It had been a week since the end of Girls Dead Monster's first music video's shooting and things had begun to wind down. After being given much grief over her sudden confession to Minho, August had rushed out of the dorm to cool her head. That had been a few hours ago, and so far none of the other three girls had heard anything from their singer.

"Her phone is off. I can't reach her" Naomi sighed, snapping her phone shut. As the oldest member and 'big sister' to everyone, she had been the most worried about August. "I'm going to go and look for her. Tell Eun Mi that I'll be back soon" Naomi decided, nodding to Chung Ae before standing up from the kitchen table. Chung Ae saluted halfheartedly, her worry about August getting in the way of her usual energy, and then slouched down in her seat. She didn't feel like making any witty comments, or doing much of anything else, right now.

"Bye" Chung Ae mumbled as Naomi strode out the door, closing it behind her. Now all that was left was invading Eun Mi's room in order to give her the news. Glancing over at the closed door to Eun Mi's room, Chung Ae shuddered at the thought of going in. Of course Eun Mi was nice, most of the time, but there were some places that if you invaded she would kill you. Her room was one of them.

No matter how scared she might be, though, Chung Ae needed to pass on Naomi's message. Otherwise Eun Mi might get the wrong idea. She and Naomi were already at odds lately, so putting more tension between the pair of them would probably blow up the dorm. Gently Chung Ae eased herself out of the wooden chair, wincing as her bare feet touched the cold floor. Padding across to Eun Mi's room, Chung Ae thought of how exactly to get out the message before Eun Mi bit her head off.

"Unni? Can I come in?" Chung Ae hesitantly knocked on the door, barely making a noise. When there was no response, she eased the door open and poked her head in. Eun Mi was crouched over her desk working on something, her back to Chung Ae. Taking the opportunity, Chung Ae slipped into Eun Mi's room. It was her first time inside, so she decided to take a good look around before disturbing Eun Mi.

There wasn't much to look at, though. There was a simple bed that looked like it hadn't been slept in for years off in one corner, a dresser, a closet, and a desk. On top of the dresser was a thick photo album with the Girls Dead Monster logo decorating the cover. Her curiosity sparked, Chung Ae hurried over to the dresser and opened the album to see what was inside. The first page was dedicated to picture of August, as was the second, third, fourth... all of these were pictures of August. Flipping through them more rapidly, Chung Ae noticed that the pictures began to show both August and Minho when they were together.

Here they were together at a cafe, and again when he was paying her back for the coffee, some times when they were together at the photo shoot, the pagoda, and the bus ride home. Besides that there were also a million and one other pictures of the two of them together, most looking like they were taken discreetly behind corners and such. None of the pictures had either August or Minho looking at the camera, so Chung Ae figured they had no idea that Eun Mi had, for all purposes, been stalking the pair of them.

It was a little creepy.

"What do you think?" Eun Mi asked, suddenly appearing over Chung Ae's shoulder. Startled, she whirled around, dropping the photo album in the process. Eun Mi sighed and crouched down to pick up the fallen album, giving Chung Ae enough time to get her thoughts organized.

"You've been stalking them?" Chung Ae squeaked out, motioning towards the album that Eun Mi now held protectively under her arm. Smiling, Eun Mi shrugged her shoulders and gestured for Chung Ae to follow her to her desk.

"I've been waiting for the right time to tell you. After all, you're the only one I can trust" Eun Mi began as she sat at the desk, the surface of which was covered in more recent photos of August and Minho. This was definitely more than a little creepy. "You see, I've decided August needs to be forced out of Girls Dead Monster" the sudden declaration startled Chung Ae, who instantly looked at Eun Mi to see if she was joking. Every inch of the older girl's face was dead serious, though.

"W-why? She's our lead singer! And the leader of the group!" Chung Ae protested, frowning at Eun Mi.

"Exactly! She doesn't deserve either of those things! She doesn't belong in Korea! That American filth stole a chance at fame from a hard working Korean, swooping in all of a sudden like she did" Eun Mi spat, glaring at August's face in one of her pictures. "I'm going to black mail her. If she doesn't quit the group then I'll post these pictures all over the internet"

"But then you'll hurt Minho-ssi, too!" Chung Ae exclaimed, pointing to him as he stood beside August in another of the pictures.

"That's the point. August won't care enough about herself, so I have to throw in someone who she will care about. If she thinks this will hurt Mino then she'll quit" Eun Mi explained, leaning back in her seat in total satisfaction. It seemed to Chung Ae that they were having some sort of miscommunication here, and it wasn't getting cleared up anytime soon.

"Naomi will be more difficult, though. She already doesn't trust me, so she hasn't put herself in a position where I can get anything on her" Eun Mi sighed, shrugging her shoulders helplessly. Gawking, Chung Ae looked between Eun Mi and the pictures. This was totally unbelievable. Chung Ae had known Eun Mi didn't like foreigners, and August and Naomi were no exception, but she hadn't thought she would go so far as to stalk and then black mail them.

"Eun Mi... you do realize what you're doing, right?" It was a long shot. A really, really long shot, but Chung Ae figured if she could somehow turn this around to hurt Eun Mi then it might end before it got a chance to start. Looking up at Chung Ae, Eun Mi gestured for her to continue. "If you do this, it won't just tarnish August's name. It will ruin every member's name, and we'll be the center of negative attention before we've even debuted" Chung Ae reasoned, but Eun Mi had obviously already thought about this.

