As their 10 day trip to Korea slowly drew to a close, two girls (well more women than girls, but women sounded so old!) by the name of Huang Yi Hua and Guo Wen Li decided to discover more about the neighbourhood they were staying in. They took a short stroll around the general area, and sat down at the local convenience store which was more commonly known as GS25. Having tried the King Watermelon Bar before, the two decided to purchase it again.

“This is really good stuff Wen Li, they should really have these back home.”

“Mhmh.” was Wen Li’s reply.

There was next to no talk for several minutes as each girl joyfully ate her ice-cream. Once they were done, they continued to walk down the streets of Gangnam, making sure they had no remains of ice-cream on their face as they went. About thirty minutes later they found themselves standing outside the SM Entertainment building. Honestly, even if they weren’t looking for the place they likely would have found it quite easily. Massive clusters of fans were extremely hard to ignore after all. The noisy screams and chattering were quite headache-inducing, and despite being a rather loud person herself Yi Hua lead the way, steering Wen Li as far as possible from the crowd.

Well it wasn’t like they could bad-mouth the fans anyway. The two girls were both die-hard KPOP fans. In fact, it was one of the main reasons they had decided to vacation in Korea. So like any other fan would, the two completely lost almost all composure when they realised where they were.

“Oh my gosh!” Yi Hua let out a rather unladylike scream. “It’s the SM building! Hurry, take a picture!”

“Already on it.” Wen Li was already pulling out her phone. Aiming it at Yi Hua, she called out in Chinese. “Three, two, one… hey, I’m taking it now!”

“What, I was completely unprepared for that! You should have warned me.” Yi Hua childishly stamped her boot-clad feet.

“I’ll take another one. You ready this time?” After an affirmative nod from the other girl, Wen Li raised her phone again. “Three, two, one… cheese!”

“Is it okay, is it okay?” Rushing over to Wen Li’s side, brown hair blowing behind her, Yi Hua impatiently grabbed the other’s hand, checking the screen. Nodding in satisfaction, she let go, rocking back on her heels.

There was silence.

“…sorry for being so impatient.” Yi Hua shot a sheepish grin at the other. She really needed to work on her patience. It was a good thing that Wen Li was already somewhat used to it. “Do you want a picture too? It’s not every day we get to visit the freaking SM building!”

“Calm down, it’s just a building.” Wen Li was calmer than her over excited friend and had no interest in taking a photo.

“How can you say that? It’s not just a building; it’s the freaking SM building! You have to take a picture, now.” A devilish smile appeared on Yi Hua’s face. “Or I’ll make you.”

 “Oh come on Yi Hua, you know I hate pictures!” Her plea was ignored by Yi Hua, and next thing she knew Wen Li was in front of the building courtesy of her friend, and forced to smile for the camera.

“Smile, Wen Li. Please?” The aforementioned girl just stomped her foot defiantly on the ground and stood motionless and expressionless, making it impossible for Yi Hua to take a nice picture.

Finally, Yi Hua gave up. Wen Li walked back with a rather triumphant smile on her face, pleased that she was able to successfully escape the horrors of photo taking. Or so she thought. Having noticed the smile, Yi Hua quickly turned her phone up and snapped a few shots, hoping to get a nice one in between.

“Ahh, you really are a pain.” Wen Li frowned at the other. “I really don’t want a picture.”

“Well tough luck, you’ve got more than one now and because you refuse to smile these mightn’t even come out nice.” Waving her phone teasingly in front of the other’s face, Yi Hua hummed to herself. “Maybe I can even sell some of these…”

Wen Li raced up to her friend and tried to take the phone away and delete the photos. Yi Hua, having relatively good reflexes (or perhaps she was just good at predicting Wen Li’s reactions), instantly twisted her body out of the way, dodging what would have been a rather nasty tackle. For a few moments, the two fought over the phone, neither one wanting to succumb to the other. A few of the fan-girls stopped screaming and stared at them in shock, but they must have deemed it not big enough of a distraction, for they then continued to scream at the building – which was dull and grey and had no stars standing out the front, by the way. Yi Hua managed to snatch the phone out of her friends grasp and hold it high up in the air.

“No fair, you know I’m shorter than you.” Wen Li who was still trying to grab the phone, jumped up and down in vain.

“Fine, I’ll compromise with you.” Sighing as if she were being dealt some sort of great pain, Yi Hua then grinned. “We’ll look through them together and pick the nicest one.” Because she had already secretly made copies of the photos and password locked them, so it wouldn’t matter anyway.

“Humph, fine but over there away from these screaming girls.” Wen Li pointed a bit further down the street.

“Careful there, any further and we’ll be off into a red-light district… unless you want to go to such a place.” Yi Hua waggled her eyebrows, before bursting into a fit of laughter at the disgruntled expression on her friend’s face. “Okay, okay! Because I’m such a kind and compassionate soul, we can head over to that café over there.” Because the waiters are hot, she added mentally.

Wen Li muttered something about ‘Kind and compassionate soul that deserves to reside in Hell’.

“That is rude and I am upset.” Yi Hua turned away. “I’m not treating you to a mochacinno anymore.”

