[20:10:08: Will]: Where are you? Everyone is here.

[20:19:05: Will]: You’re not lost are you? I gave you the right directions!

[20:21:10: Me]: Something came up and it’s urgent, would you please tell people that I’ll be late and that I’m sorry? I will be there asap. Sorry.

[20:21:49: Will]: Is everything okay?

[20:22:07: Me]: Yes. I’m sorry, I’ll be there.

[20:30:15: Will]: Ok.

I sighed putting my phone back in my pocket wondering how much more time I had before my crew left the restaurant to go back home, next to me Chanyeol was using his mobile to talk to s, I couldn’t understand a word he was saying but he kept laughing so I guessed things would work out for him and I was glad, after all it wasn’t his fault those girls crowded the café since he couldn’t know he’d be found.

Lost in my thoughts I didn’t realize he had ended the call until he poked my arm “They aren’t mad at me!” he smiled “Kyungsoo said he really wanted his americano though”

“Even after watching all of those videos I still can’t link the faces to the names” I looked up at him, even sitting down he was taller than me “I think I need some practice”

“Ah, you haven’t told me what you thought of us yet!” he said “I think our main rapper is really great right? A true diamond he is, so handsome”

“I think you meant a diamond in the rough” I replied and he pulled a hurt expression while pushing me away “Ow! I was kidding!” I defended while rubbing my sore shoulder.

“Obviously” Chanyeol pouted “Don’t think I wasn't watching you watching our videos, you looked pretty amused if you were to ask me”

“Did I ask?” I chuckled “Also, you were watching me watching you? Creep”

“So you were only watching me? Nice” he raised his eyebrows “You can call me oppa from now on. Lots of girls call me oppa you know”

“I’m not calling you that!” I smacked his arm “Speaking of girls, don’t you think that they probably left at this hour?”

“I truthfully hope you will” he mumbled “Anyway if you want to check… I’m not risking it” he answered, so I stood up and opened the door in a rift saving enough space so I could only put my face out of it and not my whole body.

“Can you see any girls?” Chanyeol asked me as I put my face out of the door “C’mon tell me”

I looked around and even though there was a corner partially blocking my view I couldn’t see any of those teens that were out there sooner, I could see a lady and an older man cleaning the tables and the cashier counting money though so I guessed the café was reaching its closing hour, my thoughts were interrupted by Chanyeol’s face resting next to mine on the door frame “You’re too slow!” he whined “Answer me when I ask you something”

“Stay quiet!” I hissed “I can’t see anyone but the cleaning staff and the cashier, I think they’re closing, it’s almost nine anyway. Do you see anything?” he shook his head so I left the door and closed it while he moved away, turning to look at him I asked “Can we leave now? Maybe I can still make it to my meeting”

“I guess we can, you go first though” he opened the door for me to pass.

“What a gentleman you are! Opening the door for me to be put up for sacrifice” I said and he laughed as I passed in front of him “Can’t afford to lose all that uh?”

“Why are you scanning me?” he put his hands up “Do that later! Go!”

I shook my head at him and started to walk towards the front being careful for my footsteps not to make much noise on the wooden floor, when I reached the corner that previously was blocking my view I could see the entire café and my predictions were confirmed when I saw the open sign turned backwards meaning they had already closed, I hoped we wouldn’t get scolded for staying there for too long but I’m sure if Chanyeol explained the situation they would understand.

I went back to the bathroom and knocked on its door, it opened revealing an already masked Chanyeol “We can go now” I said to him and opened space for him to pass.

He held the door open and handed me my backpack “Let’s not forget this right?” and I thanked him, after it he started walking forward and I followed his footsteps until he stopped by the cashier stand and started to talk to the boy I saw there earlier, I couldn’t understand what they were saying but by the looks of it we weren’t in trouble, I guessed the guy recognized Chanyeol by his face expression or maybe he told him who he was.

At some point he rested his hand over my head and the cashier turned to look at me and I smiled still not knowing what was happening but playing along, Chanyeol said something as he handed some money to the boy who did nothing but nod, even behind that mask I could tell by the look on his eyes that he was smiling which put me at ease knowing everything was going to be fine, back in the bathroom I had already noticed that his eyes squish when he smiles and that was what was happening with them at that moment.

He bowed to the boy and I mimicked him feeling like it was the right thing to do, then he turned to me and said “I think everything is settled, let’s go!” he said and grabbed my hand leading me out of the café, passing through its glass door and finally being out in the open.

“Ah! I feel like I haven’t breathed fresh air in a lifetime!” he let go of my hand to take off his mask and put it in his pocket “Aren’t you relieved?”

“I am” I blandly said looking at my phone, it was already 9:15pm “Do you know where can I grab a cab around here? I might not make it to the restaurant in time but better late than never… Right?”

