I walked back to the dorm from the SM building in a complete trance. It's a wonder that I didn't get hopelessly lost in the streets of Seoul, because I wasn't thinking about where I was going at all. But somehow my feet managed to find their way home without any help from my brain. 

"You have a nice voice," he had told me. I kept replaying that sentence in my head, saying it out loud every now and again, just to remind myself that it was real. "You have a nice voice; it's really pretty." 

That's what he had told me as we said our goodbyes outside the vocal practice room. Those words would have meant nothing to me if they had been uttered by anyone else in the whole planet. Then he'd bowed, and then smiled. And then waved goodbye. I'd been reluctant to leave, but I'm pretty sure he would've been creeped out if I just followed him around. I mean, that's what fangirls do, but I'm one of those considerate fangirls that tries not to do anything that will freak her Oppas out. Or at least, I think so. 

I wandered into the room, kicking the door closed behind me. Still in a trance, I sat down on my bed. Min Hee didn't even look up. She must still be mad. 

Tentatively, I began, "Min Hee...?"

She continued reading her book, still not looking at me. "Yes?"

"...If you were to meet your bias, as in, your most favoritest idol ever, like, your favorite member of your favorite group, and he turns out to be the sweetest, most gentlemanly and adorable person in the world, and even gives you a compliment... how would you feel? What would you do? What would you say?"

Min Hee dropped her book, running over to me. "You mean...?"

I nodded. "Did you know that meeting Lee Sungmin can fix your entire day?"

She let out a string of Korean words, some of which I was pretty sure were happy, and others I'm pretty sure were curses. But who can say?

"How did you meet him?"

"You're a fan of Girls' Generation, right?"

"So Nae Shi Dae? Yeah."

"So... you know Jessica, right?"

"Yeah, Ice Queen Jessica. What about her?"

"She's a b****."

Min Hee jumped back, startled. I had never sworn around her. I rarely swore, finding it unoriginal and dull language. I always thought the words, but I rarely said them. 

"Jessica? But what does this have to do with Sungmin?"

"She plowed into me and told me to get out of the way of people who have more important things to do. As I'm sure you know, I was already having a pretty awful day. Up until Sungmin helped me up off of the floor. And then stayed with me through vocal training, and played the guitar for me, and then he even told me that he likes my voice!!!!!" I almost wanted to cry out of happiness now. "Ah, I'm in heaven!" I fell backwards onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling.

"So... do you think you could try the dance again, now that you're feeling better about yourself?"

"Are you kidding me?! Right now I think I could fly!" 

"Sorry sorry sorry sorry naega naega naega meonjyo naege naege naege bwajyeo bwajyeo bwajyeo beoryeo Baby. Shawty shawty shawty shawty nuni bushyeo bushyeo bushyeo sumi makhyeo makhyeo makhyeo naega michyeo michyeo baby."

I sang all of the lines as I did the dance, Min Hee sitting on her bed, watching carefully. When I finally finished, she applauded. "Great! You did it, Mel! Now just do the "Dandandan" part and the "Let's Dance" part with the hand moves, and we can go to bed! You're really close!"

I looked at the clock. It was almost two in the morning. We had to get up at five. But I didn't feel very tired. Was I still filled with Sungmin-energy? Who knows.

"Alright, can you count for me?"

"Sure. One, two, three-"

Someone knocked rapidly on the door, and then it flew open.

"Choi Minsung-- Merissa-- which one is?!"

 Confused, I pointed to myself. "N-nan?"

"You, Choi Minsung?!"

"Uh... yeah?"

Min Hee elbowed me, hissing, "What are you doing, Mel?! Bow! Or introduce yourself, or something!"

"Why?" I knew I shouldn't be rude, but hey, he was the person who burst into our room at two in the morning.

"That's Kangta!" She bowed courteously, then jerked her head, indicating that I should do the same.

"Who?"

"Kangta! One of SM's producers!" My blank stare seemed to frustrate her. "H.O.T! Kangta!" She hissed, emphasizing each syllable. 

I felt like that name had some presence in my head but... 

Then the wheels clicked.

"Oh my gosh, Kangta!" I bowed, feeling my heat in my cheeks. I knew of H.O.T, a group from the 90s, debuted by SM. The group had broken up, and Kangta now worked as a producer for SM. I had followed Tony An, the member who made his own solos and formed his own companies. Actually, he's the only one of them I really paid any attention to. I almost forgot that the leader of the group's stage name was Kangta. I never really cared enough to learn his real name. 

But no matter, it was Kangta that had burst into our room in the middle of the night. Granted, we hadn't locked the door, but still. 

"Annyeonghasseyo, Je ireumeun Choi Minsung imnida," I greeted, and then Min Hee introduced herself. Apparently having verified which one he was looking for, he ran up to me, holding a piece of paper out.

"I give. You read, you fix. Give back." I shrank back, not really registering what he was telling me, but a bit scared of SM authority being so... excited.

The moment I took the paper, he turned and went out the door. No explanation, no goodbye, nothing. He just gave me this piece of paper and left.

