CHAPTER three; los angeles

They arrive at Krystal’s expensive flat not too long after they get their luggage.

“We won’t be staying here long,” she drawls casually, “We leave tomorrow, after all. Therefore, I didn’t bother asking the maids to work overtime. I hope that the current state of my… humble abode doesn’t disgust you in anyway.” She flips her hair over her shoulder lightly – not in order to fit the part of spoiled, rich girl, of course. Heavens, no. Said type of individual is the same type that makes the young woman want to fling herself off the nearest balcony.

Her hairdresser simply didn’t spray enough hairspray to keep her hair out of her way or something. Krystal is surely not to be blamed.

As she turns to (self-consciously) gauge the reaction of her house guests, she blinks at the sudden realization that none of them are anywhere to be found.

Except Kai.

And sometimes she wonders how she manages to deal with such a man.

“Damn right it does!” he responds to her statement with a roll of his eyes. “Geez, Krys. You would think that you would pick up after yourself more.” She shoots him a withered look, but her fellow model seems not to care all too much for the expression. Jongin flings himself onto the red velvet of her living room sofa, before pulling something out from in-between the cushions. His eyes widen as he screams, “Dear G – Krystal Jung! Is this your underwear?”

His statement makes her flush immediately as she storms towards his lounging figure, “What the hell are you talking about, Kai? That’s a ing napkin! And to think, that from the way you talked, I had figured that you had at least some knowledge regarding the feminine lingerie.” She grabs the cloth from between his fingertips, ignoring the smirk etched on his features, “I honestly don’t know if I should be happy that you can’t tell apart a silk rag from a thong or worried about how the long trip might have affected your brain.”

The older man can do nothing but chuckle, “You’re worrying too much again, Krys.”

“And if I don’t worry about you, then who will?”

It’s clear that he doesn’t see her words coming as the cocky expression on his features is momentarily wiped off to be replaced with one of pure shock. However, a model wouldn’t be a model if he didn’t know how to control his emotions, so it doesn’t take long for the smirk to reappear. “Awh, is sweet, sweet, Soojungie finally admitting that she loves me?”

The young woman lets out a groan of annoyance before whipping him with the not-so-y ‘lingerie’ (“Hey, watch it!”), before hissing, “ you, Jongin.”

His eyes twinkle with mischief and Krystal immediately regrets saying anything to him. (Perhaps throwing a punch at him would have sufficed, but then again, the blood of the Jung always insisted that she should be the one to have the last word.)

“When? I’m available anytime you want, angel.”

Krystal decides to backtrack to her previous idea by hopping over the top of the couch, firmly forcing all of her weight onto the older man’s body (“What are you –“), and repeatedly throwing childish punches at his chest screaming, “Kim Jongin, you are one hell of an idiot!”

Kai thinks that it’s kind of hot.

After a few moments of flushed anger and halfhearted yelps of feigned pain, Krystal rolls off of him – forgetting that the two were on a very narrow sofa – and finds herself on the floor.

If she had more energy, she would’ve gotten up to kick her fellow model in the groin. But unfortunately, she had spent most of what she had had left beating him up with her fists. (“What do you mean that that didn’t hurt? You’re a ing , Kai.”)

So for a few moments, they lay beside one another (well, sort of) in silence.

“Hey, where are those friends of yours?”

“Oh. I left them to bring up the luggage.”

“You realize that there’s a bellhop for that, right? Even if I sent a majority of the staff home, I’m not cruel enough to make my guests drag dozens of suitcases up twenty floors in order to reach my penthouse. That’s ridiculous.”

Jongin does nothing but roll his eyes. Typical Krystal. Always worrying so much about others. “You’re fretting again, Krys. Just chill. They’re not dumb; they’ll figure it out once they hit the lobby. Besides, I figured that lover boy wanted some time with his beloved girlfriend.”

There is a beat of silence.

“You’re an ,” she deadpans, “You do understand that they’ve never even been to the States before, right? How the hell do you expect them to know where they’re going since you didn’t bother to tell me that they had stopped following my lead?”

He blinks, clearly realizing that he had failed to think his previous plan through. “Oh. I suppose that you’re right.”

---

“Did you see where the driver went, Sehun? I had sworn that he had helped us bring the luggage in not too long ago, but now he’s nowhere to be found.”

Jinri frowns, silently cursing the day that Kim Jongin walked back into her life, worriedly looking around the large lobby of sorts that the expensive apartment complex that seemed more like a hotel than anything. There are a total of four bulging suitcases surrounding her (four because Jongin insisted that he needed two in order to hold all the clothing that he planned to bring on their last minute vacation) along with a few smaller bags that had served as their carry-on.

