It is already 10:22 p.m. at night, almost half an hour later than the estimated time Yuri and the boys are supposed to be at their dorm. Everyone is in the black minivan. She is so exhausted, having to have walked from places to places, the stress of making sure the boys are on time and especially at the fact that she had to make sure no one was left behind.

She lets out a long and tired sigh. How did Appa do this? No wonder he doesn’t have a set schedule.

“You must be tired, right?” Taemin asks.

She immediately smiles. She’s so happy that he’s worried about her. Her energy rises and with a bashful face, she says, “Oh, no. I am fine, thanks.”

Taemin responds back with a satisfied smile.

Minho catches this and scoffs in disgust with her shy acting. “She’s really shameless.”

Out of the blue, Key perks up from his gadget. He makes sure Yuri isn’t looking and listening, and he whispers to Onew, “Tonight’s the night, right?”

Onew confusingly looks back at Key. “Ha? What are you—” He realizes what Key means and shoves Jonghyun into the discussion. “Ya, we so totally forgot about her welcoming party!”

Jonghyun’s eyes beat up wide. I’ve been too focused on my problem that I forgot about it! With a menacing smile, he believes he will take this chance to ask her out on a “date.” “We’re definitely going to surprise her!”

“But we haven’t finished decorating the room,” Key whispers.

The trio starts thinking together.

Yuri sees them chatting secretly amongst themselves and asks, “What’s going on? Is something wrong?”

Jonghyun bluntly panics whereas Key and Onew maintain their posture.

Yuri becomes suspicious. “You guys…did something happen?”

Taemin and Minho also curiously look at the trio, wondering what they are doing.

There is a long pause, and each second seems to trigger Yuri’s anger meter. Just as she is about to explode, her cell phone rings and saves the explosion. “Eunhyuk Oppa!” She excitedly exclaims with a happy face.

Jonghyun takes this chance and pulls in Minho and Taemin closer. “Ya! The party! The party!”

Taemin remembers and snaps his fingers. “That’s right! I forgot about it too.”

Minho pulls away. “Didn’t I say that I’m not throwing one for her?”

Jonghyun clicks his tongue. “You were serious about it?”

Minho glares at Jonghyun. “Yes, I was, and I am sticking to it.”

Taemin leans in closer. “But, Hyung, we haven’t finished decorating.”

Key nods. “I just said that.”

Onew squeezes into the conversation. “We need someone to distract her while we finish decorating and getting things in order.”

“You guys are doing too much for one girl who doesn’t deserve this kind of greeting.” Minho monotonously inserts his opinion. Apparently, he is ignored as everyone else tries to come up with a plan. “Ya, did you guys—”

“Minho, you do it!” Taemin excitedly announces.

Minho raises an eyebrow.

The rest of the SHINee boys suddenly accept it as they cheer.

“That’s right! Minho, you do it,” says Onew, smiling.

“Do what?” Minho annoyingly asks, already not liking what he is going to hear.

Key sits up straight. “You’re going to help distract her for us. So, spend at least an hour or so with her.”

Minho stiffens.

Jonghyun chuckles and pats Minho on the back. “It should be no problem since you don’t want to decorate. We’ll be counting on you!”

Because it is a unanimous agreement, Minho had no choice but to accept.

As Yuri still happily talks to Eunhyuk on the phone, the four excited SHINee members happily discuss their plan.

Minho lies back on his seat, angry at what this event had made him get into. His eyes slowly trace to Yuri. You. Don’t think you’ve done well today. It was just an easy schedule. Because of you, I’ve got into messes I don’t want to get into. He finds pleasure in reprimanding her in his sinister mind. But as he looks at her, he sees a smile he hasn’t seen from her and becomes captivated.

“Yes, no need to worry,” she says to Eunhyuk over the phone. “I’ll properly eat and sleep, so stop worrying about me.”

Yes, yes. Whoever you are, you don’t need to worry about this troublesome girl. Minho rolls his eyes as he thinks about wanting to say this.

“Oppa,” Yuri’s voice changes.

Instead of the usual enthusiasm, Minho hears a low, sad, and worried tone and becomes curious at the sudden change of tone.

