Before I Go To Sleep (Episode 4)
It was a Saturday morning when Kiseop woke up to Kibum’s constant pulls on his shirt.
“Wake up! Wake up!” He lazily opened his eyes, and slowly tried to sit up, his left hand pushing on the bed so he could lean on the headboard. After a failed attempt to gently flat out his messy hair, he asked “Isn’t it a Saturday?”
“Yes.”
At the mention of the answer, he quickly moved back to lying on the bed. But this time, he lay on his belly, face turned to Kevin’s side of the bed, which was empty to reveal the gray curtains, the leaf pattern outlined by the sun’s light. He closed his eyes.
Kibum continued to read his new pocket book aloud. “And he gently held her by the nape. Kiseop, what’s a nape?”
The younger boy raised his right hand and tapped the back of his neck twice before bringing it back to his side. Just a few seconds later, he felt heat, or more specifically, lips brushing on his nape, causing him to jerk his head up. He didn’t have time to think that he hit Kibum’s teeth in the process. “Aaw! That hurt!” Kiseop slowly put his head back on the pillow in victory. Accidental revenge felt good.
“Kiseop-ah. Kevin’s inviting us to go out tonight. He said we’ll try to sneak in one of the bars. So are you in? Huh? Are you?” Kibum kept shaking the other by the back.
“Give me one more hour of sleep, and I’ll go with you.”
-
“Wait. We need to make sure the coast is clear.”
“Guys, this is so unnecessary. It’s only 7PM!”
“But what if we get caught?!”
“Aw! That was my ass!”
“Oh, hey guys!”
Kiseop, Kibum, and Kevin turned around to face their manager. Their knees were bended so they had to look up. Classic. Kiseop thought.
“Out for dinner?”
“Uhm, yes!” Kibum stood up fast, raising his hand like he wanted in on some sort of plan. The other two stood up as well. Kevin was just a tad bit red on the face, while Kiseop looked unfazed.
“Well, I was thinking of ordering some Chinese food tonight. Want us to leave you anything?”
Kiseop was thinking. “Fortune cookies?”
“Ok. Enjoy!”
“Thanks! Bye manager hyung!”
“Bye!”
The door shut behind them. Kiseop chuckled. “I told you we didn’t need to sneak out.”
“How’d you know that?” Kibum asked.
“We did get to stay out late last time.”
They must be really excited. Kiseop thought. It’s been two weeks since the last time they were out in the city by themselves. The sound of the train approaching signals their welcome to the New York City nightlife. He was determined. Tonight was Saturday. With or without company, he was going home on Sunday morning. He’s read stories about all-nighters and most of them were fun, except for a few accounts of throw-up sessions and some mornings of I-don’t-know-who-that-guy-beside-me-on-the-bed-is. He wanted to know how it feels to be walking beside the buildings, and watching the surroundings turn from black and orange, to a mix of violets and reds until the new day begins.
“Where are we going Kevin?”He asked. The younger guy was the one who initiated the night out and was leading the way in picking which train to take, and which station to disembark from.
“To the lower east side; I read about this place called Pianos and it says they serve really good burgers and the nachos aren’t bad either.”
“Cool.” Kibum said.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Hey!”
As the other two were getting on with their little argument, Kiseop couldn’t help but feel like they were being watched. He stared into one direction. Something was definitely attracting him. It was wrong. Was something bad going to happen? He hoped not. But in a sea of people who won’t even recognize him through his scarf, why do his instincts tell him they had a stalker? Slowly, he tried to make his way through the crowd in the train, searching. He can hear Kevin cutting off Kibum’s stare-earning sermon in Korean about how he still demands respect as an older guy even if he’s American with “Where’s Kiseop going?” Soon enough, Kiseop stopped in his tracks when he saw a very familiar person wearing all black, except for the red, heart shaped sun glasses. Dongho.
“What are you doing here?!” Kevin said as he looked at an embarrassed, but aggravated Dongho. The station was busy. So they stood by a pillar. Kiseop couldn’t help but feel bad about the boy. He was always left alone in the dorm while everyone else had fun outside. And it wasn’t hard to notice that he stared at the door whenever Eli or Alexander went out.
