Watched: No Strings Attached

      February 11th, 2009

February 11th, 2009

The air in the van was silent, with a tinge of awkwardness floating in the air.

Without moving her neck, Echo shifted her eyes towards Yoona, quickly looking forward again when their eyes met.

It wasn't that she didn't like Yoona, they were just awkward together. When they were trainees they were the two that never had any one-on-one time together, they didn’t have that much in common and it caused a rift between them. It was rare that they were anywhere together alone, so this was more than a little awkward for both of them.

Do I tell her congratulations and good luck? Echo wondered, her eyes firmly on the back of Hajoon's seats head.

When the manager pulled the van to a stop, he swiftly got out to Yoona into her school. Echo gulped when she looked out Yoona's window. There were so many photographers and fans mingling around, once they zeroed in on the van though they started to close in.

"Good luck," Echo half-whispered.

The visual turned around, surprised at the two words. Her nervous face melted into a genuine smile. "Thank you," she said as the door was pulled open by a ruffled Hajoon.

Without a glance back Yoona softly uttered, "Congratulations."

The singer was so shocked at the sincerity in her members words that she didn't even react to Hajoon's stern 'Wait here', slamming the door shut from the ever-growing chaotic crowd.

Echo turned towards the opposite window, able to see the look of confusion on her face through the windows reflection.

At least we're civil with each other.

Within the next ten minutes Hajoon popped back into the van, slamming the door shut with a loud huff. He twisted in his seat to ask, "Are you gonna come up front?"

With a wide grin, Echo hopped to the front, slipping the belt across her body as Hajoon pulled off the curb.

"Is it okay to leave her alone like that?" the Girls' Generation member wondered, shivering at the memory of the paparazzi.

"I left her with her family, she'll be fine," Hajoon confirmed. "So your awkwardness between each other seems to be getting better. You actually talked."

She snorted, placing her head in the palm of her hand, leaning against the door. "If that can really be considered talking."

"I swear, in the five years I've known you I swear I never saw you two utter one word to the other."

"You knew me first, so that timing is way off," Echo smirked.

Hajoon rolled his eyes, but a small smile was on his thin lips.

"… and even though school has ended, we will never truly finish our education. Congratulations, class of 2009."

With a celebratory cheer the pearl blue graduation caps were tossed into the air, some picking them back up and flicking the tassel over while others were too busy cheering with their friends.

Without hesitation Echo swam through the crowd, trying to find a certain face in the numerous others.

"Allison!"

The idol grinned ear-to-ear at the familiar voice, twisting around she all but threw herself into the giggling girls arms.

"I can't believe school is finally over," Saehye smiled, her thin arms tightening around her friends waist. "Now I can fully focus on my training."

"Hopefully we'll be able to see each other more," the idol grinned. Echo proceeded to look around, trying to find a familiar head of long brown hair. "Have you seen my mom or Ari by chance?"

Saehye gently chewed on her cheek, now also looking around. "There's too many people, I can't even find classmates I like."

Echo snorted, slipping her hand into the shorter girls as she weaved through the crowd. For a small school there sure was a lot of people. The Girls' Generation member pushed herself up onto the balls of her feet, her already impressive height (for an Asian girl) matched with her heels made it so she could see over almost everyone's head.

"I see my manager!" she called out, tugging the trainee behind her to quicken her pace.

"Unnie!"

Before she could react Echo ended up with two, extremely similar looking, girls latched onto her. Saehye and her clasped hands falling away in the process.

"Congratulations!" Hanbi, her slightly younger cousin, was the first to pull away.

"Ari-ah, I can't breathe much longer," Echo half-growled at her younger sister.

Arianna pulled away, but a large grin was still on her face. "I can't believe you actually graduated, and on time! I thought you would take a few more years."

Echo rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, thanks for the congrats, where's mom?"

The younger sibling went silent for a split second, she opened to say something but Hajoon and Echo's aunt and uncle decided to appear at her side then. She lightly blushed at all the attention she was getting, gently telling her aunt Hyorin she didn't need to buy her a dozen bright purple statice with baby's breath.

Hyorin wildly waved her off, saying she deserved some pretty flowers for once. "Have you been looking at any schools? You know applications open next month."

