Chapter 37 – All Work and No Play… (pt.1)
 

Insook awoke to the sound of her phone ringing on Sunday morning. She lifted her head, groggily, looking around for the origin on the sound, because her phone almost never rang. And now it just wouldn’t stop. Seeing that it was only 9:30, she threw the pillow over her head, hoping it would stop; and it did, finally. Only to start ringing again 10 seconds later.

“Urgh,” she grumbled, tossing her blankets away and getting up to grab her phone on her dresser.

“What?!” she answered into the phone, not even bothering to check the number.

Insook had gone to bed around 4am after a study marathon, and she was not a morning person to begin with.

“Good morning, Insookie!” V’s loud voice came blaring out of the phone, and his cheerfulness made Insook pull a disgusted face and take the phone away from her ear for a moment.

“V, it’s Sunday. I was up all night, can this wait?”

“No!” he piped back, “because we have to leave soon! Will you come?” he asked, at an inhumanly fast pace for this early in the morning – or so Insook thought.

“Come where?” she asked, stifling a yawn.

“Lotte World!” exclaimed the boy.

Insook’s face went flat.

“V, are you drunk?”

“No, why?”

“Cuz it’s 9am, tests start tomorrow, and you’re suggesting going to the amusement park.”

“Exactly!”

“Exactly what?”

“Everyone’s been studying like crazy, so you guys need a break! And everyone else is still studying like crazy, so it’ll be empty!”

Though she doubted that Lotte World would ever be ‘empty’, she had to admit that his crazy logic did make sense, in some kind of weird twisted way.

“So will you come?” he asked again, since she wasn’t answering, “bring your friend too! The tall one!”

“Soonja?” asked the sleepy girl, momentarily distracted.

“Yeah, her.”

“Why?”

“The more the merrier?” he replied, like it was a question, “Anyways, we’re all meeting at 12 at Jamsil station. See you then, kay?”

“Wait, who’s ‘we’?” she asked, but before she was even done uttering her sentence, she heard the dial tone which meant that Taehyung had hung up.

“But I didn’t even agree to this?!” she exclaimed loudly, to no one in particular.

***

The girls showed up at exit no.4 about 10 minutes before 12, but the boys were already there, waiting for them. Jin and the younger boys stood in a little circle, chatting away, while Rapmon and Suga sat on a nearby bench, both looking half-asleep. Actually, Suga looked like he was completely asleep, and Rapmon had his earphones plugged in and was listening to music with his sunglasses on, so Insook couldn’t really tell if he was sleeping or not.

“Ooh, Sookie the pretty one is there!!” exclaimed Soonja in a hushed whisper, grabbing her friend’s arm excitedly.

“The pretty one?” chuckled the shorter girl, looking at her friend make googly eyes at Jin.

V was the first to notice them and he bounded away towards her, shouting, “Insookie is here!!” which made her laugh. She was fully awake by that point and her earlier grumpiness had dissipated.

He greeted them with a wide smile, and even Soonja felt herself soften. She’d thought the idea of suddenly going to Lotte World like this was slightly ridiculous, but she didn’t have tests, or work, or anything better to do, so she’d agreed to tag along.

The rest of the boys joined them – Rapmon having to actually shove Suga to get him to wake up – and they all headed to the park.

The mood within the group was cheerful as they waited in line to buy their tickets, and V told the girls how they had ended up all recording a song together the previous night and he had thought they should do something to celebrate it.

“You really like to celebrate stuff, huh?” said Insook, sarcastically, though there was no meanness behind her words, only teasing.

“Of course! Life is what you make of it! And if something good happens, you should celebrate it!” he exclaimed, like he was preaching.

The two girls turned to look at each other and both cracked up.

“You could have picked a different place to celebrate though…” grumbled J-Hope.

“Why?” asked Jungkook, “this is cool.”

“Don’t you like amusement parks?” asked Insook.

“I just don’t see the point of waiting in line all day just to get your heart pulled out of your chest for 45 seconds” retorted J-Hope, offhandedly.

“Hyung, are you scared?” asked Jimin, a giddy smile playing on his lips.

“I just don’t like roller-coasters. And you all better not be expecting me to go on anything scary because if you do, I’m turning right back around and leaving.”

Jimin and Jungkook turned their heads toward each other and shared an evil look, gwaffing.

“Park Jimin, I swear to god… if you’re plotting to get me on one of those rides, I’m gonna…” started Hoseok, but it only made the boys laugh more.

“Yes? You’ll what?” he asked with a cheesy smile, batting his eyelids prettily.

“Aish!!” grumbled the boy, swatting at Jimin’s head but the brown-haired boy easily escaped his attack and pulled his tongue out at him. “Yah, it’s your turn! Go!” he went on, waving at the two boys in front of him, who turned and noticed that indeed, they were next in line.

Jungkook went first and Jimin leaned in to whisper in J-Hope’s ear “You’ll what?” wriggling his eyebrows as he flashed him a cheeky smile.

