“Good morning friends!” Soonyoung whispers into the camera. It’s barely nine in the morning, but he’s already up and raring to go. “Soonie and Hoonie’s LA adventure, day…five? Anyway, Hoonie’s still asleep, and I’m going to wake him up!” Soonyoung says excitedly; his eyes crinkling up into tiny little slits.

“Hoonie’s morning call! Challenge, start!”

Soonyoung looks around, thinking how to wake his best friend up. It’s practically a suicide mission, since Jihoon treasures his sleep so much, and wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone who arouses him from his sleep. Of course, Jihoon’s buried under the covers, so Soonyoung can’t begin to figure out exactly where his best friend is. He’s planning to jump on the bed, but if he accidentally steps on Jihoon, it’s a double suicide mission.

“What are you doing?” Jihoon peeks out from under the covers, blinking.

Soonyoung practically jumps in shock, almost dropping the camera – that’s one possibility he didn’t think of: Jihoon waking up. Changing tactics, he whirls over to the curtains and shoves them open, letting in the bright morning sun into the room.

“What a beautiful day!” Soonyoung chirps, and Jihoon hisses at the sudden brightness, squirming back under the sheets. “Hoonie, wake up, wake up, wake up!” Soonyoung leaps onto Jihoon’s bed, and the launch makes him bang his head against the ceiling.

“Serves you right.” Jihoon emerges from his warm haven, tossing the sheets aside, trying to hide a grin at Soonyoung’s misery.  “I’m up already.”

“Ow. That went well.” Soonyoung sits on Jihoon’s bed, rubbing his head.

“That’s exactly why he’s like this. He hit his head too much when he was younger.” Jihoon says into the camera, snatching it away from Soonyoung.

“Well, you always slept like a koala so I didn’t have anyone to play with!” Soonyoung bickers.

Jihoon hands the camera back to Soonyoung. “Did you have breakfast yet?”

Soonyoung looks like a five-year-old kid guilty of stealing candy. “A bag of cookies I found in my backpack.”

“Sugar rush.” Jihoon rolls his eyes and locks himself in the bathroom, as Soonyoung begins talking about the cookies he’d scarfed down earlier into the camera.

The hot shower alerts all Jihoon’s senses, putting yesterday’s worries behind him. It’s a new day, there are new things to do. Why worry about old times, especially the good old times, that shouldn’t even be a worry at all? Jihoon takes a deep breath, letting the warm water soothe his muscles. Showers are the only time he gets for himself; to reflect under the hot water (he does his best thinking in the shower). No one could invade his alone time…

“HOONIE! Hurry up, I gotta take a dump!” Soonyoung bangs on the bathroom door.

Jihoon immediately switches the water off.

“We are going to Malibu! M-A-L-I-B-U.” Soonyoung sing-songs, clinging to Jihoon as the pair walk into the hotel lobby with their luggage.

Jihoon wants to melt into the lobby floor - with Soonyoung being that loud, of course everyone turns to look at them. Also, now that whole lobby knows that the two Korean kids are heading to Malibu. What if there’s a kidnapper planning to follow them all the way there? Jihoon wouldn’t mind Soonyoung being kidnapped; his parents could probably afford the ransom, besides, spending almost five whole days with his eccentric best friend has drained most of his energy, and truthfully, he’s looking for a break from Soonyoung.

Soonyoung waltzes over to the reception area with the camera to check out and return the room keys, so Jihoon takes a seat in the lounge area. People are still looking at him, like he has a second nose growing on his face. The grandmother clutching a travel magazine sitting across him greets him with a sweet smile, and Jihoon feels embarrassed, looking at the ceiling instead.

The sweet old grandmother waves him over, and Jihoon glances around, making sure that she’s calling him over. Cautiously, Jihoon vacates his seat and moves over, and the old lady starts talking to him in Spanish, which he doesn’t understand at all. Jihoon tries to ask her to speak English, but she doesn’t understand him, so the awkward one-sided Spanish conversation between them continues.

“Oooh, look, Hoonie’s making friends!” Soonyoung grins when he sees the old lady trying to communicate with Jihoon. The grandmother smiles sweetly at Soonyoung, as he tries to make her say hello to the camera. Jihoon’s already semi-panicking, and wraps things up quickly, waving goodbye to the old lady; but she manages to reach over and pinch his cheek before Jihoon can drag Soonyoung away.

“She thinks you’re cute, Hoonie!” Soonyoung laughs, pinching Jihoon’s cheek, as they both walk out of the lobby. Jihoon quickly swats Soonyoung’s hand away, annoyed at the skinship. He hates being labelled cute, though he’s been called that numerous times since elementary school.

The two friends leave the hotel, heading for the parking lot: Jihoon dragging his luggage behind him, while Soonyoung with his huge backpack on his back. Soonyoung goes off on a tangent about cute things such as puppies (also including Jihoon on his list). Jihoon tries to make himself invisible, but Soonyoung forces him into the camera frame, pinching his cheek once again while recalling the earlier episode with the old lady.

“Goodbye hotel!” Soonyoung waves to the building that they’ve been staying in for the past two days, as they roll away from it, instantly entering a traffic jam. Jihoon already knows that it’s going to be a long day, judging from Soonyoung’s dilly-dallying, and the insane number of vehicles on the Los Angeles streets. He switches the music to a soothing selection, and acoustic guitar instrumentals fill in the car, but Soonyoung still talks over it.

“Hoonie, do you know where Malibu is?” Soonyoung opens up the conversation on their travel log for the day.

“Yes.”

“Tell the camera.”

“That old lady told me earlier.”

“You guys were speaking Spanish?” Soonyoung gapes at Jihoon, whirling around to face him. The car suddenly swerves out of the lane, and someone from behind them honks at the reckless driving.

Jihoon’s quick to act, reaching over to correct the position of the steering wheel. “Eyes on the road. Well, she was.”

“Wow. I’ve said it millions of times before, but I’ll say it again. Lee Jihoon is a genius.”

“What am I a genius for this time?”

“Understanding a language that you don’t even speak. Wow.” Soonyoung slow claps, letting go of the steering wheel, and the vehicle slowly drifts astray, almost crashing into a car whizzing past in the adjacent lane.

“Soonie, drive properly.”

Soonyoung quickly grips the steering wheel with both of his hands, in the recommended 10.10 position. “You heard it people. Lee Jihoon is a genius, because he can understand Spanish, and he doesn’t even speak it. Unless you do speak Spanish?”

“I don’t. Anyway, Malibu’s a bit out of Los Angeles.” Jihoon quickly diverts away from the topic back to the original question. He doesn’t speak Spanish, having no use for the language especially in Korea, but he remembers the grandmother repeating the word ‘Malibu’ a few times in their non-conversation earlier. She’d tried to show him where it is on a map folded into the magazine that she was reading. He knows a bit about the beach town from his extensive research (read: browsing) on the internet at work, so he’s not completely in the dark a