January 24, 2012, 10:05am, Incheon Airport...

Two people approached the baggage conveyor belt with the lady’s arms wrapped around the man’s left arm. They waited for their luggages and the man brought down three medium sized baggages as soon as he spotted them. They headed to the arrival lobby with the man pushing the cart of baggages and the girl still holding the arm of the man.

“Oppa, you didn’t tell your friends that you’d be coming back?” the lady asked as they exited the airport.

“No, I wanted to surprise them...” the man grinned as the two approached a familiar Hummer at the airport parking lot.

“Nice ride oppa!” the lady complimented as they rode the vehicle.

“Thanks, Sulli-ah...” the man smiled as he started the engine, preparing to drive around a very familiar neighbourhood in Seoul.

11: 23am, Jejudo Airport...

On the other side of South Korea, a group of young adults wearing winter clothes came out of the airport with smiles on their faces.

“Wow, it’s been a while since we haven’t gone here!! Wah, the fresh air!!!” JunHo exclaimed as he took a breath of the fresh air with his arms open wide. “Thank you for agreeing on having my birthday spent on your rest house, hyung!” he thanked Taec.

“No problem, dude... no one uses the rest house anyways...” Taec replied as two large vans stopped at the front of the group.

“Again, thank you for inviting me into this trip... I still think it’s not right for me to join in your family gathering since I’ve just met you guys for less than a week...” SeulOng spoke shyly.

“Good thing you know...” Taec mumbled under his breath which earned him an elbow from Fany.

“No, it’s okay... you’re a friend of SoHee and you’ve been helping her very much this past week...” Fany covered Taec’s statement, which she believes SeulOng didn’t hear.

“Let’s get going guys!” Jay reminded and the group got in the two vans. Eight people in one van; with Taec, Fany, Woo, JiEun, Khun, Vic, Jay and Suzy in one van while Kwon, GaIn, JunSu, JunHo, SoHee, SeulOng, Sun and Kyu on the other.

“I really don’t get why he is here with us...” Taec complained.

“Because he heard us talking about this trip and it’s quite weird not to invite him in that certain situation... how many times do I have to tell you that, babe?” Fany explained for the nth time.

“But it’s not that nice to accept an invitation from someone you’ve met for just three days either...” Khun spoke.

“Plus, can’t he sense that you girls just invited him for manners’ sake? And that you were really not meaning to invite him on this trip?” Woo added.

“See?!” Taec agreed with his two best friends.

“I think he’s pretty decent though... I’ve seen him in the party and he WAS a gentleman... I just don’t know about his IQ... maybe he lacks some common sense...” Jay added.

“But he’s not a bad person, oppa... we can try being friends with him... he’s a good sunbae and he also has connections in the music industry, he could help us with our future...” Suzy defended.

“Babo! As if you don’t have an uncle who’s a president of an entertainment company and oppas who are producers who work with many other musicians...” Khun teased his sister.

“But I think he’s just finding a way to get close to SoHee unni...” JiEun said as she had her forefinger on her chin. “He’s courting her, anyways...” she added with a slip of the tongue.

“WHAT?!?!?!” the four men screamed in shock while the women had surprised but behaved expressions.

“Oops........” JiEun said after she realized her slip then averted her gaze outside the window. “Wow, Jeju is really more beautiful in the winter, huh?”

“OK JIEUN, what did you say earlier?” Khun asked scarily.

“That Jeju is more beautiful in winter oppa?” JiEun tried switching the topic.

“Jagiya..., what did you mean by that guy courting our SoHee?” Woo asked calmly but in a serious tone.

“Well, SoHee unni is not really a property we own, so I think saying ‘our SoHee’ is quite inappropriate...” JiEun replied irrelevantly.

“OK JIEUN!!!” Taec called her name seriously in a very frightening tone. The women were all surprised and scared, especially Vic since she hasn’t seen this side of the sweet gentleman Ok TaecYeon. JiEun knew she had no way out of this since her big brother, the scariest out of the four, has spoken fiercely.

