*Carolyn’s POV*

“This is the Gyeongbok Palace,” Yesung whispered in my ear, right before Siwon proudly said, “And here we have the Gyeongbok Palace!”

Yesung laughed softly next to me, “Did you know that my English is actually quite advanced?”

I turned to him in surprise, “Annio; you are really good! Where did you learn?”

“Whenever I have spare time and I’m hanging out with my tortoises I like to practice. I have audio tapes, books, computer games… Languages interest me.”

“Me too!” I said excitedly. “What’s that over there?”

“That,” he smiled, “Is a maejakgwa stand. In America you could call them ginger cookies.”

“Oh! They sound yummy! Can we get some?”

“Ne,” he laughed. “I’ll buy!”

“Aww, thank you oppa,” I smiled as we made our way over to the stand.

“So, tell me about the girl in black,” he said while we stood in line.

“Nicole? Well, she used to look very nice, though she was always pretty rude. However, this is our first time seeing her after three years and now she’s all dark and weird. None of us know what happened.”

“Hmmm… Tul juseyo,” he smiled at the man behind the counter, then turned back to me. “She is interesting. Can you tell me more about her?” The man handed him the two packages of maejakgwa and he bowed, “Kamsahamnida.”

“You don’t want to get involved with Nicole,” I warned as we walked away, “Kamsahamnida,” I added when he handed me my treat.

“Wae?”

“Well, Minho dated her once and it turned into a mess. You can tell there’s still tension between them… wow! These are really good!”

“I knew you’d like it,” he laughed. “But, Minho dated her? He’s dating Dara now right?”

“Ne, but-,”

“So technically she’s available?”

“Yes, but-,”

“I’ll be right back, arasso?” And with that he was gone. I sighed and made my way over to Brianna and Kyuhyun who were taking silly pictures with the monuments.

*Yesung’s POV*

There’s so much beauty behind all that secrecy. I just need to bring it out. I sighed and watched Nicole sitting alone on one of the benches by a large statue. Okay, here it goes…

“Hello,” I smiled, walking over to her. “Is this seat taken?”

“No, but I don’t want you sitting in it,” she glared up at me, catching me off guard.

“Why are you so sad?” I asked, sitting down anyway.

“I’m NOT sad,” she pouted, staring straight ahead.

“Well you look sad.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” she said before we fell into silence.

“Want some-,” I was just offering her some of my maejakgwa, but before I could even finish my sentence she had snatched the package out of my hand and popped some in .

“Thanks,” she said solemnly as she chewed the cookies.

“No problem,” I laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” I said with a stupid smile. “So, you used to date Minho?”

“That’s enough!” she shouted jumping to face me, her face boiling red with anger. “You have no right to ask things like that about my past! I don’t even want to be here! I just want to go home! Someone needs to take me away from this stupid city, this stupid culture and you stupid people-,” she gasped suddenly and a strange look came over her face.

“What’s wrong?” I asked in deep concern, springing up and putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” she said weakly, ripping from my grasp. “I just need to sit down.”

She gently took a seat on the bench again, then tilted her head back with her eyes closed, breathing heavily.

“What happened?!” Siwon asked as he and Annie came running to my side.

“I don’t know! She just-,”

“I’m fine!” she growled, trying to slow her breathing.

“Yesung, why don’t you take her back to her dorm?” Siwon suggested in Korean, then told Nicole the plan in English. “He’ll take care of you.” Now to me, in Korean again, he said, “We’ll meet you by the Banpo Bridge in a little while, ne?”

“Arasso,” I agreed.

----------------------------

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?” I asked as I opened the door into the dorm for Nicole.

“Annio,” she said straightly. “I’m fine.”

“You know some Korean!”

“What are you talking about?” she rolled her eyes and went to slam to door, but I stopped her.

“Take care of yourself, arasso?” I looked into her dark, pain filled eyes.

“Goodbye tortoise boy,” she shut the door in my smiling face.

She knows I like tortoises. Tortoise boy… it’s kind of cute hearing her say it.