13 | trece

Vivi had been living with Florencia for over a week now. And ever since then, Sehun would spend all of his free time at her apartment to see him. SM Entertainment was thrilled about it because tens of photos of him entering and leaving the apartment building were always in the online gossip articles. It was nothing new, or surprising for anyone since it was a well known fact that they were dating. But even so, those pictures of him walking across the street to her apartment were always littered with views and comments. 

Florencia had left Vivi with her sister that morning, since she had a schedule to fulfill with SM Entertainment that day. They were going to film a commercial for their youtube page, their main website, and television broadcasts. It was with all the SM female artists, and they were going to then film another with the SM male artists the next day. 

She was needed bright and early at the SM building. Her sister Acacia had nothing to do that day other than filming some clips for her youtube page. That gave her the entire day to watch over Vivi until Florencia or Sehun could return from their schedules.

After finding out that Acacia was also a beauty queen and former Miss Mexico like her older sister, SM had been quick to offer her a contract to be a model and actress under their agency. But Acacia declined, telling them that she was only in Korea on vacation and did not plan to live there in the long run. Behind closed doors, she told her sister that there was no way she would give them ten years of her life, as the contract they offered stipulated. She was nineteen years old, and if she were to take the contract, she wouldn't be able to leave Korea until she turned twenty nine.

Florencia's contract was more flexible, stipulating that her contract would terminate once she was no longer needed as Sehun's girlfriend. That was in case the relationship were to end on bad terms.

She entered the building and was met by another group of girls in the lobby, buzzing with conversation. There were none that she recognized, other than Taeyeon, who grinned and practically rushed over to Florencia's side. The other girls in the lobby seemed to recognize her too, since she had been crowned the most beautiful woman in the world just years prior. One of the world's most beautiful women was now an SM idol.

"Annyeong, Kkoch!" Taeyeon greeted her with a grin.

"Hey Taeyeon." Florencia forced a smile onto her face. But what she really wanted to do was grimace at the way she was trying so hard to be her friend. That wouldn't have been a problem for her, if she didn't know that Taeyeon was actually such a fake person who was mean to others she saw as lower than her.

There were twenty seven SM female idols including Florencia and she drowned them all out as Taeyeon began to go on about how they should have lunch together that day. Florencia was finally snapped out of her thoughts by someone that approached her with a bit of hesitance. She stopped when she was standing in front of Taeyeon and Florencia, debating whether she should speak to them or not. When she finally decided, she blurted out, "Hello, you're Florencia Orizaba aren't you? I'm Joy from the girl group Red Velvet." She asked her in English with her Korean accent shining through. She had also struggled slightly with the pronunciation of her name.

Florencia smiled politely at her and nodded her head. "Yes, hello."

"I was watching that night you were crowned Miss Universe two years ago, back when I was a trainee with SM Rookies." Joy gushed with excitement. By Florencia's side, Taeyeon rolled her eyes in annoyance.But Joy was oblivious to it and continued speaking. "Your traditional outfit was so pretty, and your responses to the interview segments were so kind and well thought out. I was just wondering if I could have a picture with you, unnie?" 

She got her cellphone out of her pocket. Florencia nodded her head and was about to reply when Taeyeon was the one who spoke for her. "Joy, can you not? Kkoch isn't here for you to fawn over her." Her words were full of venom.

The younger idol's expression dropped into a frown and she lowered her head. "Sorry unnies. excuse me." She murmured, stuffing her cellphone back into her pocket.

She was about to turn and walk away when Florencia shot Taeyeon a look and simultaneously grabbed Joy by the arm gently, to stop her. "I really don't see the harm in getting a photo taken. Besides, it'll give me the opportunity to get to know my fellow label mates." Since arriving, Florencia had spent most of her time either with EXO, Sehun, or Narda. It was about time that she got to meet the other SM girls.

The two posed for a photo and Florencia asked Joy for her instagram username so that she could follow her and repost the picture of them together. Taeyeon tried to take Florencia away to meet the rest of her friends, but Florencia told her she wanted to meet people on her own. Taeyeon became frustrated and walked away to find her group of friends.

Florencia heaved a sigh of relief once she was gone.

She went to stand next to Joy again, who was now surrounded by three other girls. Florencia shot them all a friendly smile, and all of them smiled back. Though one of them gave her a very forced. 

"Hi Kkoch unnie." Joy greeted her again with a smile. Gesturing to the girls next to her, she introduced them to Florencia. "These are my group mates--Seulgi unnie, Wendy unnie, and Irene unnie."

"I just needed to get away from Taeyeon." Florencia admitted to them after they were all introduced. "I honestly wouldn't have a problem with her, if she were nicer to my friend Guti."

"She's like that." Wendy assured her. "Always looking down on people."

