“Do you like it?” I asked Jin Mi as she is sitting in front of me. Right now, she is eating a piece of a Cookies and Cream ice cream cake. The bits of dark chocolate cookies could be seen popping out of its white interior layer. “I love it,” she smiled a kiddish smile at me and it does resembles a child who was lucky enough to get an ice cream from their mom.

           “So, what should you say?” I beamed at her playfully.

           “Thanks, oppa,” she laughed while playfully patting my arm. Then, she asked, “Do you want to try some?” I opened my mouth wide as she forked in a small serving of the cake and placed it into my mouth. I took the time to savour the cream. Honestly, I’m not into ice cream and desserts and that’s why I rarely eat them.

            “I should ask you now, do you like it…jagi?” Jin Mi quizzed me. “Of course I like it! Everything that my girlfriend feeds me… is good!!!” I laughed that loud when I realized that other people at their tables nearby were glaring at me as though I just caused a major commotion here. “Oppa! Don’t make me embarrassed here!” she slapped my arm.

           “Yah… why do you have to feel embarrassed about me?” I whined while rubbing my arm.

            “Sorry… oppa,” she pouted. I pinched her cheeks and I said, “It’s alright, jagi. Anyway, faster eat it before it melts!” While she was busy eating the cake, I decided to check my phone for any new messages. Too bad, there was none. I looked around me, and the whole mall was crowded with people. Adults, kids, teenagers, whatever you name of are there. I didn’t know since when it could be so packed with people today. “Did you see something?” Jin Mi asked while still eating the cake. I shook my head nope in reply. Just in time, she was already done.

           “Are we ready to go?” I asked here. She nod back in reply. The both of us got up from our seats and walked out of the ice cream stall. Then, she asked, “So, what do you want to do next?” I shrugged. The thing is, when it comes to suggesting places, it’s always Jin Mi who decides not me.

          “I don’t know. Cinema?” I asked here.

          “Let’s not go to the cinema. We’ve already did that last week. Why not try something new?” she recommended.

          “Okay. So, what do you suggest?” She looked up at the ceiling trying to think of places which could be fun to hang out.

        “Ahh! Noraebang?” she laughed. I gave her the what-the-heck look.

        “What?! What’s wrong with noraebang?” she demanded.

        “You know… I don’t sing, don’t you?” I said it out uncomfortably.

        “Oppa! It’s only once we get to do this. After this, we won’t go for any more noraebang, okay?” she pleaded like a small kid.

         “Fine fine! After this… but if you hear me sing, just cover your eyes. My singing is horrible,” I whined at her in embarrassment.

         “Whatever, I’m still going to listen to your voice anyway,” she replied at me sarcastically.

         “Alright, shall we go now?” I asked her trying to ignore what she said.

         “Sure! But… I think we… you know, we better check the directory. Because I’m not sure where it’s located,” she answered.

         “Then, we go look for the directory,” I answered her. The next thing, I took hold of her hand and we walked together looking for the directory. We managed to found it at the centre court of the mall. After checking out the location of the noraebang centre, we went off looking for it as it was situated at the floor above us. After getting up by an escalator, we make a few lefts and rights and finally… we found it right at the corner. The whole place looks quiet with dim lighting. And the only noise that you hear are the songs playing and the sounds of people singing through the microphones. There were two attendants at the counter handling out some paperwork.

        “Jagi, are you okay?” she asked as I was still standing there motionless while holding on to her hand.

         “Huh? I… don’t know. This place looks creepy… to me,” I stuttered.

         “Oppa… noraebang centres always look like that. It’s because you haven’t been to one, that’s why you didn’t know!” she explained further.

          “Really? Okay, sorry about that?” I rubbed the back of my neck shyly.

          “Can we go in now?” she pleaded. As we almost took the first step to walk towards the centre, two familiar figures at the same time walked out of the centre. That instant, I pulled Jin Mi along with me as we hid behind a wall watching the both of them. “Is that your sister… and Suho?” Jin Mi whispered into my ear. I gave her an agreeing nod. I watched my sister as she was playfully teasing Suho. Funny… my sister is in her school uniform but him… he wasn’t. Instead, he was wearing something casual.

             “I don’t think we can go in now seeing that my sister and him are right outside the entrance. They might see us, after all,” I whispered back.

