Here I am

Here I am by ZE:A          
For: Kairi_Rose

Kairi slipped into the backstage dressing room of ZE: A.
She held a stack of papers stapled together and was leafing through the contents with pen in hand, marking things down with furrowed brow.

So it was no surprise that she walked right into the row of chairs that were bolted to the floor in the middle of the room.

“Ah” she exclaimed as her knee smashed into the metal frame. She rubbed at the pain furiously. “Aish.”

A snicker alerted her that her little blunder had been witnessed.
She looked up and quickly brought the stack of papers up to shield her reddening face, and hid her eyes, from the half- man on the other side of the room who was in the midst of changing his clothes.

“Y… Yah Park Hyung Shik, what are you doing?”

The man snorted at her affronted behavior.
“I hate to tell you this Kairi-ssi, but you did just walk into the dressing room without knocking. Trying to act like you didn’t do it on purpose.”  He as he slipped a t-shirt on over his head.

She seethed and dropped the papers to her side.
“Yah, you make me sound like a or something!”

He laughed, the rich sound bouncing off the walls. “You’re so cute when you’re mad.”

She scoffed, “Yeah, yeah are you going to let them practice alone?”  

Hyung Shik gave her a cute grin and disappeared out the door, rushing to the stage.

They were presently at KBS’s studios, prepping for the Music Bank stage later that night. Kairi was
ZE: A’s sub-manager, thanks to her friendship with the members. Because of their Managers flighty personality, all the scheduling and planning fell to her, hence the new stack of trash in her hands at that moment.

She sighed and took a seat, bringing the papers up to rest on her knee. She had to go over it and make any notations so the members wouldn’t get over booked or wore out. She shook her head and went back to the rigorous task at hand.

Two hours later the slam of the door being thrown open awoke her. She immediately wiped her face in case of drool and looked up to see a bunch of sweaty idols crowd in, going for the towels and drinks she’d set out earlier.

“Aish, I can never get that part right!” Heechul said as he flopped down next to her and pouted, laying his head on her shoulder.

Kairi grimaced and pushed his head away with the end of her pointer finger, scrunching her nose up cutely.

“Nuna” Heechul whined looking at her with wide eyes.

She shrugged “You’re all sweaty.”

He rolled his eyes and scoffed at her before getting up and moving away from her. She just shook her head as the others laughed.

“Yah, wash up first, then Nuna will let you snuggle.” Dong Jun said with a wicked little grin.

“Don’t even think about it pal.” She said without looking up from her papers. She wore a big smile that took the sting out of her words though.

“You know you love us.” Jun Young said taking the seat Heechul had just vacated. He opened a bottle of vitamin water and drank it with a sigh.

“Tough practice?” she asked watching him.

He scowled and made a pinched expression with his mouth. “Nah, we’ll have it down by tonight. What’s the schedule look like for tomorrow?” he asked turning to her, resting one elbow on the arm of the chair and leaning over it.

Kairi looked down and flipped a page up. “You have an interview at 10:00 am and practice at 7:00. Minwoo has a photo shoot with FILA and Siwan has a CF shoot until around 8:00.”

Jun Young nodded and turned to the others who had been listening as well.
“Do you guys want to go for lunch?”

“We always eat together Hyeong.” Dong Jun said pulling on a dry shirt.

Kairi caught a flash of abs when she looked over but ignored it. One had to expect to see ‘all’ of the Idols when one worked with them this close, and she’d seen plenty.

“I know” Jun Young continued, “But we hardly ever get to eat Samgyupsal.”

All the members began cheering and making much more noise than they had earlier. They were back to their old rambunctious selves.
Kairi had the feeling that Jun Young had done that on purpose because of the low energy after practice.
They must have been scolded pretty badly out there.

“Let’s do our best tonight so we deserve a good meal tomorrow, arasseo!”

“Yeh!” They all chorused back, the younger members adding the Hyeong on the end. Kairi smiled to herself. She was glad to be friends with such men really.

Hyung Shik watched her, watching them and his heart swelled up at the warmth in her eyes. Kairi, even her name brought flutters to his chest. She was always so supportive of them, even before Manager Hyeong made her a staff member. She was always proud of them and told them so often. Her warm heart and klutzy ways had endeared her to him like nothing else.

Yes, that’s right. He, Park Hyung Shik, was in love with their sub-manager.

He’d hidden it well these last few months, never letting on, always making sure there was at least one other person with them at any given time. He also quit going out to drink because he was afraid he might slip up and tell her, or someone else.

But he knew also that he couldn’t keep holding it in. He would have to tell her eventually.

Her bright laughter had him looking up and over at her and Kwang Hee messing around. He kept trying to snap his towel at her legs as she dodged away, laughing every time.

He shook his head and thought ‘she ought not do that or she’ll…’ and just in that moment Kairi tripped over Tae Hun’s bag he’d stuffed under a chair and their best friend/sub-manager wound up with her on the floor.

“Ah my hiney” She whined in English as she rubbed her backside.

Kevin broke out into full scale laughter at her comment and Siwan just looked around confused at the other members with a pout because he didn’t know what was so funny.

Kairi was working diligently on the lists that PD-nim had asked for when a few of the guys came into the office looking for her.

“Kairi-ya, what are you doing?” Jun Young said sitting down beside her.

She looked up and smiled, thinking he was being suspicious but playing along to find out what he wanted.

“Working on your profiles.” She said as she glanced over at the two that had followed him.