“…he…wants to…have dinner with me.”

Dinner? Eh, so even guys have disgusting and shameful tastes in girls like you? Minho becomes more attentive.

For the next few seconds, it seems that Yuri is paying close attention in listening to what her ‘oppa’ has to say. Just then, her head immediately raises and she looks around. She and Minho’s eyes catch one another.

Minho sees a worried expression. He slowly sits up straight and notices that her expression changes from being worried about being scared.

“…Oppa. I’ll text you later.” She immediately hangs up the phone, not averting her eyes from him. Did he hear? When did he started listening? I was so worried about the dinner with the President that as I spilled my worries to Eunhyuk Oppa, I forgot I was with the SHINee boys!

*

Yuri closes the door to the minivan as they finally approach their dorm’s front door. Before she walks with the boys inside the dormitories, she walks over to the driver. “Thank you for today! I’ll see you again!” She takes a step backwards and bows as the man drives away. When the car is out of sight, she lifts her head up and lets out a satisfied sigh.

“Okay, we can final—” When Yuri turns, the only person she sees is the person she least expected, “Minho?” She says his name with irritation, and Minho could tell, but he lets it slide. She looks around her and him. “Where are the rest of the members?”

“They rushed to the dorm,” he answers.

She frowns at this confusing scene. She blinks twice and walks past by him, not giving him a care. “They should’ve at least waited.”

As he stands and sees her walk past by him, mumbling to herself, her long silky black hair floats in the air and a few strands brush him. As the wind majestically floats her hair, it carries the scent to him, and it is a nice floral scent. He slightly catches a close look at her side face and somehow, his heart skips a beat. He reaches to touch his heart, worried.

I’ve seen her face up close before, so…

“…Yah!”

Her shout brings him back to reality.

“What are you doing standing there for? We should get going, too.” She is in front of the sliding doors of the dorm building. She scratches her head and turns to the glass door. “They must’ve been in a rush.” As she takes a step into the building, she is stopped by him.

“You can’t go in.” He walks toward her. “At least, not yet.”

She becomes pissed. “I’m tired. I’m exhausted. I’m sleepy. Don’t tell me what to do.”

He doesn’t like her tone of voice. “It’s not like I asked for this.”

She scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Look, I don’t know why you don’t want to go in, but I do. Can we not have an argument right now? I don’t—” She remembers something. She had decided that she will apologize to him for her attitude earlier in the morning.

“What? Too scared to finish what you want to say?” He snickers.

“..rry.” She looks down.

Her voice is too low, so he doesn’t hear. He thinks that she is cursing him, so he becomes more pissed. “I can’t hear you!” He mocks her in a sing-song voice.

“…rry.” Her voice is just a tad bit louder but still isn’t clear enough.

He clicks his tongue and leans in, hoping she’d be irritated. “What?” he continues in a sing-song voice.

There is about a three to five-second pause from Yuri. After that, she inhales and then, with all her might, she explodes with anger, “I SAID I AM SORRY YOU BIG, FAT IDIOT! HOW DEAF ARE YOU?!”

Because of the sudden and unexpected loud shout from her, he immediately backs away as his earlobes ring. He covers his ears, although he clearly hears what she had yelled out.

When she finished saying what she said, she pants, grasping for air.

He freezes, trying to comprehend and repeat the contradictory words she had said. Did she just say ‘sorry’ and ‘idiot’ in one sentence together?

Before he comes to a conclusion, Yuri angrily walks to Minho, pulls him by his collar and looks straight into his eyes. “You!!!”

Minho blinks, though, not scared.

“Even though I resolved to be nice and apologized for what I had thoughtlessly said and unintentionally hurt you that morning, you just had to mock me and pissed me off!” She shoves him back and puts her hands on her hips. “What kind of heartless man are you? I can’t believe that for one second, I thought you could be a nice guy.”

Minho blushes as he hears this. It is so unexpected.

Yuri brushes her hair back with her hands. “This will be the first and last sorry you’ll get from me!” She loudly exhales, expressing her anger. “I don’t care anymore. I’m going to my room.”

Minho stands there, watching her leave the scene. She…she was blushing, right?

