.twentytwo.
The carnival would be taking place in a national park with a vast field and tens of hiking trails that went into the mountains. The area of the SM Town carnival was closed off from the general public and secured by guards so that only people who had been invited by the agency could enter. The place was swarming with children brought by charity foundations and there were booths for different activities everywhere. Somewhere far off were a few of the idols playing football and Lu Han's eyes brightened with excitement.
From the moment that they arrived, the twelve boys separated into their own cliques. Instead of leaving with Yifan or Lu Han, Yena separated on her own without being seen and rushed to the portable restrooms near the back end of the carnival.
There was a long line, but she cut all the way to the front and apologized to everyone waiting in line before her, "I'm so sorry. Its an emergency. I'm about to wet my pants if I don't go right this moment." With that, she entered one of the bathrooms just as someone was leaving and shut the door.
It took her a total of about five minutes before she finished changing into a yellow floral pattern dress and a pair of yellow wedges. She straightened out her messy hair and stuffed her boy clothing into her backpack before stumbling out of the bathroom. The people who were waiting there eyed her suspiciously, since they had sworn a boy had gone inside, but they didn't question it much.
Yena looked at the time on her phone and heaved a sigh. "I have to go find the stupid kissing booth now."
As she wandered through the carnival, she ran into two older idols who were also walking around together before heading to their commitment at one of the booths. Yena had bumped into one of them while she adjusted the fabric of her dress, and when she looked up, she felt as though her heart stopped in surprise.
Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped in shock.
"Are you okay?" One of them asked her, worried.
Yena nodded her head slowly. "Yes."
They were Yesung and Kyuhyun from Super Junior, her favorite kpop group. It didn't help that the two she had run into happened to be her favorites.
"Are you sure? You look like you're about to faint." Kyuhyun pointed out with a hint of amusement.
"We've never seen you around the SM Town building before. Are you a new trainee?" Yesung asked with curiosity. Normally, most of the idols knew each other well and they knew most of the trainees. But there were times when they were so busy that they wouldn't get to meet the new recruits until much later.
Yena shook her head. Her breathing was ragged, as she was trying to contain her emotions to restrain herself from fangirling. "I'm not a trainee or an idol, just a volunteer. My brother Tao said they needed more people for one of the booths."
Both of them raised their eyebrows in surprise.
"We didn't know Tao had a sister." Kyuhyun commented.
"My name is Huang Chuyen." She introduced herself with a respectful bow.
"Your Korean is very good." Yesung smiled at her, making her heart race and a smile to break out onto her lips.
"Thank you, oppa." She thanked him.
"So you're sure you're okay?" Yesung wondered again, just to make sure.
"Yes Daddy Yesex." She called him by the nickname that Kangin had admitted to calling him during one of the interviews--though the daddy part had been her own addition. It was out there before she could even stop herself, and both looked back at her with the same amount of surprise that she had shown when she ran into them. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to call you that. I mean, I did, but in the privacy of my thoughts. I didn't--please don't pay attention to me. I'm rambling."
Shaking it off with a nervous chuckle, Yesung informed her, "I've gotten that before. Don't worry."
Kyuhyun nodded in agreement. "People have called him Yesex before."
"Kangin." Yesung said with an amused roll of his eyes.
"We should go." Kyuhyun informed and Yesung nodded in agreement. "We're looking for Ryeowook. If you happen to spot him, tell him to come find us at the cotton candy booth."
Yena nodded and they walked off together.
Just moments after they left, Yena spotted the Super Junior member they were looking for. He was too far off for her to approach him, but she noticed he wasn't alone. He was accompanied by none other than Yeojin of Pledis Entertainment's girl group Roser-lo, another group that was one of Yena's favorites. The Super Junior and Roser-lo rivalry had been the predecessor to the EXO and Baby Lips rivalry, which pitted both agencies against each other.
By now, the rivalry had died down a considerable amount, especially after many of the Roser-lo members left Pledis Entertainment and were picked up by SM, to the point where there were even strong rumors surrounding a possible relationship between Ryeowook and Yeojin.
In another part of the carnival, Baekhyun had ditched Chanyeol and dragged Lu Han towards the kissing booth. "Taeyeon's going to be there right now." He explained to his hyung with a carnival ticket ready in hand. "I want to get a kiss from her." Both of them didn't have any volunteer shifts until later and they wanted to use their free time to enjoy the attractions that had been provided by the agency.
Lu Han's expression contorted into one of confusion. "I thought you were into Guti."
Baekhyun sighed. "I am. Its just that Chanyeol really likes her too, and he made me promise I'd back off. He's my best friend, what else could I do? I had to agree. Maybe I can get back into Taeyeon again if I spend some time with her. That could work, right?"
Lu Han said nothing and followed after his younger band member to stand in line for the kissing booth. They were in line for about five minutes, and were the next two in line, when Yena arrived through the back of the booth. Taeyeon had just kissed an eight year old boy when she was tapped on the shoulder by Yena to get her attention. The Girls Generation singer sighed with relief when she saw the girl who was going to take her place. "You're early." She pointed out. Squinting her eyes in recognition, she asked, "Hey. Do I know you from somewhere?"
Yena laughed nervously. "Uh, no, probably not. But you might know my brother Tao from EXO. We're twins, and people always say our faces look a lot alike. Its really weird."
"That must be it." Taeyeon nodded.
