“Hyung said he’ll pick us up today. Where is he?” Young Won craned his neck, scanning the parking lot. Yeon Ah didn’t even bother looking because she wouldn’t be able to see past the first few cars. ‘Short height = COMPLETE DISADVANTAGE! Darn you, 5’2”…Darn you…’ A familiar black van pulled in front of the waiting duo. The passenger window rolled down, revealing Manager Kim.

                “Sorry, guys! There was a car crash on the way here. Held up traffic. Anyway, hop in and I’ll take you to the mall.” They piled in and he drove off. ‘Hopefully the mall isn’t as busy today,’ Yeon Ah thought while watching the passing cars.

--

                The mall was packed. ‘What the hell?! When is this mall ever not busy?’ Yeon Ah’s jaw dropped. Shoppers were shoving and bumping into each other in the stores. Even the wide hallways were crowded. Young Won looked down at Yeon Ah and smiled, amused at her angry, bewildered expression. ‘How am I supposed to find my way around now?’ Yeon Ah attempted to look past the mass of people, but failed miserably. ‘I can’t see anything! Crap!’ she stomped her foot and whined internally. Young Won couldn’t help but laugh at her. Checking his watch, he knew they had to start shopping soon, or else they would be staying until closing.

                “Come on, let’s go. I’ll walk in front and you hold onto my backpack,” he stood in front of her and began pushing past people. “Where are we going first?”

                “The party decorations store on the second level,” she yelled over the other voices. They slowly made their way through the congested hallways and jumped onto the escalator. As ridiculous as it may seem, even the escalator was packed. The steps were two-wide, but people were squishing on three each. One wrong move and everybody would go tumbling down the steps. Yeon Ah, unluckily, was stuck between an old sweaty man and his grouchy wife behind Young Won. She was still holding on tight to his bag. Fear coursed through her veins as a claustrophobic feeling crept into her.

                “Hey, honey, can we sit and rest when we get off?” the husband leaned around Yeon Ah to speak to his wife.

                “NO, I have to go get those shoes before somebody else takes them. We have no time to rest. I have a lot of competition here! If those shoes aren’t there, it’s going to be your fault,” she spat back at her husband. Yeon Ah wiped away the saliva that had catapulted onto her face from the snobby lady’s obnoxious mouth. ‘Ew, you have GOT to be kidding me…Today’s going to be another long day…’ They finally got off the escalator and Young Won pushed forward to the deco shop. Somehow, in the midst of the crowd, somebody cut between the two, breaking Yeon Ah’s grip from his backpack. She started panicking. Other than being claustrophobic, she had Mazeophobia, the fear of getting lost. She hated getting lost with directions, but the malls were the worst. Clearly at a disadvantage because of her height, she turned around and around only to see a wall of bodies. Her eyes frantically searched around for Young Won. ‘Crap, he’s wearing a hat again, so it’s going to be hard finding him.’ A swelling feeling built up in and she began to gasp for air. ‘Oh my god…not now. Get me out of here, somebody!’ She took staggering steps, bumping into random people who gave her dirty looks and shoved her away. She felt her chest tightening and she grabbed at her left collarbone, trying to make it go away. Backing up, she hit a wall and slowly crouched down. ‘Find your happy place, find your happy place, find your happy place….’ she repeated the line in her head, struggling to keep control her breathing. Tears escaped her tightly shut eyes. Although it was only a few minutes, it felt like a million years to her. Right when she was about to give up, somebody pulled her up.

                “Yah! Here you are! Why’d you let go?” Young Won searched her face to see if she was hurt anywhere and was surprised to see tears in her eyes. Yeon Ah was shaking under his grasp. She opened to say something, but nothing would come out. He didn’t know came over him, but he pulled her into a hug. It seemed like the right thing to do. Yeon Ah looked like she just experienced death and came back to life. They stood there in their own little world. Yeon Ah relaxed in his embrace. “Are you okay now?” he pulled back and looked down at her.

                “Y-yeah, I think so. Sorry you had to see me like this…” she looked away in embarrassment and wiped her tears. Nobody has ever seen her in this state, except for her brother.

