A/N: Aaaand we’re back. It’s been awhile! We’re at the point where I have to reread and research their schedules to make sure I’m not ing it up too much. I am taking liberties but we’re not straying too far from their actual schedules. Only 3 lessons left, which one of these three will be next?

“Noona please!” He whined. “You know I can’t eat cucumber.” Baekhyun made a face of pure disgust at the small bowl you were trying to pass to him. He turned his head to Jongdae, who was seated next to him and continued whining. “Noona hates me Dae. She’s so mean.”

You rolled your eyes at him as Minseok sighed next to you and Jongdae stifled a laugh. “Yah!” you raised your voice slightly so that Baekhyun would shut up and look at you. “This bowl isn’t for you dummy. I was passing it to you so you could give it to Jongdae.” You gestured at the BBQ in the centre of the table. “In case you haven’t noticed, the coals emit a ton of heat so I was avoiding passing anything over them.”

“Oh.” came the sheepish response.

Jongdae nudged Baekhyun with his shoulder. “Yah, hurry up and take the bowl! I’m hungry!”

“Aish-” Minseok sighed again, shaking his head at the scene playing out before him.

You’d agreed to let the three of them take you to lunch, much to everyone else’s dismay - you had to agree to let Kyungsoo cook you and the others dinner while ChenBaekXi were off practicing before Chanyeol would release his hold on you (no matter how much Minseok glared at him), but you hadn’t expected them to take you to one of the more upmarket Korean BBQ restaurants in Seoul. Jongdae ordered for everyone after double checking with you if you would eat certain dishes. You went a hard pass on the intestines but were more than happy to have marinated pork ribs.

It had been a long time since you’d been to a cook-it-yourself style restaurant so you’d forgotten how much fun they were. At the standard places the grill in the middle of the table was usually gas or electric but here it was open coals and dear lord did they emit heat. You’d all had to remove your jackets and sit back a little, only leaning forward to pass the various bowls with side dishes around and to help Jongdae cook the meat.

“So, tell me about your unit guys. All I know is that you’ve been practicing like crazy.” You asked as you placed the tongs within Jongdae’s reach.

“Minseokkie wanted a sub-unit so he went to our managers and asked.” Baekhyun happily told you. His face lit up when he got to speak about anything related to performing, you could tell he really loved what he did. His eyes were bright as he spoke, his smile wide, faltering only when he glanced to your side. “What? Hyu-” He ducked an ice cube that Minseok had decided to throw at him since he couldn’t exactly reach over the coals to swat him. You laughed at them and bit your tongue. There was a joke about Xiumin’s frost power in there somewhere but you held it in. This kind of thing happened all the time and you still hadn’t gotten to the stage of finding it any less funny. Baekhyun rarely referred to Minseok as his hyung, rather, he chose to use variations of nicknames that were sure to set off his elder. Minseokkie and MinMin were his two favourites.

You turned to Minseok and tried to diffuse the impending outburst that he was headed towards. “Is that true? You made this happen?

He tilted his head slightly. “Not exactly. I think they already planned on having a unit but hadn’t finalised which members would be involved yet.” He started. Jongdae made a poor attempt at covering up his muttering of ‘bull’ with a cough which Minseok ignored. “I hadn’t really had a chance to show myself as a main vocal or dancer through EXO yet so I asked them if they’d consider a sub-unit while we were on hiatus. The asked which members I’d like to have with me…”

“And they punished you with two beagles?” You giggled as you completed the sentence for him.

“No, I asked for these two.” He replied, shrugging when he noticed how your eyes widened.  “They’re a good fit when they aren’t, you know… going full beagle.”

“Dae is the wife and I’m the mistress” Baekhyun laughed, earning him a slap from Jongdae and another ice cube being thrown at him from Minseok. “What? You’re like an old married couple most of the time and there is no way I’m your lovechild in this scenario.”

“Jesus ing christ.” Minseok muttered as he poured himself a glass of soju.

