I found myself in a little park hidden away in the recesses of Seoul’s metropolis. Hakyeon had given me these directions, so I waited on a bench, dressed in the recommended black hoodie to minimize the chances of an accidental spotting. I picked at the frayed hem of my jeans until a voice called out to me. When I looked up, a friendly face was smiling at me. I was so grateful I had the opportunity to do my research, as I was easily able to recognize Henry Lau. He definitely looked Chinese as opposed to Korean, but his countenance and posture gave away his North American origin.

“Hey!” he called again as I stood. Hearing English in person again was a little jarring.

I pushed my hood back as I approached him, “Hi,” I responded, a smile beginning to creep on my face.

“Henry,” he introduced, stepping forward, hand extended.

I knew he was Canadian, but I’m not sure what I expected. The perfect English and North American mannerisms threw me off, but it didn’t take long for me to fall back into my old habits, “Halley.”

We sat back on the bench together and settled into easy conversation. I was so grateful to be treated so casually. It helped that we were almost exactly the same age. “So how did you get roped into this world?” he asked me casually as we shared some of the American candy I had thought to bring along.

I thought for a moment, savoring the last of my Reese’s, “From what I’ve gathered, it was Ravi who asked his management for a chance to work with me.” I sighed a little, habitually combing through my hair, “Jellyfish contacted my manager, and he accepted on my behalf. Six months of Korean boot camp and I was on a plane.”

“That easy?” he asked, clearly surprised.

I nodded, “They agreed to all the crazy terms I generally have for collaborations. It pretty much puts Jellyfish at my mercy.” I leaned back on the bench, looking out into the tiny park, “I could have watched VIXX perform and just left, stating they weren’t worth my time and there would have been nothing they could do about it.”

He was quiet for a moment as I felt his eyes on me, “I’m glad you didn’t,” he spoke quietly, gently now.

I smiled and turned to meet his gaze, “Me, too.”

He laughed happily, his eyes squinting, “You’ve become attached, haven’t you?”

“You make it sound like they’re pets,” I couldn’t help but laugh as well, “But yeah, I have.”

“So what will you do?” Henry asked suddenly, “When this is all over, I mean.”

I sighed heavily, “I don’t know. There are more people I want to work with here. It’s like a whole new world of music has opened up to me, and I want to dive in, but,” I paused, looking up at him sadly, “I don’t think I can just abandon my American career. Plus, the novelty of having me here will wear off eventually and no one will care if I’ve done another Korean project or not.”

He nodded solemnly, “Korea is like a black hole, it’s hard to leave.”

“You’ve done pretty well for yourself,” I reminded him.

He laughed, nudging me playfully, “Not like you.” His phone buzzed in his pocked, causing both of us to jump a little in surprise, “Oh, that’s right.” He looked at me, his face already apologetic, “I hope you don’t mind, I invited a couple of friends.” When he saw my face fall, he spoke up again quickly, “You already know one of them.”

He stood, and waved at two figures approaching from the other side of the park. I stood as well, sticking close to Henry’s side. A vaguely familiar voice called out, “Well aren’t you two just a scandal waiting to happen.”

“Taemin!” I suddenly realized who it was.

Henry just laughed before switching effortlessly back to Korean, “We’re both westerners and we’re the same age, it’ll be fine,” he dismissed Taemin’s statement as he continued to approach both of them. A second figure, just as tall as Henry stood back a few paces before pulling back his own hood. I gasped.

“I know who you are!” I practically yelled before realizing I was still speaking English. I repeated myself, doing my best to switch my brain back to Korean. He simply blinked at me as I approached him, “You’re Cho Kyuhyun!” I continued, stopping just short of him to offer him my hand.

“You’re Mira,” he spoke, a slight smirk crossing his face. He looked to Henry, “Henry, do all Americans introduce themselves by saying the other person’s name?” he was clearly making fun of me, but I didn’t care. Henry simply laughed behind me.

I gave him a little punch in the shoulder, which I knew to be bold considering. This was the first kpop idol I’ve interacted with on a personal level who was older than me (even if only slightly), but I didn’t care, “Your voice is amazing,” I blurted out.

Kyuhyun luckily seemed to not care at all about my antics as he grinned, his even narrow teeth all visible, “Today I will go home and write ‘Dear diary, today THE Mira became my fangirl’. None of my hyungs will believe me!”

