A few weeks after Seungri got discharged, the crew assembled in his home to have dinner. At first, they were just hanging around, humouring him, but it turned into a serious discussion on where this show was going next. Seeing the actual state of Seungri, who was advised by doctor then to not do any extreme things just yet, they agreed on putting the filming on hold, and thus, the season as well.

It was Jiyong who proposed a better idea, saying that they should probably end the season all together since they had put out exactly 10 videos for this season. In the meantime, they could focus on the other things, like Seungri’s health and pursuing long-awaited plan of getting an actual office for the whole crew. 

Seungri felt bad initially, as cutting contents for the loyal viewers was not something he wanted to do ever, but Jiyong then suggested to make a new season as soon as he felt better and make it more special than ever. How? By going international. Like full on international, not just Japan, but also Europe and the US. 

“It’s time, man. It’s time. Let’s do this. Let’s go dance on mummy’s tombs in Egypt!”

It’s Jiyong’s utter confidence, and lack sense of reality really, that got the crew all giddy and excited. Seungri too, and he started to list down all the places he’d wish they could go —the Winchester mansion, catacomb in Paris, that island of dolls in Mexico, RMS Queen Mary, the list sure went on— for fun, then somehow turned into an itinerary, and voila, three months later, they landed in San Fransisco, ready to start the new season with a bang and take on Alcatraz. 

“Alcatraz ing , dude,” Taehee huffed out as he half-slammed his tall glass of beer onto the table. 

Seungri shushed him. “You can’t say that.” He glanced around the bar even though he knew absolutely no one would pay attention to them —a group of foreigners sitting at the corner of a lively bar near Lombard Street.

“What? It’s not it’s like a ing sacred place—plus, all these dumb ers couldn’t understand me—“

Oh, Taehee’s losing it, Seungri knew, and the strings of profanity that man let out was enough of a proof.

“—I could talk about that man dress like one of the thieves in Home Alone—“ Taehee pointed at one person near the counter, “—and he’d thank me because he thought it’s a compliment!”

“Jeez, calm down, will you?” Teddy slapped Taehee’s hand down, not amused with his antics. 

“But I’m with Taehee on this one.” Jaeho raised his shoulder. “That place was overhyped. We went through s to film there, we walked around for hours, but got nothing—“

And as much Seungri hated to admit this, aside from its location on an island surrounded by rough waves and the only way out was by boats or helicopters or swimming, there’s just nothing there. They got nothing. Not a sound, no wind blown over, no shadows, no reaction—nothing, so he gotta side with Taehee and Jaehoo too.

“—to think that this was supposed to be our first episode...”

“Hey, come on. We had fun and that’s what important.” Seungri stated softly. 

They did had fun yesterday. After checking in, they rented GoCars, GPS-guided storytelling cars, and went sightseeing around San Francisco, driving down the steep corners of Lombard Street to the Marina Waterfront to the foot of Golden Gate Bridge to Twin Peaks, before going back to the Fisherman’s Wharf, passing through the Painted Ladies on the way, to go to a place called The Dungeon where they enjoyed watching interactive shows. After dinner last night, they all gushed around, pumped for the main reason they came here.

They were excited. So maybe, that’s why it felt more disappointing when their filming in Alcatraz wasn’t that fruitful as they thought it would. 

“Don’t you think so, Jiyong?” Jaeho threw a question but Jiyong, who had been quiet this whole time, wasn’t answering, lost in a world of his own.

Seungri nudged the man beside him, sending Jiyong to shot his eyes up in surprise. 

“Sorry, what?”

Jaehoo was nice enough to repeat himself. “Aren’t you mad we got nothing at the supposedly one of the most freakiest place on earth?”

“Are you seriously asking me that question?” Jiyong snorted. “Of course I’m not mad. I’m glad. I’ve always known this is all just bull. This whole trip just proved it-“

Seungri couldn’t suppress the itch of correcting that haughty statement and chimed in, “okay, there’s a lot of factors to why we didn’t get anything from today.”

“Oh, please, enlighten me on this matter, or else I couldn’t go to sleep tonight.” Jiyong spoke again with that condescending tone, earning laughters around the table that somehow only made Seungri wanted to talk more.

