True to my punishment, the next day, as Jessica demanded, I got up at three in the morning so that I could wash Jessica's car before I went to SM to go to my Korean language class. 

I hadn't slept much, and felt bone tired. I'd drunk about six cups of tea that morning to try to keep myself awake, but it was hard. I got into a taxi, and then relayed the address that Jessica had given me to the driver. I watched Seoul go by through the taxi's window, and wondered how I'd found myself in such a big, densely populated city like this one. After Jessica's harassment, sometimes I missed the feeling of being safe at home, out in the country, where I could play my music as loud as i wanted, and the neighbors were too far away to care. 

I kind of missed going to a school where I could refer to my teachers by their first names, or tease them for saying something wrong. I missed waking up my little brother in the morning, and then riding the big yellow bus to school. I didn't think I regretted my decision to be where I was, but there was still a burning ache in my heart for all of those little things I had always taken for granted back home.

I didn't know how much time I would have before we arrived at Jessica's house, but my mind was swirling with thoughts of my house out in the countryside of Wisconsin. I pulled out my notebook and started writing, and I finished the lyrics to the song just about the same time that the taxi came to a stop.

I stepped out of the taxi and looked around. Well, it didn't look like too much from the outside. But I guess K-idol dorms were in the eye of the beholder. My dorm's building looked like a dump to me, but that might just be because I knew it was a dump. Maybe to some poor, childish SNSD-obsessed fanboy, this plain-looking place might look like the door to heaven. Not me, though. 

I didn't know what I was supposed to do now. I couldn't just go to the parking garage and start, since I didn't know which car was Jessica's. Unless all of their cars were labeled, which I severely doubted was the case. Should I go to the door? But which one was their apartment?

I went to the main door and looked at the apartment occupant roster. Hmm... nothing that comes right out and says "SNSD dorm". I guess that would make it too easy for fans to come and creep on them. Let's see... what to do, what to do...

As I was thinking, I felt someone tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw a burly man in a security guard uniform. "Excuse me, Miss, but you can't be here." He looked tired, as if he really didn't want to be kicking out little blond girls at three-thirty in the morning. I couldn't blame him. I would be tired if I had to be a security guard this early in the morning, too.

"I don't mean to be a bother, sir, but I was told to come here this morning. I'm trying to call up to the So Nae Shi Dae dorm, but I don't know which one is theirs..."

"Miss, the members don't want to be dealing with fans this early in the morning." Oh not this again! It was like when I was trying to talk to Kangta all over again! Am I a fangirl just because the person I need to talk to just happens to be an idol?! I'm an ELF, dangit! E.L.F! Everlasting Friend! I'm a SUPER JUNIOR fan, not an SNSD or Kangta fan! What was so hard to understand about that?

Not that he would know that. I guess most all fangirls look the same, no matter what their fandom is, so it's impossible to differentiate. Still, the least people could do would be to listen when I say I'm not a fan.

"No, sir, I'm not here as a fangirl. I'm a trainee for SM Entertainment, you see, and Jessica-sunbae asked me to come here to... do something for her." Commanded on punishment of death was more appropriate. "I'm telling the truth. See? This is the address that she gave me."

I held the piece of paper out to him, and he glanced over it and handed it back. "Alright, call up. If they answer, you can go in. If not, you have to get out of here."

I nodded. That seemed fair. It's not like I wanted to be there in the first place. 

I scanned over the apartment roster again, and, still lost, turned back to the security guard, embarassed. "Umm... which one is their dorm?"

"Third one down," he sighed impatiently, "under the name of the group's leader."

I looked where he'd directed, feeling stupid. I'd overlooked that name so many times. Kim Taeyeon. Duh. I wasn't even an SNSD fan and I knew that she was the leader. Stupidity aside, I pushed the call button and prayed to God--I'm a Deist, by the way. It's not a hugely popular religion, so you'll have to look it up-- prayed to God that I wasn't waking them up. Or that if I did, they'd freak out and get really mad. 

