The sound of my phone vibrating woke me up like an incessant alarm.

I groaned. What time was it? But then, it didn’t really matter. I wouldn’t have gotten up if it weren’t for my stomach which was growling like it had a mind of its own. Amidst all the kerfuffle last night, I had forgotten to eat dinner. And now, my stomach was gnawing at my insides in protest.

“Okay, okay” I said giving in, “I’ll go and get us some food.”

As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I noticed how peaceful the dorm was. There was not a single EXO member in sight.

“They must have left for practice already” I say out loud. I strolled towards the kitchen and found that they had left me some scrambled eggs and toast. And a pile of dirty plates too.

After I had finished breakfast and had tidied up, I decided to spend my day doing research for my report. If it was a good scoop Richard wanted, it was a good scoop he was going to get. And this time, I was going to make sure that he would remember my name by the sheer quality of it.

I opened my laptop and started searching for all the gossip I could find about EXO. If anything, the first place to consult was the internet. As I scrolled down endless articles and threads from obsessed fans, I was able to garner very little juicy gossip that was merit-worthy. All I could find were favourite pairings like ChanBaek, HunHan and Chenmin. And they were all fan fictions.

I sighed, “Maybe I might have better luck with YouTube?” I turned to YouTube and started watching a couple of their interviews from the past year. I was about to give up when I came across an interview that some of the members did very recently.

It was a fancam video so the quality wasn’t good but, it was clear enough for me to see that it was an interview with Chen, Xiumin, Sehun and D.O.

“So this question is for you, D.O-ssi,” said the interviewer, “there are rumours going around that you may have a secret girlfriend.”

D.O gave a shy laugh, “No, that’s just a misunderstanding.”

The interview teased further, “Would you care to elaborate? I’m sure your fans are dying to have your statement on this.”

D.O cleared his throat, “I was on my way home from a film rehearsal and found out one of my colleague’s car had broken down. It was already late at night so I asked my manager if we could give her a ride. Like I said, it was just a misunderstanding when a fan suddenly spotted us and took that picture of us together.”

“You mean this picture?” asked the interview and he gestured towards a plasma screen TV behind him.

“Yes.”

The interviewer gave an acknowledging nod. “Are you always this nice to all the girls you meet?”

“D.O-ah is always like that” Chen replied for him. “But it sometimes gets him into trouble.”

“Oh?” The interviewer expressed his interest clearly.

“Because D.O-ah is a very straightforward person, most girls mistake his kindness as interest.”

“And it also doesn’t help that our D.O-ah has those heart-shaped lips. I heard girls say that they’re really hypnotising” added Xiumin.

The interviewer and the other members instinctively turned to D.O’s direction where he was smiling unintentionally.

“Wow, they really are heart-shaped!” exclaimed the interviewer. He cleared his throat, “So, tell us more about your ideal woman...”

The video finished before I could find out any more. I slammed my laptop shut, out of frustration. I had spent a good three hours surfing the net and had nothing to show for it.

But then, a thought came to me. I was alone at the dorm right now. If anything, now was a good time to snoop around the members’ rooms to see if they had left anything of interest. Who knows, maybe guys keep diaries too?

With cat-like reflexes, I tiptoed to each of the rooms and checked if any of them were open. But like yesterday, all the doors were locked. In defeat, I started making my way back to my room when I suddenly spotted an extra doorknob in between two doors.

I didn’t notice it before but, there was another door which had been camouflaged by being the same colour as the walls.

I shuffled towards it and tried the doorknob. It twisted open. The door creaked as I glanced inside. Stale air greeted my nostrils and dust danced across my face as I fumbled for the light switch. Once I’d finally found it, the light illuminated the room to reveal what was hidden inside.

A mountain of stuffed toys occupied half the room. There were stacks of what looked like letters in one corner and posters hung on the walls like paintings. On the other side, an open wardrobe revealed racks of what looked like American football gear and, red Mickey Mouse hats. But, it was only when I saw life-sized cutouts of the EXO members, did I realise what this room was: it was EXO’s fan stash.

“Daebak!” I muttered. I was getting better at my Korean.

I looked around and admired all the things around me. They were gifts from fans. Loving fans who probably risked their limbs to get them to their stans. And here they were, stored away, in EXO’s cupboard space. I didn’t know how I felt about this. Would I have been happy if I had found out that my bias had kept my gift in a dusty storage room? It was like putting someone’s feelings away and not properly cherishing them.

I picked up a toy penguin and patted away the dust bunnies which clung to its white belly. It looked so lonely by itself on the floor. “I’ll put you with the rest of your friends,” I said, as I put the toy next to a white tiger and a lamb.

This might be a good place to start with my report, I contemplated. No one really knows what happens to fans’ gifts when they reached their idols. I guess I was the first to find out.

I was about to grab my camera, from my room, when one of the posters on the wall caught my eye. It was a black and white poster of all the EXO members wearing what I supposed to be school uniforms. The words ‘TEAM XOXO FIRST YEAR’ was written across a banner, that hung above their heads. I stared at the poster in fascination. The members looked different there. And there were some faces that I didn’t recognize.

“Nine, ten, eleven, twelve.” I finished counting. There were twelve members altogether. But who were the four I hadn’t seen before?

Ggggrgrrrrrrrr.

My stomach growled for my attention. “You’re hungry, already?” I asked it as if it was its own separate person. “But we jus