She walked off a few paces before she felt the familiar weight of her friend tugging at her arm. “No! No, I want a mochacinno, you have to treat me!” The other’s usually more serious composure crumbled as she was faced with the prospect of not being able to gain one of her favourite drinks for free. Who doesn’t like free things?

“Hmm, we will see.”

Wen Li noticing her friends tone, quickly made her killer aegyo face, trying to score a free mochacinno. Wen Li knew how good of an effect this had on her best friend and wasn’t afraid to use it. Anything for a mochacinno! Yi Hua looked down and her face softened as she saw Wen Li’s face.

“Gargh! You know that I can’t resist that face.”

Wen Li just continued and was sure Yi Hua would succumb. Sure enough, after a few moments of pointedly trying to ignore the other, Yi Hua grunted in slight annoyance and walked swiftly towards the café.

“Yes, score!” Wen Li cheered and ran towards the café and Yi Hua.

“You were going to buy me one anyway.”

“…yeah, I probably would’ve.”

“You like that drink way too much.” Yi Hua noted, shifting in her seat.

Wen Li had her hands curled around her cup of mochacinno, relishing in the warmth. Lowering the cup from her lips, she placed it carefully back in the saucer before wiping her lips carefully with the serviette provided.

“I do not. At least it’s better than a chai latte. How can you drink that stuff?” she wrinkled her nose at Yi Hua’s choice of beverage. Herbs and spices mixed together must taste awful she thought to herself.

“It is a perfectly nice drink!” Yi Hua said defensively, looking back down at her cup and inhaling the spice-infused scent that Wen Li despised. Sure, it took some getting used to, but by now the girl was rather fond of the drink.

The two friends sat in companionable silence, sipping their drinks.

It was Wen Li who broke the lull in their conversation. “I need to pee.”

Yi Hua looked up at her friend who had already gotten up. “Yeah sure, don’t be too long or your precious mochacinno will get cold.”

Wen Li just smiled and walked towards the bathroom. The two often bickered over the smallest things. Though this made them better friends and was one of the things she loved about her close friendship with Yi Hua.

As she reached the bathroom she pushed open the door, looking around she noted that it was clean and not smelly like most public toilets. The cubicles had all been taken and she had to wait for her turn. After a minute or so of waiting, a cubicle was freed and she was able to enter. Looking down she saw it wasn’t a squat toilet like what she was used to at home, but that didn’t matter much. If anything, it made things easier… now why on earth was she thinking of these things again? Shaking her head lightly, she proceeded to just go ahead and do her business. If she was thinking these things it was a sure sign she had been hanging around her queer friend for much too long.

 In the midst of her toilet break she heard some girls enter.

“Oh, I just got a text from Mindy”! A high pitched and girly voice said.

“Read it, it might be news about where they are.” her companion said.

These two sounded a bit creepy. Their whereabouts? These two had Wen Li confused as to what – or who - they were talking about. She soon found out.

“O. M. G, Mindy said that they’re following EXO-K around, they’re wondering around Hongdae!” the girly one screamed.

Wen Li’s eyes almost popped out. EXO? EXO! EXO was the hottest idol group around and Wen Li and Yi Hua liked their music a lot. Though not as much as these two seemed to, but… wow, this information was certainly interesting.

She walked calmly out of her cubicle and washed her hands, purposely staying in the bathroom longer in an attempt to find out more information. To her luck the two girls continued to scream as their friend sent them pictures and texts.

Wen Li removed herself quietly and quickly hurried back to her table. She saw Yi Hua on her phone texting someone, and also noted that Yi Hua had ordered a slice of cake and had already taken a bite or two, if the crumbs and damaged surface were anything to go by.

“Oh Wen Li, you’re back.” She looked up from her phone. “I ordered a cheesecake for us to e—“she never finished her sentence.

“Yi Hua, I heard some girls in the bathroom talking about EXO, their friend said they’re wondering around Hongdae!” Wen Li spoke in a whisper, her excitement hard to contain.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” Wen Li confirmed.

The two sat in silence once more.

“Though I think it’s a bit creepy—“ Wen Li started

“And the slightest bit insane—“ Yi Hua grinned

“We’re going to Hongdae!” The two finished off their cheesecake and coffee, no longer bickering over whose beverage was nicer. Both had more important things on mind. With their goal set, they hurried out of the café.

The two walked to the main road, and managed to hail a taxi.

“Where to, girls?” the drive spoke to them in Korean. Yi Hua looked to Wen Li. Wen Li had better Korean and Yi Hua was a bit flustered due to the communication issues.

“Hongdae, please!”

Author's Note  .  .  .  ☂

Hello all! 

This is chapter one - aka the introduction - of our story. Don't fret at the lack of links and decisions-- as said in the forward, those shall appear a bit later on in the story. We need to have things set up first, no? 

In any case, how was the chapter? It was co-written by both Baa-chan and I, and so we're both rather anxious to know whether we did an okay job or not. 

If you have any questions or comments at all, do feel free to let us know! Constructive criticism is welcomed too c: 

Until the next update!

- Chii