Dear Heemin.

We haven’t heard from you once yet since we separated – even though you PROMISED that you would write as soon as you had arrived! – so we decided to write to you first :P

We miss you hella lot and wish you were here… we kinda miss our third wheel, you know? The asian twin of ours~ :( Mum says that you always will be welcome here so get your on a plane out of Korea and visit us in our vacation if we can find a common one, okay?!?!

In a week we will start our new life on some big luxury-cruise as dancers – and we’re so excited! We promise to send you awesome pictures as soon as we have boarded so you can be all jelly and wish you also were there. Maybe we can get you a job there if you don’t find one in Korea? That could be awesome. Just sayin’

How is Korea btw? Does your cousin and his friends treat you nicely? And have you met any good friends? … or a cute guy or two maybe? ;) You must. Asians are cute.

We miss you~ Hope to hear from you soon guuuuuuurl~

Love you and all!

XoXo Tabia and Shannah

“What are you reading Min?” Sam sat down beside me in the couch with a bowl of noodles, looking at my screen. I didn’t hide, just smiled.

“A mail from my friends,” I said, “I forgot to write them and now they’re scolding me~” I chuckled and Sam smiled too.

“It’s the twins you’ve mentioned in your letters, right?” she asked. I nodded and found a picture on my laptop of the three of us.

“Yup~ This is Shannah-” I pointed at the girl on my left, “and this is Tabia. The dance I danced yesterday was made with those two,” I said smiling, “they are seriously amazing both of them!” Sam nodded, looking at them.

“They are very look alike,” she said, now making me nod.

“Yeah… the teachers and most of the other students never really learned who was who,” I said, “they often switched just to have fun…”

“That must have been fun~” A voice sounded from behind, making both of us jump up and turn around surprised. The four dancers of Super Junior stood there, all in training-clothes. Both Sam and me widened our eyes and stared at them.

“How did you get in?!?!” Sam asked, “and you could have warned us!” We were both still wearing the clothes we slept in. Sam had some knee-short pink dress in silk, I was wearing shorts and a big t-shirt. The boys did seem a bit surprised when they saw what clothes we were wearing, even though Eunhyuk was the one who seemed most comfortable. I think it was because he used to share room with Sam, though I didn’t know if she also wore nightdresses back then.

“I… we have an extra key,” Donghee said looking at me when he answered, “we’re having the morning off so we thought… do you wanna come and dance with us?” he asked. I widened my eyes.

“Me? Why?” I asked, “and shouldn’t you be resting instead?” They smiled and shrugged.

“It’s nice to dance what we wanna dance sometimes, not what we have to,” Eunhyuk said, “so you wanna join? Sam can too but-” Sam shook her head.

“Nope. Junsu came back this night so I am going on a 2PM visit~” she smiled, then looked at me, “wanna come later? Or with me instead of those people if you don’t dar-” I held my hand against , hoping I didn’t blush too much, as I shook my head.

“I… I’ll maybe come later,” I said, “I… I miss dancing…”

When they said that they were going to dance I thought it was just the five of us but as we arrived the room, there were both a few boys and a few girls fooling around. I recognized some of them and that made me sure that they all were artists. I looked at my cousin.

“Donghee? N-new people again?” I asked. He chuckled and ruffled my hair, making me pout. I had just sat it in a tight ponytail so it wouldn’t disturb when I was dancing.

“Heemin, you have to know other people than the members,” he said. I noticed that a few of them looked at us.

“Hyung, who is that?” one of the boys asked. He was a member of SHINee. The one who looked like a girl a whole lot. He had red hair and it made him look a bit more manly though, but still.

“This is my cousin, Heemin,” he said, and then looked at me, “Heemin that’s Taemin from SHINee. Amber and Krystal from f(x) and Hyoyeon from SNSD and…” a guy just showed up from another door, making me stare, “Yunho from DBSK.” They all smiled at me and I bowed to them.

“Hello…” I said, trying to ignore Yunho. My DBSK-fangirling shouldn’t start now. Lucky that it wasn’t Changmin, ‘cause then, I don’t know if I could keep calm. Maybe with Yunho but not sure…

“Do you know how to dance Heemin-ssi?” Hyoyeon asked and send me a bright smile. I nodded but didn’t get to answer.

“She graduated from Julliard not long time ago,” Leeteuk said, “she know how to dance~” I started chewing on my lower lip nervously when the interest seemed to rise. Julliard wasn’t just a small school. Everybody knew it and it was big just getting a scholarship.

