By this point Minseok had met a number of his fellow trainees, each weirder than the first. There was the strange Canadian-Chinese giant Kris with the intense eyebrows, the weird Chinese space cadet named YiXing who seemed to forget even his name, the crazy giant Chanyeol who was far too friendly and now this…

“Annyeonghasseyo oppa!” Minseok stared up at the new Chinese man (?) before him. He was quite tall (although most were compared to Minseok) with dark hair and a piercing stare. Minseok shivered under his serious gaze.

“Hello?” he squeeked, still confused because this person looked like a man but just said oppa so what the heck did that mean???

“Are you okay oppa?” the person asked him, tilting his head cutely.

“Uhhh…”

“ZiTao! What did I tell you! That’s for girls to say. You call him Hyung. You’ve probably confused the poor guy.” Minseok and Zitao turned to see another person approach them. “I’ve been looking all over for you. I’m supposed to take you to your Korean lesson, so come on.” The male grabbed who Minseok now knew to be called ZiTao (and who was infact a male) by the collar and dragged him away. Once he got to the doorway he stopped and looked back at Minseok, “Oh, and I’m Luhan by the way. Bye ‘Oppa’.” The boy (or girl???) winked and laughed before turning and stomping a grumbling Zitao from the room. Minseok stood blinking after the two before mumbling to himself, “Did he… she… say Mulan?” Minseok watched the door in confusion before going back to what he had been doing before Zitao interrupted him.

 

It was only after Minseok returned to his new dorm with the SM trainees that the strange person came to his mind again. He had stepped into his new room to find that his roommate had finally moved in. Minseok poked one of the new bags with his foot as he scoured the small room for any sign as to who would be rooming with him. He shrugged and decided to go out to the main room and ask the others. He saw that weird Korean kid named Jongdae and decided he might as well ask him. Jongdae was sitting on the couch stuffing his mouth with chips as Minseok sat beside him. He chose not to comment on the crumbly monstrosity that was covering Jongda’s shirt and the couch. And also the fact that they were supposed to be on a diet...

“Hey… Do you know who’s rooming with me?” he asked casually. Jongdae grunted and rolled his eyes,

“Yeah, some Chinese princess, Luhan.”

“Mulan?”

“Luhan.”

“Yeah, Mulan…” Jongdae stared at him for a minute,

“I think we’re on the same page.” He finally nodded and stuffed a new couple of chips in his mouth. As Minseok took in this information, he tried not to hyperventilate. Isn’t Mulan ACTUALLY some Chinese princess or something? So he’s staying with a girl? IS SHE ACTUALLY LIKE SOME LONG LOST CHINESE PRINCESS OR SOMETHING? AND WHY IS HE STAYING WITH A GIRL? DO THE OTHERS KNOW SHE’S A GIRL? IS IT SUPPOSED TO BE A SECRET? WASN’T THAT THE THING WITH MULAN? SHE PRETENDED TO BE A GUY OR SOMETHING? Minseok’s eyes were wide and his breathing was panicked. Jongdae side eyed him,

“You okay man?” Minseok jumped and nodded,

“Y-yeah. Perfectly fine. I’m uh excited to meet my new roommate heheheheh.” And with that Minseok ran back into his new room and threw himself under the covers, vowing to never come out from beneath them.

 

It was two hours and a nap later that Minseok groggily opened his eyes to see his roommate with her back to him. He sleepily contemplated that she really didn’t look like a girl. Were girls shoulder’s so broad? He blinked sleepily, only sobering as she reached down to pull at the hem of her shirt, unaware that Minseok had awoken. Minseok promptly screeched and pulled the blanket over his head, “I’M NOT LOOKING!” He called. It was silent, “….Are you done?” he finally asked softly. He heard a chuckle that sounded all too manly… But some girls had deep voices Minseok reminded himself. And plus, she’s trying to keep her identity a secret! So she’s probably pretending.

“Yeah, I’m done.” The voice answered and Minseok peeked up over the edge of his blanket over at his roommate only to see him (her) staring back at him with a smirk with his (her, minseok again reminds himself) hands on his hips. Minseok blinked up at Mulan and gulped, thinking she may be mad at him for almost catching her.

