a/n I apologize for taking so long to update. This summer has been absolutely insane and I have not had any time to write. I am going to attempt to finish before the end of the week...don’t hold me to that though ^____^

Chapter Twenty Four

As the trio pulled into the hotel, Briley whimpered at her shirt rubbing against her newly tattooed flesh. “Do you regret it?” Lily asked her teasingly.

“At the moment, slightly. Once the pain is gone I won’t. How can you possibly enjoy this so much?” the Brit poutted.

“It feels good, in a painful sort of way,” Nik responded as the elevator arrived to take them up.

“You’re insane.”

“Have we not met before? Of course I am!”

“You’re home!” Aaron yelled, running at the women the moment the elevator doors opened.

Nik hugged her son back and looked over his shoulder at Minwoo, who was standing at the door. “How much sugar did y’all give him?”

Minwoo laughed. “Only all of it.” Nik rolled her eyes and pecked him on the cheek as she walked past him into their suite. “Come on, don’t hold out on us. We want to see the fresh ink,” he said as soon as they were all settled on the couched.

“Did it hurt?” Dongwan asked.

“It hurt so bad!” Briley whined and pouted cutely at him. Dongwan chuckled but kissed her forehead and let her snuggle in closer to him.

“Come on, let us see it!” Choongjae said excitedly. He unwrapped his arm from around Lily’s waist next to him on the couch.

The girls sighed in unison and stood up to take off their t-shirts. They all still had the spaghetti strap shirts from when they were getting the ink done. The men quickly got up to examine the design, Briley wincing when Dongwan gently touched it.

“It looks great,” Choongjae said.

“Lily is the one that originally designed it. She actually made the logo months before we had decided to go through with the channel, back when we just talked about doing videos,” Briley informed everyone.

“What made you start doing this in the first place?” Minwoo asked.

“Nik should tell it. It’s all her fault anyways,” Briley smirked at her oldest sister. She allowed herself to be pulled back onto the couch and curling up with Dongwan.

Since everyone else was settled comfortably on the couches, Nik decided to sit on the floor across from everyone so that she could look at everyone as she talked. Pilkyo then made his way to sit next to her and smiled softly when she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.

“It’s not really much of a story, but last year, a few months before your twenty year anniversary I believe, I had this dream that the three of us started a reactions channel. It was a really cool dream. I think I had watched too many JRE videos before bed. Anyways, I dreamed that we got to meet a bunch of people because of it. Dreamed that we did collabs and it was just a really cool dream. So, the next day I messaged them about it. We joked about doing it for a few months, and then one day Lily created the design the logo. We started talking about it again, this time a bit more seriously. Then, right before school started back, we decided that we should actually attempt it.” Nik smiled happily at her son and the women she now considered her younger sisters.

“That’s funny. Had you not had that dream, none of us probably would have ever met,” Dongwan said. Everyone nodded.

“Funny how life works out like that,” Lily said.

“So what’s the plan for the night? It’s officially our last night together...minus two,” Sunho said.

Everyone thought for a little bit. They were all comfortable, curled up with each other, and enjoyed the rare silence. “Do the couples want to go off and do their own thing while we keep Aaron? One last training session?” Minwoo offered.

“How about one last meal together? Sunho and I could go get some groceries and prepare a feast,” Nik suggested. Pilkyo made a face. “What? Were you more interested in the couple thing?” she asked, making a face at him.

“It sounded nice. It’s not like we will get another chance for another six months or longer,” he replied.

“I thought we were going to get to go bowling,” Aaron reminded everyone.

“Oh yeah,” Nik laughed. “We should do that, then. Unless y’all would rather do something else?”

“I want to go bowling! I’ve never gone bowling!” Lily reminded Nik. Everyone agreed, since that had been the original plan. They all decided to just go as they were, and Lily called the bowling alley as they drove to see if they could reserve two lanes next to each other.

“We should play teams,” Choongjae said.

“Who would be team captains?” Briley asked. “We also have an odd number of people.”

“We have an odd bunch of people,” Nik stage whispered and the girls laughed while the guys made faces like the children they truly are.

After much debate, they decided to draw for teams. Minwoo, Choongjae, Sunho, Nik, and Aaron on one team, Dongwan, Pilkyo, Lily, and Briley on the other. The ending score would be averaged by the number of players to be fair.

“I still don’t see how these teams are fair,” Lily complained.

“Luck of the draw?” Nik said.  “Come on. Aaron and I aren’t very good at bowling.”

“No one on our team is good at bowling,” Briley says. Dongwan and Pilkyo huffed but didn’t argue.

“Fine, who do you want to trade for?” Minwoo asked, smirking.

