“Maybe you should, you know, give him a little push in the right direction.” Yunho placed a steaming cup of Korean red ginseng tea in front of Joon Myun.

Changmin intervened. “Ani. Just give him a good whack on the head and he’ll move on.”

Yunho smacked his dongsaeng’s back harshly. “What sort of advice is that to give our hoobae’s?” he chided.

On the other side of the room, Victoria, Kyuhyun and Seohyun sat down listening into the conversation.

The six people were in one of the smaller lounges of the SM building back in Korea, just chilling after a hard day at SM TOWN Taiwan. Seohyun walked towards the three men and sat down a careful distance away from Joon Myun.

“I don’t know if this is the right thing to say, but though I’m not sure of the complete story, I do know that right now Jong In’s girlfriend would be having a hard time.” Seohyun added quietly, attributing her five cents.

“How do you-” Changmin question but Victoria poked his side.

“Of course she knows. And she’s right you know.”

Now everyone turned to stare at Victoria. “Sunbaenim, how do you know?” Joon Myun asked, not taking his eyes off her.

Victoria rolled her eyes. “Just call me Victoria. And, I know because Sulli just had a lunch date with her.”

Joon Myun almost jumped out of his seat. “Lunch?” his voice raised. “Today? When?”

“Just now.” She confirmed solemnly. “Sulli waited for her after her hospital treatments and such. She and Sulli are coming back to the SM building now.” She gave Joon Myun a pointed stare. “Something Sulli emphasised that Jong In should not know about.”

But Joon Myun couldn’t care less about Jong In now.

“And how is she? Is she fine? Are the tests alright?” he peppered her with questions.

“Ji Min is fine i’m pretty sure but Sulli,” Victoria shook her head, “she’s not supposed to be out though, seeing as we just finished SM TOWN TAIWAN and we’re about to promote again.”

“Joon-ah.” Changmin slung an arm around his neck and proceeded to speak in his I’m-Changmin-the-god tone. The others rolled their eyes.

“Right now, the only person you should be focusing on is Jong In. No matter what, he is the person out of the couple that is on screen and on show so he has to look his best.”

Yunho nodded appreciatively. “My maknae gives some good advice.”

“I disagree.” Seohyun pointed out.

“If anything, Kai will be fine.” to make her point, she stood up. “Boys are always so blasé about girls and their feelings, but they have no idea just how distracting and painful it is for girls to go through a rough patch.”

Victoria nodded in agreement. “Yes,” she spoke up. “Seo is right. Guys are so... easy.” she made a face while the boys in the room whined loudly.

“Now now. You know it’s true. Break up with a girl and you’re over it in a month. But I can guarantee you that in ten years time any girl you meet will be able to recount every single boyfriend they’ve ever had.”

“We’re serious like that.” Seohyun and Victoria exchanged smiles, pleased with their small verbal epiphany.

Kyuhyun snorted, getting off his and putting in something for the first time.

“Yeah well I’m a guy and I’m a celebrity.”

They were all silent. “Your point is...?” Changmin was lost.

“You guys are so slow.” 

Victoria aimed a kick at his but missed.

“As celebrities, we don’t get enough personal love. As children we are taken away from our families and raised with people with similar to us. Sometimes,” he shrugged, “it’s damaging.”

“Can you honestly say that none of you have looked at someone normal and said ‘no, I don’t want someone normal’?”

The silence was their unanimous agreement; no.

Kyuhyun crossed his arms and sat back down. “Point made.”

“And...” he thought of another argument.

“I’ve dated before. I’ve had someone special in my life, and we all know that the way Jong In looks at Ji Min is different.”

Joon Myun shook his head. “But you’ve never seen them together hyung.” 

“Good point.” Kyuhyun raised his glass towards Joon Myun as the others groaned. “If you don’t know what you’re talking about, shut up!” Victoria shoved him.

His eyebrows raised. “I’ve never seen them together, but don’t you guys think that his mood swings are just a tad bit too big for a man?”

Changmin sighed. “I’m still not following.”

“And you’re supposed to be the smart one.” Kyuhyun sourly commented. 

“I mean, don’t you see the way sometimes he’s so out of it? His mind of obviously not with the people he’s around and he’s constantly glancing towards his bag in rehearsal - which i’m presuming has his phone in it - so... who else could it be but his girlfriend?”

“Ji Min doesn’t control his emotions like that.” Joon Myun disagreed. “It’s Jong Innie himself. Sometimes even when he hasn’t fought with her he just shuts us off. It’s one of his more frustrating complexes.” he admitted.

“Well then.” Yunho racked his minds for more thought-inspiring words. 

“Let’s vote.” he said loudly, shocking everyone.

“All for Jong Innie to make the first move say aye!” Seohyun, Victoria and surprisingly even Changmin raised their hands.

“And so I guess Kyuhyun and I are the minority. Joon Myun, do what you do as leader.” Yunho patted his shoulder and left the room, hoisting his big black duffle bag on his shoulder.

Joon Myun hesitated though.

“Joon Myun-ah.” Victoria softly smiled at the worried leader.

She sat down next to him, pushing a disgruntled Changmin over. “As a leader, you have to pave the way for your dongsaeng’s. But sometimes, the way you pave is based on what you would do. Not what they would do.”

