“Stop pouting. That lady said nothing but the truth.”

“She called me cute, hyung!” Sanghyun whined. “I am not cute!... Wait, you think I’m cute?”

Joon rolled his eyes at him, but he turned away, hiding his blush.

“C’mon, let’s get this done with,” Joon said with a huff, pulling Sanghyun by the hand towards the zoo. “I don’t know why I let Dara-noona convince me to come here with you.”

“It’s not like you have anything better to do,” Sanghyun countered. “Besides, we can go to the rides after the safari tour. I know you wanna ride the Viking.”

Joon crossed his arms over his chest, and pretended to think about Sanghyun’s words.

“Oh, alright, but you owe me.”

“YAY!”

~*~*~*~*~

Sanghyun barely focused on the animals as the bus drove around their habitats, despite how much he assured Joon he was having fun.

He still had two more days to dress as a girl, but he really was counting the seconds until those days were over. Joon had been a really good friend and kept accompanying him wherever his sister sent him to as part of his punishment, but he was absolutely tired. Tired of dressing up (even if he did look pretty); tired of pretending to be someone else, but most of all, he was tired of being looked at on the street, fearing people would see through his disguise and judge him, without really knowing. He could only be thankful they were in the middle of summer and he didn’t have to go to college dressed like that.

“Yah, Sanghyun-ah, come on! We need to get off the bus!”

He barely heard Joon calling him, but that was because his friend was whispering, trying to avoid being overheardby the rest of the people on the bus. It would sound rather odd for Joon to be calling a girl “Sanghyun” and that would lead to awkward glances from anyone close-by.

“What happened to the name you decided to give me for these kind of situations?” Sanghyun asked, turning away from the window.

“I forgot what it was,” Joon said with a shrug and an awkward smile.

“It’s Sooyeon, hyung.”

“I can barely remember your real name most of the time, kid, how do you expect me to remember a whole new one?”

Sanghyun didn’t remind Joon that he had given him the name.

“Well, it’s not like I need to remember it for much longer,” Joon said. A frown suddenly appeared on his face. “Unless your sisters decide to send us somewhere else again.”

It was a little unnerving that Joon had included himself in Sanghyun’s punishment, but at the same time, it comforted him to know that he had such a good friend.

“Right. Well, for the time being I’m Sooyeon, and we need to get off this bus before we get eaten by a bear.”

”Or by the driver, he’s kind of glaring at us.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was at times like this that Sanghyun wished he’d never made that bet with his sisters. Joon of course found it hilarious, but there wasn’t anything that he found funny since this whole thing began.

And now, I’m phone-less.

How he wished now, that he had gone to the girls’ room when Joon told him to.

I shouldn’t have had that extra soda.

After riding the Viking as he had promised Joon they would, they had gone to eat something before they went back home. He had been really thirsty, so he had ordered another soda, but then, he had needed to go to the bathroom. He had refused to use the restaurant’s restrooms, so they had walked around the park looking for an empty bathroom.

Joon had tried to convince him, in between laughs, to use the girls’ bathroom, because for all intents and purposes he was a girl at the moment.

“I don’t care if I’m dressed like a girl right now, hyung, I need to pee, and I’m not gonna go in there.”

Everything had gone fine until someone came into the bathroom.

It was a boy around his age, with copperish red hair, large eyes that reminded him of a puppy and a wide smile that froze when he saw Sanghyun standing by the sink. At first he didn’t understand why the boy was staring at him, but then he remembered he was dressed like a girl. With a panicked squeal, he ran out of the bathroom. He searched frantically for Joon, but he couldn’t find his friend anywhere.

Finally, he spotted him chatting up a couple of girls, and furious at being left alone, he stomped towards Joon. He tapped his friend on the shoulder and glared at him.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” he asked in an enraged whisper. “Someone went into the bathroom, you could have warned me.”

Joon didn’t even try to explain himself—the girls he had been talking with, left, assuming he was Joon’s girlfriend—; instead he started laughing when he heard someone had caught Sanghyun in the wrong bathroom.

