Despite the clouds, stars were visible that night. The starry sky looked effortlessly pretty and helped her cope with the never ending beating of her heart like it was asking to burst out of her rib cage anytime soon.

She sat on the bench outside whilst having people walking about around her. She was at an outdoor mall, and because it was a Friday evening it was rather crowded than predicted by her when she decided on coming here after her company asked whether she wanted to go anywhere in particular. But then again, she wanted it to be crowded so it would distract her from the bunch of butterflies that seemed to be constantly fluttering in her stomach. She looked up once more past the rows and rows of small lights hung above her decorating the pathways.

With her mind being very much occupied she almost didn't notice Jongin creep up behind her.

"Booh!"

Seulgi jumped as Jongin scared her from behind. She turned back immediately to see a laughing Jongin holding onto two ice cream cones while one had already started to drip down on his hand.

The both of them sat down, after sometime, to silently have each others' ice cream (Jongin did suggest on getting one and sharing since he desperately wanted to go by the book but Seulgi gave back a disgusted look at him making him ultimately buy two cones).

Surprisingly though, the date was going quite well. Both were prepared for it to be very awkward, but it seemed like they were very much enjoying each others' company, occasionally cracking jokes with Seulgi beating Jongin for doing unnecessary silly things from time to time.

"It's your turn to speak," Jongin said before shoving a mouthful of ice cream down his throat.

Seulgi rolled her eyes and asked back, "Going by the book, I suppose," seeing Jongin spill half of the ice cream that was intended to go into his mouth onto his shirt. Seulgi gave him a napkin to clean himself while going back onto staring at the sky.

"There's a lot of stars tonight," Seulgi said with a smile.

"No, those are lights."

Seulgi looked back at the stars squinting her eyes to see whether she was mistaken before. But she was not, and she saw that Jongin was messing with her again. She pointed at the rows of small lights decorating the pathways and scoffed back,

"Not them, stupid! Look beyond!--"

"Oh!...Look at me, quick..." Jongin almost immediately sounded out making Seulgi stop and look at him. She watched him stare at her like there was something weird crawling on her face. She watched him suddenly raise his hand and bring it closer to her lips. And realizing what he was going to do Seulgi immediately backed down, took out her hand out and started wiping her lips from the back of her wrist before he could get to her. She asked him back, trying to look the other way, "Is there something on my lips? Is it gone now?"

She turned back to see a disappointed Jongin who watched Seulgi jabbing her face with one of the napkins now.

"No! There was nothing," he answered back and sulked.

"Then why were you bringing your hand up to my face?"

"Because I was trying to go by the book!" Jongin sounded out frustrated but Seulgi only rolled her eyes and stood up answering back,

"Well, sooner or later I'm going to find that book and burn it!"

It was an interesting night with Jongin's many hidden antics Seulgi never once thought existed within him. It was weird for her to see this side of him yet it was strangely refreshing. They laughed, snickered and even sulked together. To their much surprise, the both of them had plenty of things to talk about, ranging from Jongin opening up about Taemin moving to the city yet he hadn't been able to contact him once, to how Seulgi worried about her mother expecting too much of her studies.

Finally, while deciding to call it a night and go back home (since Seulgi slightly mentioned how she saw Sehun bringing dinner for everyone...she didn't mention that she actually met him and left him after he begged her not to go to Jongin), the both of them stood up to walk back home.

They were side by side walking down the busy alley when Seulgi seemed to have fallen silent while tracing the stars above her and Jongin began to notice how Seulgi's hand slightly brushed his but she wasn't aware of it. Seeing her hand swing by Jongin fell into deep thought.

Going by the book...That's right, just going by the book...

He thought once more hesitating whether he should just go for it.

Jongin was planning on grabbing Seulgi's hand the next time it swung by his. He wondered whether it was okay for it may seem abrupt, and it was suddenly making him go crazy.

It's just holding hands...Just holding hands, calm down, Jongin!

