FIND ME...

(Source: iamjaceyandlovesuju)

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"YOU LOST HYUKJAE?!" Leeteuk cried, eyes bulging.

His inner momma monster was on the brink of unleashing itself, but the worried and scared looks on his boys' faces calmed it back down. He, too, was scared. It was their first time in Sydney, Australia. If it were any Asian city, heck - even L.A., he'd know where to look - or at least where to start. But they haven't had time to explore. It was straight to the hotel from the airport, then interviews, then rehearsals. The only "break" they had were meal times. Their tight schedule didn't permit them to see the city, except for the photoshoot the day after the concert, where they will be going to the Opera House and other popular landmarks. But as usual, this bunch of 5-year-olds in grown men's bodies wanted to "experience" the "real" Sydney by themselves, so with Henry at the lead (because he's the best English speaker), Siwon, Donghae, Hyukjae, Ryeowook, and Zhou Mi, the wanderlust team, went off after all the schedules were done, which was well after midnight. 

"I told you guys to be careful. This is an unfamiliar place and we don't speak the language very well," he said, breathing out slowly to calm his nerves. "What happened? Tell me everything."

"Well, Hyukjae hyung was craving strawberry milk. We asked around and the receptionist gave us directions to the nearest 24-hour Korean mini mart. It didn't seem that far and she even wrote down very clear directions so we went…" Henry explained.

"But the train we got on didn't stop at the station where the mini mart was. So we got off at the next stop to ask how to get there," Siwon continued. "We were all together when we talked to the station personnel. But when we got on the train… he wasn't there anymore."

"We didn't know where to look," Ryeowook chipped in. "The train system was confusing. The stops change every time… We didn't know what to do. So we went back here. Oh, where is he? I hope Hyukjae hyung is alright…" 

"He was right beside me, hyung," Donghae said, almost in tears. "Hyukjae was standing right beside me, I'm sure of it. Then I turned around… I should've held onto him!"

Leeteuk wanted to slap them silly and hug them all at the same time. These lost little puppies… Heck, he was ONE of these lost little puppies. He was acting all leader-y and calm but inside him was an all-out freak out. This was serious. Really really serious. Hyukjae could be anywhere, and the idiot forgot to bring his phone with him. He hoped against hope that the kid could string together words from all those English rap parts and get himself safely back to the hotel.

"What do we do now, hyung?" Zhou Mi asked.

Leeteuk stayed silent for a minute to keep himself from screaming, "HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW?! I'M FREAKING OUT TOO!" The concert was tomorrow and one member is missing while the other one, Shindong, was sick. His brain felt like exploding. Another deep breath to clear his head. Yep, he still had no clue. But he opened his mouth anyway.

"We can't let anyone - staff, managers, fans, media - know. It'll cause a panic and Hyukjae could get harmed. And the trouble we'll get in to, well the one we're already IN, is just…unimaginable. We need to find him. By ourselves. Before anyone notices he's gone."

"But how are we-"

"We get someone's help," Leeteuk cut off Ryeowook. "A local. Someone who doesn't know who we are."

Nine pairs of eyes stared back at him, some blank, some confused, all worried. He felt exactly the same. But they had to do something.

He gave two loud claps to snap everyone out of their trance. "Okay, that's the plan. We'll look for one downstairs. But first, we need to have some sort of disguise. We can't get recognized. Let's uh… let's wear baggy clothes. And change our hairstyles. I can curl my hair into an afro. Wook, wear one of Hyuk's caps. Sungmin, part your hair in the middle. Yesung, brush your hair up. Kyuhyun, do an 80s hairstyle and wear glasses. Donghae, do the same. Henry, flatten your hair, wear glasses, and just try to look like a nerd. Zhou Mi, wear something that Donghae would wear. And Siwon… uh… just do your best to make yourself look ugly, okay? Good. Let's go."

In the hotel cafe…

"Me? I'm… you know, hanging out with my flatmates."

Lily said into the mic while staring at the photo on her phone. Her friend Clare sent her a picture of Super Junior labeled with their names. Clare is on a mission to make her an ELF the moment she showed interest in K-pop. So far the only one Lily can recognize is Siwon since Clare is a Siwonest. But she's trying to make sense of all the others because she might run into them and have absolutely no clue who they were. 

"Oh, having fun? Too bad you can't go to the concert tomorrow," Clare said on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, too bad. I would've gotten you some goodies," Lily agreed.

She's on a mission of her own: get an autograph for Clare for her birthday. Preferably from Siwon, but if all else fails, at least one of the members would do. It's supposed to be a surprise so she's hiding the fact that she's been "stalking" the group, if you could call it that. She really had no clue what she's doing. She tried to follow the other fangirls, but it's like Mother Nature cursed her bladder to get full at the most unfortunate moments this day. Thrice she heard girls squealing when she was in the bathroom, only to find that Super Junior had passed by while she was "answering the call of nature". Now, a quarter before 1AM, she sat at the hotel cafe, an inch from losing hope. She was about to quit and go home when she remembered Clare mention Siwon's coffee addiction. She decided to hold onto that little piece of hope. He had to come and grab a cup from the hotel cafe, right?

