Your head met with the back seat head rest when you were seated back in the black car. You let out a heavy sigh as your eyes closed. Taehyun began driving and switched his attention back and forth from the road to you.

"Focus on the road, we don't want to get into another incident." You advised when your eyes caught Taehyun's flicker.

"How are you doing?" Taehyun asked, ignoring your comment.

"I'll be better if you focus on the road" Taehyun gave a small chuckle before nodding and saluting.

"Yes ma'am." And with that focused his attention on the road without a backward glance. You rested your eyes against the head rest once more, and flashes of the press conference flooded your mind.

----

Miss Eun Mi, could you give a statement on your relationship with Exo-m's Luhan? How are you dealing with fan's backlash? How long have you been secretly dating Luhan? How did you two arrive to the term of dating? Has the company accepted your relationship with Luhan? Questions flew your way left right and centre whilst camera clicks and flashes sounded throughout the room. As you sat at the table on stage the flashes continued and Taehyun had taken a seat not too far from you. Taehyun had taken the microphone as he stood once again.

"Miss Eun Mi is here to release her statement and answer a few questions after." Taehyun informed at the flashes died down. He handed the microphone to you and sat back down. He looked towards you and gave a slight nod.

"I, Eun Mi, am not the girlfriend to exo-m's Luhan. I am the manager of exo-m and are not involved with any of the boys outside of work." You recited, picturing the statement written on sheet SM had provided.

"Eun Mi are you confirming that you are not the girlfriend of Luhan? Miss Eun Mi it was rumoured that you had connections with exo even in there training period. Are you saying that this is false?"

"Miss Eun Mi will now answer your questions individually." Taehyun interrupted the questions flying everywhere. "Yes?" He pointed to a reporter in the front.

"If you are, in fact, a manager, why haven't we seen glimpses of you in previous exo-m schedules?" Murmurs of agreement rang through the room and nodding of heads proceeded.

"I have been in the training period, quietly preparing for their official debut schedule." You replied earnestly feeling a bit more confident as the reporter hadn't asked anything that wasn't covered on the sheet. Taehyun proceeded to point at another reporter and she continued.

" Are you confirming your relationship with Luhan is purely professional?"

"The relationship with exo-m members have been founded on working terms and we have developed that relationship in order to make working with each other more efficient."

"Miss Eun Mi will answer one last question before this conference is over." Taehyun announced as he pointed at one last reporter.

"Miss Eun Mi, can we commend that this professional relationship with exo-m will not stem into an actual relationship?" You mentally cursed in your head. The final reporter had asked something that wasn't covered on the sheet. You faked a cough as you panicked thinking of a suitable answer. You bought yourself more time as you reached for the bottle of water placed ahead of you.

"My intention is to build a strong and efficient work relationship with exo-m to provide successful services and coefficient working terms."

"Thank you, the press conference is now over." Taehyun interrupted the numerous shoutings and questions that roared through the auditorium.  He set down the microphone as you did the same. You both stood, and gave one last bow before exiting the way you came in.

----

Now, as you sat in the back of the car, you let out a sigh of relief and felt your stomach tickle the slightest.

"I know I'm supposed to be focusing on the road, but you did well Eun Mi, you did really well in fact." Taehyun's voice pulled you out of your trance, you looked in the rear view mirror to see his smiling face. You returned with a smile. “I don’t imagine a press conference is easy to deal with for anyone, let alone someone new to this field.”

"Thank you, it was pretty intense." You replied, hoping to stray away from yourself.

"Ah, it's only going to get more intense from here, buckle up" he responded, before focusing back on the road once more.

----

The car was now pulling into the SM building parking lot and you blew a sigh of relief once you saw that no fans were crowded outside. Although everything was technically cleared up now, the pressure of fans really didn't sit well with you. You pulled your hand out of your pocket to read Lay's watch. 1:23pm. From this morning's schedule, exo-m were to be practicing until 6pm as opposed to the normal 4pm. You trudged silently through the building and into the elevator alongside Taehyun, whilst you pressed the 17th floor, Taehyun pressed the 5th, you stared at the button confused, but decided not to pry.

