My train of thought is interrupted by the loud rustling of the bushes lining the road we’re walking on. Kyungsoo seems to have heard it too because he turns his head in the direction of the sound. As soon as he takes his first step towards it, the rustling immediately stops. Kyungsoo is about to investigate further, but the sky suddenly dims noticeably. Kyungsoo seems to have remembered something and he sprints away from the bushes, heading further down the path.

Narrator’s POV 

            Luna breathes out a sigh of relief as Kyungsoo turns away. She glares at Sehun who is tucked into a tight ball, head between his knees. Sehun lifts his head slowly, supressing his instinct to wince at the hard glare Luna is giving him. Luna’s wide smiles can brighten up rooms, but her cold glares can wither plants.

            “I demand an apology,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest.

            “I’m sorry for making so much noise,” Sehun says in order to satisfy her. He wants to point out that he wasn’t the only one making a ruckus, but he knows that is going to get him nowhere, except into more trouble.

            “And?” Luna prods, gesturing for him to continue.

            “And for dragging you into this,” Sehun mumbles, looking at the dusty ground they were sitting on. That part was really his doing.

            Ever since the science project, Luna and Sehun had gotten a lot closer, with each of them visiting each other’s houses to work on the project when Kyungsoo claimed that he was too busy. When Kyungsoo had texted Sehun excitedly that Krystal had indeed accepted his confession, Sehun had texted Luna about it too, and was surprised to find out that she had already known about it. Earlier on the day of Kyungsoo and Krystal’s date, a lot earlier, 6 a.m. to be exact, Sehun had walked up to Luna’s house, nonchalantly climbed over her house gates and started tossing rocks at her bedroom window.

            After about five tosses, a groggy looking Luna finally opened her window, running a hand through her bed hair. “What on earth is going on?” she asked as she yawned, stopping midway when a stone narrowly missed her and instead landed on her bedroom floor with a loud “clack”. Her eyes widened and she looked more awake now as she looked out the window at the intruder.

            “Can’t you see my window is already open!?” she yelled at Sehun.

            “Well, someone’s not a morning person,” Sehun mumbled. “I have a feeling she would get along really well with Kai….he’s exactly the same when he wakes up.”

            “Hey! I heard that!” Luna said as she scowled. “And you know, you could’ve just used the front door.”

            “But that would wake everyone up in your house. It’s only 6 a.m., you know,” Sehun said.

            “What? It is?” Luna fumbled around her room, looking for her alarm clock before she finally found it sitting on her bedside table. “Who visits people at 6 a.m.?” she questioned, still staring at the two hands pointing at 6 a.m. on her clock.

            “Well, obviously me,” Sehun said, gesturing to himself. “Plus, it’s urgent,” he finished.

            Luna’s eyes widened and she stared out the window at Sehun. “What? What happened? Is someone in the hospital?”

            “Well, no,” Sehun said and Luna let out a sigh of relief. “It’s Kyungsoo and Krystal’s date day.”

            “Really? Yay for them!” Luna exclaimed happily. But a few seconds later, her look changed to one of confusion. “And what are we supposed to do about it?”

            Sehun answered Luna’s question with another question. “Aren’t you curious about how it’ll go?”

            “Well, yea. That’s why I’m going to ask them for all the details afterwards.”

            Sehun’s eyes held a mischievous twinkle as he said, “Wouldn’t you rather see it firsthand?”

            Luna furrowed her brows. “Just get to the point, Sehun.”

            “Well, I was thinking that we could follow them and -”

            Luna’s eyes widened and she cut into Sehun’s sentence. “You mean stalk them?”

            Sehun pursed his lips into a straight line, not pleased with the interruption. “Follow, not stalk. Follow. And we can be there to help out in case anything goes wrong.”

            Luna sighed. “Look, Sehun, I know you’re curious and all. And I am too, but it’s best not to invade into their privacy and -”

            Luna stopped in the middle of her lecture as she found herself looking at Sehun’s puppy face. It was so, so bizarre to see the stoic boy doing aegyo that Luna just forgot what she was going to say. And he was pretty good at it too. At that moment, Luna couldn’t remember the warnings Kyungsoo had given her about Sehun’s irresistible aegyo and how she should never give in under any circumstance. All she could sense was that her resolve was slowly melting away, and before she knew it, she had opened and the words of agreement had came tumbling out without her conscious consent.

            “Yes, I’ll go with you.” As soon as she said those words, she clamped her hands over and was about to voice out her change of mind when Sehun beat her to it.

            “Aha! You agreed! You can’t go back on your word now!” Sehun let out a victorious whoop, oblivious to the fact that Luna was very close to strangling him.

