Lana couldn’t get back to the bus fast enough. No sooner had Yunee finished her deed, cleaned up the mess she made, and sauntered out of the room than Lana jumped out of the closet, dragging a bumbling Kyungsoo behind her. The two had to jump out of the second-story window into a nearby tree, but thanks to some delicate maneuvering, both somehow managed to land safely on the grass below. At that point, Lana bolted straight for the time machine, not wanting anything to do with young Yunee anymore.

Today was indisputably the worst day in history. The little incident with Kyungsoo, having to confront him about it (which technically she still had yet to do), being sandwiched between the closet door and his body as the two listened to Mom watching one of Dad’s movies—she shuddered as each horrible event replayed in her mind in vivid detail.

Lana took her usual spot at the booth as Kyungsoo bounced aboard the bus, whistling nonchalantly. She turned to watch as he lurked around the dashboard, idly fiddling with the many knobs and buttons on the console. He clearly wasn’t actually doing anything, yet he continued to hum as if hard at work. Lana gazed suspiciously at the back of his head, eyes narrowing as they locked onto a bead of sweat trickling down his neck.

It was only then that she really realized she wasn’t the only one feeling awkward about what had happened.

“Kyungsoo,” she called without really thinking. Instinctively, knowing he was just as nervous as she was boosted her courage to talk it out tenfold.

He whirled around to face her, eyes wide as ever with recognition. “Yeah?”

“About that thing that happened,” she sighed, trailing off a little before continuing, “I don’t know what came over me. I wasn’t really thinking clearly. It was just a mistake, okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” he affirmed, his puffy bottom lip back. He continued to stare at her like a lost kitten.

“I just got swept up in the moment,” Lana detailed, poking at the sleeve of her school uniform. “I don’t usually do things like that—”

“I know,” Kyungsoo interrupted quickly, bobbing his head up and down. “Me, too. It was just a mistake.”

“So, we’re just friends, right?”

Lana didn’t know what she expected at that point—a simple nod of affirmation perhaps. But what she got in return managed to take her completely by surprise. As soon as the word “friends” left , Kyungsoo’s entire face lit up, and he burst into a wide, bright grin. He grabbed her hands excitedly, bouncing as if on the verge of jumping up and down in place.

“You think we’re friends!” he exclaimed with about as much enthusiasm as a boy who just found out he was permanently moving to Disney World. He let go of her hands only to throw his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.

“Y-yes?” Lana wheezed, squeezed to the point of immobility and breathlessness by the unexpected constriction. “Why wouldn’t we be?” she choked.

“I didn’t think you liked me,” he admitted, finally letting her go. Lana gasped for air as he pulled away. “Half the time, I thought you were silently plotting to murder me. I didn’t know you thought we were friends.”

“Oh.” Lana blinked at him, clearly lost for words.

Still, Kyungsoo continued to beam at her with record-breaking enthusiasm. Somehow, Lana couldn’t help but feel remarkably special and fluttery all of a sudden. She supposed he did have a particularly magnetic smile, even if he was obviously nothing at all more than just a friend.

But without warning, the smile abruptly vanished from his face. And then, just like that, he stared at Lana with grave sobriety, as if the two were discussing some deep, taboo secret. “So, what was that then?” he asked in a hushed tone of voice.

“It was just, you know, friend stuff,” she replied. “I mean, friends do stuff like this all the time, right?”

“Right,” he repeated. “So, like, we can do this completely as friends then?”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t until two seconds later that Lana realized what she had just agreed to. She mentally facepalmed, silently cursing her own careless impulsiveness for getting her into this mess. Even if it wasn’t exactly bad the first time, the memory was already tainted by what she had witnessed in Yunee’s room minutes ago. In fact, Lana could hardly fathom the fact that she wasn’t irreparably traumatized right now.

No, instead, she had just agreed to be friends with benefits with Do Kyungsoo.

What had her life come to? Everything was spiraling out of control faster than 299,792,458 meters per second.

“So,” he swiftly changed the subject before she could change her own mind, “according to the console, we have a few hours to waste before we can leave again. So, I was thinking—”

Don’t you dare suggest we do it right here, Lana hissed inwardly. I am so not in the mood after that disaster—

“—wanna find your dad? This is a bus, so I can drive it.”

“Oh,” Lana mumbled aloud. She wasn’t expecting that. Actually, seeing Dad hadn’t even crossed her mind, especially not after the unexpected catastrophe visiting Mom had turned out to be. Yet nothing Dad could throw at her could possibly be any worse than what she had just seen in Mom’s room, and the alternative was sitting here, alone on the bus with her brand-new friend with benefits.

“Okay,” she cheeped.

Kyungsoo smiled and scurried off to the dashboard. As he did so, he called out behind him, “Unless you know where he lives right now, I’ll have to find him via the time encyclopedia. What was his name again?”

“Kris Wu.”

He nodded and turned to the console, quickly typing in the name. Not a moment later, he snapped, “Aha! Bingo!” He grinned triumphantly. “First time I’ve had to use that feature, so I’m proud to say it works like a charm. He’s currently at what I presume is his home, since the address seems to be an apartment building.”

“Ready when you are,” Lana chimed, slinking down into the diner booth as Kyungsoo took his seat behind the wheel.

Author's Note
I suddenly got sort of inspired with this fic, so I ended up writing several chapters over the last few days, hence why this chapter is coming so soon after the last one. ^o^ Thanks for the comments, guys! I’m so happy with the amount you’ve been leaving recently. ;o; Keep up the awesome work?!?!