In Grave Waters

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” I gasped out loud in the production studio, causing the whole crew turn their attention towards us.

“What did you think I am doing here? I am here to compete with you!” The bald guy donned in whole Vertile and Crisy clothes of luxury symbols was none other than…

“YK! AT THE PRESENT!” I gave a side eye at the unhealthy amount of noise pollution I have been exposed since today morning.

Not only that but I had to skip breakfast as my alarm didn’t go off.

The cremates applauded at our greetings and started right away with their respected work. Along with some gossips as well about the two of us.

Well, I couldn’t care less about people who at least know when to get their work done.

I mean… when you’re in the presence of one of the best well known vocalist in the nation who wouldn’t possible try something funny-

“I JUST WANTED TO LET EVERYBODY KNOW THAT LANE HERE! WAS MY BUDDY IN TRAINING UNDER OUR TIME IN APEX ENTERTAINMENT!”

My mouth dropped down.

The make-up artists who were finished with applying powder on his cheeks and styling my black hair with silvery-bluish highlights dropped her tools on the ground.

Even the grown-up adults who don’t know anything about drama, knew something was up.

“Ahh…YK I may not work in the idol industry, but I just think you shouldn’t have done that.” EVEN GODDAMN CHOI BO-GUM HAD SOMETHING TO SAY!

“Well, with the said past. How about we rejoice our opportunities as a soloist and a leader? No more rookie mistakes, am I right?” I let out a small laugh that followed some sigh of remorse in his stead around the studio upon YK’s outburst.

But that did not deescalate the situation.

Instead, the bastard had the audacity to slung his heavy arms around slung his heavy arms around my shoulders, shining his gold and silver teeth towards the camera.

“AIN’T THAT RIGHT? BUD?”

Thankfully, we haven’t gone live yet….so I took him to the bathroom.

For a pep talk, of course.

“What’s up?” I started off with crossed arms.

“The ceiling.” He grinned at my dumbfounded face.

“THAT’S NOT-That’s not what I meant.” I pressed my temple for any common sense from this-

“Then, what did you mean?”

“Kong Yong. Stop the act. What’s your reason being here?” I dropped all formalities and went straight up against him. Despite him being older than me by 2 years, I overshadowed him in height.

Man, I really miss Tai here.

At least he is more tolerable than this.

“I just wanted to be here for my little bro-”

“Don’t call me that. We are neither stranger nor friends. Just acquaintance.”

“Just acquainted? Damn…That professionalism of yours…God dam it. It pisses me off so much so that I am here to degrade myself to drag you back up from the mess you’re in.” He pointed his fingers between us.

“Don’t tell me that you think this show will make the fans turn a blind eye to the controversy especially when your very own member’s currently in jail. Remember what happened back then? When they found out about you and the girls?”

“That happened because of you. And as for my little bro, I can take care of him by myself. No need for a big 5 company soloist to interfere into the matters of a nugu company.”

I quickly slammed the bathroom door on his face, getting my whole family line cursed down the drain.

Finally could breathe in, until the petrol stench shot through my nose.

Our studio is a fricking, ginormous garage of cars and cameras stuck in place by wire. I do trust the direction and trust in the process but man, I am getting concerned every second I take a step. In a dingy set-up, no wonder everyone’s in an awful mode.

Worst part, YK didn’t even take in account that a place like this can echo.

“How’s your ears, ladies?” A quick shade at the loudspeaker.

“You tell me.” Quynh, our company’s makeup star, and her assistant Lei were munching on some donuts and coffee.

“Here’s your box. Tai told me about your ‘epic revival’.” Lei snickered as she handed the small box of 6 donuts in glazing flavors of all my favorite things in the world : caramel.

“Man, sometimes he can be such an angel and then next thing he is doing a Mongolian throat singing cover of some metal song. That too at midnight.” I crouch onto the chair as the bite of the donuts supremacy dominated over the diesel and gas environment for a mere moment.

“Oh! We understand you very well. Didn’t we also warn you guys about his sleeping habits as well?”

“The snores… They…. they keep on making my insomnia look pathetic.” I glanced at neon green haired masked assistant who touched up my hair for the final time. While Quynh tightened her neon pink hair into a tight bun and worked on her face with the spare pocket mirror, she took snippet around the set for their shared Pookie profile.

