Jiyeon’s POV

I woke up with a spritely start this morning. Guess why?

I’ve been given a week of paid leave by Director Kang! Kudos to him!

The past few weeks have been pretty hectic, I admit. Finally, EXO debuted and all the hard work we did behind the scenes was worth it. They debuted with a blast!

As a stark contrast to my terribly fast-paced life as a choreographer for SM, here I am today, sitting outside a shopping mall waiting for my bestie, Ha Eun to appear.

I heard my stomach growl quite audibly, causing the people nearby to cast glances at me. I quickly pressed my hand over my abdomen in embarrassment. Gah, I hope my face isn’t turning red.

It’s been half an hour since I arrived. That girl is so dead...

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

Suddenly, two long pairs of legs appeared before me. I looked up to see two lanky, masked boys about twenty years old with colored hair.

“Who are you? What do you want?” I stammered, edging away from them. They treaded closer to me.

“Hey lady, just wanna have some fun,” the shorter guy said, smirking. There was something strangely familiar about his voice.

“No, I don’t even know you,” I frowned, reaching in my bag for pepper spray.

“You sure?” the shorter one said again, leaning forward and pulling his mask slightly to reveal his doe eyes.

“Omo, Luhan Oppa!” I gasped.

He winked.

“Took you long enough to thee through uth,” the taller one talked with a lisp.

“Sehun?”

“Yah, how dare you be rude to your oppas!” Luhan glared at me jokingly, pressing my head with his palm.

“Ouch! Stop that, it’s messing my hair!” I whimpered and slapped Luhan’s hand away.

I heard Sehun chuckle.

“Yah, you let your hyung bully me in public!” I whacked Sehun’s arm lightly.

“Awww, Jiyeon,” Sehun gave me a small hug and ruffled my hair, messing it up further.

“Ughhh,” I scowled and crossed my arms.

“Luhan Oppa wants a hug too,” Luhan pouted and scooted closer to me.

“No, you’ll mess up my hair.”

“Meh, so cold. Let’s go, Sehun.” He grabbed Sehun’s arm and yanked him away from me.

“Ah, do you want to come with us, Jiyeon?” Sehun stopped and asked.

“Mm, where are you guys headed?”

“We’re gonna get bubble tea!” Sehun grinned and clapped like a child.

“Psh, just this guy, actually,” Luhan rolled his eyes and poked Sehun in the shoulder.  

“Eh, it’s alright! Go ahead, I’m waiting for someone actually,” I smiled and waved to them.

“Who?” Sehun shouted.

“Boyfriend, of course!” Luhan nudged him in the stomach, causing him to bend over.

“WHAT?!?!?!” Sehun bellowed, and immediately covered his mouth. I laughed.

“You’ll blow our covers, you nincompoop!” Luhan hissed, narrowing his eyes.

“Sorry,” Sehun apologized and grinned dorkily.

“Aish,” Luhan sighed and mussed his hair. I felt a smile stretch across my face as I observed their interaction with each other.

Despite Luhan being a few years ahead of Sehun in terms of age, both of them were the best of friends and did everything together. Their relationship was truly something I admired.

“Jiyeon ah! Sorry for making you wait!” Ha Eun ran and collided into me, giving me a shock.

“Yah! You scared me!” I screeched at her. She stuck out her lower lip and gave me a hug.

“Mianhe, I was held up,” she apologized.

“It’s alright, I met some friends before you came.”

“So, where are we eating?”

“How are things going, Jiyeon? Any new happenings that can be classified under the ‘juicy’ section?” Ha Eun asked with a mouth full of food. It looked absolutely disgusting.

“Finish your food first, dearie. It’s torture to the person sitting opposite you, that habit of yours,” I reminded her kindly, with a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

“Whatever. You haven’t answered my question,” she shrugged, opening wide to reveal the mashed up food. I felt my insides churning.

“Stop. Nothing has happened.”

I looked down at the table, and saw Ha Eun’s phone screen light up. She glanced at it and ignored it.

“Not gonna answer that?” I asked.

“Nope, it’s unimportant. Now back to you, stop changing the topic! What happened at the bar that day? I heard from a colleague that jerk got wasted,” she smirked, propping her chin on her arms.

“Jiyeon.... Don’t go....” he mumbled while grabbing my hand.

I blushed when I remembered Jongin taking all the shots for me. And both of us ended up spending the night in the same room at a hotel.

Not to mention where I was when I woke up.

I felt my face heating up instantly like a microwave.

“Is there any alcohol in the food we ordered? ‘Cause you’re turning pink!” Ha Eun snorted, pointing at me and giggling away.

