Chapter 33

Aisha Kim

"Not to sound rude, but how long have you had that weird mark on your face?" Baekhyun asked curiously, poking at my port wine stain again. Naturally I was a pabo and forgot about how none of Exo besides Luhan and Jongin knew about my secret until the airplane trip back to Seoul. They were going to prank me while I was asleep but once they took off my mask they were too freaked out to prank. I had woken up to 10 boys staring at me, specifically my stain, wondering if it was because of the Fist.

"Since I was born, Baekies. That's why I wear a mask." I said dully. This plane trip was making me very restless.

"I'm guessing the Fist doesn't know about it." Lay said.

"I'm pretty sure he'd take me to some form of surgery place in a heartbeat." I said, looking out the plane's small window, silently praying that this flight would be over soon. "Which I don't want."

"Why don't you want to fix it?" D.O asked curiously.

"Because I've learned to love myself because of that thing." I said simply. "It's a part of me."

"So...the only reason why you still wear the mask is because you're in this industry, and put gobs of makeup over the spot..." Xiumin said. I nodded. I felt my phone vibrate.

From: Appa<3

Msg: I'm at the airport waiting for you. I've missed you so much...and we have a lot to talk about.

To: Appa<3

Msg: I've missed you too! And okie dokie, I'll mentally prepare myself for anything(:

I felt the plane start to descend and relief rushed through me. I never knew what it was like to feel homesick so awfully until the incident with Sage. The plane touched down and the flight attendant finally announced that we had arrived to Seoul. Home sweet home! It was practically a stampede when we were told we could leave. I got out of the plane while holding Jongin's hand. It's amazing how he can pick me out of the crowd so easily. I slipped on my mask with one hand and went to go find my luggage the security guards have probably already nabbed.

I didn't realize how many fans had shown up just to greet us. Most were shouting encouraging things about how everything was going to be okay, that we hoped we'd like our new management, etc. Turns out the Fist had announced about the new management because the mangers themselves had been treating us badly and not he himself. It ticked me off that people would still buy that even after we did all those videos about how he was the one doing all the damage.

"Aisha!" I heard a familiar voice call out. I turned around and jumped for joy.

"APPA!!" I exclaimed and ran over, letting go of Jongin's hand and pushing past the security guards. I felt like a little child as he held me close and spun me around. "I've missed you so much!"

"It still surprises me that you can speak again." he said, kissing my forehead. "Your voice sounds so strong!"

"Thank you." I said shyly. "I'm ready to go home."

"Can't go home without the other girls. Now where's Sage?" he laughed. Jongin came running towards me.

"Aisha! Why did you- oh, hello sir." he said, bowing. Appa laughed.

"Can I not have my own daughter anymore?" he teased. "You were with her for three months."

"I'm sorry, sir." Jongin said, face flushing a little bit.

"I'm just glad you were there for her during all that...mess. Which is what I want to discuss with you, and the rest of Jewelz." Appa said, turning his attention to me, poking the tip of my nose.

"We're supposed to go back to our homes and relax until September. Then it's back to work." Jongin said. "I know I'm going to see my family and my children."

Appa looked at him in shock. "What...?"

I looked at Appa, a bit confused, but then I remembered.

"His dogs, Appa. He calls his dogs his children." I giggled at Jongin's now very red face and the unfortunate misinterpretation.

"Oh..." Appa said. He's probably going to wonder about my mental health now.

"Should I get the rest of Jewelz since you want to talk to us all?" I asked, changing the subject. Appa nodded. As I walked away I heard Appa say: "So...you missed your children?"

"Girls!" I exclaimed, getting my members' attention. The four chattering girls stopped talking and turned to look at me. "Appa wants to talk to us about the mess that happened while touring."

"Well, hopefully he has room for five girls in his car." HeeYoung said.

"Has he missed us?" SunJung asked. I nodded.

"Well, we had our instructions to take it easy until September...which is also when we start our last year of college..." Sage said. "Anyway, let's go to Appa. Lead the way! Pretty sure he missed this quirky daughter! I'll see you soon, Lulu-Oppa!" She blew a kiss at Luhan which he 'caught' and held close to his heart.

I pushed our way out of the crowd and saw that Jongin and Appa were actually having a good time conversing with one another. I saw Appa look over and see us coming his way. He made eye contact with Sage....oh this was going to be interesting...

"Sage!!" he said enthusiastically, coming over and hugging her tightly. Her eyes widened in shock.

"Hi Appa." she said. "You're suffocating me!"

"Don't you dare think about leaving." he said sternly. "While you're here I'm responsible for you, and you're part of my family." Sage blushed.

"I missed you too." she giggled. He let go of her and proceeded to hug the rest of the girls.

"Okay, let's go home." he said after 'hello's' and 'I miss you's' were exchanged. Jongin pulled me to the side.

"This evening...I'm going to pick you up and take you somewhere, okay?" he grinned mischievously. I looked at him, confused.

"What's the occasion?"

"The I'm-So-Glad-We're-Done-Touring occasion." he said, laughing. "Wear something nice, okay? And no masks allowed."

"Aisha! I'm pretty sure you don't want to be left at the airport!" SunJung called out. Jongin laughed and kissed my cheek.

