‘Okay, who’s holding the big sign?’ Sooyun lifted up a large poster board that had a welcoming message splayed across it in big blocky neat writing, obviously her own. ‘Kris!’ She went to hand it to him but he held his hands up, his metal bracelets clinking against each other as they slid down his writs.

 ‘That sign, is not my style,’ he shrugged cooley as if apologising and went to say something else when Baekhyun shoved it into his hands, clapping his hand on the older males shoulder.

 ‘It is now,’ he chirped before running over to his girlfriend to help her unload the other signs.

 ‘She’s going to be overwhelmed by all this stuff,’ Kris let the poster rest on the ground, attempting to lean on it’s flimsy top. I had to agree with Kris, Jaehwa was the type to get overstimulated, and while she would enjoy the enthusiastic welcome she wouldn’t enjoy the embarrassment that came with it. I frowned and stared at the clock on my phone, she got embarrassed over the strangest things.

‘You’re going to ruin the posterboard,’ Xiumin scowled, nagging Kris as he readily took the welcoming sign Sooyun handed him.  

 ‘She’ll love it! Once she gets over the shock of it,’ Sooyun muttered to herself before pacing in front of the line of males that had come with her to greet Jaehwa. ‘What else is there? This has to be perfect.’

 ‘Calm down, it’ll go down fine,’ I  grinned and started tossing the stiff rectangular poster into the air. ‘Hey look! I can be a sign flipper!’ Laughing I twirled it knowing I looked like a professional, before the sign hit the ground, one of the tips breaking off. ‘Oops,’ I chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of my neck as Sooyun glared at me.

 ‘Chanyeol!’ Do you know how hard we worked on that poster! And look it’s all broken up!’

 ‘It’s fine!’ I bent down and picked it up, tracing the jagged edge of the board. ‘I just have to hold  it there, nobody will notice,’ I pinched the bottom ends with my fingers to hold it up.

 ‘Leave that idiot alone, if he wants to be like that just leave him,’ Baekhyun eased his girlfriends nerves by readily insulting his best friend that always puts up with him and his short antics. I rolled my eyes and mock glared at my shorter friend who only smirked back.

 ‘Alright,’ she smiled at Baekhyun and kissed his cheek in thanks before going back into rush mode of making sure everything was ready. She pulled out her phone and dialed Lay, tensing as she waited for him to answer the phone. ‘Everything’s ready, right? Who’s there? Everyone? Okay, no she’s not here yet, I was just checking in. yeah, yeah,’ Sooyun played with the dangling charm on her cellphone as she nodded, her nerves lessening as she heard how the preparations were going at the other side. I had full confidence in the other group being ready. They have Luhan, Lay, Suho, and D.O, that's enough to keep the group organized.

 ‘Almost five,’ I chanted as I started spinning the board all over again, ‘ten to five, ten to five, five, five five.’ My excitement was filling my body with pent up energy as caught sight of the electronic sign telling of the early arrival of Jaehwa’s plane.

 ‘Chanyeol!’ Xiumin snapped, I fumbled with the sign, barely catching it before it hit the ground.

 ‘What?’

 ‘Stop spinning the sign, you’re going to drop it and break it again.’

 ‘Alright, hyung,’ I sighed and stared at Xiumin, faking a growl when the nagger looked away.

 ‘You look like a puppy, not a wolf,’ Kris smirked as he looked down at me.

 ‘I guess I’m cute then, I shrugged and grinned at Kris before I made a V sign and winked.

 ‘Get back to twirling,’ Kris picked up his sign off the ground, pretending that it wasn’t slightly warped in the middle from him leaning on it.

 ‘What happened to the sign?’ Sooyun clicked her tongue as she stared at Kris’ sign.

 ‘Did something happen to it?’ He questioned feigning cluelessness, ‘wasn’t it always like this?’ He slowly flipped the sign pretending to study it.

 ‘Maybe,’ Sooyun sighed heavily before glaring at me as I listened to Kris’ demand and had gone right back to twirling. ‘Chanyeol!’ She snatched the board from my hands and glared at me, her short stature inspiring no fear in me, ‘you have been relinquished of your duties.’

 ‘Noona,’ I frowned at her as she held the board away from me.

 ‘No,’ she shook her head then checked her watch. ‘The plane is landing soon! Get in position!’

 ‘It landed three minutes ago,’ I spoke up jumping in surprise when Sooyun spun around and glared at me.

 ‘Why didn’t you tell me that sooner!’ She held up her sign in the air as she scanned the oncoming crowds. ‘Jaehwa! Jaehwa!’ Almost as soon as she lifted the sign up she was dropping it and running to greet her homestay sister. I smiled as soon as I saw Jaehwa’s memorable blue eyes light up, a sweet smile gracing her lips as she hugged her ecstatic friend.

 ‘Eonni! How are you?’

 ‘I’m fantastic, how are you?’

 ‘Good!’ Jaehwa scanned the group that came to the airport to greet her, her gaze stopped on me briefly and I winked at her grinning when she immediately looked away and clapped her hands together, trying to hide the pink that lit up in her cheeks. ‘I need to grab my bag.’

 ‘Already done,’ she turned to see Chen walking up, lugging her suitcase behind him. ‘What did you put in here? It’s way too heavy to be makeup.’

