"Good morning" I greet Mia's mum as she opens the door.
"Rae! My goodness, it's been so long since I've seen you. How was your Christmas?" She asks me gleefully.
"It was good thank you. I spent some time with my uncle as well as the boys I'm living with so it was nice. It was incredible as well to go to Seoul for Christmas and experience it their way" I smile, recalling all of my memories. "What about you?"
"It was good. Saw family and such so very nice"
"Rae!" Mia shouts, catapulting herself into my arms after she's raced done the stairs, her mum gracefully stepping out of the way.
"Mia!" I cry back. "We'll drop her home later, some time between 4 and 5" I quickly say, turning back to her mum.
"Good bye, have a nice time" she replies, shutting the door after us.
And that is how most of the meetings with my friends parents go. We pick up Mia first, then Skye and Amy followed by Lucy and Rosie with Ella last. The van that my uncle's picked everyone up in is full of chatter and laughter. He's smiling at us though I can tell he's not really used to teenage girls - the only one he's dealt with in the past few months is me and I have more boyish tendencies than most. Then again, my friends aren't necessarily girlie girls.
We finally, much to my uncle's delight I'm sure, pull into the drive way. The girls are in awe at the place, gawping at the amount of vehicles we have as well as the beauty of the architecture.
"Why do you have so many vans?" Ella asks inquisitively.
"You'll find out soon enough. Come on" I grin, pulling open the door.
"Jeez Rae, you've landed on your feet" Rosie mutters, still processing it.
"You've all got your stuff?" My uncle asks, a chorus of 'yes' being his answer so that he can lock the vehicle.
I lead them up the path, opening the door with us all awkwardly trying to shuffle out of our shoes when we're inside. They're visibly gaping as they look around, spotting the spiral staircase encased in glass, the large kitchen leading out onto the patio with the pool, the large sitting room surrounded almost entirely in glass giving the perfect view out into the forest in three directions.
"Come on. I'll give you the tour later but follow me" I smile, leading them upstairs.
They trail after me, clutching their bags and anything else they've brought with them.
"How many rooms do you have? Bedrooms I mean." Skye asks as we trail reach the landing, noting all the doors and the two corridors leading off of it.
"Um, fifteen bedrooms - I counted - and five bathrooms to go with them in total. Thirteen of the bedrooms are on this floor, two are downstairs with four of the bathrooms also up here. Sorry but my room is a bit of a trek" I smile nervously, desperately wishing for none of the boys to appear out of nowhere.
Thankfully, we make it through unscathed. No sign of them.
"Jeez, and you have the balcony right next to you, opposite the bathroom. Best room I reckon" Lucy jokes when we eventually reach my door.
"Come on in" I smile, opening it for them.
Mia immediately flops down on the bed, Ella and Amy moving to the window whilst the other three explore my room a little. I simply pull out my desk chair, sitting on it and watching them with glee.
"No way! Is this from Korea?" Ella gasps, noting all of the kpop additions on my desk, picking up numerous notebooks and tubs of things.
"Yeah, all of the sm stuff is from the Coex mall and the rest I found in the shops. I bought some new clothes and stuff as well" I laugh.
"Wait! Hold up! Is that a new jumper?" Mia exclaims, bolts upright.
About time somebody noticed my sweater - the Seventeen DK one that Renjun bought me for Christmas. For the next twenty minutes or so, we sit around on my bed and the surrounding floor and chat about our holidays. I tell them about the numerous things I did with the boys - not mentioning any names and leaving out all of the sm details - whilst they, in exchange, tell me all of the mischief they've been up to. I can't help but die after being shown the video of Ella playing a recorder with her nose.
Eventually though, basking in the glorious sunlight, I suggest that we exchange our presents. I put on one of my new CD's - all of us having looked through the numerous photo books that came with them already. We sit around in a circle, each of our presents piled besides us ready to dish out.
"Ah, Rae, have you seen my- oh, sorry, I completely forgot that your friends were here" someone says, the door swinging wide open. I swiftly turn around, dread filling me.
"Oh, Chan. Thank god it's you" I mutter, relief flooding through me. "If it's about your charger, yeah, it's on the desk" I reply.
