I still wondered about the answer to Sunsaeng's question. What exactly had I done to make the members like me so much? I mean, I wasn't complaining, but really, what had I done? Why was I now being visited by almost the entirety of SJM during dance class, personally requested by MiMi to co-write songs, and invited by Kyuhyun to be a Kyu-line member even though I'm not even a debuted artist?

I wouldn't find out the answer until the next time I met Henry. He'd kidnapped me after my last class of the day, as usual, and then there I sat in some unfamiliar place in Seoul eating hamburgers, as usual. I started off by explaining everything that had occured back in Korea while he was gone, to include my happenings with JiHoo, and how I had almost had the ability to perform. I even pulled out my computer and showed him the video Min Hee had made of my performance.

"You scare me sometimes," was his response when the video was over.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"That you're totally okay with dancing like this? What happened to my sweet, innocent little Mel?"

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, so maybe you were never actually innocent. But what am I going to do if you start getting chased around by guys because you dance like this? Not to mention that you're getting prettier. What sparked that, by the way?"

I told him about how I felt after JiHoo left the company, and Tiffany's advice. "I wanted to be a better version of myself when you guys came back. You know, to show my Oppas that I was working to be worthy of their attention. I hadn't really expected... to be quite so welcomed. I'm still a bit confused about that."

"About what?"

"The members. Why they're so friendly with me. I mean, I'm not even debuted. I'm just a trainee. I could get kicked out of the company any day."

Henry leaned back in his chair and made a face. "Well, I can't say about me and Zhou Mi, but I think the rest of the members are grateful for how you helped Kangin."

"Seriously?"

"You bet. I mean, they liked you from the start, since you were a very determined, not to mention American, ELF, but when they heard from Kangin about what had happened, they were really surprised that you went to such lengths to help him. You are one serious piece of work, Mel."

"I'm not entirely sure how to take that."

"I mean that in the best of ways. Really. But most people, even the ones who call themselves ELF... would've left him out there in the rain. But you thought of his reputation before your own. That's really dangerous as an artist, especially if you want to stand on your own in SM. It's a dog-eat-dog world. but you did it anyway. Maintaining the reputation of just one member helps to keep the reputation of the whole group, so now we had to take even better care of you as payback. At least, that's what Teukie-hyung said."

"Leeteuk knows?!" 

Leeteuk was still in the military, so it was a pretty good trick. 

"Yeah, he was one of the first ones to find out. We like to pretend that we're working without a leader, but we actually talk to him a lot when we start to get a bit out of control."

"Such as when one of your members gets ridiculously drunk because he hasn't quite adjusted to being an idol again?"

"Exactly."

"Ooooohhhhh..."

Well, at least I had an idea of what made me so special all of a sudden. It was a huge warm-and-fuzzy feeling, really. Getting special treatment from one's idols isn't something that happens to everyone. Now I just had to let it not get to my head. Note to self: slap yourself every time you start to get sincere thoughts of vanity.

"Okay, so that conclude's Melissa's 'Tales From the Life and Times of SM's ELF Trainee'. That's all from me. So what about you, Henry? You said that you had lots of stories to tell me, too, right?"

"Oh yeah!!! I started to tell you earlier, but you didn't understand what I said."

"The only two things I were able to pick out were Eunhyuk and Donghae. Everything else was all Greek to me."

"Huh?"

"It's all Greek to me. It's a figure of speech that means that even if parts of something are supposed to make sense, you don't actually understand any of it."

"Huh. I've never heard that."

I shrugged. "Its from Julius Caesar, I think. I could be wrong, but it is something I learned in English class a while ago. I know that much."

"Oh. Anyway, so when we were in Hong Kong, Eunhyuk- you know how his Chinese isn't really that good? Well, we were going to this one TV station for the variety show, and..."

