18 | dieciocho

For the second time that day, Florencia's manager was visited by an EXO member. This time it was Oh Sehun who went to see him, but both members had the same objective and the same person in mind--Florencia Orizaba. Jongdae and Sehun were concerned about her, and neither of them thought she needed to go on a diet. Both Jongdae and Sehun thought she was perfect just the way she was. 

He knocked on the door, and when he was allowed inside, the manager looked at him with eyes widened in surprise. "Two people coming to Kkot's defense in one day? That girl is highly solicited these days."

Sehun raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, you didn't know?" The manager feigned being surprised. But he knew well that there was something going on there. The relationship between Sehun and Florencia wasn't as perfect as SM Entertainment tried to paint it. With Jongdae coming in between them like that, clearly too concerned for the super model, the manager noticed that there was something more there. "Your group mate Kim Jongdae came by earlier, demanding that we take Kkot off her diet. He said that we shouldn't submit her to our beauty standards when her body is naturally curvy and thick."

Sehun couldn't help but feel bothered by his words. For one, he didn't like the fact that Jongdae was looking at Florencia that way, commenting about her body, and going around saying that she was perfect. He thought so too, he just didn't want Jongdae thinking it as well because it made him jealous. Then there was the fact that her manager spoke of her so simply and in such a nonchalant way. Like she was an object and not a person. Sehun felt his hand ball up into a fist at his side. Florencia didn't deserve to be spoken about like that.

He took a deep breath to steady himself and said, "My girlfriend doesn't need anyone else defending her as long as she has me. Forget what Jongdae hyung told you. What matters is what I'm telling you now. Kkot is...so beautiful, and I couldn't be luckier to have her. Don't make her think otherwise."

Sehun said what he needed to say and left the office without waiting for a response. He was going to return to dance practices, since he had gone to talk to Florencia's manager during his lunch break. On his way, he ran into Jongdae in the lobby. The older boy offered a friendly smile as the maknae approached him. "Hello Sehunnie." He said cheerfully. Even though Sehun was the younger one of the two, he was a good few inches taller than Jongdae. His hyung was one of the smaller boys in the group, along with Minseok and Kyungsoo. They were of average height in reality, but compared to the other boys they appeared small.

There was a serious look on Sehun's face and upon noticing this, Jongdae's smile dropped an octave. He could already sense that something was wrong.

Before he could even ask, he had his answer.

"Hyung, what do you have for Kkot? What's the deal with you and her?" He asked without holding back. He wanted to settle things once and for all, if need be.

Jongdae was instantly taken aback and it took him a moment to respond. "What do you mean, Sehunnie?"

The maknae began to explain, "You worry a lot about her. You were the one who went out of his way to invite her to dinner with all of us. You asked us all to let her know that she's beautiful and doesn't need to lose weight." As he heard himself speak, he couldn't help but come up with assumptions. Jongdae seemed too invested in Florencia, and there really was no reason for him to. "And I just talked with her manager, asking him to lay off and let her eat what she wants. He told me you talked to him about her earlier today too."

"I just worry about her." Jongdae said, his voice clearly nervous.

"But why?" Sehun insisted. "She's nothing to you."

That was where Jongdae gave a firm shake of his head. "She's not nothing to me. We're friends and I care about her."

"You have no right to step in." Sehun said, a reprimand in his voice. He was all but pleased to know that Jongdae liked Florencia, even in the slightest. He wanted all of her attention only for himself. He didn't think that it was right for him to be saying or doing things for Florencia when it was Sehun's job to do, as her boyfriend. "She's with me and she doesn't need other people coming to her rescue."

In the moment he remembered promising her that he would try to get along better with his hyung. But he just couldn't. Not when he was clearly interested in Florencia.

Jongdae heaved a sigh, shaking his head in disappointment at the group's maknae. "Instead of arguing with me, you should check in on her. I saw her earlier and she looked bad. Then she fainted and when she woke up, she ran away claiming that she was late for her appointment with her trainer at the gym."

Sehun had noticed it too. It had only been a couple of days, but he saw the way Florencia hardly ate and was losing so much weight. He spent a lot of time with her, for show and to check up on her and Vivi whenever he finished his schedules in the afternoons. Her face had lost most of its cute roundness and her cheekbones were much more prominent. Her green eyes were dull and tired and there were dark circles underneath. She was still beautiful, but very tired and very weak because they didn't let her eat.

Sehun often tried to sneak her food, but she refused to eat any of it.

He said nothing to Jongdae and walked past him, headed towards the practice room. But he had one thought in mind. He was going to try to help Florencia. What SM Entertainment was doing to her was not right.

-

Florencia got done with her training session and her trainer allowed her to have a protein shake which she downed in about two seconds. She was so hungry, and the shake was all she was allowed to eat until dinner time later. It did nothing to satiate her hunger. But she was allowed to leave the private gym at the SM Town building. 

She went into the locker rooms to take a shower and as she washed her hair, the warm water ricocheting off her skin, she began to hum an old song that had gotten stuck in her head from the previous night. She and her sister had filmed a video for their youtube pages, in which they listened to snippets of old songs from when their mother was a little girl, and they had to guess the song. One particular song had been difficult to guess, and they listened to the entire intro, and even the first verse, until it reached the chorus.

