“Yah! You just cursed me, didn’t you?” she  slowly hit his arm.
“Ani! Animnida!” he quickly waved his hands.
“Yah! Excuse me, sir!” she pretended to shout over to the boy at the entrance. “What does ‘non alun…’ something mean?”
“Nonun aluum dahwo” he completed her. “Means ‘you are beautiful” his voice froze her.   
“Yah! You … brat!” she shouted after nearly 2 seconds when she came back to her senses. She just put her bottle on the table making it shake and walked away mumbling for herself “Aish.. Jinjja…”
“Oh?... N… noona!” Seunghyun quickly got up almost knocking the table off.
He reached her quite fast but he forgot what he wanted to say when she took the bowling ball in her hands.
“Yah… Noo… Lee-ssi, why do you look like you have never played bowling before?” he could hardly abstain a giggle.
“Lee… Lee-ssi?” Liana repeated for herself and turned around to face him but he was way closer than she anticipated so she bumped into his chest.  She quickly turned her back to him again.
“Well… because…” she started saying but her words froze along with her body.
Seunghyun stretched his right hand over her right arm and guided her fingers towards the wholes of the ball.
“You have to stick your fingers in here…” he almost whispered in her ear when he bent a little to reach her height.
“…What… are you doing?...” she couldn’t take it anymore and rolled her head to meet his eyes but instead she only found his lips too close to her face. She gulped and turned her head away.
‘You DO realize kids are watching us???’ she needed to yell but she masked her shock with an obedient smile.
“Nae…” she answered.
“You also have to bend over when you throw the ball” he smiled placing his hand on her back now to make her lean forward.
Liana threw an angry smile and decided she could play a little too. She pushed her behind a little, just enough for him to feel but invisible for the children’s eyes.
“Like this?” she asked.
“Ani, noona” Seunghyun replied “This is what you do at golfing. Here the movement it’s more from the shoulder” he explained almost smiling.
“Yah! You brat!” she shouted angry on the battle she just lost. “ I KNOW how to play this!” she threw the ball on the track but it went all the way to the edge, bypassing every single pin.
“Well… it happens to every newbie…”  Seunghyun laughed, friendly tapping her shoulder.
“You try playing in these!!” she snapped at him pointing to her high heels when even the children started laughing.   
    After almost 2 minutes she was wearing the special bowling shoes and sending flame glares to the track right next to her where Seunghyun and the boys formed a long row, one behind the other, all applauding and cheering on him.
“Are you ready, kids?” he shouted.
“Aye! Aye! Captain!” the boys answered really enthusiastic.
“Aish… you showoff…” Liana hummed throwing angry stares at Seunghyun. “Let’s kick their butts!” she shouted too and the girls behind her cheered clapping too. “Everybody, let’s have fun!” she said again smiling brightly, making Seunghyun gulp.
The big, round block on the wall moved its simply shaped needle to 6 making it 8.30 already.
“`Teach! Are we winning? Luisa asked when  they all gathered around ‘the girls table’.
“I have no idea” Liana answered “But I’m surely having fun. How about you?” she asked them sipping the last drop in her bottle.
“Yes! Us too!” all the girls cheered.
How could they not have fun with Seunghyun’s playfulness and Liana’s clumsiness?
The game ended in tight score: 300 to 28… 300 for the boys, the rest for the girls.

