Author’s POV

The next morning Kayla prepared to go to work like always. It was her time to open the café and Hyeorin would arrive a little later. She got ready and left without eating breakfast since she knew there were some sweets left from the day before back at the café. She wore a skirt, a white blouse and ballerina shoes with a small heel. Her hair was in a ponytail like always when she worked. The boss didn’t want to risk having customers complaining about hair in their biscuits. She arrived to the café just in time to open it, fix a few things, eat some and drink a coffee before Hyeorin came too. Hyeorin directly headed to their boss’ office to put on some really loud music, something that annoyed Kayla quite a lot…

“Hyeorin! Stop that!” Kayla shouted when Hyeorin played loud music in the office. Their boss hadn’t arrived yet but that didn’t mean they could do anything they wanted. Hyeorin walked out of the boss’ office nonchalantly and shrugged.

“What is it? It’s your favourite band can’t you hear that?” she said and started making new coffee. There were no customers either but if someone walked in and would hear the loud music of Super Junior playing they’d think they were unprofessional. Kayla sighed.

“I hear that but what if-” She stopped talking mid-sentence when some girls walk inside the café. There were about five of them. Kayla turned to Hyeorin with a ferocious glare and her co-worker groaned but walked in to turn off the music.

“No, let it be on,” one of the girls said. Kayla looked at her confused. Was she a fan?

“Okay…” Kayla answered. “Hyeorin! Keep it on!” she shouted to her co-worker who let out a victory scream. The five girls giggled. Kayla smiled to them. “Are you fans of Super Junior?” she wondered. The five girls nodded.

“Yep, we are,” the first girl answered. “That is why we’re here… We saw that some of the guys had come to this café and we were wondering if we could leave some letters here for them to read next time they come here?” Kayla was surprised. Had it really spread that Super Junior had visited their café? That couldn’t be good…

“Um… Sure you can do that,” Kayla hesitantly replied. She didn’t want to disappoint the fans even if they didn’t know who she was yet so they couldn’t exactly get angry with her. She took all their gifts and stuffed them away in her locker. She wasn’t sure this was what she should’ve done but did she have a choice really? Hm… Perhaps this was a good thing to bring up to Mr Park once she met him later in the night for her next lesson. She continued with her work for the rest of the day and around 8 pm she went to SM for her lesson. When she arrived there she told Mr Park about the incident and he wasn’t happy about it whatsoever apparently. He said they would practise that as soon as they’d done his other exercises too.

-

Mr Park was now waiting. Kayla stood in front of him, silent, concentrated. She knew the exact words to the question Mr Park’s actress had just asked her, yet she could not bring out any words. She tried her hardest to keep her breathing steady. Finally, her block disappeared. She stretched up tall to seem more confident.

“No dear. I do not want any of your presents. You’ll have to bring them to SM.” Kayla turned her back to the actress to show that their conversation was done. She shouldn’t have done that because in the next second she felt something wet pour on her. She squealed loudly and ran into the wall, holding her drowned hair. “WHAT THE HELL?” she yelled to Mr Park who stood perfectly immovable. She stared at him with chock in her eyes. Why hadn’t he told the actress to fake it?! “I DID WHAT YOU TOLD ME TO DO!”

“You’re not doing it right Kayla,” Mr Park said calmly. She felt her body heat up with fury.

“THEN WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO? JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO!” she continued yelling to her teacher. He didn’t answer her instead he turned to the actors and nodded to them. They left on cue, leaving Kayla with her teacher. Mr Park sighed but grabbed a towel and threw it to Kayla. She dried her hair lazily.

