As you walked into the lounge, you noticed that the two sofas were almost full, there wasn’t much space left for you.

“Mélodie!” Ricky grinned when he saw you. “Come sit over here.” He smiled happily, shuffling over towards Changjo so that there was room for you to sit next to him. You smiled and sat down beside Ricky, happy that someone wanted to sit with you.

“So, did you enjoy the dinner?” He asked, leaning back against the sofa.

“Yeah, it was really good, I don’t usually eat spicy foods, but it was really nice. It was also very kind for all of Teen Top’s fans to be paying for food for everyone.” You added jokily. Ricky in his lips, beginning to feel a little bit shy, of course, Teen Top had a lot more fans than Popcycle did, but that was because they had been out much longer.

“Well I guess it won’t be very long until Popcycle’s fans are paying for the dinner instead.” Ricky smiled at you.

You weren’t entirely sure what Ricky meant by this, but you took it as a compliment, and smiled back at him. It seemed as though he was trying to say that Popcycle would be successful in the future. Ricky and you continued to talk for a while, but your mind began to wander to what Niel had said during dinner, and how you were to resume filming shortly after. You sighed at the thought.

“What’s wrong Mélodie?” Ricky asked, leaning forwards a little so that he could look at you better.

You sighed again and looked down at the ground, beginning to feel tired, not only with Niel being... Niel, but also with the fact that you had been up since 5:30 am and rehearsing for 3 and a half hours, before you were told you had to leave. You set off and the car journey took you two hours, so you didn’t arrive here while 11. It was now 2 and you had the whole afternoon ahead of you.

“I really don’t want to do these couples games.” You confessed. “I mean... I’d rather be with you than the fishy prince.” You said, looking over at Niel, who was attempting to join in with L.Joe and Jae-Hwa’s conversation, unsuccessfully.

Ricky turned to face you slowly and stared at you with a stunned expression on his face for a couple of seconds. You felt a little surprised at the way he was looking at you in such shock, you hadn’t meant for it to be funny, yet you hadn’t meant for it to be so serious either. Then Ricky burst you laughing. It was so loudly that everyone in the room turned to look at him, confused expressions on their faces.

You didn’t understand why he had just suddenly burst out laughing, and you shrugged your shoulders at the other members of both groups, to tell them that you didn’t know why he was laughing like this either.

“It’s because...” Ricky said, attempting to speak through his laughter. “Because...” He failed again. “’Cause Mélodie just called Niel a...” He paused to laugh again. “A FISHY PRINCE!” He blurted, and with that he burst out laughing again.

The whole room fell into silence, and it seemed as though, for a moment, they had taken it seriously. But then the room erupted into a fit of laughter, and everyone was rolling around, somewhat unable to breathe. Occasionally pointing over at Niel like he was some sort of Alien. Niel looked away from the other members of Teen Top and Popcycle, clearly embarrassed about the comment, and how everyone was now laughing madly at him.

Now you were beginning to find what you had said really rather funny, and you laughed along with the others. You looked over at Niel’s lips, which did look like that of a fish, and burst out laughing at your remark really rather loudly. Niel turned to face you, looking angry, his arms were folded across his chest and he was looking at you with a bitter and cold stare.

“I’m glad you find it so funny.” He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “It’s alright I don’t care.” He added, clearly lying. “Anyway, you can’t say anything, can you? Fairy-floss.”

You stopped laughing and began feeling a little flustered. The way he had said it to you earlier had been almost kind of cute, but now it seemed as though he actually meant it. That your hair did actually look like cotton-candy. You didn’t know if he had meant it as a joke to make the others laugh, or if he was being serious, so you just stared at him.

“Ok guys. It was just a joke.” Changjo laughed lightly, clearly feeling the tension between you and Niel. Then he swiftly changed the subject, taking the attention off of you and Niel.

“We’re ready for you to begin filming again.” A small, thin woman said, appearing round the doorway. “Sit beside your partners please.” The woman said as a couple of cameras were carried into the room and placed in front of both groups. Everyone moved to their partners excitedly, wanting to begin the partners game as soon as possible. All except for you and Niel, who didn’t move. Neither of you could as much as look at each other after what had just happened, and you were not going to go to him.

After a moment you felt someone next to you. You didn’t know who it was, probably one of the other couples coming to sit next to you, but as you turned to see who it was, you were surprised to find that it was Niel. You tried to look at his face, but he was facing away from you, clearly not wanting to talk.

