School the next day was somehow interesting. Now that Sunmi knew the reason behind Exo’s tough looks, she wondered what B.A.P’s reason was. Surely they didn’t just do it for competition like Exo? There definitely was a different reason. Why were they acting colder? Was it because they were new students? Or something else…

Exo and Sunmi walked through the hallways and Eunji caught up with them.

“S-Sunmi! Wait up!” Eunji gasped.

Sunmi turned and went to her, “Oh hi Eunji! How are you?”

Eunji caught her breath, “I’m doing well…” But her voice faltered when she saw Sehun’s poker face. Eunji became scared and made stronger eye contact with Sunmi. “I came to talk to you about the music festival coming soon. Are you going to do anything for it?”

Her reply was, “Um, I don’t-“

Then Luhan gently grabbed her shoulders and whispered in her ear, “Don’t forget about that song you and your mother were practicing. You should enter, Sunmi.”

Remembering, Sunmi nodded, “Ah, yes. Actually, I suppose I will enter. What about you, Ji?”

She bashfully said, “Yes, I am. Even though many people are doing singing, rapping, or dancing, everyone forgets about the musicians. I’m going to be playing the violin.”

Sunmi smiled, “That sounds really nice, Eunji. I hope you do well.”

Eunji bowed, “Oh my gosh, I am so nervous, but thank you so much Sunmi! I hope you do well too!”

The bell rang and they continued to class. When they sat down and when Eunji had to talk to the teacher for something, Sunmi turned to Luhan, Xiumin, and Sehun.

“Are you guys going to do anything for the music festival?” she asked with attentiveness.

Xiumin shook his head, “We weren’t planning to.”

“You guys really should. It’s going to be really fun.” Sunmi pouted.

Xiumin and Sehun looked at Luhan and he sighed, “I guess we can then. Let me just ask your dad about this when we get home and then we can sign up tomorrow.”

She clapped, “Yay! All of Exo should do a group act together!”

Xiumin coughed and Sehun smirked at Luhan. Luhan bit back a smile. Sunmi wondered of what these strange acts were about, but she would have to find out about it later.

Eunji came back and said, “Sorry about that. I went to ask something about the homework. What were you guys talking about?”

Luhan answered her, “We were wondering if all the cousins would do an act together at the music festival too.”

Eunji’s eyes shone, “Bwoh!? That’s actually really good! A group act! And I’ve heard that all of you guys are really talented too! Maybe this time B.A.P won’t win 4 years in a row! A change!”

Sunmi could already sense the competition and fire from those three Exo members and she was slightly amused. She asked, “Do you mean B.A.P has always won the festival?” and she watched the boys’ eager faces.

“Ne, they always won. That’s a partial reason why they’re so popular. They had singing from Youngjae and Daehyun, rapping from Yongguk and Zelo, dancing from Jongup, and Himchan played some traditional instruments one year too. Everyone is so bored of them winning, but everyone still respects them a lot.”

Sunmi made a face at the three boys and Luhan playfully smiled, “Oh yes, Sunmi. You know what this means.” Sunmi totally knew what it meant. Luhan half-shouted, “We’re definitely in!”