The relaxed atmosphere between the four of us was refreshing. It was almost as comfortable as I was with VIXX back at the apartments. “I’m glad N let me meet you,” Henry suddenly spoke up. When I looked him in the face, he was grinning, “He told me that he was in charge of filtering who you meet.”

I laughed, “Yeah he’ll be pissed that you became my gateway drug,” I spoke, gesturing to Kyuhyun who had settled on the grass across from the bench Henry and I had returned.

He shrugged, “Just revealing that you’re here was your gateway.”

“I didn’t think they’d be so possessive,” Kyuhyun remarked as he caught the candy I tossed him.

“Well,” I sighed a little, “We still have a lot of work to do, so I can’t just be gallivanting around all willy-nilly.”

Taemin laughed at this, “Ravi told me you’re pretty brutal.”

I raised my eyebrow, “Ravi was easy,” I admitted.

“He told me you nearly murdered Leo,” Taemin leaned forward a little, clearly eager to hear whatever information I was willing to divulge.

Kyuhyun looked at me in surprise, “Even I know that’s brave,” he said as he took a bite of chocolate, “And this is delicious!”

I chuckled quietly, “We nearly killed each other,” I corrected Taemin, “He’s not used to being pushed around so hard. None of them are.”

“But you all get along?” Henry asked from beside me.

“Not at first,” I shook my head, “But I think I’ve finally broken through to all of them,” I recalled my time with Hongbin the day prior, “It was rather… difficult.” When they all just looked at me expectantly, I huffed, continuing, “They were all pretty uncomfortable around me. Afraid to look at me, even.”

I looked around, the three boys eagerly listening to every word, as if these were my girlfriends and I was telling them about my boy problems. I resisted the urge to giggle happily. It was a nice change. Regardless, I pressed on, unwilling to disappoint my audience, “Ravi was the only one comfortable enough to come visit me at first. N wasn’t far behind, I guess, but the rest were surprisingly shy.”

“Ken?” Taemin asked, dubious.

I laughed a little, “Okay, shy was a poor choice of words. I guess I mean hesitant, maybe.”

“So when’s the first scandal going to hit?” Kyuhyun asked with a little grin.

I rolled my eyes, “But I thought we established my first scandal was with Henry, here!” I sighed irritably, “If the media gets upset every time I’m friendly with a male artist, all of your companies should just pre-write a draft memo. I can see it now: ‘Insert-company-name-here denies all romantic involvement between insert-idol-name-here and American native Mira’ end memo.”

“You know,” Kyuhyun spoke again, “It might help if you were seen with some of the females, too. Then the fans would be less likely to think you were hunting all of their men.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. It actually wasn’t a bad idea, “You have contacts for me?”

He nodded, “Let me see your phone.” I tossed it to him, and he went to work.

Taemin looked up at me suddenly, remembering, “I got your text, by the way!” I nodded, glad to know it worked.

“Yah, you have her number?” Henry asked suddenly, “Hyung, put my number in her phone, too!”

Kyuhyun simply waved him away, still busy with the little device. I laughed, “Don’t expect speedy responses, I’m still getting used to typing in Hangul.”

Henry looked at me sympathetically, “It’s strange, isn’t it?”

“Yes!” I lamented, “It’ll take me a while.”

“Head’s up,” Kyuhyun spoke suddenly, tossing the phone back to me, “You have Taeyeon, Amber, and Moonbyul. And Henry,” He paused, and winked one dark grey eye at me, that playful grin on his face, “And mine, of course.”

Henry shook his head, “I don’t want to ask how you got all of those,” he mumbled.

I grinned back, “Thank you!” I made a note to look up those three names before tucking my phone away. The four of us sat there for quite some time, conversing like for normal people in a city park. It was incredibly nice to be able to just relax outside with these new friends of mine. It was something I never could get away with back home, and I was moderately surprised we were getting away with it now. At some point, I looked around, slightly paranoid, “We’ve been left alone,” I noted curiously.

“Yeah,” Taemin answered me, “I’m sure about a thousand pictures have been taken somehow, but at least the media seems to give us our space when we come somewhere like this.”

“As long as stalker fans don’t find us,” Henry lamented, “we’re generally okay.”

Kyuhyun sighed heavily, “You have a point though,” he began to stand, “We’ve pushed it by staying here so long.”

Henry groaned dramatically, “Fine,” he followed suit, “you’re right, we should head back.”

