After Ava sat back down, she saw Shownu glance at her with a small frown on his face. She tried to send him a reassuring smile, but her lips felt like they were frozen so she didn't think she was very convincing. However, he did turn his attention back to the reporters, so at least he wasn't staring at her anymore.

Somehow she managed to stay in her seat until the CEO had taken all the questions he was going to.

Afterwards, everyone on stage stood to pose for photos.

First, she posed with the CEO, and then with Monsta X's manager and Minjun. Finally, they took a group photo of her with all the members of Monsta X.

She was finally able to draw an easier breath once all the reporters had been escorted from the room.

She wasn't sure how idols were able to be in the public eye on a constant basis. One time and she was already wanting to go home and hide in her room to escape all the stares.

After everyone left the press room, the CEO turned to her and smiled. "You did wonderful, Miss Richmond."

Ava smiled back. "Thank you, sir."

The CEO excused himself and walked on ahead of the others.

Ava was near the back of the group just watching everyone else when she felt a tug on her arm. She stopped walking and turned. She looked up into Shownu's worried eyes.

"Ava noona, did something happen back there?"

She but her lip and tried to figure out if she should mention what she had seen or not.

"I...I think the sasaeng was at the press conference," she finally spoke after several moments of silence.

His eyes widened and his expression grew alarmed before quickly becoming angry. His nostrils flared as he said, "Whoever this person is, they need to take the hint and back off now. We won't stand for them doing anything else to you, or to anyone else."

She nodded a little and swallowed as she remembered again the person's actions in the press room. 

If their intention had been to scare her, they were doing that and then some.

At the sound of footsteps, they both looked up. Minhyuk and Jooheon were walking towards them and Ava quickly tried to relax. She didn't want any of the others to know how scared she felt.

"Hyung? What are you guys doing?" Minhyuk looked from one face to the other.

Shownu let out a chuckle, trying to make their little interlude seem normal. "I just stopped to ask Ava noona if she was all right. You know how it was for us after we were interviewed for the first time and all of that." He raised his eyebrows comically and wiggled them. "We didn't know which way to look, which camera to smile at. Everything was so new and crazy."

Minhyuk's head resembled a bobble head as he nodded it frantically.

"Yes, Noona. It was hard for us at first. Are you all right?" He searched her face and she smiled at him, naturally this time because his concern was so real and touching.

"Yes, Minhyuk. I'm okay now. It was pretty overwhelming out there." She glanced at all three faces and noticed Jooheon's worried expression. 

He had yet to speak. He had just stood silently beside Minhyuk which she thought was odd because usually he was talking a mile a minute.

She reached out and patted his arm. "Stop looking so worried. I'm fine." He still looked unconvinced so she did the unthinkable.

She used both hands to tickle his sides and watched him nearly fall to the floor as he laughed and tried to escape her hands.

She laughed along with him and when their laughter finally died away, she looked up from where she now sat on the floor, where she had collapsed after her arms had grown tired. 

Minhyuk and Shownu were staring at her with their mouths open in disbelief.

"What?" She asked slowly as she dusted off her pants and stood.

"Nothing. It's just we've never seen anyone tickle Jooheon like that before. He hates people tickling him. Usually whoever tries, winds up punched."

At Shownu's words her brain stuttered to a stop.

What did I just do??! I just tickled a KPop star! What must he think? What possessed me to tickle someone? What if someone else saw what happened? Will I lose this job after less than three hours after signing the contract?

She quickly glanced down both sides of the hallway and let out the breath she was holding when she saw no one.

She turned to Jooheon and bowed. "I'm so sorry, Jooheon-ssi. I don't know what I was thinking."

She slowly rose up from her bow as she heard Jooheon laughing again.

"Just call me Jooheon, Noona. And it's fine. You tickle very well." His eyes were full of mirth. "And I don't purposely punch anyone. I accidentally hit people because my arms jerk out on their own when someone tickles me." He smiled at her. "I'm glad they didn't hit you, though. Everyone would've been angry and would've wanted to punch me instead."

She relaxed a little at Jooheon's words and Shownu and Minhyuk laughed.

"Come on, everyone. The others are probably wondering what happened to us." Shownu put his hand at her back and lightly pushed her forward. "Let's go get some food for us all. Noona, you can watch us practice since you're already here."

She felt her heart pound in excitement. She was actually going to be in Monsta X's practice room. Actually get to see them practice LIVE.

She let the boys drag her along with them and thanked heaven she had grabbed one of her cameras at the last moment. She hadn't been sure whether she should bring one or not. Her first official shoot as their photographer wasn't till tomorrow. Now, at the prospect of seeing them practice, she was overjoyed that she had brought it along.

They took her up two floors and down one hallway after another before finally stopping at a nondescript-looking door.

"Is this your practice room?" It looked like almost every other door they had already passed.

"Yes," Jooheon said.

Shownu opened the door and they walked through.

Inside, the other four members were huddled around a computer at the side of the room. They all turned at the sound of the door opening and watched as the four of them entered.

