Our Future Prospects

We had begun practicing some of our older routines. With our rising popularity, we had been able to earn some lives on T.V and stages to ourselves. We needed more than one song to perform. It was when we began such practice that it really hit us how popular we were actually getting.

"My sister just sent this to me." Mingyu laughed and showed us his phone. On it was the photo of a bus with Hanseol's picture on the side. "Hanseol Hyung's got a bus."

"That's… a very big picture… of just me." Hanseol narrowed his eyes at it. "Why is it only me?"

"You have fans. This is obviously sponsored by K-Soul fans." Jaehyeon said.

"They could have at least used a better picture…" He grumbled.

"Oh, come on. You look just fine here." Yeojun asserted.

Hanseol grumbled inaudibly again and then stood straight. "Well, as long as it helps us."

"He's secretly happy." Jaehyeon smirked.

"Yes, he is." I agreed.

"Shut it." Hanseol looked away.

We were taking a small break in between practice. Manager Park had not been with us the entire day. Since he was busy, Manager Kim was with us. At that moment, he was speaking to our stylist. We had only one day left for our next live performance on a popular T.V show that broadcasted live performances every now and then to keep their ratings up.

The practice session that we were having was also shorter than it usually would have been because Yeojun had a meeting with his former dance crew D2. They had apparently been called on as guests on a dance show but on the condition that Yeojun joined them for one last performance. While Manager Park was a little hesitant about allowing it because it would essentially end up cramming Yeojun's schedule, Kim PD-nim had left the choice to Yeojun and he our Maknae himself was more than happy to have gotten that chance to get together with his former team, especially since it would be their final performance together. Much as Changmin had left me behind, Yeojun had left D2. This was his way of making up for it.

Our schedules were pretty much packed for the next few weeks. This level of popularity pushed us to constantly stay on our feet. No matter how exhausted we got though, we had always been working for this. We had had no complaints.

"S.T.A.Y, are you here? Ah. You're here." Manager Park peeked into the room first and then stepped in.

"Oh! We finally get to see you, Manager-nim!" Mingyu perked up.

"Sorry about that. I had some work to attend to." He looked at Yeojun. "Manager Kim will go with you, Jun-ssi. The rest of you, please come with me once you are done here. We have a meeting with Kim PD-nim."

"Kim PD-nim?" Hanseol asked, surprised. "That wasn't on our agenda today."

"And the magazine photoshoot?" I enquired.

"The photoshoot has been pushed back by an hour. This is important." Manager Park said as he walked over to us. He already had all our attention so he just went ahead and said it. "You're going to Singapore."

"Singa…" I gawked.

"Us?" Mingyu blinked.

"Manager-nim, Singapore?" Jaehyeon slowly asked. "As in, to perform?"

He nodded, smiling. "It's a S.T.A.Y concert in Singapore. You've become really popular there. It's part of a big corporate's fund-raising efforts but it's still a S.T.A.Y concert."

"We're performing abroad…" Yeojun said what all of us were trying to come to terms with. "We're actually… performing abroad."

"Yes, we are." Mingyu broke out into a smile and addressed us. "S.T.A.Y's going abroad!"

"Congratulations." Manager Kim smiled from off to the side. Our stylist also clapped for us.

"We can meet international True too." Jaehyeon beamed.

"This is but a start." Manager Park spoke, watching our joy. "Since you have started making a name for yourselves, Thailand is not too far away either."

"They have always loved K-Pop. If I remember right, Thailand was 04:00 am's first international stage three years ago, right?" I remembered watching it on YouTube just a few days after S.T.A.Y debuted and wondering if we would ever get to go like that.

Manager Park nodded. "I'm looking into all possibilities. For now, we have Singapore happening next month. It'll be a 2-day concert. If all goes well, we might be looking at a South Korea tour as soon as we get back."

That meant that we would be out of Seoul for a while next month. I was excited.

"This is all the motivation that we need right now." Mingyu placed his hands on his hips and turned to us proudly. "Let's make it such that we will have a S.T.A.Y world tour within 2 years."

"Yeah!" That would be simply wonderful!

"I just came to deliver the good news. I will come by again as you finish practice. You have an hour left, right?" Manager Park asked. "And we haven't made it official yet so don't let it slip."

"Of course." Jaehyeon nodded and the five of us saw Manager Park off together.

Our popularity was the deciding factor but popularity was also a result of careful strategy. We owed a lot to Manager Park, Kim PD-nim and the rest of the team.

"Let's get back to practice." Hanseol made us all move again from where the weight of our future prospects had rooted us. All of us could feel the elevated spirits in the rest of the practice session as well.

Yeojun left with Manager Kim immediately after practice and the rest of us had our meeting with Kim PD-nim where he officially told us about the Singapore concert and congratulated us. This was a major break for us. Exposure to an international audience at this point only meant an upwards climb for us if done right. He went on to explain all that, appreciate us, advise us and warn us about the things that we needed to keep in mind.

DayBreak Entertainment was doing fairly well at the moment but we were not on the list of top entertainment agencies like BYTE, JP Entertainment, MS Entertainment or XG Entertainment. 04:00 am was our first big success and with how things were going, S.T.A.Y may very well be the next. We had a lot of responsibility to shoulder, in that sense.

I split from the other three and Manager Park after the meeting with Kim PD-nim because I wanted to use the washroom. Promising to meet them at the van in the basement parking lot, I went to the nearest washroom. When I was on the way to the basement after finishing my business, I ran into a 04:00 am member all by himself in the hallway.

"Baekjae Sunbae." I bowed in greeting.

"Jeongwoo." He smiled. In between this rush to get to places on time, his warmth seemed to be a welcome pit-stop. He was this loved for a solid reason. "You're on your own?"

"I'm on my way to meet the others. We have a magazine photoshoot." I informed. "What about you, Baekjae Sunbae?"

"I just got back from an audition."

"Oh. Movie?"

"Drama." He replied. "It was for the lead role."

"I see. How did it go?" Baekjae Sunbae had quite the acting experience but I believe that he had played the lead roles only in movies before. A lead role in a drama was a huge deal but it also meant that a huge load of work would come his way. He was as hard working as ever.

"I've done my best. I should get to know by tonight or tomorrow morning." He did not seem too worried about it at least. "I heard from our Manager that S.T.A.Y's going to Singapore. It's your first international stage, right? You've done good."

"Thank you." I beamed. "We've been working so hard all this while. This news about Singapore was enough to make us feel that it was all worth it."

"That's what it's all about." He nodded. "And this is just going to be the beginning. I wish you luck."

"Thank you." I bowed again. "Where are the rest of the 04:00 am members?"

"Hyeonwoo Hyung and Beomseok Hyung are recording their solo tracks. The others have gone for a variety show."

So busy… "Hm. Well, I hope you get the lead role. I'll have to go now as the others are waiting for me."

"Oh, yes. Go ahead. Convey my regards to them as well." He nodded.

"Yes. I will." I bowed again, beamed, waved and jogged down the hallway.

Min Baekjae Sunbae was my role model. Running into him like this and having been wished and complimented by him, I felt more confident about myself and S.T.A.Y.

And it seemed as though Hyeonwoo Sunbae and Beomseok Sunbae were working on solo tracks. It had been a few months already since their previous album, Maelstrom, released so it's natural that they would be looking to release a couple more tracks in the mean time as they worked on their upcoming album.

We still had time but maybe we should consider doing something like that too.