"With a scandal like this, SM won't admit that she was ever a member of our group" Eun Mi explained, shrugging her shoulders. Frowning, Chung Ae wondered if Eun Mi had really forgotten.

"They already put up the teasers, though. Remember? Where we all showed off some of our talents? August was in them" Chung Ae pointed out. Eun Mi thought about this for a moment and then shrugged her shoulders, still entirely unconcerned.

"SM can just take her video down. People will forget all about the foreigner"

"Once something had been put on the internet, it never leaves. A million people have probably seen those videos, copied them, edited them, commented on them, reposted them, for all we know there could be a hundred copies of August's video floating around. People will know, and when SM suddenly makes her disappear then they'll question the scandal behind it. More likely, you'll end up getting kicked out for trying to black mail a fellow member and trash the name of SM Entertainment" Chung Ae was impressed with herself, coming up with such an in depth explanation. She never would have thought of this sort of thing before, but now it seemed like her brain had gone into conspirator mode. Suddenly she could see a million things SM might have covered up, but at the moment she was only focused on preserving August.

Frowning, Eun Mi thought over Chung Ae's reasoning. She didn't seem to like it, but somehow with a logical brain like Eun Mi's couldn't ignore the facts. It was a logical, highly likely situation that would occur if Eun Mi tried to blackmail August into quitting Girls Dead Monster. Glancing up at Chung Ae, Eun Mi narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.

"So what do I do with them?" She sighed, gesturing to the photo album. Chung Ae pursed her lips and thought about that for a moment before grinning.

"Give them to August as a present! She'll be ecstatic if she gets to have a picture of her and Minho together" Chung Ae suggested, smiling brightly at Eun Mi. Eun Mi didn't return the gesture.

"No. I'll just throw them away" Eun Mi muttered, pushing the photo album and loose pictures of the desktop and into the trash. Chung Ae sighed, but she wasn't about to argue. No sense in ticking Eun Mi off again. "So was there something you needed? Or did you just come to lecture me?" Eun Mi asked, curling her legs up on the office chair she was sitting in.

"Naomi went to look for August. She'll be back later" Chung Ae recited, like reading lines off a page. Eun Mi nodded and pulled a thick book over to her, flipping open to a bookmarked page. Taking that as her signal to leave, Chung Ae exited Eun Mi's room and slowly closed the door behind her.

"Stop sulking and go inside! We'll lay off, honestly!" The slightly French accented voice coming from the opposite side of the front door announced that Naomi was back. A second later a second voice mumbled something, and then there was the sounds of a quick scuffle. Knitting her eyebrows together, Chung Ae crossed the hall to the main door and peered through the peep hole. On the other side, Naomi had August by the hood of her jacket, holding her up so that August was forced to stand on her toes. Neither girl appeared happy, but Naomi at least seemed pleased with herself.

When the door opened, both girls stopped their quiet argument to look up in surprise. Chung Ae leaned around the door and smiled at the both of them, nodding her head at each in turn. August blushed sheepishly, but Naomi greeted Chung Ae brightly.

"Welcome back" Chung Ae chuckled, opening the door wide so that Naomi could half-drag August inside. Once Naomi had let go of her hood, August slipped off her shoes and begrudgingly placed them beside the other pairs of shoes. Behind her, Naomi followed suit.

"We came to a decision on our way back, didn't we August?" Naomi hinted, looking over pointedly at August, who ignored her. Rolling her eyes, Naomi leaned against the wall with her hands in her pockets. "She's going to confess, properly, to Minho after we debut" August made a little choking noise, but didn't say anything. Chung Ae could imagine August's reaction when she had first heard about this plan, and it involved quite a bit of blushing and yelling.

"After all, SHINee will be performing before us, since it's a big SM concert. Once all the known groups have performed, us and one other new group will be making our debut performances. It will be the perfect time" Naomi explained, smiling at Chung Ae. Returning with a grin of her own, Chung Ae glanced quickly at August to see her reaction. The confessor in question had already stalked off to her room, though. Probably to ask God why he was punishing her. It was something she did quite a bit.

"And if he says no?" Chung Ae, the unfortunate harbinger of the worst case scenario, asked.

"If I thought he would say no, I wouldn't encourage August to confess to him" Naomi intoned, offended that Chung Ae would think she could possibly put August in such an awful position. Nodding her head apologetically, Chung Ae rested against the wall opposite Naomi, mimicking her unni's position.

"I should make him something" August interrupted, coming out from her room with an apron tied around her waist. Memories of smoke alarms and panic filled Chung Ae's mind in an instant, and she lunged out to stop August. "I know how to bake! Honestly!" August protested, jumping out Chung Ae's grasp and bopping her gently on the head. Pretending to cry, Chung Ae clutched at her skull and whimpered. August was too busy heading for the kitchen to pay any attention, though.

"At least let us help you?" Naomi asked, drawing a dark glare from August. "Or supervise?" She corrected, pacifying August for the moment.

"Yeah. Sure" August muttered, opening one of the cupboards and pulling out a baking sheet.

Chapter 11 Note: I had so many ideas for fan fics that I found myself cramming them all into this single one. Hence why the plot is helter-skelter. I'll probably finish this fanfic up in a few more chapters, and then it's off to start my new one. Hopefully that will be less hectic plot-wise and also be less fluffy.