“So today, your date will consist of exploring the lovely Pearl City. After walking around this beautiful town together, you’ll be enjoying a romantic candlelight dinner in a high class restaurant,” Junmyeon told the three couples standing in front of him.

“We’ll be eating out? Yes! That means I won’t have to cook!” Woohyun cheered.

“I’m sure you’ll have to cook another day,” Hye commented with a shrug.

“So much for support from my date,” the boy whined, but the girl just frowned. This was gonna be a long day. At least she got a good dinner out of it.

“Sounds like fun, right?” JB turned to Seong Yeon, who nodded in agreement.

“Let’s go then,” Yerin commented and Junmyeon smiled.

“We have a car prepared for each of you, so you can go wherever you want.”

“It will be weird to walk around a city followed by camera’s, though,” Seong Yeon commented as she and JB walked to the car that was prepared for them.

“We could just find some place quiet? With only a few people?” he suggested and the girl nodded.

“Let’s do that.”

“Which would be… Where exactly?” the driver asked them.

“I don’t know…” JB mumbled. It wasn’t like they really knew what the city was like anyway.

“Isn’t there a park or something?” the girl suggested and the driver nodded.

“Is that okay?” Seong Yeon asked JB who nodded and soon they were on their way.

Yerin and Baekhyun had entered the car next to theirs, and were discussing where to go.

“How about we just get to the city center and walk around? I’m sure we will find something interesting,” Yerin suggested.

“Sounds like a plan!” Baekhyun replied with a smile. At least this time his date seemed to become actually fun, with a girl who wasn’t completely against the idea of dating him.

“And where do you want to go?” a driver asked Hye and Woohyun, who had entered the last car.

“Let’s go shopping!” Woohyun suggested.

“What kind of date is that?” Hye muttered, but the boy didn’t hear her, or at least ignored her.

And with that, the last car left the grounds, heading out to Pearl City.

---

“I can’t believe he went on a date with Hye. Am I not enough for him?” Hyun Mi complained.

“I’m sure he’s just trying to play the game? Since we only had three lights so far?” Hee-Jin suggested.

“But we kissed you know… Who would have thought he’d get tired of me that easily…”

“I’m sure you’re overreacting. He wouldn’t kiss just anyone, right?”

“I hope so...” Hyun Mi muttered. “But… will they be back by dinner? We were going to cook together… Argh, this date is ruining everything. He better be really nice when he gets back and explain himself!” The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she got. Had he even talked with Hye before? As much as she wanted to blame the girl, she couldn’t recollect her ever doing anything remotely resembling going after Woohyun.

“How about you just try going out with someone else as well?” Jaelyn suggested.

“What?” Hyun Mi exclaimed.

“Someone else. If he gets to go on dates with people, you can do whatever you want as well, right? Since you are not together?”

“But I don’t want anyone else…”

“And if he isn’t your perfect match?” Hee-Jin asked softly.

“That… I’ll think about that when it gets to that.”

---

“Why shopping though?” Hye complained as Woohyun kept dragging her from store to store.

“Because it’s fun. You’re a girl, you’re supposed to like shopping. Why are you complaining?”

“Because-, you’re barely even giving me time to look at things, dragging me around all the time.”

“This way I get to hold your hand,” he replied with a smile.

“Seriously?” she muttered, pulling her hand from his grip. “Let’s just look around without you dragging me everywhere?”

“You’re no fun,” Woohyun complained, but slowed down his pace, this time allowing the girl time to actually look at things before continuing to walk.

“At least you’re smiling now. It makes you look even more perfect.”

Hye frowned at his words and sighed. As she had suspected, this was going to be a long date.

---

“It’s a nice park,” JB commented. The park was quite large, with a pond in the middle of it, with little swan boats. It seemed to be a bit cooler here than on the rest of the island, the trees providing some shade.

“It is. It’s relaxing and not that crowded either,” the girl agreed.

“Our date might get cut if we’re just sit here relaxing,” JB joked.

“Doesn’t sound that bad to be honest.”

“I guess not, as long as we have fun.”

