Your POV

Oh my god I did it!

As you slowly came down from your emotional high the realization that it was finally over hit you sending a wave of exhaustion through your entire body. However it couldn’t destroy your buoyant mood completely. You carefully picked your way through the lower stage making sure not to trip over any wires or props. Once you reached the relative safety of the main hallway you lightly skipped back to the waiting room. In your excitement to reach your friends you threw open the door grinning from ear to ear after your successful performance. Their reaction was to immediately swallow you up in flurry of questions and hugs.

“You were awesome!” Hara yelled into your ear as she nearly squeezed you to death.

Normally you would’ve scolded her for shouting, but all you could do was laugh with relief at successfully making it thru the entire routine without too many errors.

“Thanks Hara.”

Ailee pulled Hara out of your arms in order to give you one of her famous glares. “Do you have any idea how worried we all were about you? You could at least pretend to feel bad for a second. I nearly had a heart attack when you slipped on the couch.”

“Mianhae yorobun.” You apologized while giving them a lopsided grin.

Ailee suddenly smiled in return and pulled you into a hug. “Babo ya! You were fantastic, but don’t ever scare me like that again. From now on all of us are carrying a spare pair of contacts for you araso?”

“Ok.”

“How are you feeling by the way?” Victoria asked. She had taken on the role of everyone’s Omma over the past month that you’d grown accustomed to her constant concern.

“Now that you mention it I have a pounding headache from wearing these contacts all day, but otherwise I feel fine. Thanks for caring Unnie.” You answered while rubbing your tired eyes.

She gave you one of her brilliant smiles before handing you something. “I figured as much, so I grabbed your glasses for you to switch into along with some painkillers for your head. I think you’ve suffered more than enough for the sake of the concert.”

You gratefully grabbed the pills and bright purple case from her hands. “You’re the best Omma ever Victoria-unnie!”

A short moment later you were at last able to see the world as it should be, crystal clear. You looked around the room at the familiar faces of your friends and finally allowed yourself to relax. The break didn’t last long however before you were put back on standby.

When you returned to the stage for the encore performance the arena had a completely new feel to it. The grandeur of it all sent chills snaking up your spine. The audience was simply mesmerizing in a way that couldn’t be adequately described in words. Each face shone with an inner light that seemed uniquely them as they gazed at super junior with adoration. It was stunning.

Hara’s POV

I looked over at Melody wanting to keep an eye on her after the whole ordeal today. When she first walked into the waiting room I couldn’t help but notice the obvious physical and mental exhaustion, though at the moment I could hardly detect it at all. She was positively glowing while she stared off into the audience obviously captured by the intensity of it all. I was so wrapped up in observing her that it startled me when she whipped her head around to stare at the 5 of us, her eyes suddenly serious.

“One day soon we will get to stand on a stage equally as big filled with our own fans. I know it.” Melody declared before once again turning to take everything in.

The complete certainty in her voice threw me for a loop and I noticed I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. I saw Victoria and Ailee looking at Melody’s profile completely stunned, while Mi-Na’s face held a fierce determination. Amber in turn was gazing back at me with a blank look. For what felt like minutes, I knew was only seconds, we stood utterly frozen. Then all of sudden like a light switch being we laughed.

“She makes it sound so easy.” I said after my giggles had abated.

“Perhaps it is.” Victoria conceded.

“There is something about Melody that just draws people in and before you know it you are completely caught up in her pace.” Amber added.

“I know what you mean. The first time I met her I considered her one of my enemies, but now I don’t think there is anyone else I’d rather have by my side on the stage or anywhere else for that matter.” I agreed.

Mi-Na tore her eyes away from Melody for a moment to look at each of us in turn. “I don’t know what it is either, this mysterious power of hers, but what I do know is that I intend to do my best to keep up with her. I suggest you each do the same if you don’t want to be left behind.”

Sobered up by Mi-Na’s serious words we stepped up alongside Melody waiting to take the stage with our newly cemented resolve.

