The secretary just asked who the person is on the phone and as a reflex, I run straight to her grabbing the phone and hang up. The woman is looking at me oddly and I can see that she’s a little ticked off with how rude I was snatching the phone away from her.

I give her a very low bow, “Mianhabnida!”

“Kate-ssi, ike mwoaeyo?” From her tone I can hear that she’s still annoyed.

Standing up straight, I give her a reply, “Ah, it was just a friend, but I told her to only call me from my phone. It’s inappropriate to have personal calls here and I was avoiding that. Dasi...mianhabnida.” I bow once again peeking up to see that she’s absorbing my explanation staring down at me.

Finally she sighs, “Arrasseo arrasseo. Make sure you call your friend back and make it clear that she can’t call here.”

“Ne! Gamsahabnida!” I do one final bow before smiling and then turn to head towards the entrance again. When walking back, I realize that the woman isn’t the only one confused by what just occurred. As I get closer to Jonghyun, his dumbfounded expression becomes clearer and clearer.

As I walk back up to him, I rub the back of my head with a grin on my face, “So, ready to go grab a bite?”

He raises his eyebrow at me, “So, you have no intention of explaining what just happened now?”

“Oh that? It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” I still brush try to brush it off quickly. Jonghyun stares at me, sighs, and then grabs my wrist pulling me out the door. “Y-Yah! Ike mwoya?”

He stops and turns to me without letting go of my wrist, “We’re getting breakfast and you’re going to talk to me about what’s going on because that wasn’t a nothing.” After he says that, he continues dragging me to a nearby café. I get a hazelnut macchiato with a croissant while Jonghyun gets an Americano and a blueberry muffin. Once we get our food and coffee, we go to sit in a corner by the window.

“I haven’t seen you in a long time. How were your promotions in Japan?” I try to get him to talk about the trip as a way to distract him.

Jonghyun gives me a look that tells me he knows what I’m trying to do, “It was long and tiring. I’ll tell you more once you tell me about the little scene that happened before we left the building.”

“You mean me running to the secretary and hanging up her phone.” I play with the coffee cup in my hand.

“Bingo.” I chuckle a little because he said it in English. Jonghyun clears his throat and then speaks again, “How about starting with who the person was calling you.”

Sighing, I look out the window thinking of what I should say, “Well…” ‘Only Onew knows about it and he’s asked me when I’m going to tell the others, but I don’t think I should yet.’ I turn to Jonghyun and look him straight in the eyes intently, “Jonghyun-oppa, mianhae, but I’m not going to tell you.”

“Wae?” He’s pouting at me and it’s just making me tempted to tell him. ‘Stupid dino-puppy face.’

“Not yet, I won’t tell you yet. You just have to trust me when I say that, it’s just not the time to tell you, ok?” There’s a moment of silence while Jonghyun stares out the window processing what I told him. While waiting for his answer I take a bite of my croissant and a sip of my macchiato.

“Arrasseo.” Shifting my eyes backup to him, he’s still watching the pedestrians walking up and down the streets. He finally turns away meeting my eyes, “I won’t push it because it seems you feel strongly about the situation. Even though I’m curious, I’ll just wait until you can tell me what it’s about. However, I won’t forget about it, so you have to tell me eventually.”

“Allayo, I will. Gomawo, Oppa.” I mentally sigh relieved at the fact he didn’t keep pushing for me to tell him. In the back of my mind however, I’m nervous about the day I do have to tell him and the other guys about it. ‘I wonder what they’re going to think. How are they going to see me as after?’ I’m shaken out of my thoughts when a hand waves in front of my face.

“Gwenchana?” Jonghyun asks me giving me his puppy eyes.

I smile, “Ne.” I take another sip of coffee. ‘I won’t worry about it now and just enjoy the moments being with all of them.’ “Jonghyun-oppa, I’ve been wondering this ever since you guys got back.”

“Mwoya?” He takes a bite of his blueberry muffin.

I take a minute to gather my thoughts, “Well, I thought you guys were going to officially come back at the end of August. Why are you all back now? Hm…isanghae.”

Jonghyun sips his coffee while digesting what I said and then goes wide-eyed, “Maja!”

I face palm at his reaction, “You didn’t realize that until now?”

“Ne.”

“Dumbhyun…” I say whispering it under my breath.

“Mwoya?” He raises his eyebrow at me.

“Nothing!” I give him a sweet smile and he just shrugs. ‘Does he also have dog hearing?’ “Do you have any idea why you guys had to come back?”

