the name unknown: a 'k' short story

midnight talk

after the emotional session ended, they all sit on the floor, forming a circle.

"it's been years since we sit and talk together like this." said heeseung.

"ah, right." jay adds. "after the show ended, we have no time for a midnight talk."

"uh-huh. we always go straight to bed." sunoo puts a bag of chips in the middle of the circle.

the boys started to grab some chips.

"especially every time we're about to make a comeback." ni-ki adds.

"right! comeback is the hardest time of all." jungwon agrees.

k snaps his finger. "by the way, i love your comeback song!"

jake covers his mouth. "really? omg! did you watch our comeback shows?"

k nods happily. "of course! maybe you think you lost me, but i'm actually supporting you from afar."

"so...  you're telling us that you've been keeping an eye on us?" jay shakes k's shoulder.

"uh-huh."

"this WHOLE time?"

"yes." k drinks the milk sunghoon gave hin earlier. "well... not only enhypen, but i've been also keeping my eyes on all the iland members."

all the members' jaws dropped. "really?"

k nods. "let me list all that i know." k fixes his position. "ta-ki and daniel debuted as duo in 2021. ej, geonu, nicholas, and kyungmin moved to pledis and debut with 5 other pledis trainees. hanbin's cac dance crew became bigger, he finally opened a dance studio last year. jaebeom became a song writer and a producer in bighit. yoonwon became a famous dancer through youtube. ah! taeyong joined yoonwon's dance group. their youtube channel just hit 500k subscribers weeks ago. jimin, jaeho and seon joined another survival show. they finally debuted there. youngbin quitted his agency and became a famous basketball player. sungchul also quitted his agency and became a soccer player instead." k summaries everything he knows.

the members couldn't say anything but clap. "wow... you know a lot more than us." said sunghoon.

"you're such a great brother. i wish i'm your younger brother," said ni-ki.

"i already considered you and ta-ki as my younger brothers, ni-ki." k pats ni-ki head.

"how can you know that much? are you still active in iland's group chat?" asked heeseung.

k shakes his head. "no. among the 23 applicants, only ta-ki has my new number all this time."

"new? is that why we couldn't contact you back then?" asked ni-ki. he feels a little sad knowing only ta-ki who's been in touch with k this whole time.

k nods. "yes, i'm sorry i didn't let you know."

"it's okay. what happened to your old number?" asked sunghoon.

"well..." k tries to remember where everything has started. "when i flew back here, i lost my phone at the airport. that's why i changed my number and lost all of yours. ta-ki's number is the only one i could remember."

jay senses something else. "is that all? is there something else you've been hiding from us? if only that happened, i guess you'd asked ta-ki our numbers. but... why did you disappear for three years? what did you do this whole time?"

the room is filled with silence. the members are waiting for k's answer, while k is preparing his answer.

"ok. i'll start from the very beginning." k breathes deeply.