(Luhan's POV)

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It's been a week since I was declared to be a part of EXO, moved into our new dorm at the SM building, and most importantly, met Jongin.

Although the time we spent together was short, I already feel so close and connected with him. I thought it would be awkward since I'm naturally a really shy and introverted person, and Jongin seemed to be such an outgoing and fun guy. But somehow, we managed to forge a close friendship. 

Today is Friday! Which means it's time for us trainees to go out and have some fun. The downside is, it always takes an hour or two for all of us to decide on somewhere to go...

"OK, everyone let's gather up!" Suho announced. The members seemed to almost ignore him, continuing with their chores, fixing their hair, or randomly eating. The leader reacted with an obvious pout. "Hello?" He asked. No response. Except for one.

"I'm listening!" Baekhyun raised his hand like a school kid, wanting to please him. Suho facepalmed and then tried again.

"Is anyone even listening? I'm your leader, y'know!" He yelled this time. The members were still being relatively defiant. 

I gathered up the courage to give the handsome leader some advice. "Maybe you should try saying something cooler", I said quietly next to him.

Suho looked at me weirdly, but eventually gave in. "EXO PLANET, ASSEMBLE!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. This time, all the members in the dorm rushed towards him and dropped whatever they were doing.

"Hyung, that sounded so cool!" Sehun exclaimed. "Very leaderlike!"

"Yeah, I totally felt like we were super heroes!" Xiumin chimed in.

Everyone started chuckling and nodded in agreement. Suho beamed with pride. I thought he was pretty cute.

"So," Suho started, "Today is Friday. And you know what that means..."

"PARTY!" Tao shouted.

"FUN!" said Lay.

"FOOD!" Kyungsoo added.

"XXXAAAY TIMEEEEE!" Jongin yelled while rubbing his crotch.

I held in my laughter, but a few of the others burst out cheering. Suho responded just by shaking his head, but he was smiling.

"Ok... well, I thought we should head out to Lotte World! We could get some yummy street food along the way, too. I'm pretty sure nobody will recognize us... and it's pretty late." Suho checked his watch. "It's 8:00pm, sharp. Which gives us plenty of time to bus there and have some fun! What do you guys think?"

Everybody cheered again.

"But what about my y time...?" Jongin joked with a pouty face.

For some reason, I couldn't help but blush.

"Just... go enjoy yourself with Luhan." Suho joined in on the joke. Why did I have to stand next to him? With his arms behind me, Suho pushed me strongly but playfully from behind towards Jongin. I tried resisting but he was too strong. 

"AW LOOK, LUHAN'S BLUSHING!" Chen cried out with joy. Everybody said "aw" in unison, except for me and Jongin, who started looking at me awkwardly. I was right in front of him now, in the middle of the social circle we were all standing in. 

Jongin smiled. "Come here, baby!" 

All of a sudden, he pulled me towards him and swung me around, dramatic style, and pretended to kiss me. Everybody screamed in enjoyment and laughter. I was so close to Jongin's face that I could feel his warmth radiating from his handsome face on mine. We looked at each other straight in the eyes for a few seconds before he unravelled me and we separated awkwardly, looking away. 

"You two can get frisky later, let's go!" Chanyeol objected excitedly.

We all smiled and started walking out the door. Kris, being the clever and calculated guy he is, was already finding the bus route on his phone and made sure everybody was bringing enough money. Being the responsible Chinese leader he is, he also told us all to wear a lot of clothing, hats, sunglasses and scarves to minimize public recognition. By the time we snuck out of SM's building through one of the backdoors, we looked like we were still scared of SARS or something.

Jongin had large aviator sunglasses on, a Doosan Bears baseball cap, and was wearing a casual white v-neck shirt, a gray cardigan, black jeans and gray vans. Although he didn't put any thought into his outfit, he looked stunning. Maybe it was his natural tall figure, his charisma and personality that added to his appearance, or just his x-factor aura that made him seem so... good-looking by being so simple. A lot of SM artists seem to have this same "x-factor" atmosphere around them. Maybe it's a quality SM audition scouts look for. Do I have that factor?

As we rode the bus, people looked at us with some suspicion, but we spread ourselves out enough so that we weren't drawing any attention as a group. 

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After an hour or so of silent bus riding, we finally arrived at the destination - Lotte World! Some of the members like Kyungsoo were getting really excited, jumping up and down on the balls of his feet and clapping, whereas some other members, like Tao had drifted off to sleep on one of the bus seats.

After we gathered together, we thanked the bus driver and got off with a bunch of other people. Looks like today would be a busy night after all.

Even though we were standing at quite a distance from the entrance of Lotte World, I could already see a plethora of shining lights in a wide array of colours, countless rides moving about, man-made structures that obstructed the horizon, and hoardes of people entering and exiting the park. It was going to be a wild night, but at least it would be ideal for us, since the magnitude of people would make it harder for us to be recognized.