“It’s just that sunbae has been texting unni and he’s not even the student... So why would you text the tutor of your little brother everyday ‘Good morning’ and ‘Have nice dreams’ if you’re not interested in the woman, right? But it’s just my intuition.., I’m not sure either... I just saw the messages... I haven’t asked unni about it yet...” JiEun confessed without even looking directly at her brother’s eyes.

“You snooped into unni’s cellphone?” Suzy asked curiously.

“No, I didn’t...” JiEun denied but the rest were giving her suspicious stares. “Her cellphone beeped one time and it was getting annoying since she wasn’t around so I just looked at the message then I saw that, then I was shocked then I scrolled up and saw the rest of the messages... that’s all.., I didn’t mean to spy on her...” JiEun explained with an innocent pout.

“So you saw SoHee’s replies? What did she say?” Khun asked with concern.

“She just with simple ‘mhmms’ or ‘you too’ or just smileys... you know that unni’s a woman of few words...” JiEun answered.

“But smileys... unni rarely sends people smileys...” Suzy pointed out which made the four men quite uncomfortable.

“What you planning Taec?” Jay asked looking at the man with a weird evil looking gaze.

“Let’s change our plans... We have another agenda aside from Nuneo’s birthday party...” Taec replied.

“What do you mean?” Woo asked.

“Let’s have some initiation activities for this SeulOng guy... let’s give him tests like what we gave Channie back then... more challenging tests... pu-ha-ha-ha!” Taec replied ending it with an evil laugh.

“I can’t believe I’m in love with a weird villain...” Fany face palmed herself while shaking her head. Suzy and JiEun on the other hand had scared faces remembering the initiation activities some years back with Channie, and also thinking on what would the mean oppas do this time to their sunbae.

“What are you? Some kind of fraternity?” Vic asked Khun softly while Taec got busy with his phone, contacting the boys from the other van, announcing the new plan.

“It’s just some tests we do before accepting a new member into the group...” Khun answered.

“I didn’t have one...” Vic confusedly replied.

“It’s only for the men.., so that we can be sure that they would be able to protect our little girls... we also did some on Channie before we agreed him to date SoHee... and since he passed with flying colors, I think Taec’s going to upgrade the missions...”

“What kind of missions? And is that really necessary?”

“Yes, it’s necessary... they should have the same trainings as we had when we were young... just simple training activities... like hiking mountains while singing, push-ups, arm wrestling or boxing, IQ tests, and some things that you won’t need to know...”

“Did KyuHyun also undergo those?”

“Not from us since we were busy, but we did hire some people to do it... he didn’t have perfect scores as Channie but he did pass... but I’m not sure with this SeulOng dude... since he’ll be competing with Channie’s record... I don’t think it’ll be easy...” Khun replied shaking his head.

After explaining about the “initiation” and contacting the boys, they soon arrived at the rest house and alighted the vans. They took their luggages inside and quickly settled their things in the rooms. It was already noon and they had their lunch at a nearby local restaurant.

“That’s weird, talkative TaecYeon is again quiet today...” GaIn teased Taec who had his brows furrowed as they waited for their lunch.

“Maybe he’s thinking of ways to scare off SeulOng sunbae...” Suzy blurted out.

“What? Me? Why?” SeulOng asked, shocked and a little offended.

“I will just go straight to the point SeulOng-ssi, are you courting SoHee?” it was JunSu’s turn to be the protective brother. The two involved, who were actually sipping ther teas, suddenly spat out in shock.

“Oppa! What are you saying?” SoHee asked anxiously.

“SoHee, be quiet for awhile, let the boys handle this...” Sun warned her friend.

“So, are you?” Woo asked threateningly. SeulOng remained quiet for awhile before looking at SoHee beside him and taking a deep breath.

“Actually, I am!” SeulOng confessed which made SoHee spit her tea again.

“What!? Sunbae!” SoHee demanded SeulOng with wide eyes.

“See? I was right with my intuition!” JiEun happily expressed but later realized that it wasn’t the right time to be happy