"Minsung... Minsung. Minsung! MINSUNG!"

I jolted awake, not realizing that I had dozed off. 

"Choisoimida!" 

Lee-sunsaengnim leaned back in her chair. "Are you serious about learning Korean, Minsung?"

Uh-oh. "Nae, sunsaengnim! I really am! I really appreciate these lessons! I just..."

"When did you go to bed last night?" Sunsaeng asked, in the manner of someone who already knows the answer. Realizing that not telling her wasn't an option, I crumbled.

"Around three A.M..."

She rolled her eyes. "Trainees and their sleep schedules." She leaned forward, regarding me carefully. "Look, Minsung, I understand that both your training and school can be challenging to fit into a day. But you have to continue to get ample amounts of sleep. If you're tired, you can't focus, and will have difficulty with your training. Dance practice will be draining, and your voice will be shot for vocal training."

I nodded, feeling ashamed. "Nae, Arresseo..."

"Now, let's go get a cup of coffee to at least keep you awake," she said, standing up.

I wrinkled my nose, thinking of the taste of coffee. "Can we get tea instead? I hate coffee."

"Only if you can ask for it in Korean," she said, holding the office door open for me to walk through.

"Uhh... does Japanese work?"

"No."

 I hung my head. I hadn't learned the Korean word for tea. So I walked through the door, dreading the coming taste of coffee. I loved the smell-- hated the taste.

I followed Sunsaeng through the hallways, rubbing my eyes. I had to look up when I heard a set of footsteps fall in with mine. 

"What's up?" Henry asked, grinning at me. 

"I fell asleep during my Korean lesson, so Sunsaeng's punishing me by making me drink coffee," I whispered back.

"What's bad about coffee? I looooove coffee! Coffee coffee coffee!!!!"

I made a face at him. "Well, that makes Won of us." 

He just laughed at my reference to the joke he'd made when I first met him, then pouted and said, "Now I want coffee... but I don't have any money on me." He spied my purse and then looked back up at me, starting in a sugar-sweet voice, "Hey, Mel~"

I rolled my eyes, knowing what he was going to ask, but also knowing that I wouldn't be able to turn him down. 

"Fine, I'll get you a coffee! But you owe me." 

Energetically, he ruffled my hair. "Thanks, Mel!"

"Gah! Don't do that! It's a pain in the to put back in place!" Which, of course, only invited him to do it again.

I was trying to fight him away, squeaking a bit when he did his best to mess up my hair. Apparently annoyed, Sunsaeng whipped around. "Could you two be quiet? There are other people in this building! And Mr. Lau, don't you have somewhere to be?"

Henry seemed to cringe at the title "Mr. Lau." Admittedly, it sounded extremely tacky. 

"No, ma'am. The hyungs kicked me out of the practice room." 

I looked at him in surprise. "They kicked you out?"

"They were rehearsing 'y, Free & Single', and said that I wasn't needed. I was bored, anyway. So I came out here to try to find someone to hang out with. I saw you and came over, end of story," He replied, shrugging. "And I was hungry, so I needed someone to buy me something."

"I'm honored," I said, only half sarcastically. I actually was slightly honored that Henry wanted to hang out with me. Not that I was doing anything fun. Getting coffee. Yay. Wait, idea... "Henry, how do you say 'tea' in Korean?" I whispered as lightly as I could.

"'Cha'. Why?"

"You mean it's the same as Japanese?!" I slapped myself in the forehead, feeling stupid. Henry just nodded, as if that was supposed to be obvious.

This verified, I ran up to Sunsaeng and asked in Korean if I could have a cup of tea.

"No."

"What?! But I said it in Korean!"

"Only because you asked Henry. That's cheating."

Dangit. She caught me. I fell back into step with Henry.

"Did it work? He asked.

I shook my head. "Nope."

We arrived at the company's cafe, going up to the counter. Sunsaeng ordered for us, and then I looked at Henry. "You're going to have to order for youself, Henry. I don't know anything here."

He shrugged, then ordered. The girl behind the counter rang us up, and I paid, handing Henry the coffee. Sunsaeng gave me mine, and I looked down into the inky black abyss unhappily. As we walked back to the room I drank it as fast as I could, trying to avoid letting the stuff touch my tongue. Henry, on the other hand, drank it quickly because he couldn't get enough of it. 

By the time I sat down at the desk, both of us had finished our coffee. Surprisingly, Henry came into the room with us, sitting down next to me. He shrugged when I gave him a weird look. "What?"

"Are you just going to stay here?" 

"Do you want me to leave?" 

"Well, no, it's just that... I'm pretty sure you don't have any reason to take Korean lessons."

"What makes you say that? My Korean !" He said it like he meant "my socks don't match," as if it was totally minor. Which it was, since his Korean really wasn't that bad. So he accidentally writes "pen" in Hangeul instead of "fan"? It's better that where I was in the language so far.

But of course, he heard nothing of what was going on in my head. He just nudged me with his elbow and joked, "And besides, my English buddy is here!"

