04:00 am

"Ah! Did we miss the meeting?" Yeojun let out a yelp of defeat on running up to us with Mingyu just as the rest of us left the room after our meeting with the costumes' department. They were supposed to join us after their ad campaign but they had failed to make it back here in time.

"Even though we ran all the way here from the car…" Mingyu rested his palms on his knees and panted, completely out of breath.

"It's okay. Everything's been settled." I reassured them. "You won't have any issues with the decisions either."

"Here." Jaehyeon tossed the bottle of water that he had with him towards Mingyu.

"Ah!" Mingyu attempted to catch it but ended up dropping it. Thankfully, the lid stayed on and it did not spill. He looked around apologetically and embarrassed before picking it up. "My bad."

Mingyu was known for being a little clumsy. It was Jaehyeon's fault for throwing it to him.

"What happened though?" Hanseol enquired. "You were supposed to get back an hour ago."

"There was a 15-minute delay in starting there. After that, we took forever to go around to the back of the building to enter the parking area. There's an insane crowd outside." Yeojun reported. "Does going on a world tour mean that our home crowd miss us so much?"

Oh. Right. It was today.

"04:00 am's coming back today, huh? They feel like a real K-Pop group to even me. We're under the same agency but we hardly ever get to see them off-screen or off-stage."

"Ya. We're also a real K-Pop group." Mingyu scowled.

"Oh, come on! They have managed to hit 40 million on YouTube in just 24 hours of their new song's release. That's way more than we could even dream about with where we are."

"Well, their fanbase is probably 2 or 3 times any small country's population. With how much they travel, it's really no surprise." Yeojun shrugged. "I wonder when we'll get to go on a world tour…"

"Leave that aside for now. Come. We've to meet Manager-nim in the practice room. We're shooting the Dance Practice video for 'To You' today." Hanseol urged us ahead.

"We should shoot 'Yeongweonhi Norae' soon too." I mused.

"Ya." Jaehyeon knocked me atop my head. "Don't get cocky just because you managed to get through the entire routine yesterday."

I chuckled and let him drape an arm over my shoulders. "It's fine, isn't it? It's a big achievement for me."

He shook his head and smiled. "Geez…"

"Ah, there you are!" Manager Park found us in the hallway just outside the practice room. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there. How was it?"

"Delayed, but flawless." Yeojun replied. "But we were too late in returning. We missed the costumes' meeting."

"That's okay. You'll get filled in." Manager Park then looked at the three of us. "The costumes…?"

"We're going with a new one. Blue, white and black." Hanseol said. "They had said that they would send the details over to you, Manager-nim."

"I'll look into it. For now, let's-"

"Oh. They're here." Yeojun perked up suddenly, looking down the hallway. Following his line of sight, all of us found the 7 young men he was looking at. They were wearing travel clothes but the black masks, sunglasses on a few of them and their uniform jet-black hair gave them a rather elitist feel. We were so used to seeing different hair colours on the members of an Idol group that seeing all-black just changed the whole feel about them.

They walked like international stars, followed by their team and staff members and everyone at the agency who had come out to meet them. They even had a huge crowd waiting for them outside. They had earned all that though.

04:00 am.

"Oh! If it isn't S.T.A.Y!" A strong voice called across the hallway. Z-Jay, or Moon Youngjae- one of 04:00 am's main rappers- removed the glasses and lowered the mask that he was wearing to reveal his as-per-the-usual charming smile. "It's been so long!"

"You're the ones who went globe-trotting." Jaehyeon pointed out in good humour. They had walked right over to us by then too. "Looks like you had some really big stopovers."

"This was our most successful tour so far." Youngjae Sunbae said. They halted before us, bringing the entire caravan of tailing people to a halt as well.

Artists meeting artists. I wouldn't be surprised if the cameras were already rolling.

"Congratulations." Mingyu said. "And welcome back."

"Thank you. And nice hair, K-Soul." Kim Jaemin, a main vocalist, stage name 'Tyson', winked. "You look Military ready."

"Ah, don't do that to me." Hanseol moaned.

"Jeongwoo-ya, you too." Jaemin Sunbae turned to me. "I could spot you from all the way down the hall."

"A-Ah." I placed a hand on my head. "It's really bright."

"We've been following you and Blue Ink too. It suits your concept." He patted my shoulder. "You've done really well this time- all of you. I really liked your songs 'Haneul' and 'Where We Are'."

