(NAEUN)

In compensation for the delay of the bus rides, the students had a complimentary dinner at the hotel's barbeque restaurant.

"Ugh, I'm as full as grapes," Eunji whined.

It was about 8:30 pm at the resort and the girls decided to spend some time together before curfew (11 pm).

"The barbeque is much better than most barbeques you've tried in Seoul, right?" Krystal beamed. Eunji shot daggers at her, "Krystal, I swear to God, if I hear you talk about the 'greatness of Starlight' one more time, I'll muzzle you and drive you back to Seoul myself," she threatened. "You don't even know how to drive yet!" Krystal retorted."Besides," she continued, mumbling this time, "it should be better since it's a five-star restaurant."

"That's it!" Eunji grabbed one of her pillows and started chasing after Krystal. Naeun couldn't stop snorting as she gripped her stomach hard. She too was so full she feared the longer and harder she laughed, the more nauseous she'd feel.

"Alright, alright, enough guys! I'm about to get indigestion soon," Naeun said in between laughs. The girls gave her a disgusting look. "Just make sure you do it on your side of the bed," Eunji said placing the pillow back where it belonged.

"So, I saw you and Taemin together back at the store. What was that all about?"

"Oh, he just went over to apologize for calling me stupid," Naeun replied to Eunji.

"He said what?" the two startled.

"Well, he said that I was stupid and brave for standing up to L."

"What exactly happened back there?" Krystal asked, " I mean after Daniel got beaten up and everything."

Naeun explained everything to them, from kicking L off of Dan to daring him to punch her in the face, and Taemin coming in to stop him in time. The two girls listened to Naeun intently, not missing a single word coming out of . Initially, they were impressed - they never thought their timid Nang-ni would have the guts to stand up against the big bad wolf, much less dare him to strike her.

"You were lucky Taemin stopped him in time," Eunji spoke sternly, and Krystal nodded in agreement.

"You really shouldn't play around with that guy, Naeun," it was Krystal's turn to act seriously, "I know a lot of friends who did and they paid a bad price for it, especially girls." Naeun understood their concerns, but the memory of witnessing L donating money and giving the old man the warmest smile she had seen him make flashed back. She started fiddling with her thumbs.

"What if...he's just a misunderstood boy? I mean, shouldn't we give him a chance?"

"NO!!" the two said in unison.

"Son Naeun, he boxed your cousin like a sack of rice and almost punched you in the face!" Krystal yelled, "You need to stop being too nice, jin-jja." Her tone softened as she held Naeun's hands, "Just promise us you'll be more careful around that boy. He's really bad news, Naeun." The said girl bit her lips, but gave them a nod. She wanted to tell them what she saw but felt it wasn't the time just yet. They were pretty fumed up after listening to the cafeteria incident. So, to brighten the mood, Naeun talked about the basics of snowboarding - how to start and stop, how to switch directions, and how to control the speed one's going at. They also thought of visiting the other nearby stores and restaurants to try out after snowboarding.

As curfew drew near, Krystal returned to her room. She and Eunji seemed to have cooled down after talking about other topics besides L. Naeun didn't feel conflicted anymore, but a small part of her still believed that she should give L a chance, although, she would still demand an apology from him. Who knows, maybe he would be the one to approach her just as Taemin did. She didn't want to dwell too much on presumptions.

(TAEMIN)

Taemin kept tossing a piece of apple in the air while Key waited for Kai to get out of the showers.

"About time you finished," Key grumbled.

Being thick as thieves, the three boys decided to pay a little extra to stay at one of the hotel's family rooms to fit in all three of them. It was much more spacious compared to the rooms the rest of the students were sleeping at, and it even came with a patio. The only drawback, they had to share one bathroom.

"Quit whining and start scrubbing," Kai replied. Once Key entered the bathroom, Kai looked to Taemin who was now eating his apple.

"So, back at the store..." Taemin sighed. He knew one of them was going to ask him about what they saw in the gift store eventually.

"I went over to her to apologize," he cut off Kai. "What's the big deal?"

Kai raised his hands in defense. "Nothing, it's just well, I haven't seen you smile at a girl like that in a long time."

"I smile at girls all the time!" Taemin retorted.

"Not like the way you did to her!" their heads turned to the bathroom.

Kai looked back at Taemin, "Let me rephrase that; I haven't seen you smile as genuinely as you did to a girl in a long time."

Taemin stopped munching his apple and sat up straight, "I just felt bad for calling her stupid."

"You've said worse things to other people, Lee Taemin."

"It just didn't feel right, okay? You know I can't let these things go easily, so I thought apologizing to her would make the guilt go away, and it did. End of story."

Kai gave up interrogating his best friend. Taemin was a good friend - his best friend, actually - but he had to admit, Taemin could be hard-headed and fierce at times.

"I still can't believe L was going to hit her," Kai continued, "What kind of guy does that?"

That's exactly what I thought.

At that moment, Key got out of the showers. "Something doesn't add up though," he said, drying his hair with a towel, "When we got off the bus, I could've sworn I saw L smirk to that girl's direction."

Taemin frowned, that's not a good sign.

A smirk from L meant two things: either he's genuinely interested in you, or he has something up in his sleeves to quench his thirst for fun. Taemin knew he shouldn't get himself involve in L's games, but he felt a strange desire to protect the girl from him. He hated this side of him - wanting to protect someone despite not knowing the person well, but he couldn't help it; it was in his nature to be protective and she wasn't exactly a stranger to him. He decided to keep an eye on L.

An hour had passed and the boys decided to call it a night. The last thing Taemin thought of before he lost consciousness was to ask for the pretty girl's name.