And so the day comes, the day the 8 friends go to Barcelona. Meeting at the gates at the airport, everyone checks in their luggage and sits as they wait for their plane. After an excruciatingly long flight (nearly 13 hours), the group makes their way to the hotel and starts to decide room arrangements.

“We booked 4 rooms, so they will have to be shared. With that being said, who wants to room with who?” Onew asks, as Minho holds the 4 keys.

“And no guy and girl room arrangements,” Key points out, eyeing Vera.

“What are you looking at me for? Look at Jonghyun,” she retorts, shifting her focus to the dino who laughs.

“He’s just saying because you and Taemin-ah...” Jonghyun starts.

“I’m not rooming with him~” Vera says, shocking the 7 of them.

Chaerin quickly recovers and throws her arm around her friend’s shoulder. “Because she’s rooming with us! :D” Even Angel smiles.

“Nope. I’m rooming alone,” she says, snatching a key from Minho before the others can protest.

“Boya~? How are you going to room alone?” Key asks, trying to get the key back from her.

“That would mean that 3 of us have to room together,” Minho continues, trying to also steal back the key.

“Too bad, so sad :P” Vera just laughs and runs towards the stairs, leaving the group to decide their own arrangements.

Minkey huffs, too worn out from the flight to chase the girl down, and Jonghyun shakes his head at Taemin. “Sometimes I worry about that girlfriend of yours, Taeminnie.” The maknae just laughs.

Chaerin laughs. “Well, since it’s just us two now, I guess we’ll be rooming together,” she says, as Angel goes up at gets a key from Minho. “See you guys upstairs?”

Minho nods, before sighing. “We have 2 more keys and the 5 of us still needs a room. How are we going to decide?”

“Kai bai bo?” Jonghyun suggests, holding out his fist.

Accepting, the 5 boys gather in a circle and play rock-paper-scissors for the rooms. The results end with Jongyu picking paper, Minkey getting scissors, and Taemin with rock. “Umm...do I get to pick?” he asks, confused.

“We pick you, c’mon,” Key says, grabbing the younger boy’s hand while Minho hands Jonghyun the last key. Too lazy to walk, they just flash up to their rooms after checking for any watching eyes. The vampires walk to their respective rooms and retire for the night. Or at least, that what it seems.

Entering the room, Minho immediately starts to look around, despite the jet lag. While it was 6 pm in South Korea, here in Barcelona, it was only 11 am. They couldn’t feel the jet lag too much now, but it would surely hit them in a few hours. Taemin plops on the nearest bed and stretches out on it. Having to sit still in a cramped airplane seat for 13 hours could do that to a person, especially someone like Taemin; a dancer who found it hard to stay still. “It’s so warm here,” he announces to the plush sheets.

“The view’s really nice, too,” Minho notes as he stares out the large windows that showcased an ocean view.

“Speaking of the weather, don’t forget to put your sunscreen on, Taemin-ah. Wouldn’t want to get burnt by the sun,” Key-umma nags him, as he opens his suitcase looking for something to change into.

“Sunburnt?” the youngest asks, lifting his head up to turn to his hyung.

“We’re on vacation. In Barcelona. What do you think we’re going to do? Stay in our hotel rooms and tell stories?” Key scoffs, as he holds up possible outfits to his body in front of the full length mirror on the closet.

“You want to go out now?” Minho asks, returning back from his mini-adventure through the suite. “Isn’t it too early?”

“Well I figured everyone would be hungry and maybe want to go around a bit, so I think we should get something to eat, walk around a bit, and then go down to the beach,” the blonde shrugs as he picks an outfit and starts on his accessories.

Knowing his age mate was too far to be dissuaded, the taller vampire sighs. “Taemin-ah, are you going to go with him-?”

Now changed into beach gear, the maknae walks towards the door. “Bye hyungs,” he waves, opening the door with a bright smile.

“Yah! Get your sunscreen!” Key yells, throwing the bottle at his head.

Taemin quickly grabs the bottle a second before it hits him and disappears out the door.

The blonde sighs as he shakes his head. “What am I going to do with that child?” he murmurs, with crossed arms. “Anyways, c’mon Minho or else we’re going to leave you,” he says, starting for the door.

“What if I don’t want to go?” he counters, his round eyes widening in shock.

“Well then we’ll leave you,” Key shrugs, before walking out.

“Boya~~!” Minho yells in disbelief.

Taemin wanders around the hallway trying to figure out what room is Vera’s. Deciding to rely on fate, he stands in front of a random door and raises his hand to knock when it opens to reveal a familiar face.

That is not Vera. “Oh hey, Taemin,” Chaerin smiles, but look up at him a bit confused. “Were you looking for Vera’s room? ;)”

Not noticing the tone of her question, the vampire innocently nods. “I was hoping this one was hers...”

I’m sure you were. ;) “Umm, Vera’s room is number 519, I think.”

Taemin smiles widely in gratitude before walking off.

“Wait! Why are you dressed like that?” she asks, pointing out his shorts and knee socks ensemble.

“Oh, Key hyung didn’t tell you? We’re going to the beach :D”

“Really?” Chaerin’s smile widens. “Ok, we’ll be out in a few,” she says, before excitedly closing the door. “Angel, get ready. We’re going to the beach!”

