When I arrived back at the VIXX apartment late into the following morning, the door was closed. I simply shrugged as I knocked assertively at the door before taking a step back to wait. Finally after a few moments of quiet, the door flew open, N practically sprinting through before slamming it behind him. He leaned his back up against the door, his breathing heavy. He looked at me with panic in his eyes. We both opened our mouths to speak, but a voice came through the door.

“YOU’RE SAFE WITH HALLEY FOR NOW, HYUNG!” The voice sounded mad. Not angry mad, but crazy mad. I couldn’t even place whose voice it was.

When I raised an eyebrow at N, he smiled sheepishly, “I might have pulled a little prank on Hyukkie in his sleep.”

“That was HYUK?” I looked at the door. I didn’t know it was even physically possible for jovial Sanghyuk to express so much rage. My contemplation was interrupted, however, when Hakyeon grabbed me by the arm to drag me down the hall.

“Let just uh,” he started, turning to look at the door once more time, “get going, yeah?” He dragged me all the way down to the stairwell, where he let me go with a relieved sigh. We made our way down to the studios in silence then, only stopping once we got to the basement. “So which room today?” he asked me, suddenly cheerful again.

“Hmm,” I thought carefully, “piano room is fine,” I said, gesturing to the door. When we settled into our usual positions, he looked at me expectantly. I sighed a little, reaching up to rub the back of my neck, “I’ll be honest with you, Hakyeon. I don’t actually have anything to work on with you as far as the music is concerned.”

He seemed to relax a bit, “Whew,” he let out a relieved sigh, “I was a bit concerned you weren’t confident in me.”

“I need your help tomorrow,” I admitted, “I have a bad feeling it’s going to get rough once I make everyone sing together.”

“Taekwoon,” Hakyeon spoke quietly, nodding to himself.

A tiny smile crossed my face, “No, actually,” I watched him look up at me in surprise, “I’m worried about everyone BUT Taekwoon.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, his brows furrowing, creasing his tanned face.

I sighed a little bit, “For lack of a better way of putting it, I’ve sort of tamed the lion musically.” At N’s incredulous look, I continued, “He trusts me, even if it’s only about his ability.”

N laughed a little, a smirk creeping up on his face, “I guess that explains why he always looks so mentally exhausted after working with you.”

“I suppose,” I said with a little laugh, “He exhausts me, too, but just as he trusts me about music, I trust him to follow my direction.”

“You don’t think the rest of us will?” he asked, a touch of hurt in his voice.

I sighed slowly, trying to broach the subject carefully, “It’s nothing personal, but I’m going to be pushing you guys around a lot, asking you guys to do things you’re not used to doing.” I paused to think, “I’ve managed to get Leo to comply with some of my crazy demands already, but the rest of you have gotten off pretty easy.” I leaned on the covered piano keyboard, scratching at my face anxiously.

“So,” Hakyeon sat back in his chair, “What do you need from me?”

I looked at him earnestly, trying desperately to convey my sincerity, “I need you to be Leader-N tomorrow.”

He was quiet for a moment, “Okay,” he stated simply.

“I know these are your brothers and you’ll want to protect them,” I sighed again, “But I need you to back me up. I promise it’ll be worth it.”

Slumping forward, he rested his elbows on his knees, bouncing on his feet for a few seconds before looking back up at me, “I’ll do my best.”

Satisfied, I relaxed as well. There was a tense silence before I decided to ask something that I had been thinking about for a while, “Hakyeon,” I started, getting his attention, “As a leader, what do you want for VIXX?”

Clearly surprised, he didn’t speak for a minute. Finally he seemed to come to some sort of conclusion, “You know who Leeteuk is, right?”

The name rang a bell, and after a quick moment of thought, I found it, “Super Junior’s leader?”

Nodding, N looked not at me, but past me, focusing on nothing at all as he continued, “They’ve been together almost 10 years. They’ve lost members, gained members, but they’ve stuck together. They’re all successful in their own right, but Leeteuk is like the glue that keeps them together. And they’re constantly improving, even after all these years.” N stopped for a while, looking back into my eyes, “And you’ve met GD, who displayed such leadership qualities that YG appointed him leader over despite being the middle in age. The five of them started out as any other group, but now it’s pretty well known that they’re not just an idol group together, they’re brothers and best friends.”

