“Did the power go off?” Ally said out loud in a hushed voice, looking up at the ceiling. She bit her lip, starting to feel a bit nervous.

            “I think so,” Changmin replied, turning around. “I should see if I can fix it.” He began to walk off before Ally latched hold of his arm.

            “Do not leave me!” Ally hissed, her voice coming out a lot nastier than intended. She heard a small noise of feet from down the hall and her hold on Changmin’s arm increased. He got the idea of what was going on and turned to face her.

            “Are you afraid of the dark?” he whispered to her. Although she couldn’t see him in the dark, she could tell he was teasing her. She glared, knowing he couldn’t see her.

            “No!” she replied defiantly, but after a moment she added softly, “I’m afraid of what’s in the dark.” Changmin chuckled softly, turning around and continuing to walk.

            “Hey!” Ally snapped, keeping her hold on his arm as he walked. “You can’t just leave me here in the dark. That’s not fair.” Changmin laughed again, and he turned around to face her. Realizing he couldn’t see Ally’s face, he leaned in extremely close to her, almost as he had when they were performing. He had a flirtatious, teasing grin on his face. All the blood rushed to Ally’s face as her face contorted into a confused, surprised expression that she was almost positive was extremely unattractive on her.

            “Fine, then come with me, scaredy-cat,” he said breathily, causing Ally to temporarily lose her thoughts as she stared at him.

            “Remember he’s a flirt, Ally,” she tried to think, as she snapped back to reality. “Stop acting like an idiot,” her thoughts told her, but it was hard to follow with an attractive man right in front of her face, giving her a y grin that would normally make her knees weak.

            Ally wasn’t sure if Changmin noticed that she was flustered or just was amused, but he then pulled away and removed her hand from his arm and quickly began walking away back towards the living room. Ally started saying his name in a hushed, annoyed whisper as she ran after him, accidentally pushing him slightly as she found his arm and grabbed hold of it tightly. She heard a small sound behind her, and she couldn’t help but let out a small whimper as she pulled on Changmin’s arm, turning her body so he was shielding her from whatever she heard.

            Ally didn’t bother looking up to try to see Changmin’s face, but he quickly removed her hands from his arm and lightly held her hand in his own. Ally took a deep breath, immediately calming down slightly as he squeezed her hand.

            “Better?” he asked, his words mimicking the ones he had said earlier when they were making dinner. Ally nodded, then realized he couldn’t see her.

            “Yes,” she whispered, “Thank you.” With that, Changmin slowly began to walk towards the living room, Ally trailing behind him, her grip on his hand tight, hoping to herself that her hands weren’t clammy, silently beginning to worry about that much more than the noises lurking in the dark.

            The two arrived at the living room, and Changmin began looking around for where the circuit breaker might be. He dragged Ally all around the dark living room, into the kitchen, and groping blindly through a few closets. When he realized he wasn’t going to find it, Changmin brought Ally back into the living room and sat down on the couch, letting go of her hand with a frustrated sigh.

            “I can’t find it. I think it’s out because of the storm, so it should be back on soon,” Changmin said softly, turning to look out the window to see lightning flash, followed by a clap of thunder. He then turned back to Ally and on his face was a teasing smirk. “Your hands were clammy. Nervous?”

            Ally groaned, burying her face in her hands out of embarrassment. “Shut up,” she muttered, and Changmin laughed quietly. “The dark is scary, okay?” He shook his head, and leaned back on the couch. Ally did the same, sighing softly.

            “You never answered my question,” Changmin whispered, turning his head to look at Ally. She was glad it was too dark to see her blushing.

            “I’m on your team,” Ally said quietly, not sure how to answer his question without revealing she had been avoiding him, although he probably already figured that out.

            “So?”

            “I wouldn’t be on your team if I didn’t like you. I was supposed to pick the team with my favorite member on it, right?” she said, her voice coming out more sharply than she intended, but Changmin didn’t seem to mind as he chuckled.

