“It’s a girl. Definitely a girl,” Sungyeol said, taking a long sip from his drink.

Sungjong shook his head, “I don’t know.” The maknae was sitting on a couch next to his hyung, with one leg crossed over the over, his arms crossed in front of his chest. He looked over  at the other members across the dressing room. “It might be a cousin or something.”

Hoya nodded agreeing with Sungjong. He was standing directly in front of the two. “Wouldn’t he be…giddier if it was a girl? Before he would be bouncing off the walls.” He snickered, “He’s not good at hiding that kind of thing.”

Sungyeol started to get worked up. His owl eyes growing larger, with a blistering fire glinting behind them. “No, I’m serious,” he said while pointing with his finger, emphasizing each point he made. “Why would you sneak around for a cousin? No! There’s no point. But he’s hiding something…someone.” He leaned back into his seat. “A woman,” he finished wiggling his eyebrows.

Hoya scowled and wiped his face, “Yah! Don’t spit.” Sungyeol just giggled in response, not even slightly embarrassed for spitting on the rapper during his tirade. He just continued to sip his drink. Hoya  took in stride and put his hand in his pocket.

“That’s why we’re going to get to the bottom of this today,” a voice came from behind the couch.

Sungyeol jumped from his seat, letting out a high-pitched yelp, spilling the remainder of his drink on himself. While he was overreacting, Sungjong stayed still and calmly turned to greet the voice. “Oh, Sungkyu-hyung, what do you mean?”

“Aish!” Sungyeol cursed, gathering tissue from the table next to him and dabbed his now wet pants. “Don’t sneak up like that.”

“Sorry,” Sungkyu said with his trademark eye smile, but his tone didn’t sound apologetic. He turned towards Hoya and Sungjong, who were devoting their whole attention to the leader. He lifted up large, slightly over-stuffed bookbag, his arm shaking underneath the weight. He quickly put it back down once the other members caught sight of it. “It’s bigger today. He’s going out. I know it.”

Hoya followed the leaders line of thought and knew where it was going. He started to feel excited, anticipating the plan they were about to hatch. “So who’s going to follow him?” he asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet, hoping to get picked for the position.

At that moment, Woohyun ran right past them, clutching onto a pineapple and giggling maniacally. The main vocal then ran and crouched in a corner, his back heaving up and down in a quick pace due to his continuing laughter. “Not that crazy kid,” he sighed, shaking his head in disapproval. “L and Sungyeol,” he answered before leaving the trio, lugging the bookbag over to its owner.

Hoya become still and pouted in disappointment. Sungyeol had barely been listening to the conversation, being too occupied in mopping the spilled drink from his clothes. “Why Sungyeol-hyung and L-hyung?” Sungjong asked Hoya.

Sungyeol finally looked up from his pants, “Huh? What am I doing?”

“Tailing Dongwoo-hyung,” Hoya answered Sungyeol, and he understood why, his sharp mind catching onto his hyung’s logic. “It’s because they have worst seats in the van.” Sungjong responded with a blank stare. Hoya continued,  “Since they get out last, they have to get out after Dongwoo, so it won’t be suspicious that they have to follow him behind initially. He might catch on if anyone of us waited for him to get in front of us.”

“Ah!” Sungjong exclaimed finally understanding. He wrinkled his eyebrows, another question entering into his mind. “Do you think Dongwoo-hyung’s really that aware?”

At that moment Dongwoo crept between Hoya and Sungjong, walking on the balls of his feet, his hands brought up close to his chest, making him look like a velociraptor. He brought a finger to his lips as he turned to his dongsaengs, and then he pointed to Woohyun who was still hiding in the corner. With a sudden burst of speed, Dongwoo leapt onto Woohyun letting out a battle-cry. He tried to wrestle the pineapple from Woohyun’s grip, but he was failing. Woohyun’s legs were flailing, trying to fend off his attacker.

Watching their struggle over the piece of fruit, Hoya snickered and answered the maknae’s question, “I’m not so sure.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As they were riding in the van, on the way back to their dorms, Dongwoo started to scratch his side fervently. “The hives, I think they’re back,” he whined. He poked Woohyun in the side, “Will you look for me?” he begged, starting to lift up his t-shirt.

“Aish! Don’t!” Woohyun yelled as he slapped Dongwoo’s hands away from the shirt. He immediately scooted as far as he could from his hyung. “I don’t want to see it. It’s gross.”

