Chapter Six: The Train

Jong Kook let Ji Hyo enter the train first. He tried not to wince in pain as he climbed the steps; even though he’d undergone surgery last month, the back pains hadn’t left Jong Kook entirely. There were some mornings where he’d wake up in discomfort and not enough painkillers in the world could lessen the strain on his back. During work, Jong Kook tried to hide the pain. His mother, his doctor, his manager, and his VJ had all suggested he quit Running Man if it was hurting him so much, but Jong Kook was determined to see the show through. He needed public exposure to boost his singing career, and he was good at action-based variety shows. Running Man was the best option. If he had to suffer through the pain then so be it.

The filming was taking place at the Seoul Metro Subway Yard with Tony Ahn and Kim Kwang Kyu as guests. Kim Kwang Kyu was an actor and friends with Suk Jin—both of which were good indicators that Jong Kook had never met him before. On the others hand, Jong Kook knew Tony Ahn from back in the Turbo days when Tony had been a member of H.O.T and they had been on X-Man together in the early 2000s. Tony had just returned from military service and was readjusting to celebrity life—something Jong Kook understood all too well.

Jong Kook sat down on the cushioned seats on the far side of the train, while Ji Hyo remained standing. They watched as the rest of the cast entered the car. Suk Jin, Kwang Kyu, and Jae Suk brought up the rear, asking Tony about his military service.

Haha took the seat next to Jong Kook, and almost hesitantly, Ji Hyo lowered herself into the seat next to Haha. She looked nervous, similar to when she was first left alone with Gary. They’d been told that today was her 1 vs. 8, but the staff refused to tell them the details of the mission.

Jong Kook glanced over at Hyo Jin PD, who was talking quietly to one of the writing staff. Jong Kook understood Ji Hyo’s apprehension; ever since the fake quiz show meant to fool Joong Ki, Jong Kook had been dreading his own 1 vs. 8 mission.

“Noona,” said Joong Ki, placing himself in the empty space between Ji Hyo and Haha. “You’re being quiet today.”

Ji Hyo nodded. “I’m tired.”

“You’re always tired,” said Joong Ki with a laugh.

“I spent most of yesterday shooting for a drama,” said Ji Hyo. “I only got eight hours of sleep last night.”

“Only eight hours?” repeated Jong Kook. He was incapable of sleeping more than seven hours a night. Any less than that, and he would be exhausted and cranky all day. Any more than that, and he would be sluggish and achy. His body had become programmed to wake up after exactly seven hours.

“Noona sleeps every chance she gets,” said Joong Ki.

 Ji Hyo nodded. “My cousin timed me once. I slept for ten hours straight without so much as twitching.”

“Oversleeping isn’t healthy,” said Jong Kook, unable to help himself. “It’s one of the main contributors to diabetes, heart disease, headaches, and back pain.” He paused at this last one, regretting the words as soon as they left his mouth. He could see the shock in Ji Hyo and Joong Ki’s faces.

Jong Kook didn’t like to talk about his back in front of them. He’d complain about colds and fatigue, but it would take incessant prying from Jae Suk to get him to admit his back hurt. Whenever the topic came up, his coworkers’ expressions changed. They started seeing him as fragile, someone who could break at any moment. Jong Kook wasn’t like that. He had survived Turbo and X-Man, and he could survive Running Man.

“Cameras are ready,” called out Myuk PD.

Conversations came to an end, the cast positioned themselves so that they were on the two rows of seats, facing each other, and Jae Suk moved to stand between the rows, facing the cameras. He waited for the slate to be hit, and then said, “Now that we’ve gathered in the train, let’s first—”

“Do you see that?” asked Haha, pointing behind Jae Suk.

Jae Suk moved to the side so that the cast—and the cameras—could see down the empty train. It looked like a never-ending hallway, stretching on with no way out.

“You don’t normally get to see the train empty like this,” said Jong Kook. In all honesty, he wasn’t that impressed by the empty train but appreciating the filming location was necessary. Jae Suk and Haha had no doubt planned the interrupted introduction beforehand.

