“Hm. Let's go this way,” I strode ahead with my band mates walking after me.

The day was warm and we were walking down the street in a small city outside of Seoul. Our manager had specified a photography studio outside of Seoul so we could, as he had said ,“recover” from the day before.
I took a look around. People were walking up and down the street, but barely seemed to notice us. They were more occupied with the groceries they were carrying or the children were taking care of.

“Is that a high school?” Rynn asked when we came across a large brick building near the end of the road.

Saylan squinted to read the sign. “No, it says it's a middle school.”
“It's been a while since we've done school visits, huh?” Kyran but his lip and looked expectantly at me.
“Yeah it has been...” I gazed over at the school, and through the windows I could see the silhouettes of kids not much younger than us studying quietly.
“So...” Kyran took an exaggerated step to be next to me. “...maybe we should pop over there...”
I turned to look at him. “You're joking, right?”
He smiled. “Um, no.”
“Oh, I wanna go too!” Saylan beamed from next to Nipsie.

“Oh not you too, Saylan...”

Rynn stepped up to be on my other side. “Maybe we could go in for a second. It wouldn't hurt...besides, you know, free publicity.”
I glanced warily at the school. “I don't know...”

NiRa linked my arm in hers. “I agree with the guys...let's go!”
“But--”
“Come on!”
NiRa and Kyran pulled me across the street, and we made our way to the main office, pulling off our hoods and sunglasses in the process. This, of course, turned many heads among the teachers in the office.

“Guys, let go,” I muttered, and NiRa and Kyran let me go.
We stood in front of the principal's desk, while my band mates looked at me expectantly, since of course, I was the leader.
I shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, thinking of what to say.

I bowed awkwardly. “Um, anneyonghaseyo.”

He nodded back.
“Um...,” I looked back at my friends for supported but they simply smiled at me.

“We're the Archangels,” I continued, and this was met with more silence except for a slight nod from the principal.
“If it's okay...” I said, doing my best to put on a smile. “Do you think we could just pop in and say hi to the kids? They look like they're studying hard, and we thought we could cheer them up...”

The principal suddenly smiled, stood up and shook my hand.
“Of course, Xyla-sshi!” he beamed, and I let out a sigh of relief that the awkward silence had passed. “A lot of the kids are fans here...” he frowned for a second. “Why are you kids here? There isn't a concert here, is there?”
I shook my head. “Um, no. We have a photoshoot at the studio down the street...”
He nodded. “Alright, well, I'll take you to some classrooms then....”
The five of us bowed and followed him out of the office.

“Omo, Kyran-sshi,” several teachers in the office approached him and asked him to sign pieces of paper.

“De, noona,” he flashed a smile at them and they blushed at being addressed as noona.
“Ah~Saylan-sshi!”
“Aigoo, Rynn-sshi, so handsome!”
NiRa and I looked at each other and laughed.

“Yah, I told you this was a good idea,” she nudged me as Saylan came up next to her after signing some stuff.

I looked around. People did seem happy. Maybe this was a good idea after all.

We followed the principal up one flight of stairs before he pointed down the hallway.

“Here are the study halls,” he said. “Feel free to say hi to the kids here first then work your way down to the next floor. And some kids are in the cafeteria now, so you should probably check there too.”
“De, gamsapnida principal!” we bowed, then watched him turn and leave.

“Well, where do you want to start?” I asked.
Um, how about here?” NiRa peeked through a small window in the door of a classroom immediately at her right. Sure enough, there were kids studying vigorously, looking tired and sleepy.

I shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

We slowly pushed the door open, and greeted the teacher with several bows. Some people glanced up from their books then gasped the moment they saw us, causing several heads to pop up.

Screams could probably have been heard down the whole hallway.

“Anneyonghaseyo, we are...the Archangels!” we greeted and bowed.

“Aigoo, Rynn oppa!' squealed several girls, jumping up and down.
“Anneyong~!” he waved.
“Unnie, why are you here?” a girl in the front row asked me.
I smiled. “You guys look like you've been studying hard so we wanted to drop by and wish you all good luck. Exams are coming soon right?”

A few people in the class nodded.

“Well, we'll just sign some things then we have to go,” Kyran said. “There are a lot of classrooms in this school...”

There was a sudden rushing for paper and pens while the students ran up to us and asked us to sign stuff.

“What's your name?” I asked one fan.
“Kim Sohyun,” she said.

“Kim...So...hyun...”I repeated while writing her a small message under my signature. “Sohyun-ah, listen to unnie and study hard, araso?”

She nodded happily. “De, unnie!”
“Hwaiting!” I pumped a fist in the air and she happily smiled.

This continued for a while, until we made our way to the main level. It wasn't until we made it to the cafeteria when things got very interesting.

The moment we walked in, people cheered. Or screamed in excitement.
“Oppa!” a voice screamed, making Rynn, Kyran, and Saylan whip their heads around.
A fan came out of seemingly nowhere and dropped to her knees in front of Kyran. Kyran looked at her, bewildered and looked to the rest of us for what to do.
“Johyun oppa, saranghae!” she cried.

The other people in the cafeteria didn't mind her, as they were all busy cheering video taping us or asking for autographs.

“Um, araso;;;,” he said, warily.
“OPPA!” she cried louder. “I'm your biggest fan! Oppa, saranghae! Omo, you're so good looking! Ottoke?! Oppa, I really like your hair style now!”

Kyran looked at her uncertainly before doing his best to smile. “De, jjinja?”

She nodded vigorously. “Oppa, saranghae! You like me too, right?”
He laughed. “Um, de. You seem cool.”

She shook her head. “Ani! You love me too right?”

I felt Kyran's gaze look at me for help as I was signing things for a fan.

These were things we were warned about in the business. Don't promise fans things like this. Sometimes they would get out of hand and sometimes people would get hurt. We had heard the stories of fans going plastic surgery just because of their idol oppas.

He simply smiled. “I love all my fans.”
She opened to say something but then Saylan loudly announced that it was time to go, and the five of us waved one more time before turning and leaving the cafeteria.
“Thanks for that,” Kyran said to Saylan as we walked out of the school and walked back up towards the studio. “That was close.”
Saylan sighed and clapped a hand on Kyran''s shoulder. “No problem, hyung. Crazy fan girls, huh?”

We came back to the studio and our manager was waiting in our van for us.
“Yah, where have you guys been? We're going to be late for the recording!” he said.

“We were down the road...saying hi to fans,” I said.
He sighed. “You know, the reason I picked this studio that's out of the way is so you guys would get a break from all the excitement. Is that what you wanted?”
“Well, we are on vacation, you know,” Kyran pointed out. “We can go wherever we want.”

Our manager opened his mouth to say something but closed his mouth, thinking that it was better not to argue.

“Just get in the car,” he said, and we piled in.

This was an interesting day. What's tomorrow going to be like?

The Next day (chapter 37)