The twenty year old got really into the song and began singing at the top of her lungs. It didn't occur to her that someone could be listening, or even paying attention to her since she was in Korea and was singing in Spanish.

But she was taken off guard when she slid the curtain aside and saw someone standing there waiting for her. She was a woman Florencia had never seen before, but she was clearly an SM manager. Her hair was damp and there was a grin plastered on her face. If it had been a cartoon, Florencia would have probably seen dollar signs in her eyes. Florencia held the towel wrapped around herself tighter and eyed the woman with suspicion.

"Uh...can I help you?" She asked with hesitance. In reality, she almost didn't want to ask her anything and walk past her. But she wasn't sure if the woman would follow her out into the changing area if she ignored her.

"Yes." The woman nodded her head. "You're Kkot Orizaba, aren't you?"

Everyone in Korea didn't know her as Florencia Orizaba, because her first name was so difficult to pronounce in her language. Instead, she was known as Kkot Orizaba. Kkot was the Korean word for flower. 

She nodded her head slowly. "Yeah."

"I didn't know you could sing." She commented with a smile. There was obviously an underlying greed to her discovery.

Florencia gave a modest shake of her head, refusing. "I really can't."

When she was in primary school she had been in the children's choir, and she was in a church band. She liked to dabble here and there with music. But her primary passion was modeling and then acting. She only saw music as a hobby. Something she didn't see herself making a career out of. The manager didn't seem to think the same was as her though. SM Entertainment was always thinking up ways to show off their idols, whether they wanted to showcase that certain talent or not.

The manager swatted a hand at her shoulder playfully. "Don't be silly. I liked what I heard just now, and I think our music managers would think the same."

She allowed Florencia to get dressed and then ushered her into one of the upper floor offices, where the music managers were located. With Florencia in tow, the manager explained in Korean that she thought their newest SM idol could bring them a lot of success and income as a soloist. 

"We can launch her as a soloist." The manager said with excitement, this time in English so Florencia could understand them. "She was singing a beautiful song in her language that we can translate into Korean as her debut song. I think the fans would really respond to her, especially since she'd have Sehun's support and influence to back her."

"I'm really not interested in becoming a singer." Florencia informed them.

The other manager, one of the music managers who would in turn respond to the higher executives, dismissed her with a shake of his head. "When you signed your contract with us, it was clearly stated in the fine print that we can debut you as any kind of idol we want, depending on your talents." Florencia didn't remember reading that when she signed. She only remembered the managers of SM quickly explaining the contract to her and urging her to sign. They had explained to her that it was a contract for a modeling career with acting opportunities. 

"Or we can make her a trainee with Pink Sunday." The woman manager offered, but crinkled up her nose, refusing her own suggestion. "I just don't think it would be worth waiting that long, since Pink Sunday will debut until 2016."

Florencia didn't plan to stay in Korea that long. That was about a year away.

"I like her as a solo artist." The music manager said. "She's really pretty and has the right kind of image. Combine that with her foreignness and the fact that she'll be singing in Korean, her popularity will skyrocket."

It looked like they were both already making calculations in her head.

"I think, since its her debut, maybe we should make her duet with one of our already well known male idols." The music manager suggested. His brain was already sifting through a list of possible candidates.

"Kyuhyun of Super Junior? Jonghyun of SHINee?" The woman manager named a few male vocalists of their company.

But the other manager shook his head. "She's only twenty, and they're much older than her. We need someone younger. Someone we can market as a love interest in the music video when we film it. Someone that will look good by her side." The first two suggestions would have sounded good by her side, but they needed someone who would have the chemistry to stand beside a beauty queen as well. The music manager thought someone younger would look better. 

They both thought about it, with Florencia sitting there having no say in the matter.

"What about an EXO member?" The music manager put the suggestion on the table. Florencia immediately felt her heart stop.

"Baekhyun, D.O, or Chen." The woman manager named the three vocalists of the group.

"Chen." The two of them decided quickly, with the music manager adding, "He's the better vocal of the three. He'll support her voice well because he'll easily adapt to her style."

And then it was decided. 

Florencia Orizaba would debut as a soloist with SM Entertainment, under the stage name Kkot. And her debut song would be alongside EXO's Chen.

-

my newest chapter for this story.

i just thought that florencia was having a lot of lupita d'alessio vibes, being forced to do shit she doesn't want to do. so then i thought i would go all out and make her a singer as well bc i have been watching the drama series about d'alessio's life.

lupita d'alessio was really pretty and talented. she initially wanted to become a dancer. but her father saw her potential in singing and forced her to become a singer.

thus, she has been regarded as one of the best mexican singers of our time.

but she hated every moment of it. that's why she became a drunk and a drug addict. my fave song of hers is  "mi corazon es un gitano" (my heart is a gypsy). its such a beautiful song. but i alway sfeel bad for her when i listen to it because she was so unhappy all her life because she was forced to be a singer and she didn't want to.

-clary