A strange thing happened that week. In reality it wasn’t that strange and it shouldn’t have bothered me nearly as much as it did. But I didn’t see the boys at all. They were whisked away by their management during the day, and didn’t get back until very late into the night. The first day I stayed up with my door open, but they didn’t make it home until around three in the morning, and I was already asleep. Apparently Hongbin had moved me from my desk where I had been waiting and into my bed. That was the most interaction I had with them, and I wasn’t even conscious.

Each morning there would be a note at my door. Nothing fancy or lengthy, just a ‘Have a good day! ^-^’ or ‘See you soon! <3’ taped to my door in N's handwriting. I returned the kindness, but it still left me feeling a little empty. I tried to consume myself with work, beginning to storyboard the music video in sketch form. Perhaps due to my loneliness, I made this video far longer than the song itself. No matter, if my proposal got accepted, I would just extend the instrumental for a theatrical bit. Regardless, there wasn’t enough work to distract me long enough. Luckily, the day of Taemin’s debut performance was fast approaching.

I kept in contact with Ian, texting him more than usual, perhaps trying to compensate for my uncomfortable isolation. He arrived in Korea just the day before the performance. Three days was all he got in-country, so I let him spend his first day with Taemin, doing whatever he needed to do in order to prepare. Finally the night arrived, and Jellyfish Entertainment was kind enough to offer to drive me to and from the venue, but only for Taemin's short segment of the music show. I rode in the small company car silently, looking out the dim window at the evening streets. As we approached the venue, it was clear that this was a pretty big event. I was dropped off near the back entrance where someone was already waiting to guide me backstage. It was all very quiet and a bit awkward until we crossed through the door.

Once I was inside, all memories of silence were obliterated by the wall of sound that hit me. It was utter chaos backstage. I was pretty much abandoned there, so I began to weave through the busy staff, trying to find any indication of where I might find my friends.

“MIRA!” I heard a voice practically screaming my name from down a hallway. I turned and followed it quickly, until I saw the bleach blonde head I had seen so many times before. He bounded toward me, and I moved to meet him halfway.

“Taemin,” I practically sighed his name in relief as I pulled him into a hug.

Taemin, finally comfortable enough with me for physical contact, graciously returned it, “I’m so glad you made it.”

“Me, too!” I pulled out of the hug, still holding his shoulders gently, as I looked him over, “You look great!” He had more makeup that I would have liked, but his black suit wardrobe matched the video exactly. “How are you feeling?”

“Thank you,” he laughed nervously, his wide smile not hiding his anxiety, “Nervous, excited,” he listed wearily, “But you should go find Ian before he has a panic attack.”

I looked around, “You’re right, where is he?”

“Dressing room,” he nodded his head to a door behind him, “but I’d better get to my stylist one last time, I’m on soon.”

“Go, go,” I shooed him away, “We’ll be cheering for you from offstage!”

“Thank you Mira!” he called as he scampered away.

I turned, heading into the room Taemin had pointed out, pushing open the door. Ian was pacing the room, his head jerking up at the sound of the door. “Halley!” his face broke into a huge grin as he ran to me, picking me up and swinging me around.

“Ian,” I said with a laugh, “it’s good to see you in person again.”

There was another man in the room who I did not recognize. “Ah,” Ian set me down, “this is my translator. SM didn’t want me to have any issues,” he said nervously, introducing me to the short young man. I was grateful he wouldn’t have to rely on me to communicate. Our reunion did not last too long, however, because the word came that the performance was about to start.

“Let’s go,” I took Ian’s hand and dragged him out of the little room, leaving his clearly unenthusiastic translator behind. We made our way to the very edge of the side of the stage, where we could clearly see the performance, even if it wasn’t from the intended angle.

The performance started, and the backing track was happily very minimal, allowing him to sing solo until they absolutely needed his doubled harmonies. His nerves were apparent in his vocals, but he still absolutely killed it, the difficult choreography accented by a few backup dancers dressed in all white. All in all, the three and a half minute performance was way too short, but the magnitude the event was not lost on anyway. The audience was mostly screaming girls, but the excited atmosphere was electric regardless.

