A/N: I know this story's kind of gotten off to a slow start, but I tried to write it in the style of the early 2010's kdramas, so bear with it a just a while long, things will begin to heat up very quickly soon!


Dara was the one who called the practice to a stop, much to Yuri's protests. The experienced popstar hushed the replacement. "We have a press conference in three hours. If the guest of honor at that conference falls asleep during it, we'll have more problems than the band possibly noticing that Jay's acting a little weird. You've been weird for two days now; no one will care if you sit quietly and answer questions with the shortest possible replies. However, people will notice if you outright collapse."

"Dara's right. You've been weird enough to make more weirdness normal," SeungMi said, in what she hoped was a helpful way. It sounded odd to reason that weird had become normal and thus killing yourself for normal would be weird.

Jaebi suggested, "Right now what you should do is go home, take a shower, and then take a nap. Trust me it'll help."

"That's actually a great idea," Dara commented.

Jaebi stretched his arms out over his head. This had been a pretty light practice for him, seeing as the role of teacher had been split between the three pop stars and it hadn't been anything horribly intensive, unlike the body-sculpting training sessions they were occasionally subject to. "So, while you're taking a nap . . . is anyone up for going to see Ga In?"

"I'm in!" SeungMi said immediately, looking forward to seeing the adorable dog's squished face. She added, "Should we go get KyuJeon?"

"And Jinki!" Jaebi added. The two paused for barely a second before racing out of the practice halls to harass their bandmates.

As Yuri and Dara followed at a slower pace, Dara eyed Yuri's figure. She walked in a much more delicate manner than Jay, and really she looked nothing like him now that Dara was paying that kind of attention to her, and there was the clincher point of gender. "You have to wrap your chest up for tonight," Dara stated suddenly.

Yuri blinked, trying to process the command. Her mind had been on the warm air and the sparkling city and how she should be heading home soon . . . "What?"

"When you're on your own and no one really gives you a second glance you can pass as a guy in one or two over-size T-shirts, but when you're with guys who are actually guys and you're the center of attention . . . " Dara clarified, "Besides, under the lights tonight, you'll regret it if you wear more than one T-shirt. You can take a jacket, Jay loves that leather one you wore to the concert, but I doubt you'll suffer through wearing it for long."

"At least someone thinks I don't look like a guy," Yuri said with a grin mixed with relief and worry. "I was starting to wonder about that from how well this whole faking-it thing has been going for me."

"It's still going to be a problem, even if you wrap yourself, but hopefully we can keep the questions to a minimum," Dara said as they neared the dorms. "So, shower, nap, and make sure you pick light clothes that, uh . . . suit you."

The others looked up as the two entered the dorm. Several of the members were missing from the common room, presumably with Jaebi and SeungMi at a nearby pet store. The rest went back to whatever they were doing, except for Chansung who called out, "Jay! You've become the most searched term on YouTube! The fans love that you're ticklish." He chuckled at the end.

Kihun elbowed him, as they were sitting squished together on a single chair in front of a computer he was easily able to do so. "It's good that they like him, for whatever reason, but the concert, not the car or our radio show, is the most watched video under Jay's name. Though the part where you sang I Believe is a close second, Jay."

"You did good, kid," YoungJae said, from where he sat on the couch. "The fans really seem to like you."

SooHyun, having taken his moment of distraction to seize the television's remote control, added as she waved her prize out of YoungJae's reach, "Keep it up for tonight."

"I'll do my best," Yuri replied as she watched SeungMi squeeze onto the couch between a giggling MinJi and a despondent YoungJae, who stared forlornly at the remote in SooHyun's hand as she flipped through the channels.

Yuri went to Jay's room and went again though all of his clothes. She needed to figure out what to wear for the press conference. Dara had warned her about the heat of the lights, but she still needed something to cover up her shape. Yuri found the perfect solution in a backless cargo vest. It had enough pockets to hide anything odd about her shape, and if it were worn over only one cotton layer of T-shirt, it would be perfectly cool. Cool enough to even get away with wearing a stylized fedora with a brim that could cover the worst of the disparities between her face and Jay's. Her brother's watch was huge on her so she decided that it'd be best to 'forget' it when they left for the press conference.

With a red shirt, the black denim vest, and jeans to match, and the suspenders Yuri needed to keep them up, she slunk out of her brother's room to the nearest bathroom, where she took a quick shower. After drying off, she headed back to Jay's room and laid down for a quick nap. All too soon, Dara was at her side, shaking her awake. Yuri found herself jealous of Dara for all of two seconds, the popstar was dressed in a gorgeous flirty black dress and Yuri wanted to wear such a thing to a public event like this. However she wasn't even going as a girl, let alone one as pretty as Dara.

The moment soon passed and Yuri was back to the business of being her brother. Coordinator Yuna hurried them all out to the vans, where Manager Ma was waiting. He was actually wearing nice clothes, a casual suit jacket that almost fit him right and even a tie. Yuri began to wonder if she was under-dressed for the occasion, but she noted that besides the manager and Dara, only SooHyun and YoungJae were dressed up, and additionally only YeongSaeng, Donghae, and KyuJeon were in suits at all. For Donghae and YeongSaeng it was obviously their customary style choice, and even KyuJeon seemed perfectly accustomed to the casual sport coat. Kihun and Chansung were both dressed similarly to Yuri, chiq coats of some sort over a regular t-shirt, though Kihun was wearing more necklaces than Yuri owned. It was JiEun though that calmed Yuri's fears completely, because she was wearing cropped blue sweats and an off-the-shoulder knit poncho over a camisole, like she was going to the mall or something. If she, gorgeous as she was, could reasonably wear that, Jay could wear a vest and a T-shirt.

