An Unexpected Reception

          “They’re going to all be to you from the very beginning,” the manager’s assistant warned me as we got onto the elevator, heading up to the dorms.

          “Pardon?” I said.

          “They don’t want a newcomer to join the group because they think it means one of them will get the boot.  Originally, the group was designed to bring new people in and have older members leaving.  That probably won’t happen if the fans get attached to them, but they’re still in fear of a new member meaning one of them is getting kicked out.  Leeteuk will probably feel the most threatened since he’s the oldest and the leader of the group, but honestly, Heechul’s way worse!”

          I thought about coming back with something snappy, but something stopped me instinctively.  Probably self-preservation.  I may act brave a majority of the time, but I was terrified at the moment of meeting the new members.  “I’ll try to befriend the oldest ones first.”

          He shook his head.  “Probably won’t work. After Leeteuk and Heechul is Hangeng, who isn’t going to terrorize you, but he’s not going to form alliances that quick when he’s best buds with Heechul.  Then there’s Yesung, who’s just plain weird, but he’s got a damn good voice, like you.  Then there’s Kangin.  Kangin’s the toughest one in the bunch…there isn’t a chance in hell you’ll befriend him overnight.  I’d start off with the youngest members.  Ryeowook, Sungmin, and Donghae are probably your best bets.  Siwon will be nice because he’s Christian, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be best buds.  Still, that’s a good neutral starting off point.  Kibum is the maknae.  He’ll like you just because you stole the torture spot from him.  If you befriend Donghae, you automatically improve in Eunhyuk’s eyes, then in Shindong’s.  Work on him.  Sungmin is in the middle of the group in age, but he’s rather welcoming.  He’ll warm up to you fast.  Then Ryeowook is second youngest…soon to be third I guess.  He’s a blessing to have.  A real sweetheart.  Nobody hates him, although the oldest members were still kind of hard on him in the beginning, but once they tasted his cooking, they’ve been angels since.”

          “Good cook?” I asked, following him out the elevator.

          “I look for any damn excuse I can get to stay here whenever I know he’s cooking,” the assistant admitted.  “You’re going to be sleeping on the floor and the members are all going to treat you like to begin with, but at least you’ll eat well.  If he’s not cooking, Sungmin is, and he’s nearly as good.  Ah…and Ryeowook is the other one with the dynamite voice.  You’ll be singing a lot of background vocals with him.”

          “I feel like I’ve heard his name before,” I said, repeating it in my head over and over.

          “You were both at one of the same festivals, I think.  Perhaps you heard his name there,” he suggested.

          “The ChinChin Festival?”

          “That’s the one,” he said, heading down a hallway.  “Jonghoon-hyun is inside giving your eulogy.”

          I gave him a curious look.

          “I mean, informing the members that you’re on your way,” he said with a chuckle.  “I’m afraid I’m not going to stay for the bloodbath myself.  But I hope to see you again soon.”

          “Me, too,” I said, standing uneasily outside the door.

          The assistant knocked on the door and then he pat my back before walking away.  “If in doubt, start singing.  They may be distracted enough not to kill you then.”

          “I’ll keep that in mind.”

          The manager opened the door for me, his face grim, and waved me in.  “Welcome, Kyuhyun.  Set your stuff down in the hall and follow me into the living room, please.”

          I hurried to take off my shoes and threw my bags into the corner and then followed directly after him.  There were nearly a dozen guys my age or older sitting on the couches or the floor and they were all staring at me.  I quickly bowed and introduced myself. 

          One of them frowned and jumped to his feet.  He walked all the way over to me and then pat the top of my head with his hand.  “He’s taller than all of us…except maybe Siwon.  Why the hell did you get us a new maknae that was taller than everyone?” he complained.

          “This is Kim Heechul,” Jonghoon informed me.  “Since he’ll be last in line for everything, being the youngest, I wanted someone who could still see over the group to know what was going on.  That way I don’t have to repeat myself as much.  Now sit back down and stop molesting him.”

          “I’m not molesting him,” Heechul said, practically growling at the manager.

          “Yet,” Jonghoon said.

          “Where the hell is he going to sleep?” Leeteuk said.  “There’s already no room.  We certainly can’t fit a bed anywhere.”

          “He’ll sleep on the floor of one of the bedrooms until we can rearrange things a bit,” Jonghoon said.

          “And there’s barely enough food to share as is,” Eunhyuk complained.

          “You’ll make due.  Your mothers always think you’re starving and bring you stuff,” he reminds them.

          “And our lines will get cut even shorter in the songs,” Kibum complained.

