Even though Meili tries to pay attention to the proceedings and the speeches, her eyes keep glossing over the crowd to where Jongin sits, almost statue-like, staring into the space before him, save a small smile on his face. 

"You're staring again," Yifan grins and Meili instantly snaps her head to him, turning a bright shade of red. 

"I am not!" She hisses. "I was just noticing how serious Sehun-ssi looks!" It's true partly because she's only just noticed the stoic expression on the tall boy's face, as he stares almost unblinkingly. It's a little intimidating, thinks Meili and Yifan scoffs beside her at her blatant lie. 

"Don't stare, you have to speak next." And Meili hears her name being called. A thousand thoughts run through her mind as she walks up to the podium and faces the gathering of fifty odd people. She silently clears and smiles. 

"Good evening, my name is Cao Meili, and I've loved Korea since I was eight years old." She catches Sehun's smile and Jongin's frankly blank look and takes a short breath before continuing. "I've been studying Korean for the last four years and I'm excited at the chance to be able to use it." The rest of the speech doesn't take much effort, she's recited it in her mind several times and she ends it with a thanks, walking back to her seat with a small smile. Liyin sends her a quick thumbs up and she zones out for most of the other introductions except when Yifan rolls his eyes and utters muttered annoyances at Hong's speech which sounds more like a business proposal than a self introduction. 

 For Meili most of the night is a blur, with a myriad of faces and greetings of the correct order with people from all sorts of places. Sehun for his part introduces his childhood friend to Meili and she grins at him. 

"Are you still in university together?" She asks. Sehun shakes his head. 

"We were only in primary school together." Meili's grin grows wider. 

"That's so amazing!" She says. Miya, the childhood friend hides a shy smile and Sehun's grin broadens but he leaves to talk to someone else. 

"This has the makings of a manga tale okay?" Liyin says. Meili nods happily and then smiles at Miya who looks like a lost lamb, unable to understand any of the Chinese. 

The program resumes, and Meili notices Jongin walk in right before her embarrassing K-pop dance. She tries not to look at him, instead looking at the wall behind the audience as the heat in her collar rises. She makes a break for the back to the small hall as soon as the performance is done— unfortunately almost running into Jongin. She forces out a shaky smile and gulps. Jongin smiles at her.

"That was a good dance!" Meili's heart pounds, and she gulps again for assurance. 

"Wh- what? No…." 

"Yes it was!" And he holds his right hand up for a high-five. Meili returns it, turning almost crimson in the process. She barely returns Sehun's smile as she runs away from him to stand beside Yifan who grins at her as she tries to glare daggers into him.

She's finally had her moment with Jongin and no amount of grinning from her ge is going to make her any less happy about it. 

Once everything is over and everyone is moving over to the station, Meili tries to catch up to Jongin, realizing, with annoyance, that Hong has him cornered, as they stare blankly, neither of them able to understand the other.  Meili decides to help Jongin out of sheer pity— which is a blatant lie and she knows it. 

"Will you be coming tomorrow morning?" She asks, once she's able to decipher Hong's broken English and Korean. At least he's asking all the right questions, Meili thinks. Jongin scratches the back of his neck. 

"Well… I don't think so… I have to be at the camp early in the morning with the luggage." Meili's heart drops a little. So much for more moments. 

"Are you going to drop us back now?" She asks after deciphering Hong again. Good on him for asking all the relevant questions! 

"I'll have to be home because I live pretty far away."

"That's a shame…" The words slip out of Meili's mouth before she can register them and for once she's happy that Jongin is slow on the uptake. She smiles at his questioning look and rephrases herself. "We'll see you tomorrow then!" Unfortunately it's not much after that that Jongin's train arrives and he waves them a goodbye. 

"See Sehun-ssi is nice enough to be with us all the time." Yifan grins pointedly. Meili rolls her eyes.

"Jongin-ssi is going to be running around with our luggage tomorrow okay! That's hard work!" But she does admit that is indeed nice of Sehun. But Jongin is still nicer. 

"Something is up, ma. I'll call back?" Meili hangs up, hearing nothing but absolute commotion from her room about an hour after they're back to the hostel and she's trying to fill in everyone at home about the happenings of the day. Inside, Liyin is all but ready to tear the walls apart as she races around the tiny room, upturning bedclothes, chairs, everything on the table and almost giving Meili a pat down. 

"Calm down sister!" She grabs the shorter girl by the shoulder and brings her to a halt. "What on earth are you even…" She pauses to survey the carnage in the room, sighing at the cleanup that would inevitably follow. 

"Check your bag for my camera! I could have sworn it was in there! And now it's not! But it was there!" Without a word, Meili upturns her bag and all it's contents onto the bed. There's her wallet, a thin pink cardigan which is basically used for cushioning her DSLR, some bills, lip balm, hand cream, her phone, Liyin's phone but no camera. 

"Are you sure you didn't put it into someone else's bag?" Meili asks. Liyin bites her lips. 

"It was a black bag and I'm certain it had to be yours!" 

"The guys have black bags too."

"None of them have purple sides to them like yours." Yet on Meili's insistence, every bag from the team is upturned — in vain. Liyin's camera and the pictures within are definitely missing.

"Okay this is an official meeting people." Meili says. "Stop munching on peanuts gege!" She ribs Yifan who yelps and drops his packet of peanuts. 

"What?! Sehun-ssi gave them to me." 

"Oh to hell with you and your Sehun-ssi! Something is weird here." 

"No Sherlock," grins Luhan and exchanges a high five with Yixing, both of them immediately quailing under Meili's glare. 

"Neither of the two girls next door will open the back bag on their table even though we specifically said "black bag". Also Jinghua isn't in her room." 

"Hong isn't either." Song Qian points. 

"I can think of a hundred and one dirty things right now," grins Liyin and Meili smacks the back of her head. 

"And I can think of a hundred and one ways not to give a about your cam but here we are." 

"Hehe… sorry…" 

"So moving on—" 

"There's actually more?" Yixing asks in wonder. 

"Yes of course! Anyway I deduce from the fact that neither Hong nor Jinghua have spoken to us after the ceremony, and now they're not in their rooms, that it has to be one of them. Also it could be the other two. So basically  it could be anyone." 

"What if it's you," mutters Tao. Meili nods.

"Excellent question. Let me tell you how it's not." 

"Okay that is enough Sherlock." Says Yixing. "If it's you, hurray! You're worthy of the Italian mafia and whatnot. Just give us the pics sometime. If it's them, let's be careful with our stuff. Are we done? Yes? Good! Now who's up for a ghost story?" 

At this point Jiayi runs out of the room screaming. 

Meili sits back into the bed with a pout. She'd quite enjoyed playing detective and she felt bad for the other girl who tries to mask the disappointment of losing her camera under the guise of dirty jokes. Her mind wanders off to Jongin and then she realizes that she wouldn't see him in the morning. 

Just Oh Sehun.  

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A/N: this long chappie is to make up for my absence ^^;; 

Comments will be welcomed with pocky kisses from Xinggie :3 

Silent readers— i love you guys too *cyber hugs and cookies* 

Xiexie~