Onew aruptly turns around to face the single file line. "My dear friends," he announces in his most regal voice, "I am here to say welcome to..."

He sweeps his arm out to gesture towards the whole building. "The aquarium." His voice is sinister, deep, and a tad bit mysterious: just like all the awesome magicians Onew has ever seen on TV. He feels very, very proud of himself.

(He'd practiced it, you see, the night before. There is plenty of reason for him to be proud.)

The group breaks out into loud clapping and whooping, as Onew bows multiple times in succession. "Thank you, thank you." He clears his throat. "Now, ladies and gentlemen--"

"I thought we were friends?"

"--no interruptions! As I was saying, ladies and gentlemen, we shall now commence the greatest aquarium trip in the world. Follow me!" Abruptly, he turns and head towards the entrance. The others trail behind, chattering excitedly.

The ticket booth lady smiles. "Eleven tickets, yes?"

"Yes, ma'am, with student discounts for all."

"That will be $121."

The group members gulp. Onew hands over the money with shaking hands. "Thank you, ma'am," he says weakly, with a weak smile as he draws his hand back weakly. His aura of importance gone, he feels very weak.

"That's a lot of money, over."

"Taemin agreeing with Sulli, over."

"I believe everyone would agree with her, over."

"Taemn agreeing with Key hyung, over."

Onew briefly frowns at the ones using the secret spy stuff for decidedly unsecret conversations. Turning slightly away from Victoria and Nickhun, he whispers into his own as well: "Please don't misuse these thingies. They are for Khuntoria dealings, over."

"...sorry, over."

With a barely perceptible nod of approval, he gestures to the whole group grimly. "We are now venturing into the land of the sea," he pronounces in his grave voice. "Are you ready?"

Following this very important atmosphere, the whole group nods seriously as well.

"Then... let us go!!" Onew's cry of adventure is answered with more adventure cries, which persists until the last of them pass the door. Unbeknownst to them, the ticket booth lady watches on with an amused smile, laughing to herself once they are gone: there aren't that many excited people in such huge groups in such ages, after all. She shakes her head, feeling nostalgia as she remembers her own teenage years, full of fun and friends.

 

Inside the aquarium, the girls and boys are silenced. Mouths dropped open, and they stare at the brightly lit not-really-a-wall wall, full of sea creatures swimming by.

“Look! Look! A stingray!” Sulli points.

Krystal swallows dryly. “It’s so beautiful,” she whispers.

Taemin cannot talk: he is too awed.

Minho, also entranced with the stingray, says, “I never knew stingrays had a face like that.”

“Me neither,” says Luna. She is just as wide-eyed as the others.

Onew cries, “It’s Nemo!”

“Where? Where?” Amber rushes to Onew.

Victoria says, “It’s not only Nemo, it’s Dori too!”

“Where? Where?” Amber rushes to Victoria. You see, Amber’s favorite movie as a child had been Finding Nemo. She had even had a stuffed Nemo and Dori doll when she was 5. The movie held lots and lots of significance for her, and still does.

“Is that a hammerhead shark?” Key gulps. “It looks so… real.”

“A shark? With all these other fishies? Is that safe?” Jonghyun points out.

Nearby, Taemin shrugs, finally regaining consciousness enough to hear other people. His eyes don’t leave the tank, though, as he says, “It’s probably trained or something.”

“Guys! Look what I found!” Sulli says. At this sound, they reluctantly tear their gazes from the tank and rushes to where Sulli is: the next tank.

“Whoa,” they say collectively. Silence reigns for a few seconds as they take it all in.

“It’s… It’s…” Minho can’t say it-- it’s too wonderful.

“But how…” Victoria can’t help but trail off-- it’s too eye-capturing.

“This is…” Onew can’t label it-- it’s too awesome for descriptions.

“…starfish.” Krystal says it. She isn’t that impressed. “You guys are dead about starfish.” If anyone had glanced at her face then, they would have seen the ‘really, guys?’ face she was making, the -_- face.

“Yes, starfish,” Luna breathes out dreamily. “They’re beautiful.”

Fervent nods answer her statement, though the statement needed no answers.

“I don’t get you guys sometimes,” Krystal sighs. “I’m going to go look for seahorses.”

