The trip out of Seoul was cut one day short after Jonghyun was able to contact his mom back at home about what happened.  Jonghyun’s grandparents also went with them back to Seoul for the New Year celebration.  On the trip back, it was dead silent between Jonghyun and Sungmi, which made Kyuhyun glad because even though their arguments were epic and entertaining, they were tiring.  The pair didn’t even exchange a single word or grunt at all.  Sungmi was tired the whole way.  Her fever would come and go. 

                “Did your fever come back?” asked Kyuhyun, as he looked at the girl.

                Sungmi shook her head, tiredly.  “No, I have a headache.” she said, closed her eyes.  She put her head on Kyuhyun’s shoulder.

                “Sungmi.” said Kyuhyun, softly.  She didn’t respond; she was asleep again.  He looked up at his younger brother.  “Why don’t you apologize to Sungmi?”

                Jonghyun took one of his ear buds out.  “What?” he asked.  Kyuhyun repeated his question.  “I already did.”

                “When?” asked Kyuhyun.  “From what I am aware of, you two haven’t even exchange a single word.”

                “I told her that when we were alone.” answered Jonghyun.

                “When was that?” asked Kyuhyun.

                “I did that when I did it.  Geesh.” answered Jonghyun, annoyed as he placed the ear bud back into is ear canal. 

                Kyuhyun rolled his eyes.  This kid is so full of himself, he thought.  When we get home, he’s going to get his whooped by Mom for sure.

                Activity 5: Take time and have a date!!  Watching movies are prohibited!  Send pictures to me of all the places you and your partner went to at the end of the day!  Have fun! ~Mrs. Kim

                Jonghyun and Sungmi haven’t exchanged a single word after the incident at all.  When Activity 5 was sent to them, they texted to each other about where they should meet.  Sungmi was still sick from the incident a week ago and wore a face mask because of her coughing.  Jonghyun on the other hand, tried to keep the flashbacks coming back to him.  He felt so bad that he caused Sungmi so much pain, that he just pretty much swallowed his ego.

                “So, where do you want to go?” asked Jonghyun, after they meet at a street corner.   Sungmi shrugged her shoulders.  “You don’t mind if I choose the places we go to today?”  She shook her head. 

                Jonghyun decided that they should go to the COEX Mall, since there are many stores it might keep them busy for some time.  When they were on the subway, he would ask her questions about how she is doing and etc.  Sungmi would just answer with one or two words.  Did I scare her?, thought Jonghyun, worried.  For some reason, she didn’t seem to be the same anymore.  She wasn’t the same annoying, witty Sungmi anymore.  He let himself wondered what happened when she fell in the water.  Did she hit her head?

                “Can we get something to drink?” asked Sungmi.  The pair had been window shopping for some time.

                “Sure.” answered Jonghyun.

                They were on the 15^th floor, the top floor.  The food courts were on the seventh floor.  The pair went to the secret elevator that was hidden well by the design of the mall.  Not a lot of people use and Jonghyun likes it.  Since it was close to Christmas, there were many last minute shoppers.  He didn’t want him and Sungmi to be crammed in one of the other elevators.  It was just too agonizing.

                Jonghyun and Sungmi stepped into the secret elevator and pressed the number 7.  The doors closed quickly and then it started to go down.  Jonghyun stared awkwardly at the digital numbers as they went down the floors.  It was too quiet with Sungmi and he found it very uncomfortable.  He was secretly hoping that she would return to her old self and start saying some rude comment about him, but she never did.  When the elevator came close to level 10 it shook a bit, causing Sungmi to let out a little scream.  Then, it just stopped and the lights went out.

                Jonghyun quickly dug into his pants.  He remembered that his mom gave him a mini flashlight keychain in case the power went out or if he went hiking and got lost.  He hasn’t used it once and thought his mom was crazy.  She even made him carry extra batteries in his wallet in case those batteries in the mini flashlight went bad.  At first Jonghyun complained that it was too heavy, but eventually he got used to it.  He the flashlight and set it on the floor.  He felt wrong if he was to direct the flashlight at Sungmi for some strange reason.  As soon as Jonghyun his flashlight, Sungmi pressed hard on the emergency button.  After she did so, she went to one of the corners of the elevator and sat down, coughing.

                “When we get out of this elevator, I will take you home.” said Jonghyun, as he looked down at his phone.  No signal.  He took a seat, at the corner across from Sungmi.

                “You don’t have to.” she said.  She finally talked to him.

                Jonghyun looked up.  “No, let me take you home.” he persisted.

                “You don’t have to be nice to me.” said Sungmi.