She and Lei have a shared follower count of 580K followers.

Impressive for a half a decade long career.

“Still, I get so confused on how his character and,” I waved my donut-free-hand at them, “you guys are related like… I could never imagine Tai being your younger brother until you guys did that DNA test.”

“Hyung, he’s built like that!” Lei, the quietest of them all backfired my iconic line at me. Her soft giggles acted out of the somber fully black outfit fit she wore.

“Lei, we don’t have that much of an age difference. I ain’t that old.” I hovered my free hand over chest as if that shot tore through my lungs.

“Dude, please. I got kids calling me auntie.” Quynh handed me an extra pair of wet-wipes. The wipes almost slipped the out of hands at the declaration.

“Quynh, aren’t we the same age?” I interjected.

“Totally yea! Just four more years till you hit thirty!” She high-fived my stunt hand before pushing me right back at the red cross on the gravel filled pavement.

“LANE! WE’RE LIVE IN 60! GET IN POSITION! AND WHERE IS YK?”

Choi Bo-Gum frantically shriveled left and right in his seat before motioning his assistants to figure out where that loudspeaker went.

Man where is the guy? I should probably just go and drag his butt over here.

It would at least warm up my shoulders in this cold weather.

“Sir, if I-”

“Unfortunately, YK has had some scheduling issue and must immediately return to the company. ” The time froze with a sudden coldness in the air.

The murmurs and all other talks were silenced with only the sounds of heels clicking down.

A monstrous figure emerged from the dark.

My former company, Apex Entertainment, didn’t completely rely on their idols for their sparks, but were also tedious when it came to picking the most exceptional staff for their products.

Including PR management.

“You see, we didn’t come to know about sudden involvement in this interest. And thus the rushed agreement. We would like to withdraw him from this show.” The tall, slim-figured lady stood right at the entrance of the garage with the early light from the sun, rays breaking through the pessimistic atmosphere. The light blinded everyone’s eyes, making it harder for them to recognize the lady in black.

But, I already knew who she was by the way she commanded the her hands, hovering over her waist.

“Miss manager, I apologies for my bluntness, but YK signed the contract and must up hold the conditions, even just for one episode.” Full on producer mode, Mr. Choi went full on head with the white hair individual who stunned everyone in their breaths. All the staff held their breathes within the reach of the two of the biggest egoist in the room.

“If that so, then we shall pay the fine. How much? 1 billion won?”

My head shriveled from my neutral face to a crisis face.

The camera crew almost dropped their equipment.

“Hey…..ahhh, are you getting a bit too rude?” Even YK, who had just came out of the washroom, had the audacity to speak on how much of negligibly she had done from dismissing it to just numbers when they are the ones on fault.

“I am not much of a money man, but I can improvise into making an exit for him leave the show.”

Now, everyone was stunned.

Except for the woman in heels, who welcomed the new challenge in her red gloss. Her claps brought me back from my daze.

“Brilliant! Shall we get started? ”

Those red eyes of her brought shiver’s down the spine because I knew they were right onto me.

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“Okay…. so explain to me this. You got us two blindfolded in the garage and told us we were being taken to an unknown location. Never ever been to before. Mind you again : Never ever been to before. And that happened to be an aquarium? ”

YK pretty much summarized my difficulty in trusting the process of this dating show.

“You both have never been to an aquarium nor know what’s it’s location. Yeah…That’s pretty much it." Mr Choi went back to the staff for setting up the camera’s inside the now relocated studio : The Water From The New Dawn. Pretty fancy name for a unknown aquarium with little to no visitors.

For once, I agree with his frustration.

“You still want to be in this, Yongie?” We both jumped and felt the immediate presence of a devil the behind.

“YOU BETCHA! I AM-” Ignoring his criticism, she turned towards me.

The sharpness of those red eyes ceased to existence, and poured all their attention onto me.

“Jiseok, it’s been a long time. How have you been?”

The taunting, ominous front was no where to be seen.

But, as I had mentioned before, this wolf in tailored Fahni suit is none other the vicious, ferocious manager of all.

Hailed from the HR world onto the road is the red eyed ghoul.

YK’s elder sister.

Kong Yoon-Suh.

“I have been well, Sunbae-nim.” I bend with a light head bow.

“Isn’t that a bit too formal? We have-” Her eyes shifted between the two of us, finally acknowledging the elephant in the room.

