Eli, Kiseop and Soohyun were waiting at the airport. AJ was coming back from the states today. Their manager and Dongho were parking the car. “What time is his flight coming in again?” Kiseop asked Soohyun as he looked around for fans. None of the fans knew they were here. Soohyun looked at his phone. “It should have already arrived. Where is he?” Eli grabbed his phone and tried calling the missing member. “It is still turned off.”

                Suddenly they heard a familiar voice call out to them. “Hey guys!!!” The all looked towards the direction of the voice and grinned when they saw AJ. Eli held his arms out and hugged him first. “How were the states? Did you miss us?” Kiseop had wrapped his arms around the both of them, not even waiting for Eli to let go. “Did your English get better?” AJ laughed as Soohyun pulled Kiseop off of them and Eli let go. Now it was Soohyun’s turn to hug him. “It’s great to have you back. Let’s go find the manager and Dongho.”

                AJ laughed and nodded. “No Hoon or Kevin?” Kiseop grinned. “They had schedules right now.” He nodded again and put his arms around Eli and Soohyun. “I did miss you guys. Did you know that no one recognized me!! At all!!” Kiseop burst out laughing and AJ pretended to hit him.

                They got outside the airport and the manager had already gotten all of AJ’s luggage and Dongho was standing next to the van. He saw AJ and got excited. “HYUNG!! Welcome back!” he said running up to him. “Did Eli tell you about Jade?!?” He asked excitedly. AJ looked at Eli confused.

                Dongho and Kiseop led AJ to the van and as soon as everyone was inside, they started explaining everything about Jade to AJ. Eli just smiled awkwardly and looked out the window till they got back to the dorm.

                It was already lunch time so Soohyun and Kiseop went to go make food. Dongho was forced to help move AJ’s stuff to his room. “Eli, can I talk to you? Come help me unpack.” Eli nodded and followed him to his room. AJ kicked Dongho out and closed the door behind him. Eli looked at him confused. “What’s up?”

                “What is this Jade thing all about? You are dating a dream?” He asked as he sat on his bed and opened a suitcase. Eli sighed. “I guess so. It’s really weird. It is a recurring dream but we remember everything that happened before. It’s like I’m not asleep and I just go somewhere else and she is there. It’s been almost every night for the past 3 months. If I sleep too late, she doesn’t show up and sometimes she will say that she fell asleep early and that’s why she didn’t show up the night before. She says she lives in America and that she doesn’t go to bed till around 5am her time, just so she can see me.” Eli laid down on the bed and stared at AJ.

                “I want to sleep more. I know she is just a figment of my imagination but I just want to be asleep more and spend more time with her. Am I crazy?” Eli asked with a sigh. AJ laughed and nodded. “Well technically, no. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, but you want to do the same thing over and over and have the same result. I don’t know what that is. Addiction maybe?” Both of them started laughing. “As long as it doesn’t mess with your regular life, there shouldn’t be a problem.” Eli nodded. “It hasn’t affected me except making me want to sleep more, but I think we all want to do that.” They laughed again.

                Soohyun suddenly walked in. “Food is ready. We decided to order kimchi stew instead of cooking.” AJ stood up excited. “Real kimchi stew?!!” Soohyun nodded. AJ suddenly ran to the living room with Eli and Soohyun laughing after him.

                The boys all stared at him in awe as he inhaled the soup. Kevin and Hoon finally came home and saw AJ. Kevin yelled “AJ!!! You’re here!!! I missed you!!!” AJ didn’t stop eating the kimchi stew but waved at the other two members. Hoon just laughed. “I take it that you were starving over there?” AJ laughed a bit as he pulled Dongho’s bowl away from him so he could eat what was left.

                “Kimchi stew…. Oh how I missed you…” All the members laughed at him. Kevin sat down next to him. “You better eat as much as you can today because you will probably be put on a diet.” AJ groaned a bit.

                Eli sat on the couch with Hoon and listened as AJ told everyone about different things he did or saw in the states. He was glad that UKISS was whole again, he was not glad about the extra practices starting tomorrow so they could get the choreography back to 7 members instead of 6. He yawned a bit and Hoon noticed. “Are you going to take an afternoon visit to Jade?” Eli glared at him. “Ha-ha, very funny.” Hoon laughed and just smiled innocently at him.

                Soohyun looked around at everyone. “What does everyone want for dinner?” AJ raised his hand. “RICE!! I WANT RICE!!” Dongho laughed. “I want cheeseburgers…” Kevin agreed with Dongho. AJ looked like he was about to throw his chopsticks at them. “I want rice…” Kevin smiled innocently and took back his vote. AJ smiled “That’s what I thought.” Everyone laughed as Soohyun went to order Chinese with extra rice.

