(Request from justluvk-pop)

“I swear, if you don’t tell me what they’re like I might kill you.”

“I told you, I don’t really know what they’re like.  I only met two of them and only for a second.”  You and your best friend are sitting in front of the little ice cream shop, letting your treats melt in front of you.  Well, in all honesty, you kept trying to take a bite, but your friend didn’t shut up about tonight.

“Did you take a peek inside?  How many are there?  It’s hard to count them behind that glass.”

“Girl!  You have asked me these questions like a hundred times since last week.  I did not look inside and there are at least two.  Now will you let me eat my ice cream before it turns into a milkshake!  God.”  Your friend rolls her eyes and finally takes a bite of her cookie dough while you dig into your mint chocolate chip.

After Xiumin and Luhan had invited you and your friends to hang out together at the karaoke center, you had been on some kind of high.  When you told your friends, you only mentioned that the boys next door wanted to hang out.  You left out the important detail of who they were.  Knowing your friends, if they knew they were going to hang out with Exo, they would have dressed up too much and written love notes or something and that would have made things awkward.  Being awkward with them was the last thing you wanted.  They were going all out anyway just because they were boys.  You couldn’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they realized who they were meeting in just a few hours.

“Hello?  Are you even listening to me?” 

You shake your head, not looking away from your cup.

“You are enjoying this aren’t you.”

You nod.  After a minute you look up to find your friend staring at you with what she thought was a serious look, but looked more like she was spacing out.  You burst out laughing finding her face to be extremely funny.  I can’t wait until tonight.  The girls are going to kill me once they find out.

~That Night~

You and your friends walk into the karaoke place as usual.  Well, except that the girls are a little more made up than they usually are.  They had not stopped pestering you about the guys; what were they like and were they cute and yada yada. 

You walk up the desk where the same middle-aged woman sat.  She had her nose in a book that she had been working on for the past two months.

“Excuse me?”  She looked up.  Her expression instantly changed when she saw your face.

“Oh darling, why didn’t you tell me?”  She dropped her book and leaned over the desk grabbing your hand.  This didn’t surprise you all that much.  She was a very nice lady, who loved to keep up with everything that was going on in your life.  You always told her, because why not?  She was sweet and it wasn’t like she would tell anyone.  Well, no one who you would know anyway.

“About what?”  You ask, smiling.

“About your date with those cute boys in the room right next to yours.”  She smiled coyly at you.  It was the same smile every woman got when spreading juicy gossip.  But, how did she know?  You were just about to ask for a bigger room, because the guys always arrived 30 minutes after you and your friends.

“Who told you?”

“Silly, the boys are already here.  They requested a bigger room this time and said they were meeting some girls tonight.  When I asked who they were, they said the group of girls in the next room and I knew it was you and your friends.  How did you all manage to charm the hearts of those very good-looking boys?”  She squeezed your hand a little bit. 

Your heart was racing.  The members had actually gotten there early.  And they requested a bigger room, meaning they didn’t forget about your set up.  Some small part of you finally realized that last week wasn’t a dream and you were actually going to spend the evening with Exo!  Which reminded you of something.

“Miss, how many boys were there?”

“Well, now let’s see.”  She thinks for a minute, counting along an invisible line in the air.  “8. There were 8.  Looks like each of you girls can get a guy tonight with two to spare.”  She giggled a little and you smile, slightly embarrassed by her implication.

“Oh, and before I forget, one of them asked me to give you this.  Well, he didn’t know your name, but he said to give it to the one with the big eyes and sweet smile and I just knew he was talking about you.”  She hands you a small piece of paper that had been folded a couple times.  She then tells you the number of the room the boys were in.  You thank her with a little nod before going back to your friends.

“Apparently the guys are already here and they got a bigger room for us all.”  You see the girls’ faces light up and the giggle fits follow rapidly.

“How many are there?”  One of your friends asks.

“8.”

The girls start messing with their hair and clothes, making sure they look perfect.  You look at the note in your hand and turn your back to the girls.  You can see your hands shake as you pull at the folds.

