Kim Myungsoo and Lee Sungyeol were running for their lives as they were being chased by their manager. They were so determined to escape from their dorm that they did not even take a glance over their shoulder when the manager shouted and panted, “YAH! Stop running! Yah!” Their strong will to have a few hours of rest had turned them heartless and left their manager without a second thought.

          “Split! Myungsoo we have to split! You know where I’ll be going, so, let’s just text each other when we are ready to go home. We’ll meet somewhere, okay? I’ll see you later, dude!” Sungyeol said in a hurried tone. Myungsoo was positive that Sungyeol was going to the comic store, so, he nodded in agreement and the two of them split up in attempt to confuse their manager.

          He ran and ran, letting his feet lead the way. Different thoughts came across his minds but it never stopped him from running. ‘Where should I go? Maybe I should call Sungyeol and ask where he is,’ another thought came to him. Until he was satisfied and oxygen was lacking in his lungs, Myungsoo came to a halt and instantly bent down, clasping his knees to catch his breathes. As he was taking another sharp breath, he caught a familiar figure from the corner of his eyes and groaned. “It’s manager hyung again,” he said miserably and started to run again.

          Myungsoo ran with all the bits of energy that was left in him and cursed throughout the time. ‘Can’t he just let me walk around freely for a few hours,’ he grumbled in his heart. As he was running and sputtering nonsense, he had accidentally bumped into a person when he glanced over his shoulder for a split second. Both; Myungsoo and the person he had bumped into flew backwards, landing on their bottoms. “I’m sorry,” Myungsoo bowed at the stranger who turned out to be a girl.

          “It’s okay,” she said meekly.

          After flashing another apologetic smile to the poor girl whom he had just bumped into, Myungsoo continued on running and never looked back. At first, Myungsoo was too engrossed in running away but after a while his spirit of escaping was starting to fade away replacing by perplexity when he felt something was utterly strange. His eyes started to roam around his surrounding to search for any surreal things and received the shock of his life as his head craned to his right.

          Just beside him, the same girl who he had bumped into earlier was running side-by-side with him. “Wha-” he started to say to himself but cleared up his throat and spoke out clearly, “What are you doing?” The girl did not reply, so, Myungsoo reiterated, “What are you doing?”

          The girl finally responded and she looked at Myungsoo’s direction. She smiled and casually answered, “Exercising, obviously.” Myungsoo did not reply after that and was left dumbfounded by her simple reply but they never stopped running at the same pace, side-by-side. “I’m guessing that you are not exercising by the look of your clothes and… you’re wearing a beanie with sunglasses too… Are you lost?” she asked while her smile never left her face, showing her cute dimples.

          ‘Should I lie and say I’m lost,’ Myungsoo thought. “Well, maybe I am lost,” he muttered.

          “I’m Eunbyeol, to be specific Ji Eunbyeol,” she said as they finally stopped running and stood by the side of the road to make sure they were not blocking the way.

          “I’m…” Myungsoo hesitated. ‘Is she a fan? Or maybe she’s a stalker?,’ Myungsoo started to think.  “You can call me Myungsoo if you want,” he said nervously praying that she does not recognize his real name.

          She beamed at him and said, “So… Myungsoo-shii, where exactly would like to go?”

          A hoarse sigh came out of Myungsoo’s mouth as he scratched his head and replied, “I don’t exactly know where to go since I haven’t gone out in a while… Oh god, I feel like a lost puppy here.” His statement had made Eunbyeol giggled like a 7 years old child while Myungsoo looked at her with a soft gaze. ‘Such a beautiful laugh,’ he whispered in his heart dreamily.

          Suddenly, Myungsoo felt a force knocking into him causing him to trip on the ground. The man who had accidentally walked into him was gone by the time he had stood up. “Omo, are you okay Myungsoo-shii… Oh-” Eunbyeol’s sentence was cut short when she saw Myungsoo’s face without his sunglasses. It was clearly L from the famous group called Infinite. “Are you the L? From Infinite?” she whispered unbelievably.

          Panic, Myungsoo started flapping around searching for his sunglasses but it was too late. The girls started swarming towards him as Eunbyeol had helped him to get up. “Myungsoo-shii… Let’s go this way,” Eunbyeol said to him in a hurried voice while holding onto his arms and guiding him through the crowds to escape from the group of fan girls. “We’ll have to go into another crowd to avoid your fans,” she said more as Myungsoo was only able to trail behind her.

          At that moment, the safest way was for Myungsoo to enter the mall with his beanie and sunglasses on. “Are you really sure about the mall Eunbyeol-shii?” he asked nervously as his eyes scanned his surroundings. “What if people recognize me inside the mall and we got trapped or something?” he looked at Eunbyeol with an unsure look.