“I didn’t see anything.” Minseok softly said again. Mulan laughed and turned away and climbed into bed and said with a teasing lilt,

“Goodnight… ‘Oppa’.” And with that the light was turned off and Minseok was left staring into the darkness of the room trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with this secret.

 

The next day Minseok hurriedly got up before Luhan could and ran out of the room. He found YiXing sitting at the table contemplating his orange juice. Minseok decided he should try and see if anyone else knew about Mulan.

“YiXing? Moring.” He said down across from the Chinese boy, disturbing him from his thoughts.

“Oh, hello.” He smiled airily at Minseok and took a sip from his glass. He put the glass back down, leaving a slight orange juice mustache on his lip. Minseok didn’t even realize that people could do that.

“Have you met Mulan yet?” Minseok asked.

“Luhan?” Yixing went back to gazing at the orange liquid in hid glass.

“Yeah, Mulan.”

“Hmm, no. I don’t think so… Kris mentioned meeting him and said that there was something odd about him… Something about him being too… was it… feminine for a boy group?” YiXing laughed to himself as Minseok’s skin prickled. “But you know Kris, he gets grumpy about everything and grumbles uselessly. He’s probably just jealous.” YiXing nodded to himself as Minseok fought back images of Kris with long flowing hair and a feminine demeanor.

“Uhh, right. Thanks YiXing.” YiXing just smiled over at him sleepily before downing the rest of his orange juice and promptly planted his face onto the table.

 

 

Minseok managed to make it a day without cracking. A day. But it was after practice that he finally gave in and pulled aside one of the older trainees, Joonmyun. He and Joonmyun had trained together before and got along really well. It also helped that they were close in age and all.

“I need to talk to you.” Minseok whispered, eyes darting around cautiously, looking for any sign of Mulan anywhere. “Come on.” Minseok promptly dragged him into an empty janitor’s closet, pushing aside a broom and flipping two buckets for them to sit on. “Okay. So I have a small problem…” Joonmyun watched Minseok with concern. “Please don’t tell anyone because it’s a secret and I accidentally found out and I needed to tell someone… But… MY ROOMMATE’S A GIRL!” Minseok covered his face with his hands and groaned. He was upset with himself for telling, but glad to get it off his chest.

“Who?”

“Mulan.” Minseok grumbled.

“Luhan?”

“Yeah, Mulan.” He peeked through his fingers up at Joonmyun.

“Luhan.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said!” Minseok said exasperatedly, knocking over some cleaner as he waved his hands around.

“Okay, just checking we’re on the same page. Those Chinese names get me still.” Joonmyun sighed. “But you say he… She’s a girl? What gives you that idea?” Minseok blushed and blurted,

“I didn’t see anything!” Joonmyun blinked back at him,

“I never said you did…”

“I know, I just wanted to clear my name in case you got any ideas.”

“I didn’t…”

“Okay, but in case you ever did.”

“I’m still trying to wrap my mind around girl so…” And so Minseok and Joonmyun stayed within the closet for a good half hour discussing the fact that one of their trainees was a girl disguised as a guy.

 

The next day after practice a few trainees, including Mulan (“Luhan?” “Yeah, Mulan”) stayed back to practice extra. Minseok and Joonmyun lingered as they collected their stuff, trying to watch Mulan.

“Are you sure Luhan’s a girl? That doesn’t look like a girl.” Joonmyun whispered to Minseok.

“Haven’t you ever watched a drama?” Minseok scoffed at Joonmyun. “Girls can disguise themselves as guys!”

“Oh.”

“Duh.” Minseok rolled his eyes as he finally grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder. He snuck one last look at Mulan before stalking out of the room, Joonmyun on his heels.

 

 

It had been a week of awkward interaction (avoidance on Minseok’s part actually) and he was no closer to a solution to his girl problem. But it was getting to a point for Minseok that he didn’t think he could manage living with that kind of secret. So he decided that he was going to try to encourage Mulan to come clean.

In the middle of the night he casually snuck out of his and Mulan’s room and placed the copy of Disney’s Mulan that he bought on the coffee table. “This should do it.” He mumbled to himself as he returned to his room and promptly fell asleep.

