“Kamsamida,” I tell the driver as he drove off, leaving me outside a tall building that looked like a pillar of glass. It was a rectangular building with glass doors and glass windows that transitioned from a white frosty colour to an alternating shade of aquamarine blue and ocean blue.

It didn’t take me long to figure out where I was--I was at the SM Entertainment Headquarters-- home to Super Junior, Girls Generation, SHINee and my new housemates, EXO.

I sighed at the thought of them.

Two weeks back I had imagined this day to be the happiest day of my life. I was meant to be in a state of euphoria; be giddy with excitement at the thought of being so close to meeting my boys, my biases, my BTS.

But that all evaporated along with my dreams of speaking face-to-face with them and cracking jokes together when I found out I was going undercover as a housekeeper. And not just any housekeeper-- it had to be EXO’s housekeeper.

“Stupid Richard,” I muttered to myself as I dragged my suitcases towards the entrance of the building. “And stupid Hyemi for breaking her damn leg.”

Just as I was about to cross the road, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket.

“Hello?” I answered without looking at the caller ID.

“Hey Mirei!” said the caller from the other line. It was Nikka. “Was your flight to Seoul okay?”

I let out a grunt to express my disdain. “It would have been better if I was actually doing the interview I was looking forward to doing.”

I heard Nikka snicker from the other end. “Oh c’mon. Are you still angry at me? You know I didn’t have a choice. Richard asked me to do it.”

“Yeah, but you could have said no!” I half-shouted. “Honestly, why do you always get the good stories. It’s so unfair.”

“Life’s unfair, honey,” Nikka says in that oh-so patronising tone. “But hey, at least you’ll be in South Korea for a year. You can treat it like a holiday.”

“How can I treat it as a holiday if I’m a housekeeper?” I hissed. “And what’s worse, I’ll be staying with an idol group that’s rivals with my fandom: it’s like I’m betraying my biases.”

“Stop being so melodramatic” I heard Nikka say casually. “They’re K-pop idols and they look all the same anyway. Just think of how you can rub it in Hyemi’s face when you get back to the UK.”

“Hey, how dare you say my biases are in the same league as EXO!” I retorted. “I’ll have you know that the BTS members are sooo much cuter than any other idol out there. Especially EXO.”

Nikka sniggered, “Yeah, sure. Cute. In girl language, that translates to being on par with baby animals and children. Mirei, what you need is a man-- not a boy.”

“Oh, shut up,” I tell Nikka irritatedly. Nikka was one of those people who just knew how to wind you up. “I’m already in a bad mood because of Richard. Don’t annoy me too.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry, my bad.” Nikka apologised. “But on a serious note, will you be okay with being undercover and all? I mean, last time we spoke you said your Korean was so-so.”

“It is so-so,” I answered exasperatedly. “I literally spent the past week trying to cram as much Korean in as possible. I’m so rusty-- you have no idea.” I paused, “And that’s another thing I hate you for. You don’t have to do any extra work ’cause Rapmon can speak English!”

"I know.” Nikka’s voice sounded smug. “But surely the idols you’ll be living with will know some English?”

I thought for a second. “To be honest, I’m not sure. I mean, I heard they had an English speaking member but, apparently he’s already left the group.”

Nikka was silent on the other end.

“Mirei” I heard Nikka say finally.

“Yeah?”

“You’re so screwed.”

“Hey. Don’t say that. You’re gonna make me panic.” I complained.

“Well, you know what?”

“What?”

“YOLO!” Nikka shouted. “You can always pretend you’re foreign or something. Say you’re from China or Thailand--you look the part anyway.”

“Haha, very funny,” I answered unenthusiastically. “And FYI, I am foreign. Regardless of my ethnicity.”

“Yeah,” Nikka agreed. “But still, it’s more believable than saying you’re from Britain. Isn’t that why Richard sent you?”

I shrugged at his comment. “I guess so. Well, he couldn’t very well send you. You’d stick out like a sore thumb.”

“Uh, correction. A beautiful sore thumb.” Nikka added sassily. “Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be flying out to Seoul soon so, let’s meet up, okay?”

I looked across the street and saw that there was a man looking around. Maybe he was the person I was supposed to meet?

“Yeah, I’ll see you then,” I replied, before hanging up.

“Excuse me!” I call after the guy in the best Korean I can muster. He was wearing a white polo shirt and skinny black jeans. They were fitted ti