That Saturday I was in my Korean language class when someone knocked on the door and peeked his head in. I thought I recognized him as one of the musician management people at SM. 

"Excuse me, but is Choi Minsung here?" 

Sunsaengnim getured to me, and I turned around in my chair to face him, bowing a little. "Annyeonghasseo."

"Sorry, Lee-sunsaeng, but I'm going to have to steal Minsung for an extensive period of time. Hope it's not a bother." 

Sunsaengnim shrugged. "Go ahead. I'm stil getting paid by the company for teaching her if you take her."

His lips twitched. "Yes, well. Minsung, if you could please come with me."

Was I being punished for getting so much attention from the SuJu members? For being a disturbance in class? What if they made me keep away from the members?! What if they found out about what happened to Kangin, and decided to question me about it?!

Despite these thoughts, I got up and obediently followed him out of the room.

"May I ask... what you need me for, Sir?" I asked tentatively.

"Well you see, Minsung, the previous two songs you've written for the company have gotten you a lot of attention from the people at SM. They're interested in your abilities to write songs in English."

This was about my songwriting? "So... what do you want me to do?"

"We're asking for your help on a collaborative project," he explained, turning a corner into another hallway, "You'll be working with another writer to create a mixed-language song. The particular writer feels a bit self-concsious about his English-writing abilities, so we told him that you would help him, since, as you've noted in your audition, the English here at SM isn't the best."

Maybe I'd been a bit too direct in my audition, because now I think the people at SM felt a bit insulted. 

But he continued, not waiting for a response. "You don't have school today, right?"

"No, today is one of the Saturdays that I have off."

"Good. You may be spending a good amount of today on this project. you'll be working with one of our best up-and-coming writers." He opened the door we had just come to, and indicated that I should go in. One of SM's best up-and-coming songwriters? I was a bit nervous.

When I saw who was inside, I burst out laughing. I couldn't control myself. It was just... that was not who I expected at all!

The manager was looking at me like I was nuts. "Minsung, I'm not sure if you've met Zhou Mi..."

"No, no we haven't met, it's just, when you said one of your up-and-coming writers, I didn't think you meant one of your artists!" I laughed again, trying to control myself. Zhou Mi looked a bit aghast. 

"Duìbùqǐ! Mimi-I mean, Zhou Mi-"Duìbùqǐ!!" First I was apologizing for laughing. Then I was apologizing for using his nickname.

"Minsung-yang, he speaks Korean."

"Yes, I know he does, it's just, I don't know, I..." I was repeatedly embarassing myself. And Zhou Mi was one of my oppas. Did this guy not know I was an ELF?"

From the confused looked he was giving me, I was assuming that he didn't. Weird. I thought everyone did. 

I bowed again to Zhou Mi, taking a deep breath to control the laughter. "Annyeonghasseo, je ireumeun Queen Be imnida."

"Don't worry about it, Shiljang, I know who she is."

The manager shrugged and closed the door.

"You need my help?!"  I blurted out before I could stop myself. 

He laughed. He had such a beautiful smile. "Henry told me you were crazy."

What a wonderful first impression I had made. "I'm sorry, it's just... I really weren't expecting- I didn't know that-"

"That's okay. I had a pretty good warning before I even decided to ask for your help." 

He asked for my help? Seriously?!

"Not that I'm not honored, Mimi- I mean, Zhou Mi-sunbae, but why not just ask Henry for help?"

"He has to go to SuKiRa."

"Oh." I totally should've known that. I mean, I'd only been wanting to listen to SuKiRa (Super Junior Kiss the Radio) ever since I'd come to Korea. "Well, I'm happy to help. Is the song in Korean?"

"No, it's in Chinese. I'm not as good as Henry at writing lyrics for a song that's not in my language." His accent in Korean was so adorable. You could totally tell that he was Chinese.

"I don't know how well I'm going to help, since I can't speak Chinese, but I'll try my best."

"Wait, you don't speak Chinese? You speak English, Korean, and Japanese, but not Chinese?"

I shook my head.

"That's ridiculous! You can't do that! Here, I'll teach you!"