Hoya rolled his eyes, signaling to Sungkyu, who in return pulled out his cell phone and started texting. The onset of the hives was sudden, too sudden. Dongwoo’s rouse was transparent, but he was committing so much to the bit. Hoya started to worry that his partner would scratch himself until he bleed.  He grabbed Dongwoo’s hands and gently commanded, “Stop scratching. It’ll spread.”

“Oh really?” Dongwoo said, obeying his friend and stopped. Still dedicated to his act, he began to squirm impatiently in his seat. “But it itches,” he whined.

Sungkyu finished writing his text and sent it. “Don’t you have any more of that cream?” he asked.

Dongwoo let out an embarrassed laugh, “I ran out.”

“I’ll go get some then,” their manager said, his eyes still glued to the road. “What kind is it?”

Dongwoo stared at the van’s ceiling, obviously mapping out his next move. A beeping sound came from the backseat. Sungyeol and L both received the texts that Sungkyu had just sent. They laughed as they read them, finally understanding the situation. “I don’t remember,” Dongwoo finally admitted.

Sungkyu looked over at the manager. “Maybe Dongwoo should go pick it up. He knows what he’s looking for,” he suggested in a forceful tone, hoping that the manager would understand what he meant.

He did. He was just as curious about Dongwoo’s recent erratic behavior as much as the rest of the members. “Sure. But be quick,” he commanded looking at Dongwoo in the review mirror. “You guys still need to practice tonight.”

“Yes, hyung,” Dongwoo responded happily. “I’ll be quick.”

Moments later, the van entered into their apartment complex, and the members disembarked one by one. As they had discussed earlier, Sungkyu, Hoya, Woohyun, and Sungjong headed straight for the dorm room, like they usually would. When Dongwoo jumped out of the van, he called out to those members as they were leaving, “I’m going to the convenience store. I’ll see you guys in the practice room soon!” Those members turned around and waved him goodbye, and then he took off, completely unaware that Sungyeol and L were hanging back in the van, waiting for the rapper to leave.

Once Dongwoo was a comfortable distance away, the couple crawled out of the car and silently signaled to the manager that they were going to follow the rapper. The manager smiled and gave them the “ok” gesture, approving of the mission. They immediately got down into a crouch as they followed Dongwoo out into the main street. As soon as they stepped foot onto the street, they stood up straight, trying to catch sight of their wandering member.

“Aish! Why does he have to be so short?” Sungyeol quietly swore to his partner. Dongwoo was hidden by the bustling crowd. Sungyeol stretched his already long body, his eyes scanning the crowd.

Myungsoo hit his friend’s chest excitedly. “Over there!” he exclaimed. He pointed towards a shop window where sure enough, Dongwoo had become entranced by something inside, but only for a moment. The rapper was on the move again. L pulled his friend down. “Let’s go!”

L and Sungyeol didn’t exactly blend in with the crowd as they followed their friend. Both of them had pulled their hoods so that they covered half of their faces and were on high alert. Their eyes darting back and forth. They walked closely along the faces of the building, so that they could duck into a store at a moment’s notice. In their own minds, L and Sungyeol were super spies, or ninjas, following their target being totally undetected. To everyone else, they looked like hooligans. People passing by would stare at them suspiciously, careful to keep away at a safe distance.

Suddenly, their target turned a corner, approaching an apartment complex.  “Whoa!” Sungyeol shouted. “Dongwoo is going into a girl’s apartment,” he finished with a ert laugh.

L clamped his hand over the giggling boy’s mouth, bringing a finger to his own. “Shh! Someone’s coming out,” he said in a hushed tone.

An old man walked out of the complex’s entrance. Once he saw Dongwoo, his face light up, recognizing the young man. Dongwoo politely bowed to him, and the two began to converse. “Do you know that grandpa?” Myungsoo asked quietly.

“No, never seen him before,” Sungyeol whispered. He tugged on L’s shoulder. “Let’s get closer. I want to hear what they’re saying.”

“How?”

Sungyeol gestured over to a dumpster that was next to the entrance. L nodded, agreeing to the plan. The two then somersaulted away from the wall that they were hiding behind and crawled under the  protection of the dumpster. “Augh!” L complained as soon as his back touched the dumpster’s surface. A foul stench met with his nose. “It smells.” His hand flew up to his nose and plugged it.

Sungyeol face was also scrunched in an attempt to block out the smell. “Yea, but that was cool how we rolled over here.”

L giggled, “Yea, it was!”

Then the two remembered why they were hiding behind a reeking dumpster. Their bodies suddenly stiffened, leaning more closely on the metal surface, stretching their necks in the direction of the conversation.

“She had it framed. Who frames gum? Crazy girl,” they had overheard the old man wheeze.