"Cheers" he murmurs awkwardly, swiftly grabbing it before making an exit.
"And who is that?!?!" Lucy demands the minute the door clicks shut behind him. The others are all as still as stone statues, no doubt amazed at the beauty that just graced us. Well, that's what they're thinking at least.
"That was Chan. One of the boys, you'll meet the rest later" I grin, still internally figuring out how to explain my situation to them.
"If we'd have known that the boys were that good looking, we would've come round sooner." Amy jokes. "Anyway, presents!" She says excitedly.
My friends, being the loveable people they are, hadn't exchanged gifts but had instead decided to do so when I was back and we were all together. I'm over the moon when Skye gives me a portrait of Suho - my exo bias - with an inspirational quote about all the training he went through. Mia, meanwhile, gives each of us a personalised cd with a playlist of songs we like and she thinks represents us. Amy gives us each a notebook with our biases on alongside a couple of pens. Lucy hands over a bts desk calendar and I can already imagine how much stick I'm going to get from some of the boys for it. And last but not least, Ella and Rosie give us some skin care things - hand creams, body washes, etc.
They're lovely gifts and I shall make sure to use them properly though they're excited for what I promised them. Something from Seoul, they know that much, but not specifically what. I give them each their album, making sure that they open them all together so as not to give it away - plus the fact that I have to check they've each got the right one.
"Oh my god! You didn't?" Ella exclaims in amazement at her Wings album.
"You are officially my favourite person right now" Lucy adds while staring at her BigBang mini album - Alive.
"No way, I've wanted this for ages!" Rosie gleefully smiles as she clutches her Infinite Only mini album.
"Oh my god! I got GD!" Skye squeals, holding up her photo card from the Tonight mini album.
"I got Jun..." Mia nervously states, unsure whether getting her Seventeen bias for the Going Seventeen mini album is real or not. Luckily for her, it is.
"This is my favourite version of their album as well..." Amy murmurs, as though she's shaken by the whole ordeal.
They all look at each other, moving their albums aside before launching towards me and forcing me backwards on the bed. It's one of our infamous group hugs but never before have I been the one squished to the floor. Now I can understand why they're normally squirming about and demanding for everyone else to get off because they can't breath. I mean, that's exactly what I'm doing right now.
"Can't. Breath" I choke out, kicking my legs in an attempt to get them off of me.
"Ok, ok. Break it up" Mia chuckles.
"Seriously though, thank you so much" Skye smiles, giving me an extra squeeze once I'm upright.
"Honestly, it's nothing. You guys deserved it for being there for me this year through everything - the bestest friends I could've asked for. Plus, I thought being the first one of us to go to Korea deserved to be marked." I laugh.
"Oh stop it! Next time you're taking us with you" Rosie informs me.
"Yeah, I'm sure my uncle will love that. I mean, there already 12 of us kids plus the six adults and then you lot - 25 of us on a plane to Seoul. Wonderful" I tease.
"It'd be fun" Lucy shrugs.
"Let's face it, it's gonna happen some day" Amy reminds me.
"Yeah, yeah." I wave it away though secretly I love the idea.
"Hey, can I come in?" A knocking on the door interrupts my thoughts. Immediately recognising it to be Manager Lee, I tell him to come in. "Pizza's gonna be ready in half an hour. Do you girls want anything or are you going to be alright for now?" He asks.
"Drinks?" I question, turning to the others. They politely decline however, saying that they'll get something in a minute when we go downstairs.
"Ok, um, I think the boys - or at least some of them - are planning to eat with you" he tells me before disappearing.
"So we'll finally be meeting the infamous boys" Mia smirks. I don't wish to inform her as of yet that they're actually pretty famous.
"Trust me, despite what their aura may seem, they're just ordinary, annoying teenage boys. Do not be fooled." I warn.
"By the looks of Chan -and Yukhei, the one we saw when we dropped you off a couple of months ago - their looks will make up for it" Rosie smiles knowingly.
"That's what I thought originally..." I murmur quietly.
"What was that?" Skye questions.
"Nothing" I chirp a bit too quickly, switching my laptop on and opening up YouTube.
