"We're here." 

Ji Hyo woke with a jerk, immediately stretching her arms and repeatedly blinking her eyes to perk herself up. It was customary for Ji Hyo to take a nap in between schedules, and she was used to this irregular sleep pattern, where she would put her heart and soul into work, but drop unconscious once the back of her head hit the car seat. Call her weird, but this way she maximized the amount of sleep she got.

"What schedule am I having now?" Ji Hyo asked this very casually as she took a large sip of water and popped some breath mints. Her manager looked at her with an expression that was half- 'are you kidding me' and half- 'actually, I'm not even surprised'.

"You... don't know?" Her manager raised an eyebrow, and in her weariness this confused Ji Hyo. She often asked before they left the car what schedule she was walking into, since she had an ever-changing one that she could never keep track of.

"I don't even know what day it is. You know how busy we've been lately. Also, I just woke up. It wasn't a good nap." Ji Hyo yawned, hoping her explanation was good enough to wipe that judgmental look off her manager's face. 

"Hmm. I just thought you'd never forget about a Running Man filming."

Ji Hyo's eyes widened. Crap. No wonder her manager acted so strangely. Ji Hyo had never forgotten about Running Man. She loved working on the show, and was always happy to see the familiar staff, her members, and...

Jong Kook. 

Who was now her boyfriend, and had been for the past two months or so. As such, she had started being even more pumped about filming Running Man, as it meant getting to see him. And getting to see Jong Kook was sadly, a rarity, as the two had busy careers with conflicting schedules. 

With that thought, Ji Hyo's arm lunged at the door, nearly jumping out of the car with excitement, only to find that Jong Kook was not anywhere in the vicinity, and there was a smaller number of staff members than usual, indicating that the members would not start the filming together.

Ji Hyo frowned. Darn. She was looking forward to seeing Jong Kook, but he was nowhere to be seen. What made things even worse was that Ji Hyo was in an aquarium.

Not just any aquarium too, but a large and beautiful one that Ji Hyo wished to admire with Jong Kook, since she had always wished to go visit an aquarium with her boyfriend, but this wish of hers had never been fulfilled.

Well, technically- Ji Hyo had been to aquariums with Jong Kook, heck, they'd walked around admiring aquariums together whilst filming Running Man before. But it wasn't the same, because back then they weren't dating, and now they were.

With a sigh, Ji Hyo whipped her phone out and walked off to an empty corner, wanting to check on Jong Kook and also lament about how they sort of missed out on a potential aquarium date together. There was a literal shark tank in the place, too.

He picked up quickly, prompting a smile to form on Ji Hyo's face.

"Yes? This is Kim Jong Kook speaking." Ji Hyo burst into a fit of giggles. Jong Kook had taken to pretending he had no idea who was on the other line when answering Ji Hyo's calls some time after they started dating, which was ridiculous, seeing as he never did that while they were still just coworkers and friends. 

"Oppa, this has seriously got to stop. There's nothing wrong with talking to me on the phone. And I don't think you're fooling anyone with that voice." She was right. The sappy tone of voice Jong Kook used when picking up Ji Hyo's calls did nothing to convince the others around him that he was speaking to a complete stranger.

"Aww, really? But you laugh every time I do that. And I love hearing you laugh." Ji Hyo felt heat rise to her cheeks. The man was right- whether she wanted to admit it or not, she consistently cracked up at his wackiness.

"I... I don't do that..." Ji Hyo's feeble attempts to deny Jong Kook's words only caused the man to let out a series of low chuckles.

"Deny it all you want, but it's true! Anyway, see you soon. I think I'm reaching in about ten minutes."

Ji Hyo sighed. "About that. Actually Oppa, there's a reason I called. We're not going to start filming together, I think it's an individual race or something. Guess we won't be seeing each other that soon."

"What? That's so unfair!" Ji Hyo almost started laughing again upon her boyfriend's little outburst at not getting to see her, but restrained herself as she too felt the same pain and longing.

"That's not all. I'm on set at an aquarium. A really cool one. With a shark tank." 

"It's like they know we're together and are dangling an aquarium date in our faces but not letting us have the damn date." Jong Kook grumbled. "You've been wanting to go on an aquarium date since forever too!"

Ji Hyo sighed again. "Honestly, it doesn't matter whether I'm at an aquarium or not. I would rather see you- I just want to be with you."

Jong Kook smiled to himself. "I'll make it up to you later then."

Ji Hyo smirked. "How?"

"You'll see."

"Is it a kiss? Are you going to kiss me?" Ji Hyo teased. They'd kissed before, but that didn't mean she'd say no to another and more.

