“Thanks for doing our shopping yesterday Sihyon-shi. It was really nice of you.” Jonghyun thanked the girl as they loaded into the van the next evening. He sat in the front next to her.

“It was no problem. I had nothing better to do while I was on my way home anyways.” She said. Her eyes were fixed on the numbers and words on the sheets in front of her but he could tell her words were genuine.

“So how was night school?” He asked, trying to start up a conversation with the said girl.

“Uhm… uneventful would be a good word to describe it.” She started, trying to think two things at the same time.

“Oh I see, what classes did you have?” he asked again.

Sihyon ticked something off and scribbled something beside it, took her glasses off and stacked all the books and clipboards before answering. “I had classes for my IT doctorate. It’s starting to get more annoying than interesting… I should have just gone for a major.” She replied, lazily glancing out the window.
Jonghyun’s eyes almost popped out of his head when he heard her comment on that. It was already amazing that she graduated highschool and started college a year early, but to hear that she only applied for a doctorate because she thought it would be interesting caused him to reconsider his view of this girl. Either she was an arrogant and stuck up idiot, or she was actually, really, ridiculously, insanely and brilliantly intelligent.

“At least this job is a lot less stressful compared to managing ajusshi’s shops.” She said, leisurely rolling her head back to face him.

“How?” the vocalist asked, confused.

“Well, if you think about it, customer percentages, shares and goods imports aren’t going to be as compliant as a group of five singing and dancing Korean idols, are they?” she said.

“I guess you have a point.” He hummed.

And that was the end of the conversation. Sihyon plugged herself into her ipod shortly after and slept the rest of the 20minute drive to the recording building.

Although it had only been a day since Jonghyun had seen the bags under her eyes, there was a noticeable difference in the darkness. Yesterday, they were just puffy, but today, they were darker and gave off a sickly look, as if they were from her being sick, rather than stressed or tired. The boy quickly remembered Lee Soo Man mentioning something about visiting a doctor, but tried not to think about it. It wasn’t his place to be asking about someone else’s life. Yet he felt as if he had a right to know and that he was to look after her. They neared the studio and he decided to make a mental note of it and woke the girl beside him. He would rethink this at a later time.

“Sihyon-shi? Sihyon-shi-ah.” The vocalist lightly shook the napping girl awake while everyone else started to walk to the building. She stirred awake slowly.

“Oh, Jonghyun-shi…” she rubbed her eyes and droopily studied his face. “Uhm… I have an appointment today, so I have to leave the five of you with SSB for the day. They‘re waiting at the reception, so they’ll look after you ok for the day and I’ll pick you up here when you’re done ok?”
“Oh… Alright then. Where are you going?” He asked out of curiosity.

“I’ll bet my uncle’s gone and rambled off about his suspicions to you by now, so take a wild guess and you’ll probably be right.” She joked halfheartedly. “Anyways, hurry along.” She gave him a light shove to get him moving. “We’ll be picking you up in a few hours so have fun filming Star King okay?” she waved him off.

“Ne. Take care.” Jonghyun called after the girl as she slammed the sliding car door shut.

Although she smiled as they took off, as soon as the U-turn was made and Jonghyun could see her face again, the look in her eye was of completely different person. It looked almost like someone was sending her off to her death.

3 hours later, they were waiting in the underground carpark for Sihyon to pick them up in her car.

“Sihyon-shi! We’re over here!” Onew waved his arms and shouted from across the car park after he spotted the girl pulling into the concrete basement in her 4WD.

“How did it go?” she asked, as they got in.

“It was really good!” Taemin smiled. “Kang Ho Dong-shi gave me and Minho-hyung his number.” He said excitedly.

“Aww. That’s cute.” Sihyon cooed back.

“Aish. This girl’s going to take over my job as the umma.” Key joked as he climbed in after the maknae.

“Well, I kinda have to if I’m going to be looking after you for these two weeks.” She replied, seemingly tired. But she smiled anyway.

On the way back, the band, or rather, Taemin requested to stop by a store to get his banana milk. Of course, it already being late, it wasn’t too much of a hassle. “Get back quickly and wear your face masks.” was all she said.

“Sihyon-shi?” Onew tapped on the window of the driver’s seat as the others climbed in.

The girl who appeared to be sleeping didn’t respond.

 Jonghyun noticed the leader’s concerned look and immediately tried to shake the girl awake.

“Sihyon-shi?” he tried again.

This time she stirred awake. Rubbing her eyes tiredly, she replied, “Oh, Jonghyun-shi. You guys are back already?”

“Ne.” he replied. “You fell asleep. Were you really tired?” he asked.

“Just a bit.” She stuck the key back into the ignition and restarted the car.

“Well, sleep well kiddies. I’ll come pick you up at 5pm tomorrow for you schedule so try and dress smartly for the SM Town meeting tomorrow night.” She practically yawned the whole thing and headed for her own door. “Is there anything else you need?” she asked.

“Anniyo.” They replied.

“Alright. Sleep well.” She said and disappeared behind her white painted door.

However, Taemin had somehow managed to catch a cold during the day and his condition only got worse as the night went on.

Another fit of coughs erupted from behind Taemin and Minho’s door. And not long after they had died down, the rapper walked tiredly into the living space where the other three members were watching a movie.

Key immediately paused the film. “Is he ok? Does he need more asprin or water?”

Minho shook his head. “He’s already had his prescribed amount but he’s still coming down with a fever.”
“Aish.” The diva quickly picked himself off the couch. “I’ll change the water and his towel. Someone go fetch Sihyon.”

“Sihyon-shi?” Jonghyun asked, knocking at the door frantically. Finding it unlocked and open ajar, he decided to go straight in. Instead of what he expected, which was to find her asleep in her bedroom or something, she was asleep and sprawled over a desk littered in papers with scribbles and symbols and random open ring binder folders full of statistics and charts.

“Sihy-“ he was cut off by the sound of her ringing phone. Unsure of how to answer if it was a professional calling from some foreign country, he left it to redirect to the voicemail.

“Uhm… Yeoboseyo? Sihyon-noona? You’re not at school today so I was wondering where you were. I told the professor you went to the hospital again so you would be tired and probably skipped because of it. Did you go again today? Uhm, anyway, I’m worrying about you, so call me back in the morning ok? Oh, by the way, it’s Dongwoon in case you’re too tired to recognize my voice. Hahhaha~ Anyways, I hope you haven’t fallen asleep on the desk again… Sleep well arasso? I-I love you.”

The end tone of the voicemail rang through the apartment leaving Jonghyun with an uncomfortable feeling in his gut and without words.