BGM: SHINee - Stranger

"What? No deafening 'JAEMI-AH~!!!' today?"

Usually, when they come by the bubble tea shop after practice, the boys will announce their presence with a loud and perky 'JAEMI-AH~!!!' from the human megaphone Park Chanyeol; so when they arrived at Happy Bubble the next Tuesday afternoon seeming a little despondent, you and Jihye figured that a not-so-good news must have happened to them again.

"Hi, Jaemi. Jung Jihye," Chanyeol greeted with no hint of enthusiasm whatsoever.

"How cheerful!" Jihye replied sarcastically.

You rested an elbow on the counter, tilted your head, and cupped your cheek with your left palm. "What's wrong? Did someone quit again?"

"On the contrary~" Kyungsoo trailed off. He nearly revealed the reason for their morose mood, but he decided to shut his mouth at the last minute, refusing to be the storyteller of the semi-sensitive topic of the day.

"Whaaat?!? Tell us!" Jihye demanded, a little impatient now.

Minseok scanned the room to check the reactions of his friends. Half of them avoided his gaze, while the other half just shrugged to let him know that they weren't really willing to answer your best friend's question. When he locked eyes with Jihye, the oldest yet chubby-cheeked boy in the shop found himself giving in to her request for information. Taking a deep breath, Minseok opened his mouth and was about to satisfy Jihye's curiosity when a high-pitched giggle suddenly filled the room.

"WHOA! SO THIS IS THE LEGENDARY HAPPY BUBBLE!" the boy exclaimed.

A teenage boy, quite short in stature, suddenly entered the bubble tea shop. His reaction upon passing through the doorway revealed that it was his first time in Happy Bubble. Although his eyes were neither as round nor as big as your Kyungsoo sunbae's, the boy stared at every detail with a childlike wonder, as if it was the most magical thing he has ever laid his eyes on.

Zitao, who was right behind him when he arrived, happily confirmed that it was, indeed, the beloved bubble tea shop of Ahjumeonie. "Yes! This Happy Bubble!"

"Who's that?" Jihye whispered.

"A new trainee," Moonkyu responded in a softer voice.

"Really?!?" Your best friend scooted closer to her travel buddy, which unintentionally made Minseok jealous. Then, in a voice that only Moonkyu could hear, she remarked, "He doesn't look like one."

Quite surprised about what he just heard, Kim Moonkyu thanked the heavens that he wasn't drinking honeydew bubble tea at the time, because if he was, he was 100% that Jihye's comment would cause him to choke on a couple of black bricks.

After carefully observing the almost illegible signatures and the glossy posters on the idol wall, the newest SM Entertainment trainee finally approached the counter to order a cup of bubble tea.  Unlike the other boys who came today, he greeted you with a bright-eyed smile.

"You must be the famous Jaemi!" he assumed, extending his hand.

You figured it would probably be rude not to accept his offer for a handshake, but before your hand could even touch his, the moody chocolate bubble tea addict sitting across from you interrupted the formal greeting by swatting your hand away as he reached for a paper napkin from the metal dispenser beside you.

"That was so rude," you scolded.

Sehun shrugged. "I needed a paper napkin."

Rolling your eyes, you shifted your attention back to the new trainee. "I don't know about 'famous', but I really am Jaemi," you replied, reaching for one of Ahjumeonie's Happy Bubble notepads and the blue pen whose cap was already missing.

"You are famous," the boy insisted. "Everyone was talking about you-"

"-now, now, now," Luhan interrupted, gently patting the boy's back with an awkward smile. "Mimi's quite busy, so I guess you should tell her which bubble tea flavor you'd like to have so she could get started," he added, quickly glancing only to find you glaring at him.

The boy's eyebrows creased worriedly. "Mimi? But I thought her name's Jaemi-"

"-he's the only one who calls her Mimi," Yixing explained.

With his mouth partly open, the new trainee blurted: "Ooh~ are you two dating or some-"

In an attempt to stop him from further asking about your relationship with Luhan, you interrupted him by implying that you need to get started on preparing their bubble tea orders now. "-your order please?" you asked, as politely as you could manage. "I really need to know because I have to start working on the other's drinks too, so~"

"Oh! Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that," he apologized with a smile. "I talk a lot so it may seem like I'm such a gossip, but please don't think that I'm trying to invade your privacy. I'm just being friendly. I think you two make a cute couple, though. You and Luhan hyung, I mean. What's your nickname for him? He calls you Mimi, so I'm assuming you call him Lulu. Is that right? Lulu and Mimi. It's kinda cute. Okay. I'm blabbering again, sorry. Anyway, I'd like to have a green tea latte with aloe vera."

"YUCK!" you and Jihye chorused.

