The squeals of multiple girls rushing through the halls early the next morning hit Ally with a rude morning awakening. She looked over to see that her roommate was no longer in bed, so she decided it was safe to turn her face to her pillow and groan loudly, kicking her feet in the process. The previous day at the resort did not go as nicely as she planned. After sneaking through the back into the resort home, she was able to reach a bathroom and shower, fixing herself up from her nasty fall, without running into too many people. Even though she was physically clean, the embarrassment of the previous events followed her all day and warped into a spiraling day of bad luck. She saw girls snickering at her when she came to watch Jo Kwon give dance lessons, and she had no one to sit with when Jinwoon was playing guitar for everyone. While Seulong was playing on the beach with fans, Ally sat on the porch sipping a smoothie by herself.

            While sitting on the porch, singing was heard from inside. Due to further sneaky investigation, Ally discovered Changmin in the kitchen singing while teaching a few people how to cook. It was a significantly less number than the people outside with Seulong, or even the people watching TV with Jinwoon and Jo Kwon in the other room. Ally so desperately wanted to join, but she couldn’t bring herself to look Changmin in the eye after their less than flattering encounter on the beach. Everytime she heard his voice, she felt like her heart was simultaneously beating cheerfully and breaking into pieces. She watched from behind a wall for a while, breaking out into a grin every few minutes when Changmin would do something she deemed cute or funny, but tried to keep quiet. It wasn’t until Changmin attempted aegyo that Ally burst into laughter, and his eyes immediately turned to her in surprise, obviously having not known she was there. Her smile faded and her cheeks began to heat up. He flashed her a smile and signaled her over with his hand, asking her to join him without a sound. It was at that moment that Ally whipped her head down and quickly stormed out of the room, her legs striding in short yet speedy steps, escaping a situation that would have once brought her tears of happiness.

            It seemed that fate was not on her side the rest of the night, because no matter where she went, she ran into Changmin. Not only that, but every time, they had some sort of awkward eye contact. First, she took three steps out of her room, and came eye to eye with Changmin. He began to smile at her but Ally her heel and quickly walked back into her room. The next time, she was out on the deck watching the ocean, and he came out while talking to Jinwoon. She noticed him just as he noticed her. He opened his mouth to speak but Ally didn’t wait to listen. She quickly walked inside and into another room. During dinner time, while searching for a place to sit, the only available chair left on the porch was next to Changmin. When one of the IAMs asked Ally to sit, Changmin turned to look at her and pull out the seat. She bit her lower lip, inwardly panicking, before deciding to walk inside and eat on the couch. Ally believed herself to be the biggest fan of Changmin on the island. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him and didn’t want to be with him. She was just terrified that he was going to think badly of her. Her plan was to watch him from afar, but it just wasn’t going too well…

            A good night’s sleep, as well as the hope of a good day lifted Ally’s spirits slightly as she got ready in the morning. The smell of breakfast led her down the stairs, humming Homme’s “Still Eating Well” while walking with a skip in her step.

            “Today’s going to be a good day. I can feel it,” she thought to herself, a big smile spreading across her face as she began to softly sing the lyrics. She jumped off the last few stairs and strode into the kitchen before freezing in her tracks. There, holding a frying pan in his hand and facing her was Changmin, a look of surprise plastered across his face. He was wearing a bright yellow apron and appeared to be making pancakes. Ally immediately stopped humming, hoping Changmin hadn’t heard. But, of course, he had. His look of surprise changed into an amused smirk.

            “I have to face my problems right in the eye. No more running away,” Ally thought to herself, taking a soft breath of air, her eyes never leaving Changmin’s. He tilted his head, still looking at her, before appearing in thought.

            “Are you hungry? Do you want some?” he asked, the English coming out as if it was completely natural to him, but his Korean accent extremely evident. Ally smiled, looking down at her feet before looking up and nodding, her wet hair from her shower accidentally whacking her in the face. She coughed awkwardly, going to sit down at the kitchen table near Changmin.

