Watched: The Princess and the Frog

      June 17th, 2009

June 17th, 2009

"You did good today Echo-ah, you can rest well tonight," Song Minsuk grinned downwards to the heavily sweating idol.

"Thank you," she smiled, hands on her hips as she tried to steady her breathing.

"You know, I'm really impressed with your new dedication coming to the gym, the rest of the members only come when it's scheduled," Minsuk spoke, handing the young girl a chilled water bottle.

Echo graciously took the bottle, swigging down half of it within seconds. "It definitely makes me feel better. I've been talking to some of the members to join me but they always whine."

The trainer let out a deep laugh, telling her to just call whenever she wants to come back not on her schedule.

"Thank you very much," Echo gave a final bow to her trainer, walking out the front glass door. The idol happily bounded into a silver car idling in front of the entrance.

"How'd it go, babe?" Jonghyun asked, planting a quick peck on his girlfriends lips.

"It went well, but I'm really hungry," she chuckled.

"I will gladly pay for your meal," the SHINee member grinned, pulling the car into the road.

The reference to a meal caused Echo to think back on her mental state and relationship with food not too long ago. After Tiffany had spilled the beans, months ago, to her boyfriend the two never approached the subject. They hopped over it, pretending it never happened. Which Echo was very thankful for, but it did unnerve her that he never questioned her. She wanted to know what was going through his head.

"I ran into your sister today at the office," Jonghyun brought up, eyes firmly on the road.

"Really? How does she look?" the two knew what it was like being in a project group, and how the simple necessities of eating and sleeping slip through your fingers in order to practice where you're lacking in hopes of staying in the group.

His face turned sour. "She's a giant," he grumbled.

The female idol let out a roaring laugh. The amount of hurt that Jonghyun would get whenever it came to his height, to her, was the best humor there is.

"She's like 172 cm's or something, she's taller than Sooyoung. Imagine her in heels."

Echo snickered behind her palms at the devastated look on Jonghyun's face, desperately trying to stifle her giggles. "Don't worry, we can get you higher insoles."

The Girls' Generation member burst out into laughter once again at Jonghyun's face, said idol throwing her a raspberry.

Since it was the wee hours of the morning, and neither celebrity wanted to go inside a restaurant and risk being seen, Jonghyun pulled into a random drive through, ordering enough food for the two of them.

He parked the vehicle into one of the numerous parking spaces in the large lot, in the deepest corner hidden by the shadows of a tree over hang.

"I heard you girls got another new show," the short man stated, popping a salt covered fry into his mouth.

"This one has a baby in it," Echo wrinkled her nose. "I don't like the general plot of the show. Tiffany, Seohyun and I were mostly sitting on the couch away from everyone for the pilot episode. I'm scared to go anywhere near the thing."

"It's not a thing," her boyfriend chuckled. "It's a baby. I would love for SHINee to go on a show with a baby. What do you do with the baby?"

"Care for it," she shrugged, biting a decent chunk out of her hamburger. "We're learning to be moms."

"You don't want to be a mom?" Jonghyun slowly asked. He didn't expect that. Honestly, he expected her to love the idea of having tons of mini Echo's running around. That, added with the idols natural gentle personality (well when she isn't a ball of stress because of idol life) he expected she would be a fantastic mother.

"Children scare me," she admitted, mindlessly poking at her ketchup with a limp fry. "I'm afraid I'll make them cry and not get them to stop. I don't want to hurt the poor boy."

"It's different when it's your own," Jonghyun softly said, looking into the younger girls eyes.

"With my life style that won't happen for awhile," she shortly laughed.

"Exactly, you have time."

"I still don't like being near the baby though."

"Give it time, trust me."

"Look, you can't judge me until you have to take care of someone else's baby," Echo huffed.

"How many episodes have you recorded already?"

"I think one and a half?" she said, uncertain. "You know how they break days up because they never know how much footage they'll use for a whole episode."

"You done?" Jonghyun gestured to the crumbled up McDonald's bag laying atop Echo's lap. The girl wordlessly handed him her trash, Jonghyun hopping out of the car for a second to throw their trash out in a nearby trashcan.

The rest of their ride was filled with conversation on Girls' Generation's latest variety show. The two briefly touched upon how odd it was that the group had gone through three of their own shows within the past few months.

"What would you do if we got caught?" Jonghyun randomly said as they were sitting in front of a long red light.

"What do you mean?" Echo sent the male idol a confused look, was he asking her what she thought he was asking her?

"Dating. What if the media caught us," the entire time the SHINee member looked forward, never even taking a glance at his girlfriend.

