"You guys are all going to have gained ten pounds by the time we get back to Seoul," I stated, looking apprehensively at the remnants of the giant, cheesy pizza over my own 1-sixteenth-sized slice. 

They'd already eaten three-forths of the thing, and were quickly consuming the last few. I, myself, was having difficulty eating my one tiny little piece. It was delicious, don't get me wrong, but the pizza was gigantic.

This was us, in New York. 

We had exactly one day to explore the city for our documentary before the concert, and after that, we were headed to Chicago right away. 

New York felt like a foreign world to me, after all of that time in South Korea. It was somewhere I'd never been before. It wasn't the extreme height of the skyscrapers and office buildings-- living in Seoul for almost two years had gotten me fairly used to that, and after that, my time in Beijing-- it was the culture of the city itself. It was the different accents, the different behaviors, the different restaurants. Everyone spoke my language, but it still felt separate. I was in my own country, but I felt more like a tourist than I had in Mokpo.

"Minsung, how do you not order pizza almost every day?!" Eunhyuk asked, quickly snatching the last piece of pizza before Shindong could grab it.

"Because I don't live in New york. This city is known for having the best pizza in the world."

"But what about Chicago? What kind of food is there?"

I rolled my eyes, muttering under my breath, "trust you guys to be curious about the food more than anything..." and then said out loud, "Hamburgers, mostly, I guess. But you can't go to places just for the food!"

"That's right! We're in New York! What about the clothing lines?!" Zhou Mi asked, looking at me expectantly.

"You actually expect me to know anything about fashion?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "I'm sure there are great men's clothing stores in the city. But if you're asking me, you might as well be asking a bull mastiff."

"A what?"

"A bull mastiff. It's a kind of... never mind." I rolled my eyes, then tried not to laugh. "Are you guys done? We're supposed to catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, remember?"

"Oh! Right!" Leeteuk exclaimed, and I saw our server come as the guys all started to cram food in their mouths and grab their stuff.

"Are you all done with your meal?" she asked, sounding slightly tired. She'd had to deal with us ever since we came in, and I felt bad for her. I'd had to remind the guys on how to speak proper English at least three times. Whenever they got excited, they tended to slip right back into Korean.

"Hyung, we have to pay!" Kangin yelled to Leeteuk. 

Leeteuk came running back, then asked the server in careful English, "how much for the pizza?"

"Twenty-five."

"Dollars?"

I started laughing. "No, Ahjusshi; they're going to charge you twenty-five cents for a gigantic pizza."

"REALLY?!"

"No!" I laughed again. "Yes, twenty-five dollars."

"Loser of rock-paper-scissors has to pay the whole bill!" he shouted, apparently figuring out that he didn't want to have to pay twenty-five dollars by himself.

I rolled my eyes, then stuck my hand in for the game. I was able to win within the second round, so only half of the members were left already.

"What are they doing?" the server asked me. "That's not rock-paper-scissors..."

I laughed. "Yeah, sorry, it's the Asian group version. The last person to lose has to pay the bill."

"Aren't they that big group from Korea?"

"There are a lot of big groups from Korea..."

"No, that one that's been on the news recently..."

"OH! Right! Yeah, these crazy guys are the members of Super Junior."

"And you're... Queen Be, right?"

"Yes! How did you know?!" 

"I really liked your song... 'Black Magic'. But why would you want to go to South Korea just to sing? Why couldn't you do that in the United States? Especially if you're going to come right back here..."

I was about to answer when I was interrupted by a loud cry of defeat, and then Heechul was running after Henry, apparently angry for having lost. I started laughing. They were acting like five-year-olds.

"Alright, here's twenty... five..." Heechul declared, handing her the bills.

"That was just for the pizza," our server answered. Then there's drinks for fourteen people... that's another twenty-four forty-five. So your total is forty-nine, forty-five."

Heechul turned to me, looking like he had no idea what he was doing. 

"She means 'forty-nine dollars and forty-five cents'." I chuckled, then indicated the money in his wallet.

"Agh, why do there have to be so many decimals?! Kyuhyun-ah, you do this!" He yelled, throwing his wallet at Kyuhyun. Why he trusted the Maknae with his money, I had no idea. But he did. Apparently he'd prefer to be robbed than have to deal with American currency."

Kyuhyun carefully pulled the money out of the wallet, then gave it to me to check. blushing embarassedly, I handed the money to the server girl. "I'm sorry for your inconvenience. They're just excited to be here."

The guys started to head toward the door, still laughing at Heechul. "Ya! Oppadeul! Are you forgetting something?!" I yelled towards them. "In the United States, we leave tips!"

