Finally, Saturday had come! Unfortunately, there wasn’t much reason for me to be excited. I would be shopping the entire day. Within the past week, the boys had eaten any form of food in the house they could find. Considering our household consisted of eight young adults, we would need food; and a lot of it. We had all run out of shampoo already. I just emptied my bottle that day but the boys finished off their last bottle two days before. I also had to get clothes for myself and some of the boys needed things, too. The list of things I had to buy went on for two pages of notebook paper. I had about a $300 grocery bill and a $200 clothes bill.

I started with the clothes because they would most likely be the hardest thing to deal with. All of the guys needed new jeans (I was so glad that I remembered to get their sizes ^^) and some needed shirts and stuff. I needed a lot of new clothes, too, including some more-professional looking clothes for work. I also needed to get several pairs of pajamas because I had been setting my alarm really early so none of the guys saw me in my underwear. I also had a ridiculous amount of groceries to buy. Having eight people, seven of whom are growing boys, makes for a monstrous grocery bill.

I had finished loading the van with all of our groceries, which filled the van until it was ready to burst, when I got a call from Jaebum.

“We need you to get home right away,” he commanded. It sounded like something was wrong. Maybe someone got hurt! I thought.

“Oh my gosh! What’s the matter? Is everyone alright??” I was freaking out. Several thoughts were going through my head at the same time, especially for the younger boys, Junho and Chansung. Junho had been cooking a lot lately. What if he had cut himself? And Chansung, well, he was just young and kind of immature, and who knows what he could get into?

“Aish… don’t freak out, everyone is fine,” Jaebum said. “Just get home, so we can do this thing.”

“What are you-” I started.

“It doesn’t matter. Just get home, and change out of those ridiculous clothes,” he rudely interrupted, then hung up. Well, that was just not cool. I had actually thought that the SNSD – Gee look would go over well for me. I guess I was wrong. TT^TT I had heard in different variety shows that a lot of guys like SNSD. I didn’t think my clothes were ridiculous, necessarily, but I decided to change anyway.

It took me an hour to get home! Traffic in the city was so awful. Being my naturally motherly self, I was really worried the whole way home. Why would Jae have told me to come home so urgently? He did tell me to change into different clothes, but I had no idea why he said that.

When I walked into the apartment, I was taken aback by how many extra people there were inside. 2PM was sitting on one of the couches (we had two) and Maknae Rebellion was sitting on the other. Maknae Rebellion is a Korean variety show that tries to show that maknaes are very capable and shouldn’t be treated like kids, blah, blah, blah. They weren’t necessarily enemies with 2PM yet, but there was definitely some mental competition going on. It was sort of like in mangas when there is the competition about to happen and the artist has drawn a big zappy thing in between the two fighters.

“This was the emergency?” I asked, annoyed that they had made me worry all the way home for this.

“Tch… just get changed so that we can do something already,” Jiro ordered. I glared at him. He must have not realized that he was being rude. He was annoyed by that, but I did my signature hair-flip-and-turn-while-saying-“aish” move and went to change.

“Alright, explain. What is Maknae Rebellion doing here?” I asked as soon as I returned to the living room. As I looked at the six of them, I remembered how much my little sister loved Maknae Rebellion. Dongho, the maknae of U-KISS, age nineteen, was her favorite.

“They have come to capture Chansung!” Wooyoung exclaimed. I chuckled. That is the same thing they had done with MBLAQ. Except there was an awkward moment in that episode where Jinwoon, the maknae of 2AM slipped and accidently kissed Mir, MBLAQ’s 22-year-old maknae.

“You are on our team, right?” Taec asked me.

I looked at him, thinking, Are you serious? “Nope, I think I will just be disloyal…” I said, sarcastically, which was followed by a bunch of yelling from both sides. “Guys, guys, relax. I am only kidding! I will be Team 2PM. But, I am going to need some autographs. My little sister, Rina, is in love with you guys.”

