“You can let go of my hand now,” I commented as we moved into the main area. The safety lock had released and I was having trouble getting it over my head with one hand. “Unless you want to stay and go for another round.”

                “I’m perfectly fine thank you very much,” Hongbin replied quickly, squeezing my hand one last time before letting go. As I glared at him with a ‘was-that-really-required’ look, he merely swung the safety lock over his head and jumped out of the cart. I sighed and did the same and I was about to step up onto the platform, he leaned over and reached his hand out. “Need some help princess?” he smirked, having regained his confidence after touching the ground.

                Rolling my eyes I took his hand and decided to humour him. “Why of course, are you offering? Because a couple minutes ago you could barely keep your eyes open,” dimples boy scowled at this and pulled strongly causing me to trip as I came up much faster than I had previously anticipated. “That was rude, never knew knights in shining armour did that kind of thing.”

                “Technically I was being a prince, educate yourself,” Hongbin stated sassily causing us both to burst out into laughter (causing the group of girls who had waved at me earlier to give us strange looks). As the worker managing the platform started giving us annoying gazes, we quickly left the ride before we got thrown out of the park for public disturbance or something else.

                “So, since I chose to go on that wonderful ride,” I said as we took a break from walking at a conveniently placed bench.

                “That was hell on earth,” Hongbin muttered darkly.

                “Anyways,” I continued, glaring at him for cutting me off, “why don’t you choose where we go next?” To this dimples boy looked up in surprise before showcasing his beautiful dimples once again.

                “Wow, are you being nice?” Hongbin teased, smirking. “Didn’t know you were capable of that.”

                “I can totally be nice. But you’d have to be insane to be nice to some random stranger who you’ve met like, three times – randomly at your workplace might I add – and then suddenly invites you on a trip to someplace you don’t even know existed.”

                “You’ve seen me more than three times, plus I’m practically family to Hakyeon hyung and the others so you’d have gotten to know me sooner or later.”

                “I beg to differ. I had absolutely no desire to get to know you thank you very much.”

                “Really now, what changed that opinion?”

                “Nothing. I’d still walk out of here if you’d let me.”

                “What’s stopping you then?”

                “The fact that you’re paying for everything, and I’d never pass up free food, and that you didn’t tell me where we were going so I have no idea how to get home.”

                “Well since I’m practically becoming your sugar daddy how about we go eat lunch?”

                “First of all, ew, I do not want a sugar daddy relationship much less with someone like you. And second, sure, I’m starving. Glad we didn’t eat before that ride or someone might’ve spilled his stomach contents onto my clothes,” I answered and with a roll of his eyes, dimples boy led us towards the food court. Smirking to myself that he didn’t deny that he would have vomited, I grabbed us a seat at the crowded seating area while he went off to buy whatever he wanted (although I hoped he wouldn’t buy something weird for lunch like he did with breakfast – who eats crepes in the morning? Especially with whipped cream and hilarious amounts of syrup?).

                “I hope you like burgers, they were the easiest thing to get. Everything else had a long line,” Hongbin returned around ten minutes later with a tray full of burgers, fries, and two cups of cola. He sat down opposite of me and handed me my food.

                “Are you sure you just weren’t being cheap?” I questioned as I unwrapped my burger. Eyeing it, I decided that it was safe to eat since I couldn’t spot any offending vegetables (like tomatoes or some other disgusting foreign object that wanted to disguise itself as food) and took a large bite.

                “Shut up, I’m already buying you food okay? Just be grateful,” Hongbin flicked me on the forehead jokingly. I kissed my teeth in fake annoyance and we continued to bicker jokingly until we were almost finished our meal.

                “Hongbin?!” a voice shouted from seemingly far away. It was joined with a chorus of other voices and the medium sized crowd (okay there were only like five people but that’s a crowd for a shut in like me) made their way to our table. Looking up as I finished my burger, I saw three girls and two males that looked to be around dimples boy’s age. Considering the fact that I didn’t know their age, I merely named then by physical appearance. The girls were Blonde, Brunette, and Curly while the two boys could be Tall and Wide (his shoulders).

