“Come in Nichkhun,”

The thai in question composed himself, patting down his silver suit and dark hair, before entering his manager’s office. Except it wasn’t his manager sitting in the large cushioned chair, instead an american man with thinning hair and a guarded expression had his hands clasped on the glass table. Nichkhun opened his mouth to question but the man spoke before. 

“Sorry, your manager is out today,” the man said in korean with a heavy accent, though he seemed comfortable enough in the language that the accent shouldn’t have been that prominent. 

“Who are you?” Nichkhun hadn’t meant for it to come out so rude, so he quickly stuttered over his words to actually say that. He didn’t stutter, this man’s presence was overwhelming. Speaking of the man, he didn’t seem offended at all. He just tilted his head to the side, and his naturally narrow eyes seemed to examine the idol as if he was looking at a particularly puzzling art piece. Nichkhun waited for an answer, when he didn’t get one for two minutes, he started tapping his foot in an attempt to signal the other man to speak. The man raised his eyebrows but finally responded.

“I am your stand-in manager,” the man said. Looking at Nichkhun’s unimpressed look he added, “For the entire group,”. Nichkhun still waited, fixing a polite yet ‘go on’ look on the man to coax him into saying his name “Name’s TT,”

“TT,” Nichkhun tested out the name, it sounded like a stage name for an idol, perhaps this man was more invested into korean culture then he looked like. 

“Trevor Tate,” TT further supplied, giving a professional smile as if he was just checking in on employees. Trevor gestured to the seat in front of him energetically, before snapping back to his previous positions with his hands together on the table and proper, yet relaxed posture. He truly acted like someone in the american music industry, but Nichkhun was sure there was more to the man than the way he acted. Trevor’s actions were calculated and precise, he would make a good dancer, Nichkhun mused as he sat down and was eye level with the other man. “Tell me about your members,”

“Huh,” Nichkhun felt dumb at his response, but he was surprised at the question. Why did this strange, new man want to know about s?

“I want to get a feel of who I’m working with, you know?” Trevor must’ve seen his skepticism. The man may be speaking korean flawlessly (except the accent) but his vocabulary still seemed very western. Not that it was a bad thing, but Trevor seemed to keep contradicting whatever information Nichkhun gathered or assumed. He shook his head, it didn’t feel right to judge a random stranger who had probably been handpicked by JYP himself.

“Who do you want to know about?” despite Nichkhun battling to get rid of his judgemental thoughts, he couldn’t keep the dry tone out of his voice. Again, he shot an apologetic smile which went unnoticed by Trevor. 

“Let’s start with Ok Taecyeon, he’s a beast of a man.” Trevor only murmured the last part but Nickhun laughed anyway. 

“Taecyeon’s devoted to this group, he may seem like he’s goofing off but he’s quite responsible actually,” Nichkhun couldn’t help the warm facial expression that slipped on to his face. s were like family to him, and when thinking of them there was always a little bit of pride that spread from his chest to his head and toes and the tips of his fingers. Even when he was teasing them, or mad at them, it was hard to ignore how attached he had grown to them. 

“So like the leader?” Trevor questioned, there was no hint of any sort of feeling on the american’s face aside from a sharp look in his eyes. 

Nichkhun frowned at the question, pausing to think. “No,” he said slowly, finger still tapping his chin. “We don’t have a leader, we did once but he left.”  Trevor didn’t seem surprised, he barely moved in his position aside from his eyes which continuously examined Nichkhun’s every move. The man seemed more like a disconnected psychologist than a manager. Nichkhun cleared his throat, and strived to talk again, he wasn’t a fan of awkward pauses. “But if we did have to pick a leader, it would probably be him or Minjun as they are the ones who take the lead most often.”

“Kim Minjun,” Trevor tested out the word, glancing at a small paper that was encircled by his hands therefore hiding it from Nichkhun’s view. “The oldest, yes, please tell me about him next.”

“As you may know, age is pretty important here in Korea,” Nichkhun started. His lips twitched up as he thought about how much the country had become a home to him, of course Thailand was still in his heart. But lately, it seemed like Korea had also carved a small nook there after years of learning the culture and living there it almost seemed like Nichkhun had just just simply grown up here. Almost. “So he takes it as a responsibility to look after the group, he’s always there making sure everything and everyone is doing fine. He could be the leader as equally as Taecyeon,”

“Rivalry,” Trevor murmured. 

“No,” Nichkhun’s eyebrows drew together, he wasn’t often this abrupt, he liked to take his time with his words. “There is no rivalry, because there is no leader. They both are on an equal footing and none above the other overall,”

“You seem defensive,” Trevor raised an eyebrow at Nichkhun’s version of an outburst. The latter shook his head, and asked whether he should continue or talk about someone else. Trevor didn’t reply for a while, as if still processing the information he had gotten and mentally jotting it down somewhere in his brain. Then he looked at the paper again, eyes going up and down from top to bottom. “Lee Junho, he’s quite popular.”

“Junho can be like a mother and a kid. He’s an enigma, he’s fiercely protective of family.” Nichkhun recalled the glare Junho had fixed on Jaebeom when he was leaving, it hadn’t been out of actual anger (at least Nichkhun thought) but instead it spoke of ‘why are you leaving? You’re breaking us,’. The betrayal had been clear on his face, yet Junho had never blamed Jay or any of the members for any of what had happened even if it still affected them to this day, such a long while later. “He doesn’t trust easy, but he’s not one to unnecessarily hate either, he’s reasonable even with his very strong feelings.”

“Jang Wooyoung,” Trevor says without pause this time, what an odd man. He glances at the small watch on his fair wrist. “Hurry,”

“He’s talented, but he’s exhausted. He’s also funny, he and Taecyeon would probably be the most humorous pair. Sometimes, you’d think he’s the maknae. He’s also sweet, and is ready to cheer up anyone, or just listen.” Nichkhun listed frantically, Trevor’s ‘hurry’ had startled him and he couldn’t help but quickly obey. 

“Hwang Chansung,”

“He may not seem like it, but he is the youngest. We look after him, he pranks but he can be very mature. He’s very good at concealing his feelings actually, and is like a rock. Sturdy and reliable, but he’s also like water, can slip through your fingers-”

“You really love analogies,” Trevor noted. Nichkhun blushed, it was a habit he’d developed from school. He’d been really good in english and his teacher had encouraged him to apply it to real life as well. Nichkhun had just been about to continue but Trevor wasn’t looking at him anymore, instead down at the paper though still his focus was lost. The man was thinking, his fingers clasped tightly together. Then he looked up and his blue eyes bore into Nichkhun’s. “What about you?”

“Me?” 

“Tell me about you as well,”

“I’m just me,” Nichkhun struggled to find words. Unlike the others, he….He didn’t have a set role, he was just, there. “I’m the polite, silent one, I suppose,”

Trevor cocked his head to the side and the Thai had a feeling that his unsureness didn’t go unnoticed. They sat there for a few minutes, in tense silence as Trevor once again seemed to be lost in thought and Nichkhun had joined him. Who was he? He didn’t even know himself, and all those years writing about himself in english had been erased from his mind. Even if they weren’t, he wasn’t the same person, was he?

“Well I have got to be somewhere,” Trevor stood up, took another look at his watch and then fixed a look on Nichkhun. “Thank you for your time.”