“You did it!” Hannah tackled Jae to the floor as soon as she saw her friend returning to the lounge. “Tell me EVERYTHING! Oh my gosh this is so exciting!”

 

“What is it that you two are not sharing with the rest of us?” Lexx demanded to know. She had seen Hannah and Jae whispering to them selves earlier and now this.

 

“Yeah, I’m curious too.” Yujin joined the conversation. Kiko had her headphones on but she was also listening carefully.

 

“Okay, okay.” Jae laughed. “The truth is that-“

 

“JAE LIKE SUHO!” Hannah blurted. “And she just confessed!”

 

“Gee, thanks for letting me talk Hannah.” Jae scoffed.

 

“Sorry.” Hannah bit her lower lip innocently. “You know how hard it is from me not to spread the gossip.”

 

“You?! And Suho?!” Lexx tried to process the information. “Since when?”

 

Kiko and Yujin exchanged glances. They already suspected this would happen ever since Jae and Suho started talking.

 

“So are you guys, like, going out?” Lexx asked, trying to picture what she once thought impossible.

 

“Did things go well?” Yujin asked.

 

“Well, about that…” Jae took as seat and told the rest of the group every detail about her confession and Suho’s reaction.

 

“What do you mean he ‘challenged’ you?” Lexx scratched her head, confused.

 

“Dunno.” Jae replied. “I have no idea how he wants me to prove my feelings for him.”

 

“You say that after acting all cool in front of him.” Kiko elbowed in the arm.

 

“He probably wants you to chase after him.” Hannah said. “You know, to make sure you are serious and not just playing around.”

 

“She’s right.” Yujin agreed. “Knowing Suho, he would have rejected you in the spot if he didn’t had feeling for you.”

 

“That’s what I thought.” Jae nodded. “But now I don’t know what to do. How can I show him that I really care?”

 

“It’s fun to see you like this once in a while.” Lexx observed with amusement. “All flustered and excited like you’re right now.”

 

“Dose she looks flustered to you?” Hannah looked at Jae’s expression. “She looks as calm as a monk to me.”

 

“That because you’re always overreacting about just anything.” Kiko said without looking away from her iPod screen.

 

“I do not!” Hannah flicked her hair with a rather haughty expression.

 

“Oh, I have an idea!” Lexx snapped her fingers. “The special stage is coming soon. You should take advantage of that time and get closer to him.” Her innocent ideas regarding love made Hannah snort.

 

“But try not to look desperate. That is a major turn-off.” Hannah advice. “Believe me, this is my area of expertise.”

 

“Hannah, you’ve never had a boyfriend before.” Lexx said.

 

“I know that!” Hannah blushed. “But I’ve been in plenty of dates. I know what I’m talking about.”

 

“We should just let Jae do whatever she thinks is right. She’s the one he’ll be dating, after all.” Yujin said.

 

“EXO-G?” Said a voice form the speakers. “The car is outside waiting for you. Please come down to the lobby.”

 

“Lets go. We have work to do.” Jae said, dropping the whole Suho subject.

 

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

 

Meanwhile, Suho was with the rest of s up in the practice room, rehearsing their song.

 

“Suho, you missed you part again!” Sehun pulled on the leader’s jacket. “Are you okay?”

 

“Dude, if you’re not going to sing we won’t make any progress.” Baekhyun said, taking his headphones off.

 

“Did something happen between you and Jae earlier?” Chanyeol asked with a sneer. He sensed something interesting was going down between those two.

 

“No. I’m just tired.” Suho dismissed the idea calmly. “Just play the thing one more time.”

 

After several more failed attempts, the boys decided to call it a day and return to the dorm. They had no more schedules for the rest of the day, thank God. As soon as they got home Suho locked himself in his room, Baekhyun and Chanyeol raided the fridge in search for food, Sehun the TV, and D.O. simply started flipping through the most recent issue of Men’s Health. Kai was the only one that did not return to the dorm.

 

Should I call her? Baekhyun meditated when he gave up on finding something edible in the empty fridge. But what would I say?

 

“Just one message.” He promised himself as he picked his phone and typed: What’s up.

 

A minute later he got a replay. He felt slightly disappointed when he read the single word the message contained. Busy.

 

“I’m an idiot.” He said to himself. “What the hell was I thinking?”