I buzzed up, crossing my fingers in the folds of my coat (It was starting to get chilly in Seoul, as October was fading away), and waited for a response. I looked around for the camera that i knew would be showing my face to their dorm, and faced it.

"Annyeonghasseo? Neugeusseo?" A sleepy voice asked.

"Annyeonghasseo. Is this Jessica-shi? From So Nae Shi Dae?"

There was a yawn. "No, this is Tiffany. What do you need, honey?"

"My name is Choi Minsung. I'm a trainee at SM. Jessica-sunbae asked me to do something for her."

"Choi Minsung? That sounds... OH!" Suddenly she broke off, switching to English. "You're Henry's pet, right?"

I sighed. "Yeah, that's me."

"I thought I recognized your face somehow. Henry's told me all about you! Sure, Minsung, come right up!"

Well, that was a warmer welcome than I had expected. And what exactly about me had Henry told her "all about"? 

I glanced at the security guard, who just shrugged and waved me up, walking away. I felt kind of sorry for him. Dealing with crazy American teenagers this early in the morning. I wouldn't have the patience for me, either, if I was him. 

I opened the main door and made my way up the floors, to the dorm. When I got there, i knocked on the door. It sailed open, and I faced the second North American I'd met in Korea. 

Tiffany looked a lot different without her makeup on. Her face seemed rounder, her eyes smaller, and her skin less flawless. She wasn't ugly by any means; just different. Not that I watched SNSD all the time. It wasn't too hard to miss. 

She looked more awake than she'd sounded over the door buzzer, but I could still see the huge blue-purple bags under her eyes. They probably matched my own. I didn't know. I'd kind of avoided looking in the mirror that morning. Unlike me, though, she was still in her pajamas, and her reddish-brown hair (It still had a bit of red left in it from when she had dyed it for "I Got A Boy") was in a ponytail out of her face. Despite all this, I couldn't help but notice how much prettier than me she was. 

"Come on in, Minsung! Hey, what's your real name? You know, your American one?"

I consented, taking off my shoes at the doorway. "Well, I kind of have two American names now. Since I'm songwriting already, Producer Lee gave me a pen name, 'Queen Be' but my real name's Melissa."

"Ohh, Melissa. Can I call you 'Missy'?"

"NO!" I said that a bit more forcefully than I'd intended. "Sorry, Sunbae, I didn't mean to yell. It's just... I'm a bit of a tomboy, so I don't really like cutesy nicknames like that. You can call me 'Mel', though. Henry does."

"Okay, Mel. You can call me Tiffany. You don't have to call me Sunbae, or Eon-ni, or any of that nonsense." She cupped her hands around , looked around cautiously, and then whispered to me, "You can save that for Jessica. She's the really scary one."

I almost laughed. "Yeah, I know. Ridiculously hard to please, too."

"Oh yeah, you're here to visit her, aren't you? I'm sorry, I almost forgot. She's in her room, doing exercises. You can go in if you want, but I advise against it. You're better off waiting until she's done. I can make you some coffee while you wait."

That was an awfully nice gesture, considering that I was younger than her, therefor I should be the one making coffee, but... "No, that's okay, Sunba- I mean, Tiffany- I don't really like coffee anyway."

"Oh, you don't? You want some tea instead?" 

I was about to protest, but she'd already gone into the kitchen, and I could hear her rooting through the cupboards. "You can have a seat in the living room if you want, honey. I'll be out in just a sec."

She kept calling me "honey." Admittedly, my name, "Melissa" meant "Honey bee", but I wished she'd just call me by my name. All of the weird, unique little nicknames I'd ever had had been given to me by my father, and most other people didn't understand them. Such as Melly-bear and Peanut Butter. There's a story there, I promise. Anyway, most people didn't really refer to me by sugar-sweet names because I simply wasn't all that sweet. But I guess it might be a California thing. And I was a a few years younger than her.

I sat down on the couch and looked around. The apartment didn't look like heaven, but it still looked a lot better than Min Hee and my one-room-one-bathroom dorm. They actually had a living room.

