“Alright Tank Girl, this was your idea. Now, what?” Sophie asked me in amusement as we entered Teddy’s vacant studio. It was currently lunch time and the producers working with Teddy left their post at the mixers of the studio to eat out. After a strenuous work out with Sophie this morning I managed to convince her to hang out for awhile before she resumes her training for her monthly assessment with Boss and some of the staff from YG. I texted Teddy before sauntering inside his studio if we can use it for awhile so Sophie and I can have some privacy since he and his producers were out for awhile. When I received a text from him after taking a shower post – work out with Ssabu – nim, I quickly replied to his text (asking why the hell Sophie and I need privacy in the first place) a text of my own bearing only two words: girl talk. Of course, this text received the reply that I’m after which was a go signal from him and an additional favor to not leave his studio a mess after we had our girl talk, or in his words, “Can you please not leave my studio cluttered with used tissues and food to sate your estrogen induced binge eating while watching chick flicks? Have mercy on the other guys.”

So here we are inside Teddy’s studio, with Sophie staring at me, an amused yet expectant look on her face while I stopped in front of the black couch at the far back of the room and stared at the mixers and computers before sighing and ungracefully plopping down the couch. “No clue. I just wanted to hang out with you today but I’m so exhausted from working out that I can’t come up with anything.” I told her dejectedly with a pout forming in my face. “I could be rehearsing right now instead of sitting here with you, you know. Be productive. You do know what that means right Spencer?” Sophie told me in a teasing manner which I responded with a glare at her direction as she sat cross legged beside me on the couch. “Shut up. You missed me Cruz.” She rolled her eyes at my petulant tone and nudged my side using her foot. “Hey! I just took a shower!” I told her in a warning tone as I inched away from Sophie and her very dirty sneakers. “Could’ve fooled me.” She said with an impish smile before leaning back against the arm rest of the couch as I grumbled and brushed off the dirt that smudged on my shirt from her sneakers. And to think I just had this washed last weekend. Stupid Sophie Cruz.

“Anyway, I guess it’s a good thing that you convinced me to take a breather for awhile before I start practicing again. I didn’t know how exhausted I’ve been for the past week until now.” Sophie gave out a relieved groan as she slid down the couch and made herself more comfortable, throwing an arm over her eyes as her body relaxed beside me. I sighed internally since any hope of getting the smudge out was futile already after she brought me back from my thoughts with her comment. “Well you’ve been practicing non – stop since last week and I heard from Evan that you haven’t been getting enough sleep as well. I’m sure your body’s really straining itself right now.” I told her in concern as I watched her doze off next to me. “I’ll have my day off after my monthly assessment anyway. I’ll just catch up on sleep then.” She replied to me with a sigh. “I guess, but I know how you are. You’re even worse than our own manager. I’m sure when you find something wrong with your performance you won’t rest until you’re satisfied with it.” She smiled at this and lifted her arm over her eyes to glance at me. “You know me so well Spencer. But sadly, I have a mother hen living at my apartment right now so I won’t be able to train myself to death with him around. Evan will most likely nag me to death, so with him around, I don’t think I’d be able to dance or sing at home until I get enough sleep.”

“I’m so happy that I don’t live with you guys. I might end up killing myself or Evan if I did.” I told her, smirking to myself at the idea of waking up everyday to Evan nagging me to eat with my back straight or to not chew while my mouth is closed and whatever etiquette rule that he can come up with from his education when he was a wee little boy. “Of course you are. You’re neighbors with Jiyong after all. But then again, he and Seungri sort of make you cook for them most of the time so I guess that’s not really a better living situation in comparison to mine.” She pointed out to me.

A few months after I started training, the truth about where I was living came out due to my own stupid mouth. Our sunbae’s homes weren’t really a secret to us trainees since there are times when they’d be nice and invite us over for a party or to hang out. This is why when I mentioned the same apartment building where Kush, Seungri, Jiyong and Boss are living when Evan asked me where I was living so we could have a girls’ night out, it wasn’t really hard for him and the others to put two and two together. I was actually surprised when I didn’t really get the reaction from them that I was dreading. Although some thought that I was being shady by keeping it a secret, most of the trainees didn’t really mind. Especially since I found out, there are other trainees who live in a more expensive apartment complex than I am. I’m just glad the tension that Jiyong warned me about the first time I met him officially as my neighbor didn’t occur.

