Rise of a Star - a Minsung Story

Chapter 26

"Gosh, I'm so nervous, I don't know how to distract myself anymore", Felix whined, dramatically falling into Changbin's arms. The older chuckled, giving Felix a proper hug. "We are all nervous, it's only a matter of hours until we are actually going to debut. Tomorrow at this time, we will be standing on stage and our debut is going to be streamed on national TV", he said, his body shaking with excitement at the thought. "I don't think your words are very calming, Changbin", Chan, who had heard his friend's last words, said as he walked into the living room of their dorm.
The three of them, as well as all the other members of the group were gathered in the living room, movie playing on TV and a plate of cut-up vegetables on the table, because regular snacks were out of the question the night before their debut. Everyone, except for Jisung. The young boy had spent the entire day at the studio, working on final details of the choreography for District 9 and practicing his vocals. His part in the group's debut song had a very high pitch and it was making him nervous to have to hit such difficult notes, while dancing and performing on national TV. Now that it was late in the evening, his energy was completely drained and instead of forcing himself to return to the dorm, he decided to take a short nap on the couch in the studio 3racha usually used for song production.

Since most of the members had had the day off and got to spend it however they wanted, nobody had noticed Jisung's absence since early morning, until now. Minho had private lessons all morning and then went off to spend the rest of his with friends. He and Jisung had been texting throughout the day, and although he had noticed the younger's replies getting shorter and shorter, it hadn't really concerned him until he got home around nine pm, finding everyone sprawled out in front of the TV, except for his boyfriend.

"Has anyone seen Jisung?", he asked, as he walked into the living room and put his bag down next to the couch. Chan looked up, furrowing his brows at the question. "I thought he was with you", the leader said, standing up to go look for his phone. "No, I was out with friends. He had already left the dorm when I woke up, but we were texting until he stopped responding about three hours ago", Minho explained. The others were concerned as well, all agreeing that they hadn't seen their friend all day. Minho became nervous, pacing through the room as he kept trying to call his significant other, but the younger never picked up his phone. Chan tried his best to calm him down, placing a hand on his shoulder to stop the pacing. "Don't worry, I'm sure he is okay. Did he tell you what he was doing, when you guys were texting?", the leader asked, grabbing his wallet and putting on shoes, ready to go out and look for their friend. "I know he was really anxious about tomorrow, so he went to the dance studio to practice, but that was at 2pm, I don't know where he would be now", Minho responded, scrolling through the text messages to make sure he hadn't accidentally overread anything. "Okay, let's check there then, some of the staff might have also seen him", Chan suggested, throwing Minho a jacket. Minho nodded in agreement, worry clouding his thoughts too much to respond verbally. "He'll be okay, Minho. No matter what has happened to him in the past, he has always turned out okay, and today won't be any different", Chan said, not sure whether he was trying to convince Minho or himself. But he didn't say that out loud.

"Where the hell could he be?", Minho was close to tears. They had checked all the dance studios, had asked staff and other trainees they ran into, nobody had seen him. Minho was stressed and nervous, worried about his lover's well-being and worried whether or not he would be able to debut tomorrow. Nobody knew what the company would do, if Jisung wouldn't be able to perform tomorrow. What if they kicked him out of the group? Okay, no, they wouldn't do that. At least, that was what he hoped. Chan sighed, ending the call with their manager. "Nobody has seen him, he's not answering his phone, I don't know where else to look Minho. Our manager said we should go home and get rest, perhaps he'll come home later", Chan said, not really content with those instructions at all. And judging by the look on Minho's face, the younger didn't agree with that either.