Kyuhyun's eyes wandered around as Sungmin ordered food for the group. There were just four of them that night, sharing a meal before Leeteuk and Eunhyuk headed to the radio station for their night program. As usual, they were in Sungmin's favorite dumpling place outside Seoul’s suburbs.

“I wonder what Jery-noona is doing now,” Sungmin told no one in particular, but Kyuhyun was suddenly all ears.

“What’s with the interest with Jery-noona?” Leeteuk finally asked Sungmin. He’d been noticing that Sungmin spent much time worrying about their neighbor.

“Mwo? What’s with the question, hyung? It’s just that Jery-noona is not exactly from around these parts – she doesn’t have family, and we’re technically the only people she can call ‘friends’ for now,” Sungmin defended himself.

“Ah,” Leeteuk replied testily. “Why don’t you call her then, find out?”

Kyuhyun had been watching the girl at the counter, far from where they were seated. She was apparently waiting a few minutes now for her order. Maybe take out, he deduced, as she wasn’t seated like the other patrons.

He’d been watching her, interested since she had a y pair of legs peeking out from the knee-length white skirt she wore. He couldn’t see her face, though, obscured as it was by the hood of her jacket that settled high around her neck. He had a particular attraction for legs, and particularly women who looked good in skirts. He watched her answer her phone.

“Jery-noona! How are you?” Sungmin talked over the phone, apparently having caught hold of her. “What? You’re out?... We’re dining out, too – me, Kyuhyun, Eunhyuk and Leeteuk… What?! You went where?!” Sungmin was suddenly standing up, causing everybody including Kyuhyun to look at him in confusion.

He apparently found who he was looking for since he hung up the phone and called across the restaurant. “Noona! We’re here!”

Shocked that Jery would be in the same area, the same restaurant even, Kyuhyun looked around to find the girl he’d been watching approach their table. It was none other than Jery. Kyuhyun could feel his face flaming in embarrassment, and he fervently hoped nobody noticed.

“Fancy running into you guys here,” she said as soon she arrived at their table, receiving pecks on her cheek for greeting.

“What are you doing here, noona?” Eunhyuk asked, already standing up and making a place for her between him and Kyuhyun.

“We have a convention this week across the street.” Across the street was the Grand Sheraton Hotel. “I was about to go home when I recalled the dumpling place Sungmin has been recommending, so I decided to stop by and get some to go.” She held up the two containers of her order.

“Have dinner with us, then, noona,” Leeteuk offered.

“Yeah, sure, I’m already hungry, by the way. Here, I bought some extra to give to you, but we might as well as eat it here.”

“We’ve already ordered, noona, don’t order anymore,” Sungmin told her.

“Oh, okay. But let’s start eating these, I’m really hungry now.” She had started opening one of the containers.

“Kyuhyun, something wrong?” Leeteuk asked. “You’ve been quiet.” Kyuhyun frantically wondered whether Leeteuk noticed something out of place.

Eunhyuk invariably saved him. “He’s been difficult to talk to since this morning, hyung. How were the exams, by the way, Scholar Kyu?”

Kyuhyun did have exams that day, but that wasn’t why he was quiet. He decided to go with the “exams” excuse. “It went okay, hyung, but it’s just the start of midterms. I still have a lot of exams until next week. And we still have this Saturday’s shoot, so I have a lot on my mind right now.”

“Ah, our Kyuhyun works hard,” Leeteuk nodded approvingly. “Just holler if you need help.” Kyuhyun managed to laugh at the offer, knowing that Leeteuk-hyung of all people would not be able to help. They all started digging into Jery’s dumplings while waiting for their orders.

“By the way, Jery-noona, we have a photo shoot this Saturday, wanna come?” Leeteuk suddenly asked.

“Mwo? And you ask me earlier about the sudden ‘interest’ in Jery-noona. Why are you now asking noona to come along when we don’t need extra crew?” Sungmin piped up, clearly intent on revenge. Jery stopped munching on a fried dumpling, unsure about what was going on.

