Chapter 11

Hee Chul was the first to burst out laughing, and the rest of the guys followed.

“What’s going on?” I said. I was lost.

“Do you know that the both of you are so adorable?” Ee Teuk said as he came up to us, laughing.

“What are you talking about?” I said.

“We've suspected for awhile that the both of you had something going on,” he explained.

“Si Won,” Han Kyung said as he glared at him.

“I didn’t say anything,” Si Won quickly defended himself. “They knew, and even when they discussed it, I just kept to myself,” he added.

“Yah!” Dong Hae yelled and smacked Si Won. “How could you keep this from us?”

“I had to. Or hyung would’ve killed me,” he laughed.

“Don’t worry,” Eun Hyuk said as he patted my shoulder. “We’ll keep this from the management.”

“Yea, don’t worry,” Sung Min piped in.

“So do we get to hear your story now?” Ryeo Wook asked.

“What story?” I said.

“How you both met, duh…” Hee Chul said.

I kept silent and looked around the room. All 11 guys looked on expectantly, waiting for Han Kyung and me to tell our story. Was it right? Should we really come clean? Before I could say anything, Han Kyung walked up beside me and put his arm around my shoulders.

“We went to the same school,” he said, and the guys started to chatter excitedly.

“Yah… so did you plan to come here and meet hyung?” Ye Sung asked.

“Did you know she was coming?” Ryeo Wook asked.

We spent part of the afternoon telling the guys everything. How we’d been in the same school, lived in the same hostel, how Han Kyung had left and how Fate had arranged for me to meet him here again.

“Honestly,” Eun Hyuk said. “You guys did a great job hiding your relationship.”

“Then how did you guys find out?” I asked him.

“Shin Dong was the one who suspected you were dating someone, since you told him you had no one. He didn’t believe you,” Eun Hyuk said.

“Shin Dong!” I exclaimed. “How could you?”

“You were lying, and I was nosy,” he laughed.

“And then, Han Kyung started disappearing every night,” Hee Chul said. “So we kinda pieced it together, and one day, we decided to trail him, just for the fun of it.”

“It was just 2 of us,” Ki Bum said. “We know of the risks of fans trailing us while we trailed hyung.”

“You guys are nuts,” I smiled.

“Then we found out that he was visiting you,” Hee Chul said.

“At first we thought that maybe he just wanted to meet you since you guys had a lot in common,” Ki Bum said. “But then, why the secrecy?”

“Yea… then we caught him staring at you while shooting ‘Show Me Your Love’,” Ye Sung laughed.

“See!” I said, and I smacked Han Kyung. “I told you someone would notice.”

“Aaah…” Han Kyung exclaimed and rubbed his arm. “Why didn’t you tell me they were onto us?” Han Kyung asked as he turned to Si Won and smacked him.

“I didn’t think there was any harm of them knowing, since I noticed that your relationship with nuna was pretty stable,” Si Won replied as he too rubbed his arm.

“He didn’t say anything,” Ki Bum said. “We found out on our own.”

“So what do you guys plan to do?” Kang In asked.

“Nothing,” I replied.

“Huh?” some of them exclaimed.

“You guys have just debuted. I don’t want to kill your careers, especially Han Kyung’s. That’s why we didn’t say anything.”

“You really think the fans would mind that he has a girlfriend?” Sung Min asked.

“Even if they didn’t, it’s because they love him, and they will kill me,” I laughed.

“That’s not funny,” Han Kyung said.

“I think the first person to get upset would be our manager,” Ee Teuk said. “You guys had better continue being discreet.”

“You hear that?” I said as I turned to Han Kyung.

“Araso,” he mumbled.

“Hey… let’s get back to work,” Shin Dong said as he got up.

“Shiro… I wanna hear more,” Hee Chul whined.

“Get up, hyung,” Ki Bum laughed.

And we carried on with our practice session.

A few months later, there was an unexpected change to Super Junior. The management decided to add a new member to the group, who will be debuting in Super Junior’s upcoming single, U.

“This is Cho Kyu Hyun,” their manager introduced to me, and Kyu Hyun bowed.

“Pangapseumnida,” I smiled. “I’m Sierra.”

With the addition of Kyu Hyun, Han Kyung and I no longer had the freedom to be a couple during the rehearsals. Then again, we pretty much just dance during rehearsals, and we barely have time to play around. Since we didn’t know Kyu Hyun well, we decided that we couldn’t allow him to know about us until we could trust him.

“Do you know what Kyu Hyun asked Sung Min today?” Han Kyung said, one night, at my apartment.

“What?”

“He asked if you and Hee Chul were dating,” Han Kyung laughed.

“Why would he think that?”

“Cos you and Hee Chul are always chatting and gossiping and sitting really close to each other,” he said.

“We are?”

“Shi de,” he said.

“Ni chi chu ya?” I smiled.

“Why would I be jealous?” he huffed.

“Aa… mianhae,” I teased as I pinched his cheek.

“What?” he said.

“I won’t do it again,” I smiled.

“I’m not jealous,” he exclaimed.

“Okay, okay, you’re not,” I laughed, and he growled at me.

“I’m really okay with you and Hee Chul being close,” he said.

“Why? Are you planning to give me to him?”

“He wouldn’t want you,” he laughed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He likes someone else.”

“He does? Who?”

“Bu yao gao su ni,” he said in a singsong voice.

“Wei shen me?” I wailed.

“Cos you’ll blab,” he said.

“No, I won’t!” I gasped. How can you even accuse me of being a blabber? You’re the blabber.”

“No, I’m not, you are,” he said, and we spent the rest of the night arguing and teasing each other over everything we could think of.

Come to think of it, I was very close to Hee Chul. I guess it’s because we’re more of the same age group, but he sure doesn’t feel older than I am. He was the craziest guy I’ve ever met. His face was always the topic of jests. Because he had such fine and feminine features, they loved to make him the girl when they had role playing games. I wonder if Hee Chul ever minded. I guess not, since he always spontaneously took up the role whenever they goofed around. This was especially obvious when they were filming Super Junior Full House.

I’ve only met Anya and Eva on several occasions because they happened to appear at events where I was there to supervise Super Junior’s routines.

“Nuna,” Kang In had brought them to me to introduce us to each other. “This is Anya and Eva, our co-stars in Super Junior Full House.”

“Annyeong haseyo,” they both said and bowed slightly.

“Nice to meet you,” I said in English, and smiled when their eyes became as large as saucers.

“Oh… yong-o!” Anya said.

“Nae,” I replied.

“You speak English?” Eva asked me.

“I do. I’m not Korean,” I explained.

“Oh…” the both of them chorused.

“Nuna is our choreographer. She’s from Malaysia, but graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy.”

“Isn’t that the same academy Han Kyung went to?” Eva remarked.

“Erm… It is,” I said.

“Did you know him from back then?”

I looked at Kang In and he just shrugged. He didn’t know if we could tell them the truth either.

“We weren’t close, and he left the academy for Korea before I graduated,” I lied.

“I see,” Eva said.

“Well it’s nice meeting you. I need to go check on some stuff,” I excused myself.

“Of course. We’ll talk to you some other time,” Anya said.

“Annyeong,” I smiled and waved, then walked off.

Chinese Notes:

Shi de.
Yes.

Ni chi chu ya?
Are you jealous?

Bu yao gao su ni.
I’m not gonna tell you.

Wei shen me?
Why not?