I was walking along the smooth stone wall, lip synching to my song, just to practice for the MV. I turned the corner, seeing Kaoru’s car pull up to the brick building. I sped up to meet him. When he got out of his navy blue limo, he noticed I was already in my outfit. That was typical. I was always early, on tours, I always overpacked, I was always prepared for everything. His circular glasses were on the tip of his nose, so he pushed them up with his tattooed arm. His outfit included a white shirt with black print stating: SAVAGE. Over that, he had a leather jacket with a high collar he was smoothing out. When he put the collar down, it revealed a few more tattoos.  His white hair shaded his eyes from the strong sun, not blocked by any clouds. He finally looked at me, his eyes happy.

“Hi, Kaoru. Have you applied sunscreen?” I asked. He smirked a bit and gestured to his face. It was pale, but without tattoos.

“I think a little sun would do me good,” he joked. I laughed, but the happiness didn't last long. Our manager came bursting out of the door, shoving us into the studio. Yukio, a small girl, with a big heart, strode out of the changing room in baggy pants, a hoodie, and a gold chain around her dark neck.  Makoto was practicing the dance, getting increasingly faster as he did. Shinva was crying in the corner, and Tatsunori, our manager, was looking proud, but stressed. I immediately went over to Shinva, Yukio followed behind  my heels, noticing her. Shinva was the youngest of all five of us. She had a lot of trouble with some dance moves, and struggled with going deep enough with the rest of us when we sang. So, Tatsunori yelled at her for not being as good as the rest of us, and often threatened to cut her from the band. Her family desperately needed the money, so when they learned she could sing, they sent her off to intern at K-pop Central when she was only thirteen. She was now sixteen, but compared to the rest of us, that was young. I sat down next to her huddled up body, and Yukio got down on his knees in front of Shinva.

“Tell me what happened.” Yukio said comfortingly, making Shinva’s sobs turn into frequent sniffles.

“My, sniff, my mom can't pay sniff the rent this sniff month. She called me to tell me to sniff, to work harder. I don't understand how you can sniff, work harder in a K-pop band, sniff.” he told us. Yukio smiled at her.

“Listen. You are working so much harder than any of us. It's okay that it's a little harder for you, because then you will get smarter from trying to figure things out. What about your drawing skills? You are SO much better than me at that. Don't be discouraged. Come on.” Yukio stood up and stretched out his hands to Shinva. Shinva took them, and they walked over to practice with Makoto. It was true. Shinva was incredible at drawing, painting, anything artistic. Kaoru slid to walk beside me.

“Is she okay? Anything different?” he asked.

“No, not really.” I answered him. We went to practice with the others.

After using Makoto’s technique of practicing, Shinva was almost flawless. She was shorter, so she had to be in the front, and in the front she couldn't see the other members to be in sync. So, they made her go through a few moves, and they were ready. They had already done recording yesterday, so they had the full track. Just filming today. The crew set up the cool quartz pillar background. We stood in formation for the first shot. Shinva was in the front row of two. She was accompanied by Yukio. Makoto and Kaoru were in the back row of three. I was farther away in my own little third row. When the dance music started, I would walk in between the four, making a pyramid shape. I sang first. Then we transitioned so that Shinva was at the tip of the pyramid, and she did her singing part. Then Makoto, then Kaoru, Then, Yukio went last. Her voice was so angelic and soft, while Kaoru was really low and rough. We did this on purpose, so that the crowd would be shocked. Once we finished the routine, we were breathing heavily and running in place, our usual procedure after filming. Tatsunori handed out bottled water to each of us.  Once our heart rate was slow and steady, Makoto spoke up.

“I suggest we all go to my house and cel-e-braaaaaate!” Makoto was such a party person. He was a social butterfly in everything. Yukio asked Shinva if she could come. Shinva nodded, beginning to act excited and antsy. Shinva lived in a run-down apartment, and she was so far from home. Makoto had a HUGE modern condo, with a pool, movie theater, BIG kitchens, {he likes to eat} and a whole bunch of other stuff a poor girl could never dream of. They took Kaoru’s car, it was the only car they had that could fit all of them. Kaoru had a HUGE family, so he bought a limo to fit at least half of them if they were going somewhere. The limo had two front seats, and the second row had three seats on each side, and then the third row was the same as the second, and the fourth was just two. Makoto hired a chauffeur to take us there so all of us could sit in the second row together. Me, Kaoru and Makoto sat together, while Yukio and Shinva sat across from us. Shinva was literally bouncing in her seat. Makoto was doing something on his chromebook he brings everywhere. I was curious to know what he was doing, but I didn't bother to ask. He was probably ordering stuff to surprise us with. I looked around at everybody. We had known each other for three years, and this was the only time our manager didn't know about one of our celebrations. Usually, when he knew, the paparazzi was all over us.  I was glad we didn't have to deal with that. The car skidded to a stop and we all climbed out. Once we did, Shinva did a cartwheel. I was so surprised I jumped in shock when she did. I looked to the others. They were just as shocked as I was. Except Yukio. She was smiling. Yukio and Shinva became best friends within a month of being in the K-pop band. So they know everything about each other. Our expressions of shock turned into smiles, my mood turning from excitement to satisfaction.

