~Chapter 3

Paige looked at herself in the mirror inside the small restroom attached to her hospital room. She cleaned up her face and heavily debated about applying makeup. Despite their predicament, three incredibly perfect individuals were waiting downstairs and it would be a shame to be looking as pathetic as she felt. She rummaged through her purse and found some lotion, lip-gloss, a compact, and mascara. It would do. She quickly fixed her appearance and left the restroom.

“Oh!” Paige gasped. Standing just outside of the restroom door was the baby-faced one, Luhan. He smiled and offered his arm to help steady her walk as they left the room. Paige stared at his arm as if touching him could possibly get her arrested. She tentatively accepted the offer of assistance. He was only a couple inches taller, but slouched slightly so that she could put her arm around his shoulder while his arm wrapped around the upper middle of her back. Goodness, he’s stronger than he looks. He smiled again and nodded in the direction of the door.

Just outside, Tao and Amy were waiting so they could go down the elevator together to the main floor where Kris was waiting for them. Paige exchanged a nervous glance at Amy, who laughed to herself at the obvious unease that Paige had in letting Luhan assist her in walking. Once outside, Kris was holding open the door to a cab.

Luhan helped Paige into the cab first, followed by Amy and Tao. Kris took the front seat next to the driver. Paige gave them the information for the hotel and off they went.

Inside the cab, no one spoke. Paige stared at her hands, and occasionally at the cityscape that they were driving through. The four of them in the backseat was beyond cozy, and Paige still felt that being in such close proximity was somehow wrong.

Amy found herself staring at the back of Kris’ head. His hair was sandy blonde, although one could vaguely see the darker hair towards the roots. The light hair suited him, she thought. In fact, the only one with possibly naturally dark hair was the one sitting next to her, Tao. Even Luhan had brighter hair than was natural. It suited each of them so perfectly. They must have stylists, and brilliant ones at that, she thought.

The cab pulled up to the hotel. Kris quickly exited the cab and made his way around to help get Paige out of the car, while Tao and Amy exited out of the other door. Inside the lobby, Amy walked straight to the desk to inquire about their reservations. Luhan walked Paige to a nearby bench in the lobby. Kris and Tao stood on either side of Amy while she was talking to the desk agent.

“Cancelled?” Amy exclaimed.

“We are sorry. You did not show up for your reservation so it has been cancelled,” the woman at the desk explained.

“Can’t you just reinstate it for tonight through the rest of the two weeks?”

“The hotel is booked for the next 3 nights, we cannot check you in until then.”

“And just where am I supposed to stay for the next few days? We booked this over 6 months ago!” Amy shouted.

“I am sorry. There is nothing I can do at this time.” Amy was visibly furious.

“Amy, what is going on?” Paige asked. She could hear the escalating tone in Amy’s voice, but she and Luhan were too far back to hear the actual words being spoken.

“They cancelled our reservation!” she shouted. “And they have no rooms for a couple more days!”

Paige’s headache came back with a vengeance. The room swirled slightly so she closed her eyes and tried her best to not cry.

Amy was at a loss. She was furious with everyone. This was not how she had things planned in her head. By now they should be enjoying the city, not feeling so small and lost in it. Amy took a few steps away from the desk, with Tao closely behind. She looked at Paige, realizing her best friend was close to a breakdown causing her anger to increase even more. Kris was still standing at the front desk busily asking the desk agent more questions. She had no idea what he thought he could accomplish, but she was busy working up her next choice of words to get them out of this situation.

Tao turned back to Kris and mentioned something in Mandarin. Kris nods, leaves the desk, and starts to walk back to the lobby doors.

“Where is he going?!” Amy asks sharply. Instead of answering, Tao grabs her wrist and starts to pull her to the door. Luhan grabs Paige’s shoulders, helping her stand, and lead her towards the front doors. Outside, Kris gets a cab to stop for them and holds the door open.

“Where are we going now?” Amy says, still angry, but with a hint of helplessness in her voice.

“Our place,” Kris responds. Amy stands still for a moment. It’s not as if she had many options at the moment. It would at least give them a place to rest and formulate a new plan. Without any argument left, Amy climbs into the cab. Again, the same four cram into the backseat of the car, with Kris up front. They drive, finding themselves just outside of the city in a more suburban area.