          “But we need another strong vocal, which is the reason I’ve brought Kyuhyun to you.  You complained that SM doesn’t give you the proper means to break through in this business.  You’ve heard rumors that the president only slapped together a bunch of second rate artists for this group and I’m going to tell you right now, that’s exactly what they think they did, but you’re going to prove them wrong.  You’re going to work harder, dance better, and out sing everyone else out there.  Then they’re going to be eating their words and they’ll never be able to let go of a single one of you.  But it means you have to work together as a team and quit worrying about yourselves—what lines you get to sing, when you get to dance in front—and start worrying about the group as a whole.  When you can do that, that’s when you’ll succeed.  And I worked my off to get you another vocalist that was worth a damn before they could make a solo artist out of him or add him to the next hit wonder group.  So don’t throw him away.”

          And with that, Jonghoon stormed out of the dorm and left me to my fate.

          Leeteuk stood up, eyed me skeptically, and rolled his eyes.  “Sungmin, put him in Yesung’s room for now.”

          I was trying to remember what the assistant said.  Was Sungmin one of the safe ones?  I was pretty sure he was. 

          “That’s me.  Grab your bags, maknae,” Sungmin said, waving at me.

          “Hold on,” Leeteuk said.  “We’ll go over the names first before we all disperse.  I’m Leeteuk.  You just met Sungmin and Heechul.  This is Hangeng, Shindong, Kangin, Siwon,” he said, pausing to look past where Sungmin was standing to the group on the floor.  “That’s Kibum, Hyukjae, Donghae…”

          “Hey, Kyuhyun,” Donghae said, nodding.

          Donghae spoke to me.  I made a mental note of that because he was the only one that bothered to, which probably meant he was less opposed to me being there than the rest of them.

          “Yesung’s standing in the back,” Leeteuk said, pointing.  “Are we missing someone?”

          “Ryeowook is in the bathroom,” Donghae said.

          “He’s missed this?” Leeteuk said, shaking his head in aggravation. 

          “He’s been sick since practice earlier,” Yesung said, hovering by the hallway.

          Yesung was sticking by the door to listen for Ryeowook, I realized, but according to the assistant he was one of the oldest members.  Although he said that Ryeowook had won most of them over with his cooking, clearly the vocalists were sticking together.  It was probably a good thing I would be rooming with him.

          “You can meet him later then, assuming you last that long,” Leeteuk said.  “You may be coming in late, but we expect you to work hard to make up for what you don’t know.  Understood?”

          I nodded.  “Yes, hyung.”

          Leeteuk walked away without another word and Sungmin brought me to Yesung’s room and found me space in the closet to hang some of my clothes.  He sat down on the bed and began to tell me about the upcoming schedules and how they orchestrated things like showering between twelve men when there was only one bathroom.

          “I won’t lie.  Sometimes Hyuk and I shower together so we can get double the time,” Sungmin said.

          I tried to hide my disgust at two men showering together, but apparently I didn’t do a very good job of it. 

          “You just wait until you have only ten minutes in the bathroom in the morning.  That includes pissing, brushing your teeth, shaving, and whatever else.  Twenty whole minutes is a luxury,” Sungmin informed me.  “And now we’ll probably be down to nine minutes a piece because of you.”

          “Sorry,” I said.  As much as it wasn’t my fault that this was so screwed up and each person only got ten minutes alone in the bathroom in the morning, I still felt bad that my presence was messing things up for them so much.  Perhaps it would have been better if I hadn’t been brought to this group at all.

          I could barely sleep that first night.  Sleeping on the floor was fine, but Yesung snored loud enough to wake the dead.  Finally, at about three in the morning, I crept out of the room and headed for the kitchen before I went deaf.  I didn’t dare watch any television, but I thought I could at least get a drink of water and look around a bit.  I’d been listening for a while and no one seemed to be up.  I cracked the door open and peered down the hall.  Nothing.  I carefully checked the door I’d seen Leeteuk go into, but it was shut tight.  I headed down the hall and got myself a drink of water and then wondered around the kitchen and living room.  For how many members lived here—apparently not all of us, since Shindong and Siwon lived nearby—it was rather well kept.  Either the staff paid for cleaning ladies to come in regularly or some of the members were clean freaks. 

          I heard the sound of a door opening down the hall and quietly snuck to the hallway to investigate.  Someone came out of Leeteuk’s room, but he was clearly too short to be the leader himself.  I was trying to think if I’d been told who he roomed with when the member walked my direction instead of towards the bathroom.  !  I was going to get caught out of bed on my first night, which probably wasn’t good.

          Before I had a plan of what to do, the member was nearly nose to nose with me and stopped when he saw me.  I’d clearly startled him.  And now that I had the chance to look him over, I didn’t remember seeing him earlier. 

          “Ah…you must be Kyuhyun,” he said, smiling and extending his hand.  “I’m Ryeowook.”

