fmdtaeyong:
→ early morning, october 17, tokyo, japan
the long hours in rehearsal and onstage, combined with the even longer hours cooped up backstage had left ash restless and tense by the time four of the five concerts had come to an end. some of his friends had gone to the official after party following the night’s concert, something public-friendly, the kind of controlled fun idols had to have when other industry workers and cameras were around. he’d never been a fan of those types of parties. they were too forced and he had to be too aware and too social. instead, he’d found himself calling up an old industry acquaintance to get him into a nightclub.
truthfully, ash had never been a big fan of clubs either until a few months ago, when he’d discovered how easy it was to drown out everything else in his life and in his head with alcohol and loud music and a crowd full of people he’d never know. he didn’t go out a lot, too attached to the relative safety his dorm could offer him and too uncomfortable with the idea of exclusive twisting it into a scandal. japan offered a little more anonymity than korea, so he risked it. several hours later, and he could barely remember how much he’d had to drink or the name of the club he was at. as he pushed his way out of the club, he fumbled with his phone, pressing a random number in his contact list. “hey, i, ah—” another drunk clubgoer stumbled into him as they left the club (or had he stumbled into them?) “whoops, ah, um, hi! do you know where i am?” his words slurred together into the phone as he looked around for the name of the club, but the only sign he could see was in japanese. “i can’t… read japanese very well. i forget where i am.”
they had all been in japan for a few days at that point in time, the time quickly dwindling down for them to start preparing to go back home. there was only one more performance left for the concert and then they would be on a plane back to south korea. it would be a bit of a bitter sweet departure. he’d loved his time in japan performing for all of their fans there, but he missed home. he missed his house. as much as he loved japan, he would always love his own home even more, and that was just a natural thing for people.
he wasn’t sure what time it was when his phone went off on his nightstand, but he grabbed it as soon as he was coherent enough to do so, not wanting the ringing to wake up the other members of his group. he yawned, swiping his thumb across the screen to answer it without bothering to check the caller id. “hello?” he asked groggily, and was met with the sound of slurring words. his eyebrows drew together, and that was enough to wake him up. it was like throwing ice water onto someone. he immediately became more alert, and he flicked on the light. it took him a few seconds before he could place the voice on the other end of the phone. “ash?” he asked, even though he already knew the answer. “send me your location and i’ll come pick you up.”
