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“What’s wrong? Why’d you suddenly run out of the room?” Hyunjae asked curiously. “Was someone out there?”

 

Seungyeon hesitated to answer but eventually did.

 

“Aniya, it’s nothing.” She smiled. “I just thought I saw someone I knew, that’s all.”

 

“Ah, really?” Hyunjae grinned. “That’s good then. I thought something was wrong!”

 

She reached for her water bottle and took a huge swig of water. Seungyeon watched her, biting her lip like she had just told a lie.

 

“Hyunjae-ssi!” One of the trainees in the back called out.

 

“Neh?” Hyunjae answered, looking back.

 

“Can you teach me how to do that move you did before after Tyler did the wave?” The trainee asked.

 

Hyunjae nodded enthusiastically.

 

“Sure, I’ll be right there!”

 

She gave Seungyeon a pat on the shoulder before leaping over random belongings on the floor to go help the trainees out.

 

{Should I have told her?}

 

Chapter 14:

“Hyunjae-ssi, do you want to join us for lunch?” One of the male trainees Jinho asked. He had barely mustered up the courage to walk up to her and invite her out for a meal. Everyone could tell that he was extremely nervous. “We’re going out for some bulgogi at the new BBQ place down the block.”

 

A few of the other male trainees huddled by the door, each preoccupied with something as they anxiously waited for her answer. Some were zipping and ping their gym bags, taking items out and putting them back in. Others were drinking their water bottles until they reached the very last drop of water. They were all equally anticipating what their ‘sunbae-trainee’ would say to Jinho. Hyunjae shot them a smile as she flipped her hair back and tied it into a ponytail.

 

“Sorry guys, but I was planning to stay in the practice room for a bit longer.” She said apologetically. “It’s been a while since I’ve been here, so I just want to catch up with myself and accustom to the trainee life. All of you can enjoy lunch together, right?”

 

She spotted the disappointed expressions of the trainees by the door, and laughed.

 

“Hey, invite me out next time and I promise I’ll come, okay? Don’t look so depressed!” Hyunjae said with a joking face.

 

“Arasseo, Hyunjae-ssi! You promised!” One of the guys in the group shouted out. Some of the other trainees fistpumped in the air to celebrate.

 

“Kids, let’s go before the restaurant gets crowded.” The hyung of the crowd called out, gathering the trainees by the door.

 

The trainees filed out of the room, eager to get their share of the meal.  

 

“Tell me how the food is when you get back!” Hyunjae called out cheerfully, waving as they left.

 

When the trainees cleared out, Hyunjae busied herself with cleaning. She grabbed a towel from the side bench and dropped it onto the ground, using her foot to drag it across the room and clean the floor. Her dancing contest with Tyler was intense and the surface they had been dancing on was now slippery and definitely a profound hazard.

 

Seungyeon, who had been waiting for Hyunjae the whole time after dance practice, slowly approached her with a mischievous look on her face. She stopped right in front of Hyunjae as Hyunjae pivoted to clean the next section of the dance floor. Hyunjae looked up at her and Seungyeon peered into her face.

 

“You’re not by any chance already famous, are you?” Seungyeon asked.

 

Her look was almost accusing and Hyunjae laughed at Seungyeon’s incredulous question as she carefully picked up the dirtied towel with two fingers.

 

“You’re not seriously asking me that question, are you?” Hyunjae replied back.

 

She glided over to the laundry basket in the corner of the room and made a slam dunk with the bundled up towel.

 

“Why not...? You seem to know a lot of famous people, and even our...our legendary Teacher Kim!”

 

Hyunjae turned around and faced Seungyeon, who was still standing on the other side of the room with a bewildered expression. She sighed. She knew she would soon have to explain everything to everyone, but she didn’t think it would be this soon. Explanations and story telling just wasn’t at the top of her list. She also couldn’t help but scoff at the title the trainees gave Tyler. “Legendary Teacher Kim?” Psh. She could do better. To her, he was just Ty, a guy who was on the same level as her. Though, now looking back at it, he has a lot of potential for improval because of his power. She’d have to watch out sooner or later.

 

“Let’s go grab something to eat at the cafeteria and I’ll tell you about my experience here at SM.” Hyunjae said softly. “Sound good?”

 

Without waiting for a reply, Hyunjae grabbed her bag from the bench before swinging open the door. She held the door open, leaning on it with exhaustion.

 

“Yah, come on. I’m hungry!” She whined with a pout.

 

Seungyeon stared suspiciously at Hyunjae for a few seconds.

