Aileen was in the dressing room packing up the boy’s clothes getting them ready for SMTOWN L.A. She was excited because she finally gets to go back to the States, granted it wasn’t her home but she always wanted to visit California and this was her chance. In 2 days SMTOWN will be performing for thousands of fans so it was a stressful time. The boys were in the same dressing room goofing off. Kai was looking in the mirror fixing his hair. Suho and D.O. were on the computer looking at YouTube comments about their performances, every now and then they would burst out laughing pointing at the mankne Sehun about fans saying how he didn’t look is his age and how y he was. Sehun already had turned many shades of red. Poor mankne. She chuckled at his expression. And Baekhyun and Chanyeol were doing magic tricks involving hand cuffs.

“Aileen,” Baekhyun came running over to her and grabbed her hand

“What Oppa?”

“I want you to see our magic trick,” he said with a smile

“I can’t. I have to finish getting the clothes ready for your big debut in California,” she was about to turn around when Chanyeol spoke

“It will only take a few minutes. Come on you can spare a few minutes,” Chanyeol gave her his puppy dog face; it didn’t faze her but she decided to be nice

“Ok,”

The boys were setting up their trick even though they didn’t look prepared at all.

“Alright. I’m going to cuff us together,” Chanyeol cuffed him and Aileen together, “And with this cloth over us, I will magically un-cuff us with the magic words,” Aileen wasn’t impressed. It was a very poor presentation indeed.

All the boys had gathered around by then because they were intrigued. Chanyeol said the magic words and attempted to un-cuff them but nothing happened. Aileen started to get worried. Chanyeol started sweating bullets. After the 3 tries she was fed up. She yanked her hand from under the cloth and gave him her death stare.

“Where’s the key?”

“Oh yea,” he searched in his pockets and looked around the room. He couldn’t find the key. He thought he had it but he couldn’t find it

“Chanyeol, where is the bloody key?” she was semi yelling

The boys had never seen her mad before. Kai thought it was entertaining.

“I can’t find it,” she exploded

“I have less than 3 freaking hours to get all of this ready before we load on the plane. You cuff us together and now you can’t find the key. How am I going to fix this? I’m going to get fired! I’m only an intern!” she was losing it

“Noona relax,” said Sehun, “We will help find the key,”

The boys frantically searched for 15 minutes for the key but no luck. Finally they had to reveal to the manager what happened. As Aileen was crying in the corner and the other Cordi Noona trying to comfort her, the manager had to make a call to his boss. They told them since they wouldn’t have time to find someone to fix the problem since their plane left in a few hours; they would fix the problem once they got in California.

“This isn’t acceptable. I’m going to be mauled by fans because I’m going to be stuck to you,” she was still crying. Chanyeol felt bad. His plan was not working. All he wanted was to get closer to Aileen. She was nice to all of them but she was closer with the others. Anytime Chanyeol tried to talk to Aileen he would get nervous and sound like an idiot. He was sure she thought he was weird. He even heard her telling the other Noonas that he was a little odd.

“Sorry,” he was really sorry

She suddenly became determine. Since her wrist were on the skinny side; she took Vaseline and tried to pull her hand through. It was dumb desperate attempt which failed miserably as the boys gave her an are-you-crazy look. She looked around the room and found a pair of scissors. It didn’t work either. She looked in Chanyeol’s eyes and frown.

“Hey stop frowning,” he rubbed her face, “You’ll permanently look like that,” she slapped his hand away

“I have a right to pout if I want to,” her eye brows went up suddenly and then exhibit a sad face

“Noona you could be an actress,” Kai laughed

“What’s wrong?” asked Suho

“This isn’t happening right now. Why God!” she ruffled her hair angrily. It had been 25 days since her last one. And in the mist of the chaos she hadn’t thought about till she felt it. She could always tell when she got her period and she just got it. Nothing could mask her pure terror of revealing this to the boys. She couldn’t; they even get shy when couples hold hands. The fact that she was cuffed to the dorkiest one in the group didn’t ease her pain.

“What?” Chanyeol was concern

“I have to go to the bathroom,”

“Ok. You’re embarrassed about that?” he was confused. She walked over to her purse and secretly got out her tampon which Chanyeol accidently saw, “Oh I see, aish,” he turned red

“No need for you to blush. I’m the one who is truly embarrassed. Come on let’s get this over with,” she dragged him to the bathroom

As Aileen and Chanyeol were walking down the hall everyone was giving them strange looks with she tried to ignore. Once they reached the woman’s bathroom she quickly checked to see if anyone was in there. Thankfully it was empty.

“You can’t look,” she went into the stall when half of her arm out of the stall

“I don’t want to,” Chanyeol blushed. Not knowing anything about tampons he asked a dumb question, “Do you need any help?”

“Are you out of your mind? NO, I don’t need any help. Now if I were wearing a pad, then that would be a completely different scenario,” she finished up and washed her hands

“I’m learning so much this afternoon,” he tried to make a joke but Aileen wasn’t in the mood

“Yes lesson #1: Hand cuffing someone to someone else is NOT a good idea,” she stormed out of the bathroom dragging poor Chanyeol along.

