“Taecyeon oppa.”

Taecyeon becomes attentive as he hears the Yuri in the video says his name, surprising him.

“I believe you are the first friend I actually made when I first came to SM Entertainment.” Yuri laughs to herself, covering . “Do you still remember how we met?!” She then covers her cheeks, showing that she’s blushing and embarrassed. “I can’t believe I met you crying in the elevator. I wish I could’ve shown you a much brighter and happier first impression. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She exhales and puts down her shoulders. “I want to thank you for letting me—a stranger at the time—cry onto your jacket. Looking back now, I needed that.” She slightly bows in the video.

“Is she doing a ‘thank-you’ video to Taecyeon only?” Key asks, annoyed, feeling cheated of his stamina, work, and time. He is hushed by his nearby friends who want to hear more.

“That also reminds me. That day at Seoul Park. I had a lot of fun despite what happened.” She frowns and points at the camera. “How dare you pushed me down the fountain! You were lucky that I didn’t get sick.” She ends the ‘thank-you’ with a laugh and clap.

She composes herself. “Next person is…” She does a cheap drum roll dance. “Sica eonni!” She flashes out both of her palms, showing her happiness. “The second friend I made at the agency, and the first friend I made as one of the SM Family. The day you helped give me a tour when Appa wasn’t able to do so saved my life!” She lets out a relieved sigh as she sarcastically pretends to wipe off sweat off of her forehead. “At the time, I was so confused at what to do…and because of some personal reason, I was a bit losing it because Appa…”

She begins to trail off, but soon comes back on track. “Anyway, I felt like I had another sister that I can look up to. I’m sorry if I was too needy or too reliant of you, but thanks for everything you’ve done.” She slightly bows again, too.

Key points at the display of the video. “Ya, even if she’s thanking you guys, why does it feel so weird?”

No one answers, but once again, he is hushed.

What kind of thank you video is this? Minho silently agrees with Key. Is she going to thank me too?

“Taemin.” Yuri slightly bows, making the idols confused as she didn’t do that to Taecyeon and Jessica. “I’m going to be honest with you right now.”

Everyone anxiously waits for Yuri to continue. They find it interesting because her face is so serious.

“I…when I was told to be your guys’ new dance teacher, I researched all of you because I didn’t know you guys at all.” She looks away bashfully and then back at the recorder, “When I read that you are the best at dancing in the group, I immediately had a crush on you.”

Hearing this, everyone starts making noises and a commotion for the two, embarrassing Taemin.

“But—” Yuri stops. She is hesitating if she should say the next thing or not. “But…I came to a conclusion that the reason why I liked you was…probably because you shared a similar hobby.”

“That doesn’t mean that I don’t like you; in fact, I admire you instead. Seeing you dance gives me a lot of motivation.” Yuri bows again, ending her honest thoughts of the young member. She puts her index finger onto her chin. She does a loud sigh. “This person. We so totally didn’t get along, so I don’t think I’ll say anything about you here.”

“Aish! This girl! How dare she skipped me!” Minho angrily shouts.

Taecyeon slaps his knee. “Ah, that’s right. You guys really didn’t get along.” He frowns. “Wait, then how did you two—”

“But I guess that was due to a misunderstanding, huh,” continues Yuri, “as we both agreed on that day.” She points her index finger at the camcorder. She then claps. “Speaking of that day, it was so funny! If you were to think about it, if it weren’t for that misunderstanding, we probably would’ve never solved our personal misunderstanding!” She laughs it off. “I’m thankful that we’re friends now. Thank you.” Once again, she ends her honest thoughts about Minho with a slight bow.

“This next person is…Yoona eonni.” Yuri says, surprising everyone.

They are surprised because of the little interaction the two have together.

Reading their minds, Yuri continues. “You guys must be shocked that I also have one for Yoona eonni, right? Well, don’t be.” Her voice then changes from a happy tone to a serious tone. “Eonni. I’m very glad Minho has you for a girlfriend. You two seem perfect for one another. You’re kind. Pretty. Patient. To be honest, when I first met you and heard you talk to him, I found myself, to my surprise, that I wanted to be able to speak with him the way you do, too.”

Minho and Yoona look at one another.

Minho lets out a sigh and looks back at the video. I didn’t know that she was thinking that. God, I must’ve been a total jerk to her. He brushes his hair with his hand, feeling angry at himself.