I lost track of time listening to all of Henry's stories, laughing and adding commentary. I loved their antics, harassing their MCs as usual, chasing each other around the stage. Unfortunately Henry wasn't getting thrown over anybody's shoulder and spanked this time. Sad. I missed that variety show. If I'm not mistaken it was because Henry had admitted to stealing Han Geng's underwear and wearing it several times. But that was a while ago. You know, before Han Geng left the company.

 After I had laughed to the point there were tears running from my eyes in steady streams, Henry set aside his plate and watched me eat, then suddenly jolted forward.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot!"

I looked up. "Forgot what?"

Henry reached into his jacket pocket and then slapped two small slips of paper onto the table. "You want to go to our comeback concert?"

My eyes turned the size of saucers and I snatched the two papers up and screamed. Just a little.

"Oh my GOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! A ticket to a SuJu concert!!!!! YES, I want to go, Henry! It's only been what I've wanted more than anything else for the past two years! Do you want to throw in a trip to Ireland and Hawaii while you're at it? Because that's the only thing that'll make me happier!"

I hugged the ticket to my chest, only just realizing that people were giving us weird looks. Henry tilted his hat down, to hide his face just a bit more. "Geez, Mel, it's just a SJM concert. Calm down."

I was hyperventilating. "You don't understand because you're an artist! I'm a fangirl!"

"I guess I better not remind you to look at what the other paper is, then."

Which, of course, is only an invitation to look. My heart stopped.

"B-backstage pass?!"

I was pretty sure I was crying. "Henry, you just made my life. Not just my day. You just made my life."

He leaned back in his chair, grinning. "So do I win older sibling points? Am I beating your sister?"

"Probably. But who's keeping track?" I slipped the ticket and pass into my purse and zipped it safely shut, to make 100% sure that I wouldn't lose them. 

"How'd you even get these?!" 

He shrugged. "Beg the manager-hyung. I have more pull in the company than you think, you know. Ever since I had my solo album."

"And don't think I didn't listen to that a million times before it even came out. When I found out about it I was ridiculously happy about it for the rest of the week. Actually, if I'm not mistaken, it came out on the last day of my Junior year of high school. Now that was a good way to end the school year. I was thinking of having a party."

"Well now you're making me embarassed!"

I gave him an odd look.; "No I'm not. You're never embarassed."

"True. Now stop freaking out and finish eating! Geez!"

Needless to say I was in a state of absolute happiness for the next two weeks before the concert. It was hard to believe it was December already. Had I really been in Korea for three months? 

Not that those two weeks didn't fly by lightning fast. It seemed that every day since I had met SJM in my dance practice room, I was sure to encounter at least one of them throughout the day. I'd lost count of the number of times I was getting kidnapped. 

 One time, I walked into my vocal training class to find Wookie sitting in my chair, with a very distressed Nakata-sensei trying to tell him that he wasn't supposed to be the one giving me my vocal training. He ended up doing it anyway.

The next day I walked into the dance practice room to find Donghae and Eunhyuk teaching our class. They waved when I walked in, then tried to use me as an example, which didn't work too well, since I was a clutz. 

That same day's vocal training I was learning from Kyuhyun instead of Wookie. Nakata-sensei was getting really flustered, but I was happy with Kyuhyun as my instructor. Granted, he was a lot less patient than Wookie was, but I admit, I was purposely messing up the song half the time, just so he would have to sing it again for me to hear it. Really, there was nothing more I wanted from Kyuhyun other than that he sing. I'd been in love with his voice ever since I first discovered Super Junior. It was so smooth and strong and had the perfect timbre, I just could never get enough of his voice. Even when his voice was so completely trashed that he could barely speak, when he sang, he still sounded like an angel, as he proved on an episode of Immortal Song 2. It was quite an irony that such a devil would have the voice of an angel.

He also kept poking me to become a member of Kyu-line, which I almost agreed to. Actually, I was seriously planning to...

But that was before I suddenly got pulled into another K-idol friend group.

I wasn't sure exactly how it started, but the first few members were Henry, Tiffany and I. We would always speak English when the three of us hung out, and go to Western-style restaurants to eat and relax after a hard day's schedule.