Exo K was all riding in the same van. Suho every now and then stole looks at his poor dongsaeng who was having a mental breakdown. She looked so scared.

“Aileen we will protect you, ok? It’s going to be quick?” he tried to reassure her

“Do you know how many fans are at the airport?” she closed her eyes and gulped, “I think I’m going to throw up,”

Once they reached the airport they one by one got out of the van to only be bombarded with paparazzi, cameras and lots and lots of fans. Aileen’s predictions were coming true right before her eyes. In order for them to hide the fact that they were hand cuffed together, Chanyeol had to risk violent fans and numerous future dating rumors. They craftily place a jacket over their hands but it looked as if they were actually trying to hide the fact that they were holding hands. Everyone in the group bunched together to trick everyone else. They started making their way in the airport. It was a circus. Aileen actually feared for her life as thousands of angry girls started yelling racial slurs and curse words at her. She had never been in this situation before. Yes she was their Cordi Noona but she had never been standing this close to the boys in public before. She tried to not let it bother her but she was a sensitive soul. In her whole life she always tried to avoid conflict like a plague. Chanyeol had to be a man in this situation; it was scary though and for the first time he saw how scary his fans could be. One fan even tried to reach out and grabbed Aileen. He quickly held onto her hand under the jacket as a tear escaped her face.

They finally arrived to their seats in the plane. Aileen was shaking as was Chanyeol. He looked at Aileen with sad eyes and tried to comfort her. She sadly looked at him then at their cuffed hands.

“Lesson #2: Never do this again,” another tear rolled down her cheek. Chanyeol wiped it away

“I’m truly sorry. I don’t know what else to say. I wasn’t thinking,” he hung his head

Luna had seen the scene that happened with her Unnie. She adored Aileen and was truly worried. She texted her immediately.

Luna:

Unnie what happened?

Aileen:

Chanyeol hand cuffed us together but lost the key. That’s why I was walking so close to him. The fans got scary and almost violent. I’m ok though. He was trying to be all macho by holding my hand.

Luna:

That dope. Why did he have to go to such great lengths to get your attention?

Aileen:

What are you talking about?

Luna:

I overheard Chanyeol Oppa talking to himself, he’s so weird LOL. But he was saying how to was going to hand cuff you two together so it would force him to talk to you.

Aileen:

That doesn’t make any sense. UGH!

Luna:

I know for a fact that you make him nervous and I think he feels that you two aren’t as close. I think he felt desperate or something.

Aileen:

He didn’t have to do this though. It’s a bit extreme. But I guess I can’t be that mad at him. He was sweet for grabbing my hand. And in the back of my mind I guess I knew they wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me with the fans.

Luna:

I think you should talk to him. Gosh…boys.

Aileen:

LOL

Aileen put her phone away and looked at Chanyeol who was currently looking out the plane window. She smiled. He looked so sad; she wanted to cheer him up.

“You are so weird,”

“What?” he looked kind of hurt

“If you wanted us to get closer all you had to do was talk to me. You didn’t have to hand cuff us together,”

“What?”

“Listen carefully Chanyeol because I’m only going to say this one more time. Hand cuffing someone to someone else is not a good idea. Have I ever been mean to you?”

“No?”

“Have I ever said anything to you that would indicate that I didn’t like you?”

“No,”

“Then what’s up with your crazy methods to get us closer,”

“You make me nervous and every time I try to talk to you I end up either sounding like a ert or a weirdo. It takes a toll on a man,” he blushed

“Why do I make you nervous?”

“Because you’re pretty. I have never truly liked a girl before and because of your beauty, you always make my stomach grow butterflies, my hands sweat and I get dizzy,”

She looked at him and began to laugh.

“Well I’m glad I amuse you,” he was somewhat mad

“Oh I’m sorry. No…that’s really sweet of you to say. I must be a great actress then because I can hide my feelings very well. When I look at you I feel the same way. That’s probably why you feel as if we aren’t that close. I get nervous too but I do try to make an effort to talk to you. But sometimes the nerves take over,” she looked at him with a smile

He laughed, “We are so dumb,”

“Mostly it’s you,” they laughed

“Are you sure you’re not hurt by the fans?” he was still concerned

“Yes I'm fine. Well your boss is going to have a lot of explaining to do once we get back to Korea,”

“Oh yea,”

“I can’t wait to get these hand cuffs off though. As much as I like you, I don’t want to stay hand cuffed for too long,”

“I have a confession to make,” he became sweaty and nervous, “Don’t hate me,”

“What?”

He put his hand in his coat pocket and pulled out the key. Aileen had a shocked look on her face. She wasn’t angry though. Chanyeol had accomplished what he set out to do. It was a totally crazy plan but what guy you know would hand cuff himself to the girl he liked just to face his fear. In her book, he was very brave. She knows she couldn’t do it.

She took the key from Chanyeol and placed it in her bag.

“Let’s not tell anyone you have that,” he was surprised, “I don’t mind staying hand cuffed to you for a few more hours,” she smiled at him sweetly and he smiled back