My Heart and Seoul (5): Ali-How does one say it?

Jaehyun's POV

Is this some kind of cosmic joke played on me by the gods? I see her once, and now she's going to be working with us.

"Wow you're very pretty!" Seungho said absentmindedly, looking her over. She's probably too old for him, she looks like a university student.

"Ah thank you, I didn't interrupt did I?" She looked concerned and it's so adorable. Wow I'm really in it deep.

Lamon shook his head and reassured her it's fine, which it is. Everyone here wanted an excuse to take a break from practice.

"Hey how about we take a lunch break now since it's almost time for lunch?" Minjae suggested to lighten the mood. And disrupt Seungho's staring. Once you mention food to Seungho he'll drop whatever he's doing.

Jisoo the scary left after a greeting to do whatever it is she does. Eating the souls of children perhaps?

We didn't have any seating or anything in here so we all sat in a circle on the floor. Usually it's Daehyun who cooks in the group, mainly because we'd all burn down the kitchen if we tried to make anything other than noodles. Except Lamon seems to be able to make desserts easily. But today Daehyun's alarm in our shared room didn't go off so we both woke up late and didn't get to make the lunch. Yamato and Seungho picked up some small things from the convenience store like some crisps, a bread roll, and a bottle of water.

"I shouldn't have trusted you two to get lunch for us." Lamon pouted in disappointment at his lunch, then glared at the two.

They both shrugged indifferently, which was kinda creepy. They're the closest to each other and Seungho is like Yamato's actual little brother, which is why Yamato is really protective over him too.

"Oh I can share some of my lunch if you guys want?" Rae spoke up interrupting Lamon's glare. She smiled and took out her lunch to which I could safely say we all gasped at how awesome it looked.

Fried chicken, rice with broccoli and sweetcorn. There was even a slice of fudge cake, I freaking love fudge cake. She also pulled out some green tea flavour dorayaki, those Japanese pancake things and Yamato's eyes practically turned into hearts. If he finds any he'll stockpile on them. One would think I'm joking but he's cleaned out a store's entire supply before.

"Can we keep her?" Seungho said excitedly reaching for the food making Rae laugh.

"She's not a pet, although that looks amazing where did you get this Rae? Oh I can call you that can't I?" Minjae the ever polite said. But even he was eyeing the food.

"Yes it's fine my names Rae so everyone can call me that. I made it all myself." I could see she was starting to get a little red faced at the attention she was getting. So I diverted the attention.

"We never really introduced ourselves properly guys. I'm Jaehyun I'm 20." I said extending a hand for her to shake. She raised an eyebrow when I said my age and shook my hand with a friendly smile.

"I'm Lamon I'm the oldest out of us, I'm 25." He said shaking her hand as well. She nodded at him.

"I'm Daehyun I'm the same age as this guy." Daehyun said pointing to me, but he didn't shake her hand as his were full with snacks.

"I'm Seungho I'm the maknae here 17!" Seungho said brightly. We all said our international ages so she wouldn't be confused.

"Minjae I'm 22. Don't mind these guys if they annoy you. Especially Yamato." He said with a reassuring smile. Yamato pouted.

"Who's annoying? I'm an angel!" He protested making everyone laugh and him huff as if he was betrayed.

"Anyways I'm Yamato I'm 23. Don't listen to these guys they're just jealous of my fabulous skills." He said flipping imaginary hair over his shoulder, making Rae laugh harder.

Yamato's face brightened seeing that he made her laugh, he's our bright sunshine in the group.

"I thought you were younger Seungho. You look young." Rae commented. That was true he has a baby face making him look 15, but he's actually 17.

"I get that a lot, how old are you Rae? 18, 19?" Seungho asked curiously.

"I'm much older than that I'm 22." She spoke with amusement. I started coughing on air as soon as she said that. I drank some water and processed what she said.

Shea's actually older than me and Daehyun by two years? And older than Seungho by five? She's the same age as Min-hyung. Oh and I didn't even call her noona respectfully, even if she's foreign it's still polite to do so. Maybe that's why she was so amused when I said my age as well.

"Ah we're the same age next time if we're talking in Korean you can speak informally to me!" Minjae said glad to find out she's his age.

"Okay that's fine. But please Jaehyun, Daehyun don't worry about formalities I'm only older by two years." She said noticing the look on Daehyun and I's faces. I let out a sigh of relief, I've known people that have gotten very offended when I didn't call them noona or hyung. But I feel like I'd say it subconsciously or something out of habit.

We finished lunch very uneventfully and the boys and I had to start practicing again. But in between dance practice Rae kept on giving us encouraging words to help. We were practicing a song of ours Snowfall, because we had a show tomorrow in Busan. The day after we're going on Idol Master for the first time. I could see Rae nodding along to the words, and tapping along to the beat with her foot as she leaned against the wall. A cameraman came in to video our dance practice, because they were gonna put it on YouTube after the music video came out. We also practiced two other songs from our senior groups.

"Wow that was great guys!" Rae clapped after we were finally done. It wasn't a long practice today because we also had to study. Lamon is the oldest but he's still studying English and all of us are learning Japanese and Mandarin.

Yamato tutored everyone in Japanese but we still had to spend time on Mandarin. Lamon explained our schedule today and Rae nodded in understanding. Daehyun and I have our university classes and Seungho has math homework to do.

