Someone helped me to my feet. Apparently I wasn't the first person who had collapsed after coming out of the room. Even as they helped me to one of the chairs, I could feel my entire body shaking from the nerves and tension that I'd been furiously hiding during the audition. I didn't even hear myself thank them. 

I sat that way for a while, taking repeated deep breaths until my heart stopped pounding in my ears. Even still, I didn't regret anything about the audition. I had gone in, told them exactly what I thought, given my performances, and wasn't afraid to show that SM may be a tough entertainment company, but I wasn't about to run away from it. I had been... myself. So why had that been so hard?

Finally able to breathe properly, I called Steve, who'd said that he'd be waiting for me in a nearby cafe, reading the L.A. newspaper to entertain himself until I was done. When the phone was answered on the other side, though, the voice was of a woman, speaking in Spanish, and not all that kindly.

"Quién es?"

Oops. "Lo siento!" I replied, proud of my Spanish, "Numero equivocado!"

"Ah. Yo sé. Adios."

I cringed. I was pulling out the sheet of paper Steve had given me so I could re-type the number when someone behind me said "You speak Spanish?"

"Yeah, I-" I looked up, saw who it was, and all of the nerves from the audition I had just recovered from suddenly reappeared in one second as I fell out of the chair. "K-K-K-KYUHYUN!"

"You... know me?" He seemed to be thinking very carefully about what he was saying.

Uh, um, uh-oh. What should I do?! What was he doing here? And why was he wondering if I spoke Spanish? 

"I, uh..." Suddenly I remembered what I'd thought before during the interview. If everyone knew that I was a fangirl, they'd DEFINITELY just look down on me! I mean, I'm 90% certain that Kyuhyun would forget I existed after this, but what if he remembered and told the auditioners? What to do? What to do?!

"No comprende." As soon as the words were out of my mouth I was wondering what in the world I was doing.

"Do you speak English?" He asked, sitting down next to me. Okay, scratch that. My nerves from before hadn't come back. They had tripled. I took a moment to think that he had pronounced "English" surprisingly well before my mouth once again took over for my brain.

"No. No comprende inglés."

He made a point of gesturing. "I'm sorry. Later, I go down to Chile for concert, but Spanish... I don't speak. You... teach?" 

I almost cried from holding in the severe fangirl urges that were screaming to get out at that moment. Oh my gosh, his English was so funny! I would say cute, but "cute" wasn't a word we usually used to describe Kyuhyun. Usually the words used were "Evil", "intelligent", "sharp-tongued", "amazing" and "handsome." 

But what could I do? I had a few precious moments to have my second-favorite member of Super Junior's thirteen-plus-two to myself. There was no way I was going to turn him down. But how to turn this in my favor?

"Yo te enseñaría inglés," I said, pointing first to myself, then to him, then to the L.A. magazine on the table next to us. "Tú me enseñarías koreano," I continued, pointing to the auditions door. I hope he understood. I felt EXTREMELY bad doing this to him, but I couldn't really figure out what else to do at that moment. Not to mention that I figured the evil-mastermind Kyuhyun would figure out that I was faking it pretty quickly, if he hadn't already.

He nodded. "You first." He said, pointing to me.

"Vale." What to start with? Well, what was the first thing we learned in Spanish 1, way back when? Umm... our names! Okay, let's start with that. "Me llamo Sofía." I pointed to myself, then repeated. "Sofía." It wasn't an outright lie. "Sofía" was the name I used in Spanish class. "Como te llamas?" I asked, pointing to him.

He thought for a moment. "Me... llamo... Kyuhyun?" He said it like a question. I nodded.

"Ahora koreano." I guess he understood the word "koreano", because he responded right away.

"Annyeonghasseo, je ireumeun Cho Kyuhyun imnida. Neoui ireumeun mu eosibnikka?" He did the same hand motions I had done for Spanish. Admittedly, that was a phrase I already knew in Korean, but he didn't have to know that. 

"Annyeong...hasseo. Je... Iroomoon Sofía imnida," I replied, purposely messing up the Korean I could actually pronounce just fine. 

"Kure kure kure. Kureom..."

"Vale. Ahora, Yo soy de los Estados Unidos." I pointed to myself, then at the U.S. flag out the window. "De dónde eres?"

"Yo soy de... Korea? Tae Han Min Guk?" He looked at me questioningly.

"Ah... tú eres de Corea del Sur."

"Yo soy de Corea del Sur."

"Vale. Ahora en Koreano..."

Before I knew it I was getting comfortable talking to him, even though I was speaking Spanish, a language he knew almost nothing of, and he was speaking Korean, a language I didn't know that much of.  I guess I just lost track of time. I actually WAS learning Korean. And my teacher was Kyuhyun. 

It was dark when my phone rang. It was Steve. Crap! If I answer it, Kyuhyun will know that I'm totally an English-speaker! If I don't, I'll have totally insulted my awesome grandpa!

My indecision must've shown on my face, because Kyuhyun stood up. "It's okay, Sofía. Answer phone. I liked your acting." It was broken, careful, and heavily accented English, but it was definitely English. As he walked away, saying "Adios" over his shoulder, I closed my eyes in shame. He really had known it the whole time. I should've known. The evil mastermind will always be an evil mastermind. Finally, I got ahold of myself and answered the phone.