He clearly danced and sung his heart out, and as someone who could call him a friend, I couldn’t help but feel a huge swell of pride. There was so much preparation and planning involved in an endeavor such as this, and yet these few minutes were make or break. Luckily, despite the nerves and the stress, he owned it. As soon as it was over, the lights were killed and he practically sprinted offstage, right into his American entourage’s arms.

“Taeminnie,” I cooed into his ear, “that was great!”

He was still panting, but gave me a swift kiss on the cheek- surprising me to the point of mild shock, but the gesture made me smile. I knew the wave of emotions I knew he would be feeling, “That was-“ he stopped to swallow hard between little gasps, “My vocals,” he breathed, “not so good.”

“Oh hush,” I reached up to smooth his sweat-drenched hair, “you have about a hundred more times to perform it, anyway.”

He managed a little breathy chuckle, but I let him go so he and Ian could have their moment. They even had an awkward bro-hug, and I didn’t need to translate for them at all. The sentiments were universal. The three of us walked together back to the dressing room, his manager fussing at him the whole way. Taemin waved him off, postponing that conversation for later. The relative quiet of the dressing room was welcome. “You should bring Ian to meet Ravi and the guys,” Taemin spoke quietly to me, “I think I need to go pass out somewhere.”

I laughed a little, nodding, “Go on. He’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“Of course,” Taemin gave me that wide smile of his, said his friendly goodbye to Ian, and slipped away to go change.

“Ian,” I had to grab his arm, “let him be for now. You’ll see him tomorrow.”

He looked mildly disappointed, but complied as he followed me out. “Are you bringing me back to the hotel?” he asked curiously as I pulled him toward the Jellyfish company car.

“Nope,” I said simply, “it’s time for you to meet my Koreans.”

It was late enough at night, and the two of us were wide awake enough that the chances of us meeting VIXX in on their way home was pretty high. To my surprise, the van was already back when we pulled in to the little lot. After thanking our driver, I practically flew out of the car, dragging Ian with me.

“In a hurry?” he laughed behind me as I pulled him up the stairs.

I didn’t bother to look at him, “Yes!” Once we reached the second floor landing, I saw a figure waiting outside my door. “Leo!” I called to him. He jumped a little, pushing off the wall to face us.

“Mira,” he started to walk towards me, clearly blind to the fact that we had company, “You didn’t tell us how long you’d be gone, we were getting worried,” he began to address me as we met in the hallway. His quiet but stern voice made for a surprisingly intimidating lecture.

I scoffed a little, “Well Mr. Hypocrite, you guys haven’t told me anything about your schedules all week! I haven’t seen you at all!”

He softened a little, “We missed you,” he admitted.

Ian coughed awkwardly behind me. I murmured, “How rude. Ian,” I switched to English again, “This is VIXX’s Leo.” I sighed a little, “Leo,” I switched back, “This is Ian Eastwood from America.” They did the awkward shake hands/bow combo briefly before they both looked at me expectantly. “Leo,” I turned to him again, “is everyone else still awake?”

He simply nodded, the presence of a stranger killing his urge to speak. I resisted rolling my eyes at him as we followed him down the hall. “Is he always like this?” Ian asked in a whisper.

I stifled a laugh, “Yes,” I said plainly as we walked, approaching the VIXX apartment.

Leo opened the VIXX apartment door for us, ushering us inside. It was relatively quiet given the time of night, but the lights were still on. Leo lifted a single finger, gesturing for us to wait there in the entryway. He took a few paces to N and Hyuk’s room, poking his head inside for just a moment before I heard two excited voices from inside. “Quite the place,” Ian murmured, glancing around awkwardly. I felt a little bad.

“Just you wait,” I turned to look at him, “I promise Leo is orders of magnitudes less social than the rest of them.”