Tiffany was coming out with two cups of tea when I heard a door open behind me. I turned around to see who it was, and saw a very tired Sunny rubbing her eyes and walking towards us. 

"Tiffany, did you make tea?"

"Yeah, I made it for Melissa here. You want some?"

Sunny opened her eyes drowsily and seemed to take me in for the first time. I stood up and gave a light bow. "Annyeonghasseo, Sunny-sunbae. I'm Choi Minsung."

Her eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, she's so SHORT!!!!" She ran up to me and picked me up, in a tight hug, giggling. "She's shorter than me!" She put me back down, and then looked at my face. "She's so cute!" Then she pinched my cheeks. Like real, serious cheek-pinch-age.

Honestly, I'd come to my terms with my height (Or the lack thereof) a long time ago. I was short. I was fine with that. What I lacked in centimeters, I liked to think I made up for in personality. Still, Sunny pinching my cheeks and saying I was cute because I was shorter than her was just a bit annoying.

"Sunny, don't like that," Tiffany tried to step in, "Not everyone wants to be cute."

"But she's shorter than me! Minsung, how tall are you? 150 centimeters?"

"I'm exactly five feet tall, so that's 152 centimeters, thank you." I'd done the math before, so I knew the numbers off the top of my head. Don't judge. I'm not quite that smart. 

"Oh, no wonder Henry likes you! You're so cute, I love you!" 

Wait for it. wait for it.

"You are Henry's pet, aren't you?"

Heavy. Sigh.

"So I've been told." Sometimes I wondered just how many people in the company knew who I was. It was slightly scary at times. I felt like SM's fricking mascot. 

"Yes she is! Henry told me to take care of her while he was away in China," Tiffany interjected.

"He did?" I know he'd mentioned something about talking to Tiffany while he was away, but I didn't think he'd actually asked her to take care of me while he was gone. 

"Aww... such a good Oppa! You should feel so lucky! Even if you are short." Sunny giggled again.

Honestly, I knew why she was so ecstatic that I was shorter than her, so I couldn't blame her. I knew Sunny had gotten a lot of criticism back in their debut days because she was short. Still, she was several inches taller than me. 

"What is with all this giggling so early in the morning?!" 

Uh-oh. The devil has returned.

I stood up immediately. "Jessica-Sunbae. I was just waiting for you."

"What do you want?" she asked icily.

"Jessica-eonni, don't be so harsh!" Sunny argued, pulling me into a protective hug. She acted like one of those crazy aunties.

"She was here to do something for you, remember?" Tiffany added.

Jessica glared at me. "Yeah, I remember. So what are you doing up in my dorm, Minsung? Shouldn't you be in the parking garage? You'd better hurry up. It's already four in the morning. You only have an hour and a half if you want to get to your Korean lesson."

"I can't wash your car yet, Sunbae. I don't know which one is yours..."

 Tiffany jumped, startled. "Eonni, you're making her wash your car?! That's awful! You can just take it to the car wash. What would Henry say to this?"

Jessica rolled her eyes. "He's not here. Besides, she's just a trainee. None of the other trainees get special treatment, why should she?"

Sunny yanked me into another hug and replied "Because she's so cute!" as if that were obvious. Which wasn't really the case, since I wasn't used to being called "cute". And I didn't expect the first time to be from SNSD's Sunny, either.

I'd always assumed that my head was shaped to accommodate my awesome brain, and thus my face was square-shaped and not wonderfully adorable. I didn't find myself pretty enough to be "cute". It wasn't a self-putdown; I just took it as an inarguable fact, and didn't let it get to me. Especially while I was at SM, where everywhere I looked there were girls that were a lot prettier than I was. Of course, the SNSD dorm was no exception, even when none of them were wearing makeup. 

"Eonni, let's not torture her, okay? You can just take your car to the car wash," Tiffany urged.

