Waiting inside the elevator, Nicole leaned against the walls as she waits till her floor is reached. The silence was actually quite sweet –except the horrible elevator music. Once the elevator stopped at its designated floor, she stepped out of it and made her way to her room. She took out the key to her room and slid it in swiftly before turning the knob.

With too many thoughts rushing through her head, Nicole didn’t notice the dim light coming from the bedroom. She casually walked into the room, not remembering two things:

1. She roomed with Woohyun

2. She still had extensions in her hair.

“Oh Nic, you’re back?”

Badump

She could feel her heart pounding, wanting to explode out of her chest so it could be freed. Her hand gripped onto her grey bag, just seeing his eyes stare at her already sparked nervousness. Nicole cursed herself from even thinking this plan would work out at all the way, after all a few people knew how her sister looked like. His face was splashed with disbelief, his brown eyes examining from head to toe.

“What is this?”

The door she pushed open was now slowly closing behind her. The squeaking of the door filled the silence between them. was slightly open but nothing came out of it. She didn’t know what to say.

“I-I can explain,” Nicole carefully began to spoke, gesturing the shocked male to calm down a bit.

“Please do because right now nothing makes sense,” Woohyun pointed to the way she was dressed in obvious distress.

“I’m dressed like this because…” she began but drifted off, trying her best to think of the best way to get out of this situation.

“It’s not because you’re a cross dresser for sure,” he interrupted her, crossing out all the possible reasons for her to be in such attire.

“Because…”

His chocolate brown eyes stared at her, waiting for her to complete her sentence. Every second she stared in his eyes, the more nervous and guilty she felt. But in the end, she let out a sigh and gave up. Nicole couldn’t think of anything, she felt defeated.

“It’s because I’m Nicole,” she confessed, looking down at the carpeted floor.

There was a silence. Nicole directed her eyes to the male who stood like a statue. She noticed how his eyes grew bigger and his mouth grew wider as the confession started to slowly soak in his brain. Waiting eagerly to know what his reaction was, she continued to stare at him for a few more seconds till something finally came out of his mouth.

“ALFJDSLKJF!?!”

Well it was something.

“Look, I could explain,” Nicole said, trying her best to calm Woohyun down.

“Well, hurry up then because you don’t know how freaking confusing it is to find out the girl you like to be a friend in the same school, plus my roommate!” Woohyun blurted and then realizing what he just said, covering his mouth immediately.

The two stared at each other for a moment until Nicole slowly pointed at herself, already feeling her cheeks burning.

“Y-You like me?”

Woohyun took a big gulp, not knowing how to answer. Once again there was another silence.

“I’m going to get Kevin Hyung to explain what’s going on,” he switched the subject and quickly ran out of the room, leaving the baffled female.

Inside the hotel room alone, Nicole kept processing what he said over and over again but found herself getting even more confused. Her heart started to race.

“He likes me…?” she spoke softly to herself. Nicole placed both of her hands on her head, “EHHHHH!?!”

Her legs gave up on her and she kneeled on the floor helplessly. She suddenly heard the hotel room door abruptly open, making her avert her attention to the blonde male, who happens to be her brother. As soon as she saw him, Nicole couldn’t help but shudder in fear. In others eyes, he was smiling like an angel but in her eyes, she burning flames behind him and a devil’s tail behind him back. On top of that, she saw an angry mark, something you see in animes, on top of his head.

“Go outside and lift your arms up, ok?” Kevin said nicely, while he smiled angelically, but she saw the devil behind his face.

Automatically, she got up from the ground and ran out into the hallway, passing Woohyun in the doorway. She didn’t need him to say it again twice.

Kevin turned to Woohyun and gestured him to sit down. Doing what Kevin says, Woohyun walked towards his bed and sat down. He watched as Kevin walked towards the door and told something to Nicole in the hallway.

“You better keep those hands up or else.”

Kevin sure is scary when he’s angry, Woohyun thought, feeling slight terror even though he wasn’t the one Kevin was mad at. Note to self, don’t piss Kevin off.

Kevin closed the door shut and walked over to sit across from Woohyun. Once he sat down, Kevin heaved out a sigh and began to explain everything. He explained how Nicole and he transferred to school and how Nicole changed herself to a boy, also who knows about her secret.

“So,” Woohyun finally spoke, “Sungyeol Hyung and Myungsoo knew about this in the beginning?”

Kevin nodded. “Please keep this a secret, and I know you’re still quite puzzled about this. If you’re not comfortable sleeping here, I could get Yoseob to switch with her.”

Thinking for a while, Woohyun shook his head and gave an assuring smile, “It’s ok, I don’t want to cause too much of a problem. It’s just very hard to process this in my mind.”

“If you say so, but don’t worry. It wasn’t like you had any idea either, take in slowly,” Kevin comforted him. “Go to sleep first, I’ll go talk to Nicole.”

The blonde male stood up and headed his way out to find his sister with her arms still raised up high. Pain was outlining on her face, Kevin could tell easily. Once she heard the door open, she shifted her head slightly so that her eyes could meet the other person. Realizing it was her brother, she bowed her head deeply.

“Mianhae Oppa,” Nicole seriously apologized. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, really!”

Kevin swatted down to her level and gave a soft smile in return, hoping to ease his sister.

“Don’t worry, I know you didn’t mean to,” Kevin patted her head. “Now put down your arms, you must be tired.”

Her arms fell down to her side automatically, feeling at ease.

“Am I going to be sleeping in your room tonight?” Nicole asked her brother, hoping he’ll say yes.

“Yep, I think we should give Woohyun some space to sort everything out,” Kevin fortunately stated.

Nicole nodded guilty, receiving a comforting pat on her back from her brother. The two walked down the hallway together and went to Kevin’s room (Yoseob agreed to switch with Nicole).

