Chapter One: Midnight Crashers

January 2019

Naeun felt exhausted. She had been up since early morning. Back to back photoshoots for magazine covers filled most of her day, while the remaining was spent in their company’s dance and recording studios. Not the kind to slack off, she’s always looking for more ways to improve her singing and dancing abilities.

Too tired to even care about her image, she let out a loud yawn and lazily pressed the code of their apartment door. She was instantly greeted by the aroma of freshly baked cookies. Frowning, she checked the time on her watch. It was fifteen minutes past midnight.

“Hayoung and Eunji-unnie are still up?” She muttered to herself. They had just recently finished the two-week promotion of their single “%% (eung eung).” She was surprised that her friends were not taking advantage of their limited free time to get some beauty sleep. They only had little time to rest and relax before the start of their Apink Japan Live Pink Collection tour

After carefully placing her stilettos in the shoe cabinet, she wore her house slippers and padded softly towards the kitchen. Now that she remembered, she had once again unintentionally skipped her meals. She only had water and a few bites of snacks in between her activities.

She stopped on her tracks when she heard Eunji’s laughter and the sound of strangely familiar male voices. They seemed to be debating over something.

That’s strange, she thought. Who would be in their apartment around this time? The male voice didn’t sound like their manager. Besides, there were two distinct voices not just one.

Passing the dining room, she stepped cautiously into the kitchen. She saw Eunji sitting lazily on one of the high stools while Hayoung was busy washing something by the sink. Aside from them, two men were looking over a tray of cookies, a half-bitten cookie in each of their hands. The two were none other than SHINee’s Key and Minho.

“I told you, didn’t I? You put too much flour. Now the cookies came out dry,” complained Key.

“I did not,” Minho argued, furrowing his brows. “The recipe said two cups so I put two.”

Key took another bite from his cookie and grimaced before claiming that Minho, being the overachiever that he is, overfilled the measuring cup. The two were very invested in their conversation that they didn’t notice her presence. It was Eunji that saw her first.

“Naeun-ah, you’re here!” Eunji brimmed and hopped off her seat to greet her. Her friend’s enthusiastic greeting made Key and Minho stop. Two pairs of eyes were instantly locked on her.

“Hi!” Key greeted in English while Minho did the same in Korean. They were dressed casually, a contrast from their usual stage outfits.

“Annyeonghaseyo,” she greeted back politely, masking her confusion regarding the entire situation.

This, their groups hanging out together, used to be a common occurrence in the past, but it had been a while since it last happened so the current state of affairs were confusing to her.

“Yah! Why are you speaking so formally?” asked Minho, stuffing another cookie in his mouth. “We are friends after all,” he added.

Key nodded in agreement.

She just smiled and turned to Eunji, and then to Hayoung who was now drying her hands using the kitchen towel.

She gave them a questioning look in a way that only they could understand. Over the years, they had learned how to communicate through their eyes and subtle facial expressions, which was very helpful when they were on stage or being watched by cameras. She was sure that other idol groups had their own ways of communicating too.

“Unnie, did you eat?” Hayoung asked.

“We made some kimchi stew with pork belly,” added Eunji. It was obvious they were purposely ignoring her questions.

Slightly comforted by the idea of food, she decided to save her questions for later. Besides, they couldn’t openly converse with Minho and Key present.