“Ugh. You have no idea. Sometimes I’ll just wake up with my fridge emptied out. They’re like ing blackholes.” I told her with a groan which my friend only laughed at. “Anyway I’m just hoping that I don’t up the monthly assessment with sajangnim.” Sophie admitted to me quietly as she toyed around with her lip ring bringing back our conversation to the dreaded monthly assessment that Sophie’s about to have in a few days. “Of course you won’t. You’re an amazing singer and dancer, not to mention you’ve been working your off for the past week just to get this number right.” I told her, trying to console Sophie from her worrying due to her perfectionist tendencies. However I couldn’t help myself in recalling my own experience on the monthly assessment with Boss that happened last week. I sighed deeply when I remembered his comments regarding my slow progress and his doubts at my capabilities but before I can completely sulk, Sophie pulled me out of it by rousing me from my thoughts. “Hey, how are you supposed to distract me if you’re going to mope around?” She asked me, giving me her famous lopsided smile which I returned with my own. “Sorry. Couldn’t help it. I kind of didn’t have a great performance.” I gave a sigh and slapped my thighs before giving my friend a long look. “Anyway, how about we see who has the better aim between the two of us? I bet I'll beat you at a game of paper basketball.” Sophie snorted at this and muttered, “That is the most ridiculous name I’ve heard for a game ever.” I ignored her jibe at my game’s name and rooted around my bag for my sketchbook.

While I was busy looking for extra scraps of paper inside my knapsack that we can use for our game of paper basketball, Sophie told me in a soft voice, “Norah, I know that your last assessment didn’t go as planned but for what it’s worth I know that you would’ve been able to rock that Kendrick Lamar song if you just got the time to shake off your nerves. I mean, come on you’ve been singing and rapping that song for two weeks just to get it right.” I threw her a grateful smile over my shoulder before straightening up with my sketchbook and a couple of unused tissues I found in my knapsack. “Thanks.” I added even if deep inside I didn’t wholly agree with what Sophie told me especially since Boss’ words are still fresh in my head. “Here crumple this into a ball for me will you?” I told Sophie as I handed out to her the tissues while I opened my sketchbook and tore out scratch papers to do the same.

It didn’t take us long to start the petty game I came up with and the one right after which Sophie came up with when winning points in managing to shoot a crumpled paper into one of Teddy’s trash bins started to become really boring (which happened as soon as the game started). For every crumpled paper that each one of us gets to toss inside the bin, the other player has to confess a truth. And when the crumpled paper misses the bin, the one who tossed it has to be the one to confess an even more embarrassing truth to the other player. Which I am unfortunately forced to do more than Sophie due to my ing horrible aim. What the hell was I thinking? This was the reason I never tried out for the basketball team back in High School despite my desire to sport a cute basketball jersey with my last name as well as the prestigious varsity jacket that only jocks in our school got to wear. And of course the fact that I can’t jump as high as I want to for me to reach the bloody ring. “Alright Spencer, cough it up. Your last confession wasn’t even THAT embarrassing. Give me a really good one.” Sophie told me in a mock reprimand tone, juggling three crumpled papers in the air easily while I burrowed further the couch we were in, to hide from the inevitable fact that I had to tell Sophie some sort of humiliating confession to make up for the sad excuse of a confession I did last time I missed my ing target. “Fine. But don’t tell anyone. YET. I’m still sort of preparing myself for Bom Unnie’s lecture once she finds out but I did something really embarrassing on my first date with Sehun.” Sophie’s juggling was quickly ignored once she heard the term embarrassing, first date and Sehun. “Holy . This is golden. I didn’t know you already went out with Sehun.” She told me, her eyes open wide in surprise as she turned her entire body to face mine. I nodded and cringed visibly when I recalled Sehun’s expression and his band mates reaction as well at what I did. I gave a mock sob at Sophie and started begging for her not to force me to tell her the story but she gave me a firm no and a pointed look. “Too late Norah. You might as well fess up. Do it like you’re taking out a band aid. After all, I’ve been friends with you for such a long time already, I’m used to you talking a mile a minute.” She gave me a positively wicked smile. “I’m waaaaiiiittttinnnngggg.” I glared at the sing song voice she’s using to gaud me and sighed in frustration. “Fine. But I’ll tell you the entire story of how my date happened since I might as well hit two birds with one stone. I don’t really care for repeating this story ever again to you, I’m sure it’s going to be painful enough the first time.” After this I took a deep breath and recounted everything that happened for my first date with Sehun (and my first date ever).