The Next Day

A new morning came and Nicole walked down the hotel hallway. Passing by a few doors, she came up to her destination. She held her room card in her hand, hesitate whether or not she should open it. Dammit, why couldn't Kevin help clean my stuff, Nicole cursed to herself. Gathering as much courage she can, the female slid the key in the card slot and turned the handle open. The door squeaked when she pushed it lightly. Walking into the room slowly, she was praying the male inside was in the restroom or out. To her dismay, Nicole spotted a brown haired male standing near the end of his bed, packing his things. She watched his head slowly turn to her, his eyes locking with hers. 

"I-I'm here to pack up my stuff," she mumbled softly. 

The female awkwardly strutted towards her luggage once she saw the male slowly nod his head. Nicole gathered her clothes and other possessions, quickly stuffing them into her luggage. The awkwardness between them was unbearable for her and she couldn't blame him either. It was her fault for lying to him also. Nicole sighed at the thought. Their loud silence was broken once they heard the room door slam open. In sync, their heads turned to the out of breath male, who was having a hard time choosing the right words to explain what was happening. His face had many signs of panic –sweat was dripping down his forehead.

“The teacher...” Yoseob managed to spit out, “You’re in trouble…” 

The female stared at the tired male with confusion. Reading the bewilderment on her face, Yoseob quickly gestured her to follow him before running back down to the hallway. Obediently, Nicole rushed out of the room and followed the male. After a few minutes of rushing down to the lobby, the two stopped in front of a male teacher.

“I was going to go to your room, but I guess since you’re here I won’t have to,” the teacher said.

“What’s going on?” Nicole asked.

The older male held up a paper and explained, “The staff gave me this receipt, which shows your room verification card and supposedly it was used to get into the female showers. Care to explain?”

Yesterday night was enough for Nicole, but now it seriously seems like God is trying to kill her. She was speechless; the shock in her face explained everything.

“Well?” the teacher asked again, feeling impatient.

“Y-You see, there m-must’ve been a mistake—” she began to explain without being able to form a perfect sentence without stuttering everywhere.

“I lost my key yesterday,” someone interrupted her. “It was probably a female that found it and used it, I’m extremely sorry for my carelessness.”

Nicole turned around and saw Woohyun next to her, bowing to the teacher for apology. The older male must’ve never expected this because he was brought a back from Woohyun’s sudden statement.

“But Woohyun-shi, it was Nic’s key,” the teacher explained, suspecting the student was trying to cover up for him.

“We must’ve accidently switched it since the two looked identical anyways,” Woohyun said.

The teacher took a while to digest what Woohyun said to him, trying to connect everything together. He then turned to Nicole and offered a small bow.

“I’m sorry for suspecting you, Nic-shi.”

Surprised by the sudden apology, Nicole shook her head and said, “No, don’t worry about it.” It was actually my fault anyways.

The teacher then left after scolding Woohyun for a while to be more careful. Leaving Woohyun and Nicole alone, the female decided to make her move.

“Thank you,” she told Woohyun. “I owe you big time.”

The latter coolly shook his head and stated, “You don’t need to worry about it.”

He then walked back to the room, leaving Nicole standing by herself. Feeling a sense of awkwardness and regret, Nicole slowly followed behind him as she sulked. 

It was time to visit the aquarium so all the students quickly gathered in their assigned buses. Sitting in the bus, Nicole stared at the window looking for a certain person.

“What are you looking at, Nic?” Kwangmin wondered, staring outside with her.

“Nothing,” Nicole quickly responded and placed her gaze at the seat in front of her.

Kwangmin shrugged, going back to his seat and talk with his brother. Occasionally, Nicole would glance at the window. Why isn’t he coming out? Nicole thought. At that moment, she noticed a brown haired male walking towards the bus. A small smile cracked onto her face, watching him enter the bus. As soon as he stepped into the vehicle, Nicole quickly made eye contact with him as if telling him to sit beside her. The male looked at her with confusion at first, slightly hesitant with her offer. Please, she begged with puppy eyes. The male sighed in defeat and sat beside her. There was a silence between them for a while, they did not talk or made eye contact with each other. It wasn’t until the bus started to go down the streets that Nicole decided to make her move.

“Woohyun-shi,” Nicole said. “Thanks again for before.”

He merely shrugged in response, “No problem.”

Another silence was caught between them once again.

“C-Can we start over…?” Nicole asked despite the outrageousness of her request. “I-I mean can we forget about this misunderstanding.”

He looked deeply in her chocolate brown eyes, thinking whether or not he should agree or not. Nicole would not be surprised if he said no to her, she was the one who created this chaos.

“Fine,” Woohyun said, delighting Nicole. “But, you have hang out with me at the aquarium.”

Nicole smiled and accepted quickly, “Of course, no problem!”

“Only us.”

“Mhmmm,” she gleamed in delight, “it’ll be really fun!”

30 Minutes Later

“Alright, everyone off the bus,” one of the teachers instructed. “Make sure you take everything with you. We won’t be using the same bus later.”

“Neh,” the students said in unison as they got up from their seats to stretch and head out.

Nicole and Woohyun sat in the back, making them one of the last ones to come out. The others were already outside, waiting for them. What they didn’t know was that the two had already secretly left. After waiting for a few minutes, the group became impatient.

“Where are Nic and Woohyun at?” Kwangmin whined.

“I’ll go check inside the bus again,” Myungsoo said, sensing that something wasn’t exactly right.

The group just waited and watched him come out of the bus again. He shook his head and shrugged, which made the males raise their brows.

“Where could they possibly be?” Nichkhun wondered. 

The answer is just four letters, Myungsoo thought, annoyance slowly fuming out of him. D.A.T.E.