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As expected, the following day offered me nowhere near as much free time as the day before. And when I say that, I mean I had no free time whatsoever. My schedule was packed as tightly as possible.

It was another early start for me, this time at the rehearsal studios. Located on the floor above the practice studios, I was pretty much alone besides myself and my manager, Suk Ha. I had a TV broadcast later that day that I needed to be prepared for and Suk Ha nailed me hard with last minute critique. But that was what you dealt with as a SKEES member. Criticism was more common to come by than praise behind the organization’s walls. We all represented SKEES and they had a reputation they vehemently worked to maintain. After all, we were supposed to be a collection of the highest quality artists in Korea, if not the world.

By the time the clock hit 9:30 AM, I was done with a lengthy rehearsal. Suk Ha quickly left me behind in the studio to meet with the broadcast’s producer to load up on all of the information for the day, as he usually did. I, with 35 minutes to spare before I was due at the salon on campus to get my makeup and hair done, took my sweet time on the way out. I trudged my way to the elevator and lazily hit the down button. I stepped out on the first floor to see a flood of SKEES artists making their way inside. A few greeted me casually, all of which I returned in a similar manner.

As I reached out to push open the front door, someone from the outside beat me to it, pulling it open before I could. The person and I nearly bumped into each other, neither of us expecting anyone to be on the opposite side directly in time with us.

“Oh my god, sorry,” a distinct voice spoke in a flustered manner. Wide brown eyes met my own in immediate recognition. “Suga?”

“Hey, Anna,” I returned with a cool smile, a total contrast to her embarrassed, pink cheeks. “It’s okay, I think we mutually surprised each other."

Anna laughed gently, as if releasing the stress of her embarrassment. “Yeah, I was expecting everyone to be going in for open practice. I didn’t think anyone would be coming out already.”

“Actually, I had a rehearsal on the second floor this morning. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have been here at all,” I admitted. It was true, I probably would’ve either been somewhere else making music or at my dorm still sleeping.

“Rehearsal? For what?”

“I've got a TV broadcast later. It was a last minute scheduling so my team wanted me to squeeze in a few hours of rehearsal before I left,” I explained. I could’ve sworn I’d seen a mischievous glint pass over her expression.

“Ah, so you’ll be rapping then,” she inferred as she turned her body to let someone pass through. We had been completely blocking the doorway. “Since this’ll be a performance rather than variety.”

“Yeah, I’ll be rapping,” I looked at her in amusement. “I see you’ve done your research, then. I don’t recall telling you I was a rapper yesterday or the day before.”

“Guilty,” she admitted, though lacking any real embarrassment. “I’m new here, I gotta see what kind of people I’m up against. Knowing your name opened up an entire pool of information on the internet to me.”

I laughed at her playful honesty. She was really a unique one. But regardless of our compatibility in conversation, this conversation seemed to be getting a little dry. That was until one of the biggest loud mouths I knew stepped out of the male residential building, located just across the street.

“Hold up. Is that the Annabelle I see over there?!”

J-Hope raced across the street after making a clear joke of the enthusiastic reactions of the fans that piled up at our outer gates every day to get a glimpse at our inside life on the SKEES campus. For security and privacy purposes, Entertainment Avenue was blocked off from connecting roads by a large gate, preventing anyone from coming inside without extensive authorization. Meanwhile, for us on the inside, all of our facilities being on one condensed road meant we walked everywhere. That alone provided a quick show for fans who came to oogle.

Anna closed her eyes in embarrassment, internally cringing for many reasons, but smiled as she loved that boy regardless. “Hobi,” she greeted him happily.

“I’m three whole years older than you, would it kill you to call me oppa? Jeez, the decency of these foreigners,” he complained, comically feigning seriousness as he approached the two of us. He then turned to me, giving me a broad, pleasantly surprised smile. “Yoongi-hyung! I didn’t know you knew Anna already.”

Anna’s eyebrows raised to her hairline. “This is Yoongi?”

Hoseok frowned. “Yeah, who else would he be?”

“Suga,” she answered simply. Hoseok laughed while I merely just smiled. Cute.

“Well, yeah, he’s that, too. That’s his stage name, Yoongi’s his real name.”

At that revelation, Anna turned to me with accusation in her eyes. I shrugged.

“Guess those internet searches weren’t all they cracked up to be.”

“Why’d you introduce yourself to me with your stage name?” She questioned, almost accusingly. It only made my smile widen.

“Very formal of you, hyung,” Hoseok chuckled.

“That’s how you’re supposed to introduce yourself here,” I defended, clearly entertained. I couldn’t say the same thing about Anna.

“Yeah, but you could’ve told me your real name, too,” she whined, very much reminding me of a girl a quarter of her age. Thankfully, it was cute in this case and not annoying. Girls didn’t always find that balance. “Especially since we did our introductions after everything.”

“Everything?” J-Hope probed suspiciously, his expression transforming into one of pure mischief.

“Keep it in your pants, Hobi. I helped her with a song she was composing- out and open in the recreation center, no less,” I shushed him, looking at him like the fool he was being. Anna’s red face, on the other hand, told me she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to laugh or cower away from the turn the conversation had suddenly taken. “How’d that end up, by the way? I know should’ve asked you yesterday but did my suggestions help at all?”

