"Are you guys all dressed?" the director asked as the men began walking up.

"Yeah, we're all ready," Leeteuk confirmed with a smile.

The director nodded and motioned for them to gather on the set. The group moved over and jumped up onto the set, getting into their formation they had been taught.

"Alright, let's try from the beginning, shall we?" the choreographer called, walking forwards.

The men nodded and waited for the music to start. The song began and the choreographer watched all of their movements like a hawk, glancing down at his watch every now and then.

"Stop!" he called out, the men instantly obeying. "Kyuhyun and Ryeowook, you guys keep falling behind in beat, keep the movements and timing in your head," he claimed.

The two men nodded and sighed as the choreographer rubbed his temples. The older man checked his watch again, Kangin noticing this.

"Are you waiting for something?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My float," the choreographer replied with a small smile.

The ten men gave him confused looks and exchanged glances with each other. Everyone's attention was shifted over to the far doors to the side of the set when they were slowly pushed opened, an all too familiar head of messy brown hair and blue eyes poking into the room.

"I’m not too late am I? The traffic was a mess; we sat at a red light for nearly ten minutes, I was this close from walking," Jeri rambled, walking further into the room with her hands stuffed into her jacket pockets.

She turned her attention to the men on the set and raised an eyebrow.

"Dear god they gave you horns…" she realized.

"JERI!!" Eunhyuk cried, dashing off of the set towards the girl.

"Nu-uh! You are not giving me a hug; you'll spear my head," she laughed, holding her hands out as a barrier.

Eunhyuk began unclasping his collar, but Donghae flew past the older man and enveloped the woman in a hug, a content smile spreading across his lips when she hugged him back.

"I didn't think we'd ever see you again…" Kangin claimed, squatting down on the set as some of the others gathered around her.

"To be completely honest, neither did I…" she claimed. "But, that's for later, for now, I'm here to give moral support, so show me what Super Junior is really made of!" she cheered with a fist pump and smile.

The men gave a whoop of excitement and dashed back up onto the set, making Jeri's smile grow. She walked over to their manager, Kim Jung Hoon and he smiled down at her, patting her on the shoulder.

"Glad to have you back Jeri."

The girl nodded with a small smile and watched as the music started, the choreographer's hawk eyes still trained on the boys.

Nearly doing a 180 from before, the boys' faces of deep concentration and seriousness changed back into their usual playfulness and determination, eager to impress their new audience member.

Jeri found herself subconsciously having her eyes drift over the three "convicts" as Jun had started calling them, Leeteuk's movements being slightly sluggish, most likely due to fatigue, Yesung continued to take his spot near the back until his solo and Shindong acted as a constant support for the others in the back corner. These three had been the ones who had made her doubt all of the men for nearly one entire month, and although back at the initial point of confrontation she had thought herself justified, after talking to Hangeng and thinking it over, she had found herself to be as much at fault for her own words towards them as they were for their own.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Jeri jumped slightly and her head shot up to look at Jung Hoon.

"Sorry, did I just interrupt another internal debate?" he laughed, giving her a good natured grin.

Jeri shook her head with a small smile of her own. "No, I was just giving myself a mental slap."

"So you missed them as much as they missed you huh?" he hummed, raising a knowing eyebrow at her.

Jeri's eyes widened slightly and she gave him a confused look.

"Jeri, you're practically their family; their little sister, they may be too proud to actually admit it, but they missed you while you disappeared," he claimed with a small nod towards the idols on the set.

Jeri simply sighed, knowing that both managers were trying their best to act as fence-sitters throughout the whole "family feud", therefore had no reason to lie.

She moved her eyes back onto the stage and this time, found her eyes going over the bystanders of their war. Sungmin, Ryeowook, Siwon and Kangin were more noticeably calm and less stiff while dancing and singing, Donghae and Eunhyuk were nose deep in their dancing world while Kyuhyun would give her a subtle wink every time their eyes would meet making her own eyes roll with a chuckle. The thing she couldn't miss if she were blind, was that although their faces were concentrated for the sake of the video, their eyes were alive and sparkled with silent laughter. It was those looks that she hadn't even realized she had missed the most.

"Alright, that round was very good; much better than the last. Come on and have a look," the choreographer called out as the music stopped.

Jeri remained back with the Coordis as SuJu and their manager walked up to the many assortments of screens and watched their performance, directors pointing things out on the screen every now and then while the boys nodded along.

Feeling her phone vibrate, she quickly dug it out of her pocket and slid it open to see a text from her brother.

'You talk to them yet?'

'Not yet. They're still practising and I don't want to interrupt.'

'You sure you want them to know about it?'

Jeri stopped herself from texting back for a moment. Brother and sister had spoken about this very topic before Jeri had entered the building and even as she stood there, Jeri could feel her nerves tingling. A secret that next to nobody knew about; only Jun, for obvious reasons, Harii, Setiawan, Hangeng and recently Henry having been told. The more she thought about it, the more her skin crawled in both fear and anticipation. If she did end up telling them, what would their reactions be? Would they treat her differently because of it? She didn't want to suddenly be treated like a porcelain doll, because she certainly wasn't.

"You have to give them the benefit of a doubt when it comes to understanding feelings,"

Jeri smiled when she remembered Hangeng's words. Give the boys the benefit of a doubt… it was the least she could do…

'Yeah, I'm sure.'

"Jeri?"

The girl's head shot up to see Kyuhyun was standing in front of her, thumbs in his pockets with an eyebrow raised.