Coordinator Yuna didn't say anything to her as Yuri was shuffled into one of the vans so she assumed that this outfit was much more acceptable than the one she'd worn yesterday.

The conference hall was inside a hotel. Yuri had been expecting it to be in like a newspaper's headquarters or something, but no, it was a hotel's event room. Four stylists were responsible for handling the make-up of all fifteen members and it took them right up until the start of the conference to get everyone looking just so. When they were satisfied, Yuri followed at Dara's shoulder as they were lead out onto a makeshift stage with a long table set for the fifteen of them. There were nameplates for each member, so Yuri found herself torn from Dara's side. In fact she wasn't even able to sit off to one side of the stage where she could hide from the cameras; she was stuck right in the middle, between YoungJae and SooHyun. This press conference was about 'her' after all.

That statement hadn't really sunk in for Yuri until she sat down in front of a massive audience of reporters at the center of the table. This conference was about the addition of the new member, and the new member was the center of attention. It was only the smile of reassurance Yuri got from staring in terror at Dara that let her remain seated when the only thing she wanted to do was run from the stage as fast as she could. This is for Jay, she thought, for all of his hard work. Oh, she was going to kill him when he came back from Japan.

Staring at the microphone placed before her, which was just like the ones marking out every seat at the table, Yuri began to tap her fingers nervously. There were just so many people staring at her, and she had to trick every single one of them into thinking she was her brother. Suddenly, Donghae appeared at her shoulder.

"I'm starting to regret nabbing this for you," he said with a laugh, adding, "It looks like what you need now is anything but caffeine. Stop tapping, you'll look weak."

Yuri quit tapping instantly, though she couldn't keep herself completely still and her foot began to twitch. Fortunately it was beneath the tablecloth, and no one could see it.

"That's better," Donghae said with a nod. Then he handed over an iced mocha latte with a grin as he sipped his own. The smile that spread across Jay's face was extremely gratifying, even more so than when he'd first gotten SeungMi to smile onstage. Donghae had never thought that he would have needed to work with Jay like this, but while he was he saw no reason not to revel in his successes. "And your hat's not right," Donghae said, his grin spreading as he chuckled and tipped Jay's hat forward so that it played off his features better.

"Donghae, sit down," YoungJae commanded quietly.

Nodding, Donghae submitted to his leader's order, but first he gave Jay a pat on the back, saying, "Try not to make yourself look like an idiot."

As Donghae reached his seat, Manager Ma took the stage with a handheld mic and some note cards clutched in his hand. He looked as nervous as Yuri felt. Well, had felt. Somehow, Donghae had managed to calm her down. Now, she listened with interest as the manager thanked the reporters for coming and introduced leader YoungJae.

YoungJae thanked him as Ma shuffled off stage, and very professionally began his opening speech, "As you know, we've recently debuted our fifteenth member. Many people have questioned why we decided to add on yet another singer to our already large group. It's already hard enough to get to know us as individuals within such a large band, but really that's why we added Kim Jaebeom. We felt it pressing to even out our numbers so that we could split into three even subgroups, each with five members. Each sub-group will have a unique sound that will appeal to certain audiences, and they will be able to learn who we each are on the small scale. We are in no way splitting up, as many other groups have created subgroups for a similar purpose before us."

Here SooHyun took over, going into an explanation of the subgroups. QuaszauR Mellow was the first introduced, with each member standing as the female leader announced, "Leader Kim YoungJae, Kang Kihun, Song Jinki, Heo KyuJeon, and Choi Jaejin; mellow will be QuaszauR's ballad group, focusing on the slower songs and more intricate and technical vocal patterns." She went into more detail about the kind of songs to be expected from Mellow and the positions of each of the members in the group. When she had finished, the members were allowed to be seated again.

Following the same pattern, YoungJae introduced QuaszauR Sweet, the girl group that would tackle more upbeat songs than Mellow, but songs that still would have calm parts to them and minimal rap. Lee SooHyun would lead Choi JiEun, Lee SeungMi, Jung Dara, and Ahn MinJi in what essentially stood to be the all-around subgroup with songs that appealed to anyone.

SooHyun took the speech again, explaining the final group, QuaszauR Action. Action was the high octane group, with fast paced songs with lots of adrenaline running through them. There would be acrobatic dances and lots of rap and the complicated weaving of quick lyrics. Led by Choi JongHyun, the group consisted of Park Chansung, Hwan Donghae, Park YeongSaeng, and Kim Jaebeom. Yuri nearly forgot to stand when her brother's name was called, but the crisis was averted by a subtle movement from Dara who sat just on the other side of SooHyun.

After Action had been introduced and they were allowed to sit down again, YoungJae began to talk about the new EP, expected to come out in just over a month. "On HeartQuake, there will be three songs we've already released, and three full band songs that are new. Additionally, there will be a song from each subgroup, and new solo's by YeongSaeng, Donghae, and Jaebeom. We'll be releasing a video for the title song HeartQuake, and for each of the Subgroups' first songs, though the ones for the subgroups will be released several months after the album is. Also, we are planning on releasing a behind-the-scenes kind of music video to Jaebeom's Pretty Girl, which is the title of the new solo he is working on, composed by himself and Donghae. It's still being tweaked right now, so no previews will be released. Also, at the concert in three days, Jaebeom will debut new choreography for Only For You, film from which, and from the practices leading up to it, will serve as his introductory video to the fans."

