Year 2041
Lee Jinwoo was getting ready to invite his four friends to play baseball in a city park which was so clean with fresh air. His passion was burning because he finally had time with his best friend.
"Let's start playing." Exclaimed Jinwoo, who at that time wore white shorts, sunglasses and a thick sweater because it was quite windy today, walked over to Choi Seungyoon while wearing gloves and holding a baseball in his right hand. His cheerful smile disappeared when he found only Seungyoon.
"Only you came?" Jinwoo asked. Seungyoon pursed his lips with irritated eyes.
"Dong Mino?" Jinwoo asked wanting to know the reason.
"Reading a medical book related to neurosurgery." replied Seungyoon.
Jinwoo sighed at Seungyoon's answer, "Kwon Taehyun?"
Jinwoo asked again, still curious about the others. Seungyoon's facial expression did not change, "Was reading the novel he bought at the airport yesterday."
"What? Then, Kang Seunghoon?" He is still curious about his last friend, what he did so that he doesn't appear in front of him.
"Checked and signed the documents he brought from Korea." answered Seungyoon with a slow flow of speech.
"Aigoo!" exclaimed Jinwoo in astonishment and again he sighed.
* * *
Jinwoo and Seungyoon went back into their villa. This villa has long been their residence if they are visiting California. In addition to the cool air, the panoramic view of the lake that stretches out behind the villa is able to sedate them for lingering on their stay.
Jinwoo walked with a fairly wide step, making Seungyoon overwhelmed to follow him. Arrived at the main room where two people were immersed in their reading. Jinwoo immediately walked to the long sofa and without hesitation his left hand grabbed the book that was read by Mino who was sitting on the left and his right hand stole the novel that was read by Taehyun who was sitting on the right. Then Jinwoo stood in front of the fireplace right in front of the two of them. Mino was surprised by what happened just now while Taehyun stared at Jinwoo with a sharp gaze.
"Hyung!" Mino protested.
"Stand up. Let's play baseball!" Jinwoo's command confirmed.
"I have to read it until it's finished, this has to do with Aeri, Hyung." Mino explained.
"Since when can Aeri's pain be cured by operating her head?" Asked Jinwoo, Mino could not help hearing Jinwoo's words.
"That's just your excuse." Jinwoo continued, which made Seungyoon giggle and Seungyoon's small laugh managed to add to Mino's annoyance.
"And you, Kwon Taehyun! Why go all the way to California if what you do is the same as what you did in Seoul?" shouted Jinwoo.
"Aigoo, why are you so noisy. Your voices can be heard into my room?" Seunghoon walked into the room where Jinwoo was grumbling with several sheets of paper. Jinwoo hinted at Seungyoon to snatch the papers. Seungyoon who understood did so, he grabbed the paper Seunghoon brought and immediately ran behind Jinwoo's body to hide.
"Hey! Choi Seungyoon, give it back! It's an important document." shouted a panicked Seunghoon.
"Why don't you just bring your secretary and office building here, Kang Seunghoon?" shouted Jinwoo back.
"I invited you here because there you guys are too focused on what you are doing. At least try to calm down while away from Korea. You can go crazy if you continue like this." Jinwoo continued.
"Isn't it your job to heal us?" Taehyun said. This time Seunghoon laughed amusedly hearing Taehyun's remarks.
"KWON TAEHYUN !!" Jinwoo shouted, his three friends were silent.
"I'll ask again. Are you going to exercise with us or not?" asked Jinwoo in a firm tone.
"Hyung, I really have to study the book." Mino whined.
"Return the documents, hyung. I have to send them tonight." Asked Seunghoon.
"I can buy another novel later." Taehyun said casually, making the four friends sigh at the same time.
"Hyung, they won't obey. They just obey this book. Kiss Note." Seungyoon whispered showing a light pink book to Jinwoo.
Immediately Seunghoon took a deep breath looking at the book Seungyoon showed, Mino couldn't believe what he was seeing now, and Taehyun, who had closed his eyes while folding his arms across his chest while leaning his shoulders on the sofa, now took his breath and then stiffened.
"YOU! CHOI SEUNGYOON! DON'T TRY TO MAKE ME—" shouted Mino pointing at Seungyoon. His screaming stopped when there was a sound of a pen rubbing against the paper, because Seungyoon wrote something on that Kiss Note.
"I… Want… The three of them… Come… with me and Jinwoo hyung…. Exercising… This morning." said Seungyoon while writing in the book he called Kiss Note.
"Emotion." Said Mino who continued his clipped words while gritting his teeth this time.
"CHOI SEUNGYOOON!" The three of them shout together.
"Hehe, sorry." Seungyoon said briefly with a smile behind Jinwoo's tall body.