“I want to run,” said Suk Jin abruptly.

“To where?” asked Jae Suk.

“To the end of the train.”

“Then you run, hyung,” said Jong Kook. “And I’ll chase you. It’ll be fun.”

“For you,” said Kwang Soo.

“Yah,” murmured Jae Suk. “Just think about it… If you coincidentally met Jong Kook in this kind of place. If you ask me, hearing Jong Kook’s bell at that end of the train,” Jae Suk pointed, “the person standing here will be stunned.”

Jong Kook laughed. To be honest, he could picture that scene playing out. In fact, he hoped it would happen. He had started building up a reputation as Running Man’s strongest. When he’d gone to a restaurant with Jang Hyuk earlier in the week, a little boy on the street had called out, “Look! It’s the Commander! Wah, he’s so strong!” Jong Kook did his best every week to hold true to that image. He didn’t want to disappoint the little boy.

The characters of each cast member were an important part of Running Man. As each episode passed, the characters became more and more developed. Suk Jin was starting to take on the role of the weak elder (something he wasn’t happy about), Haha had become the player (leftover from his days on X-Man), Ji Hyo and Gary were becoming the Monday Couple (as Haha had dubbed them).

Kwang Soo, in Jong Kook’s opinion, was still searching for the right role. For the time being, he was Framer Kwang Soo, who tried to sabotage the other members with made up stories. Most often, Jong Kook and Ji Hyo were the targets. Jong Kook wasn’t certain why they had been singled out, maybe because they were the two who cared most about their reputations. Under Kwang Soo’s fabrications, Ji Hyo had become a swearing party girl (the swearing part was accurate) and Jong Kook had become an effeminate muscle man (he did care about the state of his hair more than most).

“So how are we getting the Running Ball today?” Jae Suk asked the staff.

“We have ten people today,” said Hyo Jin PD. “So we’ll have a 1 vs. 9 competition.”

The cast members feigned surprise, even though they knew it was Ji Hyo’s turn already. What they didn’t know was what the mission would entail.

“The one is Song Ji Hyo-sshi,” said Hyo Jin PD.

“Ji Hyo doesn’t have any strengths,” joked Suk Jin.

“If it’s Ji Hyo, she doesn’t know anything except romance,” added Jong Kook. He tried not to laugh at his own joke. When it came to Monday Couple, Ji Hyo was still reluctant to take part.

“Ji Hyo-sshi has always been blank,” continued the PD. “And she’d never expressed any interest in the male guests. To the nine men here, if you can raise Ji Hyo-sshi’s heartrate above 130 bpm, then you all will receive Running Balls. If you cannot achieve that, then Ji Hyo-sshi alone gets a Running Ball.”

“Is her heartbeat already being measured?” asked Jae Suk.

“Is it?” asked Jong Kook, surprised. If Ji Hyo was already wearing the heartrate monitor, then she had to have known about the 1 vs. 9 competition in advance. “It’s being worn now?”

“Yes,” said Hyo Jin PD. He turned a blue screen around which showed Ji Hyo’s heartrate in big, yellow numbers. “It’s wireless.”

“From the looks of it,” said Jae Suk. “Her heartrate fluctuates between 88 and 94 bpm.” He glanced up at the cameras. “What kind of charm will make our Ji Hyo’s heart quicken? The competition starts now.”

“Can we ask questions?” asked Haha. “About what she likes and stuff like that.”

Jong Kook nodded. There was a definite advantage to the cast members who knew her better. Jong Kook, Haha, and Gary, not to mention the guests, were still strangers to her. It would be hard to raise her heartbeat if they didn’t know what she liked.

“Of course you can,” said Jae Suk. “Please come to the center, Ji Hyo-sshi.”

One of the FDs grabbed Ji Hyo a chair and she sat beside Jae Suk with the nine men facing her, thinking carefully.