 ‘Books!’ Jaehwa smiled at him proudly before hugging him, Kris, and Xiumin. She stopped in front of me, I smiled at her watching as she bit her plump naturally pink lip, staring at me with wide eyes, I could almost see her debating whether or not she should hug me, whether or not I would want her to.

‘What? I don’t get a hug?’ I made up her mind for her and hugged her. ‘Welcome back,’ I froze in surprise as she hugged me back, her restless fingers tapping rhythmically against my back.

 ‘Thanks, it’s good to be back,’ she pulled away and flashed a bright smile before she walked over to Baekhyun bowing to him in greeting, oblivious to the rapid thumping of my heart. ‘So, how am I getting home? There’s five people, that’s a whole car.’

 ‘Chanyeol drove over as well, you can drive with him,’ Baekhyun grinned at her before winking at me, thinking he was being inconspicuous and clever. I watched her nervously checking to see if she found Baekhyun suspicious, even though she had no reaction, that doesn't mean that she didn't catch on.

 ‘Really?’ Jaehwa scanned the group checking everyone’s expressions to see if everyone was actually alright with me driving her. Somehow not catching on to Baekhyun's blatant teasing.

 ‘Yeah! Of course! Don’t worry about us,’ Chen joined in on Baekhyun’s plan, pushing her suitcase into me before waving her off. ‘Go on.’

 ‘Al….right,’ she frowned at them, her eyebrow raising in suspicion before she shook her head and looked over at me, her eyes focused on the ground by my feet. ‘Are we...going then?’ She questioned, raising her head to meet my gaze with a hesitant smile.

 ‘Sure!’ I grabbed the handle to her suitcase and started pulling it out of the airport, past Kris who was frowning, his eyebrows knit in confusion.

 ‘But I thought,’ he went quiet as Xiumin shook his head signalling for his taller friend to not say  anything and just go with the flow.

 ‘We’re going to a restaurant, we’ll meet them there,’ I spoke up smiling as she looked at me skeptically before nodding.

 ‘Okay,’ instead of walking beside me she started lagging and followed behind me instead.

 ‘Why are you back there?’

 ‘I well, I don’t know where I’m going,’ Jaehwa appeared by my side looking up at the sky. She sighed heavily, sounding as if she was releasing all of her frustrations.

 ‘It’s a silver subaru,’ I watched as she immediately started scanning the parking lot.

 ‘Outback?’

 ‘No, it’s called a liberty,’ I watched as she frowned before shaking her head giving up on her mission of trying to figure out the car. ‘It’s right here,’ I watched as she silent appraised the car, nodding and smiling instead of voicing her thoughts about it. Unlocking the trunk I pulled it open and lifted her suitcase into it, and chuckling at the weight of it. How many books could she have brought?

 ‘What is it?’ She looked over the roof of the trunk, peering at me with her curious doe like eyes.

 I cleared my throat and pushed the trunk closed walking to the drivers seat, ‘nothing.’ Opening my door I sat down seeing my reflection in the glass I scowled touching the faint bumps of the pimples on my cheek, why did I have to break out now? I looked away from my reflection and put the keys in the ignition when I heard her open her door.

 ‘Are you getting pimples?’ She looked at my cheek then down at her lap as she buckled herself in. I could feel the tips of my ears go red in embarrassment, she noticed everything. ‘It helps to put a small layer of toothpaste on top. It’ll dry out the pimple and they will go away faster, but you can’t leave it on too long or it might burn your skin, at least that’s what Jacob says.’ She scrunched her nose up, rolling it looking like a bunny before she yawned, covering with her fingers.

 ‘Baekhyun was saying L was in your skype call?’ I plugged my phone into the cars music system, letting my playlist play quietly in the background

 ‘Yeah, we ran into his family on the ferry, they went to the same resort as my family. I think they got an earlier plane ride though.’ She stared out the window watching the cars drive by before she jumped exclaiming in surprise. ‘What?’

 ‘Myungsoo showed me the stuff he was working on!’ I could see her clapping her hands together, her eyes widening in excitement. ‘He danced to Come Back Again, She’s Back, and his new song they are working on for the contest. It was so cool!’ I gripped the steering wheel staring intently the road ahead of us, is it possible for someone to fall for someone within three days of meeting them? She sounded like she was crushing on that Kyunggi brat.

 ‘Really?’ She nodded oblivious to the clear annoyance in my voice as she puffed out her cheeks and squeezing her eyes shut, trying not to yawn. I felt my annoyance lower by just a bit when I watched her. It’s hard to be upset with a cute person like her. ‘Well our songs are even better than theirs. I’ll show you our old dances later if you want?’

 ‘Yes!’ She cleared and shuffled in her seat, nodding, ‘that would be cool.’ I froze when I heard one of my composed songs come on. I had forgotten that I put some of my own stuff in here. ‘What’s wrong?’

 ‘Nothing,’ I reached for my phone and went to look down at it but she snatched it off of the rest before I could touch it.

 ‘If you’re driving, then drive, no touching your phone. If you want me to, I can skip it.’ I stared at the road intensely, if I told her to skip it she would figure out I made it, but if I left it then she would hear the whole thing. I never let anyone listen to my stuff before.

Please log in to read the full chapter