Were they... defending me? If so, it looked like Jessica was losing the argument. Maybe because it was two against one, even though she was the oldest there since it didn't seem like Taeyeon-sunbae was awake yet.

"I don't have the time for that."

"Okay, then I'll take it for you, okay? I'll go before we go to the photoshoot today. Is that okay? Honestly, I don't feel like getting into trouble with the SuJu sunbaes. I hear they're all kind of fond of her."

"They are?" I blurted.

Tiffany held her finger to her lips to shush me. "Mel here's an ELF, you know? And you know how they are about their fans. They're worse than we are."

Jessica seemed at a loss for words. Finally she just snapped, "Fine, do what you want," and stomped back into her room, slamming the door.

Tiffany and Sunny winced. "She shouldn't have slammed the door. Sooyoung hates it when she slams the door," Sunny muttered, letting me go.

"Sunbaes... you really didn't have to do that. I was going to do it..."

"No, no, Henry told me to take care of you. I don't want you to do ridiculous tasks that aren't necessary as a trainee. Believe me, it  when the debuted artists tell you to do those kinds of things while you're a trainee. You remember, Sunny?"

Sunny made a face. "They were so mean to us back then... You think Jessica caught the disease?"

Tiffany shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. Anyway, Mel, you just focus on your training. We'll do our best to help you out. Okay? Pinky swear?"

"Uhh... okay." I linked pinkies with her, and she laughed. Soon I was giggling, too.

"Hey, hey! Pinky swear me, too!" Sunny whined, so I gave her one. We laughed together for a while, before Tiffany calmed down.

"Now, Mel, we've kept you here way too long. You've got to get going soon, if you want to make it to your  lesson. Drink your tea and head out. But don't forget, if you need any help, you can come to me and Sunny, okay, honey?"

I nodded, overwhelmed by their kindness. I never expected that so many people in the company would be so supportive of me. I'd have to report this back home.

After a bit more chatting, exchanging phone numbers (TWO more idols' phone numbers! That's like, five already! I have way more than your average trainee), and taking a picture with the two of them, I made it out the door, and onto a city bus to take me to SM. Tiffany and Sunny had been so wonderful, it almost made me want to convert to Sone status! Almost. I was still an ELF. 

The day went by quickly after that, since I had already escaped slave labor. I had to stop at the cafe multiple times throughout the day for another cup of tea, though, since I'd gotten about an hour of sleep the previous night, and was completely burned out. In the middle of my Japanese class, I accidentally referred to my sensei as "Anata" because my brain was so sleep-deprived. Oops. As punishment, I had to stay late and clean the classroom all by myself. Because of that, I was late to the dance class, and I did my best to come in without anybody noticing, but unfortunately Sunsaeng saw me, frowned, and wrote something down on his clipboard. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I assumed it wasn't good. 

JiHoo was leaning against the wall when I walked in, but he stood up straight when he saw me. "Cutting it a bit close, aren't you Minsung? You know, we really can't afford to waste any more time. The performance is coming up pretty soon."

I shrugged apologetically. "You know I don't do these things on purpose, JiHoo. Can we just forget about it and start practicing?"

"Yeah, sure." Wow, he agreed pretty quickly.

Finally, after a vocal training lesson we were forced to dedicate once again to learning music because my voice sounded like sandpaper (Nakata-sensei was furious), I was able to go back to my dorm. 

Immediately upon entering, I flopped down on my bed, eager to pass out. I wasn't even concerned about food. Just sleep. Sleep was what was important. 

Min Hee walked out of the bathroom when I came in, rubbing her hair with a towel. She must have just been in the shower. "Do you want me to make supper today, even though it's your turn? I know you woke up early today to go help Jessica, even though you went to bed really late, so it's okay."

I grumbled consent, my face still buried in the mattress.

"Okay, I'll wake you up when it's done, since I know you'll get the shakes if you don't eat."