That didn’t even bother carrying his own backpack to wherever the hell he wandered off to.

The young woman sighs, allowing a small slump to find its way into her shoulders. This whole trip was proving to be a lot more stressful than she had originally anticipated.

“Or maybe Jong—Kai,” she quickly corrects, “He may be a bit of an airhead, but I don’t think he’s stupid enough to get lost. Or Krystal! Yes, silly me. We should be looking for Krystal first. After all, this is her home, right?”

It takes a few more minutes of her aimless rambling for her to realize that her beloved boyfriend has yet to make a response.

She blinks at the realization, before allowing a small squeak to escape her lips, “Sehun?”

No response.

And that sends Jinri’s mind into a frenzy because how the hell did she end up being the lost one when it was painstakingly clear (in her eyes, at least) that she was the most responsible one of the bunch? And how did Sehun – her incredibly doting boyfriend who refused to allow her out of his sight – manage to leave her behind without noticing?

The latter thought sends a pang straight through her heart. Especially when she recalls just how pretty Krystal is and just how great she looks in her designer clothing and just how free her laughter sounds and just how maybe this plan of Jongin’s is going to bite her in the after all.

If possible, all of this only makes the slouch in her shoulders even more evident.

“N-No, sir,” she hears in broken English, “I’m not –“

The familiarity of the voice makes Jinri whip her head back up.

Only to see a strange man groping her helpless boyfriend.

And it’s one thing to see Jongin doing it so nonchalantly, but it’s another to see a complete stranger doing so.

“S-Sehun?” This time the yelp that escapes her lips is at a much higher pitch, and though Jinri knows that the logical thing to do here would be to step in and pry the man off of her boyfriend, she finds that she can’t move. Because even though she’s the one unwillingly wearing the pants in their relationship, she had figured that having to stop her boyfriend from being as soon as they get to America is something that she didn’t have to worry about.

The fact that she apparently has to has made her body immobile.

She knows that she should at least let out a scream or something so that at least a more capable person can take care of the situation, but has closed up on her and all she can do is berate herself for being a stupid, stupid coward.

There is a flash of bright red before the middle-aged man drops to the ground with a groan, rubbing his horribly bruised cheek. Krystal grimaces at the faint pain in her knuckles while Jongin picks the man up by the collar of his shirt to bring the stranger’s shocked expression closer to his livid one. “What the hell were you trying to do to my friend?”

When the man’s sole response is one that none of the Korean newcomers can understand, they’re each suddenly smacked in the face by the fact that they’re in America now, so a majority of the population can’t understand a word that they say.

Great. Wonderful, really.

Seeing the smidge of disappointment on her friends’ features, Krystal takes the lead, barking a few angry words at the stranger.

As the two go back and forth in what soon becomes a heated argument (Jongin still holding the man back from throwing his body upon his fellow model while faintly wondering why this commotion hasn’t been enough to call the receptionist’s attention in order to phone the police), Jinri finds herself stumbling over the pieces of luggage towards the lanky body of her confused boyfriend.

“S-Sehun?”

And as soon as his eyes meet hers, she’s suddenly hit by the thought that she doesn’t deserve a man like him. “Jinri,” he breathes, quickly pulling the smaller girl to his chest. “I’m sorry for worrying you like that.”

She wants to call him an idiot for apologizing over such a stupid manner because – if anything – it should be her mumbling apology after apology for not standing up for him when he needed her because that’s what two people who love each other are supposed to do. But she finds herself incapable of speech.

When it hits her that she’s crying into the warm heat of his chest, she wants to shoot herself because she’s being nothing more than unreasonable. Because she’s not the one who was getting violated in such a cruel, inappropriate manner. She’s the one who was about to let it happen before her very eyes.

“Stop crying, Ri. You know that I don’t like it when you cry.”

Jinri really doesn’t think that she deserves a guy like Sehun.

Things happen pretty quickly after that: it seems that the receptionist had called the police and two officers burst into the complex’s lobby. They assure Jongin that they have the situation under control as the brunet warily hands the man over to the awaiting officers while Krystal and the other staff members that work under the building calmly explain the situation.

Somewhere between here and there, Sehun has guided his still sobbing girlfriend towards the lounge-like area located in a corner of the lobby, allowing himself to pull her closer when it seems like she won’t stop crying anytime soon.

Jongin feels like he’s interrupting a moment between the two when he awkwardly takes a seat across the couple, but forces himself to ignore it.

