Looking incredibly bored as he twirled a pen between his fingers, it came as no surprise when Junsu finally heaved a sigh. “We have a few days of vacation before we have to get back to work on the new album. I am bored. A bored Xiah is an unhappy Xiah.”

“You’re picking up bad habits from us,” Midori noted, running her fingers through his hair before going back to work on the image in Photoshop.

Jaejoong poked his head out from beneath the long island counter. “Hani, where the hell—?”

“In the cabinet to your right, on the shelf where all the other baking sheets are.” Hani went back to playing checkers against Yoochun, who was currently winning. “You should know your way around my kitchen by now, Jae. For shame!”

“, you can make these damn cupcakes yourself,” he huffed; still, he ended up getting the cupcake sheets out and setting them on the counter next to the bowl of batter.

Another sigh issued from the very bored Junsu. “Midori-yah~” he grumbled, rubbing his head into her neck; she giggled and nudged him back. “Your boyfriend is so very bored! Fix him.” He snuggled farther into her, and she failed in holding back her giggles. “Don’t just sit there and laugh, that’s hardly entertainment! I could just sit here and poke you until you peed your pants, but you’d never forgive me for that! Do something else! Tell me a story!”

“I’m not the storyteller, that’s Hani.” Midori poked her friend in the arm. “Yah.”

“What? I’m winning! I have, like, three Kings and he has one. Ha! There goes another!”

“Baby, you take this game way too seriously,” Yoochun muttered.

“You’re just jealous because that makes four Kings for me.”

Midori poked her again. “Tell a story, even if it’s a stupid one, so he’ll leave me alone and let me get back to this design.”

Hani snorted. “Fine, but you owe me. I demand bu—”

“I’ll get you three large bubble teas if you’ll just tell a goddamn story.”

“Alrighty then.” She jumped over Yoochun’s last King (in a slightly illegal move, but he was too interested in whatever she was about to say to notice) and turned towards the others. “You said anything, so here it is. Here…” She winked at Jaejoong. “…is how I met Jae and how this entire friendship with you guys started.”

Though the roads were slick from the light rain that had just come down, Hani still chanced a drive into town. Sure enough, the traffic seemed to be never-ending. As she sat impatiently in her unimportant-brand-because-it-wasn’t-Maserati car, she realized she would never reach her destination in time. Happy hour only lasted for so long; the drink she loved was a bit pricey at her favorite restaurant. “Damn it,” she muttered. On a split decision, she maneuvered out of the traffic and parked against the curb. “ this, I’ll walk.”

She grabbed her umbrella from the back seat and dashed down the sidewalk. People seemed to be pouring out of the restaurants and stores, so she had to get into “concert mode” and start weaving through the crowds. Her phone vibrated in her pocket, so she fished it out and checked her messages. “Yes, Midori,” she grumbled to herself. “I’ll be there in five minutes…quit bothering me…” She stuffed it back into her pocket and picked up her pace.

‘If I don’t get there in time, I will beat the snot out of that guard…he always likes to piss me off…what he doesn’t realize is that this overseas English teacher has a degree in badass, and—’

Suddenly, she walked into a solid brick wall. Or, at least it felt like one. However, solid brick walls do not usually yell out, “Yah!” when something runs into them.

“What the ?” she swore in English, staring down at the damp sidewalk. Her phone lay in pieces. “Damn it all to ing hell! Just who do you think…” She looked up into a pair of sunglasses on an androgynous face. Said face was set in an angry expression at the moment. “…you are?” Her last words came out as squeaks.

“Just who do you think you are, running into me like that?” he answered back, but in Korean. “Watch where you’re going next time!”

“Oh, no one gets away with talking to me like that!” She scrambled to her feet and attempted to look intimidating, but failed miserably since he towered over her. “You just opened that door without a second thought! You should be watching for anyone walking by, especially someone in brand new Louboutins!”

“Excuse me.” He seemed to straighten up and loom over her, which was a lot more intimidating than her stance. Several people behind him started forward, glaring at her. “I’m sorry, but I shouldn’t have to watch where I’m going! You look where you’re going instead of texting away on your stupid phone—”

“I beg your pardon, sir, but this is a new Samsung Galaxy, and it beats the hell out of your stupid iPhone any day of the week!”