Jong Kook wasn’t certain how he should raise her heartbeat. If there was one thing he’d learned from his past girlfriends, it was that women didn’t like the same things. His girlfriend in high school had liked kissing, while his girlfriend during Turbo had preferred quality time together, and his latest girlfriend had liked gifts. On variety shows, however, Jong Kook had found that the easiest way to show affection was to sing to the girl. He’d sung One Man for Yoon Eun Hye to the point where they both got sick of it.

“Is there anything you want to know about Song Ji Hyo?” asked Jae Suk, starting the pre-competition questioning.

“When was your first kiss?” asked Haha immediately.

Ji Hyo laughed. “What?”

“You’re out,” said Jae Suk, stepping between Ji Hyo and Haha.

“Don’t ask things like that,” said Jong Kook, pushing Haha out of the seat. “You can’t ask her things like that.”

“Should I have asked her when she was last kissed instead?” asked Haha, as Jong Kook and Jae Suk pushed him as far away from Ji Hyo as they could manage.

Kwang Kyu’s question about her father’s occupation was rejected as well. Finally, Gary asked the first reasonable question: “You don’t like the bad-boy types, right?”

“Yes,” said Ji Hyo. “I hate those types.”

“So you like gentle and considerate men,” said Jae Suk, nodding.

Jong Kook leaned back in his seat, unsure of how to respond to this. In reality, he was attentive to girls, always making sure he was on the street side of the pavement and making an effort to help her walk when she was in heels. However, on the show, his image was that of the stern and strong commander. Not at all Ji Hyo’s ideal type.

“But bad boys also have the gentle and considerate side to them,” said Haha.

“That’s only in dramas,” said Jong Kook.

“Who?” asked Ji Hyo, looking sharply at Haha.

“Isn’t he right in front of you?” asked Gary.

Jong Kook laughed. He was glad Gary had been selected for the love line. Gary had a natural affinity for corny, romantic lines, and he had started to gain some popularity from his role as the Monday Boyfriend.

After a few more questions about Ji Hyo’s type (she liked “cute”, “considerate”, “ordinary” guys), the questioning moved on to a phone call experiment. Ji Hyo sat before the cameras with her back to the men. One of the men would say “hello”, and if Ji Hyo liked the sound of the man’s voice, she could say “hello” back.

“Hello,” said Kwang Kyu, starting off the experiment.

Ji Hyo responded immediately. “Pass.”

“You have to say ‘how are you, father-in-law’ before hanging up!” cried Haha.

When the laughter had finally ended, Kwang Soo started the next phone call. “Hello?”

“Hello,” said Ji Hyo.

“Where are you?” asked Kwang Soo.

“At home.”

Kwang Soo glanced at her and asked, “You’ve been drinking, haven’t you?”

Jong Kook burst out laughing. Framer Kwang Soo had returned. Not only did Ji Hyo swear and party, but now she was also an alcoholic. Jae Suk was laughing so much that he had to lean on Jong Kook to support himself.

“I bet you’ve been drinking again,” said Kwang Soo, his expression unchanging. “Where are you really?”

“At home,” said Ji Hyo.

“With who?” asked Kwang Soo. “Tell the truth. Do you really want me to go crazy? You really want to see what I’m like? Where are you? I asked, ‘Where are you?’”

Ji Hyo was crying with laughter, and Jong Kook’s sides were starting to hurt. It only got worse when Myuk PD told them that Ji Hyo’s heartrate had reached 128 bpm from laughing so much.

The next person to make the phone call was Tony. Ji Hyo’s voice immediately softened, and Jong Kook had the feeling that Ji Hyo used to be a H.O.T. fan. When Jong Kook thought about it, he realized that Ji Hyo would have been a teenager when H.O.T. was popular. As the conversation between Tony and Ji Hyo continued, it looked as though Tony would reach 130 bpm. However, the moment Tony mentioned taking her home, Ji Hyo’s heartrate plummeted.