*

Yuri enters the dorm building angrily, ignoring Minho’s shouting of her name. She’s so upset because Minho made fun of her when she was sincerely apologizing to him. Though, I guess it’s partly my fault for not being loud enough. She stops walking midway. Did he really hear what I was trying to say? She shrugs as she decides to give it up and continues to head into the elevator into her dorm room.

Inside the elevator, she receives a text from her friend, Hyoyeon, assuring her of their reliance. She smiles as she sighs. She feels much better. That’s right. I have Hyoyeon unni and Eunyuk oppa to rely on. The elevator doors slide open, and she walks onto the floor. She heads up the stairs. While walking, she hears laughing familiar voices from up the stairs. “Taemin? Onew?”

“I’m done with this,” says Taemin, happily standing in front of their dorm’s door, which was opened, having the word “Happy” hanging on top of the door. As he is about to turn to make way to enter the room, he sees Yuri on the steps of the stairs. He freezes, not believing what he’s seeing. “Y-Yuri?” he whispers, nervously.

She walks over to him and reads the hanging word. “Happy?” She turns to look at him. “‘Happy,’ what?”

Taemin doesn’t know how to answer. He stutters as he debates to tell her that it’s for her, or to distract her. But how am I going to distract her?

“YURI?!” Key shouts from inside the room. “Eh? Why-why are you here? It’s not time!” He drops the decorations he is holding and heads to where Taemin and Yuri are standing. Along with him are Onew in a wheelchair and Jonghyun, not believing Key.

Yuri becomes flustered at the sudden close-up. “Eh? You guys are preparing for some event?”

Key scowls and looks at the stairs/ “No sight of Minho! He! He must’ve—”

Yuri takes a step back and claps. “Oh, my goodness! I didn’t know! I’m so sorry! I-I’ll go back!” She quickly runs down the stairs, making a lot of noises.

The SHINee boys sigh.

“Are we going to continue decorating?” Taemin asks, using his puppy eyes to Key, Jonghyun, and Onew, expressing that he wants to continue decorating.

Key and Jonghyun look around the room.

Jonghyun scratches his neck. “Well, since we’re this far, let’s just continue. Besides, she’s going to pretend that she didn’t see this, so we’ll go along with it.”

“That Minho! Seriously. Even if he doesn’t want to help, at least do us the favor of keeping her distracted.” Key cracks his knuckles. “He’s going to pay for all the hard work that I put into surprising her!”

Taemin chuckles. “Actually, you did the least amount of work. You only—”

“Do you want to continue decorating?”

Taemin pouts. “Great. Sadistic Key is here.”

*

Minho and Yuri have been in the Dorm’s waiting room downstairs for almost an hour. They don’t speak to one another and don’t look at one another. The atmosphere is complete awkwardness.

She must’ve seen it. There’s no doubt. She had seen what they were planning to do for her. Minho is sitting on the gray leather sofa. But how come there wasn’t any reaction when she came downstairs? He inhales as he sits up straight. No, she did have a reaction…but an unexpected one.

He slowly steals a glance at her, who is sitting across from him. She seems to be in her own thoughts. She doesn’t look happy. When she came down the stairs and saw me sitting here, her expression changed to being shy as she slowly and uncomfortably walked over and sat on that sofa. Ever since then, she didn’t look at me—wait, it’s not like I want her to, but…

He crosses his legs. Was the decorations that bad?

She fidgets around with her fingers as she thinks to herself. I am so stupid! I failed as a manager! Wait—are managers supposed to know about these kind of information? How am I going to tell Minho when we don’t get along?

She frowns as she desperately thinks of scenarios to tell him. Ah! How about right after the surprise, I say it? No, wait. Actually, I wasn’t informed of this surprise so I can’t actually stay long enough to say it.

“Let’s get going.” Minho stands up from his seat.

She looks up at him. “We should wait—”

“I’ve received an O.K. text.”

“Oh, okay.” She nervously chuckles. That’s weird. He’s not questioning or angry about getting to stay here?

The two enter the elevator and quietly wait until they’ve reached their floor.

“Hurry up or I’ll leave you here,” Minho says, as he stops a few meters in front of her.

But I haven’t thought of a way to say it to you yet!!! She bites her lower lip.

