Jinyoung stepped between the cots lying in the hallway with his things in his arms. He went into the room where the rest of the team was going to be spending the night and dropped his belongings by the door. Yugyeom and Bambam were there, unpacking their clothes and sorting through them. They watched as Jinyoung rummaged through his bag.

“Hyung? You’re moving into this room?” asked Yugyeom. 

“She’s decided to stay,” he pulled out a notebook and a camera. He looked up and surveyed the room. Cots had been laid on the hardwood floor, but they were packed so close together that it looked like a single giant cot instead. 

“You can make space, can’t you?” Jinyoung said. “I’ll sleep in the corner, it’s fine.”

Yugyeom and Bambam started moving the cots aside. How they were going to make space for Jinyoung in this already-packed room was going to be tricky to solve. But their interest was piqued upon hearing that Jisoo would be joining them on the dig.

“Oh, so she’s staying?” Bambam asked, eyes wide with mild shock. “Wow. That’s pretty generous of you, Hyung, letting her hang out. You didn’t even let Youngjae’s sister stick around more than ten minutes at our last location.”

Youngjae was wrapping a fitted sheet around his cot. He gave Bambam an unamused expression. “She left early ‘cause she couldn’t take you hitting on her all the time.”

“Her name is Jisoo, right?” said Doyoung, who walked into the room with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. “I think I’ve seen her before, in Star Weekly. She dated a baseball player once, I think.”

“Now that you mention it, yeah,” Yugyeom said. “I’ve seen her in the news sometimes. Her brother got kicked out of the country or something? I don’t remember.”

“I think I read an article about her once,” said Jackson, who was already lounging on his cot. He pulled out one of his earbuds to join the conversation. “It was a fashion magazine, a feature about heiresses. She did a photo shoot and everything, she was pretty.”

“Damn, she’s cuter in real life, though,” said Bambam. “She’s not dating that baseball player anymore, right?”

This conversation was starting to strike a nerve with Jinyoung. He turned to his team with a stern look on his face. “Hey, while I’m here, let’s get one thing straight,” he said. “She’s off-limits.”

The boys exchanged looks with one another. “What? The hell you mean ‘off-limits’?” asked Youngjae.

“You heard me,” Jinyoung said, sliding a new film canister into his Polaroid. “Don’t hit on her, don’t flirt with her, don’t date her, don’t even be her friend.”

At this, the boys scoffed. “Wow, man. That’s real cold of you,” said Jackson. “We can’t even have friends? You really think friendship is gonna throw us off our digging game?”

Jinyoung was unfazed. “Our permits expire in a year,” he said. “We have that long to find our hominid. We all need to focus. So, no fooling around. Especially not with our benefactor’s daughter. Don’t forget, he’s paying for everything: the accommodations, the equipment, food, transportation, our licenses.”

As he listed out every expense, the more anxious he became. They had come too far and had worked too hard to jeopardize their efforts over a silly flirtation.

“The last thing we need is Princess convincing Daddy to pull the financial plug on us.”

He looked around the room, staring into the eyes of each member of his team. Yugyeom huffed his breath.

“Wow,” he said. “You really hate rich people, don’t you?”

“Get used to it, you might be one soon,” said Jackson, laughing. 

Jinyoung just gave him a stern look as he gently laid the Polaroid down on his bag. Then, he headed for the door. “Yugyeom, Bambam, help me unload the supplies.”

Jisoo zoomed in with her chopsticks and snatched the chunk of fatty pork that her father was about to stuff into his mouth.

“Cholesterol!” she nagged, and then she looked apologetically at Subin, the guesthouse manager and cook. “Sorry, it’s just… his cholesterol levels are kind of high. Everything is delicious. Thank you.”

Subin had prepared an extra large pot of kimchi jjigae for the guests, who were all huddled over their individual tabletops, spooning the red stew into their mouths. Jisoo wondered if she ought to speak to Subin later about her father’s dietary restrictions. It was one of her least favorite topics to discuss with people, especially cooks and chefs, because it made her sound like an entitled brat. But she’d sooner risk her own dignity than her father’s health. 

“So, gentlemen,” Mr. Kim said, beaming at his companions. “We’ll be spending a lot of time together. We should get to know one another. Who wants to go first? How about you?”

He gestured to the young man on his left, who quickly swallowed his food in order to answer.

“Choi Youngjae,” he said. “Geologist.”

“Fascinating subject, geology,” said Mr. Kim. “How’d you arrive in that field? Did you always know you wanted to be a geologist?”

Youngjae shrugged. “I’d say maybe since I was, like, fifteen or sixteen,” he said. “