Three years earlier

August 12, 2011

2:30 PM

Outside shinee's apartment

I fidgeted the entire elevator ride. I mean, it had only taken us a few seconds to reach the sixtieth floor, however in MY perspective I could have flown home and back before we reached our destination.

Just take some deep breaths Aimee. There's no reason to be scared!

NO REASON TO BE SCARED?! Your should be shaking in your shoes. Your moving in with Shinee.

But there's no reason for them to dislike me..

But there's no reason for them to like me either

“Will you just shut up..” I hissed at myself a little bit too loudly. “What was that Aimee?” My head shot up and I shifted uncomfortably under Min Jee's questioning glare. “Aahh..nothing Min Jee unni. I was j-just talking to m-myself” I sheepishly replied. When I heard myself talking I noticed just how apparent my Korean stuttering was.

I'm gonna need to learn better Korean speaking if I want to have conversations with them...

As is reading my thoughts, Min Jee spoke up with an all too obvious mocking tone. “Tch. And try to speak p-properly when we meet the boys.” She smirked and looked away from me. I made to snap back at her but she was saved by a small ding and the opening of the elevator door.

In an instant my stomach filled with an all too familiar feeling. The same feeling I had gotten four months ago when I was about to step into my SM training dorm and meet my Hyun Jae. The same feeling I got every time I went on stage to dance. The same feeling everyone gets at least once. That feeling that all of the butterflies in the world have suddenly thought that your stomach would make a lovely home.

Damn you butterflies.

My manager pushed past me out of the elevator and went straight to the door immediately to the left of the elevator. It was simple enough. Light blue in color with a thick silver handle and a keypad lock. She stopped at the door and I watched her curiously as she completely skipped over the door bell and instead punched a few numbers into the keypad. I raised an eyebrow but decided it was best not to test her patience with a question. The door mad a soft clicking sound and she twisted the handle, opening the door all the way.

Oh now this is too much, I though as I watched these things take place. Did she seriously just let herself into their apartment?!

I wavered a bit before asking her, “Min Jee..uh.. are you..allowed to do that?” The older woman blinked at me. “Well what did you want me to do?” she asked as if her actions had been the obvious ones.

“Oh gee I don't know” I retorted in English, my voice thick with sass. “Well here's an idea! Knocking.”

“That would have been acceptable...if anyone was home.” She said as she strut through the door frame and disappeared into the unknown house.

I just stood there dumbly looking at the little raised space that connected the foyer floor to the floor of my new home. I let her words sink it.

If anyone was home.

No one was home.

Cautiously, as if one wrong step would get me a one way ticket back to New York, I made my way into the dark apartment, not breathing out until I was in and Min Jee had shut the door behind me and flipped a switch on the wall, flooding the room with light.

When my eyes adjusted I saw we were standing in a short narrow hallway lined with what must have been hundreds of pairs of sneakers. Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok, Converse, you name it and it was most likely was part of the jumbled piles all throughout the corridor.

Min Jee took note of my sneaker ogling and was aware of my complete obsession for all sneakers. “They're mens shoes darling. They'll never fit you.” with that she left me in the hall and made her way into the connecting kitchen area which then opened up into a small sitting room equip with a long tan couch and a flat screen TV set, right next to which were stacks of video games, DVDs and of course an Xbox system. At that I rolled my eyes, boys.

Once I had had my fill of fan girling over shoes I walked on the smooth wood floors over to where Min Jee was sitting at the rectangular kitchen table. She was surrounded by papers. When she heard me sit down at the opposite end she slid me a sheet of lined paper with 5 different sets of handwriting on it and numbers next to each.

“You'll want to put those into your phone,” she stated plainly without looking up from her other papers. I scrunched my nose at the sight of all of the characters on the page but obliged, “Yes unni”.

I whipped out my phone and did my best to decipher each name and number, which wasn't that hard considering I had known how to write the Shinee members names in Korean for years.

“Uh Min Jee-ssi? I know Choi Jin-ssi explained why I am here earlier today..um.. but to tell you the truth I-” The older woman cut me off mid sentence. “Your weren't really listening and Hyun Jae-ah must have gotten her facts wrong, yes?” Her accuracy was impeccable. I giggled slightly and she looked at me over the top of her thick rimmed glasses, trying her best to seem annoyed, but failing to hid the small smile I saw playing on the corners of . This made my laugh louder.