“Gum?” L mouthed to his friend. Sungyeol shook head and waved his hand, thinking that they had misheard. What they had just heard didn’t make sense; it couldn’t possibly be it.

Sungyeol then saw Dongwoo enter into the building. He urgently pushed L out of the protection of the dumpster, “Go! Go! Go!” he said in a commanding whisper. The two followed their member into the building, careful to not make a sound as they walked. As they climbed up the stairwell, they made sure to at least have a flight in between themselves and the target. When Dongwoo finally exited onto the fourth floor, the two spies then sprinted up the staircase and peered out of the door. They saw him walk up to a door not too far away from the stairwell. Dongwoo then unexpectedly rested his ear against the door, listening in on the commotion behind it.

“Hyung, what’s he doing?” L asked.

“I don’t know,” Sungyeol quickly answered.

Then Dongwoo opened the door and walked inside. L and Sungyeol were speechless for a moment, wondering why Dongwoo wandered so easily into a strange apartment. Not only that, but the door was unlocked, like the owner was awaiting his arrival.

“Maybe it is his family,” Myungsoo hypothesized. “Now what?”

Sungyeol without a word walked out to the hallway and pressed his ear against the door, like Dongwoo had done moments earlier. “Hyung, can you hear anything?” L asked after catching up to him.

Sungyeol pulled away with an unsatisfied expression. “Aish! I can’t.” He looked over at his partner, and his eyes were ablaze. “Should we barge in and catch him in the act?” he asked while mimicking breaking down the door and entering into the imaginary room.

Myungsoo thought for a moment. “Let’s ask Sungkyu-hyung,” he concluded. He pulled out his cell phone and started texting their leader.

“Hey. You’re no fun,” Sungyeol said, leaning his body against the wall and slowing slumping down into a crouch.

L joined him on the floor, cell phone in his hand, awaiting orders from the “command center.” “We don’t want to scare him. We just want to find out what’s he up to,” he explained to his friend. “This is more of an intelligence-gathering mission then an ambush.”

Sungyeol playfully pushed him. “Eh, you’re pretending to be Jiu again,” he joked, referring to L’s former role.

“You never did watch that drama did you,” he retorted with a death glare.

“I did too!” Sungyeol protested adamantly.

“Lies,” L pretended to pout.

“I did!”

L opened his mouth, about to responded continuing the childish argument, but his eyes caught sight of someone approaching them. His mouth was left dangling open. Sungyeol noticed his shock. “What is it?” he asked. Then turned around to see what he was looking at. It was a girl, a teenager. And her expression was very similar to L’s.

“OH MY GOD!” she squealed. She jumped down to join them on the floor. “L-oppa! Sungyeol-oppa! What are you doing here?” The members were speechless, having been caught off-guard. The teenager scrunched up her face in confusion. “Didn’t Dongwoo-oppa already make rounds here for your door-to-door promotions? I told him that I already bought the album. Then he gave me this,” she finished pulling out something from her pocket. She then placed it into L’s hands. It was a framed piece of gum.

L raised his eyebrows to Sungyeol. They apparently had overheard correctly. “Do you live here?” Sungyeol asked pointing to the door next to him.

The teenager shook her head. “Nope. I live over there,” she answered pointing across the hall. “Why?”

L took control of the situation, taking one of her hands into his own. He gave her a dashing smile. “We actually have a new single coming out soon, and we hope that you will still give us your support again,” he ended with a wink.

The girl blushed, unable to take her eyes away from her hand in his. “I already pre-ordered it,” she replied sheepishly.

Sungyeol followed his friend’s lead. “Oh! Thank you! You’re a true fan,” he praised.  Then he pointed to the door behind him. “Does anyone live here?”

The fan’s gaze finally raised from her hand and fell onto Sungyeol. After a few seconds, she finally registered Sungyeol’s question. “Oh…uh, I don’t know. It was empty for a long time. Maybe someone finally moved in,” she said with a shrug. “You guys are very serious about your promotions.”

“Of course,” Sungyeol said with a gummy smile. “We don’t want to miss an opportunity to meet with our Inspirit girlfriends,” he ended giving the girl a heart.

Then the door across the hall flew open. “Yah! Kim Hyosung! Get inside and do your homework!”

The girl got up and stomped her foot. “Mom! I’m busy!” she huffed, gesturing to the two crouching celebrities. They waved sheepishly to middle-aged woman who was yelling at her child.

“I don’t care! Get in here and study! You were last place last semester, and I won’t let that happen again,” she commanded.