He stepped closer. If she knew this man, she would knock him in the face and run off, but something told her that this stranger would not take kindly to a girl hitting him…and neither would his posse behind him. ‘Wait a second…his posse?’ She looked back at the people surrounding him, and then back to him. ‘Hey…that…nose…and the cheekbones…that…voice…OH MY GOD.’

“…you’re Kim Jaejoong.”

“Who else would I be?!”

“Yah!” She smacked him in the arm on a reflex and immediately regretted it; his guard grabbed her arm and yanked it behind her. “YAH! Take your damn hands off me and let me finish my sentence! Aren’t you all rude?!”

“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO RAN INTO ME!”

Yoochun fell onto the couch arm, laughing hard as Jaejoong scowled at Hani. “Oh, how I remember that day,” he growled. “You did run into me, and yet you kept trying to pin the blame on me! Granted, I’ve come to learn that you do that with everyone, but it’s more endearing now than it was then! All I could think was that this had no idea who she was talking to, and I was about to put her in her place.”

“You know it!” Hani grinned. “We had no idea we were headed to the same place, which is how we kept on arguing as we walked. I gotta say, Jae…your bodyguards scare the hell out of me. They don’t look scary, but damn did that one guy have a grip on me!”

Junsu looked astonished. “Our guards stopped you from hitting Jae? Why were you gonna hit him?!”

“Because he was being an ,” Hani replied calmly while boldly staring at Jaejoong; the corners of his mouth twitched, but he refused to smile.

Midori cocked her head to the side. “I remember…you walked in with him, practically screaming, and he looked ready to kill you.” She laughed. “The waiter that day had been hitting on me, but I kept ignoring him because I was waiting for you.”

The waiter had come back for the fifth time, pen and pad ready. “Are you ready to order now, miss?” he asked politely, though his tone held an undercurrent. Midori just waved him off, eyes fixed on the door. He actually let out a “tsk” before stomping away. She ignored his behavior and kept staring at the entrance. Where the hell was her best friend?

Not two seconds later, Hani stormed into the restaurant, a fuming young man following right behind her. “Why are you following me?!” she heard her friend yell angrily. “Stop being such a stalker and leave me alone! I freaking apologized, even though I didn’t have to!”

“Didn’t have to?!” the young man shouted. Only now did Midori realize who it was—Kim Jaejoong of JYJ. “Lady, you ran into me! How many times do I have to keep telling you?!”

Hani finally caught Midori’s stunned gaze, so she proceeded to turn to Jaejoong and give him an unmistakable gesture. “Go a lollipop!”

He looked very offended. “What?!” he yelped as Hani approached the circular booth in the back of the restaurant. Midori scooted over, still staring in shock at the singer. “Yah! You come back here! I’m not done talking to you!”

“Uh…hi?” Midori said in a tiny voice as he stalked over to the table. Hani deftly ignored him and scanned the menu to see if anything had been changed. “I’m…uh…hey, Hani,” she whispered to her friend, who was still checking out the specials, “what the hell is going on? Why is Kim Jaejoong ready to pop a cap in your ?”

Hani finally lifted her glare to the vocalist. “You’re still here?”

“Why you stupid little—”

“Whoa!” Midori spread her arms between them as Hani rose back to her feet. “Let’s back up a little, shall we? Where’s all this hostility coming from?”

 “She ran into me!” Jaejoong roared at the same time Hani yelled, “He ran into me!”

Midori nodded understandably; Hani hated when people ran into her, and it seemed that Jaejoong felt the same. “Uh-huh…and then?”

“—refuses to apologize—”

“—keeps being a —”

“—won’t stop screaming at me—”

“—late for a lunch with the guys—”

Just then, another young man walked up to the table, glass of water in his hand. Kim Junsu had noticed his friend yelling at two pretty girls and wandered over to check things out. “Hey, hyung.” He poked Jaejoong in the shoulder, and the other singer whipped his head around. “Want to tell me why you’re yelling at these two lovely young women?” Midori hid her face in her hands; she had always found Junsu attractive…and she was now less than a foot away from him. ‘Oh, .’

Jaejoong glared at him. “None of your business.”

That made Junsu pause, but today happened to be a particularly good day for him; effortlessly, he slid into the booth next to Midori and s his arm around her shoulders. “Well, it just so happens that I spoke to this girl earlier, and I promised her a drink. Maybe you should treat her friend just as kindly.” With that, he tugged Midori away from the table and led her over to the bar.