He gave me a little smirk then, “He seems to like you though.”

I just laughed quietly, “It’s been over two months, Ian. If he hadn’t warmed up to me by now, we probably wouldn’t have a project to work on. He’s my main vocalist on this track,” I explained calmly, careful not to get baited by his obvious dig into my personal feelings.

With a little shrug, Ian looked down the hall, “Looks like they’re emerging.”

‘Emerging’ was an understatement. Hyuk burst through his door and ran down the hall, practically launching himself at me. “Mira,” he practically sobbed as I caught him in my arms, “We’ve missed you so much!”

“Hey Hyukkie,” I soothed, glancing over at a very surprised Ian. “Hyuk,” I gave him a gentle little push, “This is Ian Eastwood.”

The introduction caught his attention and he straightened up immediately, looking over at his new guest, “Oh, I’m sorry,” he bowed politely to Ian, “I’m Hyuk, nice to meet you.”

“He doesn’t speak Korean,” I whispered to Hyuk, but looked back to Ian, once again struggling to switch languages, “Ian, this is Hyuk, he’s the youngest of the group.”

“Nice to meet you,” Ian’s grin began to grow as he gave a little bow back.

N was close behind, assertively presenting his hand to shake as he spoke in very slow, accented English, “I’m VIXX’s Leader N, nice to meet you,” as Ian took his hand, N whispered to me in Korean, “He’s younger than me, right?”

With a chuckle I nodded, “He’s the same age as Taemin and Ravi.” Already growing tired of this process, I turned back to Ian feeling the need to clarify N's earlier introduction, “Ian, this is N, leader and eldest of VIXX.” This process continued for both Ken and Hongbin. It took me a moment to figure out what was wrong, “Leo,” I looked to the figure slouching in the corner behind me as Ken and N inspected Ian as if he were some sort of foreign work of art. “Where’s Ravi?”

Leo simply blinked at me, his poker face plastered firmly on, clearly displeased by the presence of the new American intruder. He nodded to Ravi’s room, “He’s upset he couldn’t go to Taemin’s performance.”

I sighed sadly, “Thanks,” I turned, letting Leo sulk as I pushed into Ravi’s door. “Ravi?” I called through the door as I slowly pushed it open.

“Halley?” he called back weakly. Taking it as a go-ahead, I opened his door more, slipping into his room. He was splayed out on his bed, a pillow resting on his face.

I sighed, “Come on, Ravi, come meet Ian.”

“I don’t wanna,” he pouted, voice muffled by the pillow.

Not wanting to prolong this encounter any longer, I stomped forward, grabbing the pillow from his face. He grasped for it, but I was quick enough to evade him, “Wonsik,” I started, putting on my serious voice. “I’m sure Taemin understands why you couldn’t be at his performance. He’ll have tons more that you can go see. But this one opportunity is all you might have to meet his new good friend Ian Eastwood,” I saw his resolve fade quickly, but I continued, “I’m not sure how I could tell him that you just decided to hide in your room instead of giving Ian a proper welcome.”

“Stop being right all the time,” Ravi groaned, looking up at me with a pout.

I simply threw the pillow back to him, “You guys are even the same age, come on.” I held out a hand for him, which he firmly took, using it to help haul him out of bed. I pulled him out into the hallway, dropping his hand when I saw the scene before me.

“Mira,” Ian called to me, his voice full of concern, “What’s going on? What are they saying?”

N and Ken had both assumed their old woman personas, picking at Ian’s face and clothes, muttering about his suitability as a husband. “He’s not too tall,” N pointed out, “but he has a nice face.”

“But do we want our Mira with someone with such visible tattoos?” Ken clucked in disapproval, rotating Ian’s forearm.

I sighed heavily, “Guys, get off of him, let him talk to Ravi for a while,” I stepped forward, shooing them away like flies. “Sorry Ian, those two,” I couldn’t even finish that sentence. I gestured for Ravi to follow me, “This is Ravi. He’s a good friend of Taemin’s. He knows just enough English to be dangerous. Please excuse me while I knock some sense into these ones.”

