It was Chanyeol who came up with the stupid bet.

After waking at dawn, the twelve of them had wolfed down their complimentary breakfast and had boarded the first shuttle to Disneyland. It was a bright, sunny day-as expected of California-and Lay could feel his sweaty clothes sticking to his skin. As the only one fluent in English, Kris had been dispatched to purchase tickets while the rest of them waited at the park entrance.

“How about a game of kai-bai-bo?” Chanyeol suggested. Everyone, with the exception of D.O. (who was still admiring his photos with the security guards), was standing idly with expressions of boredom on their faces.

Tao perked up and pulled his headphones out of his ears. “What’s in it for the winner?”

“The joy of watching the loser embarrass himself in front of the fans,” Chanyeol replied with his trademark smile. A sizable crowd of teenage girls had gathered around them, their cameras at the ready. They all knew that their every action would indubitably surface on the Internet and no one wanted to be labeled a laughingstock so early in their career.

Suho cleared his throat nervously. “Um, can we have two losers instead of just one?” It was no secret that Suho was notoriously bad at rock-paper-scissors (or any game for that matter) and Lay couldn’t blame him for trying to drag someone down with him.

“Fine, two losers and they both have to do a dance.” The members nodded in consent and they all huddled together.  By some miracle, Suho escaped the second round unscathed and the final showdown was between Lay, D.O. and Chen.

“May the best man win,” Chen said nervously. They held out their fists and chanted, “Kai, bai, bo!”

“Hell yeah!”

“.”

“Oh dear…” D.O. and Lay glanced at each other with identical expressions of misery. “I guess we’d better get this over with.”

With a sigh, Lay followed D.O. to the fountain and, pasting a smile on his face, began the torturous task of fan service. He was just glad Kris wasn’t around to see it.    

*****

“Whose bright idea was it to line up for the teacups?” Baekhyun grumbled. “It’s for children.”

“Technically speaking,” Xiumin mused, “Disneyland as a whole is targeted towards children and we should be ashamed of ourselves for even being here.”

“Just think of it as a warm-up ride,” Lay shrugged. “You know, to mentally prepare us for the scarier ones to come.” He couldn’t remember the last time he had been to an amusement park (his tolerance level for extreme rides was most definitely at its low).

When the gates opened, they filed in and Lay found himself sharing a pastel-pink cup with Kris. They sat across from each other with the wheel between them and Kris flashed a small, excited smile.

“This was my favorite ride when I was a kid,” Kris said as he secured his seatbelt. “It makes you all dizzy and messed-up, but in a good way, you know?”

Lay blinked in surprise. Was Kris actually being sentimental about a teacup ride? His initial instinct was to point and laugh, but it was strangely…nice, having a normal conversation. 

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Lay replied. The brightly colored cups and the summer breeze instilled a certain sense of nostalgia for the childhoods passed. When the air began to ring with the whir of moving gears, they both gripped the wheel and exchanged grins. “Are you ready?”

“Ay, ay captain.”

*****

“I’m staaarving,” Sehun whined as they settled down on the plastic benches at the food court. The mouth-watering smell of fries hung in the air and Lay clutched his grumbling stomach. Who knew waiting in line could be so draining?   

Suho set his bag down on the table and began pulling out their rations. “Pass the food around, guys. This one’s for you, Sehun.” The maknae merely grunted at the sandwich in the bag and turned to stare longingly at the snack stands.

“But I want a hot dog…”

“Yeah, Gramps,” Kai complained. “Since we’re here anyway, we should try some authentic American cuisine.”

“Hey, show some respect to your leader,” Kris admonished, giving Kai a tap on the head with his rolled up map. “Besides, real Americans eat hamburgers, not hot dogs. I’ll treat you guys if you promise to behave for the rest of the day.”

The members nodded eagerly (free food was free food) and Lay tagged along as Kris headed for the nearest snack stand.

“You're being awfully generous today,” Lay said casually. “Well, pretty generous for someone so opposed to spending time with ‘the spawns of Satan’.”

Kris shrugged. “It was actually kind of fun, to be honest. Plus I got to see you guys scream like little girls when that ghost popped up in the Tower of Terror. Burgers are worth a few bucks but that, was priceless.” 

*****

“, that’s high,” Luhan muttered. They craned their necks and gazed up at the green roller coaster looming above them. As the carts roared past and swept up into a double-loop, Lay gulped and tried to still the nervous flutters in his stomach.

“One hundred and twenty feet,” D.O. read aloud from the brochure, “which converts to thirty-seven metres, give or take.”

“That’s higher than our apartment building…” Sehun his lips nervously.  

“If you guys are too chicken, you can just leave, you know,” Kai drawled. He was the only one who bore any trace of excitement on his face and was literally bouncing on his feet.

“Hell no,” Luhan shot back. “I have a manly reputation to live up to.” Despite his declaration, Luhan’s face turned paler with each round of cars that passed, flinching whenever a particularly loud scream pierced the air.

When they were almost near the gates, Luhan finally threw up his hands in defeat. “I can’t do it,” he blurted, an edge of hysteria in his voice. “If I get on that thing, I am going to die a horrible death and will never live to finish Diablo.”    

Kai smirked as he tossed Luhan his backpack. “Great! You can hold on to our luggage then,” Sehun latched onto Luhan’s arm and mumbled, “I’m leaving too,” before the pair stumbled away.

“Wimps,” Baekhyun called after them. “Manly reputation my .”

“You’re one to talk,” Lay said with a chuckle. “You can’t even get through a day without eyeliner...”  

BLOGROLL

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