┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁۪ 。˚ ✧

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁۪ 。˚ ✧

It was the day of the rock festival and Heereum woke up at four in the morning. She sat up in her bed and stared around the darkness for a bit. She couldn't believe the day of the actual concert was here.

GUIS were supposed to arrive for soundcheck at noon, so she still had a few hours to sleep and get ready. But as always—before every concert Heereum played—nervousness made its way into her system and woke her up.

She was biting her bottom lip while nestling back into the warm blanket of her bed, staring at the ceiling above her. In a few hours she would be backstage with artists like Baek Yerin, 5 Seconds of Summer, Alec Benjamin, Shania Twain, AKMU, HONNE and Epik High.

It felt like a fever dream.

When they released the music video to their newest cover, I Wanna Dance With Somebody and got positive feedback from their fans Heereum felt a wave of pride washing over her body. She was proud to be part of GUIS and making music with the people who meant the world to her.

She sat up once again, grabbing onto the notebook on her bedside table and flipping through its pages until she found their setlist for today. "I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Carry on Wayward Son, Ment, Teenage Dirtbag, Starving (Sunoo and Yujin Version), Ment, Oops!, Dirty Little Secret, Ment, Thriller" read the Aquarius and sighed.

Their setlist was perfect. They had practiced every second of their free time and put their heart and soul into it. It showed all the different sides from GROWING UP IN SEOUL and Heereum knew she would be able to surprise people with it.

Still she felt nervous. What if their music didn't click with the audience? What if they thought GUIS was lame? A sigh left Heereum's lips and she laid back in her bed. She didn't like overthinking things, but as she had two Gemini placements in her birth chart she was prone to overthink everything.

From wardrobe malfunction, to forgetting lyrics on stage or even tripping. All these things were taken into consideration and created a pit of fear in the bottom of Heereum's stomach. And then she started overthinking things, which caused her to feel sick.

A groan left her lips as she kicked her blanket off her and put her notebook back on the bedside table. Groggily she climbed out of her bed and over to the window. In the distance she could see the sun slowly rising through a thick layer of fog—or fine dust, however you want to call it.

The weather forecast only said good things about todays weather. It wasn't too hot nor too cold and it would only rain late at night—great conditions for an open air concert.

Heereum opened her window and let the fresh breeze enter her room. The cold air tickled her arms and made the thin hairs on her body stand up. A yawn left her lips before she went to rub her eyes.

She hummed a song, while she started cleaning her room. It was four in the morning and Heereum had nothing better to do than to clean her room. She wanted to keep herself occupied—distracted.

But soon tiredness began to wash over her again and she crawled back into her bed. Just as she cuddled into the blanket, a soft knock was heard from her door. "Come in" she whispered and the door opened.

Sunoo poked his head and freshly dyed pink hair into the door. His cheeks were puffy and his eyes were nothing more than crescent moons. "Can I cuddle with you?", he asked as he entered the room. He wore a soft, short legged and sleeved pajama and smiled softly at his best friend.

Heereum nodded and scooted over, while Sunoo gently closed the door of her bedroom. He crossed the room and slipped into Heereum's bed, gently draping the duvet over the two of them. He smiled at Heereum, as the Aquarius cuddled closer on the Cancer and gently rested her head on his chest.

"Nervous?", asked Sunoo and Heereum nodded. "You know me. I always overthink things. We never played a gig this big and there will be super famous people here" Heereum whispered and felt Sunoo gently stroke the top of her head. "Like what will we do if the people don't like our music?", she asked and looked up into Sunoo's light brown eyes.

The pink haired boy chuckled. "There's no way we were asked to perform at the festival, if the people didn't like our music." The duo laid there for a while, quietly cuddling with each other. Heereum played with Sunoo's fingertips, while the boy quietly snored.

Deep inside Heereum knew they were going to be alright. But she still worried about the little things. Sooner or later tiredness washed over her as well and she fell asleep on top of Sunoo's chest—the rhythm of his breathing lulling her into a dreamless slumber.

When Heereum woke up the second time, Jungwon bursted into the room. He was still wearing his pajamas as well. "Chaeyeon-noona and her classmates are here to do our hair and makeup" he yelled when he saw Heereum and Sunoo sit up in her bed. He didn't think much about it.

"Noona said to take a shower and leave your hair wet" he simply added before leaving the room. "You heard the boy" Heereum said and climbed out of her bed. The clock on her phone said eight a.m now.

After taking a shower and putting on a bathrobe, Heereum walked downstairs into the living room-turned-make up room where Lee Chaeyeon and her classmates from beauty school was preparing GUIS's hair and makeup.

Heeseung was sitting on the couch, frowning. He wore a GROWING UP IN SEOUL Staff shirt and held three other shirts in his left hand. In his right hand he held his phone and was busy calling someone. Riki and Yeonjun were looking through a few lists. Riki also wore a GUIS Staff shirt and Yeonjun wore the same shirt, only that it said Manager instead of staff.