“I’m going out to have fun.” The youngest retorted.
“Kevin, don’t be too harsh on him.” Kibum just had to say that when the other looked at him as if to ask for a tag team partner. Kiseop can see a conflict in the older guy’s half-hearted tone. Kibum had only recently started to get along with Kevin. But Dongho has been loyal to take his side on big arguments. Obviously, someone was looking up to him.
Suddenly, a man walked to their spot on the pillar and put down the guitar and an amplifier. Kevin was still going on about how Dongho was so young to go to these things while the younger guy shoved an ID to his face. At thirty years old, Dongho was officially, illegally the oldest out of them, according to the plastic card that he ordered from the internet. Staying at home has its perks. Kiseop couldn’t help but chuckle.
Kibum’s phone rang and when he answered, figured it was their manager calling.
“Yes, he’s with us.”
“No, none of us is going to drink.”
“I didn’t! Why would I ever throw up at a hotdog stand?” He glared at Kevin.
“Ok. Ok bye.”
Dun dun dun dun ting ting ting! Dun dun dun dun dun ting ting ting!
The sound was familiar. The man beside them was now playing his guitar and Kiseop had an idea. He hated himself for again, feeling like he was put into the group to diffuse fights. But this was too fun to pass up. He went to the other three, and shouted, “Hey guys! I love this song!” And he started dancing. They looked at him confused. It only started making sense, so much sense when he sang those recently outdated lines “Move yourself… And glide, like a seven-four-seven!” And soon they were all dancing silly to the music from the guitar man. Kiseop saw Kibum put his arm around Kevin, trying to convince the younger guy that they can go bar hopping some other time. “Let’s just go back and eat somewhere near.”
It was decided that since Dongho was with them, they would go and have dinner somewhere else. Kiseop didn’t mind giving up his chance on an all-nighter. They had burgers, fries, and spaghetti at a coffee shop. Is it the all-American dining experience? Kiseop laughed to himself at the thought. They arrived back at their dorm around five-past 10 and found Eli, Soohyun, their manager, and Alexander watching a DVD of some old reality show; boxes of Chinese takeout stacked on the table by the kitchen. “I’m ho..” Dongho’s happy chant was cut off by a “shh!” from Eli. Apparently, what Janice Dickinson had to say to Omarosa Manigault was the most important thing at that time. Everyone sat in silence in front of the television. After another hour, they went to bed.
The sky was still dark when Kiseop started to stretch on the bed he shared with Kevin and Kiseop. The former’s side was again, empty. He looked at the clock. It was only 4:56 in the morning. He wasn’t used to sleeping long hours unless he was really tired from practice. So he decided he wouldn’t try going back to bed.
After a short trip to the bathroom to freshen up a bit, Kiseop noticed Kevin who was at the balcony across from the living area. He walked forward and opened the door to the balcony, which startled the other. “It’s cold out here.” Kevin said. The older guy didn’t need a statement to notice. The wind was freezing him as he was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt. He went back in and took a coat and a pair of slippers before returning.
“Can’t sleep?” He asked, folding his arms and locking his hands in his armpits.
“Five hours is enough for me right now. You?”
“Same. The others are sleeping in though.”
“I bet Dongho’s having good dreams. It’s good that he got to go out last night.”
“There’s a Starbucks a few blocks from here right?”
Tying up his shoelaces, he wondered if this was a real change they were having in the group. Is this thing going to be steady from now on? Kevin went beside him and slipped into his shoes, which he keeps tied up already. More like squeezed into if you asked Kiseop. He could never do that with his Chuck Taylors. Kevin held out a hand and he took it to help him get up.
“Let’s go.”
Good conversations over a nice warm cup of coffee, what more can Kiseop ask for? The place still had a considerable number of costumers on an early Sunday morning. This really is the city that never sleeps, huh? He was also surprised to see some taxis travelling with passengers who seemed to be in business suits by the window.
“What are you thinking about?” Kevin suddenly asked. It was one of those questions to which he already had an automatic answer to. “You.” He grinned. This got Kevin a bit dumbfounded. “Really?”
