My phone was ringing for what felt like hours. The bedroom door was open, so I assumed Song-E had already woken up. The alarm clock on the dresser said 8:12 am.

"Who the heck would be calling me at such an ungodly—" I started to think but the name on the ID was Sungyeol. I quickly answered, though my voice was more than strained when I did, "Hello?" it was more of question than it needed to be.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" Sungyeol chuckled.

"It's so early…" I couldn't help but whine. This just made him laugh more, "Sorry, I have trouble getting up in the morning."

"No, it's cu—it's pretty funny. Don't you have class or something?" he assumed.

"No, actually," I sniffed, "I'm not in school."

"Really?" he paused, "How old are you again?"

It was my turn to laugh, "I'm 18."

"Why aren't you in school?" he asked, almost scoldingly.

Because I'm training to be just like you, oppa. "I have my reasons…"

"Give me one good reason."

I sat up, "Why aren't you in school?"

"Hmm, I don't like that tone, missy."

"Excuse me, sunbaenim—"

"You can call me oppa—"

"I'm not in school because I'm a trainee for a new entertainment company."

Silence. I didn't want to tell him, but then again I kinda did. It made me less normal, so maybe he wouldn't want to talk to me. More silence.

"Oppa?"

"I'm here," he said. "I'm shocked but at the same time, I'm not. And here I thought you were a normal girl."

"I'm still normal," I whined slightly, "I just want…"

"Fame?" he tried to guess.

"To be heard. For once," I said honestly. "To prove myself."

Silence again.

I asked, "So, you called for a reason, I'm guessing?"

"Ah, right," he said brightly, "Do you want to eat lunch with me today?"

My stomach flipped. Hell yes I do. "I have to see if I have practice today or not, can I call you back?"

"If you find out within the next 20 minutes, text me. If not, I'll call you back around 12, okay?"

"Busy day today?"

"It's not too bad. Hope to hear from you soon!" Before I could say anything else he'd hung up. I smiled to myself and fell back onto the pillow. Why in the world did he want to eat lunch with me? He was so stinking cute, and I was just normal, right?

Normal. And here he thought I was normal. Normal hair, normal height, normal face… Nothing special about me at all. And here I thought I could be something better than normal. Thought I could be something special. I had to chuckle to myself. Maybe I had more work cut out for me than I could handle.

"Who was that?" Jaesoon excitedly popped her head in the doorway. I smiled, but didn't say anything. "It was Sungyeol wasn't it?" I rolled over to face the wall and she plopped onto the foot of my bed, "What did he say?"

I peeked over my shoulder at her, "He wants to have lunch if I'm not busy."

"YOU AREN'T BUSY!" Jaesoon bounced, "Can I come?"

"I don't know… We aren't resuming practice today?" I stretched my hands over my head.

"Yeah but not too intense, Song-E's still got a bad cough. I'm sure we can break. AT LEAST have him come pick you up at the building so we can see him in person…" Jaesoon's eyes were irresistibly pleading. I couldn't say no. She sure was good at aegyo if it was to get her way. I rolled my eyes and groaned, but she knew it was successful.

"I'll text him back," I sighed. Jaesoon squealed and clapped, then ran into her room to tell Miyeon.

( Do you want to come pick me up for lunch? Whatever time is fine with me. )

I waited not even 2 minutes for his text back.

( That sounds good. Just give me the address of where to pick you up and I'll be there around 12:30. )

I couldn't help smiling to myself, but I told myself I should get used to stuff like this. Part of being an idol was meeting other idols, right? It was time to stay cool. But what if he brought one of the other Infinite members? Like Hoya? My heart couldn't take it if I had to face Hoya with a straight face.

"JINAHHH!" I heard Jaesoon call from the kitchen, "Come eat!"

I washed up and sat down with the other girls for breakfast. I always ate the most at breakfast because I wanted to lose weight.

"I still don't see how you think eating more at breakfast is going to help you lose weight," Miyeon gave my plate of food the stink eye.

