Watched: Bitten

      March 4th, 2010

March 4th, 2010

"Are you kidding me?" Echo scoffed, leaning against the white wall of SNSD's training room.

"Nope," Hyoyeon shook her head, arms folded against her chest. "I even saw reporters crowding the front entrance as I came in today."

"What are you two talking about?" Sunny questioned the duo, just having walked into the room, a barely drunken water bottle in hand.

"Have you looked at the news?" the main dancer asked, gesturing for the water bottle.

Sunny swiftly pulled the bottle out of the taller girls grasp. "I don't watch the news."

"Well, ever since the TVXQ and Hankyung lawsuits the Fair Trade Commission has been all over the company. Apparently it's come light today about the contracts contents and they're trying to make SM revise them."

"What's so bad about them?" the smallest member wrinkled her nose in distaste. "How much has come to light?"

"Mostly the years we were all given, the penalty if you break the contract, and how the company makes us do things we didn't agree to," she shrugged. To be truthful, the female groups had it better than the male groups. Due to the stereotype of girls being less strong (physically and mentally) the company goes easier on them. And it's far from a secret that SNSD is favored among the administration.

"Wait," Echo's heart stopped, "our years are out there?"

"Yeah, something wrong?" Hyoyeon responded, briefly stopping from her nail bed inspection.

The singer refused to met the other girls eyes. "No. Nothing at all."

The dancer gave her a questionable look, but didn't prod her further. Neither of the other members did as they watched her leave the room with careful eyes.

Did that mean her now fifteen year contract was out in the open? The world would know what she had to do in order to keep her sister out of foster care? Her sister would know…

"Arianna," she whispered aloud, brown eyes widening in fear. How would her sister react to this news? Why didn't Hyoyeon say this part of information before?!

Echo twisted on her heel, speedily walking towards f(x)'s dance studio in hopes of the group still being there.

The female idol was so deep in thought she didn't even notice she was about to walk into someone until her face met a broad chest.

"Whoa, whoa, Echo-ah where are you going in such a hurry?" the familiar, playful, tone of Donghae's voice met Echo's ears.

"Oppa…" she softly spoke, her eyes glassy.

"What's wrong?"

Two hands firmly pressed into both of her shoulders. They were meant to be comforting but they just reminded her of the ever growing pressure of reality.

"Have you seen my sister?" the words tumbled from before she could even think of the simple fact that Donghae and Arianna aren't even acquaintances, there's no way he would know anything about her sister's whereabouts.

The Super Junior member gave her a questioning look but simply responded, "I walked by the f(x) studio not too long ago and they were practicing."

A tiny bit of pressure lifted itself from her shoulders. At least she could find her sister and talk to her within the next few minutes.

"How are you doing, oppa?"

Donghae immediately plastered on the idol smile. "Everything's fine dongsaeng-ah."

Echo gave him a knowing look but didn’t question him further. The two are close without question, but the oppa-dongsaeng relationship still hung above them, much to the American's irritation.

"You know…" she trailed off, uncertain. Would she seem rude by what she was about to say? Would he take it the wrong way? "If you ever need to talk, you can talk to me, Donghae-ah."

His eyebrows disappeared into his hairline, shocked at her using his name in such an informal way. But, then, they softened. He simply responded, "Thank you, Echo-ah." With an affectionate pat on the head, he began walking to his original destination.

Swiftly, she resumed her previous adventure and began searching for her sister. True to the Super Junior members words, f(x) was still in their studio, but it looked like they were resting for the moment.

The  second Echo opened the door she felt a wave of heated emotions crash into her.

"The did you do?" Arianna pounced on Echo in all but the literal sense, her eyes alit with fury. Her hands were balled into fists at her hips, blue veins popping out in her arms due to the tension.

When the elder sister didn't respond, she repeated, "The did you do?!"

"I re-wrote a few things…" Echo uncertainly trailed off. All of a sudden, she felt intimidated and unsure of herself. By her own sister.