"Hi, Grandpa Steve! I'm SOOOOO sorry, I got... distracted by one of the... staff here." Understatement of the century. I must've been talking to Kyuhyun for at least four hours. "Yeah, Steve, I'm done. I'll go wait outside."

The entire ride home, it wouldn't even cross my mind to wonder why Kyuhyun had been there.

As my remaining time at my Grandmother's house continued to go by, I found that I couldn't focus on anything. All I could think about was Kyuhyun looking at me and saying "I liked your acting."

But, of course, I kept that whole thing a secret from my grandparents. Andeveryone else, for that matter. Had I not lost my head and completely embarassed myself, I would've crowed immediately to my friends that I had met Kyuhyun. But I had. I had completely, totally mortified myself. 

Still, I had met Kyuhyun! I had talked to him! I had held a conversation with him! (kind of) He had talked to me as an equal and had used his precious time to teach me Korean! (sort of) I should be totally, intensely, unbelievably happy about this! I should think of it as his present to me for the ride home to Wisconsin. Yeah. His present. Yeah. A little present for the ride home. Just think about it that way, and don't think about your stupid mouth. Yeah.

Finally I was headed home. I had had a great time in California. I had seen the giant Redwood trees, swam in the ocean, played with Grandma's dogs, and, of course, auditioned for SM Entertainment and talked to Cho Kyuhyun. It was more than I could ever have dreamed of a few months ago. A real adventure.

I hugged my grandma and Steve goodbye, saying that when I graduated and got a job, I would definitely come visit again. Probably around the time of SMTown's summer tour, I joked. Leaving my California family behind, I got on the plane to go back home.

"A little present for the ride home," I thought to myself as I looked out the window at the California scenery below. I reached into my carry-on bag and pulled out my brand new sketchbook. By the time the plane touched down in Wisconsin, it was filled with pictures of Grandma's dogs, the audition room for SM, and, more than anything else, Kyuhyun.

So home I was. Upon returning to school, I was bombarded by questions from my friends. 

"How did it go? Were you nervous?" asked Emily.

"I think it went well, considering my lack of dancing skills."

"Did you faint?" asked Eliz.

"No. I did kind of... collapse, though. But only after the door was closed behind me."

"Did you get in?!" Jacklyn asked me excitedly, overlapping everyone else's questions. Ali rolled her eyes at her. 

"Of course she didn't, you dork! If she had, would she be here?"

"Um... not exactly, you guys. What I was told was that they were going to deliberate about the auditions for a while and get back to us if they decided that they wanted us to join the company."

"So... you're not in?" Ali specified.

"No, we just don't know yet. Of course, if I didn't get in, they won't take the time to call. Besides, I don't really expect to get in."

"Yeah, about that. Didn't you say that you'd never audition for SM? What ever happened to that?" Eliz asked.

"I'm not really sure. I just kind of did it on a whim. Like... just for fun."

"Uh-huh." Well, you just let us know if you get any calls. 

"I'll be sure to."

The days passed. I fell back into the regular schedule of school life: getting up in the monring, eating breakfast while watching Korean dramas and anime, going to class, homework, tests, learning Japanese, Forensics competitions. It was the life I had lived for sixteen years.

April passed. Then May. Day after day. I still remembered my trip to California and all of the things that had happened --they were sruck in my brain like a tattoo-- but they had lessened in importance. Applying for scholarships. Taking the ACT. These were my priorities.

On a completely normal saturday, I was watching the Jackie Chan movie "Shanghai Noon" with my parents. "Dad, quit hogging the popcorn!" I complained. 

"Why? I made it." 

"You're supposed to share!"

In the movie, Jackie Chan's character cam out of the Native American tent with his new "wife". I'd seen the movie tons of times, but I still laughed at it. After Super Junior, I wasa big fan of Jackie Chan. He was just so FUNNY! 

I reached for more popcorn, but my dad pulled the bowl away. "No. None for you."

"Hey!" Knowing that whining wasn't going to get anything, I scowled and sat back in the couch to watch. Sure enough, the bowl landed in my lap shortly afterwards.

We were watching the bloopers at the end (always the best part of Jackie Chan movies), when the phone rang. My mom went to go check the caller I.D. 

"No one I know. Something out of our area zone. Probably someone asking us for money."

Since that was usually true, I just rolled my eyes and got up, seeing that the bloopers were over. "Well, I'm going to go do the dishes now that-"

I cut off, hearing the phone switch over to the answering machine.

"Hello, I am representative of SM Entertainment looking for a Me.. Mer..."

My eyes just about exploded out of my head. I practically leaped over the couch and the stairs in one stride, slamming into the wall to get the phone. Suddenly out of breath, I answered it. 

"Hello! This is Melissa. Can I help you?" 

"I'm talent agent for SM Entertainment. We would like you to be trainee for us. Representative come to you in late Jurai. He come with more information. Then, he take you to our headquarters in Korea. Do you understand?"

On any normal day I would make some kind of comment like "I'm sorry, can you repeat that in proper English?" but all I could say was "Yes, yes, I completely understand. Thank you."

"Oh my god," I muttered to myself as I hung up the phone, so dumbstruck by the information I had just obtained that it was taking a while for it to truly reach my brain. "I've been... accepted by SM Entertainment."