 

“Yang Seungyeon!” Hyunjae said, lightly stomping her foot on the ground.

 

“Arasseo, arasseo! Fine!”

 

Seungyeon lifted her hands up in defeat. She walked up to Hyunjae and swung an arm around her shoulders.

 

“You better tell me everything when we get there or else we’re not friends anymore.” She joked.

 

Hyunjae rolled her eyes.

 

“You’ll find out soon enough but just so you know, I never break my promises.”

 

She flipped the light switch in the practice room and closed the door behind them.

 

“We’ll see about that,” Seungyeon laughed playfully. “Kaja~!”

 

As they headed out of the practice wing to the main building, Hyunjae couldn’t help but wonder: would she ever break a promise in the future? It’s true that so far, she’s never broken a promise. However, with Kris back in her life, she wasn’t so sure anymore.

 

~*~

 

“Hyung, let’s go out to that new BBQ place for lunch!” Chanyeol shouted from his individual practice room. “I heard it’s really really good so I really want to go try it out!”

 

“Are you talking to me?” Kris said as he exited his practice room and peeked into Chanyeol’s.

 

Chanyeol was sitting on the piano bench holding a guitar. He leaned on it and pouted as he spun to face the doorway.

 

“Who elseee would I be talking to?!” Chanyeol whined, childishly stomping his feet. “Can we go? Can we go? Can we go? It’s really close by and I even heard the trainees talking about it!”

 

Kris chuckled at Chanyeol’s toddler behavior.

 

“You can go with the other members, okay? I’m just going to stay behind and finish a few things before I eat. I’ll grab some food from the cafeteria later.”

 

He patted Chanyeol on the back.

 

“I’ll see you when you come back, so don’t be so upset. Tell me how the restaurant is!”

 

Chanyeol watched as Kris walked away. Kris waved his hand once to say bye as he walked down the hallway. Chanyeol sulked after the leader left.

 

“Hyung is always too busy to eat with Yeollie.” He mumbled.

 

I guess I have to eat with the same guy again today...

 

With no other choice, Chanyeol left his room to bother someone else.

 

“BACONNNNNN!”

 

~*~

Inside the cafeteria, Hyunjae and Seungyeon were waiting on the line for the day’s special. It was marinara pasta with a side of caesar salad and a slice of garlic bread. It seemed like they were going with an Italian theme today and Hyunjae loved it.

 

“Ahjumma, a little more cheese please?” She pleaded.

 

The lunch lady laughed. She scooped another handful of parmesan cheese and sprinkled it over the plate of pasta. As she looked up to give Hyunjae back her tray, she gasped and immediately put the tray down.

 

“Omo, omo, omo. Look at this. Look who is here. Look who came back!!” She exclaimed.

 

Hyunjae grinned and half hugged her across the kitchen counter.

 

“Have you been well?” Hyunjae asked politely.

 

“Of course!” The ahjumma grinned. Upon seeing Hyunjae beginning to pout, she rolled her eyes. “But of course, not as well as when you were here!”

 

Hyunjae winked at her and they both laughed.

 

“I know you’ve always loved to eat cheese, so it’s glad to see you haven’t changed throughout the years,” the lady laughed. “It’s been a while. You look amazing.”

 

Hyunjae smiled gently at the lady.

 

“Thank you, ahjumma. I missed you!”

 

Noticing she was holding up the line, she quickly said bye to the lady and walked over to the table that Seungyeon was sitting at. The energetic trainee was busy trying to twirl the pasta around her fork and eat it the ‘right’ way.

 

“Need some help?” Hyunjae joked as she placed her tray of food onto the table and sat down.

 

“No thank you, I’d like to do it myself.” Seungyeon grumbled, still trying to twirl the noodle around her fork.

 

Sadly, one of the noodles just wasn’t listening to her. After another thirty seconds, she gave up and just ate whatever was on her fork. After she devoured a few bites, she faced Hyunjae who was chowing down; she ate a fork of noodle, a mouthful of salad, and then a big bite of her garlic bread. She had a routine way of eating her meals, and Seungyeon found it hard to believe that the way her unnie ate was almost like a beat in a soundtrack. It was almost ridiculous. Seungyeon cleared .

 

“So, unnie, aren’t you going to tell me about your past life?” Seungyeon asked carefully.

 

Hyunjae finished chewing her mouthful of food and took a swig of water. She wiped with a napkin before clearing .  

 

“A promise is a promise..” Hyunjae said with a weak smile. She put down all of her utensils and began to fiddle with her napkin. “It all started back when I was four...or five?”

