I couldn’t sleep at all that night. Not only was I in the same hotel as Super Junior, but now, SHINee? I couldn’t believe this was happening. I tossed and turned all night in my bed, trying to figure out how I was going to compose myself for the next day and the days following. I was so worried about someone recognizing me and blowing my cover. No good could come out of that. For most of the night I replayed the scenes in my head, there were too many strange things that went on.                                 

~~

“So you’re Super Junior Hyung’s English tutor?” Minho shook his head. “I wish we had a pretty tutor. We only ever get male tutors.” He scrunched up his face.

He was so tall I had to tilt my head up to look him in the eyes. I flushed a little bit and had to turn my attention away. He had offered to walk me to my room. I told him it was fine but he insisted. As we reached my room, we noticed someone sitting outside, blocking the door. Minho walked in front of me to see who it was.

“Hyung?”

I kneeled down and lifted the baseball cap from the sleeping person’s head. Kibum twitched slightly in his sleep. I attempted to wake him up by tapping him on the shoulder. He didn’t budge. Minho bent down next to me and flicked Kibum in the forehead. We both jolted back as Kibum violently awoke.

“What are you doing out here?” Minho asked helping us both to our feet.

“AISH! What the hell?!” He blinked open his eyes and as he started to regain consciousness he realized where he was and who was there in front of him. “Oh.”

I held out my hand to help him up. “Are you alright?” He reluctantly grabbed my hand and stood up, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

“I’m fine.” He mumbled.

Minhofurrowed his brows. “What were you doing in front of her room?”

Kibum stuttered. “Ah, well, I came by to ask you something but Jimin said you were gone.” He looked at me. “So I thought I’d just wait till you got back, but I guess I must have fallen asleep.” He smirked tensely.

I let out a small giggle. “Well I’m here now! What did you want to ask me?”

Kibum eyed Minho for a second. “When did you two meet?”

Minhowaved his hand. “We’ve known each other for a few hours now. Go ahead, ask her.” He his heel like a child and whistled as if not paying attention.

The Super Junior member muttered something incomprehensible under his breath and then cleared his throat. “I just wanted to know if you wanted to come to our rehearsal tomorrow. I mean seeing as we didn’t have a lesson scheduled.”

I heard Minho shuffle his feet behind me to turn around. “I already invited her to the beach for our photo shoot tomorrow.”

I was stuck, literally, in between the two. But I didn’t see why I couldn’t go to both. “I can go to the rehearsal after the photo shoot.” I smiled. They both nodded.

“We should all go to sleep then. We have a big day tomorrow.” I suggested.

We all said our goodnights, and I sneakily walked into my room trying not to wake Jimin. I crawled under the covers and tried to even my breathing.

~~

But now here I was in a privately driven van, arms wrapped around myself as I sat awkwardly in silence. Why? Well, it would have been much better if I wasn’t alone with Kyuhyun. I swear he hated my very existence. When I first opened the door to the van, he just pulled down his shades and bluntly asked, “What are you doing here”? I explained to him about last night. He pushed his shades back up and muttered: “And here I thought this would be trouble-free trip to the beach”.

In all honesty, I thought about slamming the door in his face and just taking a damn taxi. Instead, I hopped in, buckled my seatbelt and took a deep breath. While everyone else was at least willing to give me a little benefit of the doubt, Kyuhyun made his disdain for me very clear.    

The drive wasn’t too long, thank gawd, and as soon as we reached the beach, which was blocked off for the shoot, I put on my shades and sun hat, scurrying out past Kyuhyun. I heard him scoff as I immaturely pushed the door closed behind me, nearly hitting him. Bias or not, I was done being mistreated.

“Noona!” Minho called excitedly as I made my way across the beach.

I was really happy that me and Minho hit it off, I was afraid they were going to hate me as well. From what I’d seen on variety shows, Minho was always the kindest and that was something I could confidently affirm. I waved back to him but instead of keeping my confident stride my eyes fluttered over to the remaining SHINee members who stood around Minho, all with the same questioning look on their faces, causing my footsteps to become more hesitant.