You began to feel a little bit bad about what had happened earlier, the words had slipped out of your mouth before you even had chance to think about what would happen next. Maybe you shouldn’t have said that about Niel, after all, he hadn’t done anything to make the others laugh at you. He had just simply said that he wasn’t happy being your partner. Feeling ashamed at what you had said about Niel, you wanted to apologise to him, but as you turned to face him and opened your mouth, you were interrupted by the production team.

“Rolling!”

“Speed!”

“Mark!”

“Action!”

And before you knew it the cameras were rolling again and you were putting on a fake smile, still feeling uncomfortable sitting next to Niel.

“Ok.” One of the women began. “This is a couple’s relay. The aim of the game is to be the first one to the finish. The boys will go first, and they must find candy in a bowl of flour.” The woman was cut off by the girls laughing and flirting with their partners. You also found it quite funny, and were about to laugh too, until you noticed Niel’s glare, clearly telling you not to. “Then they will have to eat the candy, whilst putting bags of potatoes around their legs. They will have to jump back to the girls, as they will struggle to walk with the weight on their ankles, and they hi-five each other. Then it is the girls turn. The girls must put their hands into a bowl of... well, substance, and find keys. They will then have to see if the key is the correct one by attempting to open their box. Once they have found the correct key, and the box opens, they must take what is inside the box, and put it round their neck. They then re-join their partners in the middle of the course. The boys must then give the girls a piggy-back ride to the finish line.”

“Your rewards are in jellybeans.” Another woman took over. “The first to arrive at the finish will get five jellybeans, the second, four, the third, three, and so on. The last team to arrive will get none, and will also have to prepare dinner for the other members. The jellybeans you receive will be important in future games you play. So you must not eat them.”

Once the staff had finished explaining the rules of the game, you were given time to re-act in front of the cameras. Everyone seemed very excited, including you, and you were already making up a plan to win in your head. Out of your excitement you began to tell Niel your plan, but stopped halfway when you realised that he probably wasn’t listening, and probably didn’t care either. You looked across at Niel, expecting him to not be listening to you, but when you turned towards him, he was looking back at you, a blank expression on his face.

“Look, I know we haven’t really been getting on that well...” You began, suddenly feeling shy again now that Niel was looking at you and sitting so close. “But could we just try not to finish in last place?”

Niel continued to look at you with the same expression on his face, not saying anything. You had hoped that Niel would agree to not finish last, and you were beginning to grow a little desperate for him to acknowledge you.

He didn’t say anything, but he eventually nodded. You turned away from him, smiling a little in relief. It wasn’t a big thing, but at least he had nodded. Maybe it was something more than this kind of mutual-hate relationship which the two of you had somehow managed to form.

The cameras were turned off and the camera and sound people left. You followed the two women who had given you the instructions of the game outside, where the game was to take place. The garden round the back of the house was rather large, and the course and cameras were already set up, ready for you. It was rather cold outside, but it seemed as though no-one minded, they were all to excited to play the game to care about the temperature.

The boys lined up on the starting line, and the girls went and stood in the middle of the course. The cameras were switched on and one of the women whistled. Then... The game began! The boys ran towards their bowls of flour, dipping their heads into the bowls to search for the candy with their mouths.

At first you felt a little awkward watching them, but the more you looked at Niel, the funnier it became. This was the Niel that you had been used to seeing, the one who was always light hearted and in good spirits, the one who was always competitive in variety shows (no matter how much he failed). You laughed along with the other girls, as you watched Niel hunt for the candy with his mouth. You expected him to win with his big lips! You cheered in support of Niel as he put the bags of potatoes onto his legs after he had found the candy.

“Oh God, It’s horrible!” He complained, scrunching his face up a little as he tried to eat it. “It’s so hard, I can’t actually eat it! Oh my God! It tastes so horrible! Oh God!” He moaned, scrunching his face up even more.

“Hurry up and stop complaining!” You laughed. “Come on!”

Niel looked over at you, his eyebrows furrowed and an unimpressed look in his eyes. Then he went back to putting the bags of potatoes on his legs and complaining about how horrible the candy tasted. The cameras were still filming and you did your best to act like nothing had happened, but you stopped cheering for Niel as you didn’t like the way that he had looked at you.

Niel eventually reached you and gave you a sloppy half-hearted hi-five with no enthusiasm at all. You plunged your hands into the sticky substance which was in the bowl and hurriedly began looking for your key.

“Ew! It’s so disgusting!” Cho-Hee squealed, shutting her eyes and scrunching up her nose. Cho-Hee wasn’t the only one complaining, in fact, ever girl other than you was about how horrible it was, but you tried your best to block their complaints out and focus on the task at hand. You really wanted to win, even if Niel wasn’t going to help you.