Taemin chuckles, having heard her from the behind the door, as he walks to room 519 with hands behind his back in anticipation. Raising his hand, he taps light knocks on the door. “Vera~?”

What seems like minutes later, Vera finally opens the door. “Oh hey, what’s up?” she asks, with a light smile.

“Yay, this is your room,” he says, smiling triumphantly. “Can I come in?”

The girl nods, leaving the door open as she walks through the rest of the room. “So are we doing something? Because I don’t remember you wearing that on the flight...”

He nods at her observation.“We’re going out for a little while and then going to the beach. Are you going with us?”

“Hmm..I don’t know. Kinda wanted to stay in my room for awhile,” she responds, making a face.

“Please~? It’ll be really fun~. I could even teach you how to swim~,” he pleads, throwing in some aegyo for good measure.

Vera laughs, reaching up to ruffle his hair. “Fine, I’ll go,” she says, acting as if his aegyo persuaded her, when in reality, she was looking for something to do. She just wanted to see which of his tactics would he use to persuade her.

Smiling, he lets her finish playing with his hair before he fixes it. “So you’ll go?”

“Yup,” she says, nodding. “Just give me a sec to change,” she drags her suitcase into the bathroom.

“Really? Did Taemin say that?” Angel asks, bouncing on the bed that was closest to the window.

Chaerin nods. “So c’mon! It’ll be really fun. Maybe you can use some of your Spanish on the locals. You said you knew some, right?”

The younger girl nods. “Ok, I’ll go. It could be fun,” she says, sliding off the bed to open up her suitcase.

Chaerin dances as she dashes off to the bathroom to change.

“Hyung, are you really gonna rest? We could go around for a bit with everyone,” Jonghyun says, trying to pull down the sheets covering Onew.

“I’m tired, we had a long flight. Let me sleep, ok?” the sleepy leader whines, pulling the sheets back up.

“You’ll miss out on lunch, then. What if we get chicken?” the dino teases.

Onew opens his eyes. “Chicken? Did someone say chicken?”

“What will we do if there is too much chicken and no hyung to eat it? We’ll just have to throw it away,” he says, in a dramatically sad voice.

“Leave me all the chicken!” the oldest yells, sitting up in the bed, still wearing his clothes from the flight. “All the chicken for me!!”

Jonghyun laughs at his hyung, pulling the rest of the sheets down. “See, you don’t want to leave all the chicken cold and defenseless. Now why don’t you come with me and we can go through the city with everyone? :)”

Onew sighs, nodding as he thinks of the poor chicken left to fend for itself. “Fine. But I’ll go down later. Still too tired to go now,” he says, laying back down and cuddling with his pillow before swiftly falling asleep.

10 minutes pass and Taemin starts to get antsy. Getting up from the bed, he walks over to the bathroom door. “Vera, are you ready-?”

As her name is said, Vera pushes open the door. “I’m ready,” she nods, slinging a backpack over her shoulders.

Nodding, he reaches for her hand and starts to walk with her, until his hand brushes against her leg. “Oh sorry,” he blushes.

“It’s fine,” she smiles reassuringly with a hidden tinge of deviousness. A day at the beach gave Vera some ideas on how to trick Taemin. ;)

“Angel, are you ready?” Chaerin asks, rushing back in, her skirt whooshing around her legs.

The younger girl nods as she smooths out her skinny jeans. “Yup.”

The unnie puts her camera around her neck and walks towards the door as Angel grabs the room key.

“Oh, looks like everyone’s heading out, then,” Jonghyun notes, as he steps out into the hallway and sees 7 of his friends also exit their rooms.

“Finally you’re all out,” Key says, scanning the group. “Where’s Onew hyung?”

“He said he would join us later,” Jonghyun informs them as they all nod.

“Well c’mon you guys! Let’s head out!” Chaerin announces, raising everyone’s spirits once again.

Excitedly, everyone walks towards the elevator ready to start their adventuring. At the head of the group was Key,Chaerin, and Angel, then Minho and Jonghyun, and finally Taemin and Vera at the end. While Jonghyun had tried to stand with Angel, the younger girl had shied away from his presence and clinged to her unnie. Key, as well as the rest of them save for Vera, was worried about the girl, he tried his best to give her her privacy and not read her troubled thoughts.

After finding someone for everyone to eat, the friends decide what they’ll be doing. “So who’s going to the beach?” Vera asks, as she finishes her lunch/breakfast thing. “Cuz I am :)”

“I am!” Taemin exclaims, raising his hand.

She glares. “We knew that already, pabo,” she says, before playfully pushing him.

The rest of them laugh at their interaction, while Chaerin documents this with her camera. “We’ll be going to the beach,” she says, looping an arm around Key’s shoulders, albeit awkwardly, due to the height difference.

“So you can stalk us I see,” Vera counters, watching the duo suspiciously.

Key laughs, trying to cover their very obvious intentions. “No, not at all.”

“Hyung, you know you’re such a bad liar,” Taemin spouts, sticking his tongue out.

“Fine! Just one picture and we’ll leave you two alone,” the unnie begs, holding her camera up pleadingly.

The couple reluctantly stands up and stand next to each other. Taemin puts his arm around Vera’s shoulders and she slings her arm around his waist. “Ready?” they ask, with serious faces.