Quickly, I wiped my sweaty palms on my shorts as Minho neared. He grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the others. I smiled nervously at Jonghyun, Key, and Taemin who all smiled back with the exception of Onew, who stared at the sand below his feet.

“Hi, everyone.” I greeted politely. “My name’s Jade, nice to meet you!”

“Hello.” They all greeted politely in unison and began to introduce themselves. I tried my best to pretend I didn’t know their names and even asked Jonghyun to repeat his once.

Taemin spoke first. “Oh, wow, you’re hangul is so good! Do you think you could tutor us as well?”

Jonghyun face-palmed and Key scoffed. I could hear Minho groan next to me.

“Taemin-ah, you weren’t supposed to ask her just like that.” Minho sighed. “She doesn’t even know us that well.”

Oh, Minho…you have no idea.

I couldn’t help but giggle. “I would love to but I’m not sure if I’m actually allowed.”

Taemin nodded. “I know I just got really excited.” He turned to Onew. “See I knew she would be really nice.” Onew rubbed the back of his neck staring off towards the water.

“We should probably get started on the shoot.” Key commented pointing behind him. His eyes looked past me. “Oh, Kyuhyun-ah!”

I forgot he was there. I didn’t turn around and looked to Minho. “I’m going to go over there by the water until you guys are ready to start, then I’ll come watch. Is that ok?”

Minhosmiled.  OH gawd…so cute. “That’s fine!”

Taemin followed me as I wiggled my way out of the conversation. I looked at him and smiled. “You are coming with me too?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yea, I haven’t actually seen the waters and I want too before we leave right after the shoot.”

“Let’s go!” I excitedly exclaimed and we both ran towards the waters, splashing in the waves.

I missed the beach so much. I used to come here all the time when I needed to think and just be myself. Taemin was having fun splashing until he realized he couldn’t get his clothes wet. He squatted on the sand, staring at the waves looking a little defeated. I felt bad that he couldn’t really enjoy the beaches here. I stuck my hand in the water and felt around for some shells. Ah, this one’s perfect!

“Taemin!” I called. He looked up and stopped drawing in the wet sand.

I walked over with my hands behind my back. He stared blankly and tried to see around me. I squatted down in front of him and showed him what was in my hands. I had managed to scoop up an abalone shell. I left it on the black side purposely.

“It’s for you.” I placed the shell in his hands.

He seemed happy with having been given just a plain black shell. He flipped it over and his jaw dropped. “Oh, wow! It’s so cool! Thank you so much, Noona!” He was like a small child, getting up and running over to his Hyungs. I could see him proudly showing off his shell. Jonghyun grabbed it from his hands and made the same unbelievable expression. I heard him say, “I want one too!”

I laughed and tried to feel around for six more shells. My eyes drifted towards Kyuhyun who was staring at me with that blank, apathetic expression. Geez, take a picture it’ll last longer. I slowly made my way back over the group and stood next to, Jonghyun and Taemin who were fighting over the shell. I gave Jonghyun his so he would give Taemin’s back. Key thanked me formally and examined the shell with amazement and mumbled something about making a necklace out of it. Minho smirked and gave me a small hug. I flushed. Onew sort of stood off to the side, hoping not be noticed.

“Here you go.” I grabbed Onew’s hands and placed the shell in it. He jumped a little and nervously bowed in thanks. He’s so shy!

 I looked to Kyuhyun. “You want one too?” I asked trying to sound as sincere as I could.

He rolled his eyes.  “I come to LA at least once ah year. These aren’t new to me.”

Hurt, I turned over the shell in my hands. “Fine,” and with that stuck the last shell in my pocket.

“SHINEE! It’s time to start!” the directors called.

The boys stopped their praising of the shells at once and they all made their way towards the set up. I hesitantly wiped the sand off my legs. I could see from the corner of my eyes Kyuhyun fiddling with his phone again, ignoring my presence. We both took seats, on some rocks, watching the shoot.

“Why are you really here?” I asked him, whether I expected an answer or not.

He yawned. “I was invited, obviously.” He paused for a few seconds. “And, manager Kim wanted me to make sure you didn’t disappear again.”