“In context, yes, since you asked the question, I was thinking of you. But maybe it’s just Kibum’s personality rubbing off on me. Does he do that to you?”
“What? Randomly kiss me?”
“Yes!”
“Well, let’s just say we didn’t really get along even before we joined NH Media.”
“You’ve been fighting for that long already?”
“Yeah. But it wasn’t like I wanted to fight with him. It’s just..” Kevin went silent for a bit before continuing with “I don’t even know why we used to fight. I guess it was because he thought it wasn’t fair to record English versions of our songs when the only one singing would be me. Yeah, that’s it. I know it’s unfair but it wasn’t like I can just say no whenever I wanted to. And that continued until U-kiss. And there was already some tension when we arrived. Whatever.”
“So he doesn’t really annoy you?”
“Nope. I felt that bad we had to waste time fighting instead of being friends.”
“At least you’re getting along now.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to raise your ego, but I have thank you for that.”
Kiseop chuckled. “Nah. You would have figured it out by yourself. I’m starting to feel you were right about me being just an accessory member though. That’s what I thought when I entered.”
“Again, I’m really just…”
“I already told you. You’re forgiven. I just can’t help but think about it sometimes. It’s working well, don’t you think? You’ll have me on your ‘thank you’ message for every hit we make.” He winked.
“Aw! I knew I shouldn’t have said thank you!”
“Haha! But you had to!” They both laughed.
After the coffee, they walked back to their dorm and decided on going back to sleep. Kiseop hid his head behind Kevin’s to block off the light as the gray curtains once again started turning yellow. Kibum snuggled behind him and whispered “Did you guys get me anything?”
“There’s a bagel in the kitchen with your name on it.”
Author's Note: I'm sorry for the late update. I did have sort of a writer's block. And I went out Friday night with a friend from 3rd grade!! Wasn't that awesome? Okay. I'm sorry. Sheesh! Haha! Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! Wow. It's so late at night. Oh, and here's some trivia: Shandi Sullivan from America's Next Top Model Cycle 2 works at Pianos on Mondays for karaoke night!
“Wake up! Wake up!” He lazily opened his eyes, and slowly tried to sit up, his left hand pushing on the bed so he could lean on the headboard. After a failed attempt to gently flat out his messy hair, he asked “Isn’t it a Saturday?”
“Yes.”
At the mention of the answer, he quickly moved back to lying on the bed. But this time, he lay on his belly, face turned to Kevin’s side of the bed, which was empty to reveal the gray curtains, the leaf pattern outlined by the sun’s light. He closed his eyes.
Kibum continued to read his new pocket book aloud. “And he gently held her by the nape. Kiseop, what’s a nape?”
The younger boy raised his right hand and tapped the back of his neck twice before bringing it back to his side. Just a few seconds later, he felt heat, or more specifically, lips brushing on his nape, causing him to jerk his head up. He didn’t have time to think that he hit Kibum’s teeth in the process. “Aaw! That hurt!” Kiseop slowly put his head back on the pillow in victory. Accidental revenge felt good.
“Kiseop-ah. Kevin’s inviting us to go out tonight. He said we’ll try to sneak in one of the bars. So are you in? Huh? Are you?” Kibum kept shaking the other by the back.
“Give me one more hour of sleep, and I’ll go with you.”
-
“Wait. We need to make sure the coast is clear.”
“Guys, this is so unnecessary. It’s only 7PM!”
“But what if we get caught?!”
“Aw! That was my ass!”
“Oh, hey guys!”
Kiseop, Kibum, and Kevin turned around to face their manager. Their knees were bended so they had to look up. Classic. Kiseop thought.
“Out for dinner?”
“Uhm, yes!” Kibum stood up fast, raising his hand like he wanted in on some sort of plan. The other two stood up as well. Kevin was just a tad bit red on the face, while Kiseop looked unfazed.
“Well, I was thinking of ordering some Chinese food tonight. Want us to leave you anything?”
Kiseop was thinking. “Fortune cookies?”
“Ok. Enjoy!”