"WHY? Why the would you give yourself a fifteen year contract?! What the is wrong with you?!"

"I have my reasons, I know what I did," the SNSD member held her chin upwards, her eyes becoming oddly guarded.

"Was this just so you can become my guardian? I don't want you to sell your ing soul until 2022 just because of me!"

"It was the only thing I could do," her heart twisted in pain. "It was the only sure way I could make sure you wouldn’t end up in some orphanage. The only way we could stay together."

"I don't give two s about that right now," Ari scoffed, rolling her eyes in such a way that only she could. "All I care about is the fact that you ing sold yourself until you're in your goddamn thirties just because of me!"

"Are you trying to belittle my decisions? I did what was best for our family. Which, by the way, is just you and I right now. Mom wanted me to take care of you, and that's what I'm doing whether you like it or not."

Ari pursed her lips, anger clear as day in her eyes. There was no way she could argue about their mother's decisions. Not now, at least. "I never asked you to take care of me," her voice was barely over a whisper.

"Sometimes we do things we aren't asked to do."

The f(x) member deeply inhaled, averting her eyes from her sister, and instead, towards the door.

With her head held high and shoulders back, she walked towards the door. As her hand landed on the knob she turned towards her sibling to say, "By the way, Hanbi left the trainee system. I wanted to tell you earlier but I didn’t know how." She walked out the door.

Echo found herself staring up at the white ceiling. What was she supposed to do at this point?

"She's just stressed right now," Victoria appeared in front of the SNSD member. "We all are."

Sulli gently took the elder girls hand in her own, giving Echo a reassuring look. "She feels bad. She's blaming herself for all you're going through right now."

Echo gently smiled at the younger girl. "You know, sometimes I wish I never signed her contract. I wonder if I did the right thing."

Echo silently exited the SM building, and walked towards the spot that Jiwook was supposed to have parked the SNSD van. Behind her thick framed, sunglasses, Echo cautiously watched the reporters that all twisted their heads in a painful direction to look at her.

"Echo-ah!"

Not this guy again.

"It's Son Nuhyun, Echo-ah," the all-too familiar male reporter approached the female idol with a camera clutched tightly in his hands.

Echo didn't even twitch a facial muscle. The pre-grooming of SM Entertainment running through her head on how to respond to reporters when she's without a manager.

"Is it true you have a fifteen year contract? Echo-ah, do you have a fifteen year contract? Did you know you have a fifteen year contr-"

Echo tried her best to ignore the continuous, similar questions of the reporter. It was a year ago Echo discovered that this was the same reporter that tried to question her numerous years ago, back when she was a trainee, about the future Super Junior members. She was shopping with Tiffany at the time, neither responding to the man who posed as a father of a TVXQ! fan out of fear of what the label would do if they discovered they spoke to him.

"I know what I signed," was all she said, feeling elated when she saw the familiar van pull to a stop in front of her and Jiwook yell at the man to get off the companies property.

She felt relieved when she was shuffled into the van, finally on her way to a casting call.

"She flipped a ," was all Echo said when Sooyoung asked her how Ari responded to discovering the fact that Echo had a fifteen year contract just because she needed the money in order to become her siblings legal guardian.

The members were all sitting in the van, one of their managers driving them to a mall for an 'Oh!' performance.

"I would too!" Yuri called out.

It was common knowledge amongst the group at this point that Echo had a much longer contract than even deer-eyed Yoona.

I mean, it is all over the internet now.

Alas her 'I know what I signed' comment, went unreported.

"People keep crying for justice you know," Yuri snorted.

The singer rolled her eyes. "They mean well but have no idea what they are talking about."

"They keep calling your fifteen years inhumane," Yoona sleepily pointed out, her eyes closed and head resting on her open palm.

"Well, it is," she chuckled, causing the other members to laugh.