"Sorry," you apologized immediately after, quite thankful that Ahjumeonie is nowhere in sight or you'll probably be fired right away. "I didn't mean to, I mean,  green tea latte and aloe vera? It just sounded gross. I'm sorry. To each his own, I guess."

"It is gross," Chanyeol quietly mumbled only for Joonmyun to hear.

The new boy, however, didn't seem offended by your comment. "I know what you mean," he said, a big grin still plastered on his face. "Green tea latte and aloe vera may not seem like a good match on paper, but the end product actually tastes good."

"No, it doesn't," Chanyeol commented again. "I've tried it before."

"Would you stop making side comments?" Joonmyun scolded. "He might hear you, you know?"

"Okay, one cup of green tea latte with aloe vera coming up," you announced as you started to gather a bunch of plastic cups for the boys' bubble tea orders. "8g of Fat," you called out to the grumpy Sehun sitting on one of the stools on the other side of the counter. "How many do I have to make for you?"

"Two pleathe," he answered, putting up a V-sign with his fingers.

"Wow! You didn't even ask them what flavors they want or which sinkers they prefer!" the new boy exclaimed, quite amused by the fact. "You must have known them for so long! How long have you guys been friends? Must be a very long time, I assume. You guys seem very close. And you have sort of nicknames for each other. 8g of Fat! That's funny! Why do you call Sehun that, though? Oh! Oh! Oh! I almost forgot to ask you! What's your sign? What's your sign?"

You paused from scooping tapioca pearls into the cups. "My sign?"

"Yeah, your sign!" he nodded enthusiastically.

You shot Kevin a confused look. You have absolutely no idea what sign the boy was talking about, so you thought your dear 'ol friend Totoro will help you figure it out. "Like my Chinese astrological sign or something?" you asked, not sure if that's what the new kid was asking about. "Because I was born on 1994 and that was the year of the dog-"

"No, no, no," the boy shook his head frantically. "Not year sign. Your other sign! Your-"

"-he's asking for your astrological sign," Kevin clarified. "Your zodiac sign."

"Ah~! My zodiac sign!" You put the lid back on the container of tapioca pearls and opened up the one with black bricks in it. Then, you started adding the said sinkers to the two cups that were labeled 'Jongin' and 'Moonkyu'. "Well, my birthday is on the 14th of May, so-"

"YOU'RE A BEEF! YOU'RE A BEEF! YOU'RE A BEEF LIKE US!" he excitedly declared. "ZITAO! ZITAO! JAEMI IS A BEEF TOO! SHE'S A BEEF LIKE US! SHE'S A BEEF!"

Zitao laughed. "Yes! Jaemi beef too!"

You turned to Luhan in disbelief. "A beef?!? What does that even mean? Why did they say I'm a beef like them?!? Should I be offended by this?"

"Relax," Luhan suggested with a chuckle.

It was Yixing, however, who explained the whole story about being a 'beef'. "When Baekhyun asked Zitao what his zodiac sign was, he didn't know how to say Taurus in Korean," he calmly said as he tried to untangle the earphones given to him by Sehun on his birthday. "-so he just blurted out 'beef' instead. It became their little inside joke, I guess."

"So what is Baozi then? Sheep?" you joked.

Realizing that you still have no idea which flavor of bubble tea and which type of sinkers you have to prepare for Park Chanyeol, you called out his name and asked him about it. "Chanyeol~ what are you getting today?"

"Chanyeollie! You should try the green tea latte too," Baekhyun joyfully suggested, his smile showed nearly all of his teeth. "With lots of aloe vera! It's really delicious! You'll like it, for sure!"

Ignoring Baekhyun's recommendation, Chanyeol just told you that "I'll have whatever Yixing hyung is having," before muttering an almost inaudible "Green tea latte with aloe vera tastes like grass" that, again, only Joonmyun managed to hear.

Despite the fact that Chanyeol wasn't being too friendly with him, Baekhyun just shrugged it off and turned his attention towards the snowflake-embellished mini-stationery pad laying on the counter. When your best friend caught the new trainee staring at her beloved source of lists, she started interrogating him.

"What's your name again?" Jihye asked. "Bacon?"

"No, no, no," Baekhyun waved his hand frantically. "It's not Bacon. It's Baekhyun. Baek-hyun. Byun Baekhyun. My name is Byun Baekhyun," he corrected. "You must be Jung Jihye~" Your best friend was about to acknowledge that she was, indeed, Jung Jihye, when the next words that came out of Baekhyun's mouth infuriated her again. "~Minseok hyung's girlfriend, right?"

As soon as Jihye's deadly glare settled on him, Minseok stood up from his seat to try and explain himself. "Jihye, Jihye, hear me out first," he pleaded, expertly avoiding the crumpled paper napkin and unused plastic straw that flew his way. "It's not my fault, I swear! I didn't tell him you were my girlfriend!"

