Ha Neul was sure that this restaurant had bad service for she felt like she slept a week before rousing from her nap. Her eyes blinked open as she surveyed her surroundings, eyes searching for familiarity. And she was met with none. Ha Neul groaned inwardly and outwardly, this was just what she needed. She was on a bed and she saw her belongings at the foot of it. She looked to be in a hotel room, judging from the lack of personal adornment anywhere.

She rolled over onto her side and saw her cell phone resting atop a box on the nightstand. Blearily she reached out with a tired arm to take hold of the box. After a few vain attempts and groans on her part she finally captured it in her grip and she jerked it to rest beside her. Beneath her cell phone there was a small card. Ha Neul slid her phone to the bed and then stared at the card.

Hello Hanna!

            You don’t know me, but my friends and I took you to your hotel. You fell asleep at the café!!! Kekekeke. How silly of you! We’ll probably never meet again, so I accept your thanks in advance. The hotel staff will tell you nothing of our appearances, so don’t bother asking! If Fate likes us we’ll see you again!

            It was signed with a small drawing of a cat and written in the most childish-looking Korean Ha Neul had ever seen. He obviously was not a native speaker. She frowned and tossed the note back onto the nightstand. Whoever wrote it must have paid for her mandu or at least that’s what she assumed was in the take-away box. Ha Neul opened it and let out a gasp.

            It was full of mandu, rice, kimchi and a noodle dish she couldn’t quite remember the name of. And on bottom of the lid was another note scrawled in English that read, “Open up some happiness.”

            She quirked an eyebrow amazed at the amount of effort this mysterious man child went through. Granted, that assumption could be wrong, but calling this mystery person that was suiting her quite well at the moment. Ha Neul closed the box and rolled over. Unwillingly, she felt her mind filling up with a familiar song that left her desperately craving for a coke. Too lazy to fulfill her need, Ha Neul shimmied beneath the covers and fell back to sleep.

            Many of the girls who entered the audition room were surprised at what awaited them on the inside. At a long table the six members of 2PM, their manager and JYP himself were seated awaiting their entrance. Ha Neul outside knew nothing of this, but heard the excited screams from the waiting room. Were people getting murdered, she wondered.

            If possible, they were dying from exposure to a roomful of Korean idols. The members were surprised to experience such reactions from foreigners. The ones who reacted too violently were politely escorted outside.

            JYP clicked his tongue and looked down at the next application in the stack. The previous girl had tried to jump the table to get to Junho while screaming, “Little Rain!” Junho had jumped from the table, his chair toppling over while the others laughed at the terrified look on his face.

            Rubbing his temples from exhaustion, JYP cleared his throat as he read over the girl’s information.

            “Number 34 is coming in next. Her name is Ha Neul…Stuart?” His brow furrowed at the name and JYP’s eyes scanned to the ethnicity. She had not marked down anything at all. “You can send her in.”

            The door opened and a short girl with long, chocolate coloured hair walked in. Her hair was frizzing ever so slightly and pushed away from her face with a red headband. Her eyes, golden brown, grew even bigger as she approached the table. She had a curvy body with rounded shoulders, an ample bust, and a good hip-to-waist ratio giving her an hourglass figure. She was dressed very casually in skinny jeans, an old pair of Nikes and a solid T-shirt.

            Behind the table, Wooyoung and Junsu elbowed the sleeping Taecyeon. His eyes shot open, blinking to adjust to the bright light of the room. He fixed his bangs and stared up at the new inhabitant of the room. His own eyes widened and then he looked to the friends that flanked him. They smiled at him secretly, nodding at his surprised face.

            “Wow,” breathed the girl. Her eyes roamed over ever single member: Wooyoung nodded awkwardly in acknowledgment, Taec flashed his cheesy smile, Junsu threw up a peace sign and nodded, Junho smiled his eye smile. Nichkhun smiled warmly and waved, Chansung merely stared blankly at her, his jaw down. She gasped and then bowed deeply. “Ahnyong haseyo, my name is Ha Neul Stuart.”

            “Ahnyong haseyo,” greeted the boys. Jin young-hyung had finished reading through her file and cleared his throat.

            “You left ethnicity and age blank, Miss Stuart, would you care to inform us of that information?”

