Erin’s POV

            After getting over Chanyeol not so suddenly ogling my non-existent cleavage, he wasn’t that bad to be around. He wasn’t exactly the ROFL happy virus like he was on TV (which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing since the dance teacher we were working with was a bit more on the serious side) but he also wasn’t a killjoy. He made jokes when I felt a little down and was a patient teacher when I had something to ask about the choreography.

            I don’t know if it was because I enjoyed the time with Chanyeol or the dance just came to the two of us easily, but we ended up learning the complete dance in less than 3 hours and were able to match the dance to the song too. I have to give Kai and Lay props, that dance was fast, especially during Key’s original rap part, which I got to do for the concert.

            “Kill me, aren’t you tired yet?” Chanyeol asked me during our ten-minute break. The instructor had to go to one of the other groups for a second because Tao and Meishan needed a modification to their routine and our instructor was their original choreographer.

            I was still bursting with energy so I practiced in front of the mirror while Chanyeol leaned against the far wall’s window and drank some water.

            “I was tired before, but I like this song, I want to be able to dance as well as you and the others” No matter what the teacher had kept picking on me about the sloppiness of my form, the coarse moves that showed how much training I lacked. Chanyeol was great at encouraging me when the teacher wasn’t listening, but I knew the teacher was right.

            “I’m curious, what song did you use to enter the company?”  Chanyeol spoke up after the second time I ran through the song by myself, still making mistakes in the same place.

            With a frustrated groan, I joined him on an adjacent window sill,

            “I didn’t really apply with a song, they scouted me when I was filming a dance cover” He raised an eyebrow

            “Scouted huh? That’s a new one, they haven’t scouted anyone straight from America since Yoochun-sunbaenim” My jaw dropped

            “Since THE Park Yoochun? Isn’t it like taboo to say JYJ’s name around here?” I looked at the door nervously.

            Chanyeol shrugged, “I mean, we don’t say it around the higher ups or the rest of DBSK, but they’re practically gods, of course the rest of us are going to talk about them. Joonmyeon, Jongin, and I remember when we filmed a CF of sorts with them, it leaves an impression when you meet the famous five of the last decade” I was still a bit surprised, I had always assumed that everyone at SM hated JYJ’s guts (even though if I was truthful with myself, I still believed in Yunjae quite a bit).

            “Break’s over, come-on, get back up” The teacher walked back in and we scrambled to get to our places.

            “Chanyeol, you’re missing the second beat”

            “Erin, can your feet move any slower?”

            “Erin, stop turning your head away from the mirror”

            “Erin, you’re out of line with Chanyeol”

            “Erin, you need to lose some weight, maybe you’ll move faster if you didn’t have to drag yourself around” I fought to not roll my eyes at her, knowing that if everyday was like today, I probably would really lose weight. But it made me satisfied when I was able to stay on beat.

            “Good Erin” She finally gave me a nod without a smile,  “That’s all the time we have today, the both of you better be here at 10 PM Monday”  We nodded and were left to ourselves.

            “Well, it is really late, and I bet the others are hungry. Do you want to see if we can go out to eat? There’s a small café down the street that’s open late for us”  I looked in my bag and found money that Mom had gotten with me at the currency exchange at home,

            “Sure” I was starving and all I wanted right now was sugar,

            We walked by the other rooms and got Kris, Elizabeth, Tao, Meishan, and Suho to come with us. The others had either gone home or said they weren’t hungry.

            “So how was practice?” Kris asked me.

            “It wasn’t terrible, just really long” It was midnight right now and we had started at 8, despite the teacher’s negative comments; I wasn’t really downheart since my swimming coach had said worse.

            “Erin, what would you like?” Suho asked me, his English wasn’t exactly crisp, but he had the grammar down.

            “Um, I’ll order for myself” I told him while pulling out my money.

            “Let him pay, he’s already paying for the rest of us, he can afford it?” Kevin (he told me to call him that) told me cheekily.

            “She’ll have the honeydew bubble tea,” Chanyeol spoke up for me. I shot him a glare, “Hey, let oppa pay if he offers,” He winked at me. I huffed and went over to the table that Elizabeth and Meishan were sitting at.

            “Hi” I said to the two girls.

            “Hey” the two of them welcomed me and I sat down opposite from them, next to the window.

            “I never got you’re real name” I said to Elizabeth,

            “Oh Mi-Yeon,” I smiled at her,

            “My Korean name is Choi Joon-Hee if it makes it easier for you guys”

            We talked for a few minutes about the group. SM had been putting the group together since EXO’s Wolf comeback(5 months ago) and at first had only planned five members per group, but then Kelly(whose really name was Na-Eun) was added to Mate, making Sun-Hye the pawn and forcing SM to find another person for ChecK to balance out the group. They thought at first that SM was going to definitely add Christine, an Australian trainee who was one-quarter French, but then she got vocal nodules and moved companies last month.

            We were going to talk more about the other members, but then Chanyeol and Kevin came in carrying our midnight snacks, trailed by Tao and Suho.

            Tao got green tea bubble tea, Meishan a got green tea baked good, Mi-Yeon opted for hot coffee along with Suho while Chanyeol, Kevin and I had fruit based bubble teas.

