(Abby’s POV)

My MP3 finished playing the ‘Castle in the Sky’ soundtrack and I sighed, rolling over for the ten millionth time that night.

I groaned, got out of bed, and walked to the kitchen to make a glass of ice water.

My phone buzzed in my hand. Who could possibly be texting me at 3:30am?

I opened the message that read,

*I know we’re over, but as a friend, I want to say good luck to you guys and all of us will be there to support you.* It was Teukie. Why does he like me so much?! What did I do to make him fall for me!?

 *Thanks* I responded coldly.

A few minutes later he answered,

  *Why aren’t you sleeping? I only sent the last message expecting you to answer it in the morning.*

I chuckled a little bit.

*I couldn’t sleep.*

A moment later, my phone rings and I realized he was calling me.

“What?” I asked as I picked up.

“Are you nervous?” he asked, without a hello.

“I always get nervous.” 
“What did you do for your nerves before?”

“I imagined I was at school, in a practice room, where only me, myself, and I can hear my playing. But it’s going to be different this time,” I replied glumly, taking a sip of my water.

“Why? Just do what you normally do.”

“But I’m not comfortable in the practice rooms SM uses…” I confessed.

Teukie laughed. “Why not?”

“I’m still trying to get over the fact that all the SM groups use that room—So I’m still fangirling.”

Teukie’s slight laughter turned hysterical and I heard someone ‘shh’ him in the background. “I would have never guessed that you’d still be fangirling.”

“That’s because I don’t with you guys anymore—but I do with SHINee and TVXQ…and any group that’s not you guys for that matter.”

“Who’s your favorite from SHINee?”

“None of your business,” I smirked.

He chuckled. “You’re cute.”

I frowned. Oh how he just killed the mood.

“I’m going to try and go back to sleep okay?” I asked.

“Wait! I’m sorry,” he said quickly.

“For?” I asked, finally glad he’s saying sorry.

“For kissing you at the restraunt today—I mean yesterday,” He said looking at the time. “I realized that you liked Yesung and I got jealous…so I kissed you trying to see if maybe you would like me instead.”

I scoffed. “That’s not the way to get someone to like you.”

“I know. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

“Good night Leeteuk.” I said, hanging up on him.

God why does he have to do this to himself?! I asked myself. Before walking back to my room...

I peaked in on Alyssa, who was sleeping peacefully, and sighed, happy that one of us could be rested in the morning. I then walked back to my room, attempting the whole sleeping process for a second time.

The sound of my alarm broke through my sleep much too early and not a moment later, Alyssa came running into my room.

“Abbbbbyyyyy! Get up!” she whined, shaking me.

I pushed her away. “Are you high!?” I asked, knowing she is never this happy when she wakes up.

“No, I’m just really excited for today,” she said with a creepy grin on her face.

Gosh she’s so weird.

“Excited eh? That’s one way to put it,” I said, forcing myself out of bed.

I reluctantly put on clothes then walked to the kitchen table falling asleep on it.

The next thing I know, Manager Shim is walking through our front door. “Sorry I’m late girls. I didn’t realize the traffic would be so bad at 5. Come on. We need to get you to the salon now.”

I stood up and walked in silence to the car with Alyssa and our manager.

By the time we got to the salon, I was nearly dead from exhaustion. It might have been better for me to just stay up all night rather than having a teaser of sleep that only lasted an hour and a half.

In the salon, as soon as Mr. Shim left, Alyssa looked at me. “Abby, you need to wake up, fast,” she told me in firmly English.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep, and then Teukie called me.”

She frowned. “What’d that jerk want?”

“He knew I was nervous, so he tried to get me to calm down. Then he told me I’m cute and I hung upon him,” I said smugly.

Alyssa clapped her hands proudly. “I taught you so well.”

“Hey, you aren’t going to give me any credit?”

“Well…I’ll give you a little bit.”

The hair stylists began to work on my hair I fell asleep in my chair at all the soft tugging on my scalp.

When I awoke, Alyssa was already getting changed. I looked in the mirror and no longer recognized myself. My face was painted with so much foundation my freckles no longer showed. The way my eye makeup was put on made me look almost Oriental and there were absolutely no words to describe how…odd…my hair looked.