“We can’t move on unless you get this right. Handling fans at your work has got to be the most crucial part in your training. You cannot let them get angry or you’ll see the result. Nor can you take gifts with you like you did this morning with those girls who didn’t even know who you were. Imagine the amount of gifts you’ll get when they know who you are and you can’t say no to them.” She glared at Mr Park as he was speaking. Kayla knew that she shouldn’t have done what she did. It had come as a reflex. What else could she have done? Asked the fan if she wanted a free coffee? That was against the rules. Her boss would’ve gotten mad at her and she would’ve gotten a reduced salary because of it. Mr Park sighed again and started pacing back and forth. When he did that Kayla knew she had to be ready for anything. Mr Park had become harder when it came to really be able to deal with EVERYTHING. Last week he’d forced her to watch a clip from one of Donghae’s dramas, a kiss scene. He said that in case she’s at a set or at an interview with Donghae then there was a possibility they might talk about something like that and then ask her what she thought of it. When Kayla had refused to believe that they’d even invite her to be on any kind of interview her teacher had gotten a little frustrated, which resulted in worse training. Even now, Kayla had bruises from the ‘attacks’ he’d created for her. Kayla wanted to tell Donghae about it but then he might have wanted to find another teacher. She didn’t want that. After all, Mr Park was a good teacher and he taught her all she needed to know. He just used his own tactics to do so. Kayla watched Mr Park walk up to his bag and pick it up then he turned back to her.

“What?” Kayla asked.

“You’re not ready yet Kayla. Till next week learn how to control yourself. Then maybe we can move on. But at this rate Donghae can forget about going official any time soon.” Kayla was stunned. She felt her heart break a little. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard such a disappointed voice from teacher. The tears began streaming down her cheeks.

“What do you mean?” Kayla said with a trembling crack in her voice. She didn’t understand how only one lesson could be her fall when all other lessons had gone so well. Mr Park shrugged.

“I’m just telling you Kayla. The next time you cry because a fan has poured water on you, sent you a letter of hate, thrown herself at you in despair or tells you how you don’t deserve Donghae then do not come to me. I don’t work with people who don’t cooperate.”

“But tell me what I did wrong!” Kayla’s whole body was shaking from top to bottom. She had no idea why Mr Park out of nowhere made it sound like she’d failed every single lesson!

“Firstly, don’t ask me that, ask yourself that. Secondly, you’re too fragile. You should know that you don’t turn your back on a fan. You face them. You cowered away. Each time you have faced a challenge the last couple of weeks you’re afraid to fail, therefore you shrink and rely on what you think I want you to do. By doing so you don’t learn new things. When the fans learn your strategies and come up with new ways to provoke you, then what will you do? You’ll stand there and you’ll be scared. Also, Donghae can’t always be there to protect you. It’s your job Kayla to by all means not make Donghae look bad or else he’ll have to deal with the consequences. For his sake if not for your own, don’t get into trouble because you can’t handle it once you’re pressured.” With that Mr Park left the room, leaving Kayla confused, sad. Hadn’t she learned anything? Was that the words of Mr Park? Kayla could no longer think straight. What if everything he’d just said was her greatest nightmare? Her hearing the words that basically she wasn’t good enough was her worst fear. Now that fear spit her in the face, punched her in her stomach and kicked at her legs, making her fall to her knees. She sobbed in the room all alone. Kayla couldn’t understand how some of the idols even wanted to become idols if this was what it meant dealing with all around the clock, every single day of your life! She remembered when Donghae told her that there was a say in their contract about dating, and for a good reason. Back then she hadn’t understood that reason but now! She understood it perfectly well! But breaking up wasn’t in her ing vocabulary s what the hell could she do?! She sprung up from the floor she sat on and sprinted out of the room. She ran and burst the right door opened as soon as she reached it.

“Donghae, it’s not working!” Kayla exclaimed upset when she opened the door to Super Junior’s rehearsal studio. The guys, who were in the middle of practise, all turned to the girl who stood in the doorway to their practise room. She had red, swollen eyes from crying. She felt Donghae’s arms around her in less than two seconds. She felt her body lift from the floor when he picked her up and she wrapped her arms around his neck. To get some privacy he carried her out of the room to some couches where he sat down with her in his lap. Even though he felt confused about why his girl was crying, Donghae tried his best to not ask her what had happened to fast, since it was obvious she needed time to calm down. He knew she’d had a lesson that that afternoon but how could it had gone this bad that she’d started crying this much? The last few times she’d told him about all the compliments she’d gotten from her teacher so he must’ve made her do something she didn’t want to do now. No Donghae, he thought to himself, don’t make assumptions, that’ll only anger you on beforehand. He waited until Kayla’s shaking had steadied in his embrace before he asked her to tell him what happened.  She didn’t answer him.

