Forty

"Five episodes because we are five members and this is our fifth album in the making." I laid out my plan. "Location- our dorm's roof."

"Our dorm?" Mingyu asked.

"Yeah. It would feel more personal that way." I justified. "And I got this idea from a dream that Jaehyeon Hyung had once told me about."

"Me?" Jaehyeon perked up. "Which one?" He recalled and answered his own question before I could though. "Rooftop conversations?"

"Yes." I smiled. The one you had cried after waking up from. "Obviously, we'll have limits to how much we can reveal about our new album but it's okay to let them know that we're working on one, right? It's about time that we revealed it. The Rooftop Conversations won't primarily be about our album though. More like… we just talk over dinner and film the entire thing. We can talk about our day, ourselves or… whatever we feel like. It doesn't really matter what we talk about. This will be a good way for True to get to know us better too."

"What is there that they don't already know?" Yeojun thought aloud.

"Do they know that you give all the green peas that you find to Mingyu and Jaehyeon Hyung?" I asked, fully prepared with a food-related example for each of them.

Yeojun stared at me, then nodded in surrender. "You have a point."

"We'll probably travel as soon as we're done with our songs. DayBreak's planning on actively promoting Freefall, the group that debuted last year, in May. We'll need to consider 04:00 am's comeback in March too. Since we're planning a Summer release, we could have those five episodes released anytime between March and July, once we're back from the beach camp."

"You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?" Hanseol crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. "I like it."

"I can't believe that you thought of all that from just my dream." Jaehyeon was still stuck on that fact.

"But… just talk?" Mingyu asked. "Wouldn't it be a little boring?"

"We could have short episodes but… are you thinking of games?" I asked.

"Yeah. We could throw in a few easy games that don't require us to get up from the table and the rewards can be more food items that only the winners will get to enjoy." He suggested.

"That sounds good." Yeojun nodded.

"I have a suggestion." Jaehyeon spoke up. "In the last episode, let's each write letters to the group as a whole. A heart-felt, genuine letter per person to all the other members. Letters can be… very emotional."

Was that a dig at me?

"We haven't done anything like that before." Yeojun said. "Ah. But I haven't written a letter my entire life."

"What? You surely must have in school as an assignment or something." Jaehyeon said. How could anyone not have written a letter their entire life?

"My mother used to write them for me." He admitted, clearly not proud of it.

"I guess these are the kind of conversations that you want captured." Hanseol pointed out.

"Exactly." I smiled. "It'll be meaningful. Let's do the letters too. We can probably write it after the fourth episode after announcing that we would be doing it and read it on camera during the fifth episode."

"Write this one on your own, Jun-ah." Hanseol poked our Maknae's arm.

"I will." He responded dryly.

"Let's set up the roof beautifully too. Studio quality- plants, fairy lights and things like that."

"We absolutely must have meat on the menu." Jaehyeon insisted.

"Dessert too." Yeojun added.

"What do you think though? 'Rooftop Conversations' seems doable?"

"I'm in." Hanseol said.

Mingyu nodded and Yeojun gave a thumbs-up.

Jaehyeon had no objections either. "I still can't believe that you thought of this from that dream that I had mentioned in passing."

You had cried mentioning it. I was not going to bring that up now though. I was saving that for a 'Rooftop Conversation'.

"We're going to get busy, aren't we?" Hanseol sighed and looked at Jaehyeon. "What's happening with that modelling job of yours?"

"They've accepted me. I'll start next week. It's a short gig but it's a reputed clothing line. With my limited but existing past experience, I might be able to get more jobs in the field. Who knows? Maybe I'll even break onto the film scene properly this time, with memorable roles."

"You're thinking too far ahead too ambitiously but you still have our full support." Mingyu stated, making the others crack up a bit.

"My face has more value now than it did back then. Don't you think?" He rubbed his chin with a thumb and an index finger and raised his eyebrows.

"If you discount for the fact that you're also older now." Hanseol nodded seriously.