 

Then his phone vibrated again. A second message from Kiko arrived. He opened the message and to his surprise there weren’t any words. Just a picture of Kiko the she had taken to herself. In the background he could see the set of a photo shoot.

 

She really is busy, he thought with relief. She wasn’t smiling or anything in the picture, in fact, she looked bored, but she had taken her time to send it to him. That was enough for Baekhyun.

 

On the other side of the living room, Chanyeol stared at Sehun as the kid watched a re-run of his favorite anime.

 

He obviously likes Lexx. Chanyeol thought to himself. Did he realize it already? He is such a kid. But…why am I worried? I only got close to Lexx so Sehun would realize his feeling, but now I don’t know if I can say the same thing.

 

D.O. watched everyone’s troubled expression and sighed. This was getting old for him. Why couldn’t they be like him and Sulli? They had been going out for a few weeks now and everything was great. He put the magazine away and went to see what was going through Suho’s mind.

 

“Knock, knock.” He said as he opened the door of the leader’s room.

 

“Kyung Soo , you should try actually knocking on the door instead of just saying it.” Suho sat up from his bed.

 

“I’ll try to remember next time.” D.O. shrugged and took a seat next to Suho. “You know what I am here for man. Just talk already.”

 

Suho sighed and combed his hair with his fingers. He knew D.O. would come to find him eventually to make him talk. He was like the counselor of EXO-K.

 

“Jae said she likes me.” Suho said.

 

“So?” D.O. snorted. “Are you happy? Sad? Angry?”

 

“Frustrated.” Suho corrected. “She is always all over Jonghyun, acts like she doesn’t give a damn whether I talk to her or not, and now she says she likes me? How can I trust someone whose actions I can’t understand?

 

“What did you told her when she confessed?”

 

“To prove to me that she really liked me.”

 

D.O. broke out in laughter. “And what are you expecting her to do? Profess her love in the middle of a performance?”

 

“I don’t know.” He hit D.O.’s face with a pillow. “I’m wondering if she will even do something.”

 

“So you don’t want to be disappointed.” D.O. understood what was going on.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“The only thing left for you to do is wait and see. Have some faith in her, for God’s sake.”

 

D.O. gave him an encouraging pat in the back and returned to the living room.

 

Suho covered his face with his blankets and replayed Jae’s words in his head over and over. A promise, she had said.

 

“You better keep it, idiot.” He mumbled before dozing off.

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

 

“WAKE UP!” Hannah shouted frantically around the dorm as she tried to finish her makeup.

 

“The hell?” Kiko peeked out of her room. She had both eyes closed and a terrible case of bed head.

 

“Is the world ending?” Lexx shouted from her room without even bothering to get out of her bed. “How come Hannah is awake so early?”

 

“EXO-M arrived!” Hannah jumped excitedly. “There are in SM right now!”

 

“Kyuhyun just called. They are in the lounge right now. EXO-K already got there.” Yujin explained as she walked through the hallway opening the door of the rest of the members to wake them up.

 

“What are we waiting for?! Luhan is here!” Hannah brushed her hair into a ponytail.

 

“It’s been a while since I last saw Chen and Kris.” Lexx said as she crawled out of bed.

 

“I’m kinda excited.” Kiko walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. “Lay promised to bring me these special edition headphones that were only released in China.”

 

“For his own sake, I hope Xiu Min brought me some souvenirs.” Jae said as she pulled out the first outfit she could find in her closet.

 

“I wonder if Tao already recovered from that cold he had a few days ago.” Yujin thought.

 

The girls were dressed and ready to go in thirty minutes. Hannah couldn’t remember the last time she had taken less than two hours to get ready. As soon as they arrived at the company, they all rushed up to the second floor to meet their friends. As expected, the twelve male members of EXO were assembled in the lounge, chatting and laughing casually.

 

“LUHAN!” Hanna shouted as she spotted her best friend leaning against the window. His eyes brightened up as soon as he spotted her.

 

“Hannah!” He smiled. The girls ran to him and practically tackled him to the floor.

 

“I’ve missed you!” She laughed.

 

“Chen! Kris!” Lexx waved her arms enthusiastically.

 

“Maknae!” Kris waved back. Chen simply nodded at her.

 

“Welcome back.” She said as she tried to catch her breath from running all the way from the lobby.

 

“You’ve grown taller.” Chen patted her hair gently.

 

“Kiko!” Lay called. He had a big box wrapped in silver paper. “I’ve got your package.”