"Silent working rooms" Taehyun spoke, as he sceptically read your mind. "I'm staying here to make sure things go smoothly when the boys come back here from Korea, so I better go do some organising and planning" he continued, waving his laptop.  You nodded in understanding and made a mental note to visit floor 5 in the future. Before the conversation could further go on, the doors dinged open and Taehyun stepped our accordingly. He gave you a small smile and wave before the doors closed on him. You hummed a small tune from MAMA as the elevator continued going up. You thought silently to whose practice session you would sneak into once you got onto the 17th level. You had already sat in on Xiumin, Chen, Lay and Luhan's practices, so you derived at the conclusion that Kris and Tao's sessions were next. At the thought of Luhan, your mind pondered back to this morning, with the small, tiny even, encouragement, to the apple, you felt your heard cloud with confusion. Was he starting to warm up now? You pondered for a while more before the annoying ding of the elevator coursed through your ears. You quickly stepped off the elevator and walked towards the noticeboard, where exo-m's practice schedules were pinned. You scanned for Kris and Tao's names and luckily found them both in rap practice in the 4th room. You tiptoed towards the 4th room, careful not to make your steps loud before softly knocking on the 4th room door and letting yourself in. Tao eyes lit up as he saw you come in and he waved enthusiastically before he continued practising. Kris gave you a slight smile and a small wave before also continuing to practice. Around an hour in and you found yourself tapping your foot along to the beat and bobbing you heard slightly. A pause in the music and your stomach gave a rather loud belch. Tao and Kris and the rap teacher all turned to glance at you, before all giggling. You covered your stomach and reddened.

"Okay, break guys" the teacher called as he continued laughing. As Kris and Tao walked over to where you were seated you could see Tao letting his laughs be heard whilst Kris hid his laughs behind his hand. You buried your head into the arm rest of the coach and your hair fell over your face. You felt a pat on your back followed by the voice of Kris. "You need to eat Eun Mi, I heard you didn't eat breakfast."

"You didn't eat breakfast? Oh wait, yeah I remember, you weren't hungry" Tao chirped, plonking himself down at your feet.  At the thought of food, you reached into your bag and shuffled around looking for the apple.

"You carry apples around in your bag?" Kris questioned, his eyebrows raising mockingly. You punched him lightly as he laughed along with Tao.

"Luhan gave it to me this morning, it was weird, he didn't say anything and just threw it at me before walking out of the room." You explained, scrutinizing the apple to see if it was just some weird prank. Kris and Tao had gone quiet as they looked around the room, thinking to themselves. You didn't disturb them and took a bite from your apple, no funny taste was detected.

"Apology!" Kris called, clapping his hands together, you jumped slightly at his sudden outburst whilst Tao nodded along before high fiving him.

"Pardon?" You questioned, unsure if it was an inside joke or something.

"You know Korean right?" Tao asked as Kris started patting himself on the back.

"Well... Yes. Why?" You answered hesitantly, not sure where this conversation was going.

"Therefore, you know apple in Korean is….." he trailed on, encouraging you to finish.

"사과 (sa gwa, apple)" you answered, still quite confused.

"And it can also mean…" Kris egged on, his eyebrows raised and his hands waving around.

"...apology" It had finally clicked now, but the idea of Luhan subtly 'apologising' seemed foreign and definitely not something he would do. Tao and Kris high fived and clinked their water bottles together before taking a swig full.

"Mmm, I don't think so" you murmured, bursting their bubble.

