I skated off the rink and hid behind Henry. Wookie? Why was Wookie here?!

Too bad he saw me. He leaned to the side, looking behind Henry. "Hey! Is this your pet, Henry?"

Curse that nickname! Was I never going to escape it?!

Henry turned around and pulled me out from behind him. "What's wrong, Mel? Don't you want to meet your Wookie-oppa?"

Nappeunnom. He knew exactly what was wrong! 

But I had been revealed, and it was too late to go hide somewhere else, or I'd be rude to Ryeowook. So I bowed and did the best I could to hide behind my hair. "Annyeonghasseo, je ireumeun Choi Minsung imnida."

"Woah! Her Korean is so good! But... Minsung... why do you have a Mokpo accent? You sound like Donghae!" I laughed inwardly, realizing that, as usual, he'd forgotten to refer to his hyung formally. Wait, I sounded like Donghae?! Since when?!

"You noticed that, too?!" Henry exclaimed, "I thought I was hallushinating!"

"Hallucinating, Henry," I corrected, "And I do not have a Mokpo accent!"

Both of them, in unison, "Oh, yes you do."

Min Hee skated up, asking, "What's going on here?" Then she realized who was there and suddenly made a 90-degree bow. "Annyeonghasseo! Annyeonghasseo, Ryeowook-sunbae!"

"And who is this?" He asked curiously. 

"I'm Kim Min-"

She never got to finish her sentence, because out of nowhere, John came flying out of the rink, yelling "Look out!"

Slow motion. John trying to brake. Min Hee, turning to look, then moving aside. Me, reacting too slowly. Me, standing less than three feet from Ryeowook. John, falling forward...

He smashed into me, and I, in my skates, toppled straight down... right into Ryeowook.

He tried to catch me, but I guess I weighed more than he thought I did, because he fell backwards with my momentum, and he hit the floor on his back. 

Oh god. Oh god, please let this not be happening! I opened my eyes and found myself sprawled on top of Ryeowook. His eyes were closed. 

"Oh god! Oh god! Ryeowook-oppa?! Oppa, are you okay?!" 

"He hit his head pretty hard on the floor..." Min Hee noted, concerned.

I was almost in tears. I closed my eyes, searching my brain for what to do. "Please, Wookie-oppa, you're okay, right?!"

"Minsung... can you... get off of me?"

When I opened my eyes, he had his eyes open and was looking at me expectantly. When his words sank in, I realized where I was, and shot to my feet. My face was burning red. I looked away, too embarassed to look at him, while Min Hee helped him up. 

Henry, meanwhile, was practically dying of laughter. John, too, even though he'd caused all of this.

"John..." I said quietly.

"Yes, Mel?" He replied between laughs.

"You are so going to DIE!"

His eyes widened and he flew as far away from me as he could, and I chased after him on my skates, starting to feel just a little bit graceful in them. I cornered him and beat him as much as possible, then turned around and realized that Henry and Ryeowook were staring at us.

Oh my god, would Wookie think that I was some kind of vicious brute?!

I left John cowering and laughing in the corner, and skated back to them. "I'm sorry... you didn't... I'm not usually... like that..."

Min Hee snorted. "Don't let her fool you. She's always like that."

I glared at her, and she looked away. 

Wookie just looked at me for a moment, and then burst out laughing. "You're so crazy!" He fnally giggled, making me feel ten times worse. 

But then he reached up and patted me on the back. "Don't worry about it, I think it's good to be a tough girl! I'm really glad you can stand up for yourself! Especially when you have to deal with someone as crazy as Henry!"

"Ya!" Henry yelled. 

"Hey, you know it's true. After all, you-" Ryeowook's pocket buzzed, and he stopped talking to look at it. "Henry, that's the manager-hyung. He's wondering what's taking so long."

"Oh, well..." Henry looked at me, then back at Ryeowook, then back at me.  Finally he sighed, and said, "I'm going to take my skates off, Hyung. I'll be back in a little bit."

Skating wasn't going to be much fun without Henry. Already the mood in the building had plummetted as we realized that it was time for him to go. "I'm going, too," I suddenly declared, going off after him. 

He was unlacing them when I got there. I sat down next to him and started to do the same, not knowing what to say. I don't think he knew, either, because we were sitting in silence for a long time.

"If you have a boyfriend when I come back, I swear I'm going to kill you." 

"Why are you worrying about that?"

"I'm your Oppa! You don't get a boyfriend until I approve of him!"