            Ha Neul barely registered the question because her mind was elsewhere completely. She was in the same room as 2PM and she had played it cool so far. Very nice. She mentally patted herself on the back for her non-fangirl actions. She sighed and then realized about eight males were staring at her intently. Ha Neul coughed and smoothed the front of her jeans.

            “Oh, well, there was no box for me to check on ethnicity. I refuse to pick ‘other’. But, I am half-black and half-Korean. The Korean is on my mom’s side. And I’m twenty.”

            “When’s your birthday?” Chansung asked suddenly. The other guys rolled their eyes at his obvious question. He wanted to know if he’s older or not.

            “May 13.”

            “Yes!” He pumped a fist in the air, much to the surprise of Ha Neul. “Call me oppa,” he told her earnestly. Nichkhun reached up and swatted the maknae on the head.

            “Do not be so forward,” he warned, and then turned his head back to Ha Neul. “Call me oppa,” he said cutely, and then he winked. The rest of the members grumbled at his aegyo act. It was really too much, especially for Jin Young-hyung who rolled his eyes at his talent.

            “Just call them all oppa or you’ll never hear the end of it.” He straightened the stack of papers and stared at Ha Neul. “It appears they all like you and your applications puts you as someone we could use for this project. Now, do you have any questions?”

            “What is this ‘project’ exactly? And does that mean I have the job?” she inquired.

            “It’s possible you do. Now, since 2PM’s image has not been the greatest as of late, I thought that I would release some polls on their website about what song they’d like a video for as a bit of a fan treat. It was a resounding response of “All Night Long” from their 1:59 album. I’m not surprised at all. Now, for the concept of the video…that was another poll.” He chuckled and opened a file folder. “Let’s see, they wanted each member to have his own partner, which is why we’re holding the audition. And we chose non-Koreans because Worldwide Hottests overwhelmingly voted on another poll for non-Korean girls to be involved in the shoot.”

            “Well, that’s interesting,” mumbled Ha Neul. She was not amazed to learn fans wanted video proof of their favourite idols performing “All Night Long.” She herself wanted that. That means she would be paired with one of the members. But which one? “Who will I be paired with?”

            Jin Young-hyung looked down the line of s and shrugged. “Who do you like best?”

            Instantly, the six of them shot up in their seats, trying to appear most attractive to Ha Neul. She raised an eyebrow at their flexing and hair smoothing and laughed.

            “Ahjusshi, I like all of 2PM. I cannot pick just one,” she replied, winking at the boys.

            “Omo, she’s the most interesting girl that’s been in here all day,” whispered Taec to Junsu, who nodded his agreement.  Wooyoung leaned towards his hyung.

            “I wonder who she likes best. She has to have a favourite,” he added.

            “So, we start tomorrow with filming?”

            “Yes, yes. What is your phone number? I’ll give it to the staffs just in case anything changes, okay?”

            Ha Neul nodded and slowly listed off her cell number. Wooyoung covered his mouth to hid laughter as he saw Taec adding the number to his phone. The beastly idol scowled at his dongseng and quickly replaced his cell phone in his pocket.

            “Well, uhm, thank you for everything. I will see you all tomorrow.” Ha Neul bowed to the boys and then to the manager and JYP before scooting out of the room.

            As the door closed, she fished in her pocket for her cell phone and dialed her mother’s number.

            “Umma, oh yes, I just got out of the interview. I got the job. But get this, it’s with JYP Entertainment and I’m shooting a music video with 2PM.” She held the phone away from her ear as her mother squealed in the manner of a teenager. Ha Neul rolled her eyes and replaced the phone to her ear. “Yes, I’m well aware what it would do to my gene pool to marry one. No, umma, I will not seduce him. Yes, I know you want him as your son-in-law. No mother, he looks the same in person. Aish, ummaaaa~, you’re being weird again. Okay, okay, love you too, bye bye.” Ha Neul pocketed her phone, and then continued down the hallway. She heard heavy footfalls behind her. She diverted her steps to move towards the right of the hallway, giving whoever it was space to not slam into her. She rubbed her stomach and sighed. She was feeling hungry.

            “Hanna!” Though close, that wasn’t her name. “Ha Neul!” That, on the other hand, was her name. She her heel, very surprised to see the male bounding towards her.

            “Taecyeon oppa,” she greeted. The tall male grinned at her goofily and slowed his run as he approached her.