“N-no, why would I be turning pink?” I defended myself.

“Oh really? Koala bear?” she teased.

Omo. Ha Eun really did it this time. This koala bear thing is going to haunt me the rest of my life, I think.

“Gosh, now you’re as red as a lobster! Seriously, you okay?” she grabbed her stomach and laughed.

“Yeah, yeah. Why do you always get the better of me?” I sighed. I swore I saw her phone screen light up a second time. And she ignored it – again.

“Well, simply because I’ve known you for six years?” Ha Eun grinned cheekily.

“You aren’t answering that unimportant message, either?” I pointed to her phone.

“Yeah, later.”

Again, it lit up. Three new messages, it read.

“Miss Popular,” I muttered.

“Hey, look who’s talking here! Tell me about Sehun-ssi,” she smiled.

“Sehun-ssi? Are you somehow acquainted with him?”

“Ani, I just decided to stop calling him the Sehun guy. Anyway, I saw him the other day, he looks nice.”

The other day?

Ah, I remember now. It was the same day Ha Eun appeared at the bar with Chanyeol.

“He’s quite a sensitive guy, and he dances well too. I didn’t know he was your type, Eun.”

“What? No, not mine. But since he dances well, I guess he’s pretty much compatible with you, then. Why don’t you give him a chance?” she turned the question back to me.

“Give him a chance? He doesn’t like me, Ha Eun! Goodness.”

“I’m sure he does! Just look at his eyes I mean, the way he looks at you! And he was seated beside you and all,” she continued.

“You hardly know him!”

“I soon will,” she winked. Oh, God. I slapped my forehead. Ouch, that hurt. For the fourth time, her phone lit up.

“Why were you with Chanyeol Oppa, then?” I asked.

“Well, he looked familiar. For your sake, I went to stalk all the EXO members to find out what they looked like and their stage names,” she said, and began rattling off their names and their hair colors.

I really had to give it to her. Ha Eun was someone who hated research and cramming things for the exam, but she actually managed to memorize the names of all twelve members. Actually, eleven. Since she already knew one of them for six years.

“Any way, since you’re so free now, would you like go see the boys later at the studio? They’re gaming today, “ she asked, realizing I spaced out.

“Ah? Sure, okay. Are the sunbaes in?”

“Hanseul oppa said he’d be joining us later, they’d be thrilled to see you, Jiyeon!” Ha Eun patted my hand reassuringly.

“Alright, we’ll see them later! I’m guessing Woojin will be doing his victory dance again!” I laughed.

Sehun’s POV

“Aish!” Chanyeol pulled his hair in frustration and paced around the living room.

“Yah, what’s your problem?” Xiumin asked, looking annoyed.

“He’s been like this all day,” Baekhyun sighed, grabbing the remote from Tao.

“Hey! Don’t switch the channel until this episode is over!” he whined.

“Dude, it’s the commercials,” Baekhyun raised his eyebrows and look at Tao, who pouted.

“WHY ISN’T SHE REPLYING ME AT ALL?” Chanyeol thundered, giving Luhan and I a fright. Luhan nearly spat out his bubble tea.

“Stop it! You’re scaring everyone, Yeolie!” Luhan squealed and placed the cup of bubble tea on the coffee table.

“Happy Virus has become Angry Virus! Ooh,” Chen laughed, folding his arms.

“Stop that,” Chanyeol growled and slumped beside Baekhyun, dejected.

“You okay?” he patted Chanyeol’s head. Chanyeol sighed and snuggled against Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“She’s ignoring me,” he whispered loud enough for some of us to hear.

“Who?” I asked.

“That pretty waitress at the bar,” Baekhyun answered. Chanyeol continued pouting and looked away.

“What? You actually got her number? Seriously, Chanyeol Hyung?” Kai asked, looking amazed.

“Well, it’s Chanyeol. What did you expect?” Lay laughed, patting the space beside him for D.O. to sit.

“Thanks,” he muttered.

I looked around. Even Tao had stopped watching his drama to focus on the conversation between the ten of us. If you were wondering what happened to the two leaders, they were summoned by the CEO-nim, Mr. Kim, for an urgent meeting.

“Oh my god I can’t believe you picked Ha Eun up!” Kai facepalmed and fell on his back against the couch.

“Her name’s Ha Eun? You know her, Kai?” Luhan asked, blinking confusedly.

“Did you pick her up too? That’s why she’s been ignoring me!” Chanyeol cast the ultimate death glare at Kai, making all of us shudder.

“No way! I just knew her...” he retorted, stopping abruptly in the middle of his sentence.