"See you later, my Black Pearl."

"Okay. Tell me about SM." Appa said, gathering us all around the dining room table. We had been doing non-stop laundry and sleeping since we got to my house. SunJung, HeeYoung, and Minji wouldn't stop thanking Appa for letting them use our washing machine/dryer. Finally we five girls were all up at the same time and not busy with laundry.

"We, as a group, want out of SM and if at all possible switch to another company." Minji stated, being the leader she was and speaking up.

"How to your Gems feel about that?" he asked.

"They support it, well most of them do, according to the YouTube videos we uploaded. Others are unsure." SunJung said.
"Have you expressed this to your manager?"

We all nodded vigorously. "Well....before she got fired she was helping us find another company to sign onto as a group." HeeYoung said.

"I was helping..." Sage said. "We, Minha and I, were still keeping in touch about it, but then for some reason I lost contact with her while we made our way back to Korea. I don't know what happened...The last text she sent me was that she got the job at another industry along with SangJun and Sooyoung. It didn't say which one though..."

"Think we can look up Minha on the Internet?" SunJung asked, pulling her puff into a ponytail. I pulled out my phone and typed her into the search box.

"Besides all the controversy posts about her...it looks like she got a job at YG." I said.

"And if she's at YG...so are the others..." HeeYoung said slowly.

"That's it. Jewelz is moving to YG." Minji announced. "Now to get the papers to send to the Fist that say we're leaving his hell-hole and going to Minha."

"I'll see if I can contact Minha again, or even Sooyoung." Sage said. "Hang on, I found Minha's new e-mail!"

"Send her a message!" I exclaimed.

"What should it say?"

"Uh....that we want out of SM. duh!" Minji said, rolling her eyes. We all brainstormed a way to send the perfect e-mail. We sent it a few minutes later.

"Oh look! She's already responded!" Sage said happily. We looked at the e-mail together.

Dear Jewelz,

One, I'm now going to praise God right now that you girls found me. I had to get a new phone and number at the last second so you girls don't have my new number which I'm super duper sorry for not sending you a message about it. Sigh.

As for joining YG...that's a different matter. I'm sure Aisha's father will be able to negotiate something because one of the reasons on how I got the job here was because of my experience with dealing the Jewelz and Exo drama. Apparently it was very admirable. SangJun is here too, and so is Sooyoung. We all miss you and Exo, and we'll do what we can to get you out of SM. You're all still my precious daughters and I'll do practically anything to protect you. You know I will.

Please please please contact me back!

I love you all dearly,

Minha the Umma

"I can talk to YG." Appa said. "I know that they're very interested in you still, despite the fact that you've been at SM." he had directed his attention to me. "And it's a miracle that she wants to help. She made it seem like YG knows what's been going in and wants to help."

"I think I'll like being underneath their management." HeeYoung stated. I looked at the time.

"So...we have a plan...now I need to get ready for Jongin." I said, getting up to get fixed up for whatever Jongin had in store for me.

"He's already taking you out?" Sage asked, bewildered. "When Luhan got back to the Exo dorm he went straight to sleep. How I know is because Sehun sent me a picture of him splayed out all over the bed....oh gosh that was attractive." She snorted and shook her head.

I went up to my bedroom and opened the music box, surprised that it wasn't locked. I thought I was going to have to wait until Jongin came to pick me up and get the key. I looked at Umma's letter, smiling to myself. I feel like I've made her proud. I looked at the two last operations I could choose to do to fix my stain, but instead I tucked them away and picked up Umma's pearls. I'm going to wear these when we have our next performance...under YG...hopefully.

I fixed my makeup and hair, ditched my endless array of black masks like be wanted me to, and slipped into a semi formal green button up top with skinny jeans, despite the fact that it was August, and slipped on ballet flats. I heard a car pull up and I dashed down the stairs while the girls cat called and said other potentially embarrassing things.

"Why do you even have shoes in your room?" Minji asked with a laugh.

"Sage." I answered simply. The group looked at Sage.

"What...? I put my shoes in the closet..."

The doorbell rang and I immediately answered it.

"Hello, beautiful..." Jongin smiled warmly. I had to take a moment to admire how nice he looked too, with a white button up and black jeans and nice but practical looking shoes. "Ready to go?"

"When will she be back?" Appa called out.

"8 pm, sir." he said. I giggled at his formality. We said our goodbyes and got into his car.

"Where are we going?" I asked as he the radio.

"We're going to do something that has been way overdue." he said. My mind filled with questions instantly, but decided not to question it any further. I hummed along lightly to one of the songs, suddenly realizing how much I missed singing along to songs, even humming really.

"You're humming..." he said, glancing over at me.

"Oh! I'll stop..." I said, suddenly embarrassed.

"No...no that's not what I meant. Your humming....it's really pretty." he said, biting his lip out of habit. I blushed.

"Thank you."

"Can you sing more? Without your voice getting hurt...of course."

I giggled and hummed a little louder to the song and he began humming along too. There was something magical about singing with your boyfriend on the way to an adventure of some sort. When the song ended he turned a corner and pulled up to a house I didn't recognize. I looked at him curiously.

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