~Chapter 1

Two best friends had arrived together at LAX airport for their first trip together to a foreign country. They’d wanted to visit South Korea and were flying into the ICN airport. The flight would be a little over 16 hours. They were set to leave around 1 pm and would arrive in Incheon at 9:30 pm the same day due to the time difference.

Paige, who had just had her 21^st birthday only a couple weeks before, was excited to share the belated birthday present with her best friend Amy who would be turning 21, in  a few more weeks. They had scheduled their trip roughly between their birth dates as an excuse for the vacation. Amy was quite proud of her grand idea of traveling to Korea. And while she had to twist a bit to convince her ever-too-realistic friend into agreeing to the trip, she had succeeded.

“I’m so excited, and somewhat scared. I’ve never left the country before,” Paige whispered to Amy while they walked through airport security.

“It’ll be great! We get to spend about two weeks in South Korea exploring all of the things we’ve seen in Kdramas."

“What if it’s nothing like the dramas?”

“All the places exist, and the culture,” Amy reasoned.

“I’m just so nervous. It’d be different if we had someone we knew there, or someone going with us.”

“It’s only two weeks, what could happen?” Amy laughed. They had spent the last year saving up for the trip that would take them to the heart of their current obsession. They had watched countless dramas, tried the Korean cuisine restaurants that they could find in their hometown, and had even tried to teach each other as much of the language as possible.

“You’re right, at least everything has been saved for and booked.” They’d done more than their fair share of exploring everything they could via the Internet. They’d looked at hotels and landmarks. They had tried to figure out all the places they would like to see that they’d seen featured in the shows they’d streamed online, and it was all about to become reality.

“So we’re fine,” Amy reassured.

“You’re right. You’re right.”

“C’mon, lets go settle into our seats!” Paige watched her best friend eagerly searching through the plane for their seats and enjoyed the reassurance that her friend’s excitement gave her. It would be a new experience and one that they would be sure to remember, forever.

All fatigue and boredom, as a result of the long flight, vanished as soon as the plane touched ground. Paige and Amy let reality sink in as they waited to leave the aircraft. They were officially in a foreign country. They were on their own in a new environment with the promise of enjoying places they’d only seen on screen. The overwhelming size and unfamiliarity of the Incheon airport put LAX to shame. Upon reaching the main arrival lobby, they looked around to figure out where they could get to baggage claim. Most of the other passengers were heading in a general direction, so Paige and Amy followed suit. Thankfully, most signs in the airport featured English. The baggage claim was fairly crowded as groups of passengers were clustered together searching for their bags.

Paige eyed luggage that looked like hers and quickly wormed her way to nab the larger suitcase. Amy kept watching for her bag, which should show up shortly.

“This isn’t mine,” Paige sighed, frustrated.

“Well, put it back. I haven’t seen mine yet, so yours may not have come out yet either,” Amy replied. Just then, Amy eyed a suitcase that looked like hers. “Wait! Maybe that’s mine.”

Paige waited for Amy to get her luggage, after replacing the piece she took from the conveyor. Her eyes continued to roam the circling bags.

“Ah crap, this isn’t mine either!” Amy exclaimed. She picked the heavy bag up and placed it back on the conveyor. Amy was standing up against the carousel watching diligently for their luggage. Paige became distracted with the interior of the airport while trusting her friend to find their bags.

“Gosh, it really is pretty awesome in here. Hey! Hey! Amy! Look, doesn’t that area look familiar?! Oh I just know I’ve seen shows filmed in some of these areas!”

“Yeah yeah, can we find our bags before we take in the ambiance?” Amy asked, dismissing her friend’s giddiness, never quite ripping her eyes from the carousel.

“Sure, sure.” Paige continued to look around the airport. Her heart raced at the unfamiliarity and yet excitement of being so close to the culture they’d been falling in love with. Paige noticed a group of about 8 men leaving the airport. While it would have never specifically grabbed her attention, the fact that they carried identical luggage as those that Amy and Paige were waiting for, had caught her eye.

“Amy? You don’t suppose that those are ours and the ones we just put back are theirs, do you?” She said tapping Amy’s shoulder anxiously.

“Huh?” Amy whipped around, “Where?!”

“Kind of near the doors, there!” Paige pointed.

“Well crap, if it is, we need to stop them and check!” Amy stated anxiously.

“They’re almost out the doors, how are we going to stop them?”

“Run!” Amy started to run towards the doors with Paige in tow. Anxious, that the men at the doors actual had the wrong luggage, Paige took off in a firm sprint. “Paige, yell at them!”

“They’re already out the doors, they won’t hear me! Gah! I can’t remember how to say anything anyway!” Paige could have hit herself for forgetting everything she’d learned in Korean at that instant. No, they had never learned formally, but they were relying on the little they knew to get them through this vacation. They were already off to a bad start.

“Just run!” Amy yelled after noticing the airport security guard close on her tail. “.”

Paige kept running while Amy was forced to stop and try to explain to the officer that they were certain the wrong bags were picked up by the men loading their things into the taxi. The guard asked her to calm down while another guard continued after Paige who was already a good distance ahead of him.