“Seriously, even now?” Her impatience paved in her raspy voice, the very same one she used to scold us during our trainee days.

“Well, it’s best if you guys don’t.” My heart froze as once on the absurd comment coming from her, but my mind soon began to pick it apart for what she meant by it now as we are in different companies.

She finally takes me up to be a competent rival.

And yet, she still calls me by my name.

Gotta show her what they are up against.

“ALRIGHT! EVERYONE IN YOUR POSITION! WE ARE ROLLING AGAIN!”

Mr Choi right on beat. His usual attire was now diminished to a plain set of hoodie and pants donned with a niche pair of plastic sandals.

Man, I am really envying the forty-ish in such comfortable fit, while I am stuck in a plain-ish ‘blue lagoon’ captioned shirt and Hawaiian pants.

Same goes for YK. I feel at ease, knowing there is someone I dispute with regularly is in the same situation as me. Shivering at the start of November.

“LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!” At once the music of the aquarium soared through the air, illuminating the absurdity of today’s date.

Both of us in summer outfits while the sun is sleeping in the midst of the raining weather.

We are yet to see the sun as well as our dates.

And then we were handed a two fishing rods.

To fish them out.

“What-at?” YK was seriously doubting his choices very much, occasionally scratching his head with the rod. Making a big fatal mistake.

It’s magnetic hook got attached with his monochrome earrings.

While he struggled to take it off of himself, I managed to snap a photo.

Until the voice.

“HO-HO! SEEMS LIKE OUR TWO HEROES HAVE ARRIVED.”

A round of laughs boomed from the loudspeakers.

“ONLY ONE OF YOU GETS THE GIRL!”

The gust of smoke started to pour out and cover our already freezing feet and screwing us over even over by the ‘trust in the process.’

In the midst of the smoke, emerged what it seemed to be a small, stocked koi pond with no fishs to be seen. The it occurred to me....

What was the point of calling it a koi pond if it has no koi in it?

I looked up with YK who just shrugged.

We then looked back at the non-living pond with our fishing rod in place.

“HAHAHAHAH! EXCITED?” The voice beckoned us over.

“No.” We both turned our heads around, anywhere to escape the place, because I no longer trusted the process-

“WHOA! I think I caught something!” I flipped my head towards YK’s shriek as his rod was tugging on something. It became very agitated with the strings being stretched to it’s limit until he managed to pull out. Making him turned into a bean paste.

“Is that…… even a fish?” His already exhausted arms barely held onto the tiny orange fish that kept on thrashing it’s body and tail.

“HOHOHOHO! YOU SEEMED TO HAVE FOUND OUT THE GAME!”

“A game?” I then glanced back again at the fish and caught it by my hands.

What a clumsy guy.

In the dark luminous neon lighted aquarium, the robotic toy fish had a glow in the dark paint in yellow.

“3?” YK squinted his eyebrows at the fish, and then immediately a smile formed on his cheeks.

I don’t like where this is going.

“SEEMS LIKE ONE YOU MANAGED TO CRACK THE CODE!”

Tick,tick…

“What’s that tick sound coming from?” I really wish I didn’t ask the question.

At the very center of the pond, emerged a humongous open mouth clam.

On its tongue slept a very peaceful time bomb.

Saying we had 2 hours, 47 minutes and 13 seconds left on our lifetime.

“BUT SEEMS LIKE YOU ALSO FOUND THE DEBUG!”

“WHAT IS GOING ON?” YK threw his rod in protest, and clawed his hands around his bald patch. He has every right to have a meltdown.

Good to know he is still as clueless as me.

Gosh… this much for a lottery…

Wait….

I think i cracked the code.

“Are WE the one competing for the number of dates?” I tossed the fish back at the owner, accidentally hitting him wet on the face.

“WHY! THAT’S CORRECT! YOU HAVE FINALLY FOUND OUT! THE TABLES HAVE FLIPPED! IT’S YOU WHO’S GAMBLING THEIR LUCK FOR THE DATES! INSTEAD OF MONEY IT SHALL BE YOUR TIME! IT’S TICKING!”

“WAIT! DOES THE NUMBER OF DATES EQUAL TO THE MINUTES LOST?”

YK’s voice echoed at the immediate reaction.

Now that I think of it…does makes some sense.

