9. Concert Night

NINE

Their comeback is barreling closer.It hasn't been announced yet, but the date has been set. It's only three months out, and the announcement is coming sooner rather than later.

They got scheduled to do a last minute run of shows off their old album. The feeling of standing onstage never gets less deliberate or strange.

Soohyun stands there during soundcheck, when they're running through their checks and adjusting the lighting. He looks out at the vacant auditorium. It's so vast and perfectly lit with every house light on. When he was a kid, he could only dream of playing to a house this large. Now this is just their lives. It often doesn't even feel real.

"Check one, two, three. Check, check."

Staff members do the mic checks while they check to make sure they can be clearly seen under all the lighting cues. They run through a last minute rehearsal, pausing when the lighting manager calls out so spotlights can be adjusted.

Kim Joon stands back on one leg, shading his eyes against the bright glare.

"You worked hard today," the stage director tells them. "Go on backstage until call time."

They thank the workers and head backstage to the comfortable, furnished waiting room where all their stuff awaits. One by one, they sigh and melt into the furniture. Kiki takes a perch on the ground to better stretch his long legs.

No one ever told Soohyun that being an idol would come with so much waiting. They're always busy, but there's so much lost in-between time, too. When they're not recording their moments, there are a lot of them that get caught in the cracks. Right now, they're all that odd blend of tired and wired, buzzed and illuminated as they anticipate the first performance out of a run of three, and worn out from a full day of rehearsals.

Mouse falls asleep with his hood pulled down over his face, and Charis snaps a photo.

"Do you ever think of how much therapy we're going to need when this is all done?" Xiao Yu asks languidly.

"We're Korean men," Mouse says, tipping his chair back and making a face at the ceiling. "We don't go to therapy."

"Speak for yourself."

"Honorary Korean," Mouse retorts, jabbing a surprisingly accurate finger in Xiao Yu's direction without looking.

They've already had their turn in the makeup artist's chair, and now they're waiting for stage call. Charis does vocal warm-ups in one corner, and Miyong is warming up along the back of the other wall. Their dressing room is a noisy din, the way it usually is. Kim Joon is finishing up his dinner so he'll have enough energy to perform tonight. He spoons the last of the gravy into his mouth.

"I don't know how you can eat that," Mouse tells him. "Doesn't it sit in your stomach like lead while you're trying to dance?"

Kim Joon finishes swallowing and then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. The peachy stain on his lips is untouched. "No. It's not like I eat too much of it."

"Couldn't be me," Kiki says. He's having his own meal sitting on the ground at a low table, eating a bowlful of soggy Cheerios with a plastic spoon. He drinks up some of the milk. "Anything heavier than this, and I wouldn't be able to move."

Charis finishes his warm-up and drinks from a bottle of sparkling lemon water. "I don't know how any of you can eat anything at all."

It's well-known that Charis likes to go onstage with nothing in his stomach. If he eats anything, he feels like it weighs him down. Plus, there's always the chance it'll make him look bloated and puffy. His stomach grumbles a little, and he takes a few more mouthfuls of water. He'll go out to eat with Mouse and Soohyun after the performance is over.

"I'll go to therapy with you," Miyong says.

"Who's doing anything to our maknae to make him need therapy?" Mouse demands.

Kim Joon looks up from his cellphone. "He can go to therapy if he wants."

"Couple's therapy," Mouse grins with teeth bared in a sharky smile.

"You and Soohyun first."

Xiao Yu's rough, barking laughter fills the room, with Kiki laughing as well. Even Miyong is startled into stifled fits of giggles. He looks pleased. And Kim Joon looks quietly satisfied as he turns back to the app on his phone.

He does this sometimes. He's so quiet most of the time, but every once in a while, he'll come out with a zinger that could make the most hardened men weep.

"Yeah, yeah, yuk it up," Mouse grouses. He's not really mad, though. Mouse is the very definition of the adage that you shouldn't dish it out if you can't take it, and Mouse can definitely take it.

Mouse is currently bundled up in a grey hoodie looped over the top of his costume. The rest of them are in comical states of in-between as well, with a mishmash of loungewear, stage makeup, and leather-studded, sequined costumes. Soohyun still has his terry sports jacket on. Kiki and Kim Joon are wearing slippers.

"Not tweeting to your Charms today?" Charis asks Mouse.

Mouse flaps a hand. "I'll send a selca later."

"Alright, time to stretch," Kiki says, clapping as he gets everyone up from their respective piles on the sofa, chairs, and ground.

Despite his actions disrupting everyone's comfortable, slouchy repose, not a single groan goes up from around the room. On the contrary, they're all too excited. An air of quiet, palpable, buzzing excitement fills the room. They take up positions against the wall to stretch together as Kiki calls out movements—stretching their legs, arms, backs, and necks to prevent any injuries once they're on stage.

Charis stretches with quiet focus, making his neck lean and limber, grabbing his hands to pull and twist when prompted. It isn't as though he has a real injury, but he of all people is very careful with his body to prevent his old injury from coming back.

