CH 27: November 23, 2013

By the time we got out of the award show, out of the press conference and finally gotten to our hotel, it was past midnight. It was late, and we had chose to opt out of the after party, but I was less tired than I had been when I was actually at the show. The rest of the girls felt the same, save Emika, but Emika was actually an old lady, so it barely mattered.   

As always, Hyerin and I, Jia and Ahra were rooming together, while Emika, as the oldest, had her own room. None of us wanted to sleep when we got back so we had gathered in Emika’s room, and were currently on her king sized bed.

I sat against the headboard of Emika’s bed, cuddled up against the motherly girl. Our four awards were in the middle of the bed, and we were almost a circle around it.

“-and so she was like ‘no, I didn't’ and I was like ‘uh, yeah, you did’, and so in the end I won the argument,” Sixiao spoke animatedly, telling us about the argument she had with a member of the MAMA staff when we were backstage.

“Damn,” I mused, “go you, Sixiao.”

“Thank you.” She smiled, satisfied.

“Sixiao, why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Ahra’s reaction was different from mine. “We could have told the manager, got that person suspended or something.”

“Aish, unnie,” Jia’s mellow voice soothed her, “it’s not that big of a deal. Really.”

“I don’t know, Sixiao, you can never be--”

Hyerin’s familiar ringtone of Nicki Minaj’s “Moment 4 Life” blared through the room. Emika and I jerked at the sudden loud noise. “Oh, that’s my phone,” Hyerin drawled, reaching out to the night table where it was on charge. She yanked it off the wire, almost aggressively. “Oh, it’s Chanyeol.” My ears pricked at the name of the boy I had been purposefully avoiding for the past month. She got up, telling us it would take a second, moving into Emika’s bathroom.

He had tried texting me, to which I either, a) didn’t respond, or b) told him I was too busy. I think he got the hint after a week or two, when I began replying in the group chat our groups had and not to him. Chanyeol was cool, I had nothing against the boy- I even considered us friends-  but after Chen admitted the boy had feelings for me, I had mixed thoughts about how I wanted to deal with it.

Emika looked at me as Hyerin left. I had only told the Japanese girl (and my sister, who had fangirled like a true teen) what Chen had told me. She winced in compassion to me, to which I made a face back.

Hyerin came back sooner than expected, her phone now on speaker. “Guys,” she said to us, “they’re asking if we want to go out with them.”

“Right now?” Ahra’s eyebrows knitted together.

“Yeah, you know, as a celebratory dinner. It’s not like we’re doing anything, right?”

“Right!” From the phone came of chorus of at least four voices.

“I don’t know,” Emika dragged. “It’d be, what, 17 people?” I mentally thanked the girl. I knew she had no problem with going; neither did I, but I wanted to avoid the uncomfortable factor, which she knew.

“Oh, no,” came a familiar voice from the phone. “Tao, Kris, Jongin, Lay, and Kyungsoo are staying home, so it’d only be twelve.” I smiled at the friendly voice of the eldest EXO member.

“Oppa!” I called to him.

“Ah, dongsa