We partied hard, ate and drank, and even composed the beginning of a song.  I had so much fun, and looked forward to the next morning with my boys.  I knew that Shinva loved shrimp, and Hikaru loved lobster, and Kaoru liked anything with bread. Yukio liked soft foods. He had just gotten his braces out. I liked any food. I thought we should go to a seafood restaurant in the morning, so i reserved a spot. The party was going well, and then I suggested Spin the Bottle, but Hikaru and Shinva quickly refused. Kaoru seemed up for it, and Yukio was in the bathroom, so that idea backfired. Then I suggested Twister, and that seemed good. I beat all of them because I’m the tallest, and can stretch farther than the others. They all groaned when they lost, frustrated.

“It was super unfair. I should have thought of that.” Shinva whined. I expected her to start getting grumpy. She didn't usually stay up this late. I offered her a bit of chocolate milk, she needed caffeine to keep going. That was the wrong decision. She was now bouncing all over the place, almost knocking things over, just narrowly missing very expensive decorations. I winced whenever she did, happy that she was having fun, but very worried about my house. I decided to turn away and focus on Yukio. Her wrist was rapidly spinning with a whisk clutched in her hand. I gave her free rein of the kitchen, I had no idea what she was making, but she was currently grabbing something from the cabinet, putting in a few drops from the tiny bottle, and putting it back. He grabbed another one and did the same thing, but in a different bowl. Then he took the mixture and poured it onto a tray with specific circles. I remember somebody giving those to me, but I never knew what to do with it. He poured it so precise, and then just popped it in the oven. Half of the circles were blue, and half were green. He then started on something else, and then called to me without looking up.

“You could help instead of sitting there staring.” she suggested, and soon, I was mixing a teal filling, and he was grabbing something from her bag, it looked like strangely scented leaves. She grabbed a colander and put a small amount of the leaves in it, and then made a bowl of water and inserted the colander of leaves. She left the water there while she grabbed two packages from the pantry, laying it on the island, and she grabbed something from the freezer.  When all of this was on the island he went into the big family room, two rooms down. Everybody was in the lounge, but the family room was much bigger and luxurious. He came back, put the filling I had been stirring into a piping bag, took out the circles, which had expanded a bit. He took two of the circles, put filling on one of them, and laid the other on top.

“Repeat this with all of them, I'll go check on the eclairs.” He strode over to the oven and grabbed another tray out of it, but this finished product was very fluffy and airy, and they were rectangles. she took some other filling and inserted it into the eclairs. I was now done with the weird circles.

“Okay, tell the others we are moving into the family room. Make sure the fire stays lit.” she ordered. I walked to the lounge and told the chatting group what Yukio had said. We waddled into the family room, the fire lit, and a few minutes after we were seated around the coffee table, which had tea cups, and a warm teapot already on it. While we were sitting in comfortable chairs and sofas, Yukio came in with a circular presenting pedestal, with several layers.

“The first and third layers are eclairs, and the second and fourth are macarons.” she said as she set the beautiful baked goods down. She poured tea for all of us, and when I sipped it, it was the perfect temperature, and it had a twinge of mint, but it mostly tasted of chamomile and jasmine, with a bit of honey. It was the best tea I had ever had. Shinva was gazing in disbelief at all of the wonderful stuff around us. Kaoru was thanking Yukio, but very quietly, it was obvious he had something else on his mind. Hikaru was strangely silent. I ignored it, and took a bite out of an eclair. The batter was nice and soft, and the filling inside was creamy and lemony. I loved it. I ate a macaron, and even those were amazing.

“Yukio, where did you learn all this?” I asked her.

