"So..." Hyoyeon said in a nonchalant tone.

Victoria and Sua sat on the floor of the practice room with her awaiting her response. Sua had her legs crossed to control her excitement, but her body betrayed her as she shook in anticipation ready for Hyoyeon's verdict on the whole drama that had just gone down. Victoria sat with her legs out and relaxed while her arms stretched out behind her to support herself. She hadn't said anything since Sua rushed in and spilled out the whole story to Hyoyeon. Taemin's pained expression still stuck in her mind.

"So...?" Sua responded still waiting for Hyoyeon to give her final verdict "Isn't it clear to you that Taemin is wasting his time with her? He basically dissed us too."

"Yeah..yeah he did. " Hyoyeon said slowly

"Exactly. So what are we going to do about it?" Sua asked her eyes sparkling with excitement.

She felt as if she was finally 'in' with the rest of the SM artists. It's true they had a strong bond but that bond mainly extended towards older SM idols. Sua had been a trainee for only less than a year. At first it was awful. Rather than bothering her or making her life hell, they simply ignored her. All of them, like she was beneath them. Sua had learned quickly that she would have to work hard to earn her place. So she did. Soon enough her dance skills stood out among everyone in SM and then suddenly it was like they could see her. Victoria was the first to reach out towards her and then afterwards the rest followed. Even though she had gotten closer to the other SM idols she felt as if she had to constantly be on her toes, be as servile as possible, and never question in order to keep her place. So when Sua noticed that Hyoyeon, Victoria, and the other SM girls didn't like Minzy she jumped at the chance to project her past struggles on to Minzy. It was time for somebody else to be the punching bag, Sua thought. So after seeing Hyoyeon's face and hearing the others reject Minzy, Sua couldn't be happier. With eyes on Minzy nobody was questioning Sua tagging along with them and she could enjoy her spot in the group.

"Hmm" Hyoyeon said a smirk forming across her face "I guess we're going to have to make it clear to her that she's not wanted here or especially by Taemin"

"But-" Victoria started slowly

"But what!?" Sua said in a pinched tone "She's not one of us Victoria. Who cares about her? I mean you barely even like her anyway."

"Well yeah, but I also barely know her" Victoria admitted, "And you know what? You really aren't one of us either Sua. You've only been here a few months and who knows you could be traded in a second to some other company."

Hyoyeon widened her eyes in shock at Victoria's comment. After a pause Victoria realized how harsh she came off.

"I mean ... I didn't mean it like that Sua. I was just saying that- that I mean it's not like you're a real SM idol yet but we treat you fine. So why can't we just give Minzy a break?" Victoria asked turning towards Sua.

But Sua had gotten up quickly and glared down at  Victoria. She was seething in anger. Old feelings of inadequacy bloomed again and Sua wasn't sure how to deal with them. She thought she had done everything right but she still wasn't one of them yet. Worse was she found out this way; it felt as if they had been pretending the whole time

"Bu- But that's different!" Sua sputtered.

"I guess," Victoria said trying to diffuse the situation "But I mean we have to respect Taemin's choice, not ruin it for him."

Sua closed her eyes and clenched her teeth hard on her tongue to hold back from snapping on Victoria. After a long pause that had both Hyoyeon and Victoria tense and anxious Sua finally smiled. Her face relaxed and she released a deep breath.

"You're right. We should just respect his choice." Sua smiled

"Yeah..." Victoria said suspicious with her change in attitude.

"As long as respect doesn't mean like then I guess that's not bad" Hyoyeon finally said

"Exactly. As long as she's his choice, she'll get all the respect she deserves." Sua repeated very quietly, almost as if she were talking to herself...

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So you just left him there?" Bom asked back at the dorm after Minzy had finished telling them about her fight.

"I mean what else was I supposed to do? Tell him to tag along!? " Minzy snapped

"No!...I'm just saying it all sounds pretty sad." Bom said again taking another scoop full of her second small carton of ice cream.

They were currently in their living room surrounded by a pile of empty ice cream cartons, tissues, and old love notes from Taemin. All except the last were an attempt to help Minzy forget about what had happened. However, the girls realized afterwards that talking was the best thing for their friend and they continued to try and understand her side of the conflict.

"Yeah you guys were perfect together" Dara said sighing sadly "Are you sure what he did was that bad?" Dara was the one who thought it was a good idea to bring out all of Taemin's old love notes. She was trying to show Minzy he only did what he did because he loves her so much and wanted to be with her so badly that he wasn't thinking clearly. It all sounded very romantic to her.

"What do you mean was it that bad? He told everyone about us! Now I have to deal with all the other dancers talking about us or whatever. And who knows about how many media cites know. Dispatch is probably having a party now. I mean I asked him to do one thing and he-"

"UGHH" Chaerin groaned loudly

"What did you have too much ice cream?" Dara asked turning towards her.

"No I've had too much of Minzy's complaining."

"Excuse me?" Minzy said getting angry as the seconds went by. "How is me being upset about my boyfriend betraying me, complaining!?"

"Look I mean I get you not wanting to get anymore hate, but you're being unrealistic. People will send you those nasty comments over anything. So what's the point in trying to appease them?" Chaerin shrugged " And it's not like Taemin took the story to the news personally. He just told his friends. Not because he wanted to make you upset but because he was happy. He just wanted to be able to be happy with you without all the ducking and hiding. I mean honestly don't you get tired of it sometimes?"

