Hilton Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

Khun is at the centre of swimming pool when he feels his left leg stiffen and harden.

“Damn, why should this happens? This tour is bad luck to me.” He thinks.

He flaps his arms to gain attention. He did a good job; it is quite a commotion what he did there. He is lucky it is still early and there are not much people here at this time. Luck is on his side when there are two lifeguards, on their shifts. He glad those men are dedicated to their job, presence here even it is still early.

He is dragged to the side by one of the lifeguard. That man does something to his leg; some kind of maneuver he thinks, cause his leg feels better after that.

“Thank you. I don’t know what would happen if you’re not here.” Khun conveys his appreciation.

“Oh, it is okay sir. It is my duty. Our customer safety while having fun in the pool is our responsibility.” The lifeguard replies, humbly.

They smile at each other, and Khun excuses himself. He walks to one of the chair beside the pool and grabs his towel. Enough with morning exercise he goes to toilet; take a bath and put up an appropriate cloth. 

He then walks toward dining section where buffet style breakfast is prepared by the hotel. Others would enjoy their breakfast delivered to their room, but he thinks eats in an open setting is better. He feels stuffed if he stays in the room all the time.

Plus, it’s still early; less possibility he’ll be attacked by crazy fans, so he can’t think any reason why he should be inside all the time.

He once read in a magazine 10 things to do in Malaysia. So, he really wants to try. So, he pick Nasi Lemak and The Tarik for his breakfast.

They are heavenly delicious. And apparently, there’s unique way to enjoy hot drink in Malaysia. You need to pour your drink onto a saucer and drink it from the saucer. It didn’t seem much but it is enjoyable and refreshing. It’s fun.

He smiles to himself, enjoying his time here, in Malaysia. It will be much better with other members, but then it will be hard not to draw attention if they walk in a group like that.

“It’s a waste, but it’s okay. I’ll teach them later.” He thinks to himself, smiling all the way.

***

He walks back to his room after he finished his breakfast downstairs. He enters his shared room with Channie. Up to his expectations, Channie is still sleeping.

“Yah, yah. Do you want to sleep till evening?” Khun tries to wake Chansung, smacking his bottom, repeatedly in the process.

The banana lover moves a little, but still in his blanket.

“Hyung, let me sleeps more. I am tired.” He mumbles in his sleepy, groggy state.

Khun shakes his head.

“If you’re not awake now, we’ll be late to our practice. We still need to check the stage and if it tailored to what we want. Ireona! Ireona!” Khun answers.

Chansung still try to be a cocoon in his blanket. So, Khun continues.

“Do you want me to call Minjun hyung to wake you up Channie?”

A huge grin; a kind of grin that able to rip you face, appears on Khun’s face. He knows Chansung is afraid; no scratch that; terrified of Minjun’s ruthless style of waking a person from sleep.

With the mention of Minjun’s name Chansung sits up straight on his bed, with a worried plus terrorized face. Khun just laugh to his heart content, not forgetting to snap a picture. Chansung looks so funny like that.

“Hyung, I thought I can be out of his grips on our tour since I’ll be sharing room with you.”

Chansung let out a deep sigh as he finishes his sentence, and now he has his sad expression on his face. He looks just like a sad, lost puppy.

“Damn it. How can a grown up man, a huge man on top of that, be that cute? This maknae really knows how to get his way. I really want to smack his head.” Khun thinks to himself.

“Hey, hey, I promise you I won’t call him if you get your huge of that bed and take a shower. Or else you won’t have time for breakfast. We’re leaving in an hour.” Khun assures him, not able to resist his cute face.

Chansung jumps off his bed and hops towards Khun then he gives him a big hug.

“Yah, the clock is ticking!” Khun yells at Chansung and elbowed him.

Chansung ran into bathroom and take his shower.

“Your breakfast is on the table!” Khun yells again.

“Arasso hyung.” Chansung also shouts from inside the bathroom.

Khun take a book to fills his time with and he sits near the enormous glass window. He reads while enjoys beautiful city scenery.

***

Elyssa is in a rush. She needs to go to toilet right now. Her stomach has been having colicky pain since hour ago. She tried her hardest to keep it in, but she can’t do it anymore. So, she quietly slips out of the conference room and dashes to the toilet.

“Toilet, here I come! Oh rectum, please be patient.” Elyssa monologue to herself.

But her journey is not that smooth, and her rectum needs to wait for another little while before it can be cleaned off.

Guess what, in her rush to go to washroom, she almost runs into a group of man, almost. Luckily she manages to stop before she goes straight into one of the man’s embrace.