“Nuna, that’s fine with me, but next time use a better excuse to get their autographs,” Chansung said, making everyone laugh. I was little bit surprised that he called me “nuna,” because it means older sister or older girlfriend. It is sort of the same as “hyung” only guys say “nuna.” I winced a little, but then I pulled out the picture Rina and I took before I moved to Seattle, and had to deal with this whole fiasco. She had her Maknae Rebellion T-shirt on.

“Light bulb!” Mir shouted. “Let’s have a team meeting.”

“Here’s what we have decided,” explained the maknae of T-MAX, Yoonhwa. “We won’t take Chansung even if we win.” This statement caused a bunch of cheering. “However, when we win, you have to cook for us.”

“If we lose, then we will be your slaves for the day,” said Jinwoon, raising his eyebrows a few times. This caused a whole bunch of yelling and dirty looks and, in general, chaos (as usual).

“C’mon man, lay off, Kari already has Nichkhun,” Taecyeon said, raising his eyebrows just like Jinwoon. More chaos followed this statement.

The whole Saturday was spent playing games, doing karaoke, and having dance contests. Most of this stuff is the period of time during which we all get to know each other by playing. The members of Maknae Rebellion are Mir of MBLAQ, Jinwoon of 2AM, Yoonhwa of T-MAX, Seunghyun of FT Island, Dongho of U-KISS, and Shorry J of Mighty Mouth.

On Sunday, we met Maknae Rebellion at some high school gym to do the filming. It was way too cold to do the show outside, so this was the place that was recommended to us. We had to wait forever for the MC, and eventually had to start the show by ourselves (-_-), which I personally found frustrating.

“Aish… you guys started without me?” asked the MC as he made his not-so-fashionably late entrance.

“Hyung! This is not a good way to start our show!” Mir exclaimed.

“Eh…Oh well, but who are you?” the MC asked, looking over at me.

“That’s Khun-hyung’s girlfriend,” Dongho said. Ugh… I was seriously getting sick of it at that point.

“Why do you guys keep saying that? Kari isn’t my girlfriend. Taec just says that to be annoying,” Nichkhun explained.

“Seriously, are we going to do something or just stand around doing introductions all day?” I asked.

We started with a Rank-Search Battle. That is basically when someone searches the ranks of the two people who are paired up to see who wins. I had to sit out since I didn’t have any status as an idol. I had Junsu to thank for ever-so-nicely reminding everyone. -_- Junho sat out too, so the number of members would be even. The teams tied three-to-three.

After that, we played “The Dreadful ‘Yes.’” In this game, two people wear sweatpants that have a balloon in them. They ask each other “yes or no” questions, but you are supposed to answer only “yes.” If someone says anything but “yes,” for example, if someone said, “of course,” or hesitates, then their balloon will get blown up. If they say “yes,” then their opponent’s balloon gets blown up. The first person whose balloon pops is the loser. I was about to take my turn when several guys decided that this probably isn’t the best game for a girl to play, so I became the MC. ^^ Team 2PM won that time.

“Next, we will do a… a cross-dressing competition?!?! Oh c’mon! That has already happened several times on this show. As has just about everything else we have done today… Can’t you guys come up with something else?” I said.

“Uh… nope. That probably won’t happen,” the MC said.

“Fine, I am not participating. That is definitely not going to happen considering you guys refuse to pick something out-of-the-ordinary,” I decided.

I cut the scene to commercial so the groups could go shopping. The boys went to a nearby Macy’s. They were gone for about an hour, but I just stayed at the school. I talked with some of the PDs and writers about what members and groups I liked. We talked a lot about 2PM. I told them how much some of the members, especially Nichkhun, are becoming like my brothers. However, there is one that I still can’t seem to see as a brother. I actually became friends with several of the PD-unnis. 

Finally the members returned and the show was back on. We made all the guys put blindfolds on, so they couldn’t see each other. It would be hilarious to watch their reactions after the “great unveiling.” Everyone was yelling stupid stuff like, “C’mon!” and “Let’s do this!” It took all I had to keep myself from laughing.

“Okay,” I started; my voice shaking as I tried to hold in the laughter. “Three…… two…… one!”

