When we finally reached their dance practice room, their secret hideout, the others had all already arrived. “What took you so long!” Sujin yelled out as soon as she saw me behind Junhyung. “I was so worried.” She hugged me closely. Minah walked towards us, “I will call a taxi, you are not allowed to go anywhere else anymore but your dorm.” She seemed furious, so I didn’t dare to object. I looked at Jinea with a questioning look. The others had gathered around me, but Jinea was the only one to explain, “she had been told not to let us out of her sight, and she had lost all of us, the guy who was with her is still too scared to come close to her.” I followed her eyes to a rough looking guy sitting in a corner of the room, with a glass of beer, closely keeping an eye in Minah. Jinea continued, “We still don’t know what happened, the only thing I know was that she arrived here first and the other guys were all called by her, via his phone of course, and they were ordered to return immediately.” I stared at the back of Minah, who was calling in a agitated manner, a chill went down my spine, “scary.” The others just nodded.

I studied the room, once your eyes were used to the dimmed lights, it was actually a nice practice room. A lot of space, but way more comfy than ours. It was obvious they hung around here more often than only during their dance practice. The room had a warmer feeling than ours in SME, which we and other groups mainly used for practice, you could sense all their happy memories which had been made here. At some point my eyes wavered past Junhyung and I noticed him looking at me. I loosened myself from my group and walked up to him, and the other dancers.

“Thank you, for today.” I smiled genuinely at them. “It was a close and fun battle. You really were awesome.” They seemed a bit surprised by this phrase, but also happy. The boy with the reddish hair, Kibum if I remembered correctly,  was the first to answer, “you were great too. The group orientation was perfect.” I smiled, “thank you.” I wasn’t the only one who thanked them, the other members had followed me and answered with me. “Do you want something to drink?” Shin offered. I nodded, but when I saw he grabbed 5 beers I quickly said, “Do you have something like Cola?” Junhyung smiled, teasingly he asked “you’re not legal yet?” I shot a death glare at him, “No,” I said while looking away again with my nose high, “I am only 19. Sujin is the only one over 21 from us.” “Really?” Kibum asked surprised. “I thought you were all around our age, well, maybe expect you.” He smiled friendly at Jinea.

“That’s right we haven’t introduced ourselves yet”, Sujin suddenly realized. “I’m Sujin, I am 22.” “My name is Nana, I am 20. I am actually from Japan. Yoroshiku” she added behind with a cute smile. “I am Yumiko, just like Nana I am from Japan and I am 20 too.” There was a silence, which made me realize it was my turn, blushing a bit I started, “I am Romy, I’m Dutch-American and I am 19.” Last was Jinea, “Hi, I’m Jinea, and I am 18.” Shin whistled, “wow you are the same age as me.”

“Well my name is Shin, I am from Japan, I moved here for my studies, and I’m 18.” He said this while passing us the drinks, I took a sip. Nice, cold, cola. “That there is Junhyung, our leader, he is in his last year of the dance academy, he is 23.” Shin continued lowering his voice, “He is not as scary as he looks.” We all smiled, he was just as evil as Jinea. Junhyung growled, “why can’t I have a cute maknea who will do what I tell him, instead of making fun of others.” He glared at Shin, who ignored him, and moved on. “That’s Kibum, 21. Jongdea, 23.  Jun, 22. Jay, 21. Minho, 22.” He paused after he had pointed out all the dancers. “We all study at the dance academy nearby, just like Nina. All in different divisions, but most of us major in professional dance. Except Nina and Jun, they both major in dance choreography.” I suddenly realized, “where is Nina?” I grew a bit worried, but Minah suddenly interrupted with her return. “She had to leave for her part-time job, so she couldn’t wait for your return.” Sujin nodded. “But we really have to leave right know. If you would kindly follow me.” The look in her eyes didn’t allow any objection.

“Well, maybe see you next time.” We greeted to our new friends. We said our goodbyes and followed Minah outside. “Next time we will have a rematch!” Kibum yelled after us. I smiled but it faded away once I saw the car. It was our SM van, which meant our manager was in there, which meant that she was known with our little dance battle or at least that she knew of our flight from the police. My mood fell a bit, and I notice the others fell silent too. We stepped in, fearing how much our manager, and so Lee So Man, would know.

When we were all in and the door was closed our manager turned around. “Please explain.” Was the only thing she said. Sujin her head dropped and she started talking to her knees. I also noticed it was easier to keep looking at my hands which were folded on my lap. “Well, we went to visit my sister her nail salon, and Jinea met up with some friends. After that she met up with us and we went shopping in Hongdea.” Sujin left out the part that Jinea had a date, partly because we were not really restricted, but neither encouraged to have a boyfriend, and if they knew this was about a boy, we would definitely lose this freedom. “Lian met a friend at the square and she asked if we would like to participate in a street dance battle, and because we were happy to have some freedom and time we agreed.” She looked up, uncertain, “after that the police came, I think just to tell us to stop making a fuss, nothing more. But the friends who we were dancing with ran off, and took us with them. I am sure they didn’t do anything illegal, just that they have been told more often to go away and that the police is kind of sick of them. I am sorry I didn’t control the situation and talk with the police.” Sujin bowed, for as much as possible while sitting in the van. I felt sorry for her, “It is all my fault, I didn’t know it is prohibited in Korea.”

Manager Kim just remained silent. We were all uneasy and feeling guilty of the trouble we had caused. When we reached the SM building manager Kim finally spoke again. “There are bag’s under your chair, take them with you and get dressed in the washroom. We will go to a emergency board meeting, to discuss how we will handle the situation.” We all nodded, shocked of the impact of our actions. I hope everything works out well. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I ruined the chances of my friends and colleges to become music artists. The building was almost empty, and felt way more cold than during the day. It was almost 7 o’clock, during a weekend day so normally there would have been a lot of trainees, but the corridors were empty. It felt so cold right know, with my worries still in my thought’s we left Kim, to go get dressed.

~~~***~~~

Omo, such a sad ending of the chapter. What will happen?

Will they get scolded? Will they be fired?

Or will they be spared?

Please look forward to the next chapter xD

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