"My degree was in Mandarin and Korean I can help you guys with Mandarin and English if you want?" She offered.

"You did a degree in Korean and Mandarin? Wow you're so smart!" I said in surprise. Learning two languages is no joke, it was really hard for me to learn English until I moved to California when I was 13, I came back after two years and became a trainee soon after.

"It's really not that much." She said turning away, but I noticed the small smile on her face and grinned. Seungho grabbed his bag which contained his books and everything, ready to head into our 'study room' which is just a small room with some desks and chairs.

Lishi's POV

After Rae left to meet her group I went off to go and see mine. I got a picture of them and they were all really young looking. Like the oldest was probably my age but the youngest was like the age of my eldest younger sister, I have more than one sister.

"Okay Lishi, here's Sync I think they're practicing the vocals for one of their debut songs so lucky us we get to hear them!" Yoojin said with a mega watt smile. She was like a sun, a bright, cheery, happy go lucky sun. But she's nice enough.

Walking in the first thing I saw was a large recording studio. Two boys were in the booth thing singing whilst a producer and the rest of the group were behind listening to it. Once the producer saw me he stopped what he was doing and called for them to take a lunch break.

"Hello you must be Alishbah I'm Lee Donghae. Just call me Mr Lee, nice to have you on board with us today!" He got up to shake my hand as he introduced himself, but what surprised me is that he got my name right. Nobody ever gets my name right on the first go. I shook his hand politely with a smile.

"Now to meet you as well Mr Lee, I'll be looking forward to working with you and the SYNC members." I said and looked over to my right so see the boys looking back at me.

"Hi I'm Junho! Aleeshbah right?" The youngest looking one spoke up first. My eye twitched slightly but I kept it in, it's fine my name isn't the easiest to sound out....

But the rest of my time was spent hearing this:

"Alishubah?"

"Arisubah?"

"Alibaba?" Okay that last one wasn't even close come on.

I learned the youngest was only 15, so younger than I thought he was. And the oldest was 23. There was Junho, Ever who's actual name was Jinyoung, Saint who's actual name is Yejoon, Sungjin and Minho. Interesting fact I learned today during lunch is that Minho is Muslim. I noticed he wasn't eating any meat and asked if he was vegetarian out of curiosity. He just replied that the meat wasn't halal which surprised me slightly. I shared some of my chicken with him and we both had a good conversation.

The day went by pretty easy and the younger boys had lessons so the older ones and I had nothing to do. It was just me, Minho and Saint. They asked if I wanted to listen to some of their works and I agreed. All their songs are gonna be released in their new debut album and I can't wait because their voices are amazing. Minho is the main rapper but he's also a great vocalist. And Yejoon has such a nice smooth soft voice. He reaches higher pitches than I ever could and that's pretty awesome.

"So do you have any plans tonight Al- Lishi?" Minho said almost using my full name but switching to Lishi when he was about to make a mistake. It doesn't offend me in the slightest when anyone gets my name wrong sometimes it makes me laugh. But they're making an effort and I appreciate it.

"Ah no my friend Rae and I are probably going to go home and do nothing, why?" I said whilst looking over some of their album artwork, their artist went for a very bright rainbow like cover for their album.

"How about we go out to eat all of us as a group! So we can get to know each other!" Minho spoke excitedly. Oh that would be cool, but I don't want to leave Rae and Seohyun behind. I'll just text them to see if they're cool with it.

L: Hows everything on your side?

R: Pretty good how about you?

L: Just the usual butchering of my name....

R: Ooh that sucks 😂

L: Sooooo Minho invited me out for dinner...

R: Minho???

L: hes the leader of Sync

R: oooh girl go ahead it's fine! Besides Jaehyun invited me for dinner with the boys

L: dont do anything I wouldn't do lol 😂

R: whaaaaat I'm an angel 👼😂

L: sureeee. Anyways talk later cause its work time

R: See ya

Well that's Rae sorted then. I put away my phone and head over to my office. I know I have an office this is exciting! I have to look over their schedule for the next two weeks and schedule any appointments that need to be booked in and such. They have their official debut in five days and an appearance at After School Club two days after. And loads of other show appearances like Idol Master and stuff.

Minho and Yejoon are going on Hello Counsellor as well right after the After School Club appearance literally on the same day so it's going to be busy. And I have to accompany them everywhere. I used to watch these shows on YouTube but now I'll be seeing them from backstage this is new, slightly terrifying and exciting.

My work scheduling and calling lasted till 7pm when I was supposed to get off work. I still had a few things left to do so I stuck around until 8:30 when Jinyoung and Yejoon knocked on my door.

"Hey noona Minho-hyung said you were gonna join us for a night out?" Jinyoung said poking his head in. Aw he's kinda adorable, he's only 16 so he's really young. But then again Junho is 15. Well actually he's still 14 but his birthday is tomorrow so he's almost 15. Yejoon was 19 so he's a little closer to my age. I feel old though being referred to as noona, but I am way older than everyone except Sungjin and Minho.

"Oh yeah I nearly forgot! I'll just email this to myself." I turned my attention quickly to my work and sent myself an email so I could work on it when I got home. I didn't have a coat so I just grabbed my bag and we headed outside to meet the others and go to this korean barbecue place. And since Minho and I are Muslim they found a halal place. I love how they're so considerate it's nice.

This'll be a fun night! I hope....