Taemin snaps to attention. “Seahorses! I shall accompany you, friend.” He steals one last glance at the starfish, longing evident. However, he really, really likes seahorses, and so he can’t help it.

Jonghyun remembers something very important right then: the very reason why he’d come to this aquarium in the first place! It was… it was… “DOLPHINS!”

Two hands shoot up, and two voices simultaneously shout, “COUNT ME IN!” Those two turn out to be Key and Amber, who glare at each other for a second but, well, dolphins. A fight was too not important right now.

Minho nudges his sister. “Yo, Ssul, want to go for you-know-what?” he whispers.

Sulli gasps. She had totally forgotten about the you-know-what, even though it is her favorite you-know-what in the whole history of you-know-whats. She can’t believe that she’d completely left you-know-what in an unknown corner of her mind, and she is very thankful to her great brother for mentioning the you-know-what.

“To the you-know-what we go!” she says triumphantly. Her eyes telepathically tell her brother, “You awesome, yo. Keep doing it.”

In answer, her brother telepathically says, “Can’t stop even if I wanted to, yo. It’s natural.” They share a grin, link arms, and skip off. Yes, even Minho skips.

Onew suddenly has a weird feeling, as if there had been a great purpose why they’d come to the aquarium for. It feels very important, but he can’t seem to remember… Didn’t it have something to do with two people? But whom? He focuses very hard until he hears…

“Penguins!”

“Yes!” Onew says immediately. Maybe that had been the great purpose? “Penguins!” he repeats.

Victoria gasps happily. “Penguins!” she confirms, beaming at Luna and Onew, the people who want to look for the glorious mammals. “Penguins for me, yes!”

She belatedly remembers the being next to her, and sheepishly smiles at him.

He is openly laughing, not ever having seen this bright and childish side of Victoria. “I’ll go with you,” Nickhun says with a grin.

“No need to laugh at me,” she grumps, but in the end she's also smiling.

This type of scatteredness lasts for an hour as groups combine, disperse, wander around and whatnot. The whole idea of getting Khuntoria together is completely forgotten as the self-named “spies” and “matchmakers” drown in awe of the sea creatures.

After the hour is up, they all join together at the seal show bleachers, awaiting in anticipation whilst talking to themselves.

“Show me the pictures! C’mon!”

“Sister, learn to wait. Oh, here it is.”

“Guh, my face didn’t come out. It‘s too dark.”

“I can’t do anything about the lighting.”

“But my face! You can’t even tell it’s me!”

“It’s fine, Taem. Your hair tells us who you are.”

“Yeah, Minho oppa’s right. It looks fine! The fishies came out pretty, too.”

“Fish, Sulli, fish. Not fishies.”

“Grammar is not my problem right now.”

“I don’t think it’s grammar, Ssul. Vocabulary?”

“Whatever. Not right now. Back to the fishies.”

“Fish.”

 

“I can’t believe I’ve seen a penguin for real!”

“Why do you like penguins so much?”

“Well, Vic unnie really likes Pororo, you know.”

“Luna!”

“Really? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Stop laughing, Khun.”

“Aww, don’t sulk, unnie.”

“You’re… you’re gross, Luna.”

“Unnie!”

 

“Those dolphins: phenomenal, I tell you.”

“Yeah. High five, Jonghyun hyung.”

“I liked them, but I liked that one shark better.”

“Which one?”

“You know, the one Jjong oppa got scared of and hid behind you?”

“Hey!”

“Oh, that one. Yeah, that one was pretty cool. It didn’t hurt to have such a scaredy cat around too, though.”

“Heh.”

“Hey!”

“Wow, them two’s actually getting along! They agreed on something! Krystal, did you see that?”

“See what?”

“Key and Amber. They agreed on something!”

“That’s pretty rare. They must’ve gotten closer.”

“No wait, I think they’re going to fight.”

“Still, at least they had a conversation, Onew oppa.”

“Yeah, at least they’ve become capable of talking without fighting, even for some random seconds.”

“Better than nothing, oppa.”

“True.”

 

“The seal show will be starting in 5 minutes. Please quiet down and stay in your seats. Repeat, the seal show…”

The group quiets down and stays in the seats, just as the intercom instructed, and except for the occasional whisper, they give their attention to the still-dark tank in front of them.