Lunch continued in this fashion for quite some time. The boys had been so busy with their full group comeback performances as well as spending all of their down time prepping for their sub unit debut. It felt like forever since you’d seen them, not counting that one night where Minseok turned up at your door and proceeded to fall asleep as soon as his head hit a yielding surface. That surface being your bed. You’d freaked out at the time since you knew they had schedules in the morning and that their managers would be at the dorm to collect them. You knew there was no way you’d have been able to get him up to the dorm and you had zero desire to explain why one of the members had slept in your apartment to their managers so in a moment of weakness (after trying to wake him up like seven times) you called Chanyeol. He came down with Sehun and the two of them maneuvered a sleeping Minseok back up to the dorm. It had taken some threatening and promises on your part to keep the two of them quiet but they acquiesced. Needless to say he was more than a little confused when he woke up on the couch in the dorm the next morning.

You knew they were busy when Baekhyun’s daily texting slowed down. He had to be tired if he couldn’t engage in the usual level of banter and innuendo that you enjoyed. You’d tried to schedule lunch three times and they’d had to cancel each time due to some last minute dance practice, meeting, or recording. You’d filled your time by hanging out with the others when they had free time, Jongin had brought his dogs to hang out with you (a chaotic but enjoyable experience), Chanyeol had taken you for coffee one afternoon (and tried to get out of paying then dragged you into a figurine store), Kyungsoo & Sehun went with you to the movies (in full disguise which was hilarious to you) but everyone’s time was scarce. You’d gone to see Yixing but he was busy working on his solo debut, which was due to happen on his birthday. You were excited for him, you’d told him as such, but you wished he’d had more time to hang out.

Daily lessons at SM continued and the guys were vastly improved from when you’d started tutoring them, something their managers were pleased with. It wasn’t a lie to say their improvement was a great relief for you too. Sometimes it felt more like you were just hanging out with nine guys who you really cared for rather than being their tutor. Mr. Kim had called to tell you to keep up the good work. He’d said something about not slacking off once they’d reached the desired level of English set by the company. He wanted you to keep pushing them, hopefully resulting in you far exceeding the expectations of the company which would reflect highly on you and Mr. Kim.

“So,” Baekhyun piped up, interrupting your thoughts.

“Yes?”

“You did something to them.” He states as he pops another mouthful of kimchi in his mouth.

“To whom?”

“Don’t play dumb now, the rest of the group. We’re the only three who haven’t had private lessons and we’re the only three who haven’t changed with you.” He pauses. “Minseokkie doesn’t count though since I still think you’re ing him.”

“Yah!” Minseok exclaims, raising his arm to slap the younger only to remember the dangerously hot coals separating the two. “Baekhyun you can’t just blurt that out when we’re in public. What if someone hears?”

“I’m not hearing a denial there hyung.” The younger smirks.

“I don’t see the point in answering you when you won’t believe me anyway.”

Jongdae silently watches the exchange between the two, rolling his eyes. Clearly this was not the first time this topic had been bought up. He turns his attention back to the grill while the pair bicker, turning the meat over and cutting up some of the larger pieces so that they cook quicker. You grimace at the pieces of intestine on one side of the grill, they looked unsightly enough when they were raw but as they cooked they reminded you of something that looked like part cheetoh, part calamari - the grossly thick kind. You shift your gaze to the other side of the grill, the delicious side, and watch the pork ribs cook. You’re practically salivating at the prospect of eating it. Food is almost enough of a distraction from the bickering that’s going on around you. Almost.

“Just admit it hyung, you’re ing the teacher.” Baekhyun snaps.

“Byun Baekhyun that is enough!” You try not to raise your voice too much since you’re in public but your tone tells him he’s gone too far. “Do you not have anything better to dwell on? I play along when you make smartass comments or jokes. At. Home.” You gesture around the table as the three of them silently watch you, Baekhyun’s eyes wide and fearful. “But we are in ing public right now and you do not get to jeopardise my career or potentially create a scandal for Minseok. You are out of line and you should know better. Is the pork done yet?”

It takes Jongdae a beat to realise that you’ve finished reprimanding Baekhyun and were now talking to him. “Should be, let me check.” He picks up a piece and cut it in half with the scissors and nodded, placing it in your bowl. “More?” He asks.