                “Oh my goodness!” Curly exclaimed, “I wasn’t expecting to see you here oppa!” Brunette and Blonde joined in with a squeal which made me want to flinch and cover my ears at their high pitches.

                “Seriously! I wanted to invite you but someone said you were busy!” Brunette pouted annoyingly and shot a pointed look at Wide. She crossed her arms and huffed which caused him to race over to her side and console her with a pat on the arm (although I doubted it worked considering he did it once and she was obviously eyeing dimples boy).

                “He told me he was busy! Right Hongbin?” Wide turned to dimples boy with a helpless look on his face. Obviously he didn’t want Brunette to be mad at him but at the same time his pride stopped him from admitting that he was wrong. Sighing silently, I once again realized why I disliked hanging out with large groups of people (I was a loner by choice okay?).

                “Well I am busy,” Hongbin replied easily, smiling at the Brunette gently. “As you can see I came with a friend,” to this he pointed at me but none of the girls seemed interested (although Tall shot me an envious look. Holy was everyone around dimples boy crushing on him or something?).

                “Well you should come with us!” Blonde piped up, pushing her way forwards and putting her hands on the table. Personally I think she wanted to do so to make her cleavage appear larger (since she didn’t have to place them close enough for her forearms to squeeze her chest but I wasn’t very attracted to her so it didn’t bother me) but dimples boy had the decency to ignore her obvious flirtatious act.

                “Yeah, we’re a lot more fun!” Curly added, twisting a lock of her hair around her finger. Are you kidding me? Did she really just say that? Who says that they’re ‘more fun’? That’s like, kindergarten level logic. Almost as stupid as ‘if-you-hang-out-with-her-then-we-can’t-be-friends-anymore’ and ‘you-can’t-sit-with-us-because-you’re-not-wearing-pink’. “No offense of course,” Curly gushed after taking a proper look at me. Seriously. Was she flirting with me now? What the heck was wrong with this girl? I’m not one to stereotype or profile people but girls like her were one of the reasons I tended to gravitate towards men.

                “No, that’s okay. I dragged Sanghyuk all the way out here on short notice so it wouldn’t be proper to leave him right?” Hongbin casually replied, crunching his garbage up and easily tossing it into the garbage can (although it was a couple metres away, how can he throw so well now but at shooting a rifle earlier evaded me) Wait, did he just call himself proper? He was freaking late this morning and he still hadn’t apologized.

                “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind,” Tall said softly. It was the first time he spoke but he definitely had a presence. One that made me slightly afraid for my life. Avoiding his gaze, I gathered my trash as well but refrained from throwing it out just in case I missed and ruined what little reputation I had forever.

                “Well I think he might,” Hongbin stated curtly, looking at me with a gaze I couldn’t place. “And we’ll be taking our leave now.” Hongbin stood up and gave me a look that obviously meant that I should follow his lead. Being slightly confused at the situation, I followed his lead and threw my garbage out as we passed the trash can. We soon left dimples boy’s friends behind and as we approached the entrance area of the park, he whirled around. “Sorry about that,” he said sheepishly.

                “About what?” I inquired. Sure the situation had been weird but it wasn’t really his fault that his friends acted like that. Although it did make me wonder why he had friends like that in the first place but it wasn’t really the time to ask.

                “They... They’re not really my friends. Just some people that hang around me because I’m popular and good-looking. And they were really rude to you so I just wanted to apologize?” Hongbin rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. Well that made sense. There were always people who leeched off of the popularity and good fortune of others. I never thought to think that even normal university students would encounter people like that (always thought it was exclusive to celebrities) but I guess anyone with an ounce of fortune would be swamped by those who wanted to use them for their personal schedules.

                “Mmm, it’s okay. Not like you can control them right? Although maybe you could considering how smitten with you they were,” I teased, wanting dimples boy to relax. He’d treated me well during the course of the morning and it felt weird seeing him so unsure of himself. Usually he was the arrogant ulzzang who trampled all over my daily life and seeing this apologetic creature replacing him was just plain weird.