“Graduated dancer?” Amber asked, and I hesitated.

“Dancer and singer,” I answered. She nodded impressed and I looked at my cousin who – AGAIN – ruffled my hair.

“Yah! Why do you keep doing that?!” I asked annoyed and pouted. He smiled.

“For that face~” he said and put down his bag.

“Yah!” I noticed that they all seemed to have fun with Donghee’s and mine conversation. I sighed and sat down on the ground to wear some other shoes.

“I thought you guys were in Japan,” I heard Donghae say to Yunho as he greeted him. I bit my lip and tried my best not to listen as everybody slowly started talking and doing moves to the music that was started. I looked up and saw Donghee and Taemin battle something out, Donghae and Yunho sat down in a corner and the rest were watching Donghee and Taemin while moving a bit too. I starred humming the song to myself as I watched my cousin move on the floor. I’d always known that it was that side of the family my dancing came from and the other side the singing. My mum was the dancer – her sister is Donghee’s mum – and my father the singer. Donghee’s mum wasn’t a dancer but somehow Donghee ended up being pretty good as all you E.L.F’s for sure know.

“Singing or dancing?” Amber sat down beside me with a smile. I looked surprised at her.

“You… speak English?” I said as I realized that it was what she had talked to me in. She chuckled and nodded.

“Grew up in L.A. So yes, pretty much,” she said in fluent English. I smiled.

“Cool… and I don’t know,” I said, and then she looked a bit confused so I quickly added, “about singing or dancing. That’s why I had both,” I said. She nodded.

“Wanna show us what you got?” she got up and held a hand against me. I hesitated but then took it and pulled myself up.

“You look thirsty,” Donghae sat down beside me and handed me a half bottle of water. I looked at him.

“Thanks,” I said and took a sip. He smiled.

“You look different when you’re dancing, you know,” he said, “confident. It suits you!”

I’m pretty sure that I just turned into a tomato now. I wasn’t good at receiving compliments. At all. I’d never really been, nor was I good at giving them. Every time I tried to say something good about the twins it ended up being either awkward or random so they asked me to stop trying. Sometimes they also tried to teach me how to both give and receive compliments but it didn’t really succeed.

“I… t-thank you,” I mumbled and were about to chew my lip again as I remembered I should stop doing that. Donghae chuckled.

“Were you going to 2PM’s when we’re leaving?” he asked. I hesitated.

“Maybe. I… Sam and Junsu could probably use some time alone,” I said, “so I’ll just go home and relax instead… I’m not really in for another interview today,” I looked at him and tried to smile friendly to him. He nodded.

“I… sorry for the breaking in earlier by the way. If we’d known that you two still were-” I shook my head.

“It’s fine. I wasn’t really embarrassed by it just… just surprised,” I said.

It was first when I walked home that day I realized that it was getting easier to talk to him.

I didn’t walk directly home though. I went to a supermarket near SM first and bought necessaries for the dorm. Like extra ramen, a new deodorant for me, some extra slippers and chopsticks.

“I’m sorry. Shin Heemin?” A man stopped in front of me. He was pushing a cart that was more than half full and I didn’t recognize him even though he seemed to know me.

“N-neh?” I said and looked at him. He widened his eyes.

“Heemin? Really?” he said, “wow. You’ve grown up!” He seemed all happy to see me but I really couldn’t recall who he was. He was too old to be an old classmate. He was old enough to be a parent with a kid in my age. He smiled big.

“I’m Im Dongwan. I don’t think you remember me, I was your neighbor when you lived in Incheon many years ago.” I tilted my head. Im Dongwan? Incheon? I was around seven when we moved from Incheon and I didn’t socialize much back then. But now I did recall the face of some of the neighbors.

“Oh yeah… Hello Dongwan-ssi,” I said and bowed my head, “long time no see,” I said. He smiled.

“You really grew beautiful,” he said, “you like your mother. But you have your fathers eyes and nose,” I bowed my head and smiled at him.

“T-thank you,” I said. He looked at his watch.

“Oh jeez. I have to go,” he looked apolegitic at me, “family-dinner at the in-laws,” he said. I smiled and nodded.

“Of course. It was nice to meet you again,” I said. He nodded too.

“You too Heemin. Greet your parents from me next time you talk to them, will you?” Ouh… he hadn’t heard.

“I-” he looked at me.

“Goodbye Heemin. I hope to meet you again someday,” he said. I bowed and said my goodbye as he rushed to pay. I looked after him. He must be really late.