“Please.”

The silence following your outburst is thick. You focus on your food instead of the guys, even though you can see Minseok silently gesturing at Jongdae and Baekhyun pouting out the corner of your eyes. The ball was in his court now, he’d ed up, in public no less, so he needed to be the one to fix it. You knew he was prideful and stubborn but you also knew how much Baekhyun cared so you assumed that right now he was feeling guilty and a little shaken. You’d never taken that tone with any of them. But the situation had called for it. You compliment Jongdae on his cooking and turn your focus back to your dish.

After a few minutes you heard him clear his throat. You kept your eyes on your meal, not wanting to engage until he speaks. “Um…” He starts, his voice smaller than usual, unsure of how he should tackle this. “Look… I uh,”

You look up.

He’s fidgeting with his hands, his gaze not meeting yours. He’s looking at a spot over your shoulder so it looks like he’s making eye contact but he isn’t.

You wait.

“Aish, why is this difficult?” He seems to say more to himself than to anyone in particular. “Look, I’msorryforwhatIsaid.” The words rush out. He shakes his head and takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry for speaking about you like that. It was out of line and not fair to you or to Minseok hyung. Please don’t be mad at me.” He pouts. “I know it’s not an excuse but I’m just so tired and that little filter between my brain and my mouth clearly isn’t working properly.”

“Oh? When did it ever work?” Jongdae chuckles as he pokes Baekhyun. Just like that the tension that was hanging over the table is broken.

You reach over and grab Baekhyun’s hand for a moment, giving it a reassuring squeeze before letting go, grabbing his glass to refill. To anyone else it would have looked like you were reaching for his glass. “I accept your apology Baek. All three of you are tired and on edge because of all of this subunit prep so you need to be more considerate of others when you’re joking around.” He nods.

“Sorry Minseok.” He adds, looking at the elder.

Minseok waves him off nonchalantly now that he’s mostly calmed down. “It’s fine, just, not in public dude. You might not remember but we’re kind of popular.”  

***

How were you supposed to make sense of the mass of paperwork that had been handed to you? You thought you were just going to receive the script for the ments not the planning for the entire concert. You felt your anxiety creeping up as you flipped through page after page of stage directions, song selections, choreography amendments, lighting, costume changes - the whole concert. The concert document was like 40 pages long and the section you were responsible for? 3 pages. Then they’d tacked on multiple interview questions for pre and post concert from approved interviews. It wasn’t uncommon for journalists to have to submit their questions for approval. You wondered if any of the interviews were unscripted or if you had all of them in this document. If this was all of them then it made your job easy, even if the interview might feel a bit rehearsed, but a part of you hoped that there was at least one or two spur of the moment interviews. Those were always far more genuine and entertaining, even if they did stress the managers and PR team.

Still, you stared at the document until your eyes started to sting. Eventually you reminded yourself that the whole document wasn’t for you and that you just needed to go through and organise the whole thing in order for you to feel less burdened. So you sat at your desk and you broke out the highlighters (to think you never thought you’d have a need for twelve colours - how wrong you were). You assigned nine to the members, then left one for stage directions - including costume changes, choreography and song titles, one for lighting cues & the final one for the speeches and interviews.

You spent the better part of your afternoon highlighting the document & photocopying it so that you had a copy with you at all times and one stuck to your wall so that you could see the whole concert in one go. Forty pages on a wall meant some rearranging of your furniture and covering one wall like a homicide detective in a tv show but the visual helped you. A sea of colour stared back at you but you found it oddly calming. You could see the parts where you would be responsible for how well the guys did and in the grand scheme of the concert, your part was minimal.

The ding of your phone told you that you had received a new email, probably containing your itinerary for the tour. The notification was more than that though. It was a sign that all of this was real, and that you were so close to completing your assigned task. That thought alone left you with mixed feelings. You felt a surge of pride at finally being able to show the fruits of your labour but you also felt sad because once this tour was completed you would be assigned a new group to work with which meant that you would be spending less time with the guys. Sure, you still lived in the same building and you’d still talk but you wouldn’t be able to freely spend as much time with them when you weren’t under the guise of being their teacher, which wasn’t a lie it’s just, at this points, you felt like more than just their teacher.

