To That Kind of S.T.A.Y!

"S.T.A.Y, stand by!" The stage in-charge called out to us after talking to the MC. "2 minutes!"

"Uwah, I'm nervous!" Yeojun rubbed his arms. "Hyung-ah, I'm nervous." He looked at me.

I recoiled. "Uh. You- Um-"

Jaehyeon placed a hand on my shoulder and chuckled. "Yeojun-ah, that's only going to make Jeongwoo more nervous."

I wasn't… Well, I was but…

"You two!" Mingyu came over and slapped both our shoulders. "Look at me!"

At least he was all fired up.

"This may be our biggest stage in a while and the audience may seem bigger than ever before but this isn't our first time. We have done this before. YOU have done this before. And you have gotten off the stage leaving behind emotions that True have carried with them forever. We may not be the main attraction today but we will be leaving the audience believing that we were. You hear me?"

It was a little difficult to hear him over the music that was already playing but he was raising his voice all the more to make a point.

And he was right.

What were we getting all nervous about at this point? We were three years into this.

I had nodded but Yeojun had gone silent. This had gotten Hanseol, who had been previously trying to fix his in-ear monitor, to turn his attention to our Maknae. "Yeojun-ah?"

"One minute!" The stage in-charge called out.

"Jun-ah?" Jaehyeon frowned.

"Leader-nim." Yeojun finally spoke.

"What?" Mingyu nodded, listening.

"Buy me a meal after this."

"What?!" Mingyu asked aghast.

"Buy me a meal. Chicken." He smiled at Mingyu, albeit pleadingly.

I laughed. If anything, it dispelled all the nervousness that I had been previously feeling.

Mingyu was too surprised by the request to even respond. So, I stepped in. "I'll buy you chicken." I owed him that much for turning the atmosphere around.

"Hyung, you're the best!" Yeojun gave me a bear hug.

"You do realise that he baited you real good just now, right?" Hanseol asked, shaking his head in exasperation.

"I do. It's okay though. He's our cute Maknae, after all."

"S.T.A.Y, you're on!" The stage in-charge called on us.

We looked at each other, shared a team fist-bump as part of our pre-stage ritual and Mingyu cheered. "We're here to stay!"

"Let's go!" Jaehyeon said and patted mine and Hanseol's backs since we were the closest to him. We turned to the stage after that.

'To You' started slow and picked up pace eventually. The first verse was YoonJae's solo so he went onstage ahead of us when his part came. Next was me. There was a bit of an extended melody with us two vocalists, without too intense of a dance segment. It was more about acting out the lyrics subtly and feeling it with each other. The song then transitioned smoothly into the catchy and up-beat chorus where our three rappers- MinQ, Jun and K-Soul- joined us.

The chorus was followed by MinQ's and K-Soul's raps before slowing down into the tempo of the first verse and once again transitioning into the chorus. The bridge was Jun's part and had a rising tempo. It got faster and more intense and then, for a few breath-taking moments, everything went silent- or rather- still. Just for that moment, the stage and the audience froze. And then, like a clap of thunder that follows close behind the streak of lightning, we dived right into the chorus again, harmonising, adding a few seconds and high notes, slowing down and yet powering up the dance and then ending it with an abrupt trail-off where YoonJae's voice lingered softly for just a few seconds after the music stops.

In the few seconds that followed, time seemed to slow down. In my position after the final pose, I could hear my members and myself breathing heavily. I could see the flashing lights and the cameras focused on us. I could feel the rumble of the screams from the audience on the hard-wood stage that I was standing on. I could feel the heat in my body from all that exertion. I could feel that excitement. It was as though my entire being was crying out for more- Oh, so much more!

I… had missed the rush that this kind of a performance gave me.

"S.T.A.Y, everybody!" The MC screamed over the mic and walked onto stage as the cheers intensified. I could hear the fan chants too. I could hear them calling out to S.T.A.Y. I could hear them calling out our members' names, including mine.