Joong Ki also had good chemistry with Ji Hyo, their conversation causing her heart to rise, but the moment Joong Ki said, “I’ll wait in front of your house then,” her heartrate dropped from 123 to 105 bpm.

“She doesn’t like people going in front of her house,” said Jae Suk. “Her pulse immediately falls if you talk about her house.”

Jae Suk took charge of the next phone call. It was almost comical how quickly Ji Hyo’s heartrate fell when she recognized Jae Suk’s voice. Trying to salvage the situation, Jae Suk told her he’d written a love letter. The heartrate fell even lower.

“I’ve ripped the letter to pieces,” cried Jae Suk desperately. “I’ve ripped it. Ji Hyo-ah. Ji Hyo-ah. Ji Hyo-ah. Don’t go. Don’t go. Don’t go.”

She didn’t hang up, so Jae Suk continued. “How about we meet in front of your house at seven tomorrow?”

“House?” repeated Ji Hyo.

And, once again, the heartrate dropped.

At this point, it was pretty obvious that Jae Suk wasn’t going to be the one to raise Ji Hyo’s heartbeat except through laughter.

Ji Hyo didn’t even bother to answer Suk Jin’s call, which left only Jong Kook and Gary. It was silently decided amongst the men that Gary should be saved for last. So Jong Kook picked up the phone next.

“Hello?” he said, unsure of where he was going with this. If he was lucky, Ji Hyo would just hang up on him and he wouldn’t have to be creative.

“Hello,” said Ji Hyo.

“How are you?” Jong Kook asked.

“Good.”

“You need to be more exciting than that,” murmured Jae Suk. “Or this segment won’t be aired.”

Jong Kook ignored his hyung and asked, “Did you get enough sleep?”

“Yes,” said Ji Hyo.

Jong Kook bit the inside of his cheek. He needed something to spice up the conversation. Something to surprise Ji Hyo. And then something to make them laugh.

“Ji Hyo,” said Jong Kook softly, completely doing away with formal speech for the moment. “Ji Hyo, you can tell me when you’re tired.”

A sort of quiet settled over the train, and then Ji Hyo said, “Okay, oppa.”

 “Ji Hyo, if you’re tired, I can come over to your house…” Jong Kook was cut short by the laughter of his cast mates and the staff members.

Jong Kook laughed too, assuming that her heartrate had dropped, but when he looked at the heartrate monitor, he was surprised to see the number “138” on the screen. Jong Kook stared at the back of her head, wondering what expression she was making, but Ji Hyo had buried her face in her hands.

“Yah,” cried Jae Suk. “Jong Kook isn’t the love line.”

“Don’t come over to my house,” said Ji Hyo, still covering half her face with her hands.

“Why don’t you want Jong Kook-hyung to come over?” asked Haha.

Jong Kook was confused. When the other cast members had mentioned the word “house”, Ji Hyo’s heartrate had decreased dramatically, but for some reason, he had caused it to speed up. Did that mean he was different from the rest of the cast? Did she dislike him that much? Or was it the opposite?

“Yah,” said Myuk PD. “Ji Hyo-sshi, is Jong Kook your love line? Do you want a new Monday Boyfriend?”

“I was surprised,” said Ji Hyo, finally lowered her hands. “I just pictured playing Bells Hide and Seek with Jong Kook-hyung in my house.”

“It would scare anyone,” said Jae Suk, patting her on the shoulder. “But I don’t think we can air this phone call.”

Jong Kook had mixed feeling about Ji Hyo’s explanation. Yes, it was nice to know she didn’t regard him romantically, but he also didn’t want her to be afraid of him. He would have to make an effort not to jump out at her during the nametag-ripping segment of the show.

After all the laughter and all the teasing had died down, everyone returned to their seats for Gary to make his phone call.

“Hello?” said Gary.

“Hello.”

“I love you.”