 

The next morning he awoke to an excited ZiTao jumping on his bed. “Oppa let’s watch Mulan!” Minseok shot up at the use of Oppa once again, still terribly confused about this particular trainee.

“Tao~ Again, how many times do I have to tell you. Only girls can call guys oppa. Right Minseok ‘oppa’.” Another voice teased. Minseok turned just in time to see Mulan reach out a hand and poke his cheek. He stared at the offending hand as Mulan giggled.

“Whatever I don’t like Korean, I just wanna watch Mulan! One of the managers dropped it off last night or something so pleasssse let’s watch it!”

“Okay!” Mulan chirped. Minseok watched in confusion. How could she be so excited about this? Isn’t she afraid they’ll watch it and catch on? She even has the same name! Minseok shook his head and waited until the two Chinese trainees had left the room before pulling his blanket back and stumbling out of bed to join the others to watch the movie.

 

 

“I’ll MAKE A  MAN OUT OF YOUUUUU!~” Baekhyun sang loudly as they watched the movie and Chanyeol clapped along laughing. Kai jerked awake from where he had fallen asleep on the floor and Sehun scowled at the noisy pair.

“So loud…” He groaned. Mulan just kicked at him with his (her) foot and laughed as Baekhyun continued singing.

“Hey Luhan!” Baekhyun called. “I’ll~ Make a man~ Out of youuuu!~~~” He sang, reaching an arm out to Mulan. Mulan stood proudly,

“But I’m already a man! A manly man!” Minseok scoffed but quickly covered his mouth, eyes wide as everyone looked at him.

“Uhhh, I have something uhhh in my throat. I need water! Ahem!” He said, coughing as he hurriedly ran to the kitchen. He stood there gulping water as the ending lines of the song blasted from the other room. He slumped against the counter as he waited for everyone to forget about his outburst so that he could return. But before he could, he was joined by none other than Mulan herself. She scowled at him, arms crossed,

“You don’t think I’m manly.” Minseok blinked as she approached him.

“Uhhhh….” Minseok went over every possible response in his mind, before finally settling on coming clean. “Look, it’s just that… I know.” He put his hands up to stop any interruptions, “Hear me out! I don’t judge you, I just don’t understand why you’re doing it. But I just feel like it would make everything so much easier if you were just honest and come clean with everyone. We can hide it from the managers, but in order for us to all work together, I think the others should know.” He finished, looking at Mulan eagerly. But Mulan just blinked back at him like he was stupid,

“What are you talking about?”

“Look, Mulan-”

“Luhan.”

“Shhhhh, I know, know. It’s okay.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Mulan, just tell everyone you’re a girl! Please!” There was a gasp and ZiTao stood there,

“You’re a girl?!” He stared at Luhan with wide eyes. Luhan stood there in silence for a minute before doubling over in laughter.

“You-You thought I was a girl?!” He squawked. Minseok stared at her (him?) in silence. “I’m not a girl you idiot! I was teasing when I called you oppa! And did you call me Mulan? It’s freaking Luhan you crazy! LU-HAN.” Luhan could hardly stand he was laughing so hard at this point. “Oh gosh, this is why you’ve been so weird round me, huh?” By this point a few others had heard them and poked their heads into the kitchen to listen.

“B-But... Jongdae called you a Chinese princess…” Minseok whispered and Jongdae cackled.

“Never listen to Jongdae. At least, don’t take him seriously.” Luhan was almost crying from laughter. Minseok was bright red from embarrassment and Joonmyun groaned, deciding to not admit that Minseok had convinced him of Luhan’s femininity too.

“Let’s just go finish watching Mulan.”

“Don’t you mean, Luhan?” Jongdae cackled and Kris pushed him out of the room with a grunt as Luhan finally fell over from laughter.

“Ugh shut up.” Minseok kicked Luhan slightly as he passed him.

“YOU JUST KICKED A GIRL!” Luhan yelled as he laughed and Minseok just ignored him and kept walking.

 

That night Minseok fell asleep to Luhan (who he now knows is male) singing a terrible rendition of ‘I’ll Make A Man Out of You’.

Minseok thinks he hates Mulan.