Not wanting to let yourself slip into a bout of self pity you decided to distract yourself. You picked up your phone and opened your contact list, scrolling until you found the name you desired and pressed the icon to dial the number. It rang for a few moments before they picked up. “Noona?” His voice singsonged down the line.

“Hi Baek. Are you guys practising?” You asked.

“No we’re just bathing in our own sweat for fun?” He replied. When you didn’t respond with an equally witty retort he continued. “Yeah we are. Why?”

“Can I come and get a sneak peek of this new rookie group? I hear that you wouldn’t believe that they’re rookies, that they act like they’re 4th year idols.” You chuckled.

You heard light laughter through the phone before he murmured to someone, possibly a manager to see if they were allowed to have anyone see their choreo. Which, you didn’t really understand since you were working with them but you kept quiet about that. “You’re allowed noona. We’re in the usual practice room.”

“See you soon Baekhyun.” You smiled as you hung up and prepared to leave your apartment.

***

“Ok so we shoot the VCR to show in the concert tomorrow, then the MV in four days?” Minseok asked. Their manager nodded and continued to go through their additional schedules with them as they took a short break from dance practice.

You’d arrived in time to see the end of the choreo for one of the songs. They’d slumped to the floor and tiredly waved at you as you entered the room, you were going to go and chat to them but you spotted their manager making a beeline for them so you took a seat at the side of the room and waited.

“Red?” Baekhyun asked with a bright grin on his face. When the manager nodded he called out to you. “Noona! I’m gonna have red hair!”

You send him a thumbs up and smiled. “That’ll look gr-”

“GREEN?!” Minseok yelled. “What the ?” You watched as Jongdae tried to calm him down while Baekhyun laughed and teased his hyung about the new hair colour choices. Baekhyun turned to grin at you, a rookie mistake. As soon as he took his eyes off Minseok, the elder grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him to the floor to get his revenge as well as partly get out some of his frustration over the green hair. You didn’t see the big deal, neither did their manager or Jongdae, but apparently green was a terrible choice as far as Minseok was concerned. So much so that he reasoned with the staff to only have it for the MV and then have it fade as fast as possible.

“While those two bicker did you want to hear the concept for our MV noona?” Jongdae asked.

You nodded and moved closer to him and another staff member. “Please.”

“The VCR we’re filming is mostly sportswear and it’ll be funny. Junmyeon hyung is going to do a series of cameos but the killing part, the part that one of those two is blissfully unaware of, is Baekhyun cross-dressing for a small cameo.” He explained.

“Oh my god.”

Jongdae chuckled. “He’s gonna flip out when he finds out tomorrow. He forgets that he lost a bet with me though, and I got to pick who would wear the dress.” He laughed quietly as he described the outfits and the theme of the video, making you swear not to tell Baekhyun about the surprise cross-dressing. “Our full length MV is inspired by Kingsmen, so we’re in suits for most of it. There’s a party section and a office that kind of turns into a campfire… it’s hard to explain but I think it’ll look really good.”

“Is the choreo harder now that there are only the three of you or is it easier to learn?”

“So much harder! Baekhyun picks up choreo really quickly so he makes it look easy, and Minseok stays back to practice alone with our teachers. Then like that,” he clicks his fingers, “he’s got it down. I’m doing my best but I know my weaknesses will show more since we have less members. We’re all nervous which is why we’ve been practicing so hard.”

The other two seemed to remember that they had a guest and stopped bickering to come over and join you and Jongdae. “So, do I get to see any of your choreo or did I just come all the way down here to witness two of you act like children fighting over a crayon?” You chided. Jongdae grinned smugly next to you so you poked him as a warning.