The cab pulls up to the front of 3-story building. Brown on the outside, with a few balconies and fenced in, it looks impressive in it’s surrounding area. Everyone gets out of the cab and the girls take in their surroundings.

“You guys live here together?” Amy asks.

“Off and on, depending on our schedule,” Kris replied.

“What do you mean?” Paige asks.

“This is our dorm. We are three members from a group called Exo. We live here during training, and especially now while we are only days away from debuting.”

“You’re in a music group?” Amy asks incredulously.

“Yes. Myself, Tao, Luhan and Chen who you met yesterday, are part of the group. You’ll meet the others when we go inside.”

“How many of you are there?” Paige asks.

“Twelve.”

“Like Super Junior?” Paige replies. She hears Tao and Luhan stifle a laugh, probably at the notion that the girls know at least that much.

“Sure,” responds Kris. “Follow me.” Kris opens the door and takes a few steps inside with Amy and Tao, Luhan and Paige following shortly behind. Paige and Amy barely budge once inside the door. There are at least five more perfect looking men in different areas of the main room. One stands and walks up to Kris. They exchange a few sentences before he approaches the girls.

“Hello, I’m Suho,” he introduces himself. His smile is friendly and his demeanor seems entirely welcoming. Both girls smile slightly and nod accepting his greeting. The rest of the men in the room have stood and nod in greeting following Suho’s example. Kris names off each one in a row. Amy and Paige are beside themselves. They already can’t remember their names, with the exception of Chen, which at least Amy had met the night before.

“Hello, I’m Amy.”

“Hello, I’m Paige.” Another round of nods follow. Luhan and Tao direct the girls to two chairs in the main room while a few of the members break into rapid conversations with Kris in both Korean and Mandarin. He seems to be explaining the entire situation, and somewhat sternly too. There was no mistaking his role within the group.

It seemed that Suho agreed with Kris, as they were standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder discussing things with some of the other guys. Paige and Amy couldn’t pray to keep up with the conversation despite what they had learned. After a few moments, one of the shortest members approached the girls. He looked rather sympathetic and incredibly young. He stopped in front of them, slightly bowed and started to apologize. Both girls looked at him, noticeably confused. He attempted to explain that he was the one who grabbed luggage without paying attention to the tags.

“Have you found our bags?” Paige asked him. Overhearing the question, Kris broke away from the other members and approached them.

“No, but they did find our luggage at the terminal. Your luggage is still missing,” he explained. Paige rubbed her forehead, already preparing for the headache that was sure to bloom.

Luhan touched Paige’s shoulder. “We won’t leave you stranded. You can relax upstairs while we talk.”

“I can’t stand all this waiting. Our vacation is falling apart,” Amy murmurs.

“What can we do?” Paige asks her.

“I don’t know.”

“I need to lay down, or something,” Paige complains to Amy.

“Alright, we’ll go upstairs.” Tao directs Amy to the staircase while Luhan helps Paige stand up. Sure enough, dizziness assails upon her and she sways just slightly after standing. Out of the corner of her eye she notices every male take a half of a footstep forward as if they’re all going to catch her. She laughs slightly and collects herself to make it up the stairs.

“Maybe you should have stayed at the hospital,” Luhan suggests.

“I wouldn’t be dizzy if I wasn’t so stressed out,” Paige replies. Luhan nods and takes them into a sitting room upstairs. Along the way, they can hear other commotion from different areas of the house. There is definitely dance music playing down a separate hallway. The chairs in the sitting room are plush and inviting. Amy sinks into a chair and Paige lays her head back and closes her eyes. Luhan and Tao leave to return to the main group downstairs. As they leave, the music stops and at least 2 different doors open and then close. The remaining members must be heading downstairs to join in the conversation.

“What are they deciding?” Paige asks Amy while keeping her eyes closed.

“Probably worried about some kind of scandal. I didn’t realize they had an image to protect,” Amy replied. Paige knew she felt as though being around them was somehow not allowed.

“So what are they going to do with us?”

“I don’t know, but did you see all of them? They’re all like cookie cutter perfect.”

“Well duh! They’re all scouted for and if they’re going to be pop stars, they have to be adorable.”