There YoungJae traded off again with SooHyun. She talked more about what would be included in the album, namely the pictures from an exclusive, yet to be taken, photo-shoot which wouldn't be released ever again in the foreseeable future. And then it was time for the band to answer questions. Yuri received the brunt of the questions, everything from her favorite food to her worst subject in school was asked about, well, Jay's aspects. The only question that gave her pause was one of the last ones she was asked, "Why did you come to be a singer with QuaszauR, since you were born in the US and all, and you weren't scouted there?"

She had to think hard for this one, to get into Jay's mentality. "I suppose it's because I've always loved to sing, so I was willing to work exceptionally hard to find the best way to become a professional. My mother was a singer, one who failed to make her living from her love. She discouraged me from going after my dream, as her career had failed. But I always fought with her about it and when she . . . gave up working to keep the family together like she had given up singing, I guess I took it as meaning that so long as I didn't give up, I could make it eventually. So I didn't give up. Korea's music industry had been on my radar from a young age, so when I managed to get away from home, it was the first place I came to try my luck." And then because she could, Yuri gave herself a little pat on the back, "Training with JYG Entertainment was the hardest thing I have ever done, even if it was worth all the hard work to make it into QuaszauR. I really could never have done it without my little sister, Yuri has been there all along, lending me moral support and encouragement. I owe her sooo much, especially recently as I've had to tackle this concert. It was a huge step for me and she was right there to help me through it. She and my new QuaszauR family are really amazing people."

There were a few more questions, but none that made Yuri worry. And from the looks she managed to shoot Dara, Jaebi, and SeungMi in between them, she saw that they approved of her little joke. Then the questions shifted to the others, prying into the mysteries of the other's songs and lives. The questioning wasn't as intense as it had been for Yuri, but that was only to be expected. The early questions had been intended to get the press acquainted with the new member, Yuri was sure that the others had all gone through the same thing already.

Donghae faced a lot of questions about his upcoming solo, mostly because he refused to give any valid information on it. His answers were all vague and mysterious, only serving to heighten the reporters' curiosity. Even at the end of the conference, Donghae had managed to keep secret even the song's name.

"You haven't even told us yet," JongHyun complained as they stepped off stage.

YeongSaeng snickered, saying, "It's because he hasn't written it yet, that's why he's been so mysterious."

Jinki was shocked. "What, really?"

"I have a month left to work on it," Donghae said casually.

"Three weeks," YeongSaeng corrected.

"Nearly a month, then," he amended.

"And that's when the album comes out, you've only got one week before we do the final recordings," YeongSaeng added. Donghae just shrugged.

KyuJeon asked his with a hint of knowing behind his wide-eyes, "Have you even started working on it, yet?"

At this YeongSaeng laughed outright, and Donghae actually ducked his head a bit in something akin to shame. "Nope, I've been busy working with YeongSaeng on his solo, and on Jay's."

"You've written Jay's at this point, right?" YoungJae commented, with only a hint of worry in his voice. Donghae had never been one to work well with assigned deadlines, but he always managed to get everything done by the concert.

"Jay's is done, I finished his first. He just has to learn how to sing it now," Donghae said, back to full confidence. "And if I may say so, Pretty Girl is a great song. I'm actually kinda jealous that it's your solo, Jay, so you'd better do it well."

Yuri promised to do her best, and felt her terror rise for a moment as Donghae gave her a weird look. Soon the mood was dispelled by Dara as she flung an arm over each Yuri and Donghae, saying, "The next song you write, Donghae, had better be a solo for me!"

"You can write your own songs," Donghae complained. "Why do I have to do it for you?"

Dara pouted. "Jay can write his own songs, but you still wrote him Pretty Girl, why can't you write me one?"

The good natured banter continued on the ride home. YeongSaeng and Yuri were in the unfortunate position of being squeezed in the back seat between the two. Yuri actually liked it. She joined in a few times as the argument progressed from Donghae's laziness to his obsession with hats, defending Donghae of course. Because of that Dara turned the tables and began picking at Jay's ticklishness, which meant that both YeongSaeng and Donghae began poking Yuri, Dara and each other like mad. From the seat in front of them, KyuJeon, SeungMi, and Jaebi watched, throwing out the occasional comment as they discussed who was winning the tickle war. From the front seat, JongHyun narrated the events to the driving YoungJae as he made sure his hand held camera caught the chaos from every angle.

When they arrived at the dorms, the energy of the group began to simmer down. It was late after all, and press conferences were always draining affairs. A quick supper and it was off to bed, though they could have stayed up talking for hours. They had practice early tomorrow and very few of the members were morning people.

Yuri went to bed right after Dara. She only felt the full force of her exhaustion when she curled up in Jay's bed for the night. It had been a long day, but certainly it had been kinda fun too. She stretched out under the cool sheets, feeling her muscles slowly relax. Then pulling her knees back to her chest, she drifted off to sleep.

It was barely six when Yuri woke the next morning. Yet somehow, with only seven and a half hours of sleep, she felt more refreshed than she had in a long while. Her muscles were a bit stiff, and she was sore from her many falls the day before, but she couldn't remember having ever felt so nice the morning after such a killer workout.

The one thing she decided that she didn't like about Korea, Yuri noted as she quietly shuffled though the cabinets in QuaszauR's kitchen, was the severe lack of breakfasty foods. Seriously, how could a household of any sort have an entire kitchen void of cereal? No waffles, no pancake mix, no bacon . . . the only thing suitably breakfast like Yuri could find were eggs, and they would be an annoying production to whip up. With the morning practice scheduled for eight thirty, Yuri headed out try her luck looking for a nearby cafe. She took her cell phone, having made sure to give Dara, SeungMi, and Jaebi the number for it during their practice session the day before.