Hyungwon, who was messing with the keyboard of the computer, straightened up. "Where were you guys? We sent Minhyuk and Jooheon after you and you guys still took 20 minutes getting here," he complained.

Shownu ruffled his hair good-naturedly. "Don't worry your model-face about it," he , smiling.

Hyungwon huffed and swatted at his hand and glared at him. He huffed again and turned back to the computer and busied himself selecting some music.

Shownu caught Ava's eyes and smirked at her.

"Someone's cranky today," he said looking at Hyungwon out of the corner of his eye.

She watched as Hyungwon stiffened noticeably and her lip curled up at the corner. Hyungwon upset was a sight to behold. His cheeks had reddened and his back was straight as a board. He reminded her of a soldier standing at attention, except he wasn't saluting.

She held back her laughter but it was difficult. She smiled widely instead. She turned to share a smile with Minhyuk who was beside her but happened to catch sight of Changkyun standing alone in the corner.

When they had entered the room they had all been standing together but the maknae had quickly separated from them and retreated to the far corner over by the mirrored wall.

His eyes caught hers before he as usual reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

She mentally shrugged and refocused on what Shownu was saying to everyone.

"...so Kihyun, you go ahead and call and when the food arrives a few of us can go downstairs and get it."

Kihyun nodded and quickly made their order.

She realized she had no idea what they were going to have since she had spaced out when they were discussing it. Oh, well. She'd just eat whatever they got. She would be here a year- she had to get used to authentic Korean food sometime. She might as well start now.

Kihyun ended his call. "It'll be here in 30 minutes."

Whoops and hollers filled the room.

Apparently they were hungry. Either that or they always cheered at the mention of food. Maybe both.

They decided to wait until after they had eaten to work on anything serious. Instead, they each took turns showing her a certain dance that was their personal favorite.

Well, all of them did except for Changkyun. He said he didn't feel like dancing on an empty stomach when Wonho told him it was his turn.

It didn't matter much anyway because the 30 minutes was almost up. 

The members played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would go and get the food.

They decided to have two members go, so they played till they were down to two losers. Jooheon and Minhyuk were the unlucky duo.

They both groaned and pretended to be sick hoping the others would go instead. No such luck. Shownu put an arm around each of their shoulders and guided them to the door.

"Away you go," he said swatting them lightly on their butts as he pushed them out the door.

Ava's heart faltered a little as she stared at their sad, puppy-dog faces peering back into the room.

She closed her eyes in acceptance of what she was about to do.

"Wait for me."

The duo's expressions became surprised and then they were grinning so big she felt she needed sunglasses because their teeth were shining so brightly.

She laughed at Shownu's expression and patted him on the arm as she passed. "You can close your mouth now." His mouth closed with a snap. 

Jooheon and Minhyuk immediately each grabbed one of her arms and threw smirking looks to all the others.

Shownu just shook his head while Wonho and Kihyun started protesting. 

"They lost, Hyung!"

"Why do they get her, Hyung?"

Changkyun never looked up from his phone he was again perusing and Hyungwon just shrugged. He was still a little upset at Shownu treating him like a kid.

Ava laughed as her captors led her down the hallway.

Now that she was going along with them, Jooheon and Minhyuk were practically skipping as they made their way downstairs. 

The elevator already had a group waiting as they came up to it, so they opted for the stairs instead.

Upon reaching the ground floor, they turned right and made their way towards the entrance, back the way she had come before when that the rude receptionist had taken her to the elevator.

As they reached the desk, Minhyuk and Jooheon were asking her which Korean foods she had already tried and she was trying to remember the few she had had. She was in the middle of telling them the names when she turned her head and caught sight of the receptionist's wide open mouth. 

It puzzled her before she figured it out. The woman hadn't realized she knew Korean. She watched as her face turned crimson.

She decided to take the high road and bowed politely as they walked by. She then turned back and answered Minhyuk who had just asked her a question.

They reached the entrance and Minhyuk quickly paid for the food. They divided the bags between the two of them, not letting her carry a thing.

"But I came to help," she protested.

"Uh-uh." Jooheon didn't budge.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine."

Minhyuk smiled happily at her and they made their way back upstairs, taking the elevator this time.

The other members cheered as they walked in with the bags of food, most of them pouncing on them immediately.

They all sat in a big circle and chatted as they ate. Changkyun even seemed to act more like himself, which made her happy for some reason.

She didn't want to examine too closely the reason for that happiness so she put it out of her mind.

After letting the food settle for a little while, the boys put on their soundtrack for Trespass and she watched in awe as they danced the dance flawlessly.

After three songs, she remembered her camera and pulled it out.

Staying out of their way, she went around the room finding neat shots and taking them.

After an hour, they collapsed on the ground and took a break.

She knelt in the middle of them and clapped her hands. "You guys were awesome! So much better than seeing you at KCON last year."

Their tiredness melted away as they grinned at her.

Wonho tugged on her arm until she landed on her back beside them.

She lied there smiling, watching them resting their eyes and inwardly fangirling.

Somehow....this has turned from a horrible day into the best day of my life!

~~~~~~~~

So there it is!! The next chapter!

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