Quickly standing in front of them with her camera ready, Chaerin gives them a thumbs up while everyone turns to watch.

Seconds before the flash goes off, the two friends count down in their heads. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! On 1, they make the dumbest faces at the camera, causing all their friends to laugh, including the photographer. The couple do a high-five before nonchalantly returning to their seats like nothing happened.

Still laughing from his friends’ antics, Jonghyun says he’ll also join them at the beach and turns to Angel, who slumps a bit in her seat at his gaze. “Angel, what about you?”

“....Minho-oppa?” she asks, turning to him, as she ignores her boyfriend.

“...I’m going around to take some pictures, first, and then I’ll meet you guys at the beach,” Minho says, awkwardly, as he remembers the conversation he shared earlier with Jonghyun. The latter asked him whether he knew what was wrong with Angel since she had been quiet and very distant towards him, but Minho couldn’t offer any answers as he was as confused as his hyung.

“I’ll go with Minho-oppa, then,” Angel replies, going back to finish her meal.

The tallest vampire scans the table to see if anyone knows what’s up with her and notices Vera trying to avoid his eye contact. He starts to stand up wanting to speak with her.

Key notices this and follows his gaze. I’’ll talk with Vera, you talk with Angel.

Minho nods, sitting back down. “Ok then,” he says, smiling naturally at the girl.

“If that’s settled, let’s go,” Taemin says, standing up with a smile, not noticing the mood change as he was so excited to spend the day with Vera. Ever since her confession back at Switzerland, the vampire had wanted to teach his girlfriend how to swim and now he finally had the opportunity.

Vera nods, standing up with him. “C’mon you guys,” she says, pulling Key up from his seat.

The blonde laughs, trying to lighten the somber mood, and stands as he grabs Chaerin’s hand. “Ireona,” he says, as he pretends that she’s too heavy for him to pull up.

The human laughs and gets up, waving at Minho and Angel. “Bye you guys~” she smiles, hiding the fact that she too was wondering what happened between the two males. I’ll have to ask Key about that..

“Bye~” Angel smiles widely as she waves, tagging along with Minho.

The beach group walk together in silence for awhile until they finally arrive at the beach. Chaerin and Taemin instantly go off to look for somewhere to change, while Vera and Jongkey go off to search for a place to put their stuff.

“So, Vera...” Jonghyun starts.

“Yeah?” she answers, confused.

“I need to talk with you,” Key interrupts, grabbing her by the arm, leaving the dino to watch their things. Ducking under the roof of an abandoned shack, he releases her from his grip.

“What do you need to talk to me about?” Vera asks, shaking sand from her heels.

“Angel,” he says, taking note of her wandering gaze. “Do you know what happened with her?”

“What do you mean what happened to her? Angel’s fine. :D” the girl lies, throwing in a thumbs up for good measure.

“Vera, I can read your thoughts, so don’t try to lie to me,” he counters, with piercing eyes. “There’s something wrong with her and only you know. So what happened?”

Vera sighs. “I don’t know all of the details, but basically, she’s afraid Jonghyun won’t forgive her about something,” she shrugs.

“Forgive her for what?” he asks, still glaring.

“I don’t know. All I know is that it’s something she did.”

“What, did she kill someone?” he jokes.

Vera laughs, nodding. “That’s what I asked!”

The blonde vampire cracks a smile and nods. “So that’s all you know?”

She nods, obnoxiously to prove her point. “Y~E~S~”

He flicks her arm and laughs as he walks away.

“Yah!” she yells, running after him. Seconds before she can think of tackling him, Taemin appears out of nowhere.

“Vera?” he asks, laughing as he watches her yell at his hyung. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” she says, quickly, before turning to face him. “Wow. I’m proud of you. Who got you to take your shirt off?”

“Jonghyun hyung,” he admits, bashfully, as he tries to cover his bare chest.

She laughs at his embarrassment and pulls him towards where she left their stuff.

“Why aren’t you changed? Are you not going into the water?” he asks, noticing she’s not in her swimsuit yet.

“Oh yeah!” she says, kicking her shoes off into the sand. “Just give me a few seconds,” she says, pulling her shirt over her head.

“O.O You’re changing here?” he asks, grabbing her towel and shielding her from onlookers.

Vera laughs at him, but continues. “I mean, no one cares, so,” she shrugs as she kicks her shorts off.

Taemin looks around to make sure no one (read: guys) are watching and turns back to her. “Are you done?”

“Yup,” she says, with a breezy smile, happy that part one of her plan has worked.

“Oh good,” he says, lowering the towel. Finally looking at her-he subconsciously gave her a once over and gulped-the male possessively slings an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. “Ok, let’s go,” he says, now walking with her towards the ocean water.

The girl just shakes her head at her boyfriend, but walks with him. “So are you going to teach me how to swim or will you keep glaring at every guy on this beach?” she sasses him, with a smirk on her face.

