Onyx: Truth Read online

  ONYX:

  Truth

  Onyx, Book 1

  An Atlantis Entertainment Novel

  J. S. Lee

  Axellia Publishing

  Onyx: Truth

  Copyright © 2019 J. S. Lee

  All rights reserved.

  First edition, March 2019

  Published by Axellia Publishing

  Print ISBN: 978-1-912644-18-6

  eBook AISN: B07NGQNQC5

  Cover design by Natasha Snow Designs;

  www.natashasnowdesigns.com

  Onyx logo by Shezna Love

  Edited by C. Lesley

  Proofread by S. Harvell

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval systems, in any forms or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without express permission of the author, unless for the purpose of a review which may quote brief passages for a review purpose.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locations are used fictitiously. Other characters, names, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events, locations, or persons – living or dead – is entirely coincidental.

  CONTENTS

  CONTENTS

  DEDICATION

  THE ATLANTIS ENTERTAINMENT UNIVERSE

  K-101

  제 1 장

  제 2 장

  제 3 장

  제 4 장

  제 5 장

  제 6 장

  제 7 장

  제 8 장

  제 9 장

  제 10장

  제 11장

  제 12장

  제 13장

  제 14장

  제 15장

  제 16장

  제 17장

  제 18장

  제 19장

  제 20장

  CHAPTER TITLES

  CHARACTER BIOGRAPHIES

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  ATLANTIS ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  WAYS TO CONNECT

  DEDICATION

  For my parents.

  Who have no idea I write K-smut…

  And would probably disown me if I did.

  Sorry 아빠 and 엄마.

  Thank 하백 for parents who would never consider looking for K-Pop romances written under their daughter’s Korean name.

  (And a special shout out to those who get the 하백 reference.)

  THE ATLANTIS ENTERTAINMENT UNIVERSE

  New Adult Reverse Harem

  (As J. S. Lee)

  H3RO

  Idol Thoughts

  Idol Worship

  Idol Gossip

  Onyx

  ONYX: Truth

  Coming Soon

  ONYX: Heart

  ONYX: Love

  Young Adult Contemporary Romance

  (As Ji Soo Lee)

  Zodiac

  The Idol Who Became Her World

  The Girl Who Gave Him The Moon

  Coming Soon

  The Leader Who Fell From The Sky

  K-101

  For those of you unfamiliar with K-Pop / K-Dramas / Korean culture, here’s a short handy guide:

  Names in Korean are written family name then given name. It’s not uncommon to use the full name when addressing a person – even one you’re close to.

  김영빈 is the Korean way of writing Kim Youngbin.

  윤지원is the Korean way of writing Yoon Jiwon – pronounced like Gee-one

  임종섭is the Korean way of writing Im Jongsub (JongB)

  공민혁 is the Korean way of writing Gong Minhyuk (MinMin)

  렌용식 is the Korean way of writing Ren Yongsik. However, as Yongsik goes by his stage name, CX, it would be written 시엑스.

  Xiao is a little different he is Chinese. It would therefore be spelled out phonetically in Korean. (For those curious, it would be 샤오 which is really hard to write phonetically but would be pronounced she-yaow – run it all together to make one syllable.)

  Surnames (Family names)

  As the western worlds combined, we ended up with a lot of variation in surnames. In Korea, although there is variation, you will find a lot Kims, Lees, and Parks. To try to keep things as easy to follow as possible, I have tried to make sure that all characters don’t have the same surname unless they’re in the same family – like Holly. However, in reality, this is most often not the case.

  BTS, for example have Kim Namjoon (RM), Kim Seokjin (Jin), and Kim Taehyung (V). They all share the same family name, but are not related.

  Oppa (오빠), hyung (형), noona (누나), and oennie (언니)

  This one gets a little confusing at first. The first thing you need to know, in Korea, age is a very important thing. It’s not uncommon for you to be asked your age before your name because you need to be spoken to with the correct level of respect (known as honorifics). To show this, there’s actually several ways to speak to address a person and it usually depends on your age (an exception to this might be in a place of work where someone younger than you is more senior to you). But I’ll keep this simple and limit myself to terms used in the book.

  Traditionally, oppa, hyung, noona, and unnie are terms used to describe your older sibling – depending on what sex you are and what sex they are. If you are male, your older brother is hyung and your older sister is noona. If you are female, your older brother is your oppa, and your older sister is unnie (technically, 언니 when Romanized is oennie, but unnie has become a more standard way of writing this). However, this can often be transferred to people you are close to. A girl will call her older boyfriend oppa. An idol will call his older groupmates hyung.

  Sunbae (선배) and Hoobae (후배)

  Along the same vein, sunbae (senior) and hoobae (junior) may be used as an alternative when using experience as a basis, rather than age.

  Other

  Comeback: this is an odd one for most people. Your next single isn’t just your next single. It’s a comeback – and it doesn’t matter if you’ve waited two months or two years.

  Kakao: Kakao is a messaging app similar to Whatsapp or Wechat.

