Taking a long bus ride and an even longer subway ride lead them to their final destination.

“Are you sure you can afford to get us both into this place?” Seunghyun asked his heart racing with excitement.

“Of course! Why would I take you some place I couldn’t afford?” Jiyong told the now bouncy Seunghyun.

As they walked inside Seunghyun gasped. He had never been here; his family couldn’t afford to take them places like this. It was so big inside. How could they fit all of this inside of a dome? Jiyong walked up to Seunghyun and gave him his ticket stub.

“You have never been to Lotte World before?” Jiyong asked the stunned boy next to him. Seunghyun shook his head. Jiyong smiled then grabbed onto Seunghyun’s wrist.

“I know which one we should ride first.” Jiyong told him while dragging him further into the park.

Seunghyun tried to absorb everything he saw. There were plants and vendors selling all sorts of souvenirs and treats. There were little children and tourists and old people. It really was a world of it’s own. Soon, Jiyong slowed down and let go of Seunghyun’s wrist. They were in line in front of a giant ship. What was so special about that? Then he saw it fill with people and start to move in incrementally larger swings each time. He felt his jaw drop and all the blood drain from his face. Jiyong wanted him to ride this? It went so high!

“It isn’t as bad as it looks.” Jiyong said, trying to reassure his riding companion.

Seunghyun nodded and tried not to look at the boat but every time it arched the people on each end screamed, causing for Seunghyun to cringe. The line wasn’t large considering it was the middle of the day during a workweek so they were next to get on. Seunghyun thought he was going to throw up. He looked at Jiyong who gave him a reassuring smile and held his fist up. Jiyong was telling him fighting. He could do this. Jiyong would be right next to him so it isn’t like he would kill himself, right?

They loaded onto the boat and Jiyong took Seunghyun to the back row of the ship. He tried to focus on breathing deeply because he needed to calm down and he didn’t know how much breathing he would be doing on this ride anyways.

“It will be okay, Seunghyun. More than okay, even. You will love it.” Jiyong told him.

Seunghyun opened his eyes and the boat started to move. This wasn’t too bad. It was kind of comforting, like a baby’s cradle. That feeling was soon gone, as the boat got higher. He soon saw everyone’s terrified faces on the other end of the ride before he was thrown backwards and his stomach stayed behind on the floor only to meet it again in the middle. Jiyong laughed and was in the process of throwing his arms up in the air when Seunghyun grabbed one of them with his own, his knuckles white from his tight grip. Jiyong threw his other arm in the air but kept looking with concern at Seunghyun.

“Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.” Seunghyun kept uttering.

Jiyong patted Seunghyun’s arm comfortingly.

“It will be over soon, I promise.” Jiyong said, seemingly no longer paying attention to the ride as it slowed down.

When the ride stopped, Seunghyun sat there for a moment, trying to regain the feeling in his body. He stood and this time he dragged Jiyong by the wrist off of the ride. It was terrible. How could Jiyong like that feeling?

Seunghyun pulled Jiyong over to a bench away from the view of the ride before he let go, covering his face in his hands as he sat down. Jiyong was looking at him. He could feel it.

“What is it that you didn’t like about the ride?” Jiyong asked him gently.

Seunghyun sat there silently, not wanting to relive the experience just yet.

“It’s just, if you tell me, I can help you and even pick better rides for us to go on.” Jiyong explained to his traumatized hyung.

“I didn’t like how my stomach felt. It felt like my stomach left my body when the boat was moving. I also didn’t like hearing people’s scream and looking at their terrified faces.” Seunghyun muttered softly, looking like he might throw up at the thought.

Jiyong sat and thought for a moment before he perked up, reaching into his bag. Seunghyun scoffed. What could Jiyong possibly have in that bag that would help him here? That bag wasn’t that magical. Jiyong sat up pulling out his music player and earbuds.

“Just wear the ear buds on the ride. You won’t hear any screaming. About seeing people’s faces, we’ll just go on ones where you won’t see any faces. Most of them you don’t. Some moments on the ride you will feel your stomach drop but not for all of it anymore. If you feel like that, you can just grab my arm again.” Jiyong explained.

Seunghyun breathed and nodded. Jiyong really did come up with a magical solution. Plus, maybe the music would relax him enough that he wouldn’t feel as scared. He started to smile again.

“So, which ride are we going on next?” Seunghyun asked.

The next few hours seemed to fly by. The rides were actually really fun with the music. It was like they had a soundtrack. There were some stomach twisting moments but Jiyong was always right next to him so he could squeeze his arm. Seunghyun was so relaxed that he actually started acting all doofy like he does during summer vacation or when he wins a contest. Jiyong couldn’t help but laugh and smile at Seunghyun, and at times join in on his crazy speech and dancing. Towards the end of their trip Seunghyun remembered something.

“You promised me a giant ice cream.” Seunghyun told Jiyong. Jiyong groaned. The line for ice cream was really long at this point.

“I’ll just get you one another day.” Jiyong told him.

“But…Jiiiiiii,” Seunghyun whined while stomping his feet. “I want my ice cream now!”

Jiyong rolled his eyes, which made Seunghyun fold his arms and pout. He went on all the scary rides, he wore ridiculous clothes, he deserved to have a giant ice cream.

“Fine.” Jiyong said, getting in line to get Seunghyun a frozen treat.

“Yay!” Seunghyun yelled running to get in line with Jiyong.

The whole time they were in line Seunghyun kept bouncing and looking around people to see how close they were. When it was finally their turn Seunghyun picked his flavor and changed his mind 10 times before he finally decided on one.

“I should have gotten the strawberry.” Seunghyun whined.

“You’re lucky you have ice cream and I didn’t drag you out of the park.” Jiyong grumbled.

“Yah! You owed me ice cream. It’s only fair for you to wait for me to decide.” Seunghyun told the sulking younger.

They made their way to subway line 2. When Seunghyun stood up, he noticed Jiyong was still sitting, engrossed in his music again.

“Yah, Jiyong. This is our stop.” Seunghyun told him after pulling out one of his earbuds.

“No, it isn’t. It’s 3:17. I have work at 4. You can go if you want but I was going to tutor you while we waited for the towels to be done.” Jiyong said before sticking the earbud back in his ear.

Seunghyun groaned. Today was going too well to be ruined with math problems and cleaning. He didn’t know what possessed him to tell Jiyong he wanted math tutoring. Maybe he could sneak away and hang out with the 1TYM hyungs again while Jiyong was in the bathroom or something.

Seunghyun spent the whole subway ride trying to think of ideas but couldn’t come up with one good enough. He was trapped. He got up when Jiyong did and trudged out of the station, following Jiyong to the YG building for a night of torture.