Riki tapped her fingers to the rhythm of the beats coming from behind a door to her left. She could hear her friend Sen in the adjacent room, rapping her off and Riki had to admit she sounded pretty damn awesome. Another door opened and Kelly and Els came in with food.

“She’s nailing it.” Riki said as Els handed her a veggie sandwich.

Els sat down beside her and nodded. “Only you and I left after that.” 

“And then soon” Kelly grinned. “We’ll have our official song!”

The song for their debut had been decided just that morning. The girls had recorded some quick demo versions of potential tracks a few weeks before and in the early morning they’d gotten the message that the decision had been made.

The chosen song was called Lightning Speed. It was a pretty typical K-pop song, in the sense that it was kind of ridiculous-sounding and that the lyrics were somewhat laughable, but it was also extremely catchy and after a few listens it sounded simply epic. Suffice to say, the girls were pretty happy about it. Riki didn’t have all that many lines to sing so she was done in the singing booth within a few minutes. She didn’t mind because she was more excited about the choreography portion of the song anyways. They’d have their first choreo practice for the song the next day already.

A second major thing that had happened was the desicion on their band name. The girls would from now on forever be named X.kuse! (Don't ask why, the Kpop Gods work in mysterious ways).

Coordinating with their debut song title, life seemed to be moving at lightning speed for the girls. Riki’s eyes had almost popped out of their sockets when heir lovely manager had handed them their newly adjusted schedule for the coming weeks. There was an abundance of photo shoots, dance and song practices, teaser video shoots and lastly a music video shoot that would apparently last two whole days. It was clear then that there wouldn’t be a lot of sleeping time in the near future.

“Maybe we should cancel tonight.” Riki frowned, thinking of the busy days to come as she stretched her legs on a big blue yoga mat.

Sen, who was stretching beside her, responded at once. “We can’t cancel!” She pouted. “I want to wear my dress.”

“Yeah, me too” Kelly joined in. “and I mean, let’s face it, it’s only going to get harder to find free time for us from now on.”

Riki nodded. “I guess you’re right.” She was pretty stoked about the get together they’d planned. “Well in that case we better go. I want to shower before the dudes arrive.” She said, stretching out one more time before walking over to the side of the room.

“Um” She turned around to her friends, frowning. “Where are our bags?”

They’d put their bags in the far corner of the gym room, just like they always did; she was sure of it. Now the corner was completely empty and a quick look around the room revealed no evidence of the bags anywhere in the girls’ vicinity. She was wrecking her brain thinking where in the hell they could have left their stuff when a far off giggle caught her attention. One look at her friends beside her told her they were all thinking the same thing.

Jang Mi was looking at them from a bench a little to the right of them, an accomplished grin painted across her face as the few girls around her giggled and pointed.

“Oh no she didn’t” She heard Kelly mutter under her breath.

Riki wondered whether it could really be Jang Mi who’d taken their stuff but just as she opened to voice those thoughts, the wicked girl on the bench held up what looked to be Riki’s My Little Pony T-shirt; or at least what was left of it. The fabric was cut in half right across the middle.

“Lost your things?” She flashed her perfectly white teeth at them in a jeering snark as she waved the ruined shirt at them.

Riki wanted to punch Jang Mi in the face but she was just too dumbstruck by the murder of her beloved T-shirt to do or say anything. She was therefore very grateful when someone else spoke up.

“Are you ing kidding me?” Sen let out in shock.

Jang Mi got up from the bench then, throwing the piece of fabric behind her where more ruined items of clothing littered the gym floor.  “What are you idiots still doing here huh?” She scowled and she walked all the way up to the four girls, looking down at them from her impressive height. “I keep repeating the truth but you won’t listen. You don’t belong here and if you don’t start taking my hints and leave, I swear I will do whatever it takes to make you disappear.” Her contemptuous glare bore down on the four girls like an anvil.

Riki had been able to talk back to Jang Mi in the past just fine but at the moment she was completely at a loss for words. Jang Mi had left them alone for the last few weeks which had apparently resulted in a false sense of security. All of their clothes were destroyed by their arch nemesis, the evil queen supreme Jang Mi.

“Oy, cut it out Jang Mi!” A new voice interrupted out of the blue.