They had been listening to us even while on tour. The fact that they had been paying such close attention to us was moving.

"Thank you." Jaehyeon said. "It's good to have you Sunbae back. It just got a whole lot livelier in here."

"Are you heading out?" Their main rapper, who had also made a career for himself out of acting, Min Baekjae, asked. He had warm features and a rather soft personality but his very presence commanded attention. Honestly, he was the first person my eyes were drawn to among the seven of them. I had come to really look up to all of them as our Sunbae in the trade but Baekjae Sunbae was someone I especially admired- as a hardworking and passionate artist, as a fellow lyricist and as a person.

"No. Dance practice." Hanseol replied. "We're recording 'To You'."

"Ah. We have a meeting with Kim PD-nim. We'll drop by depending on the time after that." Yoo Changmin, a.k.a. Minsu, a lead vocalist spoke. "It's been a few months now. Tell me that we have been missed."

"We have been seeing your faces pretty much everywhere since your album 'Maelstrom' released." I shrugged. "It doesn't really feel like you've been gone that long."

"I think we have seen more of you than of ourselves." Yeojun scowled. A friendly jab.

Their leader, Park Hyeonwoo, laughed. "Give yourselves more credit. Blue Ink is actually faring well."

"I'm gonna go on Twitter and promote some more too." Jeon Minho, 04:00 am's Maknae, said enthusiastically. He was the only one in 04:00 am who was actually younger than me. His ability to hit those high notes was commendable though. I was the one who covered most of S.T.A.Y's high notes and so, I knew exactly how much precision and control it actually took.

"If Minho Hyung does that, we might just go up by 10 places on the list." Yeojun gave him a thumbs-up. "We're counting on you, Hyung."

"Mm." Minho's eyes lit up. "I'll force someone else to do it too, just because you called me 'Hyung'."

I chuckled. The struggles of being a Maknae.

"We need to go. Kim PD-nim is waiting." The Manager of 04:00 am, Nam Seonghan-ssi stepped in at that point.

"Ah. Of course." Hyeonwoo Sunbae nodded and addressed us. "We'll see you around. Keep up the good work."

"You too. Fighting!" Yeojun said as we stepped aside to let them through.

"Ah. Fighting." Baekjae Sunbae said in response and Yoo Changmin dropped a hand atop my head and ruffled up my hair as he walked past with the others. "Fighting."

"Ugh." I smoothed my hair down and grimaced after him. I had a recording to do too…

"Beomseok Sunbae did not say a word." Yeojun commented as we proceeded to the practice room.

"He seemed ready to fall asleep right where he stood." Mingyu chuckled. "They came here right after getting off the plane. With all that travel, it's obvious that they'd be exhausted. We don't do as much as them and yet, look at us."

"Beomseok Sunbae's the quieter one too to begin with." Jaehyeon reminded us. "Even though he is the face of the group."

"He's really popular despite the largely cold face. Intense. The mysterious kind is popular too." Hanseol added.

"K.B-ssi wasn't feeling too well, from what I had heard. A fever." Manager Park told us.

Kim Beomseok, or K.B, was their eldest member and visual of the group. His personality only accentuated the heavy rap that he was famous for, if anything. I found him pretty cool.

"They deserve a break." Jaehyeon said. "They've literally just gone all over the world."

"I don't think they're getting a break though. They're starting work on their new album soon. Besides, they'll have plenty of interviews and shows to go on now that they're back." Mingyu sighed.

I did feel bad for them too but it was work like this that kept them at the top. All we could do was watch and learn.

The shooting for 'To You''s Dance Practice video went by smoothly. Once we had all warmed up, we had gone right into shooting. Thankfully, there were no unnecessary hiccups. Once that was done, the editing team was left with finalising the video and preparing it for release. After thanking the filming staff and sending them all off, we returned to our practice. With the upcoming live stage, we had a lot to finalise, including our positions, poses and other such finer details that the live stage called for that we had not had to think too far into till now. Since it had been decided that we would perform 'To You', we were building it up from scratch. We weren't changing the choreography. We were just changing our approaches and adding a few things here and there for the sake of the show. We had to make an impression that could possibly make people remember the warm-up opening performance, after all.

