~Chapter 017~

"On the first episode of SMTOWN: The Secrets and Joys, we are back with the world stars after they finished introducing themselves as proud SM artists! Now, begins the first challenge!"

Ten SM artists stood in a semi-circle on an open, vast greenery, waiting for the teams and challenges to be announced. The MC, the SM artist not performing in the challenge, Girls' Generation's Jessica prepared herself to speak.

"Annyeong haseyo, MC Jessica imnida. We have ten eager SM idols here ready to show off their skills! Can each one of you please give a cute introduction to your audience?"

"Annyeong, this is Super Junior's Cinderella! Please take care of me!" Heechul did some cute aegyo at the end.

"Yah!" Super Junior's Sungmin frowned. "Annyeong haseyo, I am the Aegyo King of the world!" Sungmin made a heart shape with his hands to the camera.

"Annyeong viewers! I am Girls' Generation's sun Sunny!" 

"Annyeong haseyo, I am SHINee's manly maknae Taemin!" Taemin bit his lip, trying to seduce the audience. 

"Annyeong haseyo, this is Girls' Generation's dancing queen Hyoyeon!"

"Annyeong haseyo, everyone! This is energy pill Sunyoung! I'll work hard today and help my team win!" Sunyoung smiled brightly at the camera and waved.

"Annyeong haseyo, Girls' Generation charming girl Yoona imnida!"

"Annyeong haseyo, f(x) umma Victoria imnida!"

"Annyeong haseyo, f(x)'s only hyung Amber imnida!"

"Annyeong haseyo everyone! This is Dubu Leader Onew! Fighting~!" Onew cheered.

"Wow, those were great introductions! Except for Heechul." MC Jessica teased.

"I thought it was beautiful. Right, ELFs?" Heechul complained.

"Okay, time to see our challenge." MC Jessica said, pulled out a rolled up poster from behind her and allowed everyone to look at it, as she read.

SMTOWN: 1st Challenge

With your randomly selected teams, you will competing to find four of each fruit:

4 apples, 4 bananas, 4 mangoes, 4 strawberies

The fruits are not real and were printed on paper. They are laminated, so please do not worry of ripping them.

You have an hour to find each of the fruits. There are only 16 of the fruits in total, so you may have to steal from the other teams.

Hwaiting~!

"Omo, this seems difficult! We can't be aggressive, right?" Sungmin bit his lip in frustration. 

"You can do whatever you want, as long as it's not violating the privacy of a person or breaking the rules of this show." Jessica stated. 

"Okay then. We'll start choosing teams. Everyone choose a slip from this container. They contain the word red or blue. These are the teams: The red team and the blue team. Do not show it to anyone and and once everyone is done selecting a slip, you'll reveal what team you are on. Let's start then!" Jessica walked around with the container. 

Onew glanced at Sunyoung, who was patiently waiting for her turn. Her brown eyes darted around the room, vigilant of the fact that there were camera around and that any comment she made might become a headline on the news. She gently pulled out a piece of paper and hid it in her hands. When it was Onew's turn, he quickly took a slip and read it.

"Okay, everyone. Please show your slips." Everyone re-opened their slips and held them out in front.

"Idols on the Red Team are: Sunny, Taemin, Hyoyeon, Amber, and Sungmin oppa! On the Blue Team, we have Sunyoung, Onew, Victoria, Heechul oppa, and Yoona. Please say hello to your team mates and we'll start." Jessica announced.

After the teams had changed into their team "uniforms" comprising of a simple T-shirt, which was the color of the team name(red or blue), and matching uniual shorts, they gathered again with their teams.

"I wish both teams good luck! Fighting! 1, 2, 3, go!" Jessica cheered. Both teams set off into the open farmland and searched for the fruits. 

Sunyoung and Onew, unlike the other idols, walked carefully searching for the fruits. Sunyoung dug into a toolbox near a barn and found a strawberry and smiled in satisfaction. 