He clears his throat in an uncomfortable fashion, trying not to think too much about the fact that his childhood best friend is acting like someone has just died and facing Sehun instead, “You alright there, buddy?”

There’s a short pause as Sehun debates on what he should say, before he slowly responds with a “Yeah, I guess so.”

It’s silent as Jongin raises a brow – meaning that he wants the younger man to elaborate – and with a sigh, Sehun does. “I honestly have no idea what happened. There was another bag that we had left in the back of the car, so I had gone to go get it. I hadn’t bothered to tell Jinri since she was already inside, and I didn’t think there was any harm in going out alone. When I got there, the driver took it for me, insisting that I shouldn’t have to worry about it. So he took the bag and while I was closing the trunk, that… man grabbed me. I have no idea what his intentions were. I couldn’t understand a word he said.”

But the fact that his face is still deathly pale tells Jongin that the younger man knew exactly what the stranger’s intentions had been.

“He had you in a tight hold. And the way he was holding you – there was no way that you would’ve known how to get out of it unless you had had proper self-defense training,” Jongin states with the intentions to calm the younger man down, “You put up a good fight though. I don’t think that he would’ve been able to get his way with you.”

Jongin longs to make a joke to assuage the tension in the room, but nothing really comes to mind.

“America’s scary,” Jinri mumbles, and it’s only then that he realizes that she had ceased her tears. “This was one hell of an idea that you talked us into.”

“I’m just glad that you weren’t the one in his position, Ssul.”

Something flashes in Sehun’s eyes at the older man’s words, but his girlfriend sees no harm in them. “Whatever, Jongin. You didn’t tell me that Krystal was such a fighter.”

He allows a short chuckle, thankful for the quick subject change that easily covers up his slip of the tongue, “I suppose that I’m just used to it. She tends to throw those punches at me all the time.”

---

When Krystal leads them back up to her penthouse (the staff members of the complex apologizing profusely for allowing such a thing to happen), she explains that the man claimed to have thought that Sehun was the male e he was supposed to meet tonight, and was confused when the younger man rejected his touches.

Jinri flinches at the explanation, and though it creeps Sehun out to no end, he forces a laugh because he knows that if he doesn’t, Jinri will never ease up. “I know that I’m naturally handsome, but I had figured that people would have enough manners to admire me without touching.”

Krystal giggles at that.

Jongin rolls his eyes, “Don’t get too cocky now, lover boy. I’m pretty sure that your current choice of clothing had something to do with the misinterpretation.”

Sehun narrows his eyes and throws himself at his elder, who can only grunt at the sudden weight being upon him.

The elevator dings and it looks like Sehun – who’s obviously losing – is about to give up the fight in order to return to his girlfriend’s side, but while he’s exiting the elevator, Jongin tackles him to the ground. The two men continue to roll along the floor and Jinri doesn’t have much of a choice but to quicken her pace in order to match Krystal’s.

She’s surprised when the younger woman lightly takes her hand with a bright smile, “You’re still shaking, Unnie. Don’t dwell on it too much. Nobody’s hurt and that’s all that matters. We’re still going to have a lot of fun on the trip, okay? Nothing will change that.”

Her blunt kindness surprises the older woman who had labeled her fellow female as a stereotypical queen . But she feels a genuine smile slowly grace her lips. “We’ll have to see about that.”

“Trust me,” Krystal chuckles, “If Jongin’s the one planning the trip, then there’s no doubt that everyone will have a good time.”

You especially.

---

“What do you mean we’re not going to Vegas?” Jongin shouts.

The redhead can do nothing but roll her eyes, “I can see absolutely no point in it, Kai. We may be legal in Korea, and though we’re technically legal in the States as well, we’re not of drinking age.” When her sole response is a blank stare of confusion from her fellow model, she sighs. “Alcohol is a no-no.”

Kai’s incredibly audible gasp is so intense that he ends up throwing himself into a coughing fit.

“Hey, be careful!” Sehun grumbles, holding a pack of frozen vegetables to his bruising cheek, “You’re going to get your spit all over the ramen that Jinri just made me.”

Jongin pointedly makes an effort to force more coughs in the direction of Sehun’s steaming bowl.

And Jinri finds herself laughing at the scene, subconsciously glad that taking the younger woman’s advice was simpler than it had originally seemed. “No need to be so protective over it, Sehunnie: it’s just food. Besides, that was just some of the instant stuff that I found in Krystal’s pantry. It’s nothing that special.”

Sehun huffs, Jongin sticks his tongue out in victory, and Krystal mumbles a few halfhearted apologies over not having any food properly prepared beforehand.

