Chapter 3

Saela

        “You must be back by 7:30!” Unnie tells us as we jump out of the van in front of Woolim Entertainment’s building. We wave at her, agreeing reluctantly. It was already 5 and I would have like to spend the whole day with them. It’s been 5 days since our debut on Music Core. It took us two days to work up the courage to actually call them, but after Jun Unnie cleared a place in our schedule, we wondered why we didn’t do it earlier. Jae and I had gone online and ordered a couple books to bring with us, and I held them tight to my chest, excitement already taking control of my day. I don’t think I had stopped talking all day; through dance lessons when I wasn’t singing along, during Korean lessons I “practiced” really hard, and during piano, I kept trying to keep a conversation going while playing. That one didn’t go over well with my teacher. I knew I was being annoying, I can usually tell, but I didn’t stop myself this time. Jae was excited too, and even stopped before going in the door to look at herself in the reflection of the window and make a face.

        “You look fine,” I insist and open the door for her. She walks past me, shoulder down and her eyes obviously worried. I shake my head and follow her in, hoping I can help her if she needs it. We are greeted and led by a small mousy woman to a conference room inside. Jae and I gaze admiringly at the pictures on the wall of all the Woolim artists, pictures of albums and awards framed and spaced perfectly along the hallway.  Jae almost stops when she sees Sunggyu’s single album framed and I prod her in the back with the corner of the books to get her to go. She frowns at me but catches up with the woman again. She opens the door for us and we look at each other before stepping inside.

        The guys are talking and look up when we come in.

        “Oh you’re here!” Sunggyu waves at us and Hoya flashes us a peace sign. What a cool kid, I think, smiling. Sungyeol, who was sleeping with his head on the table, jumped when they guys greeted us loudly and fell out of his chair. I wave at him as he laughs off his blunder and sits back in his chair. Woohyun hits him, saying something I don’t catch and the guys laugh. We step inside and thank the woman behind us, bowing.

        “Come and sit down,” Dongwoo says standing up and showing us two empty chairs across from him and Hoya. For once, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to talk and instead, sit down in the seat next to Sungjong, leaving the one on the left that’s closest to Sunggyu open for Jae. She seems to hesitate, but does sit down and Sunggyu smiles at us. Myungsoo sits next to Hoya farther down the table and on the other side is Woohyun. Sungyeol, who’s awake now, sits on the other side of Sungjong and leans on the table to be able to see Jae and I.

        “So what kind of stuff do you guys already know?” I ask, putting the books down and separating them out by level of difficulty.

        “I can sing the alphabet!” Sungyeol proclaims, his hand shooting up in the air. I laugh and make an impressed face. He’s obviously impressed with himself and he nods around at his Hyungs like he’s been decreed the coolest one here.

        “I guess that’s good,” I say slowly, trying not to burst out laughing at the looks on the rest of the guys faces as they judge him. I can’t keep myself from laughing when Myungsoo busts up, slapping the table and Dongwoo gets up and walks around while laughing, clapping and jumping randomly. Woohyun and Hoya lean forward onto the table and laugh. They look at each other and laugh harder. Sunggyu’s eyes disappear, Sungjong looks like a little girl and Jae laughs quietly next to me.  “I love this,” I whisper in her ear in English as they continue to tease Sungyeol about his singing and about what he just said. Sungyeol tries to defend himself, but he can’t since he’s too busy laughing and talking about the injustice of their accusations. As I realize everyone in this room can sing and understands music, I start to wonder if we will ever need the books; I can teach them through music instead. I grab a spiral quickly and scribble down the Alphabet Song. It feels so relieving to write in English and my handwriting seems to have changed a bit. I push the paper to Sunggyu and he looks at it with narrow eyes; well narrower than usual. He has small eyes. “You should actually all learn this song. It’s really helpful. Plus we could even harmonize,” I hint to him and he laughs.

        “Let’s go to the practice room then,” he says, pointing to the door so they all know we’re moving and the guys jump, slide and rise slowly out of their seats, all different but all agreeing. The practice room fits us all comfortably. Well, comfortably except that Woohyun leans over the back of the upright and watches me closely as I sit down and play it for them once. They all learned it quickly and we were able to get past the alphabet and into little phrases, which I taught to them using old songs I thought of off the top of my head. Jae enjoyed herself thinking of all the English songs we knew with short phrases in them or repetitive lyrics. She also is able to join in when Hoya and Dongwoo start dancing to my unpracticed playing and I watch her proudly as she showcases her talent. I change keys so many times that when they all know how to ask someone how they are and tell someone how they’re feeling, I feel slightly like a hamster on a wheel, mind racing as fast as possible, just to realize the only thing you can do is keep doing it. After teaching them the chorus to Help by The Beatles, just in case they ever got in trouble in an English speaking place, I fell forward on the keys of the piano.

