Chapter 9

We walked back together. We knew we'd been gone for a long time so we'd made up a story – we couldn't possibly tell the truth. The story was easy: I'd gone looking for the toilet but they had all been locked so I'd had to go upstairs. Then I'd met Jaejoong who'd been looking for the same thing and I decided to wait for him to finish.

Admittedly, each one of us must've taken a long, long time up there, but there wasn't much room for story-telling. We entered the waiting room and saw Yunho, Yoochun, Junsu and the manager. The singers sat with crossed arms and seemed tense while the manager had been walking in circles until he saw us.

“You two again!”

I let my head hang. I was waiting for the lecture, but Jaejoong was faster than Seunghyun.

“I'm sorry, sir. I made her wait.”

Seunghyun eyed both of us suspiciously.

“There seems to be a pattern. One of you always comes to the rescue of the other, isn't that so? But there is no time right now. Changmin is coming back and you better go inside before the boss notices anything. And you, Shinae, you better go home before I overthink this, okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

And we were both filing out of the room, but in opposite directions. I didn't dare to turn around again but it didn't matter. For once I felt really good. Jaejoong had forgiven me and would help me. Even the manager's lecturing wouldn't stop me from feeling this.

It was a relaxed night and I enjoyed it. I slept without worries and almost forgot that the day of the concert was almost there.

It was in the morning that I realized that there was actually a big problem at hand: If Jaejoong helped me, what would Yunho do? On the short way to the office I came to the conclusion that he needed to know about this. I couldn't find any plausible explanation why Jaejoong and I would get closer. The truth was the only way.

When I thought of ways of telling Yunho, it became clear that that wouldn't be my only problem. Saying that over the next few days and weeks Jaejoong would show more and more affection for me, what would the other members do? If they knew that Yunho and Jaejoong were actually together, they'd ask questions. I'd have to tell them too.

Also, I wondered what the boss would do once I told him that I had “captured” Jaejoong. The point in the whole experiment was to do that, but I had no idea of what followed. It was reasonable to think he'd give me back my old job, but I doubted that the boss would let me of this easily.

The more I thought about the matter, the more confusing and pointless it became, so I was too happy to finally arrive at the office and to receive a load of work to take my mind off the case.

It was the day before the concert. All the artists had gotten the morning off to relax a bit (or sleep a lot) and so I spent my morning helping to pack lots of stuff into trunks, carry them into a van and fill another one. After lunch break I got a call from the manager, ordering me to the entrance. I frowned after I'd hung up. They never arrived in front of the building, always in the underground parking.

I could hear screaming when I got out of the elevator. Worried, I hurried to the entrance hall and stopped for a second to take in the scene. Outside the doors were lots of people, a lot of which screamed in a very high pitch. I could see a van somewhere behind of in between the crowd.

When I recognized Yunho's head, I started to run. They obviously had gotten out of the car and not anticipated a crowd waiting at the doors. I stopped in front of the door. There was no way a petite little girl like me would help them get through there. I turned around and ran to the reception desk.

“You need to call security” I said hastily to the secretary.

She put on an arrogant face and said:

“We already have, Miss, they're on their way here. They said they'd be here in 3 minutes.”

“In 3 minutes those boys out there will be trampled to death. Isn't there anyone here who could help?”

“Well, you can try pushing that crowd apart” she said and let out a high, mean laugh.

I didn't care for her enough to get angry and turned around to call Eunhye.

“Hey, I know you're busy but we have a situation here. Do you know any strong guys here in the building?”

“Em, well, there'd be that bunch of trainees. I heard they're doing muscle training every day.”

“Well, if there isn't anyone else, can you please send them down to the lobby? I'm afraid every minute that passes my boys will be crushed to very flat examples of the Homo sapiens.”

“Alright, I'll send them down.”

It only took about a minute of pacing and staring at the crowd outside before they arrived. It was a rather big group of about ten boys. I looked at them and noticed that they weren't exactly like bodyguards, but much better than a teeny tiny girl like me.

They came to me and it was the tallest boy that spoke to me.

“How can we help? I heard this is an emergency.”

I pointed at the door.

“Your seniors DBSK are in that crowd. Security will be here soon but they need to get out of there right now. There isn't anyone around so I really need your help, alright?”

“They're in there? Ok, guys, let's get them out of there.”

The others followed as he walked towards the door. I could see them making their way through the crowd, mostly just by their sheer number than by muscle power. Although the crowd closed behind them, soon I saw more movement as they came back. I saw the tall boy first as he pushed the person in front of him out of the way. He had put his arm around Junsu, who was also flanked by another boy. One by one (or rather three by three in this case) I saw them emerging and with them the crowd shifted closer to the doors. Lastly, there was Yunho and Seunghyun, who'd somehow made it out of there with just the help of one boy each.