“DING DING! YOU HAVE FINALLY FOUND THE DEBUG! NOW WORK AND FIND THE DECODER FROM THE FISHES!”

This new information just made it even more confusing.

Is the decoder another fish?

Or a tool hidden in the pond?

YK scratched his head and in frustration, tossed his rod against the ground.

Even I naturally am getting stressed by such a mini game…

Game……GAMES!

I tossed the rod into the pond again. I needed to find the decoder among the fishes.

“Right after you mentioned to find the decoder in the fishes, it reminded me of this quote ‘there are plenty more fish in the sea’. So, I am wondering if I pull out most of the fishes out, then that leaves out the decoder, right?”

As soon as my rod tugged, I immediately pulled out the fish.

“12.” I trembled at the fish flopping on my hand.

“HMM, MAYBE? HAHAHAHAH!”

I looked up at the timer and thus….

The time reduced to 2 hours 35 minutes…

Still no time to waste!

I tossed again and again and each time it got reduced.

17…

7…

4….

10….

11….

“Do these numbers mean the number of dates we get to go on?” I paused on YK’s sudden thought. He inquired while latching on to the rod.

His grip even tightened.

My hands turned white upon the sudden realization.

“So,the higher the number I get then may be my date could go on that said number of dates, right?” He stepped beside me, tossing the magnetic hook into the waters.

“May the best man win.” He pulled out a fish with the number ‘20’.

The timer went down even more.

“If the number means dates and the number of dates means episode….” My heart doomed at the sudden realization. If YK gets 20 dates that means he gets 20 episodes… and since each number is single and non-repeating…..that’s….

I have to win in this.

With no responses, sweat started to build up my neck.

My eyes scanned the pond, not for fish, but for patterns.

The glowing numbers…

The different colors…

The robotic movement…

This was a puzzle box…..

And if this show was modeled after a lottery, then the “decoder” wasn’t a thing to catch.

It was a pattern to input.

I looked directly at the nearest camera, a slow, calculating smile spreading across my face. “The decoder isn’t in the water. It’s the sequence, isn’t it? We have to give you a code.”

I finally pulled my rod out, heavier weight this time.

“If this is said to be in correlation with the quote and theme of love then it must mean that you’re the date!”

“Are you okay?” YK asked as he pulled out a fish.

“18. Not bad. But to think, that mic guy is some girl in her 20s…. you must be have hit your head with that rod.” His Hawaiian green floral shirt was drenched in water.

He has a passion for water.

“So?” I fired back at him.

A bit getting on my nerve.

“So? I think the mic guy is one of the staff member. Who would in their right mind make their idol suffer for them for these dates? Do you not getting it? These are themes and concepts. No deeper than the kids swimming pool. I mean this would be a worst first impression?” His arms loosened at the rod and whistled as if this is just some casual hangout.

“What did you just say?” I tossed my rod away and made my way to towards him.

“You still don’t get it,” I said, my voice low and cutting through the artificial aquarium music.

“You think this is about impressions. It’s not. It’s about proof.” I pushed him away from the pond. He quickly took note of the situation and yet had the audacity to smile.

“Proof of what?” He swung the rod at me, almost nicking me in the process.

“That it’s real,” I shot back, gesturing at the cameras, the pond, the ticking bomb. “All of it. The struggle, the desperation, the fact that we’re literally fishing for our futures in a pond while a bomb ticks down. No one would script this. This isn’t a concept; it’s a test. And she’s the one testing us.”

“What’s your proof of it!” He pushed me back, leaving the rod behind and began advancing at me.

“THERE’S NO NEED FOR PROOF! SHE SAW IT RIGHT HERE! SHE SAW HOW WE TOOK INITIATIVE! OUR VIEWS AND WHOM TO BE WITH!”

And then I snapped.

Punches were thrown, the music dimmed down and all I could feel was the swarm of hands dragging me down, pushing me against the ground.

My breathes became harsher.

My chest became tighter.

My mouth started to hyperventilate.

The accumulated stress and exhaustion of weeks, of years, finally breached the dam, and the effect of every missed hour of rest crashed down on me at once.

But, in the midst of it….

A soft, tender pair of hands descended upon my face.

The coolness slowed down the overheat with in me and in my final moments before collapsing, she said something.

Something so raw, so bleak.

Something that is meant to be kept private for the two of us.