Key watches the happy couple banter while Chaerin awws and snaps a pic of them every 5 seconds. He thinks over what Vera said earlier and decides what to do about everything; whether he should just read Angel’s mind or give her space. While it was obvious the girl hadn’t murdered anyone, the vampire knew she must’ve done something serious for her to hide from Jonghyun like he was the plague. The TaeRa couple was known for being very comfortable with each other, to the fact that they dropped honorifics in the first months of becoming friends with each other, but Anjjong were the couple of skinship-Jonghyun was the giver and Angel the welcoming recipient. So the fact that the two had barely even had eye contact concerns the blonde male. With a sigh, he shakes his head to clear his mind and turns to Chaerin, finally noticing her presence. “Chaerin, when did you change?” he asks, staring at her more than he’d like to admit.

“I changed earlier with Taemin and Jonghyun, remember?” she asks, turning to him for a quick second, before going back to her job as TaeRa’s paparazzi, not even noticing his watch on her.

“Oh yeah,” he nods, redirecting his attention back to the younger couple. “So...Chaerin,” he asks, trying to hide his blush as he puts his arm around her bare shoulders. “You’re rooming with Angel, right?”

Chaerin nods, not noticing his blush, just enjoying his cool touch. Now come to think of it, the girl starts to wonder why he feels so cold even in this hot weather with all his layers. She reminds herself to ask him about it later. “Yup. What about her?” she asks, coolly.

“Did she tell you anything?”

“You mean about the whole thing with her and Jonghyun?” the human turns to look at his face, the sun shining on his high cheekbones. “She didn’t really say anything...she more of just asked me some stuff.”

“If I may, can I ask what?” he asks, with a cute tone in his voice.

She giggles at his behavior and tries to recall their brief conversation. “She just asked me how to approach a guy with bad news,” she shrugs.

“Because you have so much experience with guys, huh?” he teases, despite the serious undertones.

Chaerin shakes her head, but quickly thinks of a way to divert his attention. “Take a picture of us?” she hands him the camera.

“Of course,” Key says, always happy to take selcas. Turning the camera so the lense faced them, he counts down from 3 and pulls her close to they can both fit in the screen. The flash goes off and he checks the picture. Aww that’s cute. Our first picture as a couple. :)

“So where should we look first?” Angel asks, as she strolls with Minho on the boardwalk.

“Hmm, I don’t know. Everything looks really nice, actually,” the vampires answers, chuckling.

The girl laughs with him and nods as a cool breeze passes by them. “Maybe we could start by the games?”

He nods and walks briskly towards the lively games, leaving Angel to struggle to keep up with his long legs. Stopping he takes a few pictures and turns to see her panting. He smiles, reminded of when he used to walk with Chaerin, as the two were of a similar height and disposition. “Oh sorry. I forgot you were with me for a second.”

Angel shakes her head as she straightens up. “Aniya. Gwenchanna,” she says, after some thought.

The male smiles at her Korean, knowing it was the hardest for her to learn out of the 3 Americans. “Do you still need help with your Korean?”

“Well...” she tries to shrug it off, but just nods as she laughs at her failure. “Yes, yes I do.”

“I’m sure Jonghyun hyung could help you if you asked,” he mentions, not looking directly at her, but waiting for a reaction.

“Mm hmm...” she lets her answer trail off and hopes that he doesn’t ask what she thinks he will.

“So what’s up with you and Jonghyun? You two have been pretty distant.”

“...”

“Look, I don’t know what happened between you two, and as a friend, I’m really worried. I don’t have to tell him if you don’t want me to, I’m just curious,” he says, putting his camera down for a second.

She sighs, taking in what he said. Minho smiles to himself when he notices he got through to her. “You guys are really close, right? You and Jonghyun-oppa?”

The vampire nods. “I’ve known him for almost 300-I mean-3 years,” he says, trying to act casual so she doesn’t notice his slip up.

Angel nods, not noticing it. “Is he really forgiving?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, is he the type of person to hold grudges?”

“I mean, he is...to an extent, but over time, he tends to forgive someone, especially if he’s close to them.”

The girl nods, now deciding whether she should tell Jonghyun or not, and if so, when.

“I keep forgetting you and Jonghyun didn’t start out friends like the other couples, so you don’t know much about each other,” he comments, chuckling as he goes back to taking pictures.

“Yup ._.” she replies, remembering how Vera was the one who had facilitated the relationship.

“Speaking of the other couples, how’s Chaerin?” Minho asks, while focusing on an object to capture.

Jonghyun passes by the friends as he runs across the beach, getting some exercise in before he gave up on his diet for the vacation, and sighs. The male wishes to just get it over with it and ask her, but didn’t want to intimidate her, so he just gave her space. It hurt him to think she acted normal with everyone, but the second he stepped into the picture, she shied away. Like she was scared of him. A thought runs through his mind, stopping him in his course. Does she know I’m a vampire?

Vera raises from underneath the water, spitting out the water that flowed in seconds ago when Taemin had his back turned. The male had been trying to teach her how to float, despite her protests that she already knew how, and the lesson was going pretty well until he turned around to glare at some passerbys. To regain his attention, she splashes his back with the cold sea water. “Yah!”

He turns around and finally notices her and the strong grip she had on him. “Are you ok?” he asks, the fact that she was freaked out sinking in. “Did something happen?”

“Something could’ve happened! I could’ve drown, pabo!” she yells, glaring at him.

“Mianhae,” he says, quickly hugging her. “I’m glad you’re ok.”

“If you would stop glaring at every living thing, you wouldn’t have to worry whether I was ok or not,” she quips, softening her tone.