“Hearing about your guys’ date made me want to see if Minho’s a romantic guy, but—” Yuri winks, “I guess you’ll be the only girl who’ll know, right?” She laughs and then slightly bows. “Please watch over our Flaming Charisma Minho!” She looks around the room, pretending to look bored and tired.. “Well, I don’t want you guys to look at this video all day long, so I’ll just lump the next people together. Onew and Key.”

Key scoffs at what he gets. “What’s this? Everyone has their solo thank-you comments, and we both have to share?” Before he gets hushed, he hushed himself.

“For one thing that I’m very disappointed at myself was…I didn’t do a good job at managing and taking care of you guys. The day my father left at the airport, which was the day I was supposed to be taking care of you guys, I was the one who was making you guys taking care of me by having an asthma attack.” She bites her lower lips in frustration thinking about it. “You guys must’ve thought to yourselves, ‘ah, what kind of manager is this, making the idols taking care of her?’ right?”

“Yes! Yes!” Key shouts, answering Yuri’s rhetorical question.

She bows deeply, making Key and everyone open their mouths in disbelief. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t a good manager at the start, but I hope that I was able to be one now. As for Onew oppa. I’m very glad that your sprained leg is getting better each day. You always thank me whenever we practice walking in the dance room, but you always forget to thank the most important person—you! Because of you, I was always able to feel as if I’m doing better at my job at watching over you all as a manager. Thank you for everything.” She bows once again.

She fixes her hair and then pauses. “So, with that said, let me get straight to the point.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot about the game.” Jessica laughs. “I was so into hearing what she—” her comment is interrupted when the video ends with a slideshow filled with Yuri’s selca.

The selca of Yuri is on the left side and on the right side of the picture, words start to rise up and everyone reads it to themselves.

“I’m glad I’ve got to know and spend time with the best idols of the world! Before I came to the idol world, I wasn’t even a fan. But because of a personal misfortune, I became a manager, being introduced to the world of idols. As a manager, I made friends I never thought would be possible. I’m glad to have had this chance. But unfortunately, this chance will end.”

Everyone anxiously waits for the next words to pop up. It finally comes after a short, but what seemed to be a long, pause.

“Starting today, I will no longer work at SM Entertainment. I want you, my fabulous friends, to be the first to know about my decision. I also would like for all of us to throw away what we had for the last two months. Good bye, and take care.”

Everyone crowds near the laptop and the display, not believing what they’ve just read.

“Yuri Kwon.” Minho quietly whispers as he reads the name following the ending. “What game are you playing with us now?

*

The stranger has left the room minutes ago, leaving the idols to slowly come to understand and accept what had happened. The light is back on, and no one speaks. No one moves. No one asks questions. All they could do is look at one another’s facial expression and see that they’re all confused and no one knows why Yuri did all of this.

Jessica’s elbow is on the table and her palm balances her chin. She looks up and glances around. “Does this mean that…she left during the game?”

Mouths open in realization. The idols start to be livelier than before.

“But Jonghyun hyung said that she left to get something, didn’t you?” Taemin glances at Jessica to Jonghyun.

Jonghyun feels the attention he’s getting and doesn’t like it. He tries to smile, but it seems too awkward. He tries to speak, but all he does is stutter. Nervous, he scoots back, thinking no one sees it. “Look. That’s-that’s what Y-Yuri told me.” Idiot! Didn’t I say bad news after good news?!

“You know something, don’t you?” Minho says, a tone that implies he’s not asking, but that he knows. “What happened during the game when it was just you two in here, accomplice?” He says Jonghyun’s ‘nickname’ for the day given by Yuri and emphasizes it with a raised brow.

“Nothing. Nothing, of course.” Jonghyun starts to sweat again. Why do I have to do this? That’s right. She said it’s because I was one of the first few friends she made when she came here, so she trusts me.

He looks at Taecyeon and Jessica.

But in the video she also said the two of them were her first friends, too! Why didn’t she ask them to do this!?

“What did you two talk about?” Minho goes straight to investigating. “There’s a reason why she called you ‘accomplice’ today, right? It’s for today’s ‘game,’ isn’t it?”

Everyone looks back and forth between the two men. They sense Minho’s anger and frustration and Jonghyun’s fear.

“Minho ah, Jonghyun probably—” Taecyeon tries to stop Minho, but is interrupted.