Lily and Briley whispered for a moment. “Switch Pilkyo for Choongjae?” Briley asked.

“We also want Minwoo!” Lily reminded.

“So what you’re saying is that you’re trying to stack the deck against us now?” Nik asked, refusing to look at Pilkyo.

“I’ve never bowled before!” Lily reminded her again.

Nik turned to Aaron and Sunho while Pilkyo stood sulking. “Fine, we accept the team changes. We’ll take Pilkyo and Choongjae and Minwoo will go to yours,” Nik said.

“Who said I even wanted to be on your team?” Pilkyo grumbled.

Nik smirked and cocked her head to the side, biting her lip. “They had to choose either you or Wannie to trade out. Wannie is dating Briley, so they chose to get rid if you. Don’t take it personal.”

“You didn’t want me, either.”

“I wanted to win, sweetheart.” She patted his cheek and kissed the other, then spun around to go grab herself a bowling ball, leaving Pilkyo to stand there and question the affectionate name.

They finally got to bowling. The two lanes bowled pretty well, Choongjae doing the cheesy thing of helping Lily learn to bowl properly. He placed one hand on her hip and helped guide her arm. Lily flushed every time he stepped up to help, but never complained.

“I thought you said you and Aaron weren’t very good,” Briley chided after Aaron got his second strike in a row.

Nik shrugged. “We aren’t. Usually we barely break one hundred.”

“Doing better than your boyfriend,” Minwoo laughed.

Pilkyo pouted and Nik smirked. “I don’t have a boyfriend.” Pilkyo looked annoyed and the girls all laughed.

“Are you really going to keep going on about that?” Lily asked. “I guess that’s the same for me, too. Briley?”

“Briley has a boyfriend. While my younger brothers may not have officially asked the two of you out, I was smart enough to make sure that Briley would be mine and couldn’t argue about it.”

Choongjae and Pilkyo were both pouting now. “What do you mean, you don’t have a boyfriend?” Choongjae asked.

“It means that we haven’t asked them officially to be our girlfriends and they’re being frustrating,” Pilkyo rolled his eyes.

“Oh, well that’s just dumb.” Choongjae grabbed Lily by the wrist and started dragging her away from the group. “We’ll be right back.” Nik and Briley squealed and clung to each other excitedly as they watched the rapper drag their sister to a more secluded spot in the bowling alley.

“I’m sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have assumed that you were mine,” Choongjae said quietly once they were out of sight.

“Don’t apologize. I was just going along with Nik’s little game. She finds too much enjoyment from teasing those she cares about.” She sighed happily but flushed when she was pulled into a tight hug.

“Be mine,” he whispered into the her hair. “Officially. Please be mine.” He let out a sigh of relief when she nodded. He leaned back and lifted her chin with his index finger so that he could kiss her softly. Choongjae pulled back after a moment. “Mine,” he whispered, and pecked her lips again. “Mine,” and he peck her cheek. “Mine,” her other cheek. By the time he had kissed her entire face, she was giggling and blushing like mad.

They walked back hand in hand and were greeted with a loud round of applause from their awaiting friends. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, congratulations and all that. Now please bowl. It’s Lily’s turn.” Minwoo laughed and handed her the ball, patting Choongjae on the back before he sat down. No one noticed the look exchanged between Nik and Pilkyo as the game continued.

In the end, it wasn’t a complete slaughter of one team over the other. “So what do we owe y’all since we lost?” Aaron asked the winning team.

“I think we deserve a massage and a meal!” Lily announced. Everyone on her team nodded in agreement, and the losing team sighed.

“I think it’s unfair that we’re going to get food poisoning for winning,” Dongwan said as they got into the van.

“And how’s that?” Nik asked laughing, guessing his answer before he said it.

“Pilkyo is just as likely to make us sick as he is to fix a proper meal.”

Pilkyo was about to respond when Nik put her hand on his shoulder from the driver’s seat. “That is why he will not be doing any of the actual cooking.”

“I can cook!” Pilkyo nearly yelled. Nik smirked and patted him on the head. “I can,” he insisted, but a bit quieter.

“Yes, but Sunho and I can actually cook. You can sit and look pretty while we do all the work.” The entire van erupted into laughter while Pilkyo sat and pouted at the woman that supposedly liked him. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head to look out the window.

They had to make a quick stop at the grocery store before heading to the hotel to cook and eat. Sunho and Nik made quick work of getting the meal cooked and everyone served. After they ate, Nik gave everyone a shoulder and neck massage, including those that had lost along with her. It was getting late and everyone decided they should say good night.

In their beds, all three of the women tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

~Katok~

LittlePrince

12:24AM I can’t sleep