 

“You better.” Kiko snatched the present from his hands. “Welcome back, by the way.” They high-fived like two old friends.

 

“I’ve got something for Jae.” Xiu Min smiled as adorably as ever as he handed her a golden plastic bag.

 

“Seriously?” Jae grabbed the present. “You’re the best!”

 

Yujin calmly approached a coughing Tao to ask him about his health.

 

The EXO-K members just stood in the shadows, not quite sure of how to react. The girls had rushed in like a pack of hungry lions to greet the others and now it seemed like they were outsiders.

 

There goes her so called “promise”, Suho thought as he observed how Jae had managed to ignore his presence at the sight of the Chinese subgroup.

 

“Have some faith.” D.O. reminded him.

 

“Should we join them?” Sehun suggested.

 

“I feel kind of awkward here.” Baekhyun mumbled.

 

“Chill you guys.” Chanyeol smiled. “They haven’t seen each other for a while.”

 

“Neither have we but you don’t see us fawning over them like a bunch of fan girls.” Kai scowled.

 

Contrary to Suho’s beliefs, he was the first one Jae had noticed when she opened the door. She was just thinking of how to act around him now that she had confessed. To Jae, this was a strategy game she was not going to lose.

 

She slowly unwrapped the present Xiu Min had bought her and smiled when she saw the bright red candy. She had tried it once before and it was one of the most delicious things she had ever tasted. She popped one in and thanked Xiu Min with a warm hug. Suho twitched a little.

 

“Did I do something wrong to Suho?” Xiu Min whispered to Jae. “His glare is freaking me out.” Jae smirked. She was pleased with Suho’s reaction.

 

“No worries.” Jae patted Xiu Min’s arm. “I’ll take care of that later.”

 

For the next hour the girls and the boys of EXO-M chatted gleefully. They talked about EXO-G’s recent debut, how things have been in Korea, and what were their next activities. The atmosphere between them was great.

 

“Excuse me.” The manager of EXO-M knocked on the door softly. “I’m sorry, but the boys have to go now. They have wardrobe fitting in ten minutes.” The man said apologetically to the girls.

 

“It’s okay, we can catch up later.” Yujin smiled at the manager, who couldn’t hide his bashfulness.

 

“Aw, but I was having fun!” Hannah complained. “Just give us ten more minutes!”

 

“Hannah, don’t be like this.” Luhan said. “Apologize to the manager.”

 

“I get it.” Hannah sulked. “I’m very sorry.”

 

“Good girl.” Luhan pinched her cheek. “Okay guys, lets go.” He gestured the other boys with his head. They all said goodbye and left quickly behind their manager.

 

“I’ve never seen Hannah so…docile.” Kai commented. “Did you see how she apologized as soon as she was told to?”

 

“You know it has always been like that between her and Luhan.” D.O. said. “It has been like that ever since she was a trainee.”

 

“So what now?” Sehun asked. “We don’t have any work for the next couple of hours.”

 

“Boring.” Baekhyun sighed. “Lets just go to the arcade for now and-“

 

“Hey.” Kiko punched Baekhyun in his forearm. “How you been?”

 

“H-Hey!” He smiled.

 

“What is it that you were saying about going to the arcade?” Chanyeol chuckled.

 

“Me? I don’t remember saying that.” Baekhyun tried to act cool.

 

“I’ll go talk to Lexx, then.” Sehun said quickly before anyone could say some stupid comment.

 

Suho just threw himself in a couch and closed his eyes, he was still pissed because of Xiu Min. All of a sudden, he felt someone standing in front of him. He opened one eye and found himself face to face with a smiling Jae.

 

“What.” He asked coldly, as he usually did.

 

“Here.” She pulled one of the candies Xiu Min had given to her and with one finger she pushed it into Suho’s mouth. “Tasty, right?”

 

“It’s alright.” Suho looked away.

 

“You’re angry.” Jae said. “Why?”

 

“I am not.”

 

She leaned closer to Suho, their faces close to each other. “Don’t worry, idiot. I know how to keep my promises.” She winked before shoving the rest of the candies in his pocket and walking away to where the others were.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“I’m sorry about the other day.” Lexx apologized to Sehun.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“You know, when I interrupted your conversation with Sohyun back in the night of our debut.”

