“Yuki-ah, your teacher asked me where you were today.”

I opened my eyes and saw Miyo beside my bed. I wasn’t feeling well today so I decided not to go to school, “Miyo?”

“You’re sick. Are you feeling better?” she asked me with concerned eyes. I heard the pots and pans clang in the kitchen and asked her “Eri’s here too?” Miyo nodded and Eri shouted so I could hear her “Personal chef, at your service!”

I giggled. Eri’s cooking is edible, but not necessarily good. I got up from bed and leaned on the bed post, “Hana’s not here?”

“Nope. She wanted to come but they have a lot of homework so I told her that we’ll take care of you.”

“What time is it?”

“3? Eri and I have early dismissal today so we came as soon as we heard that you didn’t go to class.” she was talking while tidying up my stuff. She picked up my phone and gasped, “You and Jonghyun texted?!”

Oh. I forgot about that. I woke up this morning on the floor with my phone beside me. I haven’t picked it up ever since. I guess I felt too sick to worry about it. Eri rushed to my bedroom, spatula still on one hand, “EH?! Yah, you’re friends again?”

“I never said that. Don’t misunderstand,” I told them as I changed out of my pajamas and into some decent clothes. My best friends knew of my situation, it’s just that sometimes they would forget that I had feelings of my own.

“What’re you doing?” Miyo asked as she saw me fully-clothed and ready to go somewhere.

“I wanna get out of this place for a while.”

Eri laughed, she has entirely forgotten about cooking, “Yah, if you’re like that, it’ll look like you cut school on purpose!”

Miyo was still looking at my phone and on the floor where she picked it up. It looks like she put the pieces together. The text, my phone on the floor, me lying in bed sick.

“Miyo,” I put my hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “please don’t tell anyone.” She looked at me with a sad look in her eyes and slowly nodded, then her face changed and all of a sudden she seemed cheerful again, “Oh, I forgot, Yoona called me earlier and asked for your number. We should be expecting a call from her soon.”

Yoona? Sure enough, my phone rang “Ireoke nan do, fiction in fiction in fiction~”

Eri muttered something under her breath that sounded like “Beast”

“Hello?”

“Hello, Yuki-sshi? It’s Yoona?”

“Yes, hello, Yoona-sshi.”

“There has been a bit of change of plans,” Oh no, were they calling us off? Have they found a better band to play with them?

“Can you go to our company as soon as possible?” Yoona asked, though her tone was calm. Weird.

“Yes, I know how to get there. I can go right now. I’ll bring Miyo and Eri with me,” I said hastily and I hung up.

***

“What?! They’re calling us off?” Eri exclaimed from the back seat.

I told them about the conversation on the phone and shared my thoughts about it while I was driving, headed for SM Entertainment. I breathed in deeply and replied, “I hope not.”

Miyo was silent in her seat beside me then she said in a small voice, “How can we tell Hana?” I was scared of that. Hana was really excited, we could all tell from her reaction last night.

“I think we shouldn’t assume the worst. I mean, how can they find a new band overnight right?” my words came out fake. I was obviously flustered about what will happen to us. This was our chance to perform in front of a really big audience. Our giant leap.

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence.

***

Jonghyun, what would you do in a situation like this? Did you experience this kind of stuff?

Argh. Why am I thinking about him? This, here, is all about me. Nothing to do with him. Yet why am I taking every step, thinking about him and what he would do if he was in this situation.

Well, Yuki, aren’t you following his example, forming a band, wanting to perform for millions of people? You made those decisions. The decisions Jonghyun made before.

No. Stop. This is my path. This is the path I chose. So what if it’s similar to his?

I’ve been thinking too much as we entered SME’s building. Yoona was there waiting for us, “Annyeong, Yuki-sshi, Miyo-sshi, Eri-sshi. We should go to where the others are.”

We followed her inside. I didn’t recognize the idols we saw but Eri was muttering under her breath so I kind of got an idea on who they were. Super Junior, TVXQ, SHINee, TRAX…

One person caught my eye. He was sitting on a bench and he was playing a pink guitar. His side profile reminded me of…

He seemed to notice me staring at him and he called, “Yoona-yah!” as he caught up to us when Yoona stopped walking and turned to his direction.