        “I’m so tired!” I say in English, knowing they’ll know what I’m saying because I just taught it to them. I sigh into the keys and hear them laugh. I know they won’t know what I have to say next so I switch back to Korean. “I can’t play anymore and you learned enough today.”

        “Thank you,” they say in English sync behind me, all the voices coming from different points around the small practice room, all their accents different but the same. I don’t need to get up to know they bow; it’s just what they do here. I unstick my forehead from the key where it rests and spin to face them.

        “Are we going to do this again?” Sungjong asks adorably. “It was fun!” When he talks it makes me want to hug him. “Will you come back again?” Jae and I look at each other, realizing what he’s just said before he does, or anyone else does. I mouth “The song” in English to her with wide eyes and she repeats it, her eyes way wider than mine. We realize everyone is looking at us and we laugh it off awkwardly, not ready to divulge our secret obsession with them just yet.

        “What was that?” Dongwoo asks, already giggling with us.

        “Did I say something funny?” Sungjong asks, putting his hands to his face. He looks more embarrassed than Jae and I do. “What did I say?”

        “Nothing!” I assure him. He doesn’t seem to believe me and he turns to Sungyeol.

        “Hyung, what did I say?” he whines and Sungyeol backs up.        

        “I don’t know!” he insists, holding up his hands in surrender. Sungjong crosses his arms across his chest and pouts.

        “Ask them!” Myungsoo throws us under the bus, unable to stand Sungjong’s pouting. “They’re the ones who’re being weird!”

        “What?” all eyes are on me and I throw up my hands, “Look at her too!”

        “No, it’s definitely you!” Sunggyu points at me and no one shifts their gaze from me. “You’re the starter. I can tell!” Everyone nods and continues to stare at me, Sungjong still pouting and Jae apologizing, but happy it isn’t her.

        “Aish! I can’t even have inside jokes anymore then?” I ask in an attempt to dissuade them. Their gazes don’t change and Dongwoo shakes his head sadly at me.

        “Come on,” Woohyun prods, moving to sit next to me on the piano bench. I scoot to the edge, away from his expecting gaze. “It’ll be over sooner if you just tell us.” I look at him, wondering if there’s any way to get out of explaining it to them all. The 7 people I never thought I’d have to explain it to. Nothing in his face, gives be any sign of escape so I sigh and look down.

        “It’s your debut song,” I mumble, messing with my nails. It’s silent in the practice room for a second, the dead silence that only comes in rooms like these, before Woohyun starts to laugh. “Don’t laugh!” I say, reaching over to swat his arm before I can think that it’s probably not accepted. He continues to laugh, clutching his arm. “Oh, sorry,” I say quickly. “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to hit you or not…” I taper off, earning laughs and a few strange looks.

        “If that’s what you’d normally do to your friends then whatever,” Woohyun shrugs, still chuckling to himself. “It’s ok cause you hit like a girl.” He laughs and I have the urge to hit him again, but think first thankfully and just glare. “Anyway,” he says, staring at me again, “What about our debut song?”

        “Oh, that’s right!” Dongwoo says accusingly, pointing at me. “What about it?” I raise my eyebrows at him thinking, Good input Dongwoo, but hold that in too.

        “We know the entire song and dance,” I tell them and lean back against the piano. “Jae and I do the dance whenever we hear it. We were actually discovered because we were messing around to that song.” Jae nods and smiles, remembering the weird situation as clearly as I do. “It actually means a lot to us.” I realize I’ve said too much, because no one makes any noise. They all stare blankly and then look around at each other. “Sorry but you all forced me to tell you. Now you know we love you guys. This is just going to make things weird isn’t it?” My dang mouth won’t stop moving now that I’ve started and I just keep talking. “We’ve been fans ever since your debut and when we saw you perform the other night, we pretty much died.” I want to stop now, I really do, but I can’t. “I even have a specific-” Thankfully, I’m interrupted from my terrible monologue because Woohyun throws his arms around my shoulders and hugs me. I’m so surprised that I finally shut up.

        “Thank you,” he says to me, his head tucked behind mine and his voice so close. I’m unable to do anything but freeze, feel his arms around me, and listen to his voice. Korean sounds so cool to me in the first place, but it sounds even better when it’s this close. Or maybe I’m just crazy. “For being our fans.”

        “Our fans mean a lot to us,” Sunggyu nods, agreeing with Woohyun. He walks over to Jae and holds out his hand to her. They both look extremely awkward as they shake hands, but I’m sure Jae’s hand is on fire. Then Sungjong bounces over and joins Woohyun in hugging me, laughing like a little kid and Dongwoo latches onto Jae, laughing too. They sure laugh a lot, I observe, finding it difficult to not join in. Myungsoo joins Dongwoo, and soon there are two big piles of people. It’s kind of weird, but I can’t say I wasn’t happy to have three different guys, all wonderful, hugging me. They begin to untangle themselves from each other and Woohyun looks at me again.