Leaving Ravi and Ian to awkwardly chat in a combination of broken Korean and English, I herded the rest of the guys into the common room. “He seems nice,” Ken teased in a high-pitched voice, once again winking at me.

Shaking my head, I sighed again, “You guys are just freaking him out,” I looked to each of them, “AND we are not dating,” I said that last bit reluctantly. I had hoped to avoid the subject altogether, since even denial was at least humoring them.

“He likes you,” Leo’s voice was something I had not expected to hear, so it took me a moment to register his displeased face.

“What,” I paused for a moment, gathering my thoughts, “Funny, Leo, he said the same thing about you,” I snapped at him. That seemed to get him sufficiently flustered to prevent him from arguing further. “Look, he’s got a hot dancer girlfriend back in America and I’m not interested in him, can we move on now?”

N and Ken clearly were amused by this topic and chose to press, “You’re technically a hot dancer, right?” N’s voice was too happy to be genuine.

Deciding humoring them was not going to work, I simply turned around and stalked back into the entryway. “Ian,” I tried to sound cheerful, but I’m pretty sure he saw right through me as he stopped his questionably accurate conversation with Ravi.

“Time to go?” he asked me with a little smirk.

With a sigh, I nodded, “You can get a ride from the same guy that brought you here. He should know where to take you. Say hi to Taemin for me tomorrow, okay?”

“I’ll text you later,” he whispered before giving me a quick hug before heading out the door. I practically slammed it behind him, slumping against the wall.

“He seems cool,” Ravi said offhandedly, coming to my side.

“We’re sorry, Mira!” N came rushing down the hall, “We didn’t mean to chase him away!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” I insisted. We needed to just let this go. This was the first time I’d seem them all week, and I’d be damned if we had an argument about something so decidedly silly. “I’m sure I’ll hear from him in like twenty minutes,” I added with a tired laugh, “I’m glad he met you guys, regardless of how obnoxious you were.”

“I’m sorry Noona!” Ken whined, falling to his knees as he took my hand, “You can marry whoever you want, even if they have strange tattoos!”

I gave him a swift smack on the head, sending him to the ground in a fit of giggles, “Oh, stop,” I grumbled. As Ken scrambled back to his feet, there was a short silence. “I missed you guys.”

“We missed you, too,” Hongbin’s soft voice cut through the dark quiet, his warm smile sending a wave of relief through me.

Taking a moment to look at each of them, my heart began to sink again, “How much longer are you guys going to be booked like this?”

N looked away, “A little while longer, I think,” he spoke sadly, but suddenly he perked up, looking back at me, “I can ask if we can bring you along!”

“But what will I do?”

He shrugged, “Who cares! Even if they don’t let you participate, having you backstage or whatever to hang out with in our down time would be nice, right?”

They all murmured in agreement, but I shook my head briskly, “Will your management even allow it?”

N actually laughed, “Since when have you cared about stuff like that?”

He had a point, and I smiled a bit sheepishly, “True.”

“Plus,” he added, taking my arm and leading me to sit on one of the couches with him, “I don’t think more publicity with you would be a bad thing.”

I opened my mouth to object, but promptly closed it. After some of the comments I read on the VIXX TV video as well as the few articles about my socialization in the industry, I had tried to limit my public contact with other idols. But I had been miserable stuck in my room by myself. “Alright then,” I resolved. Scandals be damned. Fans couldn’t possibly think I was trying to seduce every member of VIXX, right?

“Something’s bothering you,” Ravi spoke from the arm of the couch where he was perched, eyeing me suspiciously. I had been caught, it seemed.

With a heavy sigh, I spoke again, “I mean, after all those comments…”

Ken didn’t let me finish, “Are you kidding? If you kept reading, you’d find comments angry at me for being too close to their precious Hongbin-oppa,” his voice grew high and squeaky, imitating his impression of the average fangirl. He flopped into the couch next to us with an angry huff.

