EXO were tired. They had spent most of the day in and out of rehearsals, signings, shoots, and then had to comply with management's genius idea of doing a meet and greet here in America. Ignoring the fact that the 9 boys only knew basic English, they were exhausted after a day of having to keep up appearances. While EXO still had their bubbly personalities, those were opaqued by their chronic exhaustion, and despite being so tired, they still had to act like everything was fine and they were not only well-rested, but also cheerful and excited. Jongdae and Minseok had been sharing a room during this tour, and despite the hyung's contagiously preppy attitude, Jongdae could notice the bags growing under his eyes when he took off his eye makeup in the hotel room.

The care and prep team had tried various creams, lotions, serums, and different methods to better the appearance of the dark circles, but to no avail. Jongdae thought that it had an easy fix: just a couple of good nights' rest would end with them all feeling refreshed and ready for anything. But he knew better; this was the life of an idol. Go to bed late and wake up early. Eat few meals and lots of snacks. Work yourself to the bone. And while he did love their fans deeply, he decided no sleep was an aspect of idol life he could live without.

After a too-quick rest, the 9 were directed towards a room. It wasn't anything special; it had a NIKON camera prepped up on a tripod on one side, then a large screen on the other, dotted with the EXO logo everywhere and the tour's name. The care and prep team quickly went in and powdered their noses, refreshed their eye makeup, gave them eye drops for their contacts (except for Chanyeol and Jongin, who weren't wearing any), and fluffed their hair before making their exit.

They had already been given instructions as to what to do, which was basically say hi, talk for a minute, then take a photo with the fan. The talking part was what had Jongdae nervous, and he silently practiced the few lines he'd prepared. Despite all his studying, his English truly wasn't the best and he was afraid to make a mistake in front of anyone.

"Ah~" Chanyeol exclaimed, "we haven't even had anything for dinner, and it's already too late to eat."

"Our faces are going to be swollen tomorrow if we eat now," Jongin agreed grimly.

"We can't even eat right now!" Baekhyun pouted. "Fans are due to be arriving any second."

The 9 grunted in approval. Yixing heaved a deep sigh. Jongdae arranged his leather jacket over his shoulders. Junmyeon paced on the floor. They were all wearing their typical uniforms: ripped black pants, sneakers/dress shoes, t-shirts/tanks and, flannels combined with leather jackets. Minseok's hair was sticking up all over the place, which vaguely reminded Jongdae of an anime character. He looked less energetic than usual. Then again, they were all beaten.

"Let's work hard, everyone!" Sehun smiled, and it instantly lifted the mood of the other 8. It was so like him to try to cheer everyone up. And he was right; they had to work hard for the fans, who were spending their hard earned money on them and meeting them. They couldn't be caught sulking now. They needed to put their best face forward.

A door opened and the first three fans piled in. They were visibly nervous, far more nervous than Jongdae, which filled him with both endearment and strength. This is why they were here. Fans were everything to him. His mouth spread into that wonderful smile of his, his cheeks filling, eyes sparkling.

"Hello," he said in English, which came easier now that he wasn't as anxious. "I'm Chen."

"I'm Xiumin," he said with his usual smile. One of the girls just about melted.

"I'm Suho." He bowed his head towards them.

One by one, they kept introducing themselves in English, which ended in a deep bow and everyone in a chorus saying "Thank you for supporting EXO."

"Oh, my God, of course! We're, like, huge fans," One of the girls said. The other nodded happily, and the other was still blushing over Minseok. Jongdae thought that was cute and smiled at her.

It went on like that for the next fans. Junmyeon kissed one girl on the cheek, and her squeal could be heard all the way back in Seoul. A lot of them gave them gifts: fanart, bracelets, hats for Chanyeol... All the fans were so sweet and flustered, it made Jongdae shy.