I burst out laughing again. I couldn't help myself. 

Zhou Mi seemed even more confused. "What? What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry, it's just that... that's almost exactly what Henry said. Right down to the 'I'll teach you!'"

"...really?"

"Yeah. He never did teach me, though. Instead he taught me how to read music. It's something, I guess."

"Well, then I will teach you. That Henry, says he's going to do one thing and does something else instead."

"Can we focus on writing the song first?" 

"Oh yeah, right. The song. Here, it's on the desk here. Sit down."

I did as I was told. 

"Sorry, I guess you can't read it," He apologized when I tried to look at the papers.

"Well, I know a few characters from Japanese, since they use the same characters, but... they fit together a lot different from Japanese."

"Yes, sorry about that. Do you want me to see if I can try to translate it for you?"

"No, that's okay, that might take a lot of work." I didn't want him to help me any more than absolutely necessary. "Can you just explain to me what the song is about? I think I might be able to work from there."

"Okay. So the name is 'Two Faces". It's about somebody who's a really horrible person in reality, but acts really nice and sweet."

"Are you referring to anyone in particular, here?" I teased, then realized that I probably shouldn't do that. Luckily, he didn't seem to take it too badly, only blushing a little bit. 

"No. It was just an idea. So do you think you can work with it?"

"Yeah, I think so. The concept reminds me of a cross between 'Everybody's Fool' by Evanescence and 'Clown Mask' by Han Geng."

He seemed startled. "You know Han Geng's music?"

"Well, yeah. I'm an ELF, of course I do. Even if he's in China, and separate from the group, we still consider him a member, and therefor have to support him."

"Really? That's not what I heard. I thought a lot of the ELF were angry at him for leaving and boycotted his music."

I scoffed, "Absolutely not! If that's the way they think about things, then they're not really ELF. The ELF will support their Oppas no matter what! We don't blame Han Geng for what happened. See, there's a difference between a SuJu fan and an ELF."

"Aren't they the same thing?"

"No. A SuJu fan is the kind of person that is critical of the members and doesn't consider how they feel when they say things. They're the ones that go to concerts just so they can yell for Henry and Zhou Mi to get offstage. The ELF are more mature than that. They accepted all of the subgroup members right away, and never start fanwars. They'll always protect their oppas from real threats, and do whatever they can to make the lives of the members better. They're the ones who desperately want to be in the member's lives 24/7, but don't, because they know that that might bother the members and won't make them happy. The SuJu fans are the ones who don't try to control themselves."

I hadn't realized that I was ranting. "Sorry, that was too much information, wasn't it?"

"No, no, it's interesting. You're an ELF, right?"

"I like to think so. The members have asked me a lot of questions. Sometimes I'm surprised at the things they don't know about the ELF. But I can't really blame you for not knowing the difference between an ELF and a SuJu fan. It's really only the ELF who know the difference." I was blabbering again. My stupid mouth!

"Sorry, I'm getting distracted again. The song. Focusing on the song." I bit my lip, reminding myself that I was here for business. Not to be a fangirl. 

Okay, so the lyrics here are what I was having trouble with. I wanted to added an English line about lies and pretending, but everything I came up with seemed either too shallow or too angry. The lyrics around it were..."

It was surprisingly easy to get into the state of mind where I was actually working on the song with him. He would explain the lyrics of the song, since I couldn't understand the lyrics, and I would try to follow his Chinese and try to pronounce it, so I could understand the cadence of the words. Cadence is very important in poetry and thus music. Even if you don't have a tune yet, you need to make sure that the words flow, even if they're in two different languages. 

Then, I would try to think of the sentence that he wanted in a tune that would fit, but would also make gramatical sense. And then I would say something weird, and he'd laugh, and I'd be embarassed, but happy that I could make him laugh. He really had a beautiful smile. And such a smooth, clear face. I had this crazy urge to touch his cheek. Actually, it's an urge I'd had since the first time I saw him. But I controlled myself, since he'd probably find it crazy. 

Often enough, one of the lyrics would remind me of something, and I'd end up telling a story, and he'd listen patiently, occassionally making comments. 