        “So which one of us is your favorite?” he asks and the room erupts with noise again.

        “It’s probably me,” Sungyeol says, confident again.

        “I’m the prettiest!” Sungjong protests, “It has to be me!”

        “I’m the visual and everyone loves me the best anyway,” Myungsoo points out.

        “It’s probably Hoya,” Dongwoo says at the same time Hoya says “It’s probably me.” They look at each other and laugh, Dongwoo accusing him of going back on their deal.

        “Guys!” Woohyun raises his voice and they stop bickering between themselves and look at him. “It’s me. I already know. I just wanted to hear her say it.” They all start arguing again and I make eye contact with Jae. After a short “facial expression conversation” she slyly reaches into her pocket and presses the 1 speed dial on her phone. As they all yell, laugh and hit each other, I wait for the call to connect. When SHINee’s “Hello” blares from my pocket, I feel like I’ve been saved. I dig it out, almost throwing it on the floor in my haste to get out of there.

        “Hello?!” I yell into the phone and they all quiet down, realizing I’m on the phone. “Oh, Unnie… Time to go? ... Ok, I got it. We’ll be out in a second.” I hang up the phone and rush to the door, grabbing Jae on the way. “Unnie is outside so we have to go!” They protest, but we run out into the hall, back to the conference room and grab the books as quickly as possible.

        “What if they follow us outside?” Jae asks, in a panic. I’m in a panic too, but only because Jae would be next after me. I wouldn’t make a big deal about my favorite because I love everyone about the same, but Jae would have a heart attack revealing hers. Her eyes widen farther as we hear them all coming down the hall, calling after us.

        “Saela!” I hear Woohyun call, and then see him in the doorway, blocking our way out. “Just tell them it’s me and then we can be done with it!” The rest of them pile up behind him, creating a huge blockade between us and the safety of the outside world. “You don’t have to be nice to them; they’re just desperate for fans.” I stand in front of him and try to slide past him; he doesn’t move. He just smiles at me. I’m not sure why, but it kind of hurts.

        “I don’t have a favorite!” I yell, pushing past him forcefully and dodging around Hoya in the hallway. They all call me a liar but as I tow Jae out of the building, I’m ok with it. We dash out the door and I know we have to hide until Jun gets there. I pull Jae after me and squat down in front of the window, low enough so they can’t see us if they look out. Jae sits down, closes her eyes and lets out a big sigh.

        “I kind of feel like I need to throw up,” she says in English. She looks a little pale to me and I pat her shoulder.

        “It’s over now,” I tell her and dig my phone out of my pocket again to call Jun. She picks up quickly and says she’s on her way. When the van pulls up, we run, feeling like spies, for the cover and jump in. When she asks us how it went, we can’t resist laughing and explaining every single funny thing that every one of them did. Unnie just listens as we talk, interrupting each other and laughing before we even explained why we were laughing. We were still talking, not even half way through the stuff they had done, and Unnie tells us to get out of the car. We don’t stop talking, now we’re only telling each other, and slide the doors open. We’re in front of A Cube Entertainment’s building and both of us stop talking to ask Jun why we’re there.

        “The president wants to talk to you personally,” she says, raising her eyebrows and holding the door open for us. We freeze, look at each other and both wonder what I could have done already to annoy the president. Unnie sees our worried faces and shakes her head. “It’s not bad.” We relax a bit as we enter, but I still feel a little tense. We follow Unnie inside, bowing to all the people Unnie greets and greeting them as well. We step into the elevator and wait as it climbs up to the top. The President’s office is nice even for American standards; chandeliers and paintings and modern furniture. President Hong sits at his desk and rises to meet us when the elevator doors close behind us.

        “Ah, Jun Eunsoo!” he comes to meet her and she bows her head.

        “President, I hope you’re well,” she says, her demeanor changed a bit.

        “Yes,” he smiles and looks at us. “Butterfly Kisses, I was very impressed with your performance. I hope you can deliver ones like that in the future.

        “Thank you,” we say in sync, rehearsal wasn’t needed on that one since we did that in English too.

        “Please come and sit,” he say’s gesturing to the chairs across the desk from his. We take them and he settles into his big chair, folding his hands on the table. “The reason I asked for you to come in is because your single is doing very well and I think we should move forward as soon as possible. It’s already reached number one on three different poles. You should be very proud of yourselves.”

        “Really?” I ask excitedly before I consider who I’m talking to, “Our song?”

        “Yes,” he chuckles and shifts in his seat, considering me differently. “Most new idols watch how their songs doing as much as possible. I’m surprised you haven’t been. That says a lot about your character.”

        “I had to tell them that there was an article about their debut when it came out,” Jun smiles and President Hong chuckles again.