“Don’t you even think that this means our argument is over,” Jaejoong snapped immediately. “I just have to be nice to you because he was nice to your friend…”

“Oh, don’t give yourself a brain hemorrhage. By all means, keep yelling at me. I’ll get you arrested, regardless of whoever you are.” His posse twitched a little from the threat implicit in her voice. “Buy me a drink, and I’ll forget all of this.”

“No way.”

“Jaejoong-sshi…have you seen where Junsu went off to?”

“And you are?” Hani looked up…and there…in front of her…was the iest Korean man—

“Alright, I’m telling the story now,” Jaejoong interrupted. He glared at Hani. “Otherwise, we’ll get a version of Yoochun walking over with glorious hair and an angelic smile and any other adjective-noun combination you can think of.”

As Jaejoong was about to say, “You’re a bit retarded if you don’t know who he is,” Yoochun spoke again in his quiet, subdued voice. “I’m sorry if I’m intruding on anything.” He held out his hand. “I’m Park Yoochun. My friend seems to not know his manners.” Ignoring Jae’s look of incredulity, he replaced Midori in the booth. “And you are…?”

“…Hani,” she managed to breathe.

“Nice to meet you, sweetheart. Jaejoong, are you just going to stand there, or are you going to sit?” He motioned to the waitress that had been serving them; she nodded and immediately went behind the partition to get their drinks. Grudgingly, Jaejoong settled himself on the other side of Yoochun, who was now scouring the area for Junsu. He laid eyes on him at the bar with a girl and grinned. “That’s my boy.”

Hani also gazed in their direction. “They just met, but damn, they look cute together.”

“…yeah, you both got a point,” Jaejoong offered reluctantly.

“Is Junsu seeing anyone right now?” Hani asked, going back to the menu.

“Nope.” Yoochun leaned onto the table, still staring. “He looks like he needs a wingman bad. He keeps scratching the back of his head and laughing too loudly. Junsu fails at seducing women.” He sighed. “Maybe I should go and save him.”

“Let them interact,” Hani argued softly. She had decided on a simple steak; now she had her focus back on the cute yet awkward pair at the bar. “Hmm…Yoochun.”

“Yes…?”

“…we should get them together.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Junsu moved Midori onto his lap, where she started to play with his soft hair (since he had forced her away from Photoshop). “I was being a socially awkward penguin that day,” he admitted. “You kept asking me such simple questions, and I kept screwing them up. I know I acted all suave when I led you away from everyone, but then my nerves settled in…”

She giggled and nuzzled his neck. “I still thought you were adorable.” She looked at Jaejoong. “So what happened after that? You and Hani obviously don’t hate each other’s throats.”

“I stopped getting pissed off at her when she kept plying me with freaking Black Label on the rocks.” He shook his head. “Leave it to your woman, Yoochun, to make a friend by getting him drunk off his …which is saying something, since I hardly ever get drunk off my .”

“Well, that was a victorious day for me,” Hani chirped. She kissed Yoochun’s cheek. “After we got Midori and Junsu together…you all turned to us with the Cheshire grins. Remember that, babe? All the trouble they went through because we were both so intent on getting our friends together, we really didn’t notice the stuff between us?”

He nodded solemnly. “They totaled my car in an attempt to make me stay at your house for a few nights.” He glared at the other two, who looked away innocently.

Jaejoong pouted at Hani. “This story isn’t finished though.” He leaned against the kitchen counter. “What about you and Midori? You knew each other before we met you. Everyone in the world knows how me and Yoochun and Junsu met. How did you two meet?”

Midori answered before Hani could. “Pretty short story. We had the same classes for the most part in eighth grade. She had an Avenged Sevenfold poster in her binder. I commented on it. She asked me what my favorite song was—”

“To be fair, I somewhat snapped at you since I was expecting ‘Bat Country,’” Hani owned up with a smile.

“—and I told her that it was ‘Unholy Confessions,’ which seemed to satisfy her, because she said that the song was cool and left the subject alone.” Midori shook her head. “To think, if I had answered with a song off of City of Evil…”

“We’d have eventually become friends, but not before I gave you the mal ojo,” Hani joked.

“…that’s it?! No awesome adventure, no crazy coincidences, no bumping into the other person?! You guys met over a freaking poster?!” Jaejoong sniffed. “Boring.” They earned him two pillows aimed right at his head. “Alright that’s it! NO CUPCAKES FOR YO—never mind, I’ll make the cupcakes,” he squealed when Hani picked up her phone threateningly.