“What are you doing here Hye su?” Jinki asks me. After I left school I went to SM to visit my brother, who was not expecting me to be there. “I thought I could come early for my vocal lesson.” I say. “You should be at school. It's only the start of the semester and you are already skipping school.” He says. “But there was this annoying kid who kept saying bad things about me and I seriously felt like I was going to explode.” I say, curling my fist thinking about the boy. “Hye Su ah, calm down.” He says worryingly. I look at him and see the familiar look in his face. “Sorry oppa, are my eyes fine?” I say once I calm. He nods. “It scares me when you are like this. You need to learn how to control your emotions.” He says. “You are right. I shouldn’t be getting upset over something so small.” I smile.

“It way past lunch and we haven’t had anything to eat yet. Let’s go down to the cafeteria.” Jinki suggests after we practiced singing. “Okay, my treat.” I say as we head off to get some food. We get our meals and I pay for it after arguing with Jinki. “You can pay next time.” I finally say and he gives in. We sit down at a table near the corner. “Hello Onew.” A voice says. We both look up to see a pretty girl with darkish brown hair and bangs covering her forehead. “Hi Taeyeon.” Jinki greets happily.

“Is this your girlfriend?” She asks with an envious look in her doe-like eye. “Me? No way!” I say in shock while laughing at her comment. “No, this is my cousin.” Jinki covers for me. I send him a grateful smile. Nobody knows I am his sister except our family. It's easier that no one knows because if people did know it would make things complicated for us.

"I’m sorry but who are you?” I ask the girl. Jinki lets out a little laugh. “How do you not know who she is?” Jinki says while laughing. “Hello, I am SNSD leader, Kim Taeyeon.” She says. “Oh I know you! You have a really nice singing voice. Nice to meet you, I am Lee Hye Su, Jinki’s cousin.” I say. “Thank you. Jinki you never told me you had such a nice cousin.” She says. “You never asked” he says jokingly. “Well I have to go now, we have a performance soon.” Taeyeon says. “It was nice to meet you Taeyeon-shii.” I say formally while bowing. “No need to be so formal. Call me Unnie. Any family of Jinki is family of mine” She says with a warm smile. “N-neh U-unnie.” I say with an awkward simle. She laughs. “Good luck with your performace Taeyeon.” Jinki says happily. “Thank you.” She says as she leaves with a wide smile.

“Oppa, do you have a thing going on with Taeyeon?” I ask after we finish our lunch and we are sitting in his practice room. “W-what? M-me? No!” He chokes on the water he was drinking. “I knew it.” I say whispering to myself with a smile. I notice the look in his eyes when he was talking to her. I don't know if it is love or admiration, but there was something. I am happy for him, he has someone he likes. “I really don’t, we are colleagues and we are both the leaders of our groups.” He says nervously. “I think it's great you have someone you like. She seems like a nice person. Anyway, when am I going to meet your group? I know nothing besides there are 5 members.” I ask. I haven't met or seen his group yet.

“Okay I might like her. A little bit but you can't tell anyone. Actually, they are coming at 5pm, so if you stay then you will be able to meet them.” He says. I check my watch and its 4:30pm. “I guess I will stay.” I say. “Okay, I need to go down to the store to grab a few snacks for my members, can you stay here?” He asks. “Sure. Make sure you get extra snacks for me!” I call out as he leaves.

He left his Ipod behind so I scroll through the songs until I come across an interesting song title. “Noona Neomu Yeppeo.” I read the title of the song. I listen to it and notice oppa’s voice in it. “Must be his song with his group.” I smile. I spend the next 20 minutes becoming farmiliar with the song. I place my hands on the piano that sits in the corner of the room and start to play a slower version of the song. I sing along to it, with a few changes into the song.

The door opens and I assume oppa has returned so I continue to play the song. After I finish it I sit and stay there for a while, reflecting on how I can improve the piece of music. “Woah who is that girl? Hyung do you know her?” I hear voices from behind me. Not oppa’s voice. I am alarmed and turn around. “Who is there?” I ask. No response. The dim light hides the faces of the 4 people at the door of the room and it doesn’t help that they are wearing hats and hoodies.