“Thanks! Bye manager hyung!”
“Bye!”
The door shut behind them. Kiseop chuckled. “I told you we didn’t need to sneak out.”
“How’d you know that?” Kibum asked.
“We did get to stay out late last time.”
They must be really excited. Kiseop thought. It’s been two weeks since the last time they were out in the city by themselves. The sound of the train approaching signals their welcome to the New York City nightlife. He was determined. Tonight was Saturday. With or without company, he was going home on Sunday morning. He’s read stories about all-nighters and most of them were fun, except for a few accounts of throw-up sessions and some mornings of I-don’t-know-who-that-guy-beside-me-on-the-bed-is. He wanted to know how it feels to be walking beside the buildings, and watching the surroundings turn from black and orange, to a mix of violets and reds until the new day begins.
“Where are we going Kevin?”He asked. The younger guy was the one who initiated the night out and was leading the way in picking which train to take, and which station to disembark from.
“To the lower east side; I read about this place called Pianos and it says they serve really good burgers and the nachos aren’t bad either.”
“Cool.” Kibum said.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Hey!”
As the other two were getting on with their little argument, Kiseop couldn’t help but feel like they were being watched. He stared into one direction. Something was definitely attracting him. It was wrong. Was something bad going to happen? He hoped not. But in a sea of people who won’t even recognize him through his scarf, why do his instincts tell him they had a stalker? Slowly, he tried to make his way through the crowd in the train, searching. He can hear Kevin cutting off Kibum’s stare-earning sermon in Korean about how he still demands respect as an older guy even if he’s American with “Where’s Kiseop going?” Soon enough, Kiseop stopped in his tracks when he saw a very familiar person wearing all black, except for the red, heart shaped sun glasses. Dongho.
“What are you doing here?!” Kevin said as he looked at an embarrassed, but aggravated Dongho. The station was busy. So they stood by a pillar. Kiseop couldn’t help but feel bad about the boy. He was always left alone in the dorm while everyone else had fun outside. And it wasn’t hard to notice that he stared at the door whenever Eli or Alexander went out.
“I’m going out to have fun.” The youngest retorted.
“Kevin, don’t be too harsh on him.” Kibum just had to say that when the other looked at him as if to ask for a tag team partner. Kiseop can see a conflict in the older guy’s half-hearted tone. Kibum had only recently started to get along with Kevin. But Dongho has been loyal to take his side on big arguments. Obviously, someone was looking up to him.
Suddenly, a man walked to their spot on the pillar and put down the guitar and an amplifier. Kevin was still going on about how Dongho was so young to go to these things while the younger guy shoved an ID to his face. At thirty years old, Dongho was officially, illegally the oldest out of them, according to the plastic card that he ordered from the internet. Staying at home has its perks. Kiseop couldn’t help but chuckle.
Kibum’s phone rang and when he answered, figured it was their manager calling.
“Yes, he’s with us.”
“No, none of us is going to drink.”
“I didn’t! Why would I ever throw up at a hotdog stand?” He glared at Kevin.
“Ok. Ok bye.”
Dun dun dun dun ting ting ting! Dun dun dun dun dun ting ting ting!
The sound was familiar. The man beside them was now playing his guitar and Kiseop had an idea. He hated himself for again, feeling like he was put into the group to diffuse fights. But this was too fun to pass up. He went to the other three, and shouted, “Hey guys! I love this song!” And he started dancing. They looked at him confused. It only started making sense, so much sense when he sang those recently outdated lines “Move yourself… And glide, like a seven-four-seven!” And soon they were all dancing silly to the music from the guitar man. Kiseop saw Kibum put his arm around Kevin, trying to convince the younger guy that they can go bar hopping some other time. “Let’s just go back and eat somewhere near.”
It was decided that since Dongho was with them, they would go and have dinner somewhere else. Kiseop didn’t mind giving up his chance on an all-nighter. They had burgers, fries, and spaghetti at a coffee shop. Is it the all-American dining experience? Kiseop laughed to himself at the thought. They arrived back at their dorm around five-past 10 and found Eli, Soohyun, their manager, and Alexander watching a DVD of some old reality show; boxes of Chinese takeout stacked on the table by the kitchen. “I’m ho..” Dongho’s happy chant was cut off by a “shh!” from Eli. Apparently, what Janice Dickinson had to say to Omarosa Manigault was the most important thing at that time. Everyone sat in silence in front of the television. After another hour, they went to bed.
