11 | once

Florencia cried silently on the way to the SM dorm building. But her fingers gave her away, as she typed furiously into her phone. She was currently in the middle of ranting to her mother that she had been attacked by some crazy EXO fangirl. Sehun sat by her side in the back seat of the car, a small space in between them felt miles wide, and he tried to give her some space as she verbally obliterated the person who had attacked her, in complaints to her mother.

The ride back was longer than he remembered, but maybe that was because the other times were happier ones with his group members. He thought back with melancholy to the time he and the guys, when there were eleven of them left, went to get Yena at the airport before she could return to China. They had been so caught up in preventing her from leaving that they forgot Kyungsoo at the airport. When they returned for him, the EXO vocalist was furious. But the other members got a good laugh out of it.

He sighed, keeping his gaze out the window until they made it to the building, parking out front as a swarm of reporters surrounded them. All of them snapped loads of pictures and shoved microphones in their faces. 

Florencia had always been used to the public life, especially as a former Miss Universe, but this was too overwhelming, even for her. The degree to which fans and the press sought out the idols was crazy. When Sehun noticed her deer in headlights look, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, shielding her with his body as he led them into the building. People shouted things at them in both English and Korean, but neither of them responded to any of it.

They only stopped in their stride when they were safely inside the building, with guards standing at the doors, not letting anyone else in.

Sehun pulled his arm from around her and continued down the small path that led to the elevator. His manager walked ahead as well, and gestured for Florencia to follow. The three of them entered the elevator and Sehun hit the number 6 for the sixth floor in the building. It was the top floor, which had been given to their most recent group to debut, until Red Velvet debuted in August of that year. They were currently sharing the floor with the soloists of SM, but there were rumors that the company was looking into buying out another apartment building, one with more space and more floors, to accommodate their growing line up of idols.

The elevator reached the sixth floor with a ding and the three stepped out. Immediately, Sehun picked up the pace and was down the hallway within seconds, disappearing into one of the rooms which Florencia assumed belonged to him.

As they continued walking at a leisured pace, Florencia asked the manager, "What is this place?" The hallway seemed empty, but further down the hall she could hear the loud sounds of a television--a video game to be exact.  

The manager explained to her in English. "This is SM Entertainment's dorm building. The idols live here, and this is EXO's floor."

Suddenly flustered, thinking she was going to be living in a dorm floor full of handsome boys, Florencia made her opposing to it quite clear. "I signed a contract that stipulated I would be getting an apartment, as well as a monthly stipend, and all my other expenses paid for. This is not what I was promised." Though she was protesting, a part of her mind couldn't bear but to think that maybe this arrangement wasn't all bad.

"We'll keep our promise." He assured her. "You'll just be here for a few days, until we can find you an apartment in the surrounding area. Since all of this was decided on such short notice, we weren't able to get you an apartment in time before your arrival."

Florencia nodded happily, satisfied with that answer.

They reached the door to the last room in that hall. Florencia was confused to find a bulletin board with pictures pinned all over it. Some pictures included the boys she saw perform in Mexico City, but there were also seven new faces included in the pictures, twelve boys and one girl in the tacked on photographs. Hanging from one of the pins was a key. The manager grabbed it and handed it to her. 

"This will be your room for the next few days." He explained to her, while her eyes couldn't help but stare at the pictures. But mostly the girl. She wondered who she was and what she was doing on the bulletin board with EXO. Perhaps they had already done that before. One of the other members might have gotten a girlfriend for hire just like SM was doing with her and Sehun. She was pulled back from her thoughts when the manager continued, "The guys wake up early and have breakfast together. We want you to be there bright and early with your boyfriend. Since they have no schedules for today other than dance practice, they're going to spend all day at out main building. You should probably come by so that the photographers can snap a few pictures for our website since you're temporarily working for us. You'll be getting paid under the guise that we hired you as a model."

Florencia once again nodded, taking in all the information he was throwing at her.

"As soon as he gets out of practice, you two will go out for bubble tea together." He said to her, their every moment of the day had been coldly calculated and set in stone. "This is your first real test. Try to look like you're absolutely in love with him."

"That won't be a problem." She assured. Florencia Orizaba took her profession as an actress and model very seriously.

"That's all." He finished. He turned to leave down the hall, but stopped when he remembered something. "We'll let you know when he have further instructions."

-

Florencia stayed in her room most of the afternoon. She was nervous being in a new country all on her own. She got her belongings delivered to her hours later and when she heard another knock on the door, she thought it was probably another set of luggage that she had probably forgotten about. Instead she saw Sehun there, a serious expression on his face as though he was being forced to be there for her. That was probably exactly what it was. But Florencia thought he could at least try to show some enthusiasm.

"My manager said you should probably come have dinner with me and the guys." He said mindlessly, like a line being read terribly off a script. Every word was monotone and forced. Now that they were no longer in front of the cameras, he didn't have to try to hard to look like he loved her and he knew it.

She nodded her head. 

Thinking that she wouldn't leave her room for the rest of the night, she had gotten her hair up into a messy pony tail. Though it was winter, the building was equipped with a heating system, and she used that to her advantage. She had changed into a pair of short shorts and a white spaghetti strapped tank top. Her feet were bare and without her shoes to lift her at least a few inches off the ground, she was even more visibly short than he was.