Yeon Hee, one of the trainees Riki and her friends were on good terms with, came up beside the tall, mean girl. She was almost as tall as Jang Mi was and quite honestly, she looked pretty menacing.

“If you’re so jealous, why don’t you just train a little harder instead of ing so much huh?” She spat at the evil queen.

The conceited smirk on Jang Mi’s face had disappeared and was replaced with a frown that erased much of her natural good looks.

“You’re no better than these ugly es.” She snarled and she her heels to leave the gym room.

Riki was still gaping at Yeon Hee, who had just dissed their arch nemesis with a boldness that she could only wish she had. “That was bad .” She breathed out in amazement.

“Someone needs to take that girl down from her pedestal every once in a while.” Yeon Hee shrugged. “I’m so sorry about your clothes. Honestly, the is just jealous about your debut.”

“People know about that?” Els gasped, wide-eyed.  

Yeon Hee frowned. “How long did you think you could keep it a secret?” She laughed a little at the girls’ astonishment. “Word gets out around here, you know.” She smiled and she proceeded towards the exit but before she disappeared she turned around once more and added. “Oh, before I forget: congratulations!”

So apparently word had gotten out about the girls’ little promotion, which of course explained Jang Mi’s sudden act of savagery. Riki didn’t want to show it, but she was nervous about the threats Jang Mi had made. Cut-up clothes she could live with, but after what the hateful girl had done to Els that one time, Riki knew what she was capable of and she wanted to avoid any of them getting hurt at all costs.

They all decided to just try and stay away from Jang Mi as much as possible and other than that act as if she didn’t exist. That seemed like a solid plan. They cleaned up what remained of their clothes and went back to their dorm still in their gym clothes. They threw their bags into their rooms then and collectively decided to forget about the stupid incident for the remainder of the night. After all, they had planned a fun night and so a fun night it would be!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The doorbell rang at eight o’clock sharp, welcoming Kris, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and Chanyeol. They were all wearing tuxedos and Baekhyun and Chanyeol even had top hats on, which they took off in a gentlemanly fashion in greeting to the girls.

It had started as a silly little idea Els and Sen had had together one day. It came about through a mixture of their fondness for card games, dressing up and their general weirdness.

They wanted to have a ‘casino night’.

The girls had transformed the entire dorm into a makeshift casino. They had all sorts of fancy drinks, the table was cleared for poker, a play-at-home roulette set was installed at the kitchen counter and they were playing a casino-sound playlist from YouTube, this all contributing to create the perfect casino atmosphere.

“I knew you girls were weird but this has got to take the cake.” Baekhyun chuckled as he looked around the room in awe but then he stopped dead in his tracks because he saw Els appear from the kitchen in her flowy knee length dress. “You look beautiful.” He smiled and walked over at once to kiss her.

Riki saw the same sort of scene happening with her other friends and their partners before she found her own guy standing in front of her with a big smile.

“Hey” He said, sounding almost shy behind his wide grin. It was funny the way Chanyeol could transform from smug into speechless baby face sometimes. It didn’t happen often but when it did Riki knew she was doing something right. She thanked the tight-fitted dress she was wearing for it on this occasion.

“Hey” She said back, standing on her toes a little to give him a welcome kiss and feeling his hands slide around her waist. “Nice hat.” She smiled up at him and while Chanyeol was busy basking in the glory of the compliment, she picked the the thing off of his head.

Chanyeol reacted quickly when he saw her try to put the hat on. “Oh no you don’t!” He smirked and he yanked the thing back from her, holding it out of the girl’s reach. “I wanna wear the cool hat! Besides, you’re already wearing a ton of feathers in your hair anyways.”

Riki patted a hand to her feathered hair and pouted. “Fine, you win, for now.”

They started off with a simple game of poker. They used little chocolate eggs in various colored wrappings as a substitute for money. Chanyeol was the first one to go bankrupt, but this mainly because he kept eating his money. Second to fall out of the game was Els and Baekhyun promised her that he would win all the chocolate for her. Soon after, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo both went bankrupt.

Riki was doing a lot better than she thought she would; she’d been pretty lucky from the start. Chanyeol was sitting right behind her, looking at her hand over her shoulder and ‘helping her’. He kept whispering to her what to do and to be honest, it was really messing up her game.

“Oooh bummer” His voice warmed her neck as she looked at her newly dealt cards. “You should just fold now.”