“Let’s make sure of that.”

They sat together in the shade of one of the trees, talking together for a bit. It seemed like JB had been right, and after a while, the cameramen seemed to be losing their interest, focusing on their phones while the camera’s did their work for them. This didn’t mean the date was boring, at least not to them. They got to know each other better by talking and asking questions, rather than by doing things that would have been interesting to show on television.

“Wanna try the boats?” JB suggested after a while.

“Are you crazy? I still can’t swim, you know that!”

“If you trust me to teach you in the pool, you can trust me here? We’re not even supposed to enter the water though, just the boats.”

“...”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to, just say so.”

“... Let’s do it…”

JB smiled, jumped up and held his hand out for her to take.

“I’m glad you trust me.”

---

“This is where Pearl Harbor happened?” Yerin exclaimed when she and Baekhyun passed the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

“Well, it makes sense, since this is Pearl city…”

“Okay, it does, but I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Me neither… But I don’t usually think about history.” Baekhyun laughed then asked: “Do you wanna go see it?”

“Hmm… just for a little while?” she replied and he nodded. They walked towards it together, trying to see through the crowd. When they finally saw it, it turned out to be just a wall with names of the soldiers who died and they turned away again.

“Okay, that wasn’t a good idea. It’s not interesting at all,” Yerin laughed.

“What a let down. Some memorial that is,” Baekhyun agreed.

“If I see another memorial or something, just say we’re not gonna look,” Yerin commented.

“Definitely, that was a waste of time.”

“Why are there even that many people, if it’s just a wall?”

---

“Do you know who you’re gonna vote for today?” Hoya asked Elea. The girl shook her head.

“They all seem… well, I don’t think it’s Woohyun and Hye… But JB and Seong Yeon could be a match and so could be Baekhyun and Yerin. Although Baekhyun is cute with Seulyi as well.”

“Baekhyun and Seulyi? I thought their date went badly?”

“Yeah… So they probably aren’t a match… So it could be Baekhyun and Yerin.”

“Let’s vote for them, then,” Hoya smiled.

“Let’s. Until then, I’m just gonna go watch a movie or something,” the girl said.

“Can I join?”

“You want to? Then, sure. I have an ipad with movies in my room... “

“So we’ll watch the movie there? Sure thing.” Hoya replied.

“Okay…” Elea eyed the boy suspiciously, but he followed her to her room, and they sat down on her bed together, leaning against the wall.

“If I put it like this, can you see it?” she asked as she tried to position the ipod in the best possible way.

“Perfect,” he replied with a smile, and Elea sat back down again.

“Which movie do you want to watch?” she asked, the screen showing the available choices. Not long after, they were enjoying the movie in a comfortable silence together.

---

“Candidates, gather in the living room please,” Junmyeon called out and one after the other, the contestants appeared.

“It’s time to vote on who gets to go into the truth booth today. You really need a match, so think about it carefully. Once the couples have returned from their dinner, we’ll reveal who gets to find out whether they are a perfect match or not.”

“Dinner? So Woohyun isn’t even going to cook?” Hyun Mi exclaimed. “But he was supposed to. Together… Today… Stupid date.”

“Wait… Does this mean we get no food today?” Xiumin asked in shock.

“But food is important~ Someone else should cook…” Hee-Jin added.

“It’s my turn tomorrow… So I can switch with Woohyun?” Mark suggested.

“Can you even cook?” Hoya asked.

“Not at all. Will you help me, Kimmi?”

“I can’t cook that well either… But I’ll try.”

“Then that’s decided. Kimmi and Mark will cook today, while Woohyun gets to cook tomorrow, everyone in agreement?” Seulyi stated. The others nodded.

“As long as we get food, it’s okay with me,” Chanyeol laughed.

“Okay, we’ll just vote and start on dinner then, right?” Kimmi commented, and looked at Mark as she got up.

“Yup,” he replied with a smile, following her to the television to vote. Since they both didn’t want JB to have to go into the truth booth again, they voted for Baekhyun and Lyn as most likely perfect match.