You smiled as you found a key, pulling it out and looking up at Niel, hoping to see that he approved. Of course, Niel didn’t do anything, just continued to watch you with an un-impressed expression on his face. You attempted to open the box with the key, but failed miserably. This happened again another few times, each time you had somehow managed to pull out the wrong key.

Some of the girls had already found the right key and were beginning to put funny looking necklaces around their necks. This only made you want to find the key faster so that you didn’t lose. Eventually you found the right key and opened the box, pulling out the necklace and looking at it.

“OK! NOW PUT IT AROUND YOUR NECK SO WE CAN FINISH!” Niel shouted, making the others all laugh. You put the necklace on and ran towards Niel.

Once you reached him you stopped in front of him, waiting for him to move so that you could climb onto his back, but Niel didn’t budge.

“Quickly!” You said hurriedly, not really knowing what else to do.

Niel sighed and crouched down slowly so that you could climb onto his back. Niel didn’t hold your legs for you; he just stood up and began to move forward. Instinctively, you wrapped your legs around his waist tightly, and threw your arms around his neck, not wanting to fall off. Now that you were sitting on Niel you began to feel really shy, you had never been this close to a boy ever before in your life, never mind one that was you ex-bias.

“Don’t touch me.” He mumbled in complaint. “Your hands are all sticky.”

Hearing him complain like that made you feel angry at him, what the hell was this boy’s problem? One minute he’s sort-of cheering you on and telling you to put on the necklace, and the next he’s telling you not to touch him because your hands are sticky. Thinking about what happened at dinner and the promise that you had made to yourself that you were going to make Niel’s life as hard as possible, you couldn’t help but smile as an idea formed in your head.

You clasped one hand onto Niel’s face, managing to cover most of it with your outstretched fingers. Your palm was on his cheek, one of your fingers was dangerously close to poking him in the eye, another was almost going up his nose and the rest were on and around his mouth. Pulling your hand away from his face (making sure to drag it through his fringe a little) you let out a small gasp.

“Oops! Sorry! I didn’t mean to do it on purpose!” You lied.

Niel stopped walking and turned towards you with a glare. His face was covered with sticky stuff and it had got in his fringe a little.

“Go on... Hurry...” You smiled innocently, gesturing for him to move towards the finish line.

Niel began to walk slowly, doing it on purpose, clearly just to annoy you. By now all of the other teams had finished and were beginning to make fun of you, saying how slow you were and how you needed to co-operate more. You were beginning to get angrier, Niel was covered in goo, you were balancing precautiously on his back, and the others were all teasing you about being in last place.

“Why aren’t you running? FISHY PRINCE!” You shouted, but then immediately shut your mouth. You had forgotten that the cameras were still filming you and you had just... let it out.

The others all began laughing at you and you joined in, feeling a little uncomfortable but not wanting to look silly in front of the camera.

Niel didn’t laugh, just continued to stare at the ground as he walked slowly towards the finish line. As soon as you crossed it everyone else applauded you and you climbed off of Niel quickly. You continued to smile for the cameras, but inside you were worrying about Niel. How was he going to act around you after you had done this to him? Clearly things were not going to get any better.

The women handed out the jelly beans to the teams: Changjo and Soo-Min got 5; Ricky and Ae-Sook got 4; Chunji and Cho-Hee got 3; L.Joe and Hae-Hwa got 2; C.A.P and Young-Mi got 1 and you and Niel were left with none.

“You will have to make dinner outside in the cold.” The lady said as she eventually reached you both. “I’m sorry guys. Better luck next time!” She smiled.

You both sighed and the filming was cut. As the cameras stopped rolling you immediately dropped the fake smile that had been on your face. You felt really ashamed at how you had acted with Niel, putting sticky stuff on his face and calling him ‘fishy prince’ again. That wasn’t the sort of thing you would normally do, but Niel had been so irritating to you recently that you couldn’t really help it; he was beginning to drive you insane!

Everyone else had already gone inside, and you wanted to find Niel to apologise to him. You walked into the house and into the living room, where all of the others were sitting on the sofas. You scanned the room for Niel, but you couldn’t see him.

“Niel’s already outside preparing dinner, just round the corner from where the game was held.” A small fat man (clearly one of the catering staff) smiled at you as he noticed you stood in the doorway of the living room, looking a little confused. “I think you had best go join him.” He smiled at you, and with that he walked off.

You slipped on a warmer hoodie, before heading outside, to see Niel sitting on a wooden bench, waiting for the catering staff to give him the ingredients. Looking at Niel you felt a little pitiful. Of course, it seemed as though he didn’t like you very much, but you couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him.