        “I think that’s what part of what makes you two so interesting,” he says honestly and we thank him again. “People really will like you. We just have to put out more music. That’s why I’m giving you your first mini album. I’ve consulted with writers and we’ve decided to call it “Back to the Drawing Board”. We’ve decided to keep the look you used for your teaser photos. Before you leave, we’ll give you the first three songs to start learning.” He continued to talk about the details of the album, details that didn’t really stick in my head. I hoped Unnie was remembering it all and pretended to be very interested in what was going on. When he finally stood up and we were back in the elevator, Unnie started flipping out.

        “Oh my god,” she said, fanning herself, “This never happens. How did you guys not know you were number one? Huh?” She hits my arm and rubs her temples. “This is such good news. What should I do?”

        “Unnie, calm down,” Jae laughs, putting her hands on Unnie’s shoulders. “Why are you freaking out?”

        “This is so great!” she says, hugging Jae and pulling me next to her. “I knew you guys would do well. I knew it.”

        “Unnie, we only have one song,” I pointed out and she shushed me.

        “That means it’s only the beginning,” she said like she knew exactly what she was talking about. When the doors opened, she resumed her reserved manner and received the songs from the front desk without showing any of her giddy self that appeared in the elevator. Back out in the van, I pull out the songs and look them over while Jae attempts to play them on her guitar. We’re so excited that we even ask Unnie to turn off the radio. By the time we reach home, its dark and Jae is frustrated trying to remember the chords printed on the sheet music. Inside, we disappear into the practice room and I play the songs through, ignoring the thought of dinner and sleep until Unnie comes in.

        “Are you going to eat?” she asks, poking her head in the door. We shake our heads. “You need to sleep soon,” she reminds us before she closes the door. The look Jae gives me means that sleep is not in the plans for any time “soon”. We continue learning them, having the hardest time deciphering the lyrics. About 10 minutes later, Unnie returns, reminding us again that we need to sleep. We wave her off and continue until she comes back again a couple minutes later, dressed for bed. She tells us to go to bed now, it reminds me of a mothers nagging. We promise we will, even though we have no intention of doing it. After half an hour more of practicing, my brain starts to run on auto pilot because I am getting tired.

        “Ya!” Unnie yells suddenly popping into the room and surprising us both. “Someone take this!” She looks a little pissed, like she had just fallen asleep and then was woken up and I know why when she shoves her phone at me and lets the door close behind her on her way out. I look down at the screen and see three missed calls from the same number on the call log.

        “What is it?” Jae asks, slumping down next to me on the piano bench. “Whose number is that?”

        “I’m not sure,” I say and shrug. “Might as well call it back.” Jae starts to protest, but I already click the little green phone icon and the ringing starts. I put it on speaker and the other end picks up after the second ring.

        “Oh Hello,” a voice crackles through the speakers and Jae and I subconsciously lean forward to hear. “I apologize for calling so late, but I was hoping to speak to Saela.”

        “This is Saela,” I laugh, recognizing the voice before he says his name.

        “Oh! Hi, It’s Woohyun,” he says and Jae’s eyes widen.

        “He’s going to make you tell him!” Jae mouths to me with a scared look on her face. “He’s never going to give up!”

        “Before you left, we never set up another time for you to come back,” he says and I silently breathe a sigh of relief. I hope he forget he ever asked me that in the first place. “When do you think you’ll have time?”

        “I’m not sure,” I say, looking at Jae to see if she has any objections. Seeing none I add, “Our manager is asleep so we’ll have to talk tomorrow.”

        “Okay,” he says, shuffling noises coming from the phone and a voice says something in the background. “Sungjong says hi,” Woohyun adds with a hint of annoyance in his voice. I laugh and say hi back and I hear the voice talk again in the background. “Yeah, yeah,” Woohyun says, obviously not to me. “Tell Jae he says hi too,” he talks back to me. “Anyway, will you call tomorrow to let us know?”

        “Sure, but I probably won’t be using this phone,” I tell him. “I’ll just give you mine and Jae’s number in case you need it.” After exchanging numbers, we said goodbye and hung up. Jae and I snuck Unnie’s phone back into her room and placed it on the table by her bed. On the way out, of course I kick the wall and Unnie turns over, mumbling “Yes President” in her sleep. We suppress our laughter and tiptoe to our room down the hall and fall into bed. We don’t even change clothes before we crawl under our covers and pass out.

Alright next chapter posted! I just realized that the beginning may be a little slow... but i promise it get's fluffier! I'll post a few more chapters before this weekend so you can actually see the fluff. Anyway thanks for reading and let me know if you have any suggestions or other comments! They've created a specific place just for thoughts of that kind!!! ^0^

I'll leave you with a customary gif. Enjoy!

                                                                             Dongwoo's face brings me much joy.