Echo bashfully looked away, embarrassed at the fact that she had barely even looked at any schools. "I don’t know…"

"You don't know?!" Hyorin's hands flew to her hips, mother mode on. "You can't be an idol forever you know, you need something to fall back on."

"We'll figure that out when the time comes," Hajoon spoke up. "For now, she needs to focus on promotions. It's up to her if she takes time off."

"Before we keep getting off topic, where's my mom?"

The group fell silent.

Hyorin and her husband awkward shifted, stealing glances from each other that only they could decipher. "Your mom couldn't make it today, she couldn't take the time off from work."

The idol felt her face fall. She was looking so forward to seeing her mom, she was looking more forward to seeing her mom than graduating. It was extremely saddening to her that she couldn’t see her mom as much as she used to, secretly hopping her mother would be able to work something out to be able to permanently move back to South Korea. But, there were too many loose ends here, it would just end up making her mother upset, and she wasn't that selfish.

All she could utter out was a saddened 'oh', her shoulders drooping, no longer pulled back.

"Come on," Hajoon gently patted the idol on the back. "There's a few photographers that need to get your picture with your diploma. They got you on stage, but it would be nice to parade around a bit as the center of the media's attention, don't you think?"

Echo felt a small smile slip onto her face, nodding, she followed the tall manager out of the crowd and towards the edge of the building. Flashes immediately met her eyes. There was nowhere near as many photographers as Yoona has, but it made her feel good. It made her feel like she mattered a bit, that she was more than just a Girls' Generation member.

The entire photo-op lasted ten minutes, Hajoon pushing her away when some of the reporters started barking out questions for their tabloids.

"You want to see any of your friends before we go?" the manager asked, noticing the crowd had severely lessened.

Echo looked away, pursing her lips. It was more than a little awkward for her to talk about her school life, never mind actually showing it to someone. The truth was she only had one friend that wasn't a trainee. Everyone in her graduating class had ignored her through the past few years, pretending she didn't exist. Her first friend from the school wasn't a trainee either but, their friendship was a disaster and was severely cut off.

"A-allison?"

Twirling around, Echo widely smiled at the handsome boy in front of her.

Hajoon's eyes zeroed in on the boy, narrowing when he noticed what he was holding in his hands.

"Hyun-ah," she smiled, swiftly pulling him into a hug, careful of what was in his hands. "Congratulations."

"Congratulations, All-ah," he softly smiled back, shifting the flowers in his arms. "I know you're really busy and all, but I hope we can stay in touch."

"Totally," she grinned. Hyun had been there since her first year at Kent, it was fantastic he still wanted to be by her side.

"And these are for you," the boy pushed the yellow chrysanthemum's into her arms. "I wanted to get you something special but I'm not very good with presents."

"It's okay, I love it," she took a huge whiff of the sweet smelling flowers. "Although, I'm sorry  didn't get anything for you."

"It's fine," he shrugged and waved it off. "Have you seen Jungah?"

Echo smirked. "Nope, thankfully. She's probably too afraid to show her face around me with mister muscle's behind me." She jabbed her thumbs towards her increasingly irritated manager.

Hyun gulped when he looked up at the extremely well built man. He'd only ever seen the man in person once before, and he totally forgot about the forbidding aura he had around him. The way the man protectively half hid Echo behind him spoke more than enough words for Hyun to not pull anything stupid.

"It's been nice going to the same school as you, good luck with everything and I hope we see each other again," Hyun blurted out, swiftly leaving the idols sight claiming that his mother was calling for him.

"I still don't like that kid," Hajoon half-growled.

Echo rolled her eyes. "You don't like any boy who talks to me."

Congratulations to Sooyoung, Yoona and Echo! Must be a relief to not worry about school anymore.

Why was SNSD's manager with Echo and not Yoona? Yoona needs the protection, not some unknown member!

Maybe this is Echo's chance to finally be able to focus on her acting career. It seems that's the only thing that can help her popularity at this point.

Hopefully, today will be a double update in apology to you guys for missing last week. I'm so sorry, I've barely been home the past week and a half, so much has been going on >.<