I quickly got dressed in skinny-jeans and awkward shoulder-less shirt they told me to wear and instantly had people attacking me to fix my appearance they were working so preciously on.

Finally I was able to see Alyssa again. I walked back into the sitting room and saw my friend in heals, miniskirt and a tight cowl neck shirt with make up just as thick as mine.

We both burst into laughter at the sight of each other.

“We look so ridiculous!” I said.

“No…we look like wanna be KPOP stars,” she laughed.

“If our families thought we looked and acted Asian before, then they would die at the sight of us now,” I said laughing.

“Mr. Shim told me that we need to meet him at the car,” she said, changing the subject.

I nodded and we walked outside to the car, meeting Manager Shim who was laughing at our appearances.

“What? Do we look that stupid?” Alyssa asked.

“Oh no. You girls look wonderful. It’s just that I left the salon 2 hours ago with a walking zombie and a girl dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. I come back and I actually have women in front of me.”

I rolled my eyes at the man, happy that I got an extra two hours of sleep.

“Come on, get in,” he said, opening the door for us.

I fidgeted with the missing shoulders of my shirt.

“Leave the shoulder alone Abby. Be confident in all the outrageous clothing that you will have to wear. Be more like…Alyssa,” Mr. Shim said with a laugh at how well Alyssa was handling the new style of clothing.

She laughed “Yeah, be more like me Abby,” she said as she slid next to me and flipped her hair.

“Alyssa, don’t mess up your hair. The stylists will kill me if you wreck it.” Manager Shim scolded.

A few minutes later, we pulled up to the SM Entertainment building. “Kim Young Min has a present he wants to give you two before the sound check,” Mr. Shim told us as we got out of the car.

We followed him inside the building and back to CEO Kim’s office.

“He’s at the CJ Media building, getting ready for your debut, but he wanted to get these to you before you arrived,” Manager Shim said, walking over to a closet and coming out with an electric cello and viola.

Both of us gasped at the sight of the beautiful instruments and took them from the man.

“These are for u-us?” I stuttered, grabbing the neck of the shimmering, sleek, midnight purple instrument.

He nodded with a smile. “He figured you would like these.”

“I can’t believe it!” Alyssa squealed, as she gently caressed her blue viola.

“Also Abby, your cello has an attachment that wraps around your body so you can play while walking.”

“This is so cool!” I said acting like a little kid on Christmas morning, strumming the strings of my new cello.

“Alright girls, we need to get going,” he said, taking the matching cases out of the closet and handing them to us a few minutes later.

As we left the building, someone yelled, “clAssicAl!” from behind us.

We turned around, and saw Yunho and Changmin from TVXQ walking toward us.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh…” I mumbled.

“Act cool Abby. Okay?” No fangirling,” Alyssa whispered to me, before walking up to them. “Hi! My name’s Alyssa! Nice to meet you!” Alyssa shook their hands.

“And that means you’re Abby?” Yunho asked me.

I looked down trying to hide my blush.

OH my God, Yunho just talked to me.

 “Yes, this shy girl is Abby,” Alyssa said sternly, elbowing me in the side.

I looked up. “Nice to meet you,” I said softly, smiling at them.

Yunho flashed his amazing smile at me and I about died.

“We just wanted to congratulate you and wish you luck for today’s debut performance,” Yunho said.

“And we wanted to meet you two, since we haven’t been introduced yet,” Changmin finished.

“Thank you,” we both said simultaneously.

Manager Shim cleared his throat. “Come on you two. We need to get going.”

We bowed politely to TVXQ and told them bye.

“Bye! Good luck! Nice meeting you!”Changmin told us and Yunho finished this time by saying “Don’t be nervous!”

“They’re so cool…” I whispered slightly.

“OH my God—we just shook hands with Yunho and Changmin…” Alyssa said a little bit too loudly.

We heard them laugh from behind us, obviously hearing what Alyssa said. I hit her on the arm. “Could you be any louder?” I hissed.

She gave me a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”

Manager Shim rolled his eyes. “So who’s your favorite from TVXQ?” he asked us.

“Yunho,” we both replied, and then looked at each other glaring playfully.