“Shut up!” Sanghyun hissed, and grabbed Joon by the arm, tugging on it to leave the park.

“Hey, don’t talk to me like that!” Joon protested, allowing the younger boy to pull him to the exit.

Joon was saved from being under the wrath of Sanghyun by his phone.

“Yeoboseyo?” he said picking up the call and turning away from Sanghyun. “We’re at the park, noona... yeah, he’s with me... I don’t know... I’ll tell him, don’t worry... okay, bye. It was your sister,” he said, turning back to Sanghyun. “She was worried because you weren’t answering your phone, so she called me.”

Sanghyun frowned, and went to look in the purse he was forced to carry as a prop. His phone wasn’t there.

“Oh, no. I think I lost it.” Stupid, stupid, stupid...

“When was the last time you had it?”

“At the bathroom, I think. I placed it on the sink so I could wash my hands, and then that boy walked in....” He groaned.

“Come on, maybe it’s still there.”

Joon grabbed his hand and they ran back to the bathroom. His friend went in, not wanting Sanghyun to embarrass himself again, and didn’t come out until after ten minutes.

“Did you find it?” he asked, anxiously.

Joon shook his head. “Sorry.”

Sanghyun hung his head in a defeated manner, and at a much slower pace they walked out of the park.

“We’ll go to get you a new one tomorrow, don’t worry,” Joon said, trying to cheer him up. Sanghyun nodded, but didn’t say anything.

He wasn’t really upset about the phone, he was more angry at himself for being so careless.

Joon walked him to his home, and left after giving him a tight hug that was meant to comfort him, assuring him that they’d go to get him a new one the next day.

He got an earful from Dara when he walked inside the house, and it got worse when he told her he’d lost his phone.

“Noona, please, I just want to go to bed,” he said, pleadingly, and Dara let him go, seeing the dispirited look on his face.

I hate my life, he thought, throwing himself on his bed, once he got to his room. He lied there berating himself for being so careless.

There was a knock on his door, and his sister’s head poked in.

“I thought that maybe someone found it, and you could ask them to return it,” Dara said in a soft voice, offering him her phone.

He got up from the bed, and Dara sat next to him, handing him the gadget.

He searched her contacts until he found his number under Gaeddongie. He glared at his sister for a second, and then pressed the call button on the touch screen. It rang three times before it was picked up.

“Yeoboseyo?” a deep voice said, and he somehow didn’t relate it to the boy that had enter the bathroom after him.

“Um, I believe you may have found my phone,” he said. “I was wondering if I could get it back.”

“That’s odd,” the other said. “My friend—he’s the one that found it—said that a girl had left it in the men’s bathroom.”

Sanghyun felt panic rising in his belly. So, that boy did find it, after all, he thought, trying to keep calm. What do I say? What do I say?

“Uh, yeah, I....” How do I explain to a total stranger about the bet I made with my sisters? He’ll think I’m completely insane. “I—I borrowed it to my cousin. She’s a bit clueless sometimes so she probably went into the men’s bathroom by accident.” Dara gave him an odd look, one that demanded explanations as soon as this call was over.

“Well, I guess we could meet up tomorrow so I can give it back to you.” Sanghyun sighed in relief. Thank God for kind strangers, he thought, but his thankfulness was quickly shot down by the mans next words. “With one condition.”

“What is it?” he said, dread lacing his voice. What does this man want from me? Is he a mass murderer and he’s going to kill me with an axe, and then hide my body parts all over the country?

“I’d like to meet your cousin,” the man said.

“What?”

I finally got a little bit of time off to post this, college is killing me at the moment, so it might take me longer to post a new chapter, but I promise it won't be over a month :D.

Again, thanks to everyone who has subscribed to this story or left a comment, every time I saw those little notifications it made me feel so guilty for not posting anything.

I hoped you liked this chapter! It's kind of obvious who has Doong's phone, isn't it? Hehehehe.

Until next time~~!