, never felt their support so clearly, never felt like I, like we, were giving back to them so authentically as now. We’ve all struggled. We’ve all had doubts. We’ve all had to reinvent ourselves, learn that sometimes what we were told was going to happen is never going to happen, things we thought would always be there for us aren’t there. We’re not kids anymore and part of growing up is realizing the truth of everything, the reality of things. Things our parents believed in might not be true for us, not because our parents were wrong, but because they can’t see the future.
Jun took a breath, flexing his hand. “For me, that’s been the best part of this album, and I think will be the best part of this tour. Beyond what the five of us have, our friendship, how we work together, this comeback just has the honesty and sincerity of it all. Our fans have responded with the most wonderful messages and letters. That same sincerity we brought to our music is being reflected back and we just appreciate that so much, we feel it so much and that makes everything we do worth it.”
Mi Hi waited until they were back into the hotel behind closed doors to have her say. She’d taken a different car back, not because she was pissed, Jun was mostly certain, but because she was monitoring reactions. She sat them down on the couch, looked them over, and announced. “Well, that wasn’t the hardest surprise the five of you have thrown at me.”
And then said nothing else.
“Well?” Jaewoong finally prompted.
“They’re barely talking about Jun. It helps that most fans were pretty sure Jun was already gay from the photos back at the end of December. Everyone’s talking about Su-jin, trying to decide if he’s gay or not, and if so, is he dating one of you already.”
Su-jin blushed and covered his face.
“It’s good. They’re talking, and they don’t know. A lot of people are saying you’re just being a good ally, others are saying you’re definitely gay, some are saying you’re just in character for the comeback. It goes round and round. My advice, neither confirm nor deny. Let them talk. So far inside fans forums, it’s positive. We can deal with the nasty remarks elsewhere.”
Geun patted Su-jin on the back. “Guess you’ll have to stay close, youngling.”
Damian
5N was on the stage in front of a mostly empty venue, covered in sweat from practice runs for the show the next day. Light and sound technicians were running setups around them. Mi Hi was calling out orders. Jun was lecturing the support crew–half from Chicago, half hired locally–on when to have props swapped out. The same crew was supposed to travel with them to the rest of the concert dates, but this was their first full run and a test of whether or not everything would work.
Damian was present for any legal issues and to steady Jun’s nerves. He’d collaborated on some of the costumes, as had Ellisandre, Gigi, the boys themselves, and Émeric. The result was striking, sophisticated and individualized to each member of 5N. There were backup outfits in case anything broke and they’d hired a wardrobe assistant to track everything.
Meanwhile, Damian wasn’t off the clock for his own clients. Which was why he was sitting in the middle of the venue, laptop on one knee, boba tea in one hand, typing emails with his other and working his way through case files on his tablet. 5N been at it since seven that morning, and Damian hadn’t had such a solid work session in weeks. There was a possibility he might actually see light at the end of the tunnel through his never ending to do list.