For some reason, Jihye believed Minseok right away, and in no time, her anger was transferred to the most likely culprit: Park Chanyeol. "YA! JUNG JIHYE! STOP THROWING- AH! JAEMI-AH! JAEMI-AH! SHE'S WASTING THE PAPER NAPKINS! LOOK! AH~ STOP IT! STOP IT! JUNG JIHYE! STOP IT!"

Upon taking a sip of his green tea latte, Baekhyun decided that he wanted some chips to go along with it, so he asked the boys where the nearest convenience store is. Zitao, who seemed to be the friendliest of the bunch today, even offered to accompany him there.

"Oh~ thank God he's gone!" Chanyeol announced.

As soon as Zitao and Baekhyun were out of earshot, the boys heaved a collective sigh of relief and relaxed a little. It was quite obvious that they weren't too pleased with the presence of the new trainee, but you didn't exactly understand why.

"Why do you hate him so much?" you asked.

Joonmyun looked up from the thick textbook he was reading and placed a bookmark between the pages were he paused. He said he has an exam on the next day, so he was trying to study as much as he could. "We don't hate him," he denied, taking a sip of coffee. "Hate is a pretty harsh word to describe it."

"Well, I do," Chanyeol declared. "I hate him."

"No, you don't," Kevin disagreed, putting down his cup of black dragon milk tea on the table. "You're just saying that because you want to convince yourself that you hate him."

"Why? What's wrong?" you asked as you handed back Jongin and Moonkyu's change. "He seems alright to me. Too chatty, perhaps, but I think he's okay."

Minseok nodded. "Yeah, I agree, but it isn't his personality we have a problem with," he said, effortlessly stealing a butter coconut biscuit from the ever-oblivious Yixing. "It's his timing."

"What? New trainees can't join during January?" Jihye remarked.

"January 2011," Chanyeol emphasized.

Shaking your head, you admitted, "I still don't get it."

"It's already January 2011," Jongin repeated, chewing on a couple of black bricks from his honeydew-flavored bubble tea. "The company is going to debut a new group soon and with him in the mix, the competition has gotten tougher."

As usual, Moonkyu was the next one to talk. "See, there are already twelve of us," he informed. "Count him, Jinho hyung, and Riu Chao hyung, that will already count as fifteen."

"Riu Chao? Zhou Mi oppa's best friend?" Jihye guessed.

"Yeah, he's with us too," Luhan answered, taking another piece of paper napkin before discreetly giving you a very flirty wink that you returned with a 'Mehrong~' gesture. "He just doesn't hang out with us that often because he's usually off somewhere with Zhou Mi hyung."

"So, as Moonkyu was saying," Joonmyun continued. "There's already fifteen of us, plus all the other trainees you girls haven't even met yet. I don't know how many trainees are there exactly. I already lost count. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I don't think the company's going to put too many people in one group."

You shrugged. "So what? SM debuted thirteen people for Super Junior."

"Twelve, Jaemi. Twelve," Jihye corrected, turning a page on her mini-stationery pad. It seems like the current topic of discussion has inspired her to make a new list. "Kyuhyun oppa was only added as the thirteenth member when they released 'U'. Many new ELFs today don't even know that Kibummie oppa was the original maknae."

"Geez. Thanks for the trivia, Ji," you responded as you glared at the pseudo-twins for playing with several unused jumbo straws. "But whatever. The boys have been training longer than he has, so that must give them some kind of advantage. I mean, I'm sure they all win in terms of experience."

The boys exchanged looks.

They have a habit of doing this whenever they hesitate to tell you something. It's like they know that they have to blurt it out sooner or later, but no one wants to voluntarily offer the information, so they hold a staring contest and the first one to fold will be the one to do all the explaining.

"He's a pretty good singer, though," Yixing admitted.

"But you guys are pretty good singers, too," you returned.

Although flattered by your compliment, the bedimpled Chinese boy figured he needs to tell you just how good of a singer Baekhyun is to help you understand why his mere presence is making them worry. "Yeah, but he sounds like Yoo Youngjin sunbaenim."

"Whoa!" you exclaimed. "In that case..."

"My spot as the lead vocalist is in jeopardy!" Kyungsoo blurted out.

Jongin, who was quite ashamed of what was running through his mind at the moment, decided to be braver for the next ten seconds and confessed what he honestly thought of the new trainee. "Is it wrong that I feel a bit relieved that he's not a particularly good dancer?"

"No, not at all," Yixing assured. "That's exactly what I was thinking!"

Biting the jumbo straw of his chocolate bubble tea, Sehun let out a rare set of chuckles and announced that Baekhyun was "in the thame level ath Joonmyun hyung and Kevin hyung" when it comes to dancing.

"HEY!" Joonmyun and Kevin simultaneously reacted.

"He's better than Chanyeol hyung, though," Youngho pointed out. "But only a little."