“Mom!” called out Natalia. “I’m going somewhere now!”

“Wait,” said her mum said, poking her head out of the kitchen. “Where?”

Natalia answered, “The marble fountain. SHINee business.”

Her mum frowned. “Oh, right… they’re coming today.”

“Actually,” replied Natalia, shaking her head. “They said their arrival would be postponed.”

“Oh,” said her mum thoughtfully. “So why are you going to the fountain?”

Exasperated, Natalia sighed. “I don’t know, mum! And if you don’t stop asking me questions, I might not get there and find out!”

“OK, OK,” said her mum, waving her off. “I’m sorry. You can go.”

Natalia smiled. “Thanks!”

She slipped on her flip flops and opened the door.

“Lock the door behind you!” called out her mother, right before the door closed.

She did so and finally began heading towards the marble fountain.
_____________________________________________

Nicola tapped her feet impatiently. “What am I doing here again?”

“Oh, right.” she answered to herself, rolling her eyes. “That e-mail.”

Eventually, she got caught up in her one-sided conversation, and sat down on the edge of the fountain.

“I bet it was a scam!” she snorted. “Right; I shouldn’t even have come. But then again, I was going to buy that purse I wanted for a couple weeks already… But when I got to the store, it looked really ugly up close. Ugh, I swear. The magic of lighting and windows.”

The topic drifted off to something about chandeliers, and then giraffes.

It was only when she had gotten around to xylophones did she remember where she was.

Nicola stood up and blinked. What time was it?

She glanced at her phone, which read 12:09. She had gotten to the fountain at around 11:54.

“Huh,” she said. “Who knew talking to yourself could be so interesting?”

Then she huffed. “What did the e-mail say again? Something about meeting someone…” She looked around. “It’s nine minutes past noon, and nobody’s here.”

“I knew it…” Nicola said, pouting. “It was a phony. I guess I sort of wished it was real.” Sighing, she turned to leave—

“Oof!” she squeaked as she bumped into someone, her phone flying out of her hand. The other person, a girl nearly toppled backwards, but straightened herself. Then she tripped over Nicola’s foot and ended up crashing to the floor anyways.

Nicola winced and watched the other girl as she got off the floor, mumbling “Ow.”

“I’m sorry!” said Nicola. “Are you okay? I should have watched where I was going!”

“No, it was my fault.” she said, dusting off her shirt. “Sorry—”

“Wait.” interrupted Nicola, looking around. “Where’s my phone?”

“Your phone?” asked the other girl, confused. “What color is it?”

Nicola spun around, searching for her lost phone. “Black, but it had a cupcake case.”

“Oh,” said the other girl, searching for it as well. “You mean the one that’s in the fountain?”

“WHAT?!” shrieked Nicola, turning around to face her.

Wordlessly, the other person pointed to the fountain.

Nicola cautiously walked over and looked into the clear water. Sure enough, there was a black phone with cupcake decorations.

“My phone!” wailed Nicola. “Urgh, I knew it was bad luck, listening to the stupid e-mail!” She kneeled over and reached for the phone, hoping it was still in working order. “Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid—”

“E-mail?” echoed the other girl curiously. “What e-mail?”

Nicola looked at her phone with sad eyes, shaking off the water and wiping it with the hem of her shirt. “Just some stupid e-mail.” she answered, trying to turn on her phone. “About meeting somebody here at the fountain. Really bad English.”

The smile on the others girl’s face stretched from ear to ear. “Is your name, by any chance, Nicola?”

Nicola looked at her, surprised. “Uh, yeah.”

“Well, nice to meet you.” she held out her hand. “I’m Natalia.”
___________________________________________________

“You’re Natalia?” asked Nicola, her dead phone lying next to her iced latte pitifully. “The Natalia in my e-mail?”

Natalia nodded and took a sip out of her soda. “Yep.”

They were at a café, chatting casually as if they were childhood friends.

“So you were told to meet me at the marble fountain because… why?” asked Nicola, looking at her doubtfully.

Natalia shrugged. “Because SHINee told me to. I figured it was important.”

Nicola looked at Natalia like she was stupid.

“What’s with that look?” asked Natalia.

“That was not SHINee.” said Nicola.

“I know.” said Natalia, nodding. “I found it hard to believe at first as well.”

There was silence as Nicola digested all of this. “S-so, that was the actual SHINee?”

Natalia nodded again—

“NO WAY!” squealed Nicola. “I got an e-mail from SHINee!”

Natalia laughed. “Enthusiastic much?”

“So now that we’ve met, what next?” asked Nicola, grinning.

“Um,” said Natalia. “I really don’t know. I just assumed that you’d have the answer, but I can tell you’re as lost as me.”

Nicola frowned. “Why would they send us here if they didn’t have a reason?”

Natalia thought about it. “Well, there obviously is a reason.”

“We just don’t know it?” said Nicola, but it came out as a question.

“Exactly.”

_______________________________________________________________________________

How was it? Huh? Huh? xD

I'll have to ask Jessie a few things before the next chapter is up, LOL.

It's not as long as I expected, but longer than the last one I wrote, I guess...

@KoreansAreHot: Thanks ^_^ Just updated, lol.

@Nataliette: Yeah, sorry that it's short xD

@whiteheron: Thanks for the nice comment! Google's really bad at translating long paragraphs and sentences :3

@amyra961: Well, at least it was an EPIC fail, and not just a fail x)

@B2STHart: I just did ^_~

@WhiteRoseFlame: It's from Hello Baby! Lol, yes, that is Onew being Onew in the back, with Key :D

@INGjjang: Hurrah! Inbox flooding, lol. Thanks for the nice comment :)

@whiteheron: Jessie appreciates the helpful comment :) We all wish her well.

@Nataliette: Lol, digital hug. Jessie returns the digital hug :]

@Kpoplover3: That image made my day! And I checked, you're right, it's not there anymore :( Kekeke, Kyuhyun's horse... At least I took an image before it disappeared :3