He takes the last bite of his muffin, “I can’t think of a reason why. Maybe our schedules changed for something. A show appearance? A concert? It could be a lot of things.” We gather our trash and throw it away heading back out into the streets. This time we walk slowly back to the building instead of Jonghyun quickly dragging me. I notice that it’s disgustingly humid out and start to walk faster to the air conditioned building. “Why are you walking so fast?”

“It’s too hot out.” I stick my tongue out and scrunch my face.

Jonghyun chuckles at my attitude, “I don’t think it’s that bad.”

“I can’t wait for the fall, it’s my favorite season.”

“Wae?”

“It’s still warm, but with a nice breeze, the leaves change colors, the fashion and the biggest thing I like about the fall…no bugs.” I shiver at the thought of insects because I hate them as much as Taemin does, maybe even more.

Jonghyun pats my head and chuckles, “Ah, neomu gwiyeopda.”

He starts to reach for my cheek, but dodge laughing, “Oppa ani. Not too much skinship. Remember I’m with Minho-oppa?” I stop laughing when I mention Minho, and say quietly to myself, “I think.” Jonghyun hears what I say under my breath this time and instantly stops smiling.

“Jamkkanman.” I turn around to see that he stopped walking watching me with a confused expression. “What do you mean you think?”

It’s my turn to grab his wrist and pull him along, “It’s nothing. Come on, we’re almost back and it’s hot out.”

He gets his wrist free and stops again, “I’m tired of hearing “It’s nothing” as your only answer for my questions. I heard why you and Minho-ah fought. I can see why he got frustrated because you don’t open up to us. You want to hear about how Japan was?” Stunned by Jonghyun’s outburst, I remain quiet. “We did our schedules, TV shows and concerts, but when we had free time, we couldn’t enjoy it much. The reason being we saw how upset Minho-ah was when he didn’t hear a single callback or text from you. So you’re wondering why we’re asking you what you’re reason was? It’s because you, someone who’s been in love with the guy for so long that you finally got, all of a sudden just ignores him from one little argument. Even I, the guy you dated before, am trying to help Minho-ah who beat me in getting you because it doesn’t make sense. Seriously Kate-ah, what is going on? Why did you do it?” I’m intimidated by Jonghyun’s intense gaze that he’s giving me right now. Even though it’s a bit difficult, I break away from it and look around remembering that we’re still out in the streets. Thankfully we were walking to the back of the building so there are no fangirls and there’s no one around us.

I take a deep breath before speaking trying to match his intensity, “I’m going to tell you what I said before, I’m not discussing it with you until I discuss it with Minho-oppa first.” We have a staring match before Jonghyun finally looks away sighing in frustration and running his fingers through his hair.

“Kate-ah, you have a lot to talk about with me later.” I just give him a nod as a response. “Let’s head back now; I think you’ve taken a longer break than you should have.”

“Ne.” The rest of the walk back is quiet. The atmosphere is awkward between us after my little outing with Jonghyun. We say quick goodbyes and then go our separate ways.

I head back to practice in the sky room, but my mind is clouded. ‘Key and Jonghyun are upset with me. I wonder if Onew and Taemin too…probably are. Minho didn’t seem like it, but last night was more like a time out because we didn’t see or talk to each other in so long.’ I spend a long time practicing since I need to make up for it from taking a nap earlier and going out for a bite. I check the time to see its 5pm; it’s been four hours now and I’m starting to feel the need to take another break. ‘In desperate need for more coffee…must recharge my batteries.’ I walk over to the cafeteria area to grab some coffee since I don’t feel like going back out in the hot weather. Preparing my cup to the way I like it, my mind starts to drift once again. ‘Hm, how much longer should I stay to practice? I don’t have to record today and Seunghye called earlier saying to move the review tomorrow since she’s busy. I’m lucky for that…I would have been dead if she found out I was lazy today.’ From the corner of my eye, I spot the pastries and bread. I stare at them contemplating on the delicious looking treats, but remember that I was lazy plus had a treat earlier. So as a mini punishment for myself I don’t get one. ‘However, if I already splurged today, why not go all out and then get back to eating well tomorrow?’ I look around and then creep over to the tasty looking packaged milk bread that I’ve been eyeing.

“Caught red-handed!” Surprised, I drop the bread from the sudden outburst behind me. I turn to see who it is hoping it’s not Seunghye, but relieved to see it’s a grinning Taemin. When he sees me walk over to him, he opens his arms in preparation for a hug, but instead I give him a good flick on his forehead. “Yah! Noona!”