“Or angry comments about Ravi getting in the way of N and Leo’s love affair,” Hyuk added with a goofy grin.

Ravi shrugged, “I am a homewrecker, too,” he teased; pulling me to his side, “Don’t worry about that stuff. No one expects you to make a public apology for being so casual with us.”

“If nothing else,” N chimed in, “you still have your American culture card.”

Their words were honestly quite convincing. I relaxed, leaning into Ravi’s little side-hug, “Thanks,” I said with a little sigh.

“Now,” Ravi spoke as he gave me a little squeeze, “Tell me everything about Taemin’s debut.”

“Oh yeah!” Hyuk scooted forward in his seat, barely on the edge of the couch, “How did he do?”

I relaxed significantly, letting my previous anxiety leave my body with my long breath, “He did well,” I spoke wearily. “He was really nervous, but he’ll be fine after a few performances.”

“I’m glad you got to go,” Ravi spoke sadly, but he smiled regardless, “He got to have a friend there.”

“Two,” I corrected, “but yeah, I’m glad I made it.” I reflected on the short but chaotic performance earlier, “He was a bit overwhelmed.”

“He’s used to having four hyungs looking out for him,” Hyuk pointed out, “I can imagine going solo would be a bit scary.”

N laughed a little, “There was a time when Taemin wasn’t just the maknae of SHINee, he was the maknae of the entire industry. Everyone still thinks of him as the loveable baby.”

I could definitely see that, given that baby face and loveable personality. Before I could comment, however, Hyuk spoke up again, “Cute picture of you two already!”

“What?” I squirmed out of Ravi’s grasp on the couch to circle the table, trying to catch a glimpse of Hyuk’s phone.

“Oh,” he sounded as if he had just been caught in the cookie jar, “We haven’t told you yet, but,” he turned the phone to show me, “There’s a blog called Mira Watch that’s been tracking you.”

“What?” I repeated, raising my voice as I wrested the phone from his hands, scrolling wildly. He was right. Every time I went outside, there was a picture of me with someone or another. “These are like photography snipers,” I mumbled. Clearly several of the photos were captured using high zoom lenses from far distances, but the quality was actually quite good. As much as I should have been freaking out, I caught a few sentences of the text. “These are surprisingly positive comments.”

“Well duh,” Hyuk pulled the phone away from me, scrolling for me, “It’s a blog about you, not the rest of us,” he laughed a little. Everyone had gathered around the tiny screen to see. Several pictures were of me, Taemin, and GD at my little fan meet. There was a picture of me, Henry, Taemin, and Kyuhyun at the park. One of me and GD sitting on the concrete wall outside Jellyfish HQ, a few photos of the VIXX boys carrying me around the fair, and some screenshots from both VIXX TV and the Sukira radio show with Ryeowook. And then finally, as Hyuk had mentioned, there was a series of photos of the end of Taemin’s performance when he ran into my waiting arms and his kiss on my cheek.

“That was quick,” was all I managed to say. That was maybe an hour or two ago. I guess if you want a successful blog, expediency was an important asset to have.

I heard some chuckles behind us, “That was awfully bold by Taemin’s standards,” Ravi’s low voice rumbled with laughter.

I couldn’t help but laugh a little as well, “Yeah, no kidding,” I glanced back at them, “but you guys should know how it feels when you come off of an intense performance like that.”

“Sometimes I try to kiss Leo hyung after a concert, too,” Ken teased, fluttering his eyes at Leo, who simply palmed Ken’s face and pushed him away. Leo was clearly unamused.

Hyuk put his phone away, and we began to disperse. I looked to N for direction. He seemed to think for a long moment, “I’ll come get you in the morning, okay?” he decided, giving me a tiny smile.

“Alright,” I decided to just go along with his plans. It was true that I’d rather hang out on a set somewhere rather than sit in my lonely room trying to make more work for myself.