                “Shut up kid,” Hongbin punched me lightly on the shoulder. He smiled at me softly and there seemed to be a hint of gratitude in his eyes.

                “Look, you’re turning into Hakyeon hyung now. Soon you’ll become clingy and motherly,” I continued, dancing out of dimples boy’s range as he aimed another jab at my chest.

                “You’re annoying. It’s a good thing you’re cute.”

                “That’s exactly what Hakyeon hyung texted me this morning.”

                “Oh my God you’re annoying.”

                “Thanks, I try.” To this dimples boy rolled his eyes before slipping his phone out of his pocket and checking the time. Seeing a notification on his screen, he narrowed his eyes and sighed in what seemed to be an agitated manner. “Is something wrong?” I asked as he put his phone back into his pocket angrily.

                “No, just, the people from before are being annoyingly persistent,” Hongbin answered. I resisted the urge to point out that he was pretty annoying and persistent when he was trying to get me to come here with him considering it probably wouldn’t have helped the situation. Wow. I was really holding my sass back today. I should get an award or something. “Let’s go,” Hongbin stated suddenly and began to walk towards the entrance.

                “Wait what, where are we going? You can’t just do that,” I asked, chasing after him. I followed him out of the park and into another bus shelter before he pulled his phone out and showed me where we were going. “An art gallery?” I questioned, scanning over the information on the screen quickly.

                “Yeah, it’s free admission for university students since most of the work there was made by students. You can donate though since the funds go to cancer research,” Hongbin replied as we boarded the bus. “I’ve been wanting to attend for some time now and well, there’s no time like the present right?”

                “If you really lived by that motto then you would’ve have gone already,” I replied as we easily found seats (it was the middle of day and most people were going to the park, not leaving).

                “Quiet you, you promised you’d come along with whatever I wanted to do as long as I paid so sit silently and be a good hoobae okay?” Hongbin commented as the bus started. I rolled my eyes and stared out the window while dimples boy read interesting excerpts from the art gallery’s site. I’ll admit that I found it interesting but I wasn’t going to let dimples boy know that. After all, I was supposed to be annoyed and reluctant to be here, not willing or excited, and nothing would change that. Not even food.

                “Wow, art,” I said for the thousandth time since we entered the gallery. Dimples boy rolled his eyes at my cheekiness before pointing at the picture we were looking at. It depicted two young adults, stretching after what looked like a hard practice session in a dance studio. The sun was setting (or rising, I couldn’t really tell) which cast long shadows across the page and I could only imagine how the artist managed to picture the scene.

                “It’s a painting, don’t just use general terms like that,” Hongbin retorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “At least try to appreciate it? I understand that you’re an uncultured child who spends his days staring at pixilated art but painting and more formal types of art are still highly appreciated.”

                “Wow, look at that vocabulary, when did you have time to read the dictionary?” I replied, smirking slightly. The art gallery wasn’t that bad to be honest, I had a certain affinity for art and I sure as hell could appreciate a good art piece when I saw one but we had been walking around the gallery for a good hour now and I just wanted to sit. “Why do you like art so much anyways?”

                “Well,” Hongbin started before his lips nervously and looking at the ground. “I mostly like to take pictures, photographs. I don’t have a lot of experience with other forms of art, although I do like watercolour and sketching from time to time.”

                “Mmm, that’s right. Sungjae said you were part of the photography club,” I nodded, recalling the little bit of information Sungjae had given to me before fleeing and leaving me in this predicament in the first place. Which reminds me, I still had to get back at him for that.

                “Yeah, I’m not that great though,” Hongbin said humbly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Anyways, when I was smaller I loved to paint and draw and there was a teacher at my primary school who really encouraged me, she even bought me my first camera,” Hongbin paused, seemingly lost in his memories. He his lips again before collecting himself and moving on. “But my mom didn’t like me ‘fooling around with useless things’ – as she called it – and she threw out my supplies. I managed to hide my camera but she didn’t let me get anything else.”

                “Oh,” I said quietly, not really sure how I should react. My mom was always supportive of whatever I wanted to do with my life (despite how cold-hearted she could pretend to be) and I never experienced anything like what dimples boy had just described. The closest thing I could think of was when my mom banned me from playing video games during the period of entrance exams for university but it wasn’t like she threw them out or anything like that.

                “Yeah well, I still drew and painted at school so it’s not like she stopped me,” Hongbin shrugged, “moving on I think I’ve seen everything I wanted to see here. Want to head out?”

                “Sure,” I said, dismissing the previous conversation topic.  Dimples boy seemed to be a tad bit uncomfortable with sharing his past so I left it alone. I wasn’t the type of person to press someone to talk about something that they didn’t want to, I knew what that felt like and it was one of the worst feelings in the world. I never understood why people would force others to experience discomfort like that, maybe I was acting a little too justice-y but it was what I believed in and so I stood by it.

                “Well, it’s getting kind of late,” Hongbin commented as we exited the ice cream shop opposite to the art gallery. I had decided I wanted to eat something sugary and dimples boy had kindly (he complained about gaining weight actually) obliged. “Want me to walk you home?”

                “Are you kidding me?” I asked, quirking and eyebrow at his antics. I threw my napkin into the garbage can and put my hands on my hips sassily. “I’m not a young girl, and sure, I may look scrawny but I can hold my own thank you very much.”

                “Really? From what I hear all you do is sit at home and stare at the computer screen. Are you sure you’re getting enough sunlight?” Hongbin shot back, finishing up the last bits of his own ice cream.

                “Who the hell do you even talk to?” I pouted slightly, annoyed that my secret (okay it wasn’t so secret if I blatantly told people I would rather stay home and game then go out but still!) had gotten out. “Besides, not everyone has enough money or connections to go out all the time, unlike a certain brown-haired man.”

                “Aw, are you lonely? Don’t worry, I’ll ask you out more often then! Don’t worry about a thing little Sanghyukkie, I’ll make sure you get enough vitamin D.”

                “Shut up. Don’t ever do this to me again without my permission okay? That means you shouldn’t be using Hakyeon hyung against me. No more manipulation alright?” I asked, titlting my head in a questioning manner.

                “Wait, does that mean you’ll come out with me again? You’re telling me that there’s a next time?” Hongbin looked a bit taken aback at this comment, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to think. I raised an eyebrow at his reaction but quickly dismissed it as an act. With a face like that I’m pretty certain that no one would refuse his offer so he couldn’t have been surprised that I was willing to hang out with him again right?

                “Yeah, but you can’t do any sneaky backhanded tricks like you did this time. Let me actually agree,” I replied.

                “Hmm, fine,” Hongbin said smiling widely. I stared at his dimples for a few seconds (I could seriously look at them for my entire life and still not be used to how they seemed to light up a room – despite the fact that we weren’t in a room and that I didn’t really like the person who they belonged to) before shaking my head slightly.

                “My bus’ll be here soon, see you later,” I waved at dimples boy and he returned my farewell with a toothy grin. A small thought began to brew in the back of my mind but I forgot about it as I hurried to catch my bus (it was already waiting at the stop).

                As I returned home, I opened the door to find both Ilhoon and Sungjae sprawled over the couch watching something on the TV. Slipping my shoes off, I walked into the living room silently and watched along with them. They were watching some sort of drama and one of the characters seemed to be cross-dressing for some reason. “What in the world are you guys watching?” I asked after a couple minutes of trying to figure out what the hell was going on in the drama’s plot.

                “Holy !” Sungjae cursed, whipping his head around to see me standing in the shadowy corner. He held his hand in front of his heart and breathed in deeply before glaring at me. “You scared me you little-”

                “Language children,” Ilhoon warned, turning towards Sungjae and poking his chest. “Or do you want me to bring back the swear jar?”

                “That was such a bad idea hyung,” I said, plopping onto the ground near the couch (away from Sungjae though, just ‘cause Ilhoon stopped him from swearing doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t try to punch me for scaring him). “Seriously, we just used Sungjae’s money to buy groceries, and it’s not like money matters much to him anyways.”