"I said you'll see- the car's stopping now. I'll have to hang up. I love you." 

Ji Hyo's heart thumped a little faster upon hearing those last three words. She felt like she'd never get used to hearing them. In a good way, of course.

"I love you too."

Ji Hyo hung up the phone and turned around to walk back onto the filming set, when she got the shock of her life in the form of Kang Gary, with his jaw dropped and eyes as wide open as he could get them. Oh crap.

There was this tense silence in the air before Gary gathered his senses and spoke.

"No way... Do you- do you have a secret boyfriend you didn't tell us about?" Gary blurted this out in a quick and low whisper. Ji Hyo was rather taken aback. She had not expected this to happen. The members were all unaware that she was dating Jong Kook, and the two had yet to discuss when they would be telling the other members. This was not good.

"How... how much did you hear?"

Gary chuckled, crossing his arms in a casual, laid back stance. "Long enough to know that you have a secret boyfriend you didn't tell us about."

Ji Hyo was tongue-tied. Her mind was blank, unable to figure out an excuse that would get Gary to back off. "I-I..."

"I mean- I'm not trying to invade your privacy or anything, but you've never really hidden any ongoing romantic relationships from the rest of us. So why the face? Is it someone we know?"

Ji Hyo bit her lip. "It's... It's nothing. Just pretend nothing happened okay? We need to start filming soon, and you should have known not to bother people when they walk off to a corner to take a call." 

Gary held his hands up in slight fear. "Okay okay! I won't bring it up for now. You're being a tad bit aggressive about this, but I guess I overstepped some boundaries. Honestly, all I wanted to do was walk over and say hi."

Ji Hyo calmed down, feeling slightly ashamed about her impudence. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to sound aggressive. No hard feelings?"

Gary nodded amicably. "No hard feelings."

After Ji Hyo and Gary had filmed their aquarium mission segment, they were escorted to the next filming location and informed that all members would be gathering for another mission. While Ji Hyo was excited about getting to see Jong Kook, she knew it was of utmost importance to maintain a semblance of nonchalance. Since Gary had begun to suspect that she was romantically involved with someone he and the other members knew, being weirdly intimate with Jong Kook would be a dead giveaway even for someone as simple-minded as Gary.

And so, when Jong Kook arrived she tried her best not to look like she was on top of the world. She tried to acknowledge him as little as possible, but Jong Kook obviously did not share her sentiments, as during the quick filming break Jong Kook found his way next to Ji Hyo and gave her the warmest of smiles. It made it even harder to keep a platonic distance from Jong Kook after that. 

Jong Kook handed Ji Hyo a water bottle, which she took with an awkward smile, drinking every drop at an agonizingly slow pace in order to avoid conversation. It was killing her- having to put so much space between them. It didn't help that Jong Kook was staring at her the entire time she downed her water, sending tingles down her spine.

"Someone's thirsty. Didn't get enough water at the aquarium?" Jong Kook teased as he gently patted Ji Hyo on the back. She choked back a laugh, forcing herself to ignore the irony in his joke. If she reacted too positively to his words, it might arouse unwanted suspicion from Gary. She grabbed the bottle in front of her and began chugging again.

"Yah Kang Gary! Did you not take care of Ji Hyo just now? Why's she so thirsty?" Ji Hyo felt like dying upon hearing Jong Kook chide Gary in a manner that was less than friendly. She resented the impenetrable concrete floor for she wanted desperately to dig a hole for herself to hide in.

Gary looked surprised at getting called by Jong Kook, but soon directed a knowing smirk at Ji Hyo. 

"Well, I'm not very surprised that she's thirsty- Ji Hyo seemed to be talking a lot on the phone just now, maybe she was so engrossed with whoever was on the other line that she forgot to hydrate herself?" Now Jong Kook and Ji Hyo were both blushing. If she weren't so afraid about Gary and the other members finding out about her and Jong Kook before she wanted them to, she would've walked right up to Gary and given him a good smack across the face. She was particularly infuriated by his faux innocence, playing up the simpleton as he dished out a very blatant insinuation about her that was definitely going to be taken the wrong way.

Sure enough, Gary's words got the attention of some of the overhearing members, and Ji Hyo braced herself for a round of probing about who she was talking to on the phone- which thankfully was interrupted by the staff as they announced that filming would soon resume.  

Thankfully all of Ji Hyo's tension was let out during the next game. Jong Kook and her had no interaction as their wrestler guest Kim Dong Hyun had set his sights on him and Ji Hyo was playing up the Monday Cou