“I’m just letting them know you’re mine and mine only,” the male replies, not even trying to hide.

Vera sighs and rests her head on his shoulder when a thought comes to her mind, reminding her of her plan. “Arasso,” she pouts. “But can we get out of the water? It’s so cold and you’re not helping :/” she suggests, faking a shiver.

“Oh, ok.” Leading her out of the water, it was now Taemin’s turn to pout, because he was still in the mood to teach her how to swim. With a sigh, he decides to pick up tomorrow. “So what should we do next-”

The second the swimsuit-clad girl steps out of the water, she can feel the bright sun warm her skin in mere seconds, almost to the point of burning, just like she had planned. With a hidden smirk, she turns to her boyfriend. “Aigoo~, now it’s too hot,” she sighs, dramatically.

The vampire nods, fanning himself. “Do you want me to cool you down?” he asks, walking towards her with open arms.

“No, I’m fine. I have a better idea,” she says, smiling to herself.

“What?” he asks, watching her curiously.

“Watch me~” she yells, running off. Spotting Key with Chaerin, she quickly runs towards him, with a wide smile.

“Ooh~ someone’s jealous,” Chaerin laughs, as she watches Taemin glare at a guy who was checking Vera out.

Key smirks at her. “Who wouldn’t be jealous when some guy is looking at his girlfriend? I know I would.”

The girl turns to him with interest in her eyes as she puts her camera down. “Really? You’re the jealous type?”

The blonde scoffs at the question. “Yes, because Kim Kibum definitely looks like the mild mannered type,” and rolls his eyes.

Chaerin laughs at his joke as she tried (and failed) to picture such a Key; the image just made her laugh harder. “So then, would you get jealous over me?” she asks, coyly.

Unfazed by her question, the male nods.

“So am I your girlfriend, then?” she holds her camera up as a microphone up to his lips, as if recording his answer for years to come.

He starts to nod, but stops himself, wanting instead to seem mysterious. “Maybe you are and maybe you’re not. You’ll just have to find out, now won’t you?” he whispers, a small smile on his face.

“Why can’t you just tell me?” she whines, curious for his answer despite her inner conflicts. While she truly loved Key and felt accepted by him and his wild antics, she couldn’t help but think what would’ve happened if she ever started dating Minho. Would she feel the same about him? She couldn’t answer that question and it troubled her.

“That’s a secret,” he smiles at her.

“When will you ever tell me any of your secrets?” she retorts, a frown on her face. Speaking of secrets, maybe I should ask him...?

“Someday. Maybe never. I don’t know,” he shrugs, laughing as she makes a pitiful face at him.

Chaerin opens to protest, but notices Vera running towards them. “Vera?”

Key watches her running towards them and is confused at first by the fact that Taemin’s not with her, and then that she was smiling. “Vera?” he asks, but is cut off as the human slams herself into him, wrapping her arms around him. “Umm, Vera?”

“Vera?” Chaerin asks again, feeling a stab of jealousy go through her as she watches her friend hug her almost boyfriend, despite her trying to ignore it. Something inside of her just wants to rip her away from him, but she just sighs and puts on a smile.

“Is he watching?” Vera whispers, loosening her grip on the vampire’s neck.

“He?” her friend asks, still watching them.

“Taemin,” he replies, everything finally clicking into place. “He is now,” he smirks.

“Does he look really angry?”

Key nods, trying hard not to laugh at her plan. Vera was known to always mess with Taemin, just to keep their relationship from getting too “fluffy”, and while the older male had witnessed all of them, he couldn’t help but applaud her imagination. It was like she had a gift at pissing off her boyfriend. “Really really angry. I think you should go move on to someone else before he comes and yells at me.”

The human laughs and finally lets go of him, before waving at them both and sprinting off in search of her other vampire friends. “Annyeong~”

As Key laughs behind his hand, Chaerin looks between the two with a confused look on her face. What was that about?

Vera smiles ear to ear as she spots a running Jonghyun. “Yah! Kim Jonghyun!” she yells, speeding towards him, despite the stinging sand on her feet.

Spotting her, the male takes his earbuds out and stops running. “Vera? Where’s Taemin-ah?”

“Nevermind that, just hug me,” she says, flinging herself at him. Her warm skin instantly cools down at the touch of his skin. It sure helped that he was shirtless, so she could absorb his lack of heat quicker. And make Taemin jealous at the same time ;).

“What are you doing-?” Jonghyun starts, confused, as he slowly hugs her back. Looking up, his eyes lock with Key’s and when the blonde his head at a fuming Taemin, he gets it. The dino laughs, shaking his head at her. “Vera, you’re such a bad person sometimes.”

She laughs, happy that he finally understood. “What are you talking about? I’m the best person you’ll ever meet,” she bluffs.

“Dragging me into your plans,” he remarks, shaking his dyed hair. “What if he yells at me?” he pouts slightly.

Vera laughs at the sight of him, in all his muscular glory, pouting. “I’m sure you’ll show him who’s boss,” she says, complimenting his ego. “Plus I’ll make it up to him. Somehow.”

“I’ve got an idea,” Jonghyun teases, smiling to himself.

“Oh really, what?” she asks, curious.

“Call him ‘oppa’.”