He burst into laughter. “Does that mean that I should try and get you and TVXQ to do a song together?”

“You wouldn’t…” I said daringly.

“Oh but I would.”

“I don’t mind…getting to dance with them would be fun,” Alyssa said with a wink.

“Maybe I won’t then…or I’ll just get Abby to do it since she seems most awkward around them,” he said with a laugh.

I huffed. “Can we at least wait till after promotions before you start scarring me with this?” I asked.

“Oh I’m so going to do that now.”

I glared at the manager.

“Get in the car and stop frowning before the foundation has frown marks on it,” he said smiling at me.

“So does this mean we don’t get to do a collaboration with TVXQ?” Alyssa pouted.

Manager Shim and I both ignored Alyssa as I crawled into the car and we drove off to the CJ Media Building.

After the sound check and going through the song four times, we went back to our room where our stylist’s made sure our hair, makeup, and outfits were correct.

A few people came in and interviewed us, but for the most part we had a thirty minute break till our performance at 3.

“Look who I found walking around aimlessly in Seoul,” Manager Shim said, walking in with a grin on his face, at 10 till 3 o’clock.

Our brothers and sisters walked in behind Manager Shim.

We both ran up to the people and hugged them.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying not to cry my makeup off.

“We wanted to see your first performance as a Korean idol,” my older sister, Amanda, said after hugging me. “That, and Jessica was threatening to run away to Korea to see you if someone didn’t come with her.”

I hugged my little sister, Jessica. “Thanks for coming you guys…I wasn’t expecting any of this.”

“Yah, don’t cry. I knew you were probably nervous, but I didn’t think you’d be this bad of a wreck,” Jessica joked with me. “Anyways, you should have seen us when we and Alyssa’s siblings were walking around Seoul, trying to find something that resembled this building. People were looking at us like, ‘Stupid foreigners!’ Good thing your manager found us and speaks good English.”

I laughed at the thought of these four Korean culturally challenged people walking around Seoul. “Gosh I would pay to see that…” I looked around the room. “No Mom and Dad?”

Amanda shook her head. “Nope. Just us. And our brother with his wife didn’t want to come either. I’m sorry…”

I smiled slightly then hugged them again. “That’s okay. I get along better with my blood sisters than I do with them anyways.”  

“clAssicAl, you’re on in five,” one of the stage hands said peaking their heads in.

Our stylists came in for a final checking and separated me from my sisters.

“Go find your seats. I’ll see you when everything is over,” I told them over the lady working with my shirt again.

My family smiled at me and began to walk out when Super Junior walked by.

“Hey Abby! Alyssa! We’re here to watch!” Sungmin said cutely through the door way.

I nodded at them and smiled.

“Thanks guys!” Alyssa responded, not really caring.

Jessica looked back at me with wide eyes. “It’s Super Junior…” she mouthed to me softly.

I nodded to her with a grin and told her to keep going.

Our families finally left and the two of us walked behind the curtains, checking our mics once more and tuned our instruments.

“That was a surprise,” I mumbled trying to get my mind off of everything, as I taped my mic on and attempted to make my shoulders less revealing.

“I know. Aaron,” her brother, “kept on asking where SNSD was. I’m like I DON’T FREAKING KNOW SNSD! I mean, yeah we’ve seen them a couple of times, but we haven’t exactly hung out with the unnies yet.”

I nodded, trying not to pass out.

Everybody was walking fast all back stage, calling out things that my mind didn’t process.

I peeked out past the curtain and the stage seemed a lot larger with all the screaming people, than it did during the sound check.

“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this—It seems like only yesterday we were writing fanfics about becoming famous and falling in love with some kpop star,” Alyssa said jokingly, realizing my nerves were kicking in again.

“I’m so nervous Alyssa—I can’t do this,” I said feeling wobbly in the knees as I attempted to strap my cello to myself.

She laughed at me and helped me with the device. “When we get out on stage the room will be dark and you won’t be able to see the audience. Just imagine we are practicing with the lights off, okay?” We’ll rock. Don’t worry,” she said, giving me a reassuring smile.

I nodded, taking a deep breath. “Okay.”

The stage hands told us to go to opposite sides of the stage and I reluctantly left my best friend.

