ChenChenChen: You have that radio show lesson tomorrow afternoon right?

Me: Yep, whole afternoon tomorrow! It's going to be a busy day >.<

ChenChenChen: I have that too actually! It's going to be fun :D

Me: Oh that's awesome, it's bound to be fun then

ChenChenChen: I can help you with the script, so you better sit beside me okay?!

Me: Okey save me a seat then haha

I quickly bowed to my vocal teacher again, and left more hastily than I would've like to. I could tell that she was already disappointed in me from the short time that we've had lessons together, and didn't want her to dislike me more than she already did.

My heart pounded in anticipation as I ran down the hall to the elevator, unable to keep my feet still even as I waited. Time was ticking and I was probably going to be late to this radio show lesson, with it being scheduled so close to my vocal lesson. Remembering the series of texts from Chen last night, I found myself smiling at the invitation to sit beside him. At least this way, I finally won't feel like an outcast.

We had exchanged numbers after that time in the cafeteria, as my manager had gotten me a Korean SIM card, and we had been texting throughout the week. Although communicating by text was a lot harder than I'd have thought, it somehow worked out with our unique mixture of Chinese characters, pin yin, and some Korean as well. Chen seemed like a really nice person and I was glad that I was finally making some progress in making friends around here. I mean, the girls in my group were very friendly and easygoing, but I'd still say that the language barrier is mainly what prevents us from becoming closer to one another.

The elevator finally came and I had to double check my schedule to see what floor the room was on. We were in a classroom this time, similar to the ones where we have our theory lessons. It wasn't like a radio show setting at all, but I guessed that the focus would be more on the talking part, as if we were actually on a radio broadcasting. As the elevator doors opened, I ran out and down the hall towards where I thought the room should be. The door numbers decreased as I ran past them, until I finally found the classroom. The door was mostly closed, leaving only a tiny gap where I could see into the room. People were already seated and there was another teacher at the front of the room organizing sheets of paper. I slipped into the room as quietly as I could and shut the door behind me. I didn't draw too much attention as the door was at the back of the room and everyone was seated facing the blackboard at the front. Finding the closest seat at the back, I sat down, setting my bag on the long desk. The two seats beside me were left empty.

I scanned the room, wondering if Jiwoo was here yet, as she said that she had a scheduled event right before this as well. Instead of finding her though, I saw another familiar figure a few rows ahead of me, his hair giving him away. Today, Chen was dressed up a bit more, wearing a school uniform-like blazer, as he probably just came from a previous schedule too. He leaned over to his left, and that's when I noticed that there was a girl sitting there beside him, her perfectly styled long dark hair all too familiar too.

Then I found myself suddenly meeting his warm brown eyes. Chen grinned upon seeing me, then waved at me to go over to the empty seat on his right. Minnie turned around to see what he was looking at, but her once beaming face quickly shifted into her usual scowl of disapproval as soon as she saw me. But for some reason, the previous smile she had on her face reminded me so much of a scene I had seen before.

Then it hit me.

Why Chen had looked so familiar since the first time I saw him, why Minnie had smiled like that in the first place.

The scene in front of me had reminded me of the Polaroid photo of Minnie with a guy that I had found in the bedroom, and now I knew exactly what the connection was.

The guy in the photo was Chen.

It was Chen who was in the photo with Minnie, looking as happy as any other couple.

"Are you going to move anytime soon or do I have to move your stuff for you?" A melodic voice yanked me out from my thoughts as Chen stood in front of me, holding my bag.

"What-- oh sorry, I'll move." I said, flashing a nervous smile. Minnie's glare followed me as I moved across the room to where their table was, Chen trailing right behind me. My heart felt heavy without any particular reason, but I pasted a smile on my face and sat down. I my in-ear translator just in time for the teacher at the front to start the lesson.

"So today, you'll be practicing your radio broadcast skills. I'll be passing out a script that you're supposed to follow for today's session, though you will soon notice that in a real radio broadcast, the script mainly consists of a series of prompts. It's basically supposed to be a guide for you to follow along loosely, and improvise on." The teacher then went around passing out the scripts. I looked around the room to see Jiwoo sitting with a couple of other girls, who were probably from a different group of top tier trainees, and Miyoung was at the back sitting next to Kai. "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't think there are nearly enough for all of you, so some of you may have to share today." He placed a booklet on my desk, and another one on Chen's, but that was the last of the pile and there wasn't enough for Minnie. The teacher shot an apologetic look at us.