          Eunbyeol went to a quieter place and stopped walking. She turned around, facing Myungsoo and said, “There won’t be that much people in the mall at this hour since it is an odd day and time for a person to shop. So, what do you think? It must have been a while since you’ve gone out since you had to desperately run away from your manager.”

          “How do you know I ran away from my manager?” Myungsoo gawked at her.

          “It’s logic Myungsoo-shii… You were obviously running away from something when we first met and you said yourself that it has been a while since you’ve gone out… For a celebrity to roam around without its manager or anyone close is strange don’t you think?” Eunbyeol smiled, feeling proud as if she had solved a 40 years old murder case.

          Myungsoo stared at the girl in front of him with his eyebrow shot up. “Who are you?”

          “I’m Ji Eunbyeol,” she said, flashing her cute dimples.

          That had made Myungsoo guffawed and said, “Well then, where should we go first genius?”

          Before making their way to the mall, Eunbyeol tipped on her toes and fixed Myungsoo’s beanie. “Make sure you put on your sunglasses okay? I don’t want to save you from those scary crowds anymore,” Eunbyeol said while holding out Myungsoo’s sunglasses which she had picked up from the ground earlier. Myungsoo on the other hand was only able to look at Eunbyeol with blinking eyes, shocked by the hospitality she was offering. ‘Does she hate Infinite? Why isn’t she screaming in my face like those other fan girls? Come on… Scream before I give you my fullest trust,’ Myungsoo thought for a second but then shook it off and smiled alone.

          The short journey to the nearest mall was lead by Eunbyeol as Myungsoo trailed behind her closely. He would look around him shooting looks that screamed, ‘Stay away or you will die’. Truthfully, he felt vulnerable and scared being in the middle of the city without his manager or his guards to save him if any stalkers were hovering around him. ‘Must stay close to Eunbyeol,’ he thought and nodded to himself but almost fainted when he looked up. Eunbyeol was no longer in front of him.

          “This is not good,” Myungsoo said. “Eun- Eunbyeol-shii?” he squeaked as he looked around frantically. Still, she was nowhere to be seen, he was about to go to a corner to call his manager and run home when suddenly someone tapped his shoulder.

          “I’m here,” Eunbyeol said brightly.

          Myungsoo’s furrowed eyebrows started to relax a bit as he said, “Don’t leave me alone.”

          “Sorry, I didn’t know you walk that slow, so, I just continued on walking without looking behind,” Eunbyeol said apologetically and then walked to stand beside Myungsoo. “I’ll make sure we’re walking side-by-side okay?” she smiled making her cute dimples more visible than ever, fluttering Myungsoo’s heart.

          Satisfied, Myungsoo nodded and sighed in relief mixed with embarrassment. ‘This is embarrassing. Be a man!,’ he scolded himself and then started to walk towards the mall alongside Eunbyeol.  “What are we going to do in there anyways?” he said it more to himself than to Eunbyeol.

          “Smile Myungsoo-shii… It’s been a while since the last time you are free to roam around right? So, just smile and have some fun,” Eunbyeol encouraged him. Her beautiful smile and big brown eyes were too much for Myungsoo to handle as he had a hard time keeping his own smile. “Finally, you’re not frowning,” Eunbyeol said happily. “Oh, here we are,” she said as they stopped right in front of the entrance of the big shopping complex.

          The smell of fresh clothes, candies and waffles danced into Myungsoo’s nostrils while his eyes looked at the huge building in awe. It really has been months since he last visited this place. A huge smile was instantly plastered on his face but it soon fade away when Eunbyeol said, “Well, I should say goodbye now since you’ve safely arrive here. You can call your friends and hang out with them. I see you around Myungsoo-shii.”

          ‘No I want you to stay,’ Myungsoo screamed in his heart but unable to speak it out loud.

          Eunbyeol bowed for the last time and turned around, ready to jog back to her apartment when she felt a strength gripping on her wrist urgently. She craned her neck and saw that Myungsoo was holding onto her with his eyes bulged out in shocked. “I- I want you to stay,” he said in a low tone at first but then cleared his throat and asked more confidently, “Can you please stay with me here?”

          “Stay with you?” Eunbyeol looked at Myungsoo as her breathe was caught in . Her eyes stared between her wrist and the male who was still holding onto her. “I don’t know…” she finally spoke out after a few silent moments.

