Ara had dreamed of what S.M. Entertainment looked on the inside. She had imagined it as two things: one of her fantasies was a palace-like building. Sure, S.M. looked professional on the outside, but she expected some form of royalty to be plastered on the inside for the idols that came from within. She half-expected the building to be one of those kinds where the inside was magially larger than what it seemed; she expected magic.

The other imagination was what the fans of S.M. had joked about, the one where the building was filled with "cloud-rooms" and dungeons. The idol's dance practices were filled with sky backdrops. The fans may have had a hunch as to why; one pointed out that the color blue keeps people awake, and the rest of the fans declared that it was there to keep the idols from falling asleep during practice.

Then there were the “dungeons,” where the fans suggested the idols were kept by the company, stored away like the dolls that they were. “Let ______ out of the dungeon” became a frequent phrase. Ara ouldn’t help but join them in this chant, as well as the distorted vision of the building. It made her laugh, but this was all the fans ever saw—there were no halls, no conference rooms… Nothing.

So when Ara began to look around her, she was thrown into shock once again. The building was normal, just as the others on the street were; no magic tricks were played here. She had just come from the lobby, where there was a large reception desk. It was empty at the time, but there were several chairs. There were a few banners along the walls, promoting the company and the groups within it. The floors were polished and tiled in a classic, professional style. This building was beautiful, and Ara felt a desire to see more of it, explore every crevice… This feeling was stored away by something more powerful, however…

Ara still hadn’t recovered from the nightmare that was SHINee’s fans. She wanted to curl up somewhere and cry. Key acted like it was nothing and it confused Ara to no end. They’d almost been trampled and he was still on about schedules and high notes. Ara looked at the young man with confusion, about to ask a question, when someone called the two of them.

“Jinki! Kibum!”

Ara was startled by the voice from down the hall, and she jumped. She whipped around, tearing out of Key’s grasp, and Key let out a gasp in response. She didn’t look at him, but knew that the other member had turned around to also see who called him, and who started her so badly.

“Lu Han-Hyung!” Key replied just as heartily, once he recognized the person approaching them. He was shorter than the two of them, and had blond, curly hair, with the face of a twelve year old.

Lu Han?

As in Luhan of EXO…? Ara scrutinized the boy.

Key’s voice interrupted her thoughts, “I haven’t seen you around for a while.”

“Just got off tour.” Luhan smiled, but he looked tired; the dark circles were very visible.

“You look it.” Key placed his hands on his hips.

Luhan leaned on the wall. “I think the Shanghai fans are getting worse.”

“I don’t know about that,” Key grinned a little. “We just had us a situation outside.”

“Ah… get swarmed again?”

“When do we not?” Key almost sounded smug about almost dying. Ara threw him another bewildered glance. Key caught it, before chuckling and flinging his arm around Ara’s shoulders again.

 “Nah, Jinki got shoved and almost made friends with the pavement.”

“Again?” Luhan glanced at Ara.

Again? What did he mean? Ara looked down at him, thinking of what to possibly say. After a moment of not thinking of anything, she laughed nervously and nodded. That was something that Onew would do, laugh it off and look silly…. She hoped, if she knew her idol; however, things were beginning to prove otherwise.

Fortunately for her, Luhan nodded once and checked his phone, and his expression suddenly went from cheery yet tired to exasperated and frowning.

“Ah, really?” he looked up, seeming annoyed. “I need to go.”

“Alright.” Key motioned for Ara to precede him down the hall. “Hey! We should do dinner since you guys are back.”

“Yeah, sure!” Luhan nodded. “I’ll ask the others about it.”

“Cool!” Key smiled brightly at the older boy. “We’ll.. Maybe see you later then! Jinki-hyung and I are going to vocal practice.”

“Fun,” Luhan laughed sarcastically, before glancing at Ara and frowning. “You okay, hyung? You’re awfully quiet today.”

Ara startled, before opening to speak. Suddenly, Key gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“He’s fine, just a little tired,”he replied coolly. Ara looked at him in surprise.

Luhan nodded again. “I see,” he replied. Well, I’m off. It was nice seeing you again!” With that, the Chinese member of EXO his heel and walked the other direction, before turning the corner and disappearing from sight.

Key’s smile, plastered on his face and seemingly genuine, began to fade into a saddened one, before giving Ara another squeeze and looking at her. The emotion in them was unexplainable; it was so complex that Ara couldn’t quite place what emotion it was.

But she knew it had something to do with sadness.

She had to ask. “Why’d you answer for me?” she inquired. Key shook his head.

“It’s better to not let them in on this; the more people who know, the bigger the problem gets,” he whispered.

What problem??? Ara was getting tired of this. She knew there was an internal conflict between the group members, but what in the world was it? Her fists clenched; threatened to open and yell out her curiosity, but then she knew she would be more heavily out of character than she already has been. She chewed the inside of her cheek, grimacing.

However, there was irony in Key’s sinister remark; he had just spoken of Ara’s internal problem without knowing it. Ara wanted to cry at how much Key seemed to know, but didn’t know at all, and what Ara had to act like she knew, but didn’t know at all.

She just wanted to cry.

“Come on,” Key whispered again. “Let’s get going.” With an arm around her shoulders, he turned the both of them around and began walking, practically dragging Ara.

It felt as if he’d done it many, many times before, because he didn’t question her deadweight.

He just carried her on.