            Luna stormed back into her room, angry at Sehun for unleashing his aegyo on her, and angry at herself for caving in. “Hey! Where are you going?” Sehun shouted from outside.

            “To get ready!” Luna shouted back.

            “Oh! Wear something black! Or camouflage colours and patterns if you have those!” Sehun said. Luna rolled her eyes at his statement before realizing that he was serious about it.

            When she finally came out of her house wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of camo-patterned cargo pants, Sehun tossed something to her. “Wear this too,” he said, holding a similar object in his hand.

            Luna unfolded the piece of black cloth. “A burglar mask? Seriously, Sehun?”

            “Well, do you want to get caught?” Sehun said, while slipping his own mask on.

            “Has it never occurred to you that if we wear this we are sure to get mistaken as burglars?” she said, tossing it back to him and he grudgingly stuffed it back into his backpack.

            And true enough, not even after 10 minutes of walking, Sehun was stopped by a couple of policemen doing a neighbourhood patrol. They spent 30 whole minutes searching him and Luna, just because she was walking with him.

            After they were set free, Luna yanked Sehun’s face mask off and handed it to him. Without further argument, he stuffed it into his bag and never mentioned it again.

            After getting stopped by the police and Sehun’s numerous stops to several bubble tea shops, Luna and Sehun almost missed Kyungsoo leaving his house. Luckily they were there just in time to see him lock his front door and exit his gate.

            “Wait, where’s Krystal?” Luna said as they watched Kyungsoo make his way down the road from behind a tree on the sidewalk.

            “She’s his shadow in the daytime, remember?” Sehun whispered.

            “Then what are we following them for?” Luna whispered back.

            “She turns back into a shadow during the evening, so we just need to be there when she does.”

            “So you’re willing to follow Kyungsoo all day just for that?” Luna asked.

            Sehun shrugged. “And I’m interested to see how Kyungsoo will pull this date thing off by himself.”

            Luna pondered over Sehun’s words. How was Kyungsoo going to go on a date with Krystal if she was his shadow? She guessed she would find out soon enough.

            But it turned out that finding out was a lot more boring than they had expected. All day long, Kyungsoo had just wandered around town. The only thing that had sparked both Luna and Sehun’s interests was when Kyungsoo made the wish at the fountain, but they couldn’t even ask him what he wished for to satisfy their curiosity.

            As Kyungsoo walked towards the outskirts of town, it became harder and harder for Luna and Sehun to continue following him without being seen. They could no longer blend in with the large crowds of people, or hide behind buildings and alleyways. All they had for hiding spots now were overgrown shrubs, trees and long grass.

            As Luna and Sehun ducked behind yet another bush, Sehun suddenly exclaimed excitedly, “Look! The sun’s about to set! That means evening is coming soon! And Krystal’s finally gonna - umph!”

            Luna clamped her hand over Sehun’s mouth. “Shhh! Watch the volume of your voice! They’re gonna hear us!”

            Sehun unclasped Luna’s hand from his mouth, and glared at her. “You’re just as loud as me, if not louder when you’re telling me to be quiet.”

            “Oh, shut up,” Luna retorted, returning his dark gaze before turning her head away from him and onto the sky to see if Sehun’s observations were right, and indeed he was. The sky was already visibly darkening, welcoming the night to make its entrance soon.

            “Ah, they’re already moving ahead,” Sehun said as he proceeded to get up and move to hide behind a tree only a few feet away. But unfortunately, he got up a little too quickly, making a loud rustling sound as his jeans brushed against the leaves.

            Luna quickly pulled him down, shutting her eyes tightly as she could hear Kyungsoo making his way slowly over to the bushes. Suddenly, his footsteps stopped.  A second later, they resounded again, but this time, the sound seemed to be getting more and more distant.

            Luna sighed in relief when she realized that Kyungsoo had left to go somewhere else, far, far away from the bush.  But she still glared at Sehun when he lifted his head from its position between his knees, which was their current situation now.

            “So which way do we go now?” Luna asks Sehun.

            “What do you mean which way? We just follow th- Wait, where did they go?” Sehun says, wide eyed, still pointing at the road which Kyungsoo had walked on just minutes ago.

            “We lost them?” Luna groans.

            “They couldn’t have gone far,” Sehun reasons. He pulls Luna up and starts down the road. “Come on, let’s see where they’ve went.”

            But the two find out that Kyungsoo and Krystal did go far, because they are nowhere to be seen. Moreover, the number of intersections and crossroads are not helping at all.

            “Come on, Sehun, let’s just head back,” Luna suggests as she gently places a hand on Sehun’s shoulder. Looking at Sehun’s defeated expression, she just doesn’t have the will or energy to tell him that his master plan has been foiled.

