Another chapter-ish thingy! Hope you guys like it. Oh Baekkie, why are you so cute?

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Baekhyun probably hated her because she was closer to the Girls’ Generation unnies than he was.

It wasn’t like she planned it. She had been staying late again to practice more (She needed to be perfect, since she was the lead dancer and she had so much more to prove than the others did) when Seo Hyun unnie had barged into the practice room. Ji Hye had immediately shot up from her seat on the floor and bowed, trying her best to make her way out of the practice room.

Instead of telling her off, Seo Hyun unnie had told her it was her fault and asked if she knew where her unnies were. Ji Hye hadn’t known and told her so, feeling bad when Seo Hyun unnie looked disappointed.

“It’s okay,” Seo Hyun unnie had assured her. “I guess I’ll just have to wait until they call me. Do you mind if I stay here while I wait?”

Of course Ji Hye hadn’t minded. She was a big fan of Girls’ Generation and couldn’t believe her luck. Her favorite member was in the room with her. Naturally she had taken the opportunity to ask for an autograph and Seo Hyun unnie had gladly signed for her. They had talked for a while until the rest of Girls’ Generation found the two girls laughing over a joke Seo Hyun had told.

She had been introduced to them and they had treated her as their little dongsaeng. For a moment, Ji Hye really felt like she belonged.

Her members never really made her feel like she was an outsider. They tried to include her in as much as they could and for the most part, she could keep up. She liked seeing the shock on their faces whenever she understood every word that was being said about baseball and could even give her own opinions on the game. She had two older brothers who she spent more time with so it wasn’t any surprise that she had picked up on some boyish tendencies.

There were times though when it felt like they were trying their best to exclude her. It wasn’t very obvious, but she picked up on it since they did live together and it wasn’t easy to hide something from someone when you lived in the same dorm. Sometimes they’d suddenly become quiet when she walked in the room or they’d straight out tell her she wasn’t supposed to be in the conversation. It’s a guy thing, they said.

What was so different about girls and guys that they had to exclude her out of the conversation? She had shown that she could keep up with them. The crude jokes they sometimes told had no effect on her except maybe make her laugh. It felt like it was their way of telling her she didn’t really belong.

EXO is supposed to be a boy band. That was the message she was getting from them.

So it was no surprise that she felt more comfortable with the Girls’ Generation unnies. They included her in conversations and definitely didn’t make her feel left out. It was late by the time they were done talking and Ji Hye was sure Suho hyung (They found it odd that she called him hyung instead of oppa, but she couldn’t really explain why she called him that) was worried. Sure enough, when she checked her phone, there were at least six calls from him and dozens of text messages from the others wondering why she hadn’t come back to the dorm yet.

Since it was late, they had offered to drive her home and she couldn’t refuse. They were so nice and they made her feel comfortable for the first time since she was a trainee and she was still cracking jokes with her friends Hee Jin and Eun Jung (Now it had gotten slightly awkward for her to talk to her friends since they were trainees and she was an idol. She didn’t really want the distinction to be there, but it couldn’t be ignored. Times like that, Ji Hye wished she hadn’t debuted after all).

They exchanged numbers and Ji Hye felt a thrill run through her. She had the numbers of Girls’ Generation! She had never thought that would happen. She knew that now they were technically her sunbaes and it was only a matter of time before they met but it didn’t diminish the thrill. She felt like a girl who had finally gotten asked out by a crush.

She was practically skipping up the stairs when she made her way to the dorm. The first thing she saw when she opened the door however was the worried faces of all her members except Kai (He was never there when it came to these kinds of things and Ji Hye could never figure out why) and her smile was replaced by a guilty expression.

“Where have you been?” Suho hyung asked, giving her a worried stare from his seat. “We’ve been worried sick.”

“We tried calling, but you didn’t pick up,” Kyung Soo added. She rummaged in her bag and found that her phone had died while she was practicing.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I was talking with Girls’ Generation sunbaenim and I hadn’t noticed the time.”

“Girls’… Generation?” Baekhyun hyung (She could never really call him oppa either since he tended to treat her like a boy so much, not that she minded that much) asked, his voice sounding slightly strangled. She almost forgot that he was a big fan of them too and she flushed. She didn’t want to sound like she was bragging about meeting them.

“Yeah,” she answered awkwardly before readjusting her grip on the bag. “I think I’ll go to bed now. I have school tomorrow.”

She didn’t miss the envious glance Baekhyun hyung had shot her while Chanyeol hyung tried to distract him (Ji Hye always felt like laughing whenever people mentioned BaekYeol because they were the pairing that made the most sense to her).

When they met up for SM Town, she couldn’t help but feel happy and awkward to see her unnies. They had kept in contact even after her debut with EXO (Sometimes they liked to that it made sense she debuted with EXO since she acted too much like a boy sometimes) and it was something she had been grateful about. With busy schedules like theirs, it would have been easy for them to forget about the little trainee they had bumped into even if Ji Hye hadn’t debuted.