After what felt like hours of awkward exchanges in English and some in Korean (a few of the fans had learnt a few Korean words to say to the idols, which made them both very excited and very impressed), it was finally time for the last meet and greet fan to come through. The feeling Jongdae felt most strongly now was hunger. He longed for curry noodles from a shop back in Seoul, but he knew the closest thing in America to East Asian food was a pack of Maruchan Ramen Noodles. Hey, at least they were cheap.

He took a gulp of water from his bottle and waited for the last fan to come through. When she did, he was taken aback. Not because of her looks, although she was gorgeous, but by her perfectly pronounced Korean greeting and bow.

Baekhyun was the first to react. "You know Korean?" He asked her in his native language.

"Yup!" The girl straightened her back and grinned at them, her smile dazzling. "It's so great to meet all of you! I'm truly such an admirer of your performances and musical abilities."

In simple words, Jongdae was completely speechless. She had a slight accent, something that didn't quite sound like the accent an American would have, but she spoke eloquently and with great confidence.

"Woh!~" Chanyeol exclaimed. "You speak so well!"

The girl blushed and twirled a strand of dark hair around her finger. "Ah, I still have much to learn. But your music has helped a lot! Your broadcasts have really refined my pronunciation, even though I know that it's still a bit off."

"But your vocabulary is so extensive! And your pronunciation is adorable!~" Minseok gaped at her excitedly.

"I don't even know if I could say all the stuff you just did!" Sehun laughed.

"Aish, guys, let's not burden her!" Jongin said.

"I wish I had her talent." Yixing pouted, and she bowed at him.

"You were my biggest inspiration!" She stood upright and lights danced in her turquoise green eyes. "All of you work so hard to make your fans happy, but Lay especially has worked extra hard in his Korean while still giving the fans who speak Mandarin a chance to be a part of EXO-L. You work without even taking into consideration your own health, just so everyone can have a good time. That was really inspiring to me!"

"Aigoo!~ Look, Lay is blushing!" Baekhyun , which made him blush harder, the dimple on his cheek in full view.

"Oh, but, why did you learn Korean?" Kyungsoo asked her, and she looked up in thought.

"Well, I guess the most honest answer is a student of mine. I'm an English tutor, and while I mainly worked with Latin American kids, there was a foreign exchange student who spoke only Korean and very little English. A lot of the kids at school made fun of her for it, so I took it upon myself to teach her English straight from Korean." She shrugged, like it was no big deal.

"Ah, that's incredible!" Minseok exclaimed. "So, you know Spanish too?"

"Er, my first language is Portuguese, since I'm from Brazil. It was very easy learning Spanish, because the languages are so similar. Then, I learned English, then Japanese, and then Korean. I'm trying to learn Mandarin right now, but it's hard!" She pouted.

"Oh!~ So you know," Chanyeol counted with his fingers, "five languages! That's amazing!"

She lowered her head. "No, really, it's nothing. I do what I can to help my students."

"Is that why you learned Japanese?" Minseok asked.

She smiled sheepishly. "Er, no. I actually learned Japanese because, um... Aish, it's embarrassing!" She burst out laughing while covering .

"Ah, it can't be that bad!" Chanyeol countered.

She finished laughing and sighed. "It's because I really like Japanese animation, so since I didn't want to read the subtitles all the time..." She trailed off, her face scarlet.

"Oi! That's awesome!" Minseok exclaimed, then said a few words to her in Japanese. She giggled and replied, and even though Jongdae's Japanese wasn't the best, he could still tell her pronunciation was flawless.

Just who was this girl?

"What's your name?" Jongdae finally broke his silence, and she blushed at him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! It's so rude of me to forget to introduce myself. My name Isabela Arrellano." Her smile set his heart ablaze. Jongdae wondered if the others felt the same as he did.

"Isabela," Baekhyun tried to pronounce it like she did, but the L was off.

"Very good!" She said, which made Baekhyun blush. She sounded exactly like a teacher. "I know it's a very difficult name if your first language doesn't have the letter L, but you did so well!"