Her eyes widen as a giggle escapes from her lips. “So he’s one of those guys, huh?” she nods, as she puts the advice aside. She would make that another day’s trick.

“Yup,” the male smiles, looking up to check for Taemin. Noticing how close he was to them two, Jonghyun loosens his grip on her. “Looks like you gotta go, Taeminnie’s quick.”

“Bye~” she waves to him like before and heads off in search of Minho. Knowing that Minho was one of the first of SHINee to warm up to the idea of her and Taemin dating, she plans to go all out when she sees the tallest vampire. Looking around the boardwalk, the girl slows down to a slow jog when she spots Minho and Angel looking over the beach talking and taking pics. Speeding up, she doesn’t even bother to alert him before wrapping her arms around him from behind.

“Boya,” Minho cries, as he puts his camera back down. Seconds before he swats away the arms, he looks down and sees familiar arms. “Chaerin?” he asks, hopeful to find a petite Asian girl with a bright face when he turns around.

“Vera?” Angel flinches in surprise, but calms down when she notices her friend.

Minho’s heart sinks for a second out of disappointment, but the male pushes the thought away as he stares at his friend. “What are you doing?”

“Why are you hiding?” the younger girl asks, watching her.

“I’m not hiding,” Vera protests, still hugging Minho’s back.

“Then what are you doing?”

The Korean notices Taemin yelling at Jonghyun and Key, while the two laughed behind their hands, and realizes what’s happening. A smile forms on his face as he turns to the girl. “Vera, Vera, Vera. When are you ever going to stop playing with him? He always gets so worked up!”

Vera just laughs, happy her plan was working seamlessly. “That’s the whole fun of the game,” she shrugs. “It’s his fault he takes it so seriously.”

Minho laughs at her brashness, shaking his head. “Sometimes I wonder how you two get along.”

Angel watches them, confused about what was happening, but didn’t feel the need to ask them.

“No you don’t,” Vera smiles innocently. “Is he watching?”

Flaming Charisma nods. “What do you want me to do?”

“Just look really..happy?” the girl offers, letting go of him for a second.

“Mmm,” he nods, opting to wrap an arm around her shoulders to risk making the maknae even more infuriated. Smiling as wide as he could-while looking sane-the male pulls Vera closer to him.

“What are you doing?” Angel finally asks, in a whisper, as if scared to be heard.

“She’s making Taemin jealous,” Minho whispers back, as Vera pulls out a peace sign, as if posing for a picture. “It’s this thing she does with him.”

The girl nods and even giggles to herself as she imagines a jealous Taemin. He always seemed like such a happy person, so such an emotion didn’t seem right in her head. Quickly, she takes a picture of the two to remember this moment. “Should I move or something?” she asks, not wanting to experience Taemin’s jealousy firsthand.

“No you’ll be fine. He’ll either go for me or Minho,” Vera shrugs, smiling.

“Welp, here he is,” Angel says, moving a bit, as she watches the youngest male storm through the boardwalk.

Taemin marches through the crowds quickly, mostly because he looked so angry, you could see the steam pouring from his ears. Spotting Vera and Minho together, he speeds up, almost to the point of just flashing over to them. Luckily, it doesn’t get to that point. “HYUNG! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” he yells, not even caring if all the people were listening even though they couldn’t understand.

“And that’s my cue. Annyeong~” Vera smirks and skips away from her friends, headed towards her fuming boyfriend with a smile as bright as day. “Taemin!” she calls, jogging towards him casually.

Spotting her, Taemin’s mind goes blank and he speeds up to meet her. “Vera, gwenchanna? Did they hurt you? I can kill them if they did...”

The girl just laughs, throwing her arms around his neck. “You’re so silly,” she teases, brushing off his threat.

“W-What?” he asks, confused, as his arms settle around her.

“You’re jealous for no reason. All I did was hug them,” she explains, still giggling.

“And so? You should’ve let me cool you down,” he counters, trying his hardest not to pout, to not lose his manly edge.

“But then you would’ve warmed up,” she shrugs. “So you wouldn’t have helped anyway. :)”

He nods, feeling the poison seep into his heart little by little.

“Next time I’ll go to you first, though,” she reassures him, noticing the mood change.

“Aww,” Chaerin coos, snapping picture after picture.

“Yah!” Vera yells, ready to explode on her friend for ruining the mood, when the guys hold her back, laughing to themselves.

Finally, Onew comes down to the beach and joins the festivities, which involved throwing Taemin headfirst into the ocean. While the oldest hyung couldn’t understand why the maknae was being abused and just harmlessly joined in for laughs, the others knew it was to punish him for yelling at them earlier.

“And that’s what you get for being jealous!” Vera teases, as Jonghyun throws the soaked vampire onto the sand. She taunts him by dancing around and sticking her tongue out childishly while the others laugh.

“Yeah! There’s no reason for you to be jealous over Vera. She’s the best,” Onew says, throwing an arm around the dancing girl.

“Well, yes, she has some problems,” Jonghyun laughs as the girl turns to glare at him. “But hey, she’s the only one of us who can tolerate you somedays.”

“Somedays, I don’t even know how she does it,” Key mutters, shaking his wet hair side to side.

Minho chuckles at his friend’s comment. “So don’t be so hard on her, ok? Wouldn’t want her to leave,” he pats Taemin’s sandy hair.