"I eat like a queen for breakfast, normal for lunch, and like a peasant for dinner," I recited again, "That's how Pilsuk lost all her weight."

"Pilsuk?" Song-E chuckled, "You mean IU's character on Dream High?"

I pouted, "Yeah, so?"

"Concept-wise, it's probably already working… But why do you want to lose weight when all we do is exercise? You're going to be a twig by the end of our training days," Jaesoon said with her voice slightly concerned.

"Seriously, Jinhwa, you don't really need to lose weight," Miyeon said while watching me eat my plate in its entirety.

"I have chubby thighs and love handles," I said after a swallowing a bite, "Nothing a few weeks on a diet and hard work on the dance floor won't fix."

"As long as you don't take it too far, I don't see a problem with it," Song-E said with a shrug, "Whatever makes you happy, maknae." She still looked slightly weak, but she gained her color back. Maybe the weak look was coming from her guilt over Gikwang. It was still early, but I wondered if she had called him, or even texted him.

Jiyoon came in the door and held her chest with a smile, "Look at you four; eating your little breakfast at your little table. You're so cute." Then she stopped and laughed at me, "Good lord, Jinhwa, you look like a five your old. You have food all over your face!"

I put my hands on my face while I was still chewing my last bite, "I do?"

"Yeah, you're a really messy eater, Jinah," Jaesoon teased.

"I am?" I grabbed the bottom of my shirt and started to wipe my face.

"Wow, someone obviously grew up in the country," Miyeon teased and poked my forehead.

"Do we need to teach you proper table manners?" Song-E asked.

I blinked, "I actually might need you to."

Jiyoon chuckled, "There's plenty of time for that on another day, we have to get you girls back in the routine of practice—"

"No, it actually might need to be today," I pouted, "I'm going to lunch with someone who I have lots of respect for—"

Jaesoon squealed.

"—and I really want to make a good impression."

"Who?" Jiyoon asked.

"IS IT SUNGYEOL!" Miyeon grabbed my elbow and shook me side-to-side.

"Sungyeol? That sounds familiar. Have I met him?" Jiyoon asked.

"Sungyeol from Infinite, unni," Song-E smiled and winked at me.

Jiyoon blinked, "I didn't know you knew the Infinite guys! That's great! Maybe we can get some pre-debut publicity!"

"Can we worry about maknae's sloppy eating right now?" Jaesoon laughed and flicked my forehead.

My four unnis spent the next hour teaching me how to be proper at the table. I insisted it was all stuff that I already knew, but they kept catching me for really stupid things. Finally, though, we made it to practice. We were working with a choreographer in an hour, and Jaesoon insisted we were going to make him teach us Infinite's BTD dance.

"As awesome as that would be, Jaesoonie," Miyeon sighed, "We could never do it. We can't even do our own routine."

"But they're two different styles! Come on, it'll give us something more fun to do," Jaesoon nudged me. I shrugged, but it did sound like a lot of fun. Jaesoon's phone started ringing, and I peeked on the caller ID when she was checking it. Doojoon. Miyeon was in her own little world, Jaesoon and I both checked. But Jaesoon didn't answer. Instead she lost all the color in her face and silenced her phone. About a minute later, it buzzed. Text. I really want to know what it said. While I sat dwelling about it 20 minutes later, my phone buzzed. Doojoon.

( Tell Jaesoon I really want to talk to her. She can at least text me back. )

I showed the message to Jaesoon. She rolled her eyes and showed me the message he had sent.

( We need to talk about some things. When you aren't busy, call me. )

"What kind of things?" I asked innocently.

Jaesoon sighed, "We'll talk about it later."

I scowled, "We can't talk about it now?"

"Alright, ladies," our voice coach smiled, "We're going to take a break, I'll see you at 2. Does everyone hear me clearly? 2 o'clock, everyone better be back in this room. We've got important things to work on."

Song-E nodded for the four of us and Miyeon popped her gum. I couldn't help but snicker at her.

"So we gonna dance now?" Jaesoon said excitedly.