She borrowed her 'disguise' look from Donghae; hoodie, hat, and shades. Her main advantage was that she didn't actually look like Jay anyway, so as long as she didn't get caught trying to hide her face, she could stand right next to her brother's picture and no one would give her a second glance. Fortunately for her, hats were stylish, the sun was bright, and the morning was cool enough to make a sweatshirt almost reasonable.

It wasn't too hard to find a neat little coffee house, and within ten minutes of ceding defeat in QuaszauR's dorm, Yuri sat with a mug of tea and giant chocolate chip muffin as she watched people milling about outside. She sent a voicemail to Manager Ma, asking him about what she should do with her stuff at the hotel, seeing as her check out time was supposed to be at noon that day. Then she sent her brother a string of text messages about how much trouble he was in for when he got back.

Her rant of messages containing exactly 160 characters was interrupted when he called her. She answered with a disbelieving grin. "You're up early."

"I turned my cell back on . . . for Manager Ma to text me the details about your performance as me," Jay said drowsily, adding, "It's not on vibrate."

"Oh," Yuri said, almost guilty.

Her feeling turned around when Jay asked, "So what is it you're texting away to me about?"

"I was just detailing how many little pieces I was going to cut you up into when you got back here," Yuri responded.

Jay laughed. "So how's it going over there? I saw the press conference footage, I just love my baby sister, don't I?"

"Yes, Yuri has helped you make your dream come true," Yuri said with sweet sarcasm. "But things are going pretty well, I can't believe you survived the training for this. I'm dying just trying to keep my head down!"

"You seem to be doing fairly well, Manager Ma hasn't called me in a panic for six hours. It's a new record for him," Jay explained.

Yuri could easily see the manager clutching onto his cell phone in tears as he waited for Jay to pick up, it was just so him. "Yeah, but um . . . someone figured it out."

"Dara."

Jay's statement was absolute. Yuri could feel his voice strain a bit as he winced so far away. "Yeah, and she is pissed at you. But mostly worried, she's definitely worried. You should give her a call soon, and maybe she won't kill you."

"Do you have practice today?"

"Starts in half an hour," Yuri confirmed after checking the clock on her phone.

"Then I'd better call her now."

"Yeah, so get to it. Hmmm, Love you, bye," Yuri said slowly, listening to Jay's trepidation as he tried to drag out the time before Dara yelled at him. "Oh and get better, soon!"

"Early morning call to the hospital?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah that was . . . " Yuri blinked a few times as she stared into the silly fox-faced grin that could only be Donghae's, even behind huge California shades.

He'd sat down across the table from the not-so-incognito figure of Jaebeom just as he'd encouraged whoever it was that was in the hospital to do something and get better. The casual way Jay had said he loved the person on the line intrigued Donghae beyond measure. Jay didn't strike him as one to throw those words around lightly, and yet at the same time he was sure it wasn't his girlfriend. Sister maybe? But she was safe and sound in the States . . . though, Jay usually had some sort of news on the girl, about what she was doing at that prestigious university she'd gotten into, and he was always spouting some nonsense or other about how she ought to be here in the music business too . . . His recent silence on the matter was odd, as was his attachment to the person in the Japanese hospital, and his behavior around the band . . .

Yuri sat in a panic as Donghae simply stared at her. As he was thinking through the possibilities, Yuri was backtracking through her conversation, wondering what exactly he had heard. It wasn't too bad . . . at worst he'd heard that Dara was angry . . . but Dara was the type to be easily angered, so hopefully he wouldn't think too much on it.

"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to . . . but if you're worried about that person . . ." Donghae left the sentence unfinished, taking the approach he'd traditionally had the best luck with. By letting people tell in their own time, he was usually able to help much more than if he tried to pry.

"They're going to be fine . . . and here, in a few days, if all goes to plan," Yuri said, still in full out panic mode.

Eyeing the phone Jay was hurrying to stick back in his pocket, Donghae asked, "Do things often follow the plan where you're concerned?"

Yuri sighed, running her palm across the back of her neck in a gesture of discomfort she'd often seen Jay perform. "Not typically," she said with all the stress and strife of the past few days bleeding into her voice.

The strain didn't escape Donghae's notice. "Uh-huh," he said slowly, looking Jay over carefully. "Well, practice starts in about ten minutes, and you look like you're done with breakfast . . . wanna grab a coffee?"

"Oh, you read my mind!" Yuri was still concerned that Donghae had heard more than she'd have liked, but coffee seemed to be his status quo and that was where Yuri liked to be.

The pair walked up to the counter, ordering two iced mocha lattes and then heading out of the café. Donghae had been planning on getting one for himself anyway, that was the reason he'd entered the café to begin with. He'd only gotten sidetracked when he'd seen Jay in the corner.

Sipping on their icy drinks, Yuri and Donghae walked into the practice room where everyone was already assembled just in time to hear Manager Ma announce, "A few hours ago, Trainer Lee's water broke, apparently her baby girl decided today was a good birthday . . . she and her husband are currently at the hospital . . . and we don't know when she'll be back."

Manager Ma was fidgety and worried, but for once not in tears. It was close though, his eyes were moist, and his poor fingernails. The girl under Yuri's disguise cried out for a manicurist.