“What do you mean leave?” Vera scoffs. “If I tried, he’d use aegyo on me and then drag me back.”

The group laughs at her comment. “You know you love his aegyo,” Angel comments, smirking.

Vera quickly attacks her with “You know you love Jonghyun’s-” but then stops, realizing she’s made it awkward. “-aegyo...”

Hypothetically, crickets chirp, but they are inaudible over Jinki’s laughter, as he was the only one who didn’t know the couple were still awkward with each other. Key nudges him to stop after sending him a message, and the leader does so, trying to find a way to cover the awkward silence.

“So...what should we have for dinner, it’s getting late,” Jonghyun offers, as he starts to walk back towards the hotel.

“I’ll join you,” Vera says, running towards him in attempts to apologize, only stopping when Key pulls her back. “What?”

“Let him go by himself,” he whispers.

What about Angel? She thinks, eyeing her younger friend through the side of her eyes. Something about the situation made Vera just want to throw her at Jonghyun and force them to talk to each other. That or for her to assume the worst and tell him herself.

“It’s her choice,” Key decides, now turning to the girl that was on everyone’s minds.

Angel just shuffles under the blonde’s intense gaze, feeling as if put under a spotlight, as she looks for someone to hide behind.

While the vampire struggles for a bit on whether or not to read her mind and lessen the tension that everyone has been under, he just sighs and looks away from her. “Looks like I’ll be heading in without dinner. What about you guys?” he asks, sounding dead, as he heads towards the hotel, several feet behind the older vampire.

Vera watches them with a sad look on her face and wonders why she didn’t have the guts to just pry the info from Angel’s head and just announce it to the world. As much as she held herself back, she wondered why Key couldn’t just read her mind and be done with it. He was the one who openly hated her for months when she and Taemin started going out, so why was it so difficult for him to do something that might get him on Angel’s bad side. Shaking the thoughts from her mind, she just sighs and starts to turn her friends.

Wiping the loose sand from his body as he stands up and walks next to her, Taemin wraps an arm around Vera’s hunched shoulders. “Well, we should probably get going then,” he says, pulling her along with him.

With a sigh, Angel reluctantly rushes towards Jonghyun, feeling sorry for causing the awkwardness, but still too nervous to outright tell him the truth. So she just awkwardly trails behind him, feeling sorry for herself.

Vera nods at his statement and watches Angel as they walk. She sighs.

“Vera, are you ok?” Taemin asks, whispering in her ear so that only she could hear, as a small smile plays on his lips.

She just nods and sighs again before resting her head on his shoulder. “Maybe things will get better as the week proceeds,” she mutters to herself.

His smile just widens and he pulls her closer to him. “Of course. Everything gets better after awhile,” he reassures her. While it may seem strange that the youngest vampire was so relaxed despite all the drama swirling around the group, it is understandable for him, considering all of the problems surrounding his relationship with Vera. Since this vacation is off-the-radar, her parents have no chance of interfering, and so, Taemin is determined to enjoy it with Vera to the fullest.

“Looks like we’re going then,” Chaerin shrugs and walks after the couple, with Minho and Onew trailing behind her.

Once everyone heads back to their rooms, those who are going to dinner shower and get ready to go back out. Those who were not, a certain blonde vampire in particular, had another idea in mind.

Key stands in front of the mirror inspecting his outfit as Minho walks out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his shoulder. Towel drying his wet hair, he notices Key’s primping. “Yah! What are you doing? Didn’t you say you were going to sleep?”

“I never said I was going to sleep. Who gave you that impression?” Key shakes his head as he continues with his task.

Minho stops what he’s doing to glare at the blonde male. “So then where are you going? Somewhere with Chaerin?” he asks, with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Does it matter where I’m going or who I’m going with? Are you jealous?” the blonde turns to face him with a smirk on his face.

“Because,” the brunette huffs. “wouldn’t want you to expose yourself. You don’t have the most control when you’re drunk.”

Key just laughs and waves off his worries. “Calm down, dad. I’m just going out-by myself-to have some fun. No worries.”

Minho just rolls his eyes and goes look for something to change into when he bumps into Taemin. “Ah, mianhae,” the younger apologizes, before walking towards the door. He stops when noticing Key adjusting his beret. “Key hyung, I thought you said you weren’t going to dinner?”

“I’m not,” he responds, with a slight smirk as he fixes his bangs.

“Then where are you going?” the younger male asks, watching his back.

“That’s for me to know and for you to never find out,” Key smiles as he turns to face him. “Now if you don’t mind, I’ll be going. Don’t wait up for me,” he says, before exiting through the door.

Confused, the maknae turns to his other hyung. “Do you know where Key hyung is going?”

Minho just sighs as he pulls his shirt over his head. “Don’t worry about it. But shouldn’t you be going to get Vera soon?”

Taemin nods and smiles, suddenly remembering. “See you then, hyung.” Closing the door behind him, he walks to Vera’s door, not even bothering to even knock. He looks around for a second before flashing inside. “Vera?”

“I’m almost done~” she calls from the bathroom. Having left the door open just in case he popped in, she doesn’t flinch and just keeps on brushing her hair.

“Hurry up~” he whines as his stomach grumbles. It was only now that he realizes how much hard work it was trying to teach Vera how to swim and shoo off the swarming guys. Rubbing his abdomen, he could practically feel a six pack coming.