They reached the kitchen together. First thing Mark did was check the fridge, while Kimmi looked through the drawers. Since both of them weren’t that good at cooking, they would have to think of something easy to make with the available ingredients.

“I’ll cook rice… Can you do something with meat or fish?” Mark asked Kimmi. The girl nodded.

“I can try. I helped Hye before with fish… so I’ll try that.”

“Good luck.”

“You too.”

For a while they worked in silence. Once Mark had the rice to a boil, he started cutting some vegetables.

“We can cook them.. right?” he asked Kimmi.

“I think so. It shouldn’t be difficult.”

“Alright.”

Again, they worked in silence, Kimmi working on baking the fishes evenly, while Mark kept his attention on the vegetables he was cutting. They had been so focused on their current tasks, they only remembered the rice again when they smelled something burned.

“What is that?”

“Did the fish burn?”

“I don’t think so,” Kimmi commented as she looked through the fishes she was baking.

“THE RICE!!” they exclaimed at the same time.

The boiling water of the rice had disappeared completely, the rice bubbling in the pan. When Mark tried going through it with a spoon, he found that the the rice stuck to the bottom of the pan and was burned. Only then did he decide to turn the fire off.

“It’s burned...I was working on the vegetables.”

“Is everything ruined?” Kimmi asked him.

“Only the bottom part looks burned…”

“We’ll just use the top then.”

---

As she walked into the high class restaurant, Hye looked around in shock. She suddenly felt underdressed, surrounded by such a luxurious scenery.

“This is amazing!” she exclaimed.

“Not as amazing as you,” Woohyun reacted instantly. Hye forced herself to smile at his cheesy line, though she really couldn’t care less. At least she got to experience this amazing restaurant because of him.

They were led to their table by a waiter, getting a private room for just the two of them. On the table stood a bottle of champagne, and the room was decorated with roses.

“It’s so pretty!”

“I’m glad I get to experience this with you,” Woohyun said, pulling back her chair.

“I’m happy I get to experience this as well. I can’t wait to taste the food.”

The food was a luxurious as they had expected, each of the courses delicately looking, with the flavours perfectly balanced.

“I don’t wanna leave~” Hye commented when they were done. “It’s too delicious. I don’t want to ever eat anywhere else again.”

---

“I think I’ll be hungry after this,” JB commented dryly. While the meal did taste very good, the portions were small and delicate, and even after the three courses they had already eaten, the boy felt like he hadn’t even started yet.

“The portions are small. But at least they taste good?” Seong Yeon commented.

“They do. I just hope we won’t have to be hungry.”

“We can always eat something else back at the villa.”

“But it’s insane to have to eat after having been to a restaurant. I bet it’s expensive, yet they barely give you food.”

“It takes time to prepare… That’s why it looks so pretty.”

“I’d rather it didn’t look pretty and I actually get enough.”

“Agreed,” the girl said with a laugh. “Let’s make sure we go get something else to eat if we stay hungry.”

“Good idea!”

“If they’ll allow us before we have to go back to the villa.”

“Oh, right, that blasted truth booth....” JB mumbled.

“Yeah… I don’t really want to go in it either,” Seong Yeon agreed.

“Well, it’s only a one in three chance they will actually pick us, so we should be fine, right?”

“Right. Let’s not think about it too much.”

“And just enjoy this time we get to spend together.”

---

“Woa, what is this even?” Baekhyun exclaimed. His plate was completely red, yet seemed to be filled with all kinds of different foods. “How is everything red?”

Yerin had already tasted the food, recognising the faint flavour of beetroot.

“They used beetroot to colour it, I think,” she suggested.

“But even the salmon is so red… And is that jelly on top of it?”

“It does seem to be some sort of jelly. But instead of dissecting it, just eat it?” Yerin suggested with a laugh.

“But it hardly looks edible, with everything being red.”

“I’m eating it, and it’s delicious though?”

“Really?”

“Really. Why would I lie about that? But if you don’t want it, I can eat your portion?”