I held open the door as Junsu pack entered. I didn't have time to say anything to him, because Changmin was almost right behind him. After Changmin was Yoochun and then Jaejoong. I closed the door behind Seunghyun, although I more pushed it shut than closing it. The trainees stayed in front of the door to make sure none of the crowd entered.

I realized that the situation was finally over and I breathed out deeply.

They all seemed in rather good shape. Although they'd looked very concerned and stiff when they'd entered, they were now standing together in twos and threes, talking casually.

“Sir, is everything alright? I was worried for all of you” I said to the manager.

“I think we are. Damn, I'd never have thought that they'd already be here. It's my fault entirely; I should've taken the back door.”

“Why didn't you take the parking like usually?”

“It's closed. They don't want anyone in or out of there.”

Oh, I thought.

“Why did you get out if you saw the crowd already?”

“We're supposed to have security here but it seems more like they're boys.”

He eyed the trainees at the door.

“They are, sir. The secretary said security would only be here 3 minutes later so I took the liberty to call these boys to help.”

“3 minutes? That's weird...”

“What's weird?”

“What? Oh, nothing. I'm glad you reacted so fast. But we have lost too much time already, let’s get going.”

He turned around to the band and waved them to him. When everyone had gathered he started to speak:

“Ok, guys, we need to hurry now, we’ve already lost too much time. We’ll go through the entire routine again then you’ll further prepare you’re interview answers and then I hope we’re done before midnight.”

I could see the annoyance in everybody’s faces but they kept their mouths shut. After their hellish arrival here they probably didn’t want to upset Seunghyun any more. They’d have to do all of the things anyways.

Everyone was a bit depressed and let their heads hang while going up. Damn. Why couldn’t something just go right? And why the heck did they close the parking? They knew how dangerous it can be for the idols. I didn’t notice how angry I was until I pushed the door close with a loud bang.

They all froze in place and stared at me. Seunghyun raised his left eyebrow, which was very scary.

“Uh, sorry” I said and made a bow.

When I looked up I caught Jaejoong looking at me and when our eyes met he rolled his and grinned.

Tse. That guy… The more I got to know him, the more… actually, I didn’t really know much about him. Only that he’d do everything for his team. And that he was gay.

Thinking about that, I spent the next hours planning how to tell everyone about this thing. Somehow, I still wasn’t comfortable to even think about my task, now that I’d gotten real.

The day had been off to a bad start, but still the boys gave everything. As soon as the music started, they were ready, professional. Every move was perfect.

I watched Changmin return back to the past while dancing and singing to Hug. I can’t deny that he’d been much, much cuter back then. Now there was too much mischief in him. I smiled and shook my head, remembering how he’d told me about the rumors.

Somehow, as if he’d heard my thoughts, he turned around and winked at me .If there’d been anything to throw next to me, I’d have done it. Little rascal.

But it was only for a brief moment because he turned back around.

I was sitting at the back of the room, the members dancing in front of me, facing the mirror. I hadn’t realized what a treat that was. I got to see their backs and their butts.

But just when I’d though that, I went tomato again. Oh god, I thought, I still couldn’t even think about it without being embarrassed.

“Thinking of me?” asked a voice. I looked up and saw Jaejoong grinning at me.

Apparently they’d been granted a short break. He was pretty sweat through but seemed to be in a pretty good mood. I checked for the others, who were far enough away to not overhear us talking.

“And what if I have?” I asked, trying to sound as confident as possible. I was not going to appear any shyer than he already thought I was.

“Mh” he said, his grin growing even wider. He leaned down to me until his face was only inches from mine.

“I’d very much like that.”

He was looking me in the eyes and all I could do was to look back. I couldn’t even breathe.

We stayed like that, looking at each other, until he smiled and stood straight again.

“If I didn’t know the truth I’d say you’re really into me.”

And with that he grabbed a bottle of water and went to Yoochun and Junsu.

I stared after him. This bastard. How could he be this cocky when in reality he didn’t care for me at all?

At that moment I felt someone looking at me and I turned my head.

It was Yunho.

His gaze was deep. Had he seen Jaejoong and me? If yes, then what must he be thinking?

I smiled at him and nodded my head but he just turned away.

I needed to tell him, them. Today, the sooner the better.

It wasn’t until the evening that I had a chance. I wanted them all to hear it at the same time, especially because I didn’t want to tell the story twice. I’d be hard enough to say it once.