In the past year, things had been anything but calm for Mercedes-- she had skipped ahead in school by an entire year and was poised to graduate at seventeen years of age; she had started a dance group after school with her friends, they had begun to teach her how to drive in return for coordinating dances so she could ace the test on her eighteenth birthday; and best of all, her absolute favorite group had returned to the stage. In celebration of their return, the new management of SS501 had decided to hold a special fan-club event; a party hosted by the guys themselves, on one condition of course: Get together a group of friends and cover a range of their dances or, if they were daring enough, create new choreography. The competition was open to any fanclub member who could assemble a group of five and travel to Korea to stay for the week on their own time. It took quite a bit of begging (to both her friends and her parents to give her money for an endeavor they didn't have the heart to say was probably not going to work out for her) but after weeks of last minute planning, stress from all directions, and painstaking hours of practice to perfect dances and coordinated covers, they all found themselves in Seoul.

 

“So, this wasn't worth it?” She said proudly as they walked down the hallway of their hotel.

 

“I don't know,” Junko, a girl of about five-foot-six-inches commented. “Unless I see Junhyung, it ain't worth busting my . And if we don't win... , you know how pissed Ki-san is gonna be for giving me this money if I got nothing to show for it?”

 

“You're telling me, I'm missing valuable working time,” groaned a short girl with azure hair that reached her waist. “And what if I gotta dye my hair over again? Think I'm gonna do it here?” Miata sighed as they reached the door. She and Junko muttered amongst themselves in Kansai-ben about meeting B2ST being the only thing they hoped for. It was discouraging to know that they weren't really interested meeting SS501, but Mercedes supposed that she'd probably be just as “enthusiastic” to meet B2ST given the same scenario. She looked back at Eunae, who gave a reassuring smile. The second tallest girl was considered the peacemaker with her calm personality. Last, but not least, was the other blonde of the group, Hana. She'd been quiet the entire time, though she agreed with Miata and Junko that she was only following in case they stumbled across B2ST somewhere in Seoul between competition days. Filing into the room, they began to unpack things and get everything in order for each day; Hana immediately pulled out her computer and set up the song files that they would use to practice-- half of the dances were improvised choreography, since Mercedes and Eunae couldn't seem to settle on any of the ones with videos to practice from. Miata looked over as she tossed her suitcase off the bed in frustration, giving up on unpacking now that she was near a bed and so worn out from their flight.

 

“What'cha doin'?” she asked, flopping onto the bed.

 

“Don't get comfy, ko-inu. Mercedes probably wants us to practice before rewarding ourselves with food,” Hana replied casually, browsing the internet as she waited for the others to get themselves settled.

 

“I'm not that mean. I was going to let you guys go out on your own and look for your biases and get food before practice,” the tall blonde butted in, pouting a little. “I plan on staying here though. If I just get to see them at that judging table, I'll live. You guys... I guess I'm worried that you won't get to go stalking your idols in our free time.” Junko snorted at that remark.

 

“Stalking? Who said anything about stalking?”

 

The room went quiet, and all eyes (including Eunae's) were on the pink-haired girl. She grinned, and casually shrugged off their accusations.

 

“I was just kidding,” Junko held her hands up in surrender, but was met with more silence, and blinking. “Seriously! Quit lookin' at me like that!” Eunae finally looked away, moving toward the bathroom to put her travel-sized bath supplies in the tub and get ready to shower. The rest of the girls cracked up laughing, and resumed their unpacking before the three B2TIES resigned to practicing the dances just once before going out for dinner. When Hana, Junko, and Miata had all gone, it was just Eunae and Mercedes.

 

“Imagine if we win,” the blonde mused, laying on the bed and staring up at the ceiling.

 

“It will be just us five,” she said, grinning. She was playing Bokujou Monogatari quietly on her DS while waiting for her long black hair to finally dry.

 

“I don't want to get my hopes up, but... I can't help it. I just really want to see Jungmin. I missed out on the fan meeting in Japan last year because I got sick...”

 

“Well, we can do it. Just keep your focus like you always do.” The soft-spoken Eunae replied, smiling over at the youngest of her friends.