Baekhyun's jaw dropped in disappointment as Taeyeon got up from her seat and hugged Yena, thankful.
"Well, you're a life saver. The booth is all yours." She smiled at her politely and bowed out of respect before walking away. Yena did the same as the older girl left the kissing booth.
Yena sat down and her eyes widened when she saw who was next. Baekhyun and Lu Han. They were two members from EXO, where she was replacing her brother Tao after his injury. She welcomed the thought of kissing Lu Han, since she had grown to fall in love with him over the months that she had been with EXO. But she wasn't very keen on the thought of kissing Baekhyun.
But it was a kissing booth after all and she would have to do it.
Lu Han pushed Baekhyun forward, saying, "Okay. Go get your kiss." His dark eyes met with Yena's and he gulped back nervously. Then they darted to her lips as Lu Han fathomed the thought of kissing her.
Changing his mind at the last instant, Baekhyun quickly shook his head. "I wanted a kiss from Taeyeon. She's not Taeyeon." He said to his hyung. Shoving the carnival ticket into Lu Han's hand, which would be used as their form of payment, he added, "You should kiss her, hyung. Sehun told me that Tao told you guys his sister had a big crush on you." Yena remembered saying that to them. It had been on her first day at the SM building when she dropped her EXO member fan cards that she was using to learn about them.
Lu Han looked from Yena to Baekhyun with surprise. "She's Tao's sister?"
Yena nodded her head.
Baekhyun pushed Lu Han forward onto the booth and ran off like a child. Lu Han cursed Baekhyun out under his breath before turning to Yena with a shy smile. "I'm really sorry about that." He apologized to her.
She shook her head. "Don't worry about it."
"Hurry up!" Someone called from the back of the line.
Lu Han slapped the ticket down on the booth table and Yena grabbed him by his shirt collar, pulling him in for a kiss on the lips. Yena felt a million butterflies fluttering in her stomach the moment she felt his lips on hers and her lips curled into an involuntary smile. Lu Han was stiff for a few seconds before his hands reached up to cup her face in his hands as their kiss deepened.
They were only interrupted by someone slamming his fist on the booth table. Both Yena and Lu Han pulled back, breathless and startled. "What the hell, Lu Han?" Yifan yelled, looking from one to the other. Yena was confused, but Lu Han seemed to know why he was angry. Yifan continued with his accusation, "You knew that I liked her, I told you to help me ask her out today, and this is how you help me? Some friend you are."
"I didn't even know this was her until just a minute ago." He tried to explain.
"Save it, hyung." Yifan stopped him. "You betrayed me."
"What's going on here?" They heard from nearby.
Yena was relieved when she saw Kyungsoo arriving with Nari. He was the shortest of the group, but easily the most intimidating, and she thought he would help the argument end before it turned into something more. But instead of helping, Kyungsoo made everything even worse.
"What the hell, hyungs?" He asked them angrily when it dawned on him that both boys were fighting over Yena. "You can't go out with her. She's my ex. Friends don't date other friends ex-girlfriends."
"Yeah? Who's gonna stop me?" Yifan challenged.
"Oh my god." Yena brought a hand to her face in embarrassment.
Within moments the fight escalated into a physical altercation between the three of them while everyone around them watched in awe. No one had ever seen the members of EXO fight, or even argue so severely before. From the sidelines, Nari called for Kyungsoo to stop the fighting. But none of them paid any attention to her. Yena went around the booth and jumped on Yifan's back to stop him. He tumbled back and they landed on a popcorn cart while Nari interfered to separate Kyungsoo and Lu Han.
An SM manager saw the conflict and rushed to calm things down. "Why are you three fighting?"
"Girl troubles." Nari huffed with a glare towards Yena.
Yena said nothing and went to Lu Han's side who was pinching the bridge of his nose to stop the blood from flowing out of his nose.
"I'm so sorry." She said to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"
He nodded his head. "I'm fine. Are you hurt?"
She shook her head. After jumping on Yifan and falling onto a cart of popcorn, with her band mate on top of her, she felt a bit sore. But it was nothing compared to the embarrassment she felt after seeing three boys--who were her band members--fighting over her attention.
Once she made sure everyone was okay, she ran back to the bathrooms with her backpack to change back to being Tao. But since the lines were even longer now, she went to find another place to change clothes. She saw a sign by the moon bounces that read back in twenty minutes and she saw it as her chance. Yena climbed into the moon bounce and hoped that she wouldn't get caught.
She had stepped out of her dress after adjusting her Tao wig on her head, and unclasped her bra so that she could tie her chest flat with medical bandaging. She pulled the bandages out of her backpack when someone approached the moon bounce calling, "Hey! You can't be in there right now. My shift hasn't started."
It was the familiar voice of Yifan who opened the flap door to the moon bounce and caught her changing inside.
-
i finally get to post regular updates for this story. and that makes me so happy because i missed updating this. at the same time im a little upset bc no you girls has ended and i feel a void in my heart. im being overly dramatic. haha.
thank you loads for reading this story. thank you for reading no you girls, and sasaeng too. i'll try to post some updates for "twelve" and stop until it starts interfering with either replacement or sasaeng.
now im going to sleep bc im tired as hell and i want to be well rested for the upcoming week. my guitar professor thinks im better at guitar than i really am bc i have been pretty good at faking my way through his classes. lol. he's so cute and foreign. so i have to practice hard so that i can impress him for the midterm on tuesday.
-clary xx