In the year 2005, Lee Soo Man had the genius idea of introducing foreign language lessons in addition to the rest of their idol training.. something about his 10 year global Kpop domination plan.. and so the trainees had the option of learning English, Chinese or Japanese.

Hyukjae went for Chinese for the simple reason that he was a big fan of Bruce Lee movies and Hyoyeon just decided to tag along. Annoying Hyukjae would give her something to do since she wasn’t particularly fond of learning…..

However to everyone, including her own surprise, Hyoyeon turned out to have a natural talent for Chinese .. and the situation soon reversed with Hyukjae being the one who despised the lessons.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Uh! We’re going to be late again! *Kang-shhi ssem’s going to be pissed.” Hyoyeon mumbled under her breath as she scanned the corridors for Hyukjae.

She finally spotted him near the water cooler talking to a captive audience of the new female trainees. They were laughing at something he had said like it was the funniest thing they had ever heard – so fake.

 The group of five had entered the agency a month ago, only because of connections to the company shareholders, and liked to walk around like they owned the place. Hyoyeon was pretty sure their main purpose for joining was to gawk at the boys. And according the latest whispers in the hallway, Hyukjae was their flavour of the week …

but only because most of the *kkot-mi-nam oppas were already taken – which annoyed her to no end! Hyukjae definitely didn’t deserve to be anyone’s second choice – he was funny, cool, had the sweetest most genuine smile and a heart of gold (when he wasn’t annoying her on purpose.)

“And hey do you guys want to see my imitation of a praying mantis?” Hyukjae beamed proudly at the impressed faces before him. He liked all the attention he was getting from the females these days – ‘ I knew my day would come – *Boolmae Hyukjae aja aja!’

He was mentally patting himself on the back when he felt someone tugging him violently by the straps of his backpack.

“ Ya oppa! What the heck are you doing here? You are going to get us killed by Kang sshi!” she yelled in his ear.

“What the.. You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Come on, let’s go Mr. Show Off!” she started to drag him.

“Ommo Hyoyeonah! What are you doing?” One of the girls spoke in a condescending sing song voice, “Eunhyuk sunbae is older than you! How can you treat him like that? How uncivilized!”

“Tch, not to mention, disrespectful to oppa,” another one chimed in, fluttering her fake eyelashes at Hyukjae. She shot him an approval-seeking smile… but it suddenly made his stomach turn. And his cheeks started to burn too. He had acted like a show-off idiot.. everyone knew these girls were pretentious daddy’s little girls.

He opened his mouth to defend Hyoyeon but…

“Excuse me?” Hyoyeon turned her practised -face on the older girl (although Hyoyeon was generally sweet, she definitely had a fierce side to her) “But I am technically his sunbae i.e., your sunbae’s sunbae, so maybe I should ask you to show me some respect too?”

Hyukjae stifled a chuckle. What was he thinking.. Hyoyeon didn’t need anyone to defend her – she was a little firecracker and damn, he was proud of her.

*********************************

“You can thank me later by buying me a milkshake!” she mouthed at Hyukjae when they made it through the door 3 minutes before the start of class.

Normally Hyukjae would put up a stink about parting with his beloved cash but the double combo of him being impressed by her and embarrassed of himself, made him stay silent.

“Let’s begin class.. since someone is on time for a change!” the teacher Mr. Kang gave Hyukjae a pointed look. He shrank lower down in his seat while Siwon, Yuri and Donghae snickered. “I actually have good news.. great news actually,” Mr. Kang continued, “My old Alma Mater in China has offered a six month full scholarship to two students to go on an exchange..”

“China?”

“All expenses paid?”

“Wow!”

Chaos broke out in the classroom.

“Can I continue?” Mr. Kang gave an exasperated sigh, “So I’ve already spoken to Mr. Soo Man and we have picked the two students..”

“Already?” Yuri squealed.

“Oh the suspense! It kills!!!!!!!” Donghae joked.

“We’ve decided the two students are Choi Siwon and Kim Hyoyeon.”

“Me?” Hyoyeon stared at the teacher in shock.

“Yes, Hyoyeonah, you’ve done very well so far and show great potential so pack your bags, you guys leave in a week!”

Sooyoung and Yuri jumped on her – alternately congratulating and playfully smacking.

A week?

*****************************************************

The week went by in literally what felt like the blink of an eye to Hyoyeon. There was packing to be done, documents to be processed, things to be bought and then there was her mom – not having ever prepared herself to have her child go away to a foreign country –stuffing her with Korean food every minute, every second just in case she didn’t get to eat a proper meal there.

This meant that Hyoyeon had absolutely no time for practise or visits to the SM building until the very last night when her friends were throwing her and Siwon a going away party.

She arrived at the dance studio at 5 pm after a mini farewell party at school with her high school friends. Siwon met her in the hallway and she gave a little smile seeing him all formal in his tuxedo.

