“Aaaaah~what a performance!!”  exclaimed as everybody cheered. We were all sitting in a Pizza Hut at the party table, eating and celebrating a successful rehearsal. I was elated- not only did I get to see everyone’s performance, but I also got to meet some of Korea’s most famous and loved Young Adults- SHINee, Wonder Girls, SNSD, and BEAST. It was a great change, seeing everyone socialize for once, and to just be relatively happy.

I was currently seated between Key and Jessica- two people whom were more fluent in English than I thought, and we were just chattering away, under the careful eyes of Nick and the others, of course. Tae sat across from me, and every once in a while he would look at me and quickly glance away, blushing up a storm. “Today was amazing- only a premonition of the awesome show tomorrow,” another technician called out, and we called out, “Korean Music- Fighting!!!” before toasting our drinks in the air…

As we stood up to go our separate ways, Taeyang tapped me on the shoulder, smiling, “It is okay if we talked in private for a moment? It’ll only be a minute,” he reassured me, and I chuckled. “You don’t have to be so nervous- of course I will.” As the others continued their hard earned merriment, Tae and I stood outside of the restaurant and leaned against its railing and looked out into the chilly night. Taeyang took off his baggy jacket, revealing a long-sleeved shirt underneath it, and he draped this over my shoulders quickly and smoothly. “Thank you, Taeyang-ni.” “No problem.”

“…So, I wanted to apologize again about yesterday, and… if it was okay with you, I wanted to invite you to hang out with me at my dance battle tonight,” the singer finished quietly, looking at me with such sincerity that I mentally swayed for a second. “Of course I’ll come- but you don’t have to keep apologizing my dear; situations come with the territory,” I grinned at him, and he laughed-suddenly a breeze swept up quickly, and it knocked the holder right out of my hair and Taeyang’s band came loose, and our hair whipped in a frenzy around each other’s faces.

“Aah, what a bother,” the crooner said as we hurried back into the lobby and tried to sort ourselves out as the others came to join us. “Oy~ they’re right here you guys, having their private moment without us!!” Ji-Yong said as Junho made a squishy face at us. We said our goodbyes to Minkyung and the gang as we stood in the evening light. Junho poked Taeyang in the chest, “Don’t you go getting any ideas on us, Taeyang- we need no more surprises!!” I leaned against TOP as I said cheekily, “Oh, he doesn’t have any ideas, my dear- only that I’m going with him on a special venue tonight, and you can’t stop me!!”

I hurriedly reached over and flicked TOP, Junho, and Woo on the nose and took off outside the building to the park down the lane, laughing as I heard the thunderous laughter and the footsteps of the others behind me.

I cleared the outermost gate of Gyamdo Park like a true track runner, running up the hill and stopping at the top to watch the others try and catch up-

-Taeyang, Dae, Woo, Nick, Ji-Yong and surprisingly Junsu had cleared the gate easily; the second wave consisted of the taller members –

-Taec and TOP landed gracefully and began to try and outmaneuver the first group, and Junho clearing Seung and Chan as he said, “You’re in my way!!”-

-And then I dodged Nick’s flailing hand; dropping my bag in the sweet grass around my legs I skipped just out of his reach and laughed as I commenced the chase again. “Nah nah nah~ the dogs can’t catch this fox!!” I laughed as Junho just reached the midway of my hill, looking so unexpectedly weary that I laughed hard. “Who *pant* are you calling dogs?!” Dae caught me off guard as he sprung up and scooped me from behind, and he yelled out, “A point to BIG Bang- and you guys have more members than we do!!” Woo cross tackled his fellow hyung around the waist, and the three of us went rolling down a heave before Seung intercepted our bundled rush, laughing.

Ji-Yong caught me off guard as the rest appeared, pulling me free from the waving appendages and whisking me away, “ Don’t worry, Taren-ni~ I’ll be on your side and protect you from these scoundrels!!”

Nick appeared like a storm, coming in and grabbing me around the waist, “No Yong-ni~ that’s the duty of her big brother- ME!!” Yong grabbed a handful of my hair gently and began to flick it quickly across Nick’s face, causing him to yelp and his grip to loosen around me-

-Jay saw his chance, and he pounced on me, laughing, “The leader wins~ the leader wins~!!” but Chan cut in and Taec pushed him away, quickly, “Not if I have anything to say about it!!”