“I’ll try it,” Baekhyun gave in, and as soon as he had tasted a bit from the dish, started smiling widely.

“This is amazing. How does it taste so good?”

Yerin couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction.

“I told you so!”

---

“It’s time for the all-knowing truth booth. Which couple did you pick to go find out their destiny,” Junmyeon announced. The couples had just returned from their dinner, and even though the courses each only had a small portion, they had all eaten plenty.

“Why did you get to eat in a restaurant while we had to eat burned rice~” Xiumin whined.

“Burned rice?” Woohyun asked, raising his eyebrows.

“It wasn’t that bad!” Mark retorted.

“Yes, only the bottom part got burned and we didn’t even give you guys that,” Kimmi agreed.

“But the rice did taste burned…” Dia commented softly.

“See, it did!” Xiumin said.

“It wasn’t that bad…” Hee-Jin disagreed. “You two did well.”

“Are you just being nice?” Elea asked. “But well, it’s not like I could do better.”

“It was edible. But Woohyun should have cooked,” Hyun Mi stated.

“Hehe, but instead I got a high class meal,” the boy said with a smile.

“Lucky for us, you can cook tomorrow. We switched your turn with Mark’s,” Jaelyn announced.

“I still have to cook? Hyun Mi~ Help me, okay?”

“Fine…” the girl grumbled, still angry he hadn’t picked her for this date.

“Ahem,” Junmyeon cleared his throat. “If you guys are done, shall we continue with the truth booth?”

“Ah, yes. We need a match this time,” Myungsoo agreed.

“So let’s hope we’ll find one,” Seulyi added.

“The couple you’ve voted on today is:...”

“Please not us, please not us,” JB muttered softly.

“Baekhyun and Yerin. You will now find out if you are a perfect match, or not. Good luck.”

“Let’s go find out then,” Baekhyun said with a smile.

“Let’s. I wonder what it will be like.”

They walked toward the truth booth together. Unlike JB and Seong Yeon, they weren’t particularly dreading it. For one, they had had fun on their date and if they were a perfect match they would be one step closer to the prize money. But if they weren’t… they would have one less possible match, which was a plus as well. Win-win.

They entered the truth booth, finding their pictures in front of them.

“What’s with this fake fingerprint scanner?” Yerin commented.

“I guess it’s just a gimmick, to make the show seem more fun?”

“And we have to use it, even though it was already clear we would be the ones here? Oh well.”

They placed their hands on the fingerprint scanner, waiting patiently for the result. The screen turned black for a few seconds, before the familiar words: NO MATCH  appeared in front of them.

“I figured,” Yerin said with a nod.

“Yeah… It’s not really a surprise. Only nine people left, right?” Baekhyun replied.

“It’s our third ‘no match’ though… We should figure one out somehow, right?”

“Yeah, it should be possible. I guess we have to think even harder.”

When they returned in the living room the mood was rather serious.

“No match guys,” Baekhyun declared with a smile.

“We know, we saw it on the television,” Chanyeol retorted.

“Why are you so happy, we really need a match,” Kimmi added.

“Hey, I’m one step closer to finding my match. I know it’s not Yerin, so I have nine other options left. I say that’s a good thing.”

“I guess so… But finding a match would be easier,” Dia stated.

“Of course it would be… we all want the money, so we need to step it up,” Yerin agreed. “What do these three couples have in common?”

“Nothing. JB and Kimmi liked each other. Mark and Dia was one-sided. And me and you was friendship, I guess… The only thing we haven’t tried is dislike…” Baekhyun commented.

---

“Why are you out here at night?” Myungsoo asked, sitting down next to the redhead, who had only quickly glanced up at him.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“You could, but you didn’t.”

“I’m just thinking about the match up, and who could be perfect matches,” Dia replied.

“Outside? In the dark?”

“It’s pretty with the stars. Because there aren’t as many lights on this island. And it doesn’t even get cold.”

“So, who do you think are a match?”

“It’s hard… I don’t know… Kimmi and Mark get along very well, so they could be… But then again, Kimmi also got along with JB and they weren’t a match… Just based on the numbers… It’s still impossible to tell.”