            “Hanna,” he repeated. The namesake furrowed her brow and peeked behind her, but there was no one there. “You’re Hanna, silly.”

            Ha Neul blinked her eyes rapidly and opened to comment on the nickname. She hadn’t even been properly introduced and he was nicknaming her already. Granted, fans across South Korea gave him many a nickname, so perhaps he felt the need to do it too. Okcat patted her on the head and said, “I decided to call you Hanna because you’re pretty like a flower.” It could have been a sweet sentiment, but then he wriggled his eyebrows and bit his bottom lip. Ha Neul could not help but laugh at him. When she did, he threw his hands up in the air and spun around, only earning more laughter from her.

            “I am sorry, Taec oppa, but that was probably the cheesiest thing I’ve ever seen or heard in my life…” she calmed down from her amusement and then added with a small smile, “But I appreciate the sentiment.”

            “Chincha?” He fist pumped the air and then remembered why he was even here. “Oh yeah, JYP gave us permission to have you girls over for a dinner party tonight!”

            “I’m surprised at that. Aren’t you not supposed to see or date girls?”

            “He just wants us to get acquainted with you all before the shoot starts, usually we know the girls. So he wants some level of familiarity in the video.”

            “Oh, have they decided who I am paired with?”

            “So eager, aren’t you?” teased Taec. He then shrugged his shoulders for he himself didn’t know. “No idea. Rumour has it they’ll put us in different dressing rooms with our costumes in it and then when we arrive on set, we’ll find out.”

            Ha Neul’s lips dropped at the edges. She wanted to know now. Secretly, she knew who her favourite member was and she hoped she got paired with them. For Ha Neul, there would be nothing better than to be stuck in an intimate situation with him, and for it to be recorded in posterity for her friends and ex-boyfriends to see.  Of course, it would be nice for her too. Ha Neul bit her bottom lip as her active imagination was running through what this shoot could be like.            

            Taec was looking down at her amused. He was not sure why, but this girl interested him the most out of the six that had auditioned. He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t her looks that first attracted him. Ha Neul, or Hanna as he preferred, was exotic looking with her tan skin and dark hair. When he had seen her first, he had no idea what she was. And when she told them, it had started to make sense. There was something vaguely Korean about her features and he found himself entranced by her pretty smile and thick hair. His eyes roamed down past her face to her body, which he found to be difficult to see beneath her T-shirt and jean combination.

            “What time is this dinner party?” Her voiced asked precariously, breaking through Taec’s appraisal of her body.

            “Eight o’clock! Where are you staying? I can come pick you up!”

            “Are you sure that will be safe? I mean, you don’t want to be seen with me because the netizens will cause a riot, I’m sure.”

            “Don’t worry about it. 2PM are experts at getting around in secret. Where are you staying?”

            Suddenly, realization dawned on Ha Neul’s face and she shook her head slowly. “You already know where I live, don’t you? I knew your voice sounded familiar yesterday. And that awful cat drawing!”

            “Hey, fans love my cat drawings!!!” He defended, crossing his arms across his chest. “And yes, that was me. Did you enjoy your food?”

            “Yes, it was quite tasty. Kahmsahmneida, Taecyeon-oppa. I can’t believe I fell asleep like that. How’d you get me back anyway?”

            “Carried you, of course. I’m not a called a beast for no reason.” Taec flexed his muscles at her and grinned. She shook her head and mumbled something about all brawn and no brains. He heard this and rolled his eyes. “All I used to do is read books for fun. I have brawn AND brains!”

            Ha Neul just stared at him and let out a breath. “Yeah, I’m going to go now. I have an appointment at the salon. I can’t be late.”

            “Are you getting your hair cut?” he asked, walking with her. Ha Neul shook her head.

            “Just a trim and then some other girly things, you know. My mother managed to set up an appointment for me at some salon. She said I needed it, you know how Korean moms are.”

            “I don’t really get to see mine so often, but when she has the chance she nags. She’s very loud and happy though.”

            “Yes, my mother is like that as well.”

            They had reached the front door and Ha Neul bowed to Taec, who returned it.

            “I guess I’ll see you at eight. You’ll be picking me up?”

            “Yep! I’ll see you then, Hanna.”

            Ha Neul flashed him a final smile and then bounded out the building and then hailed a taxi.