Onyx: Truth

by J. S. Lee

  I puffed out a breath. It was cold enough for me to see it. “Well, it’s a good thing I only need to take your photograph because this would be awkward.”

  He looked at me with a puzzled expression. Then he stood. Still looking at me, he nodded his head towards the door, beckoning me to follow him. With nothing better to do, and somewhat curious, I did.

  We walked down the maze of tunnels which were strangely void of people. I wasn’t worried. I trusted Jiwon. It was weird saying that considering I didn’t know him, but there was something about his presence and his bright smile that was reassuring.

  He led me to a room a couple of doors down from where the green room was. I hadn’t ventured into this one when exploring and was still confused when I discovered it held a lot of cardboard boxes.

  Jiwon stopped, turning abruptly. While I managed to move my camera out of the way, I wasn’t successful in moving myself out of his way and went crashing into him. Jiwon wrapped his arms around me, steadying me. His hands held onto my arms, keeping me inches from him, and my heart started pounding against my ribcage. Slowly… very slowly… his hands let go of me, then they moved towards my breasts. My breath hitched as he tugged the zipper of Xiao’s coat down.

  The cool air whooshed in and I shivered, but I didn’t think it was because of the temperature of the room. Then the jacket was being slid off my shoulders. “You will get in trouble for wearing this,” he said. His accent was still there, but he was making an effort to speak clearly for me. Suddenly, he moved over to the pile of boxes, taking the coat with him.

  I blinked rapidly, feeling my face heat up in embarrassment. “I clearly need to get laid,” I mumbled to myself, bringing the backs of my hands up to my cheeks. They felt like they were on fire. I fanned myself, grateful that Jiwon’s attention was on the boxes, and that his English wasn’t good enough to have understood me.

  Finally, he turned back to me, this time carrying something black in a cellophane bag. He ripped it open as he drew near and shook it out: a hoodie. The front had the Onyx logo on, the back had a list of their names, and then a list of the tour dates and locations.

  Like a gentleman, he held it up for me. It was probably the biggest size. It was enormous and hung over me like the coat did. It wasn’t quite as warm, but it was snuggly. Before I could poke my arms out of the long sleeves, Jiwon turned me back to him, grabbing the sides midway up the zip.

  I stood there, expecting him to zip it up, but he didn’t. Instead, he tilted his head. “What does that mean?” he asked me.

  “What?” I asked, confused.

  “You need to get laid,” he tilted his head the other way. “Laid?”

  I hadn’t noticed until he spoke in English, but he had a thick accent. It was kind of sexy. Then I realized what he had asked me. “Oh!” I stared at him, then my eyes narrowed. Six guys, one of them American… was he really trying to convince me that JongB hadn’t taught them every dirty word and its variation in English, because I refused to believe that. “I’m tired,” I told him, innocently. “I need to lie down.”

  Jiwon tilted his head again. “I was up all-night dancing,” he said slowly. He had switched back to Korean, but it was like he knew I needed him to speak slowly so I could follow what he was saying. “Who were you doing all night to make you tired?”

  Who? Oh, JongB had damn well taught him that. And now I was curious… “It was just me in that hotel room last night,” I told him, giving my response in English. “Just me.”

  There was a brief pause and then Jiwon inhaled sharply.

  Yep… Thank you, JongB.

  Or wait, was this going to work against me?

  The hands around my new hoodie tugged me forward. “Next time, I want tickets.”

  “We’re about thirty seconds away from ‘next time’ being right now,” I informed him. I was feeling horny as hell, and his words, the way his eyes were stripping me of my clothes – the whole lot was turning me on.

  He muttered something I didn’t catch, low and throaty, and closed what little distance there was between us to mash his mouth against mine.

  My hands held onto his shoulders, using the leverage to pin myself up against him as I kissed him hungrily. I could feel his cock poking up against me, fighting against the soft cotton of his sweatpants. My mouth never leaving his, I brought my hips up, grinding against him.