I kept quiet throughout his little speech, but he seemed to be at a loss for words at that point, so I jumped in, “Are they your role models, then?”

He laughed dryly, “It’s strange to call G-Dragon a role model, but it’s not for the usual reasons. I want the longevity and resilience of Super Junior with the cohesion of Bigbang,” Hakyeon’s voice grew quiet as he went on, “It’s a bit of a pipe dream, isn’t it?”

I scooted the piano bench closer, scraping noisily over the course carpet. Finally I plopped down directly in front of him, “Well, you know,” I started, “I think you got a pretty good group of guys here.”

He smiled just a fraction, conceding, “Yeah,” he admitted reluctantly.

“I mean, let’s take inventory,” I sat up, counting on my fingers, “You have the bread of the sandwich, Leader-N and Sanghyuk with the purest and most flexible voices I’ve heard in a long time.” He began to giggle a little, but I pressed on, “You have Leo and Ken, two incredibly powerful vocalists with different talents that manage to blend together fantastically. You’ve got Ravi, an exceptional rapper who also can sing harmonies with the rest of you. And you have Bean, whose talent is like a newly discovered vein of rare metal. He’s just getting started.”

N covered his face a little, resisting the compliment, “You think so?” he asked meekly.

I rolled my eyes at him, “You might have a violent streak in Leo and the most flirtatious Korean I’ve ever met in Ken, but yeah, I think so”

He seemed to relax a little bit, looking up at me again with a little smile, “Thank you for believing in us.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” I pointed at him sternly, “Let’s see if we survive through tomorrow.”

With a little laugh, he nodded, “Alright, alright,” he threw up his hands defensively, “I’ll do my best tomorrow,” he reiterated.

“Good,” I stood to move the piano bench back to its rightful place, “Any last words of advice?” I asked as I settled back down.

He huffed a little as he thought, “Nothing you haven’t experienced already. Oh,” he suddenly sat up, remembering something, “In a week or so we’re scheduled to appear on a radio show. I think they intend to bring you along.”

“Interesting,” I mumbled. American radio was a dying art, but I had gathered it was a bit of a bigger deal here, “What should I expect?”

He laughed nervously, “A lot of personal questions, I guess. They’ll have us sing something live, then do lots of interviews between songs. Listeners and viewers will submit questions and stuff.”

I nodded along to his words, “Well this will be pretty new for me, to be honest,” I combed through my hair again, “But it should be okay, right?”

Hakyeon smiled his perfectly even smile at me, “You’ll be perfect, I’m sure.”

Suddenly, a string of questions popped into my head to ask N, but before I could speak, the door cracked open, causing both N and I to swivel our heads to see the receptionist looking rather frazzled. “I’m so sorry,” she bowed low, “Ms. Mira you have a visitor.”

N and I looked back at each other, but he just shrugged. “Guess we’ll have to talk later, Hakyeon,” I lamented as I stood.

He waved me away, “It’s fine. Will you come see us later?”

“Of course,” I threw the words back over my shoulder as the receptionist ushered me along, leading me upstairs. Once I was in the lobby, she simply motioned toward the door, not saying a word. I gave her an odd look, wondering what got her so suddenly nervous. Looking out the glass door, I saw a figure in all black. I shrugged and made my way outside.

The figure turned, and I recognized that face. He pulled his hood back, revealing the same white hair I had seen him sporting when we first met. “Halley,” he offered his hand confidently, a brilliant slightly cooked smile crossing his face.

“Jiyong,” I returned the gesture. GD, as he was most often called, was clearly a self-confident man. “We were just talking about you,” I glanced over my shoulder, finding the Jellyfish lobby still empty behind us.

“Oh?” he asked, looking around me to see what exactly I was looking at.

I returned my gaze to the slightly short, but authoritative young man, “Hakyeon, leader of VIXX. He was saying he admired you for your leadership skills.”

GD raised his eyebrows at me, “He has good taste,” he teased, his smile twisting to a little smirk. “It wasn’t always that way. Bigbang had a rocky start, you know,” he spoke casually as he looked around quickly, spotting a low concrete wall lining the Jellyfish entryway, “Care to sit?” he asked politely, gesturing to it.

“Sure,” I followed him, and we sat side by side on the little ledge. “So what brings you here, GD?” I figured I’d get to the point.

