THE NEXT DAY

"You're not invited." Seohyun was handing out tickets to the prom when I told her that I was going. Minho was nowhere in sight yet, so I was alone against her wrath.

"Everyone's invited Seohyun. It's a school dance." I drawled back at her as I rolled my eyes at her snotty response.

Seohyun looked away from the ticket booth. "The operative word being 'dance'. Victoria, you can't walk on your own two feet, let alone dance." She turned to her friend Sooyoung and pointed at me with her thumb, saying as though I wasn't there, "Embarrassing." And they giggled together. If only she knew.

I rolled my eyes while saying, "Don't worry; I'm just going there to cover for the school paper."

Her teasing smile slowly vanished and she looked me up and down. "Oh."

Sooyoung immediately grabbed her attention back. "Oh! Are you bringing your camera with you to Seoul?" she asked, excited.

"Sooyoung, of course I am –" Seohyun rolled her eyes.

"Because we still need pics of TVXQ," Victoria pulled out what looked to me like a scrap book from under the ticket table and Seohyun gasped. "talking, walking, singing, dancing, moving, breathing," I zoned her out after that, and looked at them through my eyelashes as though they were crazy, with my mouth slightly open, and my eyebrows raised to my hair line. Where are you Minho?

"Why are you both so  hung up on these guys?" I couldn't help but ask. They looked at me like I was crazy.

"'These guys?" Sooyoung snarled at me.

"Mmhm." I nodded.

"Now you see what I live with?" Seohyun asked.

"Poor you – "

"Little sister," Seohyun interrupted her friend, looking at me like I was an infant who needed to learn right from wrong but couldn't get it. "When we go to Seoul, you can play Paduk (traditional Korean game) with Grandma Choi, but I'm going to meet," cue the sigh, "Dong Bang Shin Ki." Sooyoung giggled.

"And just how are you planning on doing that?" I asked, annoyed by her dreaminess.

Sooyoung responded opening the scrap book. "Well, we've mapped out their every move for the last eighteen months."

Seohyun continued. "I know when and where they’re likely to be every second of every day. And by the time we leave for Seoul, they'll be having their daily practice with their backup dancers in the SM entertainment building." Somehow, on cue, they giggled and sighed at the same time. I rolled my eyes. Such sasaengs. Minho showed up then, and the three of us – Seohyun not after saying good-bye to Sooyoung – walked out to get in Mom's car and be on our way to Seoul, where my life would take an interesting turn, for better or worse.