  His response was almost guttural as he let go of my hoodie, reaching down to my thighs, and swooped me up. The slight change in angles as my legs spread had the seam of my jeans rubbing up against me, held in place by his contrasting hardness.

  Well fuck. Yes, I needed to get laid, but surely it was going to take a little bit more than that little bit of friction.

  Jiwon hoisted me higher, still clinging on to me, still kissing me, then he stumbled backwards. The stack of boxes went tumbling down, thankfully away from us, apart from the bottom box which we ended up landing on heavily. His strong arms stopped me from headbutting him. He pulled back, his dark eyes looking up at me in concern. “Are you OK?”

  “Not really,” I told him. Before his eyes could widen in panic too far, I ground up against him once more. When I let out a moan, he hissed. His hands moved to my butt, squeezing as he flipped me over onto the box next to him.

  Eyeing me up like I was his prey, he lunged for the buttons on my jeans, pulling them open, then tugging them down. My underwear went down with them and suddenly the cold air was on me. Exposed, he stared down at me. Then, he was on his knees and all I could see was a mass of damp, bright orange hair.

  His tongue, hot and wet, ran along my slit. I could vaguely feel the vibrations as he muttered something against me. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I hissed, flopping backwards as his lips circled around my clit, sucking.

  My eyes rolled backwards as a blinding haze settled over me. I was too busy riding out my orgasm to be concerned that it hadn’t taken much to get me there.

  Slowly, reality started to come back to me as I stared up at the ceiling above me. I propped myself up onto my elbows as Jiwon started tracing kisses on my pubic bone, moving up my body, his eyes fixed on mine. He had a devilish smile on his lips. “You needed that?” he asked as the kisses moved from skin to fabric.

  He paused, hovering over my breasts, then with a deliberate movement of his hips, pushed his cock against my still sensitive core. My elbows went out from under me as I crashed backwards. The movement knocked one of the boxes that had been teetering precariously and suddenly it was raining faces down on us.

  Jiwon lunged forward, putting himself between me and whatever was falling. He didn’t move until everything had stopped falling, at which point, he looked at me. “Are you OK?” he asked me, his accent even thicker than it had been.

  I nodded, looking down at what had been falling, trying to work out what I was looking for. “Are you – is that MinMin?” I blurted out. The ‘things’ looked like circular fans, each with different member’s faces on. “I’ve got to say, if MinMin was going to join in, this wasn’t how I envisioned it,” I added, turning back to Jiwon with a grin.

  The grin died when I saw his expression. He was looking at the fans, of the faces of his group mates, then looking at me. Guilt – that was what I was looking at. “Jiwon?”

  He looked at me, softly shaking his head. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, stepping back.

  That was a bigger mood killer than fans falling on us. “What’s wrong?” I asked, mortified. I hurried to get up, pulling my jeans back up.

  “I’m really sorry,” he apologized again and again, with other bits of sentences that I wasn’t quite following.

  “I know you have rules, and I’m sorry you broke them, but I won’t tell anyone,” I promised him, feeling crappier every time he apologized to me.

  He shook his head again, leaned over and kissed me – with just as much enthusiasm and lust as he had before, then broke away. His accent was thick, and I was still struggling to follow his garbled words. I swear, in between the a
pologies, he was saying something about telling the others.

  Before I could ask him what he meant, because surely the last thing he should do was mention it to the others, he had turned, grabbed Xiao’s coat, and all-but ran from the room.

  I sank back onto the box, raking my hand through my hair. I wasn’t expecting a boyfriend out of this encounter, but that? That was quite literally the sexual equivalent of a dine and dash. I reached down for a fan with his face on it. “What the actual fuck, dude?” I asked it, before punching it.

  At least I’d gotten an orgasm out of it.

  He could go fuck himself. Literally.

  Irritated and angry, I started gathering up the spilled merchandise, shoving them into boxes. Then I made sure I was presentable, zipping up my hoodie, and grabbed my camera. Seriously: what the fuck was that about?

  제 6 장

  Bounce

  I resorted to exceptionally adult behavior and ignored Jiwon (and by default, Onyx who he was always with), for the rest of the day, under the pretense of trying to find good lighting and any other form of bullshit I could come up with.