“Yeah… It’s still too early in the game for that... Who do you want to be your perfect match?”

“Who do I… What? It’s not like I can choose, we’ve already seen that with the truth booth,” the girl mumbled, a blush starting to appear on her cheeks.

“I know that,” Myungsoo sighed. “But if you had to choose, who would you choose?”

“I don’t know... “

“Would it be Mark?” he asked with a laugh and Dia instantly shook her head.

“Of course not!”

“But you did pick him for your date…”

“Since Kimmi said we could be a match… I figured I’d just pick him.”

“Why not pick someone you really want to go on a date with? Too scary?”

Her blush deepened, but Dia kept quiet, softly biting her lip. It was too scary.

“Since you picked me for the match up… does that mean that you also don’t want me to be your match?”

She opened to tell him he was wrong, but she couldn’t bring herself to. Instead she shook her head.

“You should have just picked me as your date, then,” he said as he got up. Before she could react, he had already gone back inside.

“What’s with that?? It’s not like I wouldn’t want to go on a date with you,” she mumbled, covering her red cheeks with her hands.

---

Seulyi was just staring at the boy who was scurrying through the kitchen, grabbing all kinds of foods. She somehow had woken up from strange sounds in the kitchen in the early morning, and now she saw who was the cause. Xiumin was going through drawer after drawer, pulling them open then letting them fall closed again.

“What are you looking for?”

The sudden voice behind him startled Xiumin and he quickly turned to face the door.

“Ohh, it’s just you. I’m looking for something I can eat… I’m hungry because we didn’t have much rice yesterday…. But I don’t want to eat breakfast already, since it’s still so early… “

“You’re gonna eat now, and eat breakfast again?”

“Yes… Is that weird?”

“A little… Can’t you just wait until breakfast?”

“But I’m hungry… I can just eat some snack and it’s no problem right?”

“Then why don’t you?”

“I can’t find any… I bet someone took them to their room… Did you have some kind of slumber party tonight?”

“We didn’t…” Seulyi commented dryly.

“Hmm… what to do…” the boy muttered, already going through another drawer.

“Want me to make you something light?” Seulyi sighed. With him make noise like that, there was no way she was going to fall asleep again… So she had to make him give up his search. This seemed like the simplest solution. Even though there wasn’t much she could make.

“You would do that for me?” Xiumin beamed at her.

“Sure, sure, no big deal… I can make… ramyun?”

“How is that light?” the boy asked with a chuckle.

“Alright, just eat half of it, I’ll eat the other half and it would be fine, right?”

“I guess that would work.”

---

“So, what are you planning to make today?” Hyun Mi asked Woohyun, her arms folded across each other. All throughout the day, she had ignored him. Hye had told her their date hadn’t been successful, but that hadn’t comforted her at all. They had still gone on a date together.

“I wanted to make something fancy, since you guys had to eat burned rice because I wasn’t there,” he replied.

“But you said you couldn’t cook! You expect me to make something fancy?” Hyun Mi exclaimed. She now wished she had ignored JB’s advice and instead memorized every single recipe in the cook books.

“I lied. I actually can cook.”

“You… You can? Why did you lie?”

“Because it was a great excuse to have some alone time with you.”

“It was… what?” A blush had appeared on her cheek, for a second his date with Hye was forgotten. But only for a second.

“Then why did you pick Hye for your date?”

“Of course, I wanted to go with you. But there’s a high chance we aren’t a match, right?”

“There is…”

“So, to win the game, I decided to pick someone else. I already know that I like you.”

“You like me?”

“Every person has a little thing in their life that makes them smile, that little thing in my life is you, Hyun Mi.”

“Because I’m your happiness,” the girl replied with a big smile.

“You are. Tsk, you had no faith in the urban legend, did you? About us staying together?”

“So are we together? Like, a couple?” the girl asked carefully.

“Why do you still have to ask?”

---

“I wonder where this path leads too,” Hee-Jin muttered as she walked through the garden. It seemed to be more hidden than any of the others and that peaked her interest.