“I told you I’d drive you wherever you need to go!” he said to me “Just give me the directions”

“No it’s fine, I just need to find a taxi nearby” I argued “You have to go to your dorm anyway, aren’t your members hungry? Look, I can take care of myself, I even brought a map with me!” I took my map out of my backpack and showed it to him “See?”

“Why are you being like this?” he frowned “My members can cook something themselves I’m sure, besides I can’t leave you on your own at this time of the night all by yourself, who knows what kind of driver you can get? What if something happens? You don’t know Seoul much do you?” he asked and I shook my head no “Omo, I won’t be at peace leaving you like this! Picture this: you give your taxi driver the address of your meeting and he starts driving to a different place, as you aren’t familiar with the surrounding you think everything is going just fine and BAM!” he clapped his hand “You are completely alone with a total stranger in a new city! God knows what he could do to you! I don’t want to even start to imagine! So please just follow me”

"Let me remark that I don't even know you that much, you're almost as strange to me as the next guy" I said and he ran his hand through his hair as he asked “Please?”

I found myself cornered: if I said yes he would have to drive for God knows how long meanwhile people waited for him to go back home and I didn’t want to burden any of them, on the other hand he was the one who held me back from going to the dinner earlier and he did have a point on what he had just said to me, if didn’t even have enough time to get used to this neighborhood that seemed to be very nice and safe would I be able to tell if I was being headed to the right place or if I was being played by a stranger inside a city that remained a mystery to me?

“Are you sure I won’t trouble you?” I asked him after pondering for a while.

“Of course I am!” he answered “So, are you coming?”

“Yes, but only because you got me really worried!” I told him “Thank you”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear the first part” he smiled “Come”

Chanyeol’s car wasn’t parked too far from the café so it didn’t take long for us to get there, his car was black and very fancy, not that I was expecting a celebrity to move around in rollerblades, but as I haven’t heard of him or his group before I thought they were more low-key, for the looks of it they aren’t. I don’t know a thing about cars so I couldn’t tell which model it was neither its year but it seemed to be brand new “What are you thinking about?” he asked me as he opened the passenger door for me and got in landing on his leather seat “Ah don’t mind the mess!” he said taking a dirty napkin out of the steering wheel and I laughed.

“I sure won’t, I’ll even close my eyes” I said shutting my eyes “I see no mess at all”

I heard him chuckle next to me “You really are something” he tapped my leg “Stop this, I need you to open your eyes so you can give me the directions to where you are going”

“Ah true!” I opened my eyes and searched my backpack for my phone “Can I say them now?” I asked.

“No, just text me them so I can put them on the GPS” he replied “Give me your phone”

So I did as he said and a few seconds later his phone made a noise indicating a message had arrived “Oh I know this place, it won’t take us more than a few minutes! There you were worrying for nothing”

He turned the engine on and we took off, I decided to call Lena as Will probably was already disappointed in me, after a few rings she pick up telling me not to worry about being late because it didn’t seem that any of them were going to leave early and she assured me that Will wasn’t being a loner “He and our crew have been acting so friendly towards each other that I’m starting to feel like I’m being replaced! And I’ve known some of these people for years!” she laughed trough the phone which calmed me down a bit, she also promised to wait for me outside the restaurant so I would be sure I was at the right place as soon as I saw her, I thanked her one last time before ending our call and saying we’d see one another in a few moments.

Meeting someone so soon and already being able to count on them was new to me but I was glad that I would be able to find a friend in Lena in spite of the fact that I’ve only known her for hours, I also was counting on Chanyeol trusting him that he wouldn’t take me somewhere dangerous, but he was just a piece in destiny’s game of life, even though we had just randomly met – in an extremely weird way I may say – there I was in his car, with a soft unknown melody playing on the radio for and my acquaintance’s voice floating over it as if he had done it too many times.

“Was that your boyfriend?” he asked me as soon as the song ended.

“No, I called my friend to know how things were going on the meeting” I told him “I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that maybe I would get there and everybody would be mad at me for being so late or that they’d be gone by now”

“Ah I see” he said “I’m sorry I held you back”

“It’s okay, oh! Can you tell me when we’re near the place? The friend I just mentioned said she will be waiting for me on the outside”

“No problem” he assured me and the conversation died for a while, so I decided to grab my camera and take pictures of the road for my personal project, rolling the passenger window down I put my upper body out of it to do so, Seoul’s night streets were very bright and a crowded and even though a few pictures turned out blurred I could try and fix them later.

“What are you doing?!?!?” Chanyeol said as he reached for my arm and pulled me back on my seat “Trying to get yourself killed?!?!?”

I landed on it with a thump “What was that for?” I whined and took a picture of him as my own personal revenge “Ah aren’t you cute?” I teased and he glared at me again.

“I’m one to ask! Let me see that picture you just took!” he said sticking his hand out again.

“No! That was for dragging me down” I stuck my tongue out at him “Watch the road! Plus, I like to document things, my life for example, nowadays you can put almost everything on film you know? So your memories won’t ever go away” I briefly explained and he started laughing “What?” I asked him.

