As we walked closer to the botanical gardens, the smell of nature permeated the air. The woody scent of pine mingled with the sharp flowery aroma of flowers. The weather was pretty good, with enough sunlight to make the day seem at least a little bright without being too glaring. Being a weekend, it was no surprise that many residents of Seoul had the same idea to check out the new botanical garden. Just then, a small boy, no older than six, ran past me, turning and shouting to his parents behind me. I looked down at him and gave him a small smile, to which he returned a beaming grin. 

The sound of a camera shutter diverted my attention to the right. I looked as Mark lowered my DSLR smirking at the photo. According to him, I was smarter so I had to take note of the important information the plants we'll be putting into our project so I should let him capture the photos. In his words, "They're plants Jinyoungie. They won't kill me if I didn't get their best angle and show other people their pics." I had no proper response to that since I was more focused on him calling me Jinyoungie again so I just stupidly nodded my agreement.

"Hey, we're here to take pictures of plants, not human specimens. Besides, that's my bad side." I teased, turning to show him my 'good' side. 

"Hmm... Seems the same to me. Cocky and big headed." He said, which I had to give a light punch to his arm. He rubbed his arm playfully before picking the camera up and snapping a couple photos ahead.

It's weird to be honest. This is a project in which my grades would be affected yet I can't help but let Mark do as he wishes with my camera. I mean, I checked out the photos he captured and I have to say they're not bad. This is where my earlier comment on Mark being a talented person in everything that he does coming to slap me in my face.

I turned to the direction of his shots and saw the first of three domes they had at the garden. I call them domes but they are more like huge waves frozen in place. Supposedly, each dome has a specific climate to cater to the different plant species that happen to grow in conditions where the Seoul climate didn't permit. 

"Whoa. I didn't think they were that big." I said, looking up at the towering structure. 

"Yeah. C'mon. It's this way." I followed Mark to the ticket counters to get our tickets. Most parts of the park were open to the public, but the domes required tickets to enter and seeing that our topic was deserts which Seoul was anything but, we had to get them. Plus, what's the point in visiting the place if we weren't going to check out the most significant features of the garden?

I stood by Mark as we purchased our tickets, or should I say argued about paying for my ticket. You see, I expected to pay for myself, seeing that this was a school project and it won't be fair to have him pay, but he insisted. We kept arguing till the lady at the counter had to step in.

"Um guys... If we can get this going? There is kind of a line." She said, as politely as possible. I looked behind me and met the glare of an angry lady behind me who probably thought we were taking too long. 

"Yeah tickets for two." Mark said, putting down the money. 

"Thank you." She said, printing the slips before handing them back to Mark. "You should be glad your boyfriend wants to pay for you." She smirked at me. I stared at her dumbfounded but Mark just pushed me out of the line before I could defend myself. 

"Just let it go." Mark said.

"But I'm still paying for my ticket." I said.

"Yeah... No." I rolled my eyes and followed him. "So what do you want to do first? Research or check out this place?" He asked me.

"Research. I'd hate to overestimate our time and end up not being able to get enough material." I said, steering him to the direction of the desert dome.

"Can't argue with that." Came Mark's reply. I lead the way, following the signs that pointed to where I needed to go. I had to stop a couple times when Mark lagged behind because he stopped to take a few shots. Just our luck that the desert dome had to be the furthest from the entrance. After what felt like half an hour of walking, we finally arrived at the entrance to the dome. Made of glass held together by metal struts and wires, the domes looked like huge terrariums. The smallest of the three, the desert dome still towered over us.

The dome entrance consisted of two sets of doors, probably to contain the climate. Stepping foot into the dome for the first time felt like I got transported into another country. In contrast to the cold and humid air of outside, the inside was dry and warm. Not terribly hot, but definitely not temperatures you would experience during October in Seoul. 

"This is cool." I said.

"It's quite warm actually." Mark pointed out.

"You know what I mean." I glared.

"So how do you want to do this?" 

"Just like the plan you mentioned earlier. You focus on the photos and I'll take down important notes about the plant species. Make sure to get really good photos or else we'll be switching, you hear me? We'll go for two, three species at first." I informed Mark to gauge for his opinion about the project.

"Yeah yeah yeah. And three sounds good. I'll just follow you so lead away. After picking the specimens, just give me a shout and I'll focus the shots on those." I nodded and walked down the path, looking at the various plants species and reading the little info on each plant. Mark stayed behind me, snapping away at anything and everything. 

We fell into a rhythm as we went along and time passed. I took down notes while Mark took pictures. We were making good progress and an hour later, we had everything we needed. "I guess that's it. We got everything that we will need." I said. 

"Awesome, so what do you want to do now? We still have time here. Wanna check out the rest of this place?" Mark asked.

"Yeah but first, can we grab something to eat? I'm starving." Just then, the sun came out from behind a cloud, illuminating the surroundings. Sunlight reflected off the sand and it really looked like a desert at that moment. 

"Don't move!" Mark shouted. I froze where I was; the urgency in his voice had this commanding tone that just made me obey what he said.

"Why? Is something on me?" I said, looking around while moving only my eyes. 

The camera shutter diverted my attention once again. "Perfect." Mark said, lowering the camera. My body relaxed and I moved.

"Mark, I thought you saw something on me." 

"Sorry, the lighting was just too good. See?" He showed me the picture and for a moment I was stunned. The photo was stunning. The sun behind me casted an almost halo effect and the light reflecting off the sand lit up my face nicely. If I didn't know he just took that, I would have expected some photo editing was done. 