            “Then why are you avoiding me?” Ally paused.

            “I’m sorry,” she managed to say, and she turned to see Changmin smirking at her.

            “Good enough.” He scooted closer to her and poked her on the arm. “Don’t avoid me. It hurts my pride.” Ally giggled, turning to smirk at him.

            “I’m sure you can handle it,” she responded, and he feigned a hurt expression. Ally almost began laughing, but Changmin had another question.

            “Why am I your favorite?” he asked, looking at her curiously and she raised an eyebrow.

            “What do you mean “why”? Why not?” As soon as it was out of , Ally wished she could take it back. Sure, it was the truth, but there was definitely a way she could have said it that didn’t make it sound as if she was a fangirl of his, which back at home she definitely was.

            “Why?” Changmin repeated, and Ally mock glared at him, earning a cheeky grin in response.

            “Fine,” Ally replied, sighing in defeat, “You’re talented.”

            “That’s it?” Ally turned to him with an annoyed look on her face, and he looked back at her hopefully.

            “You’re funny. You’re nice. You’re passionate. You’re fun. You’re friendly. You’re handsome.” Ally hoped she wouldn’t regret that last one, but Changmin looked genuinely pleased.

            “If you’re looking for handsome, you’d like one of the other members,” he replied, shaking his head with a laugh, and Ally looked slightly insulted.

            “You think I’m lying? No, I think you’re the attractive one. I mean, they’re good too, but I like you better. Happy?”

            “Maybe,” he replied, and Ally groaned as he poked her shoulder teasingly. “Thanks.” She shook her head.

            “No need,” Ally said softly, looking down into her lap and began fiddling with her hands. “I’m sorry,” she added after a moment.

            “For what?” She shrugged, and Changmin smiled.

            “Well, it’s okay.” They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the thunder before the lights flickered back on, and Ally sighed a loud sigh of relief.

            “Finally,” she said, and Changmin stood up, offering his hand to her. She took it with a small smile. He didn’t let go as he turned and began walking, leading her into the hallway. “It’s not dark anymore. You don’t need to hold my hand anymore.”

            “What if the lights go off again? Then you’ll be scared, right?” Ally stayed quiet, confused, before he turned around and she could see that he was joking by his smirk. She pulled her hand away and stuck her tongue out, quickly turning and running away from him down the hallway. She could hear Changmin’s feet trailing behind her, and he easily caught up to her, poking her side. Ally squeaked in response, shrugging away from him and then she finally reached her room. Feeling a little gutsy, she stuck her hand out and lightly flicked his forehead before sticking her tongue out again and slinking into her room and shutting the door. She waited to hear Changmin’s footsteps, but the sound never came. Ally opened the door a crack to come face to face with Changmin, smiling at her.

            “Goodnight, Ally,” he whispered to her, careful not to wake her roommate up.

            “Goodnight, Changmin. Thank you,” Ally whispered back before shutting the door and leaning her back against it, sliding down to the foor. She sat for a moment before hearing Changmin’s soft footsteps walking down the hall.

            It took everything in Ally not to giggle and spaz around the room at the incredible interaction she just had with Changmin that day. She pounced into her bed and covered her face with her pillow, a huge smile on her face.

            Now this was a vacation.

            The next morning, Ally was surprised to awake to girls from her team jumping on her bed and yelling. Half-asleep, she attempted to scramble out of bed only to fall with her blankets in a tangled heap on the floor. The girls laughed and went to help her up, all talking at once about some new contest that they needed her for.

            “Wait, please talk slowly,” Ally mumbled, rubbing her eyes with a yawn.

            “There’s a cooking contest for brunch. We need your help on Team Changmin!” one girl said excitedly, jumping up and down with a clap. Ally laughed, standing up and sitting back down on her bed.

            “I at cooking, though,” Ally said, stretching out on her bed and the girls began crying out in protest.

            “We need more people! Our team is lazy!”

