Sungmin was early the next day. “Jiyeon ah! Donghae said he’d like to meet you, he was sad that his fellow Mokpo-ian didn’t go for lunch at our room yesterday. So will you come for lunch with me today, pretty please?” He gave his classic pout-face which was just too cute for anyone to resist.

“Alright, then. With that face of yours, how could I say no?” I and his eyes shone like the stars. “Wow, since when did I become so cheesy?” I thought to myself.

Anyway, time passed quickly enough, and Sungmin was dragging me to SJ’s room once again.

“Hae! She’s here! I’ve brought Jiyeon!” Sungmin tapped someone on the shoulder. He had dark brown hair. Dark brown hair…

“Annyeong ha-“ I started, then stopped, mouth agape, as he turned around. It was that guy from the bus! It was also Donghae from Mokpo! That guy from the bus was Donghae from Mokpo, part of Super Junior, the most popular group in school? It all made sense now, obviously. The past few days’ events ran through my head. Donghae was from Mokpo, so he got on at the same bus stop as me. Didn’t I realise that? The first day he got up late, so I didn’t get to meet him at lunch. Instead as he was walking out, I met him, and at dinner when I wanted to see him he was out with the boys. Yesterday he came to lunch but I didn’t, so we missed each other again.

“Oh! It's you?” I think he recognised me. At just that very thought my heart started beating faster.

“Wae? You guys know each other?” Everyone was surprised. The rest of the boys were there too.

“Ah…we met on the bus from Mokpo,” Donghae explained.

“Wow! How cool is that? It’s like fate! You met on the bus first then Sungmin hyungie kept wanting to introduce you to each other but you only got to meet on the third day as you kept missing each other. This is so like a drama!” excited Ryeowook summarised.

“Actually, we already met on the first day.”

“What?” four pairs of voices exclaimed.

“Aish, let me finish,” Donghae said. “We met outside the dorms, cos you know, we both stay there, and we recognised each other from the bus, but I didn’t know you were in Sungmin hyung’s class.”

“It is quite a coincidence, I guess!” I said, contributing my first thoughts for the day. And with that, we started the elaborate lunch. I looked at the boys, how at ease they looked, how they just asked the waiters to refill their drinks, and thought of what a high life they led. Well of course they would be at ease, this was their own room and they were with their friends, but I still couldn’t see how they could just do this and not hang out with the rest of the school. Maybe that contributed to part of their elusiveness and hence eliteness, which somehow led to popularity. No, that wasn’t much of a fair judgement. Perhaps they were really popular because of their band? I had to see them perform someday.

“Jiyeon noona, wouldn’t you like some more water?” Ryeowook looked at my empty glass.

“Oh, it’s fine Ryeowook, thanks. I’m almost done with my food anyway.” The truth was, I was dying of thirst due to an exceptionally salty dish (which explained why everyone else was gulping down glasses as well), but was too shy to ask for a refill.

“No, I’m quite sure it isn’t,” Sungmin stepped in, and got me my water.

School had ended already that day, so no one was in a rush. But I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to go to the office to settle a few more administrative issues.

“Oh!” I think my loud shriek startled everyone. “Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “It’s just that I was supposed to go to the office after school, I think I’m already running late, I’ll be going first then. Thanks for the lunch! Nice meeting you all again.” I have no idea why I needed to do a bow to three people of the same age as me and two who were younger, but I did, and promptly scurried out.

Glad I wasn’t reprimanded for being late, I settled all the forms (which took an unbelievable amount of time) and left the office. I wondered if SJ was still in their room, and if I should go back to join them. What was I thinking? Was I deserving of their company? Wait, why was I putting them in a position higher than myself? Why would I even go back there? I don’t even know the passcode to get in! But I have Sungmin’s number… Somehow that thought made me happy. And what he had said, that my phone was nice. It was obviously just a statement of comfort, but his tone and his actions just made me warm inside. I decided against returning anyway, and headed back to the dormitories.

Upon reaching the windy path again, I recalled my meeting with Donghae the previous time. It really was a small world, with him helping me and all. Donghae helped me while coming to SM; Sungmin helped me after I came to SM – it seemed like I owed a lot of favours to the SJ boys. I realised I’d stopped in my tracks thinking about all this, when I heard a voice calling my name, shaking me out of my stupor.

“Jiyeon-ssi, Jiyeon-ssi!” I turned around to see Donghae waving at me as he ran to close the distance between us.

“Oh, hello! Please, just call me Jiyeon. Even Kyuhyun just calls me that!”

“Aish, that little brat!” Donghae laughed at the thought of his evil little maknae. “Alright then, I shall. Call me Donghae too!”

“Arasseo, Donghae,” I smiled back at him.

“So…how do you find our members?” Donghae struck up a conversation as we started walking along.

“They’re all really nice and cute, Sungmin’s been really friendly to me from day one, Kyuhyun’s very witty, Ryeowook is very sweet, and Eunhyuk is funny!” I told him my observations. “Oh, and of course, you’re very helpful too, Donghae. I never really properly thanked you for that day. So please accept my thanks! Kamsahamnida,” I told him.

“It’s ok, things like that happen, I know,” Donghae looked thoughtful. “But now that you’ve arrived safely at SM, how are you finding it?”

“Mmm…I think the school environment is lovely, there’s lots of greenery around, I thought I’d miss that in Seoul; the classes are really interesting except that I didn’t pay that much attention on the first day because I was too busy talking to Sungmin, and yeah! There’s not much else I can say for now.”

“Looks like you really hit it off with Sungmin well. It’s only the second time somebody not from SJ went into that room, actually. For him to bring you in on the first day he met you, you must be really something.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “Chincha? The other members all looked really used to it, though. And Sungmin was really eager to bring me there. Wow. I’m so shocked and honoured,” I revealed my honest feelings. Being popular, I thought Sungmin would have brought a few other friends to introduce to his buddies a few times, or that the others would have done the same. The way they all welcomed me too, it didn’t seem that they were unused to the presence of an outsider either. “Eh? Then who’s the first?” I asked Donghae.

He chuckled. “Me.”

My eyes grew even wider. Wasn’t Donghae part of SJ? I’d heard he was a dancer together with Eunhyuk, while the other three performed the vocals. “Aren’t you a part of SJ?”

“Well, I am indeed part of the band, if you’ve heard of us being that, but I’m not part of their original group of four. All of them are from very rich families, they’re from Seoul, and they practically grew up together in this school. I’m from Mokpo, and I entered SM only when I was 13. So I wasn’t always together with them. When I came to SM, I was almost in the exact same situation as you. Sungmin hyung kinda took me into his care, and brought me to SJ’s room where I became friends with the rest of them. They said I was the first other than the four of them to enjoy the privileges of that room.”

“Wow.” I don’t know how many times I’d said that word that day, but that was the only word that came to mind. “Maybe that’s why Sungmin was so eager to bring me there and for us to meet, it was like déjà vu for him.”

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” Donghae responded.

Sungmin was such a charm, this whole story was so interesting and I was just glad to be a part of it.