I felt myself shake as I walked to my side of the stage.

This is it…

“Alright, you can go out,” my stage hand told me when he got a cue.

I walked slowly out onto the dark stage.

I faced the curtain, as I was supposed to do, and I looked over my right shoulder, looking for Alyssa.

I saw her across the stage, facing the curtain, with a smile on her face. She glanced over at me and smiled at me.

Be calm, be calm. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for all of your life…I kept telling myself. But I didn’t eat my banana…those help with my nerves. SHUT UP BRAIN! You don’t need a banana…you can do this…

I took a deep breath and imagined that I was back at the dorm practicing with Alyssa, trying to ease my nerves.

I looked across the stage, waiting for a cue from Alyssa. And after what felt like forever, I saw her lift her instrument and raise her upper body, cueing me in. We both hit the strings of the instrument at the same time and turned around, the lights of the auditorium suddenly turning on and spotlights shining on us.

Alyssa’s viola faded out and she introduced us as I played a rock sounding cadenza.

We met at center stage and began singing when the recorded music came in.

Although my head wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, everything just flowed out of my instrument perfectly and my singing just seemed to happen without me thinking.

My cello solo followed by Alyssa’s rap part came and the crowd got into it, beginning to clap with the song.

My heart began to pound again, but this time it was out of excitement.

I felt like I was floating on air.

At the end of the song, the audience roared with clapping and cheering.

I met Alyssa back at center stage and we grabbed hands, bowing, and laughing with excitement.

This was the best feeling ever…

“THAT WAS AMAZING!” our friends from SM said running up to us and congratulating us.

“Hey, watch the viola!” Alyssa yelled at Eunhyuk who was trying to hug her.

“I’m sorry,” he said pouting.

I rolled my eyes and went to go case up my cello before someone broke it.

“You performed really well…” I heard from behind me.

I turned to see Yesung standing there.

I nodded at him and continued to put the instrument away. “Thanks.”

“I mean it…the both of you…You guys have a lot of talent.”

I smiled. “Thank you Yesung.”

“Abby!” I heard my sister’s voices yell.

I turned to see them running up to me and Jessica looking at all of Super Junior with awe on her face. I laughed and they attacked me with a hug. “You guys were amazing!”

I pulled them away and nodded toward Yesung. “These are my sisters,” I told him in Korean.

He bowed to them. “Nice to meet you,” he said in broken English.

Jessica blushed and looked at me.

“I’ll talk to you later Abby,” he told me in Korean, and then walked away, obviously still upset about the kiss he saw the night before.

“I can’t believe you know them…” Jessica said awestruck.

I smiled at my sister and then Siwon came up to me. “You guys want to celebrate?”

“Oh my gosh yes! I’m so hungry! I haven’t eaten anything all day!” I exclaimed. “Wait…but my sisters…”

He looked at them and smiled. “Do you want to come with us?” he asked them in English, perfectly.

The two girls looked at one another and nodded with a smile. “Yeah!”

He extended his hand to them. “My name is Choi Siwon.”

“Jessica,” she said as she shook his hand about to pass out.

“I’m Amanda,” my older sister said as she eyed his muscular body.

“Nice to meet you,” he said, turning to me. “By the way, nice performance. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album.”

I smiled at him. “Thanks Siwon.”

“Well I better go ask Teukie hyung if we can actually celebrate before I get your hopes up on food,” he said laughing at me. “Oh by the way…are you still dating him?”

“No…”

“Oh…sorry I mentioned it. Bye!” he said before walking away.

I didn’t look at my sisters, for I knew they would mention something about his last comment.

“You dated Leeteuk!?” Jessica shrieked.

“SHHHH!” I said, putting my hand over . “Only for a little while.”

I looked over at my older sister, expecting more of a reaction than what she wasn’t giving me.

“That was the most handsome man I have ever seen…and he’s Korean. What is wrong with me!? I don’t fall for girly men!” the 22 year old girl exclaimed.

I laughed at her. “Get used to it…Come on; let’s go get something to eat.”

Umm......I'm really confused. I came back online and chapter 32 was deleted so I had to reupload it. I forgot what darkkeltha's author note was sooooo sorry....Hehe 

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