We sit around watching numerous videos and laughing at the various, rather strange, things we find. I particularly like the Chewing Gum video where every time they say 'chewing gum' Chenle appears shouting 'oh my god'. I make a mental note to show that to him later.
"Nice music" someone shouts walking past the door. Jaemin.
"Shut up Jae" I reply, mentally cursing him.
"If you want pizza, your uncle said you'd better hurry" he yells smugly.
"Fine, fine. We're coming just make sure that you're gonna by the time we actually come out" I want him.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. See you in a minute" he replies.
We all stand up, stretching our stiff bodies and helping each other. I open the door, carefully checking that there's no lingering shadows along the corridor. Thankfully there aren't and I feel that it's safe enough to open the door fully.
"Oh yeah, we meant to say" Lucy says, as though remembering something. "We were on tumblr the other day and we found some photos of the sm Christmas party" she continues, the nerves building within me. I still haven't told them after all.
"Go on..." I tell them.
"As we were looking through all the photos of everyone arriving, we saw nct with a girl that looked almost exactly like you and we had a mini freak out because of how similar you looked" Ella chuckles as we make our way down the stairs.
"Actually, about that..." I murmur, trying to build my confidence as I move towards the kitchen. All sets of eyes flick towards me, curiosity growing. "Um, guys, how do I say this?" I nervously mutter.
"What?" Mia nervously asks as we reach the entrance of the kitchen.
"Meet nct" I smile apprehensively, spreading my arms out in front of me and motioning to the 11 boys spread out in front of me.
"Jesus Christ" Mia gasps, surprised to the limit.
"You have to be joking" Amy says seriously, turning to me.
"Nope" I reply, "I would introduce you but I'm pretty sure most of you know them. Ah, and this is Chan, Jungwook, Junseo and Yukhei. They're all un-introduced trainees" I smile.
They continue eating their lunch, a mixture of pizza and whatever other junk has been forced on their plates. I, meanwhile, get dragged back outside the kitchen, most of the girls not even having crossed the thresh hold.
"What the hell?" Lucy demands.
"Sorry, I wanted to tell you but everything was up in the air and then I completely let it slip my mind earlier but I was worried you were gonna freak out on me and-" I ramble, the panic setting in completely.
"Rae. Stop. Breathe" Skye says, grasping my shoulders and shaking me slightly.
"Wait, that was you with them at the Christmas party?" Amy mutters.
"Ah, yeah. You see, I wasn't totally lying when I said my uncle looked after some boys. He's their manager - one of the three here -and so, when I had no other relatives, I automatically have to live with him and the boys. That's why the house is so nice - sm paid for it" I laugh, explaining it in brief.
"Hey, if you want pizza, you'd better hurry. I mean, they've put three aside but Jaemin's starting to get pretty hungry" Jeno tells us, peering round the kitchen door frame.
"I swear he will be the end of me." I murmur to myself, immediately storming into the kitchen.
I find Jaemin in the act of sneaking over to the cooker, about to grab a few slices of pepperoni.
"Jaemin! Get your hands off!" I cry.
"Oh, hello Rae" he grins evilly.
"Jae! Now!" I say, snatching the pizza out from under him.
"Rude" he teases.
"What is it with the maknae's and attitude?" Kun muses jokingly.
"Help yourself to pizza and then we can go sit down with them or whether you want" I turn to my friends, encouraging them to help myself as I grab three or four slices of margarita.
They all grab some, each taking what they want and making a unanimous decision to eat in the kitchen. However, they're all slightly intimidated and nervous around the boys, amazed that I live with Kpop stars.
"Can you try not to be so intimidating?" I ask, turning to the boys.
"In fairness, we're all just slightly shocked" Mia shrugs, defending them.
Eventually though, they break out of their shell with the boys all taking an interest in them. It's working both ways - my friends interested in the idols I live with, the boys interested in who I spend a large majority of my time with. Two sides of my life coming together.
I eat my pizza quite quickly, hungry from this morning's practice and go to get some more for myself, standing up from the long table that just manages to fit us all.
