Birthrights

Sunyi looked up from her spot on her the bed of her hotel room when she noticed the envelope slide under the door. She missed Seoul, but that mostly meant the instruments she had to leave behind because as hard as she and Tanye had tried to work it out, they could never fully justify dragging a tuba or a bass across the globe. She picked herself off the bed, walking over to the door on the other side of the small room before taking the envelope in her hands. The handwriting on the front of it was unfamiliar to her, and when she peaked inside, her eyes widened once they recognized what was in the envelope. 

Sunyi grabbed the door handle as she pulled the tickets out of the envelope, still not fully believing that someone had just slid two tickets to see the symphony at the Syndey Opera House under her door. Without thinking, she pulled the door open, poking her head out into the hallway to presumably find whoever had given her the tickets. 

“Hey, wait!” she called out towards the silhouette that was shrinking down the opposite end of the hallway. She didn’t know what possessed her to catch up to them, but she found herself inevitably slowing down once she recognized that it was Nathan. “I, um,” Sunyi had already started tripping over her words, her eyes landing on every other spot in the hallway besides the boy that had been occupying her thoughts for weeks now. “Did you, uh…” she gulped, whatever courage that had made her catch up to him now completely abandoning her. She held the tickets and envelope ever so slightly up in his direction. “Did you leave these?” 

Nathan really hadn’t expected her to come after him. He had been banking off the fact that they seemed to be so similar, meaning that she-- like him-- would be more likely to hide in her room and wait for her roommate to come back so she could gush to them. Because that’s what Nathan would do-- wait for Jaejin or Sinhye and then explode, looking for advice. So when he did turn around to see the pretty girl who had caught up with him, he was a little flustered, rubbing the back of his neck and wishing he had worn a hat that he could hide behind. 

“You have two sisters, do you have to pick which one you like more?” Mihye asked in response. “I cheered for both of them, I just wanted Mirae to win like she set out to and I wanted Myungji to have fun performing and show off her talents as well.”

“yes. i like ginny more. mira is little and likes kicking me and likes min better than me and he’s not even our brother,” he replied blandly. he liked mira-- he really did. he loved her. but ginny was his favorite. out of all his siblings. even gabriel. “makes sense i guess, yeah.”

“why would i even be jealous.”

“don’t fuck with me, jae, we all know how much you’d kill to share a room with seyeon.”

“have you tried talking to her about what’s bothering her? it’s probably unity’s disbandment or frontier stuff but still, you never know.” sebin paused for a second, “it could even be something like boy troubles.”

“it’s like 80% boy troubles-- you didn’t know?” nathan said, quirking his eyebrow. maybe he shouldn’t know either-- he’d just heard seyeon talk to sinhye about it. but still. “she and aj are a thing now. i think. she likes him a lot.”

“I wish, but I still have to keep a two-year-old from running off towards any group that his mother taught him the dance to,” Ilsung sighed, laughing softly. “Or keep him from asking why light reflects off of Kisu’s nipples sometimes.”

“gross. poor kid. kisu really ought to be age-restricted.”

“no! i’m not jealous!”

“aggressive much? you’re totally jealous.”

“god if you missed the prospect of my cuddles so much you could’ve just said,” sebin teased with a light laugh, “that sounds about right, though. if you said anything along the lines of, well, calm and quiet, i’d be worried.”

“i know her well enough to know that calm and quiet means that there’s just a shit storm happening in her head-- don’t worry,” nathan sighed, giving a little shake of his head

“That’s what I end up doing sometimes. I like to watch Empire’s set…. I usually hang around for a couple hours after my stage, then leave for a bit or just hide in the back, and come out again for the last hour or two.” She nodded. “I guess it’s not all that big of a change for groups.”

“i just feel bad for fusion,” nathan admitted. “they don’t really ever get a break. they must always be so tired and sore.”

“Do you guys have a big room? It seems like it’d get cramped if you didn’t. But, with such a big group, I guess you’re probably used to not having a ton of room.”

“it’s not the worst-- it’s not a small room. a bed for sinhye and jaejin, a bed for seyeon, and then i take the pull out couch usually. sometimes seyeon and i swap.”

“I wouldn’t want to break any rules, but maybe if we asked, they’d let her come out for a set one day and say hello to all the fans.”

“i mean, blame it on matty. no one would doubt that she’d bust a few rules. i don’t think she’d mind.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. I wish they’d either have us do more stuff together or just stop saying we’re sibling groups.”

“i just want to do more things with all of the acts at ds. radioactive makes it a whole big deal that all their artists are a family, and like....yeah sometimes it’s super fake and sometimes it’s annoying, but it looks nice. and fun. and they do a lot more shit together.”

“Thank you, Nathan. I’ll be sure to follow your advice next time.”

“you really should. i give good advice.”

“we’re straddling enemy lines, you could say,” tomi suggested with a laugh. “the rivalry between companies was never a big deal to me anyway, though, and after being on idol project and in unity with people from all three, it really doesn’t factor into anything for me at this point.”

“i mean.....my dad and sister are at radioactive. hojung and mom-- lucy-- are at spotlight. for me, it’d make legit no sense for the rivalry to be a big deal, you know? so i feel you.”

“sorry - i know it’s not really the answer you wanted, it’s just how it happened for me,” jenny apologised. “maybe…maybe the people who decide these things these days saw something in you as a trainee that made them pick you. or, crappy as it sounds, maybe they just based it on your family background, thinking it was the best bet on a publicity basis.” she paused, thinking, before eventually saying, “really, though, it doesn’t matter all that much. what matters is what you do with that position now youve been given it, and take it from me, nathan: you’re doing a good job.”

“nah, don’t worry about it-- i don’t really think i expected to get an answer,” nathan admitted. he sighed, shaking his head a little-- the one about family kind of made sense. they definitely publicized that andrew woo’s son was debuting in their next group, though he didn’t remember if him being the leader had ever been hyped up. it’d’ve made sense, though. he gave her a little smile, though, rubbing the back of his neck. “thanks. i appreciate that.”

“i don’t know how anyone could ever doubt the pair of us.”

“there are stupid people everywhere, jaejin.”