                Jonghyun sighed, as he his phone camera.  “Mrs. Kim.  You said that you wanted pictures of Sungmi and my date…  Well, I’m going to be sending you a video.” he said, as he pointed the camera to Sungmi.  She looked so innocent and afraid to Jonghyun.  “As you can tell,” He pointed the camera upwards to the ceiling to the elevator.  “We’re stuck in a elevator at the COEX Mall.  Here is the reality that you wanted.”  Jonghyun turned the camera to himself.  “Who knows how long we’ll be stuck in here…  Are you happy that you are given the reality you wanted?”  He stopped the recording and placed his phone aside.  “I am going to take you home, Sungmi.”

                “You don’t need to be nice to me.” she said.

                “I-” started Jonghyun.

                “I don’t need your pity.” interrupted Sungmi.

                Jonghyun shook his head.  “No, I need to.” he said.  “I feel so guilty about what I did…”

                “I don’t understand.” said Sungmi, with a weak voice.  “I don’t understand why you hate me so much…”  She starts crying.  There was something about her cries that Jonghyun knew that was genuine and that it wasn’t like the act like she pulled at Myeongdong.  “When I feel into the water, I thought that I was going to die…  I was so numb by the coldness of the water that I couldn’t move or struggle at all.  And, then, I could see you up at the roadside, looking down…  Doing nothing…”  Sungmi let out a cry.  “I really thought that you were going to let me die in that river.”

                Shocked, Jonghyun stared at the girl.  “I-It wasn’t on purpose…” he said, choking on his own words.  “I never meant to push you into the river.”

                Sungmi bit her lips, as she listened to him.  “The truth is…  I don’t like you Jonghyun.” she said.  “I know that you were doing all those mean things to me because you thought so, but I don’t.”  She shook her head.  “I like Lee Jonghyun, Kim Jonghyun…  The person I like is Lee Jonghyun, who is Number 1.”

                Jonghyun stared at the girl.  He let out a short breath, as he leaned on the wall behind him.  “I-I’m sorry.” he said.  “I’m sorry…”

                Kyuhyun looked over at Sungmi.  She was beautiful.  Her hair was down and wavy, contouring her face.  She was wearing a black winged liner paired with a pair of bright coral lips.  He found her lips inviting kissable and then he curse Jonghyun silently for interrupting them last week.  She looked over at him and smiled.  He couldn't believe that Jonghyun and her were stuck in an elevator for 2 hours.  Whatever happened in there, Jonghyun wouldn't say anything about it.  He said just kept on saying that they were stuck in there for some time.

                “What?” she asked.

                “Nothing.” answered Kyuhyun, as he shook his head tearing his gaze elsewhere.  “Jonghyun said that the other day, you guys were stuck in an elevator…  So, how was it?”

                “He apologized.” said Sungmi.

                Kyuhyun smiled.  “That’s good!” he said.  “I’m glad that he’s nicer to you, even if it is out of pity.”  Sungmi nodded her head, as she took a sip of her cappuccino.  “You know, that he is a real brat, but every brat has their secrets.”

                “Oh, yeah?  How so?” asked Sungmi.

                Kyuhyun’s grin grew wider, if possible as he sipped his coffee.  “Well, for starters, Kim Jonghyun is a real wuss.” he said.  “He calls himself the King of Skinship, but really…  He’s afraid to hit homerun.”

                Sungmi gave Kyuhyun a confused look.  “You mean…  Jonghyun is-”

                “Still a ?  Yeah!  He’s still one.  I don’t know how, but it must had been after that Song Chungcha girl, who was a high school senior at the time, dated him when he was in 8^th grade…  Everyone thought that he was laid…  Well, he wasn’t.  Jonghyun doesn’t seem to be interested in sleeping with girls at all, which is good. He just likes how they worship him.  Thank God!!   I mean, the worse would be if he impregnated a girl…  “ said Kyuhyun.  “The other thing is that my mom wanted a girl so bad that when Jonghyun was younger, she would let his hair grow long…  And, then, she would braid it and do all these girly things to his hair.  For the first few years of both our lives, we forgot that Jonghyun was a boy until he takes his daily bath.  It happens all the time.  A year before he went to preschool, my mom stopped all that girly things.  Then, I forget that he’s a brother not a sister, so sometimes I would accidently say that I have a sister…”

                “I question his uality now.” said Sungmi.

                Kyuhyun let out a laugh.  “Those first 3 years of his life did NOT affect him at all, Sungmi.  He was interested in girls from day one, believe me.  When Jonghyun was 3, my mom took him to the park and he met an older girl.  Mom says that Jonghyun hasn’t even met that girl for 3 minutes yet and he had already kissed her on the lips.  He’s straight.” he assured.  “I know that he watches every now and then thanks to my -obsessed friend, Changmin.”

                “Do you watch it too?” asked Sungmi, curious.