"I'm just gonna change into something else." She informed him, and motioned to close the door, but he pushed it back.

Sehun gave a shake of his head. "What do you need to change for? Its only me and my group mates. You don't need to impress them." He tried to convince her to go to dinner in what she was wearing. But she wouldn't be caught dead in public wearing what she was wearing in the safety of her bedroom.

"I'm not doing it for them." She assured him, pushing his arm away. "I'll meet you there."

Florencia shut the door in his face and rushed to her luggage to find something decent to wear. She had assured him she wasn't dressing up to impress them. But there was something about having dinner with a famous idol group  that just made her want to look nice for them. After all, they were Sehun's friends and group members. She wanted to make a good impression even if she was Sehun's fake girlfriend.

She was ready within fifteen minutes, a feat in itself since she normally took much longer, and when she left her room she saw him waiting for her down the hall. He was leaned up against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. The serious expression remained, but she caught the way he subtly looked her over up and down, drinking in her appearance.

He opened the door for her and she walked into the room after thanking him and offering a small smile. Inside the room were his group mates already sat at the table. Accompanying a few of them were women. Sarang had been invited by Junmyeon, Sun had been invited by Yixing, Nari was invited by Kyungsoo, Taeyeon had been invited by Baekhyun, and Narda had been invited by Chanyeol. The last of them, Florencia recognized from instagram. She was one of the girls that they followed on social media, even though she didn't seem like she was famous. Another thing that caught Florencia's attention was that Narda was Mexican, just like she was.

Narda recognized her in a moment too and gave a loud gasp. "No way, Sehunnie!" She practically shouted with excitement. "I thought the rumors were just rumors. But you really are dating Florencia Orizaba. Oh my god, her family owns my favorite Mexican football league team. And she's a beauty queen. I admire her so much!" As she mentioned the football team, she raised her arm to show Florencia her red and blue Veracruz bracelet.

Florencia gushed, a blush tinting her cheeks. "Thank you. Maybe I can get you a signed Tibu jersey."

Narda almost had a heart attack right then and there.

Florencia smiled at her. "I think you and I are going to get on really well."

Though Florencia wanted to sit near Narda because she made her feel comfortable, a foreigner among Koreans, Sehun purposefully led her to sit across the table from Narda and Chanyeol. They ended up sitting near Junmyeon and Sarang. It took some courage, but she had been able to get over her nervousness to start up a conversation with the Baby Lips leader.

After introductions were through, the group ate together while most of them asked Florencia questions. Sun and Sarang asked her what it felt like to be the most beautiful woman on earth. The boys asked her how she was liking Korea and if Sehun was treating her well, to which she replied that she had only seen the airport, and the dorm building, so she couldn't make her decision yet, but that Sehun was treating her well and was being very sweet. Both of them knew that was a lie. When Narda started asking her questions about football, and her life in Veracruz, that was when she was finally able to open up. 

Suddenly Jongin and Minseok joined the conversation, big fans of the sport as well. Before they knew it, they were all talking about anything and anything.

Florencia was surprised at how quickly she felt welcomed by the other EXO members and their girlfriends. 

When dinner was over, Florencia had new contacts in her phone and new people to follow on social media, as well as promises to go out with the other girlfriends to see the town. But she had made more plans with Narda, to watch the Mexican league games every week, to remind them of home.

Everyone cleared and the two remained in the lounge room couch, talking. Chanyeol asked narda to wait for him while he got in the shower, then he would walk her home.

"So...is Chanyeol your boyfriend?" Florencia asked Narda, wiggling her eyebrows at her.

Narda quickly shook her head. "We're just friends."

"Why?" Florencia wondered, quickly adding, "He looks like he loves you."

"But I like Baekhyun." Narda said.

"Baekhyun?" Florencia repeated the name. She had met so many people that day that she was lucky she had even remembered Chanyeol's name. That had only been because when she was still back in Mexico, she had initially thought that Chanyeol was the more handsome group member. He was especially handsome in person, but now she thought he wasn't as handsome as Sehun. When the name clicked with an appearance, she said, "Oh...the little one with the cute sort of deep voiced laugh." She had heard plenty of it over dinner.

"Not Kyunsoo, not the little one with dark hair." Narda clarified, thinking that the former beauty queen meant someone else. "Baekhyun's the little one who acts like a class clown."

Florencia nodded. "Yeah him. That's who I meant."

She had also noticed how Baekhyun watched Narda and Chanyeol with envy. Now she was confirming that there was a sort of love triangle going on between them. Chanyeol was into Narda, but Narda was into Baekhyun. But if Baekhyun liked her too, Florencia couldn't understand why they couldn't just date. Maybe it was more complicated than it appeared on the surface.

Whatever it was, it was probably not as complicated as Florencia's relationship with Sehun.

-

a filler ish chapter for this story, but i wanted to update it since im feeling inspired, and the sooner this and sasaeng can be updated, the sooner we'll continue to get to "twelve" and then eventually "talk about boys". but i think i can start updating both the last two mentioned, pretty soon.

also, just letting you all know that this scene of florencia moving to korea and having dinner with them takes place around two weeks after baek and taeyeon announce their relationship.

thank you all loads for reading and supporting this story. it means alot!

-clary