            “Thank you,” she replied softly, and he nodded to her, seeming satisfied with himself that he got the girl that had been running away from him to speak with him.

            A few minutes of silence passed before Changmin had finished making the pancakes. He set Ally’s plate down at the table before her.

            “Thank you,” she said quietly, turning her head to look at him but he was already walking out onto the porch. Ally frowned softly, craning her head to look outside. Changmin had gone to sit on the front porch to eat, while Jo Kwon, Jinwoon, and Seulong were on the beach with the remaining fans. The realization hit like a bucket full of ice water to warm skin. Everyone else went outside with the others. No one stayed with Changmin. They were the only ones in the house.

            “I’ve been such a jerk. No wonder he doesn’t want to sit with me…” Ally thought to herself while slowly eating. She crinkled up her nose in thought, trying to think of ways to fix the situation, yet no plan was good enough to use as a solution.

            Standing up out of her seat, she went over to the sink and began washing her dishes once finished eating. She sighed to herself before beginning to hum a different Homme song, “Man Should Laugh”. Ally, of course, felt horrible for avoiding Changmin this whole time. She tried to save face by trying to avoid him, but the fact that he was always around made her intentions really obvious. Avoiding your favorite member of 2AM like they are the plague really isn’t the best way to handle things…

            Ally put her dishes away and turned around to Changmin leaning against the doorframe, watching her. She blushed slightly under his gaze, which was slightly confused. He tilted his head to the side, and Ally stopped humming as they stared at each other.

            “Why-…” Changmin started to say, but stopped as 5 fans came bustling into the room, laughing and talking among themselves. When they saw Ally and Changmin in the kitchen, they all started talking at once in hurried, excited voices.

            “Why are you two in here?”

            “Ally, come out side with us! We need more players for our team!”

            “Changmin, your dongsaengs need you outside with them! It’s so much fun!”

            “The water is really warm!”

            The mix of Korean and English said by the girls brought a smile to Ally’s face. She turned to Changmin and gave him a small, apologetic smile before turning back to the girls.

            “Let me get my bathing suit…” she said, and they grinned brightly. Ally nodded to them before turning and walking past Changmin, into the hall and down to her room. She could still hear the girls’ voices as she walked away.

            “Oppaaaaa. You better come too, okay? It’s a lot of fun!”

            “Changmin-ssi, it’s time to show off your chocolate abs, okay?”

            “Oppaaaaa.”

            It didn’t take long for Ally to change into her bathing suit and get outside, but it seemed that there was already a game being set up. The four members seemed to be the corners of a big square, with a sea of fans all around them. When Ally reached the square, the fans in Changmin’s corner waved her over.

            “Ally! We heard you saying how Changmin was your favorite member on the plane. Come on our team!”

            Her face flushed as Changmin turned to look at her. It took him a few moments to process what they said, and when he did his eyes widened a little bit. Ally’s face turned bright red and she turned to the fans, shaking her head with pleading eyes. Her roommate, who happened to be in Changmin’s corner, walked up to Ally and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the group.

            “Don’t worry, it’s going to be fun!” she said with a grin, and Ally could feel Changmin’s eyes on her, but she refused to look. “We’re doing a game like Changmin did in his Dream Team episode. Do you remember?” Ally remembered.

            “No,” she said quietly. Changmin looked away from her. Her roommate shook her head.

            “Tsk tsk. They did chicken fight, and the team that lost had to run into the water linked together.” Ally nodded, smiling slightly. “But this time, you have to protect the 2AM member from being pushed over. If your member is pushed over, your team loses!”

            “Let’s start!” one girl from Seulong’s team yelled, and suddenly there was a rush of people grabbing their legs up and rushing to the center. Ally lifted her leg up and joined in, bursting out laughing as a rush of people began hitting into her, trying to get to Changmin. She continued to push at girls until she was a fair amount away from Changmin, actually having forgot that she was supposed to be protecting him. She turned around, laughing as people pushed past her and that’s when she saw two girls rushing at Changmin, who had his back to them. The point of the game rushed back to Ally, as she hopped as quickly as she could over to the girls. Just as they were about to knock into Changmin’s back, Ally pushed them with her leg from behind with a small laugh. But, her laughing was cut short as she felt herself falling forward.