                Kyuhyun shrugged his shoulders.  “It depends if I feel up to it, but videos are really fake.” he said.  “It’s not like the real thing.”  Sungmi eyed him suspiciously.  “I will never harm you in any way, I promise Sungmi.  I am a junior in college, remember?  Of course I lost my purity.”  Sungmi smiled and Kyuhyun smiled back.  “Going back to Jonghyun, he’s a really lazy when it comes to cooking.  He’d rather starve then cook for his own survival…  He’s good with everything else, except for that.  I think my mom babied him too much, that’s why he’s like that.  I told him that he needs to learn how to cook or he can never live out on his own; he’ll never survive!!  From what he tells me, it seems like he doesn’t stay interested in a girl for a really long time.  The reason why his relationships never last longer than a month is because he gets tired of his girls easily.

                “Jonghyun was a fat kid.  He’s skinny now, but then…  He was big when he was in elementary.  Really big.  You can say obese, but it must be baby fat because of my mom’s loving.  It was like one summer, all that fat just disappeared and he became athletic.” said Kyuhyun, with a smile.  “The reason why Jonghyun and I look different is because he looks like Grandpa from Mom’s side of the family and I look like Dad.  That is why people never knew that we were related.”

                Sungmi laughed.  “I still can’t believe that the King of Skinship is a !” she said.  “That’s just too weird…”

                Kyuhyun looked at his watch.  “Oh, we should get going!” he laughed.  “We’re going to be late now because of me.”

                By the time Kyuhyun and Sungmi got into the hall, a band had already started playing.  It was a concert of at least 6 different underground bands that were popular in Seoul.  For this event, the bands get paid some money for coming because the bands have many fans.  The place was packed like crazy.

                “OK, you guys!” said a voice, over the microphone.  “We’re going to move onto something about L-O-V-E.  Well, my lovely ladies out there, I know that you all absolutely adore this song.”  So many people were screaming that Sungmi couldn’t almost hear his voice.  Since she was short, she couldn’t even see the stage.

                Kyuhyun turned to Sungmi, with a smile.  He didn’t see her smile under the face mask, but he could tell by the shape of her eyes.  “My friends are on.” he said.  “It how I was so excited about spilling Jonghyun’s secrets that I forgot about the time.  We missed their opening song.”

                “Yeah…” said the same voice as the band members started to play the music.  “CN to the Blue…  To the sky high, get’em high…”

                 Screams were drowning out the lyrics to the song, but Sungmi could hear the music it clearly.  It was a catch rock song.  Every now and then, she could catch the chorus of the song.  She thought that she heard a familiar voice within the song, but there were too many people screaming.  She tried to hear his voice more clearly, but it was impossible.  Before Sungmi realized it, the song was done.

                “Come on.” said Kyuhyun, as he grabbed her hand.  “We’re going to go meet my friends.”

                There was a security guard there, not letting fans in.  There were fans furiously begging, but he kept shaking his head.  The moment he saw Kyuhyun, he smiled.   “Who is she?” asked the security guard, gesturing to Sungmi.

                Kyuhyun smiled.  “She’s my friend.” he said.  “She’s with me.”

                “Go ahead.” said the security guard.

                Sungmi smiled.  “Thank you.” she said, as she bowed. 

                As they were passing by people, Sungmi saw a guy that looked familiar.  He was handsome, tall, and skinny.  Sungmi frowned, she’s seen many guys like that before.  He smiled at her and she smiled a small smile back.  Kyuhyun seemed to know everyone backstage because he kept on saying hi.  He pulled her here and there until they came to a closed door.  There was a piece of paper there that said, CN Blue along with their time on the stage.  Kyuhyun turned to smile at her, as he knocked on the door.  While he was distracted, Sungmi slipped her hand out of his.

                The person that opened the door was Minhyuk’s friend’s brother, Yonghwa.  “Hi, Kyuhyun!” he said, as he entered the waiting room.  “Hi, Sungmi!”

                “Hi, Yonghwa.” smiled Sungmi, as she stepped in the room.

                There was a loud crash and her head whipped to where the sound came from.  There stood Minhyuk, nervous.  “N-Noona.” he said, as he his dry lips.

                “Minhykie…” said Sungmi, surprised.

                “Are you guys together?” asked Kyuhyun, randomly.

                A confused looked flashed across Sungmi’s face, as she turned to Kyuhyun.  But, Minhyuk caught his attention.  “Oh, we’re together in every single way.” he answered, with a wide grin.

**NOTE: Yay!!  CN BLUE is here!!!  Woot woot!!  I'm so happy!!  Not that I wasn't happy before!!  It's just that they've finally made their appearance!!  And, that means NUMBER 1 will finally be in the spot light!!!  *screams*  I am so happy!!  (I'm also very happy because I am listening to CN Blue's "Love"!  It will always be the BOMB!!)

LOVE,

loveFORyunho