***

“Anyoung hee gyeseyo” tried his best in spelling it the last boy entering the hotel’s  room.
“Anyoung” Seunghyun took a short bow after the little kid did so.
Liana just waved him goodbye.
“You let them sleep alone?” Seunghyun asked after she closed the door.
“Aniyo. There is a teacher in every room, but they come only during the night” she explained. 
“But where are you from?”
“Europe” she answered smiling.
“School trip?”
“Ani. Personal trip. A bunch of really rich parents wanted their kids to see the world…”
“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to stick to your continent?” he mumbled.          
“Why? You don’t want us here?” she giggled.
“Oh, ani! No, no!!” he quickly started waving his hands.
“Gomawo!” she stopped in front of her grey door.
“Oh…” Seunghyun hid his hands back inside the coat’s pockets. “It was really my pleasure”.
“It’s not that I couldn’t have done it all by myself, but with you, the kids had more fun…” she found herself talking out loud.
“I really enjoyed myself today. More than I usually do” he laughed trying to keep his mind away from her body earlier today when he basically hugged her; he failed. Even more so it actually played another trick on him and brought Liana’s lips over his once again. 
By the looks of it, today she seemed to have gotten the same image, because they both flinched in the same time, as they just recovered from a strange dream.
“Ahm… good night! Gomawo!” Liana hurried to say and stepped behind the door.
“Jaljja…” Seunghyun said even if already closed the door. He stood there staring at it as if he knew she was spying on him from the other side.
“Aish.. you brat…” she thought she was whispering.
“What?” he glued his hand and ear on the door. “Mueoragoyo?”
“Aish…” she quickly covered with both of her hands and glided down to the ground. She even stopped breathing so she could listen more carefully.
‘Go home, kid… go home…’ she pleaded for herself waiting until she couldn’t hear any noise at all.
She recovered her courage and peeped on the door’s eye again. There was no sight of him. She slowly and silently opened it up. There was indeed no body on the door so she sighed more than relieved. She bounced the door a little too hard making Seunghyun’s steps to stop right after he passed by the corner that lead to the elevators. He took a quick step back so he could look down the hall towards her door. He shook his head smiling.
‘I must be hearing things…’ he said searching his phone inside the coat’s pocket. He turned it back on and slowly freaked out when the many messages, missed calls and even chat balloons filled up the rather big screen. He looked around as if he wanted to ask for help and he was about to close it back when one chat balloon drew his attention with its really big-headed annoyed emoji. He raised his brow and tapped on it. His eyes doubled, then quickly he dialed a number as he began running down the stairs.
“Nae, Jiyong-ah, mianhae!...” he started talking in Korean “Yes, I’m on my way! I’ll be there in 15 minutes…”
“Yah! Aish! Hyung!! What the Hell’s wrong with you! I know you have your moments, but this time you’re too much! Hurry up!!” the voice on the other line stirred around. “You’d better be here in 15 minutes!! We’re on in 20!!”
“Yeah, yeah… I’ll be right there! I’m already in… the cab…”  Seunghyun said basically throwing himself on top of a yellow car after he waved at it just two times.
“Ok, just hurry up! Aish… this crazy hyung! Hurry! Really now hyung, what’s wrong with you, turning off your phone and all…” Jiyong kept on babbling but Seunghyun wasn’t listening anymore.

***

Inside her room, Liana tried finding something interesting to watch on TV, but nothing looked appealing. Some music show was about to begin so she just put the tv remote next to her and the images on the tv screen turned from the quite noisy MC into Seunghyun’s shoulders; from that it jumped to his sweaty forehead from this morning, and it went on with the bowling game and the way he taught her to play.
“Oh God…” she whispered “… what am I doing?... what am I going to do…?” she asked barely whispering. Two slow tears came tumbling down her cheeks but she had to quickly chase them away when the phone inside her pants started buzzing. She checked the caller and as fast as she could she wiped them away, took a deep breath and applied a smile on her lips.
“Hello!” she answered the phone. “Hey… how are you?” she said in trembling voice. “Huh? Of course I’m not crying! Why would I be… No, wait, it’s just that the volume it’s too loud, just a second please” she grabbed the remote and pushed the red square key button just when the MC was shouting “Biiiiig Ba….”

***

“BANG!” the five boys shouted at once from the spinning stage. Tones of sparkling confetti flew from the ceiling as the spotlights turned off one after the other leaving the fussy crowd into an endless ocean of yellow lights and loud cheers.

