“If it isn’t the lovely Kai.” Key opened the door charmingly. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

 

“Uh, Key.” Kai looked at him funny. “This is a practice room, not your dorm.”

 

“I know that, Kai. I’m just fooling around.” Key chuckled. “But really, do you need anything?”

 

“Could you tell Minho to come out for a bit?” Kai tried to peek over Key’s shoulder to see if the ‘flaming charisma’ rapper was around.

 

“I figured it would be something related to that.” Key smirked. “Alright I’ll call him out for you. Wait a sec.” Key shut the door and a few seconds later Minho appeared.

 

“Hey.” He nodded nervously.

 

“Really? ‘Hey’ is all you’ve got to say after what you did?” Kai leaned against the doorframe.

 

“Kai, you don’t know how sorry I am. I swear it wasn’t on purpose.” Minho said sincerely. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Kai said. “But I can’t say the same for Hannah.”

 

“Oh.” Minho looked at the floor. “Yeah…I kinda heard the rumors.”

 

“You heard the rumors?” Kai scoffed. “Minho, you ARE the rumor!”

 

“What did you came for, exactly?” Minho frowned. “You didn’t came just to send me down a guilt trip, did you.”

 

“I want you to talk to the President and clear the rumors.” Kai said bluntly.

 

“You know I can’t do that. SHINee is now a major group and I definitely can’t risk that.” Minho shook his head.

 

“They threatened to replace her!” Ki snapped. “She is only a week away from her debut and I’m not planning on being the reason her whole career blows up. Neither are you.”

 

“What do you want me to say? ‘Hey President, the truth is I was planning on trying some drugs last night and Kai accidentally took my drink’. Is that it?!”

 

“Of course not!” Kai said. “You and I have been friends for a long time now. I obviously don’t want to destroy your image, but please think! She took the fall for us and I just can’t turn my back on her.”

 

“I know, I know.” Minho rubbed his face. Suddenly, his eyes illuminated. “Wait…I think I got it.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I know what to say to the President. It will sound a bit silly, but it is definitely better than nothing.” Minho grinned.

 

“I knew you would understand, bro.” Kai gave Minho a brotherly hug.

 

“I’ll talk to the President as soon as I’m done with practice.” Minho promised.

 

“Thanks dude. I won’t forget this.” Kai waved at his friend and then walked away, satisfied.

==================================================================================================

 

“Are we really practicing?” Jae, not surprisingly, was the last one to arrive at EXO’s practice room. The other three girls, except for Yujin, were already going through the choreography of their debut song.

 

“Hey, Jae. Thanks for showing up-“ Kiko glanced at her wrist watch. “two hours late.”

 

“Sorry. You know how it is between me and schedules.” Jae shrugged as if she had shown up only five minutes late.

 

“Do you even know what the word ‘schedule’ means?” Lexx shook her head.

 

“I’m glad you’re holding on, Hannah.” Jae smiled at her member. “You are freaking strong.”

 

“I know, right?” Hannah combed her hair with her fingers. “We don’t have time to worry about other stuff. Right now it is practice time.”

 

“Yes!” Lexx clenched her fist with excitement. “How do you think Yujin is doing, by the way? The place feels kind of empty without the leader.”

 

“I think there is something she is not telling us.” Hannah said in a hushed voice, causing the other members to come closer. “When she got home today, I heard her talking with that Taecyeon. She sounded angry.”

 

“The ex-boyfriend?” Kiko said. “I thought they no longer talked to each other. I always hated him.”

 

“From what I heard, I would say that he was the reason Kyuhyun and Yujin got into a fight.” Hannah said.

 

“Yeah, that’s probably it.” Lexx nodded. “Hey Jae, aren’t you friends with Nichkhun? Don’t you think you could do a little research?”

 

“What makes you think I am related to Nichkhun in any way?” Jae smacked Lexx in the arm. “Maybe I could ask Jonghyun or something.”

 

“Okay, enough of this. Practice time!” Hannah clapped her hands and everyone went back to their positions.

 

Half an hour later, someone knocked on the door. Kiko was the one to open and her jaw dropped when she found herself face to face with the six members of EXO-K. They were all dressed up in suits and their makeup was perfectly done.

 

“Did we missed some major event or-“ Kiko said.

 

“Nah, we are on our way to a photo shoot.” Baekhyun answered. Kiko just turned her head coldly.

 

“We are in the middle of practice.” Lexx said. “Speak fast.”

 

“Hannah.” Kai stepped forward. The girl didn’t even acknowledged his presence. She just kept going through her phone as if she was completely alone.

 

“I know you’re pissed and stuff, but listen.” Kai said. “You should turn on your TV at 7 PM tonight. SHINee is having an interview and I bet Minho has some pretty interesting things to say.” There was still no response from Hannah.

 

“You mean he is going to clear this mess up?!” Lexx beamed.

