Han Yoon Jae let go of her brother and gave him a peck on his cheek. She missed her brother so much. It has been 2 and a half months now since she last saw him. Having the chance to finally see him, she somehow didn’t realize that there were other people in the room other than her brother, Park Jung Min. She flickered her eyes, shocked to see the audience in front of her. Forcing herself to smile brightly as if everything was absolutely normal, she finally managed to at least identify a familiar face.

“Kim Hyung Jun…it has been a long time since I saw you. Aren’t we from the same university? How come you never come over to my place? At least I understand why my baby Min didn’t pay me a visit...but you? Oh, I’m sorry. Where are my brother’s manners? Minnie ah, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?” she said, elbowing her brother who were sitting by her side.

“Aisshh…nuna! Stop calling me baby in front of my friends! Look at how I have grown!! I’m y Charisma Jung Min now.”

“y? y Charisma? You? My baby brother?”

“Nuna…stop it! You are embarrassing me.”

She laughed when she saw the embarrassing expression on his brother’s face. He seldom has that look and for some weird reason, that was her favourite expression. She would always like this just so that she would be able to see it. She knew that her brother has grown, becoming more mature and manly but for her, he will always be her little, sweet, baby brother. Twirling around, she noticed the smiling faces.

Waving her right hand, she finally greeted the others, “Annyeong haseyo. I’m Park Jung Min’s sister, Han Yoon Jae. Nice to meet all of you. Please continue taking care of my brother.”

“Aahh…different surname?” asked the one in the office attire.

She eyed her brother. Confused why his friends didn’t know about his family.

“It was nothing, actually. We didn’t have the same surname because we have different fathers. Nuna wanted to carry on with her father’s family name. But don’t you see the resemblance? We have the same flawless skin and beautiful face.”

PAAKKK!!!

“Nuna!!! That hurts!”

“Serve’s you right! How many times has nuna told you not to boast about yourself? Stop adoring yourself so much!”

“Hahaha…nuna, hit him some more. You have no idea how hard it is to deal with this guy. He loves himself more than anything else in this world,” Hyung Jun butted in, laughing his heart out to see his childhood friend being scolded.

“Shut up!” Jung Min exclaimed, glaring angrily at Hyung Jun for laughing at him while rubbing the back of his head where Yoon Jae had smacked him.

“Jung Min…stop bullying Jun Jun…”

“Nuna…shhh! That nickname is just supposed to be between us only.”

“Hahahaha…Jun Jun…hahahaha…”

Hearing the loud laughter, all 5 of them turned their heads to the end of the room. On the floor, rolling around and laughing hysterically, repeating Hyung Jun’s nickname over and over again was Kim Hyun Joong.

Yoon Jae watched intently at the crazy figure. Though she was amused by the act, she couldn’t help noticing the familiar figure was her student. Not only a student, he’s the student!

“Kim Hyun Joong?”

Probably startled by her sudden outburst, the person on the floor has abruptly ended his laughter to a stop. He stood up and wiped of the dust on his clothes, with his head lowered down the whole time. Finally rising up his head slowly, she saw his thin smile before his acknowledgement, “Annyeong Han Yoon Jae-sshi.”

Now it was her turn becoming the center of attraction as all 5 eyes are on her. 4 with questioning look in them. She looked away from Kim Hyun Joong and glanced over to her brother.

Before he managed to ask her, she asked him first, “How did you know him?”

Jung Min watched at her sister closely before answering, “He’s Hyung Jun’s friend from his part-time work. Ahhh…I understand now! He’s nuna’s student, isn’t he?”

Han Yoon Jae nodded her head. She understood the 6 degrees of connectivity idea now. It has now proven to be correct and true. She composed herself. Yoon Jae didn’t want her brother to know that she had a slight of a problem with this student of hers. Smiling, she faced her student and said, “It’s a small world after all, eh Kim Hyun Joong-sshi? Okay now, may I know the names of the other members of the group?”

Yoon Jae kept smiling and shifted her gaze to the other two unfamiliar figures in front of her, trying hard to suppress the uneasiness feeling inside of her by changing the topic. She probably did it right when Jung Min stood up and introduced her to the two members, the one in the office attire is Heo Yong Saeng and the one with the drumsticks in his jean’s pocket is Kim Kyu Jong.

“Wow! Three of you have the same surname, Kim. Well, all of you must be curious why I’m here this late, other than just visiting my little brother who was too busy to visit me,” she said with her eyes darted at her brother, getting a pouted response from him before continuing, “ Jung Min asked me to come over and listen to you play. He said something about you guys having an audition this Saturday.”

“Nuna is really good at composing songs so I want her to listen to the song that hyung and I composed for our audition. Maybe we could get some positive pointers. My sister is very strict when it comes to music. Even I, the piano genius was scolded when I was learning to play the piano with her.”

“Huh? Only you think of yourself a genius. You are good, but genius?”

“Nuna…”

“All right, all right…my brother Jung Min is a genius. Happy now, darling?”

Han Yoon Jae chuckled at the beaming happy face of her brother and gave him another peck on the cheek.

“Nuna, nuna…kiss me too,” Hyung Jun exclaimed, hurriedly coming to her other side and shoved his cheek towards her.

Yoon Jae laughed at the childish reaction from Hyung Jun. Since young Hyung Jun would always get jealous of her affection towards her own brother and he would constantly pout if he didn’t get the same affection from her. As she was leaning over to him, a voice made her stop midway.

