#royal;thread

kibum hurries through the halls of the samsung building, his phone clutched in his hand still displaying the text that has him so worried and frantic in the first place. it’s from dongmin, and is uncharacteristically simple -- just a request for kibum to come to a practice room in the building. there isn’t any punctuation and dongmin didn’t use any sort of face or emoji -- this is the first time kibum’s ever gotten a text from him without those things, and somehow he just knows that it means something is wrong. 

he enters the requested room and finds the lights on and dongmin curled up in a corner, hiding his face in his hands. as soon as kibum sees him his heart lurhces, because he knows that position. he’s been in it himself too many times before not to recognize it. 

he crosses the room in a few strides, letting the door swing gently closed behind him as he does. he squats in front of dongmin when he reaches him and lays a gentle hand on his arm. “hey, kid,” he says, using the pet name he’s had for dongmin practically since the day they met. “i’m here now. what’s wrong?”

@jaehyunrk

as soon as the day ends, as soon as the trainers overseeing their stages finally tell them they can go home, kibum rushes to the hospital. he doesn’t care that it’s already late, and that he only has a few hours to shower and sleep before he has to show up for training tomorrow. he just had to watch the other trainees drop one by one, just like he did last year. except the only difference is that this time, he feels responsible for them. 

he’s particularly worried about jaehyun and dongmin, and he decides to visit jaehyun first almost at random. he quickly follows the nurse to his room, thanking her briefly as he enters and hurries to the bed. 

“jaehyun, are you awake?” he asks, silently cursing himself as he feels the heat of tears already start pricking his eyes. he ignores it, pushing them back and swallowing around the lump in his throat. he hates seeing this, jaehyun -- who’s practically kibum’s little brother, and has been for years -- lying in a hospital bed hooked up to an iv. it brings back terrible memories for kibum himself, and he hates the fact that jaehyun is here at all, no matter the reason. 

@jaehyunrk

kibum practically skips into the royal building that morning -- the morning after the afternoon he received random texts from jaehyun telling him that he got a contract with royal. he and rachel have promised to take jaehyun out for a celebration dinner soon, but it probably won’t be until the weekend. for now, kibum is determined to make jaehyun’s first day in the company absolutely amazing. 

the first few months of training are hard, and as much as he wishes he could, kibum knows that he can’t save jaehyun from that. but he can be here for the younger, and make sure jaehyun knows that he has support. that’s one thing kibum lacked when he joined royal -- feeling as though he had complete support from his sunbaes, who were kind to him, but not completely open. he’s determined to make sure jaehyun never feels that kind of helplessness here.

it doesn’t take long to find his friend in the dining hall, already clearing away his plate from breakfast. kibum comes up from behind and drapes his arm over jaehyun’s shoulders, bringing a hand up to ruffle the younger’s hair. “well, look who it is!” he laughs, even though thanks to the texts they exchanged earlier this morning and yesterday he’s not at all surprised to see jaehyun right here. 

@rkqri

kibum is so excited for the samsung commercials. for one thing, they’re commercials. everyone will have screen time, will be broadcast all over the country -- maybe even all over the world. for another, it’s essentially just themed modeling, which kibum has in the bag after two years under a modeling company in london. and finally, he’s on a team with two people he’s been close with for years. 

he may not know junhong that well yet, but jihyun and tiffany are a different story. he’s known tiffany for probably almost three years now -- since a couple months after he came back to seoul from london -- and he’s known jihyun for almost that long, since two and a half years ago when he first signed his contract with royal. and apparently they’re close with each other as well, so he’s excited for the three of them to get to spend time together. he’ll do his best to include junhong as well, of course -- he’s also eager to get to know other trainees from this as well, especially ones from other companies. 

@rkcap

it doesn’t take long after the announcement of royal’s sns ban for news to spread about who caused it and led to everyone’s punishment: bang minsoo and jeon wonwoo. their names weren’t included in the announcement, but it didn’t take long for trainees to figure it out and spread the word.

kibum doesn’t know wonwoo, since he’s a much newer trainee, but he does know minsoo, and has at least heard about and seen evidence of his bad habits concerning social media, especially considering that he’s a public trainee. and now that those bad habits have gotten not only him, but the entirety of royal in trouble, kibum can’t help but be annoyed. 

but when he finds himself next to minsoo during a break in their dance class, he sits down next to him and offers an unopened plastic water bottle as a sign that he isn’t about to chew the other out. he’s sure that minsoo and wonwoo have both been getting plenty of mean looks and long angry rants lately -- he doesn’t want to add another one to the boy’s shoulders.

new trainees. royal’s been abuzz with the news for a few days, with everyone excited to get some new people. today’s the first training day for those new trainees, and kibum is ready. now that his contract is renewed and he’ll be here for two more years, he wants to help these kids get adjusted to trainee life as easily as possible. he remembers his first few months as a trainee and how difficult they were, and now that he doesn’t have his contract expiration to worry about he wants to focus on helping out the newer trainees. 

he spots one when he’s finishing up breakfast, and recognizes her from the mgas. her name escapes him for a second, since he only really paid attention to royal’s team, but he remembers she was on one of sphere’s teams and didn’t make it to the finals. he does a quick google search on his phone to figure it out, and soon identifies her as kim seolhyun. he puts his phone away and moves over to her table, smiling down at her in greeting.

{ date: 9 august 2016 }

kibum hurries down royal’s halls, nearly skipping with glee. two more years. he’s here for two more years. he grins semi-wildly at everyone he passes, and while some of them seem rather shocked and weirded out by his expression, several people he knows grin in return, realizing what day it is and what must have just happened. kibum wants to jump for joy, wants to run to the rooftop and shout to the world that he’s staying right where he is for two more years. 

for once, he’s not going to have to lose it all. he’s not going to have to say goodbye to everything, watch his whole life shatter around him, and spend the next two years picking up the pieces. instead, he’s going to spend the next two years here, where he’s comfortable, where he’s working towards his dream. the dream for himself that so jisub apparently shares, since he decided to spend another two years training him. 

as he nears the cafeteria, kibum recognizes yien up ahead, and his grin somehow widens. he remembers at the beginning of the summer, he and yien worked together on a group evaluation, and they ended up having a serious talk, during which kibum admitted aloud for the first time how much he truly wanted to stay at royal. yien had been certain back then that royal would renew his contract, would want to keep him around, but kibum had his doubts. he still did, up until the moment so jisub handed him those papers just a little while ago. he had entirely expected jisub to tell him that the work he had done and the improvements he had made weren’t enough, weren’t up to royal’s standards, and that he wouldn’t be allowed to call this place home anymore. 

in the days after the finale of the mgas, kibum keeps an eye out in the halls of royal for the girl who was offered a contract: ahn hyojin. he only knows she was offered a contract, not that she accepted it. and even if she did, royal is one of the three largest entertainment companies in the country. there’s no guarantee their paths will cross much, or at all, which he why he keeps a look out for her. 

then, on wednesday morning, three days after the mga finale, he finally spots her in the royal diner during lunch. she’s on her own, and he moves after her to her chosen table. “do you mind if i sit with you?” he asks, nodding towards to the empty seat across from her. “i saw you on the mgas and i’ve actually been kind of excited to meet you,” he adds in a rush, with a sheepish laugh at the end. if he weren’t holding a full tray of food, he knows he would be rubbing the back of his neck nervously. it isn’t until the words are already out of his mouth that he realizes how creepy they could seem if taken the wrong way, and he wishes there were a way he could rewind time by a few seconds and say something different.