Xiumin and Sehun cheered and Sunmi rolled her eyes, “I knew it. You guys couldn’t resist, could you?” They laughed and ignored her question. Poor Eunji had no idea what was going on, but she meekly smiled at the boys’ excitement.

~~~~~~

Sunmi munched on her lunch as she watched Luhan explain the plan to Kai, Chanyeol, and Tao. Kai and Chanyeol high-fived each other while Tao excitedly squealed like a fangirl.

“Sunmi, you’re going to enter the music festival too?” Yongguk asked.

“Yes, and I am assuming B.A.P is going to also?”

Himchan smiled from ear to ear, “Definitely! And we’re going to win again!”

The Exo members abruptly stopped talking. Daehyun cleared his throat, “What’s going on?” Eunji slowly stated, “Sunmi’s cousins are going to enter too and they’re going to be doing a group act.”

Sunmi observed the two sides and their reactions. B.A.P seemed shocked while Exo grinned at more competing. She lightly hit Luhan’s shoulder and scolded him, “Stop looking like that. You’re kind of creeping me out, Luhan.”

Luhan woke up from his gaze and sincerely apologized, “I’m so sorry, Sunmi. I act weird sometimes and-“

Sunmi giggled, “I was kidding. But I’m not sure about this competition. It looks pretty intense already.” Kai reassured, “Don’t worry. We promise to not use physical violence with them. That’s of course unless they’re harassing you or-“

Luhan interrupted, “I think she gets it. But yes, we won’t go that far. An Exo promise,” and they saluted. Sunmi kindly smiled, “Aww, that’s so great of all of you.”

Meanwhile, while Sunmi was talking with Exo, B.A.P expressed their feelings with Eunji listening.

“They. Are. Entering. Too,” gasped Zelo.

“Shh…” whispered Youngjae.

“What’s wrong with that?” Jongup put his finger under his chin.

“We have to work our hardest if we want to win this year again, Jongup.” Himchan growled while glaring at Luhan.

“Oh… But we always work our hardest, right?” Jongup innocently said.

“Yes, however, this time, this is like the battle to the death.” Youngjae squinted at Exo’s direction.

 Yongguk commanded, “Stop talking about this. We’re going to be fair and nice to all of the competitors.” That shut them up, but the boys were still bitter. Eunji sighed as she heard B.A.P bickering. Honestly, she would be happy if B.A.P won again, but why not change things up and let someone else win this time?

The leader continued, “Don’t you remember two years ago? Secret was a hard group to beat and the four girls were not sore losers. They even said good luck to us before the festival, and that’s how we should treat everyone too.”

There was a brief silence, until Youngjae sneakily said, “Hyung, you’re just saying that because you like Song Jieun.”

Yongguk’s eyes became wider, “W-What!? Of course not! I don’t like her!” and then he spluttered, “Eunji is right here! You can’t say anything!”

Himchan stood up for his best friend, “What Yongguk means is that we need to act fair like Secret.”

Daehyun almost choked on his food by laughing. Then he spluttered, “Yeah, whatever Himchan! You’re just saying that because you like Hyo-sung!”

The younger four laughed and laughed while the two older ones turned red. Eunji smiled at the immatureness of B.A.P. Sure, they were kingkas, but they were also kind-hearted and sweet.

Himchan wasn’t going to let himself be embarrassed, so he looked at Eunji and then to Daehyun. The nagging umma smirked and half-shouted, “Well, at least Daehyun likes Eun-“

“DON’T YOU DARE, KIM HIMCHAN! I WILL KILL YOU!” Daehyun screamed in a high pitch. Eunji turned a light shade of pink.

Himchan said, “It will be only fair, Jung Daehyun! But anyways, Daehyun likes Eun-“

“SHUT UP, YOU FREAKING BLABBERMOUTH!”

Zelo fell on the floor laughing and the whole table was surprised by the incident. Zelo choked in laughing tears, “H-Hyungs! S-stop t-t-teasing e-each o-other! M-my r-ribs h-hurt! Hah-haha-ha!”

Things came up to point together at that moment and every person laughed except Daehyun and Himchan who were both equally tomato red in the face. Daehyun couldn’t bear to look at Eunji.

It was time to go to their next class and Sunmi cheerfully came to Jongup. “Jongup! Are you ready to go dancing?”

Jongup gave his famous smile and nodded. Kai and Lay also went up to Jongup, but thankfully just to talk friendly about different styles of dances and such.

Luhan walked with Sunmi while the three dancing machines chatted with each other. Sunmi rose her brows, “So it looks like Exo is going to enter?”

Luhan deviously smirked, “Yes. But I have to check with your dad, but I am pretty sure he will say yes. Exo has been-“