“AH unni you know me too well!” We both laughed at my inability to focus. It was nice to smile with my manager instead of our constant bickering.

When we had both composed ourselves and seemed to be in much better moods then previously, she explained. “Well the company, SM that is, thinks you're ready to make an appearance. Like a debut of some sort.”

A puzzled expression crossed my face. “But..then why not just put me with the girls debuting in D-5?” I questioned. D-5 was once of SM's newbie groups preparing to debut. The names for the new group had been called at lunch a week ago. Not that I was disappointed much not to have been called. After all I had only been training for four months.

“It's not really your fault Aimee,” she gave me a sympathetic look. “It's just....SM doesn’t think that Korea is...ready for you. I mean cause you're /pause/ white.”

I nodded so she knew I had understood. I think she expected me to be surprised or hurt by this. But by now I was so used to racial slurs and comments made about me that I tended to just brush them off.

Something still didn't fit right to me though. “But. Then why try and debut me with an already debuted group? And why a BOY's group?!” I fired at her, putting string emphasis on BOY.

“Oh that I have no idea.” I sighed, at least she was honest. “I think they thought if you were slipped into a band that was already super popular...you would be more accepted.”

I mumbled a barely audible agreement and looked away, silently signaling an end to the conversation.

After our talk Min Jee suggested I take a look around and let me know where my room would be. There were five bedrooms totally in the apartment. Onew and my new manager, Choi Jin, each had their own rooms. Makes sense. Manager's was located on the opposite end from the others, right off the kitchen. Onew's room was at the end of a hallway out of the living room. Taemin and Key shared the first room on the right, my room was the second on the right, and Minho and Jonghyun's room was right after mine. Across the hall was a shared bathroom, but my room, luckily for me, had a private attached bathroom.

“Yah Aimee-ah!”

Min Jee's big voice rang out in the nearly empty dorm and I followed the sound only to find her at the front door. All of her papers packed up and her purse over her wide shoulders.

“There you are, Aimee-ah. Listen The other members and Jin-ssi should be home in about an hour...but, uh, I have some where to be...and..” she trailed off and we both stood there awkwardly. I studied my now slipper clad feet. “Hey,” she said softly. “I'll stop by to visit tomorrow.” and she left.

I let out the breath I had been holding and glanced at the clock on the wall.

4:30 PM. Great. I have an hour to kill...5:30.

I padded back to my room and flopped on the bed. It was laden with white sheets and a neutral blue duvet cover. The floor of the room was wood like the rest of the house and all of the furniture was white like the sheets.

I'm guessing they assumed a male gender...but went al natural just to be safe.

This meant they had no idea I was a “she”. HA, this should be interesting I though as I rolled over onto my stomach and stiffed a yawn. The clock still only read 4:35 PM when I felt my self drift off to sleep.

“Yah! Hyung, when do you think she'll wake up?”

“Never mind that how did she get in here?”

“Taemin-ah...you didn't write the lock number on the door handle again did you?!”

“AH NO! God that was ONE TIME guys! One time.”

I shifted restlessly in my sleep. I could hear the voices around me, but they seemed so distance they must have been dreams.

“Yah what if this is...him.”

“Really. Think about that. Does it make sense to you? A him thats a her?”

“Well Minho-ah if you're so smart then what is she doing here?!”

I groaned and tossed in my slumber. The voices suddenly stopped dead.Why were my dreams disrupting my sleep so much? But now the room was so silent a pin could've been heard if it had dropped.

I guess I should just get up..the members will be home soon.

I stretched out my sore limbs and rubbed my sleepy eyes, opening them slightly. Bad. Idea. As soon as they opened I saw faced. I snapped them shut at tight as I could.

You're still dreaming. Just take a deep breath and try that again.

I slowly opened my eyes a second time and faces began to focus again. I shot up right and focused on each face one at a time.

All around my bed, each with a faces filled with utter confusion, stood the five members of Shinee. I forced my self to look away and eyed the clock on my night stand.

6:00PM

.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxvXxXxXxXxXxXx

next  chapter here! 

ok but this one isn't really edited yet...sorry for any errors of grammar or spelling xD

enjoy~!

i probably won't be updating as often anymore cause of school...but i'll do at least 2 times a week :D

thanks for reading!