            “Everyone is sleeping and we want to win!”

            “Jinwoon’s team is so competitive. Did you see how they challenged us last night?”

            “Yeah, we can’t let them beat us on something Changmin is so good at.”

            “I know you had a late night with Changmin and all, but please?”

            Ally jumped up out of bed, a blush on her face.

            “Who said that?” she sputtered out, failing completely at keeping her composure.

            “We heard you running around the halls last night. Did you have fun?” She winked, and Ally blushed.

            “N-no. I mean, yes. Ugh, I’ll get ready and help you cook. Go away,” Ally stuttered, and the girls giggled, leaving Ally to get ready for the day.

            Finally, once ready, Ally walked down stairs into the kitchen to see each team having their own corner of the kitchen, calling out words of competition and laughing, preparing their own dishes to serve. She was highly amused to see Changmin hovering around as everyone cooked, saying quiet instructions as his team members were preparing some sort of breakfast food. She grinned, shaking her head as she walked over to her team.

            “Good morning,” Ally announced to her team, and they all said their own morning greetings to her. Changmin turned to her and gave her a polite smile. Although it was nothing but a normal smile to everyone else, she could see the knowing look in Changmin’s eyes and she had to hold back a laugh. “So, how do you want me to help? I’m horrible at cooking, you guys.”

            One of the girls on the team pointed over at Seulong’s team. “Look at her,” they said. “She’s absolutely amazing. Since the rules today are that we can’t let the members cook for our team, we’re super behind while they’re soaring.” Ally turned to see a girl completely taking over Seulong’s team, dishing out advice and orders to make their food a success.

            Turning back to her team, Ally replied, “What does that have to do with me?”

            “Distract her!” they said, and Ally laughed.

            “Isn’t that cheating? I’m not going to do that!” Her team pouted and Changmin laughed, shaking his head.

            “No one else wanted to do it, either,” he said, and Ally rolled her eyes.

            “You guys are weird,” she commented, and her team grinned sheepishly. They then went back to cooking, and Ally looked on helplessly.

            “Maybe,” she said after a moment of silence, “I could make a fruit salad?” When she didn’t receive an answer, Ally took that as a yes and began preparing the salad, cutting weird looking pieces of fruit, though it was the best of her ability.

            Changmin walked over after a moment, looked at the fruit Ally was cutting up, and began laughing hysterically. She glared at him as he laughed, pointing to her salad.

            “Why did you cut such big pieces? Who do you think is going to eat that?” Ally growled at him, just causing Changmin to laugh more. “Plus, there are these tiny pieces, too. It’s inconsistent, really.”

            “Shut up!” she said, pouting and turning away from him. “Don’t accuse my salad of being inconsistent. You’ll hurt its feelings.” Changmin sighed, and walked over next to Ally, seeing that despite her denial of her crappy salad, she was cutting the big pieces smaller already. He got another knife and silently began helping her cut the fruit into more attractive, small pieces.

            “Hey!” the cook on Seulong’s team exclaimed, walking over to Ally and Changmin, holding out her spatula. “Changmin can’t help. It’s the rules. Otherwise Seulong would be over here helping us.” She tried to hold an angry gaze, but broke into a smile to show she was joking.

            “I’m not helping my team,” Changmin replied calmly, smiling at her, “I’m helping Ally.” Ally felt her face flush and she turned to continue cutting the fruit, hoping that her hair was hiding her red face.

            The girl broke out into a huge smile. “I’m kidding. It’s fine. You’re performance was really good last night.” Ally turned to her and smiled.

            “Thanks. You’re… Ezabel, right?” Ally replied, tilting her head to the side in thought. “I think we talked on the plane a bit.”

            Ezabel nodded, laughing, “Yeah. It was right after everyone on the plane was attempting to sing a 2AM medley.”

            Ally nodded, giggling at the memory. “That was hilarious. Good luck with the cooking contest!” Ezabel returned the thought and returned to her team, while Ally returned to cutting fruit.