Leeteuk's eyes slightly narrowed at Sungmin. “You’re being disrespectful, Sungmin-ah. But you’re the one who said Jery-noona doesn’t exactly have other friends yet than us, so I thought she could come with us during work. Without waiting for when we need extra work crew.” He turned back to Jery. “That is, noona, if you didn’t have plans. The studio’s right smack in the middle of Incheon City – you can take a look around if you get bored with the shoot.”

Jery didn’t have plans again for Saturday, so she said. “Okay, I’ll go. How long does a photo shoot usually last?”

“Depends on the producer. What we’ll be shooting on Saturday are for the SPAO summer line. Yup, the ads come out six months before the season – the entertainment and fashion industry usually sets the trends by the time the shoot commences. We’ve seen the schedule and it’s full. They’re setting up multiple studios so they can shoot us at least three groups at a time, but that doesn’t include yet the individual shots. We usually go by 7 AM, but 2 AM the next day will come around and we’re still not done.” Leeteuk described.

Jery was now having second thoughts about that. Kyuhyun highlighted on this. “Jery-noona’s having second thoughts,” he told Leeteuk.

It was then that Leeteuk realized that might not be something Jery would be interested in. He was about to tell her that there was no need for her to go, if she was only going because they asked, but she beat him.

“It’s not about the long hours – I’ve had a stint back in university with a performance group, so I understand the demands where that is concerned. It’s just that I might go visiting places in Incheon, but you’re all busy so I’ll be going alone – which is rather lonesome, and I wouldn’t even know where to start, or where to go. But I guess that’s better than staying home, which was my initial Saturday plan.”

“There’s a lull in my schedule around after lunch, two hours tops, I can accompany you,” Kyuhyun offered.

“Does the schedule actually get followed?” she asked dubiously.

“It does get followed, Jery-noona,” Sungmin spoke up while dealing with the waiter who finally brought in their orders. “The only reason why Kyuhyun has a late schedule is because the staff will be rushing the shoots of about 6 people who have to be back in Seoul in the evening for various commitments. Us who have no schedules get to stay later for the individual shoots, and out of all of us, his group shots with the others who have to leave early gets done in the morning.”

“The production staff doesn’t switch people around during the shoot?”

“There is less chance of that happening. The creative director already has that ironed out by the time of the photo shoot, largely depending on the clothes we get to model,” Eunhyuk replied.

“You’ve had a stint with a performing group, Jery-noona? What did you do?” Kyuhyun asked as everybody started on dinner proper.

“Well, the university had this gamelan group. I was already into my fifth year but other than my provincial organization, I had no other, and I didn’t exactly want an academic org. So I signed up for the group – performance was easy because you are taught basics, and it’s percussion group anyway, so I found it easy to join. The group does get invited to various events, and I’ve experienced being onstage and offstage for the performances – got cast in a few of the regular dances, aside from playing instruments. I stayed about two years, until graduation, actually. It was just a funny time because people thought I wasn’t the type, but I’ve spent my grade school and high school years breaking the nerd mold, usually joining dance performances.”

“You dance, noona? Really?” Eunhyuk asked, surprised.

“Well, I’m not a natural dancer – it’s rare that I can do the dance after seeing it done the first time, as the professionals would do it. But I can be taught the steps and I usually get them right, after a while. Just a hobby really, something to do for fun. But I was more interested with the ethnic, rhythmic music and percussions – I still can’t play do-re-mi instruments, but I can definitely play high note-low note instruments.”

They kept looking at her, and couldn’t see how the straight-laced Jery-noona could be a performer.

“Guys, that was when I was younger. I think the eldest of you were still in high school at that time,” she teased.

“Hmm, maybe, but I’ve always thought talent just doesn’t go away because one gets old… we should drag Jery-noona to a session of ours sometime,” Kyuhyun said, his eyes glinting with a hint of an idea.

“Oh no, you don’t. I couldn’t possibly handle the complicated moves you guys make. Besides, I’m a tough student – I’m usually one of those who need extra practice sessions just to perfect the performance, and half of the time the instructors scratch their heads because I’ve perfected ad lib steps.”

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