Related to Ma's distress, YoungJae stood and moved to the manager's side to address his band. "That means we have some time off," he said to celebratory cheers. Then he calmed the rabble, saying, "But not all day. I'll give you guys the afternoon, if SooHyun agrees with me, but first I want to check on a few things. Chansung, Kihun, and JongHyun, for Spicy Sweet I think the choreography after the second repeat of the chorus isn't flowing right. I want to tweak it and tune it up for our next concert. And Donghae, we should see how you and YeongSaeng should fit together for Beautiful, now that you won't be all alone on stage for it. And Jay, I think we should have you run through Only for You, practice makes perfect, after all, and it'll help build your confidence up. SooHyun, do you want to add anything?"

"MinJi and JiEun's Special feels a bit off to me, let's take a look at that too," she said, simply.

"Ladies first," Kihun said with a grin after YoungJae nodded his consent.

The two girls in question hopped off the rolled-up mats they'd been perched on, stretching out as YoungJae practically pushed Manager Ma out the door, and as Jaebi and SeungMi gathered up the bags strewn across the floor by the various members. Donghae and Yuri joined the group gathered around the mats. Yuri slipped in between Dara and SeungMi, trying to make herself as small as possible.

When the music started, Yuri focused her energy into watching their movements. It was that, or let her attention drift to the members staring at her as they wondered why Jay had been awake early enough to have coffee with Donghae. Manager Ma was plaintively standing outside the practice room's door, staring through the window like the puppy Ga In stared though the meshed steal door of his kennel

The dance was cute and elegant at the same time, capturing the unique vibe of the song itself. It complimented both girls very well, but SooHyun was right, there was something off about it.

"It still seems unbalanced," Donghae commented.

YoungJae nodded. "But what should we do to fix it?"

"We've tried adding in SeungMi," SooHyun mentioned. "It did help, but it still ..."

"I think it needs four, the singer in front for each part, two to either side, and then one behind," YeongSaeng said definitively.

KyuJeon agreed with a nod and a curious, "But who would be the fourth? Dara's not tall enough to offset JiEun's height, and SooHyun will have been constantly on stage for an hour by then!"

"I can handle another song, I won't have to sing after all," SooHyun said, thinking the proposition over. It certain would be a better show with four.

"I don't want you to push yourself too hard," YoungJae said.

"Says the person who's dancing back-up for half the solos," the female leader retorted with her arms crossed.

Kihun spoke up, "I agree with YoungJae. We could rearrange the song list."

"How do you think it should be done?" YoungJae asked.

"If YeongSaeng's solo went after the duet you and SooHyun have, and then mine, and then hers . . . It would at least give her a break." Kihun knew it wasn't the optimal solution, the mix up affected the rest of the show in a way bordering detrimental.

There was a moment of quiet contemplation among the band. Then Yuri voiced a shaky suggestion, "What if instead of SeungMi and SooHyun, two of the guys went up?"

"Explain," YoungJae commanded with keen interest.

Yuri shrugged, trying imitate the relaxed way her bother announced his opinions. "It would get rid of SooHyun's problem, and it would give MinJi and JiEun someone to 'talk' to rather than just an imaginary guy."

"Knock a little fan-service around?" Donghae asked with a grin. "It would certainly be a crowd pleaser. And the lucky guys are . . . ?"

Her mind frantically scanning through the scattered memories of the concert, Yuri suggested, "YeongSaeng's free then, right? Or Chansung, or JongHyun, or Kihun? Height-wise, it'd probably be best with Chansung and JongHyun."

"That may just work," SooHyun said slowly, looking the two candidates over carefully. JiEun was shifting a bit on the balls of her feet, a reaction that Yuri reasoned could just mean she was bored with the discussion and wanted to get back to actually dancing. No one else was paying it attention, after all.

Donghae interjected, "I think JongHyun's too tall for MinJi though, and Chansung's too perfect against JiEun to have them trade."

"So who do think should replace him?" YeongSaeng asked. "You? I'm too short, especially when MinJi wears heels."

Yuri's eyes flicked to the maknae, even in flats she was remarkably tall. The top of her head was about level with YeongSaeng's at the moment, and in heels she'd be noticeably taller.

"YoungJae."

"He's on stage even more than SooHyun!" YeongSaeng laughed.

"Not if I take his part in Dara's solo."

YeongSaeng shook his head, accusing, "You just want to be on stage for Kiss Kiss."

Without a hint of remorse for being caught, Donghae replied, "Ulterior motives or not, it would free YoungJae up long enough for him to recover and dance with MinJi."

"You did choreograph Kiss Kiss," Chansung spoke up. "If anyone could replace YoungJae there, it'd be you."

"I like it," Jinki announced with a grin.

The young peanut gallery sitting around him, Jaebi, SeungMi, and KyuJeon, shouted their approval as well. From behind them, JongHyun said, "Besides, this way I'll have a nice long break between things. Usually, my songs are only separated by five minute intervals. It'll be nice to actually be able to sit down for once."

"Let's try it out," SooHyun said.

After a few minutes of quick stretches, Chansung and YoungJae joined MinJi and JiEun in front of the mirrors. When JiEun gave a nod, SooHyun flicked on the music. It was very easy to note the vast improvement in the song's stagemanship. There were a few kinks that needed to be worked out, now that there were guys involved. For starters, half the things JiEun and MinJi did with their hips were impossible for the guys to copy. And also, integrating them as almost props in the song's story line took a bit of tweaking in the choreography. Overall it wasn't anything major and from such small changes, the results were spectacular.

Nearly all of Jay's suspicious behavior over the past few days was dismissed by nearly all of the band members, the dancer was upholding the reputation he was brought on board for. Even if the promotions in Japan had gotten him a bit star-struck, or if he did in fact have a girlfriend, he was still and valued and valuable member of QuaszauR. "Good call, Jay," YoungJae praised as the last run through of Special came to a successful end. "Your turn, warm up," the leader proceeded to command.