“Well, we spent only a few hours here, while we spent longer times in other places, so maybe they hadn’t warm up to us yet—“

Jiyong already made his “yeah, okay, sure” face but Seungri didn’t plan on stop talking. 

“We went during the day, it could be more active in the nighttime. Or maybe, the place had become more people friendly, more lights, more tour-guides, so it doesn’t feel that scary—“

“In other word, overhyped.” Taehee repeated his word after being just a listener for a while. 

“Lost it charms.” Seungri replied with his preferred phrase, that made Jiyong rolled his eyes. 

“Or, you know, have nothing to begin with.”

The table shared a laugh again, this time joined by Seungri himself that quickly exclaimed between his laughter, “come on! It’s already being used as a prison as far back as 1850s! You know how old is that? It gotta have something!”

“Why only old places were haunted?” Taehee suddenly asked. “Why would people only see ancient ghosts? Yeah, history and whatever— but what ‘bout someone who choked on some nuts a few years ago? Don’t they got to be a ghost too? Why won’t people ever see the kinds like ‘em—“ 

The table became merrier with responses to the rambling questions. Jiyong glanced at Seungri, raising his eyebrows as if he’s saying “see, Taehee gets it” and it ticked off Seungri’s annoyance.

“Of course there’s a ghost of people dying of choking on his peanuts— we just never got the evidence of them!” Seungri stated but Taehee wasn’t listening.

“—if ghost is soul that left its body, then why people never ran into bear ghost or dog ghost or ant ghost— oh, those ants that got crushed! Why don’t they got to be ghosts—“

While Taehee was busy continuing his drunken inquiries and the other two were busy listening and laughing at him, Seungri noticed Jiyong got distracted again. Jiyong was staring at the table, looking like he’s listening the conversation, but because Seungri knew him well, he could see the emptiness in those eyes and that scared him a little. 

“You okay?” Seungri reached for Jiyong’s hand under the table, pressing on it a little. 

Jiyong was startled but collected himself quickly and responded by entangling their hands together. 

Seungri’s cheeks reddened, still wasn’t used to any sort of PDA and also nervous to do it in front of their crew, even though he pretty sure they’re all pretty hammered to notice anything weird between them two. 

“Yeah,” Jiyong finally replied, smiling. “Just tired.”

“We can go, you know, if you want.”

“And go back to the hotel? Seems like you have an ulterior motive, there, Ri.”

It was a joke, of course. Their relationship sure had escalated further and the crew seemed like an opened-minded people but for them to go around and brazenly flirting in front the rest wasn’t exactly their top priority now. It’s still fresh and also unstable and rocky, and both Seungri and Jiyong didn’t wanna risk anything. 

After all, they came from a not so progressive country that clearly against the kinds like them, and with both their jobs depending on their clean images to stay relevant in the public eye, though it wasn’t official just yet, they gotta be sure it was well-kept under the rug. 

They’re in California now, however, said to be the land of the dreams, so Seungri let their hands stayed that way a little longer, and if Jiyong wanted to spend the night at his room tonight.... let’s just say Seungri wouldn’t have a problem with it. 

Seungri scoffed at both Jiyong’s silly teasing and his own sillier thought but their quiet conversation were interrupted by Taehee’s loud gasp.

“What if when you feel itchy on your skin but there’s nothing there, it’s actually ghost ants?!” Taehee’s eyes wide with enlightenment, looking like a scientist that just achieved eureka. 

Jaeho in a shocked breath as well. “What if stuffs that move or falls on its own were actually pushed by ghost cats?!”

“Where does it end....” Taehee groaned, and that made Jaeho laughed. 

“If there’s animal ghosts, there should be plant ghosts too, right?” Teddy officially joined in after only being on the listening side. 

“Ooh! Ghost tree!” Jaeho blurted out.

“That— that—“ Taehee hiccuped. “That’s cool.”

“That would be pretty cool, yeah.” Teddy agreed.

Jaeho nodded along. “Amen. Amen.”

Amazing. Three whole adults, but not a single brain among them—

“Oww!” Seungri yelped, his hand got stung by pain because how tight Jiyong was gripping on it. “You crushed my hand.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Jiyong let go of his just as fast as his quiet apology. 