I laughed, "You'll have to get past my sister, first. Technically she has first dibs, since she was my sibling before you were."

"But I'm older."

"True. But I don't think she's going to relinquish her right to you because of that. She can be quite stubborn."

"I'll get it from her somehow!" He replied determinedly. Without even realizing it, we had relapsed into our normal way of talking about completely random and useless things, and being comfortable with it. "I'll use force if I have to!"

"Oh, really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, "You do know that my sister knows Escrima, right? Of course she's still a little Bambi, but that's more martial arts than you know."

"Bambi?"

"Oh, sorry. Inside joke. My sister has really big brown eyes that make her look like a cute, harmless baby deer."

"And you're saying that she's going to beat me up?" He asked doubtfully.

"She can be kind of scary sometimes."

"Oh."

We relapsed into silence again, and I slipped my skates off. When I couldn't stand the lack of sound any longer, I blurted, "Thank you for everything, Henry."

"Hey, hey, you say that like I'm leaving forever! It's just a month!"

"A month with no one to protect me from Jessica! It might as well be forever!"

Did I forget to mention that she had been repeatedly horrible for the past few weeks? Maybe it's because I was trying my best to keep it out of my brain. Yeah, I can't count the number of times that I'd been pushed over in the hallways, tripped, slandered, and harassed by her. The only times it didn't happen was when I was with one of the members, usually Henry. Almost always Henry, actually. The only exception was that one time with Sungmin...

I shook my head to prevent my eyes from glazing over. Not the time to be daydreaming about Sungmin. Anyway, let's just say that she was wearing my tolerance level threadbare. I probably would've snapped by now if it hadn't been for Henry.

He stood up, his shoes back on. "You'll survive, I have faith in you. And Tiffany's pretty cool. You can talk to her while I'm gone! Keep up with your English, you know. And you can help her with hers."

We'd been walking back to the group as we talked. When we got back, he stepped away from me, to Ryeowook, then turned back to us.

"Well, see you later, Mel. And Minsung, and... I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

"John." 

"Oh. Right. Anyway, see you guys later. Take care of yourselves. Try not to get beaten up. I'm a bit sorry that I won't be here to see Mel's performance of Mirotic, but.."

"What?!" Ryeowook suddenly questioned, surprised.

"It's nothing," I replied as fast as I could, before Henry could start to explain.

"Don't worry about it, Henry. I was planning on filming it," Min Hee casually argued. She didn't seem to notice that I was glaring at her.

"Oh, you will?! That's great! Send it to me!"

"Henry!" I yelled, my face getting red again as I repeatedly glanced at Ryeowook, who just seemed to be interested. At least until he took out his phone and started taking pictures of himself. That sounds Narcissistic, but he just really likes to take selcas. I guess it's an idol thing. 

"Yeah, yeah, okay. I'm sure you'll do fine, Mel. Besides, that JiHoo guy isn't so bad looking, I think."

"Henry!"

"Sorry. Anyway... bye Mel."

"Wait, wait. One picture before you go. You, me, Min Hee, and John. The English-speaking crew."

"What about me?! I want to be in the picture!" Gah, so cute! Dangit, Ryeowook, you make it impossible to be a calm fangirl!

"Of course, Wookie."

"Wookie?" His expression was quizzical.

 My hand instantly flew to my mouth. I hadn't even realized that it had slipped out. "I- I'm sorry, Oppa-I mean, Sunbae- I just... that's what the ELF always call you, so it kind of gets frozen in my brain that way, and..."

"Isn't a Wookie that big furry thing from Star Wars?!" He burted out. 

Okay, Wookie's brain was officially full of rocks. He didn't even care that I'd addressed him informally. Just that his nickname referenced something from Star Wars. Of course, it was kind of hard to picture him as a wookie. He wasn't big enough.

When Ryeowook started to make starship noises, Henry turned him around and started to push him into the favored picture frame. "Oookay, Hyung, let's take the picture and then go."

I set the camera on a spot that would get all of us, put it on a ten second timer, and slid into the picture. When the camera flashed, we all unfroze and then Henry started to push Ryeowook towards the doors

Before Henry could get away, I tackled him with a hug, which didn't seem to bother him for some reason. When I let go, he just grinned and ruffled my hair, which he knew I hated."

"What? Do I get a hug?" Ryeowook pouted.

I turned to him, surprised. "Do you... do you want one?" I admit, I desperately wanted to hug him, but I didn't want to freak him out any more than I already had, so I was holding back. 