As I stood, I held out a hand to Taemin, who took it to help himself up. He smiled at me as he stood, and I was pleased that he, too, seemed to be more comfortable with me than our first meeting. “We’ll stay in touch,” he assured me as he released my hand.

The three of them left together, waving as they turned the corner. I decided to stick around for a while, settling back on the bench. It was so strange to me how I felt so much friendlier with these new Korean acquaintances than back home. Perhaps the egos weren’t quite so dominant, or maybe because I wasn’t constantly reminded of my celebrity status. Whatever the reason, it made me happy. But on the flip side, it made my heart ache every time I thought of how I would have to return home, potentially cutting all of these new friends out of my life. With a deep breath, I pushed the anxiety away. I determined that staying here would only cause me to dwell even more, so once again I stood from my trusty bench, pushed my hood back up, and began to walk back to Jellyfish HQ.

Reversing the directions N gave me, I navigated the back streets of Seoul as the sky began to shift to the warm light of late afternoon. I was happy to make it back peacefully as I entered the lobby, giving a casual wave to the receptionist. Trudging up the stairs, my feet began to feel a bit heavy, clearly worn out from the most use they’d seen in a long time. I made a mental note to go running or something, but before long, I found myself back at my familiar room.

To my surprise, N was sitting in my desk chair, legs crossed, and foot tapping impatiently. “You were gone for quite a while,” he said coldly.

I was a bit taken aback by his tone, “I didn’t think I had a curfew mom,” I retorted as I pulled my hoodie off over my head.

He sighed, “Of course not,” I could hear his voice soften, “Will you come over tonight?” he asked, voice hopeful.

Laughing, I nodded, “I was going to go over there as soon as I could,” I assured him as I pulled my hair tie out, shaking my head to let my wild red hair loose.

“You look like a lion,” N spoke playfully, his smile audible on his voice.

“Don’t tell Leo,” I murmured as I brushed it back, trying my best to tame it back to submission. I managed to get it back into a relatively clean ponytail again before looking at my visitor expectantly. “Shall we?”

We both stood, but N hesitated before heading out the door. I found myself wrapped up in a tight hug before I could comprehend exactly what was happening, “Welcome home,” he murmured quietly. Finally I managed to embrace him back, nestling my face in his neck.

“Thanks Hakyeon,” I whispered back. It was quite like being home with him holding me like that. Spending so much time with N, I was becoming quite the fan of hugs. It was a welcome change.

Finally he pulled away, “We’d better go before the rest of the guys worry anymore,” I thought I heard him sniffle a little.

“You guys worry too much,” I teased, snaking my arm around him as we walked, “I’m a big girl, you know.”

N reciprocated the gesture, “You can’t live with six dudes and expect us not to get protective. You’re one of us now.”

We made it to their door, which was already open and waiting for us. We strolled through to the common room, where the rest of VIXX stood as we entered. “Mira’s back!” Hyuk announced. They ushered me onto a couch where I was bombarded with questions about my day.

“Alright, alright!” I raised my voice a bit to cut through the noise, “Simmer down guys, sheesh,” I spoke with a light chuckle. “It was fun,” I started, watching as they all settled back on their seats, “I talked with Henry for a while, and then he invited Taemin and Kyuhyun.”

“Hey!” N protested, “He didn’t clear that with me!”

“Don’t blame Henry,” I tried to calm him, “it was fine, we just sat and hung out, that’s all.”

“That’s all?” Ken wiggled his eyebrows at me as he interrupted.

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah, it was nice,” I emphasized. “Kyuhyun recommended I should probably make appearances with female idols, too,” I added, retrieving my phone from my pocket. “He got me some phone numbers.”

This certainly piqued their interest, “Who? Who?” N sat himself on the arm of the couch next to me, trying to see the screen of my phone.

“I don’t know who they are yet, so don’t kill me,” I prefaced, shaking my head. “Uh, Taeyeon, Amber, and Moonbyul.”

“How did Kyuhyun get Byul’s number?” I heard Ravi ask Hongbin quietly.

“That guy,” N mumbled, “Well, it’s probably a good idea,” he sighed, “Will you try to set something up for tomorrow? We don’t rehearse together until the next day.”

I shook my head, “I think I’ll give it a break for now,” I sighed a little, “I missed you guys.” It seemed that’s all they wanted to hear, as the room relaxed considerably, “Wait,” I suddenly realized, “you guys weren’t worried, you were jealous!”