"You were smiling down at your phone, you texting your boyfriend?" he teased, a smirk stretching onto his lips.

"I don't know, have you gotten it yet?" she teased back, a smirk of her own growing.

Kyuhyun snickered and rolled his eyes, reaching over to mess up her hair making her pout.

"But seriously, you alright? You looked like you were in your own little world," he asked, tilting his head to the side slightly in question.

Jeri's face fell slightly, shaking her head so as not to lose her resolve.

"Are you guys free for like… ten minutes?" she asked.

"Yeah… director's giving us a break from dancing… why?" he asked, giving her an accusing look.

"Do you think you could round everyone up and meet me over on the chairs?" she asked, pointing over to a couple stacks of plastic chairs in the back corner.

Kyuhyun nodded and walked over to his group, Jeri walking over to the chairs and beginning to set up eleven in a small circle.

The men slowly made their way over once Jeri sat down in her own chair, sitting in a random order.

"So… we're all here…" Leeteuk claimed awkwardly, everyone seated Jeri's little circle.

"First of all, I want to apologise, the extent of my anger was… unnecessary, I shouldn't have taken it as far as I did…" Jeri began.

Kyuhyun, who was sitting beside her, gently patted her knee, giving her a smile.

"I won't apologise for getting angry though, because my anger was understandable… what I didn't count on was if you guys could understand it or not…"

"Are you still angry with us?" Sungmin asked, a worried look on his face.

Jeri gave him a sad look and lowered her head.

"A little, but I think I just need to get the reason off of my chest and I might be able to let it go…"

The others nodded in understanding and shuffled forward in their chairs, ready to listen.

"There were actually… two reasons… why I was mad," she started. "The first one, was the fact that you insulted overweight girls in general. It made me upset and angry, because I'm good friends with a fair amount of large girls, and they are some of the most responsible and kind-hearted souls I've ever met… that and… I'm fully aware that… I'm the farthest thing from skinny…"

"That's why you got angry?" Shindong questioned, baffled.

"You thought we were calling you lazy and irresponsible?" Yesung added, with a laugh of disbelief.

Jeri nodded and fiddled with the end of her jacket as the men exchanged glances with each other.

"Jeri… we never meant to even remotely upset you like that… it's just…" Leeteuk trailed off.

"You were putting all heavy girls in the same bucket?" she accused, raising an eyebrow.

The three men sighed, lowering their heads in realization.

"You said, that there were two reasons…" Ryeowook said, playing with the strings on his pants.

Jeri's eyes lowered to the ground and she balled her hands into fists on her knees.

"The way you said it… you reminded me of my mother…" she claimed.

"Your mother?" Siwon asked.

Jeri simply nodded, not lifting her head or eyes.

The men all exchanged looks with each other. Jun had told them all several times that the topic of Jeri's mother was strictly off limits, thus none of them knew anything about the woman.

"Have you guys ever wondered by I always wear long sleeved shirts?" Jeri asked, her head still lowered.

"You get cold easily?" Kangin joked.

A couple of the guys chuckled, but when Jeri didn't so much as smile, theirs dropped.

Jeri stood up from her chair and turned her back to the men.

"This… is why I wear them," she said, removing her sweater and lifting up the back of her shirt.

Ignoring the fact that the woman's black bra strap was showing, their eyes widened at what they saw.

"Jeri…What..." Leeteuk gasped, stunned.

The entire expanse of Jeri's back was covered in white scars, others were visible on her lower arms. Kyuhyun stood from his chair and gently traced the lines, his eyes wide.

"My mother was a cruel and harsh woman who believed that only people like her deserved to exist. If you didn't conform to her view of things… you were punished," Jeri explained.

"She… beat you?" Sungmin squeaked, not believing his eyes.

"Why?" Donghae asked.

"Why not?" she shot back, lowering her shirt and turning to them. "I was a failure as a daughter. I didn't like shopping and designer clothes, I had a healthy body for dancing, I had friends, my father and brother loved me, clearly I was a trouble child," she said, a dark tone in her voice.

She turned to look at Shindong, Yesung and Leeteuk, the three men flinching at her intense gaze.

"The world is perfect, but humans are the farthest thing from it. Having an opinion is everyone's right, nobody can take that away from you, nor do they have any right to try. But you have to also be aware that sometimes words can be as harmful as a belt, whip or a strap. And scars of the body can never compare to scars of the heart or mind."

Hoooo shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiet guys I'm so sorry this is so late; my family hit a massive bump in the road of life and I had to step away from pratically everything to try and help out where I could, but I'm back now!

Dun dun DUUUNNN!!! Yes, the big reveal into Jeri's forbidden past. Cruel mother is cruel. Why does Jeri always wear long clothes? Mommy dearest. Why does Jeri have a fear of water? Mommy dearest. Why is Jeri claustrophobic? Mommy dearest. Why is Jeri so defensive? You guessed it, mommy dearest.

This chapter was actually a little hard for me to finish as it hit very close to home. Not with me personally, but I've had friends who have had an abbusive parent and it continues to astound me to this day how strong they have turned out to be. I actually took Jeri's last paragraph from something one of them said to me a ways back and it really inspired me to be a better person. Please know that if anyone ever has difficulties or struggles not just akin to this, but ANYTHING, our message box is ALWAYS open to talk.

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

Thank you to all subscribers as well as silent readers, and a special thanks to arandomperson, iheartbts, FixRate, DolphinWorld, Arashi93 and Xxdreamergirl for upvoting~!