There was chaos everywhere as people rushed about backstage for different purposes in every direction; actors practiced their lines at random scattered locations on the stage, backstage helpers scurried about making sure the props were ready and a very distressed Key yelled at everyone to put on their costumes properly while the dancers led by Taemin pranced about, making things worse. Jonghyun was helping us with the props looking suspiciously peaceful and hence out of place in the midst of the commotion;  and in the middle of all this was Onew, barking out orders to anyone who even so much as paused to breathe.

“Taemin you brat WHERE IS YOUR COSTUME?!” Key’s volume was increasing every moment as he ran from one end of the stage to the other, chasing after the playful maknae while I lugged an especially large prop to its rightful position, careful not to hurt my already aching neck.

Meanwhile I couldn’t help the nervous glances I had been shooting at Choi Minho for the entire time we had been here. We hadn’t said a word to each other and I might have had something to do with that – considering I was avoiding him and everything. I felt awful for doing that, but after last night, I didn’t think I could face him without embarrassing myself in front of him. It had been around two in the morning when I had woken up to find myself still at college. I had been on the bench where Minho and I had been talking, asleep for I did not remember how long and in a position that should have been too uncomfortable for sleep, but was surprisingly cosy. It pains my ego to admit that at that point of time, I had happily snuggled into the soft folds of the material that I was leaning against and went so far as to even sleepily bury my face into it, taking in the delicious smell of whatever was surrounding me. Only when I heard a groan and felt something move under me did I remember that I was not alone. Snapping away, I saw that Minho had just woken up himself. Now, I have been in so many awkward situations before that I could drown in a sea filled with them, but by far this had been the worst of them all – including the time I had been caught staring at his collarbones when he had unwittingly scared the day lights out of me. As a result my first instinct was to jump to my feet, mumble something about it being very late and doing an about turn to bound away as fastest as my feet would take me.

“Hana over here!” Jun’s voice calling out for my help broke my train of embarrassing thoughts and I rushed to help him with the prop his frail body was incapable of holding up himself. I miss snuggly time with Minho… Gritting my teeth I blocked my mind voice out and tried lifting the prop from the other side. It was proving to be quite a task for the two of us as we struggled to carry it across to the opposite end of the stage. “What did they make this out of anyway?” I heard Jun grumble and paid no heed to him, concentrating on getting the work done when out of the blue, the weight of the prop became suddenly lighter. For a brief moment there I was quite impressed with myself for having so much determination that it seemed to affect the weight of something so horrendously heavy. My short-lived glee was shattered when I realized that the real reason was that someone else had started carrying the prop from a third side, my feet almost stopping when I realized it was Minho who had come to help. Our eyes met and for a split second he held my gaze before I quickly looked away, feeling warmth spread across my cheeks.

Inside my mind though, a festival was going on, complete with fireworks and party-poppers. I was beginning to stumble on my feet with how flustered he was making me. Thankfully Onew’s booming voice demanded my complete attention as he ordered everyone to get dressed and ready for the show. “We have half an hour to the show people!”

We rushed to place the props where they belonged, Jonghyun coming over to help me with the last one before I heard him let out a whistle of appreciation. Knowing this was about some attractive girl or the other I looked in the direction Jonghyun was facing, already ready to dismiss his behaviour with a disapproving shake of my head when I felt my jaw slack at the sight I beheld. My sister had just walked in looking nothing short of an A list celebrity, all tall and beautiful in the dress she had decided to wear as the presenter of the show.

“Ah Yun Noona!” Jonghyun chimed, leaving my side to greet her, providing me the opportunity to go through with shaking my head in disapproval.

“Look!” The hissed out word caught me by surprise and I jumped reflexively only to see Jina pointing at a quiet Onew, standing in the middle of the stage and analysing everything with shrewd eyes the way he had been all this while.

“What?” I hissed back at her, not entirely sure why I found the need to keep my voice down.

“Never mind, you missed it.” And with that absolutely vague statement my best friend left for the changing rooms leaving me with no choice but to follow her in. We changed into our costumes, Jina into her Juliet’s dress and I into a very funny looking velvety costume that I supposed was daily-wear back in the Shakespearian era.