Yuri swallowed hard. She'd almost forgotten about the fact that she was expected to dance at this dance practice. Taking a deep breath, she ran through Only for You in her head. Dara had helped her extensively with this one, the practice had been what was mainly responsible for the many bruises Yuri had from falling. There were four separate back flips in the stupid song, and Yuri was inexpressibly grateful to Dara for helping her learn them. She wasn't perfect, but hopefully no one would be watching to carefully.

Fortune was a fickle mistress and with all the other times Yuri had managed to scrape by on nothing more than luck and a smile, she was due for some sort of problem. Though she performed the dance better than she had during her entire practice with Dara, Jay's friends were still quite concerned about him. Chansung was still too shy around the newest member to mention anything; Jinki was too confused to consider that Jay might not be kidding; YeongSaeng and Donghae were each absorbed in their own thoughts; and that left JongHyun to ask, "Is your leg hurt, the right one? You seem to be favoring it a bit." It was partly true, but the only real explanation any of the group could come up with for why Jay was 'a bit' off was that he'd been run over by a tour bus.

Well, anyone who didn't know the real reason. Dara, SeungMi, and Jaebi were ecstatic with Yuri's performance. She'd made some real progress in only two days. Of course it wasn't anywhere near perfect, but it was close enough to the spectacular norm of Jaebeom that it could pass as his ability while injured.

"Um, yeah," Yuri said, quickly to answer JongHyun with a reasonable response. "It doesn't really hurt, but it doesn't like the force exerted for the back flips."

"Has it hurt since the concert? You only did one on stage and it looked like an awkward landing," SooHyun commented with worry in her voice.

"Yeah, that's what happened," Yuri replied, feeling bad about lying to such a nice girl. SooHyun, and most of the others for that matter, were genuinely concerned about Jay's injury, and Yuri felt awful for not telling them the truth.

She consoled herself by thinking that the real Jay did have an injured leg, so really it was just another part of her filling in for him.

"You should have told us," YoungJae reprimanded. "YeongSaeng, see what you can do. Chansung, Kihun, JongHyun, you're up."

As JongHyun and Kihun stood and began their stretches, YeongSaeng took Yuri over to a corner of the room away from the other bystanders. "Here, sit down," he said offering his bandmate a hand. He wasn't sure how worried about Jay he ought to be. Usually when people in this line of work didn't tell you about an injury it was because they were aware they were over-working themselves and ashamed, or embarrassed, or would rather the others didn't trouble themselves.

But Jay was being so casual about this, not at all defensive.

"Really, it only hurts when I try to do a back flip," Yuri promised. She didn't want to be found out as an imposter, but the worried look on YeongSaeng's face as he began to check the muscles in her leg for injury was heartbreaking.

"Is it the knee then?" At Jay's nod, YeongSaeng adjusted his ministrations, his well-trained fingers gingerly probing the joint for a clue as to what was causing the pain.

Yuri meanwhile was watching the three oldest members of QuaszauR practice. There was something a bit off with the dance. This time Yuri had no suggestions to offer. Between the rest of the band and a lot of trial and error, however, her input was unnecessary and the three managed to get their danced tweaked to near perfection in less than an hour. YeongSaeng hadn't been able to find any specific problems in her knee, to the surprise of few.

"And it's just when you try a back flip?" YoungJae asked.

Yuri shrugged. "It seems to be, I mean I haven't noticed it hurting any other time."

"Then lay off practicing them for a while," SooHyun ordered.

YoungJae agreed, "We'll see how you're feeling in two days, and then we'll see what you can do for the concert. Let's run though it a few more times, without the flips, just in case we have to do that for the show, we want to make sure you're ready."

Yuri nodded; she could do the dances without the back flips in an adequate imitation of Jay. At least according to Dara, she could. Yuri stretched out the leg YeongSaeng had basically massaged into a coma and, feeling the tingles of pins and needles run through its length, waited for the music to start.

"YeongSaeng, Donghae, warm up," SooHyun instructed before she hit play for Jay. "Oh and go grab a few water bottles, won't you?"

"Yes, ma'am," Donghae replied, lifting from his seat against a fold of mats. YeongSaeng joined him at the door and the pair headed out into the hall just as Jay's song began to pound through the speakers.

"He's being very strange," YeongSaeng commented immediately after the door clicked closed.

Donghae laughed. "And that's news this week how?"

"I didn't feel anything in his leg."

"You said as much to YoungJae."

YeongSaeng shook his head, emphasizing, "I didn't feel anything; no knots or kinks at all. None of what you'd expect from anyone in this business. It was like he hasn't been practicing for years."

This gave Donghae pause. "That is strange. He practices almost as much as I do, and he's almost as good too," he finished, joking to balance the gravity of the situation.

Suddenly, Manager Ma rushed up to them. He'd left his post at the door for a quick run to the bathroom, but now he could ask about the person responsible for the success of his future. "How's Jay doing?" he asked nervously, a bead of sweat dripping from his nose onto his constantly swirling hands.

Normally, they wouldn't pay his nerves any attention; it was Manager Ma after all, the man didn't have a reputation for being cool under even the pressures of everyday life.

But his interest in Jay, who was behaving like an entirely different person, made them wonder. "Did something happen in Japan?" YeongSaeng asked.

Ma nearly had a heart-attack, but fortunately his body was used to this kind of near-miss adrenaline shot and he was able to answer with his usual level of articulation, "Not really, but he did seem overwhelmed by it all. I don't think he was expecting to have so many fans before he even officially debuted."