She rolled her eyes and shoved him away. “Can you not?” She laughed.

“I’m just trying to help.” He said with an innocent grin, and instead of leaving he leant himself over her shoulders even more.

She tried to play it cool but Chanyeol’s constant little remarks were literally giving everything in her hands away.

“She’s going all in.”

“No she’s not- I mean I’m not! Goddamn it Chanyeol!”

Another five minutes of his sabotage and Riki was out of chocolate.

“You’re such a .” She slapped his shoulder and walked away from the table but Chanyeol grabbed her arm.

“Dude, I got bored after I was broke.” He said as he pulled her into a hug.

Riki raised her head to meet him. “You could’ve joined the others in their game over there.” She said, pointing at Els, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo who’d started a round of Russian roulette.

“But I came to play with you.” He whined and squeezed her even closer.

Riki shook her head and smiled. “Okay then smarty pants.” She kissed him sweetly and then quickly snatched the top hat from his head to put on her own head. Chanyeol seemed like he was about to protest at first but then he just smiled at her and followed her to the couch where they had a good view of the still ongoing poker game.

Kelly was close to losing but both Sen and Kris were still going strong. It took two more rounds for Kelly to go all in and lose all her money, so she went over to join Kyungsoo in Russian roulette.

Sen and Kris were sitting faced to each other over the little living room coffee table, smirking daringly at each other. They were both doing really well, making bold moves and getting away with it and even for Chanyeol and Riki, who were merely watching from the sideline, the tension ran high.

“Sen’s got this one in the bag; I can see it in her eyes.” Riki whispered as she lay cuddled up on top of Chanyeol’s chest on the couch.

“Na-ah” Chanyeol responded. “Kris knows his poker. She can’t win.”

If it wasn’t for the exciting game that was being played in front of her eyes, she could fall asleep right that instant. Chanyeol felt so comfy underneath her, with her head tucked under his chin and his hand her back slowly, there was no place she’d rather be.

“All in” Kris said suddenly after a long and thoughtful silence. He smirked at his girlfriend over the table, and raised an eyebrow as if to ask her ‘what are you going to do now?’

Riki waited in anticipation for Sen’s answer. Chanyeol had unconsciously started tapping his fingers against the small of her back in a rhythmic fashion in sheer suspense.

Sen looked up from her cards and smiled right back into Kris’s face. “As you wish” She shrugged plainly and she shoved all of her chocolates to the center of the table. Riki could hear Chanyeol whisper out a surprised ‘holy ’.

Cards were revealed and gasps were let out. Kris came out with a full house and a smug smile, but then Sen threw down her straight flush, wiping away the smirk on Kris’ face.

“Wooh girly!” Riki yelled, raising herself up from her lying position and accidentally pressing a painful fist into Chanyeol’s lower abdomen. “Woops, sorry” She laughed and lied back down, pressing a little kiss to the lips of the hurt boy underneath her. Sen and Kris seemed to be in their own world anyways, Kris teasing Sen for making him lose and Sen mocking him back. It was adorable.

She lay back down on the boy beneath her and she could’ve fallen asleep on top of him like that for real if it wasn’t for Baekhyun’s sudden idea to turn the stereo up full volume all of a sudden, blasting TVXQ’s Keep Your Head Down.

“Come on everybody!” He yelled, walking over to the couch, shimmying his shoulders at them ferociously.

“Yeah” Kelly chimed in. “The party’s not over yet!”

Kyungsoo broke out into a smile and came up to Kelly to hug her from behind and giving her cheek a little kiss.

Everyone else’s enthusiasm managed to spark Riki’s own gusto right back up. She nodded and got off the couch, then turned around to pull Chanyeol up as well.

“So what’s next then?” She asked.

Kelly and Kyungsoo answered in unison. “Karaoke!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How long do you think we can keep going without getting the police called on us for all this noise?” Riki chuckled. She was watching Kelly and Kyungsoo sing a Girl’s Generation song and they were going for it. It wasn’t even Baekhyun’s turn but he was singing along anyways, even louder than the two actual players and Els couldn’t stop giggling by his side. Sen and Kris weren’t really participating, as they both stated that ‘singing wasn’t their style’ (Kris had done a 50 Cent song at the beginning but people were making fun of him so he quit). Instead the couple lay cuddled up on a little couch in the corner of the room watching and talking amongst themselves.

