A/N: Episode 109 :D I did not actually plan for this fanfic to go on for this long, but oh well… Sorry for the late update!

Jihyo arrived at filming late the next Monday, and as she rushed to take her place in between Kwangsoo and Suk Jin, she was surprised to see Kang Gary in the flesh, standing there joking around with Jongkook like nothing had happened. What was he doing there? She thought he was supposed to return three weeks later, not two. But the opening sequence was already well underway when she had gotten there, so she didn’t get the chance to ask him.

She tried to focus on the filming instead. She laughed at Haha’s cry that this episode would be the last time he’d release his inner playboy because of the female guest that came that day, since he was getting married soon. She shook her head in mock disgust at Kwangsoo, who rushed to defend the guest from the bee that was buzzing about her by grabbing at the bee with his bare hands. But yet, her eyes kept straying to the left where Gary stood sandwiched between Jongkook and Haha. What about his back injury? She wondered. Just a few days ago when she’d gone to his apartment to visit, he still winced in pain when he got up or sat down. What was he going to do if they were to do the nametag ripping game? Filming for Running Man was not a relaxing walk in the park.

She didn’t realize that she had been spacing out for so long until she heard her name.

“Just start over again with Jihyo, Gary-ah!” Jongkook was saying. She blinked, a little startled and confused as to why her name was being brought up, since she’d all but missed the context of the conversation from the past few minutes.

“Me? Why would I?” was Gary’s reply. Jihyo knew that the camera would pan to her face for her reaction, so she responded with a laugh and snapped out of her cloud of thoughts. The opening continued on, with the boys exaggeratedly falling all over the female guest. The time to pick teams arrived, and when the male guest selected Gary, Haha noted that Gary was injured and might not be much of a help to the him. At that, Gary indignantly exclaimed that he could still run and proceeded to jog in place as proof, though there was a clear limp in his strides.

Finally, the opening ended, and as they all headed off to get changed into team clothes, Jihyo lagged a little behind to wait for Gary. He raised his eyebrows at her.

“What’s this, Mongji-ya? Did you miss me so much that you waited for me?” His lips curled up into a silly grin.

She ignored him. “Kang Gary, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be back next week, not this week. You can barely even walk!”

“Yeah, well.” Gary lifted up his cap and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly before continuing. “I was feeling bored these two weeks, and then I felt a little better today, so I decided to come.” He set the cap back on his head. “Let’s just say that I missed you guys. It’s no fun when I can’t hang out with you!” He noticed her worried expression and laughed. “Don’t worry! I’ll be fine!” Then he limped off in the direction of the changing rooms. She shook her head, then hurried after him.

Since she wasn’t put on the same team as Gary, they were separated for the first mission, but as she stood across the pool waiting for Haha and Suk Jin to cross over to her side (with Haha falling down repeatedly in his huge inflatable hamster ball, screaming in frustration for the whole world to hear), she glanced over to where Gary’s team was doing trampoline karaoke. She felt a little better when she saw that Gary wasn’t actually jumping along with Jongkook and the guest, but instead he was standing to the side screaming into the mic. Sukjin noticed the direction of her stare and leaned in to whisper, “Aren’t you a little distracted today?” into her ear while they prepared to try the mission a second time. She blinked. She had been awfully concerned about Gary the entire day, she mused. Maybe a little too concerned. She shook her head violently, trying to shake off thoughts of Gary. Hmph. It’s probably because Gary-oppa’s such high maintenance that even in my thoughts I have to take care of him, she decided to herself while watching Haha battle with the water ball. Then she focused once again on the game, and after a couple tries, her team succeeded and moved on to the next mission.