“Stop playing around. Let’s start rehearsing. We can’t waste Jung Min’s sister’s time like this. Hyung Jun, have you tuned up your guitar? Yong Saeng, put your blazer aside, it’ll be hot and uncomfortable to sing in them. Kyu Jong, Jung Min, back to your instruments. Han Yoon Jae-sshi, I am very grateful for your help and I promise, we won’t take much of your time. Please, enjoy our music.”

She watched how the guys responded to Kim Hyun Joong’s instructions and though she could see Hyung Jun’s pout of dissatisfaction, the respect for Kim Hyun Joong was there on his face too.

‘So, he’s the leader. Jung Min did mention that their leader was very dedicated and talented, but I have no idea it would be him. He didn’t seem to have any of those charismatic auras with him when he’s in class. The phrase ‘never judge a book by its cover’ really fit in this situation,’ she retaliate to herself while making herself comfortable on the chair she took from Jung Min and stationed it near the wall, right in the middle of the room so that she could see the whole performance clearly.

She watched they perform the pop rock song that was said composed by Hyun Joong and her brother and she was stunned to listen to the lyrics and music. It was pretty well composed and with some amendment, she believed the song would be a hit and they would absolutely without any doubt get through the audition.

‘I hope they would be able to get noticed by a management scout and debut. These guys are really great and they synchronized well with one another. From what I heard from Minnie, this band was formed only 6 months ago. It’s like they are really destined to be together. And that Hyun Joong, his skill of playing the guitar is very impressive,’ she compliment about their performance silently in her head and not noticing that most of her sight now has absorbed towards Hyun Joong.

The song ended with Kyu Jong’s drum beat and when the last note stopped, she stood up and clapped her hands.

“Wow! You guys were great! Jung Min ah…that was wonderful!”

“Hyun Joong hyung made most of the composition himself. I can’t really take the credit by myself…” Jung Min explained to her that made her more shocked than before.

Her feelings and view towards Hyun Joong changed. She could now see why her supervisor told her about him.

‘He really was special and gifted,’ she finally agreeing the fact herself.

“Han Yoon Jae-sshi, may I know of your opinion towards the song?” he asked her as he approached her slowly after he sat his guitar to its stand.

“Hey, why are you guys being formal to one another? Just call her nuna, hyung,” Hyung Jun pointed out.

She watched Hyun Joong’s reaction. She could sense the awkwardness in him when Hyung Jun said those words.

“Hyung Jun, it’s okay. He’s my student after all. Even I feel it hard to be informal with him.”

Looking at Hyun Joong, she gestured to him to grab a chair and sat next to her. She did the same to Jung Min. She really wanted to explain to them of what she thinks of their song and how they could improve it more. As she started to go through of her view, the rest of the members came with their chairs and joint in.

‘These guys are really serious and committed to their music. Jung Min is so lucky to have found them,’ she said to herself as she looked at her brother lovingly.

Pffftttt…

‘Oh no…I’ve just passed out gas…this is going to be so embarrassing. Did anyone hear it?’ Yoon Jae tried to act natural but she was really embarrassed by the sudden incident especially in front of 4 guys.

“Hey? Who farted!? Hyung Jun, it’s you right?” Jung Min sudden outburst, accusing Hyung Jun for the smell.

‘Stupid brother! You and your big mouth!!!’ she cursed Jung Min in her heart. Her heart now was thumping faster as she became panic and felt uneasy with the situation.

“It’s me! Sorry…”

Han Yoon Jae turned her head quickly to her right, to Kim Hyun Joong. She can’t believe he actually carelessly admitted it was him even though she knows well, it was actually her.

“Hyung…how could you? My sister is here.”

“Sorry, Han Yoon Jae-sshi. Well, I’m going to the convenience store to buy some drinks. Choices?”

She watched him taking the orders with a glint of emotion on her face. Her brother had just blamed him for not having any etiquette in front of a lady and he didn’t say anything at all to defend himself. She made a mental note to herself to scold Jung Min for his behavior but first, “I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind Kim Hyun Joong-sshi. I need to buy something at the store too.”

“Oh, Ok…”

They went together to the nearest 7-Eleven in silence. She was thinking on how to thank Hyun Joong for covering up for her earlier but at the same time she didn’t want to expose herself as the one who passed the gas. ‘Maybe he knew and maybe he didn’t…Arrgghhh…how should I ask him? Or should I just keep quiet?’

She slowed down her pace and distanced herself a little far back from Hyun Joong before she uttered, “Thank you for before.”

She was actually saying it to ease her conscience and doesn’t really intended for Hyun Joong to hear them because it was really embarrassing if he actually didn’t know what it was all about or pretending not to know. Therefore she was really surprised when suddenly Kim Hyun Joong stopped and turned around, looking at her with a blank expression pasted on his face.

“What for?”

“Huh? You heard?”

“Yes. What for? Because of the gas?”

She gasped.

“You knew it was me? I am so sorry…”

“Why? Isn’t it normal for human to fart?”

‘Why does he always talk like this? He’s way of expressing himself is weird,’ Han Yoon Jae noted within herself.

“Still, thank you.”

He shrugged and faced the direction to the convenience store again, continuing walking. Yoon Jae watched the back of her student commenting on how mature he is in her mind, comparing to her brother’s attitude.

‘If this was Jung Min, he would be scolding me on how inappropriate for a lady to passed gas in public or if he was helping me out, he would be boasting on how caring he was and later use it to get something out of me,’ she thought, sighing at the thought of her brother. She was to absorbed with her thoughts that she didn’t notice she was crossing the road to get to the next block without looking to the right where a vehicle would probably turn into.

PPOOONNNNNGGGGG!!!!!!