Social Skills 101.   YG Building. 2008.

                It’s only been one night since Super Junior’s temporary move into the YG building, and there have been no signs of life… anywhere. Being bored, Heechul walks into Kangin and leeteuk’s dorm to find something to do.

“Hey,” Leeteuk says, not looking up from his laptop.

“Hey.” Heechul replies, slightly annoyed that Leeteuk was completely fine doing nothing.

                 He walks into the living room, to see Kyuhyun, headphones on, completely glued to his laptop screen. No fun there, gaming as usual,  Heechul thinks to himself, not even bothering to talk to the maknae. Heechul looks to the couch, and sees a slightly frustrated Kangin, looking at his cell phone.

“Yo.” Heechul sighs as he sits down beside Kangin.

“Hi, Hyung”  Kangin replies, still looking at his phone with an unchanging expression.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m trying to message 2NE1… and THEY’RE NOT ANSWERING ME!!!” Kangin almost shouts towards the end, making Leeteuk, and even Kyuhyun look up at him for a second.

“I wonder why…”  Heechul replies sarcastically.  “You’re angry shouts are  so  friendly.”

“What?! I’m not saying anything bad, and it’s just text messages!”  Kangin replies quickly, sounding defensive.

“Okay. Whatever, where’s everyone else? You’re no fun...”

“… I don’t know…  Why aren’t they answering? … Aish…”  Kangin replies half mindedly. Heechul scoffs at Kangin’s expression.

“Oh Kangin, poor Kangin. Okay, I’ll help you message 2NE1. And you can take notes on how it’s done” Heechul says with a smirk. And with that, he sent his first text message to the five girls.

‘ Hello. We were just wondering if you girls would like to meet up and hang out… We realize we haven’t really been able to get to know each other. Let’s meet up okay?’

“See? This is how it’s done, Kangin. You have to be formal and polite, but at the same time demand for yes as an answer. Social skills 101.” Heechul says proudly as he shows Kangin the text. Kangin wrinkles his nose.

“Pfft… Let’s see if they answer you first.” Kangin replies, still staring intently at his phone.

“They’ll be replying any second now, you’ll see.”

Five Minutes Later…

“WHAT IS THIS CRAP?!?!?!”   Heechul almost shouts, strangling his phone.

                Kyuhyun looks up to see what the noise was about, but just shakes his head and goes back into his game. Leeteuk looks up with a surprised expression, then silently picks up his laptop and quietly escapes to his room. Kangin, on the other hand is unmoved; still frozen in position.

“See?... I told you they wouldn’t answer… This is crazy. I don’t think I’ve been ignored by this many girls in my life. I’m Kangin! Super Junior’s Kangin!” He complains, almost shouting. Kyuhyun just rolls his eyes, not even bothering to look up this time.

“Oh shut up. Obviously  WE  know who you are, we’re  IN  Super Junior. So quite shouting it. I’m Kim Heechul, but you don’t see me bragging to the world.” Heechul snaps bluntly while glaring at his phone. “Okay, I’m gonna have to pull out all my charms for this. If Super Junior and these girls, 2NE1, are going to collaborate, we have to be friendly.”

 Heechul quickly begins typing up another message and sends it.

“There. I asked them to go for a meal. A meal isn’t too much. They should be answering any time now. Even if they say no, it’s common courtesy to reply to a colleague.”

Another five Minutes Later…

“GOD!”  Heechul shouts again.

“… Charisma.” Kangin replies, still sulking at his cell phone.

“Ugh… what’s with you guys?  You’re so loud…”  Kyuhyun complains, pulling his headphones off his ears.

“Maybe we’re not as likeable as we think…” Kangin thinks aloud, quietly contemplating the possibility.

“What? We’re at our peak of popularity! ‘U’ is at the top!” Heechul disagrees, still irritated.

“What are you guys even saying?”  Kyuhyun asks again, confused. “… Maybe whoever you’re texting just doesn’t want to talk to you. Put it down and give it a rest.”

Kangin and Heechul ignore the maknae, and continue to peer into the screens of their phones.

Kyuhyun sighs, “Okay. Fine, don’t answer. Oh yeah, I’ve been getting texts-“

“SHH”   Kangin and Heechul reply in unison.  “We’re concentrating on how to build the bridge of connection.”  Kangin finishes, focusing on his message.

“Connection?  To what?”  Kyuhyun asks, still confused.

“You don’t need to worry Kyu, just play your game.”  Heechul answers, not looking away from the phone.

“Fine. I’ll just go with Eunhyuk then.”  Kyuhyun mumbles, putting his headphones back on.

“I just don’t understand… If even we can’t get them to talk to us… how are any of us going to work together? Super Junior is counting on us!” Kangin says, looking to Heechul.

“You’re right. We’re probably the two members with the most charms… If 2NE1 doesn’t talk to  us, they really won’t talk to any other members either.”   Heechul replies after he sends another text.

“For sure! I mean, we  have  to be the social ones… what’re we gonna do? Leave it to  Hyukjae? Or  this little gamer?”  Kangin chimes in, jerking his head to Kyuhyun.  Kangin and Heechul laugh at the thought.

                Kyuhyun finally closes his laptop and takes off his headphones, stretching as he stands up.  He takes a couple of steps before Kangin asks,

“Where are you going?”   Kyuhyun’s  gonna wander around by himself? Weird, Kangin thinks.

“Going to eat.”  Kyuhyun replies,  “Do you guys wanna come?”

“No. We’re busy.”  The two reply.  Hyukjae walks in with Donghae, Siwon and Yesung.

“Ready to go Kyu?”  Hyukjae asks, as he looks at his two hyungs suspiciously.    Ah… It’s true. Dongsaengs are depending on us. They aren’t even going to try to befriend the girls… Heechul thinks as he looks at Kangin. Kangin nods in agreement.

“Yup.” 

“Heechul hyung and Kangin Hyung aren’t coming?” Hyukjae asks, looking at his phone.

“Nope. They’ve been texting for half an hour… and they said that they’re busy building a bridge or something, I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention.”  Kyuhyun shrugs.       Building a bridge or something… haha, he’ll thank us eventually.

“Okay… and speaking of texts, you got directions too, right? It’s sort of hard to find our way through this building… It’s so confusing.”

“Yeah, they did.”     Kyuhyun replies.      Who’s they?...  Probably just Ryeowook or something.

“2NE1 is so nice. I think Park Bom mentioned something about how they will show us around and stuff too.”   Hyukjae says as they walk to the door. 

“You know,  I think they already have a lot of fans or something… They were texting me earlier, saying that they were getting spammed by two creeps or something…  They didn’t introduce themselves and 2NE1 didn’t recognize the numbers…”  Yesung’s  voice fades as they walk away from the two sitting hyungs.

                Heechul and Kangin look at each other, wide eyed.    WHAT.