Ch. 2: Mystery, Mystery

It felt kind of eerie, having that many boys suddenly look at me all at once.  They all looked sweaty and worn out from practicing, as if they’d been dancing all day.  They probably had been.

Dehlia stepped forward, and I stepped inside, standing partially behind her, trying to get away from the unnerving stares.

“Guys, this is Jinee Nguyen.  She’ll be your assistant manager while Joonkun’s gone.  Don’t worry, you’ll still have Jiyong, so he’ll be helping her out.  Make sure you guys treat her the same way you’d treat Joonkun-oppa and Jiyong-oppa.”

Doo Joon was the first one to step forward.  “Annyeonghaseyo, Manager Jinee.”  He paused, mid-bow, and looked more carefully at me.

“You look pretty young.  Are you our dongsaeng?”

I shook my head in almost disbelief, my eyes blinking rapidly.

“How old do I look?”

“You look like you’re still in high school.”  Ki Kwang came over to see for himself.  He narrowed his eyes a bit before pointing at me and asking Dehlia, “Is this a stunt for TV that we don’t know about?”

Dehlia covered and tried not to laugh while I stood up to my full height -- all 5 feet of me -- and said, "I may be younger than most of you, but I'm not a kid! I'm 21!"  I turned to Doo Joon and added, "I'm interning for now.  After I graduate college, I'm planning on working as a manager full-time." 

His eyes widened. "Oh, you're 21?  At least you're older than Dongwoon, otherwise we'd have to call YOU maknae."

Dongwoon came over after he heard his name.  "Annyeong, Jinee-noona."

"Uh uh uh! It's manager-noona."  I turned to everyone else.  "That goes for all of you."

Jun Hyung, who'd been watching quietly the whole time stepped closer till he was right in front of me.  "You're younger than us.  Why in the world should we call you noona?  Other than 'Manager Jinee' or 'Manager-nim' there's no other special treatment for you."

Suddenly, an arm was slung over my shoulder and I could feel someone's head hovering over mine.  I lifted my chin so I could see who was on me, and he lifted his head out of the way so I wouldn't bump into him.  I nearly jumped.

"She probably just wants to be cute and wants to hear 'noona' since she shorter and younger.  Sounds like wishful thinking to me."  Yoseob's fingers quickly attacked my sides, and I jumped out of the way to avoid being tickled.  "Quit being silly."

Hyun Seung, suddenly without a buddy, went over to put his head on Jun Hyung's shoulder.

"We'll talk about it later.  So, what's on schedule for tomorrow?"  Doo Joon eyed the clipboard still in my hands.

"You have your fan meet tomorrow to get attention for the new video coming out.  Then, you have a meeting with MTV to decide whether or not the new reality show's going to be filmed or not."  I skimmed the rest of the page.  "Hyun Seung and Ki Kwang have to meet with the vocal trainer at 6."

"Oh, yeah, that's right!"  Ki Kwang squeezed his eyes shut in frustration.  "They said there was a problem with our last recording."

Hyun Seung laughed at Ki Kwang's obvious annoyance.

“You mean he had a problem with YOUR last recording.  He kept getting mad at you for doing that vibrating thing with your voice."

"It was verbrotto, and it went well with the part we were singing."

"Not with high you were doing it.  It almost sounded screechy."

Every one except me laughed, as if they were all in on a joke.  Dehlia and Doo Joon exchanged glances and scrunched up their reddening faces as they tried in vain to breathe.  Jun Hyung snorted and hid his grin behind his fist.

Ki Kwang just grabbed Hyun Seung's beanie and tossed it to the other side of the room in response.  Hyun Seung looked at him with a mock glare as if to say "Dude, not cool," before fetching his cap.

"Alright you guys, you have a busy day tomorrow, and you have to be in the dressing room by 6 tomorrow.  Finish up here and get an early sleep." Dehlia checked her watch.

"Jiyong's gonna come soon, he'll take the boys back to their dorm.  We can split a cab if you want."

The smile only lasted two seconds before it dropped off my face in confusion.

“But, you don’t even know where I live yet.”

Dehlia stopped and her way out the door.  “You sure about that?”  When my blank expression didn’t change, she almost laughed, but caught herself.  “I checked your file earlier when Joonkun was reviewing it.  You live in the apartment under me.  I’ll be waiting in Shin Kot-nim’s office.”

My jaw remained dropped until I caught Yoseob imitating me to Doo Joon in the corner of my eye.  Then, it shut pretty fast.

I waited on the side as the boys packed up all their stuff.  I watched them goof around and clutch their stomachs dramatically as if they hadn’t eaten in days.  When Jiyong-oppa came to pick them up, I got up and bowed to him before I exchanged bows with everyone else.

On my way over to the stylists’ office, I wondered what they thought of me so far.  We’d hadn’t gotten a chance to talk that much.  Doo Joon and Yoseob were friendly enough, but everyone else was still hard to read.

As we rode down the elevator, Dehlia mentioned something about grabbing a quick lunch while the boys were performing so we could get to know each other a little more.  I think that’s when I finally started paying attention again.  My mind had been off on it’s own since I’d left the dance room.