            “Not again…” she thought to herself, and quick put out her arms so she wouldn’t land on her face. When she hit the ground, the two girls in front of her hobbled back and to stop themselves from falling on top of Ally, they fell forward, right into Changmin. Surprised, he stumbled forward and hit a few more people lightly, before falling on his side, the people he knocked into falling in front of him. A whole pile of people fell into the sand, including Changmin, all because of Ally. She groaned and sat up, burying her face in her hands as people around them cheered, happy that they had won while Changmin’s team had lost. Ally lifted her head and turned to look around at the fans that had fallen on the ground. Changmin was doing the same as he sat himself up, an amused grin on his face. He followed the path of fallen people trying to get up, right to Ally, the start of it all. Ally groaned again, burying her face back into her hands. She was just a walking disaster. She heard Changmin laugh, as well as people on her team coming closer and about how they lost. She could have sworn she heard her roommate teasingly saying she regretted having Ally on the team. She lifted her head again just in time to see Changmin help the last fallen girl onto her feet, before walking over to her and bending down, holding out a hand to Ally. Her face flushed, and for a moment she considered not taking it. But, of course, she did, and he lifted her up gracefully.

            Just as Ally went to smooth out her hair, she noticed Changmin’s hand was still holding hers and a boy’s hand holding her other one. Before she could process what was happening, her body lurched forward and she let out a squeal of surprise as everyone started charging for the ocean, yelling out such things as, “Long Live Team Changmin!” and “Team Changmin, fighting!” She braced herself just in time for the cool water to splash into as she was pulled into the ocean. She stumbled a bit, falling in. The boy next to her let go, but Changmin held on, pulling her back up to her feet. Ally gently pulled her hand back and wrapped her arms around her body, her head turned to the sky.

            “It’s cold!” she squealed, twisting her body a bit in the water. But after a short moment of squirming, she noticed that the water wasn’t all that cold at all. Much different from the ocean she was used to in New Jersey, the water was calm, and perfectly clear. She turned to thank Changmin, but he had turned and began walking the other way while splashing some of his fellow teammates. She sunk down into the water, enjoying the feeling of the water flowing against her body. She kept her eyes closed for a moment before opening them, expecting to see right through the water into the deep ocean. Instead, a horrified feeling took her over as she came face-to-face with a small, brown fish. She immediately began turning rapidly in the water before standing up out of the water and biting her lip, as not to yell out. She whipped around and began running to shore, suddenly remembering why she was afraid of the ocean – the things in it. She squeezed through people trying to get to shore, accidentally knocking into someone, before finally reaching the sand and stumbling onto shore, sitting down on the sand as the water just barely reached the tip of her toes.

            Two of her teammates had seen her escape from the water and cautiously walked up to her, giving her an odd look as if she had just done something completely outrageous. They looked at each other before sitting down next to her. The one on her right put her hand on her shoulder. Ally raised an eyebrow at them. She didn’t think she made that much of a commotion getting out of the water.

            “Are you alright? What happened?” the girl on the right asked, turning her head to the side and squinting her eyes in a sympathetic manner. Ally couldn’t help but laugh slightly, but immediately covered it up with a cough when the girl on her left began glaring.

            “I’m just not a big fan of the ocean. Usually I’m scared when there are waves,” Ally explained, gesturing out to the ocean, “but it’s really calm here, so I thought I would be fine. Then I came face to face with a fish, and it kind-of creeped me out.” She shivered. “I really don’t like coming in contact with sea creatures.”