 

“That’s the plan.” Chanyeol smiled back. Sehun stepped in front of him and patted Lexx’s head.

 

“I’m glad to see you smiling.” Sehun gave her a pretty eye smile. Chanyeol chuckled in the back.

 

“Uh…thanks?” Lexx frowned. She was not very used to talking with the other maknae. A few days back he was all about ordering her around and now he was being nice all of a sudden.

 

“Is that all?” Jae asked with an unusually cold tone. “Cause we really need to go back to practice.” She could feel Suho’s eyes piercing her in the neck, but she was done trying to get close to him. Maybe Hannah and the others were right; EXO-K is only troubles.

 

“Lets go, kids.” D.O. gestured toward the door. “We have work.” They all left without saying another word.

 

On the way to the photo shoot, the boys had a small conversation.

 

“Did you guys felt that?” Baekhyun asked the others. “Back when we went to see EXO-G?”

 

“You mean their murderous intent? I know I did.” Kai looked out the car’s window. “After all the trouble I went through to make Minho speak they still treat us like crap.”

 

“Lexx doesn’t treat ME like crap.” Chanyeol smiled and glanced at Sehun, who simply clenched his hands together.

 

“I thought you and Jae were getting along.” D.O. said. “What happened? She didn’t even looked at you.”

 

“You heard her last time. We are not meant to be friends. Period.” Suho said.

 

“Aw, you guys made such a nice couple.” Baekhyun teased.

 

“Shut up, okay?” Suho was getting angry. “Just drop it. Jae and I are merely acquaintances.”

 

“If you say so…” Baekhyun shrugged.

 

“Oh, shoot! I forgot to tell Kiko.” Kai suddenly remembered.

 

“Tel her what?” Baekhyun turned around to meet Kai’s eyes.

 

“When I went to talk to Minho, Key told me to tell Kiko that he wants her to answer his texts or something.” Kai tried to remember exactly what was the message. “I think he said something about being lonely.”

 

“Since when are those two so close?” Sehun asked. “I feel like they know more people than we do and they haven’t even debuted.”

 

“They are NOT close, alright?” Baekhyun turned back around and crossed his arms.

 

“Someone is touchy…” Sehun commented.

==================================================================================================

 

Yujin stood at the back door of the KBS studios. Super Junior’s manager was kind enough to tell her the place where Kyuhyun was recording a variety show.

 

“Come on, come on…” She tapped her foot impatiently, desperate to talk to her boyfriend. The next brake was close and she just had to see his face.

 

The staff came out from the main studio to announce the tape change and Yujin rushed in without hesitation. Since she hadn’t debuted yet, walking without being recognized among the crowd of stylists, cameramen, and idols was easy.

 

She finally spotted the face she was looking for walking toward the dressing room. She pushed through the sea of people to get a hold of him, however, she paused when she so a pretty girl linking arms with Kyuhyun. She was Seohyun, from SNSD. For the first time since they started dating, Yujin felt jealous. Watching another girl touching him so casually stung her heart.

 

What are you thinking, Yujin? Stop it with the weird thoughts and go apologize, she told herself.

 

She shook the jealousy away from her head and continued walking toward the dressing rooms. She reached the door with the Super Junior sign attached to it and knocked nervously.

 

“Hello?” Siwon opened the door. “Oh, Yujin!” He smiled pleasantly.

 

“Hi.” She bowed and smiled back. She was glad that Siwon was the one to open the door. He was one of the few people she knew that was really nice to the core.

 

“Is Kyuhyun in?”

 

“He is.” Siwon nodded. “But maybe it is not the best time. He has been really unapproachable since earlier today. I tried to ask him about it but he just avoids me.”

 

“Is that so?” Yujin pushed her hair behind her ear. “Could you call him anyways please?”

 

“Sure. I’ll be right back.” Siwon winked and closed the door.

 

Yujin turned around and leaned against the wall, trying to think of how to apologize. Ugh, if only that idiot Taecyeon would have just disappeared…

 

“Yujin.” Kyuhyun stepped out form the dressing room. His features were hard and his voice cold. “What are you doing here?”

 

“I’m so sorry.” She blurted out. “I have absolutely no feelings for Taecyeon, I swear! I don’t know what go into me when we spoke on the phone, but I’m being honest. I was and idiot and I love you so much so please-“

 

“Yujin, calm down. I can barely understand what you’re saying.” Kyuhyun stopped her blabber. Yujin nodded and took a deep breath.

 

“I’m sorry.” Yujin repeated; more calmly this time. Kyuhyun stared at her for a moment. The tension between them made Yujin’s heart stop. Suddenly, Kyuhyun pulled the girl by the wrist and into his arms. He hugged her against his chest and buried his head on top of her head.