A wave of denial swept through them, but finally Ravi spoke, “Maybe a combination of both,” he admitted.

“But soon enough, they’ll be luring you to the SM compound,” Ken spoke dramatically, placing the back of his head to his forehead, “And you’ll never come out!”

I laughed heartily for a good minute, “Oh, you guys,” I breathed, “I’m not abandoning you.”

Leo, who had been silent during this whole circus, finally spoke up, thankfully changing the subject, “So what’s the plan tomorrow? Just more rehearsing on our own?”

I stopped to think, “Mostly, yeah,” I hesitated, “Hongbin is totally good to go now, so I think I want to work with Hakyeon tomorrow if that’s okay.”

“Of course!” he responded happily.

Smiling, I gave him a little nod, “I’ll come by sometime in the morning, okay?”

“Alright,” he nodded a little in return. Well,” N spoke up suddenly, changing the subject, “I think we’re all satisfied that you are neither dead nor abandoning us, so I think we can let you rest now.”

I looked up at him, still perched next to me, “Trying to kick me out already?” I said, sounding as insulted as I could muster.

He blinked, “I mean,” he stammered, “You can stay if you want, I just figured,” his sentence trailed off.

Not bothering to answer him, I looked to Ravi, “Care to tell me about these ladies I’m supposed to meet?”

“Prepare to be educated,” Ravi smirked at me as he stood, “I’ll be right back.”

Somehow, we ended up on the floor with the pillows and blankets that had become a semi-permanent makeshift couch. I was pleased when Leo, N, and Ken joined us. Hongbin and Hyuk opted for rehearsing. Tryhards. But it didn’t matter, Ravi and I lay with a tablet, Leo on the other side of me. Ken settled on the other side of Ravi, and N made the interesting choice of laying right on top of Ravi.

“Hayeon hyung, you’re heavy,” Ravi wheezed as he tried to wriggle away, but he was trapped on both sides by Ken and I, and we made no indication of moving.

N simply shuffled up higher on Ravi’s back, “You’ll survive,” he said as he plopped his head on his friend’s shoulder. He simply draped like a blanket as he made himself comfortable.

Ravi sighed, but was clearly resigned to the current state of affairs as he turned his attention back to the tablet, “Okay we’ll start easy with Taeyeon. I know you’ve watched some Girls’ Generation already,” and as he had before, Ravi became an encyclopedia of knowledge as we watched video after video. Music interviews, interviews, live performances, the works. I learned Taeyeon was the leader of Girls’ Generation and seemed like a good person to get in touch with. She had an incredible singing voice, and was exceptionally beautiful. I learned Amber was from a group called f(x), generally filling the role of Rapper. I was especially interested in her American origin, as well. Ravi informed me that she wasn’t even fluent in Korean when she arrived. Maybe she could be a good source of advice. Moonbyul was a rapper that reminded me a lot of Ravi as far as style was concerned. She had pretty recently debuted in a four girl group called Mamamoo. It was a lot to take in, as I was still trying to sort through all of the information I had mined the night before.

Suddenly a click distracted us, and like meerkats, all of our heads swiveled to find Hongbin, camera in hand, grinning at us. “The five of you are so cute!” he exclaimed before anyone could retaliate. I looked to my right, where Leo simply looked off into the distance, thinking. To my left was Ravi, with N still draped over him, and Ken cuddled up on his other side. I couldn’t help but grin, because Hongbin was right. It was quite the sight.

“You’ll have to send me that one, Hongbin,” I called back, but my sentiments were clearly not shared as Ken was the one to jump up to chase his younger friend out of the room.

Ravi looked down at the tablet, and a look of surprise crossed his face, “We’ve been at this a long time,” he muttered, tilting the screen to show me.

“One in the morning?” I asked incredulously, and Leo’s hand whipped out of nowhere to grab the device, checking himself. We all scrambled off the floor, but my back was so sore and stiff from the prolonged floor time. We all stretched, groaning like old men. “Good night, guys,” I spoke before a yawn threatened to take over.

“Good night, Halley,” Ravi smiled warmly at me as he waved good-bye. The rest of them simply waved, clearly exhausted now that we weren’t focused anymore.

With one more stretch and a yawn, I turned to leave, once again content with my place in this strange little family. “See you in the morning,” I spoke, very aware that there was no longer anyone around to answer me.