 

“Sohyun? Who is that?” Sehun frowned, honestly trying to remember. All he could recall aside from EXO-G’s performance was how good the sandwiches in the waiting room were.

 

“Oh, I guess it doesn’t matter then.” Lexx laughed at the airhead maknae.

 

“Um, Lexx?” Sehun’s cheek turned pink. “I was wondering if, you know, you would um-“

 

“Could you speak a little louder please?” Lexx took one step closer to him.

 

“I meant to ask you if, erm, you and I-“ He kept choking on his words.

 

“Sehun, are you alright?” Lexx tried hard not to laugh. This kid was just too amusing.

 

“I’m fine!” He shouted. “I just wanted to know if you were free this weekend!”

 

“Huh?” Her face went completely red. “I-I guess I am. Why?”

 

“There is this really good pastry shop down the street. Would you like to go and check it out?” He asked with all the courage he had left.

 

“You and me?” Lexx asked. Sehun nodded once.

 

“Okay.” She smiled. This can’t be a date or anything. I bet he’s just asking me as a friend.

 

“Great!” Sehun jumped once. “I’ll call you then!”  As the two maknaes exchanged numbers they didn’t noticed the audience of two that was watching over the whole scene.

 

“Are they idiots?” Kai scoffed. “I feel like I’m watching to grade schoolers trying to flirt.”

 

“He is still a kid.” D.O. said. “You know how innocent he actually is.”

 

“At least he asked her out. I’ll give him that.” Kai looked at the boy proudly. “But still, the whole blushing-and-giggling thing grosses me out.”

 

“Hey, where were you yesterday?” D.O. changed the topic. “You got home almost at midnight.”

 

“Hyunah asked me to help her out with some lines from a drama she’s filming soon. We went to a small coffee shop and practiced there.” Kai explained.

 

“Are you for real?” D.O. asked.

 

“Of course I am. Why would I lie?”

 

“Are you two dating?”

 

“No!” Kai shook his head. “We’re just friends!”

 

“She obviously likes you, dude.” D.O. told him. “But be careful.”

 

“Careful of what?” Kai raised an eyebrow.

 

“You know those rumors that have been going around about Hyunah. From what I’ve heard, she is not very nice.”

 

“Yeah, but she is so freaking pretty.” Kai grinned. “She’s the type of girl I would date.”

 

“Be careful what you wish for.” D.O. warned. This superficial …

 

“Did I just heard the words ‘she is the type of girl I would date’?” Chanyeol butted in the conversation. “Who is it? Who is it?”

 

“Kai likes Hyunah, apparently.” D.O. told him without hesitation.

 

“KAI LIKES HYUNAH?” Chanyeol repeated, a little too loud. Hannah’s and Yujin’s ears suddenly perked up.

 

“Shut up, you moron!” Kai smacked Chanyeol in the head.

 

“Ouch!” Chanyeol rubbed his head.

 

“Did you hear that?” Hannah rolled her eyes. “A and a complete are going out. Aren’t they perfect for each other?”

 

“Don’t go around making up rumors, Hannah. You don’t know if they are actually going out.” Yujin said.

 

“Whatever.” Hannah flicked her hair. “It is none of my business.”

 

“Yeah, you always say that before meddling in someone else’s business.” Yujin mumbled.

 

“What?”

 

“No, it’s nothing.” Yujin smiled. Then Yujin remembered something important.

 

“Damn it!” She said as she pulled her sleeve up to look at the time. “It’s so late!”

 

“Late for what?” Hannah asked.

 

“Kyuhyun told me that we have to meet up with this producer in fifteen minutes. He wants us to make us the special guests of his show!”

 

“And you forgot to tell us that?!” Hannah said angrily. “Lets go! Lets go!”

 

“Lexx! Kiko! Jae!” Yujin shouted. “We’re leaving. NOW!”

 

“Roger!” Lexx answered.

 

“Remember our appointment this weekend!” Sehun reminded Lexx.

 

“Yeah!” She waved.

 

Jae met Suho’s eyes one more time before leaving. She mouthed a ‘bye-bye’ which to her surprise, Suho actually returned.

 

“Looks like I have to go.” Kiko shrugged. “Bye.”

 

“Yeah…” Baekhyun replied, a little disappointed. “See ya.”

 

“Could you all stop with the flirting and MOVE?!” Hannah hurried them. “This could be huge for us!”

 

“Who is flirting?!” The boys all said together.