Heereum looked around when a young woman walked up to her. She had doll-like features and beautiful brown eyes. Her hair and makeup was perfect and she had a million dollar smile on her lips.

"Hi, I'm Jang Wonyoung" she introduced herself, "I'm a third year Highschool student and take afternoon classes at the beauty academy. I hope it's okay if I'll do you hair and makeup today" the seventeen year old smiled at the lead singer of GUIS and Heereum nodded.

"That's great! I'm a big fan of your band" Wonyoung started when she unwrapped the towel from Heereum's jet black hair. "I love how unique you make all these generic pop songs sound. Thriller is still a big talk at my school, even though it's been ages!", she chuckled and gently started to brush Heereum's hair.

"Do you have any plans for what to do with your hair?" Wonyoung asked and Heereum shook her head. She was baffled by how effortlessly beautiful Wonyoung looked and how pretty her voice sounded. If Ningning would be interested in women, it would be someone like Jang Wonyoung: fairy like princess.

"I'd love to have messy curls or something like that" Heereum mumbled, "I want to look as grungy as possible." She looked up to Wonyoung who grinned brightly. "Got it!", she grinned and started working on Heereum's hair.

It took Wonyoung almost forty-five minutes to curl Heereum's whole head. While the curls were sitting in hair rolls, she started working on the face. Heereum and her had decided to go for a bold eyeliner that still matched her eye shape and made her look cute yet edgy.

"Do you want to impress someone with your makeup today?" Wonyoung asked politely and Heereum blushed—even before Wonyoung had the chance to apply blush on her face. "My crush will be there" she whispered and Wonyoung's eyes widened. "Oh my god! Really?", she gasped and Heereum nodded.

"Then I have to do an extra good job so you can impress him!" Wonyoung chuckled and gently dabbed blush on the apples of Heereum's cheeks. Heereum didn't even dare to correct Wonyoung about the pronouns of her crush so she simply smiled.

While Heereum was getting ready, Heeseung had walked to the front door. His friends had finally arrived. Yeonjun had told Heeseung that the staff meeting would start in their house so Heeseung had to call his friends over when they were already on their way to the festival.

Heeseung opened the door to his three friends and sighed. "I'm sorry y'all have to do this" he said and stepped aside, letting the three men enter. "We're getting paid" a boy with ginger died hair grinned and kicked off his Nikes. "I'm glad whenever I can help, pal" a boy with an Australian accent grinned and took off his shoes as well.

The last boy only smiled shyly and entered the house after the other two. "Here are the shirts. GUIS' manager told us to wear these" he rolled his eyes and his ginger haired friend threw his arm around him.

"Can we meet the band now?", he asked and Heeseung rolled his eyes. "Please don't embarrass yourself, Beomgyu" Heeseung warned and walked towards the living room. Music was blasting from the speakers as Heeseung, Choi Beomgyu and the other two men stepped into the living room.

"Whoa, this place turned into a beauty salon!", Accent-Boy chuckled and Heeseung nodded. "The girl over there" he pointed to Chaeyeon, who was doing Sunoo's makeup, "is a beauty academy student and these are her classmates. They offered to help GUIS" Heeseung explained.

A tall boy with jet black haired passed by them, a camera in his hand, filming whatever was going on. "So" the boy with the accent started, "which one of them is your precious sister?" Heeseung turned to Sim Jake. "Don't you even try to hit on her, Jake" he warned and Jake lifted his arms.

"I'm just curious!"

Heeseung looked around until he found the curly mop of hair that belonged to his sister. "She's over there" he pointed at the place Heereum and Wonyoung were occupying. Wonyoung was currently powdering Heereum's face and smiling to whatever Heereum was telling her.

"That's Heereum" Heeseung said and Beomgyu nodded. "Wait she looks familiar" he then spoke and started laughing. "Isn't she the girl you knocked to the ground last night, Sunghoon?" Beomgyu asked and Sunghoon widened his eyes.

The tall, quiet boy opened his mouth and closed it again, as he had no words. "I guess she's the same girl" he whispered quietly, fumbling with the GUIS shirt in his hands. Before he or his friends could say anything else, a pink haired boy appeared in front of them and looked at them up and down.

"Those must be your friends, Hyung" the pink haired boy said, eyeing Beomgyu, Jake and Park Sunghoon with eagle eyes. Heeseung nodded. "Beomgyu's in my college department, Jake and I met at an Internet cafe and Sunghoon and I shared the same part time job a while ago." Heeseung said. "Guys, this is Sunoo, bassist of GROWING UP IN SEOUL and one of the founders of the band. Sun, these are the guys" Heeseung introduced Sunoo to his friends.

The pink haired boy was styled really prettily and Heeseung's friends could feel professionalism from the smaller boy. "Nice to meet you, I'm Kim Sunoo" he said and bowed politely. "Thank you so much for helping us tonight. It means the world to us!" He smiled brightly before heading back to his band members.