“Who are you? Tell me now.” I say in a low threatening voice. No response. The lights suddenly turn off. "WHO IS THERE?" I scream angrily. I become scared when not a sound can be heard. I then hear people laughing and giggling which freaks me out. I fall onto the ground and start sobbing. "Please don't hurt me. Leave me alone." I say between my sobs. My eyes heat up and they are turning red. I look up trying to observe my dark surroundings. I see the outline of the same 4 people from before still standing there and I hear small inaudible whispers. My head suddenly has a stabbing pain. It feels like people are beating my head. I scream at the pain. "Stop stop!" I scream hoping the pain stops. Which it doesn't. My eyes begin to burn and I know they are red. I cover my eyes hiding them.

The lights turn on and I look up to see a familiar figure running towards me. "Hye Su! What's wrong?" Jinki asks holding my shoulders. "There are people here. They turned the light off and I heard laughing. I'm scared oppa." I say letting tears run down my face and my eyes burn. The memories of my childhood painfully returning. I look over to see if they are still there and they are. "It's okay Hye Su. They are people I know." He says. Jinki helps me up and I hug him. He sings softly to me and my pain in my head disappears. I finally calm down and he pulls away from me. "You kids! What were you thinking?" He yells at the 4 people. "Hyung~" I hear a voice whine. He puts his arm around my shoulder protectively and he bring me to the 4 unknown people. "Hye Su, meet SHINee. SHINee, introduce yourselves" Jinki says.

"H-hi I'm Taemin, the maknae. I'm really sorry if we scared you before. The hyungs like to play jokes on people and they took it too far this time. Are you okay?" He asks in a friendly caring tone. I smile at his kindness. "I'm okay now." I say with a small smile.

“Lee Hye su?” I hear a voice say. I turn to the source of the voice. “YOU! PEASANT!” I yell at him. “Excuse me but its Kim Jong Hyun.” He smirks while pronouncing each letter of his name firmly and proudly. “Why are you here?” I growl. "You are related to Jinki Hyung? What a small world. I’m glad to meet you again, Lee Hye Su.” He scoffs with a smirk, saying my name with disgust. I tighten my fist until I feel the skin of my hand rip to avoid my eyes turning red again. “How do you know each other?” Jinki asks. “We go to the same school.” Jonghyun replies. He turns his attention back to me but I ignore him.

“What is your name?” I ask the tallest member. “Choi Minho.” He says holding his hand out which I shake with no hesitation while bowing. “Lee Hye su” I say with a small smile. He smiles back. “Nice to meet you. We have heard many things about you from Jinki.” He says politely. I turn to Jinki. “They know you are my sister.” He says. I look at him shocked. “They won’t tell anyone else, don’t worry. These guys are like my family, you can trust them.” He says. Jinki receives a call and excuses himself. “I will be back soon, be good” He says before he leaves.

I turn to the last member. “And you are..?” I ask. “Kim Kibum. But only my mother calls me that. You call me Key.” He says with a diva-like tone. "So Hye Su, what do you think of our group?" Taemin asks breaking the awkwardness. "I don't actually know anything about your group." I say timidly. "How do you not know us?" I hear a voice and I know its Jonghyun. I ignore his comment. Key walks past me and eyes me up and down before rolling his eyes. I don't like him and I think I'm going to avoid him.

“Why were your eyes so red before?” Taemin asks. Damn, so they did notice. They must have seen whilst I was trying to look through the darkness. “Oh uh that is-“ I get cut off. “They are obviously contact lenses maknae. No one can have natural red eyes, unless they aren’t human.” Jonghyun says in a tone that wouldn't be considered friendly. “Be nice” Minho warns him. “Oh I am being nice right now.” He moves closer to me. “You can call me Oppa.” He says. This whole time I took note of the fake tone in his voice. "No thanks. I will be leaving now. Nice to meet all of you" I say leaving the room.

