Chapter 8

After the day was over, Samantha really wanted to take a hot shower and lay down. She now fully understood what the managers had to deal with most of the time. When she used to hang around Beast, she took to befriending Joonkun and Jiyong (both of whom she thought were cute) and they would constantly vent about how tiring their jobs are. At the time, she could only sit there and listen. Now she had to act as a manager to BTOB, who all had distinctive personalities of their own. They were like Beast but more hyperactive and unruly. It was only the first day and she already felt overwhelmed.

She was relieved when BTOB’s manager, Jongwon, released her and she could finally go back to her new home.

On the way home, Samantha looked out the window in the van taking in the scenery. Seoul sure was beautiful in the night time, she thought. She still needed time to adjust knowing she would stay here longer than she had planned. There would be plenty of time for adjustments, she noted. Her eyes started to feel heavy and soon she fell asleep. “Hey, Sam,” Eunkwang called out to her. “We’re here.” When she did not respond, he turned to find her sound asleep. He hated to wake her but had no other option, he lightly shook her awake.

The girl slowly opened her eyes looking around in a daze. She turned to find BTOB’s leader before her, “We’re home,” he said.

Following him into the dorm, he led her to a room located down the hall by the entrance. It was located between another room and a bathroom. “This will be your new room,” he said opening the door to the small room. “Jongwon hyung wanted me to show you.”

It had a small twin-sized bed along with a night-stand which had a small lamp; to its right was a small closet. Her luggage had been brought over to the dorm standing in front of the small closet. “Thanks, I can take it from here,” she said turning to him, “You should get some sleep.”

He nodded, “I can say the same for you. You must be exhausted.”

She chuckled, “I’ll survive,” she said. “I’m still adjusting.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow,” he said then turned to leave.

After she had finished unpacking, she grabbed a change of clothes and proceeded to take a quick shower. When she was finished, she found Hyunsik and Minhyuk sitting in front of the TV watching a movie: The Lord of the Rings (she forgot which one). “You guys are still up?” she asked, joining them.

They glanced over at her. “We couldn’t sleep,” Hyunsik said looking back at the TV screen.

She nodded in understanding, focusing on the screen. This was one of her dad’s favorite movies. It started to hit her when she realized she forgot to call her family. The guys sensed her tense up. “Is everything okay?” Minhyuk asked, concerned when he looked away from the TV.

“Yeah,” she answered standing up. “I just forgot to do something.” Before they could respond, Samantha ran into her room to grab her phone.

There were 7 missed calls and 5 unread text messages. To her surprise, they were from her best friend Ailee and the others were from her siblings back home. Crap! She thought. Aside from Dongwoon, she had forgotten about her other best friend. “Ailee can wait,” Samantha mumbled as she dialed her siblings. “Hey sis…”

Samantha had to convince her siblings not to tell her parents about what had happened to her. Her father would be indifferent but her mother, on the other hand, was a different story. If her mother knew about her daughter landing in another destination instead of the planned destination, she would start calling her aunts and uncles from out of town to pitch in money so that Samantha would be on the first flight home. Going home was the last thing on Samantha’s mind so she had to convince her younger siblings, Stacy and Jason to keep it a secret. Under one condition, they said. Samantha groaned, “I knew I shouldn’t have told you guys.”

“Sammie,” Stacy said sternly, “We’re your siblings. You know we have your back. I mean you did cover for me whenever I would go see Gabriel.” She made a point. Samantha always looked out for her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, who Samantha referred to as her adoptive brother. “However, I would really like for you to ask Beast to sing at least one song for me… in person.”

“That is like seriously impossible,” Samantha complained.

“I can go tell Mom and Dad,” Stacy replied matter-of-factly. “They wanted to talk to you…”

“NO!” Samantha exclaimed. “I mean, not right now… Look Stace, I’ll figure something out. I mean the guys are really busy but I’ll try to talk to them as soon as I can.”

She clearly did not sound pleased with the answer. “Jason wants to talk to you,” Stacy said then handed the phone to her brother.

“Hi Sam,” Jason’s deep voice rang through.

“Hey Jace,” Samantha greeted him. “What’s up?”

“Can you buy me a pair of shoes?” he asked.

Samantha rolled her eyes. Of course, she thought, knowing her teenage brother, he would ask for a pair of expensive shoes. “Sure thing, little brother,” she faked a smile, “What kind of shoes would you like?”

“I would like a new pair of Jordans,” he answered.

She mentally face palmed herself. Out of all the shoes in the world, why Jordans?! She thought. He’s seriously going to make me broke. “Okay, I’ll try to buy you some new releases,” she said.

“Okay! And one more thing,” he said. Samantha froze. What is it now?

“Yes?” she said trying to sound calm.

“Can you send me a picture of Ailee?” he asked.

Her siblings were going to be the end of her, she thought. “Seriously?” she asked. “Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

“Come on, Sam. She’s your best friend. She won’t say no to you,” Jason begged. “And you know I’m shy around her!”

“Oh right, use the best friend card on me why don’t you?!” she exclaimed dryly laughing. “Seriously, Jason, that is just creepy. What are you gonna do worship that picture every night?”

Jason let out a sinister laugh. Weirdness runs in the family, she thought to herself. “Ugh! Fine!” she rubbed her forehead with her free hand. “I’ll try to ask her too. Promise me, you won’t tell Mom and Dad where I am.”

“Okay, I won’t,” he said. “I’ll talk to you later, Sam. Bye!”

When she hung up, she heard snickering behind her. , her eyes widened. She forgot to shut the door. Turning around, she found Hyunsik and Minhyuk looking at her. Both guys tried to stifle their laughter. “Sorry,” she said nervously, “My siblings are black-mailing me, as you can see.”

“At least, we know you’re okay,” Minhyuk chuckled.

“Of course!” she grinned widely. “Don’t worry about me! Now why don’t you two go finish your movie?” she said then shut the door.

Next, she proceeded to check her text messages, which were all from Ailee. Hey, Dongwoon just informed me you were here in Seoul. What?! -Amy

You have A LOT of explaining to do, little missy!

Call me as soon as you can!

Still waiting…

Hello?!

The last message was sent a half hour ago. Samantha immediately dialed her best friend. After the third ring, she finally answered. “Hello?” she sounded tired.

“Hey, Amy, it’s me,” she said. “It’s Sam.”

“YOU!” she raised her voice prompting Samantha to move it away from her ear. “We need to see each other, NOW!”

Samantha looked at the time: it was 2:10 a.m. “This late?! Are you crazy?” Samantha exclaimed. “Don’t you have a curfew or something?”

“My manager isn’t even here,” she said. “So are we meeting up or what? I know a café that is open for 24 hours. We can meet there."

Samantha sighed. “Fine, I’ll meet you. Where is it?”

A/N: Hello again! Here's another update... Ailee makes an appearance. I'll be focusing on her next chapter. I just thought I'd make an introduction of her character here. Enjoy! :D