"He's cute" Beomgyu said and nodded, "not exactly what I imagined a rock star to be, but he's cute." Heeseung chuckled. "Sunoo's whole aesthetic is pink, peaches, cute and soft. He's the soft equivalent to my sister."

Heeseung looked over to the other three members of GUIS. They were still getting ready. "Put on the shirts, you can meet the rest later" Heeseung promised and shooed the boys into his bedroom so they could put on the staff shirts.

Once Wonyoung was content with the makeup and hair job she done, she stepped back and looked at Heereum. She had put on a dramatic eyeliner and a smudged smokey eye. It made Heereum look mysterious and hot.

"Wow, I love how that turned out" Heereum gasped as soon as Wonyoung showed her the finished look. "The hair and the makeup turned out so well, thank you Wonyoung!" Heereum pulled the younger woman in a hug and Wonyoung chuckled.

"Can I take a picture of your for my resumee?", asked Wonyoung and Heereum nodded and waited until Wonyoung took pictures of every detail in Heereum's makeup. After that Wonyoung asked for a selfie and squeaked in joy as she looked at the cute picture she had taken with Heereum.

Once Heereum was done with hair and makeup she went into the hallway to go and put on her outfit. She just walked past Heeseung's room, when she heard her brother call her. "Reum-ah, is it you?", he asked and Heereum hummed. "Come here for a second!"

Rolling her eyes, Heereum pushed the door open. "I need to get dressed, Oppa. We need to be at the venue in a—" Her words got stuck in her throat as she saw that Heeseung wasn't alone in his room. Three other men stood there, all wearing the grey staff shirts of their band. "I wanted to introduce you to my friends and todays roadies" Heeseung said and had to hold back his smile.

Even though Heereum's hair and makeup was looking flawlessly, the stupid expression on her face wasn't covered by the gorgeous makeup.

"Guys, this is my sister. She's the lead singer and guitarist of GUIS and one of the founders. Heereum, these are Beomgyu, Jake and Sunghoon." Heereum nodded politely when her eyes landed on Sunghoon. She blinked twice and clicked her tongue.

"You're the douchebag that pushed me last night!", she gasped and Sunghoon blushed. "It was an accident!", he immediately justified himself. "You could at least properly apologize!" Heereum crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at the taller boy.

Heeseung blinked in surprise and looked from his sister to his friend and back to his sister.

"I said sorry!", answered the boy, named Sunghoon, and furrowed his brows. "I just had to get my train, that's why I was rushing." Heereum rolled her eyes and looked at the three boys. "I hope Oppa told y'all what your job today is. Otherwise we won't pay you" she added, glared at Sunghoon and left the room.

What were the odds that the rude subway guy was one of Heeseung's friends? It made no sense to Heereum whatsoever. Shaking her head she walked upstairs to get dressed. She couldn't believe she had to work with someone as rude as this guy.

She entered her room and quickly got dressed into her outfit. After she got dressed she took a few selfies for their social media and then went back downstairs to wait for Yujin, Sunoo and Jungwon to be ready.

She sat down on the couch, drumming on her thighs as she watched her band members get ready. Yeonjun and Riki were running around the house frantically, giving orders to Heeseung and his friends.

Heereum could see Beomgyu and Jake carry their instruments from the basement to the van Yeonjun had rented for today. Heereum knew she could offer to help them, but with her stage fright it was better for everyone involved if she just stayed on the sidelines.

Once every GUIS member was dressed and pretty, Yeonjun called them to take a few group pictures at home—for their social media accounts as well. The band posed and then they had to climb the van.

Their soundcheck was in two hours and Heereum slowly felt like she was losing her mind. She put on her seatbelt, when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out and a pink hue covered her face.

Ningning-unnie: Good morning Reum-ah! My friends and I are already in line for the concert! We can hear other bands rehearse already. Can't wait to see your and GUIS later. xx Ningx2

Heereum's heart started beating faster and she took a deep breath. "Sun" she whispered and looked at Sunoo, who was sitting next to her in the van, taking selfies. "Ningning-unnie is already at the venue" she smiled and Sunoo grinned.

"She'll be so surprised to see how pretty you are today" Sunoo whispered back and Heereum blushed even more. It had been a while since she had last seen the Chinese woman. Her heart was more than ready to see her again.

As hopeless as it was.

— ❄︎ —

A/N: Thank you so, so, so much for 230 reads so far! I hope you like reading the story, as much as I like writing it! 

I posted this chapter in order to celebrate "Manifesto: Day 1"! I am literally so excited for Enhypen's comeback. Let's gaaaaaur! Enha also uploaded the Vlog from their trip to Germany for KPOP.Flex where I saw them live in May. 

As always,

𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠!

𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞.

𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

—𝕤𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕗𝕝𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕞𝕪𝕝𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕠𝕡