+ nine 

The boys of EXO spent the next three hours watching the trivia game show which was had been hosted at Six Malls Over Korea that afternoon. Of course, the footage had been taken earlier in the day and had later been taken to a studio for editing before presenting it on KBS channel.

Out of all the categories, they found the Baekhyun Trivia segment the most appealing, and it was all because of one of the contestants. Narda Gutierrez Lozano, who was participating for a chance to win a one hundred thousand Korean won gift certificate for EXO's store Boy Who Cried Wolf. Of the four contestants, she had been the most appealing, and the one the boys had been cheering for because she was foreign.

She didn't speak any Korean and required a translator. But even with the mili second lag the others had as an advantage over her because they spoke the language, she was able to defeat her first opponent.

Soon there were two left of the four and they were in a draw with equal points. It was the last trivia question and the two girls at opposite podiums listened carefully. It was a question that--according to the MC--was something nobody but Baekhyun's biggest fan would know. "Who else in Byun Baekhyun's family can sing?" The MC asked in Korean, while the translator quickly tried to translate for Narda. 

Both girls were quiet for a second which felt like minutes to the people watching on their televisions at home. As though things couldn't get any more dramatic, the show cut off to commercials and Jongdae groaned out loud, "They cut off right at the good part!"

Chanyeol nudged Baekhyun. "What's the answer?"

Baekhyun refused with a shake his head. "I'm not telling."

The group had to wait for them to return from commercial break and when they did, the MC dragged out the suspense by repeating the question yet another time. "Who else in Byun Baekhyun's family can sing?"

That time, Narda hit her buzzer with lightning speed. She looked to the MC to wait for acknowledgement and when he gestured to her, she leaned into her microphone. With all the confidence that she had the correct answer, she said in English, "His mother can sing. She used to sing to him a lot when he was a child since he is the youngest in his family." There was a momentary pause for the translator to say in Korean what Narda had spoken in English.

With something of a dramatic yelp and throwing his hands in the air, the MC announced, "That is correct! We have our winner!"

Suddenly Narda felt as though she had won the grand prize automobile at one of the Latin television gameshows she used to watch back home when confetti exploded from out of nowhere, blocking her sight in a thick wall of colors. Loud music blasted from the speakers that were set up in the food court and people cheered like mad. She was surprised to see that she had been the favorite to win the contest.

She was congratulated by the SM representatives who had organized the contest, as well as the manager of the local branch of Nature Republic. The MC congratulated her as well in front of the cameras and she was handed her gift certificate. In a matter of minutes, she was moved along and the area was cleaned to welcome the next participants. 

At their hotel room in China the boys of EXO celebrated loudly for the American who had won the Baekhyun trivia portion of the contest.

The next day they would air the second part of the competition where the twelve winners would compete in an all around group trivia for another gift certificate. But the group wouldn't be able to watch because their schedule was packed for the next day. 

"Baekhyun-ah should meet his biggest fan." Minseok spoke up with an amused grin. "We should get the manager hyungs to arrange it."

The other boys nodded in agreement.

Baekhyun didn't respond and grabbed the remote from Chanyeol's hand and turned off the television as a yawn escaped his lips. "Well, its time for me to go to sleep. Goodbye boys." He said to them with a dismissive wave of his hand, as though to hint that he wanted them to get going and he was kicking them out of the room. They were all gathered in Chanyeol and Baekhyun's hotel room watching the trivia contest.

Some of the boys complained, wanting to stay a bit longer. They knew that Baekhyun and Chanyeol were normally the last to fall asleep in the group. They found it odd that this time he was the first that already wanted to go to sleep. In reality, he just didn't want Chanyeol to accidentally slip the other guys information. He didn't want anyone to know that he had already met the girl who was claiming herself to be his biggest fan. It was awkward to say the least. But the other boys had taken an opposite reaction to her. They seemed to even like her. She didn't lie to them, he recalled.

One by one, the other members left to their own hotel rooms. 

When everyone was gone, Chanyeol shut the door to the room and turned to his room mate with an amused expression. "Still salty about Narda-yah lying to you." He guessed with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Why does everyone like her?" Baekhyun asked.

"She's very likable. She has charisma." Chanyeol shrugged as he gave the only explanation he knew for that question, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets and walking towards his unmade bed which was made messy when all the other members sat on it earlier. 

He quickly kicked off his shoes and plopped himself down on the bed, laying on his back, eyes trained on the ceiling. 

"She does." Baekhyun admitted with a sigh. "I'll give her that."

Once their conversation died into a silence, Baekhyun got his cellphone out and started scrolling through his social media. 

"I thought you were sleepy." Chanyeol pointed out.

Baekhyun replied with a shake of his head. "I lied." He confessed without a shred of remorse about the fact that he had kicked the other group members out of the room. "I just wanted them to leave before you said anything compromising about me and Guti." At least he had progressed from calling her her, and into calling her Guti instead. It was the name she had introduced herself to him with.

"Look at you--lying so freely." Chanyeol said with a click of his tongue. "And you sit there having the audacity to be mad at the little liar. Shame on you, Byun."

-

Narda noticed the afternoon that Nari left how the EXO boys didn't return from their day of schedules. She hadn't seen them leave in the morning, since she had left much earlier than they probably did because she had to get to the primary school, and she hadn't seen them in about three days. The twenty year old laid down on her bed with her laptop in front of her and typed EXO on her google search engine and hit the news option.

There, she found that they had gone to China to film promos and would be there for several days. Narda jutted out her bottom lip into a pout. Just when she had to the apartment all to herself and could come and go as she wanted, EXO was out of the country as well.

At least she had the trivia contest at the mall to keep her busy.

After her segment of the competition, she had been given her gift certificate and asked to return the next day for the second part. As she was leaving the mall, she asked the manager of Nature Republic if she could keep the Baekhyun cut out in front of the store. With an amused smile, the middle aged man told her to take it and keep it as another prize after winning the contest. He also confessed to her that it was the sixth one the store had put up. They were always getting stolen by fangirls, and at least she had asked for it instead of outright taking it from the store.

She was about to shut off her laptop when she got a notification from her skype app for an incoming video call. It was from her parents back in the United States. Since her arrival in Korea a month ago, she was getting constant texts from her parents to say good night, good morning, or to wish her a good day at work. But it was the first time she had ever been so far away from them for so long. She missed her parents, she missed her brother Aldaír, and her sister Bianey.

Narda hit the answer button and put a bright smile on her face. Soon, her parents' faces were visible on the screen. "Hello sweetheart!" Her mother yelled into the computer screen in Spanish with an excited smile on her face. Her mother had a tendency to talk very loudly when video chatting because she was always afraid that the other person wouldn't be able to hear her.

"Hi mom, hi dad." Narda waved her hand in front of the camera happily.

"How's the teaching job going?" Her father asked her.

"Its great." Narda assured them with a nod of her head. "The kids are so well behaved and they're learning very fast."

"And how do you like Korea?" Her mother asked another question.

Without giving her a chance to reply, her father asked, "Do you like it there? Are the people nice to you?" Quickly, he added another thing before she could even think of anything to say to them, "If you don't feel comfortable there, just let us know and we'll go pick you up."

A nostalgic smile broke out across Narda's lips. 

Her parents were always so over-protective like all the other Mexican traditional parents that she knew. She remembered when she dormed at the university one year, her parents had been worried about her then too. They would call her every night to make sure she was okay--or as they put it, to make sure she was alive. And on the first night her father told her the very same thing he was telling her now. If you don't feel comfortable, we'll go pick you up, doesn't matter what time you call us. Like they wanted to shield her from everything. "Dad, you can't come all the way to Korea just to pick me up and take me back home." She pointed out with an amused smile. "If I want to return, I'll go to you. I promise. But everything's fine here."

"The offer is still open." Her dad assured her.

"Did you get the box of snacks we sent you?" Her mother asked. Narda's eyebrows furrowed in though as she tried to remember what came in the mail that day. "We weren't sure if they sold your favorite things in Korea so we bought stuff and sent them over."

Narda gave a shake of her head. "No, I haven't gotten anything. When did you send them?"

She would make sure to ask Nari if she had gotten anything in the mail.

"Two days ago." Her mother replied.

Narda shot her a look. "Really mom? You can't expect a package from the United States to arrive in Korea in two days. Its going to take at least ten."

The three talked for nearly an hour before Narda had to say goodbye to them. She needed to have dinner, get in the shower, and then prepare a lesson plan for the following day that would be fun and educational, to keep the children motivated.

-

yes, im going to update replacement eventually. but im having a bit of a hard time. i know what i want to have happen in the chapter. i just don't know how to go about writing it. so i'll just wait to finish it tomorrow and post a chapter for this one instead. the good thing is i have several pre-written chapters for this story.

so i just revise them, add/delete a few things, and its ready to post.

thank you all for reading and supporting my stories. and thank you loads for getting this story to one thousand reads! it means so much to me. have an awesome weekend!

-clary xx