 

She paused and for a second, seemed lost in her thoughts.

 

"That was when I was first introduced to Wu Yi Fan...oh wait, I mean, Kris." A smile made it's way to Hyunjae's lips. "He was six, two years older than me. I was really shy, but he kept treating me so well and dragged me around to play with him. He was the first person I opened up to right away. From then on, we became best friends and grew up together. We did everything together, it was like a one plus one deal for everyone around us.  Eventually, we shared the dream of standing on the same stage together."

 

"So that's how you met Kris.." Seungyeon murmured.

 

Hyunjae nodded slightly.

 

"Kris and I became SM trainees and we trained together with the other EXO members, who at the time were also trainees like us."

 

"S-so you know the other EXO members too?" Seungyeon asked wide-eyed.

 

Hyunjae cast a suggestive glance toward Seungyeon.

 

"I'll put some good words in for you in front of Luhan."

 

She grinned as she saw Seungyeon blush, but it was only a brief expression of happiness before Hyunjae resumed her solemn tone. Seungyeon smiled and encouraged her unni to continue.

 

"So...when I was around 15...Kris confronted me and said it might be the best for both of us if I quit being a trainee and..." Hyunjae hesitated. "...help my parents out at home. They were starting starting to need me with housework because of a few minor injuries and events."

 

Hyunjae thought there was no point in bringing up her drunken father at this point. The story came along fine without it. As Hyunjae’s story continued, everyone gradually began to leave the canteen, and as another hour passed by, only Hyunjae’s voice could be heard as it projected itself and bounced softly off the walls in the cafeteria. Seungyeon’s occasional murmurs of agreement and pushes to continue served as light accompaniment to Hyunjae’s voice.  

 

At the same time, Kris had finished his extra practicing in the training rooms. Working out was not necessarily his favorite thing to do, but EXO's dance teacher constantly stressed the importance of staying fit. Kris wiped the sweat dripping from his face with the towel hung around his neck, and let out a deep sigh.

 

“I’m finally done!” He said to no one in particular as he stretched his arms out above him.

 

His stomach suddenly growled and Kris rubbed his tummy area lightly with his hands.

 

“I am so hungry.”

 

His work had him so preoccupied that he did not realize the signal his tummy was telling him: he needed the energy. The hunger hit him all at once and hard. He glanced at the clock on the wall and gaped.

 

“I practiced until 3:00PM?!” He exclaimed in awe. “This isn’t going to work, I have to run to the cafeteria now before they close...”

 

Without further hesitation, he grabbed his windbreaker and flew out of the room. At this point in time, there were not too many people in the hallways and Kris was well aware, judging by his day to day basis at the building. The people who happened to be walking in the hallways at this time were always sunbaes who were used to...supernatural things, like Kris floating by with a slurpee in hand.  By the time he made it to the cafeteria, he could see that it was empty except for a few cafeteria ahjummas getting ready to close the food stand up. He was out of breath and wanted so badly to curse.

 

“I even flew all the way here...” He said in between wheezing and big intakes of oxygen. If only Sehun were by his side right now, he wouldn’t have to hyperventilate like a wheezing dolphin. ...But then again, dolphins have amazing stamina, so let’s take that back. Kris is not someone that can be compared to a dolphin.

 

As he stood leaning on the door to catch his breath, he seemed to have heard his name faintly spoken from inside the cafeteria.

 

It’s probably just me. I practiced so much that I’m even having auditory hallucinations. Good job, Kris. Good job.

 

However, before he could walk away, he heard a small yet audible “Kris..”. He waited and as expected, he heard his name spoken again; this time, it was his real name “Yifan”. This couldn’t be just his ears. Whoever was talking about him definitely knew him well enough to be using that Chinese name of his. He turned around and slowly pushed the door open, peeking through the crack of the door. He spotted Hyunjae and the girl that always lingered around her, talking alone at a table.

 

“They can’t possibly be talking about me...” Kris murmured under his breath.

 

“But they are,” A familiar male voice whispered jokingly from down the hallway.

 

Kris jumped out of surprise before turning to face the source of the voice.

 

“Tyler....ssi?” He asked hesitantly.

 

~*~

A/N:

SO I was going to write some more and end it off somewhere else, but I decided that this chapter was already pretty long and you guys have been waiting (or not) long enough XDD. I hope to get the next chapter up and running soon!! Hopefully by Valentines Day :3 (same day that Kris’s new movie comes out!!! Can’t you tell how excited I am. LOL). Welcome to the new subbies and thank you to all of my subbies for sticking with me til now!