“And the hard thing for the leaser is that you need to be able to put yourself in their shoes and make the choice that is right for them.”

Seohyun nodded and even Kyuhyun made a grunt of agreement at her intelligent insight.

“So you need to speak to Jong In yourself. He-”

“Actually - sorry Victoria for interrupting - but I think that you may not even need to speak to him.” Changmin’s eyes lit up as he though of something.

“Sometimes all that is needed is a tale of your own for example, your own story of your previous loves. Betcha that he’ll experience an epiphany and wake you up at four am one day and jump on your bed, telling you that he’s come to a decision.”

The more Changmin spoke the more the others got the feeling he was speaking from his own experience.

Joon Myun asked curiously, “And how do you know that’ll work sunbaenim?”

Changmin smiled distantly, the move was hollow and empty. 

“Because once upon a time I did that too to my hyung.”

No words were needed. The people knew just who he was talking about wasn’t Yunho. He was talking about the gentlest man in SM Town, the big appa of them all...

Kim Jae Joong.

-

“That was so awkward.” Seohyun whispered in a hushed tone as she hurried down the hallway to her dorm.

Victoria hushed her and nodded. “Yeah. You can tell that Changmin misses Jae Joong lots.”

SNSD’s maknae blushed in the darkness of the sunset. “Well, don’t we all? I mean, every single girl had a crush on Jae Joong oppa once upon a time.” Victoria chuckled, agreeing with her.

The two stopped at two doors opposite each other. 

Seohyun rested her hand on the handle of the SNSD dorm. She hesitated before quickly dragging a startled Victoria back into the public girl’s toilets beside the two opposite dorms.

“Unnie.” 

“Yeh? It’s getting late, what do you need?”

She ran her hands through her fringe, a nervous habit of hers. “I don’t want to be rude or pry into anything, but please watch out for Krystal’s behaviour.”

Before Victoria could assent to the opinion, she continued.

“Sica unnie is kind of worried about Soojung’s behaviour, as we all are,” she added, “and since SM TOWN Taiwan isn’t that far away, we can’t afford to have her slipping up.”

“You’re doing a great job.” she quickly added, “But the thing is that... well... personally, I see Jong In as a younger brother; he told me I remind him of his sister, and I do believe that he is very, very much in love or something similar with his girlfriend. He speaks of her tenderly and I would be very sad to his efforts go to waste.”

“But Soojung isn’t a bad girl.” 

Seohyun nodded fast. “Yes unnie, I know that, but sometimes... the lack of love we get, as Kyuhyun oppa said, does weird things to us. Jealousy... does weird things to people. Bad things.” she looked down the corridor, the darkness of the hallway and her words was starting to disturb her.

“Alright.” Victoria quickly pushed her towards the dorm door. “Sleep now. We have 

rehearsals tomorrow very early.”

Seohyun obeyed and opened the door to the SNSD dorms. “Goodnight unnie.” Victoria smiled and nodded back.

The moment Seohyun walked into the dorm, Sunny and Jessica sat in the kitchen chatting quietly. 

She didn’t know it, but Seohyun was staring. A few moments passed and Jessica turned to look at Seohyun. “You okay?” she asked. Seohyun blushed and nodded before rushing into her shared room.

“What’s with Seo?” Sunny asked.

Jessica held the mug to her lips, “No idea.”

-

Meanwhile, Victoria had just popped into her room for a quick shower when someone knocked impatiently on her door.

“Neh?” she called, clutching at her clothes. 

“Unni!” Krystal’s impatient voice drifted from the other side of the door. “Where is my straightener? Co-ordi unnie borrowed it for the music video filming and she said that she gave it to you.”

Victoria opened her drawer and took the straightener out. “I used it.” She warned. Her door opened suddenly and Krystal’s hand shot in and snatched it.

“Thanks.” She muttered before walking away.

Still deep in thought, Victoria was about to close her door when she heard Krystal mutter something in English, “Ew, why is there so much hair on it?”

She had no clue what her dongsaeng was saying, but knowing her personality, it was an unintentionally nasty comment.

Victoria sighed and ran a hand over her face.

Krystal was a little bit spoilt, she admitted, this was from being the baby of the SM company and from being the maknae of F(X). But there was no use changing her. That was just her personality.

But the leader was very concerned.

Dating was usually forbidden inside the SM building, but even if people were to date (which was generally a privilege only given to the seniors of the company), it was inside the company itself.

It seemed as if Krystal had taken that thought too far and was now desperate to claim Kim Jong In as her own.

But Victoria wondered if Krystal really did like him.

Krystal always cared about her image, and the more things she owned that other people didn’t the more she felt comfortable.

And Kim Jong In was known to be one of the most prized trainees since Jung Yunho of TVXQ.

Did that mean that Krystal wanted him as a… trophy?

She shook her head.

Although she refused to believe it, it was possible.

Victoria knew Krystal’s limit, and she had to admit, the girl did have a bloody long limit. However once she reached the limit, there was no turning back.

If Krystal went too far to get Kim Jong In… then it would rip the SM family apart.

From the inside… out.