Note from the author: To save confusion, everything said in ENGLISH will be in BOLD font.

“I choose…”, Minhye declares twenty minutes later once you have all been told the rules and given lifejackets, “Sehun!”

It had been decided that you and Minhye would be the captains of the teams, and you had lost rock paper scissors, meaning that Minhye chose first. 

*Sneaky, she chose a tall one*, your competitive side begins to get the better of you, *Well two can play at that game*.

“I choose Chanyeol!”

Minhye glares at you playfully before eyeing up the members of EXO-K once more: “Kai!”

“Baekhyun!”

“Suho!”, Minhye completes her team.

*Poor D.O.*, you sigh as he joins you and the rest of your team, *But the shortest are always picked last in war*.

“So then”, Kai asserts with an evil glint in his eyes, “What will Jae’s team have to do when they lose?”

Baekhyun thinks about this for a moment before retorting: “You have to buy us lunch and ice cream when we win!”

Simple, but easy.

“Deal”, Sehun replies, “But it won’t be grandpa Suho who pays!”

“YA!”, Suho scowls at Sehun with his hands on his hips, “And who you calling grandpa?”

                        *    *    *

So far the highest flight is recorded at six and a half metres, executed by Sehun and Kai.

“Fighting!”, you yell to your team whilst not so elegantly making your way down the blob, “We’ve got this!”

After three turns each, yours is the last flight of the competition and you feel completely determined to beat Kai.  You position yourself at the end of the inflatable and brace yourself for impact.

What feels like an eternity passes as you clutch onto your lifejacket, until suddenly you hear the warrior cry of Chanyeol, chosen because he is the tallest and heaviest in your team, and are catapulted high into the hot summer air.

You feel completely weightless for those few seconds that you are in flight, your body unconsciously twisting as you soar through the air.  It never seems to last long enough before you plunge back into the cool water below.

Resurfacing, you slowly make your way back towards the shore where everyone has gone silent as they wait for the result. 

“And the winner is…”, EXO’s manager taunts once you have composed yourself and squeezed the worst of the water out of your soaked hair, “with a record of six point eight metres, tea-”.

He is cut short by the victory bellows of your team.

“WE WON!”, Chanyeol, D.O. and Baekhyun chant as they happily jump around, “WE WOOOON!”

Noises of disbelief emit from the losing team.

“Meeeeeehrong”, you playfully stick your tongue out at Sehun and Kai who are now kicking the dirt to vent their anger.

“Man am I starrrrrrving”, Baekhyun declares exaggeratedly as he rubs his stomach and turns to face Kai.

“Absolutely parched!”, D.O. affirms whilst clutching his throat pretending to be near death.

“I could eat twenty dumplings all to myself right now”, Chanyeol innocently smiles before adding, “And ten lots of tonkatsu”.

Suddenly you notice that all three members of your team are looking at you in expectation, so you quickly ponder your input: “I just need two servings of ddeokbokki, a box of spicy fried chicken and a gallon of banana milk.  Oh, and some chocolate chip cookies”.

“No caffeine?”, Chanyeol asks in surprise, “That’s odd for you”.

You think about this for a moment before replying: “Maybe just one really really big cup of iced coffee with vanilla cream drizzled on top… I don’t think I’d have room for much else”.

Chanyeol chuckles lightly, flashing his beautiful eye smile lines at you.  You know most people hate wrinkles, but Chanyeol’s show that he has had a life full of laughter and happiness, and you would be lying if you said it didn’t make you a little jealous. *He’s just like a vitamin*, you inwardly smile, *A ray of sunshine in a dark world*.

“Right”, you snap yourself back to reality before instructing the others, “We’d better get changed and ready for lunch!  You coming Minhye?”

Moments later Minye arrives next to you with her backpack swung over her shoulder effortlessly: “Ready when you are, chungu-ya”.

“To the changing room!”, you smile as you grab your backpack and drag Minhye behind you, “Be back in a minute!”

“Don’t get lost”, is all you hear Kai yell, obviously still sore from his defeat which makes the two of you smile.

“Did you have fun then?”, you ask Minhye as you merrily skip along.

“It was the best!”

“Have you worked out who your future husband is yet?”

“Um….”, she ponders as she holds the door open for you, “I don’t think it’s Sehun or D.O.”

“Do you want any more clues?”, you bribe her wickedly.

Minhye looks at you for a moment as if trying to work out your agenda before innocently responding: “Yes, please!”

You take a deep breath and muster your best Key impression from SHINee’s Hello Baby.

“I don’t want tooooo”, you tease whilst shaking your body from side to side.