Minho glares at Jonghyun, who isn’t looking at anyone. “If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t be so quiet; in fact, you’d be speaking with us normally. What do you have to hide?”

Almost everyone sighs. The tension in the room rises. The girls hold their hands and hope that nothing bad breaks out.

“It’s true.” The Jonghyun that has been quiet for almost two minutes finally speaks. “As soon as you guys were out, she told me a few things.”

“What is it?’ Jessica’s sweet angelic voice resonates in his ears.

Jonghyun exhales and turns around to courageously face the idols. This is my job, and I will do it! “She’s quitting because of her personal reasons—she didn’t tell me what they are, even though I desperately tried to stop her from quitting and leaving!”

He defends himself, raising his voice in panic. “I didn’t know any of this beforehand until the video was played. All I know and was told is…” He guilty looks around the room at his idol friends. “To finish the game by letting you see the message video she recorded beforehand. ‘That is the prize’, she said.”

“So, you were named accomplice just for this particular reason? This is your job? To further explain this?” Onew asks politely.

Jonghyun nods.

Minho slams the table with his hand.

The loud noise makes everyone jumps and focus on him.

“Ya! Why didn’t you stop her! You should’ve done everything you could to not let her go!? Why didn’t you come get us?”

Taecyeon immediately stands up and goes over to calm Minho down. “Minho. Jonghyun already said that he did his best and also tried to convince her.”

Minho stands up and pulls Taecyeon’s jacket. “No! If I had known, I would’ve done more than just convince her to stay!”

Because it seems that the situation between Taecyeon and Minho would get worse, everyone starts to come over and split them up. Taecyeon seems much calmer than Minho, though.

Jonghyun scratchs his head and sighs. “There’s more to it, too.” Am I adding fuel to the fire, or am I starting the fire? “I accidently told Yuri about her father’s death.” He immediately looks at everyone’s expression.

There is a pause.

Everyone seems to have been frozen. No one moves. Even the commotion between Taecyeon and Minho and the people helping them, stops.

Minho, still grabbing onto Taecyeon’s jacket slowly lets go as his anger is suppressed by the next shocking comment by Jonghyun. “What…what did you say?”

Everyone faces Jonghyun, hoping that they had misheard it.

“I told her about her father.” Jonghyun becomes flustered again. “I thought…I thought she remembered, but…”

“I just said that she’s having snippets of it in the car!” Minho snaps, shouting. “She…!”

“Ya!” Jonghyun stands up from his seat. “Do you think it’s easy being in the middle of all of this? Do you?!” He starts pointing his finger at everyone. “I was doing my best! Trying with all my might! But did you know what she said with tears in her eyes, and a voice that seems so hopeless? She said that I was the one she can only trust to do this job!”

His feelings of the whole entire matter are finally expressed. He’s not angry at anyone. He’s just frustrated at the situation.

Finally understanding that the person who’s most affected by it is Jonghyun, they look away, some still standing, and some slowly moving back to their seats.

Onew nervously sits up straight. He hopes his question wouldn’t cause anything. “So, no one knows where Yuri is right now?”

*

Standing at the front desk of Lee Soo Man’s secretary, she taps her fingers, patiently waiting to see when Lee Soo Man will be free to have a personal conversation with her. The secretary is currently flipping through pages and looking through files to see any openings. Finally, she looks up, but it doesn’t seem promising.

“Yuri ssi, if you’re willing to wait, the time he’ll be free is around eight. But you’ll have approximately only about fifteen minutes as he’ll have to gather information for the SHINee’s promotions starting next week. Is that okay?”

Yuri sighs as she takes a step away. This isn’t going as planned. I got here as soon as I can, right after I explained everything to Jonghyun, but it I were to wait that long, the idols would reach me before I am gone! “Do you think it’s possible for him to end things sooner?”

The secretary looks back down at her papers. With an audible inhale, she says, “No…I’m sorry.” She gives a warm smile to Yuri. “The meetings he has today are with important businessmen. The worst-case scenario is it might be extended. I can schedule an appointment for you, though.” She grabs a nearby pen. “Would you like that?

Yuri tries to smile her way through. “No, that’s fine.” I don’t want to come back here! I want to finish this today. “I’ll just wait here. Is that okay?”

The secretary politely points at the couches set near the windows. “Sure, if you’d like to.”

