*Carolyn’s POV*

“Taemin slow downnnn!” I called after him.

“Can’t,” he called over his shoulder. “Have to… beat… hyungs!”

I rolled my eyes as I jogged along behind him, panting like crazy. I loved my Tae, but sometimes he just had too much energy for me.

“Taemin, please?!” I called.

Finally he stopped and turned to face me.

“I’m sorry Carolyn,” he blushed. “How about you go back to the tree and wait for me there?”

“Aw but I don’t want to make you do all the work-,”

“Nonsense; it is not work at all!”

I laughed at my cute boyfriend, kissed him, then waved goodbye as I started back to the big tree.

---------------------------- 

“What are you doing here?” I heard a familiar voice ask me as I stepped into the clearing where the big tree could be found.

I looked up to see the manager and Nicole sitting under the tree. She looked just as surprised as I was.

“Taemin told me I could just wait for him here,” I explained, taking a seat next to Nicole.

“Yeah, that’s what Minho told me to do too,” Nicole said. “I’ve been stuck listening to this guy snoring.”

She motioned toward the manager. His eyes were closed and his mouth was hanging wide open, a bit of drool was hanging off the side of his mouth. As if on cue he left out a deep snort.

“Bahahaha!” we both burst out laughing, but stopped when we realized what was going on. We turned away from each other at the same time.

We sat in a moment of silence until Nicole finally spoke.

“I’m sorry.”

I was so taken off guard by her remark that I almost thought I’d imagined it. I whipped around to look at her, but sure enough she had an apologetic look on her face.

“You’re sorry?” I asked, still unsure I’d heard her correctly.

“Yes. I… gosh this is hard for me.” She took a deep breathe before continuing. “I don’t want to be enemies with you guys anymore. I know I don’t deserve your friendship at all, but I just… Minho has changed me. He showed me that love isn’t a bad thing; that people deserve to be loved. I guess I just tried to break all you guys up because I was jealous. I’d never experienced that kind of relationship, so I didn’t want anyone else to either. I just want you to know that I’m sorry, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I understand if you don’t want to forgive me.”

I looked at her in amazement.

What had Minho done to her? It’s like she’s a new person… a descent person!

“Of course I forgive you,” I replied.

She relaxed as a smile spread across her face, “Oh thank you-,”

“But,” I stopped her. “I don’t know about this whole friendship thing, or how everybody else will take this… especially Taemin.”

“I understand. We can just take it slow by treating each other with respect.”

I smiled at her, “You’re really not all that bad Nicole.”

She smiled back at me, looking truly touched.

“I know we’re not friends, but... you don’t have to be friends to hug, right?”

“I don’t think so,” I smiled.

She smiled back and we embraced.

“I think you’re the first girl I’ve ever talked to without being mean,” she laughed, wiping away small tears from her eyes.

“Really? I think you should do this ‘nice’ thing more often,” I smiled. “It suits you a lot better.”

“I think I’ll try it,” she laughed. “Thank you.”

Minho… you are a hero.