Hoseok leaned in and cupped his hand to Jimin’s ear and whispered something that made him pull back in shock, his pretty lips forming a perfect ‘O’ before exclaiming quietly, with a hurt expression, “you wouldn’t dare…”

The dark haired boy just laughed, and when the clerk called out “next!” walked right past Jimin to go buy his ticket.

“Hyung, that’s not fair!!!” called out Jimin, chasing after him to the sales window.

After everyone had gotten their ticket, they walked through the gates and decided that they wanted to try the rides that were outside first. V grabbed on to Insook’s arm at the first opportunity and started running across the bridge, dragging her along with him. Jimin and Jungkook followed after them, making a race of it, and Hobi just shrugged and took off at a dash a minute later. Jin and Suga were staring at them, shaking their heads and grumbling about kids who had too much energy while they followed behind like a pair of annoyed parents. Which left Soonja and Rapmon, lagging behind as they crossed the bridge at snail pace.

Actually, Soonja hadn’t even noticed that Rapmon was walking only a step behind her. She was too busy mooning at the back of Jin’s head and his broad shoulders.

“Sheesh, could you be any more obvious?” Rapmon chuckled next to her, and she looked up, surprised to find him there.

“The heck you’re talking about?!” she retorted, genuinely confused, and annoyed that he’d just sneaked up on her like that.

“Hate to break it to you, but I don’t really think you have a chance…”

That cocky smirk of his was playing on his lips again and Soonja felt a very sudden urge to kick him; ‘til she realized what he was talking about and turned away, blushing furiously.

“Ww…what?! I don’t! Shut up!” she mumbled, and then finally turned to punch him on the arm.

“Oww!!” he grunted, rubbing his arm.

“Why the heck wouldn’t I be his type?” she asked, annoyed.

“You’re not feminine enough for him.” he replied, very naturally.

“What do you mean, not feminine?!?!!” she retorted, incredibly offended.

“Hey! It’s not my opinion! I think you’re ALL woman…” he grinned and she shoved him away, though he was back in an instant, chuckling at her.

“Jin just… well, he strikes me as one to like the quiet, housewifely type.”

She scoffed, “a guy who looks like that… what a shame…” she sighed.

“Are looks everything to you? I mean, you barely know him.” and for an instant, he sounded slightly hurt.

“What?!” Soonja blushed, embarrassed, “Of course not!”

Rapmon laughed.

“You think I’m shallow,” she accused.

“I didn’t say anything” he defended himself, waving his hands in front of him, but chuckling at the same time.

She pushed him but he only laughed more.

“I’m not…” she pouted.

She looked really cute with that expression on her face and it was the first time that Rapmon had ever seen her look kinda vulnerable. He suddenly felt bad for teasing her and felt his pulse quicken a little.

He cleared his throat to try and cover his reaction and quickly changed the subject.

“Well anyways, if you want to date someone, you should make sure you have things in common first,” he said matter-of-factly.

She looked up to give him a flat look and he grinned, adding “like us.”

“Us?” she laughed in a loathing way, “What on earth do we have in common?!”

“Well, we both know you enjoy punching me, for one.” he said, smirking at her.

She laughed, for real this time, and shoved him away again.

And then they looked up because the rest of the group was waving and yelling, telling them to hurry up.

*

Of course, the first ride that V chose was something incredibly scary… Passengers were seated all around a big sort of flat wheel, which was attached to a giant metal bar that swung back and forth into the air. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, as you were being tossed towards the heavens, the wheel turned upon itself and it would just spin, and spin, and spin… Just looking at it made Hoseok dizzy.

“Hum… you guys go on ahead, I’m just gonna wait here…”

“Aww… come on man, don’t be a wuss” said Rapmon, smacking him behind the shoulder, but Hoseok looked up to give him a threatening look.

“If he doesn’t wanna go, you guys shouldn’t force him… that’s really not cool.” said Soonja, reproachfully, and Hoseok sent her a thankful look.

“I’ll just sit over there…” he went on, pointing to a nearby bench, and taking his leave without waiting for them to agree.

They all shrugged and turned to get in line.

A minute later, Jimin came jogging up and sat down next to him. Hoseok looked up in surprise to see his boyfriend flashing him an adorable little eye smile.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, though he couldn’t help but feel his inside melting at Jimin’s cute face.

“I wanted to stay with you, babe.” Jimin replied, giving him a greasy little wink and nudging him with his shoulder.

“Psssht… you’re scared too, aren’t you?”

“What?! How..! How dare you!!” exclaimed Jimin, with so much fake shock that Hoseok knew he had hit the mark. “Hyung, I’m hurt… here I am, sacrificing myself out of love…”

Hoseok rolled his eyes dramatically and Jimin laughed. He feigned annoyance, but secretly, he was really pleased to find out Jimin was also scared, and was rather happy that they got to spend this time together, however short it was.