“God, it is embarrassing” Is what she thinks. Her cheeks turn a darker shade.

“I am sorry. I’m in hurry. I’m really sorry.” She says without even looking at them.

But somehow, suddenly the guy whose is just in front of her grabs her wrist. She froze there for a split second; she was so shocked, before she shrugged her hands off that man’s grip when she regains her consciousness back.

“Why? How could you?” She asks him; keeping her voice as low as possible, looking at his face now. She tries hard to contain her anger right now. She is so angry to the point her eyes become watery. Her watery eyes stare right into that man’s pair of brown eyes.

He looks so blank right now, he just stood there, stare back into Elyssa’s pair of eyes. While the others rooted at their respective spots, eyes widen with the incident, not really understand what’s going on.

“It may look so simple to you, Mr celebrity, but to others it might be important. I hope you can bear that in mind.” She said, still withhold her anger.

Once again, she tries to walk away, not really fond of the idea to stay longer with those celebrities. But her steps stopped when she heard his voice.

“Miss, wait!” His angelic voice echoed in the hallway.

She turns her body. Make a why-what-do-you-want face. He might not understand her expression, but she just made it out of habit. She’s really, really in a hurry so her expression is a faster way to convey what is in her mind.

She sees him walks toward her. So, she just stood there waiting for him, realizing raising her volume is not an option right now.

“I am sorry if I have offended you in any way. I just need to talk to you.” He said as he arrives in front of her.

“Me? About what? We don’t really know each other. How could we have something, even anything to talk about?” She shoots like a machine gun, non-stop.

“Actually, it is kind of long to be said here and I have a practice to go to. So, can I have your contact number? I need to talk to you. I really do.” He explains to her.

“O Allah, why do I need to face this during my catastrophe?” she thinks to herself.

“Mr. Nichkhun, I am really sorry. If we meet next time, again, then maybe you’re meant to convey what you want to talk about. Right now, I need to go, and please go to your practice. I don’t want your concert to ruin just because a mere disruption.”

She answers her best and she turns her body away. She quickens her pace and hopes that guy won’t chase after her. It would be deadly embarrassing if he knows why she was in a hurry condition.

***

Elyssa and Natasha are at the hotel’s coffee house; enjoying their dinner and having light conversation. They both dress casually, jeans with blouse. Around 9, Natasha excuses herself. She needs a rest. A whole day at the conference drained her energy. Unlike Elyssa, Natasha didn’t really into this mind and soul thingy.

Elyssa just smiles watching Natasha’s steps towards the elevator. Now she’s alone and she stands up; looking for a more secluded table to do her work with minimal interruption. She found one and immediately brings her stuff to the respective table.

She sits there, ordering a glass of hazelnut coffee and starts working. She reads one of medical journals she has downloaded earlier in the day. She read lines by lines, understands it and underlined any important facts, relevant to her thesis. She drinks her coffee, and continues reading. She repeated this again and again.

As the time passes by, she read another journal. She has a lot, and she needs to finish reading them by today. There’s not much time she has.

She finished reading all five journals she has around one in the morning. She stretch up a little bit, loosening her stiff muscles. She takes last sip of her coffee and thinks for a while.

“Arghh, I really need my beauty sleep!!!” She thinks to herself. She really did need her sleep though. Up until now, she has yawns more than 100 times.

“I’ll just stay for another hour and organize things out. Then, I’ll off to sleep. Please be patient a little bit m ore okay.” She tries to comfort her sleepy eyes and exhausted body.

She takes out a medium sized book, black in color; her thesis planner and starts scribbling; important facts she found out from the journals, and the connection between each one.

Suddenly she’s interrupted by a waiter, delivering her a cup of hot chocolate. She looks at the waiter and makes a confused face.

“I believe I didn’t order anything other than this coffee.” She tells the waiter.

“No miss. This is definitely for this table. I am not sure who ordered this, but if you’re alone, then it is definitely for you. And it’s paid already.” he explains to her.

“Well, if that’s the case, just left it there. Maybe I am expecting someone.” She answers, trying to joke a bit.

That cute waiter just laughs lightly at her jokes and excuse himself, politely. She did wonder who is the person whose orders this drink. But, since she needs to hurry and sleeps, she decides not to think much about it and continue organizing everything so that it will be easier for her to write in her thesis later.

After around 30minutes she didn’t even touch the drink and still focused on her works, suddenly she’s interrupted once again. There’s someone sits across her. He just sits there and watch her doing her thing. She thoughts he is someone she knows, her colleague from the same hospital attending the conference so she just let him.

However, he didn’t make any sounds not even say hi to her. Feeling a bit irritated she lifts her chin up and looks at him, want to know who the hell is brave enough to disturb her in the middle of her business.