Baekhyun nodded and dragged you to a new spot in the room so that you had the ideal view of their routine. The others got into position as they waited for Baekhyun to rejoin them. Their instructor took a seat next to you and introduced himself. You’d seen him around the building but hadn’t ever met him. He explained the concept a bit more to you and the song before turning his attention back to the guys, giving each member small notes on their performance. He cued the music and sat back down to watch.

They exceeded your expectations so much that you were speechless. You’d expected a slightly less difficult choreo but the three of them had gone for a non stop dance and it was slick and so damn good. “What the hell you guys?!” Not the words you wanted to go with but by the time you worked out how to speak again that was all that came out. They looked confused for a moment until they saw you flailing and grinning from ear to ear. You were certain that you looked crazy but in reality you were doing your best not to swear and screech unprofessionally at them.

“They’ve done really well. At first I wasn’t sure if I’d made the dance too difficult but once we started working on it I had faith that they’d get there.” Their instructor smiled at you as he got up to go talk to the guys (who were in a heap on the floor, practice was exhausting after all).

“The choreo is really good, don’t forget to take a little praise yourself.” You smiled at him.

They took an extended break after chatting with their instructor and managers. The rest of the group would be joining them within the hour anyway to go over some concert prep. What good was your colour coded schedule if they consistently added more unplanned meetings and practices that you didn’t know about? You’d all decided to go get coffee and snacks while waiting for the others to arrive.

“I think you three might be the best rookie group I’ve seen.” You said in-between bites of your cupcake.

Minseok chuckled as he took a sip of coffee & sighed like it was bringing him back to life. “We should be, we’ve had years of practice.”

“You liked it?” Jongdae asked.

You nodded. “It was more than I expected and each one of you was perfect. I knew you’d been spending more time here but I thought you were exaggerating how tired you were once you got back to the dorm, I stand corrected though. You’ve really been putting a lot of work into this sub-unit and it shows. You should be proud of what you’ve done.”

All three smiled shyly and busied themselves by eating or drinking so that they didn’t have to respond to your praises. You laughed and went back to your own snack knowing you could wait them out. “Thank you noona.” Baekhyun said softly. The other two quickly followed suit. You’d come to realise that they knew how to react when they were on stage or in front of a camera but as soon as you removed those things they became shy and unsure of how to receive compliments. It had to be difficult to readjust, on stage they could throw out finger hearts or give big reactions but that felt contrived and weird when you removed the stage and the screaming fans.

“You three are adorable, you know that?” You grinned as you got up and made your way back to the practice rooms. “The others should be arriving soon, let’s head back.”

***

“Jongin for the last time, stop trying to distract Kyungsoo. You know what happens when you annoy the out of him.” Junmyeon scolded.

Chanyeol laughed as Jongin ignored their leader and continued pestering Kyungsoo when he wasn’t looking. Either he is about to get smacked or Kyungsoo has the patience of a saint. You thought to yourself.

They’d been doing a quick run through of the concert for the past couple of hours, discussing song order and staging. The floor was becoming a mess of different coloured tape as the staff mapped out the stage and guided the guys to their positions. They were focused and professional, proving to you that they had been doing this and doing it well for years. They ran through choreo, with Jongin demonstrating the routines that the others hadn’t yet learned - the sheer amount of work that went into a concert floored you. After all of that you’d thought your part would be a cake walk. The introduction speeches had gone well - they were the easiest after all - and now you were up to the second round of speeches. You noticed that some of the members started to mess around with each other while anyone else was talking. Professional and focused flew out the window the moment they had nothing to do. Minseok had dropped Baekhyun to the floor once, you chalked it up to residual frustration from their earlier altercation coupled with Baekhyun deciding to bite Minseok’s shoulder. He only tried once. Sehun was a much easier target since he wouldn’t deck his hyung. Jongin was poking and generally irritating Kyungsoo and Chanyeol was doing his best not to fall to the floor laughing.

You did your best to pay attention to whoever was actually speaking and to give them feedback but you were quickly realising that you had your work cut out for you. This was going to be like corralling a bunch of 6 year olds. The good parts were their interactions felt natural, their banter and ad libs were funny, cute and playful. The things you needed to try and avoid were them being so distracted that they forgot their speech, Chanyeol and Jongin especially, and that they didn’t murder their members on stage - Minseok, Kyungsoo and Junmyeon looked like they were on their last tether when you called it a night.