We were still in discussion when the door to the practice room opened and two people stepped in: Tyson and Minsu of 04:00 am – Kim Jaemin and Yoo Changmin.

"Oh. You really came." Jaehyeon raised his eyebrows on seeing them, just as surprised as the rest of us that they had actually shown up. S.T.A.Y was gathered around in the centre of the practice room, trying to figure out how best to transition from the chorus to the next verse without affecting the 2-seconds silence in between. "Your meeting's done?"

"Yes." Jaemin Sunbae nodded and walked over. He'd pulled his hair up in front using a hairband. "We will be leaving in 10 minutes though."

"Back to the dorm?" Mingyu asked.

"Yes. And we've gotten tomorrow to rest up."

"But that's hardly enough…" Yeojun showed his disapproval on his face.

"Can't be helped. Our schedule's packed from day after tomorrow again." He shrugged.

"We did not come here to talk about our schedule though." Changmin said, coming to stand next to me and dropping his hand on my head again. "You really do stand out with this hair, Jeongwoo."

There was no point in swatting his hand away anymore and so, I just let him be. "That was the whole point, Hyung."

"Were you all in the middle of something?" He enquired, leaning his entire weight against me.

"It's okay. We can take a 10-minute break." Mingyu smiled.

"Aren't you tired though?" I asked. "Shouldn't you be wanting to get back home and rest?"

"I got a lot of sleep on the plane." Changmin grinned and played with my hair. "We just got back but what kind of Sunbae would we be if we could not even come and cheer our sweet Hoobae on?"

"You sleep anywhere." I shook my head. Even though he had become an internationally acclaimed Idol and he was one of the most desirable men out there, even ranking 9th on the Asia's Hottest Men list, hardly anything had changed about him otherwise. He was more or less the same as he was as a trainee around 4 years ago. And it suddenly looked like he had gone back to his old ways of coming to find me like he used to back when we were trainees. He had not done this in a while.

Minsu- Yoo Changmin- of 04:00 am was the person I had worked with the most as a trainee.

If there was ever anyone who knew him better than 04:00 am did, it was most probably me.

He was 2 years my senior and he had already been at DayBreak for 3 years by the time I had joined. At first, we had not quite interacted much. It was after one particular training session when we had happened to have been paired up that we began talking to each other and working together. We trained together, performed together, hung out together, ate together- practically did everything together. But then, 4 years ago, he informed me that he had been finalised as a member of 04:00 am. We were pretty much still together for a while after that as well. There were rumours that two more members would be picked for 04:00 am and I cannot deny that, while I never said anything aloud, I was sincerely hoping that I would be picked. A lot of people had thought so and I had known that they were considering me but, in the end, Minho and Beomseok Sunbae were selected and the seven of them debuted as 04:00 am. I had taken for granted and just assumed that I would continue to perform with Changmin but then, he went on ahead and debuted and even became such a successful artist that the past in which we had associated so closely did not seem so real anymore at times. After his debut, we had gotten to meet only in passing, just like this. Eventually, S.T.A.Y too happened and my career took off as well. The both of us had ended up going on completely different tangents.

Despite all that, Changmin was right beside me just then, leaning his entire weight on me. To say that I wasn't particularly happy to see him would have been a lie.

"Only he's really capable of sleeping through all that turbulence." Jaemin Sunbae chuckled.

Changmin smirked. "It's a talent of mine. A useful one."

"How is Beomseok Sunbae doing though? We heard that he wasn't feeling too well." I enquired. "He hadn't looked that great earlier either."

"He's recovering. Thankfully, he came down with it only after our last stage." Jaemin Sunbae said.

"Ah. No. I think he was faking it through the performance too. He was most likely feeling under the weather before it but decided to push through regardless and ended up overexerting himself." Changmin sighed. "I don't blame him. I would have done the same thing."

"Any of us would have." Jaemin Sunbae nodded. "Well, at least he's got tomorrow. Don't worry. He's the kind to recover from things like this quickly."

"That's good." Hanseol nodded. "Anyway, this was your second world tour, wasn't it? How does it feel?"