Outside, six very tired members of Exo-M had loaded into two taxis waiting for them. The last of their luggage still needed to be loaded into the trunks before they could return to their dorm where the other members of Exo were waiting. The group had been finishing some taping of shows that would air in the next few weeks signaling the debut of the pop group in both China and Korea. They had been on an intense schedule, and it would continue over the next few months. Even the minutes in the taxi to their dorm would be a welcome chance at a nap.

Upon arriving at the airport, each of them had found their luggage rather quickly. XuiMin had been the quickest to find both his and Chen’s bag at the luggage claim. The rest followed suit as more passengers had flocked to the baggage carousel. They were eager to make a hasty retreat despite the fact that they hadn’t yet had a problem with being identified in public.

Kris, the leader of their little subgroup, and visibly the most exhausted crawled into the first waiting taxi. XiuMin joined him, followed by Lay. Their taxi left quickly to take them to their home in Korea. Chen, Luhan, and Tao climbed into the next waiting taxi van that would also hold most of the luggage and the couple managers that had traveled with them. They quickly settled inside, each paying little attention to anything going on outside of the vehicle. Professionals at traveling, the van was loaded in mere moments, and the sound of the engine firing up was a wonderful sound for all of the passengers.

“Yah! Stop!” Paige yelled to the van that was starting to pull away from the curb. She had merely intended to hit the side of the vehicle with her hand to alert the driver, but the van had pulled away much quicker than she’d estimated. While she succeeded in hitting the side window, she’d also lost her balance falling backwards. Her heel hit against the curb causing her to side step painfully through her ankle. Feeling heavier than a ton of bricks, she fell backwards onto the sidewalk, unable to brace herself in any way. Then came the quick explosion and then nothing but utter pitch black darkness.

The van came to an abrupt halt mere feet from the curb. All of the passengers quickly sat up straight peering out the window and back at the driver in complete confusion. The driver was the first to rush out of the van to where a girl lay helplessly on the sidewalk. The managers, followed by Chen, Luhan and Tao, quickly exited the van to see what had happened. Luhan was the first to peer past the small crowd to see a red-haired American girl completely unconscious on the sidewalk.

“Luhan, what is it?” Tao asked just behind him.

“I have no idea what happened, but there’s a girl unconscious on the sidewalk.” He moved slightly to let Chen and Tao squeeze into the scene.

“PAIGE!!!!!”

All eyes quickly shot up at the roaring blonde that had just ran through the doors of the airport with two security guards in tow. The crowd took a slight step back as she dropped to her friend’s side trying to coax a response out of her. One of the managers had already whipped out a cellphone phoning for an ambulance. The taxi driver was trying to explain to one of the guards that he hadn’t seen her at all. The blonde angrily interrupted trying to reinforce that she’d seen the van knock her friend over through the windowed doors of the airport.

Chen could understand most of her English mixed with Korean words. Despite understanding the chaos of the situation, he’d never witnessed someone so hysterical before. It was obvious that she was having a hard time trying to fill in her story with the little Korean she’d learned.

Luhan stayed fixated on the redhead, watching for her continued breathing. He nervously watched his manager’s reactions and prayed that she would be okay. They had far too much at stake this close to debut to have any possible negative incidents happen.

Tao had assisted one of the managers in trying to keep the crowd back while they waited for an ambulance to arrive. He kept peering at the two girls. The one on the ground didn’t look so good. It was obvious that she had landed on the cement rather hard, but he had also noticed the twisted state of her ankle. The other one was quite hysterical. He wasn’t sure of anything she had been yelling about, but it was obvious that she was angry and completely blamed the driver for her friend’s misfortune. None of them had been paying attention to anything outside, and it was difficult to understand just how the girl had ended up in such a state when the van had merely begun to pull away from the curb.

The injured girl is lifted into the back of an ambulance with her friend quickly jumping in with her. Luhan watches the ambulance pull away and then looks at the flustered driver, guards, and his manager. “I’m going to the hospital,” he states.

“No, you’re not,” a manager quickly replies. “We will follow up, there is no reason for you to go. Head back to the dorm and get whatever rest you can.”

“You think I can rest after all this? I’m going.” Luhan looks for a waiting cab and starts to head towards it.

“Wait, I’m going too,” Tao says while catching up with Luhan.

“Me too,” says Chen.

“I said we would check up on the situation!” The manager tries helplessly to discourage them from going. “Luhan! Go back to the dorm!” he yells. He has no choice but to stay behind with their luggage and assist with the reports with the guards.

A/N

Few little things here:

1) yes, it's set "pre debut" Exo... but this won't be a flawless account of such days. However, I needed a setting that allowed for a little ability for members to be seen in public without the ridiculous mob of fans that exist today... so I pulled the setting basically back to 2012 ish.

2) I live in California (US) and have traveled no where. If after all the internet research I do fails me in setting up descriptions of places, let me know. I'm not looking for 100% accuracy... but I don't want to sound crazy either. :D

3) I hope everyone enjoys this story.....