“YA!”

“You’ve got to figure it out on your own Ojingeo.  No more help from me!”

“You’re so mean”, Minhye whines as she peels her lifejacket off.

“I know”, you wiggle once more whilst retrieving your dry clothes from your bag, “But you love me anyways”.

Instead of replying, a wet t-shirt slaps you on the back before falling to the ground with a loud squelch.

“See”, you smile as you pick it up with your right foot and kick it back in her direction, “Nothing but actions full of love”.

Once the two of you have changed back into your dry clothes and sorted out your matted wet hair, you head back outside arm in arm, excited for a well earned lunch.

“OMO!”, you gasp in unison at the wonderful sight in front of you.  Without a word the two of you stop walking so as to not to disturb EXO-K in their natural habitat.

Nearly all of them are shirtless, their t-shirts slung over the rocks to dry whilst they attend to their soaking wet hair.  

You feel a jab in your side, but before you can complain Minhye is pointing in Suho’s direction.

“I never expected grandpa to have such spectacular abs”, she declares in surprise.

You hadn’t noticed before, but his abs truly are stunning.

“It’s a shame Kai’s the only one that isn’t topless”, Minhye breathes in sadness, “I bet his are even better than Suho’s with all the dancing he does”.

“Uh-hu”, you reply, but you aren’t really listening anymore.  

In the distance you can see Chanyeol’s tall and slender frame.  His arm muscles aren’t intrusive, but they are still clearly defined beneath his pale skin.  His abs are toned deliciously and he has a faint shadow of hair trailing down from his belly button.  He turns around to retrieve his nearly dry t-shirt from the rock below, showing the two dimples on his lower back beautifully.

As you try not to drool, he pulls on his t-shirt which is still damply clinging to his shoulder blades slightly before pushing his wet hair back and placing a cap on.

“Jae?”

Minhye’s voice sounds far away still.

“Helloooo?”

You can’t tear your eyes away.

“Jae continues to stare at Chanyeol, her heart beating uncontrollably as she has impure thoughts about another man.  What would Kris say?  She knows that this isn’t what she came to Seoul for, but being surrounded by gorgeous men all the time is swaying her away from her original dream of becoming a teacher to loads of adorable children”. 

Minhye’s dialogue surprises you, but makes you chuckle.

“What?  Are you writing a fanfic about me now?”, you tease as you link arms with her once more.

“It would be rather juicy”, she wickedly smiles in response, “One girl, her heart torn between two men”.

“YA!  What are you talking about!”

Minhye pulls you closer before replying warmly: “Oh, c’mon Sky.  I’m your best friend and yet you didn’t think I’d notice?”

“To be honest”, you sigh heavily, “Even I hadn’t really noticed until today.  What do I do?”

Minhye ponders this for a moment before bluntly asking: “Do you like Kris?”

“I do”.

“And do you like Chanyeol?”

You let out a long, deep breath before closing your eyes: “I do”.

“Well, you’re not the first person in the world to like two people at once ya know”.

“I know…”

“We will make it all right”, Minhye sympathetically smiles before your head lightly,  “What will be will be.  Just let the chips fall where they were destined to”.

“Araso….”, you lower your head in defeat.

“And no more kissing Kris!”, she playfully teases you in an effort to lighten the mood.

“YA!”, you retort whilst feeling yourself turn a shade of burgundy, “It was a surprise attack!”

Instead of replying, Minhye’s attention is drawn back to EXO-K.  You follow her line of site just in time to witness Kai flailing his arms aggressively at an unseen enemy.  The other members are creased with laughter, Baekhyun and Sehun close to tears on the floor.

“What’s going on?”, you call to D.O. after jogging closer.

He looks at you and wipes the water from his eyes before chuckling: “It was only a bee”.

            *    *    *

Sprawled lethargically on the cool floor of EXO’s dorm, you turn your phone over and see that it has just turned ten.  

“Pizza?”, Suho asks from the other side of the room.

There is silence as everyone ponders the suggestion.

“Hamburger?”, Sehun queries in terrible English.

“Hum-ber-grrr”, you quietly mimic his pronunciation, making Minhye snort loudly.  Luckily no one seems to notice.

A rustling comes from Kai’s pillow fort: “Chicken?”

“All you think about is chicken…”, Baekhyun moans as he throws a large pillow at Kai’s hideout, destroying everything in it’s path.

You like the idea of chicken, but you feel it could still be made better: “Chimaek?”

“CALL!”, everyone seems to perk up at the suggestion.

“Spicey or fried?”, D.O. queries seriously.

You think about it for a moment, but know there is only one answer: “Half and half?”

