In three weeks there were to be twelve episodes, which meant that about every two days there would be a challenge. The first one went horribly wrong with the maggots, and then it went horribly right during the second take. It was the next day and the school was still in an uproar. It was still a bit cold because of the morning dew. I loved being the only one on the campus and made it an objective to arrive early every morning. I began walking to the old theatre that I was rudely kicked out of yesterday. I hoped that nobody was there. I peeked inside and to my relief it was quiet. I smiled as I walked down to the stage and unveiled the old piano that was collecting dust. I was relieved that May had not tampered with it. I smiled as I ran my fingers along the Keys of the piano—I began playing a sad but familiar melody.

“Wah! That was good”

I snapped out of my memory as I heard clapping coming from the door. I turned to see Jonghyun coming down the steps. I quickly got up and placed the cover back onto the piano.

“Where are you going? I want to hear another song!”

I turned and glared at him. His eyes widened and he let out a laugh.

“Shouldn’t you be filming?

He laughed and shook his head.

“Its too early and most of the students aren’t here yet. We’re supposed to explore the school.”

I nodded as I finished covering the piano. He stood there staring at me with a smile on his face. I turned to him raised an eyebrow. I was being completely serious, but for some reason he let out a laugh.

“I’m not supposed to be telling you this, but today we’re supposed to arrive to class late and get in trouble and will have to do squats.”

“Isn’t it supposed to be a reality show?”

He shrugged and looked around.

“So this is May’s favorite place in the school huh?”

I clenched my jaw. I was still a bit angry about that whole situation, but decided to suppress the urge to yell.

“If she says so”

He stared at me questioningly and then smiled.

“I didn’t know you played the piano?”

I let out a chuckle.

“Well, quite frankly there are a lot of things you don’t know about me”

He looked a bit surprised by my response which surprised me, considering the reason why I had gotten in so much trouble was because of him.

“Well, that’s going to change.”

I looked at him with a quizzical brow as he just smiled. It bugged me how he didn’t even attempt to apologize for getting me in trouble and I wasn’t going to waste my time making him try.

“Where are all the cameras?”

He looked at me and shrugged.

“I dunno. Why? Do you want face time?”

He asked it a bit sarcastically; cynical almost. That surprised me. I shook my head.

“It’s just if there were, I’d have to make you leave”

I was completely being serious. Excessive exposure to limelight would ruin the sacredness of my theatre. He stared at me for a bit and let out a chuckle.

“You’re cute.”

I stared back. I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks and had to turn around. As I did, I swear I could hear a chuckle from him. He walked past me and I watched as he began unveiling the piano once more. My eyes widened as I held his hand to prevent him from uncovering it any further.

“What!?”

He questioned my sudden outburst.

“What are you doing?! You can’t just come here and do whatever you like!”

His eyes smiled.

“Well, isn’t someone a bit possessive?”

He suggestively raised his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes.

“Just because you’re some big star does not give you the right to do whatever you want.”

I grabbed his hands and led them away from the piano.

“What are you gonna do about it?”

He had a challenging tone to his voice. I narrowed my eyes.

“I’ll make you regret it”

He laughed.

“And how will you do that sweetheart?”

Did he just call me sweetheart? I let out a chuckle. No way was I backing down to this jerk.

“You don’t want to know”

He narrowed his eyes at me. We were both glaring at each other, hand in hand, ready to go for the kill.

“Oh, I do”

He let a smirk play on his lips as a staring contest began. I don’t know how long we stood that way, but it was not until a voice broke our trance.

“Hey, Jonghyun! You’re holding the wrong girl’s hand!”

We both turned to see the rest of the members on the bottom of the stage, holding their laughs. We both turned to each other and let go of each other’s hands like they were on fire.

“Hey aren’t you May’s cousin?”

I looked at Key who asked the question and nodded.

“Hi, I’m GaHee”

I bowed as most of them returned the courtesy. Most of them.

“Ha! You’re name is GaHee? That’s so plain.”

I turned and glared at Jonghyun as the rest of the members began laughing. I turned back to the piano and covered the rest. The other members were now standing behind Jonghyun, a couple of feet away from me. Mina would kill to be so close to them.

“Is that a piano?”

Obviously. I nodded at Onew, trying to be as polite as I could, but Key said what was on my mind.

“What else would it be? A cake?”