“Oh,” she chirped, surprised but grateful for my change in conversation. “‘Help’ is an understatement. The song sounds so much better now.”

“Ah, yes, our Yoongi here has quite the musical ear,” J-Hope shamelessly bragged on my behalf, resting a hand on my shoulder like a proud dad. “He’s one of the favorite self-producing artists here.”

“Yeah, out of a very small number to begin with,” I pointed out, shrugging his hand away.

“Really? I would’ve thought there’d be quite a few,” Anna commented, not quite surprised but rather a little unimpressed.

“Nah, most people find time to be a problem. They’re afraid of losing more sleep than they already do.”

“Which is exactly what happens so they're not wrong to worry,” I explained honestly. “But it’s worth it in my opinion. But anyway, I’d say the number of those artists just went up by one.”

“Yeah? You got a talent for producing music, Anna?” Hobi asked, his expression bright and encouraging as he looked at her.

“Oh, no. No, I’m just studying it,” she waved her hands in front of her in denial. “I still have a lot to learn before I’m good enough to release compositions professionally for SKEES. Plus, I’m still not sure if I want to even pursue producing like that or if it’s just gonna be a side-skill I have. I’m sort of happy just being the performer.”

“Fair enough. It’s far from easy being a producer on top of that here,” I agreed, understanding where her hesitancies were coming from. I’d never had them but I'd met enough people who had. “Don’t put yourself down so fast based on your current abilities, though. You’ve gotta start somewhere, right?”

Something about my words must’ve touched her as she gave me a smile I hadn’t seen before. And I’d already seen quite a few. Underneath her appreciation, I thought for sure I could see a hint of sadness. “Right,” she said confidently, but still, I couldn’t help but wonder what the story was behind her hidden emotion.

“Alright, you two. If you’re gonna act all cutesy, at least keep it to a minimum in front of me. Your chemistry is making me jealous,” Hoseok piped in, making himself the third wheel more than we actually were.

Anna had to withhold her laughter as she looked down at her feet and I rolled my eyes at the younger man. “Don’t be so hopeless, Hobi. You and Anna can go encourage each other on your dancing capabilities later and call it even.”

“It’s not the same,” he huffed in disapproval even though in my opinion, it very much was. “Anyway, Yoongi, you still joining us for dinner tonight? Taehyung wants to go to some restaurant off-property.”

“Vying for some publicitiy, I see,” I teased the unpresent boy. “But yeah, I’ll be there.”

“Anna, why don’t you join us? You could meet the rest of our group,” J-Hope suggested excitedly, as if it were the best idea he’d ever come up with.

Anna’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh, uh, that’s okay. Thanks for the invite, though.”

Hoseok groaned. “Why are being so shy all of a sudden? I promise the others are really cool. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t have suggested that you meet them.”

I could see her weighing out her options internally. Hoseok wasn’t lying, the others were pretty chill. Well, they didn’t have any chill but that was all part of their charm. Honestly, if she could handle Jung Hoseok, she could handle the rest of them.

“Come oooooon,” he dragged out playfully, aegyo on full blast. Of course he went there. “You can even bring a friend or two of your own if that makes you more comfortable. Maybe ask Chun Hwa, she’s friends with myself and a few others.”

“I guess I could do that,” she said, seeming to warm up to the idea, especially after the mention of her closest friend and roommate. But I could tell she was still intimidated. I bumped her shoulder with my own.

“Don’t be a wimp,” I challenged softly. “You should really come. I think you’d really like our friends and I’m sure they’ll like you in return.”

“Yeah, you’ve actually won over the most difficult one of us already so the others should be a breeze,” Hoseok added, not-so-subtly gesturing to me. I sent him a look.

“Him?” She pointed at me, disbelief written all over her face. “He’s the most difficult one to win over?”

“You did have music as a middle ground,” I pointed out in explanation. I wasn’t anti-social but I definitely wasn’t an easy egg to crack on the surface either. Musical talk was certainly an advantage she had.

“Yeah, consider yourself lucky, Anna. You could’ve met a real grump otherwise,” Hoseok added, making her laugh. Even I couldn’t resist a smile.

Especially since we met so early in the morning that day, I wanted to add.

“Well, I couldn’t even imagine that based on what I’ve seen,” she said honestly, igniting a weird feeling inside of me. It must’ve shown on my face because Hoseok gave me a strange look. I simply avoided his gaze.

“You must be lucky,” I joked. “But I’ll let you guys go. You’re already late enough for practice.”

Both faces in front of me dropped in an instant, telling me my attempt at deflection was already a success. I knew they both had totally forgotten the reason why there were there in the first place. With an exchange of nervous glances at the thought of being late, they their heels and took off inside the facility. 

“Bye, Yoongi!”

“See you later, hyung!”

I chuckled at the two, my hands stuffing themselves inside my pockets as I turned away myself. Those two were like Korea’s own dumb and dumber already. A friendship set up by the universe, really. I could only imagine the kinds of shenanigans they and the others would pull during dinner. Those two weren’t the only ‘dumbs’ amongst us, after all.