He suddenly stopped talking as if he was hiding something. Sunmi asked curiously, “Exo has been what?”

 Luhan used an imaginary zipper and closed his smiling mouth, “I can’t say anything. You’ll have to wait and see.”

Sunmi took a wild guess, “Has Exo been doing stuff already? Dancing, singing, rapping, etc?”

He looked shocked, “How did you know?”

She giggled, “You guys are so obvious at looking jealous.”

“We’re not jealous! We just like to win!”

“But jealousy is sometimes a trait to winning, isn’t it?”

Luhan was silent after her remark. When Sunmi felt guilty enough, Luhan quietly said, “Jealousy sometimes is, I suppose.”

Things went silent for a few seconds and Luhan returned to his happy self, “But Exo is going to win!” That broke the awkwardness and Sunmi gave a small smile.

During dance class, the teacher instructed some difficult moves, but everyone succeeded. The boys were sweating so much and the girls were panting hard. Jongup was still happy and the teacher was even more proud of him.

During vocal class, the teacher pushed everyone who was entering, basically every student in the class. Even though the festival was two months away, no one was lazy. Sunmi hummed the song over and over again. Youngjae, next to her, was listening and moved his head to her rhythm without realizing. Baekhyun, D.O, Chen, and Luhan huddled around each other and discussed their plan.

Luhan looked up to check on Sunmi, and he saw Youngjae bopping his head up and down to Sunmi’s humming. Luhan rose his eyebrows. I think Sunmi is going to get her dream man pretty easily, but… with everything going on… I don’t know… her kidnapped brother, my best friend…

Sunmi stopped humming after a while and Youngjae made his head stay still. He watched as Exo excitedly whispered to each other of the music festival. Youngjae slightly frowned. These guards were no joke of messing around with the musical arts. He heard from Himchan that Sunmi’s ‘cousins’ Chanyeol and Lay did really well in the guitar class. Youngjae promised to make ever practice count with B.A.P.

After school was out, Eunji came running to Sunmi again, “Sunmi!”

“Yes, Eunji?”

Eunji bit her lip as the twelve Exo members stared at her curiously. “Can I say something in private? It’s kind of…”

“Definitely! The two of us can go by those flowers over there.”

Honestly, Sunmi felt relieved to actually have some more alone-girl time with Eunji. Being locked up for seventeen years really made a person not social with outside people. Anyways, Sunmi knew that Exo could still hear the conversation; they had these sensitive, long distance hearing devices. Privacy pretty much never existed for her.

 Sunmi rapidly grabbed Eunji’s wrist and led her to the flowers. “Wow, unnie! You have strength! Do you work out?” Eunji said, teasingly.

“You could say.” Sunmi replied in the same tone. “So what did you want to say?”

Eunji’s face grew serious, “Are you okay?”

Sunmi tilted her head to the side, “Um, yeah? Why?”

Eunji looked around, checking if anyone was listening, obviously Exo had to, but for any other unnecessary people. “Well, not to be mean or anything, but isn’t it strange to have twelve cousins? And eleven of them come on the same day?”

Oh… Sunmi bit her lip and slowly said, “It is a bit weird, to be honest. I had no idea that they all were coming until a while ago, like right when I told you about Luhan coming..” That technically was the truth, wasn’t it?

Eunji nodded, trying to grasp what Sunmi meant. Then she said, “And why does it turn out that all of your family is talented? For example, that guy Luhan can really sing.”

Sunmi gave a small laugh, “Actually, I think the talent would be running in the family blood. We didn’t come from a circus or anything. We all really adore some form of music though.”

Sunmi automatically knew that she was the worst liar ever.

Eunji said one last thing, “Alright then. I believe you. But just so you know Sunmi, I will always be there for you as a friend, okay?”

Sunmi noticed suspicion raising greatly upon Eunji’s mind, so she said back, “Thank you so much, Eunji. I’ll be there for you too.” Sunmi then shyly suggested to change the topic, “We should go shopping again. I really enjoyed hanging out with you.”

Eunji smiled and nodded, “We totally should! Call me if you have time! And I have to go, my parents told me there was this big party reservation at the restaurant and I have to help. Bye!”

“Bye! See you tomorrow!” and Eunji sprinted away. Sunmi sighed in relief of keeping the secret.

Sunmi was going to go back to Exo, but something caught her eye. The flowers weren’t just ordinary flowers. They were…

