Lyorin reached for her cellphone and dialed Yoona's number. Once the line got through, she asked where was she and told her that she would be reaching in 10mins. Lyorin got off the bus and walked towards the meeting place, which was in front of a cinema. She guessed that maybe Hyunsik would bring them to the movies. She checked her watch, only to realise that she was 10mins early. So, she loitered around, looking through the movie posters when suddenly someone tapped her shoulder. She jumped in surprised and saw Hyunsik with two of his friends and Minhyuk. She recognised Minhyuk since they met before.

"Oh..sorry if i scared you." Hyunsik flashed an eye-smile. Lyorin shook her head, telling him it was fine. "You..look nice" He stuttered abit. Lyorin took the time to scrutinize what the boys were wearing. Hyunsik was in a plaid shirt with his sleeves half done, showing off abit of his arms and a pair of jeans with sneakers. He looked dashing to Lyorin despite his simple outfit. The rest of the boys were not bad looking either. They were relatively handsome, tall and neat.

"Oh hi! Sorry for being late" Yoona came out of nowhere.

"Nah, you're not late." Minhyuk smiled.

"Ouh? Minhyuk oppa?" Yoona was surprised seeing him there. Minhyuk was delighted that she remembered his name only after meeting her once. The other two boys, Peniel and Ilhoon, introduced themselves. They shook hands with Yoona but when Peniel took Lyorin's hand for a shake, he felt a weird feeling but decided to brush the thought away.

"So are we watching a movie?" Lyorin asked after the short getting-to-know session. The girls weren't quite sure what was the plan.

"No." Hyunshik smiled. "How about we walk along the Dongdaemun street? They have nice food and shops too." Yoona agreed with the idea. She loved shopping. Lyorin nodded and followed suit. They started conversing while walking along the street. Hyunshik walked closely beside Lyorin while Minhyuk with Yoona. Hyunshik told a lot about himself; he lived at the east of Seoul, the only child and absolutely loved ddubboki. Lyorin chucked softly at the last info of him. She loved ddubboki too.

They continued walking until they noticed a crowd full of youngsters. They decided to join. So, the boys pushed the crowd away for Lyorin and Yoona to get a glimpse of what the event was. Actually they didn't have to force through the crowd, the people made way specially for them. It was as though the guys were VIP. The girls made it to the front, unscratched and fully protected by the boys. Hyunshik looked over at Lyorin making sure she was comfortable and safe. He kept glancing at her who was looking straight at the guys on stage. Lyorin watched three guys on the slightly elevated stage; one was stretching, the other was trying to hype the crowd while the last one was fixing the stereo set.

"I THINK THEY'RE GOING TO DANCE!" Yoona shouted over the loud cheering from the crowd. Lyorin smiled and nodded enthusiastically. This was the first time she watched a live performance right before her eyes. One of the guys took the microphone and began to beatbox. Lyorin was amazed at the speed of his tongue, mouth and lips as he entertained the crowd. After the brief beatbox performance, the three guys went on standby. Lyorin’s heart beat in excitement.

The music finally blasted the night and the three guys moved their bodies fluidly to the music. Girls were screaming their lungs off at the three hot guys dancing, while guys were swaying their bodies, trying to imitate the movements. Hyunsik saw the sparkle in Lyorin’s eyes as she watched the performance in awe. He was admiring her without her realising it, since she was so hook on to the performance. Everyone else was focussing their eyes on the amazing performance, but Hyunsik kept his eyes on Lyorin. His heart fluttered uncontrollably.

 Lyorin didn’t even realise was hanging open when Hyunsik suddenly poked her cheeks playfully. She blushed in embarrassment. “Stay here. We’ll be back!” Hyunsik said out loud and off he went together with his friends. Lyorin and Yoona looked at each other, confused at the boys’ sudden request to leave. The girls looked at the boys who seemed to be heading forward to the stage. Suddenly, the lights went off and the music stopped. Then within seconds, it turned back on again and this time the girls eyes widened in surprised at what they were looking. Unexpectedly, Hyunsik and Minhyuk together with Peniel and Ilhoon were dancing on the same stage with the three boys earlier on. They were in sync, on the beat and most impr0rtantly, all of them were amazingly good dancers. Hyunsik had ed his plaid shirt and he was wearing a black sleeveless top underneath. In between the dance moves, he would teasingly lift up his shirt, revealing fine abs. Lyorin didn’t expect the guy who was shy at their first meeting was actually doing the most teasing on stage.