* * *
Being born as heirs to the throne makes them unable to be themselves. Their attitudes and natures are crushed by the mere sentence, "I am an heir to the throne".
But the arrival of Kiss Note in the lives of the five young men was able to make them rebel to do what they wanted. They cannot refuse anything written on Kiss Note. If they do, they'll get a streak of bad luck, or big, out-of-control bad luck.
They found the Kiss Note in a city park, on a park bench. seven years ago, that Kiss Note was accidentally left behind by their fathers. Yes, the Kiss Note they now hold has been a living witness to the story of their father, 2014.
Kiss Note is a notebook that has uncontrollable magical power, even if this book is taken lightly, it can take someone's life. However, if everything written in Kiss Note can be done by the person who is challenged, then that person will get a lot of luck. Her magical power never misses, always fixed on the person she chooses. They can even communicate with Kiss Note. They can ask anything on the Kiss Note and the answers are always 99.99% accurate. However, Kiss Note cannot answer questions one second in the future. Kiss Note is only able to distinguish, true or false, yes or no. Of course Kiss Note couldn't speak. But on the sheets, Kiss Note is able to write questionable answers on its own.
At first they did not believe what they should believe about the magical power of this Kiss note, because it has changed to the latest era, 2034. However, all have been proven.
Lee Jinwoo had the bad luck of not carrying out Mino's writing in that Kiss Note, Where Mino wrote,
"Date only one woman."
Then what happen?
Jinwoo's parents made a big fuss and almost got divorced at that time. Jinwoo didn't think it was an influence from a book, but it was only a matter of time when the secret would be exposed.
Then, Choi Seungyoon. As a result of him refusing to carry out Taehyun's challenge, Seungyoon received great news which is still a burden to his life.
"Mino-ya. Throw the ball!" Asked Jinwoo.
"You guys are really annoying. Huh!" snorted Mino.
"Ey, don't be so sensitive. Just throw the ball at me!" Said Seunghoon who was ready with his style of catching the ball.
"They are right. We will not be able to do this if we are in Seoul. You and Jinwoo are busy dealing with sick people, me and Taehyun are busy with company affairs, while Seungyoon is busy with his artistic activities. You are a doctor, don't you understand how expensive health is?" Seunghoon said at length as he approached Mino then grabbed the ball in his hand. Mino laughed at himself.
"Let me throw, you catch." Seunghoon smiled, he took off and gave his gloves.
"I'll buy you a meal if you can catch the ball." Said Seunghoon again as he stepped back.
"You have to keep your word, Seunghoon. They are the witnesses." Mino replied pointing to his other three friends.
"I understand." Seunghoon answered with a laugh that sounded crispy. Jinwoo and Seungyoon who saw Seunghoon and Mino's behavior suppressed their smiles. A view that they don't get in Seoul.
Mino and Seunghoon have taken some distance and are getting ready to start the game. Seunghoon started the game by throwing the ball at him. Mino leveled the position in order to catch the ball that Seunghoon had thrown using the baseball glove wrapped around his left hand. However, Mino couldn't catch it and even his steps to equalize the ball caused him to fall. The three people who weren't involved in the game looked at him worriedly.
"Are you okay, Mino?" asked Jinwoo. Mino corrected his fall and sighed.
"You stupid!" Taehyun cynical made the others speechless, then laughter broke out between them, including from people who were called stupid by Taehyun.
This kind of crunchy laugh is very rare in Seoul. The tension in the operating room, the tension in the meeting room and the tension between their fathers, dominate their lives today. Only Lee Jinwoo understood the pressure and helped his four friends without being asked outright, as if it was his responsibility.
Every day, time after time they cherished it for a day like this. If only. If only Lee Jinwoo wasn't a part of them, it was like he said. They can become insane if they continue to live stressful lives.
* * *
-Jinwoo-
It's good to see them laughing together like this. They mean so much to me. They teach many things, even though they are much younger than me.
Mino. He always taught me how important it is to practice patience, like himself who is trained to be patient with the pain suffered by his lover.
Seunghoon. He taught me how hard it is to achieve dreams if you just stand by. Her tenacity taught me what to do if you want your dreams to come true.
Taehyun, even though he's the youngest but he's the only one who can teach me to speak the truth as possible. Maybe he sounded harsh from the tone of his voice and the choice of words used to express his thoughts but it sounded the purest.
And Seungyoon. Its simplicity has opened my eyes to the fact that in this world there are many things that power cannot buy, as much as things that are easily bought when you have power. My beloved boy even led me to become a psychiatrist like now.
Because of that, I consider them very valuable. Come to think of it, even though I am the oldest among them they take care of me more than I take care of them. Thinking that sometimes makes me laugh to myself. This is funny, right?
Another funny thing is my incomprehension at the attitude of fathers who insist on forbidding us to be friends even though they were friends long before we were born.