The way she said it, I sounded like some kind of addict. It's true, when I got too hungry, my hands would actually start to shake, and I couldn't do anything that required keeping them steady. I'm not really sure why. It was something I'd realized early into high school, when I'd decided to limit snacking between meals to avoid gaining weight, since I was already a bit heftier than I should have been. The weight thing hadn't really been a problem since I became a trainee, as I'd already lost around eight pounds because I wasn't able afford food as much as I needed, but that only made my shaky hands problem worse. 

Still, sleep was more important. It was starting to get cold outside, and our apartment didn't have the best insulation, so there was always a chill draft in the room. So I used the last of my energy to pull myself under the blankets. I was bordering on unconsciousness within moments.

And then our dorm's door flung open.

Min Hee almost knocked over the pot of water on the hot plate. "K-K-K-Key Sunbae!"

I jolted up in my bed, not able to believe what I had heard. But sure enough, there he was, looking excited. As usual, his clothes were brightly colored and flashy, and over his shoulder hung... was that a purse? Maybe it's better not to ask.

He ran over to Min Hee and grabbed her by the shoulders. "This is Choi Minsung's dorm, right?"

Min Hee was startled for a second, and then her face fell. "You're here... for her?" He seemed to be oblivious to her Shawol disappointment of finally meeting one of her idols, and then he's there for her non-Shawol roommate.

"Yeah, yeah, is she here?!"

Min Hee didn't say anything, just pointed over to where I was, sitting up in bed. Key patted her on the shoulders, said thanks, and then ran over to me. 

"You're the one who fixed this necklace, right?!" He pointed to the necklace around his neck. It was the one I had repaired during my break on the day I had helped Henry at the SM Exhibition.

"Yeah, that was me... why?"

"Great!" He pulled his... bag-- off of his shoulder and overturned it. Out onto my bed spilled a tangled mess of what looked like chains, string, and beads. "Can you fix these, too?"

My eyes went huge. "Sunbae, how much jewelry do you break?!"

He shrugged. "I don't know. As much as I wear?"

Why was I not surprised? I dug into the mess and pulled out a few broken chains and some glass beads. "A lot of these are in pieces!"

"But you can fix them, right?" 

Key's energy was a bit hard to turn down. He wasn't forceful, exactly, but he had this way with demanding things that made him hard to turn down. 

I sighed and reached under the bed to pull out my jewelry kit. "This'll take me forever to do, Sunbae." I pulled up a box, but it was my jewelry box instead of my kit, so I just set it on top of the bed. Key grabbed it and looked at it, then opened the cover and looked in.

"Woah! Did you make all of these?!"

I was still shuffling under the bed, so I wasn't looking at him. "Sure, Sunbae, you can dig through my jewelry box. I don't mind," I grumbled sarcastically, "and yeah, I made most of them."

"Oooh, can I have one?" 

I was still leaned over, trying to find my kit. "Yeah, sure, if you pay me." Where was my kit?! Oh, there it is!

I came back up, to find him pulling out a pair of earrings. "Hey, these are cool! I want these!"

"Not THOSE ones! I spent months on those!" They were a pair of red dragons that I had carefully made with wire, glass seed-beads, cat's-eye beads, and Swarovski crystals. I'd been planning to give them to my sister, the dragon fanatic.

"But... can I have them?" He looked right at me, pleading. 

I hesitated. "Well... fine. But It's going to cost you. A lot. Like, I'd say that I wouldn't sell those for less than fifty American dollars. Not to mention that fixing all of this would take me all of my free time for the next year. It'll add up pretty quickly."

"Mel! You can't charge Key-sunbae that much!" Min Hee complained.

Key nodded and pouted. "I don't have any money, Minsung... can I sing a song for you instead?"

"No."

"Come on! That works on everyone else!"

"Not on me. Sorry, Sunbae." I thought for a minute as to what exactly I could make him do that would be worth using up all of my time for this. Suddenly, the idea came.

"Well, there may be one thing you could do that would be about equal to fixing all of this plus giving you the earrings."

His eyes got big. "What? What?!"

"Well... how much do signed CDs usually cost?"