“You sure you’re okay, dude?” Seungri asked again as he gave his now red hand a little massage.

“I’m splendid, man. Just wanna hold you tighter.”

Seungri’s concerned look turned sunny, giggling under his breath like some sort of high school girl being hit on by her senior.

“Hey! Wait! We’re forgetting something!” Taehee’s sudden exclaim drew attentions from around the table. “We should do a toast for Seungri!”

“For me?” Seungri turned to across the table, surprised his name being mentioned.

“Well, for us. For our new office, but Seungri was the one who deal around to get it—“

“Even with one leg,” Teddy added.

“—right, even with one leg.” Taehee nodded and raised his glass, “so we need to thank Seungri.”

Other murmured a chorus of thanks, including Jiyong that gave him a pat on the back as a bonus, following Taehee and raised their glasses as well. Seungri was the last to do it, smiling wide and bright to celebrate yet another achievement for the show and of course, himself.

“Here’s to never editing in that cramp room again—“

“Hey! Come on!” Seungri cut Taehee off, and that man responded with a giggle. 

“Sorry. Here’s to our new office and our new beginning!”

“Cheers!” All of them stated in unison. 

They continued celebrating after that. They continued drinking. They continued fooling around and then drank some more until late night, or early in the morning, whichever you wanna call it, and it was honestly a miracle for them to wake up in one-piece, fully-clothed with no items missing, on their respective beds the next morning.

******

The continuous ringing of doorbell made Seungri jumped from his bed. He rushed to the door to open it for the very expected guest. 

“Oh, you’re dressed.” Jiyong remarked, pushing Seungri out of the way to step into the room. 

Seungri rolled his eyes. “Jisoo warned about you,” he said, following Jiyong’s steps after shutting the door. 

“She called you?”

“She’s actually looking for you, all worried why won’t you answer her calls, so she called me. Thought you’re with me.”

Jiyong stopped at the bed, looking like he’s tempted to crash there, but changed his mind and settled at the  couch in front of the window instead. 

“I did miss a few of her calls.”

Seungri shrugged, not admitting that he too almost missed them, only answering by the tenth calls or so because his eyes just won’t open this morning. Even after answering, Seungri had a hard time to speak coherent words for his mind was only at one percent of functionality resulted from the hangover, but Jisoo screaming right in his ear felt like a slap that miraculously freshened him up.

“I know you’re having fun with your boyfriend but WAKE UP!!!” 

Jisoo then harped on about an episode they made in Neulbum Garden, and how she noticed something strange. She said she noticed they made a circle of salt around them while they’re using ouija board to contact the demon supposedly in there and asked why they did that.

“What do you mean, why— it’s a circle of protection, to prevent the demon from getting closer to us. Demons couldn’t get through salt— why are you watching our video this early in the morning, anyway?!”

“It’s already night here, you silly goose. A circle of protection to keep the demon away, huh? But you’re trying to contact a demon using that board, and demon gotta get to that board to reply but that board was in the circle with you, so....”

Seungri stopped mid-yawn as he was hit with realisation of that for the first time. He then sighed in defeat, prompting a chuckle from Jisoo. 

“It took a lot of hearts being this dumb, you know? It’s actually tiring.”

“Wish I can relate to that.” 

Seungri almost rolled his eyes again remembering that not so subtle roast. 

“She asked me why wasn’t you’re here with me last night.” Seungri confessed as he took a seat next to Jiyong. 

Jiyong turned his gaze from outside to Seungri. “What did you say?”

“What my answer actually was, I don’t know.”

Jiyong looked away again and nodded.

“So... where you’ve been last night?” Why weren’t you here? With me? 

Jiyong probably noticed the shift in Seungri’s tone, because his blank face turned soft. “I’m in my room. Sleeping. Phone’s on silent that’s why I didn’t notice the calls. As for why we weren’t together last night... you have to ask Teddy. I believed he’s the only almost sober person last night and got the job of sending everyone to their rooms.”

Right, why would Teddy put them together when they had separate rooms? It’s not like he knew about them. It’s not like anybody knew. Except, one. Maybe.

“—oh! Never mind! Jiyong oppa just texted me. Sorry, he said, he just woke up and he’s getting ready to ha