“Kayla, my princess, please tell me how to help you,” Donghae pleaded. “Did he do something to you? Did I-I?” He felt his voice cracking more and more. Why was it that he thought he’d done anything, Kayla thought when she saw Donghae tearing up as well. “Please don’t cry Kayla,” Donghae begged. “I hate to see you cry.” Kayla took a deep breath. If she didn’t keep it together then they’d both end up sobbing like crazy.

“Mr Park told me I’m not anywhere near ready to go official with you. He told me I’m not learning anymore. I’m making the easy decisions right now and it blocks my path of becoming more prepared. I’m mad at myself, that’s all,” Kayla explained to Donghae. Donghae sighed and rested his cheek to her shoulder. “I should get home and rest I think,” Kayla said and made him release his grip around her. She tried to stand up but Donghae held her down.

“No stay. I don’t want you to go home feeling like you’ve failed me or yourself,” Donghae said, hugging her again.

“I don’t feel like that. I was upset and needed a hug.” Kayla was a horrible liar sometimes. The boy raised a brow to her and she giggled in embarrassment. “Fine,” she said to confirm she’d tried to lie to him. “Can I watch you guys rehearse?” she wondered.

“Of course you can princess. But are you sure you don’t want to talk more about this?” Donghae asked carefully but Kayla shook her head.

“No, we’ve talked too much about this. I’ll just take more lessons and learn how to deal with fans in my café and then we’ll go official eventually. Okay?” She smiled to Donghae who nodded and leaned in to peck her lips.

“Yes. Now come on,” he said. They stood up and walked back to the studio, holding hands. When they opened the door it appeared that the confusion had made the members take a break. They were all sitting in a circle and each of them turned when Donghae opened the door.

“Our drama queen is back.” Kyuhyun chuckled. Sungmin hit his head but Kayla laughed and blushed.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” she apologised. “I had a mental breakdown,” she explained to them. Kyuhyun stood up and smiled.

“We all have that. Especially Heechul hyung and me and Leeteuk hyung,” Kyuhyun said, earning laughs from most of the members. He invited Kayla into a hug which she accepted.

“Whatever it was you went through just grow from it instead of getting broken by it,” Leeteuk said while motioning for all the members to stand up, they did and joined in for group hug. Afterwards, Kayla felt much better and could tell the boys about her silly break out and the members and she even figured out that it might’ve been a test from her teacher to see how she’d react to it. And when she’d realised that Kayla felt even more stupid. The members always made her feel better after only a few words of wisdom. Soon she even was happy enough to be able to sit down and whole heartedly watch the guys return to practise. How on earth it could break her so much to know that her teacher was mad at her was a mystery to the girl. One second she’d been fine then the next he’d made her cry rivers.

After a few hours of watching the guys practise the girl excused herself and went back home. What a strange day this had been, she thought as she prepared to go to bed. Well in bed she received a text from Donghae telling her to not worry, dream about him, sleep well and also that he’d go to her house after practise but that she shouldn’t wait up for him. With that the girl fell asleep and just like he’d told her Donghae came by around one in the morning and went to sleep next to her, hugging her tightly.

Oh gooooood! I'm so so so so sorry! I wish I could write better chapters but it's like it all has left me! I don't know what to do hahaha! The chapters will get better once the drama has started! I promise! Just please bare with me until we get there okay? Thank you all! Love you so much and I don't wanna lose any of you! Some kind words wouldn't hurt in this moment of writer despair!!! xD Anyway, they'll probably go official the next chapter. But not quite in the way they planned... Wanna know how it'll turn out? Then stay for the next chapter! ^^