“My mother is french. She would bake these all the time, and I knew they were hard, so I helped my mother every night at dinner. I started when I was only seven, so I've had so much practice. I've prepared the ingredients to make an American dessert too.” she informed us. He took a fire poker thing, and stuck a marshmallow onto it. She stuck it close to the fire. she waited a few minutes, constantly rotating it. Once it was beautifully golden brown, she took a piece of chocolate and two graham crackers, and made a little sandwich with it. She handed it to me, and I took a bite, the marshmallow was melting and warm, the chocolate too. And the graham cracker balanced it all out with something that isn't too sweet. All i could say was

“Wow. Just wow.” Yukio looked sideways at Shinva, who had a bit of a pitying expression, but before Yukio could talk, Shinva spoke up.

“Yukio wanted to be a baker, own her own store, travel to Paris and learn more. She hasn't seen his mom since she was ten years old, she left to go back to Paris, because Yukio’s parents didn't approve of her.” Shinva said, just fast enough that Yukio wouldn't have to feel the pain of the memory too much, but just slow enough that we could understand what he was saying. Now I could understand why Yukio was always such a kind, comforting, motherly figure. She wanted to be like his mom, who was so gentle, but also scolded us sometimes. I was more of the dad, because I was more rough with the others. I wondered if this had been why Hikaru and Kaoru had been strangely silent, or maybe they were just awestruck. Either way, I had never seen Hikaru look so pale. His face was white as a ghost, his eyes darting from the plate, to Kaoru.

I watched the younger three slowly fall asleep, while me and Makoto stayed up later. Shinva was laying on an extra mattress that Makoto had, right next to Yukio. But Hikaru was asleep on the couch, and he looked really cute. I wondered why he doesn't have a girlfriend yet. He never talked about dating anybody. His ruffled blonde hair was spread out on the cushion, a strange look of longing on his face. Makoto got up.

“I’m gonna get us banana ooyoo.” He walked to the kitchen. After a few minutes, Hikaru started mumbling.

“Kaoru...what?” he asked, shocking me because I thought he had woken up. Then I noticed he didn't open his eyes. He continued to talk in his sleep.

“Um... oh…” when he said that, a look of complete satisfaction and happiness came over his face. All of his tensed muscles relaxed, and he stopped mumbling. I was still staring at him in disbelief when Makoto walked back in.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“He was talking. In his sleep. I guess it surprised me.” I explained. Then Hikaru did it again.

“No! Wait! Please…” he said desperately. Makoto sat next to me to watch.

“I shouldn't have told him. I shouldn't have revealed it. My life is ruined.” he said, sobbing. He woke up shortly after, noticing me and Makototo were watching him, he tried to stop crying, but it wouldn't work. He started to tremble a bit. His breathing sounded weird.Yukio woke up, noticed Hikaru, and rushed over, putting her arm around him. I noticed he was clutching his stomach. He tried to tell Yukio, but he was sobbing too hard, he couldn't. He threw up on the floor.

I was following them to the bathroom, concerned and surprised. Yukio left him in to finish throwing up, Makoto was cleaning the mess, and Shinva was sleeping soundly. Yukio walked over to me.

“What happened?” she asked, worried. I heard a door closing, but I assumed it was Makoto.

“Well, he was talking in his sleep, and then he woke up, and threw up.” I avoided any accusations. His face turned slightly pink in rage.

Click

I turned around, and Makoto was still cleaning.

“Have you been here while we were talking? Didn't leave and come back?” I asked him.

“No…” he answered, confused. I turned on my heel to the bathroom door. It was now closed. I turned the knob.

“Locked.” I informed them. I rattled it, but the only reply was his sobs. Yukio pushed me out of the way.

“Are you okay? Can you unlock the door?” she asked in a soft voice. No answer. Next method. Makoto walked forward.

“GET OUT HERE!” he yelled. The sobs became stronger, and we all backed away from the door.

“Do you know what he was talking about in his sleep?” Yukio questioned. I hesitated. I opened and closed my mouth several times before telling them.

“Me.” This shocked both of them. I heard a little gasp. It was Shinva.

“Shinva!” I scolded. Shinva got up, and walked to the door, and said something that sounded like

“Mở ra” The door cracked open, revealing Hikaru’s tearstained face. Shinva slid inside and locked the door again. They began speaking in a dialect I was not familiar with. Finally, Hikaru said something in English only I could hear, I was closest to the door.

“I was dreaming about Kaoru. He-he agreed, but then there was another one where he did the exact opposite.”

“Oh. maybe it's just stress of what he would say if you did ask him.”

Ask me what? And why was he scared to ask it? I thought to myself. It really didn't matter if they switched to english or not. This was all gibberish to me. I was curious, but I was more worried. Yukio looked a bit hurt, because of all the fun things he made, just to be hurled back up his throat.