Their manager clapped his hands together. “Okay, come on gather around.” His own tired eyes looked over the exhausted girls. At times he couldn’t help feeling bad for them. They were literally always on the clock. His eyes rested on Jae. Despite being the only one who had a true escape from it all, she stayed. “Today, we will be having a contest of sorts.” The women released uncertain laughs. “Winner gets a prize.”

            “What sort of contest,” Chatmanae questioned.

            “A dancing one of course.” He pulled a remote control from his back pocket. “Now follow along as best as you can.”

            Once more, the women exchanged nervous looks. They fell into their practiced choreography positions. Soon the music blared and it wasn’t the music they had been listening for almost a month. Instead, a strong and fast beat played. Most of the dancers froze, a few caught on, but none as fast as Jae. Her legs instantly began to move as she had memorized the dance long ago. Again, Jae’s memorization proved to do wonders for her, along with her almost annoying sense of curiosity. Upon signing the contract, she couldn’t help feeling ignorant and clueless to the entire K-Pop culture. She didn’t do naive. This music had to have more to offer than Gangnam Style.

            That it did. Jae fell into a black hole of K-Pop music and dancing. She found herself skipping over the popular girl groups like Girls’ Generation and Sistar. Instead, she fell in love with the male chorography. The power and synchronization gave her chills. Her obsession was silent and constant. At all moments, Jae found herself finding new dances and practicing them. It was in one of those late night cram sessions that she found him. Her hand had frozen over her mouse bad, her breath caught at . After a few rapid blinks, she accepted it. She’d never have pegged him as an idol. Min Yoongi, rapper, idol and not a bad dancer.

            The concentrated young woman didn’t miss a single step. Following each move of Back by Infinite. She did so for every song that their manager played, all from popular boy groups. Good Luck, War of Hormone, I’m Sorry and so on. Even though Competitive was Jae’s middle name, she found herself trying to help the members who were utterly lost. It was only at the end that most of the members managed to do a better job. With Overdose booming overhead, a sort of formation did result only to hesitantly falter.

            “Okay,” Taein announced after stopping the music. The girls wiped sweat off their forehead and nearly collapsed. Dancing for close to thirty minutes straight was not an easy achievement. He nodded. “That was great. However, I am not the only one who sees who the clear winner is. They all looked at Jae, some even gave her high fives. “Jae,” he commended. She bowed accepting a water bottle as a pretend trophy.

            “Is that the prize,” Yuri asked.

            Taein smiled and shook his head. “No. The prize is that Jae is the first to have a job assignment of the group.” The girls gasped. “She will be appearing in EXO sunbaenim’s comeback music video.” An uproar of shouts and applause overwhelmed the dance studio. The girls shrieked and embraced Jae, who was also in amazement. “It won’t be easy, but I’m sure you’re more than capable.”

            She nodded in slight bewilderment. Her eyes cascaded on the water bottle in her hands. How much easier would have life been if this plastic bottle had been her prize?

*     *     *

The men watched in awe as she practiced before the mirror. Her moves were fluent. She almost appeared angelic as the practice room's lights settled on her skin, but yet so incredibly y as their eyes stared at her curves. She wore a black muscle shirt and grey sweats, yet she looked ready to shoot a movie.

            They had heard of her. Who hadn't heard of them? As one of their more astonishing decisions, SM had hired a group of women from around the world, all of unique origin. She was American, Latina and a fourth Japanese raised in the United States, or so they had heard. Not of noticeable Asian descent, but the company couldn't say no. Everyone raved that she was that good! Judging by how little training she had needed, they believed it. The boys had also been lucky enough to catch glances of her studying with their choreographer. EXO was more than excited to meet her.

            Her eyes caught on to their reflection in the mirror. She paused suddenly and kicked herself for blushing. She turned around shyly, she rubbed her neck and released a deep breath in attempt to control her nerves. She had been so composed in front of the big bosses, but now not so cool in front of the Korean pop stars. How ridiculous she found it to be.

            Jae smiled at the ten men, tugging at her shirt from the nerves. They were all too gorgeous for their own good. Or more specifically, her own good. She bowed. “Hello, my name is Jae. Thank you for having me.” They all gave her sweet, charming smiles. They abruptly and in unison, introduced themselves as EXO and bowed. She almost felt like applauding at their effortless manner at being in sync.

            She stepped slightly forward, noting they were about to introduce themselves individually. A tall messy haired brunette was the closest, thus the first to approach her. “It is a pleasure to meet you, I'm Park Chanyeol.” She extended her hand reflexively, stuck in her own culture. He momentarily stared awkwardly at her hand. She swiftly realized her mistake and retracted, causing him to miss when he extended his own hand forward. She had bowed by said point leaving him in a frozen state.

            Their eyes met and Chanyeol could feel the tension building. The members watched in amusement and discomfort. Jae on the other hand burst into laughter. The rest soon followed. She took Chanyeol's large hand in both of her small ones and shook it. He was slightly surprised at the sudden straight forward contact with a stranger, she'd jumped into what was a common manner of greeting in Korea. As if on the same wavelength, they both bowed as they continued to shake hands. “What can I say? I’m a little slow.”

            His smile touched his eyes, making her a little dizzy from the sheer beauty he was able to convey in one expression. “And I’m a little hopeless.”

            She grinned widely, the members chuckled. They also sighed a breath of relief as it became quite clear what kind of person Jae was. The boys followed Chanyeol's greeting as they shook her hand and bowed, her smile never wavering. Yixing, Sehun, Jongdae, Joonmyeon, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, Jongin, Zitao, and Minseok all allowed her perfect smile to win them over and her eyes lingered on their beautiful faces. Each had flawless skin and model-like features. Never had she seen men look so effortlessly gorgeous. She had her fair share of encounters with handsome and good-looking men, but this was a different story.

            They too struggled to keep their eyes off of her. She had high, sharp cheekbones, full pink lips, long eyelashes, and light brown hair. All of which appeared to be natural. They couldn't help smiling when she flashed her flawless grin. “Those are a lot of names.” She smirked. “But I will do my best to say them correctly and to the right person.” She bit her lip and squeezed her shoulder nervously. "I have to warn you or you probably already noticed, my Korean is not that great. I'll just apologize now for future mistakes I'm sure I'll make. I'm sorry sunbaenims.” They caught a scent of strawberries as she did a ninety-degree bow.

            They lightly chuckled and insisted there were no worries. A handsome brunette with a sharp jaw stepped forward. Jae recalled the name Jongin. “Should we get started?” He signaled to the dance floor, trying to contain his excitement. With this goddess present, this might be their best practice yet. He silently thanked SM for finally doing something out of the ordinary for once. Jae nodded and took in a deep breath as she prepared herself for an intense work out.