“Wanna check it out?” Sungyeol asked. He had found the path a few days ago, but he hadn’t had time yet to check it out.

“You want to join? Let’s go then! It will be fun to explorer it!” the girl exclaimed excitedly and already started walking down the path. Sungyeol quickly followed her, his long legs making it easy for him to catch up to her. This part of the garden was filled with all kinds of trees, the only one he could recognise being a palm tree. There were bushes and all kinds of flowers growing, and the further they walked, the less it seemed like a garden.

“Is this… a forest?” the girl wondered out loud.

“It looks more like a forest than as a garden, yes…”

“But why would someone want a forest in their garden… No, it would be cool to have a forest in your garden! But you’d have to be really rich…” the girl continued. All the while they continued walking and walking, until finally, they reached the end of their path, a small clearing, from which they could see over the mountain they had unknowingly climbed.

“It was a mountain!” Sungyeol exclaimed.

“Wow, we’re so high! How did we end up here?” Hee-Jin added.

They stayed to enjoy the view for a while before deciding to follow the path back down again. Only when they started walking through the forest did they find that the path had not just been one path. They reached a fork in the road and looked at each other in surprise.

“Which way should we go?” he asked.

“I… I don’t know… Let’s go right?”

“Alright.”

They reached fork after fork, and nothing seemed even remotely familiar. They had gotten lost in this unfamiliar forest.

“This can’t all be our garden… can it?” Hee-Jin commented.

“It’s so big. How did we get lost walking in the garden…”

They had kept walking all throughout the day, only reaching the villa again as it was getting dark.

“Hee-Jin! There you are!” Hyun Mi ran towards her, hugging her tightly. “I was so worried.”

“Are you okay?” Xiumin asked the girl and she nodded.

“We just got lost.”

On the other side, Sungyeol was telling Seong Yeon that he really was alright, and nothing had happened.

“Were you scared? You didn’t get hurt did you?” Hoya asked Hee-Jin and soon everyone had swarmed the two, asking question after question, happy to have them back safely after they had been missing for most of the day.

“I’m really fine. Just hungry. So can I go eat now?” Hee-Jin commented, making the others laugh.

“Of course, we saved some for you.”

---

“So the truth booth revealed no match. Again. Let’s hope this match up will go better,” Junmyeon said with a smile. Once again the contestants had gathered, ready to find out if they had taken another step in the right direction.

“Today, the boys will be picking. We start with Woohyun.”

“I’ll pick Hye.”

Once again, his choice shocked Hyun Mi, but she trusted him. And she knew she was the only girl in his heart.

“Baekhyun, you get the next pick. We know it’s not Yerin, so who will you pick today?”

“I’ll go with Kimmi today.”

Mark grumbled, he had wanted to pick the girl, but Baekhyun had beaten him to it. Kimmi walked up to the boy with a frown. She had no idea why he would pick her, it’s not like they had talked all that much.

“JB, was your date a success? Will you be picking Seong Yeon today?”

“Yes,” the boy replied with a smile.

“Mark, you’re up,” Junmyeon continued.

“I’d like Elea. She could be my match.”

“Chanyeol, who will be your match for today?”

“It’s obvious, right? I’ll pick Hee-Jin.”

No one was surprised by his choice.

Sungyeol was next, and picked Yerin, while Sunggyu picked Dia. Hoya then picked Jaelyn, leaving Xiumin to pick between Seulyi and Hyun Mi.

“I’ll go with… Seulyi today,” he decided after a short pause. Seulyi had hoped he wouldn’t so she would be together with Myungsoo, but she had no such luck. Instead Myungsoo and Hyun Mi would be today’s final couple.

“Are you all satisfied with your choices? Then let’s see the results,” Junmyeon announced. There was a short silence and the first beam went up.

“One match!” they cheered, and waited for the next one to light up. But it didn’t. No more beams went up.

“That’s it for today. You’ve only found one match this week, which means you aren’t moving forward, but moving backwards. Try harder, and see you next week.”