Our Nanny is a Boy || bxb

12. Dreamscape

Robin had just finished cleaning the apartment when it was dinnertime. He stood in front of the opened fridge and sighed.

I don't feel like cooking today.

What is Peter eating tonight?

How is he right now?

I want to make him lasagna again.

What is he doing right now? Is he allright?

He hit his temple with the palm of his hand. Ah Robin, get yourself together. Worrying about his kids would be more logical but you're only worried about their dumb crying idiot of a dad.

But since he really wasn't in the mood for cooking, he closed the refrigerator, took his wallet and left the house, bumping straight into a guy holding two boxes, which fell.

'Oh my god, I'm so sorry!' he apologized, picking up one of them. The boy had picked up the other one. 'It's okay, it was just bad timing. Or good timing, could you help me carry? I can't open the door holding two boxes.' The asian guy smiled a very wide and radiant smile. His hair was dyed red and he was quite handsome, emitting boyish charms.

His door was right next to Robin's. 'You live here?' Robin asked in surprise.

'I moved here yesterday. It's a mess inside.' the boy said, opening the door.

It was indeed a mess, boxes splattered everywhere, some half unpacked, some not opened yet. Which was of course not weird if you just moved, but Robin, a real perfectionist, felt his hands itching a bit.

The red-haired boy put the box he was holding with the other boxes like Robin, and reached out his hand. 'I haven't properly introduced myself to my neighbour yet, I'm sorry. My Korean name is Song Jaeyong, my English name is Alexander Song. Call me whichever you prefer! I just moved back to here from South-Korea, nice to meet you!'

'My name is Robin Peterson.' Robin introduced himself. 'Your English is really good, are you a native?'

Alexander nodded. 'My dad is Korean and my mom is Australian. I was born and raised here, but moved to South-Korea at the age of thirteen to become a K-Pop idol. But yeah, I failed, as you can see, or I would still be there. But that's a long story.'

'Wait.' Robin, who felt his stomach rumble, raised his hand to stop him. 'I'm hungry and to lazy too cook, so I was going to eat out. Feel like joining me?'

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'Okay, so you know a few K-Pop songs and group names, that's all.' Alexander nodded, taking a sip from his Ice Tea as they were waiting for their pizzas. Coincidentally, it was both of their favourite food, so there was no trouble on deciding what to eat. Alexander checked Robin's basic knowledge of the K-Pop industry, since apparently, his story needed some explanation on that part.

'So, when I was thirteen, I auditioned for Starship Entertainment and became a trainee. It's not one of the biggest four companies, which are Big Hit Entertainment with BTS, YG Entertainment with Blackpink and Big Bang, SM Entertainment with EXO and NCT and JYP Entertainment with Twice and Got7. Starship was still rather famous because of Monsta X, our hyung-nims -big brothers. So, entertainment companies are the basis of the K-Pop industry. You can only become a K-Pop idol if you are part of a company, basically. Trainees are usually trained for years, some for three, some for nine, it really differs. There are many, many trainees and they all have the same dream: debuting as soon as possible. And so did I. We all looked up to our hyung-nims, wanting to be like them. '

'I had the luck to be able to line up for a group after five years of training. Together with Sungjae, Hangyeol, Kichan, Yubin, Taeil and Pilsang, I was going to debut in a group called Dreamscape, which was "dream" plus "escape", referring to the wish to escape the weight of the heavy standards set by society through our music, while "dreamscape" referred to the place where we could be free, which was music. I was a rapper and also the main dancer. We were set the debut at the end of June. So far, are you keeping up? This is a lot of information, I know.'

Robin nodded, even though it was indeed a lot of information to process, he got the storyline.'

The pizzas were ready. 'Let's eat first.' said Alexander. 'Then, I will tell you my story.'

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While eating, Alexander actually didn't stop talking. He told Robin he could write and produce songs too and now did some busking from time to time, when he didn't have an appointment and wasn't working in the cafe.

'I'd love to see that!' Robin said, already thinking about taking Felicia and David with him. They would enjoy that.

'Sure.' Alexander grinned. 'I'll tell you when I go busking again. It's usually impulsively, so just come if its convenient, there will be more opportunities anyway.'

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'So what happened?' Robin asked after he ate the last slice of his pizza, his stomach was very satisfied. 'I mean, you trained for five year, you can write and produce songs, rap, dance, are pretty much an artistic genius if I may say so, but did you give up on your dream?'

'I wish it was that easy.' Alexander sighed. 'We were preparing for our debut, doing a little bit of busking here and there, our faces were shown to the public and we were already gaining a bit of a fanbase too. We were all excited and it felt unreal as we were approaching our debut day and working on our first album. But meanwhile, I... well, I was dating. And while Starship Entertainment is rather chill about dating, well... first of all, it wasn't really the right time, and second of all, it was my fellow member I was dating, the visual and the main vocalist, Do Pilsang.'

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Robin held his breath. From the little knowledge he had of the South-Korean society, he knew homosexuality was a taboo in South-Korea. Especially for a public figure like a K-Pop idol.

'How we started dating is a whole other, long story, but we truly liked each other. So from time to time we would go on dates. Since we knew it would be over once our fandom would be bigger and we were debuting soon, we were having our last real date. We wore caps and kept a low profile, but we had underestimated the netizens' ability. In a moment of recklessness we kissed each other shortly, thinking no one saw it, but a netizen shot a picture. To make matters worse, my cap fell off a short while later. They shot a picture, with my face clearly recognizable. Then, the pictures got spread all over the internet, social media... everyone knew.'

Robin gasped. 'Oh my god...'

'Fortunately, the only person they could identify was me. But Starship Entertainment knew that it was Pilsang. They had their suspicions already.' Alexander continued. 'Pilsang's image could be saved, they said, and they wanted to keep him in the group too, as they couldn't replace a visual and the main vocalist as a rapper or even a main dancer.'

He sighed. 'Pilsang was torn. He felt like he had to choose between his dream and me. I-I really wanted to t-tell him... he didn't have to b-but- I'm sorry, excuse me.' Alexander turned away from Robin, wiping his eyes. Robin got up to put his hand on the other's shoulder. 'It's okay, I don't mind.'

'Thanks...' Alexander sniffed and pat Robin's hand. 'I have just been running since the scandal, I haven't really been able to talk about my feelings yet. Anyway... in front of the CEO was the last time I saw him. I-I never got to say goodbye, they wouldn't- they wouldn't allow me to even see him after that. I-I still don't know if- if he's allright...'

Robin felt an ache in his heart at that story, for the poor boys who just wanted to love each other in that dark industry, and anger at the standards of society these boys these boys had wanted to escape, failing, made him clench his fists.

At the same time, he felt an ache way deeper in his heart.

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Of course I had to throw a gay K-Pop scandal in my Australia-based story!!!

Talking about gay and K-Pop-