Finally the hot performance ended and everyone clapped and cheered. Lyorin turned to face Yoona, “Yoona, close your mouth please?” She friend who had her jaws dropped in awe.

“THEY WERE…OMG…BEYONG AMAZING! I didn’t know they can dance so well!” Yoona finally woke up from her trance. She kept spilling her over-zealous emotions on Lyorin, who in return just nodded and agreed to whatever she was saying. Lyorin did enjoy the performance and it was excellent. The crowd began to disperse slowly but the girls stayed put, turning their heads in search of Hyunsik and his friends. They finally spotted Hyunsik jogging towards them, with slightly wet hair from the sweat and was only wearing the sleeveless top. But his face was still lively and energetic despite the intense performance. Without a word, he took both Lyorin and Yoona’s hands and led them back stage.

The girls were greeted with another six tall guys who were busy wiping their sweats with towels. When they noticed the girls, an unknown guy came forward, “Hello! You must be Lyorin and Yoona. I’m Sungjae!” he beamed. He was one of the dancers at the beginning. Up close, he looked adorable with his eyes glittering happily compared to when he was on stage; he was fierce and charismatic. He pulled two more unknown guys, one name Changseob while the other was Eunkwang. Eunkwang eyed Lyorin coldly with his piercing eyes. She didn’t know why he acted that way but guess that he could probably be the ‘Kai’ among them.

It was nearly 10pm and the girls decided it was time to leave. Minhyuk offered to send Yoona back, in which she agreed. Lyorin surprised at her friend’s response. Of all the 17 years I’ve known her, she has never once accepted a guy’s request to send her home. This is the first! Lyorin grabbed her bag and said her goodbyes to Yoona and the boys, when suddenly Hyunsik appeared right before her.

“Mind if I send you home?” He asked. Lyorin thought about how far the mansion was and would gladly want someone to accompany the long bus ride home. However, EXO told her before not to tell anyone about the location that they were staying. She looked at him, still deciding on the offer. She wanted him to just send her to the bus stop and she would take the bus herself. “It’s okay if you don’t want me to send you all the way to your house. Let me walk you to the bus stop atleast” Hyunsik said. Lyorin agreed at once. It was though he knew what she wanted, which made it easier for her. He asked her to wait for awhile as he went to talk to Eunkwang. She looked at them talking and Eunkwang’s expression seemed to be dark and he was constantly frowning. Lyorin couldn’t hear what they were saying but it seems like they were arguing. Finally, Hyunsik patted Eunkwang who just looked down, as if he had lost the argument. Hyunsik grabbed his plaid shirt in his hand and headed towards Lyorin.

“So, how was it?” Hyunsik asked as they walked side by side, putting on his plaid shirt over his sleeveless top.

“You mean the dance performance? It was unexpectedly…” Hyunsik stopped walking, waiting for her response. “Amazing!” Lyorin finished her sentence. “I didn’t know you guys can dance. I mean like dance really well.”

Hyunsik laughed “I’m glad you enjoyed it…. Lyorin, there are many things you don’t know about me.”

“It’s okay, pretty sure you can fill the details slowly.” She laughed along.

“You know, there are things about me I’m not supposed to tell. You have secrets too that you can’t tell right?” The air turned serious suddenly. Lyorin shuddered at the mention of “secrets”. She had plenty of it. It was a huge burden yet a responsibility to keep it shut from anyone. Hyunsik, who noticed Lyorin looking down, decided to change the topic of conversation “Lyorin, thanks for agreeing to spend your time with us. It’s really an honour to be able to go out with you.” Lyorin looked up and smiled at him.

“It is my honour as well, to hang out with you, get to know more about yourself and seeing the dancer in you. Friends?” She beamed and held out her hand for a hand shake. Hyunsik hesitated at first but took her hand.

The bus came and Lyorin hopped on. Hyunsik stayed till the bus moved off. He walked back to his friends, feeling blue out of a sudden. The thought of being friends with Lyorin made him happy yet anxious. He didn’t like the word friends, he wanted more but he knew deep inside he wasn’t even supposed to get close to her. He was taking a risk; a very big risk.

To be continued...