“Well don’t scare me like that! You almost gave me a heart attack because I thought it was Seunghye-ssi!” Thinking about if it was her creates a shiver up my spine.

Taemin laughs at my statement, “You wouldn’t be scared if you weren’t doing something you’re not supposed to.” I turn my back to him and pout as to not acknowledge that he’s right. Arms all of sudden go around my waist and Taemin picks me up giving me a hug in the air. “Anyway, I’m glad to see you again, Noona.”

He lets me go and I face him, “Nado, Taemin-ah.” We do a proper hug and once we separate, I go to grab my coffee. I also go over to grab the packaged milk bread that I dropped earlier. Taemin gives me a questioning look and I simply state with a smirk, “Cheat day.” He nods understanding and once he grabs a drink, we go to the lounge area sitting on a couch. I take a bite of the bread sighing in satisfaction from tasting the tasty sweet cream in the middle.

“So, how have you been? I bet it was extremely boring without us.” Once again Taemin gives me a sly smirk.

I take a sip of my coffee nonchalantly saying, “Actually after a day, it felt like it was my own apartment and wondered why I had so many guest beds.”

“Mhm, sure. I bet you missed all of us a lot.” He gives me a little shove.

“I bet you missed me more.” I shove him back.

Taemin chuckles taking gulp of his drink, “We’ll call it even, but I think hyung beats all of us.” The subject is again brought up and I sigh. “Noona-”

“Taemin-ah, geumanhae.” I take the last bite of my milk bread, “I know what you’re going to ask because Key-oppa and Jonghyun-oppa already beat you to it. I’m just going to tell you what I told them.” He remains quiet listening and I turn to him, “I’m not going to talk to you guys about it until I discuss it with Minho-oppa.”

“Ne, arrasseo…hajiman…” Taemin has a saddened look on his face.

“Mwo?”

He points to the empty milk bread package, “I just wanted to ask if I could have a bite of the milk bread before you finished it.”

“…”

“…"

“Ah, Taemin-ah! Mianhae! I just assumed, since I’ve been getting asked the same thing all day! Hold on, let me go get you one in the cafeteria!” I spring up from the couch and run out of the lounge leaving a blank faced Taemin. Thankfully the cafeteria is not that far and I grab milk bread for him. I exit the cafeteria only to bump into someone and fall on my . “Aish, naega wae?” I mutter to myself rubbing my now sore bottom. A hand appears in front of me and my gaze goes up to the face it belongs to.

“Gwenchana, Kate-ah?” I find a smiling Onew when I see who it is. I grab his hand and he helps pull me up, “I think my clumsiness has rubbed off on you.”

I chuckle, “Nah, I’ve always been clumsy, but lucky that there haven’t been many witnesses around when it happens.”

“So, why were you running in the first place?” He asks out of curiosity.

He just reminded me about what I was going to do, “Oh yea!” I search on the floor for the dropped milk bread and see that it’s flattened. ‘I must have sat on it when falling down.’ I pick it up, “I was heading over to the lounge to give this to Taemin-ah.”

“Ah…wae?” Onew asks me staring at the ruined bread.

I go to the nearest trash can to throw it out, “He wanted to ask me for a bite of mine, but I interrupted him and got frustrated at him because I thought he was going to say something else. I felt bad, especially since it’s the first time seeing him after a long time and I have a bad attitude.”

“Arrasseo.” He nods now understanding the situation. We walk into the cafeteria so I can get new milk bread and then we walk towards the lounge together. Onew fills the silence between us, “Kate-ah, what did you think Taemin-ah wanted to ask that made you frustrated?”

I sigh before answering, “I thought he was asking me about Minho-oppa, since two out of five already did. I’m sure you’re wondering too, right?”

“Ne, geundae…I assumed that the first person you would answer to would be Minho-ah. I’m curious, but I was going to wait.”

That instantly earns him a hug which is what I do, “Gomawo, oppa! You have no idea how that makes me feel.”

He hugs me back while chuckling, “Cheonmannae.” We continuing walk back to the lounge where Taemin is. Once entering the room, I find Taemin leaning back on the couch concentrated on his phone.

“Taemin-ah, I’m back! Yeogi!” His attention is now shifted to me walking over and handing the milk bread to him.

All he does is laugh, “Yah! Why did you just bolt out of here to get me bread? I didn’t need it that badly.”

