Of course she was watching. There was a hype about SM’s new boy group even before their debut stage. When she saw Ki’s face all over the website, she was extremely happy for him even though a part of her missed him so much that it hurt.

She was talking to Hyoyeon on the phone the night before and all that Hyoyeon talked about was SHINee.

“You know the new boy group SHINee?” she asked.

“Yeah, isn’t their first performance tomorrow?” Nicole said.

“Yeah! I’m so excited for them! Finally debuting after all the hardwork.”

“I remember when KARA first came out last year.”

“Yeah! We debuted the same year! Oh yeah, maybe I should introduce you to the SHINee boys some time?” Hyoyeon offered, not knowing that Ki and Nicole knew each other from before.

“Oh sure! Haha!” Nicole laughed even though she started to worry about how awkward it was going to be when she sees Ki again.

“Taemin’s the maknae in the group and he’s a really good dancer! And then there’s Jonghyun, he’s the oldest but he’s shorter than all the other boys.,” Hyoyeon laughed, “Oh gosh! I’m so excited to introduce you to them!”

“Sounds like fun,” Nicole smiled on the other end of the line.

“Especially Key! He can be such a diva! Such a funny guy.”

Of course Nicole knew. She used to always laugh at him when he fixes his hair in a restaurant window’s reflection.

“Nicole?” Hyoyeon said, since Nicole didn’t reply.

“Yeah? Oh yeah haha I would love to meet more of your friends. Wish them good luck for me okay?”

“Yeah of course!”

Nicole had watched their debut with Seungyeon and Gyuri since their practice times had been cut shorter since Sunghee left. The company was still deciding what to do about the group but it seemed like the company was starting to come to a conclusion. The girls just weren’t sure what yet.

The two older girls also didn’t know that Nicole’s trainee friend is actually one of the boys in SHINee. Nicole hadn’t bothered bringing it up either. After that argument Seungyeon and Gyuri had, they didn’t have anything nice to say to each other for two weeks.

“They’re kinda cute,” Seungyeon said, cutting an apple into several smaller pieces.

“If they’re from SM, they’re probably going to do well,” Gyuri added, taking a piece of the fruit from the plate.

Nicole didn’t say anything as her attention was locked on their performance. When it had ended, she felt a bit disappointed that she couldn’t see Ki anymore. No, they would see each other again.

“I understand. That’s great, your dream’s finally coming true. Maybe we’ll meet each other on stage one day.”

They will see each other again on stage just like he said they would. But would things still be the same as they were before?

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

When the girls were told about new members being added to the group, the three of them didn’t know how to react. Even though it’s been over 3 months since Sunghee has left, the girls didn’t know if they would be able to accept them. They trained with Sunghee for over a year and now that Sunghee’s left, her spot is quickly filled by someone else?

However, they knew that the company had most of the control over the group and there wasn’t much they could do about it. They have kept in contact with Sunghee calling her every now and then to ask her how she is, and from the way things seem, the chances of her returning are almost 0. She seems to be happy living her normal life again without the paparazzi and crazy schedules. If she was happy then the girls were happy for her.

After much thinking, the girls had decided that they were going to start off fresh. They didn’t have much choice. They weren’t a group who had just failed their debut but still had a guaranteed future in their career. A member had left the group after their very first album promotion and they were considered as an unknown group. Maybe two new members could do the group some good.

And so the 3 girls were introduced to the 2 new members, Hara and Jiyoung. Both of them were pretty and cute. Jiyoung was only 14 at the time and Hara was the same age as Nicole. Which meant, Nicole was no longer the maknae. It isn’t much of a big deal but Nicole was used to always being the youngest in the group and the one in charge being cute. Now she didn’t have to be cute anymore since that was Jiyoung’s job. Nicole didn’t have a problem with it since she wasn’t very good at purposely acting cute anyways.

It was quite awkward at first when they were told that these two will be moving into the dorm with them to help them get to know each other better. They were worried that with the two new younger members, there would be a lot of arguments with getting used to each others’ habits. They bought a bunk bed for the two of the girls to use and Nicole was the one sharing rooms with them.

What if they talked in their sleep? Or snored? What worried Nicole the most was how messy the room was going to get with 3 people sharing the room now. As if it wasn’t crowded enough when she was just sharing with Sunghee. The room was too small and she often thought about how comfy her old room was when she lived with her umma.

Their first day spent together with the five of them wasn’t so bad. Hara and Jiyoung showed up at their doors in the afternoon with their luggage. They all helped move their stuff into the living room first and left it there to unpack after lunch. Nicole was the chef for the day but the girls helped out a bit. They asked Hara and Jiyoung a lot of questions to get to know them a bit better. Seungyeon was the first to tell them they could drop the honorifics to feel more comfortable around them. They spent the afternoon unpacking their things and just cleaning up the dorm a bit. At night, Hara and Jiyoung waited for their unnis to finish showering first. They were polite and still had a good sense of humor. Maybe things won’t be so bad after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The girls were backstage for KBS’ Music Bank. Hara and Jiyoung hugged each other as their legs trembled. All five of them had the butterflies right now.

“You two will do fine. Just do what you guys did yesterday,” Gyuri said, patting them on the head.

“Take deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.” Seungyeon suggested. Nicole was just as nervous and was making weird bird sounds to loosen up her vocal cords. When the girls heard that the MCs had started, the quickly got on stage and into positions.

“Hwaiting,” Nicole whispered to herself as the music started to play.

If you wanna pretty! Everybody Pretty!

Everything was running smoothly and the girls were doing well until close to the end of the song.

Nicole took a step and had accidentally stepped on Hara who let out a yelp, “Ah!”