The sight that greeted me once I came out of the dressing room made me stop in my tracks. Minho, now in his costume and looking just as magnificent as he always did was speaking with Minhee who looked like she had come backstage to wish him good luck. Being the gracious gentleman that he was, Minho nodded and smiled at her politely, and I was fairly certain that had everyone not been preoccupied with getting ready for the show, I would have witnessed a whole bunch of very interested onlookers. As it happened, it was only Jonghyun who joined me in giving the couple the stink-eye as he sauntered over to where I was standing, his high spirits suddenly having evaporated.

Hoping to lighten up the mood, I asked him the first thing that popped into my head. “So how did the supposed seduction go?”

Bad idea.

Jonghyun didn’t reply and instead chose to continue glowering in the general direction of where Minhee was standing. I inferred that it hadn’t gone well and felt bad for him. Her contempt for him had been painfully obvious at Minho’s house.

“That girl has problems!” Jonghyun’s sudden outburst surprised me but I said nothing. Instead, I decided to ask him what happened yesterday, genuinely curious. The look that I saw on his face was one I had never thought I would ever see on him. He looked downright embarrassed. I mean, this was Kim Jonghyun! “Nothing…” he said in a small voice. “I went to meet her and before I even had the chance to say anything to her she went ballistic on me... and then walked off…”

I was stunned into silence. Wow. She really is something!

“Hana, you tell me,” he said looking right at me, “I'm good looking, I am popular… I’m even a nice guy…” he paused to smirk before adding “well, most of the time.

“What is her problem?!”

It took me a while to contemplate whether saying it would offend him or not, but decided to go along with it anyway. “It might have something to do with how cocky you are.” Jonghyun stared at me with an unreadable expression for a reasonable amount of time before he burst out laughing and I sighed with relief.

“Hana, Jun, Minho, Taemin! Positions! NOW!” Onew’s sudden yell for attention shut everyone up immediately as he spoke. “Jonghyun! Stop distracting my cast!”

“Only if you promise to take ‘your cast’ to the club tonight.” Jonghyun grinned widely, seemingly having just come up with the idea. Grunting in response, Onew simply ignored him and continued rolling out orders.

“Sounds like a yes to me” Jina popped out of nowhere and high fived Jonghyun before suddenly turning to me with an evil gleam in her eyes. “Hana there’s no way out for you this time.” It took me a while to realize the meaning of what she was saying and it hit me with the force of a tornado. A club?! A club?!

A cold! No wait, fever! HEADACHE! No… Broken leg?

As my mind dismissed one excuse after the other, I felt the panic rise in me. It wasn’t particularly a big deal really. It was just a club right? Tons of people go there and simply enjoy the music and then come back home safe and sound. No issues.

Tons of scary people go there and do weird things on the dance floor and some people never return…

“Hana! You’re in the opening scene!” the stern look on Onew’s face brought me back to the present and I was forced to temporarily put my obsessive thoughts on hold. I would have to deal with it later. I had a feeling if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be alive to obsess over anything. However, what Onew’s statement achieved was to replace my fear of clubs with that of the play. And now I was successfully obsessing not only about the club but also about the possibility of me falling on my face in front of all of those people. Just Great.

Telling myself not to freak out and failing miserably, I made to take my position behind Minho when I felt a pair of arms encircle me from the back, catching me completely off-guard. “Good luck Hana!” a familiar voice sang in my ear and I immediately turned my head to see the one person I had least expected to see there smiling down at me.

“Jung Min sunbae! What are you doing here?!” I gasped, returning his hug fully now.

“I am the magazine chief editor after all” he beamed, “I get to exclusively cover this event. I didn’t have to, but I wouldn’t miss wishing you luck for the world!”

“Hana.” I was about to thank him when I heard Minho hissing at me from behind, reminding me that the show was about to begin any moment. I could already hear Yun Unni’s voice on stage.

“Thanks!” I gave sunbae a quick hug before he turned me around himself and pushed me forward.

“Do your best!” he whispered, waving cutely at me before retreating. I let out a chuckle, turning back around to see a stiff looking Minho in front of me; ready to stride onto the stage in character I guessed.

