Rising Dragons

Birth Name: Kim Ryan -김라이언
Stage Name: Ryan
Aged: 24yrs
Height: 182cm
Weight: 63kg
Nationality: Korean-American
Occupation: Member of Rising Dragons -용일어남
Position: Lead Vocalist; Baritone-Tenor

Birth Name: Kim Haneul – 김하늘
Stage Name: Haiden Kim
Aged: 24yrs
Height: 186cm
Weight: 66kg
Nationality: Korean-American
Occupation: Member of Rising Dragons -용일어남
Position: Bass

Birth Name: Kang Chin-Mae –캉친매
Stage Name: Jamie Kang
Aged: 23 yrs
Height: 61kg
Weight: 180cm
Nationality: Korean
Occupation: Member of Rising Dragons -용일어남
Position: Tenor

Birth Name: Ryom Chung-Hee –룜충희
Stage Name: Andrew Ryom
Aged: 21yrs
Height: 177cm
Weight: 58kg
Nationality: Korean
Occupation: Member of Rising Dragons -용일어남
Position: Tenor

Birth Name: Jung Sang-Mun –증상문
Stage Name: Sage Jung
Aged: 25yrs
Height: 186cm
Weight: 74kg
Nationality: Korean
Occupation: Member of Rising Dragons -용일어남
Position: Leader; Bass

Birth Name: Devon Saunders
Aged: 22yrs
Height: 173cm
Weight: 63kg
Nationaility: African-American
Occupation: Waitress/ Babysitter/ Dog Walker

Birth Name: Stacy Kim
Aged: 22 yrs
Height: 170 cm
Weight: 50 kg
Nationality: African-Korean –American
Occupation: College Student

Chapter One: The First Meeting

The five members of Rising Dragons, the hottest male R&B/Pop artists in Korea, second only to the famous Mr. Sexy, entered their hotel room in New York City after a long flight from Seoul, Korea. The flight was 22 hours with a few stops in between. All the members seemed to be experiencing jet lag, well that is all except one. The youngest member of the band Chung-Hee appeared to be immune to the affects of a cross continental flight. In fact he was bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm. As soon as the door to their hotel room opened Chung-Hee ran past his band mates, past the foyer, and into one of the bedrooms where he immediately dumped his bags. He then hurried back into the foyer ready to go see the city of New York, only to find everyone else lying about the couch exhausted.

“Hey, what are you guys doing?”

“Resting.” Haneul said from his side of the couch.

“Oh, come on!” Chung-Hee exclaimed with disappointment. He grabbed Chin-Mae and pushed him towards the window that showed the view outside. “Don’t you guys want to go out and see the city? Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Chung-Hee, please calm down. We have a lot on our plate.” Chin-Mae tried to explain. Chung-Hee rolled his eyes and tapped Ryan on his shoulder. Ryan opened one eye and saw Chung-Hee’s smiling face. He immediately pushed the younger singer to the floor. A small smile of satisfaction appeared on Ryan’s face before once again resting his eyes.

“Yea, it’s going to be hard for us to make a name for ourselves here. I think it would be a good idea for us to rest up a bit before exploring.” Sang-Mun mumbled across the room in a reclining chair. He slowly drifted to sleep.

“If we did, you know that we’d be the first. I mean, how cool is that?” Chung-Hee squealed with excitement. He left Ryan’s side and jumped on his best friend, Chin-Mae’s back and stared at the view that their hotel room at The Premier provided. It was beautiful; the city was alive with the many neon lights and noise that the traffic provided. “This place is awesome, the only thing that they are missing is some mountains but these lights almost makes the loss acceptable.”

“It’s okay, nothing special.” Haneul said as he made his way to Chin-Mae and Chung-Hee. Chung-Hee let go of Chin-Mae and turned to stare at Haneul next to him with an exaggerated look of horror and shock.

“How can you say that? Just looking at all the lights gets me excited. Ooh, I feel like running somewhere or seeing something.” Chung-Hee began jogging in place. Haneul knocked Chung-Hee down by brushing the smaller man with his shoulder. The younger singer immediately jumped up and brushed the pretend dirt off his clothes.

“You know, I am tired of you guys pushing me down.”

“If you weren’t so annoying, no one would have to push you.” Sang-Mun stood up from the chair, resigned in the thought that he wouldn’t get the bit of rest that he was looking for in the recliner. “If you want to do something Chung- Hee, we can practice the dance routine and our harmonization, dancing especially because Ryan needs as much help as he possibly can.”

“What?” Ryan asked, completely thrown off by the randomness of Sang-Mun’s comment.

“You heard me; you’re the worst dancer the group. It still stumps me how we can practice all the live long day and you still can’t get the steps right.”