“Looking as handsome as ever oppa!”

“You’re looking very pretty yourself, Hyoyeonnie.” She had actually worn a dress in a long time and her hair had just been cut and styled earlier in the day to a very of-the-moment layered cut.

Their phones buzzed at the same time. Jessica had instructed them both not to enter until they were told, so, seeing her text, Siwon held out his arm to Hyoyeon, “Shall we?”

“We shall,” she giggled and walked inside to a loud roar of “CONGRATULATIONS!”

The party, catered generously by Mr. Kang, was going in full swing even at 9 pm.

Hyoyeon had made the rounds saying goodbye to almost everyone.. almost..

…………………………………..

(earlier during the party preparations)

Hyukjae leaned against the wall watching silently while Donghae attempted to blow his seventh balloon and failed miserably yet again; as two of the shortest girls – Taeyeon and Tiffany – ironically stood on step ladders sticking streamers to the ceiling; and as SooYoung and Yunho put up the gigantic “Bon Voyage Siwon and Hyoyeon” poster (that they had all signed) up on the wall.

“Hurry up guys! We don’t have a lot of time!” Jessica – the main party planner – urged.

“Yea, chop chop!” HeeChul and Youngwoon clapped in unison, following her around until an annoyed Jessica put them on DJ duty.

Jungsu, YooChun, JaeJoong and Junsu carried chairs and moved tables while Yoona, Seohyun and SoYeon set out the paper plates, cups, napkins etcetera. The rest of the trainees mulled around running errands, following orders and generally trying to be helpful.

All except..

“Aish I give up! How the hell does this work? Ya Hyukjae ya , could you be a little more helpful than just standing there like a statue!” Donghae scolded him in a miffed voice.

“Aw oppa, don’t be so harsh on him. I think he’s a little sad.” Tiffany whispered.

“Sad? Wae?”

“Well, Hyoyeonnie and Hyukjae oppa have been best friends since he first joined SM right? They’ve been practically inseparable.. that is.. until now!”

“Ah..” the realization dawned on Donghae’s face. “Or yeah.. you could just be a statue Hyukjae.. good job.. we need some interior decoration in here.” He patted a spaced out Hyukjae on the back and ran to get the air pumps that Changmin and Kibum had just brought with them from the store.

********************************************************

“Congratulations!”

Everyone yelled as the doors opened and Hyukjae tried to match their enthusiasm.

Hyoyeon walked in on Siwon’s arm and Hyukjae’s eyes widened a little. She was glowing and had her hair done.. if she was happy he should be happy too, right? And it wasn’t that he was unhappy… he just didn’t know what to expect.. the past week not seeing her had made him feel so melancholy, he didn’t know what six months would be like.

********************************

(Back to the present)

Hyoyeon had made the rounds saying goodbye to almost everyone.. almost..

Hyoyeon saw him standing by the punch table near the window. It was odd that she suddenly felt awkward going up to him.. but she plastered a big smile on her face,

“Hi oppa! Enjoying the party?”

“I should ask you that! It’s your party..”

“Neh?”

“Sorry.. that came out wrong. Come sit!” he patted the window seat in front of him.

The rest of the party was busy dancing to HeeChul’s surprisingly good remixes .. and were also purposely staying away to give the best friends some privacy.

“You okay?” Hyoyeon asked. He looked kind of weird when he wasn’t grinning like a goofball.

“Yea.. it’s just a little.. weird you know. Saying goodbye and stuff .. to you, I mean!”

“It’s only for 6 months.." she started out bravely but ended up faltering and ending in a smaller voice, ".. is what I keep telling myself but I’m going to miss you a lot oppa!”

“Really?” he finally gave her a teasing smile, “Didn’t seem like it! You didn’t call me all week!”

“Mian.. my family was being all clingy and the visa office was a nightmare and..”

“Relax, I was just kidding! Anyway, now that I know you hadn’t already forgotten me, I’m ready to say goodbye so c’mere, give me a hug!”

Hyoyeon jumped into his open arms happily.

“Ok… now you’re kind of suffocating me, Hyo!”

“Just a little longer, oppa! Gotta make it count. ” she giggled. “Don’t go finding another girl best friend now!”

“Believe me, you’re pretty irreplaceable, brat!”

“Hey! You said you wouldn’t call me that anymore! Dummy!”

notes: Korean words

* Kang sshi - chinese jumping ghost - they call the teacher Kangsshi - as a play on words because his name is "Kang"

* ssem - short for 'seonsaengnim' - meaning teacher

* kkot-mi-nam - pretty boys

* Boolmae - a person who starts to look better the more you look at him/her

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Thankyou for your comments. Here is a chapter as my expression of gratitude :) Fast update right! your comments make me update faster js :)