“MOM!” the teen squealed in embarrassment. She turned toward the idols with her head hanging down. “I have to go.”

L nodded. “Your studies are the most important thing right now,” he loving chided his fan.

“Next time, you’ll be first place,” Sungyeol said cheerfully. “Fighting!”

“Fighting!” L said pumping his fist in the air.

The girl pumped her fist too and whispered the chant underneath her breath. Then she shuffled slowly into her apartment, not taking her eyes of the two boys and waving at them as she shut the door. As soon as she shut the door behind her, Sungyeol collapsed on top of L, his hands clutching his heart. “Aish!” he swore. “I almost died!”He started to pound his chest to get his heart beating again. “Does Dongwoo know everybody in this apartment?”

L shrugged and then joked with his hyung, “You were being exceptionally greasy back there.”

Sungyeol glared at his dongsaeng. “Like you weren’t,” he ended by mocking L’s wink.

L laughed. “It was more like this,” he said, winking again.

“Aish! So greasy.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An hour and a few arguments later, Sungyeol and L were still sitting in the hallway, outside of the apartment. Sungkyu had told them to just wait for Dongwoo to leave before making their next move. But it was taking too long.

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” the yelled simultaneously.

“Yea! I won again!” Sungyeol cheered. L  sighed, rubbing his already red forehead. He had lost five times in a row, and Sungyeol wasn’t being any easier on him. “Come on! Get ready!” he commanded as he practiced flicking his finger.

“Come on. I’m the visual,” L begged. “I can’t have any blemishes.”

Sungyeol giggled. “I guess that I’ll be the visual from now on. Now prepare yourself!” he announced as he brought his fingers to L’s forehead. L had relented and moved away his fringe. “I’m gonna do it!” Sungyeol teased. L closed his eyes tighter.

Before he could move his fingers, the door knob started to turn. “Crap! We gotta hide!” Sungyeol yelled, pulling L up from the ground. The two of them hid around a nearby corner, both of them too afraid to breath as to not to give away their position.

Dongwoo slowly walked out into the hallway with a sad smile on his face. He turned around and waved to the person on the other side of the door. “Take care!” he bid as he walked towards the stairwell. His shoulders were slumped, and he was kicking the ground with each step that he took.

“Did you see who he was talking to?” Sungyeol whispered.

“No.”

“Crap neither did I. Now what?”

L laughed mischievously and turned towards his friend. “Ambush?” Sungyeol raised his eyebrows curiously. “We knock on the door. When the person answers, we say we have the wrong one,” he explained.

“Call!” Sungyeol said enthusiastically. He led L towards the door, but instead of knocking, he tested out the handle. “Oh!” he said in shock. “It’s unlocked.” He looked over towards Myungsoo, a playful glint flashed in his eyes. “Should we go inside?”

“I don’t think so…” L began, but it was too late. Sungyeol had already opened the door and stepped inside. L had no choice but to follow his childish partner. Both of them clung close to the walls, putting their hands in the shapes of guns. They were now spies infiltrating the enemies liar. They had to be on high alert. Sungyeol nudged him and gestured over to the right. Someone was hidden behind an open refrigerator door. Their head plunged inside the cool interior. “What now?” L mouthed.

“I don’t know” Sungyeol silently responded.

A voice came from behind the fridge door. “Is that you Dongwoo-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” the person had seen them, and they had seen her.

“Ah! A girl! I was right!” Sungyeol said triumphantly. He had caught sight of her long hair, thrown carelessly into a bun, her round eyes and face. There was no doubt in his mind. It was a girl.

Then the fridge door suddenly slammed shut. The girl approached them with a mustard bottle in her hand, aiming it at them as if it were a gun. The boys hands instinctively were thrown up in the air, and they backed up into the wall. Her eyes, she was obviously scared, but there was a fierce glint in them. She meant business. But there was something else different about her.

“An American girl?!” Sungyeol exclaimed in disbelief. Indeed the girl in front of him was obviously American from head to toe.

L couldn’t help but to let out a laugh. “Whoa! Didn’t see that one coming!” The girl, then, focused her attention solely on him, pointing her condiment weapon straight at his chest. L’s heart jumped. Her eyes were scanning his face carefully. He had to look away. Her gaze was too intense.

“Uh,” she said raising the bottle towards his face. Her expression was one of recognition; she knew L. “ICE CREAM BOY!” she shouted. L’s jaw dropped, not knowing what that meant. Was it an insult? But before he could figure out what she meant, he was quickly distracted. She had fired her mustard weapon, and its yellow ammunition was heading straight towards his face. Infinite’s visual was not having a good afternoon.