They began to head back down the hallway to their rooms when N stopped them, turning to me as I followed them, “I’m glad we’re back together again.”

“Me too, Hakyeon,” I smiled and waited for them to shuffle away before continuing down the hallway towards the main door, intending to see myself out. As I was about to flip off the hallway light, a hand caught my wrist. Instinctively, my heart pounded as I spun around, only to come face-to-face with Leo. “Leo, you scared me,” I spoke quietly, laughing awkwardly.

“Sorry,” he said simply, glancing to the door behind me, and then back to my face. With a little sigh, I opened the door, stepping out into the hallway, waiting for him to follow. He closed the door behind us and crossed his arms. I never knew how to feel when Leo sought me out like this. On the one hand, I was happy and proud he was comfortable approaching me. On the other, he still had the capacity to be quite intimidating. After a heavy silence, he finally relented, opening his mouth to speak, “I’m sorry I was rude to your friend.”

I raised my eyebrows for a split second. That was not what I expected, “It’s okay,” I stammered quickly, “I know you’re not a fan of meeting new people.”

He gave a half-hearted smile, “Still.” It grew quiet again. That was clearly not all he wanted to say. Generally I tried to humor him, reading his facial expressions, but I was at a loss as to what he might want this time, so all I could do was patiently wait for him to gather his thoughts. Finally, he looked me in the eye for a solid few seconds, but once again looked down. “Taemin,” he began hesitantly, kicking his foot idly, “shouldn’t have kissed you like that,” his voice trailed off, almost too quiet for me to hear.

A little smile crept up onto my face. “Are you worried about a scandal, Leo?” I teased. He seemed like he didn’t intend to answer that, so I continued. “Leo,” I began as I leaned against the wall next to him, “when you sing solo like that, it’s a strange kind of high. On the one hand you’re completely solo- you control your own destiny. But on the other hand, there’s no one there to support you or build you up. One wrong step and it’s ruined.” I stopped to sigh, memories of some of my rockier performances sweeping through my mind, “The fact that it was his very first time solo like that,” it was my turn to trail off my words, unsure how to finish that sentence.

Taekwoon looked at me then. “I see,” he seemed utterly unconvinced.

I wracked my brain. For some reason I found it very important to explain this to Leo, “I was the first person he found, and he had all these emotions,” I realized I was starting to sound a little crazy, “It’s not like he kissed me on the mouth,” I said defensively.

Leo smiled a little, “If he had, it would be an actual problem.”

Rolling my eyes, I chose to ignore that comment, “Remember when we sang together the first time?” I asked, trying a different analogy.

“Of course.”

I took a deep breath, unsure how to broach this subject gracefully, “I’m not sure about you,” I began hesitantly, “but once we got it right, it was like we were supporting each other, right?”

“Yes,” he said simply, barely managing to keep eye contact with me.

“So,” I continued, “Imagine if you had to sing that all by yourself, having to be responsible for the whole song without anyone supporting you.”

He looked away to think it over, and I waited patiently for him to return. When he finally looked at me, his face seemed a bit more relaxed, “He wanted your support.”

I smiled, “Yeah, it’s kind of like that.” The analogy was a bit backwards, but I was confident he at least understood. “Taemin,” I began again, and he seemed to stiffen again, “is a good friend,” I emphasized, "Like a little brother. I was happy to be there for him.”

Leo seemed to relax again. I found his interest in this subject rather out of character, but then again, he was the type to want full understanding of the world around him. In a way I could relate. I smiled at him when I caught his eye again. “I should go,” he said quietly, though a hint of a smile stayed on his face. There was an awkward moment then, as if we should do something. Normally it would be an easy hug for me, but Taekwoon wasn’t quite comfortable with that yet, so instead we just sort of uncomfortably stared at each other for a short moment.

“Good night, Taekwoon,” I settled on just cutting my losses and pushed off the wall, turning to head back to my room.

I had taken a few paces when I heard his quiet voice call behind me, “Good night, Mira.”