“Hey guys I’m going to go out for some fresh air,” I said to my members as I grabbed my jacket from the coat hanger.

            “Remember, we have a schedule at 11!” Eunji reminded me before I left.

            “I’ll be back by then!” I replied. Then I left the dorm room and out to the elevators.

            When the doors opened, there was a boy dressed in black inside, leaning his back against the wall. We met eyes and I stopped short.

Myungsoo and I had been on semi-awkward terms since that night in the parking lot. But it was nothing that we couldn’t handle. If anything, it was a good type of awkward, if that even makes sense. I suppose his effort in making amends was working. I don’t know how I felt about that.

            He gave me a friendly grin and I returned it, getting into the box where we always seemed to meet. The doors closed.

            “So,” Myungsoo said, “Running Man, huh?”

            “Yup. You too?”

            He nodded.

            “I hear they’re going to have some pretty cool things for us to do. We get into teams and stuff,” I said.

            “I was on there once,” he said. “We did the whole hide and seek thing and I got out instantly.” He chuckled.

            “Are you serious,” I said. “That’s the best part about Running Man!”

            Myungsoo shrugged. “I heard my manager talking about dodgeball though which is one of my better games.”

            I considered it. “Hm. Dodgeball. Sounds fun.”

            “Thrilled?”

            “Totally.”

            Myungsoo smiled, which made me smile. Suddenly, I couldn’t wait to play some dodgeball.

            On the day of the Running Man episode, Eunji and I were running late. We dashed downstairs and into the lobby, only to run into Myungsoo and Sunggyu.

            Sunggyu raised a brow. “You guys, too?”

            Eunji and I nodded. “Should we all just carpool then?” Eunji suggested. Myungsoo and I looked at each other but said nothing. As far as Eunji and Sunggyu knew, he and I were complete strangers.

            “We should!” Sunggyu agreed. “You guys come with us in our van, our driver is a speeder.”

            Eunji smiled. “Great!” She seemed somewhat more relieved, since she’d been stressed the entire week due to her schedules. She and Sunggyu have also met before and wanted some time to catch up on things so it was the perfect opportunity.

            In the van, Eunji and I sat in front, while Sunggyu and Myungsoo sat behind us respectively.

            “Oh yeah,” Sunggyu said. “Myungsoo, you know Eunji and Naeun right?”

            “I know Eunji from Hoya,” Myungsoo replied. “But I only know of Naeun.”

            I bit back a smile and said, “Same goes to you.”

            “Naeun, this is Myungsoo,” Eunji said. “But I guess he is more known as L-shii?”

            I could practically hear his smirk as he said, “Since we’re acquaintances, Naeun-shii, you should call me L instead of Myungsoo.”

            “L? That’s quite an unusual nickname,” I said, playing along. “Although, quite a rip off from Death Note, if you ask me.”

            “Naeun can get a bit feisty,” Eunji said to Sunggyu. “She seems quiet and all but she’s really not.”

            “That’s strange, Myungsoo is the exact same way!” Sunggyu said.

            Meanwhile, Myungsoo and I were still at it.

            “…Death Note is actually a really good and popular anime and manga,” Myungsoo was saying. “If you even care to watch or read it.”

            “Yes, it is. Doesn’t mean that anybody associated with it is just as great though. I would feel like a fool calling someone ‘L-shii’,” I replied.

            “You are one tough cookie, Son Naeun,” Myungsoo mumbled under his breath.

            “What did you call me?” I playfully snapped at him. “Did you call me by my full name? Strange that you know it even though we’ve just met.” I faked a gasp. “Are you stalking me?”

            Sunggyu jumped in. “Believe it or not Naeun, we caught him searching up your name the other day. And it hasn’t been the first time either.”

            Eunji looked at me, eyebrow raised. “I’ve always thought he was quite strange.”

            “Hyung,” Myungsoo snarled. “That never happened, the .”

            I rolled my eyes. “Stalker.”

            “They’re a good match,” Sunggyu said to Eunji. “If they end up getting married in the future, I’d say that we built the foundation.”

            I looked back at Myungsoo, who was already looking at me, and sadness both flashed in our eyes. But it passed quickly as the van approached the filming venue.

            Filming was quite interesting. The other idols were super funny and all, of course, but having Myungsoo there made it kind of worthwhile.

            On the ride home from the shooting, Eunji and I had gotten picked up by our company’s van; Infinite had gone home solo this time. It was quiet in the car, with Eunji and I both being utterly exhausted.

            “You know Naeun,” Eunji suddenly said, “I was hanging around the PDs after the shooting and they were talking about something really strange.”

            “What is it?” I asked, nonchalant to the word ‘strange’.

            “They were talking about you and Myungsoo.”

            My eyes widened. But I stayed calm as I said, “Oh. What about?”

            “I don’t know if I heard it right but something about you two being tied together by a string or something. I have no idea.”

            A string. “Hm. Weird.”

            “Yeah. Weird.”

           I had no idea what the PDs were talking about until I actually watched the episode with my APink members. We all had our eyes intently on the dodgeball game. Then the other members noticed something funny.

            “Who’s that guy who’s always behind Naeun?” Hayoung asked.

            Chorong squinted her eyes, trying to make out the name on the tag. “Infinite’s L, apparently.”

            “Dang, he’s like, always behind Naeun! Sort of like a guardian angel or something,” Bomi commented. Then she laughed. “Ironic since Naeun got out first and suffered a huge blow on her head.”

            Hayoung kept her eyes on the TV. “You know, they kind of look tied together. Tied together with string.”

            String. STRING! That’s what the PDs were talking about! How Myungsoo and I seemed to be tied to each other during the entire dodgeball game!

            I looked over at Eunji. She was giving me a strange look, as if she was trying to figure something out. Yookyung was also looking at me weirdly. “No connection?” she whispered to me, nodding over to the TV. “You’re the worst liar on the planet.”

            On the TV, Myungsoo was now playing dodgeball solo since I’d gotten out. I kept my eyes on him, wondering to myself why the heck he would stick with me throughout that entire game? Every one of my members seemed to be wondering the same thing.

            Hayoung giggled. “I ship Naeun unnie with Myungsoo oppa.”

            Namjoo’s eyes brightened. “High five, girl! So do I!”

            “Me too!” Bomi exclaimed.

            And soon, everyone in Apink just seemed to forget that I, Son Naeun, was currently having a fling-type thing with Exo’s Kai and began shipping me with my freaking stepbrother.

            But what did Hayoung call him? A guardian angel? I watched the dodgeball scenes with me and him again and she seemed to be right. No matter which way you looked at it, from a fan’s perspective or not, it was a universal assumption: we seemed to be unavoidably drawn to each other.

A/N: I am following an unofficial timeline. So basically, none of these events -- if they somehow coincide with an event that actually happened -- are supposed to be in the order that they are in real life. Just adding things as I go, which makes it easier :) Thanks for MyungEun support, guys! <3