Girls' Generation was more than aware that they are entwined in contracts that would be called 'inhumane' and 'unlawful' in other countries or to those that were unaware of all the benefits they were receiving. They aren't idols for fun or as a hobby; it's their career. This is their lives and they believe this is the only way they can enable their future in the entertainment industry. They were all willing to do reckless things as long as their futures were ensured.

"But they keep saying we don't know what we're doing," Hyoyeon mumbled, scoffing afterwards.

"Because those on the outside see what they want to see," Jessica supplied. "They'll never know Girls' Generation like we do. Let them think what they want, they're on our side anyway. Sort of."

"SM stocks went down because of it you know," Tiffany pointed out, her shoulders slumped.

The main singer simply shrugged, uncaring. "We're still fine, aren't we? Our fans will stand behind us no matter what the company does."

"When you say it like that, it makes them sound like mindless drones," Yoona gave the singer a dirty look.

"Some are."

"HEY!"

The members jumped at the unexpected shout from their leader. "SHUT UP!"

Taeyeon leaned her head back against the seat, eyes closed.

No one spoke for the rest of the van ride.

The girls huddled together once they stepped foot off the ice rink. Their legs, arms and stomachs covered in painfully raised goose bumps.

Echo cried out when something hard collided with her back. Twisting her upper body around she narrowly caught a falling Yuri. The tall girls head heavily leaned against the singers chest, her eyes closed.

"Yuri?!"

The rest of the members called out the ravens name, huddling around the two.

"Hey, Yuri, Yuri!" Hajoon pushed himself through the tight knit group. "What's wrong?!"

It was chaos.

The members were all shouting something, Hajoon was yelling, the rest of the managers were yelling and Echo just stood in the center of it all, awkwardly holding one of the members she's least close with.

Hwan ended up getting Yuri pushed onto his back, at this point she was awake, but just blindly staring at her surroundings.

All the members were rushed into the van as fast as possible, Yuri was brought to the hospital while the rest of the members went back to the apartment or the office. Echo was one of the few that decided to go back to the office.

Her heart was racing as she walked through the trainee hallways. She barely had time to change out of her performing outfit through the chaos. One simple action was on her mind, an action she believed she never would have done.

The idol pushed open the trainee dance studio door. "Hey, have any of you seen Willow?"

"Just walk the away if anyone tries to give you a drink," Willow informed the SNSD member, who tried to switch up her makeup so she didn't look too much like her idolself. "You can't trust these people, they're ed up. That's why they're here."

Echo gave her best friend in childhood a weird look. "But, we're here too, so doesn't that make us ed up?"

Willow's pointer finger slowly curled up, a confused look on her face. She didn’t respond and simply twirled into the popular club.

It's midnight and the music loudly pulsed through Echo's ears. She was excited and terrified at the same time.

As Echo followed Willow and two unknown female trainees through the barely lit club, she couldn't help but feel like she made a bad decision. Originally, she believed she needed some type of output to deal with the mess that is her idol life. Now, looking around and seeing all the sleazy people surrounding her, she was beginning to question her motives.

"Just relax," Willow smiled, naturally sliding into one of the handful of VIP lounges on the top floor. "You need to learn to unwind."

The idol nervously looked around, the three trainees casually talked as a waiter came by with a tray already filled with drinks and soundlessly placing them on the table. "Are we allowed over here?"

The two unknown trainees snorted, laughing as they picked up their own drinks from the clear table.

"My boyfriend owns the place," Willow informed, picking up one of the mojito's from the table and handing it to Echo before holding up one for herself. Holding up her glass she said, "To a fun ing night!"

Thirty minutes later Echo was still firmly in her seat, the three trainees already on the dance floor, only a quarter of her drink missing from her glass. Due to nerves she would do something stupid if she became too intoxicated. But, she didn't want to seem like a party pooper and took frequent tiny sips.

"You don’t like your drink?" Willow appeared next to her, a  pale green drink in a stout glass was clutched in her hand.