"Oh! Right!" Leeteuk came running back then put a five-dollar bill into the girl's hand. And then... he bowed. And ran out the door. 

I dropped my face into my hand. The guys had decent enough English after all of my teachings, but they still had to get through all of the cultural things.

I turned around and faced the camera that had been following me through the streets. "So, we're back from the Statue of Liberty, and the guys have completely disappeared. I have no idea where. They broke up into groups and went shopping."

I stopped, frozen staring into a window. "High... heeled... boots..."

I pulled out my purse and looked into the money pocket. "I don't have much... rookie wages don't amount to that much..." 

But I went into the store anyway. Even if I couldn't buy them, I could at least try some on, right?

"Minsung!" It was Siwon, apparently still in the store. "Where'd you go?"

Of all of the members aside from Henry, Siwon had the best English. And he seemed to get along in New York the best.

"I didn't go anywhere. We just got to the main shopping streets, and you guys all left me alone with the cameras."

He held up a pair of black leather shoes. "It's a tradition! I get a new pair every time I go to a new city!" Then he looked curiously at me. "Why did you come in here?"

"As non-feminine as I may seem, I have a small obsession with high-heels." I waved my hand at the display in the center of the store. "I was going to try some on."

"I'm going to try these on. But don't leave without me. We shouldn't leave you by yourself in New York!"

I rolled my eyes, then nodded. Clearly he'd never gone Black Friday shopping. Then again, neither had I. While he looked through the racks at other pairs of leather shoes, I strolled by the displays of heels. A service lady came up to me. "Are you looking for anything in particular?"

"I'm really short, so I really like platform heels..."

She smiled, then looked at the display. "How about these ones?" she pulled a pair of black leather platforms from the display. "They go really well with that jacket..."

The jacket in question was a leather object that hugged my curves when I closed it, and still outlined my body shape when I left it open over my yellow-gold tank top. Min Hee had given it to me as a Christmas present, because I'd kept stealing it from her. 

"Here, why don't you try these on? You look really good in black... Hey, aren't you Queen Be?"

I stood up, startled. "How did you know?"

"The pin in your hair..."

I reached up and felt the little silver pairpin, remembering that it was there, holding my bangs out of my face. It was the one that Min Hee had given me for that first Christmas.

"I'm surprised... people have been able to recognize me..."

"My little sister's a big fan. She doesn't seem to get it when I say that you're from South Korea, though..."

"Well, I'm not from South Korea. That's just where I work..."

"I think that's what people are curious about. Why work in South Korea?"

I sat down and pulled the boots on, loving the way they slid up my legs, over the tight black pants. I carefully laced them up, still trying to think of an understandable answer for the question.

I stood up, finding myself around the same height as the girl. I loved it. I started walking around the store, simply loving the feeling of the boots.

"Will you be buying these?" the saleswoman asked, blissfully moving on from the previous question. 

Suddenly I remembered the fact that I only had fifty dollars in my purse. Sadly, I sat down to remove the boots. "No, I won't-"

"Put it on my bill," Siwon jumped in. "It's easier for me to just buy them both."

"Siwon-oppa!" I cried, glaring at him.

"What? You were going to buy them anyway, right? This way we don't have to take extra bills."

I grudgingly watched as the sales clerk swiped his card, and then handed me the box with the boots in them. This whole "clinging less tightly" thing was harder than I thought.

When we walked out of the store, I glared at Siwon. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Did what?" he asked innocently.

"Bought them for me. I was going to reject them."

"You don't have that much money because you owe so much debt to the company that you only actually get ten percent of what you earn. Even though you technically earn more than any of us individually..."

"That's because I'm a solo artist and don't have to split my earnings with anyone. But no, you can't keep giving me stuff! No! I need to manage my assets!"

"We'll just call it an early Christmas present."

I glared at him, then gave up and tried to keep up with him. 

"I thought I was supposed to be the girl here! Why in the world do you guys buy so much stuff?!" I asked, looking in at the guys, walking into the hotel with tons of bags. Clothes, mostly, and a few souveneirs. 

Sungmin ran up and gave me a kiss on the cheek, leaving me frozen in shock for a good twenty seconds. "Minsung-ah, thank you for teaching us English! I didn't get scammed this time!"

I smacked myself in the face to wake myself up. "You got scammed?!"

"Somebody convinced him to buy something for 100 dollars, when it was only ten."

I tried not to laugh. "Oppa, you should be more careful! That's why we have translators!"

"But you're our translator!" Ryeowook complained.

"That's why I taught you all English! Now go to bed! We have a concert tomorrow!"