"Uh-huh," Donghae said, suspicious, but not sure why. There wasn't anything he could think of to suspect.

Manager Ma pressed his question, "But Jay's doing well, right?"

"Not for him, YeongSaeng thinks he hurt his leg somehow," Donghae said dismissively.

"It should be fine in a few days, a week at most," YeongSaeng hurried to add when Manager Ma paled even beyond his usual sickly color.

"That's good to hear," Manager Ma mumbled as he began to wander off. "No need to worry so much."

Donghae decided to try a bit of prying, though it went against his usual M.O. "Is there a reason we ought to be worried?"

Manager Ma swiveled in place, his beady little eyes wide. "No, of course not! Jay is perfectly fine!"

Leaning over the man using his height and sly smile in a much more sinister manner than he ever did besides his acting for QuaszauR's Hypnotic music video, Donghae asked again, "What happened in Japan?"

The manager squeaked, something between a half scream and a hiccup. "It's nothing! Don't bother looking into it, it'll just cause a hassle. Jay's fine!"

"Fine? His sister's, like, missing!" This voice belonged to Kwon SeungHyun, a solo artist by JYG that preferred to go by his stage name of Z.J. He was walking towards his usual practice room with a laptop tucked under his arm. If anyone would know what celebrity gossip was reaching the public, it was Z.J; he was constantly on sites like All-K-Pop-dot-com, via the computer ever-present at his side.

For that reason, no one questioned the information itself. YeongSaeng prodded into the details of the account, "Missing how?"

"The girl's name is Yuri, right? Well, she booked a flight to Korea a few days ago, and a hotel room. She checked in, and then she didn't come back. Her stuff wasn't in the room when the maids came after the second day," Z.J. elaborated with the expression of someone dishing a juicy secret while at the same time holding genuine concern for the parties involved. It was a look only he could pull off.

"Those netizens certainly do their homework . . . " Donghae mentioned, eyeing the computer like it was a magical object not to be trusted within ten feet of himself.

Z.J. laughed. "Don't worry, they haven't written anything but praise about you. Oh, and they've been tracking the China Tour – "

Without the usual reverence he bore his hyung, Donghae interrupted, "And no one has any idea where she is? Does Jay know about this?"

"I was gonna ask you that," Z.J. responded with a shrug.

As the interrogation had turned to focus on Z.J., Manager Ma had slipped away, as Donghae noticed when he tried to turn back to confront the man on the issue. He and YeongSaeng stared down the hall, searching for his retreating form. They were met with a less welcome sight, Jay trotting down the hall to meet them.

"What exactly takes so long about grabbing some water?" Jay asked when he made eye contact with the two.

From right behind him, Dara said, "YoungJae told us to come find you, make sure you weren't mugged or something. Oh, hey Z.J."

YeongSaeng and Donghae shared a look. It was likely that Jay knew his sister was missing, but just in case he didn't, it was best not to let Z.J. bring the subject up. He was a nice guy, but tact had never been his thing.

"We were just talking with the manager and then we met up with Z.J. and things just sort of dragged on, but we're getting there, we promise!" YeongSaeng announced, grabbing onto Donghae and spinning around to head in the proper direction.

"You guys should come too," Donghae said, grabbing Jay's arm and dragging him off with YeongSaeng's help. He was light enough that it wasn't really necessary for the pair to haul him away, but the fact that he latched onto Dara made him twice as difficult to maneuver.

They had almost reached the break room, where the three refrigerators held over a thousand water bottles and they would be out of Z.J.'s range, when the singer called, "Hey Jay, before you go, do you know where your sister is?"

YeongSaeng and Donghae froze, looking at Jay from the corners of their eyes. The reaction they saw was puzzlement; he clearly didn't know what Z.J. was talking about. This was exactly what they had been hoping to avoid. Straining his neck to get a look at Z.J.'s face, Jay asked, "What do you mean?"

"According to my sources, Yuri was supposed to be in Seoul three days ago. She even checked into her hotel, but yesterday her stuff wasn't there, even though the reservation included today," Z.J. explained. "I'm curious, where is she?"

Yuri paled. She'd been told of this person by Jay. Z.J. was a solo singer with a weird attachment to his signature day-glow orange hobo-hat, and his sources were always the definitive answer. Because Z.J. often knew more than the bands being gossiped about did, simply saying he must have gotten his facts mixed up would only make things even more suspicious.

YeongSaeng's grip on Jay's arm adjusted to keep him standing in case he passed out. Donghae too, moved his hand to better support his friend if things took a downward turn. He was very pale after all.

What neither of them noticed was that, behind them, Dara was just as suddenly ill as Jay. But what could she do? She couldn't give the secret away! And she couldn't think of any way to explain the situation. Dara still believed that Jay had told Yuri something about his plan; he couldn't have really expected her to fly in blind. Because of that she'd never expected a situation like this one to come up, hiding Yuri's travel arrangements ought to have been a part of the plan!

Meanwhile, Yuri was thinking quickly. If she was replacing Jay, then why couldn't Jay replace her? "She's with some friends of ours in Japan," Yuri said quickly, trying to hide how breathless she was.

"Really?" Z.J. asked, his thick eyebrows rising up under his hobo hat in suspicion. "Then why book the hotel here for so long?"

"It came with the flight, a three day, two night, special fare kinda thing," Yuri babbled, praying to every deity she'd ever heard of that what she was saying made sense. "We had lunch the day of the concert and the next day she packed up for Japan."