“Sungmin oppa,” Yoona greeted. Ah, Sungmin? Isn’t there a Sungmin in Super Junior?

“Can you introduce me to these lovely ladies?” Sungmin asked. There was something about him, or is it just me? Or was I surprised to see a dance singer idol playing an instrument?

“Nae, this here is Yuki-sshi, Miyo-sshi and Eri-sshi. They are part of the band that will be performing with us on Countdown. This is Lee Sungmin oppa of Super Junior,” Yoona introduced us.

Wait, so does that mean we’re still on? I’m getting confused.

Sungmin looked at me, and to my surprise, he took my hand and kissed it “Nice to meet you, Yuki-sshi.”

I guess my face turned all red and I had a weird look put on because he was laughing as he walked back to the bench, waving with his back turned to us as he said, “I hope to hear more from you soon.”

***

“Yuki? Snap out of it!” Miyo clicked her fingers in front of me to bring me back to the world. I guess I was in a trance for a while.

Eri snickered and said, “You can’t blame her, Miyo, I would probably faint if Sungmin did that to ME.”

Yoona giggled and said, “It seems that Sungmin oppa…. Never mind. Let’s go, shall we?”

Sungmin what? I’m sorry, I’m hopeless, I know. It’s just that I’m not used to guys kissing my hand in a romantic gentleman-ish way. Can you blame me?

We entered SNSD’s practice room and I guess the song that was playing was supposed to be their comeback song, “Girls Generation~”

Their manager saw us as we entered and led us to a separate room instead, it looked like a break room, which it probably was.

“Yuki-sshi, I’m sorry to tell you this, with us just discussing everything last night. Something came up,” he explained.

Here it was, we’re being called off. No~

The manager inhaled and continued, “The stage has been rescheduled two weeks earlier. Which means we will only have two weeks to practice. I’ll discuss with Ichi the additional schedule of practices but I wanted to tell you personally before that. I’ve already seen you perform and you were amazing so I don’t think that there will be that much of a problem since the two groups already know the song well.”

Oh. Just that? It felt like a lot of load has gotten off my burden and I gave out a sigh of relief. I guess Eri and Miyo did too because Yoona was laughing, “You thought we were gonna cancel on you? That will never happen, don’t worry. We like you guys too much.”

The manager smiled and added, “Before the performance, we will be keeping your identities as a secret. Like, when the teaser ad will be released it will be ‘SNSD + ? Special Collaboration Stage’ but afterwards, expect a boost on your popularity. You are going to perform with a top GG after all” Yoona was smiling. It seemed like there was something about the last part he said. Of course we all knew it was true, but he said it like he was joking.

Miyo spoke up, “Does that mean we have to be made over and all?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. You are all already unique in your own way. Your images are already perfect.”

“Don’t forget that they’re already pretty,” Yoona added, teasingly.

Thank God. I really didn’t want this idol business with plastic surgery and wardrobe changes and all. For some reason, Yoona read my thoughts because she told me, “Except for you, Yuki. I will personally work on you.”

“What?” I said, surprised.

“Yoona made a special request to work on your fashion. Though I’m not sure if it’s for the performance,” the manager looked at Yoona and added “Remember, Yuki’s supposed to be a rock star.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Yoona replied as she went to join her group in their practice.

***

Later that day, I was surfing the internet when I heard my pots and pans clanging again. Huh? I thought they left hours ago.

“Yah, what are you still doing here?!” I called out from my room.

“We’re going to eat dinner with you, Yuki!” Eri replied.

“Make sure Miyo’s the one cooking! Eri, just set the table!” I could hear Miyo’s laugh from the kitchen.

“Yuki!” Eri came in and sat beside me, “Watcha doin’?”

She seems so cheerful. Well, I can’t say that I’m not happy too. After all, we will be performing sooner than expected. I guess you can call it our ‘debut’. I checked my mail and saw that Ichi sent us the schedules already. We won’t be having our usual live performances in clubs for a while so that we can practice for the stage with SNSD. I guess it’ll be okay. There are certain sacrifices needed to succeed.

