Outside of Incheon Airport, people were buzzing around to get to their next destination. They can't wait to see the wonderful sights South Korea has to offer. Naturally, it was crowded and noisy, people rushing from here and there, greeting each other as they see familiar faces while getting in line for the airport buses, but in the middle of it all stood a group of young maidens unsure of what to do after the cruel truth was slapped onto them.

“…Looks like we’re stuck in Korea.”

The group, VIXEN (as they liked to call themselves), had a total meltdown.

Well, who wouldn't be if they found out they were stranded in a foreign country? To top it all off, they had insufficient funds to fully enjoy their stay. 'Perfect, just freaking perfect!' Xyriel thought as she stared at the damned email with rage.

She looked at her friends and immediately she reminded herself to stay calm, she is the eldest after all. She has to prevent anyone from completely going berserk right now. Kiara's seem to be in the verge of crying, Rina's mumbling profanities, Mitzi’s frozen and seemed to forgot how to breathe, and Erin looks as if she just saw the date of her death—all of it has to be stopped somehow.

With a calm and authoritative tone, she boomed, "EVERYBODY STOP!". Of course, everybody quit their tantrums and turned to the eldest. "First, we need to find a cheap place that can accommodate us for a night," all of them nodded at the statement.

Mitzi raised her hand as if answering a question in school and chipped in, "Oh! I know a place! It's called Hotel Hu and it's supposed to be really cheap and extremely close to the airport. I’ll tell my aunt that we’d be staying there for the night and then tomorrow, she’ll pick us up." A few sighs of relief were heard at the thought of being five minutes close to relaxation.

Mitzi then led them to Hotel Hu (with them lugging their suitcases and all throughout the walk) and from its exterior, it's obvious that it's not a 5-star hotel. Heck, it's not even close to getting a star, Xyriel thought. But alas, Xyriel's just gonna have to grin and bear it. They can't afford the luxurious hotel, Hyatt, though it's just in the vicinity.

As they reach the receptionist, they felt chills down their spine. The lobby was seriously freezing. It's no understatement that it was warmer outside. They got the cheapest room and quickly navigated through the halls, hoping that the temperature in their suite would be slightly different.

It wasn’t.

Mitzi whistled. “Well we did get the cheapest room so…” The group could just stare in dread at what they were seeing. Maybe for the others, it was just some sort of temporary shock, but for heiress extraordinaire Lee Xyriel who was used to high-end things and places? It was a horror to behold. The room was small and cramped, with just one bed, an old wooden dresser with a stool, and a couch. The bedsheets and blankets had blotches of yellow on it and there were drops of suspicious-looking God-forsaken unknown stains on the couch. The paint on the walls were slightly chipped, and there were patches of black on the carpet; Xyriel just refuses to even check what the ‘black spots’ were. At a corner of the room, her eyes caught a door to the restroom. She definitely wouldn’t be the volunteer to check it out.

She heard a sigh from her friends and heard Kiara say, “Well…um. Let’s make ourselves home, I guess.” And so with a grimace, they all entered the room.

It’s just for one night, Xy, just for one night. Xyriel thought, reminding herself while unconsciously tip-toeing in the room, her nose crinkling in disgust. When she set her luggage down—at a clean spot, thank you very much—she felt a tap and turned to see Erin with a sympathetic smile on her face. “Unnie, you deserve the bed. I’ll sleep here on the couch.”

“Thanks,” Xyriel replied, grateful for her friend. If it was possible, she’d rather not sleep at all. “Hey, at least the bathroom’s clean,” Mitzi exclaimed, closing the door of the bathroom behind her, then moving to sit on the stool in front of the dresser. Xyriel could only sigh in relief.

Soon enough, they all settled in. Erin got her laptop out and sat on the couch. Mitzi started to open the drawers of the dresser checking to see if there were freebies. Rina started to read a book, and Kiara whipped her phone out while unceremoniously flopping down on the bed, earning a glare from her sister due to the bounce. Xyriel just sighed and sat at the edge, thanking God that at least the bed was big enough to accommodate four of them.

“So aside from Erin who’ll sleep on the couch, the rest of us would be on the bed. We’ll fit if we sleep horizontally, though it’d be cramped and our feet would dangle off. Everybody cool with that?” Xyriel asked, ever the responsible one.

“As if we even have a choice,” Mitzi stated with a snort, combing through her hair and styling it to a simple French braid.

True, Xyriel admitted in her mind while the rest just hummed in agreement.

Minutes later, when silence engulfed them and everything was just too suffocating for her to bear, Xyriel found herself reciting the same line in her head over and over again. It’s just one night Xy, just one night. You’re going to survive this.

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Xyriel groaned.

Oh God, she needed some fresh air.

Kiara is bored.

She never really got diagnosed by a doctor but she considered herself having ADHD. It didn’t help that they were apparently stuck in a country with limited cash and currently staying in a small hotel room that narrowed her choices of what to do. She wasn’t like Erin who could stay all day staring at the brightly lit screen of her gadget or Katarina who is perfectly fine just by sitting in a corner, keeping quiet, and reading a book for prolonged hours. Kiara needed action—she craved it. She actually has this ‘thirty-minute limit’ where she can just stay focused doing one thing and after an hour, she would get tired and bored and start looking for another activity to keep her preoccupied.

And currently, she has reached the thirty-minute limit of fiddling with her phone.

She sighed and put the phone in her jacket pocket. What can I do…? It’s soooo boring…

She started to look at the hotel room and observe, trying to estimate the dimensions of the room and taking in all the details and keeping it into memory. It was kind of a last resort thing and just something to keep her preoccupied. She wasn’t a nerdy weirdo who would try to calculate the perimeter and area of every single place she visits in her free time…

*cough*

“Stop it!” She heard someone snap. She turned to Rina who was glaring at her and Kiara looked at her with confused eyes. “You were hyperactively bouncing on the bed,” her sister stated. “And due to your annoying movement I can’t read in peace.” Rina glowered at her twin so much Kiara felt that she was a mouse about to be eaten by a cat. The maknae gulped and apologized.

A bothered-while-reading-Rina is a really scary Rina, she thought to herself, shuddering.

It was then that she noticed that her two other unnies—the oldest ones in their group—were nowhere to be found in their room. She turned to Erin (she wouldn’t want to bother and piss Rina off) who was comfortably seated at the couch while typing away at her laptop (she’s probably writing a fanfic again…). “Erin-unnie? Do you know where Xy-unnie and Mitzi-unnie went?” she asked. Erin shrugged. “They left a few minutes ago… Said something about fresh air or whatever.”

After the words ‘fresh air’ came out of the introvert’s mouth, Kiara was on her feet and dashing out of the room, saying a quick ‘I’ll be going with them, see you later!’ before slamming the door shut. She ran down the hallway and turned left to where the elevators were. She recognized Xyriel’s russet hair before the elevator doors closed shut.

Kiara grinned as she rushed to the other elevator and pressed a button. An arrow pointing down flashed red and she felt giddy with excitement. She was actually bouncing on her feet already. Now this was the action she wanted!

Ding!

The elevator doors weren’t even fully opened when she squished through and pressed the close button and the ‘G’ button next. She looked at her left and smiled kindly at the ahjusshi before turning her attention to the digital panel that showed what floor they were in already. She barely held her bright smile as she excitedly counted down to the ground