  I didn’t really calm down until the doors to the venue opened a few hours later. As the fans started filing in and the excitement in the atmosphere started rising, my mood started improving. I had the option of staying backstage, or even joining Onyx in their dressing room, but I decided against it. Aside from doing my best to avoid Jiwon, I wasn’t sure of their pre-show ritual and I didn’t want to disturb that.

  Instead, I turned my attention to the fans, taking photos of them. I was also eyeing up my competition. There were some (mainly) girls there, who looked like they were still in school, and yet had cameras which I knew for a fact were just as good, if not better, than mine. The zoom one girl had was so good she could have been at the furthest seat in the venue and you’d still be able to clearly see all their pores (which were barely visible). Onyx had a killer skincare routine.

  Where on earth did these kids get the money for these things?

  Aside from that, the atmosphere was incredible. I was getting just as hyped for the show as the fans were. Finally, the stadium went dark and I was deafened by thousands of fans screaming at the top of their lungs.

  My first experience of a K-Pop concert was not what I expected. I was actually unprepared. Not just emotionally, but in terms of work I would need to do too. K-Pop concerts don’t have a warm up act. I had been chilling in that small pit area which surrounded the stage, albeit with the camera ready, but expecting another group to come out first.

  If it wasn’t for the fact I caught Jiwon’s bright orange hair, I would have missed their entrance.

  After that, I was on my game, moving around the edge of the stage, taking photo after photo. Group shot, singles, closeups… I was going to be kept busy picking the best ones out of them.

  The worst part was I didn’t know where to look.

  With the pop star diva I’d been on tour with, it had just been her: easy. Here, there were six of them. I felt like I needed a small army of photographers with me.

  And then there was the fact they were sexy as sin, showing off all kinds of vocals, raps and dance moves. I soon had my new hoodie wrapped around my waist as I’d heated up from darting around the stage.

  Onyx had been up, practicing all night. I wasn’t sure if they’d managed to get a nap in during the afternoon, but on stage, they looked alive. They looked genuinely thrilled and happy to be there and there wasn’t a single point where I felt their focus was on anything other than delivering an outstanding show for their audience.

  Occasionally, I would drag my attention to the audience. There were so many people with light sticks, blinking in time with the beat of the song. Most of the time, it was a soft white light which almost looked silver. Other songs would have almost all of them changing color – at the same time. They had to be controlled remotely for that? I took a few more pictures of the audience and some of the signs that had been created. Smiles and tears.

  And then there was the other weird thing that couldn’t be captured in a photograph: the chanting. It was like the audience were singing their own lyrics. It was kind of mesmerizing, to be honest.

  By the end of the concert, I was covered in an unattractive layer of sweat, exhausted, dehydrated – and wanting to do it all over again. In fact, I felt I needed to do it all over again. Now that I knew what to expect, I was already reworking shots in my head. I knew exactly where I needed to be for the next show to get some spectacular images.

  I stayed in the main venue as the fans filtered out, trying to catch my breath. My body felt like it had been given a good work out. What was worse (or better), was my mind was now full of images of Onyx.

  Annoyingly, Jiwon was in there too. The guy could dance. He’d had a few solo performances and I swear that everyone in that venue who was old enough, was going home and having a cold shower. I needed one. There was this one movement he did – a straight up thrust – and the bastard did it right at me. He looked me dead in the eyes, the tip of his tongue in the corner of his mouth, and he shoved his crotch at me.

  Dick.

  With the crew already beginning to strip the stage down, I decided it was my time to leave. I walked down a tunnel to the green room, figuring, if I lingered around long enough, Manager Sungmin would appear and I could ask him what was next for me, i.e. how I was getting home.

  What I wasn’t expecting was to see some familiar faces in the corridor. Dante, the Chinese member of H3RO, and Nate, the Korean American, talking with Xiao and JongB. That brought a small smile of amusement to my lips: it was like they had sought out their own nationalities.

