3 weeks earlier…

Jung Residences

HIS POV:

            We are in the final stages of preparing the things needed for the ‘meet cute’ event. The only thing left was to wait for the actual day to commence. I gathered them back here to discuss the next milestone in this courtship. I set up my powerpoint presentations and used a laser pointer to highlight my key points. They looked bored as I kept recounting the details of the meet cute event so I decided to skip that and just go ahead with the main topic for today.

            “COURTSHIP DAY 4: THE DATE.”

            “Wait…day 4? Why are we jumping ahead to that? What about day 2 and 3?” (Sunny)

            “Because I’m going to run out of ideas if I try to cover up all 11 days with these events! Besides, it’s too tiring to prepare for so many things with such little time.” I explained. It’s the truth. I can’t use up all my romantic grand gestures during this time frame. We have the rest of our lives for that.

            “Ok whatever. So, what’s this about ‘the date?’ You have any ideas?” (Yuri)

            “Yes. I was thinking of an amusement park, movie date, and late night coffee shop date all into one.”

            “Why do we have to do all that in one day?!” (Jungshin)

            “Because one place is just too boring and mainstream! We need variety!” I excitedly announced. They weren’t into the idea just yet.

            “Tell us about your plans. Start with the amusement park.” (Taeyeon)

            “First, I chose this place because you all know how she calls me “choding” right? Well, this place brings out the kid in all of us. Anyway, it’s not going to be one of the major theme parks in the country. I was thinking we’d search for the simpler ones? The ones in the countryside with the nicest views. The date would start early in the morning. You have to wake her up and make sure she’s all dressed and everything else. All of us must be there on time before the sunrise. Joohyun and I are going to watch the sunrise while riding a ferris wheel. I’ll have the operator stop it at its highest point so we can appreciate the view of the place….”

            I was too busy being excited about this plan when I noticed the girls were shaking their heads and airing their disapproval.

            “FERRIS WHEEL?! Are you nuts, Jung Yonghwa?! Seohyunnie has acrophobia! She’s never going anywhere near that ride. Not even within a 100ft distance.” (Hyoyeon)

            “That is why I’m going to have to ask you guys to blindfold her…”

            “Blindfold her?! and then what? you’d remove the blindfold when the ferris wheel carriage is at its highest peak? She’s going to pass out!” (Yoona)

            “Not before she screams her head off and damage hyung’s eardrums…” (Jungshin)

            “This is a bad idea, Yong. Why would you even drag Seohyun up there when you clearly know she’s afraid of it?” (Lee Joon)

            “That’s the point! I want to be there beside her when she faces her fear…”

            “Aish. Face her fear against her own will? Tsk2. That plan’s going to back fire…” (ALL)

            “I can handle it.” I said confidently.

            “Fine. Let’s say you can. So, what’s next? Wait…sunrise…SUNRISE?!!! What time do you expect us to be up by then?!” (Sooyoung)

            “Uh…that depends on what time the sunrise is forecasted on that place we’d choose…”

            “The average is around 5:45-6:30am.” (Jonghyun)

            “If this place is in the country side, we need to leave an hour earlier…yah! Do you expect us to get up at 2am?? 3am?!” (Hyoyeon)

            “And how can you be so sure that the ferris wheel would show off the “beautiful and scenic view?” What if it was facing towards the sea or whatever?” (Tiffany)

            “Which is why we’re going to ask the owner to relocate that ride in a strategic spot that would indeed show off the view which we came for in the first place.” I explained.

            “Oppa! That’s crazy! Do you know how much manpower and machinery are needed for that?” (Krystal)

            “I can afford it…and don’t worry about that much. Anyway, moving on, after the ferris wheel ride, we’d go down and have a picnic for breakfast. All of you can come along and just set up a mat for each one. I’ll ask my umma  and her umma to prepare the food. As for the rest of you, I’ll just give you money to buy your own or I think it’s best if we go pot luck! ”

            “ Pot luck? No. Give us the budget for our food. We need to be fed properly if you want us to cooperate.” (All)

            I swallowed a lump in my throat and just nodded. The way they glared at me was not to be contested.

            “I’ll have the entire place reserved for all of us. You can bring in any of your friends and I’ll probably ask some people from our agencies to join in too. We’d spend the next few hours enjoying the arcade games, rides, and whatever attraction there is in that simple amusement park.”

            “Ok…so what’s next?” (Minhyuk)

            “We’re going to sing this new song I wrote. The ‘crowd’ would pretend to separate us so I can have time to go up the stage. The members will be facing different directions. I’ll be facing Hyun, Minhyuk at the back is facing Krystal, Jonghyun facing Taeyeon…”

            “YAH!” (Taeyeon)

            “Ey. Stop complaining. We all know you like the idea anyway.” (SNSD)

            “and Jungshin will face…er..uhm…Sooyeon.” I still find it odd how my dongsaeng and my “noona” are developing as a “couple.” I warned Jungshin that if he ever pulls his bad boy act on her and makes her cry, I…let’s not talk about that.

