“Pa please let me do this job!”

“No, Eve.”

“But you know how I feel about them!”

“And that’s what makes it a problem.” He said as he pointed at the sofa inside his office room, “Just sit there until all of this is taken care of, okay?”

Her father lead her into the room harshly, because Eve kept on fighting back and refusing to go in. Once he thought she was a safe distance away from the door, he released his grip on her wrist and bolted out from the room. Once Eve realized what was being done to her, the heavy steel door was already shut tightly behind her. She quickly paced to the door, but just as she feared, it was locked. However hard she jiggled the doorknob, it wouldn’t budge.

Filled to the brim with anger and annoyance, Eve slammed her fist to the hard surface, “Pa! How dare you lock me in like this!”

Another one, “Let me out!”

Then another one, “Papa!!!”

Nothing. They left her there. Alone.

Okay, this might be a bit confusing, so let’s back down a few moments and see what event catalyzed Eve's problems.

Eve’s family has a small travel agency in Singapore. It’s small, yes, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. In fact, this nice Wednesday noon -maybe because of it’s smallness- the agency got a call from another bigger agency, one that’s not meddling with travelling business. The call was quick and the instructions clear. They were asked to make a one-day trip around Singapore for their client. Okay, fair enough. The problem was, they asked the tour to be set up and arranged completely in 30 minutes, and the client was a popular idol group from South Korea called EXO-K.

Fair enough?

Eve’s father paced to the back lot of their small office after finishing all the needed paper works, expecting to see his first famous clients in their only mini van. He smoothed out the wrinkles on his polo shirt and coughed several times before stepping his foot to the broad daylight.

But he immediately noticed that something was off.

“Where’s the van?” He looked around, pacing from one end of the lot, peering off to the small alley at the side. But however hard he searched, he couldn’t find the car anywhere.

“Where’s the van?” He said as he walked back into the building, clearly starting to be nervous by then.

“Oh, it just went off like, a minute ago?” The receptionist answered back to him, “I thought you’d be the guide?”

Without further ado, he ran back to his office, only to find that the steel door was wide open. He should've seen this coming. He knew what Eve was capable of and it was just about time that she unleased it. Something was stuck on the door and as he walked closer, he realised that it was a yellow sticky pad with a familiar handwriting scribbled across it.

“See you later.” He whispered the words on the note.

Then, with his head hung low, he walked slowly to his chair and slumped down without much care.

“Eve…”

Several kilometers ahead from the office, inside the 'technically' stolen van, Eve was busy trying to stay calm and not appear like a rambling maniac. She kept pulling off her bobby pin, the key to her escape, and putting it back on her hair in different spots.

“Do I look good? Do I look good?” She kept asking the driver, Tris, in urgent whispers.

“Are you sure this is okay?” He ignored her questions and asked a worried one to her instead.

She waved at him in dismissal, “It’s going to be fine, Tris. Just make sure you don’t answer any calls from him.”

Eve then stood up from her seat and patted the driver’s shoulder; “Let’s just do our jobs well today.”

“Okay everybody! Good morning!” Eve shouted cheerfully to the bunch of boys that sat in front of her.

“Good morning!” Someone at the back of the van replied with equal enthusiasm, but the rest of the boys answered only with half-hearted mumbles.

“My name is Eve and I’ll be your guide for today.” She said as she gave a little bow.

“Do you know who we are though,” The enthusiastic boy at the back suddenly jumped up on his seat and asked, “Do you?”

Eve tried to hide her grin, but in the end she gave up and played along with him, “Of course I do!”

She continued on pointing each of the boys and saying their names, which gained a positive reaction. The previously disinterested boys started to become more animated.

“From all of us, who do you like the most?” The boy who sat on the seat two rows from the back, Baekhyun, asked her.

She teased the boy by prolonging her reply. Playfully humming and scanning the van thoroughly until her eyes were caught on the boy who was sitting at the front, directly to the left of her. Joonmyeon.
Eve opened , ready to give the answer, but realised that it might not be the politically wisest thing to say.

