1 Banter

"Yo, I heard you broke another record in sales… Congrats…" Haku yelled out and ran to Hwa, who was standing by the door of the changing room.

"Hey, yeah, and guess whose record it was," Seonghwa teased him because the previous record-holder was GoCHU, Haku's group.

"You might have broken it now, but we will have another comeback soon, so you won't be there for a long time." Actually, Haku and his group were there for pre-recording already, so it would be broken sooner than Hwa thought.

"Is it hard again? Concept?" Normally they weren't talking about this, but Hwa was a bit curious. Haku looked around to see whether there were people around, but they were alone.

"Gods of Hell. BPM is pretty high," he shared, knowing Seonghwa would never disclose it. An explosive comeback, for sure.

"Hope you do good. We are almost done. Finally, I will have some free time for a moment. You and me, meal?" he asked and Haku laughed.

"That sounded like a date. Be careful with our interactions. SEAs might think I will steal you from them," Haku joked, but agreed with the meeting. They were best friends, of course. He couldn't say no to Hwa.

And they really went for the meal. Much more later. After Haku's promotions ended. And Seonghwa was pretty grumpy.

"I told you, you shouldn't be so happy. That we will take our record back." Haku laughed and placed the meat on the grill in front of him. Seonghwa bit his lip and placed corn on the sides.

"Don't even talk to me about it. It was a hundred and twenty albums. Forty sets… I don't believe how close that was…" He humphed and then let go. It was just, as usual, friendly banter between them. Much less heated than their fandom wars were.

"That's more fans than you have," Haku said and stuck out his tongue at Seonghwa. But Hwa only laughed and stole the meat Haku was reaching for and put it in his mouth.

"I will steal all of your fans. There won't be any left when I'm done." Seonghwa grinned and raised the glass of cola he had, cheering on Haku.

The door into the private room opened and the rest of the groups barged in. They actually invited everyone over. It was nice to have a once in eternity party with just the twelve of them.

"Insu and Yoongi are saying sorry. They can't come, because they have to go home and discuss something. I forgot what they exactly said." Ten of them… Junseo was the second youngest in Haku's group looking so mature. It was completely opposite to Hwa's group's youngest, where Kangmin and Sunjun looked like they were still sixteen despite being far over twenty.

"I heard you are going to Beijing this time…" Doyun asked, grabbing the chopsticks and scissors. He was now the one in charge of the grill. So everyone around could have their time. And Doyun would relax while cooking.

"Mmm, the last part of our tour," Jaemin answered with his mouth full of meat. They hadn't eaten barbeque in a long time, so now they were all enjoying it.

"Be careful at the airport. We were once tailed after leaving. They actually tried to know where our hotel was." Chanyeol shared his worries and Jaemin nodded seriously.

"You should be extra careful." Hyunjun looked at Hwa and smiled at him. Everyone looked at him, confused.

"Why should you be extra careful?" Haku asked and placed more meat inside his mouth, almost dying with pleasure.

"I have a solo gig, so I'm leaving later with the manager, flying there alone," Hwa answered, and that was it. They all were too busy eating to ask any more questions.

When soju was brought in, Seonghwa and Haku showed they had great stamina. They weren't as drunk as others, even so, they made a hilarious bet.

"The first fan of yours I will meet, I will make them like C-LAND instead!" Hwa shouted, raising the glass again. Haku just laughed and raised the glass, too.

"Good luck with that. My Gami are too loyal to change their bias group just like that!" Haku shouted and others just drunkenly raised their heads from the table.

"Don't shout idiots, others will hear your voices!" Jaemin hissed and opened his phone to call their managers. They were ready to be brought home.

"What's the prize?" Hwa exclaimed, but lowered his voice. Haku pondered for a while and then he chuckled.

"You will publicly admit you like Gochu! But not only like, but say you look up to us and I'm your role model and you would love to be like me. And for the private part, you will have to do what I want for a day." Haku snickered, and Seonghwa was too shocked to answer. But then he nodded and reached out with his hand.

"If you lose, you will do the same," he said and confirmed the bet with their handshake. The rest of their group just shook their heads, getting ready to be brought back to their houses.

***

Some time later, Seonghwa arrived at the Beijing airport. Many fans were already waiting for him, their cameras ready and screaming when they saw him.

Hwa was really glad he had not only the manager with him but that his agency contacted a security agency and the airport security, otherwise he would be smashed by the people.

At one place, in a hallway that was a bit narrow, he saw the crowd getting especially dense. They were pushing against each other and he once almost was punched by the long camera lens in the face. Thankfully, the security guard pushed the person away. But what happened because of that, made Seonghwa wince.

There was an innocent woman walking in front of him, minding her own business. And probably having wireless headphones in, because she didn't hear the yelling.

She was knocked down by the mass of people and the pain she yelled out with sounded terrible. Everyone stopped and Seonghwa even froze in shock.

The crowd made a corridor to see what happened and Hwa quickly ran to her and kneeled beside her.

"I'm so sorry. I hope you are not injured," he said in Korean, "you damaged your shoes. I'm really sorry," Hwa continued, then stopped for a while, thinking that he was stupid not talking in English to this obvious foreigner.

"Excuse me, can you lift your leg?" she asked in Korean and actually crawled to his feet. He jumped back, startled, and he was confused even more when he saw a phone he was standing on.

"I'm so sorry. It's all my fault… If you tell my manager, I will compensate you," he said. She picked up the phone and turned it around. Seonghwa noticed there was Haku's photocard in the case and he remembered the bet they had together. He wanted to say something. But the girl just took off her shoes, stood up, and walked away, ignoring him.

Like a queen. Hwa was stunned, staring at her. Then he turned back at the crow that was busily taking pictures of the exchange.

"SEA! Careful!" he said in English because that was all he managed to say, and then continued his walk. He missed his chance to make her into SEA… But he would definitely find someone else.