"Onew! I found one!" Sunyoung hissed as she held up the paper strawberry. Onew's eyes lit up and he ran to Sunyoung, looking at the strawberry. 

"I think there will be more fruits in this barn. Look attentively." Onew said to Sunyoung. She nodded and resumed her search. 

After fifteen minutes, Sunyoung and Onew together had found five fruits in the barn. They made a single round of the barn, before leaving and checking for more fruits in a different location. 

As they walked together on the open land, a few of the Red Team members came in view. Sunny, Taemin, and Amber were discussing excitedly about something.

"They probably have found a lot of fruits. More than us, maybe." Sunyoung whispered. 

"Yeah. I have an idea. Pretend we didn't find any fruits in the barn and you'll scold me for revealing that information to them. Okay? Just follow my lead." Onew proposed. He began to walk to the Red Team with Sunyoung trailing his lead. 

"Annyeong Onew! How are you guys doing?" Sunny asked a little too cheerfully. Amber and Taemin's eyes turned stolid and they hid their excitement. 

"Not very good. Sunyoung and I went to the barn to look for fruits and there weren't any. We spent a good five minutes. I don't think there are fruits there. Wait, we decided that we would finish our search of the other half of the barn later. Right, Sunyoung?" Onew divulged smoothly. 

"What are you doing?! Why did you tell them that? Aiish. Onew....." Sunyoung acknowledged slyly. 

"Noona, I think we have to go." Taemin exclaimed, winking at Sunny. 

"That's right. We better go! Good luck!" Sunny dragged Amber and Taemin away in a hurry. Amber looked back at the two suspiciously and they sighed, waving defeatedly. 

As soon as they were out of sight, Sunyoung and Onew quietly celebrated and high-fived each other. 

"Sunyoung, that was fantastic! You acted so well! Come on, let's hurry!" Onew lilted. 

"Thanks! You were great, too! Look, I think they dropped this!" Sunyoung picked up a mango from the ground and Onew grinned. 

"Sunyoung! Onew!" Yoona and Victoria called from afar. As Yoona and Victoria was on the same team as them, Sunyoung and Onew sprinted to them and proudly displayed their eclectic collection of fruits. 

"Wah, good job! We have one and Heechul oppa has one! How did you get this many?" Yoona questioned. Sunyoung explained Onew's plan and Yoona's and Victoria's expressions were shocked that Onew could be decieving. 

"That was brilliant. We have five minutes left.  Sunyoung and Yoona will target Hyoyeon and Onew, Heechul, and I target the rest. According to Heechul oppa's spying, Hyoyeon has the most fruits on her. Attack her in the most underhanded way." Victoria ordered, just as a leader would. 

"Noona, you sound like a mafia leader. I think Sunyoung and I will stick together because we are better actors in deception." Onew suggested. Sunyoung frowned for a second, before nodding her head vehemently.

" You just want to be with Sunyoung. Okay. We'll do it your way. Let's go Yoona!" The Blue Team split up to find their targets. Sunyoung and Onew easily found Hyoyeon by her loud voice.

"Unni! I have something to ask you!" Sunyoung yelled, before Onew could stop her. Onew grasped her forearm and Sunyoung turned to look at him. Their eyes remained locked on each other for a moment. Sunyoung's heartbeat increased and she broke eye contact. 

"Yah, lovebirds! What do you need?" Hyoyeon chuckled. 

"Unni! Stop saying that. Can we please have a fruit? We haven't found a single one. This is so unfortunate for us. Please." Sunyoung implored.

"Sunyoung, I won't give a fruit to you so easily. You have to do something." Hyoyeon tapped her foot on the ground repeatedly.

"What? I'll do it." Sunyoung said eagerly.

"Dance to I Got A Boy, while Onew sings it." Hyoyeon said. 

Onew stared at Sunyoung's contemplating expression and when she stepped forward with her eyes focused on Onew, he scrunched up his face in embarassment. 

"Sunyoung, why do I have to do this?" Onew complained. 

"To get a fruit. We don't even have one and I don't want to be a laughing stock, so hurry up and sing." Sunyoung demanded impatiently. 

