“Where do you think you’re going??” Jun scoffed, watching as his sister hastily packed a few things in her bag.

“I told you Jun; the America-liners are having a dinner. We were supposed to have it Wednesday but with everyone being attacked by schedules we had to reschedule for tonight and I’m late!” Jeri sighed, choosing to simply stuff her hat and mitts into her bag rather than try to untangle and throw them on her person. “I’ll be back later tonight see ya!”

“Ya! Jeri!”

Ignoring her brother’s protests, Jeri flew out of the dorm and down the stairwell of their apartment building, all but screaming through the lobby and through the small swarm of fans waiting outside the doors. Receiving a few curses for bowling through them but otherwise remaining unnoticed, Jeri continued to dash towards the restaurant that was nearby the headquarters.

After nearly half an hour, Jeri arrived at the doors of the restaurant, taking a deep, calming breath while fixing her hair just as the front door opened.

“There you are!” Amber laughed, instantly noticing her friend on the front steps. “We were starting to think you’d gotten lost!”

Jeri groaned as Amber released another laugh, motioning for her fellow 92er to enter the restaurant before her. Amber brought Jeri over to their table near the back, everyone greeting the late arrival when they noticed her.

“Unnie, you’re late!” Krystal scoffed playfully, crossing her arms over her chest with a pout.

“Sorry guys, we got held up with schedules-”

“You don’t have to apologize, Jeri; we all understand,” Tiffany laughed, lacing her fingers together and giving the younger girl a kind smile.

“Are you kidding, we were the pioneers of being harassed by schedules at this table!” Jessica laughed.

“Didn’t you guys debut in August?” Amber asked with a chuckle.

“Tambourine debuted in March,” Krystal agreed, nodding in Jeri’s direction as she sat beside her.

“If we want to be literal then technically I have the most experience-”

“You didn’t join Super Junior until September, Pancake, enough of your lies!” Jeri scoffed, stealing a swig from his water.

The others all let out a round of laughter as Henry pouted.

“Aww, c’mon Henry don’t be upset, after all, I’m sure there are a handful of guys out there who would die to be in your shoes,” Amber snickered.

Jeri was about to question Amber’s meaning when she actually looked around the table they were all seated at.

Henry was the only boy.

“You lucky bastard…” Jeri laughed with a cheeky grin. “You planned this from the start didn’t you.”

“Oi! Tiffany’s the one who invited me!” Henry shot back, his cheeks slightly pink from embarrassment.

The girls simply laughed causing the Canadian to pout again.

“Aren’t there some new America-liners among the trainees now?” Jessica asked as she and the others pondered over their menus.

“Oh yeah! One of them is super ridiculously tall!” Krystal gawked.

“Oh, are you talking about Kris?” Henry laughed. “Yeah, that kid’s ridiculous.”

“Poor Jeri, you haven’t met any of the trainees have you?” Tiffany laughed, noticing the girl’s lost look.

“If they were inducted after we debuted then no,” Jeri replied, giving them a sheepish smile. “I don’t think I’ve even been on that floor in two years.”

“That , some of the new kids are really promising from what I hear,” Jessica booed.

“Not to mention there’s Mei-”

“Can I take your order?” the waiter asked, accidentally interrupting Amber.

The six instantly consented, naming off what they’d like to eat before the waiter took all of their menus and asked for them to wait while it would be prepared.

"That reminds me, you guys have a new manager now right?" Tiffany asked, turning to look at her.

Jeri instantly grinned and nodded happily making him chuckle.

"It's about time that Seomun left; he was so mean to you…" Krystal booed. "So what's your new manager like? What's his name?"

"Her name, is Som Nyua, and she. Is. Awesome!" Jeri grinned.

"Wait, your manager's a girl? How is she gonna help you guys with crowds and rabid fans??" Henry asked, sounding baffled.

"That's funny, Jun asked the exact same thing…"

===-===

Just as Setiawan had promised, after Seomun getting his position as their manager revoked, their new manager arrived on Friday in the afternoon. Jeri had been taking a nap in their room when the newcomer had arrived at their dorm for introductions.

“Hey brat, up and at ‘em,” Jun hummed, shaking his sister’s shoulder. “Our new manager’s gonna be here in a few minutes.”

Jeri grumbled but slowly rose from her slumber, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with the heel of her hand. Running a quick hand through her hair, Jeri followed her brother out of their room just as the doorbell to their dorm sounded. She could hear Setiawan and Harii greeting someone and telling them to make themselves comfortable just as Jeri made her way into the bathroom to freshen up.

By the time she finished and made her way out to the small living room, she caught sight of her three groupmates sitting with an unfamiliar female. Setiawan noticed their youngest member first and gave her a nod.

"Nyua-ssi, this is our fourth member and maknae, Jeri. Jeri, this is Som Nyua, our new manager." Setiawan introduced, motioning between the females.

"It's so nice to meet you Jeri-ssi. I'm very sorry for the way Seomun treated you in the past, but I swear that you will be my number one from this day on!" Nyua smiled, giving the girl a small bow.

"Wow, they've known each other for two minutes and there's already favouritism," Harii chuckled.

"Nonsense Harii-ssi, you all are my responsibility, but Jeri has been so neglected in the two years that she's been a member of this group that she will need extra tending to," Nyua replied, the smile still on her face.

"You make me sound like a vegetable garden or something," Jeri huffed, fully intending to test this new manager to see if she would be better than the last.