They pouted, then went to their rooms. I was surprised. They actually listened to me.

"It's hard to believe we're all older than you." It was Kyuhyun, still in the hallway with me. "You;re like our mothers."

"Hey, if you guys won't take care of yourselves, then someone has to make sure you take care of yourselves. You know your health is important to me."

"What about yours?"

"I wasn't the one who ate three pieces of diabetes-in-a-triangle. And I'm going to bed. Jet lag is terrible. Although fortunately, this time I wasn't kidnapped as soon as I got off the plane, so I actually got to sleep. But you know all about that, don't you?"

He shrugged. "It wasn't my idea. But that wasn't what I wanted to ask you."

"Then what?"

"Never mind."

"Never mind?! What is it?!" But he continued walking down the hallway, and all I could do was yell after him, "And you'd better actually be going to SLEEP! If I go in there at midnight and find out that you're playing Starcraft, you'll regret it!"

I heard him laugh before the door to the room he was sharing with Eunhyuk closed. 

"Hey, everyone! Rstory here with... drumroll please... Queen Be!" Jacklyn shouted for the camera, pulling me up in front of her. 

"So, we've been getting the question for a long time, if I was the blonde girl from the first two Rstory videos, and we are here today to tell you that it is ABSOLUTELY TRUE." I said to the camera, my arms around Em's shoulders. "The girls of Rstory are my best friends. We went through middle school and high school together, and then made the video for 'Blue' in... what was it? Sophomore year?"

"Yes," Ali answered.

"Yeah. Sophomore winter. And then 'Oh! Happy Day' was the summer before I went to South Korea."

We were in Chicago together, in a park. Eliz was the only one of us that actually lived there, and the rest of us were just trying to keep the wind from blowing our hair in our faces. New York had been brief, and quicker than ever it was time for the interview we'd had planned for an extremely long time.

"So we've been getting a lot of questions about this," Eliz said, "and we're going to answer them. Right now, in this little video. Which is going up on both the SMTown Youtube channel and the Rstory page. So don't forget to like and favorite this video, and subscribe to our channels!"

"Okay, first question!" Em called, and we all quieted down. "If Queen Be was once a member of Rstory, will Queen Be ever be rejoining the group?"

"Unfortunately, no. I'm with SM, you guys! I'm already known as a solo artist. I'll continue supporting my friends, but since we work for different companies, coming back together as a group is near impossible. But we might do some collaborations in the future!"

"Okay, okay, next question," Em said, taking over the MC roll quite handily. "Rstory's first videos were all English covers of Kpop songs. Big Bang, then Juniel, then B1A4... will you ever be promoting in Korea?"

The girls all looked at Eliz. As the Eonni, she'd kind of been in charge of this stuff, apparently. 

"Actually, we did the reverse of our usual style, after we released our own song... and we'll be bringing a Korean-language cover of it to South Korea very soon!"

I clapped. "Does this mean you're going to visit me?!"

"Sure!" Ali grinned. "We can invade Queen Be's apartment!"

"Wait, when?"

"We're leaving on July 26."

"Awww, I'm gonna be in Hawaii then!"

"So you're not going to be there?" Jacklyn asked.

"No... I'll still be on tour then..." I almost wanted to cry. I mean, we were exaggerating everything a little bit because of the cameras, but none of it was scripted. So our reactions to everything were real.

"Okay, so scratch our previous statement. We won't be seeing Queen Be in Korea. Next question, before I start crying!" Em demanded, handing the phone with the questions off to Ali.

"Are all of the Rstory members ex-fangirls, like Queen Be?"

"I don't think 'ex-fangirl' is the right word..." Jacklyn answered, "Once you're a fangirl, you're always a fangirl. But yes, we are. I'm a LOVE and a VIP."

"I'm a Shawol," Eliz added.

"Me too," from Ali.

"And I'm a BABY!" Emily shouted suddenly. "And Choi Junhong, if you're watching this, it's okay! Don't be shy! You can talk to me! I mean, you're a lot taller than me, but we're the same age!"

I covered Em's mouth and pushed her away from the camera. "Zelo-sunbae, please don't mind her. She's got a few screws loose."

Em my hand, and I jerked it away and wiped her spit onto my jeans. "Yuck! Em!"

"Don't cover my mouth, then!"

Eliz and Ali shrugged. "Um, anyway, yeah, we're still fangirls. But I think we're all taking a more professional take on it. Ahem," Ali cleared , giving Em a pointed look. 

Em made a face at her, while I said, "Yes, I think once you actually start to get fans, being a fan is a lot different. Priorities shift."

