‘Calm, you are calm. You are a guy, you must be calm, don’t cry, they’ll think you’re weird, don’t check them out, oh god I’m checking them out.’

“Ki Joon… Are you okay? You’re just staring at Soohyun…”

“Sorry, I zoned out!”

Painfully, I ripped my eyes away from the singer’s abs, hinted at through the tight t-shirt, and looked up at the ceiling. ‘One light, two lights, three lights, four…’

“I can’t wait for our new single to come out,” Kevin whispered, bouncing excitedly.

‘Five lights si—‘ “New single?” I dropped my gaze back to Kevin. Okay, more like my eyes slammed from the ceiling to the ground at a speed only a fangirl and NASA could comprehend.

“We aren’t supposed to talk about it but I’m sure you’ll be wondering why Kiseop sneaks out at night. We have to practice the dance during the show,” Kevin explained. Hoon got the ‘I have an idea’ face, consisting of mouth dropping partway open and eyes widening to a near perfect circle.

“Why don’t we have Ki Joon watch? That way, you can get an idea as to what our new viewers will think! You don’t know us very well, right?”

“Not… Not really,” I lied (‘IT’S NOT TRUE—!’).

The others looked skeptical.

“I don’t know if the managers will let us,” Kiseop pointed out. “They don’t know if Ki Joon can keep the news to himself until the release date.”

“Let’s still try! I think we need a fresh opinion,” Hoon said enthusiastically, flipping his hair from his eyes in a practiced movement.

A bell sounded and I saw a vaguely familiar girlish figure emerge from the cafeteria. Tae… Min? The maknae of SHINee.  Before I could point him out, Jonghyun appeared, slinging an arm around Taemin’s shoulders. He looked over to the group of UKISS, noticing me. He turned to Taemin and pointed at me excitedly. Together, they walked over to us.

“Hi!” Jonghyun said, waving with his free hand.

“Ah, Jonghyun, we were wondering if we’d ever see SHINee,” Kiseop said with a little smile. You know, the one where just the corners of his mouth turn up and his eyes squint just a little bit so he looks really happy but, okay sorry, never mind.

“I just wanted to show Taemin who drew that portrait I have!”

“He did?” Taemin asked, gesturing to me with his delicate, slender hand.

“Yep! This is Ki Joon,” Jonghyun said, pulling me from the circle. Taemin ducked his head a little and said,” Hi, I’m Taemin.”

“Ah, I thought you looked familiar. SHINee’s maknae right?” I questioned. Taemin nodded, smiling shyly.

“Can you believe he doesn’t know us?” Jonghyun complained. “He actually had to ask me what my name was!”

Taemin giggled. “It’s probably good for you,hyung.”

“What is that supposed to mean?!”Jonghyun demanded.

Taemin wisely said nothing and simply began to walk away.

“Hey! Punk, I’m talking to you!”

They were quickly lost in the crowd of people filing out of the lunchroom. The megaphone wielding man announced UKISS High’s lunch time and we all made a beeline for the cafeteria. A particularly eager boy crashed into my elbow sending me flying sideways. It was my second almost-fall for the day because I landed on Kiseop’s chest. Automatically, his arms came up to steady me.

“Are you okay?”

I could only manage a squeak. I could feel the fireworks going off that I assume were once my ovaries.  Kiseop carefully took my shoulders and pushed me back into a standing position. A puzzled look crossed his face. “Wow, your shoulders are even smaller than Kevin’s,” he commented. Pulling most of myself together, I pulled away from his grasp. “Yeah, I take after my mom,” I said, trying to laugh casually. “Sorry about that.”

“No worries,” Kiseop smiled. Yep, it was confirmed. I was going to die here.