-And then I was airborne, being carried by Taecyeon bridal style, and he was running away from the others at top speed, and trees and greenery whizzed by-

-and then I stretched out a hand, half laughing/screaming, “Stop~ my head!!” and then I was laying on my back, catching my breath, and looking up at the night sky as Taec toppled down next to me, laughing. “Did you really think you could get away from us with that?” the Beastly rapper said, rolling over so that he was on his stomach and next to me, in such a cute pose that I laughed. “Oh, I’m full of surprises, trust me.” Taec leaned into my face and said, “oh really~ I wanna see more”, then he got closer to my mouth…?!-

-And I jumped up as Woo’s head appeared between a bush, yelling, “There they are!!” Rolling an off guard Taec into the bush, there was the satisfying noise of multiple bodies tackling each other in the bush (The 6 foot rapper collided into Woo, Seung, Dae, and a random rabbit, causing a wonderful display of animal cruelty); laughing, I sprinted to the fountain and sat down on the massive marble structure, trying to catch my breath.

-And then I heard a voice say, “And you thought you could get away from me that easily?” TOP appeared around the corner, smug, and completely at ease. I stood up slowly, the laughter still in my stomach, and said, “Stand back, TOP-yah~ I can defend myself against your ways!!” As he smirked and took a step forward, I quickly scooped up some of the sparkling water from the fountain in both of my hands as the others came hurrying around the corner( some unscathed, some with bits of leaves, shrubbery, and bunny fur attached in weird places) and gathered around us. TOP folded his arms calmly, “You wouldn’t dare…” I grinned, and as the first splash of water hit him in the face, I heard Junsu say proudly, “But, she would!!”

All thirteen of us stood there, stock still, as TOP stood soaked from the waist up, and after a pregnant moment, he calmly took off his shades and raised a finger at me, grinning, “Oh~ you’re going down, sister!!” In the next second after that bold declaration, everyone had rushed over to the fountain and began  grabbing water to arm themselves as I declared, “And I’d like to see you try!!”

Chan called out, “Mortal Kombat!!” as Jay, Ho, Nick, Taec, and Tae immediately took their water and came to stand with me, Nick saying, “We won’t let you down, Taren~ we fight for your honor today!!”

Meanwhile, Tae only shrugged apologetically to his Big Bang brothers, saying amicably, “Sorry- but If I stayed it would be an uneven battle of wits!!” Ji-Yong grinned as he stepped forward into no-man’s-land territory, and said cheekily, “No worries~ you will pay for your injustice either way!!” Su-oppa merely stood to the side, saying congenially, “I’ll play referee, so that it can be even for both sides!!” Woo and Chan shrugged and laughed, coming to stand next to Big Bang, “I guess we can help you guys out- if only for today…”

Junsu yelled out, “Fighting~~~~!” And brought down his arm- immediately, chaos erupted as we ran back and forth, splashing each other, laughing, rolling, and pointing at our crazy looks- all the while, Junsu grabbed my camera from my bag and began recording the show, much to his delight. Nick, ever the big brother, defended me as much as he could, while Junho played the role of a true Romeo- he was my human shield every time someone got too close to me. Taec matched TOP height for height, step for step- countering TOP with less-than-reputable splashing, and laughing all the while. Jay was on the offense- able to splash everyone with amazing speed and accuracy, but Seung was not to be out done- he had the art of evasion and recon down to a science!!

Dae and Tae danced around each other, with the former swinging water this way and that while the latter simply smiled and twirled, hopped, and skipped out of the way. “You will go down today, Youngbae-hyung!!” Tae grinned, “So you used my first name- I guess I should take you seriously then!!” In a twist, Ji-Yong showed true leadership and switched places with Tae, laughing as he said, “Jaebeom is not the only Speedy Gonzalez out here!!”

  Everyone was soon soaked to the bone, and we all looked at each other as we erupted in laughter and collapsed on the warm pavement. “Woo~, I think we needed that,” I giggled as Woo held his treasured jacket, now smeared with color, and sighed. Junsu, completely dry, waved the camera and jumped up and down, crying out, “I got it all- I got it all on tape!!” Chan called out from somewhere next to me, “Oy-!!Who won, referee Junsu-shi?!” Everyone at the vocalist expectantly, and Junsu said…..” Tie~~~!!” There was an outcry of, “What?!” as Taec advanced on his hyung, saying half jokingly/half seriously, “Now now, Junsu-yah, we didn’t do all of this just for it to be a silly tie….!!” Seung picked up the tone, starting to close in on Su as well, “I think there should be a penalty on the referee’s head!!” I skipped forward and snatched my camera out of Junsu’s hands as Su started to run for his life, yelling out, “Somebody save meeez!!” as a wave of drenched K-Pop singers, rappers, dancers, and fashionista chased him around the park, just like a cartoon sequence…