The sky was still dark when Kiseop started to stretch on the bed he shared with Kevin and Kiseop. The former’s side was again, empty. He looked at the clock. It was only 4:56 in the morning. He wasn’t used to sleeping long hours unless he was really tired from practice. So he decided he wouldn’t try going back to bed.
After a short trip to the bathroom to freshen up a bit, Kiseop noticed Kevin who was at the balcony across from the living area. He walked forward and opened the door to the balcony, which startled the other. “It’s cold out here.” Kevin said. The older guy didn’t need a statement to notice. The wind was freezing him as he was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt. He went back in and took a coat and a pair of slippers before returning.
“Can’t sleep?” He asked, folding his arms and locking his hands in his armpits.
“Five hours is enough for me right now. You?”
“Same. The others are sleeping in though.”
“I bet Dongho’s having good dreams. It’s good that he got to go out last night.”
“There’s a Starbucks a few blocks from here right?”
Tying up his shoelaces, he wondered if this was a real change they were having in the group. Is this thing going to be steady from now on? Kevin went beside him and slipped into his shoes, which he keeps tied up already. More like squeezed into if you asked Kiseop. He could never do that with his Chuck Taylors. Kevin held out a hand and he took it to help him get up.
“Let’s go.”
Good conversations over a nice warm cup of coffee, what more can Kiseop ask for? The place still had a considerable number of costumers on an early Sunday morning. This really is the city that never sleeps, huh? He was also surprised to see some taxis travelling with passengers who seemed to be in business suits by the window.
“What are you thinking about?” Kevin suddenly asked. It was one of those questions to which he already had an automatic answer to. “You.” He grinned. This got Kevin a bit dumbfounded. “Really?”
“In context, yes, since you asked the question, I was thinking of you. But maybe it’s just Kibum’s personality rubbing off on me. Does he do that to you?”
“What? Randomly kiss me?”
“Yes!”
“Well, let’s just say we didn’t really get along even before we joined NH Media.”
“You’ve been fighting for that long already?”
“Yeah. But it wasn’t like I wanted to fight with him. It’s just..” Kevin went silent for a bit before continuing with “I don’t even know why we used to fight. I guess it was because he thought it wasn’t fair to record English versions of our songs when the only one singing would be me. Yeah, that’s it. I know it’s unfair but it wasn’t like I can just say no whenever I wanted to. And that continued until U-kiss. And there was already some tension when we arrived. Whatever.”
“So he doesn’t really annoy you?”
“Nope. I felt that bad we had to waste time fighting instead of being friends.”
“At least you’re getting along now.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to raise your ego, but I have thank you for that.”
Kiseop chuckled. “Nah. You would have figured it out by yourself. I’m starting to feel you were right about me being just an accessory member though. That’s what I thought when I entered.”
“Again, I’m really just…”
“I already told you. You’re forgiven. I just can’t help but think about it sometimes. It’s working well, don’t you think? You’ll have me on your ‘thank you’ message for every hit we make.” He winked.
“Aw! I knew I shouldn’t have said thank you!”
“Haha! But you had to!” They both laughed.
After the coffee, they walked back to their dorm and decided on going back to sleep. Kiseop hid his head behind Kevin’s to block off the light as the gray curtains once again started turning yellow. Kibum snuggled behind him and whispered “Did you guys get me anything?”
“There’s a bagel in the kitchen with your name on it.”
Author's Note: I'm sorry for the late update. I did have sort of a writer's block. And I went out Friday night with a friend from 3rd grade!! Wasn't that awesome? Okay. I'm sorry. Sheesh! Haha! Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! Wow. It's so late at night. Oh, and here's some trivia: Shandi Sullivan from America's Next Top Model Cycle 2 works at Pianos on Mondays for karaoke night!