Jiyoon smiled, "We're going to go work out! We have like 30 minutes before the choreo gets here. Let's hit the gym!"

Miyeon looked like she got hit by a train, "ARE YOU KIDDING? BUT WE'RE ABOUT TO WORK OUT WHEN WE DANCE!"

"It'll get you in fantastic shape for your debut if we keep doing both," Jiyoon said innocently, as if her suggestion was common sense.

"Not if it kills me first," Miyeon groaned.

Song-E and I chuckled at her, but Jaesoon was in the middle of what looked like a heated text. With Doojoon, I'm sure. I kept the attention on Miyeon to distract everyone away from her. It was obvious she was, at the very least, angry. She probably wanted to be left alone.

When we got to the gym, though, Jaesoon picked a treadmill in the corner. I followed her and ran at the one next to her.

"You want to talk now?" I said while pacing myself on the jog I was beginning. It felt good to run.

"No," Jaesoon said, unplugging the earbud that was in the way of our conversation, "But I will."

"What's going on?" I asked, "Between you and Doojoon."

Jaesoon was quiet for a minute, and the only sound either of us heard was the treadmill sound, the rhythm of feet on the machines. She stopped, putting a foot on each side of the treadmill and holding onto the handle bars.

"Last night, he said something weird," she said, clearing her throat and then stopping her treadmill and mine, too.

"Weird? How?" I asked, slowing down and catching my breath.

"He said 'I love you, but not in the way I want to.' Seriously? Who the hell says stuff like that?" she took a towel and wiped her forehead and the back of her neck.

"What does that even mean?" I asked, stepping off the treadmill to lean against the wall.

"Well, that he only likes me as a friend. Probably because of Miyeon… You never really heard the whole deal about that, did you?"

Truthfully, I knew a lot more about Miyeon and Jaesoon's triangle with Doojoon than Jaesoon thought I did, but it was for that reason I had to say, "No, not really."

Jaesoon took a deep breath, "We'll go 'take a jog' on the outside track and I'll tell you." We told Jiyoon that we'd be outside. Song-E tried to join us, but Jiyoon said she didn't need to push herself anymore tonight. Once we got outside, Jaesoon told me her story.

"Before, when Song-E was at Cube, Miyeon and I met Doojoon through her. Obviously he's gorgeous, so we both sorta fell for him. We both agreed not to get involved, though." She paused to look at me, and I nodded, "Well I sorta messed up. Doojoon asked me to critique his dance on their last promotion and it turned into us going to the movies a couple times, hanging out at the Beast dorm on their off time… the works. Then Miyeon started to come, and things got complicated. Don't get me wrong, I love Miyeon to death. I would choose her over Doojoon any day, she's like my sister. But I can't help but think things would have been different between me and him if she hadn't felt something for him, too."

I was silent for a minute, then said, "I get that. But what about Miyeon? What happened between her and Doojoon to make things so complicated?"

Jaesoon chuckled, "The same thing that happened with me. Doojoon either had identical feelings for both of us, or he played both of us the exact same."

I shook my head, "In all honesty, Jaesoonie, you and Miyeon have really similar personalities. I doubt Doojoon played you, he's a really good guy."

Jaesoon bit her lip, "He's an amazing guy. But I'm just not willing to risk me and Miyeon's friendship over him."

"And Miyeon isn't willing to risk it either," I assured her, "That's why she's been spending so much time with Taecyeon."

Jaesoon bumped into me endearingly and smiled, "I need to find me a buddy like that."

"You can have Sungyeol if you want!" I offered. Jaesoon just laughed. She had tears in her eyes, but I knew they weren't sad tears.

"Thanks for listening to me," she said sincerely and hooked her arm in mine while we walked back up to the gym.

"Anytime, unni," I smiled.

Around the time we got back up, it was time to go to dance practice. Jaesoon felt so much relief, I could feel it. It made me feel better, too.

It was already 10 o'clock. Sungyeol was going to be here around 12. I was getting anxious.

"Are we going to finish in time for me to at least clean up a little?" I asked before the choreographer got started.

