“Why are you scrubbing the couch so forcefully?” Jonghyun asked. His demanding tone was really irking me.

“Ahh...Spaghetti meokeosseo (I ate spaghetti),” I fibbed.

“Jinjja? Where did you find spaghetti?” Minho asked, curious.

“Eumm...downstairs. Restaurant. Take-out.” I thought of as many relevant words as I could, which was pretty hard with my limited vocab.

“Ohhh,” they nodded, seeming satisfied with this fabricated explanation. I was surprised by how easily they bought it.

“Fine now that you’re awake we need to get you back to your dorm. Let’s go – Wait, I left my phone downstairs with Leeteuk,” Jonghyun groaned. “Hyung, come get it with me.”

“Go get it yourself, lazy,” Onew punched Jonghyun lightly in the shoulder. But he went with him anyway. Onew was my favorite Shinee member, but he seemed to be looking for reasons to avoid me. Sad. This left me alone with Taemin, Minho, and Key. They still didn’t even know my name. But how to make conversation with them? My problem wasn’t understanding Korean, it was responding back. Sigh. This weekend wasn’t going so great.

Key broke the ice. “So Jonghyun tells us you’re our new neighbor. What’s your name?”

“Eumm...jeoneun...Jang Liyeong imnida (I’m Jang Liyeong),” I said.

“How did you get to be our neighbor?” Taemin wondered aloud.

“Ahhh...sorry...I don’t speak much Korean,” I said in English, very slowly. Taemin and Key looked at each other quizzically, but Minho caught the drift. “Ohhhh. Wait a sec,” he called as he dashed towards the bedroom. He came back out running with a sketchbook. “Here draw so we understand,” he said, handing me a pencil.

Great. I can’t draw either. For the first time I noticed the baby grand in the corner of the room and felt envious that my room didn’t even have a keyboard. But I took the pencil anyway and drew a stick figure, labelling it with my name. “Jeo (me),” I said, putting a 17 on top for my age. Then I drew what I remembered of the SM Academy building.

“You’re a trainee?” Taemin tried. I shook my head and drew a sound editing board with computer.

“Technology?” Minho guessed. I added some music notes. “Wait...music technology?” I nodded quickly. “You’re a music technology student?” he asked. I nodded again.

“But where are you from?” Key wondered. I drew a blob which was supposed to be the US. “Miguk?” he guessed. I nodded. “But then...wae...?” He pointed to my eyes and hair, which were clearly Asian. I sketched a Chinese flag. “Ohhhh!” Key cried. “You’re Chinese, born in America, studying here!” I nodded for what seemed like the hundredth time. “I win, I win, I totally got the answer, I am the almighty Key, yeahhhhh!~~~” He got up and danced a little victory dance, making me laugh. Somehow I knew he and I would be good friends.

“Oh stop it hyung,” Taemin begged, and Minho rolled his eyes. “Do you know who we are?” he asked me, his innocent yet deep eyes searching mine with a gaze that froze my heart. I gulped, nodding. “I’m a huge fan,” I whispered shyly.

“Yeahhh~~ She’s a huge fan, everyone, did you hear that, she loves us, especially me the one and only almighty Key~~” Key continued to dance and sing his nonsensical song in front of the window like he wanted all of Seoul to hear. I laughed again.

“Ugghhh hyung we said stop,” Minho groaned. “You’re scaring her. Come on I’d love to talk to you longer but we should probably get you to your dorm before Key does anything crazier.” He grabbed his keycard. “This,” he pointed, “works on pretty much any door in the building. Not all the time, but a lot of the time. We’ll see. Taemin bring yours too in case mine doesn’t work.” He got up, leaving Key to his little dance. I bit my lip trying not to smile.

“Bye bye,” Taemin called as we left the room. “NOOOO wait for me,” Key cried, dashing after us to catch up. He was so funny. We got to my room and Minho touched the key card to the sensor. It flashed green and the door clicked open. “So much for privacy in this building,” he muttered, smiling as he held the door for me.

“WHOAA your dorm is so cool,” Key bounced in after me. He must have had a lot of sugar over with the Super Junior hyungs. Taemin looked torn between being polite and joining Key in exploring my dorm. “It’s okay you can come in,” I said, figuring Key wasn’t going to leave anytime soon. Minho shut the door gently.

“HEYYY why is your fridge so big?!?” Key asked. Taemin and Minho rushed to go look. “Whoa, noona’s fridge IS bigger than ours,” Taemin gasped. “She’s one girl and we’re five guys, why does she get a bigger fridge and kitchen?” Minho peeked at the pantry. “Hey it’s fully stocked!” he called.

“Wait don’t take all my food!” I ran in front of the pantry door before they could go in.

“We should definitely make a deal, new neighbor,” Key said. “You should share your fridge and pantry with us. It’s bigger than ours and we have five times the people. You don’t need that much space anyway, right?” He jumped up and down waiting for me to answer.

“Wait...wait...” Allow them free access to my dorm for food? I wasn’t so sure, even if they were my favorite band in the whole world. “What do I get?”

“The satisfaction of seeing us all the time, duh,” Key said. Taemin nodded, eyes wide. Even Minho seemed sorely tempted by this idea. I thought of something they could give me in return that wasn’t too demanding...AHA. “Piano,” I said.

“Mwoh?” Key tilted his head to the side and frowned. I resisted the urge to smile again, but sometimes his moves were really diva-esque.

“Hyung, I think she wants to know if she can use our piano,” Taemin said. I gave him a high-five. 

“Ohhhh. I don’t see why not,” Minho mused.

“Anytime?” I asked.

“As long as we can get the food anytime,” Key answered. I stuck out my hand. “Looks like we have a deal!” he grinned as we shook.

“Yeahhhhhh~” Minho burst out suddenly as they left the room. It was just like his DBSK Changmin imitation on Hello Baby, and I laughed as we all waved bye to each other. It finally looked like I was a step closer to them. :)