You are lying on your bed in your dorm room, all nice and dry. Kyuhyun had dropped you off and quickly rushed to his room before anyone would notice. You remember how he smiled at you before entering the room-- his calm smile, so unlike what he had been like before the quagmire incident.

You find yourself smiling as well.

AUGH NO! I'm supposed to be a guy! ... Oh wait. He knows that I'm a girl... BUT STILL! I MUST CONTROL MY FEELINGS! Things will only get complicated if I start liking one of them, moreso if it's Kyuhyun. Dx

You change your train of thought. When you came into the room earlier, Heechul had the shock of his life.

"HANEUL!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?? WHY ARE YOU ALL MUDDY AND WET AND FREEZING??"

"Hyung, I'm oka--"

"NO, YOU'RE NOT! YOU COULD GET SICK!!" He rambled on about how you weren't allowed to get sick because of the band competition coming up really really soon and how he wanted you to be there to watch them and etc and etc and etc...

So you're now in fresh dry pajamas, wrapped up in 2 layers of blankets with a warm compress on your forehead (thanks to a very worried Heechul). You pick up the flashlight beside you. It is black and verty typical-looking--like the kind you can just buy anywhere. There are no clues as to who had previously owned it.

You sigh and gaze up at the night sky through the glass ceiling window. There are no stars anymore.

"I could have sworn they were out earlier while talking to Kyuhyun..." you whisper to yourself, careful not to wake the pink Sleeping Beauty down below.

You drift off to sleep...

You are running. Running where? Just running. You see nothing because of the black fog that seems to be wrapping everything up. You are running on nothingness. Then you see a white light. You run towards it, and it gets closer and closer. Behind the light, you see a guy in black. He is turned to you but his face is unclear. As you get closer, you realize that though his body is facing you, his face is the other way around. All you see is the back of his head. When you finally reach him, you stop. His face turns around 180 degrees to face you. It is the face of Kyuhyun. Then it transforms to Donghae's face. Then to Kibum's. Then to Siwon's. Then to Jungsu's, then Youngwoon's, then a thousand other faces that you don't recognize. Your head starts to hurt.

Will I EVER know you?

May 21, 5pm, The Day of the Band Competition: HONGDAE

You are now in Hongdae, the music district of Korea and the niche of better-than-mainstream street performers and passionate underground musicians. The competition will be held at 8 o' clock in the evening at one of the open soccer fields downtown. It is now 5 o'clock. Ryeowook, Heechul, Siwon, Sungmin, Youngwoon, Jungsu and Jongwoon are already at the venue doing rehearsals. Hangeng and the other guys are back at the hotel room that the event organizers had reserved for the Seoul High band. You, on the other hand, are out with a certain fish in an ice cream parlor.

"Really, Donghae? Even in Hongdae, the first thing you look for is strawberry ice cream?" you say as you scoop a spoonful of mango-graham frozen yogurt into your mouth.

"But I love strawberry ice cream," Donghae pouts.

"But this is Hongdae, Donghaeeee-- hey, that was pretty fun to say-- at least eat something related to Hongdae."

He plays around with his ice cream. "There, now it's related to Hongdae."

You take a look into his bowl. The ice cream is now shaped like a guitar. =_= "Very funny."

He grins at you with his tongue stuck out between his teeth and he proceeds to happily eat the top part of his ice cream guitar.

"By the way, Haneul," he says, looking up from his dessert. "Have you heard the other bands who'll be competing later?"

"Nope, why? Have you? We're not allowed in the venue yet," you reply, distracted by the spot of pink ice cream on his nose. You debate with yourself whether you should tell him to wipe it off or just leave it there because he looks really funny.

And cute. xD

"Well," he says, looking up while biting his spoon, totally clueless of the state of his nose, "I've heard the ones from Dongeui High, Neungryool High, and Ehwa High..."

"Ehwa has a band?" o_O

"Mhm! Taeyeon is their vocalist. You've met Taeyeon, right?"

"I... think so? I'm not so sure if I remember..."

"Ah, well, there. Heechul is good friends with the vocalist of the band from Dongeui. He's a pretty nice guy. Kind of a player though. Sings really well though his style is different from Jongwoon's." He spoons some more ice cream into his mouth like a kid.

"I heard from Sungmin that the band from Neungryool is really good," you say, popping a mango cube into your mouth.

"AH YEAH. Gosh. Their genre is sort of... well, it's different from the usual. They're very funky."

"Oh really? I expect this night to be an interesting one," you remark. You can't take it anymore. "Donghae."

"Hm?"

