UKISS was passing through hard times. Alexander and Kibum had to leave the group and the remaining members of the group have to get used to the new two members who were going to join UKISS.

The manager called Soohyun, Eli, Kevin, Kiseop and Dongho to the agency.  Once they were all gathered, manager entered the room with the new members of UKISS.  Soohyun recognize one of them, AJ.  AJ was a former member from PARAN, a band that got disbanded, from the same agency as UKISS.  Soohyun and AJ used to practice together random dances.   The others knew about AJ but they never got the chance to know him better.  The other guy, Hoon, used to be a soloist singer, a boy with a great voice.

Soohyun was the first to get up from his seat to welcome the new members of the group, even before the manager got a chance to introduce AJ and Hoon to them.

“Welcome to UKISS, AJ.  I have to say that I’m glad that you were chosen”

“Thanks Soohyun”

Soohyun was now shaking hands with the other boy, Hoon.

“I’m Soohyun, welcome to UKISS.  I’m looking forward to work together with you.”

“I’m Hoon.  I’m very excited of being now a part of UKISS”

Kevin, cheerful as always introduced himself to AJ and Hoon.  Eli, Kiseop and Dongho were still having a hard time facing with the fact that Alexander and Kibum were no longer in the group.  Eli and Dongho tried to put their best face and went to shake hands with the new members.  Kiseop as always, very shy, he slowly approached Hoon.  Soohyun introduced them before Kiseop could say a word.

“Come on Kiseop! They don’t bite.  Hoon, this is Kiseop, Kiseop this is Hoon.”

“Nice to meet you” said Hoon while shaking hands with Kiseop

“Hi….” Said Kiseop almost hiding his face

“Don’t get him wrong Hoon.  He’s just a little shy. Kiseop, this is AJ”

AJ shook hands with Kiseop.

“So you’re also a Seoppie?”

“Huh?”

“My name is Jaeseop, nice to meet you Kiseop”

AJ smiled and look at Kiseop in the eye.  This made Kiseop nervous.  He wanted to avoid eye contact, but he couldn’t.  There was something about AJ’s eyes and smile that Kiseop found…interesting.  AJ’s smile was almost like a =3 emoticon.  It makes him look like a cat, and Kiseop loves cats.  And his gaze was intense…Kiseop was already feeling weird, but in a good way.

“N...Nice to meet you too”

Manager was happy that the meeting went well.

“Now that you got to know each other, I have an announcement to make.  UKISS does not have a leader, but no more.  The leader has already been chosen.  Even though there was no leader before, he was already acting like one.  From this day forward, the leader of UKISS will be Soohyun.”

All the boys clapped their hands with wide smiles on their faces.

“You’re right manager, Soohyun was like a leader since the beginning “ said Kevin

“Like a big brother looking after us” said Dongho, the youngest

“Always encouraging us to do the best” said Eli

“The best hyung of all” said Kiseop while giving Soohyun a hug. 

Kevin, Eli and Dongho joined in the group hug.

“Soohyun! Soohyun! Soohyun!”

“Hoon, AJ! Join the family!” Soohyun invited

Hoon and AJ looked at each other, they smiled and join the group hug.

The manager was pleased that the meeting went alright.

“Guys, let’s celebrate.  I’ll invite you dinner.”

“Yay!”

They were all happy and very hungry.

At the restaurant.

“Uhm…guys, I know I’m inviting you, but please think about my budget, I’m feeding 7 mouths and myself in one dinner.”

No one seemed to listen.  The guys were only thinking about their growling stomachs while looking at the menu.  They were at a little Chinese restaurant, so little, they had to split in two groups to sit.  In one table were the manager, Soohyun, Dongho and Hoon.  On the other table were Eli, Kevin, Kiseop and AJ.  A tiny restaurant but with the best Chinese food in town.

Kevin and Kiseop were sitting on the same side of the table. AJ placed himself in front of Kiseop.  AJ noticed that Kiseop and Kevin were very close.

AJ asked Eli.

“Are they always like this?”

“They are best friends.  They’re always hanging around together.  Sometimes it’s like if they were siamese twins. It makes me jealous sometimes”

It was making AJ feel jealous too.

Kiseop and Kevin were so distracted being loud and funny, they weren’t even paying attention to what Eli and AJ were talking about.

“Jealous? Why?”

“Kiseop stole Kevin from me.  I remember the good old days when Kevin was closer to me.  We still hang out, but not like before.”

“Do you want him back? I can help you.”

“For real?”

“Yeah.  I don’t get to know another Seoppie often.  I would like to know Kiseop better.”

“It’s a deal then.”

Eli tried calling Kevin’s attention by doing elephant noises. That caught AJ by surprise.

“Whoah!”