Everyone whipped off their blindfolds. They were all cracking up. That was even funnier than what they looked like! I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I burst out laughing, which made everyone else laugh harder, creating a mob of laughing monsters. I hoped and assumed the PDs would cut out all of this nonsense.

Anyway, some of the guys wore skimpy clothes (gross >.<); some were dressed in cute clothes; and, Chansung and Shorry J wore prom dresses. They all looked so ridiculous!

After a few minutes of uncontrollable laughter and making fun of everyone’s clothing choices, I decided to continue on with the show. All of the group members voted, and later so did the writers. They brought me a note that wasn’t actually a note. It was just a blank piece of paper. I understood immediately what they wanted me to do. I was supposed to say the name of my favorite person on the stage!

“Okay, so, since I am the winner, I guess that neither team gets the point. Is that right?” I said, grinning. My favorite person on stage was me. It went on like that for the rest of the night, but no one was going to give up. I remembered that we all had to go to work in the morning, and decided to mention it during a break.

“Oh my gosh! It’s already one o’clock! I should get home and get some sleep. I have to get to work in a few hours after all,” I stated.

“Wow, you’re right! We have work to do, too. Kari, will it be troublesome to you to cook for them?” Wooyoung asked me. I was relieved it was him standing next to me and not one of the more competitive members, like Chansung or Taec. We had a team meeting and we came to an agreement to forfeit the battle. I was so tired that I didn’t even remember the ride home. I do remember arriving at the apartment building, a little bit anyway. Someone, I am not sure who, but someone, carried me upstairs and put me in my bed.

The next morning I woke up more refreshed than I had been in a really long time. Except I thought, Wow, it is way brighter in here than it normally is when I wake up, and why does it smell like bacon? I looked over at my alarm clock. ELEVEN THIRTY!!!! I was beyond late for work! My clock didn’t even ring! I must have forgotten to set it! I knew what to do. I would call Nichkhun! After all, he is the one sharing a room with me.

As soon as he picked up the phone, I bombarded him with an onslaught of embarrassingly bad Korean. “Why didn’t you wake me up this morning??? I am so late for work right now that it will take a miracle for me to not get fired!!!!” I practically yelled into the phone while doing my makeup. I had to set my phone down and put Khun on speaker phone, so I could finish.

“Oh, don’t worry about a thing,” he stated almost like he didn’t care.

“WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???” I yelled at my phone.

“Woah, relax Kari. I called into work for you. But, you still have to continue getting dressed and stuff. Today you are coming on our show as assistant MC!” At this I carefully set down my eyeliner. My hands were shaking so violently with rage that there was no way that I would be able to finish doing my makeup at that moment. I stared at my phone for a few seconds, speechless.

Finally, everything spilled over. I picked up my phone. “WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING??? YOU DIDN’T EVEN THINK TO LEAVE A NOTE OR ANYTHING??? I TOTALLY THOUGHT I WOULD GET FIRED!!!!!” I yelled into the phone, even though it was on speaker. Then paused for a minute, taking slow, deep breaths, before saying, “I am sorry. I’ll come over soon. Where are you guys?”

“We are at the same gym we were at for Maknae Rebellion. I’m sorry, too. See you soon.” Then, I finished getting ready and grabbed some food before catching a taxi to the school.

Filming had barely started when I got there. I was really surprised to see that. I had expected them to have started hours before I arrived.

“Sorry I’m late!” I called. “I didn’t actually know about this–” I was cut off by Jaebum, who told me to speak in English. He was talking in English. Even though he had lived in America, I hadn’t heard Jae speak in English before, so I was quite surprised. But, after getting over the initial shock, I said, “PHEW!” all obnoxiously, and wiping my hand across my forehead. “I am way better at English anyways!”

And at that, we officially got started. Most of the show was simply a get-to-know-the-characters type of episode. Even still, towards the end of the night, I couldn’t figure out what their show was about. I figured I would interrogate Junsu on the way home.

“What is our show about…” he said when I began the questioning. “I guess it’s really similar to Korea’s Idol Army. We meet America’s idols and play games with them and stuff.” Oh, this would be definitely an interesting show.