It was Baekhyun’s third official date with Maddie, not that he’d been counting or anything. There was nothing particularly exciting about the date. Baekhyun hadn’t come up with plans on what to do and what to eat and where to go as it had been a spur of the moment thing. Having spent all night listening to the sounds of Chanyeol tossing and turning in his sleep, Baekhyun had woken up in need of some comfort and where better to find it than in his girlfriend?

‘Is something the matter?’

Baekhyun shook his head.

‘Baekhyun, answer me properly. Something’s wrong so please, just tell me what it is,’ Maddie said, ‘did you do something bad?’

‘It’s not me’

‘So tell me what it is then’

‘I don’t know how to’

Language barriers could have been an issue but Maddie took out a pack of tissues and handed her boyfriend one along with a pen.

‘Draw it then’

Baekhyun hesitated at first, telling her not to laugh and then slowly began drawing. He drew himself first (equipped with a smiling sun on his t-shirt) and Maddie beside him. She laughed when he drew her holding a flag- the Japanese one.

‘It’s you!’

‘I would never have guessed!’

Beside his drawing of himself, he drew Chanyeol who towered over the pair hilariously.

‘Wow, that’s not exaggerated at all’ Maddie said laughing

‘I don’t know… body proportions’ Baekhyun retorted, half in English, the rest in Korean. ‘Tall. Height. I don’t know.’

Maddie rested her head against her boyfriend’s shoulder. ‘That’s alright. It looks good. Is that Kris or Chanyeol?’

‘Chanyeol’ Baekhyun replied, hurriedly scribbling in his name onto his t-shirt to help differentiate.

Next to Chanyeol, he drew a girl in a ballgown.

‘A princess? Oh! Is that Haneul?’

Baekhyun shook his head and drew a veil over the girl’s face, followed by two rings, a bouquet of flowers and the Korean word for wedding.

‘Marriage? Chanyeol’s getting married?!’

Baekhyun nodded then shook his head. ‘Arranged.’

‘Chanyeol is having an arranged marriage?!’ Maddie shrieked, ‘B-But… Chanyeol’s our age! He’s so young! And what if he doesn’t like her?! What if-‘

Baekhyun placed an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder and lightly kissed her nose.

‘Hey, don’t worry too much. Chanyeol will do what’s best for him’

‘But poor Chanyeol-‘

‘You care about Chanyeol that much? More tha you care about me?’

Maddie tutted, throwing the tissue in Baekhyun’s face.

‘Don’t be an idiot. Of course it’s you.’

—-

‘So are they any bands you want to see in particular?’ Jinri asked, ‘I downloaded the setlists onto my phone.’

Jinri and Aaron were at the festival, decked out in wellies and neon face paint. It had taken a little bit of persuasion but eventually, Jinri had gotten permission to draw pink flowers on Aaron’s cheeks. Her side of the deal however was that in return, he could draw whatever he wanted too. Thus, Jinri had the word ‘loser’ written across her forehead in green paint.

‘What’s at the main stage?’

‘Some k-pop group. They sing that song 3.6.5- the one that’s always on the radio.’

‘Oh so Ahri’s brother’s group?’

‘Haneul’s friend? Her brother is an idol?’

‘Small world, right?’ Aaron said, laughing, ‘come on, if we get to the side of the stage, we might be able to say hi when they come off.’

The main stage had a crowd in it’s thousands and despite Jinri and Aaron desperately trying to weave their way through, they hardly made a dent into the masses of people cheering and dancing. Bodies were sweaty and far too close for comfort. Jinri held onto Aaron’s t-shirt as he tried to part through the crowd. Eventually, they found their way into a mosh pit and here, the rule of picking up the one that falls did not come into play. Jinri was the first to fall, her nimble frame being easy to push over and she screamed frantically as a lofty guy fell onto her.

‘Hey! Get off her!’ Aaron yelled, shoving the guys in the mosh pit, ‘stop! You’re going to hurt her!’

The boys carried on running into each other and the pit got wider with Jinri in the middle of it. Aaron had to dive into the crowd to avoid being pulled in and when Jinri finally picked herself up, a boy rammed into her sending her crashing back to the floor.

‘Taejoon-ah!’

Aaron found himself being swept away with the crowd and his attempt to jump through back to the mosh pit were proving useless. After what felt like half an hour of endless pushing, he finally got back to the pit only to find someone by Jinri already. It was a guy who was well built from the looks of it. He had an arm around Jinri protectively and yelled for the boys to back off. Swiftly, he brought her out of the crowd and Aaron followed them desperately trying to keep them in his line of vision. When they came to a clearing, the guy sat Jinri down on the floor and crouched down.

‘Hey, are you okay? Is your boyfriend still in there?’

Jinri nodded but looked up at saw Aaron running over towards her.

‘Taejoon!’

The guy turned his head and stood up.

‘You’re her boyfriend?’

‘Friend’ Aaron corrected, ‘Jinri-ah, are you okay?’

‘She’s just a bit bruised but she’ll be fine,’ the guy said, ‘nasty fall you had there.’

‘I didn’t ask you.’ Aaron snapped quickly, ‘Jinri, do you want to get something to drink?’

‘She should probably have some water. Hey, do you want me to get some for you?’

‘I wasn’t asking you’ Aaron said, ‘I’m asking Jinri’

‘Hey, you told me you’re only her friend. Why are you acting like a boyfriend all of a sudden?’

Aaron glared at the guy and took his own canister out from the bumbag he had around his waist. ‘Here, drink this for now.’ The guy shrugged and stalked off seeing that he wasn’t going to be getting a thank you anytime soon and once he was gone, Aaron sat down beside Jinri, putting his arm around her shoulder.

‘Don’t! You’re all sweaty!’

‘Are you okay?’ Aaron asked, still not moving his arm away, ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you.’

Jinri screwed the cap back onto Aaron’s bottle and shook her head. ‘It’s okay. There wasn’t anything you could have done.’

‘Were you scared?’

‘Just a little.’

‘Sorry.’Aaron made to lift his arm off of her shoulder but she grabbed hold of it. ‘What? You don’t want me to get off you?’

‘No,’ Jinri said, ‘this is nice.’

Aaron smirked, ‘like me that much?’

‘What about you? You looked like you were about to bore holes into that guy. Were you jealous or something?’

‘Jealous? Of him?’ Aaron snorted, ‘of course not. I just didn’t like him touching you- because you’re my friend. Of course.’

Jinri shrugged and the two sat on the grass for the rest of the festival, listening to the music and taking in the atmosphere. It was nicer for them and more peaceful just to sit and soak it up rather than get into the crowd and jump and cheer. The best part of all for Jinri however was that for the final duration of the festival, Aaron’s arm never left her shoulder- not even for a second.