          Ryeowook!  The nice one!  Thank the heavens, I thought to myself, grasping his hand.  As I took my first good look at him and shook his hand, a strange sensation came over me.  I felt that I recognized him.  “Ryeowook hyung…you seem so familiar for some reason.  Have we met before?”

          Ryeowook shook his head.  “I don’t know.  Have you been to SM Headquarters much?”

          “No,” I honestly replied.  “I just signed with them.”

          “Then I don’t think so,” he said, finally pulling his hand away.  “I’m sorry I wasn’t around earlier tonight when you first arrived.  I wasn’t feeling well.”

          I shook my head, dismissing the matter. 

          “I’m feeling a little better now and thought I’d make myself something to eat.  Are you hungry?” he asked.

          I tried not to laugh.  “I’m always hungry.”

          “Then I’ll make some for you as well.  In fact, I’d better make enough for about six, because Hyukjae can always smell it when I’m cooking and will wake out of a dead sleep.  Then he’ll wake Donghae as well.”

          “They will probably not want to eat in the same room as me,” I told him, following him into the kitchen where he began to collect an assortment of ingredients.

          “If they want to eat, they will,” Ryeowook informed me, matter of fact.

          “And you expect our hyungs to just listen to what you tell them?”

          “If they want to eat,” he repeated.

          I was beginning to see how the power dynamic really worked within this group and I felt pretty positive I wasn’t going to be in charge of anything at this rate, since I can’t cook for . 

          “Do you want some help, hyung?”

          “Are you good at cooking?”

          “No,” I honestly replied.

          Ryeowook shook his head.  “You can set the table…for four.”

          “Why are you making enough for six when only four of us are eating,” I questioned.

          “Because towards the end of our snack, Leeteuk and Kangin will wake up and kick us back to our rooms.  They they’ll eat the rest of the food,” he informed me.

          “So half the group is going to get up to eat in the middle of the night?”

          “They don’t care when I cook,” Ryeowook said.  “They’ll eat it just the same.  Only Yesung will sleep through it, Sungmin won’t care because he’ll make food in the morning, and Heechul is too lazy to get up and is watching his figure.  And Hangeng will not eat if Heechul doesn’t or it will piss him off,” Ryeowook explained.  “But Heechul will make me cook him breakfast.”

          “You’ve got them all figured out, hyung,” I said, searching for the plates.

          “Just call me Ryeowook.”

          I stopped searching the cupboard and looked over at him.  “Really?”

          “Yeah.  We’re nearly the same age,” he explained.  “And I’m not used to anyone in the group calling me hyung.  Just call me by my name instead.”

          “Thanks,” I said. 

          The woman with the long hair, Malina, watched and sighed heavily.  “That’s always one of my favorite parts.  They have no clue this early on, of course, but it’s still fun to witness a pair of soul mates’ first meeting in a new life.”

          “What do you mean they didn’t know?” the blond haired man named Matthew said.  “Clearly Kyuhyun knew that something was amiss from the moment their eyes locked and they touched.  Ryeowook is too shy to voice his thoughts, but you could sense his surprise at seeing Kyuhyun for the first time as well.  He recognized him.  On a soul level, at least.”

          The dark skinned woman, Amara, stood up and walked over to the window which broadcast the life of Cho Kyuhyun.  “It’s interesting how this is playing out already…just on the first day.  Ryeowook is making food and he’s going to force members to spend time around their maknae.  He hasn’t even known him a whole five minutes yet.  It’s as if he was resolved to like him even before they met.  Perhaps their work talking about solidarity to some of the older members as children will have helped as well.  Leeteuk was not that hostile.”

          “And he paired Kyuhyun with Yesung,” Matthew pointed out.  “Isn’t that a means of looking out for him, even if it isn’t overt?  Yesung is not mean and he’s a fellow vocalist.  That was clearly done deliberately.  Don’t you think?”

          “I think so,” agreed Amara.  “He could have fed him to the wolves.”

          “Heechul and Kibum?  Yeah,” Malina agreed.  “But this is only the first day.  We have a long way to go until the accident.”

          “Only about a year,” Amara informed her.  “Less than thirteen months from now is when they’re scheduled to get into the car accident.”

          “A lot can happen in a year,” Malina said hopefully.

          “A lot can backfire in that time as well,” said the bearded man, Ferrand, walking in the room late, although none of them were required to watch at a specific time.  But one of them always did.  “How does it look after the first night?”

          They all looked around at each other.  “Favorable,” Amara said, giving him a conservative, but optimistic answer.

          “Good,” Ferrand said, nodding.  “And either our watch will be done in the next thirteen months or not for a very, very long time.”