All was going well until my phone buzzed in my back pocket. I was a bit surprised. Who would have been texting me then?

I opened my phone to see that it was a text from my mother. That was weird enough in and of itself, since my parents didn't really like texting. I guess international texting was cheaper than international calling. It said, "Finally have webchat set up. Call ASAP. Pat wants to talk to you."

Zhou Mi looked over my shoulder at the message (Which wasn't at all very hard for him, since he was just a bit over a foot taller than me), and asked, "What is it?"

"It's my mom. She says that my brother wants to videochat with me." Tears were coming to my eyes before I could control them. 

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just... I miss my little brother. Back at home, he was my biggest reason for making it through the day. I always took care of him. Living so far away, it feels like I've abandoned him."

"You must care about him a lot." 

"I always took responsibility for him. I always had to explain to people that he was different from everyone else, but that everyone needed to love him all the same. I wanted everyone to love him as much as I did."

"Does he look like you?"

I shook my head. "No, not much at all. That's kind of the way it is with all of my siblings. We both look like our parents, but we don't look at all like each other. You want to see a picture?" Agh, why did I say that? He doesn't need to see a picture of my sister and brother! But it was too late to take the words back. 

"Sure! I'm really curious!"

He was curious! In that case, let the picture show commence!

I pulled out my camera and scrolled through until I found the picture I had taken with Jackie and Patrick at my seventeenth birthday party/going away party.

"See, we're in order by our age. The girl with the dark reddish-brown hair; that's my eonni, Jackie. And then there's me, in the middle. I look a bit different now. But then there, on the right; that's my little brother, Patrick. Only he's not so little."

"You're right! He doesn't look anything like you! His skin is so dark, and he's so big! How much younger than you is he?"

"Five years. Give or take, since my birthday's in August, and his birthday's in March."

"Yours is in August? Mine is in-"

"April. April nineteenth," I finished for him, "You're ten years older than me." An awful, awful ten years.

"Wow, how did you know?"

I gave him an odd look.

"Oh, right. You're an ELF. But really, your brother has really dark skin. Is he part black or something?"

I laughed. "No, he's not. He's my full brother, I'll have you know. But we're Hawaiian. native Hawaiian."

He tilted his head to the side, looking at me curiously. "Are you... are you part Chinese?"

"How did you know?!" That was the first time someone had been able to identify it without me telling them.

"It's just... the way your eyes disappear when you laugh or smile. Somehow it just struck me as Chinese. So you are?"

"Umm, yeah, a bit. One-sixteenth, on my mom's side. I'm a bit over one-eighth Hawaiian, though."

"Do you speak Hawaiian?" He was so full of questions. Sometimes it was easy to wonder who here was the older one. Then again, we were talking about a SuJu member, whether he was one of the main thirteen or not. They never acted their age. 

"No, not really. But I can recognize a few words, and I can sing 'Aloha 'Oe' with a pretty decent accent."

"Wow... that's really cool! You're the first Hawaiian I've met!"

"Ummmmmmm......... thanks?"

He laughed. "Yeah, that was a compliment. Okay, so back to the song..."

Finally we were walking out of that room, and Zhou Mi had a few sheets of paper with the names "Zhou Mi and Queen Be" written under "Lyrics written by:"

"Thank you very much, Minsung. Or should I call you Queen Be?" 

"You can call me Mel. That's what Henry calls me. But hey, if you can figure out what my name is in Chinese, you can call me that, too."

He smiled. "I'll be sure to do that. So, until next time we meet?"

"I was happy to help, Mimi. I mean, Zhou Mi. Darnit, I keep saying it!"

He tilted his head to the side. "Mi...mi?"

My cheeks were turning pink. "I'm sorry, it's just the nickname the ELF give you. I've called you all by your nicknames for so long that it's hard to get out of the habit."

"It's just... in Chinese, 'Mimi' means 'secret'."

"It's an improvement to Japanese. In Japanese it means 'ear'."

He laughed. "I guess I'll take the Chinese version, then. Goodbye... Mel," he said carefully, trying out the name."

I bowed slightly. "Bye, Zhou Mi. Until next time!"

