Her POV:

“Can you please explain to me again why we’re taking the subway?” asked Hyun Joong, leaning close to her ear, whispering from under the mask he was wearing. Hye Sung giggled. This was the third time he asked her the same question. The first time was when she suggested them to stop at the subway station. The second time was when they were standing at the station waiting for the train, a few minutes after his protest inside the car to ride the subway and put on the disguise she had brought along with her; a cap, powerless glasses and also a surgeon mask. And now, the third time, sitting inside the train. She could tell that he was very conscious of his surroundings because he kept looking around, eyeing other passengers in the train.

Looking at him with a little sly smile formed on her lips, she finally answered his question softly, “I was just curious how you managed to escape from people’s recognition when you took the subway to the MVIO shoot during the snow storm.”

Hyun Joong gave her a curious and dubious look. She knew that he was suspicious of her and it was shown from his look and frowned expression, but she kept a straight face even though she really wanted to laugh.

“I have a feeling that this is actually punishment for the night at your house. The meeting with your parent night,” he spoke out, still staring at her.

His remark shocked her. It was true. She wanted to punish him for laughing at her and for going along with her parents. Seeing the acknowledge expression on Hyun Joong’s face, she became a little panic. ‘He understood the reason already. Will he be mad at me?’

She tore away from his gaze, trying to be oblivious. Just then she felt her right cheek being poked at. Turning her head to the right, to the person poking her, she gave him a questioningly look.

“If I had to be punished like this, and get caught by the fans, they would recognize you as well.”

Hye Sung thought about the statement given by Hyun Joong for awhile and gave a little nod. “Make sure you don’t get caught then,” she answered back to him.

He shook his head. “For people not to notice you as well, you too have to wear this mask. It is only fair.”

“Me? Why do I have to wear them? I’m not famous!”

Hyun Joong held on his mask, “If you won’t, then I would open this and everybody would know it’s me and they’ll take pictures. I promise you that I would hug you when they do,” threatened him, looking sternly at her.

She gave him ‘you wouldn’t’ look but he answered her back with a ‘try me’ impression. Sighing of defeat, she took out another mask from her pocket and put them on as well, eyeing at him, giving him her ‘are you satisfied’ look. She could see from his eyes that he was smiling. Pretending to be angry at him, she looked away, to the train entrance door. An elderly couple just walked in and looking around for a seat. Seeing that, she grabbed hold of Hyun Joong and dragged the surprised man to the elderly couple.

“Ahjumma, ajussi, please take our seat.”

“Ah, thank you dear,” the elderly lady expressed her gratitude, looking at the both of them before taking the seats.

Hye Sung and Hyun Joong stood at the corner of the entrance door with her leaning on the door and Hyun Joong stood in front of her. They are standing quite close to one another, facing each other.

Hyun Joong looked down at her and leaned forward towards her with her looking up at him, heart pumping hard. ‘We are both wearing masks. There’s no way he would kiss me with the mask and in public like this. Calm down, Hye Sung,’ she talked herself to calm down.

Her guess was right. He didn’t lean forward to kiss her instead he whispered to her ear, “What are you planning to buy for your cousin?”

Hearing his question, she smiled sheepishly. She felt embarrassed. Luckily she was wearing the mask and he can’t see her full face. She was embarrassed because she thought he was going to say something romantic or sweet but instead it was about the gift.

“Well, I was thinking of buying her an ipod and fill them up with TVXQ songs.”

“TVXQ? She’s a fan of TVXQ?”

She nodded. “Well, actually this is what she requested from me for her birthday,” she said, taking out her cell phone from her bag and scrolled down to a specific message she received yesterday night and showed it to him.

Message: ‘Unnie, for my birthday this year, please ask your boyfriend to get his hyung, Jae Jong, to have a date with me. Pretty please???’

She could see that he was grinning. “She likes Jae Jong. But don’t think much about her request. She’s just testing out whether I would do it.”

“When is her birthday?” he asked, matter-of-factly.

Hye Sung looked at his eyes. She could see that he was up to something. “Wae? You are not going to do this, are you?”

“When?” he asked again.

“Two days from now…”

“Oh…I’m sorry then. He can’t…” his voice trailed off.

“No, it’s okay. I know he couldn’t do something like this. It would create a scandal,” she retorted, cutting his sentence short.

Hyun Joong shook his head, “No, it’s not that. He can’t because in two days time, he and I are going to Canada. It’s our vacation. It’s his actually, but when I knew about it I called him up and asked to tag along. I was going to tell you later about it.”

“You’re going to Canada for a holiday? For how long?” she asked, her voice sounded a little disappointed.

Hyun Joong’s hand went over to her side and grabbed hold of her hand, squeezing them. “A week. I’ll call you. It’s been awhile since I have a vacation and I need it,” he said, looking at her pleadingly, asking her to understand and not getting upset.

Seeing his expression and hearing his answer, Hye Sung felt a little bad. She knew how he worked really hard and didn’t have any vacation to relax. Squeezing back his hand, her way to tell him that she understood, “I’m not upset. I know you need time to relax and spend time with your best friend. It’s just that, I’m going to miss you. Make sure that I could still read some news about you on the Internet.”

“Read from the Internet? I could just call you and talk to you. What do you need the Internet for?”

“I like to read about you and the boys on the Internet. Furthermore, your fans would probably want to know some news about you as well. Please?” she pleaded.

“Okay, fine. I’ll try to get some news about me on the Internet during the vacation. I’ll put myself out there for people to recognize me.”

“And make sure you don’t go around looking at other woman,” she warned him, looking deep into his eyes to pass the message that she was serious.

She could heard him chuckled when he nodded, “I promise,” he said, and kissed the top of her head briefly.

At that moment the train stopped, the door opened and it was the station where they are supposed to drop off. Taking her hand, Hyun Joong led her out of the train. She followed him from behind with her free hand rubbing her head where Hyun Joong had kissed her and giddily smiled. While she was still dreamily walking behind, someone bumped into her hard and made her staggered a bit. Her free hand grabbed hold of Hyun Joong’s arm in order to balance herself again. Hyun Joong looked behind to her and he held on to her. The person that bumped into her just walked off without saying anything.

Finally managed to keep her balance, she watched the person from behind. At first she felt a little bit angry since she didn’t receive any apology for the rude behavior but when she looked intensely at the person’s back, she felt like she knew who the person was. It was Hyun Joong’s question asking if she was okay that made her snapped back from staring and thinking about the person that had finally managed to disappear within the crowd. She looked back at Hyun Joong and gave him a thumb up and a smile.