“I had intended to order a few boxes of pizza,” she blushes, “But I totally forgot about it. I bet that if we call now, we can still have it delivered so –“

“It’s alright, it’s almost midnight now. I’m fine with just this,” Sehun assures. And now that he’s out of his former clothing, Krystal has to admit that he looks really good. No, he looks beyond really good. The kid looks like he stepped out of an anime or something and she’s pretty sure that he could be a model if he ever tried pursuing it. Jongin hadn’t lied about the young man’s appearances.

Oh Sehun is an incredibly attractive male with a fashion sense that isn’t bad at all given the fact that he’s only in his pajamas – they’re stylish pajamas, after all. And it’s not often that you find men who are willing to go through the trouble to make sure that their sleeping clothes are just as attractive as their other clothes.

She quickly decides that Choi Jinri is one very lucky woman.

Krystal waves away the brunet’s words, “Don’t worry about the time. I have a number of connections in this city, and if Jung Soojung wants a ing pizza, then hell, Jung Soojung will get her ing pizza.”

Before Sehun can properly respond, Jongin jumps out of his chair, nearly making Jinri spill the filled-to-the-brim bowl of soup that she just finished preparing for herself as she advanced towards the table. “That’s it, Krystal! I’ve got it!” She shoots her longtime friend a glare, but the young man doesn’t seem to feel its weight on him at all.

“Got what? The sudden urge to make me demand you a pizza?”

“No, not that,” he quickly states. But after a quick pause, he changes his mind. “On second thought, I’ll say a ‘yes’ to that. But that’s not what I was getting at, Krys.”

The young woman rolls her eyes at that.

“That’s how we’re going to get into all those fancy casinos in Vegas. And how we’re going to get our alcohol. And how I’m going to make sure that this road trip becomes the best ing road trip to end all other road trips.”

Krystal raises a skeptical brow, Jinri rolls her eyes, and Sehun looks on in pure excitement at his role model.

(Apparently getting punched in the face by the man during their childish wrestling does nothing to deter the youngster’s admiration. Then again, there is also an evident bruise forming on a portion of Jongin’s jawline, and a part of Sehun knows that at any minute, Jinri’s going to reprimand her old friend for not keeping his vegetables where they belong. So there’s no true need to be bitter at all.)

“Connections. It’s all about connections.”

And as he rambles on about the dozens and dozens of people that he’s met throughout his modeling career, the other three individuals seated at the table find themselves zoning out as their friend continues on. They catch a few mentions of people who would be willing to hook him up, people who would try to turn him into the cops, and people who would beat him to a pulp for trying to sleep with their sisters before handing him into the cops. He tries to get Krystal to help him out a bit, but the young Jung only rolls her eyes and mumbles something about “this trip was your idea, Jongin, so I’m trusting you to plan this on your own.”

The young man immediately releases a whine about how his fellow model should know by now that planning was never really his thing and he seriously at it so as a good friend, she should do her best to help him out.

Krystal grits her teeth in annoyance before telling him that if he doesn’t shut up she’ll throw the paring knife that she’s using to skin her apple at his head.

Kai laughs and says that he knows she would never do such a thing.

The knife misses his head by only a few mere centimeters.

Jinri and Sehun immediately decide that they will never ever disobey Krystal ever.

---

“So who’s sleeping where?”

Krystal turns away from her front door, three steaming boxes of pizza in her arms. “You’re going to bed already? The pizza just got here.”

The young man opposite her allows a sheepish grin, “I shouldn’t be eating too much. I should be watching my figure, you know?”

“Don’t be silly,” she giggles, “Sehun, you’re like skin and bones. A couple of slices of pizza won’t do your figure any harm.”

Sehun laughs in response to that, “I suppose you’re right. But it took me a long time to achieve this body, so it would be a shame for my abs to turn into fat rolls before I have the opportunity to show them off.”

“I think that you accomplished that as soon as you got off the plane from Seoul.”

He flushes a deep shade of red at the memory, much to Krystal’s amusement. In a pathetic attempt to cover up the tinge on his cheeks, he walks over to her and takes the boxes from her arms, before heading back towards the kitchen where his girlfriend and Jongin can be heard arguing over which coast New York is on. He suddenly stops to turn his head to the side to call back to her, “I guess a few slices wouldn’t hurt.”

“Let’s make a bet.”

Her quick response catches the young man offguard as he spirals back around to face her, “I – you – what?”

She grins at his confusion as she casually saunters towards him, “I bet that even though Jinri is insisting New York is in the same state as Los Angeles, Jongin will still end up agreeing with her.”