“Ok, uhm I didn’t really tell anyone that I already had my date with Sehun. I intentionally kept it a secret from you guys since I didn’t want to feel pressured that it’s my first date. EVER.” Sophie opened to contradict what I told her but I held up my hand to stop her and wagged a finger at her face to show her that I’m not through. “I know you guys mean well but seriously if I told you that I WAS going on a date, you’d start bombarding me with things that I should say or how I should act. I wanted to be myself and not worry about the fact that I’m not flirty enough or I’m being too obvious and desperate at my actions. Although now that I think about it, my plan didn’t go as well as expected.”

“So what happened? Did he take you out on a fancy restaurant or something? Went out and drank bubble tea again?” Sophie asked me curiously, as she leaned her head against the back rest of the couch while she listened to my story. “Well we didn’t really go out at a fancy restaurant since we have to be careful for his image but we did have a fancy dinner. And surprisingly we didn’t have any bubble tea the entire night.” My friend snorted at this. “Don’t tell me, he had their dorm cleaned out so you can have your date there to avoid the prying eyes of his fans who would go nuts at the sight of you two together.”

“Actually, it wasn’t in his dorm. You know SM Entertainment’s new building right?” I waited for her nod before continuing on. “Well they have this underground parking lot and after Sehun picked me up from my place, we headed straight there. He requested that one level of the underground parking lot be cleared for our date so we’d have a bit of privacy. When we got there, there was a round dinner table in the middle of the parking lot with fancy dinner setting. You know, with table napkins and tons of utensils that I only had an inkling of which to use due to watching Princess Diaries. One and two.” I did the hand symbols for the number one and two at this with a grin. “Thankfully I wasn’t underdressed or anything. He sort of just led me out of the car and did gentlemanly gestures like pulling out my chair as well as offer me a table napkin before he sat down across from me. I was actually quite shocked since I thought that it was just the two of us and I was wondering how we were going to eat, but it turns out that the other members of EXO were helping him out and not just Lu Han who acted as our chauffer for the evening.” I gave Sophie a rueful smile and shake of my head when I told her what Sehun admitted to me. “He told me that he didn’t exactly know how to give me a memorable first date without going out. He actually apologized to me that he can’t take me out to a fancy restaurant or any place that I’d like to go to for my first date.”

“So the date at the car park wasn’t his idea?” Sophie asked me as I moved my body to copy her position on my end of the couch and  face her properly. I shook my head no and did a fake cough to mask the name of the person behind the idea of my first date with Sehun. “Leeteuk.” I grinned when Sophie raised her eyebrows at this little bit of information. “So Sehun kind of asked help from s to recreate a fine dining restaurant at SM’s underground parking lot. He had Suho, Lay, Kai, Tao and Baekhyun serve us the five course meal he chose for our dinner and then you know those restaurants that had a band playing at the background? We had that too. Chanyeol and Kris were playing instruments while Chen, Xiumin and D.O. took turns singing. It was insane really, all of them were there watching us have our first date.” Sophie laughed at my chagrined tone and patted my leg in a there – there way, making me narrow my eyes at her and give her a look of disbelief. “At first it was really awkward since I feel really shy with having 5 good looking guys serving me various plates of fancy food while the other five serenaded the two of us. But eventually I got to ignore it since Sehun kept the conversation going for the both of us which was really sweet since before it’s usually me who kept on babbling when we’d meet up for bubble tea with Lu Han and Kibum.”

“I have a feeling that the embarrassing part’s about to come up.” Sophie told me in amusement which I had to sigh to. She knows me so well. “Yeah, it is.” I let out a deep sigh and willed myself to go on. “So we’re having a fancy dinner right?”