I, Lee Jinwoo. I am the oldest but my father is the youngest among his friends. My father is Lee Seungri and my mother, Park Minyoung. Would you be surprised that I was born first even though Seungyoon's father and Seunghoon's father married first?
Everything will be clear if you know the behavior of my father, President Lee when he was young. He is a playboy, he is even able to date more than two women at a time. My mother is one of the many women he dated, he even got pregnant with me before they were officially married. So, it's no wonder I was born ahead of them.
Some people say I'm a person who can't be angry. No way, I'm just like them. I'm human, I can get angry too. It's just that, before I vent my anger there are three things that become the basis of my consideration.
First. What am I mad about?
Second. After getting angry, what do I get?
Third. Will it be finished if I vent my anger?
If there is nothing useful I can get after letting out my anger, then why am I angry?
All problems can be solved with a cool head, do not panic and do not rush. That's how I control myself.
Smile?
I love to smile. Smiling is not only able to make someone feel comfortable but smiling can also make someone shiver with fear. I'll take an example of a smile that can scare people, a smile from a psychopath. We can't really guess the meaning of a psychopath's smile, because whatever we think almost never comes close to his ingenious and unusual way of thinking.
The reason I chose a psychiatrist as my job was because I wanted to understand Seungyoon's hatred for his father and that hateful relationship with my father. Also because I want to understand the meaning of my mother's words, "By forgiving all his mistakes, not only makes myself better but also punishes him with feelings of guilt and shame for the rest of his life, Jinwoo-ah."
In the past, I didn't understand why my mother said that for what my father had done. Now that I have studied everything I understand. My mom is right, punishing someone guilty doesn't always use violence. If the perpetrator manages to understand that, he will get better every day, and I am proud that my father is the one who understands that.
Now only my guilt remains for Seungyoon, who still hates his father to this day. That child is stubborn, he never wants to hear other people's opinions. I love him more than others because he is full of mystery. His high IQ is hidden by his dumb demeanor, and I'm still curious about the answer he gave when I asked, "You're a genius enough to continue your father's company, so why are you jumping into entertainment like this?"
"There will definitely be a time when all company responsibility will be passed on to me, hyung."
I really can't guess what's in his head. If Seungyoon was a psychopath, he wouldn't be easily caught and cured. Only I know, his IQ is above Kwon Taehyun.
* * *
-Seungyoon-
After arriving at Incheon airport our behavior did not change, still like ABG joking physically - hitting and pushing - and laughing at each other's ridiculous behavior. We really are who we are when we are together. However, when we find people from fathers standing waiting for us like robots, all of our joyous feelings fade into the cold and arrogant personalities they had instilled since we were little.
Life like this is very tiring. Very. A life where we weren't allowed to show our desires, we weren't even allowed to contact each other let alone become friends by the five spoiled ajeossi - we call them - without giving any clear reasons. They raised us like a crown prince with all the rules that limit our footsteps.
Until one day a woman is able to make Mino-hyung choose a path very different from his father. Dong Mino turned the wheel of his life by becoming a neurosurgeon and several other specialists because Jung Aeri - the woman who made Mino-hyung change his life-, great isn't it?
Jinwoo-hyung also turned the wheel of his life, he studied psychiatry and became a psychiatrist, he even led a hospital that his father had built at a young age and without much experience because he ran the hospital a year after he finished his specialist education. Of course the hospital was created only so that Jinwoo-hyung remained under his father's supervision, and so that Jinwoo-hyung would not benefit other hospitals.
Then me? I'm not much different from my two best friends, now I'm a rock star. I did it - singing and making songs - to channel my hobbies and forms of rebellion against my father. That's right, a rebellion because my dream is to make BWC (Bigbang World Corporation) an international company. But right now, I was holding back my dream because I was mad to death for something my father had done.
My father is the main reason I hold back from fulfilling my dreams. Although sometimes my chest feels tight because of this but I do it to punish him. A punishment for doing something fatal that is difficult to forgive, a punishment by making myself a person that is contrary to his expectations, he never even imagined me to be like now.
The only thing that can bring me back is the honest words of my father, unfortunately even though six years have passed, I did not get that from him. As if he was doing it on purpose to see how long I was holding out, even though he knew for sure he couldn't always read my thoughts correctly. No wonder Taehyun called them spoiled ajeossi-ajeossi.
"Have you arrived? How is your holiday?" my mother asked when she saw me enter the main room, she even spread her arms to embrace me.
"We're not in the right condition to be called a 'vacation', just making time to plan things that will overwhelm the parents even more." I replied coldly as I continued walking past him and his hands stretched out to embrace me.
"Choi Seungyoon!"
The deep voice that called my name managed to stop my steps. I know the owner very well, I've heard that voice all my life.