 

“K-Kyu?” Yujin said, flustered. “People are staring.” Kyuhyun wasn’t the type of guy to act all lovey-dovey in public, much less during work.

 

“I don’t care.” Kyuhyun said, holding her even tighter. “Listen, you have nothing to apologize for. I was being a jerk. You must have had a rough day and I had to make it even worst with my jealousy fit.”

 

“Don’t apologize.” Yujin smiled. “I was horrible to you.”

 

“Promise me something.” Kyuhyun pushed her back gently and looked into her eyes. “Tell me you will never try to contact Taecyeon again. Ever.”

 

“I promise.” Yujin nodded firmly. “Not ever.”

 

Once again Kyuhyun wrapped his arms around Yujin’s waist, only this time he planted a small kiss on her lips, making her turn a few shades of pink.

 

“Now,” Yujin smirked. “What was that arm linking thing you have with Seohyun?”

=====================================================================================================

 

“You fixe things with Kyuhyun?!” Hannah jumped excitedly as she spoke with Yujin on the phone. “That’s great!”

 

“I knew it would be alright. They are just meant for each other.” Jae sighed.

 

“Hey, look at the time.” Kiko pointed at the clock in the wall. “There are only five minutes left till 7 PM.”

 

“I brought my laptop. We can watch the broadcast on the net.” Lexx offered.

 

“Hannah, hang up and get your over here. This must be important if the six jerks came over only to tell us to watch it.” Kiko said.

 

“Fine.” Hannah hung up and laid on her stomach next to Lexx. “Lets just watch the damn thing and get it over with.”

 

“Okay, guys. It’s on.” Lexx placed the laptop on the floor and they all sat to watch. The first twenty minutes were just SHINee talking about their comeback, future presentations, tours, etc. Hannah was about to turn the screen off and go back to practice.

 

“This is useless. There is no way Minho will confess. Kai is just delusional.” Hannah said.

 

“Shh!” Lexx covered Hannah’s mouth with her hand. “Watch, Minho is about to talk.”

 

“So Minho, we received some interesting pictures this morning.” The host smiled and pulled the infamous photo of Hannah in action.

 

“That’s what everyone seems to be talking bout today.” Minho laughed.

 

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that girl Hannah Hwang, member of the soon to debut group EXO-G?”

 

“She is.” Minho nodded with a smile. “She and I are very close friends.”

 

“Friends, huh? That’s odd.” The host frowned. “She seems to be punching you in the face. Last time I checked friends don't go around punching other friends in the face.”

 

“Of course not! There seems to be a huge misunderstanding regarding the situation in the picture.” Minho shook his head.

 

“Then what really happened?” The host leaned forward. "Please be honest."

 

“We were next to the bar at that time and the floor was very wet. The picture was taken right when she suddenly slipped forward. Because of the angle, it seems as if she had punched me.” Minho lied.

 

“Seems very hard to believe.” The host looked at Minho with suspicion.

 

“Of course it is not!” Jonghyun intervened. “Minho always has girls ‘falling’ for him, if you know what I mean.”

 

The whole studio broke in laughter, including the host and the five SHINee members.

 

“Hannah is a very polite girl.” Minho promised. “She would never think of doing something like that. I hope everyone understands and stop spreading fake rumors about her.”

 

“Please look forward to EXO-G’s debut next week!” Taemin added with a radiant smile.

 

After that, the interview wrapped up quickly, SHINee said goodbye, and the show ended. There was no reaction from Hannah.

 

“Dose this means Hannah is off the hook?” Jae asked, trying to contain her excitement.

 

“Seems like it.” Kiko sighed with relief.

 

Then a text arrived to Hannah’s phone. She flipped it open and read:

 

Hannah,

I just saw SHINee’s interview. Whether Minho’s statement was true, which I highly doubt, or not, it helped the company’s image and yours a great deal. If I accused you falsely, I apologize. Make sure to thank Minho for clearing this mess for you and come by my office tomorrow. You’re safe this time, but make sure there is no second time.

-President

 

“OH MY GOSH!” Lexx shrieked. “This is great news, Hannah!”

 

But Hannah just kept staring at the screen with an unreadable expression in her face. When she finally came back to her senses, she jumped on her feet and picked her bag.

 

“Lets go.” She said seriously.

 

“Huh?” Kiko stared at her. “Lets go where?”

 

“To see the EXO-Idiots.” Hannah said flatly.

 

“Why?” Lexx asked. “They cleared the misunderstanding already. There is no need to go and pick a fight.”

 

“Not to mention they are in a photo shoot right now.” Jae added.

 

“I don’t care. We’re going.” Hannah said and walked out of the practice room.

 

“Is she pissed?” Kiko asked the other two. “I can’t tell.”

 

“Me neither.” Lexx shrugged. “She’s acting weird.”

 

“Lets go with her and make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.” Jae got on her feet. “I’m calling Yujin, too."