"It's… very demanding. Exhausting." Changmin replied. "You hardly have the time to sit down and relax because of all the performances, interviews and shows. You know how work can be continuous for us, right? But," he paused for effect. "It's all worth it. Each time the plane takes off and lands in a different country, each stadium filled with screaming fans who are there only to see you and cheer for you and listen to you and sing with you, each fan chant, each tiring day and each exhausted sleep that's as good as being knocked out… The new places, the new food and culture… I could go on. It's all just exhilarating. To think that people who don't even know your language can sing along like that…"

"It's a whole different world out there." Jaemin Sunbae chuckled on seeing our enraptured faces. "It definitely made all the sleepless nights and hard work worth it."

It was clear on their faces too- they were exhausted but happy.

"Oh, man~ I want to go on a world tour too~" Yeojun mused. "Ooh! What if S.T.A.Y and 04:00 am could go on a joint world tour? Wouldn't that just be awesome?!"

"A joint world tour, huh?" Jaemin Sunbae thought about it. "That would be nice."

"We could perform on the same stage again, Jeongwoo." Changmin knuckled my cheek. "It's been 4 years since we had our last chance."

Yeah. I was the one who had fallen behind. "Given our current schedules though, it looks unlikely to me." I said honestly.

"That's right. And you guys are on a whole different level. It will be at least a few more years before we may get to even stand beside you." Mingyu added.

"Trust me. You right now remind me of 04:00 am in our second year. You may be a year late but I'm sure that you'll get there eventually. I feel it in my gut." Changmin said. "Everything about this industry is unpredictable. Who knows? You may even better us with your next comeback."

"Speaking of comebacks, Manager-nim told us that you're starting work on your new album soon." Jaehyeon brought up.

"Work for that has already started. We have a couple of months to really plan for it and prepare." Jaemin Sunbae replied. "Baekjae had mentioned going for a few movie auditions so we will have to adjust our schedules accordingly too."

"We're gonna get really busy again." Changmin said gravely. "But we should be here in Seoul for a while. We'll run into each other more." He caught me in a headlock.

"Y-Ya! Hyung!" I struggled against him but in vain. It really had been quite a while and it seemed like he had missed me too. I could play along for bit then.

"Don't kill the poor kid, Changmin-ah." Jaemin Sunbae shook his head.

Changmin laughed and released me at which I gave him a soft and playful punch to the side in retaliation. "Very funny!"

Ah. It really was better having them around.

Jaemin Sunbae's phone began ringing. He checked the caller ID and looked at Changmin. "It's Hyeonwoo Hyung."

"Mm." Changmin nodded and turned to us as Jaemin Sunbae answered his phone. "We'll have to leave now. Feel free to come visit us whenever you're free. We'll see you around the building somewhere anyway."

"See you." I smiled. "It was nice of you both to drop by.

"Ey. Don't mention it." Jaemin Sunbae said on getting of the phone and returning to us. "Beomseok Hyung's doing better now so we have to leave."

"Convey our wishes to Beomseok Sunbae too." Mingyu said.

"Ah. Then... bye. Sorry for crashing your practice session."

"It's okay." Jaehyeon said. "Get good rest."

"Ah." They said, waved and left.

"Well, we should get back to work." Mingyu clapped once to bring our attention back to him. "Let's just decide how we're going to do this."

Jaemin Sunbae and Changmin were roommates. Owing to that, I think, Changmin seemed closer to Jaemin Sunbae than the others. They were often seen together. The fact that only the two of them came to see us made me wonder if they came only because Changmin insisted.

At the end of the day, it was good to have Sunbae like them who were well acclaimed in the field. They were also genuinely helpful if he ever needed help or advice. A one-year head-start was usually hardly much in our line of work but, given their popularity, it actually meant a lot more and diverse experience. They were the best to learn from. Besides, we were also closer to them than any other group in our agency. We knew the others and interacted too but we were not so close that their members would drop in on our practice session like this when they were so tired. I can't deny that that had a lot to do with how close Changmin and I were. It had all started with him dropping by to see me initially and over time, the members of 04:00 am and S.T.A.Y became good friends. Not only that but many of 04:00 am's fans, called Coffee, were also True. 04:00 am's endorsement could actually go a long way in boosting our popularity but we weren't looking for that from them. They had had no one pulling them up and had struggled in the beginning too. Where they were just then was purely because of all their hard work. They had earned every spot on the stages that got set solely for them to perform on. And we wanted to get there by our own means and efforts.

NOTE:

Sunbae = Used to refer to people with more experience (in work or school, etc.)

Hoobae = Used to refer to people with less experience (in work or school, etc.)