The 9 even forgot to introduce themselves to Isabela like they'd been doing with all the fans before her. It was so easy to talk to her: the way she smiled, the easiness with which conversation flowed, and especially the fact that she knew Korean was enough to loosen the knot in their stomachs they didn't know they had. Too soon, the manager signaled EXO to take the photo with her already, since it was getting late in the night and they had a whole day of rehearsing tomorrow.

Isabela noticed and quickly fished something out of her bag. 12 envelopes, neatly filed and named. She gave each of the members one, except for Yixing, who got 4.

"What's this?" Junmyeon asked her, although the answer was obvious.

"Letters for each one of you, plus Tao, Luhan, and Kris." She smiled at Yixing, who was taken aback by the envelopes in his hands. If Jongdae didn't know better, it would look as if he was going to cry. "I'm so sorry if it's not my place to give these to you," she continued, "but even if there's the smallest chance that they'll receive those letters, I'll take it. I've been a fan of yours since even before you did EXO Showtime, and it hit me hard when the members left, although I understand their reasons. If it was difficult for me, it must have been much more so for all of you. I'm sorry if I overstepped." She bowed deeply.

"Ah~ it's alright," Yixing said, seeming to recover himself. "We don't really talk to them, but I think I can get these to them. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness." Along with him, the rest bowed at her, which made her cheeks turn slightly pink.

"Oh, thank you for accepting them!" She bowed awkwardly, making everyone laugh, including herself. She scratched the back of her head. "I guess I still have to work on my Korean customs, huh?"

"Ah, you're fine! Please, don't burden yourself with such thoughts!" Jongin said to her, and she smiled at him.

"I think our manager is going to kill us if we don't take the photo now," Baekhyun said after his manager gave them a stern look. The boys all laughed, except Isabela, who looked about as red as a tomato.

"Yah~, I'm so sorry for keeping you! I've caused you trouble.~"

"No, you're fine, please don't worry. You're our last fan tonight, so after this we only have to go to the hotel," Kyungsoo explained.

Isabela's face brightened. "Ah! If you're craving East Asian food, there's this great place a few blocks from here..." She fished out a small notebook from her bag and quickly wrote something down on a sheet of paper. With a smile, Jongdae noticed her pen had the head of a cat. She gave Kyungsoo the note with the directions. "I hope you'll be able to enjoy it before you leave for Korea! Hosook, my Korean student, told me that it was almost as if she were back home."

"Wow, thank you so much!" Kyungsoo exclaimed.

"How'd you know I'd been craving curry noodles?" Jongdae teased. She grinned with her tongue between her teeth and shrugged.

"Tutor's intuition.~" She giggled.

"Aish, we should really take the photo now," Junmyeon said, and she nodded.

"Um! Can we all please do the wolf ears from your Wolf MV? I've always liked them!" She asked, and they all agreed. She positioned herself in the middle between Chanyeol and Jongin while they all, including Isabela, made what looked like wolf ears with their hands. Once the flash went off, it set off a series of howls between the boys, making Isabela laugh. They all went to say their goodbyes, and before leaving, she bowed deeply.

"Thank you for making this such a memorable experience for me!" She said. "I'll never forget it." She looked directly at all the men before her, and Jongdae felt a jolt of electricity when her eyes locked with his. "Please, don't work yourselves so hard. We all in EXO-L wish primarily for your health and well-being. We deeply appreciate you, so please take care of yourselves!" She bowed again, and it was as if a silent sigh was shared between the 9 idols. Had she noticed they were so tired?

They thanked her, and once she was gone, the room burst with conversation.

"What an amazing person!" Sehun said. The others agreed in a wave of nods.

"I can't believe she knows five languages!" Minseok was bewildered, and it seemed like he wasn't the only one.

"And her pronunciation in both Korean and Japanese was so good!" Chanyeol said.

"I'm so jealous.~" Yixing confessed, and Jongdae patted his back.

