It was September 2014. The girls had just finished up the majority of their promotions and were on the unwinding end of the year. TTS had finished their Holler promotions and with another win on Music Bank, coming out with a total of nine wins. Sunny had finished her FM Date and would return in January next year thanks to favourable reviews, a replacement would stand in for her in the meantime. There was an issue with her Roommate schedule but it was put on hold thanks to the Incheon Games. Jessica had finished her show with her sister; Yoona and Yuri were finished with their CF shoots and didn’t have anything scheduled in the year future.

Their manager sat them sound the conference room in the SM building. It was around 8:30pm and the winter was just starting to set in, causing all of them to be rugged up in scarves and jackets.

“As far as your schedule goes, we don’t have anything planned for you until the annual end of year award shows. Next year the higher ups are planning on you making two comebacks at the least and possible a tour, however, it is undecided whether that be a Japanese or world tour. We are planning on extending your reach within the next couple of years with tours and overseas promotions.” said their manager in a respectful tone.

He was young, in his mid-twenties, and of an average build. He had his hair brushed off to the side and wore casual clothing. He always did that; it was the job of the manager to get the girls where they needed to be when they needed to be there. No one looked at him; they looked at who he was escorting. Despite this he had earned the respect of the girls and upper management. He had worked with the girls for three years. He had comforted them when they were stressed, complimented them when they did a good job, and got them to their schedules on time, even when he himself was tired. What most people don’t realise is that even though idols are worked to the bone by their companies, with all the promotions and endorsements at every hour of the day, it’s the managers who are even more tired. The managers wait around for their group at all hours of the day and carry part of the responsibility of making sure they become and stay successful, even if that means driving from one end of the country to the other in the middle of the night for a show recording.

The girls looked up at him with their full attention, waiting for the magic words to come out of his mouth….

“So I guess that means you have some vacation time. You’re not needed until in about two months’ time when you have to start preparing for your concert at the Tokyo dome. So go off, have fun, and I don’t want to see you until then.” he said finally.

The girls all looked at each other and smiled and cheered.

“Where should we go?” said Taeyeon

“Somewhere warm, it’s far too cold here.” said Jessica, with a hint of aegyo.

There were murmurs of agreement all around the table. Winter in Seoul was not one for the faint hearted, all the girls preferred the warm touch of the sun  while lying on the beach than being shut up indoors huddled around a fire.

“Let’s go somewhere that we haven’t been before, with beaches and sun. Some place where hopefully we won’t get too much press” said Seohyun with a look around the table.

“Let’s think about it for a few days and regroup with suggestions, then we can decide.” said Hyoyeon.

The girls got up from the table and went to their manager outside, who then drove them home. Half an hour later they were at the dorm in casual clothes. The door was in an apartment complex with a high level of security. There had been times in the past where fans had followed them from their schedules and had attempted to get in. One saseang fan had even made it to the front door, which left the girls a little distraught. Their first dorm had been a cramped apartment with hardly any furniture, three girls per bedroom with one closet to share, and one bathroom. As time went by, this changed due to being the nation’s number one girl group. Over the years the girls had bought their own property. The apartments all behind guarded walls and provided their inhabitants with utmost privacy, which was something that was always welcomed in their career. Despite all this the girls still liked to live in a dorm when they got the chance. The dorm they currently lived in was quite different to their first. This one had seven bedrooms with a 250m square floor plan in Gangnam: the most expensive district of Seoul.

The girls were mostly huddled around the TV watching reruns of SBS’s The Heirs and giggling every time Lee Minho and Park Hyoshin kissed or held hands. Seohyun was in her room reading a book on UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon who she had time and time again proclaimed as her role model. Tiffany was in her room which she shared with Taeyeon, an arrangement that would have made OTP shippers go crazy. She had logged onto her personal Facebook account and was scrolling through her news feed. Many idols and private SNS accounts in order to stay connected with friends without the public intruding. As she was scrolling through her news feed a chat box popped up. It was her friend James.

“He Fany, did you have a good day?”

Tiffany smiled and started typing.

“Yeah, we’re all back at the dorm, the others are watching dramas in the living room. Oh and, as usual, maknae is reading some book on Ban Ki Moon. I swear if I hear another word from her to do with role models and healthy lifestyles, I may strangle her.”

“That sounds about right. She has always had a thing for lifestyle books; maybe you should listen to her. She certainly looks like her diet is working. Anyway….how was work?”

“Oh it was fine. We’ve basically finished our schedules until our next concert in December and the end of year award shows. The good news is we got time off until mid-November so we are all pretty excited to go on vacation, all though we haven’t decided where.”

Tiffany continued scrolling threw her newsfeed until she saw a notification telling her of a reply.

“That’s great Tiff, any idea where you might go. I’m sure money isn’t a problem for you lot.”

“We all decided that we wanted some place that we haven’t been before. Some place with sun, its winter now and none of us really want to stick around for it.”

Tiffany could hear in the background Lee Minho giving another one of his stoic confessions, followed by eruptions by her members. Another reply popped up and Tiffany scrolled down to it.

“You know Tiff….I’ve got some time off too. I’d be perfectly happy to host you girls down her in Sydney”

Tiffany pondered this for a moment.