“Red roses,” she whispered, “like in my dreams.”

Right at that moment, Himchan popped up. “Hey, Sunmi!”

Sunmi spun around, “Oh, hi Himchan! What’s up?

Himchan glanced at Exo who had a different attitude from before. Luhan started to walk over, but Sunmi shouted to him, “Hold up!” Therefore, the junior guards nervously waited a short distance away from Sunmi and Himchan.

Secretly, Himchan had watched to see if he could sneak in a moment where Sunmi wouldn’t be surrounded by an Exo member, and he took the chance. And he brought a bit of greasiness too.

“Don’t worry, I won’t take long. Sunmi, tomorrow is Zelo’s birthday.” Himchan quickly said.

She grinned, “Really?”

Himchan winked, “Yes. B.A.P was wondering if tomorrow you could come for Zelo’s birthday party at Eunji’s parent’s restaurant at 7pm. Eunji said she forgot to tell you earlier because of the music festival talk. She says she has everything planned and it’s going to be really great.”

Sunmi scratched her head, “I think I’m not busy tomorrow, so yes, I will do it.”

Himchan grinned, “That’s good! Eunji also said since she planned the fancy party in such a short time period, only a few people can come for the limited party space,” his eyes shifted from Exo and then quickly back to Sunmi, “she said each person he invited can bring one or two people to join. For instance, Zelo is letting one of his elementary skateboarding buddies come along.”

She nodded, “Okay, thanks for inviting me, Himchan! I will see you tomorrow then!”

Himchan waved to her, “Bye, Sunmi. See you tomorrow too. Text Eunji tonight for more info!”

He glided to some of the B.A.P boys and Sunmi went back to the awaiting Exo.

Tao worriedly asked, “Are you okay, Sunmi? No fever, cold, coughs, icky tongues-“

She laughed, “I’m okay, Tao. Sorry for taking so long. Let’s go home.”

They scooted into the limo and every time Sunmi stepped into the vehicle, she felt guilty that she was the only person who was as rich as her. She would give up her money to become a normal person anytime. Sunmi zoned out to think about being an average person. Then wakening…

Luhan rose his eyebrows at Sunmi, “So… Eunji said ‘that guy Luhan can really sing’. I feel so appreciated and loved. And you need more practicing on lying better. Sorry.” She blinked awake.

Sunmi made a face, “You guys are like stalkers. Listening to people’s conversations and such.”

Baekhyun smirked, “It’s our job. Can’t help it.” A couple of them laughed at his comment.

Then, Suho asked, “So, Sunmi, who are you going to bring to that party tomorrow?”

Sunmi pondered and answered, “I’m pretty sure my dad wants me to bring Luhan, so I will do that for sure.” Luhan sweetly smiled at her. Sunmi continued softly, “However…” she waited for their reactions, “I can still bring one more person. Hmm, whom shall that be?”

There was a silent moment of realization, and then…

“Me!” shouted Chen.

“No, me!” Sehun blurted.

“I think it should be me.” Kris strongly stated.

“Sunmi, me~” Xiumin pleaded.

More boys requested to be chosen, but one quieter person who said nothing the entire time.

“D.O.”

Everyone stared at the wide eyed boy and he stuttered, “M-me?”

Sunmi happily nodded, “Yes! Do you want to?”

D.O looked around his hyungs’ faces and said, “Okay.”

Kai said, “Why D.O? He didn’t even say anything and-“

“Exactly,” Sunmi softly interrupted, “he was quiet and I think the driver was getting annoyed.”

A man’s voice up in front loudly said, “Thank you, Miss Sunmi!”

“No problem, sir! Anyways, there’s always a next time, don’t you all worry.”

Ten members jealously peered at D.O and he gave a small smile, “Thanks, Sunmi.”

“Of course, D.O! And must I say, you would look extremely handsome in a suit, Kyungsoo.”

D.O blushed pink in his cheeks, “Thank you again, Sunmi.”

Then D.O whispered, “One point for me?” Chen flicked D.O’s forehead enviously.

Hello everyone!! ^^ I wrote this chapter on a roadtrip and I'm updating since I have internet again~ But then... T_T turns out that I'm busy over the summer. OTL What a shame, because I really wanted to update a lot, but now it seems like that won't exactly happen. However, I DID rough write the whole plot and I think you'll like it ^_^ And I've had this other story in my head for a while, but I'll write it after this story finishes~ ehe not even close to finishing BUT THANK YOU EVERYONE SO MUCH!!!! I SMILE BECAUSE OF YOU READERS!!!!!! I'm a weirdo, yeah yeah And it's Father's Day over here, so Happy Father's Day to my dad and even Sunmi's dad, Mr. Kang! SARANGHAE READERS!!! THANK YOU FOR STAYING THROUGH ALL THIS WITH ME!!!! <3