“Ariel?” 

Ariel snapped out of her staring phase. In front of her was a lady, who looked like she was in her late 20s. 

“Thats me.” Ariel brightly introduced herself and gave the lady a smile. 

“Hi, my name is Megan Kim. I am your new manager. Treat me as if I’m your older sister please.” She gave her a sisterly smile. 

Ariel nodded her head, “Yes mam.”

Megan looked at her watch, “It is time for lunch with everyone. Come on, it’ll be fun and don’t be nervous. We’re all family here.”  Megan linked arms with Ariel and guided her to the cafeteria. 

When they arrived at the cafeteria, everyone was already there. 

Way to feel like a fish out of water.

Ariel followed behind Megan who went to sit down with the other managers within the company. 

“Ariel, you have to sit over there.” Megan pointed towards the table area with the artists. 

Ariel looked and saw no one she knew. Well she knew no one yet. 

“Don’t be nervous. We don’t bite.” Megan comforted her and began talking to someone at the table she was sitting at. 

Ariel gave her a smile and proceeded to walk to an empty table. She would’ve sat with someone, but all the seats were taken and the only table left was a table with a bunch of chairs. She sat down and placed her bag on the table. She looked around the new environment. The room was filled with chatter. There were round and rectangle tables with white table cloth. Tall windows which made the room brighter. At the center of each table, there was a grill to cook Korean barbecue and other essentials to go with the grilled beef. 

She took a deep breath in and out.  “Wow.” Ariel said in awe. 

“Miss, what would you like to drink?” A server asked.

“Pink lemonade please. ” Ariel requested. 

“Coming right up.” 

Ariel looked around and felt even more nervous. She the grill and placed a couple of slices of beef on the skillet. 

At least I’m in beef heaven.

“You idiot, now we’re late for the luncheon.” Chen blurted to Suho. 

“I forgot we had one! I thought we were gonna rehearse then eat. Not the other way around.” Suho explained as everyone made their way into the cafeteria.

Tao scanned the room to find a big table for them. “There’s no table left.”

Sehun’s mouth dropped, “We’re having barbecue!” 

Xiumin rechecked the area and pointed at a table. “Look, there’s one right there.” 

The group walked over to the table and saw a girl sitting alone, staring at people. 

Suho approached her, “Excuse me….?” 

“Ariel. Or Ah-Young, which is my Korean name.” Ariel smiled brightly. 

“Hi Ariel, do you mind if we sit here with you?” Suho asked with a polite smile. 

Ariel looked around the room. 

“There’s no table left.” Suho smiled to convince her to say yes.

“Yeah sure. Go ahead.” Ariel gave them a sheepish smile and placed her purse on the back of her chair.

Kai sat on the right of her and Chanyeol sat on the left side of her. 

“Welcome to SM by the way.” Kai greeted as he sat down next to you. “Oh and my mom loves your videos.”

“Awh, tell her thank you! I’m just a quirky girl talking to a camera.” Ariel smiled. 

Chanyeol sneaked glances at the California born girl but his attention was mainly on his phone.

Ariel noticed eyes on her body, and broke the silence, “My little cousins love you guys. They never stop talking about you.” Ariel stated to fill in the silence as she placed more beef on the skillet. 

Suho grinned at her comment, “Tell them Suho said thanks for their support.” 

Kai looked at Ariel and moved his body to face her, “So I hear you’re a good singer.” 

Ariel sipped her pink lemonade before responding to his question, “I dabble in singing. I’m more of a beauty guru kind of a girl.”

Chanyeol removed his eyes from his phone and glanced at the girl beside him, “Beauty guru?”

Ariel nodded her head in response, “Yeah. Its a person who talks about beauty and fashion trends. I started when I was 14.” Ariel’s eyes glimmered when the sunlight hit her body. “Stupid sun. I didn’t bring sunscreen.” Ariel mumbled to herself as she brought her hand to her face to shield herself from the sun. 

She looked down at the table so her eyes wouldn’t be squinting. She already had bad vision, she didn’t need to make it worse. Ariel’s eyes caught on to the tall gentlemen sitting on her left side. “Hey, can I borrow your hat?” Ariel requested innocently.

Chanyeol removed his eyes from his phone and looked at Ariel. 

She had milky white skin which surprised him. She lives in California. How is she not tan? 

Ariel noticed Chanyeol examining her skin tone. “Oh, yeah. Instead of getting darker, my skin burns. Its super bad.” 

Chanyeol took his hat off and placed it on Ariel’s head for her. “Wouldn’t want the novice burning.”

Ariel took the hat off and examined it. “I like this hat. Vans have pretty cool printed hats. Nice.” Ariel places the hat back on her head and returns her attention to examine the crowd. 

Chanyeol stared at her and pondered his first impression of the girl. 

You’re not normal.

The luncheon ended after about an hour. Megan took Ariel to the stadium which was 2 blocks away from the company. When they arrived, Megan led Ariel into her own dressing room. It was a small room, there was a vanity desk on one side of the room. The outlines of the mirror were lit up. A rack of clothes were next to it. When you walk in the room, there’s a small white sofa with a nightstand next to it, and a small white coffee table in front of it. It was simple. But her first dressing room. 

“This is all mine?” Ariel questioned in awe.

“Well just for the event. Its not completely yours.” Megan explained as she looked at her cell phone. “Okay according to the schedule, you are the last one to perform. Therefore, last to rehearse. So until then you can just sit here and watch the other groups.” 

Megan grabbed the remote from the coffee table and switched the TV on. “Now, I have to go make sure your stage is perfect so just sit back and enjoy.” Megan gave her a smile, “If you need a drink or anything, machines are right out the hall,” and left the room.

Ariel ran towards the couch in excitement. 

“So this is how I’m going to be living like.” Ariel sprawled her body around the sofa and relaxed. “I can’t believe it.” She squealed in excitement and covered her face as she rolled around the sofa.

Ariel laid down on the sofa for about 30 minutes, watching each group rehearse their number. 

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