“I do just fine. I haven’t heard any complaints from the fans and until my dancing abilities bother them, I don’t see how it’s any of your concern.” Ryan got up from his seat and headed for the door.

“It is my problem when someone with two left feet brings down the performance quality of the group.”

“What the hell is your problem?!” Ryan screamed, frustrated with Sang-mun who was once again insulting him. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you but I am sick of all of your bull—“

“Ryan, calm down.” Haneul said, Ryan stared at his brother with a look of betrayal. He couldn’t believe that his own brother would take Sang-Mun’s side, especially when Haneul knew how hard Sang-Mun has been riding his back lately. It seemed like no matter what Ryan did, it wasn’t good enough for their leader and he was sick of it. Ryan threw his hands in the air before leaving the hotel room.

“Ryan, where are you going?” Chin-Mae called out but Ryan ignored him. He needed some peace and quiet and he was positive that he wouldn’t get it from his band mates. Chin-Mae looked like he was about to go after Ryan but he was stopped by Chung-Hee.

“Hyung, don’t worry about Chin-Mae Hyung. You know how hot headed he can be at times.” Chung-Hee said while he led Chin-Mae away from the door.

“He can be angry later. Ryan knows that we have several appearances lined-up today that are critical to our success in the states.” Sang-Mun said from his position.

“Ryan wouldn’t have left if you weren’t so hard on him.” Haneul accused Sang-mun.

“I’m not hard on him, not in the least but if we want to be great we can’t afford his screw ups anymore. That crap he pulled at the awards show could have ruined us.”

“He slipped, stuff happens Sang-Mun.”

“Well that shouldn’t!” Sang-Mun shouted. “We practiced that routine everyday for two weeks and twice on the Award Show stage. Ryan should have been flawless like the rest of us were.”

“Well to be honest with you Sang-Mun,” Chin-Mae stepped into the conversation, “You weren’t perfect either. You may have Ryan beat when it comes to his dancing ability but he has you on your singing. So, I think we all need a little improvement here and there.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Not  far away from the hotel Devon walked up and down the New York streets in search of a small Pomeranian that her client ‘misplaced’ at the dog park near the owners home. Devon knew that finding the dog running about the streets would be damn near impossible but she would give it a try with a little help from the trusty fliers that she created.

“Excuse me sir, have you seen this dog?” Devon showed the flier to some random guy on the street. The man shook his head no so Devon moved on to the next person. She lost track of how many people she asked but when Devon got to what she guessed was the fortieth person she got a positive response.

“Excuse me Miss, have you seen this dog?”

“Um,” The woman looked closely at the picture and then at something behind Devon, “Do you mean that dog there?” Devon turned around and looked in the direction that the woman was pointing and sure enough there was Kiki peeing on a tree. Devon could tell it was the lost dog by the pink sweater that adorned its body.

“Thank You!” Devon shouted at the lady as she ran after Kiki.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“…Bastard. No, He’s a self-righteous bastard. He always thinks that he’s …” Ryan’s mumbling stopped when he heard his cell phone ringing. He knew immediately knew that it was one of the boys, most likely Chin-Mae calling to check up on him. Ryan had been gone for a few hours, wandering the city in an attempt to distract himself from his anger. He normally wouldn’t let something so small anger him so much but it was the compilation of all the snide comments that Sang-Mun has made about his dancing ability on and off stage for the past four years, ever since the group was formed. It never ceased to amaze Ryan how Sang-Mun had the ability to comment on Ryan’s clumsiness in every single interview they had. In fact that was part of the reason why Ryan was entertaining the idea of not going to the interview today. He knew that his manager would be pissed but so would Sang-Mun.

Ryan pulled out his cell phone and it was indeed Chin-Mae calling him or rather texting him.

Where R U? When R U Coming Back?

I Can’t Tell U & I Don’t Know

The Interview is in 20, Can U make it back in time

No. I’m 2 far away

Sang-Mun is going 2 b pissed.

STFW g2g

Just before Ryan could turn off his found he found himself on the ground with a flurry of papers surrounding him. Slightly dazed from the sudden impact, Ryan stood before looking down to see what hit him. In the place of what he expected to be a truck was a young girl around his age sprawled out face down on the ground. Ryan immediately went to the woman’s aid, completely convinced that the incident was his fault.

“I’m so sorry.” He apologized while grabbing the woman’s arm and pulling her up in an upright position.

“No, it’s okay. I shouldn’t have been running.”She said after regaining her footing. The unfortunate woman gently pushed Ryan’s hand, no longer needing his help. Sighing, she glanced down and saw all the papers that she had been carrying were scattered all over the place. A few were floating on the wind, away from her. “Oh no, I’m so stupid. How could I lose her that fast?” Ryan heard her whisper to herself. The young woman crouched down and began hurriedly picking up the papers.