The confession was so unexpected that Jong Kook could only laugh. Ji Hyo’s heartrate spiked up, caused by a mixture, Jong Kook thought, between surprise and amusement. It was hard to resist laughing at Gary’s corny lines.

“It’s still not as high as Jong Kook-hyung’s,” murmured Joong Ki.

Jae Suk quickly shushed him.

“Every single particle inside my body is loving you,” added Gary.

Ji Hyo’s heartbeat jumped up to 136 bpm as she tried to hold in the laughter.

She managed to regain composure and asked, “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure,” said Gary. “I love you. Come over to my house.”

The heartrate dropped with that one, innocent word as it had for everyone. Everyone, that is, except Jong Kook.

Before the actual game began, Ji Hyo was given a chance to calm herself down. She hadn’t tried to keep her heartrate down during the phone call experiment, she’d laughed, she’d let herself fantasize, and as a result, she’d had rather high numbers on the monitor.

However, she was an actress. She was fairly certain that if she got into scene, none of the men could romance her heart up to 130 bpm (though perhaps they could do so through humor). She only saw Jae Suk and Suk Jin as older brothers, while Gary, Kwang Kyu, and Haha were practically strangers. Kwang Soo was so far from Ji Hyo’s type that she couldn’t even consider him, and while she found Joong Ki attractive, she couldn’t picture him as a boyfriend. She’d been to a few H.O.T. concerts back in the late 90’s with her cousin. However, it was the cousin, not Ji Hyo, who was the Tony Ahn fan, so it was  strange to have him try to romance Ji Hyo now.

Kim Jong Kook was her only concern. She was still embarrassed by the 138 bpm, and she’d had to lie about Bells Hide and Seek to hide the truth. The moment Jong Kook had said, “house,” all Ji Hyo could picture was him entering her bedroom and seeing the Turbo poster on her wall. She’d panicked and her heartrate had shot up.

She was taking that poster down as soon as she got home. He could never find out. She’d die of embarrassment.

Ji Hyo sat alone on the row of seats, while the nine men stood over her. The 1 vs. 9 battle was about to begin, and Ji Hyo was determined to win. She had no doubt that she would be placed on the Mission Team yet again for nametag ripping, and she had no faith that they could win against Jong Kook.

Kwang Soo was the first suitor. He sat down next to Ji Hyo, wearing a too-large green coat and too-large glasses, and asked, “Noona, what are you doing tomorrow?”

Ji Hyo had a hard time not laughing at the idea of Kwang Soo hitting on her. “Tomorrow?” she said. “I think I’ll be at home.”

“At home again.” Kwang Soo gave her a sharp look. “I heard everything on the phone just now.”

“When?” asked Ji Hyo, wondering if he was referring to the practice session earlier. “Who was I talking to?”

“Meeting in front of the house at seven tomorrow. I heard everything.”

Ji Hyo didn’t have to see the heartrate monitor to know her pulse was dropping at the word “house”.

“These past few days,” continued Kwang Soo. “You were always scolding me, but I’ve been holding myself back… Noona, I know about you fondling my wallet.”

Ji Hyo heard the rest of the cast laughing, which made her laugh.

“It’s a misunderstanding,” she said through her giggles. “A misunderstanding.”

Suddenly, Kwang Soo switched from angry to sad. He closed his eyes and said, “Noona, I can’t live without you.”

“Really,” said Ji Hyo, going along with the act. “It’s just a misunderstanding.”

“In order to keep you by my side, I’ve prepared an event for you.”

Ji Hyo clasped her hands together and pretended to be excited. She watched as Kwang Soo rose from his seat and started fumbling around with his jacket. He pulled out a piece of black cloth with little white starts on it. Carefully, he placed the cloth over his right hand. When he removed the cloth, a white flower appeared.

Ji Hyo was genuinely surprised. She hadn’t known Kwang Soo could do any magic tricks. The male spectators oohed and aahed more than necessary over the white rose. Ji Hyo wondered if they thought an interactive audience would get her heartrate up.