Nyua gave the girl a confused look then giggled. "Well if that's the case, then I'll be sure to feed you, water you, and give you lots of sunshine so that you grow big and strong,"

Jeri gave the woman a baffled look as Jun snickered. A grin slowly grew on the teen's face and she laughed.

"I like you already, you have good comebacks and more importantly your voice doesn’t squeak,” Jeri laughed, offering her hand for the woman to shake.

"But as awesome as she is, it does pose a question: we go through airports and to shows with rabid fans who try to grab us and we even get the paparazzi on us sometimes; how's a girl gonna keep this beautiful face safe?" Jun teased, giving Nyua a look.

"I may not look is Jun-ssi, but I can protect you if it comes to it," Nyua claimed, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I dunno… you look a little too skinny to be protecting me," Jun challenged with a smirk.

Nyua huffed and pouted at him making the four laugh and Jun stand.

"I'm sorry, I'm being really rude, I'm sure you'll make a grea-"

Jun's sentence was cut off when Nyua grabbed him by the wrist and his belt, easily flipping him over her shoulder and threw him onto the ground on his back, knocking the wind out of him. As Jun coughed and tried to get his breath back, Jeri and Harii began howling with laugher, Jeri walking up and looping her arm with the older woman’s with a grin.

"You are, by far, the coolest manager I have ever had the pleasure of meeting," she laughed.

"It makes me happy to hear that Jeri-ssi, I hope we can become good friends in the close future," Nyua smiled, patting the younger girl on the back of her hand.

===-===
 

"She threw Jun to the ground???" the others gawked.

"Yeah, but I think she bruised his ego more than his back," Jeri snickered. "And Jun never got angry at her for it either; in fact he was really impressed and if not for certain circumstances I would think he'd have a crush on her."

"Certain… circumstances??" Henry asked, tilting his head to the side.

"I'll tell you when you're older," Jeri teased, giving him a smirk.

The other girls snickered as Henry pouted, no doubt feeling left out at this lack of information. Before he could think of a retort however, their food and drinks were brought out to their table. Throughout the rest of their outing, idle chatter was exchanged as well as plans within their groups, Jeri becoming excited when Amber and Krystal relayed that their debut with f(x) had gone wonderfully, warning her two juniors that they would more than likely start to be swamped with schedules of their own and to get as much rest as they could when they could, the others agreeing with her words wholeheartedly.

The dinner ended faster than Jeri would have liked and soon everyone was heading back to their dorms, Henry offering to walk Jeri back to her own.

“You know you’re just gonna have to do a u-turn to head back to yours right?” Jeri laughed.

Henry shrugged. “What kind of gentleman would I be if I let a pretty girl walk home all on her own?”

Jeri rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop the slight pink from forming on her cheeks from the compliment. “You thief, don’t go and try to steal Zhou Mi’s claim to fame,” she huffed.

This time Henry rolled his eyes with a smile. “Gentleman Mimi. I don’t get it; he’s such a knob in real life…”

“Gentleknob Mimi?” Jeri offered with a laugh.

Henry joined in on her laughter, the two friends linking their arms together as they continued down the street.

Thanks to the leisurely pace the two took, it took them a good hour to get back to Jeri’s dorm, Henry bidding her farewell when they reached the street corner as Jeri didn’t want to risk any fans spotting him if they were still outside the building. No such people were outside, making Jeri sigh in relief as she made her way up to their dorm.

When Jeri walked through their front door, she was fully expecting her brother to be standing there with his arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently on the floor, instead she was greeted with… nothing. No lights were on, no sound came from within the dorm and she couldn’t see anyone in the living room.

“That’s weird, did they all go to bed already?” Jeri hummed, quickly pulling out her phone and checking the time.

Shrugging and shucking her shoes, the girl made her way into the living room and caught sight of her brother lounging on the loveseat, having apparently fallen asleep while no doubt waiting for her to get home. Giving a light laugh, Jeri pulled the nearby blanket over her brother’s sleeping form before heading to bed herself.

-=-=-

The months of September and October was understandably busy for many k-pop groups, Tambourine being one of them. With the release of Joker the four were thrown into promotions and schedules to try to bring their names out into the light.

Jeri naturally began to miss having interactions with people outside of her group, having been able to call her friends in Super Junior and f(x) to catch up, but there was only so much a phone conversation can give you.

“Jeri-ssi?”

Jeri was brought out of her imaginary world where streets were made of candy-canes and looked up at her manager, Nyua giving her a mildly concerned look through the rear-view mirror.

“Are you alright? You’ve been zoning out a fair bit recently,” the older woman hummed.

“Mmm, I’m alright, just getting a bit lonely I guess,” Jeri hummed, slumping in her seat slightly with a small pout. “Not that you guys aren’t great company, but I’m starting to miss some of the others. I feel like since it’s been so long that I’ve seen them last that… I don’t even know anymore…”

Nyua gave the girl a sympathetic look and turned her attention back to the road, Jeri sighing through her nose. Jun was snoozing in the seat beside her, headphones blasting music that even Jeri could hear as they arrived at Jeju Airport for the filming of Family Outing.

The two days and one night with the other regular members of the variety show would no doubt be filled with laughter and shenanigans, but Jeri couldn’t bring herself to get excited about it. She had this… feeling in the pit of her stomach that things were about to change…


And she wasn’t sure anymore if the change would be good...

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I'm sorry that this chapter is a little late guys; my mom got sick and in the midst of me trying to help her out I ended up getting sick. I love you momma but sharing isn't always caring...

Thank you for subscribing and following along with me as I attempt to bring you an even greater experience with Jeri and the gang~!

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