Then we started adding people. First there was f(x)'s Amber. She's totally awesome, by the way. Next time we met, she brought Krystal with her. I was a bit wary of Krystal at first, since she was Jessica's little sister, but she wasn't so bad. Actually, she seemed kind of shy, at least in comparison to Henry and I.

It started to become a regular thing. Meeting and talking and doing crazy stuff. Finally, one day, Henry asked, "So, what do we call our little club of English-speakers?"

"Ummm.... SM's English speakers?" Krystal tossed out.

"Nah, not flashy enough," Amber answered. It should be something unique and cool."

"There's already Kyu-line and Psycho Club. It has to be a name that'll compare!" I added. 

"Why don't we use our initials to make something cool? You know, they way my KRY hyungs do?" Henry suggested.

"Our first initials are Q, H, K, T, and A. We have ONE vowel. Even I wouldn't be able to make anything out of that. Besides, what if we add people?" I argued.

"Geez, it was just an idea. Did you have to attack me for it?"

"Yes."

He made a face at me, then turned to Tiffany for support. "Tiffany, do you have any ideas?"

"Nothing that sounds cool," She replied, shrugging.

We leaned back in our chairs. I stabbed my fork into my spagghetti, thinking. Something cool. A friend group thats always speaking English, whose name won't change if we add members... Always speaking English... A.S.E? No, that's not cool enough....

"What about... F.A.S.E?" You know, like your face," I explained, tapping my cheek, "but with an 'S' instead of a 'C'".

"What does it stand for?" Krystal asked.

"Forever and Always Speaking English!" 

We looked at each other, considering. 

"Well, I like it," Tiffany offered, "You know, it could also be 'Phase' with an 'F' instead of a 'Ph'."

"It's kind of cool either way. So what do you think, guys? 'F.A.S.E'?" Amber asked, spinning spagghetti around her fork and putting it into .

"Great! F.A.S.E it is! Good work, Queen Be!"

"I'm not even an idol yet," I muttered. Nobody even knew who I was aside from the people at SM and the ladies at the market who remembered me because I was always begging for lower prices on food. But who cared? I was now a member of an idol friend group.

I was happy, mostly. But some darker part of my heart worried that I was getting myself in too deep. At this point, if SM suddenly decided that I wasn't good enough as a trainee, it would be really hard to let it all go.

I didn't know how to tell Kyuhyun that I wasn't going to be a member of Ku-line, even though I'd wanted to. But that was okay, because Henry did it for me. Still, I had to take the heat for it. 

"You mean, you don't want to be a Kyu-line member?" Kyuhyun asked. "I thought I was your second-favorite!" Kyuhyun demanded the moment he marched into my vocal training lesson and leaned against Sensei's desk. I was pretty sure that they were driving her completely crazy from invading all the time.

 "You are my second-favorite. That's not going to change any time soon, Oh Great Lord Kyu. But it just kind of happened this way. Besides, I don't think I'm cool enough to be a part of Kyu-line."

His eyes narrowed. "You're just scared of being surrounded by guys, aren't you?"

I had to admit, I was. At this point, the only male in F.A.S.E was Henry. But we were trying to recruit some of SM's other English speakers to balance it out. In Kyu-line, I would be the first and therefore the only girl. And I didn't really know Minho and Changmin that well.

He must have read my thoughts on my face, because he stated, "You don't seem to mind when you're surrounded by the SuJu members."

"That's- that's different! SuJu is my ultimate bias group! I practically live for you guys! I barely know anything about the other guys!"

"I guess I'll have to tell Minhyuk that you don't like him anymore."

"NO!" I screamed. CNBlue's Minhyuk was only slightly less adorable than Sungmin and Ryeowook. and CNBlue was my second-biggest bias.

"Please, Kyuhyun-oppa, don't do that! That would be terrible!"

He grinned, patting me on the head. "Calm down, Jageun. I forgive you, for now. Just be your usual, crazy ELF self, and try to stay out of trouble."