            “So, what should we do now?” she muttered.

            “Instead, why not… we spy on them,” I smirked. Jin Mi eyes were widened as she went astounded.

            “Oppa! You can’t do that to your sister!” she disputed at me.

            “Hey jagi! Come on, it isn’t bad after all. And besides, I just want to see anything going on between them,” I appealed to her.

            “I kind of agree… about checking on them. But… would they know we’re spying on them?” she discussed further.

            “Nah… I don’t think they’re not dumb to realize that we’re spying on them. So, are you in?” I chuckled at her. She paused in silence and then, she said, “I’m in. But… do we have anything to disguise ourselves in case they could not recognize us?” she examined once again. I look through my backpack. Phew! Luckily, I have a pair of shades, a fedora hat and a face mask all in my backpack. “Here, take this,” I passed her the fedora hat and the pair of shades.

            “But… oppa, what are you going to disguise yourself with?” she asked as she saw that I have nothing with me. Thankfully at the same time, I was wearing a hoodie jacket that I can cover my head with. I showed her the face mask that I’m going to wear. I put the face mask on and the hoodie on and faced here, “Do I look recognizable here?”

          “Nope. I don’t think they can identify you with the hoodie on,” she commented. “How about me?” she pointed at herself. My hands went to tuck the strands underneath the hat which were sticking out in small tufts. I gave her a thumbs up and said, “You look perfect with that fedora hat.”

          “Yah. I’m asking whether I don’t look recognizable and you’re telling me I look good in a fedora hat?” she hissed at me.

          “Jagi, you don’t look recognizable, okay?” I gave her an assuring smile. Noticing that Suho and my sister were leaving the place, we quickly got into our positions and decided to walk a few metres away from them. “So, we’re just going to follow them everywhere they go?” she asked. I nod in reply. Seriously, it was not easy spying on them. It’s because we have to make sure that they don’t see us and of course, we have to stay alert on their tracks. After following them around, we had found that they are walking towards a Korean restaurant.  As they entered the restaurant, we tried to get the nearest table which was a few metres away from their table. When the waiter came over to pass us the menus, he was gawking at us as the both of us looked suspicious in front of him. As we got the menus, we hid our faces with them and once in a while, we peeped a little to check on them.

         While they were ordering their food to another waiter, the waiter who was staring at us earlier came over to our table waiting for our orders.

          “What do you like to have?” the waiter asked. At that time, we even didn’t think of ordering food in the first place nor having dinner here.

           “Sssshhhhh!!” The both of us shushed the waiter. He was completely surprised by the way we acted. “We’ll order later,” Jin Mi hissed at him. Then, the waiter walked in an awkward manner away from us. “Do you see anything yet?” Jin Mi asked. I shook my head in reply. After that waiter left their table, we were continuing spying on the both of them. Hmmm… Nothing special is going on. It’s just that the both of them were… talking…and… laughing. Too bad, there’s no skinship involved. Suddenly, Hye Ri turned her gaze towards my direction.

           “! Cover!!!” I instructed Jin Mi to do so and we were clumsily covering our faces with the menu cards. After a few seconds, we looked back again and she was back to Suho’s attention. I patted my chest while sighing, “That… was close.” Even Jin Mi nodded in reply while breathing hard. We looked back again and we saw that their food had already arrived on their table. To be honest, we didn’t have dinner yet. So, the moment we saw those food on the table, our stomachs were growling in hunger. Jin Mi patted my stomach saying, “Yah, yours is so loud!”

             “Bo yah! What do you expect? And I can’t control it!” I argued back at her in a soft voice.

             “Whatever! After we’re done with spying them, we’ll find a good restaurant to eat, okay?” she assured me. “Thank you, jagi,” I made a move to kiss her by pouting my lips. Then, she slapped me on the cheek saying, “Yah! We’re supposed to spy on them not flirting here!” I rubbed my cheek and then we got back to our spying duties.

           They were still eating… and they’re not talking. All of a sudden, I saw Suho’s hand reaching out and he was holding a tissue. Then, I saw him wiping her lips. I looked at my sister’s reaction. She reacted in a way that she didn’t expect him to do that. He smiled at her. “Awww! They’re so cute!” My girlfriend gushed. I face palmed myself and mumbled, “Girls.”