“You can’t possibly believe in what you just said” he glanced at me and I stayed mute, so he continued as realization hit him “Seriously?”

“Well, yes” I replied “In pictures and videos feelings, people and places can be eternalized. If you take a picture of someone crying they will be sad forever in it and if you take a picture of a couple on their wedding day they are forever happily in love in it, it doesn’t matter if a year later they will be filling their divorce papers, that moment back in the day will last forever and so will the feelings on it because it has been captured and saved, that is one of the reasons why I studied both journalism and film-making, to eternalize moments, no matter how great or horrible they can possibly be, at least they will always be there, I truly believe they are the only steady things in our lives, the moments we decide to save for ourselves”

“I was wondering what you did for a living but I didn’t want to seem nosy, that’s cool” he said “Okay, you do have a point but form the perspective of someone who basically lives in front of cameras, I can assure you that some of the most precious and magical moments of my life happened off-camera, unless if it’s when me and my boys are performing in concert, but what I mean is that the best things that happened to me occurred when everyone was too busy to get ahold their phones and cameras you know? If you spend your time always trying to capture things you end up investing less of it living them, at least that’s what I think”

“Excuse me? Uh, that kind of hurts my feelings"

"I didn't mean it like that!" he tried to help himself "I was just trying to make my point valiable"

"You basically just said that I'll be spending my days recording things that aren't even that great" I sighed "That's fine"

"I'm a huge jerk okay?" he replied as his eyes tried to search for me and the road at the same time "I bet you could record a piece of doughnut and still make it look like the most magical thing in the world"

I laughed as he stopped on a red light “Do you know how much longer it will take to get there?”

 "It will take around five minutes. I'm sorry" he replied.

"I think I'll recover" I smiled "Stop looking at me like that!" I laughed as I reached to pinch his cheeck and he joined me.

“You can tell your friend to head outside if you want to” he said while rubbing his face.

So I did as he told and for the next minutes Chanyeol and I made small talk until he stopped his car in front of a two-stored restaurant, looking up I could see some people and I think I might have heard Will’s laugh but I wasn’t sure of it and seconds later I caught a glimpse of Lena’s hair and wasn’t surprised when I saw her running towards me as I climbed out of the car with Chanyeol.

“Omo! I was starting to worry about you!” she said while hugging me, before that I noticed that her cheeks were rosy and wondered if she and our colleagues have been drinking “What took you so long anyway?” she said and let go of me.

“I can explain” I started when I felt a tap on my shoulder and only realized then that Chanyeol hadn’t left “Let me” he whispered “Annyeong! I’m Ch-”

But he was cut by a much chocked Lena who had been watching the scene happening before her eyes who said “Ch-Chanyeol? Park Chanyeol?”

I started to blush at my friend’s actions, hoping from the bottom of my heart that she wouldn’t pull a crazy fangirl act in the middle of the street since he had been avoiding this kind of situation the whole day, which would make me feel bad for being the one to provide exactly it. But much to my surprise he wasn’t offended or taken aback by her, actually what he did next was exactly the opposite of anything I was expecting.

“Lena?!?!?!?” he exclaimed and pulled her close to hug her “Is it really you?!?”

I just stood there watching them excitedly talk completely lost about what was happening, apparently they knew each other but I had no idea how, but to be fair I had no idea of anything, I didn’t know these people and I didn’t know this town so everything was different from what I’m used to, but I was still surprised when I asked “Do you know each other? I mean, it’s pretty obvious but how?” I didn’t want to pry but my curiousness got the best of me at the time.

Chanyeol placed his arm around Lena’s shoulder as he replied “Your friend here worked on my group’s TV show back in 2013? It was 2013 right?” he asked her and she nodded “You hair is different now though!” he said looking down at her, I was smaller than him – which was new for me because I’ve been one of the tallest persons in a room since high school – but Lena managed to be even tinier than me so their height difference was astounding.

“I still can’t get over how you guys used to say ‘SHOWTIME!’ on every episode” she laughed at the memory “But how do you know each other? You said you didn’t know anyone in the whole country and here you are grabbing a ride with him!” she smacked my arm “Can’t trust anyone anymore”

“I don’t!” I defended “I’ve only known him for a couple of hours… It’s a long story actually, right Chanyeol?” I looked at him hoping he’d catch the hint to help me and tell her to let it go.

“One I’d love to tell you!” he happily said and I mentally face palmed myself “But don’t you have to get back in there?” he tilted his head towards the restaurant door as he said so.

“I almost forgot about it!” Lena said “Ah, but I’m so curious! Join us for a few drinks will you?” she invited Chanyeol along and pointed to the rooftop “We’re sitting right there, the view is great and you’d be able to tell me the whole story!”

“Lena, I’m sure he’s tired” I said anxiousness growing inside of me “And he also have to get back to his dorm, I mean-”

“Sure, why not?” he smiled as he looked at me “A few drinks won’t hurt right?”