            “You know what? Let’s get some bubble tea on the way back,” Luna says, hoping to cheer Sehun up with his favourite drink. And it works because Sehun’s eyes light up a little.

            As Sehun and Luna walk out of the bubble tea store, each holding their respective cups, a voice from above them says, “You guys are a cute couple.”

            Sehun immediately chokes on his drink, while Luna pats his back, a little too hard, as she scans the area above them to see where the voice came from.

            She finally finds the source of the voice when she looks at the top branch of a tree, where a tomboyish girl is perched there. Or maybe it was a pretty boy….Luna couldn’t really tell.

            “Uh…we’re not dating,” Luna states. First Kyungsoo, now Sehun. Why does everyone always assume that she’s dating someone?

            “You’re not?” the person whom the voice belongs to says. “Whoops, my bad.” The person starts to climb down the tree, and does so with ease, landing on the ground after a few seconds. “Sorry I didn’t introduce myself earlier. My name’s Amber.”

            “I’m Luna,” Luna says, smiling. She then gestures to Sehun who is hitting his chest with his fist, trying to ease the choking.  “And that’s Sehun, the bubble tea maniac,” Luna adds and Amber laughs while Sehun glares at Luna for embarrassing him so soon after they had just met Amber.

            “Don’t look at me like that,” Luna tells Sehun. “You know it’s true.” Amber laughs again and looks at Sehun. “Don’t worry, I like bubble tea too. What’s your favourite flavour?”

            Amber manages to hit off an easy conversation with both Luna and Sehun and they discover her to be friendly and funny. After a while of walking, Amber stops in front of an old brick house and bids both Luna and Sehun goodbye.

            “Is this where you stay?” Sehun asks Amber and she shakes her head.

            “It’s where my friend lives. I visit her pretty often and today is one of those days.”

            Sehun’s mouth forms into an “o” as he nods his head in understanding. Luna smiles at Amber. “I guess we’ll see you around then.”

            Amber returns the smile and waves to them. “Yep. See you around.”

            As Sehun and Luna turn around to continue walking to their respective houses, Amber raises her hand to knock on the door but it opens before she even has the chance.

            Amber stares at the girl behind the door in surprise, her hand still in midair, before she breaks into a smile.

            “Hi,” she says but the other girl doesn’t respond.

            “It’s 7:02 p.m. You’re late,” the girl who opened the door says.

            Amber is a bit taken aback. “It’s only by two minutes.”

            “Every minute can make a difference,” is the response she gets.

            “I-I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” Amber states.

            The girl’s serious face suddenly changes as she bursts out into laughter while Amber looks at her, incredibly confused.

            “Don’t worry, Amber. I wouldn’t get angry over something so trivial,” the girl says, smiling at Amber while she gestures for Amber to enter the house.

            Amber punches the girl playfully on the arm. “That was not nice.”

            The other girl laughs again. “Sorry, I had to do it. But if my parents say something like that to you when you’re late, you can count on them being serious.”

            The girl’s parents had a thing with lateness, it ticked them off a great deal for some reason. The girl had no clue why. Whenever she asked, they always gave her the same answer: “Every single minute matters. Your life could change in a split second.”

            The girl was pulled back to reality by a hand waving in front of her face. “Hey, you haven’t floated off to space, have you?” Amber says.

            “W-what? Oh, no. I was just thinking,” the girl replies.

            “About what?” Amber questions.

            “Nothing.” The girl didn’t feel like talking about that subject at the moment. “Oh, who were those two people you were talking with just now?” she asks Amber, changing the subject.

            “Huh? Oh, I just met them a while ago,” Amber shrugs.

            The girl raises an eyebrow. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to talk to random strangers?”

            “Well, if I never talked to random strangers, you and I wouldn’t be friends now, would we?”

            The girl laughs. “Well said, Amber.”

            Amber smiles when suddenly a growl from her stomach reminds her that she still hasn’t eaten. “Krystal, wanna go grab dinner outside?”

            “Sure,” the girl replies, slipping her jacket on as they walk out onto the street.

             Little did Krystal know that one of those strangers Amber met wasn’t a stranger at all, but a friend from a long, long time ago. And they had just walked past the very same street.

I am so sorry I took such a long time to update. I thought it was going to be a short chapter, but it turns out it was a pretty long one. But this chapter was important because there was an interesting development, and that is: Krystal’s alive!!!! I know this kind of plot twist is a bit cliché, but I hope it wasn’t predictable in this story. :P Anyways, please comment down below on what you think about this story so far because I would love your feedback. And if you like the story, please subscribe and upvote! Thank you my readers, I love you all! <3