“Suit yourself.” He walks up the stairs.

“WAIT!” She rushes over to him, almost pushing him over.

He angrily stands up from the almost-fall. “Are you crazy? What was that for?”

She flinches. “Well, sorry,” she sarcastically retorts. No, I mustn’t get mad. At least, not for today. When she sees him ignoring her by walking up a step, she grabs his arm. “Please!”

“What now?” he monotonously asks, sounding irritated.

This is probably what they want me to do in this situation. “Mi-Minho ssi.”

Minho, surprised at the sudden change of her voice from being angry to being kind, turns over to look at her. “Why are you speaking formally now?” Did she hit her head back then?

“I’m sorry, but this is the best I can do.”

“Huh? What are—” He can’t finish his words because her hands slowly covered his eyes from behind. “YAH!” He panics. “WHAT! WHAT ARE—”

Although he is struggling, she manages to keep him close. “WAIT! There’s a reason for this.”

He stops struggling, wanting to hear her out.

“Give me five to ten minutes.”

Her hands are hot. She’s trembling, too. Her hands…are soft. And small. Ya! What am I thinking at a time like this? “Why five to ten minutes? Actually, why are you—”

“THIS WILL BE MY PRESENT FOR YOU!”

“Pre-present?” he asks, totally confused.

She sighs. Her voice returns back to normal, the irritating voice that she usually uses to him. “Look, can we just hurry this up.” Wah! I’m blushing!? Goodness! “There are a total of…” She starts to count the stairs’ steps. “Ah, a total of twenty-seven steps. Let’s go.” She takes a step, forcing him to walk with her guidance.

I don’t like the situation right now. They both think to themselves.

*

The four members in charge of decorating the party align themselves in a line in front of the door, patiently waiting for Minho to bring in the VIP. But to the surprise, it’s the opposite.

They are not expecting Minho to Yuri up the stairs, but they also do not expect her to assist him up the stairs. What’s even more profound is that she has her hands covering his eyes. They know she has misunderstand that the party she saw them prepared earlier is for Minho.

“Wait, the party is for—” Before Taemin can explain the situation, he is given a praising nod from an ecstatic and proud Yuri.

Key whispers to them, “The person who should be welcomed is doing the welcoming.”

“And the person who doesn’t want to welcome,” adds Onew, “is getting welcomed.”

Taemin and Jonghyun subtly shake their heads in the irony.

Yuri and Minho arrive at the top step. She continues to guide him to the members. She whispers to the four standing men and tells them to start at her cue. “One. Two. Three!” She releases her hands over Minho’s eyes, and she takes a step away.

Minho looks around the place. He is standing in front of s, who give him a blank expression. He quickly turns around to face Yuri.

Yuri, not wanting to miss any chance, begins to sing. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday…to…you…” Her voice slowly trails off at the end because she is the only one singing the song. “What’s wrong?” She gasps and covers . “You can’t judge me! I’ve never gotten professional voice lessons, and I’m a dancer!”

Taemin shakes his head. “No, it’s not that, Yuri.”

Minho presses a hand over his forehead as he looks away. He understands the situation now.

“The party is for you,” explains Taemin. “It’s not a birthday party, and it’s not his birthday either.” He points to the man in front of him. “It’s a welcoming party.”

She blinks a couple of times. She then points to the banner above their heads. “But it says, ‘Happy’…”

Key closes his eyes and grits his teeth. “I told you it’d cause confusion!”

Jonghyun, the culprit, awkwardly chuckles. “Well, we couldn’t find “Welcome,” so we had to use that. And who’d knew that she’d see it before we get to surprise her?”

The men sigh in sync.

“Anyway,” says Taemin, smiling. “Welcome to your new place, Yuri.”

*

Everyone is sitting around a coffee table enjoying their cake and talking to one another. The foods present are cake, pizza, chips. soda and kimchi.

“When did you guys find time to make the kimchi?” Yuri asks, looking at Onew who is sitting in the wheelchair beside her.

Onew chuckles. “We didn’t, actually. We asked our dorm lady to help.”

I knew it. Oh well. Can’t help it. Yuri smiles. “When you see