"Hey! snap out of it, Suho ssi!"

A voice broke through his train of thought.

"Huh? what?" He blinked and looked up. A pair of eyes was looking at him intensely.  Kris.  It surprised him. The fact that Kris was now lightly squeezing his shoulders like he understood surprised him.  He was never as close to Kris as he would've liked, even though Kris was always friendly.  He wasn't sure if it was because Kris had grown up in an environment that had differed, largely, from his own or if he simply felt awkward around him, sometimes.  Underneath all that 'cool' exterior, Kris had astonished him with his unique insights from time to time.  He wondered about what he should say but Kris simply added:  "We are leaving for the airport now.  Manager hyeong sent me to remind you that you guys have to leave for your next schedule soon or you'll be late."

"Yeah. Thanks, hyeong! You guys go and come back safely. We'll see you in a few days."  Suho blinked, nodding his head with a smile.

He looked at Suho quietly for another second before he turned and waved his hand in the air, coolly, as he walked out of the room.  Suho stared at his opened door and sighed to himself, not sure if his recent bout of spacing out had anything to do with the fact that he had been under a lot of pressure lately.  As the leader of a 12-member boy group, who just had their debut single a year ago, he felt that he had to be 200% on top of things or should they fail, it will be all on him.  He had been feeling the tensions as this would be the first time they were promoting their single as one unit – all 12 members together.  He breathed deeply as another voice broke through his thoughts...this time, the voice came with a pair of deep doe eyes and their ridiculously long lashes, staring at him.  Kyung-soo. Someone who spoke little but who had always been there for him.

"Hyeong!  Not going?  The van is here."

"Let's go!"  Suho pulled it together and answered with what he hoped sounded cheerful.

He grabbed his jacket, glanced at his reflection one last time before he went out the room with his arm around Kyung-soo's shoulders. 

In another part of the city a voice called out:  "Just stop it already, Eonnie!"

The flustered voice belonged to a slim girl with olive shaped eyes and a sweet smile whose cheeks were now flushed as she ran around the room chasing after three other girls, mock hitting them.  Two other girls sitting on the sofa were laughing and guffawing hysterically while trying to avoid getting in the line of fire.  They were in their dorm.  A place they had called home for the last few years.  The living hall had been painted nearly all in white as the girls couldn't really come to an agreement on it's color and had settled on white with the reason that since all the colors come together to make white, then white it was.  The girls teased and ran around one another, filling the hall with sounds of crystal clear laughter until one of the girls who was doubling over in laughter while sitting at the edge of the sofa finally rang out with a powerful voice:  "Okay!  Okay!  Let's stop!  I feel hot just looking at you guys.  And besides, Naeun looks like she is about to cry.  Hahahaha!"

 A sweet, quiet but indignant voice rose up to counter:  "Eonnie! I don't cry!" 

The girl on the sofa answered with a cheeky smile:  "Ok!  I'll be sure to tell that to Taemin sunbae the next time I see him!  Hahahaha!" 

And with that, the girl with the quick reflex scooted out of range before the girl called Naeun could grab her.  Unfortunately, she didn't see where she was heading and had literally hit her head against the chest of their manager who just happened to walk in right at that moment.  Their manager reached out to steady her before starting his usual nagging:  "Oh, for goodness sakes, Eunji ya!  Be careful!  How many times must I remind you girls that this is not a good time to get hurt?!  Your schedules are almost to the brim now!  Especially you, Eunji and you, Bomi!  You girls have got to be careful, you hear?!"  

"Yes, Oppa."  The chastised girls lowered their heads and answered in unison.

Their manager shook his head.  Eunji and Bomi were both playfully mimicking the way he was speaking, but stopped the minute they knew he caught them and had burst into a fresh bout of laughter.  Their Manager could only sighed once more.  He pointedly looked at Eunji.

"Eunji ya, the radio show is scheduled for 12pm, we have to leave now."  

"I am ready. Let's go!"  Eunji flashed her open smile and replied.

"Hwaiting! Eunji ya/Eunji eonnie!"  The girls in the room all shouted as Eunji followed her manager out the door, turning back only to send a cheeky smile back at them.

The summer heat of 2013 had started to feel smothering and the noise level in a black multi-persons van was probably breaking all kinds of world records as five boys were all shouting instead of talking at the same time. Suho felt the beginnings of a headache. He rubbed at his temples absently.  It had only been half a day and they had already finished their dance practice, voice training and had met up with the producers of Showtime. It felt like the day should be coming to an end but it's only two in the afternoon.  His stomach growled mercilessly.  They were all hungry.  The snack they had earlier had already been burnt out of their bodies from all the running around this morning.  Suho turned to look at the rest of the members all digging for snacks in their backpacks while their van turned into MBC's carpark.  He glanced at his watch, then turned to ask their manager.

"Hyeong! We still got around half an hour before the next schedule right?"

Their manager nodded.

"That's right."

"I think the boys are all starving, we should grab something really quickly before the next schedule."  Suho continued.

Their manager turned his head to the back of the van, staring at the ravenous faces, then looked at his own watch. 

"Okay, yep.  I will go grab something for you guys, you bring them up to the studio to get ready first, alright?" 

"Thanks, hyeong!"  Suho smiled gratefully at him, prompting a round of racket from the boys, all shouting their thanks.

Suho got everyone out of the van quickly and led them up towards the studio they w