“Shut up. You know what I meant”

He gave Key a playful push as the members began to mumble something about a condition. I smiled.

“Hey do you play?”

I looked at Onew who asked the question and nodded.

“I pla-“

Before I could finish my reply, I was cut off by a familiar
voice.

“Don’t even ask to see it Onew, she’ll bit your hand off”

Jonghyun began laughing as I shot another glare at him.

“Why is it that girls hate you?”

I looked at Key who laughingly asked Jonghyun the question as a joke. He smiled straight at me while answering the question.

“She’s the first”

I couldn’t hold his stare this time for some reason. I quickly turned around and grabbed my bag.

“You’re leaving? I wanted to hear you play”

I smiled at Taemin who was now at my side.

“Maybe ne-“

Once again I was interrupted by an all too familiar voice.

“Forget about it Taemin, she only plays for certain special people. I, however, have had the honor of hearing her”

I looked at Jonghyun and rolled my eyes. The other members must have caught it because they all began laughing and making fun of Jonghyun.

“I really would like to hear you play”

I turned surprised to hear Onew. I smiled and nodded. He did the same.

“Hey we should get back; it’s almost time to arrive”

My eyes widened as I remembered what Jonghyun said about them arriving late. I instinctively grabbed Minho’s arm to get a look at his watch. It was two minutes till class started. I bolted out the door, but not before hearing an abundance of laughter coming from behind me.
=====================

I felt so out of shape. By the time I had gotten to the classroom, I was out of breath and hyperventilating—I was still late.

“Nice of you to join us GaHee”

I sheepishly tried to smile between my shortened breaths.

“Please sta-“

Before he could finish his sentence, SHINee burst through the door. For once, I was relieved to see them.

“Ah! We’re late. Please forgive us!”

Key asked the teacher pleadingly. I watched as Mr. Kwon’s eyes darted to the director and his expression changed to crossed brows to nervous stoic brows.

“We would have made it on time, but Onew woke up late”

I looked at Jonghyun as he really sounded sincere. I had to hold a smile. They were good, almost as good as May.

“That is not okay. We must treat you all like……like regular students. To punish you all, we must….uh, show your humility.”

I stifled my laugh. His voice was not only monotonous, but his face remained the same. I saw the faces of our classmates and it confirmed his bad acting. I swear I could see Jin shaking in his seat. My eyes brightened as a wonderful idea popped in my head. My seat was only a few seats away and if I crept slowly I could make it before anyone noticed what was happening. I smiled at my own genius.

“Ah…..to show you a lesson, we, I, you must stand in front of the class and….uh, do ten sets of squats”

I heard the class chuckle. I smiled because no one was paying attention to little ol’ me. I heard groans from the front of the class.

“That’s not fair….”

I froze at the familiar sound of that wretched voice. Please don’t.

“Why does she get off? She came in late too.”

I winced for I had already known what was happening. I stiffly turned around and was faced with an index finger pointing in my direction that was accompanied by a slight smirk. The class began to chuckle. I shot a glare at Jonghyun.

“You’re right. It’s only fair if she does it too”

I shot a glare at Key.

“Hey you guys aren’t being fair”

I surprisingly smiled at Onew--Finally, one SHINee member who was helpful. He returned my smile.

“Because she was earlier than us, she should be the one to do is first”

My smiled turned into a frown.

“How does that make it better?”

Key began laughing and Jonghyun joined in.

“Okay, okay enough. GaHee, you are exempt from the squats, but you must stay after and clean the classroom.”

I nodded and sat in my seat, still glaring. I’m sure they just wanted a shot of the boys. After they took their seats, the teacher began teaching….or at least for the television. I think the lesson was scripted. Mr. Kwon began calling up members. Naturally may was the first to get up and do the math problem on the board. She quickly scribbled something on the board and sat back down. I let out a grunt. She must’ve practiced all night. He then began calling the members. Taemin went up and got the question wrong. Onew was then called up to correct the problem, but also got it wrong.

“Ah! I forgot to carry the one!”

The class broke out into laughter. I joined in. It was funny. After about five minutes, the mc burst through the door.

“Did you all miss me?”

The class laughed at him as he took the stage.

“May, my are you looking cute today. How are the boys treating you?”

He handed her the microphone and she blushed red.

“They’re nice”

I almost gagged.

