I heard footsteps and loud voices outside the bathroom. Quickly putting my toothbrush back in my backpack and spraying a bit of mint breath spray into my mouth to make sure the scent of vomit was out, I washed my hands and put on some lotion before darting out of the bathroom.

“Ooof!” I let out a grunt as I collided with someone rushing past the bathroom. I saw Leeteuk give me a startled glance before muttering, “Sorry, my bad,” and continuing on after the pack of boys already at the front door.

I briefly marveled at this display of his command of his words compared to our last encounter as I followed him, chasing down the group as they made their way down the driveway to two large vans idling end-to-end. The sea of boys parted, dividing themselves equally between the two vans. “Ryn, hurry up!” Alex hollered at me from the passenger’s seat of the front one, sitting next to a stern-looking older man. Tightening my backpack straps, I jumped into the van, wondering where I was going to sit in such a crowded vehicle.

“Ryn, come here,” Henry said, patting his lap from the seat closest to the door. Grateful, I sat and let him wrap a safety arm around my waist, remembering how close we used to be. Sure, it felt awkward, but at least I had somewhere to sit. He tightened his grip on me, acting as a human seat belt, and started to listen to his iPod.

From the other seat, Leeteuk was staring at me curiously, and again I felt like I was trapped in a zoo cage. As the van got noisier as it started to move, I decided to risk a small wave. “Hi, Leeteuk,” I said meekly in Korean, bowing my head a bit.

Leeteuk looked exceptionally perplexed. “Leeteuk?” he asked, eyebrows drawn.

I nodded. “You…name…Leeteuk?” I queried in my terrible Korean.

He shook his head, now looking really confused. “No, my name is Zhou Mi.”

I rolled my eyes. But then the sound of his name clicked something in my head. My eyes widened. Maybe this is why his words sounded so good earlier! Darn you, language confusion! “Your name sounds Chinese. Are you from China?” I asked in Chinese.

A smile broke out on his face. “Yes, I am!” he exclaimed in Chinese. “How do you know Chinese so well?”

“Well, I grew up learning Chinese, so it’s pretty easy for me.” I grinned, now noting the stark difference between this tall, shaggy- and red-haired man and short, blond Leeteuk. “Sorry about confusing you for Leeteuk, you guys look exactly alike.”

“Don’t worry, we get confused all the time, especially by foreign fans. Speaking of which,” he looked me up and down again, noting my current seat, “how do you know Henry?”

“He’s my brother. My name’s Taryn,” I replied, offering my hand.

He shook it. “Nice to meet you, Taryn.”

“So, sorry if I’m being blunt, but if Super Junior is a Korean group, why are their two Chinese-speaking guys in the group?” I asked carefully, absentmindedly playing with my sweatshirt sleeve.

“There’s a subgroup called Super Junior M which Henry and I are both a part of. Some of the other members are too. We sing Mandarin songs, and our main audience is the Chinese population,” he replied, running a hand through his hair. "Strange, I thought Henry would have told you."

Before I could reply, I noticed that the entire van had gone quiet. Startled, I looked around. The five members who had climbed into this van were staring at me with slightly blank looks, brows furrowed. I turned to Henry, who had an amused look on his face as he continued to blast music into his ears. Warily, I asked Zhou Mi, “Why are they all staring at us?”

“Probably because they didn’t know you spoke Chinese,” he whispered back. Then he said something in Korean which I didn’t pick up.

The bedhead one sitting in the back suddenly beamed and shot a rapid question back at Zhou Mi, who replied in turn, looking pleased. Then Bedhead turned to me and said in halting Chinese, “I didn’t know…you…speak Chinese.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “You aren’t too bad with Chinese yourself.”

Siwon and Sungmin suddenly chimed in unison, “We… speak Chinese!”

“Really? How many of you speak even a little bit of Chinese?” I asked, still talking in the featured language.

With confused looks all around, Zhou Mi quickly repeated my question in Korean, and immediately Eunhyuk’s and Donghae’s hands shot in the air, accompanied by the hands of the others who had already spoken in Chinese to me. Apparently, everyone in this van could understand. I giggled. “Yay! I’m that much closer to understanding you guys!” I exclaimed.

They all grinned, then went back to whatever they had been doing before they discovered my new language. As I was opening my mouth to ask Zhou Mi a question, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Siwon then held out a book to me. “You want to…learn Korean?” he asked in Chinese.

I nodded, and he dropped the book in my lap. “This is a… a…” he looked helplessly at Zhou Mi, then asked a question. Zhou Mi replied, “Study book.”

“Ah, yes! This is a… study book. For you.” He smiled sheepishly.

Awww, he’s so cute! “Thanks, Siwon!” I said brightly, using the Chinese pronunciation of his name. I carefully tucked the book into my backpack as the van came to an abrupt halt. The other van with the rest of the members was nowhere to be seen.

The driver barked out an order, and I looked out the window, dismayed, to see hundreds of girls lining the sidewalks. They were screaming and holding banners and phones. Great. The van doors were suddenly opened and the boys tumbled out, dashing across the street into the nearest building. Sungmin and Zhou Mi smushed me between themselves as we made our mad dash, making sure I wasn’t lost in the small stampede. I was nearly deafened by the shrill shrieks of the fangirls!

Then the doors closed behind us, locking out the crazy girls. A bunch of people then swarmed us instead, sounding like they were lecturing the boys, as the guy who had driven started to speak loudly to be heard. Alex, Uki and I were separated from the boys and led to a brightly lit room with a bunch of cameras, where I assumed the photoshoot was going to be.

But for some weird reason, I couldn’t shake the new feeling that one of the members was staring daggers into my back. And it bothered me.

~~~~~~ 

Hello faithful subscribers! Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, I was really sick all weekend :/ Anyway, I hope you like this! Please subscribe/comment!!

Edit 11/4/12: I made it so SJ-M was in one van and everybody else was in another. They all have different schedules :)