                “Whatever, so where were you all day Hyuk?” Ilhoon dismissed my criticism with a wave of his hand before moving on to a topic I didn’t really want to breach. “You actually left early this morning, when I woke up the coffee was cold.”

                “Yeah, I wonder who was so important that you actually woke up before noontime to get ready for,” Sungjae piped up, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

                “I went to the amusement park with... with a friend,” I replied, resisting the urge to smack Sungjae across the head. That wouldn’t bode well with Ilhoon, not only did he dislike swearing but he was also against violence. It made life difficult sometimes but I guess it was just his hyung nature showing through since he was the oldest out of the three of us.

                “That’s all?” Ilhoon asked carefully, watching me with a small smirk. I rolled my eyes and stood up before they could ask any more questions.

                “Yes, we went to a gallery afterwards and now I’m here. Are we done with the interrogation yet?” I answered. Sungjae hummed knowingly and I crossed my arms across my chest.

                “I guess so, a package came for you by the way, I put it in your room,” Ilhoon dismissed me by returning his attention back to the drama on the TV and I took my chance to escape into my room before Sungjae could catch me. I turned the light of my room on and placed my bag on the ground carefully. As I walked towards my bed, I noticed the brown box beside my desk. Reaching over, I grabbed it and sat down carefully (since I wasn’t quite sure what was in the package).

                “This is some really bad wrapping,” I muttered to myself as I tore the box open carefully. Inside was a horribly wrapped shape. As I released whatever was inside from the confining polka dotted wrapping paper, I was greeted with a white envelope. Opening it, I saw a letter inside and as I started to read, a smile came over my face.

HYUKKIE!!!

AW MY LITTLE CHILLLLLDDD~~ HELLOOOOO IT’S HAKYEON HYUNG!!

Hakyeon hyung please, just hurry up and write what you want to say. The rest of us want to write too.

Well I’m the boss so I get the most room. Get out of here Wonshik.

Anyways! This is a little present we prepared because SOMEONE didn’t think it was important enough to tell us about his birthday! That’s rude Hyuk, I feel offended. I think I should file a law suit against you or something.

Oh my goodness. Hakyeon hyung can’t do anything right. He’s bothering Taekwoon hyung right now (I think Taekwoon hyung baked his favourite pastry or something) so I’ll just pick up. After Hakyeon hyung heard from Hongbin that your birthday passed recently he wanted to throw you a party but Taekwoon hyung was against it since we already had a welcoming party so Hakyeon hyung compromised by giving you this present. Technically it’s from all of us ‘cause he took the money from all of our paychecks but whatever. Anyways, hope you enjoy it and have a great birthday year or whatever you’re supposed to say when someone turns 19.

Wonshik, Jaehwan, Taekwoon,

AND HAKYEON HYUNG!!

PS: This is why I’m late okay. I didn’t actually want to leave you standing there by yourself (although you look pretty adorable when you’re anxious. Also stop playing with your shirt; it’s a bad habit of yours).

Hongbin

Ja-jjang! The next chapter has been completed. We see the second half of HyukBin’s date outing and we meet again with BTOB! Geez I want to write something with them but I keep drifting off into other stuff... But we will have a chapter with them soon. Just... be patient.

It’s kind of been a long time since I’ve written but I’ve been focusing on getting better and it was my birthday recently so I was occupied with being special (I got a freaking drawing tablet how amazing is that??). Also a couple of my friends and I are performing a kpop dance medley so I’ve been working on that too.

This story has still been in the back of my mind though so no fear! I’ll still write as much and as often as I can! I might be posting a couple BTS oneshots later though because their comeback has slain me and I’m just not okay with their mini-album.

Also I apologize for the letter bit, it worked out a lot better in Word because I had more fonts to work with. Hopefully you guys can decipher which line is written by which character. Consider it a challenge or something XD.

Once again, thanks for reading and I do not own anything in this story other than the idea and plot, any similarities to other works of fiction are purely coincidental or have been used as sources of inspiration. Please do not repost this anywhere without my permission; plagiarism isn’t nice!

Hope you’re smiling!

~ Alateni

PS: Thanks to emmyrose and AlexaDavs for upvoting!!