Nicole looked at Hara with wide-eyes while continuing to sing. Even though it was a short yelp, everyone had heard it. Nicole couldn’t help but become distracted, wanting to apologize to Hara right away.

When the music had ended, Hara rushed off stage and past everyone into the washroom. The girls quickly followed her, finding her locked in a stall.

“Unni! Are you okay?” Jiyoung said, knocking on the door.

“It’s okay! No one heard it,” Seungyeon said, trying to make her feel better.

“Hara! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!” Nicole said, knocking on the washroom door.

They were answered with Hara sobbing even louder. Gyuri looked at Nicole who was frowning and biting her lip in guilt. “You should go and get a drink first.”

Nicole looked at Gyuri and felt even worse. Nicole nodded, knowing that it would probably be best if she went out first. Hara was probably mad at her. And she has the rights to be. She knew it was her fault. How could she have stepped on Hara. If she had been more careful of her surroundings, she would’ve seen her.

Nicole sat outside in the hall as hair stylists, dancers and other celebrities rushed about to their performance.

Her manager walked over to her and asked, “Where are the other girls?”

“They’re in the washroom with Hara,” Nicole’s voice cracked.

“You should go get changed first then. Be more careful next time,” he said, patting her on the shoulder and then walked off.

It took Nicole all the strength in her to not cry. Inside, she was felt angry and guilty at the same time.

It was an accident. Why did everyone have to blame her? She apologized already, what more did the want her to do? Why did Hara have to make such a big deal out of it? But at the same time, it was her fault. If she was Hara, she probably would’ve been upset too. However, she wouldn’t have made it so that she would be blaming Hara. She would’ve laughed it off and said it was okay.

She wanted to scream in frustration. After half an hour, the rest of the girls came out of the washroom and got changed as well. Another half an hour later, everyone was getting ready to leave.

“Where is she?” Nicole asked.

“Still in there,” Seungyeon sighed.

Nicole went to the washroom and knocked on the door gently, “Hara?”

No answer.

“I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“I-it’s not your fault,” Hara’s voice squeeked.

“Yes it is! I should’ve been more careful,” Nicole insisted.

“I should’ve been too! And it’s my fault I screamed and everyone heard. I let the group down,” she sobbed.

“No it’s not! It’s okay! Everyone makes mistakes. And besides, this is only your second performance. There are going to be plenty more. Please, can you just come out first?”

The door unlocked and Hara stepped out. Her eyes were swollen and red and her make up was running.

“I’m sorry!” Nicole said again, giving Hara a big hug.

“It’s okay,” Hara smiled.

“Let’s get you cleaned up first.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Have you heard the news?” Seungyeon asked Nicole excitedly when she first stepped into the dance room.

“No? What happened?” Nicole saw Gyuri talking to Hara and Jiyoung in the corner of the room.

“Guess what?! We’re doing a collab with SHINee for Christmas!” Hara squealed, hopping up and down.

Nicole’s jaw dropped in disbelief at the news. Kara. Collab. SHINee. Key. Her. Oh my god. Nicole suddenly felt lightheaded at all this. Just a week ago she was talking to Hyoyeon about planning a lunch day for her to meet the SHINee boys. Now that wasn’t even needed.

“I know right?! I can’t believe it either,” Jiyoung clapped her hands together happily and started jumping around the room with Hara.

“They’re only pretty flower boys,” Gyuri scoffed, flipping her hair even though it was obvious that she was just as excited.

“Oh please Unni, this is our first collab with another boy group. You know you’re just as excited as us,” Hara said, poking her shoulders. Gyuri’s cheeks flushed red and she just grinned.

“Wait wait… are you sure about this?” Nicole asked nervously.

“The manger said. Why? You don’t want to?” Seungyeon frowned.

“Oh no. Hahaha I was just checking. Wouldn’t want to be too excited for nothing you know?” Nicole laughed nervously, trying to hide how she really felt.

The girls were interrupted when their manager walked in. “Just to let you girls know, you guys will be rehearsing with them for the next month. Once every week starting tomorrow.”

The girls all grinned and talked happily among themselves, even Nicole. Well, she couldn’t have avoided him forever right? And she did miss him and wanted to know how he was doing. There was one thing that still bothered her though,

What if he’s changed.

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

The boys just arrived back to the studio from a recording. Even though it was already midnight, they still had practice for at least another two hours.

The boys were heading into the change room one by one when Jonghyun suddenly ran in screaming. “OH MY GOD!”

“YO SHUT UP,” Kibum snapped.

“Fine. I guess you guys don’t wanna hear the news,” Jonghyun huffed, shooting Kibum a glare.

“What news?” Minho asked, pulling off his shirt and throwing on a comfortable t-shirt.

“WE ARE HAVING A SPECIAL PERFORMANCE WITH KARA FOR CHRISTMAS,” Onew announced loudly when he walked into the changeroom.

“That news. WOOT!” Jonghyun screamed, running over to Onew and dancing with him.

“Oh baby Honey, Honey, Honey?” Taemin asked.

“What are we going to be doing though?” Minho asked, smiling like the pretty boy he is.

“Manager hyung said that we’re gonna decide with them tomorrow,” Onew answered.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. He’s going to be seeing Nicole tomorrow. After not seeing her for over year besides on t.v. He couldn’t believe it. This has to be a dream. Maybe they could start talking again. Kibum started to grin to himself at the thought of seeing her.

“So the Almighty Key does like girls,” Jonghyun teased.

“Let’s just hurry up and start practicing,” Kibum smirked, walking out of the change room.

Hurry up and practice so the night will past by faster and he’ll see her sooner. But thinking back to the last time he saw her, he started to get the butterflies.

What if she forgot about him?