            “You guys tried to sing our songs on the plane?” Changmin asked, turning to Ally with a curious smile. Ally laughed, shaking her head.

            “Tried is the key word in that sentence. We all chose the parts of our favorite member and the harmonies were completely horrible,” Ally responded, sighing. “It was pretty funny.”

            “Did you sing my part?” Changmin asked, giving her a curious look, but his smirk told Ally he already knew the answer. He elbowed her lightly in the side, and Ally stuck her tongue out.

            “Nope. I sang Jo Kwon’s part,” she teased, and Changmin faked a gasp, placing his hand over his chest. Ally was the one to smirk this time, rolling her eyes teasingly at Changmin before going back to cutting her fruit.

            The rest of the preparation was quiet besides the occasional threat between teams. After all was done, the dishes were set out and those who were sleeping were sent to choose their favorites, not knowing who made what. Much to Changmin’s dismay, Seulong’s team did win, their dishes being by far the best. It was Seulong’s team’s second victory, while Kwon’s team and Jinwoon’s team didn’t have and yet. Changmin’s team was content with one win, but by Kwon and Jinwoon’s annoyance at their three losses, it was obvious the competition was no where near over yet between the four.

            After brunch, everyone made his or her way out to the beach, where it was time for fun instead of competition. A few people were lying down on the beach, taking advantage of the sun and tanning. Another small group of people were playing with volleyballs and Frisbees, obviously the more athletic of those on the island. Many people were in the ocean, where the waves had begun to pick up enough to knock people over.

            Ally already wasn’t a fan of the ocean when it was calm, but when the waves were picking up, she outright avoided it like the plague. Being knocked under the ocean countless times as a child was enough to steer her away from going back into the water when it was rough. Now that they were with the 2AM members, she was definitely not going to risk going into the water when it was very possible it could end with her screaming and crying, flailing her arms as she ran out of the water. As far as Ally was concerned, that would be even worse than meeting Changmin with a face full of sand.

            Ally sat down with Ezabel on a towel, watching the water.

            “You don’t want to swim?” Ally asked her, and Ezabel shook her head.

            “Not my thing,” she replied, and Ally nodded.

            “I totally get it.”

            The two were soon joined by Cindy, who had just finished playing volleyball. They sat in silence until Changmin noticed the three sitting, doing absolutely nothing. He motioned for them to join him in the water, to which Ally and Ezabel shook their heads furiously. Changmin frowned, giving them a pleading smile, to which the girls continued to shake their heads. Cindy laughed with an amused smile. As a last effort to get the three out into the ocean, or at least doing something, he decided to use one of the things he was most confident in, his body. He removed the white, wet wife-beater he was wearing, trying to put on his best y expression. This aroused mixed reactions from the three: Cindy raised her eyebrow at Changmin, a tiny amused smile tugging at her lips. Ezabel covered , attempting to hide the fact that she was giggling to herself, excited to actually see his gorgeous body in person. Ally, although ever loving the sight of Changmin’s gorgeous body, scrunched up her face with a mix of disgust and confusion in his presentation of it. Changmin, amused by their mixed reactions, laughed, shaking his head at them. He mock-glared at them before returning to the ocean. As soon as he did, the three girls burst out laughing. That’s Changmin for you!

            Just as they finished laughing, there was a large commotion building up around the three as people began jumping up and waving, yelling out cheers and cries of happiness. In the distance, the sound of a motor and propellers approaching was getting louder and louder as a small spot in the sky grew larger and larger. A plane. The fans jumped up and down over and over, screaming in excitement. People began yelling how they knew the plane was coming back, accusing it of being a hidden camera. But the cries of happiness began to slowly fade until it was absolutely silent again on the beach. The plane had completely avoided the island. It wasn’t their plane. They were still stuck there.

            Ally, Cindy, and Ezabel turned to look at each other with silent gazes. No words, at that moment, were needed.