“Sheesh. I guess,” Amy replied.

“But seriously, what are we going to do?”

“We need them to find our luggage.”

“What if they were stolen and we never get them back?” Paige asked.

“No. That can’t happen.”

“Amy, it did happen. It’s not like they’d harbor it for any reason. If they say they don’t have it, then they don’t!”

“All of our stuff is in those bags.”

“Not all of it. We didn’t move to Korea. Everything can be replaced,” Paige responded.

“Paige! We had all of our extra money in there.” Amy stood up and started her diligent pacing again.

“Yes, and most of that we would have spent while here. If we go home now, it’ll be the same, just a few days early. I can go back to work early and make some of it up.” Paige was still keeping her eyes closed and trying to tame her headache.

“No. I need my bag back,” Amy insisted.

“Why?”

“I just do.”

“So what? Where are we supposed to stay?” Paige asked.

“Here,” Kris stated. Amy whirled around finding that the angel was standing directly behind her. She looked up into his eyes and lost her thought process.

“What do you mean, here?” Paige asked while Amy was regaining her equilibrium.

“For tonight. Stay here.”

“The two of us, in this frat house?!” Amy responded. And then the angel had the nerve to break into a smile.

“We’ll give you your own space. Chanyeol is already clearing a room for you.” Kris tilted his head in the direction of the hallway they’d heard the music coming from earlier.

“Why?” Paige asked.

“We’d like to find your bags and figure out how to get your vacation off to a new start.”

“You might have your work cut out for you at this point,” Amy murmured. Angel’s gaze caught hers and she suddenly wish she’d simply nodded instead of speaking.

“Chanyeol will be here shortly. For now, please continue to rest.” The angel bowed and exited the room.

“Damn,” stated Amy.

“It beats trying to find another hotel or worse, going home,” Paige replied.

“Yeah, who would turn down the ability to stay with twelve supermodel boys?”

“That’s probably the one thing that makes this unnerving,” Paige admitted.

“They’re probably under super strict rules and super busy regardless. He said they were debuting soon. I don’t even fathom how they’ve been able to follow through with our situation in the past 15 or 16 hours.”

“Then for now, we just stay out of their way and hope that we hear news of our lost luggage soon.”

“Guess so.”

Amy stood as another member of the group approached her and her almost sleeping friend in the sitting room. They had been waiting another half an hour after Kris had left. Chanyeol smiled brightly and asked for them to follow him. His hair was also lighter than what his natural color should be. He wore it in a semi-arranged mop on the top of his head. Paige couldn’t resist but smile back at him. His eyes were infectiously happy, and he was obviously proud of whatever room he was going to show them to.

They turned down a corridor to the left of where they’d been sitting. They passed by 2 doors rather spread apart before reaching the open door that Chanyeol was motioning for them to enter through. Music had resumed playing from the room they just passed. They both entered the room Chanyeol had made up for them. The beds were freshly made and while the room was mostly white with some wood paneling, it was small and comfy.

“There is a bathroom just across the hall. This is the only bedroom down this hall so the bathroom is yours,” he beamed. Both girls bowed slightly and thanked him.  He motioned that they should make themselves comfortable before exiting. Paige walked over to one of the beds and sat down. And then it dawned on her, it was almost two in the afternoon and they hadn’t had anything to eat for lunch.

“Wait here, I’ll see if I can get someone to point me in the direction of a market or something,” Amy suggested. “We need a few things anyway for overnight.”

“No kidding. Here,” Paige responded while rummaging through her purse for some extra cash. Just then one of the members opened the door and then paused just inside.

The dark haired wide-eyed boy stared at the two girls in surprise for a moment before nodding and apologizing for barging in. He walked over to a cabinet and pulled a few items from it before excusing himself from the room.

“Do you think this was his room?” Paige asked.

“He looked as though he had no idea we’d be in here,” Amy responded.

“Wasn’t that what they were all downstairs deciding?”

“Maybe they just don’t communicate,” Amy shrugged.

“I hope this whole situation doesn’t backfire,” Paige commented.

Amy was less worried about the guys and more worried about their ruined circumstances. She took the money they pooled together, tucking it into her purse. “I’ll be back as quick as I can. You rest.” Amy turned and left the room.