"That all depends on how well you guys work today," he said calmly, "Now, Jaesoon insists we need to learn Infinite's dance. So we're going to try it."

"Is it hard?" I asked, "Be honest?"

"It's not that it's too hard for you guys, it's just that it's a different style than what we were aiming for. If you're more successful with this type of style, the company will still have to come up with a new image for you."

Throughout the entire dance lesson, I couldn't take my mind off Sungyeol. It wasn't normal. He had a really cute smile, when he really meant it. And I could still hear his little laugh. And I bet he's actually really outgoing, I thought to myself. I was ridiculously giddy about seeing him.

Around 12, our practice was crashed by two surprise guests. Gikwang and Dongwoon. My heart sank. Would I have to turn down Dongwoon for lunch?

"Hey little maknae," he ruffled my hair, "Got time to take a break?"

"Hey big maknae," I pouted, "Not really."

"You guys can't break for lunch?" he chuckled, "That's intense."

"Actually we can, I just have other plans for lunch."

Dongwoon raised his eyebrow, "Do you?"

I bit the inside of my lip, "Sungyeol invited me—"

"Your new boyfriend?" Dongwoon was teasing, but he couldn't wipe the disappointment off his face.

"I'm sorry," I felt bad. I didn't think he'd show up.

"It's okay, I'm mostly here for Kwangie," Dongwoon looked around and so did I. There was no sign of Gikwang or Song-E, so I hoped they had snuck off to talk about what the hell happened.

"Is he okay?" I asked, finally.

"I guess," Dongwoon was blaringly obviously disappointed. But it was on a new level. I mean really, he was acting like I took away his birthday.

"Well, you wanna see how far we got in learning the dance to Infinite's BTD?" Miyeon asked, snaking her slender arm around his shoulder.

Dongwoon rolled his eyes and shrugged out of her grip, "Is everyone around her obsessed with Infinite now? Damn." He stormed out and Miyeon blinked a few times, still holding her arm awkwardly out.

"Um," she looked at me, "What bit him in the butt?"

"Something poisonous," I sighed, "I don't know what his deal is."

Jaesoon shook her head, "You're blind."

I chose not to fight her this time. I didn't want to get into this imaginary thing between Dongwoon and I that she seemed so adamant about. I was both worried about Song-E and excited about my meeting with Sungyeol. Dongwoon's pouting wasn't about to get in the way of that. I checked my phone. It was 12:17. Any minute now, Sungyeol would call saying he was on his way. I just knew it.

12:24—Sungyeol hadn't texted or anything yet. I'm sure he was going to soon.

12:38—I got a text.

( Hey, I know I said 12:30, but it's looking more like 1. Sorry. )

I was frustrated, but at least he said something.

( That's fine, but let's keep it local. I have to be back at 2. )

( You're lucky you're right down the road. I'll be there in 5 minutes. )

My frustration was lifting, and so were the corners of my mouth.

( Bet you can't make it in 3. )

( Challenge accepted. )

To my delight, not one, but two Infinite members showed up. Sungyeol greeted me with a friendly hug, like we'd been friends for years. Dongwoo, however, formally introduced himself to me before introducing himself to the rest of ATM. I thought Jaesoon was going to have a stroke. She couldn't stop smiling.

"You three are welcome to join us," Sungyeol said cheerfully.

"I'd love to!" Jaesoon said without missing a beat.

"I'm starving, so what the heck," Miyeon said cooly, "Song-E, will you be—"

"I'm actually going to lunch with Gikwang," she bit her lip, "But I'd love to come next time!"

Sungyeol smiled, "Absolutely. You all ready then?"

Jiyoon glared, "You girls better be back by 2… or at least 2:30."

"Don't worry, Jiyoon-ssi," Jaesoon slinked her arm around both Miyeon and me, "We'll be good girls and make it back in time. Right ladies?"

"Yes, of course," I assured her.

"I wouldn't dare miss practice, unni," Miyeon said.

Jiyoon just rolled her eyes, "Get outta here already."