 I knew it. I crossed my arms wondering whether or not I was going to be able to keep up this act and when my time with the boys would be over. I tilted up my sun hat so that I could see the boys. They were all so charismatic and so natural at taking photographs. I was so lucky I had gotten to meet SHINee as well and I really hoped that we would get along.

After about half an hour, Kyuhyun received a phone call from Manger Kim. We had to go to rehearsal soon. SHINee was still doing their shoot but the producers gave them a break to say goodbye to me and Kyuhyun.

“Thank you for the shells that was sweet.” Key stated.

“You’re welcome. I can’t wait to see you guys perform at the concert.” I replied.

“Hopefully you can teach us some more english.” Minho chimed in.

Key scoffed. “I tried teaching you guys, you’re all hopeless.”

Jonghyun butted in. “No way!” he replied in English. I saw from the corner of my eye Onew smiling.

“Anyway, we’ll see you guys later. We really have to go!” Unexpectedly Kyuhyun grabbed me by the shoulder and began to lead me away from them, towards the van.

~~

“Jade!” Ryeowook happily greeted as, Kyuhyun and I walked into the back doors of the stadium.

I waved to him and everyone else, who were all waiting to start practice. It was going to be amazing getting to see them practice all together. I held back a squeal of delight as Ryeowook led me to where Manger Kim was sitting.

“Ah, there you are.” Manager Kim waved me over and patted the seat next to him. “I heard you met our SHINee boys today.”

I took my seat and nodded. “Yes.”

“Good, I’m glad to see you getting along with our other groups as well.” He smiled. “Since we’re going to have the boys be speaking some English here for their fans, I was wondering if you could make sure what they’re saying is correct.”

“Of course!”

“Where’s Eunhyuk-ssi?” Kibum asked from the stage.

“He was just here.” Sungmin retorted.

Siwon cleared his throat. “I can go find him.”

“No, I need you to stay here.” Manager Kim shook his head and sighed. “Jade, would you mind going to see if he’s in the back?”

“Sure!” I took off my hat and sunglasses and hurried to the back to see if maybe he was in the dressing rooms.

It was a long hallway that had many doors on both sides. I wasn’t exactly sure which dressing room he would be in, seeing as none of them had any names specifying which ones were for whom. I made my way farther into the hallway; he couldn’t have gone this far, right?

“Excuse me. Are you lost? I don’t think you should be back here.”

The English caught me off guard. Quickly I my heel and noticed three figures standing in the hallway. I fumbled with trying to pull out my backstage pass.

The girl in the middle stepped forward, stopping and then turning her head to ask their two people. “Who is she?”

Oh, Korean? I cleared my throat. “I’m the tutor for Super Junior.”

The girl finally came into view. Jessica Jung, flawlessly clicked her heels towards me.  The other two girls who followed behind also appeared, Sooyoung Choi and Amber Liu of f(x). I bowed and greeted them.

“Hello.” I cleared my throat nervously. “My name’s Jade Soria.” Is this the new girl group debuting? Strange combination. Two SNSD members and one from f(x)?

Sooyoung happily introduced her self, and Amber did as well shaking my hand. Jessica wasn’t impressed and merely stated her name. She flipped her hair out of her eyes and asked me again.

“So what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be back in the hotel?”

Well then.

Amber excused herself and Sooyoung nudged Jessica. “We have to get to the fitting room, Sica.”

I swallowed the words I really wanted to say to her. “I was asked to help the boys with their English today.” Why do I have to explain anything to her?

Jessica smiled curtly. “Precious. Well, it was nice meeting you.” As she walked by she patted my on the head.

ARE YOU JOKING ME?

Sooyoung hesitated before following Jessica. “It was nice meeting you, Jade.”

“You too.” Well, at least Sooyoung was nice.

“Yah! What are you doing back here?” I heard a voice call from behind me

-______________________-;;

Kangin waved his hand. “Eunhyuk’s already back, Manger Kim wants you back.”

I sighed and dragged myself back to the stage. Today was not exactly going how I expected. I don’t know how much more of this tour I can take. It’s exhausting. 

(A/N: Thank you all for being so patient with me. I think as a gift i'll do a random drawing and write a cute little one shot about you and your bias. if anyone is interested plz send me a pm! :D)