"You're also being cold to your mother?" he asked.
His question made me turn around and stare at him, "Have you forgotten, you guys raised me to be a cold person. Why are you complaining? I'm just showing me how successful you are in upbringing me. "
"Choi Seungyoon! Your words— "
"Ah, hyung!" a familiar figure appeared at the right time. I stepped my feet toward him, past the father and mother. Not caring about them, I pulled the hyungs walking out of the main hall.
"Why don't you come? Ah, it's really fun there. You know, hunting is an agenda that we can't possibly pass. We tried a new forest, the trip took all day. We'll have to go there next time. Oh! Kwon Taehyun managed to shoot the deer, Seunghoon-hyung's target deer. I can clearly see Seunghoon-hyung's annoyance. Ha ha ha."
My diversion seemed to work, Cho Jiho-my hyung- forgot the continuation of the sentence earlier.
"You know what Taehyun said after successfully shooting the deer?" I continued.
"What?" he asked curiously.
"'You're too slow, hyung. The deer will disappear right when you aim your shot. "" I'm sure I succeeded in imitating Taehyun's way of speaking complete with his facial expression because hyung laughed out loud at my story.
Jiho-hyung is the only person I respect his existence and opinion because he's the only one who's honest with me. She's also the only person who considers me a normal human in this house, treating me as I should be until a disaster strikes. Later.
I'm Choi Seungyoon. The second son of the Choi group led by Choi Jiho, my brother. My parents are Choi Seunghyun and Jang Sohee, parents who are very good at hiding the truth. People say that I was born with a golden spoon but they are wrong, I was born with a weathered wooden spoon with gold plated. Even though I have everything because of my parents, I can enjoy nothing well.
* * *
-Mino-
I dropped my body on the bed, my body felt tired even though I only played with those four arrogant children. Staring at the ceiling of the room makes my memory go back to the first time we found the pink book that brought many changes in our lives.
Seven years ago.
It was spring, the five young men in school uniforms gathered in a park close to an old unused building. The five young men wore different uniforms from one another. They sat around a long rock that looked more like a table on which lay a notebook with a pink cover.
What book is this, actually? No pen or pencil scratches but I can feel this book holds a lot of stories. " Kang Seunghoon - seen from the name tag on the school uniform - opened the notebook while flipping through the sheet of paper.
"I have no idea. This book gives off light even the light gets brighter after we hold it one by one, right? " The handsome young man with the name Lee Jinwoo - the name tag on his school uniform - looks just as confused as Seunghoon.
"Maybe it's just an ordinary diary, but who still writes a diary in an era like this when smart devices can write everything down by themselves exactly as we say and save it?" Dong Mino teases people he doesn't know who himself because of the pink cover notebook.
"Even when we return the book to where we found it, the next day it will be with one of us. This is weird! Should we ask our fathers? " Choi Seungyoon, the young man with a face like an adorable puppy was no less confused.
"Taehyun, what do you think?" Jinwoo asked.
The only person sitting far enough away from the book sighed, he was just as confused but didn't know what to do. "I do not know. I really don't want to get involved with this and the dads. "
Sending the five young men to different places did not realize what their fathers had hoped for. Their friendship remains established without any intervention as if their relationship was predestined long before they were born.
The corners of my lips are pulled up, I smile remembering the beginning of our meeting with Kiss Note. Until now no one knows about the existence of Kiss Note apart from the five of us. Kiss Note is the secret of the five of us.
Me, Dong Mino. The first child of Dong Youngbae and Kwon Ailee. There isn't much to say because there's really nothing interesting. Just a few arguments between father and son because of different views, and a beautiful woman who fills my head that I want to keep all the time.
In order to be able to get more time with him, I went to several specialist medical schools at a time. Thoracic and cardiovascular surgeons, cardiovascular specialists, orthopedic surgeons and traumatologists, neurologists. All I did was to find a way to heal my woman, Jung Aeri. Currently, I am collecting cases related to neurosurgery. After knowing the source of the problem was in the cerebellum, I was excited by the hope that all my efforts would yield very good results. Aeri has the chance to live a long life without worrying about anything and I have the opportunity to continue to see her smile all my life. I'm really afraid that one day fate will say something different.
"Hang in there, honey. I will heal you. "
Before I finally closed my eyes, I took a deep breath hoping that all my burdens were carried away from me.
* * *
The three men have different burdens, unlike the other two who only have one focus, to be kings in the business world. The two men who focus on the company are those who don't care about the circumstances around - except what happened to their best friend -
Kwon Taehyun, made himself work really hard because he wanted to and did it for his mother.
And Kang Seunghoon. He forced himself to work very hard to protect something. No one knows what or who it protects.
Then, what is the reason Kwon Taehyun cares so much about his mother?