Kwang Soo kneeled in front of her and plucked some of the petals off the rose before giving the flower to her. Then, Kwang Soo stood up and pulled out a fan.

“You’re not thinking of making the petals float around, right?” asked Ji Hyo.

Kwang Soo dropped the flower petals. “What?”

Jae Suk snickered and Jong Kook said, “Don’t make it so obvious.”

“Do it in another style,” demanded Ji Hyo. If Kwang Soo wanted to make her heartrate go up, then he’d have to earn it.

Kwang Soo stared. And stared. And stared.

“We’ll end it here,” said Jae Suk, laughing as Joong Ki pulled Kwang Soo to the side and out of Ji Hyo’s sight.

Ji Hyo laughed, satisfied that she had survived the first suitor without her heartbeat getting anywhere near 130 bmp.

The next competitor was Joong Ki, who decided to set the scene as an accidental encounter on the train with a sunbae from school. Ji Hyo nodded. She had never been one for dongsaeng-sunbae romance stories, so even when Joong Ki sat next to her and started talking about how he wanted to understand her the most, Ji Hyo’s heartbeat remained fairly constant. She even laughed a little when he mentioned not calling her “noona” anymore. It was as if he was reading lines from a script. In fact, she wouldn’t have been surprised if they were actual lines from one of his dramas modified just a little to fit the situation. It also didn’t help that Ji Hyo glanced over at her spectators and saw that Jae Suk and Haha were cringing with embarrassment at Joong Ki’s words. Ji Hyo tried not to laugh aloud.

Joong Ki just kept going with the script. “I have some things to say to noona.”

“Go ahead,” said Ji Hyo, trying not to look at Jae Suk’s repulsed expression.

“I have to be closer to you to say this,” said Joong Ki.

“Okay,” said Ji Hyo. She barely heard what Joong Ki was saying because she was trying so hard not to laugh. “Come and sit here.” She patted the empty space on the seat next to her.

Joong Ki scooted closer. “I have to whisper it to you. It’s very important words.”

“It’s like a drama,” whispered Suk Jin.

Ji Hyo couldn’t hold back a little laugh. “Okay.”

“Can you please close your eyes for a little while?” asked Joong Ki.

He was going to kiss her cheek, Ji Hyo predicted. That’s how it usually happened in dramas. She wondered if she should let him kiss her (after all, her love line was with Gary), but she couldn’t find anything wrong with having a love triangle—the PDs would probably love it—so she closed her eyes as requested.

He kissed her cheek.

Ji Hyo opened her eyes and laughed. She’d been right. Her audience started freaking out over this turn of events. She saw Jong Kook and Suk Jin hold hands in their exaggerated excitement, and unable to handle the cute picture in front of her, she buried her face in her hands and giggled until her ears turned pink.

“That guy looks like he’s about to die,” said Haha, pointing to Gary.

Ji Hyo glanced at her Monday Boyfriend and saw the forlorn expression on her face. She only laughed harder.

Jae Suk was the next suitor, and from the moment he sat down and asked her where she was going, Ji Hyo knew his attempt to woo her would be a failure. After talking about her house for a while, Jae Suk decided the best course of action was to plagiarize Joong Ki’s script. Ji Hyo thought her sides would split open from watching Jae Suk half-heartedly recite the drama-like lines.

After the first team finished, it was time to announce the scores. Ji Hyo knew before Jae Suk read the numbers aloud that none of them had made it. Joong Ki, it turned out, was the highest with 117 bpm. Ji Hyo figured the 117 had been reached while she was laughing at Jong Kook and Suk Jin holding hands, but she didn’t ask for confirmation.

“Since the three of us have failed,” said Jae Suk. “It’s time for the next group. First up, Kim Jong Kook.”

Ji Hyo braced herself. She looked away, trying to think of melancholy things that would keep her heartrate down.

“Don’t say anything to block him,” Jae Suk told the other men. “We might have a chance at a Running Ball.”

