December 25th, 2013
Day 207

"Please take care of us," the girls graciously bowed to the staff members furiously working behind the scenes. The members have been working fiercely to get ready for SMTOWN week. Since they were over six months as a group, they didn't have as much material to work with compared to their sunbaes (except EXO) so they were splitting their day with EXO. The sad part was that it was on Christmas day - at least their concert began at six o'clock instead of eight o'clock.

The sounds of the ever antsy fans were over whelming, even from the backstage. The girls were rather afraid for their stages tonight, knowing Exotic's (pretty sure this is before they received their official title) mere numbers could overrun their own Hero's any day. Would anyone even be coming to see them? Would it just be EXO fans? Their promotions were mediocre. They weren't stellar nor were they horrible. The barely promoted so it wasn't shocking, but the girls felt like something was missing. They felt like SM was slowly pushing them into the dungeon already. Barely any schedules would actually make you a bit stir crazy.

The girls would perform their group stages first, then in between both groups would perform "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" together and then EXO would take the stage. Afterwards there were a handful of crossover stages. The concert should be over by eight o'clock the latest.

After the girls finished changing into their first outfits, makeup ready, microphones in place and properly working, they waited backstage, antsy, along with EXO for their cue.

"How have you been holding up?" Suho questioned the girls, friendly curiosity in his gaze.

"A bit better now," Haneul honestly answered. There were still a bit of tension in the household, but it had been getting better since it seems that one-by-one every member is having some sort of scandal. It made it harder to place the sole blame on one member.

"We lost internet privileges," Yerim pointed out, shrugging. All the members were a bit irritated by that tib-bit (especially since they have so much free time now) but it was perfectly understandable and it helped them mentally. Some of them may have also turned into video game junkies due to the too much free time and not allowed to leave the dorm thing.

The EXO member winced.

Kai stepped forward to say, "We haven't even gotten our phones back since our XOXO promotions started."

"That makes me feel a bit better," the female visual smirked, relieved that she could at least text and call people.

"How often have you been guys at the studio a week?" Hye Rin asked, realizing she rarely saw the boys in the hallways. It was like they just popped in and out of their studio, magically.

"Not really," Chanyeol shrugged, hands deep in his pockets. "We really only go to prepare for promotions. We don't practice that often."

Seol Ae's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean you don't practice that often?"

"Well, isn't the performances enough to go by?" he innocently added.

"You mean, they don't just drag you back to the office?" Yerim slowly said, eyes wide in disbelief. How often did these boys even work?

"If they think we get rough around the edges," Kai added. "But if we perform to their standards they just bring us back to the dorm. They're really strict with us going anywhere without telling them so we're usually stuck at home. Our manager isn't that strict with practice."

"I kind of hate Jiwook right now," the visual grumbled.

"What was that?"

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end at the voice from behind her, her fellow member's laughing at Seol Ae's expense.

"I said I have a manager named Jiwook," she carefully said, eyes wide.

"That's what I thought," Jiwook sent her a hard look. "You're on in five, get ready." The male manager swiftly his heel to walk away, to discuss something with the director.

"He's scary," Suho admitted, eyes wide with slight fear.

"Good ol' Jiwook."

"So, whose coming?" Holly asked, bouncing excitedly in her seat, all of the members going to karaoke to just have some much needed fun.

"Some Super Junior members," Yerim answered, picking at her nails nervously.

"Oh~ Henry's gonna be there, isn't he?" the visual gave a foxy grin.

Yerim didn't answer. The others quietly chuckled.

"I think some SNSD and SHINee members are coming too," Hye Rin mumbled, without looking up from her book.

"Text me when you're done, no later than two in the morning," Jiwook huffed, pulling the van to a halt next to the curb.