“Hey Minho, fighting!” I whispered to him, in such a good mood after seeing Jung Min sunbae that I’d forgotten why I was ignoring Minho in the first place. In response, he simply nodded curtly and before I could even begin to understand his sudden change in demeanour, I heard Onew’s voice start the narration and it was our cue to move. My mind suddenly went back into panic mode as I realized I would now be stepping onto the stage in front of a huge mass of people. Oh no oh no oh no…

Jun stepped out under the glaring lights of the stage, followed by Minho in all of his Romeo’s splendour, as I followed him in turn after a final prayer to any God that might be listening. Here goes nothing…

***

“Over there! No not there! Yes right there!” Jonghyun and I were backstage, helping with the props while Key ordered us around. It was Jina’s scene and we occasionally took peeks to see how things were going on stage. The show seemed to be turning out really well, the dancers never missed a beat, the actors were getting their cues right and the audience clapped at just the right moments.

“Make up make up!” Taemin ran in screaming as someone scrambled to attend to him before his next scene, followed almost immediately by Eun Ae yelling for the same thing. On the other wing similar chaos was ensuing as Jun hurried about trying to fix something that was making too much noise, noise that was thankfully covered up by the loud music on stage. It was rather exhilarating, this rush to get things done on time and make sure it was done right.

“Unni could you pass me the mask from there?” I asked my sister as she stood silently on the side, away from all the action. I repeated myself when I got no response from her and on closer inspection I noticed that she had a zoned out expression on her face. “Um… Unni?”

“Hana, get the mask!” Key yelled. I did as I was told, almost sprinting to retrieve the mask and help Key put it on Taemin before sending him off back to the stage. Once Taemin was gone I had enough time to get back to me uncharacteristically quiet older sister.

“What’s up?” I asked her.

My apparently sudden appearance seemed to shake her out of her daze and she transformed into her former bubbly self in the matter of a nanosecond. “It’s almost the final scene is what’s up! I should be in position!” and with that she was off.

Confused, I followed her to the entrance of the stage, my eyes catching sight of Minho embracing Eun Ae. I could plainly see how Eun Ae leaned into Minho’s tall frame, falling into his encircled arms with as much ease as if he was some sort of a quilt wrapped around her.

“I don’t think she’s acting” my sister muttered, sounding slightly ticked off. I had no doubt that her anger was directed toward Minho though, on my behalf at that; what with her belief in the fabricated event of Minho having “kissed” me in my sleep.

“You’ve been watching too many dramas” I assured her, feeling like I was assuring myself of Minho’s disinterest in Eun Ae for some reason.

The show ended as the audience rose in their seats, applauding and Unni stepped out. All of us filed out in a line for the curtain call as Onew spoke a few words and we cheered, the atmosphere of a show well done putting all of us in good moods. It was in these high spirits that we strolled back behind stage, cheerfully talking to each other. Jina was teasing Taemin, telling him he was too young to accompany them to the club while he protested vehemently saying he had already been multiple times. Key was pulling at Onew’ ears for some strange reason; I think I heard him claim they were very ‘bunny like’. Jonghyun was having what I hoped was at least a partially meaningful conversation with my sister. I was talking to one of the dancers while Taemin randomly ran up to me and hid behind me yelling something along the lines of “That noona is going to eat me!” It didn’t take me too long to figure Jina was tormenting the boy again. This seemed to distract Key from Onew’s ears, much to Onew’s relief. All in all, we were doing pretty well, everyone living out their highs after having a successful show; a celebration that was quite unceremoniously interrupted by an outraged cry that came from one of the changing rooms.

Everyone ceased what they were doing instantly to follow the sound to the changing room to discover a furious Eun Ae facing a surprised looking Minho and a very awkward Minhee at the side.

“You’re sorry?!” Eun Ae’s voice was rising drastically in pitch. “So you are actually picking THAT over me?!” She bellowed, pointing a manicured figure at Minhee. “You’re rejecting me for HER?!” She paused to let Minho speak, seemingly unaware of the crowd that had formed around them. When there was no response from him, she snapped. “Wow. I am OUT of here.” And without another word, Eun Ae turned around with a big swish of her long curls and stormed out leaving a very dumbstruck audience in her wake as silence took over the whole population there. It took a couple of minutes even for her fans to recover and follow after her while the rest simply stared on at Minho.