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Surprisingly, we only waited in line for about 20 minutes before we all got our admission and made our way inside Lotte World. We decided to split up to make things more efficient. That way, more members could do what they wanted without having to hold up the rest of the group. As a group of 12, Suho and Kris deducted that splitting into three groups of four would be reasonable.

The groups were as follows:

Group 1 - Kris, Xiumin, Lay, Baekhyun

Group 2 - Suho, Tao, Sehun, Chen

Group 3 - Jongin, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo and me.

I was happy to be in a group with Kai, and I was pretty close with Chanyeol and Kyungsoo, too. It was great because we all wanted to go on the same rides. Well... I guess that's how we ended up in a group together in the first place. 

Right now it was 8:45pm; we agreed to meet back here at 10:45pm. It wasn't much time, but we needed to take into account the time it takes to bus back to SM. Hopefully nobody at SM noticed that we snuck out past the curfew. We split up quickly, running straight towards the rides we wanted to go on.

First, we went onto a wooden roller coaster. It was apparently one of the steepest roller coasters in Korea. AWESOME! My group and I lined up, pumped and ready to go.

"So who's going with who?" Kyungsoo asked while we were in line.

Jongin took his arm. "I'm going with you, D.O.!" he said with a smile.

"Hey!" Kyungsoo snapped, "I told you I didn't like being called that casually.... Kai."

They both stared at each other, pretending to be angry and scrunching their noses, but then broke out into light laughter.

Chanyeol watched them with a cool attitude. He always had a "cool" aura around him. 

On the contrary, I was burning with jealousy. I wanted to be with Jongin. Hello! We're roommates. And I'm probably closer with Jongin than Kyungsoo. This wasn't fair! But being the shy guy I am, I couldn't bring myself to say something. Chanyeol noticed that I was a bit upset and put his arm around me.

"Come on partner, lets do this." He said reassuringly. 

At first I forced a smile, but then I eased into it. "OK." I responded, looking at him gently.

When we finally made it in front of the line, Jongin and Kyungsoo rushed to get the front-seat of the roller coaster. They started yelling and throwing their hands up in the air even though the ride didn't start yet. I had to admit it was kind of cute.

Chanyeol and I on the other hand walked slowly and got stuck with a random middle seat behind a pair of weird girls wearing animal masks. Who buys those weird looking masks anyways? It makes you look like you just stepped off the stage of a Lion King musical. 

As me and Chanyeol strapped on our seatbelts, he raised an eyebrow at me and gestured towards the girls in front. I guess he thought they were pretty weird too. 

All of a sudden, the ride jerked to a start, and the announcer said some final words of safety and something along the lines of "don't stand up, eat, or pick your nose on the ride!" and then added "and try to have fun!"

I chuckled to myself. Yeah, I'll definitely try, ahjusshi!

As we were escalating up the first drop, Chanyeol turned his head to admire the view of Lotte World at night. But for some reason I couldn't take my eyes off the girls in front of me. They started covering their mouths and I heard them whispering a bit. The two of them sounded oddly familiar. Actually, they looked pretty familiar from the back, too.

We made it to the top of the hill, and some people started to scream. And in a split second, we dropped. I threw my hands up and cheered in happiness and adrenaline. The girl in front of me let out a piercing shriek, that was so high pitched that it almost obliterated my ear drums. She sounded like a dolphin... and as we continued through the ride, she continued to scream at the same high frequency. And then on the final drop, it hit me - she was SNSD's Jessica. I know it sounded like a long stretch, and I know they have busy schedules and all, but I put the pieces together. Two girls with animal masks. One girl with wavy, chestnut hair and the other with long, flowing black hair. One girl screaming like a dolphin. I was almost sure it was SNSD's Jessica and Yuri!

As we got off the ride, the girls hopped off, but one of them (the one that screamed like a dolphin) tripped on the ground. Since I was sitting right behind her in the ride, I hurridely helped her up and asked if she was OK. She nodded nervously and ran off with the other girl. Then I noticed a device left on the floor after she fell... it was her phone! While Chanyeol was retrieving our belongings from the complimentary shelves for riders to put their items in, I activated the phone. The background was a selca of Jessica. I checked the text messages. New messages from Taeyeon and Tiffany. That confirmed it. She was definitely Jessica Jung! 

Thinking logically, I put her phone in my pocket and decided against showing the other members. I didn't want to make a big commotion and reveal that we were all here at Lotte World. That would be such a big scandal...

----

As the night raged on, I found myself having great fun with the other members.

However, Jongin and Kyungsoo paired up every time we went on a two-seated ride, which almost made me explode from envy. But, I still managed to have a great time with Chanyeol. He was a pretty cool guy.

First we went on the large drop-tower ride, which scared me out of my wits. Then we went to the dragon boat ride, which tipped back and forth. We even went into a house of trick-mirrors. It was really funny.