Sacrifices. Was I his sacrifice? My heart felt uncomfortable again. My chest feels tight. I shouldn’t think of that. It’s not good for me.

I pounded my fist against my chest, I forgot Eri was there. She noticed, “Yuki, you okay?” I nodded.

“I just have to not think about certain stuff. I was thinking of them, but I shouldn’t,” I explained. Eri looked at the monitor and something else caught her attention.

“Look! An IM!” I looked at the screen and sure there was one. I thought it was the same thread as Yoona’s because the both of us were chatting but it was a different I.D.

         pinkbunny11: Hello, Yuki!

Weird. Yoona’s I.D. was “yooong~” so this couldn’t be her. I looked at Eri and she said, “Well, you should reply! That person already knows who you are, see? Called you Yuki.”

“OK.”

         snow_girl: Hello. Do I know you?

         pinkbunny11: Yes. We met earlier.

I’ve met earlier? I’ve met a lot of people earlier. Eri was looking at the screen intently as though she was thinking of who it could be.

“Eri, do you know who this is?”

“I have a guess. I’m 90% sure,” Eri replied. 90% sure? Woah. That’s pretty confident for a guess. She typed a name on the keyboard which made my eyes grow bigger.

                snow_girl: Lee Sungmin?

Sungmin? Is that even possible? pinkbunny’s reply made my eyes grow even bigger.

                pinkbunny11: That’s Sungmin oppa to you, Yuki-sshi

I hurriedly snatched the keyboard from Eri because it seems her fan girl side is rising quickly and I didn’t want her typing and talking to Sungmin using MY I.D.

                “MIYO! CAN YOU GET ERI, PLEASE! I THINK SHE BECAME A STATUE” I yelled from my room and immediately, Miyo came in and dragged Eri out. She didn’t ask me what It was about but she gave me a we’ll-talk-about-it-later look.

***

                snow_girl: Oh, hello Sungmin-sshi. Did Yoona give you my I.D. by any chance?

                pinkbunny11: I’ll tell you if you call me “Oppa”

                snow_girl: I will kill Yoona before that

                pinkbunny11: Ouch. Imagine how many So Ones will not like you

                snow_girl: ……

                pinkbunny11: Sungmin Oppa!

                snow_girl: O… oppa

                pinkbunny11: Yay! =) Yoona didn’t give me your ID, I just happened to pass by her laptop while

           she was practicing and I saw your name and your chat. Smart, huh?

                snow_girl: Oh, okay.

                pinkbunny11: What are you doing right now?  I’m in our living room watching tv with the other

                                         members.

                snow_girl: I’m supposed to have dinner now.

                pinkbunny11: Oh, I won’t bother you then. We’ll talk again next time^^

                snow_girl: Bye

I went out and ate dinner with Miyo and Eri. It seems that Eri explained to Miyo what happened in my room so we were quiet the whole time. I went outside to see that they left safely and then I cleaned the dishes before I went back to my room. I forgot to turn off my computer and what I saw on the monitor surprised me…

                pinkbunny11: I hope to see more of you soon, Yuki. You seem to be an interesting girl.

                pinkbunny11 has logged out

Jonghyun, why is this happening to me?

HELLO! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hehehehe^^

It's 1:19 AM here right now and I'm supposed to go to bed already but I thought I should post this new chapter =)

Sungmin's appearance! LOL. I didn't really remember that today's his birthday and I put him in my story. Jonghyun's got competition? Hmmmm....

I think Jonghyun looks more like Sungmin than Kyuhyun though or maybe it's just me (a lot of people I know say that he looks like Kyu, IDK).

Anyway, I meant to write 2 chapters today but I got carried away with the New Year festivities and couldn't concentrate much. Miane.

This chapter's longer than my usual, I guess... Do you think something's wrong with Yuki? Her heart hurts everytime she thinks of Jonghyun. Perhaps it's just love sickness. Haha.

Comment and/or subscribe! My heart leaps whenever I see one^^