Chapter 9

Next morning.

Min was scavenging the bedroom. Turning all the beds over and pulling out all the drawers.
Ara had just returned from the shower to see the room upside down.

"Wow! Min. Spring Cleaning?" Ara joked.

"Ara, have you seen my purse?"

"Which one?"

"Ara, please don't play around now?"

"What? You do have alot of purses you know. Everyday you use a different purse, so of course I'll be asking you which one" she explained.

"You know. The one I brought to the convention" then she slowly turned to Ara with big and fearful eyes.

"Don't tell me...." Ara was thinking the same thing too.

"No! I couldn't of left it there. Ottohkae!? My ID, license and money are in there!" Min panicked.

"OK. Ok. Relax, don't panic. Why don't you try calling the hotel?" Ara thought.

"Ok. That's a good idea. Good thinking. Thanks Ara" Min finally calmed down and took deep breaths.

"See. What would you do without me, Min" Ara boasted and Min could only smile at how silly she was.

"Ok Ara. Since I can't live without you, please clean up the bedroom" Min smiled evilly and left the room.

"Mwo! Yah!..Aish..I'm such a bad influence.." she said and started cleaning the room.

At Cookies and Cream.

Min could only stare into space and think about her purse.
Ara could see her friend who was in distress.

"Yah, Min. Stop spacing out already. Have you called the hotel?"

"yes, they said they'll call me if they found anything. But still. So many important things were in there. Losing your purse is like being in front of the whole of NYC" Min exaggerated.

"Ok Min, lets just not get too detailed here. We have customers"

"ah..miyan" Min suddenly realised what she said was embarassing.

Suddenly her cellphone rang.

'yoboseyo. Min speaking'

'Hello Min..'

It was a mans voice.

'Hello, who is this speaking?'

'Have you just lost something precious to you?'

Min thought about her purse.

'yes!'

'Then I'll meet you out at the park closest to Cookies and Cream' and he hung up.

'yo..yoboseyo?'

Min felt something suspicious was going on.
It couldn't be the hotel. It was too fast, and to meet at the park..closest to Cookies and Cream.
The thought of it was kind of creepy, but her purse rubbed all those suspicions out.

She quickly grabbed her coat and headed out.

"Ara, I'm going out for a while"

"ne!" she answered, "Shin, please look out for the counter"

Min was on her way to the park that was just a few blocks away from Cookies and Cream and as soon as she arrived, she waited.
While waiting, she suddenly started to have second thoughts.

"I should of asked Ara to come with me. What if this person is dangerous!?" Min started talking to herself.
 
"No, maybe I should've asked Nickhun to come. Hmm..maybe not. He might just kill that bad person with his good looks..Taecyeon?..Yeah! Taec! Ah!! Should of asked him to come with me. He'll beat that bad guy with his greasiness..hehehe"

"uh...excuse me?" someone said from behind Min and she uneccessarily screamed her head off.

"HEY! WOW! WOW! Calm down.." the guy said, "Just..calm down.."

When Min looked at him, she realised what she just did, and felt really embarassed.

"Oh My God! Oh My God! I'm so sorry..I was just so anxious...I was scared it might be a bad person or.." Min took deep breaths between her words.

"It's ok. I understand" he suddenly took her in his arms and hugged her, "It's ok. I'm here."

Min calmed herself down in his embrace and finally piled her guts to talk to him.

"Doojoon ah.."

"hmm" he answered.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Doojoon let her go and asked her back the same question.

"What are you doing here Min?"

"Well, I was waiting for this guy. He told me to wait here so I could meet him." she said.

"Ok. so you've already met him. What are we going to do next?" he said with a smirk on his face.

"He hasn't come yet so....wait a minute! It was you! It was you on the phone?" she realised.

Doojoon nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me it was you! Babo!" She hit him hard on the arm.

"Ow! I see you've gained a lot of strength" he said while rubbung his sore arm.

"oh you have seen nothing yet"

But little did they know that all that just happened earlier, Nickhun was watching them two from afar.

Back at Cookies and Cream.

Taecyeon just entered to see Ara serving a customer. Ara noticed him and then looked away, pretending he wasn't there.

"Ara. Where's Min?"

Instead of answering she just walked pass him.

"Ara..please.."

"She said she would be back soon. So don't bother me right now"

"ok..uh..What about Khun? Have you seen him?" he asked because there was nothing else to ask.

"Look Taec. I'm not a lost person detector. So, please" she said and continued doing her work.

"Fine. I'll ask you a different question then. Are you mad?"

Ara stopped in her tracks and gave him a loud sigh.

"Now why would I be angry, Taec?" she asked sarcastically.

"Well, you know.."

"Are you talking about 'that girl' from last night?"

"She's not 'that girl', she has a name you know, and it's Hee Young"

"Ok! You don't need to be so sensitive about it."

Now they were right in front of each other. Only the counter was separating them.
The awkward silence came again. They couldn't even have any eye contact.

"so...are you going out with her?" Ara asked while concentrating on cleaning the plates and glasses, which was actually a way to hide her blushing face.

"It's not actually going out..as in DATE out, it's just a...old friends type of out." he tried explaining it so it wouldn't hurt her feelings.

"Whatever Taec.."

"Will you let me go if I wanted to?" he asked.

Ara looked up at him.

"I'm not your mother Taec. If you want to go, just go. As if I'd care" she said now handling the plates agressively.

"But it looks like you DO care" he .

"I said just GO! OK! Now stop bothering me!" she stomped back into the kitchen leaving him standing alone.

"Well, I did get her permission, but...aish. Women" he talked to himself and left the shop.

Ara peeked out at the counter, but he was gone.

"so, I guess he really will be going out with her...aih, Ara! He's a stupid grease-man. What do I care about him" she said to herself, but what she really felt was totally oppposite of her words.