*Flashback* First year Middle School, L.A.

                “Come on, Yeonnie! We have to hurry and find Mom a present! The mall is closing soon!” Daniel sprinted ahead.

                “Slow down, Channie!” Yeon Ah rushed after him, but got caught in the middle of a huge group of people. She tried to push past them, but her attempts were futile against the grown-ups. “Channie-ah! Where are you? Channie!!” she crouched down in wrapped her arms over her head. At this point, she was crying her eyes out, but nobody notice her. The space around her got smaller and smaller and people came closer and closer, trapping her into a tiny space. A feeling of suffocation grew inside and she felt her stomach churn.

                “Yeonnie?! Where are you?” she heard his voice.

                “I’m here! I’m here!” she yelled as loud as she could. A hand grabbed her shoulder and she spun around. “Danny!” she hugged him and cried.

                “Shh, you’re okay now,” he her head and hugged her close. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have run without you.”

                “It was so scary…..” she couldn’t stop the crying.

                “I’m sorry. I promise to never let you go ever again,” he patted her back and let her cry it out.

*End Flashback*

                “Come on, let’s go,” Young Won grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the dense crowd. They arrived at the deco store and were able to find plenty of cobwebs, plastic spiders and pumpkins, and foam tombstones. “Hey, check these out,” Young Won held out some orange and black streamers.

                “Those would be good,” Yeon Ah held out the basket and he dropped them in. “I think that’s about it for this store. Let’s go pay for these and then try the dollar store.” They grabbed the shopping bags and walked out into the still crowded hallways. Young Won automatically grabbed Yeon Ah’s wrist and led the way. A warmth flowed through her body. ‘What is this feeling? Maybe it’s because I’m relieved that I won’t get lost? Yea, that’s it.’ They browsed through the dollar store and grabbed lots of fake bloody arms and legs and other things.

                “Hey, Yeon Ah. Thanks for being such a great partner,” Young Won smiled and held out his hand. She gave him a weird look. ‘This boy is random…’

                “Uh, you’re welcome?” she grabbed hold of his hand, but immediately pulled back. Now, you’re probably thinking that it was one of those ‘romantic drama’ moments where the protagonist comes in contact with their crush and they feel a spark run through them. Well, let’s just say, Yeon Ah felt a spark, but it’s not the type of attraction you’re thinking of, that’s for sure. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” she rubbed her hand, trying to get the electric shocked feeling out of it. Young Won was almost rolling on the floor, laughing. She noticed a small black dot on his palm. “Are you freaking kidding me? Where did you get that?!”

                “From the prank section over there. I never knew these electric zappers were this fun,” he looked down to admire the contraption. ‘You think it’s funny huh? Well, let’s see how much you like it from the receiving end.’ She snatched the zapper away from Young Won, quickly slipped it onto her own palm, and reached over to grab his hand.

                “OW! I take it back, that thing is evil! Man, they should be illegal,” he rubbed his tingling hand and glared at her.

                “You’re the one that started it, buddy,” she pointed at him and placed the zapper on a random shelf. “Okay, I think we’ve got everything we can. All we need is the fabric, so we’ll go tomorrow,” she walked towards the cash register. They paid and Young Won called Manager Kim. It was late and the mall was about ready to close. All the shoppers had left, so the hallways were completely vacant. Yeon Ah glanced over at Young Won. “Hey, um, about what happened earlier…don’t tell Daniel, okay? It’s for your own safety, trust me. He might kill if he found out. This is actually the second time this has happened to me. The first time, I was with Danny, and he blames himself for my claustrophobia and separation anxiety. So, let’s keep this between us, please?” Young Won looked into her pleading eyes. Somehow, he couldn’t say no, even if he knew that telling Daniel was the right thing to do.

--

                “Hyung, I’ll be right back,” Young Won closed the car door and ran to the trunk to get the shopping bags. Yeon Ah was already walking towards KAHS with a bunch of shopping bags. The night time custodian stood by the front door and held it opened for the both of them.