"Ok fine. I'm impressed but seriously stop with the pictures. I don't like my photos taken." I said.

"Oh really." Mark said, raising the camera up to his face once more. 

"Stop it." I said, half laughing, putting my hand up to block the camera but still he snapped a shot. 

"Wow, for someone who doesn't like to take photos, you sure are photogenic." Mark said.

"Shut up. Can we go now? I said I was starving." I didn't wait for a reply, instead just walking to the dome exit. Mark ran up behind me and pulled the cap I was wearing off my head, putting it on himself. "Wow thanks. I totally wanted everyone to see my horrible hat hair." I said, snatching back my cap. 

"You care about your hair too much." Mark said.

"And you are annoying as hell so I guess that's fair." I walked out the dome and realized I had no idea where to go, or if they even served food here. 

"This way numb nuts. I saw a stall on the way here." Mark said leading the way down the path. I followed him until we came to this open area with a small hill. Families lay on mats on the hill, having little picnics with the basket of food they brought along. At the base of the hill was one of those pushcarts selling sandwiches and some drinks. I bee-lined for the cart, telling Mark to find a spot on the hill. Since Mark paid for my ticket, the least I could do was buy him lunch. If only lunch wasn't just a sandwich and a soda. 

After paying for the food, I scanned the area for Mark seeing him near the top of the hill, snapping more shots on my camera. I approached the meathead, throwing his sandwich in his lap and handing him his soda. 

"Thanks. Like the spot I picked?" He said, unwrapping his sandwich. I looked over the heads of the people down below us and smiled. The hill wasn't very big but it had a nice view of the whole garden.

"Good choice." I said, digging into my sandwich. 

"Maybe one day we can have a picnic here too. Seems like a nice place to do so."

"A picnic? Really? Sounds more like a date to me." I played, sipping my soda.

"What if it was?" I immediately choked on the soda, the carbonated drink burning my windpipe. I coughed violently, trying to rid the liquid in my airway. "Whoa whoa I was joking."

"Not funny." I croaked out, my voice coarse. 

"Wow. You must not like the idea of dating me." He joked and I just glared at him. Here I was suffering and he still had the nerve to joke. Quite the contrary actually, I wouldn't mind dating Mark, if he wasn't straight I mean. He just caught me off guard. 

"Don't joke like that again." I scolded. Okay, so maybe it was more than just catching me off guard. I was lonely enough as it was and Mark teasing me like that wasn't helping. We just talked about it in the car ride going here and already he is back on making me feel lonelier. 

"C'mon Jinyoung. I was joking." He defended himself.

"And I'm telling you to stop it. I thought I made myself clear back in the car that I don't like to be reminded about my sad love life." I snapped back, a little hostility in my tone. The smile on Mark's face fell when he realized how much I was upset by his statement. He opened his mouth to, I assume, apologize again, but then shut it. Smart boy. I started chewing on my sandwich again looking out to the garden. We settle into a silence after that, I stared out and kind of got lost in my thoughts. 

Mark knocked me out of my trance when he patted me on the elbow. "Shall we continue or do you wanna stay here?" He asked, a little quietly, like he was afraid he was going to make me angrier. 

"Continue." I said, getting up and collecting our trash and throwing them in the bin before heading on. I lead the way again with Mark trailing behind like a sad dog. Once again, he had to make me feel guilty. Yeah, he kind of made me angry but I really shouldn't have snapped like that. I did realize I was being kind of bipolar. I slowed down enough so that he could catch up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap like that."

"No, don't apologize. I ed up... Again. Earlier in the car I did it and then again just now." He said.

"I guess we're both ed up then. You're not completely to be blamed. I guess sometimes I'm just a little too sensitive. Call it PMS or whatever. It was a joke. I didn't need to flare up like that."

"We seem to argue a lot these days huh? Kinda makes me feel like maybe being friends wasn't the way we were supposed to be." Mark said. 

"So you wanna end this? You know, go back to the way things were?" Somehow, just the thought of going back to the way we were makes me want to bawl my eyes out.

"What? No! I didn't mean that. What I'm trying to say is that maybe because of our history, we kinda don't wanna lose to each other. Maybe that's why we always argue. So how about this? We'll both agree that we'll not take everything what each other says to heart too much. Just live in the moment. We joke and but we both know that that's it, joking." Mark said. 

"That sounds fair, I'll try to be less whiny about dating on my part. And if I ever go all sensitive again, I hereby give you the right to slap me." 

"Slap that cute face? Never." Mark cooed, like he was talking to a child, pinching my cheek as he said so. 

I punched him in the arm. "And I give myself the right to hit you when you pull something like that." Mark chuckled sweetly, putting his arm around my body and pulling me into his side. Never have I had my ribcage crushed by a side hug but there was always a first time. I poked him in the side, which made him release me instantly. Straightening the shirt I was wearing, which I just remembered was Mark's and not mine. 

We walked and talked, taking pictures along the way. We moved at a leisurely pace seeing that we had gathered what we needed for the project. Eventually, we made our way to the rainforest dome, which was the largest of the three structures. Like the desert dome, walking into it transported you to another place. This one, however, was extremely humid as opposed to the dry atmosphere of the desert dome. Warm and moist, it was a matter of minutes before a layer of sweat formed across my skin. 

"Wow, it's warm." Mark said, stating the obvious. 

"C'mon let's look around quick and get out of this heat ASAP." I said pulling him up the path. The climate of the dome wasn't my favorite type of condition but the flora was definitely the most diversed. I'd hate to be the group whose topic wa