Echo remained silent for a few beats, confused as to why he was abruptly bringing this up. Didn't he realize it would be her worst nightmare? All idols blood run cold at the simple thought of their romantic relationships coming to light. His group was still freshly debuted while hers was currently at the height of her career. A dating scandal was the last thing either of their groups needed.

So, hypothetically, if their relationship came to light, would she enjoy that?

"I would be scared."

Jonghyun didn't speak anymore after that. Even when the car pulled to a stop in front of the Girls' Generation dorms apartment.

Echo had to push half her body over the console to just get a goodbye kiss from him because he was so deep in thought. What was he thinking of?

"How was Jonghyun tonight?" Yuri asked from her spot on the couch once Echo walked into the apartment.

The second youngest kicked her shoes off, slipping into her house slippers. "Weird. Everything was going fine until he asked me what I thought of the media finding out about our relationship."

"He asked you that?" Sooyoung sat up a bit from her spot next to Yuri. "What did you say?"

"That I would be scared," she shrugged, plopping down on the opposite side of Yuri, her back resting against the couches arm. "I didn't lie, but I wonder if I said the wrong thing because we didn’t talk after that."

"Omigod, do you think he wants to go public?" Yuri gasped.

Sooyoung gently hit the tall girls arm. "That would be suicide for his group and his career and he knows that. Maybe he expected a different answer? Like, that you would stay with him and not let fans rip you apart?"

The singer bit her lip. "I guess… It was weird though. And now it's gonna be all I think about."

"That’s boys for you," Yuri snickered, bumping shoulders with the younger girl.

"Unnie, you got mail today," Seohyun popped into the room from the hallway, bounding over to hand the slightly older girl a pristine white envelope.

"Stop calling me unnie," Echo sighed, sliding her finger underneath the envelopes flap, not bothering to see who it was from. Obviously, it was a family member, since fan mail was regulated by SM Entertainment and they only had access to it at the office.

Dear Allison,

You never responded to my letter and gift for your graduation. I hope you got it? Your manager has been in contact with me more lately, he told me there were a few drama castings going on. Oh, how I hope you get one. I would love for you to become one of the mains in a drama. I know you would enjoy it, and being an actress would be a wonderful career to fall back on if, god forbid, something were to happen with Girls' Generation.

How are the members lately? Any tension? You never tell me when you girls fight, and I know you do. There is no way ten girls could peacefully live under the same roof for years and not argue at some point. Please, tell all the girls I say hello and to keep taking care of themselves! I swear that little Sunny gets prettier every time I see her!

I have fantastic news too, I've been talking to a lot of different people in Korea and I might be able to finally make the big move permanently. I have an in-person interview in a few days when one of the designer heads will be in the city. Wish my luck baby!

With lots and lots of love, mom.
P.S. Can you please keep a closer eye on your sister? Her and Chrystal keep posting weird stuff online and it's making me worry.

"Your mom?" Sooyoung softly smiled.

Echo looked up from the typed letter, a happy look on her face. "Yeah, it's nice to get letters. They're easier to hold onto than phone calls or text messages. She says hi and to keep taking care of yourselves."

"Your mom is so sweet," Yuri smiled, leaning her head on the younger girls shoulder. "I still remember how when we were trainees she took us all out to get samgyupsal! I swear, I've never seen so much meat in my life!"

"Your mom was the one who sent me those amazing throat lozenges when I had that really bad cold, right?" Seohyun gently smiled. "They were a life saver. You couldn’t even tell I was sick on stage."

Echo fondly laughed, her eyes glazing over as memories of her mother went through her head. Typically in the Girls' Generation household the word 'mom' was off limits. But they always made exceptions when one of the members were able to interact with their mom.

"She said she might be able to get a job here, I really hope she does. It would be awesome to be able to just be in the same country for once."

"I'm sure it'll all work out," Sooyoung gently drew circles on Echo's back.

Who's the worst dancer: Tiffany or Echo?

Echo was so cute on Horror Movie Factory! I think she just got herself a new fan!

Echo is such a skinship queen, I wonder how she keeps herself off the members at the dorm!

There may be some mistakes because I didn't look over the chapter like I usually do since I've been up since 4:30 AM. My brain isn't doing good.

QUESTION: I have no idea what to do with Ari guys. Like, I have a few ideas but none are really sticking? I have too many and I honestly don't know what to do and I feel I have to come to a decision ASAP with her. I'm mostly curious as to what you perceive her future as? Your answers may or may not impact her future, thus the future of the story. (And I'm probably going to ask this question next chapter too)