He went for it! He saw her hand come by and just as his fingers were about to wrap around her's a loud shout coming from behind them made Seulgi turn around immediately, in turn making Jongin to jolt up his hand and suddenly stick it up his nose.

"THIEF! STOP THAT PERSON!"
 

The sudden chaos had made everyone around the outdoor mall a bit too confused. Jongin joined Seulgi soon to see a herd of bulky men in dusty black suits from far shouting out and running towards them.

"What's with them?--"

Jongin began to question when suddenly someone bumped onto him unexpectedly making him knock on Seulgi beside him and loose balance.

Jongin's sudden imbalance made Seulgi find him come right at her. His chest knocked on her forehead and she found her face bury in his chest while his hands wrapped around her and held her tightly. Luckily, Jongin pulled back and stopped from the both of them stumbling onto the ground. However, Seulgi was suddenly finding herself feeling breathless.

Omo! He smells so good...

Her mind was going wild. And almost like in those sappy dramas, she looked up from his chest ready to have Jongin's eyes looking down at her and probably go, "Are you okay?" in that smooth honey like voice of his. She curled her fingers for the cheesiness about to unfold.

But as she looked up, her face changed seeing that Jongin wasn't looking down to her like she imagined. Rather he was looking ahead very confused, and had even already let her go making Seulgi stand with her own two feet.

I THOUGHT HE WAS GOING BY THE BOOK!?!...Calm down, Seulgi...Calm.Down.

Seulg found herself feel furious.

Nevertheless, in a matter of seconds her desires being unfulfilled didn't matter anymore as Jongin proceeded to ask an interesting question from her,

"Did you see that? Wasn't that..." Jongin tiptoed and stretched himself almost jumping. He was about to continue but the sudden appearance of the loud bulky gang that was shouting out made him stay shut and drag Seulgi to a corner to let them pass by before he continued, "...Wasn't that Seungwan-ssi?"

 

The mere mention of the name suddenly made Seulgi's blood boil, but thinking back again the context in which Wendy's name was mentioned made her look up ahead and join Jongin in the tip toe game to look ahead.

"Seungwan?" she asked once more to make sure she didn't hear it wrong.

With Jongin's nod she wondered why Seungwan would be running away from a gang of who seemed like thugs in the middle of the evening. But then again, Seungwan was the exact type who would have bulky men chasing her around town at this hour anyway.

Jongin did see right. Seungwan was running for her life...at least till she came up with a better deal to talk her way out of the situation with the mafia boss she struck a deal with before. It wasn't just the missing camera (that Chanyeol gladly melted on his palm), but also the money she promised him was what was having her running on her heels tonight.

She held onto her jacket feeling her leg muscles starting to pull back. But she had to keep on going. She had to run away from the thugs who were right behind her tail.

To Wendy's much annoyance she took a wrong turn and soon ended up running down a deserted alley. All that chanting to herself to keep running on crowded ways was useless for she could already feel the tight grip of the bulky men who were about to grab her from her neck.

She looked back to see only a flickering light on the furthest lamp post with her on the deserted street, but she could already feel the vibration of the herd of thugs drawing closer.

And just as she saw them draw onto the alley, hoping for the best, she took a risky right turn, driving herself into a pathway with a clearly visible dead end.

"Oh !!!"

Wendy whispered harshly under her lips listening to the sound of the gang not far behind.

"What do I do? What do I do?..." Wendy looked around hurriedly hoping for some open end, but no, tonight, luck was not on her side at all.

She gasped hearing low masculine voice shout out that she went down the pathway to the right.

"No!...AHH!"

Wendy shouted at once and suddenly held onto .

But something felt out of place. She slowly eyed beside her to see a tall shadow standing very close to her. For a second Wendy thought she was being visited by a ghost who haunts the pathway but as a hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder she could feel that it was more of a ert who lived down the alley. This made her freeze all together before the voice of the shadow spoke out.

"Don't worry...It's me. You remember me, right?"

Wendy craned her neck at once to see someone smiling at her. The more she kept staring, the more she knew who exactly he was.