Chanyeol and Riki were mostly cheering from the sideline, waving their arms from left to right during the slow songs and fist pumping to the beat of the fast paced songs. After the golden voices of Kelly and Kyungsoo were all sung out, Chanyeol grabbed the mic to do a marvelous rendition of Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry with Baekhyun.

“Ok, I think it’s time for us to go.” Kris chuckled as he stared at the ridiculous performance from the two weirdoes and he got up from the couch, pulling a sleepy Sen with him.

“I’m getting pretty tired as well.” Kyungsoo admitted, stretching out his arms lazily and Kelly, who was laid down on the couch with her head in his lap yawned and nodded in response.

The two couples decided to head back to the EXO dorms already, where it was most likely a lot more quiet. Els and Riki stayed up a little longer. They watched their guys in great amusement, snickering together as Chanyeol and Baekhyun let out their humongous amount of excess energy through their over-the-top singing performances. Then, as a final song to help everyone calm back down, Els chose Can You Feel the Love Tonight. The guys sat down with the girls again, still panting a bit from their ellaborate performance, and both couples shared mics as they sung out the cheesy ballad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well, that was fun!” Chanyeol sighed out as he stripped down to his boxers.

“Uhuh” Riki’s muffled voice echoed from the bathroom. “Told you casino night would be a success.” She mumbled out incoherently before hunching over her sink and emptying her toothpaste-filled mouth.

“You’re still wearing my hat.” Chanyeol said with an amused grin plastered across his face when he saw Riki come into the bedroom.

“You mean my hat.” Riki smirked and she struck a fierce pose in the doorway.

Chanyeol burst out laughing at the combination of Riki’s rainbow pajamas and the fancy black hat on her head. “You look ridiculous!” He snorted, flopping backwards onto the matrass.

“Um excuse you?” Riki snapped her fingers at him before jumping into the bed on top of him but Chanyeol was still laughing.

“I’m just stating the truth baby; it’s for your own good!” He snickered out as he tried averting Riki’s slaps of doom.

Riki sighed and rolled off of him in the end. “ please” She chuckled and she hung the hat on one of the bed posts so she could lie down next to him. She turned her head to him and grinned. “I look fabulous and you know it.”

Chanyeol smiled and pulled her closer. “You look adorable.” He whispered to her.

“I guess that’s good too. Yeah, I can work with that.” She smiled up at him before being caught in a kiss.

She moved her lips to his and wrapped her arms around his neck, allowing him to roll on top of her. Chanyeol’s lips moved to her neck and his hands went to her waist, playing with the tiny strip of bare skin above the waistband of her pants. Riki sighed in content as his fingers squeezed her skin lovingly, pulling her close; the perfect ending to a rollercoaster of a day.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was awoken by Els the next morning.

“Hey, just came to tell you we’ve got dance practice in an hour.” The girl by her bed said and Riki frowned. She could only just made out the words in her sleepy state, the reality of them hardly sinking in.

“Yeah sure” She yawned and she turned back over in the sheets, scooting closer to Chanyeol’s warmth. When Els came to check on her for a second time things seemed to get through to her brain better.

“Oh , you’re right.” She yawned and she sat up in the bed a little, realizing she should probably have gone to bed earlier if she wanted to be properly awake for her first choreo practice. “You go ahead without me, I still need to get ready.”

“Are you sure?” Els questioned.

“Sure, don’t worry about me, go.” Riki answered and after a little hesitation, Els left the dorm.

Riki let herself flop back down on the bed, just for a few more minutes of basking in pure fluffiness. She felt Chanyeol wrap an arm around her and she smiled. This was the life.

When she awoke again she realized that what had seemed in her head like five minutes turned out to be half an hour in real life.

“” She groaned, seeing the numbers on her phone clock. She wriggled free from the boy beside her and made to get out but Chanyeol pulled her back down. “Just a little longer stay” He mumbled drowsily and Riki wondered whether he was still partially asleep.

“Dude, no, I have to be at the company in less than twenty minutes.” She said, failing to get back up out of Chanyeol’s embrace. “Also, don’t you have any work to do?”

That’s when Chanyeol woke up properly.

“” He cursed. “Oh ”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~