“She’s Jiyeon’s buddy, isn’t she? How on earth did you know her?” D.O. asked, peering intently at Kai.

“Uh, you see... I-I was at this competition once and I saw her?”

“Eh? What a coincidence that you guys met again, then.” I commented, opening a new bag of chips. Kai sounded like he was lying, but I couldn’t be bothered in any case.

“Maybe she’s busy or something,” Xiumin tapped his chin and threw a hopeful look at Chanyeol, who softened.

“Maybe,” he smiled.

“By the way, Sehun and I saw Jiyeon at the mall when we were getting bubble tea. Maybe the girls were meeting up,” Luhan recalled.

“Your problem’s solved, Park Chanyeol,” D.O. concluded. Chanyeol grinned and returned to his Happy Virus state.

All of a sudden, I felt elated when I figured Jiyeon was probably meeting up with her bestie, instead of her boyfriend – which was what Luhan suggested earlier on. I realized I didn’t even know if she had a boyfriend, or not.

I opened the phone inbox and began composing a new message to her.

Hi Jiyeon, I typed.

Do you have a boyfriend?

I stopped and looked at the message. Was that too direct?

Do you have a boyfriend? I was just wondering...

No, no. That sounded so strange and out of the blue, she’d get creeped out by me. I deleted everything and started all over.

Hi Jiyeon, were you waiting for someone just now?

Duh, that was obvious.

Hi Jiyeon, you looked like you were waiting for someone just now! How was your lunch?

That was too long and wordy. And it seemed stalker-ish.

I sighed.

“Hi Jiyeon, how was your day?” I heard someone beside me whisper. I gasped when I realized it was Luhan looking into my phone.

“Hey!” I pushed him away.

“Sneaky little Sehun,” he poked my shoulder.

“Hmph,” I turned away and typed exactly as he said. To my surprise, it actually sounded normal.

“Sent,” he sang, pressing the ‘Send’ button on my phone.

“Yah!”

“I just helped you, kid. You’re too inexperienced,” he winked.

I secretly agreed with Luhan. I believed I needed a lot more dating advice than I looked.

“We were analyzing the responses from your various debut showcases in Korea and China, and they didn’t look too promising,” Director Kang explained. Suho and Kris, who were seated opposite the Director and the CEO, nodded. The atmosphere was exceptionally tense.

“No, not just too promising. In fact, they fell short of our expectations. Our projected target was an average of 90% filled venues, but EXO has only managed to achieve a meager 75% so far,” the CEO corrected Director Kang, who nodded in agreement.

Oh no, I hope EXO doesn’t get dissolved, Suho clenched his jaw and deliberated.

 “You need to buck up on your performance on variety shows. We understand you are rookies to this industry, but time is of the essence. We can’t afford anymore awkward moments between you and the emcees, understood?” CEO Kim continued, looking sternly at Kris and Suho.

“Neh, we understand where you are coming from, CEO-nim,” Kris replied.

“We need a drastic change in marketing strategy for your group! And maybe we’ll have to launch a comeback album by the end of the year, so be prepared,” he warned.

“Of course, we’ll relay your message to the rest of the group. We’ll try our best, sir.” Suho assured.

“You mustn’t try only your best, I need your 300%! Attitude, guys!”

“Understood, sir.” The two leaders chorused in response.

The boys watched as CEO Kim received a new text with an attached image, which probably concerned them. He frowned, as he looked closer, then handing it to Director Kang to have a look.

“Do you need me to call Manager Ma, or the publicity team, perhaps, to manage this?” he asked worriedly.

“What is it, Director Kang?” Kris asked. I hope it isn’t something bad regarding EXO’s publicity.

“It’s-“

“It’s nothing,” CEO Kim interrupted Director Kang’s reply to Kris’s question.

“Looks like the answer has presented itself in this tough time,” he mumbled, a smile forming on his face. 

Hey! I'm back with chapter 21! I'm really sorry for the delay, I was crazily busy with applications, and I had a major burnout. Followed by the infamous writer's block. x.x No excuse for not writing sooner, though. I'm really sorry to all my readers, and thank you for following this story despite its lack of updates and all T.T +bows a few times+ 

Comment replies

@lightitup Hey! :) Yeah of course well he was imagining stuff already, with his hangover xD Maybe something would happen - next time! ^^ 

And I solemnly pledge, as part of my 2013 New Year Resolutions, to update more frequently! x.x 

Do subscribe and comment more my lovelies, it makes my day :3 I'd love to be friends with you too *_*

PS Werewolf Boy by Song Joong Ki was so awesome, you guys should catch it if you haven't! His acting is SO GOOD. Like really. *_*