I rolled my eyes, not as upset as I was making myself out to be. Sunsaeng seemed to completely ignore his presence, just starting the class back up again as if he wasn't there, even though he kept doing his best to be obnoxious. In today's lesson, Sunsaeng was trying to teach me Hangeul. So far it wasn't going so well. I'd been spending a lot of time with Japanese characters. Words were differenciated by pictures; I had picked it up faster than most English-speaking Japanese language students. I wasn't used to the the alphabet system used in Korea. 

"Your name, Minsung. We've been over the characters in your name three times already. What's so hard about this?"

"I can't remember the letter for 'ch'!" I complained, searching my brain for it.

"I know, I know!" Henry grabbed my notepad from me and scribbled something quickly. "Here you go! Choi. Min. Sung!"

I glared at him. "Thank you very much, Henry. I can't read your handwriting."

"Really? I didn't think it was that bad..."

He gave it back to me, and I looked up when I heard someone walk into the room. 

"There you are, Henry!!!" he yelled in Korean. 

"Uh-oh. My manager found me!" Henry whispered to me, "I think I'd better go, Mel." 

He got up and went to the surprisingly young, handsome man who was glaring at him from the doorway, then urned back to me and said, "You should come with me to get a hamburger sometime!" And then left. 

"So, do you think you can do this today?" Min Hee asked when I came into the dance practice room after school two days later. Things hadn't gone too much better since the first day, but at least today I had been able to get one of my favorite bullies in trouble without lifting a finger. I hoped she was enjoying her corporal punishment right about now.

I shrugged. "Well, I can't promise that I'll do it perfectly, but I'll try."

"Better than yesterday."

We leaned up against the wall to wait for attendance. I looked down at my feet, running through the steps in my head, hoping I could get them all correct so I wouldn't be dragging the class down.

I looked up when I heard the teacher say "Henry? What brings you here?"

"I'm here as moral support!"

"Moral... support?"

"For my English buddies, Minsung and Min Hee. They're in this class, right?"

Everyone looked at Min Hee and I. If Min Hee's face was any indication, my cheeks must've been burning red. 

"Yes, they're in this class. Minsung, Min Hee?"

Extremely embarassed, we both raised our hands. "Nae, sunsaengnim..."

"Your sunbae is here to support you. I hope you can give him a good practice."

We nodded, then Min Hee started the practice. I think Henry's presence really only made me more nervous, but I appreciated the gesture. I couldn't help but wonder where he got all of this spare time, though. I hoped it wasn't because he ran away from his manager again. From what I remembered about SuJu's manager, he was awesome. 

Nonetheless, he sat down on the floor with his phone and recorded us. He seemed amused that we were doing "Sorry, Sorry", though. At one point he actually jumped up to show the girl with the black hair and glasses how to do the dance, then messed it up himself, since it wasn't something Super Junior M usually did. Everyone laughed. Henry had a way of warming up atmoshperes. 

"Sorry guys! Should've been more useful!" He apologized, then looked up and complained, "Sunsae~~~ng!!!! Can we do 'Super Girl' instead?"

"No."

Min Hee bowed, not as used to him as I had already become. "I'm sorry, Henry-sunbae, but we've already been practicing this one..."

"Do you want me to ask one of my hyungs to help? I think Kyuhyun's not doing anything right now..."

"NO!" All of my classmates gave me weird looks. Min Hee and Henry, too, considering that they knew I was an ELF. I couldn't help it; just thinking about seeing Kyuhyun again made me feel embarassed.

"Sorry, it's just that I, uh... I think that we need to learn this dance by ourselves."

"She's right, Henry. This is supposed to be a pretest for them. It's no use if they get a teacher," Sunsaeng pointed out, the first time he had helped me out. Of course, I'm not sure he realized exactly how he was helping me. But I was grateful for it nonetheless.

"Oh, well... I'll call him anyway. Maybe he wants to come watch, too!"

"No, Henry, I'm sure Kyuhyun-shi's busy." I insisted. He sure was making this difficult for me.

"Henry, please sit down. If you're going to support Minsung and Min Hee, please don't interfere with their practice. I'm sure they can do quite well without you," Sunsaeng enforced.  

Pouting, Henry did, plopping down against the mirror again. Min Hee organized us back into practice, starting back up wtih the hand dance we had practiced at least a thousand times back in our dorm and still not perfected. At least we practiced, though. I was actually doing better than some of my classmates, who looked like they hadn't practiced it, so were still behind. Score one for Melissa! Still, dancing takes a lot of concentration for me. I was so focused on the movements that I almost didn't notice Henry take out his phone and text someone. And then his phone buzzed. and he answered it. The music was blasting pretty loud in the room, so I couldn't hear him, but I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

We finished our run-through of the song, and I pulled my hood up and ran out in the thick of the other students when class was declared over, not even saying goodbye to Min Hee and Henry, something I only felt a little bad about, especially considering I ran out just in time to brush past Cho Kyuhyun.