          When Myungsoo realized that he was still holding onto Eunbyeol’s wrist, he quickly let it go and started to rub the back of his neck, feeling an immense of guiltiness. “I mean… if you don’t have anything else to do because I’m positive my friends won’t be able to hang out with me right now and I don’t want to walk around alone-” he started rambling but stopped when he saw Eunbyeol looking at him with a soft smile on her face. “What?” he looked at her in confusion.

          With a simple nod, Eunbyeol said, “It’s a pleasure to accompany you Myungsoo-shii.”

          In total ecstasy, Myungsoo clapped his hands like a child while saying, “I won’t be alone!” After a while, he realized that his reaction was too hyper looking and also in addition- childish. Trying to save his last bits of ruined image, he stopped clapping and hung his head tenuously in embarrassment. ‘What’s wrong with you today KIM MYUNGSOO? Keep calm,’ he mentally slapped himself on the face.

          ‘Surprisingly he’s adorable. I thought he would be a cold person,’ Eunbyeol said in her heart. “Come on… I know this place where they sell delicious waffles. You’ll go crazy once you eat it, Myungsoo-shii,” Eunbyeol said, trying to break the ice. With a nod, Myungsoo then followed behind Eunbyeol closely, entering the huge mall.

          Two hours had passed by.

          Both of them had wandered around the mall forgetting about their awkwardness and the fact that they barely knew each other. All they cared about at that moment was to have fun as they roamed around aimlessly and bought things for themselves. Myungsoo had even bought some rewards for s since they had helped him to escape from the dorm. “Myungsoo-shii, this t-shirt looks really nice on you,” Eunbyeol said as they were in a clothing shop.

          “Really? If you say so, then I should buy it” Myungsoo said.

          While Myungsoo was waiting for the cashier to wrap his brand new t-shirt, he caught a sight of a porridge shop at the corner of his eyes. A soft smile instantly appeared on his face as a picture of a kind looking elderly woman popped into his mind. ‘Grandma would love that abalone porridge. It’s been a while since I last visited her,’ his smile vanished when a sudden surge of guiltiness started to attack him. Maybe I should visit her later instead of talking on the phone, Myungsoo sighed.

          Suddenly, Eunbyeol’s panic voice interrupted Myungsoo’s train of thoughts. She said while looking at her watch which was safely striped around her wrist, “Oh my god. I’m very sorry Myungsoo-shii but I seriously have to go. I have to meet someone and I am really, really, super duper late.”

          “But…” Myungsoo was about to say but Eunbyeol interrupted him.

          “I’m very sorry and I had a very nice time walking around. I hope we can meet again in the future. I have to go now. Goodbye and be careful Myungsoo-shii,” she said hurriedly and ran off before Myungsoo could even say a proper goodbye.

          Sighing, Myungsoo shook his head and chuckled, “That girl… I didn’t even have a chance to say thank you or goodbye.” After he had finished paying for his t-shirt, Myungsoo walked out of the clothing store and his eyes caught the sight of the porridge shop again. “I should visit grandma today,” he said and walked towards the porridge shop to buy his grandmother’s favourite dish.

          With his identity safely covered by his hood, beanie and sunglasses, Myungsoo got off the bus when his stop came in sight. One hand jammed into his pocket while the other hand was holding onto his grandmother’s porridge and s’ rewards, Myungsoo tucked his chin into the scarf around his neck due to the chilly weather. Despite the cold, he was whistling happily along the familiar route, truly excited to see his grandmother again.

          As he was gleefully skipping to his grandmother’s house, someone ran past like a breeze causing his whole body to twirl around along with the porridge and rewards in his hand. “Yah,” he meant to bark menacingly but it sounded weak and flabbergasted. Fortunately for him, nothing dropped on the ground as he managed to balance himself and only staggered backwards slightly. ‘I’m sick of bumping into people today. It’s the third time already for today! I swear I’ll chase after that person this time’ Myungsoo growled.

          In the midst of balancing his body, Myungsoo caught the figure which he had collided with earlier and ran after the person. “Yah! You! Stop right there! Yah!” he shouted and sprinted to catch up with the person. When the figure finally did came to a halt, he was about to give a fairly long lecture, “Yah! You should-” but stopped when the person turned out to be, “Eunbyeol?”

          “Myungsoo-shii?”

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Author's Note:

Hello there^^ So, it's Myungsoo's turn now:D I hope you enjoyed the part 1 of Episode 2^^ I'm gonna confess something right now. I have not actually finished typing out Episode 2>< I have a sketch idea of what is gonna happen and how it's going to end but still confused about the middle part...

It's okay, I'll try my best because I know I can do it. Thank you for supporting me and I hope you guys would patiently wait for me and not get irrated by my slow updates... I'm trying to give you guys the best!