            “The crowd must be holding a balloon and then release this as the song ends. One by one, the members of CNBLUE will walk towards the girl they’re facing and hand over a balloon and one more item which you have to think of yourself and make sure you don’t tell anyone to keep the surprise. Minhyuk will go down first, followed by Jungshin, Jonghyun, and I’ll be the last. I won’t be holding anything aside from the balloon. The movie ticket for the date will be inside that balloon.”

            “And how do you propose on getting that ticket? By inhaling the helium gas and start talking with that funny voice?” (Lee Joon)

            “No. By popping the balloon of course! One of you has to hand me over a pin or a sharp object.”

            “That’s not a good idea. Seohyun will get shocked and she might hit you and the ticket might fly away. Think of something else.” (Tiffany)

            “I think it’s a good idea….” I insisted.

            “Fine. Then don’t expect any of us to go chasing that ticket when the wind blows it away.” (All)

            “What’s next?” (Jessica)

            “I’m going to stall time so you can go back to SJYNC’s building and fix the movie date setup. I want it to have that cinema feel – the popcorn, the security, the crowd, everything! I think there are costumes you guys can use…”

            “WHAT? You expect us to play popcorn vendors and those cinema peeps who hold the flashlight and help the audience who always enter the cinema late?” (Jessica)

            “Uh yes? You can decide for yourselves who plays which part!”

            “What’s next after that?” (Joon)

            “The café. I think there’s a Starbucks nearby and I’ll have the place reserved. The owner is a good friend of mine. Then, that’s it.”

            “We’ll still setup the cameras and mics. That ok hyung?” (Jonghyun)

            “Yeah. No problem. Thank you guys!”

            “Just so you know, all of this isn’t for free.” (All)

            “You better write more songs and earn money from royalties because when we ask for our talent fees, it ain’t cheap.” (Sooyoung)

            “What? Come on guys..What are friends for?”

            They laughed and dismissed my concern with a wave of their hands. The Date preparation begins now.

THIRD PERSON POV:

            3:15am.

            “WAKE UP!! YAH! GET UP YOU SLEEPY HEADS!” Yonghwa yelled as he woke his dongsaengs up. He was done dragging his Joon hyung out of bed and now it’s time for the rest.

            “What have I done to deserve this? Why me?!” Jungshin whined.

            “Aish. Stop complaining. You’re not the one going with him this time.” Jonghyun said as he got out of bed.

            “But I’m the one stuck with the rest of the preparations! Yah, Minhyuk-ah, get up!”

            They’ve spent their day offs looking for that perfect amusement park with the best sunrise view. Of course they’d been waking up at wee hours in the morning for that. They were hoping today would mark the end of their search. They arrived at the place and for some reason, they knew and felt that this was it. Yonghwa dragged the two of them to ride that ferris wheel and kept babbling about how perfect and beautiful the sunrise is and yada yada yada.

            “I think it would be better if the ferris wheel would be relocated to that spot over there so we can appreciate the entire view even more.”

            “Yeah. Ok. Sure. ” That’s all Jonghyun and Joon could say in response. Yonghwa was busy talking to the kind owner and they tuned out to the rest of the conversation until the owner’s daughter said,

            “I’ll only agree if Joon oppa takes me out on a date! We won’t charge you anything more other than the rental fee for this place. Please!”

            Lee Joon’s eyes went wide upon hearing that and before Yonghwa could agree, he tugged his arm and managed to politely say,

            “Excuse us for a minute while we discuss our answer.” He flashed his most convincing smile as he dragged Yonghwa in a corner. Jonghyun was the one left to converse with the others.

            “Hyung….” Yonghwa started to plead.

            “Don’t “hyung” me! I thought you said you’ll pay for everything?! Why am I being used here?! Yah!”

            “I’ll pay for the date!”

            “But what about my time?! Waaah! Yong! Don’t e me!” Joon protested.

            “I’m not ‘ing’ you hyung. Please?”

            “What if she’s a crazy obsessive stalker fan? Waaah! I don’t want to give out any false hopes!”

            “Then just tell her the date is strictly fanservice or anything. Hyung! I’ll buy you lunch every day! I’ll get you that limited edition Rolex watch you’ve always wanted. Please?”

            “Mwolla.”

            “Joon hyung says YES!” Yonghwa yelled out and poor Joon was left with no choice but to just agree.

D-DAY

THE DATE

            “Rise and shine!!! Wake up!” Yonghwa said as he pulled off the blankets and tried to lightly hit his sisters with their pillows.

            “YAH! JUNG YONG! What the hell?!” Jessica yelled as she tried to hide under her pillows.

            “Oppa! It’s 1am! Go away! Let us sleep some more!” Krystal complained.

            Jessica and Krystal tried to resume sleeping but their only brother took out a gong/cymbal and kept making these noises.

            “I’m not going to stop until you two get up! Don’t try to reason out that i