The concert was going to be here before you knew it and suddenly you felt less prepared than you ever had.

***

“Ok but how did you not belt him?”

You heard Kyungsoo chuckle on the other end of the line. “If I react to every single thing he does then I’d be labelled as a thug. If I react at random it not only keeps him on his toes but he also knows when he’s gone too far.”

“Ah, I guess that makes sense. He doesn’t seem scared of you retaliating though. You reply as you settle onto your couch with a bowl of ice cream, extra sprinkles because you were still feeling a little off.

“He forgets while he is acting up but you should see him when he really knows he’s ed up. He remembers past incidents vividly.”

“You know, you can be really scary when you want to be.” You mumble as you try to eat a spoonful of your ice cream.

“Are you eating right now?” He asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Mmhmm”

“It’s like 3am, you really shouldn’t be eating sweets at this hour.” His warm voice scolded.

“It’s like 3am, you really shouldn’t be answering your phone this late.” You retort.

“Touche.” He chuckled. “Why’d you call?” He asked. “Not that I mind, it’s just, we only saw you a couple of hours ago.”

You sighed. “Honestly, I’m not sure why I rang.”

“Are you ok?”

“Hmm? Yeah.”

“Don’t take up acting, you at it. What’s wrong?” He sounded more awake now. At the start of the call he’d been half asleep and his voice had had that warm, rumbly sound to it. It was still warm but now it was laced with concern and alertness.

“I guess I’m just feeling overwhelmed. I knew I was being hired to help with your concert but now that the thing is literally taped to my wall and I can see just how much of a behemoth it is, I don’t feel like I can prepare you guys well enough.” The words flow out of your mouth before you can stop them. Kyungsoo has this effect on you, you know he just wants to make sure you’re ok but you know that if you don’t tell him the whole story he’d be at your door within 5 minutes and would refuse to leave until you let him in.

“You colour coded it didn’t you?” He stated it more than asking it.

“Yes but -”

“Then you can clearly see how much of the concert does not rely on you.”

“Yes but -” He cut you off a second time, clearly wanting you to be quiet and hear him out. Normally you’d cut in and fight to be heard but you had woken the poor guy up and o’clock and he was trying to give you advice, bluntness excused given the ungodly hour.

“I’m not saying this to dismiss your concerns but rather, to remind you that you are only responsible for your part. Each member of staff is only responsible for their assigned role; costume is only responsible for making sure we have the right clothes set out and to ensure a quick and smooth change, lighting are only responsible for their cues, you get the picture. If any one of the nine of us that up, that is not the staff members fault, that’s on us.” He emphasised how heavily every department hinged on them performing, as though the pressure and expectations for the concert were completely on them, which didn’t sit right with you but the more you thought on it the more you saw his point. If they messed up and missed a dance move or stood in the wrong spot no one would blame the choreographer or the lighting director, they’d blame the member who messed up. The pressure they had on their shoulders would cripple you but they consistently showed you how capable they were and how dedicated they were to doing things to the best of their abilities. “The good thing for you is, we’re kind of good at this and this won’t be the first time we’ve done this. I can also honestly speak for all of us when I tell you that you’ve been the most engaging teacher and you’ve made the lessons fun, and that’s not including your uh.. private ones. It’s daunting to look at but you just have to remember to break it down. Yell at us and put us in our place if we’re mucking about too much during rehearsal, I promise you we won’t hold it against you.”

You were silent for a few moments as you let all of his words sink in. Somehow he’d managed to lift the helpless feeling you’d had all day and made you feel like you could do this. Like you were good enough at your job to pull this off. “Thank you Soo.” You said softly.

“Anytime.” He replied quietly. He paused for a few seconds then added. “Now stop eating ice cream and go to bed you heathen.”

A/N: Sorry for the lengthy delay, I know this chapter wasn’t too eventful but I hope you still enjoy it. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think of this update :)