Suho stands up and bounces his way across the room to where his phone is charging: “I’ll get the order in, someone go and get beer?”

Feeling like the walk would do you good, you sacrifice yourself before choosing your partner: “Kai?”

A pair of feet appear from under the devastation that was once a pillow fort: “Cominnng”.

Grabbing the closest hoodie, you pull it on and make your way to the door.  As you are locating your converse under the mound of shoes that have been nonchalantly kicked off, Chanyeol appears in front of you.

“Here, take this”, he affirms as he passes you the snapback he had been wearing before, “Just in case”.

You look at him quizzically before replying: “In case of what?”

“You never know who you’ll meet on the streets.  You should always be careful.  Not all of our fans are friendly…”

His statement confuses you, but you’ve never really thought about it before.  Nonetheless you take the cap with a smile, place it on your head and continue slipping on your converse.

“Oh, and Jae”, he catches your attention once more, but this time there is a coy smirk on his face, “You look really good in my hoodie”.

You feel your body go into complete internal shutdown.  You hadn’t even considered that the hoodie could be Chanyeol’s.  After calling for Kai in a chocked voice, you quickly jump outside and breath in the tepid air of the hallway deeply before leaning against the bannister.  *BABO!*, you yell at yourself as you hit your head lightly, *Sort yourself out!*

            *    *    *

“How many beers are we getting?”, you ask Kai fifteen minutes later in a small, overstocked convenience store.

The sound of the summer cicadas is almost deafening in the quiet evening air which is seeping in through the open door. 

He thinks about this for a moment: “Two each?”

“That should be enough, right?”, you question as you begin to count sixteen beers into your basket.

“For now”, Kai darkly chortles before taking the heavy basket from your grasp and heading to the checkout, “Anything else?”

Quickly, you dive into the ice cream display and pull out two watermelon slice lollies: “For the walk home?” 

“Plan”, he smiles as he takes them out of your grasp.

After paying, the two of you step out into the warm night air once more.  Kai opens an ice lolly and passes it to you before opening his own and shoving it in his mouth.  You feel like you haven’t spent any time alone with Kai recently, and feel slightly guilty about it.

“So then…”, you begin, but you are cut off.

“Do you and Minhye want to come to SM to dance with me and Tae soon?  I remember you saying that she was a good dancer too?”

The idea makes you smile from ear to ear: “Sounds perfect.  She’d absolutely love that”.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.  She’s being talking none stop about meeting Taemin since she got here too.  He was always her bias…”

“And who was yours?”, Kai asks with one eyebrow raised, obviously confused by girls.

You ponder it for a moment.  There’s no denying that Minho is smoking hot, but he also makes you cringe all the time.  “Onew”, you answer, “He’s a ray of sunshine.  Plus, he was so hilarious and cute in Hello Baby”.

Kai looks at you for a second with an odd expression on his face before replying: “Fair… I’ll keep that in mind”.

You are about to reply, but a flash catches your attention out of the corner of your eye.

“IT’S KAI!”, unknown voices chant from nearby.

“Annyeong", he smiles before whispering, “Keep walking”.

“Why?”, you question, completely dumbfounded by the whole situation, “What’s going on?”

Kai doesn’t answer, but instead just pushes you on and ignores all existence of you.

“KAIIII!”, the voices continue as they get closer, “Where are the others?”

Kai takes note of the three fans that are now in front of him before responding with a somewhat forced smile: “I’m just out to buy beer”.

Looking over your shoulder, you see that the three girls have now surrounded Kai.

“Who was that you were with?”, one questions as she takes a step towards him.

“Who?”, Kai queries as innocently as possible.

“The girl you were with”.

“Oh, her?  She’s just a noona that lives in the same building as me”.

“Ahhhh”, another replies whilst letting a sliver of anger take over, “I’m so jealous of her!”

Without anyone noticing, you dive into the shadows before taking out your phone.  *I should call someone*, you worry as you flick through the contacts and click on Chanyeol, *Please answer…*

He answers after three rings, as if expecting your call.

“I don’t know what to do”, you begin, “Kai…”

He doesn’t let you finish, but instead simply states: “We’re on our way.  Hold tight”.

“Mhm”, you answer before the line goes flat.

You are still hidden in the shadows when the rest of EXO-K arrive in the square.  Quickly, you take out your phone and text Chanyeol to let him know that you are alright.  Moments later his phone sounds and you can see him smile in relief as he reads the lit screen in front of him.

“OH MY GAAAWD!”, one of the girls squeals in delight as she practically runs into Sehun.