As I'd thought… standing there onstage, in front of True, with my other four members… This was what it was all about!

We exited stage soon after that and found ourselves looking at each other, looking for reassurance. And, of course, our reliable leader was the first one to speak. "We did it."

"We did, didn't we?" I nodded, smiling. I could still feel it in my blood.

"That… That right there was the best that we could have ever done." Jaehyeon said.

Mingyu nodded and broke out into a triumphant mile. "That was our best."

"We should do more live performances." Yeojun said, looking back towards the stage. "Our last was our South Korea tour last year. We had slowed down a bit after that to focus on Blue Ink."

"We had." Jaehyeon nodded. "But then Blue Ink turned out like we wanted it to. We can focus on other things now."

"This success could bring more opportunities." Mingyu reminded us. "Who knows? Maybe one day, we will not be the warm-up performance anymore."

"Then… to that kind of S.T.A.Y." I held out a fist.

"To that kind of S.T.A.Y!" The others joined in and we shared in another team cheer.

"Excuse me. You will have to make some space in here for the next band to come in." One of the stage-staff told us and then smiled. "And I loved your song. That was some really good work out there."

"Oh, thank you!" Mingyu said and we all bowed to her. "Thank you so much!"

"I hope I get to see you here again. For now, though, I can show you to your green room. Your Manager had to step out because of a phone call." She explained.

"Huh? Did Manager-nim not get to watch us through to the end?" Yeojun asked exactly what all of us were thinking.

"He was here till almost the end. I was with him so I can tell you that he looked really annoyed by the phone call that interrupted his happy moment. He seemed to have really wanted to stay till the end." She told us.

"Ah. That's too bad…" Jaehyeon sighed.

"Uh, your green room. I can take you." She said again.

It looked like she really needed us out of the way. She was merely doing her job though.

"Of course. Let's move, S.T.A.Y." Mingyu said aloud and the five of us followed her out to words of what seemed like genuine appreciation from the others we had happened to pass by. It felt as though we had managed to actually leave a good impression.

The girl showed us to our green room and left immediately after. I took off my outfit's jacket and laid it over the back of the chair that was nearest to me. I was also sweating profusely because of the performance earlier.

"It's so relieving to see that so many True had turned up, even though we were not the main performance and on such short notice." Jaehyeon placed his hands on his hips and smiled. "There are people in the audience today who came out to see us."

"The fact that we got so nervous before going onstage is proof that we need more lives." I spoke up. "We need to tour at least South Korea."

"I wonder what happened on the management end. Manager-nim's always trying so hard for us and yet, we're getting very few chances for lives." Hanseol thought out loud.

"I heard that it has something to do with the group that debuted this year. They ran into some trouble and need rebuilding so DayBreak is using everything they can to give them opportunities. 04:00 am doesn't need much help. They get invited to perform. We just haven't been on stage to perform much but we do other things. We do get our fair share of screen-time." Mingyu pointed out. "I guess this event that Kim PD-nim got us into is our biggest chance. We have to build ourselves. A good outcome here means more chances for us."

"I'm pretty happy with how things have turned out today." Jaehyeon shrugged.

"Me too." Yeojun seconded that and came over to me. "Hyung, about that chicken…"

I chuckled and ruffled up his hair. "I'll keep my word. We'll go the first chance that we get."

"What about the rest of us?" Jaehyeon enquired.

"I had promised only Yeojun." I smiled and pulled our Maknae closer, hugging him from behind around his neck. "You can all come along if you want to but I'll be paying only for Yeojun."

"Damn. We too should have asked." Hanseol clicked his tongue.

"You dote on him too much." Jaehyeon rolled his eyes.

"He's my Dongsaeng." I shrugged. Yeojun was clearly enjoying this.

"I'm your Dongsaeng too." Mingyu reminded me.

I shook my head. "You're my leader."