          “Yah! I can hear you, you know!” she slapped my arm the second time. This time, the waiter came back to our table asking for our orders. “Are you guys done?” he asked in a pissed off manner. “Shhhhhh!!!” The both of us hushed him… again. “Excuse me, if you guys are not going to order… again, I’m afraid I have to ask you both to get out of this restaurant,” he challenged at us. I really wanted to punch him in the face but Jin Mi had already kind of knew what I was intending to do.

          “Actually, we just want to spy on someone,” Jin Mi whispered to him behind the menu card. The waiter looked confused for a few seconds and he spoke, “But ma’am, I would still want you to get out of this restaurant if the both of you are harassing our customers.”

          “But that customer is my sister!” I clenched my teeth at him. Just then, the waiter calmed down and he looked at the both of us and then he looked at the table where Hye Ri and Suho are. He said, “Let me guess… you were spying on your sister because you want to check on… her boyfriend?”

         “That’s not her boyfriend. They’re just best friends,” Jin Mi explained. “So, you guys just want to check on them to see how compatible they are… or whatever,” the waiter replied. Jin Mi nodded in reply. Then, the waiter answered, “It’s alright then. I understand that older brothers do that to their younger sisters because they’re worried about their future. Anyway, I apologized for what I said just now. So… I’ll leave you guys and good luck spying!” He showed a ‘fighting’ sign at me. Then, he left the both of us to our spying.

           Minutes have passed by and there were no skinship or romantic gestures observed since that tissue-wiping part… if you can consider that. Both of them were still talking and me and Jin Mi were yawning and were almost dozing off. Then, I saw my sister got up and I heard something like ‘toilet’. She walked out and we knew that she was going to pass by us.

             “Quick! Hide!” I nudged her and we immediately hid our faces behind the menu cards. She did past by us and we looked back again and it was Suho who was left at the table. Suddenly, he turned towards our direction. We quickly brought the menu cards up. Jin Mi then murmured, “Are we safe right now?”

             “I don’t know,” I whispered back in reply. I looked up from the menu card. To our surprise, the table was empty… and Suho wasn’t there. Me and Jin Mi looked at each other wondering what are we going to do. Suddenly, a voice behind us spoke up.

             “MMM-HMMM!!!” We both turned around and right, there Suho was standing staring at the both of us like we’re a bunch of small kids guilty of doing something wrong.

          “What are you guys doing here?” he asked us suspiciously. We were at a loss of words wondering what to answer him.

          “Err… err… we were having dinner… here?” I stammered.

          “Don’t lie. You were spying on us, did you?” he eyed the both of us. We couldn’t answer him at all. Then, Jin Mi said, “Y-y-yeah?”

          “You guys… I didn’t know you guys were capable of doing this,” he rubbed his forehead in disappointment.

           “We were just checking you out cause we saw you guys earlier and… we want to see what you guys were up to?” Jin Mi tried to explain.

            “Let me guess… You were spying on us all along?!” he asked. “Since when?!”

            “Erm… since you guys came out from the karaoke centre?” I answered him truthfully.

            “From there?!” he burst out.

            “It’s because the both of us wanted to go for noraebang and we saw you guys there!” I explained in desperation.

            “Yah… you were the one who suggested we should spy on them!” Jin Mi blamed me. Okay, thanks Jin Mi. Suho looked at me and he sighed, “Okay, you know what? I’ll let you guys go… this time. And besides, it’s better if you guys leave… now before Hye Ri comes back and you don’t want your sister to get pissed off at you.”

           “Okay okay. We’ll go now,” I said as me and Jin Mi got out from our seats. “Go… now. And see you guys another time.” We quickly said bye and we got out from the restaurant… and the shopping mall. When the both of us got into my car, Jin Mi said, “That was close!”

          “It wouldn’t be close if you didn’t tell Suho that I suggested spying on them,” I replied sarcastically.

          “Omo! I’m sorry, jagi. I’ll pay for the dinner, alright?” she pouted at me. “Fine! We better go now. I’m so starved!” I sighed. The next thing, we left the shopping mall and we drove out looking for a restaurant and it was a lucky thing that my sister didn’t caught us.