“I felt bad for how I reacted.” I rub the back of my head with a lopsided grin.

Taemin takes the package out of my hand, “Gwenchana hajiman…gomawo.” He opens it and happily takes a large bite from it. I sit back down next to him and Onew joins us sitting in a chair.

“Ah! Onew-oppa, I forgot to welcome you back!” I say as the thought popped into my head.

It seems he also just realized, “Oh yea.”

We both laugh, “Well…welcome back oppa. I missed you.”

“Ne, nado.” He replies back. ‘I love the fact that we both talked like we just saw each other yesterday when first meeting, like Onew wasn’t even away for a long time. I guess we’re that comfortable with each other.’

I change the conversation, “So, how were your promotions in Japan? I saw a few videos on YouTube and it seems like Key-oppa did most of the talking.”

“Ani! I talked a lot too! I’ll show you videos of me talking, my Japanese improved.” Taemin quickly says to me getting defensive.

“You did do pretty well, Taemin-ah. I’m really bad at Japanese, so I just smile and nodded.” Onew speaks up too.

I nod, “Mhm, I definitely saw the smile and nodding from you in the videos.” All of a sudden I remember one of the videos I saw and start cracking up.

“Mwo?” Taemin looks at me weirdly. I calm down my laughter and try explaining, but thinking about it again makes me laugh harder.

Onew’s now completely baffled, “What’s so funny?”

It takes a good minute to finally stop laughing so I can talk, “The video of you guys going to the amusement park and Key-oppa going on the rollercoaster screaming his head off while Onew-oppa is singing Lucifer!” I start laughing again thinking about it and once the two get it, they join me. “Then…the ride where you shot straight up! You guys were so mean putting Key-oppa back on again…but it was so funny!” There are now tears in my eyes and it’s hard for me to breathe.

“Hyung, shouted at us after that and ranted the rest of the day!” With the new information Taemin tells me, I continue laughing. After, a few more minutes, we all calm down from our fit of laughter.

I catch my breath, “Oh wow, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while…definitely needed that.”

“Well, if you ever need a good laugh like that again, just put Key-ah on a ride.”

“Yah Onew-oppa, don’t make me laugh anymore, I don’t think I can take anymore.” I respond back to him.

Taemin glances over to the clock on the wall, “Noona, I think your break has been over for 10 minutes now.” I also check the time and see he’s correct.

I fall sideways on the couch and moan into a pillow, “I don’t want to go back to practice.”

“You’ll get in trouble if you don’t.” Taemin lifts up my arm and drops it.

I squirm and do a longer groan, “But today is my cheat day! Seunghye-ssi isn’t even coming over today.”

“Jinjja?” Onew joins the conversation.

“Ne…so I can end my schedule now if I want to…which I might.”

“Ani.” I hear Onew get up and then feel my arms being grabbed. I’m instantly lifted up out of the couch in a full standing position. It all happens so quickly that I’m in a daze until hands go on my shoulder pushing me towards the door. Turning around, Onew is the one who doing it, “Every practice is important, Kate-ah. So, give it your all in each one.” ‘A serious Onew is not to be messed with.’

I start walking on my own once I’m out the door, “You’re right. Besides, I only have an hour left, so I’ll push through it and work hard for the last hour. What will you guys be doing?”

“Molla.” Taemin answers me from behind Onew.

“Well, we were told to hang around here because Lee Soo Man-ssi has something to tell us. Actually…it should be another hour until he comes here.” I ponder what Onew tells me because I’m wondering what the news is.

I take another minute thinking about it, “Can’t think of any reason he would want to talk to you all, but good luck.” I give them a thumbs-up and they both return it. “Anyway, I guess I’ll be going now. If I leave before you guys, maybe I have time to cook you all dinner tonight.”

“You know how to cook now?” Taemin says looking a little surprised.

“Did you expect me to survive off of instant ramen that whole time?” I pout. “Besides I always knew how to cook…just not Korean food.”

“Maybe you should make us one of your dishes, Kate-ah. We always have Korean food and I’d like to try what you’d normally have back at home.” Onew smiles brightly saying this to me.

“Nado!” Taemin adds in.

Chuckling at their playful attitudes I nod, “Sure! I’d love for you guys to try my food!” I check my phone for the time, “Aigo! I need to get back if I want to finish early! See you guys later!” I jog away waving and I see the two returning it. As I enter the studio, my phone then rings and I see that it’s Seunghye. I pick it up quickly, “Yoboseyo.”