"Wha-" He looked at me in disbelief. "Hyung, that's not fair!"

"Ah, but Jaehyeon Hyung," I looked at our eldest member. "You should treat us all sometime. You're the eldest here. Don't you have any love for us?"

He flinched. "Jeongwoo-ya… You seem to be in an awfully good mood today."

"I was just thinking the same thing." Hanseol laughed. "Ya, Jeongwoo-ya. Did you really enjoy today's stage that much?"

"As if you did not." I pouted. "Isn't this what we work so hard for? To share the same space in person with True, our music and the members… Of course, I enjoyed it."

Jaehyeon sighed. "If I hadn't had any love for you, I wouldn't have enjoyed it so much either."

We all loved the feeling of being up there. I knew that much.

"Ah…" Jaehyeon walked over to Yeojun and I. "You two…"

"What?" I frowned. I did not like the wide smile on his face.

"Uh, Hyung-ah?" Yeojun tapped my hand, indicating that I should let go of him.

Jaehyeon threw out his arms. I held on to Yeojun tighter. "Hyung, no. Don't do it. Stop."

"But I have love to give you." He smirked and threw himself onto us. Yeojun let out a yelp and a laugh.

I grunted, struggling to stay standing against the weight of two people on me. "Ugh! Heavy! Hyung!"

Hanseol and Mingyu laughed too. "You offended him, Jeongwoo-ya."

"Argh. Okay. Fine. Don't buy us anything. You have love for us. I yield!" I gave in. He was just fooling around though. I would not have usually just given in but the two of them were really heavy. "Hyung!"

He stood up straight and I let go of Yeojun too. The kid just stepped aside and doubled over in laughter. Triumphant, Jaehyeon just stood before me with a smirk on his face.

I pouted and looked away. "You can be really merciless sometimes. I thought that I was going to break my back."

Just then, the door opened and Manager Park came in with the girl from before.

"Ah, Manager-nim." Mingyu perked up. "Where did you-"

"Hidden Camera." Manager Park said.

"What?"

"Hidden Camera." He repeated and motioned towards a table off to the side. Among the pile of boxes, discreetly placed, was a camera that none of us had noticed earlier.

"Hah? This was-" I did a double-take. You mean to tell me that all that from just now had been recorded? What sort of Hidden Camera event was this anyway? Wouldn't there usually have been some strange scenario being played out or something?

The girl proceeded to get the camera and turn it off. "Shall I send this to the editing team, Park-ssi?"

"Yes. Thank you." Manager Park smiled at her and she left.

"That was fine though." Mingyu shrugged. "It was heart-warming."

"We're safe, at least." Hanseol patted Mingyu's arm.

"I yielded." I glared at Jaehyeon. "Ah, I should have held on."

"That's okay." He chuckled. "Plus, it's gone on record now that you have to buy Yeojun chicken."

"I was intending to buy it for him anyway." I sighed. "Geez…"

"We still have half an hour before going back to the agency." Manager Park said. "Shall we find a place to watch the rest of the program till then?"

"Yes. That would be nice." Mingyu said and made a move to follow Manager Park. So did the rest of us.

"Jeongwoo-ssi." Jaehyeon called from behind me when I walked past him.

"What?" I threw him an unpleasant look.

"This." He pointed at my jacket which was still lying on the back of the chair.

"Oh. Sorry." I smiled sheepishly, fetched it and then turned to leave again but not before he threw an arm over my shoulders.

"Let's go get something to eat sometime."

"I was just joking with what I had said. You don't really need to-" I began saying but he cut me off mid-sentence.

"I mean it though. It's when you said it that I realised it. It really has been a while since we all just went out to grab a meal. Let's go. It'll be fun." He smiled.

That was true. "Okay. We'll go." I nodded. I could cover for Yeojun's meal then too.

NOTE:

Dongsaeng = Used to refer to a younger sibling (or a close friend who is younger and sibling-like)