"It's okay, you can have this one, I'll share with Yoonmi." Chen nodded to Minnie, quickly passing the copy on his desk to her. I pushed my copy over closer to him so that it rested in between us.

The writing on it was all in Korean, so asides from hearing the translated versions of the text, I didn't know how I was supposed to participate at all in it. Luckily, the teacher got a call, probably from a manager by the sounds of it, and spent quite the amount of time sorting out whatever the issue was.

I waited patiently, trying to read some of the words on the page. I was only starting to learn the Korean alphabet, and thus, only recognized a few letters here and there. From my peripheral, I could see Chen turned towards Minnie, and they were talking quietly, their voices too low to be picked up by my in-ear translator. I heard them laughing occasionally, and her voice sounded happier than I've ever heard it, despite living with her.

What was the point of asking me to sit beside you if you were just going to ignore me the whole time anyway? I sighed, shifting my focus back to the script.

"Sorry about that, guys, it was a pretty important call from the board of directors. Anyway, now that that's out of the way, let's start with the broadcast. Today's broadcast is voice only, so there is no need to prepare for a camera, though you will find that most of the time there will be a camera when idols appear on radio shows." At the very front of the classroom, there were couple of desks put together and four people sat around it. I recognized two of them as EXO members: the leader, Suho, and another vocalist from EXO-K whose name I didn't know. They sat at the two ends of the long tables, while there were two trainees sitting in the middle facing the rest of the class: our leader, Hyojin, along with a guy that I didn't recognize.

"Welcome to Moonlit Night, the number one radio for all your popular music needs! I'm radio host Suho--"

"--and I'm Baekhyun,"

"and today we're here with two of our very famous label-mates from SM Entertainment! Let's welcome the leaders of Love Lite and Blue Flame, Hyojin and Seokjun!" The four of them then clapped together.

"This part is where they do the introductions like talk about their groups, their recent comebacks, title tracks, and choreographies." A melodic voice drifted softly into my ear, startling me as I saw Chen leaned over so closely.

He held a pencil in his hand and marked down some notes in the margins of the script to explain what was going on in the first section. When he turned the page to show me what he wrote, I had to hold back a laugh after seeing the mixture of Chinese and English filling the edges. He shot me a grin before flipping the page to the next section.

"They're going to play one of the groups' songs in this section, giving them a three to four minute break. And in the next section, the leaders will be explaining more about their title tracks, like how they chose it, what inspiration they had for recording them, and any funny stories that came along with preparing for this comeback." I nodded slowly, then accidently caught his eye again. I quickly shifted my gaze, watching him flip the page instead.

"Both of your groups have had comebacks this year, right?" Baekhyun asked the two group leaders, passing the attention to them.

"Yes," they said together.

"Blue Flame came back with 'Paradise' last month, after half a year of break, and Love Lite has joined the list of comebacks last week with a catchy track perfect for summer. Can you introduce it to us, Hyojin-shi?" Suho continued.

"Neh~ Love Lite's new song, 'It's You', is an upbeat dance track that's fun and perfect for this hot summer! It features refreshing vocals and a cool dance that everyone should try. Please give it a listen!"

"Yes, it's a great song that's already hit the top charts! Please show Love Lite your support, everyone." Baekhyun said, joining in. "It's been a month and Blue Flame are still dominating the music charts with their title track 'Paradise'. Can you give us a taste of it?"

"'Looking for you in a dark paradise~'" Seokjun sang, probably a bit of the chorus of their tentative title track. His voice was smooth and deeper than I had expected based on his talking tone, but it made the teaser sound good nonetheless, even if he probably wasn't the main vocal. "It's a bit of a darker concept that we're trying out this time, but we've been enjoying showing the audience a more charismatic image." He chuckled. "So you can look to Blue Flame to find your paradise!"

"And, cut!" The teacher said, stepping forward to stop them. He then nodded to Suho, signalling for him to give his suggestions.

"In situations like this, if you're asked to provide a sample of your song, then usually it'd be best to sing whichever is your actual part." Seokjun dipped his head respectfully while the other trainees in the audience paid careful attention to the sunbae's words.

"Your statement at the end was cute though." Baekhyun commented, bringing quiet chuckles to the audience.

Just like that, the radio show went on for another few hours, and I was able to understand everything very clearly with the help of the notes that Chen had written on my copy of the script. It wasn't until later when I was reviewing the script that I found myself smiling at all the cute faces that he had drawn over the page, some of them looking like cartoon versions of himself.