"C’mon, think about it, why else would he give you an apple? Plus, in Korean class we JUST learnt about that, it adds up" Tao persuaded as Kris gave you an unimpressed look. You shot back a skeptical look of your own but was cut short as the rap teacher called break over. As Tao and Kris started practicing, you were scrutinizing your thoughts, what Tao and Kris said did make sense and you couldn't think of another reason as to why Luhan were to just toss you an apple, but the gesture and action was just so foreign when matched with Luhan and you just couldn't believe it. This was the guy that just a while ago had mocked your battered watch.  But just as you caught yourself on your train of thought, your hypocritical side caught you. You were judging Luhan without really knowing him. Well at least you hoped he didn't have the personality he was portraying. You grimaced and shook your head to clear you mind. Luhan was to you, a sort of puzzle, like a rubiks cube per say. He was tough to figure out with his indirect messages, questionable actions and teasing remarks that acted as algorithms, patterns and solutions, and just like the rubiks cube, you hadn't the slightest clue as to how to solve it.

------

6pm rolled around quicker than you expected and soon enough the boys were grouped on the floor, chatting to each other, whilst Xiumin gave Chen a massage. Lay decided to sit at your feet when Tao and Luhan started play fighting whilst Kris adjudicated.

"How was it?" Lay asked, as he took a drink from his water bottle.

"Intense, really intense" you replied back, thinking back to the flashes that engulfed you earlier in the day.

"How are you feeling?" he queried as his eyes looked up at you, genuinely concerned.  You smiled back softly.

"I'm feeling okay, good that everything is cleared out, I just hope everything will go smoothly for the group's debut schedule" you admitted.

"Just remember to take care of yourself Eun Mi, things won't go well if you don't feel your best. Should I make your favourite food when we get home?" Lay cheekily suggested as he smiled so hard his dimple showed. You chuckled quietly as your heart warmed at Lay's sweetness.

"Let's cook something that the boys will all enjoy" you compromised.

Despite play fighting with Tao, Luhan had spotted Lay and yourself from the corner of his eye and thought back to the apple he tossed to you this morning, wondering if you had eaten it.

"Hey bro, were your trying to apologise to Eun Mi with an apple this morning, you’re so cheesy!" Kris interrupted Luhan’s thoughts, as Tao effectively placed Luhan in a neck lock.

"Oh right!" Tao exclaimed as he immediately let go. "I thought she had grabbed the apple before she left this morning, but I didn't see her come into the kitchen."

"So, she ate it?" Luhan questioned, ignoring Kris's question and taunt altogether.

"Yeah, she was just about starving during our rapping practice" Kris and Tao laughed. A small smile appeared Luhan's lips as he hid it by tackling Tao down.

-----

By the time the van rolled into the driveway of the dorm, Xiumin, Chen, Tao and Kris had already fallen asleep with light snores coming from Chen.

"We're home!" Luhan called as he quickly unbuckled his seatbelt, knocking Xiumin in the process effectively earning Luhan a glare. Luhan replied by wrapping his arms around Xiumin tightly exclaiming he was sorry. Ten minutes later, everyone had finally made their way into the living room, as everyone plonked themselves onto the couch, yourself and Lay had quickly hurried into the kitchen to prepare dinner for the hungry boys.

-----

With soft jazz music coming from the speaker placed on the kitchen counter, you and Lay had begun making a hearty soup and kimchi rice with Lay occasionally breaking out into free style as he stirred the soup around.

"I can't help it, as soon as the music comes on, it's like my body uncontrollably starts moving with it" he practically sang as he smoothly spun his way towards you. "How is the kimchi rice coming along?" he queried as he peered over your shoulder at the pan.

"I think it's coming along quite nice, it hasn't hissed at me, so I take it that's a good thing" you hesitantly concluded. Lay couldn't help chuckle at your limited skills in cooking but encouraged you anyway. The two of you continued cooking away with Lay breaking out in dance and both of you laughing along as the happy mood hung over the kitchen. 

Okay, I don't actually know if anyone is still reading this, if so, I'm eternally sorry.