"Have you told them the rest yet?" Chenle asks, coming up behind me to grab a glass from the cupboard above. I open it for him, handing him one of the tumblers.
"Not yet. They don't know about the training. Let them adapt to this first, it's a bit of a shock" I reply quietly.
"Fair enough. Do you want anything?" He offers, wanting to know if he can get me a drink.
"No thanks" I grin, picking up my plate of pizza and heading back over to the table.
We continue eating and chatting with some of the boys for around twenty minutes. They seem to take a genuine interest in my friends. Jeno, Yukhei, Kun and Hansol are particularly eager - probably because out of them all, they're the most protective of me. Some of the boys have to disappear for practice though Manager's Kim and Lee make a brief appearance, grabbing some stuff out of the fridge before going again after they've introduced themselves.
Finally, we're done so I offer them the tour of the place and they're more than keen. Over eager almost. I chuckle as I see them pile up their plates, trying to help clean up though I insist that I or one of the boys will do it later - after all, what difference is another six plates to the normal 18?
I take them around the place, showing them the large lounge, the games room, the pool, the library and one of the practice rooms - the music studio and other dance studio are both in use. They're in awe of the place due to its modern design and just how big it is - and the fact that I'm living here. However, once all that's done, I take them back to the games room, flopping on the big rearrangeable sofa - currently in the shape of a big cube. The others all join me, occasional body part over lapping with each other though we're so comfortable that we don't actually care.
"I can't believe it" Mia quietly whispers to herself, thinking out loud.
"You live with NCT..." Rosie continues.
"Jesus, this could be some kind of fanfic" Skye laughs, rolling over so that she's on her front.
"And the house is so nice - dance studios, pools, a home gym, a massive balcony, incredibly modern kitchen and a games room for crying out loud" Lucy adds.
"Actually, about that" I begin, looking up at the ceiling as though I'm searching for some confidence. "There's something else I need to tell- for gods sake Jeno" I shout, sitting upright at the sudden entrance to the games room.
"In my defence, I thought you were all upstairs and that it was only Jae and Renjun in here..." he tells me, defences on top form.
"That really doesn't explain the lack of a top..." I remind him, referencing his bare chest with a light set of abs - decent for a sixteen year old. I can feel the best radiating from my friends brains as they process the situation in front of them, Jeno backing out of the room slowly. "And I told you guys to be on your best behaviour..." I groan.
"I just came out of the shower... I'll be going now... and maybe for the rest of my life... I don't think I can look any of your friends in the eye again..." he smirks, referencing their obvious staring.
"Yah, you perverts, stop. And yeah, probably a good idea" I say, whacking Mia on the head before turning my attention back to him. With a slight wave of his hand, he shuts the door behind him.
"Typical, he really knows how to spoil a moment" I mumble.
"How are you not affected by this?" Lucy demands.
"Eh, I'm used to it. You'd be a amazed by how many times they can't be bothered to put on shirts" I shrug.
"Oh girl, I'm coming round here so much more" Mia grins.
"You're all perverts, the lot of you. Where was I? Ah, yeah, that." I remember that I was about to tell them my big secret - bigger than my housemates.
"What?" Ella asks curiously as I flop backwards, lying flat amongst all of their upright bodies. They look down on me nervously, as though they're expecting some serious health concern.
"I guess you could really say it's like a fanfic..." I begin, trying to find the right words, "You know how we always joked about becoming trainees or making it big in Korea... well, that might just happen... I'm now officially an sm trainee..." I eventually spit out.
There's a series of short screams as, for the second time today, I'm crushed under six bodies.
"Nobody's dying right?" Junseo shouts, crashing into the room with Renjun, concerned looks on their faces.
"Only of happiness!" Mia squeals, completely elated.
"I assume you've just told them?" Renjun checks, putting two and two together.
"Yup..." I choke out, still pinned to the sofa.
"Jesus Christ. Tell us all about it!" Rosie says, virtually jumping up and down as the two boys, much like Jeno, make a very quick escape.
A/N -
I hope everyone's had a good Easter and that this chapter was enough to satisfy you! As always, don't forget to vote, comment, follow and point out any typos,
K xxx