            I fought the urge to stare at the EXO’s glasses, all of them were wearing them, I wasn’t sure which ones were real since all of them had that geeky/stylish look to them. For extra measure, Suho and Chanyeol were wearing baseball caps.

            Then again, it was late at night so I didn’t think there was a real need for concern but knowing fans, you could never be too careful.

            “How was our Chanyeol today?” Suho asked after a few minutes of eating quietly. We were also sharing a giant waffle.

            “He’s a really good dancer, the teacher barely corrected him” I told the group earnestly.

            “But you were doing really well too! She was just picking on you because you’re new” Chanyeol assured me.

            “I’m really excited for your stage, none of us were allowed to go out of our rooms during practice so we couldn’t see you” Mi-Yeon spoke up for the first time around the guys.

            “What I really want to see is ChecK-Mate at the company showcase. It’s next month, isn’t it?” Kevin asked, then getting up to give the waffle plate back.

            “Yeah, next month. We still have a lot to do. Which song are you going to perform?” Meishan asked Tao.

            “A medley probably, the company’s still deciding on what were supposed to do but the concert’s first thing on their minds so we might not know until the week of”

            “Hey, Erin, do you have a phone?” Chanyeol asked during a lull in the conversation.

            “Um, I have a new one that the company gave me” I pulled out the iPhone 5 that one of the managers had given me in the meeting today, I still hadn’t actually used it yet so I didn’t know my number.

            “Here, I’ll put in my contact and send myself a message so you can have my number in case you ever want to practice extra before the concert” I gave Chanyeol the white phone and watched him type away.

            “You better put the rest of us in, since you lose your phone every week” Kevin told him

            “Good idea!” Chanyeol agreed and looked through his phone for their contacts.

            “Trust me, he loses it almost every Thursday or Friday and finds it again Sunday. This week he’s been lucky” Kevin smirked at the shorter Asian.

            “Don’t worry, I’m the same too,” I told Chanyeol. My old phone had been a non-smart phone too which kind of made there be no point of having it 24/7 since it could only do the bare minimal. If I had more energy, I might actually be more excited at having the iPhone, but right now I was just focused on my drink.

            “Give it to me after you’re done, I’ll put in our group’s numbers” Mi-Yeon said to Chanyeol while pulling out her phone.

            “Here you go” He handed her the small phone.

            “We should get Erin a case” Tao spoke up, “She needs something that’ll make sure she doesn’t lose it at SM or at school”

            “Oh! We could go to the night market nearby, they have a lot of cases and it’s on the way to the dorms” Meishan said, coming back from throwing away her trash.

            “Sure, we can go after Mi-Yeon is done with all the contacts” Suho decided.

            The 7 of us headed out, thanking the owner. It was really bright outside despite the time because of all the store lights that were still on. The others pointed out shops they frequented and the best places to eat when in a rush or late at night.

            “Here we are” Meishan and Mi-Yeon lead us into a large store, it looked like a warehouse.

            “OHMYGOD!” My jaw dropped when I saw the first person in line for the register. “Woo-Am?”

            “Erin?” He looked over, eyes unbelieving.

            I ran over, hugging my cousin for the first time in over a year.

            Woo-Am is my older cousin by two years on my mother’s side. His family cam to visit us in the states last summer but he was the only one out of his siblings that could come since the others were in college and wanted to study. Even though he had met Jason, he had gotten closer with me because I could speak more Korean and we were closer in age.

            “What are you doing here?” His English had improved by a LOT when he was over.

            “I’m just out with some friends” I told him.

            “But what are you doing in Korea?” I couldn’t tell him I was a trainee, or that I was going to debut,

            “I’m just on a small vacation” He had to check out so we couldn’t talk for very long.

            “Give me your number, maybe we can talk” I gave him my phone to punch in his contact. “But could you keep this a secret from your mom?” I asked him, if she knew she’d be asking why I wasn’t staying at her house or why th rest of the family hadn’t come with me, and I figured if Woo-Am didn’t know then his mom probably didn’t know either.

            “Sure, but we better meet up soon,” He didn’t ask questions, but he did give me a funny look. I hugged him bye and then realized I had left the group without a care,

            “Sorry!” I apologized, embarrassed at my outburst and for completely ignoring the others.

            “I thought you were from America, how do you know him?” Chanyeol asked.

            “Cousin” I said, not knowing how to say it in Korean.

            “Huh?” Tao asked

            “Cousin” Kevin supplied.

 

<><><><>------ I'm blinded by you who shines so that all other light becomes colorless -----<><><><>

Kris’s POV

            It was strange seeing her be so open with a complete stranger, until we found out it was her cousin.

            IT didn’t take that long to pick out a case for Erin, she wasn’t picky. She settled for a case with a black and white background like a chess board.

            “Well, we should probably go now, we’re down this street so see you guys later” Meishan said bye, ushering Mi-Yeon and Erin away down their street.

            Joonmyeon suddenly got a call from Jongdae back at the dorms.

            “Come Back quick! ’s about to go down, Manager-hyung caught Minseok and Luhan-ge!”