"Um… not really. I like fruitier things," the idol barely saved herself. She was far from a drinker, but she definitely didn't want Willow knowing that.

"Try this," the thin girl held out the green drink.

Echo slowly took it, noticing half the glass was actually filled with white (due to poor lighting she couldn't tell if it was foam or a different liquid). When she noticed Willow kept staring at her she brought the drink up to her lips, taking a tiny sip.

"Do you like that better?"

This is citrus not fruity… Echo nodded her head. "Yeah, much better."

"Good," she widely grinned, holding out a long arm. "Now come on, let's go dance!"

With renewed energy the idol took the trainees hand, being led through the sweaty bodies of the club.

Come on, you came here to let go, to be a normal young adult. It was her constant inner mantra as she danced along the three trainees - actually two. One of them snuck off with some guy.

Just pretend to be having fun, don't look like you're terrified and have no idea what you're doing.

Echo noticed the glances Willow kept directing towards her barely drunken glass. When she caught her she made sure to take deliberate sips.

What she didn’t expect was a random club goer to begin chanting: "Chug! Chug! Chug!" and everyone else on the dance floor to join in. Looking around she noticed that everyone who had a drink in hand began to guzzle it down as fast as they could, loudly cheering and raising their empty glasses.

I want Tiffany here…

Flicking her tongue across her upper canine she chugged the rest of her drink, eyes clenched as she tried not to gag at the sour taste. Fun fact: Echo has never even had a shot in her life. She's a good ol'fashioned beer girl, if she drinks that is.

Raising her own empty glass in the air Echo felt a sense of pride envelope her. That pride flowed into thrill, the idol finally letting go and freely dancing with her childhood best friend. The previously annoying pounding music turned into the aid for her adrenaline, joyfully shouting the lyrics to the song with the other girls.

It took a decent amount of time for her to realize it wasn't just adrenaline that was aiding her free feeling. She felt as if she was floating, looking down she could see her feet firmly on the dark dance floor, but it felt as if she was on her tippy toes.

The idol tried to wave the feeling off and continue dancing, but her movements began to slow down.

Slowly, Echo blinked her eyes. No matter how many times she blinked, her vision was clouded by the bright, rapidly changing, bright lights from the ceiling. She's not sure if she saw brief flashes of Willow's laughing face or if she just imagined things.

The world slowed down, her very soul was being pulled from her physical body, colors flashed before her eyes, did she even have eyes? Where is she? Who is she? Was she dying and being pulled to heaven? What even is heaven?

Everything was spinning, the music's notes growing lengthier. Her entire body felt fuzzy, as if a million butterflies were kissing every inch of her. Within seconds she forgot where she was, what was she doing here anyway? Every now and then she would see flashes of the other happily dancing girls cloud her vision.

Her limbs felt like heavy weights were attached to each of them (when did she re-enter her body?). Her brain gave up trying to understand what was happening, her heart beating rapidly in her chest, the heavy rush of blood through her every single vein. She felt all of it. Her own body, the air around her, the breathing of the dancers, the DJ's fingers brushing across the sound system equipment.

Before she knew it her body began acting on its own accord, she watched her own limbs lift into the air experimentally and continue dancing with the girls. She watched their mouths open and closed, as if they were talking, laughing, but no noise ever came out. When did Willow's skin turn purple?

Her heart burst out of her chest, vibrating it was beating so fast.

Arms slid around her waist and she felt her body fall.

Her eyes slid closed.

Am I the only one noticing the scar on Echo's stomach? I literally just notified it, even though she's been showing her midriff for the past couple months.

Does anyone else know any more details about Echo's contract?? This poor baby, SM really is a slave driver!

SM probably gave Echo the worst contract because she's the youngest foreigner, she doesn't know any better. But we SONE's have to help her! We need to band together!!

A gift to anyone who can figure out exactly what happened to Echo~

The Oh! performance I referenced.