"I think you're one of the only people she's really been nice to." Seulgi pointed out next, continuing their gossip session about Taeyeon. In all her time as a trainee at SM before she got to debut with red Velvet, she had only seen Taeyeon act like a snob. She had singing talent and was one of the favorites in her group, which made her feel like she was better than everyone. She was only ever nice to the managers and now Florencia.

"So you and Sehun-ah are dating now?" Another one of the girls asked, changing the subject entirely. It was Irene, the one who had forced a smile towards Florencia when she arrived to greet them. When Florencia nodded her head in response to the question, Irene added another one. "Wasn't that a bit fast, how he went to Mexico for two weeks and suddenly you two are dating? All of us here were very surprised when we found out." She eyed Florencia with suspicion as she spoke.

Florencia suspected that Irene was trying to catch her in a lie, but she wasn't sure if she knew anything, or if she was just guessing. But she was able to keep her composure and she gave the ever rehearsed reply that was given to her by her managers at SM Entertainment. A response formulated specifically to answer the question that Irene asked her. "Sometimes you don't have to know a person for a long time to like them. Sehun and I were attracted to each other and decided to give a relationship a try. That's why I'm here. We've been in a relationship, getting to know each other, for over a month now and I think now that I know him better, I like him even more."

"But you moved to Korea for a boy you just met." Irene pointed out, her words emphasizing the part where she mentioned that they just met.

Still, Florencia put her acting skills to good use and kept calm. She gave a nod of her head. "I mean, it wasn't solely for him. He was half of the reason--though the company told the public he was my entire reason for moving here, to make things more romantic." She explained with a shrug of her shoulders. She was so natural and even she was surprised with herself at how easily the words flowed from her lips. "The other reason was that SM wanted to expand their reach out to Latin America and they thought that they could do it by hiring a non-Asian idol. They just decided on me when Sehun and I really hit it off at the Estrellas Y Mas photo shoot."

Irene wasn't fully convinced, but she was satisfied with the answer for the time being. It was a few more minutes when a manager went to get the SM girls and led them to one of their photo studios in the back of the building.

As they walked over there, they passed the practice rooms of the trainees who watched them excitedly from their doors, hoping to be like them some day. Many of the idols greeted them and gave them words of encouragement as they walked by, even Florencia did. But Taeyeon only ignored them and kept her head high, nose in the air with pride.

Florencia eventually lost Joy and her group mates in the small crowd and she was found by Taeyeon. "I saw you were talking to Irene and the other Red Velvet members earlier." Taeyeon said in a low voice as they walked.

"Yeah." Florencia nodded in affirmation. "They were nice girls."

She had gotten on great with Joy, Seulgi, and Wendy immediately. They had been very friendly and welcoming with her, and were trying hard to accommodate her lack of Korean language skills. The only hostile thing that had happened was the interrogation with Irene, but even that hadn't been too hostile. It was more like a suspicious curiosity.

"Well, I wouldn't trust Irene if I were you." Taeyeon said.

Florencia raised an eyebrow at her in disbelief. She was already trying to drive a wedge between Florencia and the other female SM idols.

When Florencia said nothing in an attempt to end the conversation, Taeyeon didn't get the message and instead continued feeding her information that Florencia didn't want. "There was a rumor, before Red Velvet debuted a few months back, that she and Sehun were secretly dating. Like you can search online, there were pictures of them spotted together and everything. Sehun said they were just friends, but no one believed that." As she said the last sentence, she sounded like she didn't believe that they had been just friends either. "But then they supposedly broke up because SM didn't want people to think that the only reason she debuted was because she was dating him. Rumor has it that after she debuted, she tried to get back with him, but then EXO went to Mexico and he started dating you."

There was a roll of Florencia's green eyes and a sigh that escaped her lips. "I don't want to worry about my boyfriend's past relationships. If he and Irene dated, that was even before I met him. Now he and I are together, so I don't think I should worry about this."

"Still, I think you should be careful." Taeyeon warned her.

If only to get her to drop the topic, Florencia replied with an unenthusiastic, "Thanks Taeyeon. I'll keep that in mind."

But she knew she didn't have to worry about Irene for several reasons. If it was true that they had been together, they were not together anymore because of his relationship with Florencia. And her relationship with Sehun was only a publicity stunt. She actually liked him and he had once liked her, but she ruined it with her greed to be on the cover of that magazine on her own.

At least--she now thought--he had been able to forgive her for that, in exchange for her letting Vivi live in her apartment.

And then another thought crept its way into her mind.

When she asked Sehun if Vivi had a mother before her, he said he was a single father. But Florencia couldn't help but think now--with what Taeyeon told her--that maybe Vivi had belonged to Irene and Sehun.

-

another little update for this story. now we have irene and the other red velvet members introduced into the story. don't worry everyone, im not gonna make irene a crazy witch like taeyeon. but i was thinking with that supposed rumor that taeyeon heard about sehun and irene, it could make a certain someone jealous.

i hope you all like the update and i hope you're enjoying the story. thank you loads for reading and supporting me.

it means so much.

-clary