The encore performance was a blast as we played along on stage with Super Junior and the other dancers. We got to wear the comfortable concert t-shirts, while spraying the audience and one another with water. I even witnessed, to my great satisfaction, that Jae-Hwa and her followers were somewhat subdued, possibly even irritated at their foiled plan.

Melody on the other hand seemed unaware of their conflict as she twirled across the narrow walkways completely carefree. I smiled at her childishness, sincerely happy for the times when she could be like this.

For being only 17 she is entirely too serious for her age sometimes.

Surprisingly I wasn’t the only one who was captivated by her. I saw many members of the audience and even a few of the guys from Super Junior following her movements with their eyes.

It’s a good thing she has no idea what kind of effect she has on people, otherwise she might’ve become extremely arrogant or something. I wonder how her brother managed to keep all the guys away from her in the states… it must’ve been a full-time job.

Soon it was the end of the concert and the curtains closed for the final time. After changing out of our now soaked clothes, we headed back out to the arena to help with the cleanup. The ground was littered with confetti and balloons that were released during the finale. Luckily with so many of us working together we had it finished in no time. Climbing into the van a little while later I noticed Melody already passed out with her head against the window. I settled down into the seat next to her and gently propped her head up with a pillow.

“She’s totally wiped out…” Victoria-unnie commented from the backseat.

I looked at her make-up free face taking note of the dark circles and pale cheeks. “I know, but what can we do?”

“I think it’s about time that we take matters into our own hands.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“She means that we step in and handle Jae-Hwa on Melody’s behalf. We’ve stayed out of it long enough I believe.” Ailee spoke up.

There was a ripple of nods around the car as everyone agreed with Ailee’s words.

“Ok then, now that we are all on the same page… how do you propose we do it?”

Silence descended while we all wracked our brains for inspiration. It was Amber who had it first.

“Cameras.” She whispered.

I turned in my seat to look at her. “Huh?”

Amber looked to Victoria, who gave her a nod of encouragement. “The cameras… we use them to catch her in action and then blackmail her with the tape.”

Slapping my forehead I looked down at my own personal camera sitting on my lap. “Oh my god that’s brilliant. I can’t believe I never thought of that. The answer has literally been staring me right in the face this whole time.”

“But how do we capture it on film in the first place without her noticing?” Ailee asked.

“Hmmm… we could try to slip one of ours into her bag or something.” I suggested.

Ailee waved her hand dismissing the idea. “She would find it right away, plus all we would get was the audio not video confirmation.”

“True…”

The car once again became silent as we all thought up a solution, when all of a sudden Victoria shouted out.

“I’ve got it!”

“Shhhhh!” Ailee shushed her while I made sure Melody hadn’t woken up.

“Mianhae… but I think I know how to fix our problem.”

“How?” I asked.

“We take turns setting up our cameras wherever we are at the moment, whether it’s in the hotel room or backstage. We can hide them inside a bag with a hole for the eyepiece and by rotating cameras we never have to worry about the battery life running out.” She explained.

“That’s positively genius.”

“What about at night though? Didn’t she steal all of Mel’s stuff while you guys were sleeping?” Mi-Na voiced her doubt.

This time it was me who had the answer. “I can take care of that part. Since I already share a room with Mel and Jae-Hwa anyways I will just be in charge of videotaping while we are asleep. I can put the camera in night mode before going to bed, but I’m going to have to find something cover up the red recording light.”

“I have some tape left over from my sprained wrist, does that work?” Amber offered.

“Looks like we’ve finally got everything figured out. First thing tomorrow we put our plan into action.” I said with a final nod of conviction.

We all looked at Melody sleeping peacefully in the darkness of the car, our thoughts for once unified as we each anticipated the coming retribution for Jae-Hwa.

She has no idea what she has gotten into by messing with one of us…

A/N: Gosh doens't Mel have great friends? I wanted to switch it up a bit and have a different point of view of the whole problem. I love hearing what you guys think so keep it up with the comments, plus it helps motivate me. :) Love you all my faithful readers. Subscribe/comment and all that good stuff. -Sarah