"Sure!" 

Since I knew I couldn't resist, I gave him the hug, as asked, trying not to do anything awkward. Although it was extremely tempting to jump up and down and squeal. I didn't, but I can't say that it never crossed my mind.

I let go, then smiled and waved. "Bye, Oppas. Come back to Korea soon! I'll make you both food!"

"Food?" Henry hesitated, but Ryeowook started pulling him through the doors. "Come on, Henry! The manager's probably starting to think that Minsung kidnapped us!"

That was the last time I would see them for a long time. Although I can't say that the image of Ryeowook, looking adorable as ever, yanking Henry through the doors by the shirt, was altogether a beautiful picture, it was the last one that I would have for a while.

"Bloody Hell, Mel, would you stop sighing?! They've only been gone for a few days! How are you going to live through a month?!"

I rolled over on the bed and stared up at my Super Junior fanarts. "I'm just so booooooooooooored!!!!!!"

"What do you mean, you're bored? You have more time to sleep, now! And practice! You have a dance to finish choreographing, remember?"

"I know, but..." I'd gotten used to getting kidnapped every other day, taken strange and unfamiliar places, forced to listen and watch someone who was ten times better at everything than I was, and then having free food stuffed down my throat. It had become a normal part of life. I hadn't realized how much of my time had been occupied by Henry until he was gone. 

 "No buts. I'm going over to Lee SoHee's dorm to practice. You should do the same for your partner."

"Who?"

"SoHee. My dance partner. Just like yours is Choi JiHoo. Since you have some spare time after school, maybe you should be using it to finish choreographing. You know he's uncomfortable. Why are you making him do that kind of dance, anyway?"

"Because it fits the song. And it's the first kind of dance that came into my head! And he can't be too uncomfortable, or he wouldn't have gone along with it. I never forced him to do anything."

"I'm pretty sure that if you told him to anything, JiHoo would do it."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" 

"I'm leaving, bye." 

"Hey! Min Hee! What do you mean?!" Too late. She'd already closed the door.

I didn't feel like practicing with JiHoo. So instead I pulled my laptop out and started watching "Panda and Hedgehog." Halfway through the episode, somebody buzzed the dorm's door. I paused and jumped up to get it.

I opened the door, to see a tall Korean man.

"Annyeonghasseo. Neuguseo?" I asked, wondering who he was. He didn't look like anyone I knew.

"Is this Kim Min Hee's dorm?" He asked, in English. Oh. So he spoke English. 

"Yes, it is. I'm her roommate, Melissa. Can I ask... who you are?"

"My name's Jay Kim. I'm Min Hee's older brother. Is she here?"

Oh yeah, that's right. Min Hee had an older brother. But wasn't he back in London? Why would he be here?

"No, she's not. She's been gone for about half an hour to go practice her dance with her partner. Sorry. I can tell her that you came, though."

"Do you mind if I stay in your dorm and wait?"

"Umm, no, I'm sorry. Min Hee and I have a rule that we can't invite guys into the room unless the other approves. If you can wait a second, I'll text her and ask if it's okay." He nodded, and I ran across the room and grabbed my phone. 

"Min Hee, your brother is waiting at the dorm! Can I let him in?"

I waited. No response. I waited until a full minute had gone by until I called. The phone rang three times, and then gave me the message machine. 

"Min Hee! It's Mel! Pick up your phone, it's an emergency! Seriously! Dance practice is important, but I'm having a heart attack here!"

I waited a full minute again, glancing over at Jay, who was standing in the doorway, his hands in his pockets and looking around at the parts of the dorm he could see. Then I called again.

This time, she picked up the phone. "WHAT?!" She screamed. She seemed to be panting, and very impatient.

"Min Hee! Your brother is here! At the dorm, looking for you! I don't know what to do!"

"What? Jay? Mel, if you're bored, you should go with John to pull pranks. Don't waste my time. I'm hanging up."

"No, wait, Min Hee! I'm telling the truth! He's asking to come in!"

"I'm not falling for it, you know. My brother would never take time off of his job to come looking for me. Not as much as it would take to come to Korea."

"Yeah, well, tell that to him."

I held the phone out to Jay, who took it and put it up to his ear. "Hello, baby Min."

I heard a hissing sound from the other side, and he pulled the phone away from his ear. Then he handed it back to me.

"Just hold your horses; I'm coming back as fast as I can. Let him in, but don't let him touch anything." She sounded about as far from happy as it got.