Across the World - NCT Chenle

Chapter 12

"Hi" I smile, a slight awkwardness to my manner.
"We've spoken before, if I remember correctly" Jaehyun says kindly with a grin.
"Yeah, I accidentally walked in on your FaceTime. Sorry about that" I chuckle in response.
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Taeil" Taeil greets, approaching me slightly.
"Oh don't worry, she knows us" Chenle teases me so I whack him in return. "She's also very violent" he smirks so this time I flick him on the head.
"Am not" I defend.
"Yeah you are" Jeno laughs.
"Why are you all ganging up on me?" I groan dramatically, looking to Renjun, Kun and Hanso in defence knowing that jisung won't say anything being the maknae and all, whilst Johnny, Mark, Haechan and Jaemin are likely to help gang up on me.
"Guys, leave her alone" Doyoung orders, coming to my defence when nobody else does.
"You're just jealous that we do the vroom vroom talk show better than you" Haechan laughs.
"No fighting!" Taeyong shouts before Doyoung can lunge for Haechan. I chuckle at the prospect, their roles within the group painfully obvious.
"Do you know where you're staying or has your uncle completely abandoned you?" Ten asks me, making me the centre of attention once again.
"Um, actually, he didn't. Don't suppose you guys know do you?" I reply, awkwardly scratching my ear.
"Yeah, you're in the girls dorm whilst you're here, more specifically in with Herin since you're both British. Come on, I'll show you" Taeyong says, motioning for me to follow him out of the boys dorm and across the hall, giving the others a chance to unpack.
_____
The next day, after a chance to refresh with surprisingly little jet lag, the boys have to go to the sm building for a debrief on their time away as well as for an assessment on their skills - what needs to be improved and how.

Since my uncle, Manager Kim and Manager Lee will also be there alongside all of the boys, I'm forced to come with them. After a word with my uncle, I'm dressed in my normal tight jeans, tshirt and a hoodie with my hair just in pony tail, no make up necessary.

Last night, I met all of the girl trainees as well as got to properly know the rest of the boys - or at least as well as a meal followed by some games will let you. Then again, that's how everything started with the others. I also met some of the other nct management team including Manager Choi and Manager Hong - the two female managers for smrookies and nct - mainly used for the girls.

Additionally, I discovered a bit more about my uncle. He's one of the main managers within the company. Whilst each group has a management team, there's always the most senior manager within that and it turns out my uncle is nct and smrookies senior manager. And when he said he worked with exo, he wasn't kidding - before smrookies was prominent, he managed exo for around two years.

And I must admit, as we all meet in the parking lot downstairs, there's a lot of us. By the time you factor in the six managers coming with us this morning - my uncle, Manager Kim, Manager Lee, Manager Choi, Manager Hong and Manager Nam (the other male nct manager) - plus the whole of nct and then both the girl and boy rookies there's 30 of us.

Three mini vans pull up, my uncle, Manager Lee and Manager Kim driving them. We split into three groups and I'm in a van with Chenle, jisung, Haechan, Herin, Ten, Yuta and Doyoung. Fun times. In total that's nine of us, by the time you factor in Manager Kim who's driving.

We arrive at SM in twenty minutes after navigating the Seoul traffic. The whole time, my face is pressed against the window as I gaze upon the incredible buildings and shops. I snap a quick picture as we pass by the Han river, sending it to my friends. It's nearly 8am here meaning it's nearly 11pm back home - they're normally awake at that time.

I put my phone back in my pocket, focusing my attention on what's happening in the van around. I'm sat opposite Herin, the aisle between us with only Chenle and Jisung sat in front of us. Soon though, it becomes darker as we enter an underground car park, all three vans in file together.