 

Meanwhile, the guys of SS501 were preparing for the contest themselves-- all except one.

 

“Come back!” Jungmin groaned, talking on his phone. “This isn't fair, you know, doing this to me the night before I have to judge a contest for a week straight. It's hard work!”

 

Hyungjun rolled his eyes a bit when he turned his back, and the others didn't look any more thrilled than their maknae when they heard just who Jungmin was on the phone with. It was one of many flings he had been having lately, ever since they had gotten back together. It was almost as if he had a complex of some sort that he was trying to prove something to them-- but what exactly? Hyungjun insisted on teasing him about being in love with one of them with how much he slept around, and it got him a good punch to the arm from the low-vocalist. He'd since stopped, only to see the problem continue. If word of this got out, the other four knew it would likely tarnish Jungmin's otherwise wonderful success, and as his friends, they genuinely worried.

 

“What good is it to tell him to stop, though? It's like talking to a wall,” Youngsaeng commented quietly. Jungmin was in the other room, still pleading his fling to pay one more visit for just a night, and the other four mentally prayed she'd say no.

 

“And how long has it been since we started telling him he's going to screw up one day,” Hyungjun added, making sure to keep quiet.

 

“Since we got back together,” added Hyunjoong. Kyujong looked concerned, but didn't speak, preferring not to say slanderous things about Jungmin at all. They all thought exactly alike, though-- all except Jungmin, who had just hung up and slammed his phone down on his bedside table.

 

“I guess I'm stuck with you all tonight, but do not wake me up early. I'll get all of you!” He threatened, slamming his door. The four rolled their eyes a bit at his tantrum-- they had no intent of waking him up until it was actually time to go to the opening day of the contest tomorrow. They had all just gotten a bit tired of him lately, and wanted the old Jungmin back, the one they knew before his attitude had changed. None of the four had the slightest idea what had gone wrong, but Youngsaeng guessed that a relationship had taken a bad turn, and this was his way of dealing with it-- however wrong it might be.

 

“It's no excuse,” he explained, “But maybe that's what happened. You know he hadn't been in a relationship since 2005... it's been six years. If something happened, he probably doesn't know how to deal with it anymore after such a drought.”

 

“He's still annoying me with this,” Hyunjoong commented quietly, getting a nod from the maknae.

 

“Let's stop talking about this,” Kyujong commented. “He'll get mad if he hears us. Instead, let's get dinner and hope he doesn't bring somebody over while we're gone... remember what happened last time?”

 

The four groaned quietly, and quickly got ready to go eat at a nearby restaurant-- without Jungmin. He spent the night calling everybody he could think of, including Loveholic's ex-vocalist, Jisun, who he'd done a collaboration with.

 

“Aish, you're calling for a one-nighter again?” Jisun answered, not even bothering with formalities when she saw Jungmin's name. “What did I tell you last time, I'm not interested, get over your heartache somewhere else.”

 

“I was not calling you for that. I swear it! I've... just got nobody else to talk to.”

 

Jisun was silent, and rolled her eyes a bit at his obvious lie. “Right. Well, you've got things to do tomorrow, don't you? Go get dinner and rest well so you can wake up without ripping everyone's hair out.” And before he could object, she had hung up on him. Grumbling to himself, Jungmin left his room and went into the kitchen, rummaging their fridge for something light to eat before sleeping. This was going to be a long week, he thought to himself with disdain. It wasn't that he didn't like to do fan-meets, but he would actually have to watch these all of these fangirls dance around, and likely they weren't very good. The dances weren't hard to learn, but performing under pressure was something he didn't expect any of them to be able to deal with. He kept thinking about what Jisun said to him on the phone-- it wasn't like he hadn't heard that a million times over, though. The guys had been on his case since that time they walked in on him doing something a bit suggestive to one of his “girlfriends”, which they quickly learned was more of a one night stand than a girlfriend that he intended to stay with.

 

“Well, what does she know anyway. She's not even in a relationship,” he assured himself. “And hasn't been. I know what I'm doing, and all I want is to be happy. I'm happy this way, not having to commit to anything. I'll find someone faster this way.”