I sit on the couch and watch some variety show with Tao and Baekhyun while waiting for 1 o’ clock to roll around, and when it does I wave goodbye and slip on my shoes, leaving the dorm. Just as the elevator pings open, I hear feet padding behind me.

“Eunji! I’ll take you down.” Luhan catches up, sliding into the elevator just as it begins closing.

I turn and look at him, leaning against the wall of the lift. “You don’t need to! It’s just downstairs.”
He shrugs lightly. “I want to. It gets stuffy in there anyways, always being around them.”

I laugh. “They can’t be that bad.”

“They are.”

“How?”

He raises his eyebrows and shifts from one foot to another. “Just wait until a day we have no food and Xiumin and D.O have . You’ll understand then.”

“Aren’t they entertaining, though?”
He tilts his head slightly, thinking. “Yeah, more than not. I love them, but I want to strangle them sixty percent of the time.” He smirks. “I guess it’s just one of the negatives of being an idol.”

The elevator pings open and he gestures for me to exit first. What’s with the gentleman-ness?
“Where’s Daehyun?” Luhan asks, looking around as we step out of the building.

I scan the street, looking for Daehyun, or Zelo, or a van or something. My eyes land on a black van parked next to the sidewalk that’s kind of similar to EXO’s van and just as I’m about to point at it, a window rolls down and Daehyun’s head pops up from the other side. He waves, a faint “Eunji!” reaching my ears.

“There he is.” I nod towards the van and Luhan nods as well. He turns and smiles at me.

“Alright. Have fun on your date!” He grins and heads back.

“It’s not a date… See ya.” I wave to his turned back and approach the van, Daehyun opening the door of the van from the inside. I get in and he scoots over to the seat next to it and I buckle up.

“Hey Eunji!” He buckles himself in and after the manager checks to see that we’re all set, he pulls off. Just as we drive away from the building I catch a glimpse of a figure standing next to the entrance of the dorm, their head leaning against the wall sadly. Luhan, I think. Why’s he look sad?

I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn around, greeted by a grinning boy with ramen hair. “Hey! I’m Zelo,” His smile stretches further if that’s possible and I resist the urge to pinch his cheeks.

“I’m Eunji. Nice to meet-“

Zelo suddenly gets out of his seat and hops to the row that I’m in. He takes the empty seat to my right and buckles up. “I want to sit next to you!” He declares.

I chuckle. “You are.”
He pumps his fists. “YES!”

I turn to Daehyun, who’s laughing. “Why’d you say that I shouldn’t want to meet him?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

We go to a fancy Chinese food place and order a load of everything that seems good. Daehyun and Zelo seem to have bottomless stomachs, eating more than EXO does. Even the manager orders them to slow down, a command they both ignore.

I can’t say that I didn’t eat like a pig though.

I guess I’ve grown accustomed to eating as much as EXO, resulting in me vacuuming up everything in front of me.

We decide to go to a mall afterwards since we finish pretty quickly and the manager drives us to a mall a little outside of Seoul, a mall I used to go to a lot.

“Where first?” I ask, surveying the various stores in front of us.

“That one!” Zelo points at a hat store and he sprints off, the manager, Daehyun and I jogging to keep him in our line of sight.

Zelo runs straight for the baseball hats and I pick up a fedora sitting around. I fix it onto my head and pose in front of Daehyun. “Do I look fabulous?”

He smirks. “About as fabulous as a cactus.”

I whack his arm and put the fedora back. “Cactus’s are fabulous, you don’t even know…” I mumble, walking to a display of those hats that old guys who play golf wear. I grab a grey plaid one and plop it on Daehyun’s head.

“Do I look fabulous?” He imitates me, sticking his hands on his hips and smiling like a dork. I lift my phone up quickly and snap a picture, immediately saving it as his contact picture.

I erupt into fits of laughter as I look at the picture. “This is the best thing ever.”

He gasps when he sees it and grabs my phone. “Delete it!”

“I’m going to the bathroom.” The manager informs us, and we nod, Daehyun still attempting to take my phone away.

I run out of the shop and almost bump into someone, apologizing furiously. I glare at Daehyun and he ignores me, smirking. He heads off to another store and I follow behind him, Zelo on my heels.

Daehyun looks over his phone and meets my eyes. “I’ll be back in a minute.” He answers his phone and I’m left with the ‘interesting’ maknae.

“Eunji!” He hops in front of me, and I lean against the wall of a store. “How do you know Daehyun?”

“We went to high school together.”
He looks at me knowingly. “Did you guys ddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate?” He pokes my arms a couple times as he stretches out the one-syllable word.

“For like two months, yeah.”

His lips stretch into a wide grin as he bounces from foot to foot. “AWW DID YOU GUYS KISS?!”

I roll my eyes at his childishness. “Maybe.”

Zelo spins in a circle, spouting nonsense. “SO CUTE AW, Daehyun was in loooove!”

I chuckle. “I doubt that-“

“Who was in love?” Daehyun pops out of nowhere, and Zelo nudges him.

“You!”

“With who?” Daehyun raises an eyebrow.

“With EUNJI!” Zelo points his finger right in my face and I giggle slightly.

Zelo’s definitely interesting.

Very interesting.

“Actually, we’re STILL in love! Can’t you tell?” He hugs me to his chest tightly, squeezing the air out of me.

“Ack- Daehyun, let me go!” I wiggle in his grip.

“Whatever you say poohbear,” He pokes my nose lovingly and I scrunch it, taking his moment of distraction to slip out of his hold on me.

“Screw you, Eeyore.” I laugh and walk away. I can hear his laughter from behind me but I don’t turn around, continuing on through the mall.

“If he’s Eeyore, then who am I?” Zelo bounds up to me, and I scrutinize him.

Easy.

“Tigger.”

He grins, bouncing place. “YES!” He hops back over to Daehyun. “I’m Tigger!” Zelo proudly acclaims.

I tune out of their conversation when I spot the arcade, practically inviting me in. “Let’s go there,” I murmur, my feet already leading me that way.

They catch up with me and Daehyun folds his arms. “Arcade, huh? I didn’t know you liked arcades.”
I don’t.

Well, I kind of do.

But I used to always be dragged in here with Kai when I was little.

I’m about to drag them in when a familiar face pops out of the crowd.

That can’t be…

Why would he be here though?

Did he follow me?

Another head comes into view and I’m not very surprised to see Sehun sitting next to him.

“One sec, you go ahead…” I trail away from Daehyun, who’s pulled into the arcade by Zelo before he can follow me. I walk towards the figures, who are seated next to each other on the wall of a fountain.

A much too familiar fountain.

They’re talking in low, hushed voices as if every word they utter may be heard across the world, their hands tightly gripping the drinks in their hands. I walk up to them until I’m standing right in front of them and Luhan’s eyes travel up where they meet mine. Rather than greeting me, like a normal person, he stares at me, biting his lip. Sehun looks away, as if he’s allergic to my presence, practically finishing off the filled cup in one gulp.

“Uh… hi?” I wave awkwardly, and neither replys, their silence creating a wall of awkwardness that quickly thickens.

Why are they here?