Maybe tonight you can try Wolf with me.  –Xiumin

Your whole body goes numb and you forget how to breathe as you hug the paper to your chest, squealing in your head.  Tonight is going to be the most amazing night ever!

Standing in front of the closed door, there is no music or laughing or any kind of sound coming from inside at all.  You look at your friends.  You’re all playing that silent game of yours.  Who was going to be the one to knock on the door?  Your friends are all looking at you.  You nod and tap your knuckles on the door three times, before taking a deep breath.  You feel so nervous, but at the same time, you can’t wait to see the girls’ faces.

The knob turns and the door opens.  Luhan is standing at the door, smiling a brilliant smile that seems to have the hallway glowing.

“Hey, you came.  It’s nice to see you again.”  Your looks over you and your friends.  “Hi it’s nice to finally meet you all.”  You glance over at your friends.  You hold in your laughter as see their eyes pop open and their faces freeze.  A couple nod and reply to the greeting, but mostly they just stare.  Luhan opens the door a little more.  “Come in.”

Glancing throught the doorway you can see the other 7 members clearly: Tao, Chen, Sehun, Baekhyun, D.O., Kai, and… You finally see Xiumin, sitting on a couch turning his head to look at the door.  As soon as you make eye contact, he gives a cute smile and stands up.  Then you realize that you had been invited in, but you all continued to stand in the doorway.  You grab your best friend’s arms and drag her through the door.  The other girls followed after, sticking close to each other, as if entered enemy territory.

“Well, now we can get the party started.”  You look in the direction of the voice.  It was Baekhyun.  He grabbed Tao and dragged him up to the screen, grabbing two mics.  “Tao and I call going first.” 

“Yah!  I didn’t say I would go first.”

“I don’t care.  You’re doing it anyway.”  You hear a song begin to play, but you don’t really pay attention to what it was, cause now Xiumin is standing in front of you.

“I wasn’t sure if you would remember or not.  I’m glad to see you didn’t.”  He stands just a little taller than you, a fact which you had not noticed last time you met.

“Yeah.  I mean it’s not very hard to forget when you have 5 girls constantly pestering you about what to wear and things like that.”  Your voice sounds a bit shaky and your knees are knocking together, a problem you try to remedy by adjust your stance a little bit.  No luck.

Xiumin smiles and laughs a bit, a beautiful sight.  “I guess that would be a constant reminder.  Did you get my note?”

“Yeah I did.”  You’re still holding it in your hand.  The paper now hot and a little damp from your sweaty palms.

“I realized then that I didn’t actually know your name, but I guess my description was accurate,” He stuffs his hands in his pockets and bunches his shoulders up around his neck.  If you didn’t know any better, you would say this was almost flirting.  

“Yes.  Thank you.  I’m sorry though.  I don’t think I could do Wolf with you.  I would be way too nervous, considering I’m actually here with the original singers.”  You look around the room.  The members have spread out amongst your friends, taking one each and talking with them, while Baekhyun and Tao were busy singing up front.  Was that supposed to be Electric Shock?

“Don’t worry.  The only thing we care about tonight, is you girls having fun.”  Cue swoon.  You felt yourself fly up to cloud nine and get lost in it’s wonderful warmth.  “So, can I ask for your name?”  He tilts his head to side, looking you right in the eye.

I’ll tell you anything, as long as you keep looking at me like that, you think to yourself.  You feel yourself smile as you introduce yourself.

He repeats your name to himself, testing it.  “That’s pretty.  I would introduce myself, but something tells me you already know who I am.”

“Well, yeah.  But I was going to let you introduce yourself anyway.  I figure you probably don’t get to introduce yourself much in a normal setting.”  You find yourself strangely calm and you praise yourself for acting like a normal person instead of a crazy fan.

Xiumin laughs out loud at your statement, covering his face with his hand. 

“What?” you ask, giggling a little.  His laugh was very contagious and you couldn’t help but laugh too.

