Chapter 156 - Say Goodbye

The last year has had a great impact on the entire entertainment industry with everyone suffering under the impact. But the biggest impact has been on SKY which has suffered many personal setbacks from loss of family members, bodily harm due to accident and even threats and attacks and the CEO of their agency being arrested for various illegal activities. In spite of all this, SKY had continued their journey to become the biggest band in the world.  However, in a shocking revelation this morning, the band had announced their disbandment breaking the heart of their millions of fans and leaving them in tears. The band has invited a live fan meeting where they will be saying goodbye to their fans called STARS. Though this will not mean the end of the artists, halting of their activities will be a sad news whatsoever. Like all fans we are also hoping that this is a hoax or a prank but this will only be known when we hear them this evening." 

Many news articles like these caused a roar among the netizens as they tried to find reasons for something like this happening out of the blue. The speculation ranged from not getting along and fights among members to even some accusations about promiscuousness of certain members and drug allegations. However even as the STARS grieved, they came together to defend their idols. The time that they had thought was far away had come too suddenly on them for them to believe it so easily.

As a result of this when the press conference began at five pm with a live streaming there were a record breaking of more than 100 million people logging in almost crashing the servers.

Even the media person in the living room sat silently as the band SKY walked onto the stage in somber black clothes. As all five members bowed down to the press and their fans, this time they did not greet anyone with their trademark introduction. Instead they simply walked to the five chairs in silence and sat down. The atmosphere turned even more suppressing and before any of the reporters could begin questioning, the lights were turned off.

With a click, a single spot light lighted on the member in the middle and a microphone was lifted to his lips and a smooth and mellow timbre of Gyeom's voice sounded in the room,

"What we had was something unique

Similar to a special antique.

I wish I didn't have to leave

Life without you is hard to conceive.

Life without you won't be the same

But I do hereby proclaim

I wish you luck and much happiness

But leaving is sad, regardless." 

Soon Apollo continued in his slightly rough voice,

"Come here and take my hand

And press my lips,

Just for today —

To-morrow I'm away;

With pulsing heart

And quickened feet

I'll tread another street"

No eye remained dry as the two people finished their lines in a slow heart wrenching melody. It really was a goodbye. As the lights slowly turned on, the cameramen had even forgotten to get close up shots of the faces of the members who also had tears in their eyes.

After taking a moment to compose themselves, Adam finally bought the microphone to his mouth and said, "STARS, please accept SKY's last farewell and introduction to you. Raising his hand, he said,"1, 2, 3, Thank You for being with us! We Are SKY." And then finally all five members bowed together one last time.

Finally when no one said anything, Adam once again said," To the esteemed members of the press, we are now ready to answer your questions."

That seemed to wake up everyone from their sadness and soon numerous hands shot into the air. At this time Phillippe came onto the stage to organize the questions.

"The decision to disband has suddenly come out of no where. There are rumors that this is because of fights among the members. Is that true?"

Adam: "The decision to disband was unanimous. The bond we share is not so weak that it would break because of a few fights. We are even closer than brothers. No fight can break s apart. Our decision to disband is not because we have suddenly started to hate each other but because we love each other."

Felix: "When we started up we were heading towards the same goal of making soul soothing music. And we believe we did that.. But last year has been breaking for us. 

I.M: "We have slowly come to hope for different things for ourselves." 

Apollo: " We hope the STARS will forgive us and will hold us in their hearts forever."

Gyeom: "Even as we sit here, we almost find it unbelievable that we are not going to be together anymore. It may seem sudden to you but it has been a heart wrenching decision to us.."

Everyone could hear the tremble in their voices and all hopes of this being a prank had faded. This was not a prank or a decision made impulsively. It was all well thought out.

Realizing that no one was going to say anymore, another reporter raised his hand," What are your future plans? Are you all going to say goodbye to the industry?"

Adam: For now, yes! Felix and I.M have decided to return the roots and are going to go around the world busking their music. So you might find them singing along the streets somewhere. Apollo is going to serve the country and had already been accepted into the service and will be leaving soon. As you all know, I have been caught up in legal mess and need time to clear it so for now I am going to entirely focus on that. Gyeom is the one who is going to be here between all of you as he is going to be exploring his passion of direction and acting. We hope that you will continue to love him in the future as well."

Reported: "Does that mean that you will not be making music together or individually in the future?"

Apollo: "The future is too far away. Even in the past we had never thought of a future where we would go our separate ways. For now, none of us can even think of doing anything the next few days as we try to get over the fact that we won't be together even more. But yes making music without each other seems impossible for now."

Very soon, the press conference came to an end but the voices that grieved the loss of the beautiful band could not be silenced. All over the world, there were voices that called for SKY to return to them and try to hold on.

A little while later BP Entertainment shared a video as the boys bid goodbye to each other and the dorm where they had lived together was locked off, empty now. 

While Felix and I.M held hands and boarded a flight to an unknown island, Apollo boarded the train that would take him to the institute. Adam lost himself in Alice's embrace and cried bitter tears while Gyeom sat in his 'childhood' home staring at the ceiling as he tears escapes his eyes. When he had left home to become a trainee he had been a child and scared of living with unknown boys. And now that he was back, this home felt unfamiliar while the boys who had seemed strangers felt like his family. He knew that they had disbanded only for the world but they loved him much. If it had been his old self he would have been selfish and refused to disband. They would have persevered for him. But he had seen what the pressure of the fame had been doing to his brothers. He did not want them to suffer just for him. 

But now, he had no family and no friends. His family felt strange and all he wanted to do was run away from here. The ringing of his phone made him wince and as he looked at the caller's name, his eyes hardened even more and he turned off the phone.

There was no place in his life for fake friends. And there was no place was someone who did not want him in her life. He had already said his goodbye to her. A fan should be kept as a fan and nothing more.

Zirui looked down at her phone which was turned off and sighed. She had known that she had hurt Gyeom but she had not expected this to happen. She wanted to talk to him and ask him but he was not answering the calls! She called Adam to talk to him. The disbanding of SKY was one she could not accept. But even Adam did not accept her call and it was Alice who finally answered that Adam was not in a state to talk at present and she should call them back later... Zirui could only hold her phone tightly and cry like the rest of the STARS...