I go to an empty spare room down the hall and sit down. I recall Jonghyun's words.

"No one can have natural red eyes, unless they aren’t human"

What would that mean? I feel the familiar feeling of my eyes heating up as I become angered by his statement. I cover my eyes with my hands when I hear the door open. "Hye su?" A voice says. I peek and see Taemin. “Go away.” I say. I hear his footsteps come closer. “Why are you covering your eyes?” He says as he tries to move my hands away from my face. "Don't touch me.” I say coldly. “Let me see your face.” He says. He pulls my hands away from my eyes. I look down at my hands which as lying on my lap. “Hye su~ look at me.” Taemin calls out cutely. I can’t help but look at him. He is so cute and adorable. “Your eyes are really pretty.” He says, admiring my eyes. I feel my eyes turn back to normal.

He looks at me with a curious expression. “You can change your eye colour, can you tell me why?” He asks. “No, I don't know why. I wish I did." I say. He changes the topic and we start talking like friends would. It turns out we both go to the same school (He is a couple of years behind me) and he is also a dancer.

After about 10 minutes of talking I stand up and help him up. "Nice talking to you maknae." I say. "Don't call me maknae. The hyungs call me that all the time." He pouts cutely. "But you are the maknae! And just to let you know, my favourite members of most boy bands are the maknaes." I say to make him feel better. "Really?" He says with a smile. I nod and smile. My smile disappears when I remember what happened before. Jonghyun saying that no one can have natural red eyes, unless they aren't human.

"What's wrong?" Taemin asks me. "You know how I can change my eye colour, it's not normal, is it?" I ask. "I'm not sure about that but I have never met another human being that can change colour, especially red. I only heard about it in stories." He says. "I don't know why I am like this. I hate it. I hate everything and I hate myself." I say frowning. I feel tears in my eyes I refuse to let them fall.

I feel arms pull me into a warm embrace and a few tears fall. “Don’t hate yourself. It’s not your fault.” He comforts me. He sings to me like Jinki did before to calm me down. Even though he is younger than me, he is taller than me. I have always been short. “Are you okay now?” He asks pulling away. I nod. “Thank you.” I say gratefully. He ruffles my hair and I hug him again. “I never met anyone as nice as you before. Well besides my oppa.” I say. He hugs me back. “Just remember that I will be here anytime you want. Jinki hyung said to me that you are a timid person and you dont like to talk to people. Jinki hyung also told me what a nice caring person you really are. Hyung’s family is my family.” He says. I look up at him. “Thank you Taemin-ah.” I say softly into his chest as I absorb his friendly aura.

The door opens followed by loud screams. “Maknae what are you doing?” Key yells. Jonghyun comes over and pushes us away from each other. “Maknae you shouldn’t hug girls like that, especially this ugly one.” He smirks at me. I feel pathetic at the moment. I don’t have any energy to fight back so I just stare at the ground. “Let go of me.” The maknae yells causing his two hyungs to stop.

“Maknae-ah, what’s wrong?” Key comes over to comfort him. “You should learn to treat girls with more respect.” Taemin growls at Jonghyun. “Hye Su is not ugly, she is beautiful.” Taemin says, grabbing my hand. I look at him. No one has said nice things about me besides my family. I feel a foreign feeling I haven't felt for years. Happiness? “I don’t want to see you in front of her again if you are going to treat her like this.” He continues. “Where did you learn how to speak to your hyung like that? It’s from this right? I’m right aren’t I?” Jonghyun yells. I pull away from Taemin and walk over to Jonghyun.

"You are pathetic to call me names in front of my face, and in front of other people. Does it make you feel happy treating me like this?" I say looking into his eyes. “Sorry Taemin but I will be leaving now.” I say. I turn to Key and eye him up and down. I turn to Jonghyun one more time, and just stare at him rolling my eyes before leaving and slamming the door.

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