My phone vibrated just then. "Twenty-four is not THAT old." I checked the message that I had received from Changmin.

'Where?'

Curt. I replied while the others continued talking. 'Meeting with the members. Going to the recording studio in an hour. You?'

'Van. On the way to HQ. 6 of us are asleep.' He replied, followed by 'I'm bored. Talk to me.'

I smiled to myself. 'Needy much? I told you, I'm in a meeting.'

'What's more important? -__-'

Really? 'My meeting and your sleep. If you still have time, try to sleep.'

'I did but I woke up and I don't want to go back to sleep anymore.'

From what I had heard, 04:00 am had already begun shooting for the MV of their new album's title track. They had been out the whole night filming since they had a lot of night scenes. It was no surprise that they were asleep.

I was paying attention to S.T.A.Y's conversation too and contributing wherever I could. We had finished all major discussions and were waiting for Manager Park to come get us before heading to the recording studio we had booked to record for 'All Hands on Deck'.

I could afford to divert my attention a little bit.

'Did you eat?'

'No. I'm hungry. Since everyone's sleeping, I don't think we'll be stopping anytime now. There are snacks in the van, if needed though.' He sent a picture of a packet of Korean snacks next to his seat.

'Looks good. T_T Save some for me.'

We had more or less gone back to how we used to be before the collaboration happened- dropping in on each other whenever we could (which was unfortunately once in two days at best) and running into each other in the hallways by chance. We were almost always with our members though. In the past three weeks since we started dating, we had only been able to get away by ourselves twice- once for a drinks' date at the vending machine and another 'secret rendezvous' in an empty room. With our current schedules and the work on the ongoing albums, it was the most that we could have hoped for too. Texts and calls had become regular though. We were managing… somehow.

'I'll think about it~ <3' came the reply. That was followed by a photo of an open packet of chips and another selfie of him eating a chip. Then came another text. 'That one was for you.'

He really could be cheesy sometimes. 'You eating it doesn't help me in any way, Hyung. -__-'

'Meet me today then.'

I hesitated, working out my schedule in my head. 'I won't be able to. :( Recording will go late.'

'Then I'm eating all of this.'

Thinking about him eating the chips alone as the other six members slept took me back to that time when he and I had slept in the van and I looked at my left hand.

If we had been in the same group…

I was brought back to the present when Mingyu said that Manager Park was on his way and had texted him. "Jeongwoo Hyung, explain your idea for 'Rooftop Conversations' to him when he gets here."

"Yup. I'll do that." I nodded.

'Hyung, I'm sorry. I have to go. Work. Try to get some sleep. I'll call you in the evening.'

'Okay. Fighting. I'll talk to you later.'

I put my phone away. This was all we were- snippets of conversations. They were never enough.

Manager Park came by soon after. We discussed a few things with him, including 'Rooftop Conversations'. A surprise that came our way just then was when our Maknae asked if he could try his hand at designing our upcoming album's cover art. We had all known that he was a decent enough artist but he had never volunteered for such a task before. It was nice to see the members coming out and using their unique characteristics to contribute to the album. Manager Park also seemed pleased with how things were going. If everything went according to plan, we would be able to go to the beach by March. That was all the motivation that we had needed just to get our work done.

Once we were done eating as well, we proceeded to the recording studio.

There were seven songs in the new album, including the title track. Two of the seven songs were entirely self-written and self-produced while we had others who had contributed to the other tracks. We had spent many nights on these songs. With our sudden popularity and our first win, we were already feeling the pressure to deliver better than our previous best. More than external pressure, it was about the pressure that we were putting on ourselves. We had worked and re-worked on our songs because we kept feeing that we could always do something different, something more. Settling was a difficult task but after all these weeks of pouring ourselves out, we had gotten ourselves a project that we were really happy with and excited to make complete and heard. More than just all that though, we were motivated by the prospect of a tour which was still being finalised but had promised potential of taking us out of Asia itself.

Blue Ink really had changed a lot for us- on professional as well as on personal levels.