“Are you sure? I mean thank you but I’m not sure the girls will go for it. They haven’t even met you before and I haven’t exactly broadcasted your existence to them.  Besides….do you really want to have to put up with 9 loud girls whom you haven’t even met before in your own house for close to two months?”

“Come on Tiff it will be fine. Besides you know that I’ve always wanted to meet them, and I certainly have the room. And in case you haven’t realised, this fits all your requirements. None of you have ever been to Sydney for a vacation, its summer here and I can offer you girls all the privacy you want. It’s not like everyone on the street is going to recognise so that means you can go to all the beaches and tourist attractions without being hounded by fans and press.”

“Well….when you put that way…..I guess it could work. But I will have to run it by the girls so I will get back to you soon.”

“Thanks Tiff It will be good to see you again. Just go to them and tell how charming I am and I’m sure they will leap at the opportunity.”

“Ha-ha yeah right. I’ll get back to you later.”

Tiffany logged off and got up from her bed. She straightened her shirt and walked to the kitchen to get something to eat. She went to the fridge and heated up a packet of ramen in a bowl and proceeded in eating it with a pair of chopsticks.  She walked into the living room where the rest of her members were just finishing up watching an episode of The Heirs.

“Poor Eung Sang. It must be hard to have to give up your entire life because that ruthless ajusshi.” said Yuri.

“But that Lee Minho sure is handsome. I can’t blame Eung Sung for falling for him” said Sunny with a fantasizing tone.

Tiffany walked into the living room her bowl of ramen emitting wonderful smells. She sat down next to Sooyoung, who looked over at her bowl with a hint of jealousy in her eyes. Sooyoung  picked up a nearby fork and was just about to start picking at the bowl until Tiffany slapped her hand away with a greasy chopstick.

“Don’t even think about it Sooyoung. If you want some ramen then you can go make it yourself.”

“Ya Fany! Can’t you just give me some? It’s so tiresome getting some by myself.” said Sooyoung while making a pouting face.

Tiffany continued to slap her hand away in between slurps of noodles. Tiffany finally finished her bowl and got up to go and rinse it in the sink. She was about to leave it there until she realised that Seohyun would probably give her another icy stare for not putting it in the dishwasher. She closed the dishwasher with a loud click and sat back down next to Sooyoung. She turned to her members while an ad was playing on the TV and Seohyun walked out of her room and joined them in the living room.

“So I just talked with a friend of mine on Facebook who lives in Sydney. I told him we were had some vacation time and he kindly volunteered to host us. I know it’s out of the blue but I think it could work.”

Taeyeon learned forward and looked at her with a curious expression on her face.

“Who is he? Have we met him before?”

“His name is James and we’ve been friends since childhood. He is an Australian that went to school with me in California. He lives in Sydney but does most of his work in Seoul and Tokyo.”

“I don’t know Fany. I mean we’ve never met him before and I’m not exactly comfortable in just spending nearly two months in his house without meeting him beforehand.” said Yoona

“Don’t worry he’s a really nice guy. I’m sure you will all like him. I know you have your doubts but why don’t we call him now and let him give his offer to you all directly.” said Tiffany reassuringly.

“Well I guess it can’t it can’t hurt. If Tiffany speaks so highly of him he can’t be all that bad.” said Taeyeon while looking at the members.

“Wait, can we just call him now? I mean what time is it in Sydney? Are you sure we’re not calling him in the middle of the night.” said Seohyun in her typically cautious manner.

“Its fine maknae, Sydney is only roughly two hours ahead of us. So it’s only like 10:00pm there.” said Tiffany

She pulled her phone out of her jeans and started to dial James on loudspeaker. After a few rings James picked up.

“Hello”

“Hi James its Tiffany. I told the others about your offer and they are a bit reluctant. They insisted on speaking to you first so here we all are on loudspeaker.”

“Oh…ah……this is quite a surprise.  Hi everyone it’s a pleasure to speak to you all. I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is James, I’m 25 years old and I live in Sydney. I’ve known Fany since we were kids and she has told me a lot about you all, although I’m not sure why she hasn’t returned the favour.”

“You make me sound so cruel James” said Tiffany while looking around at the other members.

“Tiffany says that you have offered to host us at your house.” said Taeyeon.

“That’s correct. I was just talking to Tiffany on Facebook when she mentioned that you all have some time off. She then talked about how you girls wanted to go somewhere you haven’t been before where it was warm and you have privacy. Upon hearing this I then said that I had some time off work and could host you for the time being. I’ve always wanted to meet all of you. Now that I’m talking and all of you can hear me……I’m a little shy to admit it but….I’ve been a fan of all of you since you debuted.”

The girls all looked at each other and proceeded to talk quietly amongst themselves. Taeyeon then learned forward over the coffee table to get closer to the speaker.

“Thank you James for your offer, it’s very nice of you. And as always it’s great to meet a fan. I think I speak for all the girls when I say that we will consider your offer although we will need to talk amongst ourselves and we will get back to you.”

“Thank you Taeyeon, its an honour to speak to you by the way. Take as much time as you want, my offer has no expiration date. All right…uh….it was nice talking to you all, goodnight.”

The phone emitted the usual beeping to signal the line had closed.

***

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