Despite being heads taller than the girl, the force of the impact causes him to stagger backwards slightly.  Once he has regained his balance, he places his hands on the girls’ shoulders and pushes her away gently.

“We wondered why Kai was taking so long”, Suho calmly smiles.

“We thought he’d got lost again”, Baekhyun interjects as he takes a step towards Kai and punches his left arm lightly.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!”, another girl affirms as she excitedly jumps up and down on the spot before grabbing Chanyeol’s wrists tightly and pleading, “Can we drink the beer with you?”

“Erm…”, he begins as he tries to free his arms, but it is no use.

“Can we see your dorm?”, the third girl asks whilst basically hyperventilating and getting far too close to D.O., “Just a quick peak?”

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to head off”, Suho smoothly affirms in an effort to avoid all their questions, “Our chicken is getting cold”.

Instead of taking the hint, the three girls continue to pester the members.

“But we want to hang out with youuuu!”, the one holding Chanyeol asserts as she jars his arms from side to side.

“We’re your biggest fans!  Just one beer!”, another somewhat aggressively states as she closes in on Sehun once more.

You feel your phone vibrate, and so you pull it from your pocket and cover the screen so as to not be caught.  There is a text from Baekhyun, short and to the point: ‘Go to dorm now.  We’ll meet you there’.  After replacing your phone, you quietly make your way through the bushes that you are hidden in and head back to the dorm in the shadows.  You don’t know what their plan is, but you believe that they will be alright.

Once you are back inside the building, a cold sweat engulfs you and you are glad to find Minhye waiting for you at the top of the stairs.

“What is going on?”, she questions as she takes the bag of beer from your clenched fist, “They didn’t explain anything to me before running off”.

Feeling the need to sit down, you slip through the door and collapse into a heap on the step before kicking your shoes off.

“Very very intense fans”, you begin in confusion, “But I thought all fans respected members of groups and treated them as such… I mean, VIXX don’t even need body guards”.

Minhye smiles and giggles slightly: “Trust you to think of Leo at a time like this…”

“I wasn’t…”, you deny, glad of the change of mood.

“Sure you weren’t…”, Minhye teases before offering you a hand, “Need a beer?”

You don’t answer, but instead let Minhye pull you from the floor.

            *    *    *

Ten minutes and nearly a full can of beer later you hear the door open.

“Chopstick girl?”, Chanyeol’s worried voice can be heard over the hustle of bodies.

A feeling of warmth glides through you.  You don’t think anyone has cared this much about you before.

 “I’m here Yeollie”, you reply as a smile slips onto your face before continuing, “What happened?”

One by one the members of EXO-K appear in the kitchen and gladly accept a cold tin from Minhye.

“We had no choice but to leg it”, Sehun affirms before practically trying to climb into the fridge.

“We did lose them pretty quickly”, Baekhyun reassures as he sticks a square of kitchen under his fringe, “But we had to run all over the place to be sure”.

D.O. cracks open his tin and leans back on the work surface: “That’s my workouts done for six months…”

“Try a year…”, Suho corrects as he lies down on the nearest sofa.

“But you’re all okay?”, you ask in concern before turning your attention to Chanyeol, “Let me see your wrists”.

Without saying a word, Chanyeol lets you inspect his bruises.  

“I don’t understand how people claiming to be your biggest fans can hurt you like this”, your confusion continues, “That seems completely backwards”.

“That’s what I was telling you before”, Chanyeol begins as he pushes his hands into his back pockets, “Not all of our fans are friendly”.

You take another sip of your beer as you try to process the situation.

“They call them sasaeng fans”, Suho calls from afar, “And they definitely aren’t friendly”.

“I still don’t get it…”

“Basically, some fans will take things too far”, D.O. explains.

“They’ll do things like follow the minibus”, Baekhyun points out.

“Or break into the dorm and steal underwear”, Kai affirms.

“In some cases”, Sehun leans across the worktop for emphasis, “They’ve even tried to see who can injure a member of a certain group the most”.

“That’s sick”, Minhye replies with a mix of shock and disgust, “How are people so cruel?”

Sehun leans back again before shrugging: “So in reality, the girls we met tonight weren’t too bad”.

“Weren’t too bad?”, you argue, slightly angered by the youngest’s whimsy, “Have you not seen Chanyeol’s wrists?”

Suddenly you feel a strong, warm arm wrap around your shoulders.

“You know that’s not what he meant”, Chanyeol scrunches his face slightly.

You take a long, deep breath before replying: “I know… I just really don’t understand”.

“Neither do we”, he forces a smile as he shrugs his shoulders slowly, “And we probably never will”.