“Right.” She replied to me quickly, obviously anticipating the humiliating part of my evening. “So like I said we were having a fancy dinner, which means instead of having our usual bubble tea, Sehun and I were drinking Moet.” At her look of confusion, I explained to her that I mentioned once to Sehun that I’ve always wanted to try the famous drink and he was sweet enough to remember buying us a bottle for me to try on our first date. “Since he was trying to help me become more comfortable as we ate dinner, Sehun started talking to me about his family. Like random stuff about them and I kind of did the same to return the favor. I don’t know why I even mentioned it, but I told him this funny story about me and my older sister.”

“Oh no.” Sophie muttered getting an idea where my story was headed knowing how I get when I try to tell a funny story. “You know how I get right? I couldn’t stop giggling and I wasn’t even half way done telling the ing story. I tried my best to calm down but I couldn’t help it, I kept laughing my off. And of course in my stupidity, I thought drinking the rest of my Moet would help me stifle my laughter but instead I snorted it out of my nose when I started laughing again cause I remembered my sister’s facial expression.” Sophie was snickering beside me at the mental picture I gave her, of expensive champagne dripping down my nose while I tried to contain my laughter. “I bet the other EXO members stopped in whatever they were doing when that happened and were trying to suppress their laughter.” She commented in between her snickering. “To be fair, Suho tried offering me water and the others were kind enough not to laugh at me. But it was so humiliating especially since the dining table’s linen was white and it was obviously not just some cheap dining set. I tried offering to have it dry cleaned but Sehun just waved off my offer and gave out a jibe of never telling a funny story ever again. Especially with any kind of fluid nearby.” I admitted to her, recalling how sweet and gracious Sehun was after my humiliating episode which in turn made me remember all the embarrassing things I did after that incident I just told Sophie. Eyes gleaming in mischief, Sophie pointed out to me the fact that I look like there’s more to the story. I tried to deny it and move on to our forgotten game but she waved me off and said, “No, it’s not nothing and you’re really stupid if you think I’ll let you off after seeing that look.”

“What look? There wasn’t any look.” I told her, trying in vain to press the crumpled paper in her hand for her turn. Sophie raised her eyebrow at me and closed her fist on the crumpled paper before easily shooting it inside the throw bin while I stared and gaped at her stupidly. “I win. And I’m talking about that pinched look on your face that you get when you remember something disgusting or humiliating, so go on, I’m waiting.” I tried to argue but she beat me to it and pointed out that I promised her an afternoon of girl talk that will distract her from her impending monthly assessment. “Think about it, what would distract me more than the fact that you humiliated yourself in your first date. That’s priceless! So now, talk! And you promised me a no – holds barred girl talk and right now, I don’t see any talk just a lot of you barring me from the bliss of knowing your humiliation.”

“You’re such a nice friend.” I sarcastically commented to her before telling her every sordid detail about the rest of our date including the time I tripped in my heels and landed on my knees when I tried to stand up from my seat during dinner as well as the time I knocked heads with Sehun when we set up the laptop and projector for the movie we were going to watch after dinner. “Hang on, are you telling me that Oh Sehun actually managed to recreate an outdoor car park cinema in SM’s parking lot for you?” Sophie asked me, looking impressed at what I told her. “Well he said that he’s always wanted to bring out a girl to the movies and he knows that I love watching films so he tried to make one for me. And yes, we were sitting inside the car he used to pick me up while we watched the movie.” I replied as I cleared the rest of our clutter since our game of paper basketball is clearly over. “Not bad. So what did you watch?” Sophie asked me, the unhelpful bastard not even lifting a finger as she watched me clean up for both our messes. “Oh, we watched Zero Dark Thirty.” My matter of fact statement making Sophie chuckle in amusement. “This is why I like you Norah. You are one of the few girls I know who can actually admit that a dramatized version of the man hunt for Bin Laden counts as a movie for a date in their book.”