“Let me help.”Ryan offered. He came around her so that they were facing each other and Ryan’s breath caught in his throat. The woman was absolutely gorgeous. Her hair was wild and curly, pointing in many directions. The woman’s skin was dark like chocolate that looked absolutely captivating. Her eyes were large and a rich brown color that were surrounded by long lashes. What drove Ryan mad were her lips. They were full and soft, making them look absolutely kissable.

“I thought you were going to help me.” The beautiful woman’s voice drifted into his senses and pulled him back into reality.

“ Meanhaeyo.”

“What?” she laughed surprised to hear him speaking Korean.

“Oh, I said I’m sorry. Sometimes I slip back and forth when I’m not concentrating.” Ryan explained while helping her gather the papers.

“It’s okay, I know what you said. My friend’s Korean so I’ve picked up a few things here and there. You don’t have to apologize about it.” She threw him a smile and Ryan returned it. Not long after they had gathered all of the papers, or at least as much as they could catch before it was blown down the street. Ryan looked down at the papers before passing them along to the young lady.

“You’ve lost your dog?”

“No. I’m a dog walker. One of my clients lost her dog and I offered to help her. Mrs. Kenli’s dog means the world to her. I don’t think that she can go another day without her Kiki. I’m Devon by the way.” Devon offered her hand to Ryan.

“Ryan. Ah do you need any help? I don’t have anything to do and I can see that those are a lot of flyers so if there’s anything that you need me to do?”

“You’re so generous but no. I’m actually going home now, it’s getting late.”Devon took her hand back and stepped away from Ryan. “Goodbye Ryan.”Devon said before walking towards her home. Devon stopped walking when she was a half a block away from Ryan because she got the feeling that he was still watching. Devon turned around and tossed a smile at Ryan before continuing her walk back home, leaving Ryan staring in awe.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Where have you been all day?” Stacy, Devon’s roommate and best friend questioned as soon as Devon entered their two bedroom apartment.

“I’ve been searching for Ms. Kenli’s dog Kiki.” Devon through the flyers on the near by coffee table before plopping onto the couch next to Stacy. “I found him too but I lost him again after I bumped into this guy.”

“Bad luck.”

“I know but that’s not even the half of it. My day has been a living nightmare. First I got to the diner late because I missed the bus by a millisecond. Then I had to do my best to fight off with Mr. Henney’s advances. Next I find out that Mrs. Reynolds needs me to babysit her two brats. After that I got to Mrs. Kenli’s house only to find that Kiki ran away. So like the nice person I am I volunteer to search for her and you know the rest.”

“You’re right, your day totally sucked.”

“You know what the worst part is… I think the guy that I ran into was interested in me and he was hot. I mean HOT.”

“Damn, and you need a man too.”

“Shut up.” Devon grabbed a couch pillow before smacking Stacy on top of her head a few times. Stacy laughed at Devon before stretching out a bit. “How was your day?” Devon finally asked.

“Pretty good, school was great. I got an ‘A’ on my research paper.”

“Really, I thought you said it was impossible to get an ‘A’ from the wicked witch of the Westside.”

“I don’t know, she’s seems happier now. Like she got some you know what. Anyway, that’s not important guess what I found out?!” Stacy asked excitedly while bouncing off the couch.

“What?”

“RISING DRAGONS ARE COMING TO NEW YORK! AHHHH! I’m going to meet Hanuel Oppa.” Stacy stood from the couch and began to do a little dance. Devon rolled her eyes; she couldn’t understand how Stacy could get so excited over some guys.

‘Granted, I’m sure they are good looking, and I know they have nice voices but that’s all. They could be total jerks.’

“Aren’t you excited?” Stacy asked.

“Sure, I think that I’m going to go lay down for a bit.” Devon stood from the couch and gave a quick stretch before making a mad dash to her room. As soon as she entered her room Stacy began blasting ‘Here Again’ by Rising Dragons.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ryan stepped into the hotel room with a blank expression on his face, as if he was in a daze. He ignored the shouts and concerned looks that came from the other members of the band. He ignored the insults that were hurled at him by Sang-Mun. The only thing that he had on his mind was his encounter with the beauty Devon and how stupid he was for not making an attempt to ask her out. Ryan stepped in his bedroom and closed the door in Hanuel’s face.

“What the heck was I thinking, she was right in front of me and I just let her go. Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Ryan chanted while hitting his forehead repeatedly. He then laid down onto his bed and slowly drifted to sleep.