"But we're really excited to go to Korea. And I hope a lot of our fellow fans go to see us there!"

"Next question!" Ali called out. "Do you still think of Queen Be as a member of Rstory?"

"No, not really," Eliz answered bluntly.

"Ya! I'm the one who thought of the name!" I yelled, indignant.

"Doesn't matter. You ditched us for SM!"

I pouted, and then they laughed at me. 

"Okay, let me read the next one!" I yelled, grabbing the phone from Ali. "I've been hearing Queen Be, Rstory, and Super Junior a lot on the radio lately. Who do you think is the most popular?"

"That's not a fair question, because the members of Super Junior aren't here," Jacklyn pointed out.

"But I'd say it's us. I mean, our videos have a lot more views than Mel's..." Ali answered.

"Hey, I gross more than you do!"

"Yup, you gross them alright..."

"HEY!"

They laughed again. "I don't know if we can really gauge our own popularity. I think more people from the United States know about Rstory than me, but I have a lot of international fans. And then My SuJu oppas have a bit of both..."

"Not to mention that SuJu's older. I don't think that's really fair. So we should stick to United States," Eliz decided.

"Alright, fine. I'd put us in order of Rstory, then me, then SuJu. But if we were doing international fans, SuJu would crush us both."

"We'll admit to that," Ali replied, shrugging. "So this question... 'do the Rstory members dorm together?' No. We go to separate colleges, so we only come together for performances and promotions. And then this one. 'how long have Rstory and Queen Be known each other? Did you live in the same town?' "

"Yes!" I answered happily. "Ali, Eliz and I lived within a few miles of each other, and then Jacklyn and Em lived on the other side of town."

"Queen Be is promoted as a 'country girl' from Wisconsin. Are all of the Rstory girls like this?"

They looked at each other. "Well, we all grew up outside of town, but..."

"Not really Eliz," I blurted, earning myself a glare. I laughed. "She didn't really like country life. That's why she moved to Chicago."

"Coming from the girl who lives in Seoul!"

"Nobody said it was my ideal home!"

"Okay, anyway, so no. I'd say me, Mel, and Jacklyn were the most country...ish."

"I'm still proud of my wild grape jelly. And I miss my vegetable garden... and fruit orchard..."

Ali nodded. "We did a lot of cooking."

"That's harder to do, now that we're singers. No time for anything."

"Alright, so that's it for questions! Now, since we're at the park, please excuse us, but we're going to go act like five-year-olds," Ali said, and then took off running towards playground. We all followed, and I reached the swings fast enough to beat Jacklyn there. So instead she went with Em on the see-saw.

We played like that for a while, the camera watching us the whole time. I missed playing weird games with my friends like this. going on the top deck of the playground and looking at each other through the "binoculars", racing each other down slides, throwing handfuls of grass at each other... we hadn't been like that in a long time.

And in a way, it was a great relief to be away from the SuJu members for a while. I could just relax and have fun. I was practically home. Actually, in a few days, I would be home. But I wouldn't be able to relax.

I missed my friends. The Wisconsin Girls. Because then, when the cameras were off, and were were sitting in a restaurant, eating hamburgers together, I was able to tell them about all that had happened to me in Korea. And yell at them for helping Henry with his little scheme. Apparently none of it had gone according to plan, anyway. 

"It feels like a waste, for you to just give up, though," Em complained. "But I guess we can only blame ourselves. We've been just as single as you have."

"But if you know any Kpop idols that are interested in foreign girls, just let us know..." Jacklyn whispered.

I laughed. "All my friends are the members of FASE. So if you want to go out with Kris or Henry..."

"I'LL TAKE HENRY!" Jacklyn yelled, startling me.

"You can't claim him! No!"

"But you just said..."

"I was joking!"

"Can I have Kris then?" Ali asked.

"No! I mean, yes! I mean... how am I supposed to know?!"

"Do you have his number?"

I thought about it, then felt the blush creep into my cheeks.

"You do! Call him! Call him right now!"

"And say what, exactly? 'Hey, Kris, I'm with my friends from Rstory, and Ali thinks you're hot and wants to date you?"

"Sounds like a plan," Ali joked.

"Yes. Wonderful joke." I sat back in my chair, looking out the window. "Nobody in Korea understands sarcasm. Since it's my prime form of humor, it got a bit stressful."

"Well, we're always here. Your sarcasm is safe with us."

"As well as my secrets, right?"

"Absolutely!" Jacklyn answered, then suddenly turned serious. "Wait, what secret?"

"I found out what Heechul's Tumblr account is..."