  “Oh! Kate!” Nate exclaimed with a wide grin as he spotted me.

  I waved, then walked over and joined them. “Wassup?”

  “The ceiling,” JongB responded, deadpan.

  I turned, slowly, arching an eyebrow. “Really?”

  JongB’s eyes lit up, but it was Nate who spoke. “Resign yourself to the fact it will get worse. Much worse.”

  “Ya!” JongB objected, punching Nate’s muscly arm. “My jokes are amazing.”

  “If that was a sample, I can assure you, they’re not,” I told him, dryly.

  “Ya!” JongB objected, this time rounding on me. He refrained from hitting me, instead pouting. “You’re our photographer. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

  “Dude, I’m your photographer, not your fluffer, and I was their photographer,” I indicated to Dante and Nate, “long before I was yours.”

  JongB’s eyes narrowed. “What’s a fluffer?”

  Behind him, Dante burst out into a snigger-crossed-snort. He knew.

  Which confirmed the fact I had been right when I had told Holly he was filth. Score one for Kate.

  “What?” JongB demanded, glaring at him.

  It earned him a smack upside the head from Dante. “Have some respect for your elders.” I’d witnessed this kind of thing when I’d spent time with H3RO, but it was mainly their maknae at the receiving end. Korea, much like Japan, was big on the respect shown towards elders, even if the age difference wasn’t much. Which put Dante at older than JongB.

  With JongB muttering things under his breath, moving to the other side of Nate like the other member of H3RO would protect him, Dante leaned over to Xiao, telling him something in Chinese. I knew exactly one word in Chinese: nǐ hǎo, which meant ‘hello’. Judging from the look Xiao was giving me, that was not what Dante was telling him. And judging from the look Dante was giving me, I was willing to bet Xiao was being told exactly what a fluffer was.

  I gave Xiao a small smirk, then turned my attention to Nate and JongB. “Anyway, congrats on your last comeback. You guys killed it. As did Soomi with your video.”

  “Soomi did an amazing job, but so did you,” Nate told me. Soomi and I had worked together on their last single. She had shot, produced and edited their music video and I had done all the teaser images, along with the album ‘things’. (Holly
had started listing things that would be included, but I had tuned out after posters and photocards.) “Are you going to be doing the next comeback with us?”

  I raised a shoulder. “I honestly don’t know. Holly hasn’t mentioned anything to me. I’d be more than happy to, provided the timings work out.”

  “These two were just saying you were joining them on tour. Good luck with that. JongB snores.”

  “Is this pick on JongB day?” the irritated rapper whined.

  “Yes,” Nate shrugged.

  “I’m not worried,” I told them. “My ex snored like a freight train. I can assure you that I can sleep through anything.”

  JongB looked at me, then leaned forward. “I can assure you that if you and I were in a bed together, there wouldn’t be any snoring involved.”

  I stared back at him. And promptly burst out laughing. “Really?”

  Even Nate was cracking up. “Your chat-up lines need as much work as your puns do, J.”

  “You’re not helping,” JongB growled at him. He looked briefly at me. “Excuse us,” he said, before dragging Nate, who was still chuckling, further down the corridor. I was ninety-nine percent certain that they were talking about me, until their expressions became serious.

  I turned to Dante and Xiao, finding them still talking in Chinese, but looking equally as intense. “OK then,” I muttered under my breath. I turned to the door to the green room, ready to open it, when it opened for me and a mass of orange nearly collided with me. At the last moment, I swirled out of the way, avoiding Jiwon.

  His eyes met mine. In seconds they had filled with lust.

  Just seconds later, they were filled with regret.

  Fuck. That.

  I rolled my eyes and walked past him, into the green room.

  And was greeted by Youngbin wearing nothing but a towel.

  I was willing to bet that my eyes were now filled with lust.

  He cocked his head, folding his arms across his chest. I’d seen it on the stage – I knew full well he had beautifully sculptured arms, shoulders to die for, and a chest that showed how many hours he had spent in the gym. In front of me now, it was just as spectacular. “A snack,” I muttered.