Now, we were lined up to enter the haunted house. It was 10:30pm, so after this, it would be time to meet up with the others and leave. The haunted house only accepted entries in pairs since it was a couple ride. I was almost certain that Jongin would choose Kyungsoo again, but surprisingly, he chose me. I tried to keep myself from smiling like an idiot. He finally noticed me!

"LUHAN!" Jongin chanted, "I CHOOSE YOU!" He referenced to pokemon. "USE THUNDERBOLT!"

I laughed and imitated pikachu, which worked out great since I was wearing a yellow shirt. "PEEEEEEKAAACHUUUUUUUUUUU" I squealed. We laughed. 

As the line progressed, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo got into a mini argument about whether zebras were white with black stripes or black with white stripes. Jongin and I just chuckled and watched them bicker like a married couple. After Chanyeol and Kyungsoo entered the haunted house, still bickering, I was becoming more and more nervous. I few seconds later I heard them scream. Maybe the haunted house wasn't such a great idea. But then Kai put his hand on my shoulder.

"I shall protect you, Pikachu." He said, pretending to be a noble character.

"No thanks Ash... it's been 10+ seasons and you still haven't let me evolve!" I replied playfully. 

But our giggles were soon silenced when the gate opened and it was our turn to enter the haunted house.

We stepped in the darkness slowly. I felt Kai's hand hold my hand. At first I wanted to reject his grip, but then I realized it was our only way of staying together, or we could end up getting separated or lost. I held his hand tight in mine.

All of a sudden, a clown with a chainsaw popped up on my side and I screamed - you could say I sounded like a girl. Kai hugged me protectively and shielded me from the clown. Then we ran in the opposite direction.

We continued to be tormented by zombies, mummies, giant spiders and bloody people when we finally made it out of the tunnel. The ending administrator looked at us casually like he's seen a hundred of people scared like we were before, and gestured for us to move out of the exit area. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were already out.

"What scaredy cats!" Kyungsoo teased.

"I even heard someone scream like a girl", Chanyeol added. "Was it you, Luhan?"

Embarrassed, I blushed. Maybe I did sound like a girl... Jongin looked at me with what seemed to be pity.

"It was me." Jongin interjected. "I screamed, sorry!" 

Surprised, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo jerked their heads towards Jongin with a confused look. As we walked back to the entrance of the park, they continued to playfully and he laughed along with them. Although it was just a joke, I guess he must have realized I was embarrassed and took the blame for me. But why would he do that? Does he like me as much as I like him? Was he protecting me? Or was it more than that? Do I even like him? Wait. Why would I even like him? I'm not gay...

By the time we got back to the entrance, the other members were there and we headed out the park. 

But then I saw the two girls from earlier, who I suspected to be Jessica and Yuri. They were still wearing their raccoon masks! But even if it wasn't them, the girl still dropped her phone, and I needed to return it. I ran up to them and I gave the shorter girl my phone in my pocket. ALL the other members walked over. The two girls seemed to become increasingly nervous.

"What are you doing?" Suho asked, curiously.

"Uh..." I stumbled. "T-this girl dropped her phone earlier and I'm returning it to her."

"Is that your secret girlfriend?" Lay teased. The other members made "ooooo" sounds.

"N-no!" I defended. The girls started walking away quickly, but then Tao and Sehun stopped them.

"Hyung, set me up on a blind date too!" they pleaded.

I shook my head, but it was already too late. Tao and Sehun had already forcefully taken off their masks. The girls had tried to fight them, but they were weaker than the boys. And lo and behold, Girls' Generation Jessica Jung and Kwon Yuri were standing right in front of us, half angry, half scared that they were exposed.

We were all shocked. And it took a matter of MILLISECONDS before practically ALL of Lotte World smothered us all. Without body guards or managers, they were defenceless. 

"SO NYUH SHI DAE SO NYUH SHI DAE SO NYUH SHI DAE", everybody cheered.

Then, on top of everybody, a fangirl screamed at the top of her lungs, "IT'S EXO."

The crowd roared even louder. 

Then Jongin objected, "SO WHAT!" But then the members and I looked at him with a shocked face. The crowd gasped. Jongin looked around, just realizing he had confirmed it. "I mean.. we're not EXO!"

"LIAR!" Everybody shouted. 

I couldn't even see the exit of the park anymore. Jessica, Yuri, and the other members and I were squished together in one group, being smothered by people from all angles. I then realized that giving Jessica's phone back at Lotte World was a bad idea. And going to Lotte World in the first place was a bad idea. And then I realized that something like this would make a huge scandal, especially so close to our debut.

And that something like this would not go unpunished.

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hueheuehue, i hope this wasn't too long or boring! and i know it's kind of scary at the end, but it's suspense! what will happen to SNSD and EXO? you'll find out in the next chapter, huehueheuhue...