I had to meet the people in the costumes' department regarding a change that was being made to my outfit for the upcoming live stage. Once my work there had been done, I set off on my way back to the practice room where the others were already practicing."Choi Jeongwoo." An actor signed with our agency, Moon Jisung, stopped me in the hallway. He was with his Manager and they seemed on their way out. "I heard your cover- the one you and YoonJae released 2 days ago. I have to say, that song 'I Loved You Before' has been one of my favourites ever since Say6 released it. I was so moved not only by the fact that you chose that song, but also by your version of it."I beamed and bowed. "Thank you so much, Moon-ssi. I have always loved that song too. I'm glad you liked our version of it.""Come on. Say6 themselves gave you a shoutout. Everyone's loving it." He clapped my shoulder. "I just wanted to appreciate you too."Jaehyeon and I had been plenty happy with our cover but we had never exp
"This is hard." I pursed my lips and ran a hand through my hair. We were all in one of the meeting rooms, trying to pick a song."There are too many to choose from." Yeojun leaned over the table, arms outstretched before him, still seated. "We have 5 days left to prepare too.""5 days are enough for us." Mingyu said, clicking his click-pen against the paper in front of him as he contemplated everything. "As long as we decide on a song tonight.""Does it HAVE to be a cover?" Yeojun asked."They want a cover and 'To You'. Besides, we have been performing just our tracks for a while. We also need the content.""Mm." Jaehyeon hummed thoughtfully. "Do you want to go back a few years or stick to the recent releases?""The show usually gets all sorts of covers." Hanseol said. "The era doesn't really matter but… newer songs might help us in the sense that there may be more people who will know them.""Good point." Jaehyeon nodded."Then… something after 2012?" Mingyu asked."Yeah. 5 years see
'I can't believe that he hid that from all of us for so long!''Oppa and Oppa's piano!
Hanseol had just returned to the practice room after recording for his Mixtapes. We had decided to take a little break from practice as he stretched and got ready to join us. The dystopian performance of 'Yeongweonhi Norae' was just less than 20 hours away and we still had a few things to fix up. Moreover, despite all the practice that I had put in, I was feeling a little unprepared. Earlier, it was good enough if I could just get through the performance to the very end but that was no longer the case. The right notes needed to be hit, the moves needed to be refined, powerful and sharp while remaining elegant. For a performance like this, the facial expressions mattered too.There was a lot going on and a lot to get done.I had my headphones on and my phone in one hand. The new version of 'Yeongweonhi Norae' was playing loudly enough to cut everything else out. I was still practicing my parts while the others waited for Hanseol to warm up. I had intended to stop after 2 entire run-thr
"Hyung, why did you come?" I continued to smile although it was getting increasingly difficult to breathe."What do you mean 'why'?" He frowned and came up to the bed. "I came here as soon as I heard about what had happened and as soon as I could come. They said that you had collapsed and… do you know how worried I was about you? And the first thing I hear when I walk in is 'why did you come'?" His concern was clearly reflected in those usually sharp black eyes that now looked tender. His forehead was creased and he had not even bothered to fix his hair after removing his cap. Despite having not wanted to show my emotions, it looked like I had chosen the wrong words."No… What I had meant was… how were you able to come? You should have been busy." That was barely a cover up and the pause that he had given me before speaking again told me that he had not bought that. Nevertheless, he said nothing more about it."How could I not have come?" He asked softly, furrowing his brows. "If my f
"Choi Jeongwoo-ssi." Changmin sat forward in his seat, resting his chin upon his palms, elbows on the table. His eyes were narrowed to look only at me and his lips were curled up into a smile. "I'm a huge fan.""What is this?" I laughed."Did you watch that performance of yours later?" He gave me a poker face. "If you have, you should know what I am talking about."Well, everyone was talking about the dystopian performance of 'Yeongweonhi Norae'. We had finally managed to perform it 2 days before Hanseol's Mixtapes were released. I had re-watched the performance later and I too had thought that it was the best performance we had ever given. Because of my unexpected trip to the hospital, we had gotten an extended period of pactice for the performance. We were able to further work on it and perfect it. The final outcome was a performance that neither S.T.A.Y nor True would ever forget. The expressions were on-point. The dance was sharp, clean and powerful. The setting was ominous. The v
"What exactly were you trying to do?" Jaehyeon rolled onto his back and began laughing.It was a funny scene to behold but I was laughing more out of embarrassment. "I don't know! How do these True even find these shots? I… I think I was trying to throw a few cool moves but Mingyu was judging me so hard that I gave up halfway and now it just looks like I'm flapping.""Flapping! That's right." Jaehyeon imitated my arm gestures like in the video."Okay. Hyung, stop." I caught his arm with the hand not holding the phone. "I won't watch the rest with you if you're just going to laugh at me.""Sorry. Let's watch." He lay on his side and propped his head up on his arm again. We were on my bed and I was also lying down. Hanseol had not yet gotten back after his work for the Mixtapes. He was probably on his way back. Yeojun was talking to his family on the phone and Mingyu was getting a post-dinner snack. He tended to do that on especially tiring days. Jaehyeon and I were also tired but we ha
S.T.A.Y had begun working on our next album and we were constantly going in and out of meetings for the same. We were still working on our concept and all the other details but we were making good headway. We still had some programs and shows to make our appearances on as well. Manager Park was doing his best to keep our schedules under control and to allow us the time that we needed. It was difficult though. Even when we did get time, we were so preoccupied that it was difficult to sleep or just rest that easily. We were gaining a lot of popularity and garnering attention. Releasing a good album at this point would validate us and verify our quality. We could not afford to not meet expectations because, at this stage, if we do not deliver, we could very easily just fade away.As were were, we really could not afford to fade away.I knocked on the half-open door to the recording studio and pushed it open all the way as I stepped in. "I'm sorry I'm late." I looked around till I found C