Yuri nods, embarrassed. “Thanks.” She slowly walks over to the couches and sits on the one that is beside the long couch placed in front of the window. I can keep a lookout on who’s entering the building. If I see them, I’m just going to make a run for it. She eyes the door just a few meters across from her. The room she hopes she’ll be able to enter today to have a talk with her father.

Today, we’re going to get to the bottom of this…Appa.

*

“No, turn left! I’m pretty sure it’s left from here, Hyung.” Taemin points to the left as he directs Key in the car. Taemin is leaning forward from his seat as he is sitting in the back while Jonghyun sits in the front with Key.

Everyone has left the restaurant, doing a hurried search for Yuri to have a talk with her about everything.

Jonghyun turns his upper body towards Key. “No, I remember it’s the next stop that we’ll turn left.”

Taemin shakes his head. “Hyung, if we go that way, we’ll end up at her school.”

“That’s where we want to go,” Key says, going into the straight lane instead of the turning left lane.

Taemin taps Key’s shoulder. “But, today’s Saturday. Who’d be at school today? “

Jonghyun and Key finally remember. Apparently, it seems that everybody has forgotten what kind of day today is and has assumed that Yuri has left straight to school.

“How else would Yuri had the day to spend with us?”

Key looks behind his shoulder and glares at Taemin. “Ya, why didn’t you tell us in the first place?”

At this loud shout, Taemin immediately drops back to sit into his seat, head looking out the windows.

Key taps Jonghyun. “Call the others and tell them to—aish, they’re here.” He looks up at the rear-view mirror and sees Taecyeon’s car behind them. “Tell them we have to make a u-turn up there, and that the first place we have to check is her house.”

Jonghyun takes out his cell phone and starts dialing Minho’s number. While dialing, his hands are trembling. Yuri ah, what are you doing?

*

At the SM agency, an hour and a half has passed and there has been no sign of the President waltzing into his personal office.

Yuri has gotten a bit tiring of waiting, but whenever she thinks of what she’s planning to say, she gets motivated again. Just a little longer. He’ll come. She looks out the window.

There is no sign of Taecyeon’s car or Key’s car arriving to the place.

Please, please don’t come here yet.

*

Key slowly drives in the residential area, looking for Yuri’s house.

They finally made it to the place, and all they have to do now is look for the house.

Taecyeon and the others are doing the same thing, except, in a different block.

“Tell me when to stop,” Key says, looking in the front side of the road while his two band mates search frantically for the correct house.

Taemin’s head is popped out of the left window, looking left and right. “Why do all of these houses have porches, too?” He sounds annoyed.

Jonghyun, same thing as Taemin, is looking on the right side. “But isn’t their porch a dark brown color?”

“That’s the color I remembered too,” Key says, stopping at a stop sign.

Suddenly, Jonghyun’s phone vibrates. He sits into his chair comfortably and picks up his cell phone. “Yeah?” There are a few okays, lefts, rights, no’s, etc. between Jonghyun and the person he’s talking to, which is probably Minho. After he hangs up, he tells Key, “They’ve found the house. It’s two blocks from here. We’ll know it when we see their car.”

Taemin sits into his chair and rolls up the window. “Finally,” he says, exhausted. He touches his forehead. “I’m so hot! The sun’s burning my forehead.”

A few minutes later, Key’s car finally arrives at Yuri’s place, parking in the driveway behind Taecyeon’s car. Everyone gets out and forms a circle behind a tall tree with shade near the porch to hide their identity and, of course, for some shade and cool air.

Jonghyun stretches and looks around. “Did you guys ring the doorbell?”

“She probably hasn’t arrived yet,” Taecyeon answers.

“Or maybe she’s in, but knows that it’s us and pretends to not be home.” Key asserts his theory, putting his keys into his pockets.

Taemin sits down on the green grassy floor. “Should we wait for her then?”

“But what if she really isn’t here?” Jessica asks, sounding concerned.

“Then, where can she really be?” Yoona simultaneously asks and answers Jessica’s question.

Jonghyun snaps his fingers, “If she’s not here and can’t be at school, the only place I’m pretty sure she’ll be at is at her friends’ house.”

A few people start to sigh real loud, as if that is pointless and useless.

“What?” Jonghyun asks, a bit offended and lost. “Isn’t it true, though?”

Minho puts a hand on Jonghyun’s shoulder. “Dude, the only problem with that is...”

“…we do