“Yeah, Eli has that ability.” said Kevin

Eli was now doing all kind of animal noises, like horse, monkey, chicken.  He leave the better for last, the pigeon.  He started pecking at his dumpling the same way a pigeon eats his food.  This always makes Kevin laugh.  Next thing, Kevin and Eli were discussing what were they going to share for dinner.  This made Kiseop feel a bit left aside.  He saw AJ in front of him and started to feel a bit uneasy.  Kiseop was shy, AJ too, but AJ was more determined.  He broke the awkward silence between them. 

“Have you decided what are you going to eat?”

“I…I think I’ll order the…the black bean noodles.”

“That sounds delicious! I think I never tried those”

“They’re really good! I tried them once on a TV show and it was like heaven!”

“I think I’ll order that too!”

“But…this sweet and sour pork sounds good too…I can’t decide!”

“Would you like to share? We can order both and share”

“OK, let’s share”

When they finished eating....

“I’m so full… that was a very big bowl of noodles!” said AJ

“But so delicious. It’s a shame that there are no more noodles.” Said Kiseop with a full stomach

Soohyun got up from the other table.

“Guys, time to read our fortune cookies.”

Manager opened his. It says “Your economical situation will improve.”

“Does that means that you will invite us dinner on fancy restaurants? I’m growing up, I need more food.” Said Dongho.

“Just read your fortune” said manager

“Ok, mine says….Stop being a self-centered  brat.” Dongho wasn’t amused by this.

“Mine says….You’ll overcome every challenge in your way” read Soohyun

“You’ll receive great support” read Hoon

“Old friends will stay in touch with you” read Kevin

“You’ll recover something you lost” read Eli

“Love may be in front of you.” Read AJ. 

AJ looked at Kiseop who was right in front of him.  Kiseop tried to stay calm. 

Kiseop opened his fortune cookie.  He blushed when his eyes saw the text.  He kept it for himself.

“What’s your fortune Kiseop?” Asked Kevin.

Kiseop got up from his seat and walked towards the exit.  He hid the fortune inside the inner pocket of his jacket.

“Wait Kiseop! What’s wrong?” AJ followed him.

Kiseop got out of the restaurant.  AJ stopped him.

“What’s wrong? Did it said something bad?”

“No”

“Then why do you look troubled?”

“It’s nothing, just leave me alone.”

“You can trust me”

“I can’t, it’s embarrassing”

“How bad can it be? it’s just a fortune cookie.”

“I don’t want to talk about this!”

Kiseop was already losing his cool.  Soohyun approached.

“I’ll take care of this” Soohyun said to AJ.

AJ joined the others inside the restaurant, still puzzled why Kiseop couldn’t read his fortune to the others.

“What’s wrong Kiseop?” asked Soohyun

“I c…can’t talk about this. You’ll all make f…fun of me.”

“I won’t tell anyone.  You know you can trust me.” Said Soohyun

“I trust you, but this is so embarrassing.  I don’t want to talk about this now.”

“Ok, I get it.  But if you want to talk about anything, you know you can count on me.”  Soohyun put a hand on Kiseop’s shoulder.

“I know hyung.  Thanks for understanding”

The guys were ready to leave.  The manager offered to give the guys a ride to their homes. All of them got inside the minivan.  Soohyun sat on the copilot seat. On the seat behind were Dongho, Kevin and Eli.  On the last row were Hoon, AJ and Kiseop. Dongho was sent first home, since he’s underage and it was almost the end of curfew time, then Kevin, Eli and Hoon.

AJ and Kiseop were now alone at the back seat while Soohyun was half asleep in the front seat.

AJ was looking at Kiseop with the corner of his eye.  Kiseop felt like he was being watched, so he turned his gaze slowly towards AJ.  AJ turned his head to face Kiseop.  Kiseop in embarrassment took his gaze off.  He felt that AJ was still looking at him.  Once more Kiseop faced AJ.  They were now looking at each other.  Kiseop tried to act cool, so he smiled at AJ and turn his head to face the window, but not before noticing that AJ smiled him back.  AJ continues looking at Kiseop, and he knew he was being observed cuz he could see AJ’s reflection on the window. Kiseop was nervous during the whole ride.  They finally arrived to AJ’s house.  AJ bid farewell to Kiseop with a hug.

“See you tomorrow”

Kiseop stayed motionless without saying a word while he saw AJ leaving.

Kiseop arrived home.

“Thanks manager.  Soohyun, see you tomorrow”

“Bye” said Soohyun half asleep

Kiseop entered his house, took off his jacket and pull out his fortune from the inner pocket. He read it again.

“Love may be in front of you.”

From 8 fortune cookies, 2 of them had the same message, AJ and Kiseop’s, and they were facing each other on the table.  Call it destiny, coincidence or whatever, it was too much for Kiseop, he didn’t know what to think. The way AJ looked at him made him feel butterflies in his stomach.  That night Kiseop could barely sleep thinking about AJ and his smile.

I hope you liked it ^^.  More chapters to come soon.  Please leave your comments below ^^