He didn’t look at me, instead his eyes seemed to sweep the courtyard, taking in the Jellyfish Headquarters. Clearly he hadn’t been here before, or in a long time. Finally he took a little breath before speaking, “I am not a patient guy,” at the end of his statement, his eyes flicked to mine for a brief moment, his smirk returning. “I can’t help but notice I never heard back from you.”

“Ah,” I tugged at my ponytail, my nervous habit coming into play yet again, “I just got internet recently. I actually just finished your entire discography a few nights ago,” I couldn’t help but laugh a little at the end of my own sentence. “I have to say, I’m impressed. I absolutely loved 'Crooked', by the way.”

“I figured you would,” he laughed a little, “Definitely your style.” He finally looked at me properly, “Then will you help us?”

I blinked at him, “Well, you guys seem to be heading in a stronger hip hop direction than my usual compositions.” It was my turn to look away as I pondered his question, “It seems strange for you to ask for help, especially from someone like me.”

He laughed, sounding nervous for the first time since I met him, “That’s sort of the problem. My writing style is getting progressivly pretty strongly cemented, but we plan on coming back as a group by early next summer, and I really respect your pop and rock composition. That’s something we could really use.”

His candidness was surprising, but honestly refreshing, “Well,” I stalled, thinking. This was an opportunity I would normally jump at, but the timing was awkward. “I expect VIXX’s release to be sometime around October,” I was calculating, “I’m not sure I’ll be able to return to Korea again before next summer.”

“No matter,” he brushed my trepidation off, “I have no issue flying us out to The States, and the internet exists, you know,” his voice carried a hint of laughter.

I was taken aback at his determination. “You’re a pretty insistent guy,” I pointed out.

“You did just say I was admired for my leadership,” he reminded me, giving me a little wink, “I’m a pretty persistent individual.”

“Clearly,” I said with a little laugh, “Well, once I’m done with this project,” I pointed at the building behind us with my thumb, “I’d love to get in touch with you again.”

“Persistent,” he said again with a little smile, “Do you mind if I come visit you again?”

“Of course!” I didn’t mean to insinuate I didn’t want to see him until the project was over. On the contrary, meeting with a fellow songwriter who respected my skills as a composer as opposed to strictly a performer was always a nice change.

He thought, “Some of my boys were pretty jealous that I came here by myself, but I didn’t want to impose them upon you.” GD paused, hesitant to ask the question that I already knew he wanted to ask.

“Of course you can bring them,” I said with a little giggle, “I don’t mind. There’s a little secluded park around here if you’d prefer.”

“I know the one,” he said, his smile spreading a little. Though for all intents and purposes, our conversation was over, neither of us moved. We were quiet for a long moment, enjoying the weak summer breeze. “From what I’ve seen,” he started suddenly, looking up at the Jellyfish building again, “your guys are pretty new to the industry, but have some talent.”

I followed his gaze. My voice cracked between a laugh and a sigh as I spotted my window, two faces squeezed together peering down at us. “That they do,” I admitted, shaking my head. If I had to guess it was N and Ravi attempting to spy on us from my room. “They have a bit of growing to do, but I’ve made a lot of headway,” I continued, looking over at GD, who was already watching me.

“Then I’ll look forward to their release,” he smiled at me again, his voice warm and kind. “And tell Cha-N that I appreciate his kind words,” Jiyong stood, brushing off the cement dust from his dark wash jeans before pulling his hood back up.

I followed suit, and held out my hand once again, “Thank you for coming to see me.”

He took my hand in both of his, “We’ll be in touch,” he spoke, that little smirk crossing his face again. Letting me go, he turned to leave.

“Let me give you my contact info,” I stepped after him, reaching to stop him.

He simply waved me away, not bothering to look back, “I have my ways,” he called back to me before turning the corner. I simply stood there, dumbfounded for a moment. Then I remembered something and turned, looking back up at my window, seeing that now four faces were crammed into the narrow space of glass. I saw a hand wave at me. Chuckling to myself I waved back, heading back inside.

Once I was up the stairs, I saw Hyuk’s head poking out from my room’s doorway. “Hi Mira!” he called before retreating back into my bedroom. I shook my head silently, picking up my pace to reach my doorway. While I had seen a number of them through the window, I was honestly surprised to see every single one of the boys crammed into my room.

“Uh, hi,” I greeted as they all looked up at me from various places around my furniture.