“Nice? All they get is nice? You guys have got to melt her heart faster. Nice isn’t a compliment. Nice doesn’t heal a tormented soul. Nice is NOT Nice”

SHINee shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

“How do we fix this?”

He pretended to think. This guy was good; I was beginning to want to watch the show.

“Ah I got it. POP QUIZ!”

The class chuckled as the boys groaned.

“Ah the sweet sound of misery”

The mc snapped his fingers and some kid came running in with a stack of papers.

“Yes, this is another challenge. Winner of this will have the luxury of a getting to watch and rehearse an scene with May for the school play”

May looked down. I smiled—she was good.

“Good luck boys”

The MC motioned his fingers at the boy with the stack of paper and he began giving them to the SHINee members. I found it kind of funny that the rest of the students had nothing to do but watch… or so I thought. Mr. Kwon wrote a problem on the board and already I could tell that solving the problem would take at least two pages. I let out a sigh and began solving.

Tap tap

I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

Tap tap

I have to ignore him.

Tap tap tap tap

Ignore him

Tap tap tap tap

I shook it off.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap

I clenched my teeth and covered my mouth and whispered to Jonghyun

“What?”

“What’s the answer to number two?”

We didn’t even have the same test.

“It’s not the same test”

“What about to number three?”

“I don’t know”

I looked around and was relieved to find that nobody had noticed.

“Number three?”

“Stop, I don’t know”

“Here take a look”

I was in awe as he began to lift his test to me.

“No!”

“Geez, you don’t have to be so mean about it”

I let out a sigh of relief. I continued my problem for as long as I could before I felt as tap on my shoe. I turned to my right to face Onew. He waved and smiled before looking around the room cautiously and mouthing number four and putting up his fingers. I was in awe. Were they being serious? I scowled at him and shook my head. He scowled back and pointed behind me.

“What?”

I whispered softly and he responded.

“Not fair…..Jonghyun……cheat”

I couldn’t hear him. He began mouthing the words again and this time emphasized pointing behind me. I turned around and was surprised when I met Jonghyun’s face. He was leaning over his desk to look over my shoulder. He sheepishly smiled at me.

“Its not even the same test!”

I saw Onew’s eyes widen and Jonghyun quickly got back to his seat. It was only when I felt the whole class stare in my direction did I realize that I had said it a bit too loudly. I sunk in my seat.

“What do we have here?”

I watched as the mc came over to my direction and picked up Onew’s and Jonghyun’s tests.

“I see we have some cheaters!”

The class erupted in laughter.

“I wasn’t cheating! Onew was the one. I was just telling her it was wrong to help him!”

Onew’s eyes widened.

“What are you talking about? It was you!”

“Onew, you’re not being very leader like”

“Hey what happened to respecting your elders?”

“What are you? Eighty?”

The class was laughing as I tried to sink into my seat as much as possible.

“I have no choice but to disqualify you both”

In unison, they let out their protests, and in unison, their fingers pointed to me.

“It’s her fault”

My fault? My fault?

The mc began to laugh.

“Let’s leave the pretty girl out of this”

I sighed in relief. After a few more minutes the mc took the remaining tests and dramatically corrected them. He turned and smiled at the class and wiggled his brows which made the class laugh.

“Drum roll please…”

A few of the class clowns pounded on their desks.

“With a eighty eight percent…”

He smiled.

“May, why don’t you come and announce the results.”

May got up from her desk, looked down and smiled.

“Key”

He burst from his seat and began bowing and applauding himself. I had to smile. He was really funny. He then got up and headed over to May; where he grabbed her hand and began lifting it up in victory when she ‘instinctively’ pulled away. She held her hands together and looked away.

“Calm down tiger, you haven’t melted her heart just yet”

“I’m sorry. I will try my hardest to be the one”

He smiled and apologized as she shyly nodded it and
blushed. I know I’ve said this a million times, but may was a great actress; if I didn’t know her, I’d believe her too.

“Ah, that is so cute!”

The class awed in agreement.

“But what should we do to our two cheaters?”

Once again he pretended to think.

“I think those two need to be cleansed of their unethical ways and the best way to do that is to be rid of trash”

He laughed.

“That is why, instead of going to rehearsal with the rest of the group, you two will stay after class and clean the classroom”

The class giggled.

“What?! I did nothing wrong! I’m innocent”

The mc shook his finger.

“Have fun boys”
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