Z.J. gave her a hard stare, sending shivers of panic running though Yuri's stomach. Dara meanwhile was fairly impressed, the girl could think on her feet. YeongSaeng and Donghae were giving Yuri the same stare Z.J. was, but she didn't notice as her focus was on the one who'd initially asked the question.

After the longest three seconds of any of their lives, Z.J. shrugged. "Works for me, catch ya later!"

He disappeared off towards the practice rooms and the four members of QuaszauR all exhaled heavily and slipped into the break room. After they gathered up the water bottles, they headed back to their own practice room in a fraction of the time it had taken to come the other way. They returned to find Jinki, Jaebi, and KyuJeon practicing the last of the concert's partial-group songs.

They slipped in quietly, so as not to disturb the performers. Yuri and Dara moved to sit by SeungMi as YeongSaeng and Donghae rejoined Kihun, Chansung, and JongHyun with the rest of the group as they stretched out the muscles they were supposed to already have warmed up. YoungJae gave them all disapproving looks.

In whispers the news was spread between the group members. Yuri was in Japan, with some friends she shared with her brother. SooHyun reacted to the news with a satisfied smile. "Friends," she repeated pointedly with a glance in Jay's direction. "There was no promo pack, Yuri came to Seoul and heard from Jay about the girlfriend. That's why she rushed off to Japan, she's Jay's bedside substitute!"

"I wonder if Dara, SeungMi, and Jaebi know," JiEun commented, adding, "He's been so quiet with the rest of us, but look at how he is with them!"

Donghae hadn't noticed this too much before, having written it off as just one more thing that Jay was doing weirdly as of late. But now that it was mentioned, Jay did seem to be forming a small circle of confidants. "What if it's just Yuri that's in the hospital?" he asked, still certain that it wasn't a girlfriend that Jay was keeping secret.

SooHyun flatly refused to even acknowledge the possibility, MinJi and JiEun did the same and with force of majority against them, Chansung and JongHyun did too. Kihun had already been convinced by Donghae and YeongSaeng that something else was up, but as he hadn't any other explanation he chose to simply stay quiet.

As the main bulk of the band was discussing Yuri's possible romantic relations with the mysterious person in a Japanese hospital, the smaller contingent was discussing the mysterious person in question.

"So Jay did call you this morning? Good, he can follow directions," Yuri said with a nod that showed she had been severely doubting his ability to do so.

SeungMi wasn't sure whether to be excited or worried. "What did he say?"

"Sorry," Dara said with something resembling sarcasm in her voice. "Actually he sang Sorry Sorry, and then apologized for real. He really hadn't wanted to make us worry, using Yuri as a replacement was as much for our benefit as his. He really thought that we wouldn't notice and that he'd be back the day after the concert."

"Why isn't he back yet?" SeungMi asked with a pout, she was now more worried about him than she would have been if he'd explained the whole thing from the beginning. Then she jumped, her big brown eyes becoming perfectly round as she looked at Yuri. "Not that I don't like having you around . . . it's just."

"I'm worried about him, too," Yuri said with a small laugh. "Apparently the injury is much more serious than he thought. He still thinks that he should be back before the concert though, so we shouldn't worry too much."

As Yuri finished talking, and as a quick poll on who thought what as to what was going on was made by the other group, the song of the three in practice mode came to an end. They were pleased with how they had done in the two run-throughs they'd made since Donghae and YeongSaeng were first sent for water.

The two errant popstars stepped up to the plate right away, ready to make up for their earlier negligence. Even in practice the song made Yuri pause. Beautiful was easily her favorite song of all time, it just flowed in such a wonderful way and Donghae's amazing voice filled her head entirely whenever he opened his mouth to sing.

And his dancing was certainly something spectacular to watch. The last time Yuri had heard this song, she'd been too panicked to really watch his movements. She'd noticed that he'd had perfect control over his every limb, but she hadn't been able to focus on the specific motions. The dance was a complicated series of difficult moves, but Donghae pulled them all off with ease. He even made it look fun.

YeongSaeng too, had mastered the dance to a level that allowed for it to appear delighting, even as it must've been exhausting. YeongSaeng only danced in a part of Donghae's solo, but it was a perfectly timed and coordinated bit that added to the show of the song very well. Yuri was spellbound as she watched them run through it a few times with YoungJae picking at every little mistake as revenge for taking so long with the water.

Donghae bore it with good humor; in fact he liked working on his moves like this. Knowing that he would give his best to the fans, and that they would like his performance as much as he liked the song he was performing, lifted his spirits. Here and there he tested out adding in bits of flare that would make the fans happy, choosing what worked and what didn't by how it felt to him and by how his bandmates reacted.

Jay's reactions were the most puzzling, though no more puzzling than everything else about Jay had been for the past few days. He was sort of in a state of zombification, staring transfixed at Donghae's back as the performer watched his audience in the mirror. Jay didn't seem to hear Dara as she tried to ask him a question, even when she shoved him, Jay just sort of fell over, rather than reply. Dara eventually gave up getting his attention and turned back to her conversation with Jaebi, but Donghae's eyes stayed on Jay. He didn't comment or really react in a particular manner to any of the little add-ins Donghae threw in, he just kept staring.

It was creepy, or at least it should have been. Donghae found that part the strangest of the little escapade. Jay was hardly blinking, and his attention was utterly cemented to Donghae and YeongSaeng. From anyone else, Donghae would have felt goose bumps rising on his shoulders. From this person, the strangely acting bandmate that was usually the first to bore after Jinki, Donghae found the attention almost exciting; like Jay was a particularly harsh dance instructor that Donghae was finally managing to please.

His satisfaction only continued to increase as the practice session wound to a close.