N stood from his seat on my windowsill, “What was that about?” he asked eagerly.

I rolled my eyes, “GD wanted me to thank you for your kind words,” I started out, pleased to see N instantly get flustered. “We were just discussing future project ideas,” I spoke casually. “I told him I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to return to Korea in time for their comeback, but it sounds like he might fly everybody out to the US.”

They were quiet, each of them looking at one another as opposed to at me. “Was he cool?” Ravi suddenly asked.

I couldn’t help but laugh, “Yes,” I answered quickly, “very cool. He think you all have a lot of talent," my voice sounded like a teacher speaking to young students.

They murmured amongst themselves briefly. “Is he going to come here again?” Leo’s face was turned away from me, but I caught his eye watching me.

I shrugged, “He said he wants me to meet some of his other members, but I doubt he’ll just show up like that again,” I glanced out the window. It had been a rather bold move, but something told me that G-Dragon did what he wanted, expected behavior be damned. “But enough about Jiyong,” I spoke decisively, “I hope you’re all ready for tomorrow.”

“They’re not,” I heard Leo murmur. When I locked eyes with him, a little smirk crossed his face.

Ken tilted his chin up defiantly, “I am totally ready, noona,” he spoke dramatically, bringing his fist to his chest. My eyes never left Taekwoon’s, however. It was like we were able to have a perfectly normal conversation without speaking at all. He knew what was in store, and from the looks of it, he was keen to see his brothers suffer as he had suffered.

My attention was finally diverted from Taekwoon when N stood, clapping once, “You know what we never did?” he suddenly asked, “We should enjoy our last night together before we apparently all hate each other tomorrow. Let’s watch that American movie we promised Mira.”

They all seemed to murmur in agreement before looking at me expectantly, “What?” I asked, suddenly uneasy by the six pairs of eyes.

“Well you have to pick, of course!” N piped up quickly. “Unfortunately we mostly just have old classic movies with Korean subtitles.”

I laughed a little, “Alright, well show me what you got, and I’ll pick.”

“Uh,” Hongbin said suddenly, “The TV is in our room,” he looked to Ken, who looked similarly panicked for a moment.

“Take your time picking a movie, Mira!” Ken scrambled to his feet as he spoke, and the two of them disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“Their room is still a mess, isn’t it?” I asked, looking to N again with a knowling little smirk.

He laughed, “Of course it is.”

The rest of us shuffled out of my room to make our way down the hall. We settled in the common room, flipping through their collection of dubbed or subtitled movies. N hadn’t been kidding when he said their selection was rather dated. It didn’t matter, though, as I found one suitable for the America Day purpose, finding ‘Top Gun’ amidst the disks. Finally, Hongbin emerged from his room, announcing that it was now suitable for visitors. Once again we all shuffled as a group into their room, piling rather ungracefully on their makeshift double bed. I was pleased that the atmosphere was comfortable enough for us all to squeeze together like that without any trace of awkwardness.

“You’re going to sing for us, right Halley?” Ravi teased as the opening credits began to roll.

I looked at him, one brow raised, “Sing?”

He took a dramatic breath, and in his horrendously pronounced English he began to belt ‘Take My Breath Away’. He continued until Hongbin got his hands on a pillow to beat Ravi into silence.

I couldn’t help but giggle uncontrollably for a minute, “Oh Ravi, that was so bad,” I wheezed between laughs, “I’ll show you how it’s done,” I promised, but he would have to be patient. The movie began, and we were all hushed into silence as we watched. I was glad the movie was subtitled as opposed to dubbed over, as I’m not sure I could have watched the movie with a different voice over Tom Cruise’s without laughing.

When it was time, Ken tossed me a comb to use as a fake mic. I got up on my knees and belted the song as loudly and obnoxiously as I could to go along with the movie. “Okay you made your point,” Ravi said with a laugh, pushing me over. Luckily Hongbin was there to catch my giggling self. The rest of the movie played out without any more shenanigans, and when it ended, nobody moved for a long movement.

Finally N wriggled out from under Hyuk, “Alright we’d better get our rest for tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah,” I said suddenly, “You guys should just meet me down there when you’re ready.”

They all looked around at each other before nodding to me, “We’ll be ready,” Ken spoke, still confident.

I couldn’t help but give one dry laugh, “We’ll see about that,” I gave him a little wink before heading out the door.