Experienced with cooking for large numbers of people, I finish cooking in an hour and place everything into insulated containers. Another few minutes see me dressed in a long flannel shirt, ed over a black tank and dark grey leggings. I slip on my lightweight sneakers and grab my car keys.

Damn, if they see me carrying this much food they’ll find it strange.

Shrugging, I gather up the bags and head out.

            Outside YG Entertainment, I text Bobby.

To: Bobby-ssi

From: Minhee-ssi

Bobby-ssi, I’m outside now :)

            Before long, Bobby comes out to greet me.

“Daebak. You carried all this by yourself?” he gasps, shocked.

“Well, I drove,” I pointed out.

He lifts a bag in each hand and raises his brows. “Wait for me to come back and get the rest,” he tells me.

“I got it, let’s just make one trip.” I grab the remaining three bags in one hand and nod towards the door. “Can you get that?”

Bobby stares at the bags, gaze traveling slowly up over my arms and meeting my sweetly smiling face. He’s clearly flabbergasted.

“Ah...” He holds both bags with his right hand and pulls the door open with his left. His tank top showcases his arms nicely. They’re sheening with sweat. “Ladies first.”

“Thanks,” I chirp, entering the building with a spring in my step.

He follows, shaking his head. “Let me show you to our practice room.”

The iKON boys get first dibs on the food, but luckily I made enough for everyone to have multiple servings. Seeing Bobby and the others get immediately distracted by the fragrance of the home-cooked food, I laugh and pull out my phone to text Mino.

To: Mino oppa

From: Shin Minhee

            Mino oppa, I brought food! We’re all in iKON’s practice room.

After not getting a reply for two minutes, I decide to go exploring. Unnoticed by the ravenous iKON members, I slip out the door and head down the hallway.

It’s not about trying to make it seem like you’re not there, Monkey’s voice lectures in my mind. You have to make it seem like you belong there.

His advice was always to emulate a garden ornament, or some analogous object. Me? I tried that a few times, but when I got really good, it was because I learned how to adapt myself to the various situations I landed myself in. Besides, Monkey is a sentry. I rove, so naturally we use different tactics to blend in.

“Eo? Who’s that?” Someone utters in surprise behind me as I make it around the corner. “Ya, Jiyong-ah, do we have a new trainee?”

“Hm?”

Lightly, I step quickly down the hallway, as if I have somewhere to go. A door opens suddenly on the right side.

“Who are you?” The man who pulled open the door asks.

Oops.

I keep walking. Behind me, the man shrugs and steps into the hallway, heading the other direction.

“Ah, Tablo-hyung! Did you see that girl heading in the other direction? Is she a new trainee?” the same voice I heard earlier asks.

“No idea. I don’t think we have any new trainees, though.”

I hear music coming from a door on the right. A quick glance through the window yields results. Pulling the door open, I walk in and bow at Mino in the mirror before sitting down on a pile of mats on the side.

When the song finishes, I bounce up and bow at the four of them.

“Annyeong, Minhee-yah,” Mino greets me.

“Annyeonghaseyo, Mino oppa.”

“Ah, let’s introduce ourselves,” one of them says. “I’m Seungyoon.”

“Seunghoon.”

“Jinwoo.”

“And I’m Mino,” Mino echoes, with a joking smile. “Guys, this is Shin Minhee. She lives in the penthouse of the dorm iKON kids live in.”

“So cute,” Seunghoon whispers to Seungyoon. Teehee. I pretend not to hear.

“I think I freaked out a couple of people by accident earlier in the hallway,” I notify them sheepishly. “So if any of your hyung-deul ask you about a new trainee, they’re probably wondering about me.”

“Minhee-ya, you shouldn’t have gone off wandering by yourself,” Bobby bursts in saying.

“Mian~” I apologize cutely, hands clasped and toe digging at the floor. “But you guys were so busy eating and oppa wasn’t replying to my texts.”

“People might think you’re an intruder,” Seungyoon informs me seriously.

I flash him a V with my fingers. “Too cute to be an intruder,” I retort flippantly and skip out the door. “Let’s go eat!”

The five guys look at each other, bewildered.

“Is she always like this?” Seunghoon asks Mino.

“Molla. I just met her.”

“Bobby?” Seungyoon asks.

“Me too.”

“Ya, but banmal already?” Jinwoo demands.

“She’s just... just... you’ll get it in a short while,” Mino tries to explain, then gives up.

“She’s a very special chingu,” Bobby laughs. “Banmal comes so easily.”

They all stare at each other for a little longer.

I poke my head back around the door.

“Guuuuuuys,” I wheedle. “Food is getting cold!”

“Aigoo, araso, araso,” Mino replies hastily, ushering the other four out the door.

We’ve barely gotten settled around the myriad food containers on the floor in iKON’s practice room when the door opens again.

“What are you kids doing?” A bemused inquiry, somewhat quiet.

I look up and meet his eyes.

 “Oh, GD sunbae!” B.I. greets.

Everyone freezes, then scrambles to get up, all bowing. I rise also.

“You’re the girl from earlier,” GD says.

Smiling guilelessly, I bow. “Annyeonghaseyo. I’m Shin Minhee.”

He bows too, lightly. “Kwon Jiyong.”

“Minhee-ssi lives in the same building as we do,” B.I. contributes to the slightly tense silence. “She lives with her two brothers, Minho and Minhyuk, in the penthouse.”

“Ah, I see,” he nods. A taller figure comes up behind him.

“What’s going on here?” The deep voice is the same as the one I heard asking all the questions.

“Eo, you’re here,” GD observes casually. “The girl from before is here. She’s iKON’s neighbor.”

The taller man comes out from behind GD and bows before eyeing me curiously. “I’m Choi Seunghyun.”

“Shin Minhee.”

A few seconds pass. Geez, I’m not venomous. I smile brightly and gesture at the food. “Care to join us? I made a lot!”

The gaggle of men makes short work of the immense quantity of food as I watch, picking up a dainty morsel from time to time. Although much greater in number (and dressed much more colorfully), the men remind me of my own Zodiac family.

Brothers, I miss you.

Getting up, I pace over to the window and look out, sighing. A dimly lit window across the street catches my eye. A figure is silhouetted, backlit by the interior lighting. It’s kneeling, with a familiar shape before it...

Imperceptibly, my eyes widen. I keep my body angled in a different direction as I casually reach out and pull the chain to drop the blinds. Sure enough, the faint red dot that I missed earlier appears on the off-white for a second before disappearing. I move naturally to the half centimeter space between the blinds and peer out. The figure is now standing.

I move back behind the blinds and activate my earpiece. Rabbit speaks almost immediately.

“Did something happen?”

“YG Ent, Mapo-gu. Sniper across the street,” I speak quietly and concisely.

He curses, muffled, and cuts out for a minute.

“Is something wrong?” Bobby asks, coming up next to me.

I grab his wrist and tow him back to the group, well out of feasible eyeshot. “Ani, nothing’s wrong. Are you enjoying the food?”

He gives me a dubious look and glances at the closed blinds, but smiles anyway. “Yup! Your cooking is daebak, Minhee-ya.”

Several others agree, nodding while still fixated on the food.

A moment later, Rabbit come back online.

“Is he gone?”

Casually, I take a stroll around the perimeter of the room. Once I get to the windows, I turn my head a few degrees and eye the surroundings. The window is now dark. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

“Eo, he’s gone. It was a close call. Tiger oppa would have my if he knew I missed it,” I confide in my closest brother, voice shaking so slightly only he can tell.

“Be on your toes. It looks like they’ve followed us here,” he says only.

The adrenaline rush raises the hairs on my arms. “Araso.”