“Sorry, I don’t drink coffee,” I said, turning away from them. They were both persistent, however.

“Smoothies?”

“Nah, what about a teashop?”

“Oh, I know!” Jun leaned into my ear. “What about bubble tea?”

I froze at those words and he grinned.

“Bubble tea it is!” Minghao cheered and they went to their seats. I sighed, knowing they wouldn’t let me escape after school.

When the final bell rang, I was packing up when Minghao came over to me.

“Want me to hold your bag?” he offered but I shook my head.

“I don’t wanna owe you any favors,” I said but he laughed.

“There’s not much you can do for us Nari,” he said as we began walking out, Jun catching up moments later. “Just take care of Mingyu for us?”

“What do you mean by that?” I looked at them both but they exchanged glances.

“You’ll just have to wait! Now,” Jun said, taking my bag off my shoulder. “Let’s dash!”

They both took one of my hands and I was being dragged through the crowds. I managed to keep up with them and we arrived at a nearby bubble tea shop. We entered and put in our orders.

“What did you want Nari?” Jun looked at me.

“My usual,” I told the waitress and she nodded.

“Gotcha Nari. It’ll come out in a few,” she said.

“I assume you come here often,” Jun said, sliding into the booth after me.

“I do. Whenever Bin was busy after school but wanted me to wait for him, I’d come here,” I said. Realizing I was being too honest with them, I quickly added, “Not that I liked him or anything.”

“Sure,” they both said and I hit them.

“I’m being very serious here!” I said.

“At least you're honest,” Minghao said.

“Definitely one of a kind,” Jun nodded as our drinks came. I stabbed my drink.

“Well…” I trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

“Let’s get to know each other then,” Minghao said.

“What am I on, a blind date?” I scoffed but Jun leaned over the table.

“Is that how you thank people for helping you on the first encounter?” he smirked and I remembered our first meeting.

“Well that was… it… I… thank you…” I said lamely. They continued to make me laugh with their antics until Joshua and Vernon showed up.

“We’ll be taking you for today, we’ll see ya later!” Hansol grabbed my hand and we were out the door in an instant.

“Do you like shopping Nari?” Joshua asked me and I gave him a look. How did he know? He grinned. “To the mall!”

Wonwoo and Chan joined us a few minutes later as I was browsing through some clothes.

“How about this Nari?” Hansol pulled out a jersey styled dress.

“It’s cute,” I admitted, looking at the skirts.

“What about this? It looks like your style,” Joshua said, pulling a light blue skirt off the rack. When I held it up to my waist, it reached my knees. What is this, Yubin number 2? Nevertheless, I liked the color and style of it and decided to hold onto it. As I went to go pay for it, Joshua bumped into me and ended up paying for it himself.

“I was gonna pay for it!” I said but he shook his head, laughing.

“Mingyu told us to be generous to you today,” he said, pocketing his wallet as Hansol brought up the jersey dress and quickly payed for it. He put it inside the bag with the skirt.

“A present for the future wife of you know who,” he said, laughing.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” I said and the boys exchanged glances.

“Wah, he’s sure slow isn’t he?” Chan said and they nodded. As I gave them a stare, they refused to make eye contact with me and we continued walking. I stopped to admire a cute pink bow before catching up with them.

“Hey, I’m going to the toilet. You go ahead,” Wonwoo suddenly said and we nodded, walking along. Chan bought me an ice cream and Wonwoo managed to find us relaxing on the bench. After my many yawns, we decided to head home. As we walked back, Wonwoo gently held me back.

“Here,” he said quietly, taking a small bag out of his pocket and handing it to me. I took the object out of the bag and saw it was the pink bow I was looking at earlier. I looked up at him.

“Thank you,” I said sincerely and he smiled back at me. Mingyu and Yubin were quick to answer the door for me and gave the boys suspicious looks before closing the door. I went upstairs, quickly washed my hair, and blow dried it. Mingyu entered my room.

“How was your day today?” he asked carefully.

“I’m not gonna snap at you Mingyu,” I said. “It was good, Jun and Myungho bought me bubble tea and then I went shopping with Wonwoo, Hansol, Chan, and Joshua. They were really nice.”

I looked at the pink bow sitting on my table and smiled fondly. I saw Mingyu's fists clench up and paused my brushing. “What’s up?”

“Did someone buy that bow for you?” Mingyu asked.

“I wasn’t planning on buying it but it was really cute and caught my eye. Wonwoo must’ve saw me looking at it and bought it secretly. He gave it to me on the way here.”

“Ahh is that so. I’ll see you at dinner,” he said, abruptly standing up and leaving my room, bumping into Yubin on the way out.

“Hey Ri,” he said, sitting down next to me.

“Hey Bin,” I finished brushing and put away my hairbrush.

“How was your day today?” he asked. I looked at him.

“Seriously, you and Mingyu are just gonna ask me the same questions or something?” I crossed my arms and he looked shocked as well as confused.

“He asked you that already?” he asked and it was my turn to be confused.

“Well, yeah. And then he just left.”

“Well then,” he said and we just sat there.

“Shall we go down for dinner?” I stood up and we walked down together, where Mingyu was setting up the table. It was cheerful at the table and as we finished up, Mrs. Kim looked at me.

“How’s the locket?” she asked and I pulled it out from underneath my shirt.

“Still intact. I don’t know why it won’t open though.”

I saw Mingyu look at the locket for a moment and fumble around but didn’t pay attention to him after that. We went upstairs, where an unknown caller rang my phone. Suspicious at first, I answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hi! Is this Hong Nari?” a guy’s voice said.

“Yes, who is this?” I was about to hang up.

“Choi Seungcheol! I was wondering if you’d like to help me and Jeonghan after school tomorrow!” he said eagerly.

“With what exactly?” I asked.

“Lyrics! I need a muse but Jeonghan isn’t good enough so I need an actual girl to fill his spot.”

“That entire sentence was so offensive to me you know that Cheol?” I heard Jeonghan's voice say.

“Uh sure I guess?” I said reluctantly and I could hear him cheering and hung up. I saved the number for future references and decided to call it a day, heading off to bed.