  SNS: What we would call Social Media, Koreans use the term Social Networking Service. Included in this would be V Live, an app which allows Korean idols to communicate with their fans (a bit like Instagram Live)

  화이팅: Fighting, or ‘hwaiting’ is a word commonly used as encouragement, like ‘good luck’ or ‘let’s do this’.

  Maknae: a term used for the youngest member of a group.

  ‘Ya!’: The Korean equivalent to ‘Hey!’

  제 X 장: Chapter (pronounced jae X jang)

  AAA Pass: Access All Areas Pass. Usually reserved for artists and key members of staff – this is the pass that will let you backstage and in areas like the green room.

  Character Bios are also available at the back of this book

  More terms and information is available on Ji Soo’s website:

  www.jislooleeauthor.com/k101

  제 1 장

  All Eyes On Me

  “I’m sorry, Kate,” Holly apologized as I pushed the paperwork back to her. “It’s not that I don’t trust you; I do. It’s just, it’s company policy for everyone to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement.”

  I sat back in the seat opposite her desk and shrugged. “Dude, I get it. Don’t sweat it. I had to sign a bunch of NDAs for the pop diva, which frankly, given the shit I saw on that tour, even if I did go to the tabloids, no one would believe it anyway.”

  “It’s a bit different out here,” Holly said, still sounding apologetic.

  ‘Here’ was Seou
l. Holly was my best friend. We’d met at college back in the States. What I hadn’t known then – because she hadn’t known herself – was that she was the illegitimate heir of Atlantis Entertainment; one of the top five K-Pop companies in South Korea.

  Her father had found her a few years after she had graduated from college and made her move out to Seoul and prove her ability by managing a down-and-out K-Pop group called H3RO. Despite being a mere English Literature grad, she’d brought them from the brink of disbandment to being one of the most popular groups on the charts. Her success had moved her to the Vice-Chairwoman’s office, which I think had been her father’s intention all along. It had meant that she had to relinquish managing H3RO personally so that she could take control of the whole of the Atlantis roster.

  “It’s not completely different from Japan,” I shrugged. I’d been at college studying Japanese and had even lived just outside of Tokyo for a year as part of my course. Holly and I had made friends because we’d lived in the same dorm, not because we shared the same major.

  “I’m not talking about Seoul,” she sighed, brushing her long dark hair over her shoulder. She pushed the papers to one side, then fixed me her ‘serious’ look. I’d experienced this one a lot in college. It was usually accompanied by her telling me I had to study more and party less.

  “You look stressed,” I told her. “You need to get laid.” Holly’s eyes went wide. “I knew it!” I exclaimed, banging my hand excitedly on her desk. “Which one is it?” I asked.

  I’d been to Korea twice now, both times to photograph the group she had been managing: H3RO. And fuck me, they were hot. “It was that Chinese one, wasn’t it? Dante?” I leaned forward as she stared back at me, doing her best to keep a poker face. Just like in college, she still sucked at that. “Can’t say I blame you, dude. He looks like he’d be pure filth.”

  “I need to keep Onyx as scandal free as possible,” Holly declared, deliberately not responding to my comment. Yeah, she’d definitely hooked up with Dante: good for her! “Which is going to be difficult.”

  “Why?” I asked, curious.

  Holly shrugged. “While B.W.B.B. are still the most popular group at Atlantis, they still have four of their members enlisted. H3RO are getting more popular as each day goes by, but they’re still not earning enough each. Onyx are our money makers. They had All-Kills on all their comebacks last year, and they’re the first group we’re sending on a world tour – an actual world tour.”

  I blinked a few times. “OK, you need to translate some of that… who are Onyx killing?”

  Holly smiled. “Welcome to the world of K-Pop. Comeback is the term we use for the next single. All-Kill means they topped every chart.” She tilted her head at me. “And as we’re on the topic of learning a whole other language, how is your Korean?”

  I shrugged. “I did the intensive course you suggested. My tutor said I’m not doing too bad, but the Japanese probably helps. Just don’t ask me to write anything.”

  “To be fair, you should be OK,” she assured me. “You’re doing a photoshoot, and I’ll attend. Then, when Onyx go on tour, they’ll have a couple of translators.”

  “What’s the issue with the scandal?”

  “It’s not a scandal,” Holly responded, quickly. “It’s just Onyx have had a lineup change. One of their members left to go back to China. Because of the tour, we’ve decided to bring in a new member to help the vocal line out.”

  I watched her carefully. She really would be useless at poker; she had so many tells. There were some showing now, but I couldn’t work out what part of what she was telling me was false. I did know Holly, though. She wasn’t a liar, so if she wasn’t telling the whole truth, it was because she was trying to protect someone.

  In all honesty, I didn’t care about the details. My job was to take photographs and make them look good.

  Holly stood. “We’ve got to get the photographs taken today, and I need them first thing tomorrow,” she told me, apologetically.

  “You’ve told me this several times,” I said. “I know, and it’s not a problem. I’ll pull an all-nighter if I need to.”

  “Let me introduce you to Onyx.” She stepped out from behind the desk, waiting for me to follow her. Outside, she paused at her secretary’s desk, asking her something, before turning back to me. “This is Park Inhye,” she told me. “If you ever need me and can’t get through, try Inhye. She’s an angel.”