I stuck my tongue out at him, which only encouraged him to completely ruffle my hair. Grrrrr...

He sat down in the chair next to me. "So, Sensei, what are we learning today?"

Nakata-sensei reminded me of a hen with her feathers all ruffled up. "We are not doing anything, Cho Kyuhyun. Minsung is focusing on keeping her voice steady on high notes."

"Oh, hey, I can do that so much better than you can Sensei! Why don't you let me show her?!"

Kyuhyun as usual. Honest to a fault.

Of course, I probably need to point out that it was the SuJu-M members that I saw almost every day. I never even got a glimpse of any of the others. Not Heechul, not Shindong, and I hadn't seen Kangin since I had helped him out. It was kind of weird. The members had all been really friendly with me because of it, yet I never actually saw the recipient of the action. It was slightly scary.

But I did see the SJ-M members every day. Especially Zhou Mi, if you'd believe it. Since that first meeting in which I helped him write the song, I always seemed to run into him in the hallway on my way to my dance class. I would always pause and bow, smiling politely. Sometimes he would stop and talk to me, and once or twice he showed me what he was working on. 

"This is the promotion poster for the SMTown Christmas concert that's coming up! Doesn't it look cool?"

I stood on my tiptoes to see over his arms, looking at the poster. "Woah... daebak!"

He rolled it up and smiled at me. "Don't tell anyone I showed you, though. No one's supposed to know yet!" He put his fingers to his lips, smiling.

I did the same, and nodded. "I'll keep it a secret, I promise, Mimi. Sorry. Zhou Mi."

He laughed, and continued down the hallway.

At last, the promised day arrived. Before I knew it, I was backstage with SJM, and I was watching their coordinators touch up their makeup.

"Is Queen Be going to be screaming the loudest?" Sungmin asked.

I couldn't help but grin and turn red, suddenly feeling bashful. "Of course, Oppa! I'll scream so loud that I'll pop the eardrums of everyone standing close to me!" That was no joke. I've done it before.

"Did you bring us presents?" Wookie asked, indicating my bag.

"Huh? No, these are just a few souvenirs I picked up before I came here.

"You're not going to go crazy and start foaming at the mouth, are you?" Henry accused.

"Oh, come on, you guys. It's not like I'm going to be throwing condoms onstage!" Don't laugh. People did it during some of the Super Shows.

Just for the heck of it, I added, "But just in case one of you decides to get just a bit too friendly with one of the fangirls, I brought some, just in case." It was a joke, of course. I would never actually do that.

Most of them laughed, but Siwon raised his eyebrows. Which is entertaining in and of itself, since any SuJu fan knows that the Shibrows have magic powers. Still, the question he asked made me think that he hadn't realized it was a joke. "Are you suggesting anyone in particular?"

Deciding to continue with the humor, since the giddyness had made my mind a bit foggy, I replied, "I'm betting on Eunhyuk. Naughty, naughty boy."

The other members laughed and started throwing stuff at Eunhyuk. "Ya!" he yelled, trying to throw stuff back.

 "It's okay, Hyukkie-oppa," I joked, "everyone has to fulfill those dark, dark desires at some point. If it gets too hard to resist temptation, just ask, and I'll give you some protection to prevent you from getting some girl pregnant."

He dodged a comb thrown at him by Henry, and then shot back, "are you volunteering?"

My cheeks flushed red instantly. What I answered was, "it was a joke, Eunhyuk-oppa!" but what I was thinking was "Oh God, yes, yes, I volunteer. Take me, I'm yours."

Good thing I didn't say that, because my mouth had already run much further than I'd ever let it before. Bad Mel! Bad! Bad bad bad bad!

Fortunately, it was the more innocent members of SuJu that had recognized it as an extended joke. Still, I got plenty of harassment from Henry and Kyuhyun before I had to leave to take my seat out in the audience. Front row seats, baby! This was going to be awesome!

It would be. After it was terrible.