Ji Hyo sent a fierce glare in Jae Suk’s direction, but he didn’t notice. He was trying to use her feelings for Turbo against her. Well, it wouldn’t work this time. She wouldn’t let it.

Jong Kook adjusted his black sweater and then said, “Let’s set it as a friends’ relationship.”

“Friends?” Ji Hyo couldn’t help the rise in her voice.

Embarrassed by her own enthusiasm, she quickly looked down to adjust the hem of her jacket. She heard Jong Kook’s snickers, and she looked back up. He was smiling down at her, his eyes little more than crescents.

“Ah,” said Jong Kook. “So she wanted to be my friend.”

“Friends?” cried Jae Suk, mimicking her high voice. Ji Hyo laughed. He made her sound so eager. She wasn’t that desperate to be friends with Jong Kook. Right?

With a clap of Jae Suk’s hands, the scene began, and Jong Kook took the seat beside Ji Hyo. She kept her gaze fixed ahead and tried to think of calming things. Like a mountain. Or a forest. Or the sea with waves gently lapping on the sand.

“Ji Hyo,” said Jong Kook softly. He’d switched to casual speech once again.

“Mm?” Ji Hyo turned to him, probably a little more eager than she should have been.

Jong Kook scratched his nose, as if hesitating, and then said, “I have a song I like recently. Do you want to listen to it?”

“Yes,” said Ji Hyo. Was he going to sing to her? Ji Hyo felt her heart skip a beat, and she quickly had to think of mountains again in order to calm it.

“Using earphones.” Jong Kook touched his left ear and took out an invisible earbud. He then placed it in Ji Hyo’s ear. She thought of cloudless blue skies so that her heart wouldn’t race when his thumb brushed against her skin.

They sat there in silence for a moment. Ji Hyo couldn’t figure out what Jong Kook had planned. Was he not going to sing for her? Was she supposed to respond to this non-existent music? She glanced up at her audience and couldn’t help feeling silly.

“Oh!” she said. “This song isn’t bad.”

Jong Kook smiled. “There isn’t any sound though.”

They both started laughing at the same time. Ji Hyo couldn’t believe her bad timing. Thankfully, Suk Jin decided to help out and he started to softly sing. It took Ji Hyo a second to recognize the song that Jong Kook and Gary had created together. She thought it was called Come Back to Me Again, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Oh, it’s that one,” said Ji Hyo. “It’s nice.”

Suk Jin stopped singing and there was a pause. Ji Hyo heard Jong Kook clear his throat. She knew what was coming and there was no stopping the fangirl inside of her. She held the white rose to her chest, waiting in anticipation. She knew her heartbeat had sped up, but for a moment, she didn’t care. The idol of her teenage years was singing to her.

When the song ended, so did Jong Kook’s act. Ji Hyo clapped enthusiastically. She was glad he hadn’t tried to kiss or touch her like Joong Ki. She was fairly certain she would have lost the game if he had.

“Ah,” said Jong Kook, getting up from the seat. “It’s nerve-wracking.”

“You should have sung a Turbo song,” Jae Suk muttered to Jong Kook.

“Why?” asked Jong Kook.

Jae Suk might have answered, but Ji Hyo sent him a murderous glare and he only said, “I like your Turbo songs. They get the blood pumping, the heart racing, gets me all excited, you know?”

Ji Hyo breathed a sigh of relief. She had gotten past Jong Kook; she could survive the rest. Haha and Tony came close. Haha used laughter and Tony used shock to raise her heartbeat. The most amusing part was that Gary only managed to get her heartbeat up to 104 bpm. So much for the Monday Couple. But Ji Hyo couldn’t help it. She didn’t find it romantic when guys inserted a girl’s name into a song. It was rather tacky.

Ji Hyo grinned at the men as she accepted her Running Ball from the staff. Today was good day. Jong Kook had sung to her, she would be exempt from punishment, and she would be able to sleep all of tomorrow. What more could a girl ask for?