“Nothing, it’s just that…”  Xiumin bends down resting his hands on his knees.  “…the way you said it made me realize that that’s true.  I introduce myself a ton, but it’s only ever on shows and during concerts or things like that.  I hardly ever introduce myself in public and it’s just funny.”  Xiumin starts laughing again and you laugh too.  After a little while, Xiumin stands straight up and puts his hands on his abdomen.

“Oh, wow.  My abs are starting to hurt a little.  That’s the only bad thing about laughing.  It may add more years to your life, but after a while it starts to hurt.”  You find yourself, holding your own abs, feeling the sting.

“I say that all the time.”  You look at him and see for the first time a normal guy instead of a world famous K-pop Idol.

As the rest of the night progresses, your abs burn more than they have in a long time with all the laughing you’ve been doing.  You swear you must have laughed off about 10 pounds.  The members were more hilarious than your friends were when it came to karaoke.  Sehun and Baekhyun did Trouble Maker with scary accurate chirography; you discovered that Kai had an amazing Kim Jongkook impression with Black Cat; and Chen can pull off a pretty good Abracadabra.  You and your friends had not done much, but you were having just as much fun sitting on the couches watching the entertainment.

You looked at your watch, barley able to pull your eyes away from Luhan and D.O.’s Genie.  It was an hour past the time you and your friends usually left.  Looking at your phone, you had a couple missed calls from your parents and some texts saying, “Where are you?” and “Are you on your way home?”  You look over at Xiumin who was sitting next to you and had been next to you all night.

“I’m sorry, but we need to go.  Normally we would have left about an hour ago.  We should leave, before our parents get mad.”

“Ahh.  Sorry about that.  I didn’t know you had to be home by a certain time.”  He stood up.

“No, it’s my fault.  I should have been watching the time more carefully.”  You go to stand up and see his hand out in front of you.  You look up and grab his hand, letting him help you up.

“I’m sorry guys, but we need to go,” you announce.  You hear some groans from both the girls and the guys.  They all start to stand up, saying goodbye to whoever they were with.  You turn to Xiumin.  “Sorry we didn’t get to do Wolf.”

“Don’t worry about it.  There’s always next week.”

“Next week?”

“Yeah.  I think we should make this a weekly get together.  It’s a lot more fun when we have more people here.  Actually, let’s be honest and say it’s more fun with girls here.”  You giggle and see him turn a little red.

“I would say the same thing, except I would trade out the word fun for weird.”  Xiumin laughs before getting a little tense.  You notice his shoulders tense up as he looks at the ground.  “You okay?”

“Well, I don’t know.  I’m about to do something that my mind has been telling me to do since last week.”  He rubs the back of his neck and doesn’t look up.  You feel your own body go stiff.

“Uhmm….wow.  This is harder than I thought.”  He lets out a little forced laugh.  “Can…I….can I have your number?”

One word: Dead.

You feel your heart stop completely and all heat escapes your body, leaving an empty shell to stare at the guy, who is now looking at you expectantly.

“Yeah…sure.” 

“Really?  That’s great.”  Xiumin pulls out his phone and hands it to you, the keypad already pulled up on his screen.  You type in your number, before handing it back.  You still haven’t breathed yet.

“Thank you.  I hope you don’t mind if I call sometime this week.  I just want to help pester you about next week so you won’t forget.”  He laughs and starts walking to the door.  You follow.  Still no breathing. 

When you and your friends are out the door, you finally breathe the cool night air.  You’re friends are babbling nonstop about the night and how they were sort of mad at you for not warning them.  You ignore them, until your phone beeps.  Everyone falls silent.  They stare at you as you pull your phone out. 

“It’s a picture message from a number I don’t recognize,” you say out loud.  You’re friends gather around you, staring at your hand.

Opening the text you see a picture of Xiumin making the “V” sign over his left eye.  The message says, “See you next week!”

Your friends start screaming and hugging you, but you can’t pay attention because all you see is the normal guy you just met last week and the same normal guy you’ll be seeing next week.