“Kate-ssi.” She says with her flat voice.

“N-Ne?” I’m nervous thinking she knows I slacked off a bit today.

There’s a pause before she picks again, “Lee Soo Man-ssi would like to see you at his office in another half-hour. Don’t be late.”

“Ne, ahgeseupnida.” I give her a simple response and after that she hangs up. I stretch after the phone call and say quietly to myself, “I guess that means I don’t have to practice too much more.” My eyes go towards the clock and see that it’s been a half hour since I was with the guys. A second later I realize something, ‘Wait…didn’t Onew say SHINee is meeting Lee Soo Man? A half-hour ago Onew said it would be in an hour!’ I now start to freak out thinking that worst. ‘Why is the head have to talk to us together? What if he found out about Minho and I? Or maybe he’s going to say that I have to move out of the guys’ dorm!’ Calming down, I try to find some positivity. ‘He could be telling me that I’m going to debut and just wanted SHINee there since we’re friends. The head could even announce that the guys are having a comeback and I’m going to be in their music video. Honestly…I have no idea.’ Instead of practicing, for the entire half-hour I spent it thinking of reasons as to why SHINee and I were being requested together. Before I knew it, I gather my things in the studio and then exit. It’s five minutes until I need to be in Lee Soo Man’s office and with every step I’m feeling more nervous. ‘Please let it be good news.’ I’m finally in front of the door that the head is in. I take a deep breath and then I knock loudly enough for him to hear.

“Come in.” It’s a faint voice of a man which I’m assuming is Lee Soo Man.

I open the door slowly and bow when I enter, “Annyeonghaseyo.”

“Kate-ssi, annyeonghaseyo.” I come up from my bow to see Lee Soo Man standing up behind his desk and SHINee standing on the other side. All of them have their eyes fixed on me, but I only look straight at the head. I close the door behind me and walk over to the desk next to Key. The room is silent until Lee Soo Man clears his throat, “You are probably wondering as to why I have called you all here today.” There is no response from us so he continues, “As you know, the Korean hallyu wave is becoming more wide-spread. More and more countries are starting to take an interest in the Korean culture, to be more specific, K-Pop.” He pauses to take a look at us all to make sure we’re listening. “I want to take advantage of this growing interest in K-Pop. We have already had SMTown concerts in many parts of Asia and not too long ago, France.” We all listen closely to what he is saying. “Also, we have already done concerts in the U.S….Los Angeles, however I want to take a chance and…” He glances at me and I have a feeling what he’s going to say. “…I have scheduled a SMTown concert in New York.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Learn some Korean~!^^

Dasi - [Dah-shee] Again

Isanghae - [Ee-sahng-hay] Weird/strange

Aish, naega wae? - [Eye-eesh] Jeez, why(wae) me(naega)?

Geundae - But/However (Basically similar to hajiman)

Ahgeseupnida - [Ah-geh-soup-nee-dah] I understand

I deserve to be scolded... I'm always late with when I say I'm going to update. Things always come up which stinks. I was sick for two days and on top of that I had a lot of work to submit for classes. Will you guys be easy on me if I said that my birthday was yesterday(21st)?...heh ^^; Just ended two hours and forty-five minutes ago. I am now 22 years old...oh my gosh...I feel old T^T I enjoyed my birthday to the fullest spending it with friends and family. Plus, I saved up a bunch of Korean videos to splurge all at once as a special gift to myself haha. Anyway, I did spend time writing and I was actually able to finish up two new chapters. I'm posting one right now because I still need to edit the second one. Also...I want to know if you guys are still reading/alive haha. I like hearing feedback so I can improve and it also motivates me. Plus, I want to hear your opinions on the new/updated poster. Is it good? Should I make a new one? Go back to the old one? However...I can understand why you would turn into silent readers >.> 

Ok! Now explanation for the end of this chapter: I started this story the summer of 2011 (Wow that was so long ago!) so the story takes place then and I'm trying to keep the events realistic. That's why it's the SMTown NY concert...just in case you guys were curious about when this takes place. For the Korean phrases/words: I'm pretty bad with romanization since I usually read/write in hangul, so I put the pronunciation in brackets just to make sure you guys understand. One more thing! The videos I write about in the story are this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HOD8SH9wMk and this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iubLWAruQAM Aren't they hilarious!? I would be Key if I went on those rides haha!

Mk, I think I said and explained everything. Until next time!<3