                “Thank you, Mr. Park. We’ll only take a few minutes,” Yeon Ah bowed as best as she could with all the bags and jogged to the meeting room. ‘Our school is rich, so why can’t they get some darn escalators? Hopefully the bags won’t drag on the----oh, awesome. They’re dragging on the steps….Why must I be so short? Mom and Dad are tall, what happened to me?’ she struggled up the steps and Young Won followed her without any problems. They finally reached the room and dumped everything into the cupboards. Yeon Ah locked the doors and they left the school.

                “Thank you again, Mr. Park. And see you tomorrow! Don’t work too hard tonight!” Young Won bowed as he ran past Mr. Park. Yeon Ah jogged over to the van and grabbed her bag from the seat.

                “Thank you for the ride, Manager Kim. I’ll be leaving now,” she nodded her head and walked over to her bike. Young Won waved at her as he ran by and jumped into the van. She nodded at him and pulled on her helmet. She started her bike and drove towards the exit, but a van blocked her way. Somebody jumped out and ran over to her, holding out a small rectangular object. She slid open her visor. “What’s this?”

                “Your cell phone. It must’ve dropped out of your pocket during the ride,” Young Won slid it into her blazer pocket. “Good night, Yeon Ah!” he smiled at her and ran to the van.

                “Good night to you too…..Young Won…”

--

                “YES! WE’RE DONE!” Yeon Ah flopped into one of the seats in the meeting room. Young Won dragged the huge bag of fabric through the door.

                “Hey! A little help here?” she jumped up and they pulled it in together. “I’m not going shopping for the next few months. I’m tired of seeing so many people all at once,” he shivered and fell back into a chair.

                “Aren’t music programs that busy? From what Dan says, it’s always quite busy there,” she picked at her finger nails. It was Wednesday and they were FINALLY done shopping. ‘FREEDOM….from the shopping malls. Now, time for some building….’ Yeon Ah stretched in her seat. “Hey, could we possibly start building on Friday? We’ve been busy for the past three days and I think a day for recovery is good.”

                “I was actually thinking about asking you that,” he laughed and spun his chair around. Yeon Ah rolled her chair over to his.

                “Hey, since we don’t have to buy anything else, let’s give the rest of the money away as a prize at the dance. Of course, we’ll ask the Principal, but I’m sure he’ll be okay with it.”

                “That’ll work. Let’s ask him tomorrow. I just want to rest a bit now,” he closed his eyes to go to sleep, but was interrupted by his ringtone. “Hello?”

                “Young Won-ah. Come outside, we have a last minute radio program today. I couldn’t get you out of it, so you’ve got to come out now,” Manager Kim calmly panicked into the phone. The rest of Dalmatian could be heard in the background.

                “Okay, Hyung. I’m on my way out now. Okay, bye. Hey, I’ve got to leave now, last minute scheduling,” he shrugged at her.

                “It’s okay. I’ll lock up. Have fun at the radio show,” she picked up the fabric bags and shooed him out of the room. Opening the cupboard, she placed the fabric onto one of the shelves and locked it. ‘Yay! I have a relaxing day tomorrow. Maybe I could hang out with the Kim twins. I haven’t been able to talk to them in forever…Hopefully they don’t hate me…’

Woooot, another chapter. 

COMMENT REPLIES

@surethingfalling: hunt me >_< aigoo.....I shall counter with my awesome ninja panda skills *wootwoot* noo, not my green ninja panda T^T and no, it's not weird at all......*cough*....ijoke! Thank you~!

@hai_young: actually, I should be updating more >_> I'm officially in summer mode and only have work and coaching (season ends in two weeks) so I have no excuse XD anyway, I'VE UPDATED LOL 

IMPORTANT! I'm planning ahead for my next story and I've got 2 in mind. So I need all you to take some time to comment below and choose either Infinite or B1A4. I won't be posting it until I finish this story, but I need to now which of the two to concentrate on. So please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease comment below

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See you in the next Chapter!

-greenninjapanda GNP-