You point to your nose. "Ice cream."

"OH!" he tries to reach his nose with his tongue. He is seriously struggling to do it. You look at him with a =_= face. Then you grab a piece of tissue, lean forward across the table and dab his nose with it. At some point, you look into his eyes that are staring back at you innocently. He breaks into a big smile. "Thanks, Haneul-ah~!" You blink at him.

"Yeah, whatever," you say as you sink back into your seat.

"Haneul, Donghae!" someone squeaks.

"Hi, Wookie!" Donghae waves as Ryeowook approaches.

"Ryeowookie!" you exclaim. "I thought you were at the venue too."

"Oh, they were doing fine so I decided to go out for a walk instead."

"How's Siwon doing?" you ask curiously.

"Oh, he's doing really well! He never misses nor goes out of timing anymore."

"That's great to hear," you smile. "My wrist still hasn't healed so it really was a good thing to get him to replace me."

"Haneuuuul, why are you so concerned with Siwon?? What about me?? You're MY Haneul!!" Donghae whines playfully.

"Aish, you fish," you say, secretly blushing. "I don't belong to anyone."

"WAEEEE??" he cries as he spoons a big chunk of ice cream into his mouth.

You wait a moment.

...

"WAAAAH, MY BRAIN!!" he shouts, fanning his mouth. "COLD COLD COLD!!"

You and Ryeowook laugh at the idiot.

"By the way, Haneul, can I ask you a favor?" Ryeowook says softly.

"Sure, what is it?" Donghae is still fanning his mouth from across the table.

"Can you, uh, not make eye contact with Siwon during the performance?"

"Huh? Okay, but why?"

"I think that he loses his focus when you make eye contact with him. I don't know why. You have a knack for hitting his nerves," he shrugs.

"Why so?" o_O

"Well, remember what I told you last time at the studio rehearsal? It happens more often now. And one time, even Yoona herself asked me what was troubling him because he 'seems out of it lately'. It's a good thing that his band performance isn't affected. But yeah, just as a precaution..."

"Okay, will do, Wookie."

"WAH. It's gone~" Donghae sings. He is about to scoop another spoonful of ice cream but then hesitates and halves it to make a smaller serving before eating it.

"Idiot fishy," you chuckle.

"HEH," Donghae says.

8:00pm: BAND COMPETITION VENUE

You are now at the competition grounds. The soccer field is filled with screams of excitement and buckets of tension in the air as the countdown starts. There is a good 20 minutes before the event begins. The big stage is lit up by dancing spotlights of fuschia, orange, green, blue, yellow, and red. Green laser lights play around on the standing audience members as the smoke machines add an ethereal effect to the place. A lot of people are here tonight-- from middle schoolers (Why are there middle schoolers here? o_O) all the way up to grandparents (stage grannies). You are standing in front of the stage, on the right hand side, with Donghae, Eunhyuk, Hangeng, Donghee, and Nari.

Over the noise of the crowd, Ryeowook signals to you, "Come, Haneul, let's go backstage!"

"Oh, we can? Okay!" you reply excitedly.

You follow Ryeowook and go past the production crew who ask for your ID. When Ryeowook shows him his pass, they let you both through to the big backstage tent. Inside that, there are several sections covered with black curtains, each with the school's names taped to the sides. As you pass by, you see that one of the curtains is open and there are several guys from another school in stylish attire, prepping themselves up. You hear others tuning their guitars and instruments. Below the shouts of the technical crew and stage manager, you hear the rhythmic tapping of numerous drumsticks on plastic.

Wow, everyone seems so psyched up! And some of them are really cute. xD Hee~ Stop staring, Haneul~

You finally see a sign that says "Seoul High School". You go through the curtain and the first thing you see is a red-haired Heechul fixing his bangs in the mirror.

"HYUNG, SINCE WHEN WAS YOUR HAIR RED?" you gape at him.

"Haneul! Nah, this is just a wig. Being a keyboardist doesn't really let you do wild stuff around the stage so at least I let my hair do all the jumping."

Sungmin is practicing his bass lines on the side while Jungsu and Youngwoon are tuning their guitars. They each acknowledge your presence with a smile and a nod. Except for Youngwoon who jumps up and almost drops his guitar as he shouts, "KOREA'S NUMBER 1 COOL GUY!! YOU'RE HERE!!" He gives you a high five.

"Youngwoon, do that later. We need to fix your guitar strings," Jungsu says.

"Oh, right, okay," he says going back to his seat. "Great to see you here, Haneul," he grins.