Vera pokes her head through the gap in the door. “If you want, I can just keep my bikini on if you want. Have all of the guys staring...” she baits him, holding back a giggle as she sees his face grow cold.

“No, I’ll just wait then,” he says, glaring at the thought as he clenches his fist.

The girl laughs as she walks out to stop his thought process. “I was just kidding. Gosh. Never realized how jealous you could get,” she says, plopping down next to him on the couch. “So should we get going, then?”

“Oh, good. You’re not wearing anything too revealing,” Taemin smiles as he turns to look at her.

“I mean, if you want, I can take this off,” she counters, taking off her cardigan. “And this, too,” she says, reaching to take off her shirt.

“What I meant to say,” he stops her by putting a hand on her leg. “You look perfect.”

“That’s what I thought,” she smirks, slipping her cardigan back on. She stands up. “Can we go now? I’m hungry.”

“We can, but...”

“But?” Vera asks, as she tries to silence her own starved stomach.

Taemin stands up and spins around. “You said nothing about my outfit.”

The human sighs and rolls her eyes as she grabs his hand. “I don’t even have to look at what you wear anymore, because you always look perfect,” she says, pulling him towards the door.

The vampire chuckles as he lets her drag him out. “You always look perfect, too, Vera~”

“Says the vampire,” she rolls her eyes.

Taemin laughs behind his hand. “I mean it~.”

“Of course you do,” Vera cracks a smile. As she walks toward the elevator, she stops suddenly. “Is it just us or are the others coming?”

“I think Jonghyun hyung might be coming...do you know about Chaerin and Angel?” he asks as he stands next to her.

“I don’t know if they’re coming,” she trails off before pushing the down button.

“So it’s just us? Alone?” With each question, Taemin’s tone goes up and his smile widens.

“Might be,” Vera shrugs, coolly, though she can already imagine what’s playing in his mind: skinship.

Noticing her face, he grabs her two hands. “Don’t worry. I’ll be there,” and leans in to kiss her forehead.

“Yes!” Chaerin screeches as her camera’s flash goes off, capturing the skinship. “More! More!” she runs towards the two, dragging Angel along.

Self consciously, Vera backs up as she drops his hands. “Oh hi there, you guys,” she says, as she watches her friends come closer.

“So can we go now?” Taemin asks as he watches Chaerin inspect the Polaroid.

“Yup,” she smiles as she puts it into her bag.

After an awkward elevator ride full of Chaerin gushing over the couple, they finally show up at the hotel’s restaurant. While they saw many restaurants near the beach when they walked back to the hotel, the group was too lazy to step back into the heat, and picked the easy route. Taemin starts to look for a table when yelling is heard.

“TAEMIN-AH!!” Jonghyun yells, waving his arms around. “VERA~! WE’RE OVER HERE~!”

Taemin just chuckles as he drags Vera along, Chaerin and Angel following. Vera, on the other hand, just shakes her head. “I have the weirdest friends.”

Chaerin just laughs at her statement and quickly sits next to her partner-in-crime, Jonghyun. “Hey there, Jonghyun. Look what I have for you,” she says, searching for the picture from earlier.

“Onew, you came, too?” Vera asks, surprised, as she sits across from him. “Woah, Jonghyun. How did you manage to get him out?”

The two oldest laugh at her statement. Taking off his sunglasses, Onew smiles honestly. “He promised me chicken.”

The newcomers laugh as Angel sits in the seat next to Vera, which was across from Chaerin. “Makes sense,” Vera smiles, causing the group to erupt into more laughter.

“So where’s Minho-oppa?” Angel asks, staying calm when everyone turns to her, surprised she spoke. “Isn’t he eating with us?”

Jonghyun swallows before turning to Taemin. “You’re rooming with him, right, Taemin-ah? Is he coming?”

The youngest male shakes his head. “I don’t think so...”

Everyone jokes around a bit until the waiter comes for their orders. “And what will you be having today?”

The males start to muster up their English knowledge, but Vera stops them.

Turning to waiter, she holds up her menu. “Do you have steak?” she asks, with a rather intimidating look on her face.

He nods, confused at her question. “Yes, miss. We have steak...”

“Good. Because he wants steak,” she says, patting Taemin’s shoulder. “He wants the best steak here. Ok?”

He looks still confused, but writes down the order and goes along to everyone else. After gathering their orders, he leaves to attend the other patrons.

Chaerin laughs. “What was that for?” she asks, switching back to Korean.

“What?” Vera asks, as she casually sips her water.

“You were so defensive looking,” Angel adds, giggling.

“I had to make sure they had steak, so that what happened last time didn’t happen again,” the girl shrugs, not getting the big idea.

The whole table erupts into laughter as they realize what happened. “Vera, you’re so cute sometimes,” Jonghyun giggles, reaching for his water.

“What? Taemin likes steak, so I ordered steak for him...”

“You looked like you were going to kill him!” Onew says, before laughing again.

“I should’ve gotten a picture,” Chaerin says, taking her camera out.

“Don’t make fun of Vera for caring about her boyfriend,” Taemin says, hugging her.

“You’re making it worse,” she grumbles, as the group’s laughter turns into awwing.