As they're wrapping up, a staff member pokes his head in the door to say, "Fifteen minutes until showtime, everyone get into your positions backstage."

They strip off their outerwear, appearing to each other as the gods of the stage they always become once they're under the lights, in the presence of all those screaming, shining fans. It's the strangest kind of metamorphosis. Their stage makeup looks livid and stark. There's not a single one of them that doesn't undergo this strange and wild transformation, turning from the cute, lovable—sometimes frustrating, sometimes filled with problems and frustrations—selves they know themselves to be and becoming the idols that everyone adores.

Backstage, they can hear the screaming roar of the crowd. The rhythmic, thunderous sound of feet stamping fills the auditorium, and everyone is chanting their name.

They put their hands together, standing in a circle.

"One, two, three," Soohyun counts off.

Their blood is faintly buzzing. Even Charis is filled, illuminated from within, buoyed up and full of the stunning need to go, go, go.

"Fairytale!" they all yell in a united roar. "Fighting!"

Their hands go up as one, and they're breathing harder, their hearts pounding and their blood pumping. This never gets old. Never.

A stagehand dressed all in black confers with someone over their headset, the words drowned out by the music and the sound of the crowd. They turn to Fairytale united and give them a signal.

Go! Go, go, go!

With a growl and a burst of energy, Mouse runs onto the stage first. The already loud roar of the crowd grows deafening. The screams rise as their fans see their Dark Prince. Not to be outdone, the others are right on his heels, quickly behind him. Charis, Kiki, and Miyong take to the stage, followed by Kim Joon, Soohyun, and Xiao Yu in the last wave. They stand in formation, beaming smiles and waving to the audience.

"Hello, and welcome to our show!" Mouse booms. "Are you all excited to be here tonight?"

The crowd goes crazy, and Mouse eats it up. He flashes them that same sharky grin.

"Are you excited to see us? Because we're excited to see you." Soohyun takes over, looking tall and powerful as he strides across the stage in his thick platform combat boots.

The screams rise in pitch and volume.

Now it's Kiki's turn to stride to the edge of the stage, putting his hand over his beautiful, sharp eyes and making a show of scanning the crowd before coming to prop an elbow on Soohyun's shoulder. "It looks like very many Charms came out to see us tonight. Thank you for coming to see us!"

He raises his hand and waves, earning his title of the Beauty Prince as everyone in the crowd succumbs to his charms once again.

Kim Joon does a fresh and graceful little turn, calling all eyes toward him, stealing the show from Kiki without even saying a word. He does say a few words, though, in his soft, gentle voice. "We love spending time with our special Charms."

"Hey, hey, hey, are you trying to leave me out?" Xiao Yu asks. The interaction is scripted, but it seems no less genuine or enticing every time. The Wild Prince makes everyone fall to their knees.

"Me too! Me too!" Miyong says with all of his youthful charm, bounding up behind Xiao Yu and pushing on his shoulders, hanging over his arm to wave energetically at the crowd. "Don't forget about me!"

On the stage, he's devastating. All his youthful softness is cleaned and sharpened up. His strawberry blond locks are slicked back, and there can be no doubt that he, too, is an idol. In the crowd, the girls swoon at his feet.

And last but not least comes Charis, not vying for attention like the others but standing apart and above it all. Benevolent, separate, but still included. Here is Charis to round out the play of their intro and start the show.

"We hope you'll succumb to our charms," Charis says, voice clear and frosty as a bell as he stands at the edge of the stage, illuminated in white, looking out. He offers a soft smile that makes many people in the audience, sitting in their seats, safe and cloistered in the dark, gasp quietly. His lips are clear and pale, with just a hint of pink softness. His eyes, behind their blue contacts, lose some of their chill and become incomparably warm when he smiles. To see that smile feels like catching a snowflake in your hand, fleeting and lovely.

"Let's fall deeper in love with each other on this spellbinding night."

And that's the cue for the music to start. They go right into a live rendition of "Spellbound." It's one of Charis' favorites. It's a sexy tune, sinuous and befitting of its name. It's like a siren call, asking everyone in the audience to fall deeper in love with them.

What do you think?

What do you think when you see me?

Do you fall in love with me?

Because I love you

Under the charmer's moon

I love you

The sound is crisp and fresh. Their bombastic, eye-catching number rolls into a new song, this one a bragging song about fighting spirit where Soohyun, Xiao Yu, and Mouse take the center with the more delicate members staying behind.

Even Charis gets to growl and roar in this song, stomping his feet and rocking out onstage.

They go through several wardrobe changes, and one of Charis' favorites is the hairstyle that has his long hair braided tight to one side of his head, slicked back to make the look of a kind of harsh undercut. The bottom of his hair is sprayed with a temporary red to match his equally fierce looking eye makeup to give him a ferocious look.

They stomp and strut, dance and sing. Charis wishes they had more shows, more nights like this. It's only a two-night run of shows, but he forgets that for now. He forgets everything, his pain, his fear. He exists only in the moment and only onstage. For now, everything else melts away, and the wild and youthful princes own the night and own the stage.