  I gave her a finger wave, then continued to follow Holly as she led me through a maze of corridors: I hope she never expected me to remember where I was going.

  We arrived at a dance studio, the music only just escaping through an almost soundproofed wall. The door was glass, and Holly paused at it. “They’ve been practicing since the early hours,” she told me. “They have days to teach CX the new dance.”

  “Sex?” I repeated in amusement. “What kind of routine are they teaching him?”

  “Ren Yongsik,” Holly clarified. “He chose his own stage name: CX,” she said, repeating the words clearly. “He doesn’t speak English, but his bio says he’s fluent in Japanese.” She shook her head. “I’ll just introduce you to them all.”

  She pushed open the door, the music becoming much louder. The room was soundproofed better than I had thought. The six members of Onyx abandoned their routine, the tallest of them bounding over to kill the music.

  “Oh, fuck,” I muttered under my breath, as all six of the sweaty males bowed their heads respectfully at us. Holly had said they had been practicing for hours and honestly, it looked like it. They all looked exhausted and there wasn’t a single one of them who wasn’t dripping with sweat, but fuck me, all it did was make them look more attractive.

  “OK, let’s start with introductions,” Holly said brightly, before translating it into Korean.

  “I can cope with introductions,” I muttered at her, still entranced by them.

  “Onyx, this is Kate,” Holly announced. “She’s going to be taking the replacement tour photographs for you this afternoon, and then she’s going to be your official tour photographer.”

  The six of them stared at me. It wasn’t the most unwelcoming response, but it didn’t exactly fill me with warmth. I had to remind myself that we had interrupted a practice, and I couldn’t help but wonder how that was going. I looked around the group, giving them a bright smile as I tried to figure out the group dynamic. Two were stood slightly to one side, and I was willing to bet one was CX.

  “This is MinMin,” Holly said, indicating to the guy closest to us – one of the two. He was one of the shortest in the group, a good five centimeters smaller than me. Hidden under a massive, wet, shaggy mass of black hair, dark eyes peered at me inquisitively. Although he was wearing baggy cargo pants with all kinds of tassels and ribbons hanging from them, and an oversized t-shirt, as wet as his hair, I could tell he had the slimmest build of the group. “Hello,” he said, bobbing his head.

  “MinMin is Onyx’s rapper and dancer,” Holly added.

  Holly moved onto the guy next to him. He easily looked the youngest. He also looked the most tired. His hair was blond, though, being wet, it looked almost golden. He gave me a grin that lit up his eyes. “Hello, I’m Ren Yongsik,” he greeted me, brightly, before his eyes went wide. I could see him look to Holly before he bobbed his head and started apologizing profusely.

  “It’s been a couple of weeks, CX,” she said, pointedly, although she did pat his shoulder. “But you’ve got to get used to it. You chose it.”

  I looked blankly at Holly. “Why’s he so upset?” I asked her.

  She gave CX’s shoulder another pat before looking to me. “He just needs to get used to his stage name.”

  “Can’t he just use his actual name?” I asked.

  Holly sighed, giving CX an apologetic smile. “It’s a long story, but no. CX debuted previously, and we’re trying to disassociate him with that group.”

  Was that the scandal she was trying to hide?

  I j
ust nodded, giving CX a reassuring smile. He was cute. Too cute for his own good… and possibly mine.

  “As I explained before, CX is Onyx’s newest member, and he relieved MinMin of the maknae position.” At my blank look, she smiled. “Youngest member,” she explained. “He’s one of the vocalists.” I eyed CX, trying to be subtle as I tried to work out just how young he was. I was twenty-three, nearly twenty-four, but he seemed younger than me. If this were the States and we were out drinking, I’d ID him. I had a feeling he’d be old enough to drink though.

  Next up was a guy wearing a wife beater which did very little to hide his very broad, muscly chest. This guy looked like he could bench press a Buick. He had the broadest shoulders, and arms that were ripped. I dragged my eyes down his body, not missing the fact that the tops of his sweatpants were tight around his thighs. It was probably a good thing he was in sweatpants because I already had the urge to bite his thighs. My eyes flicked up to meet his. I caught him watching me, like he knew what I was thinking. I nodded my chin at him, not even bothering to hide it. That was the kind of thing Holly would have done.

  “What’s up?” he greeted me, his English only having a trace of an accent to it.

  My heart rate was what was up!

  And possibly my horniness level… Yep, that had definitely kicked in.

  “This is Xiao,” Holly said. “Onyx’s only Chinese member, and also a vocalist.”

  I’d noticed when working with H3RO that all the members had been ridiculously good looking, and I’d even done a bit of research into K-Pop groups between leaving Seoul and returning. I’d yet to find an unattractive male – or female – in a K-Pop group. At photoshoots and in music videos there was usually a fair amount of makeup involved, which only highlighted their attractiveness. Here, barefaced and sweaty, I was surprised to see that they all had natural beauty too.

  My research had also enlightened me to the fact that most idols had a no-dating clause in their contract. Not that that would be an issue for me. I had just broken up with my boyfriend and I was not interested in dating. Damien the Dick had put me off men for the foreseeable future.