Onew sighed and began to sing to Girls' Generation's "I Got A Boy", while Sunyoung danced. The pair delivered a commendable performance and Hyoyeon reluctantly handed Onew a fruit.

"Aigoo...this was so embarassing!" Onew hid his face in his hands.

Sunyoung patted his back and said, "It's okay. We have a fruit now."

A bell suddenly rang, signalling the end of the challenge.

"Everyone, please return to our starting point." MC Jessica announced. Both teams jogged back and stood in line, waiting to listen to the winner.

The Red Team were first in showing their fruits. It was a total of 7 fruits. It was clear that the Blue Team were the victors.

"Congratulations Blue Team! You have won by a difference of two fruits. Consider yourselves lucky." Jessica said. "Each person on the Blue Team, show how many fruits you collected. Start with Victoria."

"Yoona and I worked together to gather one banana." Victoria responded. 

"I have one mango." Heechul replied. 

"Sunyoung and I also worked together to collect seven fruits in total." Onew answered. 

"What?!?!" The Red Team exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yah, Park Sunyoung and Onew! You two said you had no fruits!" Sunny shouted.

"I knew you were lying! Why did I jinx it?" Amber groaned.

"How could I give Onew and Sunyoung one so easily?" Hyoyeon smacked her head against her hand.

"You gave them a fruit?" Sungmin widened his eyes.

"It seems as if Onew and Sunyoung were the Ace Couple of the day." Jessica said.

"No, we just were lucky." Sunyoung blushed.

"You're blushing! Omo, this is so cute!" Victoria squealed.

"Yah, we just happened to think of the right ideas!" Onew denied.

"Well, we'll leave you alone for now, but for the next time something like this occurs, there is no way we're letting this go." MC Jessica reminded. "That's it for this episode. We will not be having a reflection for any artist today. Annyeong viewers!" 

Sungmin turned off the T.V. in the SM common room. Most of the SM artists gathered to watch the first episode of S.M.'s reality show.

"You two were so cute! Do you secretly have a crush on each other? It's so obvious!" Jonghyun commented on Sunyoung's and Onew's interactions during the challenge.

"Yah, Kim Jonghyun! You better shut up now!" Onew warned.

"Onew, why are you disrespecting your dongsaeng?" Sunyoung pointed out.

"Sunyoung unni, you said it wrong. You're supposed to say, 'Jagiya, don't hurt your dongsaeng's feelings.'" Krystal teased.

"Soojung-ah, be quiet!" Sunyoung huffed, frustratedly. She pouted, her cheeks a bright pink from the comments about her and Onew.

"But it was really strange though. You two connected so well. It's as if you were one person. The way Sunyoung held up a fruit and Onew would smile or when Onew helped Sunyoung be in posession of a fruit, Sunyoung would be so elated. Also, you looked at each other so romantically when Sunyoung called Hyoyeon. It was so cute!!! You even introduced yourself in the beginning in a similar way. Is this some type a secret dating communication you two are doing?" Taeyeon was intrigued.

"We just wanted to win." Sunyoung and Onew said in unison. The room burst out in a series of "awws" and squeals. The "couple" blushed furiously and looked at the ground. 

"I definitely ship you two." Minho stated.

"Yup. I bet fans do, too." Amber agreed. 

Sunyoung rolled her eyes and sighed. Was my interest in Onew that apparent? I better not speak to him on that show too much. It might cause scandals. 

Author's Note:

Annyeong readers! 

This was such a tiring chapter to write. I hope you enjoyed it.

I focused only on LuNew, as I said I would.

So, it saddens me to say this, but I may not be able to update as frequently as usual.

My semester break is almost over and I'll have to focus on my education more. :(

However, I'll try to update whenever I can.

Please understand that I am probably studying or stressing/worrying(I worry way too much) if I don't update even after two weeks. As a college student, I think my studies are extremely vital to a good life.

I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me.

I'll get in one more update before my classes begin again.

Bye bye!