            “What kind of excuse is that for being rude?” the girl on her left spit out in a small fit of anger. Ally turned to her, surprise and confusion evident in her eyes. She whipped her head around to the girl on her right, obviously the more understanding of the two, her eyes wide. The girl immediately looked awkward and shifted her seating position, removing her hand from Ally’s shoulder.

            “We were all asked to be here because we’re all IAMs and we love all four of the boys as a group. I know Changmin isn’t many people’s favorite member, but that’s no reason to treat him differently than you would the other three. They’re all a part of 2AM, you know…” the girl said quietly to Ally, as Ally grew more and more confused.

            “I agree with that completely. Changmin is…” she started, then blushed awkwardly. It felt weird admitting it to people who were obviously there to scold her. “Changmin is my favorite member. I would never treat him badly, even if I didn’t like him because-“

            “You’re lying,” the snappy girl on the left interrupted, whipping her hair up as she scoffed at Ally. She stood up, wiping sand off her legs. “If you liked Changmin so much, why would you so obviously push him when you were trying to get out of the ocean?” She quickly stormed off, back into the ocean, as her friend also stood up to follow her.

            “You should apologize. A lot of people would be mad if they knew you were being rude to one of the members,” she said, before running back into the water. Ally cast her head down into the sand in front of her, fighting off the tears that were threatening to fall. Getting scolded was definitely one of the things Ally hated the most. She didn’t even realize she had run into Changmin. She was too focused on attempting to get out of the water that she didn’t think to apologize to anyone she had bumped in to. Apparently, that “anyone” was Changmin. Of course that would happen. It seemed as though her whole trip would be filled with awkward run-ins with Changmin by the looks of it.

            She looked up at the ocean to see Changmin talking to the girls that had just left her. She felt her cheeks heat up and a twisting feeling in the pit of her stomach. She took a deep breath, and couldn’t control it as a small tear fell down her cheek. She reached up and wiped it quickly, patting her eyes to try to stop herself from causing people to start looking at her. She was not going to cry over two girls who misunderstood something. Or, did they understand completely? Ally began to wonder if her means of avoiding Changmin was coming off as rude to him. She sighed. Of course it was. She was being awful just to save face.

            As Ally brought her knees up and rested her forehead down, closing her eyes, she felt a hand lightly touch her shoulder. She tensed, immediately thinking it was Changmin’s hand on her shoulder. He had been showing up this whole time, so why would now be different? She was afraid to look up, but found herself lifting her head slowly, looking up not into the eyes of Changmin, but of Jo Kwon. He tilted his head to her and gave her a small sympathetic smile, as if asking if she was alright. Ally nodded slightly, and couldn’t help it when her lips turned up slightly and a small smile grazed her face as Kwon held out his hand to help Ally stand up. She took it gently, noting how soft and fragile his hands seemed, and he lightly helped her stand up. He didn’t let go, however, and began to lead her over back to the water, where his team had just began to swim as Jinwoon’s team and Seulong’s team fought it out to see who would be the victors of the chicken fight challenge.

            “Let’s play, okay?” Jo Kwon asked, turning to smile at Ally before beginning to run, pulling her along with him as he reached the waters edge, and began kicking water at her before letting go of her hand. Ally squealed loudly, turning her back to him as he continued to splash her. She laughed, turning around and using her feet to kick water back at him. He laughed, and before long, most of the IAMs on Kwon’s team and quite a few from Changmin’s team were involved, and everyone was running around, kicking and throwing water at each other. Ally turned to see Changmin looking over at them, then at her. His gaze rested on her for a quick second (although it seemed much longer to Ally) before he turned and grinned to the fans around him, and began splashing them.

            Before long, Jinwoon’s team and Seulong’s team came rushing into the water (Seulong’s team won) and everyone was involved in one huge splashing fight. The fight went on for almost a full hour until people started to get tired.

            Everyone had been having so much fun that no one immediately reacted when Jinwoon asked when the planes were coming to pick them up, and after a moment of silent thought Kwon responded that he had thought they weren’t supposed to have ever left at all…