Chapter06

"It's okay," you sighed, shaking your head, trying to remove all the bad thoughts. "It's okay."

"You're going to be in the new music video, aren't you?" Luhan asked, smiling.

"Yup, that's me," you smiled. "I'm so excited."

"You should be. You know, acting with me," he said, winking. You laughed at his attempt to flirt with you. He blushed slightly. "Sorry. I have no idea what I just did."

"Don't worry," you said, laughing. "It was cute."

Crap. What did I just say? Cute? Guys hate being called cute, don't they? I should've said something along the lines of 'handsome' or 'hot' but no. I said 'cute.'

"Er," Luhan said, scratching his head. "Thanks I guess."

"I'm sorry. It just came out and I don't know what I was thinking and I know-"

"It's fine. Cute's fine."

You kept silent and felt the awkwardness surrounding the two of you.

"So-" you both said at the same time.

"You go first," he said, motioning in your direction with his hand.

"No you," you said back, being polite.

"Well… I was thinking we should go do something fun sometime. It really helped me cope with the training to go out with the sunbaes of the company. Not saying that we just have a sunbae-hoobae relationship… I'm just saying. That. You know. Uh."

You chuckled at his awkward rant. "I get it. And yeah, that'd be great. Really great. I should go now and relax a little before going out to eat again."

"You should eat with EXO and I at the EXO-K dorm. D.O.'s making his famous kimchi spaghetti…" Luhan smiled, trying to lure you into his offer.

"How can I turn down D.O.'s famous kimchi spaghetti?" You smiled. "I'll be there."

"Great. I'll text you the time and address."

"Okay, I'll see you then," you said before walking out the door.

——-

When you opened the door to your dorm, you found no one home even though your group didn't have practice at that hour.

At least I don't think we do. I'm not really sure of myself nowadays.

Scared that you were missing some secret, unannounced practice, you walked back outside to go to the SM building. After you'd arrived, you asked the secretary if Gemini-M and your manager was there.

"They're on the second floor. It's the door right across from the elevator."

You bowed, thanking her, before going on your way. What were they doing here without you?

Peeking in the window of the door, you saw the five girls and your manager sitting there. Stupidly, you made eye  contact with your manager and his eyes widened.

He excused himself and walked to the door to meet you.

"What's going on?" you asked as he brought you to the end of the hallway.

"They're learning Mandarin now," he said.

"Why didn't you tell me? I could've… helped," you said, but then realizing that the girls probably wouldn't want your help even if they needed it.

"They said they didn't… need you. They didn't want to waste your time." He added the last part quickly. Your manager now reminded you of a little kid trying to get out of trouble—not a grown adult.

You sighed. "Tell me the truth."

"Fine," he said after a while. "They said they didn't want you."

"I knew it," you scoffed while rolling your eyes. "And you're just going to allow them to bully me like this?!" You lashed out in anger, but then realized your impoliteness. You weren't really mad at your manager, but just frustrated at everything.

Luckily, he understood and didn't scold you for your rudeness. Instead, he said,

"Aren't you the one allowing them to?"

You froze, surprised by his unexpected response. You hadn't even thought of that before.

Maybe I am the one allowing them to bully me like this… but what can I do?

"You can come in if you want," Tae Sun said as he walked towards the door of the room where the rest of the girls were.

You shrugged and accepted his offer, following him.

When you walked in, all eyes were on you. No, all eyes were glaring at you. You gave a tiny wave