After a few more minutes, the lights dim and the tank lights up in fluorescent blue. The eleven people hold their breath in wide-eyed anticipation, and the show starts.

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen!”

 

 

•      •     •     •

 

“Was that awesome, or was that awesome!” grins Jonghyun.

“Both!” Sulli and Taemin choruses, right next to the dinosaur.

Victoria laughs at the two. “Aww, you two are just precious. It was super adorable though, that show.”

“I enjoyed that thoroughly, though I don’t think Amber did,” Nickhun notes. “Are you okay?”

Amber shakes her head. “It’s just--”

Key snorts. “She’s being weird again. Don’t worry about her.”

She doesn’t answer, but punches Key on the arm not-so-gently.

“Ow!”

Luna is worried as well. “Amb, you sure you’re fine? You didn’t smile even once!”

Amber frowns disapprovingly. “It was just so obvious those seals didn’t get much because they were lacking energy. I mean, they could do all the tricks but it wasn’t very lively on their part, you know?” She sighs. “Maybe I can buy them and save them.”

Key stares, aghast. “Are you crazy? With what money? Where are you going to put them anyways?”

“Key, just go away.”

Luna shoos the guy away saying, “Why were you hanging around her anyways if you don’t even like her that much?”

“It wasn’t--”

“Unimportant, maybe later,” she waves her hand around his direction and turns back to Amber.

“We should maybe volunteer at an animal shelter or something, you seem to like animals and…”

Key makes a face and goes to join Minho and Onew, who are in deep discussion.

“Don’t you feel like we forgot something very important?” Onew asks, in his deeply serious mode.

Minho nods gravely. “It’s been nagging at me, but for the life of those seals, I cannot remember what.”

“I don’t know, there was this great purpose why we came here, but what was it? The ultimate question!”

Key feels it too, this intense feeling as if there is something so very great that he has forgotten, something that is the top priority in this situation… he sighs. He really can’t remember, and he’s much too tired to do so as well.

Later he ends up talking to Krystal about whether dropping the prices of the aquarium tickets would be a profitable decision on the part of the aquarium, since more people might come for the cheaper rates. In other words, they talk math and economics and all that smart stuff for no apparent reason except to do so.

 

•      •     •     •

 

 

Later that day, after saying goodbye to the smart college student Nickhun, they ride the bus home in happy silence, as most of them fall asleep (even though it's only 4:00). As they prepare for dinner, they talk about this and that, until suddenly Onew hits the table, stands up, and says, "The PLAN!"

The rest of the group (except Victoria) gasps in recognition. The Plan! Yes! There had been The Plan!"

"Huh?" Victoria asks. "What are we talking about?"

“Noooo,” Taemin moans. “The Plaaan.”

With a devastated expression, Amber shakes her head. “I can’t believe it. We forgot!”

Minho sighs dejectedly. “That’s what was bothering me, then.”

Victoria asks again, “Guys, what is this Plan?”

Krystal merely bites her lip. “We sure are forgetful, huh,” she says softly.

“Well, too late to do anything,” Key says regretfully.

The group sighs all at once, staring miserably at the table. Onew sits back down, and in silent mourning, they eat.

Victoria, amidst this obvious sadness, asks once again: “Wait, what?”

Alas, nobody ventures to tell her, and her dinner becomes one with confusion. As she eats, she repeats the two words "The Plan" over and over, wondering what in the world it is. She tilts her head multiple times as well, but the rest of her fellow companions are too morose to notice.

---

Ew, I'm gross. Two reasons: One, I never updated for such a long time (almost a year) it's embarrassing. Second, I was rereading all the chapters, and the first ten or so chapters are just so badly written, it's not even funny. And the typos-- there are so many! Really, if you find them, please enlighten me. I never notice. Anyways, my sincerest apologies to all of you who are still reading (I doubt there are many of you anymore still hanging on to this story, really), and here's a pretty long chapter to try make up for the humongous gap (not that it will manage to do it, but I'll keep trying). I'm trying to get into the vibe of writing again, and boy is it not very easy. If you're still there, thanks. And I'm very, very sorry. Let's hope I don't ever pull this on you guys ever again. Comments appreciated (I don't blame you if you don't), subscribers welcomed, silent readers very loved as well. And once again, OMIGOSH I'M HORRIBLE PLEASE FORGIVE THIS GIRL!!!