Bane’s Blade-Chapter Four
Genre: action, r0m@nç£.
©Bunmi B. Gabriel.
Lyiris
I twirled around in my swivel chair, re-ading from the magazine I know nothing of. The door dinged open, it was Cyraila. I sat up straight, how come? She walked to me, her pres£nt dragging attention. She st©pped at the counter and rest her elbows on it, herl-ips in a thin line.
‘What brings you here?’
‘Errand,’ she looked around the shop. ‘My boss said to pick up his order.’
‘What order?’ I asked sitting up properly.
‘Two iPhone l@pt©ps, headphones and phones. One of each gold colour, the other white.’
‘Hood on,’ I cli-cked the computer on and checked the order timetable. ‘I only see two with the same order, what’s your boss’s name?’
‘Jiang Ki.’
‘Got it,’ I tapped the name. ‘You are two days late.’ She shrugged.
‘I was told 10 minutes ago,’
‘Isn’t the drive from here to your office almost 30 minutes?’ She sm-irked. I rolled my eyes. ‘No using of your speed.’
‘I didn’t use it, I have my rocket skateboard.’ I rolled my eyes again and pressed the intercom.
‘Jin, bring me order box 38.’
‘Okay, give me some minutes to find it,’
‘Alright,’ I disconnected the intercom and smiled at her. ‘So, how was work?’
‘Is it suppose to give me plea-sure?’ She asked without her smile and her plain slightly computer tone.
‘My job gives me plea-sure,’
‘Lyiris Shindler and Cyraila Shindler, two different creatures. I do not like what I do, I want something else, something that connects to me.’ She looked at the TV, a girl group performing on stage. She loves music but I can’t let her expo-se us like that.
‘You know that is not possible,’
‘Have you ever thought about this,’ she averted her eyes to me. ‘He will find us quic-ker because he expects us to be hiding, to be living like hidden normal citizens of Korea. What will happen if we go somewhere he will never suspect on time, somewhere he will never check. Father hate music so that will be the last place he checks.’ That’s a great idea, she wants to convince me but still a good idea.
‘How much time will that give us then?’
‘By my calculations, I cannot tell but it will be more than four months or maybe six.’
‘And if we are found out?’
‘He won’t expo-se his own creation for his own sake but I cannot be sure because he’s unpredictable. However, we can still try, can’t we?’
‘You really wanna try music, don’t you?’ She smiled a little. ‘You can’t sing or dance, I’ve only heard you hum.’ Like fate was trying to convince me too, the music changed to Justin Bieber’s song, baby. She smiled, wi-der than her normal.
‘Should I show you?’ I nodded. All she did was watch countless of singing and dancing videos without practicing so how can…. She started dancing, my mouth opened slightly, wow. The people in the shop were all impressed as they watched her with all focus like they were as hypnotized like I was. The way she moved her b©dy convinced me that this was her calling, why would she just want it? There must be something this path will bring us. When she finished dancing, she was smiling brightly, her beautiful eyes flashing with excitement. ‘There, did I do good?’ She asked excitedly, everyone in the sto-re cl@pped.
‘br@vo sis,’ I cl@pped. She bit her bo-ttoml-ips heepishly, I’ve seen what will make her happy.
‘Alright, since it’s what you want, then I’m in.’
‘Yes!’ She squealed, I smiled wi-dely. She st©pped smiling,
returning to her default setting.
‘Where is the order?’ I sighed disappointedly, there’s hope though.
‘Here,’ Jin smiled as she struggled to Cyrai with the package, she’s too lazy. ‘You should consider joining C-B Entertainment Label’s talent hunt.’ She huffed, dropping the package in Cyrai’s arms.
‘What?’
‘See those girls?’ She asked pointing at the idols performing on the mute TV. ‘They won the last hunt.’
‘Can you explain?’ I asked calmly.
‘Here in Korea, like both northern and southern Korea, there are five t©p k-pop labels. Mega Ring, MR that is, C-B Entertainment Label and Legion are the t©p three. Now Mega ring hold a talent hunt every four years, they select 50 agents and s£nd them out to look for young stars in two weeks. The agent get to be their manager if they find one, then they train for weeks before doing a live competition. The first three winners get signed into the label and the rest find their way….’
‘I can swear you just said C-B,’ I said uninterestedly with an eye roll. ‘Let me explain first.
However, Mega Ring st©pped the hunt and combined the it, they had their first combined hunt five years ago. C-B which means Crystal Blue, the name of the owner set out a talent hunt every five years with Mega Ring as a combine effort. Different people allover North, South Korea….Asia as a whole audition. The lucky 100 people chos£n will go to Camp where they shall find their teammate, 3 to 5 grouping and then sing at the finals. The first winner will be signed into MR, the second C-B, the third to MR and fourth and fifth to C-B. The winners get the opportunity to sing with all t©p idols of all five t©p labels and even outside Asia, they’ll be popular like it was magic. Those girls won as the second group in the first combination hunt five years ago and their contract expires next year. By next year, the new winners will be the talk of town.’