Hyung Shik and Kevin stood there hovering, the latter trying his best to look inconspicuous. Kairi narrowed her eyes and Hyung Shik quickly smacked his Hyeong on the back. 

“Aish, Wae?” Kevin hissed as he turned around from fiddling with the poster that hung on the wall. Hyung Shik gave him a pointed glare and glanced at their co-manager.

Kevin’s eyes lit up in understanding and he brought himself round to just stand there like a statue.

“What are you three up to?” Kairi asked with a sigh.

“What? Nothing! Why would we be… up to something?” Kevin said through his teeth with a nervous smile. He received another nudge from Hyung Shik and he shot him a ‘what more do you want from’ me kind-of look. The other male just rolled his eyes at his Hyeongs’ clueless behavior.

“Yeah… like I would believe that?”

“Kairi-yah it’s nothing, really. We just wanted to see if you could get us a few hours?” Hyung Shik said giving up.

“Wae, what is so important that you risk irking PD-nim?”

“We just wanted to go see a movie…” Jun young said excitedly and Kevin smiled.

Kairi was taken aback. That the poor fellows had to resort to this just to get a few hours of time to themselves attested to the hard life idols had to endure to live their dream. She felt badly for them.

“Fine you guys can take off and I’ll come up with an explanation.” Kevin and Jun young high fived each other behind her back and she smirked a little at their childish behavior.

“Jjagaman, why doesn’t Nuna come with us?” Hyung Shik said becoming just as excited as the other two suddenly.

Kairi looked at him owlishly for a moment before smiling brightly. “All right, just let me finish this and make up something to tell the PD.”

“Manager Hyeong is pretty dense when it comes to you covering for us, don’t worry.” Kevin said gleefully.

Kairi laughed and pushed them out so she could prepare.

He’d wanted to go see the movie but Hyung Shik wound up watching Kairi the whole time instead.
She was so cute and the reactions she had during the show were something he didn’t intend to forget any time soon.

He wanted to tell her so bad that he wanted her to be his. But he didn’t know if she felt the same way and he didn’t want to ruin the way things were. He was confused and that made for a grumpy vocalist.

He watched her as they walked back to the dorm, silently sipping on banana milk and gazing around at the shops they passed.

“Nuna” It left his mouth without thought. The others were up ahead, out of ear shot, but still he hadn’t meant to say anything.

“What is it Hyung Shik-ah?” she asked glancing back at him.

He felt a small shiver run through him. Her eyes were like dark twinkling stars.

“You look very pretty today Nuna.” He said clearing his throat, and looking away in embarrassment.

Kairi smiled sweetly and held in her laughter. “Why thank you. Hyung shik-ah?”

He looked at her and she turned a little towards him. “I have this… situation, I don’t know quite how to deal with.”  He nodded to urge her on.

“Well actually my family back in Guam, well they’re having some difficulties. I love my job and really want to stay here with all of you, but I need to go back and help them set things straight.”

Hyung shik felt his heart drop. “So you have to leave?”

She nodded slowly. “I didn’t know how to tell you guys and I knew it would be hard. Anyways I wanted to tell you first.” That last bit came out quietly but he still heard it.

“Waeyo, why did you want to tell me first?”  His question came out just as low but her slight blush told him that she’d heard every word.

“B… because you’re… I… well; I just wanted to tell you.” She started to walk faster but Hyung shik caught her arm by the elbow and stopped them in the middle of the street.

“If you have to go… go, but until the day you come back, I’ll be waiting.” His eyes were dark, with his sincerity glimmering in their depths. Kairi couldn’t look away. She felt her heart fluttering in her chest.

“Hyung Shik-ah…” he voiced wavered.

The man before her took a deep breath and said, “You don’t have to say anything. I just… wanted to tell you before you go.”

Kairi gave him a shaky smile.

“Hey! What, are you two shooting a drama or something? Let’s go!” Jun young called back bringing the two back into the now.
Hyung Shik waved to the older man. “Yeah Hyeong, we’re coming!” He took her hand and pulled her along, running to catch up to his group members.

Two months later and he was still waiting.

 It had been touch and go with his temper for a while and the others had started to say he was becoming Mr. grumpy instead of Heechul now-a-days.
Admittedly he’d had some reason for it after the ribbing the guys had given him when they’d found out about his feelings towards their ex-sub manager. All thanks to that snoopy Siwan and his blabber mouth partner Kwang Hee.

Presently, they were all sprawled out on the practice room floor after eight hours of stage training.
Jun Young, Tae Heon and Hee Chul were all strangely missing from the panting, sweaty group.
Min woo was guzzling a vitamin water, making the others thirsty, yet they were too tired to move, let alone raid the cooler in the corner.

Hwang Shik was lying on the floor, shirt off, panting when a towel plopped down onto his face. He groaned, “Yah, Dong Jun-ah, jugulae?”

He heard a few snickers from the others and he frowned. Reaching up and sliding the towel down off his face he looked up into the dark eyes of the one he’d been missing.

“Kairi” he said lifting himself to his elbow, the forgotten towel clutched in one hand.

She smiled and said “Been waiting long?”

“Ah…”

He still couldn’t form a proper response due to the shock of her sudden appearance.  

He found he could only stare as she crouched down beside him. Her next few words had his face beaming from that oh so charming grin.

“Well, here I am.”

And as he grabbed her into a fierce hug that had the two rolling on the hardwood floor, among the cat calls from the rest of the group, he knew he had never been happier than he was right then.