Later that day I went to SHINee's practice room again, this time to deliver Key's completely repaired jewelry. How surprised I was to find Kyuhyun there!

"Jageun! What brings you here?!" he called out when he saw me.

"Jageun? Who's Jageu..." It took a second to realize he was talking to me. "Oppa! When I told you you could call me whatever you wanted, I didn't mean you could call me 'pipsqueak!'"

The SHINee members laughed, only deepening my embarassment.

"Too bad," Kyuhyun answered, grinning evilly. "You can't deny a nickname that describes you in one word."

"Nappeunnom," I muttered under my breath. "I wonder why you're my second-favorite member, sometimes, Kyuhyun-oppa."

"Because I'm charming, talented and adorable?"

Modest, isn't he? 

"You were good up until 'adorable'," I replied. "Anyway, Oppa, I'm actually not here to look for you. As happy as I am to talk to you, don't get me wrong. But... Key-sunbae?"

He turned around. "Did you bring my jewelry?"

I held out a plastic pag full of it. "Everything is repaired, Sunbae. I did my best. I'm will ing to help you out with this, but try not to break too much next time."

He picked me up and spun me in a circle. "Yay!!!! Minsung is so helpful! I promise I'll take care of my sparkly stuff from now on!"

"He's lying!" I heard Taemin yell, "He'll break something before the day's over!"

Key put me down, yelling, "YA!"

He chased Taemin around the room before catching him and sitting on him. Unable to resist, I took a picture. 

"I won't break anything! Don't listen to Taemin!"

"Okay, then. I'll listen to Kyuhyun-oppa instead." I turned back to Kyuhyun. "Oppa, do you think he's telling the truth?"

"No."

"Okay then. Key-Sunbae, from now on, repair of jewelry will cost you double."

"What?! Kyuhyun-hyung, what are you teaching you fan?!"

He shrugged. "i don't know. How to handle noisy fashion-crazy people?" He patted my head. "You learn pretty well, Jageun."

I made a face at him, but I was prepared to accept my new nickname. It was a hole I had dug myself into.

"What are you here for anyway, Kyuhyun-oppa? If you don't mind me asking."

"I'm here to invite MinHo to hang out, and to tell Jonghyun to stop spending time with Jonghyun, of course."

What was sad was that I understood that. See, there's this group of friends in the Kpop world called "The Kyu-line members." TVXQ's Changmin was the oldest, but you could tell who the boss was. Anyway, the members included Kyuhyun and Changmin (obviously), SHINee's Minho and, outside of SM, CNBlue's Lee Jonghyun (not to be confused with SHINee's Kim Jonghyun), Kang Minhyuk, and sort-of Jung Yonghwa. SHINee's Jonghyun wasn't one of the Kyu-line members, so Kyuhyun, who gets "jealous" easily, kept trying to keep the CNBlue members to himself. Therefor he didn't like Kyu-line member Lee Jonghyun to spend time with non Kyu-line member Kim Jonghyun. Or at least he pretended he didn't.

I laughed. "Of course. Anyway Oppas, I have to go home and do my calculus homework."

Onew tried to come over, but tripped over Jonghyun's leg instead. 

"Wait, you're doing calculus?! As in technical math stuff? Don't tell me that you're trying to be as smart as Kyuhyun?! Don't do it! If you enter the path of the smart person you'll become just like him! DON'T DO IT, MINSUNG! The more support he has, the more evil he'll be!"

I shrugged. "All the better for me. Sorry, Onew-sunbae. But I'm already too much like Kyuhyun-oppa for my own good. Or so my friends tell me."

Kyuhyun raised his eyesbrows. "And how is that?"

"I'm technically the maknae of all of my friends. But I don't act like it, and I'm not very obedient."

"Great! You can be one of the Kyu-line members!"

"Come again?"

"You'll be the first girl!"

Minho piped up "Do I get a say in this?"

Kyuhyun shook his head. "Not really. My ELF, my decision. So how about it, Jageun?"

Was he serious? "Umm, sure, Oppa. Whatever you say." I knew I wouldn't be able to escape him anyway, so why bother?