Am I the only one who doesn’t un-derstand her?
‘Haven’t you heard of renewing the contract?’
‘Of course they will by choice.’
‘You seem to be confuse Lyiris Shindler, should I shine some light on her confusing explanation?’
‘Yes plea-se,’.
‘The simple explanation is Mega Ring Label which is known as MR Label, responsible for the t©p highest teen and adult boy groups and C-B Entertainment combined their effort five years ago and formed the greatest talent hunt.
Imagine I apply, I get selected and go to Mega Blue Camp, there I get to find amongst the other selected people, my own teammates or be selected by them. My team must consist from numeric figure 3 to 5.
We shall work together and perform on the final day as a team. They are five winners, the first and third belongs to MR and the rest for C-B. If my team wins, we sing with the t©p idols to boost our fame but if our fame refused to increase, then fans don’t appreciate us.’
‘The label will drop you if that happens, the contract is for six to seven years, depending on the Director. You get to choose your own stage names and group, that’s cool, huh?’ Jin explained dreamily.
‘You seem to be interested, why not join that bull$h!t?’ I asked jestingly, knowing well she can’t sing or dance. She rolled her eyes and left. ‘So, you in?’
‘It will be a great idea and being in camp will also spare time.’
‘Are you sure about this Cyraila?’ I asked with great concern. She sm-irked and nodded.
‘Lyiris Shindler, have I ever deceived you?’ I shook my head. ‘
what is the cause of such great alarm of distrust?’
‘It’s called concern, I’m worried about you.’
‘I do say that worry is not what I deal with,’ she looked at the time.
‘I an-alyze and work with facts.
You nee-d not worry my none vital or blood related sibling, I’ll be fine.’ She turned around and left. Why do I have a good and bad feeling about this?
Cyraila
I drummed my f!ngerson the arm of the chair as I scrolled throu-gh the website for the talent hunt.
Lyiris Shindler was still worried, her eyes were ma-king me uncomfortable.
‘According to the words here, we must submit a video with our registration. If we are selected, we shall be s£nt an e-mail when the time is right. Once that e-mail is delivered, we shall pres£nt ourselves to the first judges and from there we shall be given the pas-s to the camp or s£nt home.’
‘I still think this is a bad idea Cyraila, won’t we be…’
‘You worry too much sister, you worry too much.’
‘Fine, what am I suppose to do? I can’t sing, remember?’ She cried out in frustration.
‘Ah!’ I dropped my phone. ‘Lyiris Shindler do sing the songs of the dead but however, her ra-pping is incredible. You ra-p very fast, with the speed of a forwarded megabot.
That should be of great impression for us, don’t you think?’
‘Whatever,’ I slouched back into the chair with eyes closed.
Something is calling me, someone is calling me. During this space of three years amongst humans, I have come to un-derstand that there is someone out there calling me but I cannot connect the link. I opened my eyes to begin the online registration, whoever is calling me there, I’ll find him or her.
I won’t tell Lyiris Shindler that father is close, we have a month left but with this new plan, three or four shall be our limit.
Hopefully, I’ll come up with another plan before then.
Ji-Seon
TWO WEEKS LATER
I dragged my own bag into camp happily, I was finally here, in Mega Blue Camp! I fanned myself mentally, I’ve waited for five years for this, my sister and I. Talking about her, she was still struggling with the mall she carried along with her. She’s my younger twin, Jin-Ju, a very happy and fashion crazy girl.
‘Ji-Seon, help me!’ She cried, her makeup was ruined because of her sweat.
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‘Seriously, one box wasn’t enough?’
‘What if we nee-d to look fabulous?’ She asked back. ‘I only brou-ght seventeen bags, not the rest sixteen.’
‘Seventeen heavy giant boxes nitwit! We had to pay three cabs because of them. This is music camp, not a fashion show.’
‘Are you going to help me or not?’ She snapped. I showed her my rolling bag, it’s heavy as it is. How ha-rd is it to push three trolleys of heavy bags? Ask her how many pounds those bags weigh. ‘Hey!’ She shouted waving at some guys but they didn’t hear her. Since we were at the parking lot, a gray and black Power Cruiser and pink and black and pink Retro parked at our side. Nice, I love bikes, my sister and I do. I have a raven and black Sports Tourer and Jin-Ju owns a green and black Maxi Scooter. Look like we all love black in a sort of way.
The pink rider re-moved her helmet and got down from the bike, her hair was tinted pink, it suited her crazy dark make-up. The other girl took off her helmet, I ba-rely had enough time to see her face before she pu-ll-ed her hood over her head. I was fascinated by both of them. I wasn’t the only one stunned by them, some others were too. I watched in slow motion as the pink girl flung her bag over her shoulder while the other dragged her bag out of the bike.
‘Hey two gorgeous girls!’ Jin-Ju shouted un-der her breath. ‘Pink haired!’ She turned around with a questioning look. ‘plea-se, help me carry my bags or rather boxes, plea-se.’ She sobbe-d. The pink haired looked at the other gray girl with a sort of look, one that meant they briefly discuss something with eye contact. Then she turned to us, giving her bag to her friend.
