Ji Eun woke up at 6 am to screaming and yelling. Right in her face.

"Unnie, wake up!!" Soo Min, her bratty 10-year-old sister, cupped her hands around to project her shrill voice. "Do you even know what's going on?? Do you realize that Kim Minseok is literally. right. across. the. hall. from. us???" 

"Shhh!" Ji Eun quickly covered Minnie's gleeful smile, trying to look away from her fangirling eyes. "You're going to wake up Mom and Dad." And Minseok, too, she thought, clucking her tongue in disapproval. 

Just like every other girl her age, Minnie was obsessed with EXO. They were, to put it simply, the hottest thing not only in Korea but probably in the entire continent of Asia. Girls (and she could not fathom why) flocked to these 12 men, and honored them as gods. She understood why Minnie was literally about to ruin her pants - she had the bragging rights to say that the one and only Xiumin lived not only in her building, but in the apartment across from her. Of course, she didn't remember the times Ji Eun had gone to school with him every morning, up until 6 long years ago. 

The only thing she could say about her relationship with Minseok was...awkward. She couldn't even be one of those people who could say "I knew him before he got mega-super-godly famous," because she really didn't know him. In the mornings, they didn't even walk to school together, even though they went the same way every day. His friends would pick him up, her friends would pick her up. He went his way, and she went hers. The most she saw of him were glances, fleeting moments, his hair shaggy back then, covering his eyes. He was always a little smaller than the other guys, a little chubbier, bespectacled and a little nerdy. He was quieter than the rest, and often faded into the background. 

Before she could get lost in her thoughts, she was interrupted by the rush of the morning.

"Minnie, get ready for school already! Stop drooling over your kpop bands," Mrs. Park chastised her daughter. She turned to Ji Eun. "Job hunting again today?"

Ji Eun sighed. As if she had a choice. "Yes, Mom. It's fine, you and Dad go to work, I'll lock the doors and everything. I'll be back by the time Minnie gets home from school." She shooed them out the door, eager to get out into Seoul before a certain somebody across the hall would see her. She glanced at the clock. 7 am, and the sun was streaming brightly through the windows, painting a yellow backdrop against her small apartment. 

Might as well start early, she thought, as she got ready. As usual, she packed on the makeup - looking for jobs in Seoul meant you basically had to become a runway model or so help you God - and reflected on her outfit choices several times before finally settling for a respectable skirt. Grabbing her bag hastily, she rushed out the door without a single thought, and --

Damn, this seems to be happening a lot.

Just a few feet away from where she stood, a certain god-status member of an androgynous Korean boy band was standing in the frame of his apartment doorway, his keys in the hook of his pocket, sunglasses rested on his nose, just about to head out. 

"...Ji Eun?" he slowly took off his glasses to inspect her closer. "Wow, what a coincidence."

This is exactly the kind of awkwardness I'm talking about.

"H-hi Minseok," she replied hesitantly. Before she could even think, she blurted out, "You look good." And that wasn't a lie -- the slightly chubby, thicker Minseok was clearly a thing of the past -- the simple black tee he was wearing couldn't hide the biceps of his arm slightly bulging out, his profile lean but muscular. What are you saying, you idiot??

To her pleasant surprise, he laughed, his eyes crinkling at the sides. In their high school days, she'd rarely see him laugh.

"Where are you headed out?" he motioned with his hand to follow him as he stepped outside his doorway and walked toward the stairs. 

"Myeongdong in Seoul," she said instantly, already falling into a natural groove with him. She surprised herself by continuing to talk, as if he would care. "I'm job hunting, so I'm just trying out a bunch of locations." 

He nodded, understandingly. "I'll go with," he replied nonchalantly, raising his chiseled arms over around his head casually. 

"Wait, are you serious?" 

"Sure," he shrugged as they finished the steps and made their way out of the building. "I've got nothing better to do."

***

"Wow, I haven't been on a train in a long time," Minseok gushed as he looked around him, taking in his surroundings of the small train compartment. 

"Really? Have you become that detached from society?" Ji Eun looked incredulously back at him, inspecting his profile in front of her. He truly was no longer the awkward kid he knew in high school. She could barely wrap her head around the fact that he was an international pop star now, one who clearly only rode in limos and planes. But the glint of fascination in his eyes from being on a train for the first time in a long time couldn't help but amuse her. 

"Yeah, a little, to be honest. It's nice to be back," he reflected, staring out at the window as the scenery of the city blended into fields of grain, the sun hitting him at just the right angle. She stared a little too long; he caught her eye. She looked away.

Eventually, they reached Seoul and stepped off the train platform, stepping a foot into the crowds, immediately swallowed up by the city. Quickly, he slipped his sunglasses back on and fit his cap snugly on his head, used to disguising himself in public. Even though he was supposed to be an every day passersby, an innocent nobody, something about the way he stood exuded confidence. She was a little embarrassed to be walking next to him in a way, but she stood tall and continued down the street.

"So, what are you looking for?" he asked, startling her out of her reverie.