So, instead of that, she answered with, “I like all of you, of course.”

That diplomatic answer was a success, as 80% of the boys responded with a flattered, ‘Awwww.’

“Okay! Moving on,” She waved her hand to gather their attention back, “first of all, we’ll go to the biggest shopping m-“

“Wait a minute, we’re not going to universal studio first?” Chanyeol suddenly pitched in and interrupted her explanation.

“Well… Um, no, unfortunately,” She took out her destinations paper to make sure, “This tour doesn’t include universal stu-“

Again, her words was cut mid sentence.

“Awh, what? Why can’t we just go there directly?” The disappointment on Chanyeol’s face was starting to become more prominent, “Can’t we? We won’t be long, I promise, pleaseeee-“

“Hey, they’re nice enough to set up a tour for us in short notice. Respect that will you?” A sudden outburst from the previously silent Joonmyeon sent the whole car into a total silence.

“Don’t listen to him, just go on with your schedule.” He said apologetically as he sat back down to his seat and gave her an embarrassed smile.

“Well… Um…” Eve glanced at Tris, who in return shrug his shoulder and mouthed, ‘Up to you.’

But when she took a glance back at the visibly heart-broken Chanyeol, her heart gave away instantly.

“Well, okay then.” She threw her preset schedule away and told the driver to, “Change the destination, we’re going to Universal Studio.”

She looked back at the boys, who were busy cheering at the back. Everyone seemed to be pumped up, except for Joonmyeon, who were shaking his head. But who are we kidding, there was also this semi-excited smile on his face even though he tried to hide it with his hand.

Eve, seeing that Joonmyeon didn’t stand up from his seat to join with the other boys at the back, took a deep breath and braved herself to sit down beside him. Trying to take this advantage to at least fulfill her dream and test the strength of her mentality. It was a bet that she made with herself. Would she successfully go through this day without being a total maniacal creep?   

“I’m so sorry we ruined your tour.” He told her with a tint of guilt in his voice the moment she sat down nicely on the seat.

She bit her lips, in an effort to hide the wide smile that threatened to overtook her face, and said, “That’s okay.”

“They’re uncontrollable,” He glanced back to the rampaging pack at the back, “like a bunch of elementary school children.”

“It’s amazing how you can keep up with them.” She blurted out.

He laughed at her remark, heating up her cheek and making them blush, “It’s not going to be an easy job for you Eve. They’re a tough bunch to please.”

“Teach me how to be like you, then.” Eve cringed after saying that sentence, feeling that it sounded way too creepy, blaming it to the fact that it sounded way better when she was saying it inside her head. She then began to stutter as she tried to straightened out the meaning of her sentence, "I... I mean like, teach me how to be a good leader, not like, become 'you' you... I mean um... Yeah..."

'I'm screwed,' Eve thought, 'I'm screwed in the first thirty second... He's going to think of me as a incoherent fangirl and he'll... He'll stay the flippin out of me...'

But fortunately, miraculously, that wasn’t what Joonmyeon felt about Eve’s response. He even somehow found it hilarious that he gave her a hearty laugh and said, “Okay I'll teach you.”

It was like magic how quick Eve’s cringe turned into a smile.

“Hey hey hey, look,” Baekhyun rapped his fingers on the shoulders of the boys and pointed to the pair at the front of the van who were caught up in a lively conversation, “Look at them.”

As Baekhyun paid his attention at Eve and Joonmyeon, the tiny fire of mischievousness inside his head began to grow. When he turned around to face the group with a wide grin on his face and a rapid eyebrow wiggling, they all instantly knew that something was going to go down.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“What are you thinking?” Chanyeol tilted his head to the side, honestly not getting why everyone was nodding and smiling to Baekhyun. Of course, he was immediately dragged to the side by Jongin with a hand over his mouth. A rapid explanation was given so that he wouldn’t raise suspicion with his loud, and often unnecessary, questions.

“Boys, we got some work to do.” 

A/N: Just in time for the valentines, I guess?  I hope you have a nice valentine day!