"You would've seen the most mind-blowing show in your life. But don't worry, there'll be another Super Show next year. We'll go together!" Clare said.

"Excuse me," someone said from beside her, stopping Lily from answering her friend.

She looked around to see a cute guy with tiny little eyes framed by wire-rimmed eyeglasses. He reminded her of someone she went to high school with. But even if he was wearing a friendly (and cute!) smile, still, she was a bit freaked out by getting approached by a stranger. This, after all, is still a foreign country to her even if she's been here for half a year. And she's weary of other people, what with being borderline antisocial and all…

"Heysorrygottagotalktoyoulaterbye," she whispered hurriedly into the mic and ended the call. She'll make it up to Clare tomorrow. She turned to face the guy, plastered the nicest smile she could muster on her face and said, "Yes?"

The guy looked back at her for a few seconds. He seemed to be waiting for something, but when she also just stared back, he shrugged and sat down across from her. 

"Hi. My name is Henry," he introduced, extending his hand. Lily, a little hesitantly, shook it. "I was wondering if you could help me with something."

A tiny alarm went off in Lily's head. What could this guy need help with at 1 in the morning? He may look friendly but underneath that sheep skin could be a very erted wolf. Scenarios started running wild through her head. Awful scenarios with her ending up in a ditch somewhere.

"It's kind of embarrassing, really, but my friends and I… it's our first time here. In Sydney. And we wanted to explore you know, but then we lost a guy. One of us, I mean. We lost him, and we have no idea where to find him," Henry continue, oblivious to Lily's burgeoning inner panic. 

Ooookay… What does that have to do with me then? Lily thought. She continued to stare blankly at the guy across her.

Not getting a reply, Henry went on, "Since you look like you know the place well, we - my friends and I," he motioned towards a couple of guys standing by the entrance, one of which looked extremely familiar but she just couldn't place it, "were wondering if you'd be so nice as to help us look for him? Please?"

Henry went on explaining, but Lily wasn't really hearing any of it because she couldn't take her eyes off that familiar-looking guy. He was wearing a loose pink t-shirt with random words printed on it, big black-rimmed glasses, and his hair was smoothly gelled into a side-part as if he's about to have a tragic yearbook photo taken. Still, behind that exterior geekiness that would make the fashion police raise a state of emergency, there was something about him that was just so…

Captivating.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

"Huh? What?" Lily managed to snap out of it and return her attention to Henry.

"Your name?"

"Oh. Yeah. It's Lily. My name is Lily," she replied.

"And what a beautiful name it is! So, Lily with the beautiful name, would you please, please, PLEASE help us find our friend?" Henry pleaded.

"Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm……" Lily looked down at her hands, thinking. The sensible part of her was screaming for her to turn this guy down and just go home. It's late. It's a strange place. And this guy is asking her to go with a bunch of strange boys to look for another stranger at this ungodly hour. No decent or sane lady would agree to this. Things could happen. She could die. She probably will die. This guy is probably a psycho. They're all probably a bunch of psychos pretending to be nice tourists. Why couldn't psychos look more like freaks and less like cute boys?

She was about to politely decline when she sneaked one last peek at the familiar guy standing by the entrance. She probably won't see him again so she could at least have one last look, right? Right then, a tall guy with short, messy black hair and glasses approached the familiar guy and whispered something to him. He was followed by a shorter, stockier guy with unfortunate, middle-parted, straight, longish hair that made him look like something out of a 90s boy band poster. The familiar guy whispered something back to the tall guy, making the latter look over to her. He gave her a small nod and a brief smile.

And that was it. 

It's like a dozen slot machines hit jackpot and started dinging loudly in her head. She wanted to jump up and give a loud whoop! of joy. That smile. Those dimples. Those eyebrows. Even if he's wearing what looked like the top half of a pajama set with an I heart AUS t-shirt underneath and sweatpants, there is no mistaking that it was indeed, Choi Siwon. Only he could look that good in such crappy attire. 

So if Siwon is talking to them, then could these other guys be…?

*flashback*

"Suju members could understand you if you talk slowly in English," Clare said matter-of-factly. "But I think your best chance would be Henry Lau. He's Canadian so he speaks perfect English. He's also part of SJ-M, the subunit of SuJu that sings Mandarin songs, so you could use that, too. Siwon's part of SJ-M so he would understand if you spoke to him in Chinese, too."

She said a quick thank you prayer for her good luck and looked back at Henry. Henry Lau of SJ-M. She was mentally gloating to all those other fangirls who left. Ha-ha. I'm sitting here with Henry Lau of SJ-M, although I still have no idea who he is, really, Lily thought.

"Okay, I'll do it."

Henry's eyes grew with his smile. He grabbed her hand with both of his and shook it vigorously. "Thank you, Lily, thanks so much. You have NO idea how-how-how-just, thanks. Come, let me introduce you to the others."

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So! Here it is. The first chapter. I know it's very... long winded and uneventful, but I just wanted to set up the story nicely so... I hope you'll continue on to the next chapters. :) I promise, they'll be more exciting. :D 

THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU for reading this. Comments are VERY VERY APPRECIATED. Suggestions are welcome, too! :)