                After dinner, they sat around watching TV. AJ realized that he still didn’t unpack everything and Kiseop went to go help him. Eli kept yawning. He wanted to go to sleep early. Dongho smiled at him. “If you want to sleep early, you can. We won’t tell the managers.” Eli laughed and nodded.

                He stretched and went off to take a shower. When he got out, other members were getting ready for bed as well. They had practice in the morning. Eli went into his room and AJ was sitting on his bed. “I want to sleep in your bed tonight. I want to see if you sleep differently.” Hoon was cracking up from behind his laptop. AJ laughed. “Your dream situation interests me. I want to see if your sleeping habits are any different than from before I left.”

                Eli shrugged his shoulders. “Sure, whatever. You are weird, you know that.” AJ laughed and climbed in under the blankets. Eli pointed to the other side. “Scoot over, that’s my side.” AJ smiled and scooted over. Hoon turned off the lights and Eli laid down next to AJ and fell asleep.

                He immediately recognized the Distance set. “Ughh… You are heavy!” Eli realized he was sitting on top of Jade. He smiled down at her. “Well, isn’t this familiar.” She nodded and tried to push him, so he leaned over. He remembered when she appeared on his lap on the Dora Dora couch. “Yeah, but you are much heavier than me.” She said grumpily. He scooted off of her legs and sat cross legged facing her. She smiled at him. “So did you get to see AJ today?” He nodded. “I did. Dongho told him about you. He is very curious. You know he was studying for a umm… Psychology… person…?” He has been in Korea for so long he was forgetting his English. Jade laughed at him. “A psychologist?” He clapped his hands together. “Yeah! That!”

                She laughed at him again. He loved it when she laughed. He reached over and pulled her onto his lap. “Much better. So what happened to you today?” He got comfortable and situated her on his lap. He smiled as she automatically leaned against him and sighed. “Cyrus is doing a photo shoot for the café tomorrow. It is at an indoor pool. Keji actually suggested it. He wanted to see him in a swimsuit.” Eli sighed and rested his chin on her shoulder. He wondered what AJ would think about the Cyrus person. “I thought Keji was supposed to be on my side. I even told Kiseop about him. Dongho teases him.” He smirked.

                Jade laughed and patted him on the side of his face. “It’s ok. Keji, Lizzie, Shelby, Elle, and Katie’s boyfriend will be there too. Katie said she will be running the café. Luke and Kiwi are going to be in school.” Eli nodded. He was very jealous that Cyrus was going to see her in a swimsuit. “I wish I could see you in a swimsuit…” he mumbled. She laughed. “Well it will be in his magazine at some point. His magazine is called Music Junkies or something like that.” Eli laughed and nodded. “Sure, I will try to find it.” He wondered if it really was a real magazine.

                 She sighed and stretched out. “I’m so glad that we are out of that freezer. This is the Distance set right?” Eli nodded. Jade smiled up at him. “I saw the making of. You couldn’t remember your part.” Eli pouted. “Japanese isn’t easy! You only know English, so you don’t get to pick on me about it.” He poked her on the nose and she laughed and stuck out her tongue. He laughed and messed up her hair.  He laughed harder as she punched him in the shoulder. ”It’s not nice to mess up a girl’s hair.” She laughed. Eli couldn’t believe how cute she was and pulled her closer.

                 He rested his head on hers. He suddenly remembered the meaning of the song Distance. “Should I sing my part for you?” She smirked. “Do you know it?” He sighed. She was better at teasing him than the other members. “Yes… I will even translate it for you.” She smiled and turned, wrapping her arms around his torso, resting her ear against his chest. Eli smiled and nodded and began humming the song.

                He reached the first chorus and began singing in English. “I always want to hold you tight like this, I don’t want to let you go yet.” He continued humming until it was his own rap. “Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, I love you even more and more as the seasons keep passing by. Either way, I have to put these emotions into words, so, let’s try to figure this out together…” he continued onto Dongho’s rap “Because we do love each other so strongly and it’s wonderful to still have a dream. Things like being separated even by a little bit is just a winter distance uselessly bestowed upon us.”

                He sang the entire last verse, in English. “I always wanted to hold you tight like that, I didn’t want to let you go. The train’s departure bell echoes and with a smile I said “I’m looking forward to the next time we meet” and you replied with a goodbye while shivering… Winter is waiting.”

                He realized that singing it in English was probably not a good idea. The song sounded funny and off beat. He felt some wetness on his shirt and looked down at her as she laughed. “The English translation doesn’t fit the flow.” He laughed and petted her hair. “Shush… That was romantic even if it was off.” Jade laughed and nodded. “This set and the song is very fitting for us.”

                She was suddenly gone. Eli sighed. “That was ironic…” He looked at his shirt and saw that she was crying. He just continued to sit there and wait till it was time to wake up.

                He was back in his bed and Hoon’s alarm was going off again. AJ was still asleep in his bed. Eli tried to shake him awake but he just groaned at him.