Your eyes slowly go to Siwon, sitting quietly in a corner with his back turned and earphones plugged in, reading his Bible while clutching his drumsticks.

Okay, remember what Wookie said. Don't do anything to make Siwon lose focus.

You decide to leave him to his quiet Bible time.

"Jongwoon!" you exclaim.

"Haneul, hello!" he says as he steps closer.

"Wow! You look really cool! Good job, man," you give him a double thumbs up.

"Thanks," he says eyesmiling.

"Come on, I'll take a picture of you in that. Pose pose!" you take a photo with your phone.

Heechul hands Jongwoon a clapboard. "Go over there by that drum set and do an intro!!" He takes out his cellphone to take a video. You go beside Heechul so that you can see what's on his cellphone.

Jongwoon happily does as he is told. "We are... Seoul High... RRRRrrrrrr~~"

Siwon finishes his Bible reading and his eyes widen when he sees you. "Oh, Haneul."

"Hey, pre--Siwon, how are you?" you grin nervously, thinking of a way to cut the conversation short due to Ryeowook's warning.

"Pretty okay..."

You blink at each other. Ryeowook seems to have taken notice of this awkwardness because he steps forward and says, "Haneul, I'll just talk to them for a while."

"Okay, sure sure," you say enthusiastically, hopping out through the curtain. You hear Ryeowook inside speaking.

"Guys, I just want to thank you so much for choosing me and bringing my song to life. I may not be an actual member of the band nor the leader of this endeavor but..." he goes on.

As you wait outside, a guy in a beret and trench coat approaches and asks you, "Excuse me, have you seen the floor manager? Fat short guy with a headset?" You gaze up at him surprised.

"U-u-uh... I'm sorry I haven't..." you stutter.

"Oh okay, thanks anyway," he walks away.

IS MY NOSE BLEEDING??? I HOPE NOT. xDDDDD

Your eyes follow him as he walks away and your vision seems to be in slow-motion. It is only after 5 long seconds that you realize that someone is waving at you.

"Jiwon?" you shake yourself out of it.

"Haneul oppa!!" Jiwon squeals, waving both her hands high in the air. With her are Yoona and Jessica who both wave at you too. "Why was your mouth gaping open? Do we really look that dazzlingly pretty?"

"Uhh..."

"HAHA just kidding, oppa!!" she leans in closer and whispers, "That was Wonbin."

OuO. "Holycrap, I saw Wonbin~~ He talked to me~ heee~" eue

"Aaaanyway, oppa, where's my brother?"

"Oh, he's inside here," you point at the curtain. "I'm actually surprised to see you guys here," you laugh.

"HAH, of course we'd be here! It's my brother doing something fun, and our school's band is playing too. Taeyeon unnie is the vocalist~"

"Yeah, I heard from Donghae. Oh, speaking of Donghae, he's out in the audience near the stage," you tell Jessica.

"Oh, okay," she says, giving you a tight-lipped smile.

From inside the tent, you hear a loud shout of "HWAITING!!" to which Jiwon responds by hopping inside, dragging Yoona along and shouting, "YEAH, HWAITING, YOU GUYS!!! YA, SIWON OPPA, do your best okay?? Yoona unnie is here now!"

You are left outside with Jessica. She smiles shyly at you and you smile back politely.

Okay, why does this feel more awkward than earlier with Siwon?

"How have you been, Haneul oppa? I haven't seen you in a while... " she says.

"Haha, yeah, that's true," you reply, scratching your head. "I've been pretty okay." You put your hands in your pockets.

"Mm... " A moment of silence. "Where are you staying in the audience?" she asks.

"Oh, I'll be near the stage with Donghae and the others. How about you guys?"

"Omo, the others are somewhere there too! I guess I'll see you later then?"

You just nod in response, trying to be nice but not too nice. A chubby short guy with a headset comes and peeks into the Seoul High curtains. "SEOUL HIGH, WE'RE STARTING IN 7 MINUTES!" He takes the claprboard from Jongwoon and then moves onto the next sections and repeats the motion.

Jiwon, Yoona, and Ryeowook come back out and you all return to the audience. The girls are apparently staying at the side opposite yours and at this, you let out a sigh of relief. You and Ryeowook rejoin the other guys on the right hand side.

"HANEUL, JESSICA'S HERE~~!!" Donghae tugs at your arm.

"I know, fish brain, I know," you mumble.

"I wish she could stay on our side of the stage instead..." he sighs.

You ignore him and keep your eyes fixed on the countdown on the big LED screen onstage. You watch as the big red numbers go...

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