‘It will be too heavy, plea-se carry what you c….’ She lifted the biggest box first, like it was nothing.
‘Cy, help me stack the boxes up t©p of each other.’
‘Wouldn’t that make you blind to the road?’ The gray girl asked, her tone was off, almost robotic.
‘Got a better idea?’
‘You could just push the trolleys instead of carrying the boxes, what are you doing with such boxes?’
‘I nee-d to look fabulous, duh!’ I rolled my eyes. The pink girl put the box back and pushed one of the trolley.
‘Can you try pushing the other one?’ The pink intimid@t!nggirl asked.
‘I’m afraid their strength are below the weight at which their b©dy can carry.’
‘How would you know that?’ I asked folding my arms.
‘You can only carry…’
‘Cyraila!’ Pink haired snapped. The hood girl kept shut and walked to us and with her two hands she dragged the two heavy trolleys away while we followed in awe.
‘Am I the only one who feels weird about them?’ I whispered to Jin-Ju.
‘I think they are awesome,’ she grinned, always seeing good things in everyone.
‘What is our room number?’
‘Cabin 17.’ Hood girl replied.
‘Hey! That’s our room number too!’ Jin-Ju squealed. ‘Can’t you see how small this world is? We meet and as-sisted each other….’
‘We as-sisted?’ The pink haired snorted.
‘Ok, you helped us but you un-derstand.’ I chuckled. We reached our room, Jin-Ju opened the door for us. I smiled in satisfaction, the room was black and white, all the furniture was pink.
‘Nice, now this is what I call a room!’ Pink haired exclaimed. ‘So my style!’
‘I go for this be-d!’ Jin skrie-ked as she jumped on the be-d closest to the big wardrobe. ‘I just nee-d to change the be-dcovers to green to be more me.’
‘I agree, mine will be purple.’
‘And we nee-d to change some of the furniture to suit our taste, all pink su-cks.’ Pink haired said grinningly.
‘But you seem to love black and pink,’
‘Yeah but the white nee-ds to go and you all nee-d to be comfortable.’ How considerate.
‘I have lot of paints in one of my box, we could transform the room tomorrow,’ Jin-Ju suggested. We all nodded.
‘Hi, I’m Lyiris Shindler and that is my younger sister Cyraila.’
‘You look more Russian than Korean,’ I said softly, sitting on my selected be-d.
‘Our father is Ko-rean and mother Russian,’ she smiled. ‘Do you both appreciate the black?’
‘I love it,’ Jin-Ju squealed. ‘We both do. You can sing, right?’
‘Hey! Maybe we can be a team,’ I suggested. ‘I mean we all love black with our own special mix, right?’ We nodded. ‘I’m purple and black, she’s green and black. You obviously love pink and black and….’
‘Gray,’ the hood head said without a smile, I could ba-rely see her face.
‘Yeah, we should be a team with something black. I always wanted my name to be Raven, stage name. Ravenna but I like Raven.’
‘Apple,’ Jin-Ju giggled, taking her hair warmer off to reveal her green dyed hair. I re-moved my cap, my hair was purple.
‘Flamingo,’ pink haired smiled. We all looked at hoody.
‘I do not know what name to call myself,’
‘Gray Vixen,’ I said with a merry cl@p. ‘So now we can be….’
‘Mild – Wild Black!’ We all squealed simultaneously, we think alike.
‘Why Mild – Wild?’ I asked itching my head. They shrugged.
‘It makes s-en-se and has a nice ring to it.’ Pink girl said.
‘From the s-en-se of our mild and wild names,’ Gray said coolly. ‘I’m wild as the vixen, flamingos are not. Ravens can be both and apple is just…normal.’
‘And we all love black, easy conclusion.’ Jin giggled falling back on her be-d.
‘Who’s the team leader?’ I asked looking at everyone.
‘No one but everyone,’ flamingo smiled. ‘I’m a ra-pper, I don’t care about leadersh!p.’
‘I love fashion, that will be my concern, how we look.’ Jin said thoughtfully.
‘I ra-p slowly and I love singing. Few times I write songs and I like dancing. Leadersh!pis sort of my thing.’
‘So is hers,’ Flamingo murmured looking at Gray.
‘What can you do Gray?’
‘Cyraila, call her Cyrai or Raila and do call me Iris.’
‘I can do everything,’ Raila said with her weird tone.
‘She’s a songwriter, choreogra-pher, singer and dancer.
Sorry if she’s very cold, she don’t smile or show emotions because she once stayed in a barrack.
Ignore her robotic attitude.’ I nodded.
‘I guess we are both leaders, now, let’s try our keys to see if we blend.’
‘Tomorrow,’ Jin slurred, she was dozing off alre-ady. Lazy girl. Raila re-moved her hood, her hair was black and gray and she’s so pretty but looks really familiar.
To be continued.