"Ah, don't be! She's an awesome person all around, so if you compare yourself to her, you'll only get depressed!" He joked, and the others teased Yixing lovingly.

"Are we seriously not going to talk about how pretty she was?" Baekhyun whined, and the rest agreed that she was lovely.

"I've never seen dark brown hair look so good!" Jongin admitted.

"Also, her skin was so nice! I don't think she was wearing face makeup." Chanyeol exclaimed, and in all the commotion, they agreed with him.

"I'm hoping I'll meet her again in another life.~" Kyungsoo swayed.

"You're right! Such a bright spirit can't be hidden for long!" Baekhyun agreed.

Jongdae couldn't understand why, but he felt a twinge of jealousy directed at them both. She truly had been a bright spirit, like a light that illuminated the room as soon as she walked in. He suddenly realized he wasn't as tired anymore. On the contrary: he was now bursting with energy that came from within him. He looked at the closed envelope that had his name, his actual name, neatly and cutely written on the center. He sighed happily, glad she had left behind a piece of herself especially for him. He couldn't wait until he was back in his room to read it. He carefully placed it inside his leather jacket before Minseok exclaimed.

"Aish!~ Now I'm not going to be able to go to sleep."

"I'm full of energy too!" Sehun agreed.

"Hey, we could visit this place she recommended!" Kyungsoo waved her note in the air with the directions of the East Asian restaurant written on it.

"Grah! Our faces are going to be swollen tomorrow," Junmyeon whined, and Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Kyungsoo punched him softly in the ribs, making him burst out laughing.

"Who cares? We haven't had real food in what feels like forever," Minseok said, extending his arms. Junmyeon finally gave in and nodded at his hyung. Minseok giggled and jumped around, excitement evident.

After a brief talk with their manager, they decided to go by foot, since it was very late and the possibility of there being fans wandering outside was slim. They all pulled their hoods up and put on hats, still, just in case.

The Chicago air was sharp and unforgiving as they piled outside in the night. Clouds loomed over them, covering the stars and even the moon, and the buildings were so high and menacing, Jongdae thought they reached right through the clouds. A grey city. Even though it was so late, there were still a few people milling around; businessmen, late night joggers, people walking dogs... Nobody seemed to pay attention to the pack of 9 moving through the city, listening to the navigational system in Kyungoo's phone tell them when to take a turn.

They rarely spoke as they neared the restaurant, and what they did was whispered. Police sirens could be heard in the distance, along with dance music and barking dogs. Jongdae was not a city person. He would much rather be somewhere in the country of Korea, like that one trip that he and Minseok had taken a few years back. He could picture himself lazily looking at a lake, fishing for the night's dinner, the gentle breeze blowing through the trees, making music as it passed and ruffled the leaves of the forest.

Cold wind opened his jacket and a white something flew out. With horror, Jongdae realized it was Isabela's letter that had been carried away by the air.

"Wait!" He called out, either to his band mates or the letter, he didn't know, but he surely ran right after the flying envelope. "No, this can't be happening..." He muttered to himself. Now that the wind was carrying away the letter, he only realized how precious it was to him. For some reason, Isabela had invigorated a new surge of power within him, and he felt like he could do anything.

But now the only thing he had left of hers was flying away.

He could faintly hear his band mates shouting after him, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. The envelope was flying towards oncoming traffic, and he thought, This is it. I'm going to lose the letter forever and I'll never know what she wrote down for me.

Just as it was whisked onto the street, it hit a bicycle rider on the face, making them lose control and crash onto a bench, their body rolling and falling on the floor across their bike. Jongdae resisted the urge to curse, and ran to help the victim of his clumsiness. At least the bicycle hadn't swerved onto the oncoming traffic, or else it would have been a much more serious injury than the one they sustained when they hit the bench. As he got closer, his heart turned into a tight knot, because he noticed the rider wasn't wearing a helmet. He realized the rider was a she, and that her arms were scratched as she sat up.

With a start, he also realized that he knew the person sitting up from the floor.