“What? It was awesome. It will never be not awesome when I watch it again. Sehun actually said that he had to choose the most non – psycho film from the films he copied from my hard drive for our date and settled for Zero Dark Thirty. I guess it’s my fault for not lending him my other hard drive with all the chick flicks and feel good films that I have.” I admitted to her, equally amused at the idea of watching Womb for our date and what would Sehun’s reaction will be. When I watched it with Jiyong Oppa he kept cursing at me because I told him that it was a touching film which I pointed out was still true despite the fact that there’s cloning involved. “You must have it bad then.” Sophie commented as she stared at me with a bemused look on her face. “Hmm?” I gave her a questioning look as I lifted my feet up to place at her lap. “You were smiling to yourself like a moron. Were you thinking about your boyfriiiiieeennndddd?” She asked me, drawing out the last vowel and consonant of the word boyfriend to tease me. “No.” I pointed out to her with a roll of my eyes but decided against mentioning to her that remembering Jiyong’s reaction to the movie we watched was the reason I smiled in the first place. I’m pretty sure thinking of my old crush while discussing my first date with another guy is a bad sign. YES I WILL BE FIRM IN MY BELIEF THAT I ALREADY GOT OVER MY CRUSH ON MY MANAGER/ BEST FRIEND/ SUNBAE/ WORK MATE/ NEIGHBOR. Wasn’t the point of me dating Sehun, to get over my crush on him to avoid any embarrassing confessions and a tense friendship with Jiyong in the first place? “Can we move on from this topic before anyone comes back from their lunch? I don’t want Bom Unnie to find out yet. I’m still not fully prepared for any reaction that would come out of Park Bom.” I requested with a self – deprecating smile which Sophie just nodded to.

“Enough about me, how about –“ My question was cut off when my ringtone for Seungri Oppa’s text or call,  Birthday Song by 2 Chainz suddenly started playing in my phone. “Saved by the big booty hoe.” Sophie told me with a smirk, taking out her own phone to check for any messages or notifications. I tried to suppress my laughter before picking up the call from Seungri. “Hello?”

“Norah? Can you come over our place for a second? Dami Noona just dropped off your children and she gave me a list of things that they need after she left them. I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do.” He told me in a rush with the sound of barking accompanying his panicked statement from the other end of the line. “Did you try calling or texting Jiyong Oppa? They’re his dogs, remember?” I told him pointedly with a roll of my eyes. “I tried but he won’t answer his phone. And he’s not at home. Can you just please help me? They behave when you’re around and they actually resemble dogs once you get them to listen to you. Right now all I can see are spit, teeth and gums from all the barking that these two are doing.” He grumbled at me petulantly, making me sigh in exasperation. “FINE. I’ll go and help you but you better be cooking dinner tonight because I’m tired from my work out session and you’re making me take care of your dogs.”

“They’re not MY dogs. They are JIYONG HYUNG’s dogs. Besides aren’t they your babies?” Seungri pointed out to me, trying to imitate my voice in the end by cooing at the word babies. “Yeah, yeah. I would’ve kidnapped them from you guys the first chance that I got but your leader would skin me alive if I did despite the fact that his dogs love me more.” I replied to him smugly. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. Don’t worry and try feeding them first, it might be the reason why they’ve kept barking at you.” I ended the call with Seungri and gave an apologetic look to Sophie who has been watching this exchange in amusement after she finished checking her own texts. “It’s cool. I’ve got to get back to rehearsing anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow yeah?” I nodded at her before leaning in to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. When I was about to open the door to step out of the studio, I was stopped in my tracks when I heard Sophie call out to me, “Norah?”

“Yeah?” I replied over my shoulder with a curious look at my friend. “I’m not teasing or anything but will you be seeing Sehun again?” She asked me in reply, throwing me off guard at the serious tone of her voice. “Uhm. I guess, he said he wanted to take me out to Hongdae one of these days. Why?” She gave me a long look that I couldn’t figure out before shrugging and mumbling, “Nothing, just asking.” I gave her a weirded out look as I pulled open the door and left. 

What's up everyone!

I'm back :) it's already my term break and I finally got time to write some more for this fic again. Although to be honest, I had a hard time completing this chapter because I'm still hung up on my thesis hahahaha I hope you liked it and the following chapter will be posted soon. Thank you so much for subscribing and I would really love to hear what you think about the story, so feel free to comment <3

YOU GUYS ARE GOLDEN :D

- Rexiefauliks

PS. Are you guys excited for Taeyang's comeback??? wsaogfasnlkjnfadskjnsfdgkj bfg;a2wdhna not to mention the release of Ji's MV for Who You? EEEP!!!!