***

All 2PM members return to the hotel around 12.30 a.m after a successful concert. They are happy with their fans reaction. Everyone chatting happily, walking to the elevator located at the end of hotel’s lobby. They have another performance tomorrow, so they need their sleep.

While they are waiting for the lift, suddenly Khun feels thirsty and want to drink something.

“I feels thirsty all of sudden. I want to buy a drink. Anybody want to tag along?” Khun tells his group members.

They all shake their head and sleepiness shown on each faces. Khun smiles.

“Do you need me to bring some for you Khun? You also need your rest.” Their manager asks him.

“No, it’s okay hyung. Walks around will help me sleeps better.” Khun answers smiling at his manager and then he walk toward hotel’s coffee shop which located at the other end of hotel lobby.

He enters the coffee shop, relieved there’s not much customers left since it is late already. He walks in with leisure, looking for a comfortable, secluded table for him to sits down and relax, enjoying his drink.

Then he saw a familiar figure. Sitting alone at a table, looking so immersed in whatever she is doing. He didn’t really know what she is doing, but it seems important. She don’t even avert her gaze from the thing she read when she sips her coffee.

He sits at a nearby table, facing her. He takes his time observing her.

“She didn’t even realize there’s someone watching her, that how she’s absorbed in her little world. It could be dangerous for her. What if I am a bad person?” He thinks, silently.

Then a waiter come to him asking what he would like to have.

He almost answers he wants her, almost. Luckily he regains his consciousness back. He orders hot mocha for him and hot chocolate for her when he saw she sips her last drop of coffee. He did asked the waiter not to tell her it is ordered by him though. He wants to see her reaction to that.

Not long after that, he saw the waiter deliver the drink to her. He saw her confused face, and she talks to the waiter.

“Her confused face looks cute”

Their conversation cut short, he saw him excuse himself. She on the other hand just smiles and continues her work, not even drink hot chocolate he sends her.

He waits for her to drink. While waiting, he’s been observing her, her reactions; her thinking face, her confused face, and her delight face when she get an idea. All of that are so amusing to him.

Now he understands why. Why Minjun and Wooyoung said that y image of focused woman. She looks so damn y while working. He immediately wants to make her his. And her innocence not even notice someone watching her made him wants to protect her. Not just wants, he feels like he needs to protect her.

It has passed 30 minutes and there’s no sign of her to drink. So he stands up, walking towards her and sits across her. She still focused on her paper. Read God knows what. He just sits there, watch her a bit more and wait for her to look at him.

It took her a while to raise her head up and look at him. And when she did, she froze for a split second and she gapes after that, her slightly parted lips; her full pink lips without any lipstick on, looks so y. He needs to gather all of his consciousness to hold him from kissing her.

***

She froze for a split second when she saw him.

“O Allah. Why do I need to see him again?”

“Miss, are you okay?” He asks her.

She regains all her conscious and closes her parted lips.

“Yeah, I am alright,” was her short answer.

“So, we meet again and you know me. I think you did recognize me when we first met. Why didn’t you say anything about that?” He talks to her again.

“Is that what you need to talk to me earlier in the day Mr?” She asks him back.

“Well, well, girl, you shouldn’t answer a question with another one should you?” He voices his opinion.

“Well, Mr, in case you don’t realize, you also just did.” She states, smiling and raising her left eyebrow.

“And if you don’t mind sir, I am passed the age to be called girl.” She added then.

Khun smiles at her witty way to converse with him.

“Hmm, I believe I deserved to be answered first since I am the one who ask first, don’t you think so, Miss…….?” Khun hesitated at the end of his sentence since he didn’t know her name.

“Well fair enough, you made a point there. To answer your question, yes I did recognize you. Why wouldn’t I? You’re a public figure, a world star, so who wouldn’t?” She said, revert her gaze back to her paper.

“Don’t you think it is courtesy to look at the person you have conversation with?” He asks her when he saw her return to her paper.

“Oh, I am sorry. I think we finish talking since I thought you have cleared your clouded mind.” She replies, with her poker face.

“Well, miss if you think we’re finish talking, you are damn wrong. We’re anything but far from finish line.” He said, and she became more confuse.

“Mr. Nichkhun, it’s late already and don’t you need your sleep?” she said after she peeks at the clock hangs on the shop’s wall.

“Hmm, I intend to satisfy my curiosity and I am able stay awake for 3 days, straight so I plan to finish it here. Unless you give me your contact number, or else I won’t move not even an inch.” He said, smirking.

And that smirk, was an evil smirk.