"Of course I do, but it's not my fault! It's the media and all our fans that-"

"Well.." Bom said cutting in "I agree with Chaerin. Minzy, you can't keep blaming Dispatch or whoever for you not being able to be open with Taemin. At the end of the day part of it is up to you. It's really not fair for you to expect him to only meet you in the shadows or behind a dark alley or whatever. I'd be frustrated if I were him. If a guy acted like that around me I'd think he wasn't really interested in me or like he was embarrassed."

Minzy immediately remembered Taemin's words before she lashed out. She remembered how he had said he was tired of her sneaking around with him and how it made him feel like she didn't really care. She sighed reevaluating his position.

"So you all think I was wrong to be upset?" Minzy asked

"No well I mean it makes sense to be upset that he didn't talk to you before revealing your relationship to someone. But I don't think it's fair of you to pass your fears about the backlash on to him and blame him for it. He just cares about you Minzy and I bet he's probably missing you now." Dara said

"Yeah I mean I guess..."Minzy said reluctantly.

"Oh come on you know you love him. And then you two will get married and live in a house next to me. Well once I get a guy and then-" Dara started

"Yeah well let's just focus on you getting Taemin back first " Bom said rolling her eyes at Dara

"Exactly. How are you going to reach out to him?" Chaerin asked

"Well I'll just talk to him I guess. But not anytime this week. I have to focus on my match coming up with the show. It's a pretty important one and if I talk to him now and things don't go well that will just throw me off."

"Uh are you sure waiting is the best thing to do?" Chaerin questioned again.

"Yeah, I mean what is going to happen? I bet Taemin will just be in a bad mood for a few days, but once I decide to talk to him everything will be alright." Minzy said confidently.

"Whatever works for you, now lets start cleaning up. You guys made a mess." Chaerin sighed

The other girls surveyed the disaster around them and just slowly started laughing. Minzy was glad she had talked it out with them, she felt much better and even excited to know that she'd fix things with Taemin in a few days. She was tired of being afraid and was ready to take the risk as long as she had him by her side.

Taemin had managed to drag himself from the scene of his argument with Minzy and get to the practice studio. He had a match against a pretty easy opponent so his practice wasn't as demanding as usual. However, he took his time to rehearse in order to sort through his fight with Minzy. Even though he now understood why Minzy was upset, he couldn't accept it. He hated that public opinion mattered so much to her. It made him feel like their relationship wasn't as personal if they had to be so cautious of what the media would say or do. Besides that he was still confused about where to go from here. Minzy said she wanted to be left alone, but Taemin wasn't sure if that meant a break up...

"Hey!" a voice rang out behind Taemin.

It was pretty late so Taemin was surprised to hear that somebody else besides the cleaning crew was still in the building. He was even more surprised when he turned around and saw Sua.

"Oh it's you" Taemin said in a flat tone not forgetting how he saw Sua get in an argument with Minzy.

"Look, I know you're still upset about earlier, but I'm here to apologize. It's just that I...I mean we consider you as a friend so it felt weird that you were hiding something from us. It made us feel like you didn't care you know?" Sua said slowly getting closer to Taemin

"Yeah I get it... I didn't mean to make you guys feel that way. It's just that I was really excited about my relationship but Minzy..." He threw his hands up in frustration "She didn't seem to be . She was really obsessed with keeping it a secret."

"Well that's just awful and not fair to you." Sua said placing her hands on Taemin's shoulder to console him "So...are you guys still together?"

"I don't even know" Taemin said noticing Sua's closeness but not thinking that it meant anything " I mean I haven't talked to her, and it's not like she wants to talk to me. "

"Well how about I help you out?" Sua asked

"How? No offense, but it looked like she hated you too." Taemin scoffed.

"Yeah, but what you don't know is that before all this me and Minzy were pretty close. She used to come to me to talk about all her issues when she was on a team with Hyoyeon and Minri" Sua said only partially lying. Minzy had only spoken to her once before this whole drama, and it was to ask if Hyoyeon was always in a bad mood. At the time Sua had given a cold yes and walked away, but she still counted it as a conversation so technically she hadn't lied to Taemin.

"Sooo if I apologize to her we'll be back on good terms and I can ask her to go easy on you." she continued.

"Oh I guess that could work." Taemin said excited at the prospect of getting back together with Minzy " I mean I bet she'd respect a friend's opinion much more."

"Exactly. " Sua smirked "So you don't worry about anything. Just keep your distance from her. If you bother her as I'm apologizing it will be obvious that you sent me and that might make  you look bad or her even more mad."

"True, so what exactly can I do?" Taemin asked oblivious

"Just leave it to me" Sua said "I'll contact her tonight and I'll tell you what she had to say tomorrow. If you can't help trying to talk to her just stay by me and I'll tell you how to handle things."

"Okay sounds good, thanks again Sua. " Taemin said smiling brightly

"Oh it's my pleasure. Anything for a friend. " Sua replied sweetly.

*Alright~ Hello there readers. Sorry if this update seemed to drag on, I just had a lot I wanted to fit in this chapter. Anyway I hope you're enjoying the story. As usual please comment ^.^ Also for those wondering it's going to be wrapping up soon so there won't me much conflict involved for much longer. Btw if anyone is wondering Sua's character is based off the YG trainee Sua but I made her into an SM trainee here and gave her a more interesting character background.