Sehun laughs, “Despite the way she presents herself, Jinri was never that great with geography. But I don’t think that Jongin will agree with her. He’s the stubborn type.”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Krystal says with a mild shrug, “If you’re right, you’re allowed to force me to do any one thing for you. And if I’m right, I get to force you to do any one thing for me.”

The stakes were pretty typical for a bet made between two individuals, and Krystal honestly didn’t think much of it. Sehun, on the other hand, seemed to be second-guessing himself entirely.

Noticing this, Krystal smirked as she brushed his arm and took the boxes of pizza back from him. “You’re not a baby, are you?”

And though Sehun feels that this isn’t a good idea at all, his manly pride is suddenly at stake, and he’s just as stupid as Jongin when it comes to his pride.

“Fine. Deal.”

---

Sehun is quickly disappointed when Krystal drops the boxes of pizza on the table and Jongin launches himself at the junk food, agreeing with Jinri’s opinion without a second thought.

His face falls.

Krystal only laughs.

Jinri looks at the two in curiosity but doesn’t think about their simultaneous actions as Jongin attempts to stuff a slice of pepperoni pizza into her closed mouth and her attention is brought elsewhere.

“Pft, it seems like someone’s a messy eater!”

The young woman picks up a slice of pizza and throws it directly at his face.

Jongin stops roaring with laughter to peel the food off in order to slap Jinri with it, but Krystal ends up accidentally intervening as she moves forward to grab a slice for herself.

When she stumbles back with her slice, she loses her grip and it soils Sehun’s white t-shirt.

With a roar (“Guys, I like this shirt!”), an incredibly messy food fight ensues that is sure to have Krystal’s maids lamenting their existence in the morning.

It doesn’t take long for them to run out of pizza, and while Jongin whines about not being able to eat what he had so excitedly requested, Sehun’s whining about how it’s definitely not his day because all of his clothing seems to be against him.

Jinri wants to bang her head against the wall in annoyance, but Krystal’s doing everything in her power to not strangle the two men in an extreme attempt to make them shut up.

“I feel like if you had more colorful clothing, this wouldn’t be as big of an issue, Sehunnie. We need to broaden the spectrum of your wardrobe.”

And those words are enough to light Krystal’s eyes in maniacal glee.

“That’s it!”

The older woman blinks in surprise, not realizing any of Krystal’s intentions. Jongin offers a similar reaction.

But Sehun, on the other hand, feels his eyes widen in fear because goddammit, he thinks that he knows exactly where the redhead is going with this.

“Oh Sehun, I’m going to stay up all night giving you a makeover.”

Jinri her head in confusion, Jongin laughs at Sehun’s misfortune, and Krystal smirks with pride.

Sehun is doomed.

It’s really not his day.

And with those words, Krystal drags him towards one of the rooms of her apartment while halfheartedly explaining their bet to a distressed Jinri and an amused Jongin, before shutting the door with a loud, “When you see him tomorrow, you’ll hardly be able to recognize him!”

After gauging multiple expressions, Jongin can’t help but wonder – with an entertained smirk, of course – whether or not it is Sehun who looks more afraid or his dear girlfriend.

Knowing Krystal and her edgy fashion sense, he figures that it could go either way.

---

“So what’s the game plan, Jongin?”

“Well, I figured we would hit Vegas first, then head over to –“

“I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about your other plan.”

The young man blinks for a moment in confusion, before the thought finally hits him. “Oh. That. Just go with what we discussed earlier. As of now, nothing’s changing.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Positive. Nothing’s going to change my mind right now. I don’t think you understand how much I like her.”

A beat of silence.

“Whatever.”

Author's Notes;  I'm super sorry about such a late update. ;A; As some of you may know, I recently had some guests over from Canada and they didn't leave until recently so I wasn't able to really get my hands on a computer. However, hopefully the length of the chapter makes up for it? /shot. I'm actually proud of this chapter. It seems a bit sporadic at times, but I think that in a way, that's a good thing: it really shows off the random nature in which the quartet are leading their lives, right? c: Some parts might seem a bit choppy/unnecessary, but trust me when I say that I included them there for a reason.

I owe all of you a thousand hugs as well because we just hit one hundred subscribers. ;A; Wow, I really can't thank you all enough for your support! I'd love to say that updates will be regular from now on, but unfortunately, school is starting up again next week. OTL. But don't fret! While I can't name any particular day of the week on which I promise to give you guys an update, I'm planning to update at some point during each week. So it might catch you off-guard, but I really hope that you guys will look forward to it! /shot.

Again, I really can't thank you all enough for your endless support. You guys are the best! *throws heart-shaped cookies at everyone*

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