"I just wanted to look through a few publishing districts around Myeongdong," she replied, craning her neck to look around the extremely crowded area. They went through a couple of places, Jin Eun collecting pamphlets and asking receptionists questions while Minseok stood off by the side, keeping his head down.

"Myeongdong is awful," he groaned as they continued their way down. "Too many people, too much noise. Honestly, anywhere with tourists tends to ."

Jin Eun laughed, suddenly remembering something. "I remember in that one interview, didn't you say the first thing you thought of when you met EXO was that they were too loud?" 

Minseok looked at her, a mixture of bewilderment and amusement on his face. "How did you know that? I'm pretty sure that was exclusive material on a specific EXO fan DVD?" he teased. "Do you have a thing for EXO?"

"N-no, it's not what you think! My sister is just really obsessed with you guys," she flushed, trying to salvage her dignity. She prided herself on being one of the only people in her friend group not to fall into the EXO trap. "She won't shut up about you all."

He waggled his eyebrows, grinning widely. "You should introduce me to her sometime," he laughed that sparkly laugh again, his teeth showing, face lifted up into the sun. He really was an animated person. "It's already way past noon, why don't we grab something for lunch?"

She hesitantly looked ahead of her, unsure of what to say. She had originally planned to go home that day, as she'd been feeling rather weak lately and she wasn't sure why. But there was something about him that made her really, really not want to say no. 

"Let's go."

And so, somehow, Ji Eun ended up sipping bubble tea with an avocado sandwich at a café overlooking the Chyeonggyecheon River, "his treat." She was afraid there'd be nothing to talk about, but somehow, being with Minseok felt like being with an old, but rather distant, friend. He was pleasantly polite with her, but she wondered if there was a little more to him than that.

"How is everyone though?" he asked eagerly, stabbing a fork in his giant Caesar salad ("can't eat carbs, on a dumb SM diet," he moaned). "I haven't seen anyone from our class in ages."

"The usual, I guess," she pondered. "I feel like... we had different friend groups back then, though. I never really got to know you." She surprised herself by being so straightforward.

"Yeah, that's true," he nodded, squinting out at the river. The sun really had a habit of shining right into his face. "Honestly, you were one of the more popular girls in our classes. I didn't talk much, back then. I'm not sure if we would've mixed." 

"Me?? Popular?" she looked at him disbelievingly. "I think you're getting the wrong person."

"No, no it's true!" he chuckled. "You had this ability to like, talk to all sorts of different people. Whenever I looked your way, you were always talking to someone new. Even some of the guys in my friend group..." He looked away, unable to hide his grin.

"What? What?" Ji Eun looked at him curiously. 

"They just... at least two of them definitely liked you," he looked straight at her, smiling amusedly. "One of them, oh my god, when he found out I lived right across from you... well, I didn't want to bother you with all that crap, so I just kind of kept to myself around you. Really, they should have had the balls to talk to you theirselves."

She couldn't help but smile a little. And she found herself relaxing into the atmosphere, and somehow, all the gloomy days before that day seemed to seem less important, less immediate in her mind. She wondered why, only after all these years, she was able to talk to him like this. She found herself regretting a little, perhaps, that she'd never made the move to talk to Minseok all those chances she had, all those years ago. She remembered his awkward frame, heading out the door, his shaggy hair falling behind him as she walked behind him to school. If only she'd reached out that time. Not because he was famous now or that he was an extremely popular star, but because he was actually (maybe?) a really cool person.

"Tomorrow, same thing, maybe?" he said, and the whole day got a little brighter.

***

~Xiumin's POV, later that night~

"Yo, how was your first day off?" Chanyeol's booming voice projected out through Minseok's phone naturally, almost making him drop the receiver.

"Lower your voice, alright?" Minseok shushed him, cradling the phone back into the crook of his neck. It was 1 in the morning, he couldn't sleep, and the only person he knew that could possibly be up this late was partyer and prankster, Park Chanyeol. "My parents are still sleeping."

"Ah, right," Chanyeol yelled apologetically. Minseok sighed -- he could tell he was at a club somewhere in the heart of Seoul before he would return to his parents' house tomorrow. He wondered how he could have so much energy. The power of dongsaengs, he thought, shaking his head. "Well, seriously, what's up?"

"I don't even know," he replied, staring at his alarm clock, glowing luminescent red in the darkness. "What's up with you, Yeol?"

"Hey hey," Chanyeol teased, ignoring Minseok's question, "did you meet someone special maybe? Like... a female?" 

He sat up so fast blood came rushing to his head, and he almost yelped. "No, it's nothing like that," he said honestly, "Met a childhood friend, kind of. She's chill, though. Maybe I just haven't gotten used to being back home, it's been an eternity."

Chanyeol whistled into the phone, still enjoying teasing his hyung. "Whatever you say, Umin," he sang. "Well, I think I better go -- we're moving to a different venue. Get some sleep, alright?"

Minseok tried closing his eyes. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Yeah, of course. Good night."