***

“Hyung! What’s wrong with you lately??” someone grabbed Seunghyun’s arm as soon as he stepped outside the backstage and into a bright room.
“Aish! Ji-ah!...” Seunghyun whined but not too loud since he was quite happy that his shoulder didn’t hurt as bad as it did a couple of days ago.
“Mian…” Ji quickly let go of him.
“Hyung! We did a good job today!” the smiling Daesung reached them in less than three steps, as well as the other three boys.
“Mhm, good job everyone!” Seunghyun mostly mumbled when his eyes hit the filming cameras. He lowered his head trying to stay as far as possible from them.
Finally the mini-interview of 6-7 questions was over and they could now exit the big glass doors.
“Hyung…” Jiyong followed Seunghyun’s steps again “…how’s your wound?” he asked easily touching his friend’s shoulder.
“Uh…uhm… much better, thank you!...” Seunghyun answered a little surprised by the sudden change of attitude in his younger friend. “What’s wrong?” he smiled suspicious after a while seeing that Ji would just walk beside him in silence.
“Huh? Nothing. Why?”
“Aish… never mind” Seunghyun said laughing. “Well, bye now…” he started stepping in another direction.
“Hyung, where are you going?” Ji grabbed his healthy arm.
“Home. Why?” Seunghyun almost smiled.
“I’ll drive you home, c’mon!” Ji said dragging him along.
“Aah… I see what’s going on” Seunghyun finally sighed after a short while. “You’ve been talking to Dae, haven’t you?” he giggled.
“Huh? What was I supposed to talk about with Daesung?...”
Jiyong stopped in front of his white Lamborghini, opening up the doors with just a remote touch totally abstracted by his friend’s giggles.
“Ani… nothing” Seunghyun put on a suddenly innocent smile entering the car. “But then again, why do you want to take me home?” he laughed fastening his seatbelt.
“Yah! What do you mean?! I always take you home!...” Ji mutinied.
“Yes, you do” Seunghyun admitted. “You give us ALL a ride, but today, somehow you ditched everybody else.”
“Aish… aren’t you the smart- hyung” Ji laughed racing the engine. “Open the window!” he quickly said when Seunghyun looked for something inside his own pocket.  “I just wanted to find out why you were so late today, but it looks like a have a bunch more to find out about” he  explained asking for a smoke from his friend’s newly lit cigarette.

***

The sheet reigned over the floor as if someone had spent the entire night trying to find out just how many folds can a cotton piece get. A squeaky “Aish…” suddenly came from under the flowered pillow followed by some more really uncomfortable hums.
“I can’t sleeeeeep!!!” the pillow came flying around revealing a double-eyed Liana staring at the ceiling.
The big clock on the wall indicated an hour long past midnight.
“Why… won’t… you… let… me… sleep??” she asked out loud timing her every word with a kick on the soft mat. “Get out of my head… jebal…” she whispered  crawling out of the bed. “I really must be going nuts” she kept on talking to herself while she reached the small fridge. She opened it and grabbed a bottle of beer. She drank it almost all at once. A soft smile flourished on her face but she instantly killed it with a violent shake.
“Ani! An-dwae! You really can’t! Michyeosseo??” she started mixing up languages again fighting with an invisible foe in her head.
Thinking it will help, she put the bottle on the round table and claimed her long forgotten cellphone. She started clicking and swiping  but every finger movement brought tears in her eyes, so she ended throwing it back on the table. Without thinking too much, she grabbed her blue jeans and the over-sized sweater. A couple of minutes later, she strapped her bootstraps and exited the door. She walked slowly, without a hurry until she reached the door where earlier she said goodbye to the noisy children. She gently turned the knob opening the door and slowly nodded to the girl inside. She smiled proud at the 10 sleeping little angels and gave the thumbs up before closing the door back. She did the exact same thing to all of the other three doors too. Sooner than she could realize, she foundherself outside, in the freezing, sudden rain, but it didn't seamed to bother her. she confidently stepped over every puddle in the way, without turning left or right, not even when she had to cross the street... lucky the light was green this time...

***

    "Such a nasty wather, isn't it?" Jiyong glossed over turning on the swippers. 
    "Mhm..." Seunghyun answered taking a deep smoke from his n-th cigar.
    "I'm still waiting" Ji  smiled stopping the car at the red traffic-light.
    "Huh?"
    "Why were you hiding from the cames today?" Ji explained again.
    "But I wasn't..." Seunghyung answered with a smile.
    "Mhm... okey..." Ji pouted seeing that he won't make his friend speak. "What I must've talked to Dae-Dae about?" he tried again after a little while.
    "I don't know..." Seunghyun played innocent. "Nothing... How could I know..." he started saing but never got to finish, he just suddenly wiped the windshield to take a better view outside.
    "What? What's wrong?" Ji quickly checked the street looking for the thing that made his friend go "HUH?!". 
    He never find it... Except for the only lunatic walking in the rain as if nothing mattered in this world, no other soul was visible anywhere else. He turned to ask Seunghyun what he meant by that, but his seat was empty. 
    "Hyung??!"... he rolled in his chair looking everywhere for him.