“What’s up with this?”
“hnn?” Hee-jin asked Dia. It wasn’t unusual for Dia to talk to the things around her, but it was unusual for her to do it so loudly. “Nothing,” Dia replied, “well, here, see.” She tossed her phone towards her friend, who quickly unlocked her screen to look at the message.

Good.

“Who send it? Ah, L? Only that?” Hee-jin started. “Yup. What’s with that? Do you think he’s mad at me? Is it good that I am fine, or that I didn’t send the picture? Or is he just glad he doesn’t have to worry about me anymore?” “You are so overthinking this,” Hee-jin said. “He’s probably not too happy about the picture, or something like that. Or maybe he is having a bad day. Don’t worry about it. It’s probably nothing.” “Yeah, I guess. Why am I even worried about this? It’s not as if I actually knew him or anything.” Dia smiled and tried to shrug it off, but her friend knew her better than that. “How about you keep sending him pictures? Like of us doing things together, and even when we do something with Nick, but just with the three of us. Then maybe it becomes normal? No, never mind, it’s a stupid idea.” “You’re amazing!” Dia practically jumped over her bed to hug her friend. “That might actually work. I think I’ll do that. Now, let’s go to Lotte World, have fun and forget all about him!”

The girls arrived at Lotte World a little before noon. “Let’s walk around first and then get some lunch,” Dia suggested. “It’s like a fairy tale world,” Hee-jin commented. “It is! It’s really pretty!” Dia agreed. “They also have an aquarium and a water park! We have to go back here! Even if it’s quite expensive.” Hee-jin nodded: “We definitely have to! It’s a holiday, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a bit expensive. Besides, I love aquariums!” “Me too! Especially puffer fish,” Dia agreed. “Always with your puffer fish,” Hee-jin laughed. “But I agree, they are cute.”

“Let’s take a picture!” Hee-jin suggested. The snapshot of them in front of the entrance of the adventure park of Lotte world turned out really good, so Hee-jin pushed Dia to send it to Myungsoo. “Just send it. It’s not embarrassing at all. We both look cute and you just said this morning you would. He asked you to check in every once in a while, it’s not weird!” “Okay, okay, I’ll do it! But it’s still a little weird.”

I’m in the adventure park at Lotte World with Hee-jin today. It’s going to be fun ^^ It’s too big, we have to go back for the water park and the aquarium >.<.

Like always, Dia asked Hee-jin’s opinion before sending her text. “It’s fine, just send it,” Her friend pushed her. Myungsoo didn’t reply, but Hee-jin convinced Dia not to give up.

“So, you are just spamming him with pictures of all the things you are doing? You sure he isn’t getting annoyed with you?” Nick asked Dia after she had taken a picture ofthem at dinner. “Of course he wouldn’t,” Hee-jin complained. She had decided that she didn’t quite like Nick. Sure, he was taking care of them and making sure nothing happened, but he was also annoying. “He might, yes. He’s not responding though, so if he really hates it, he probably blocked me,” Dia said, pretending not to care.

“He wouldn’t just do that, right,” Hee-jin said. “He might,” Nick stated. “But I wouldn’t mind getting pictures of pretty girls every day, so I doubt he would. Even if it’s just the two of you.” “Yah! Be nice!” Dia said slightly angry. “I’m here, right?” Nick said with a small smile. “Yes, yes… You are. Not sure whether I’m that happy about it though,” Dia answered with a sigh. “At least it’s better than walking through the dark alone,” Hee-jin said.

That night in the hotel, Dia send another text to Myungsoo. “This will be the last one,” she whispered at her phone. “What?” Hee-jin responded to her from the other bed. “Nothing,” Dia replied as she typed her message.

I’m sorry for all the messages. You can just say so if you hate them. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Thanks for helping us the other day. I won’t bother you again.

Her finger lingered over the send button. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and pressed it. There, done. Nothing I can do about it now. She had barely thought this when her phone buzzed.

You’re not a bother. I was busy. Don’t hate them. Keep sending. L.

With a smile on her face and her phone in her hand, Dia fell asleep. The next morning she was awoken by her phone buzzing. She had to search for it, only to find out she was lying on top of it.

You free tomorrow? Me and Sungyeol can take you to Lotte World aquarium? Don’t have to. L.

That woke her up right away. “Hee-jin, Hee-jin, wake up. Do you want to go to the aquarium tomorrow? With Myungsoo and Sungyeol?” “Huh, what? What are you saying?” Hee-jin said sleepily. It wasn’t often her friend was awake before she was. “I got a text from Myungsoo. Here, see.” She tossed her friend her phone. “Oh my god! Yes, we’re going! A date, with two idols. This can’t even be real! Have you replied yet?” “Of course I haven’t. We hadn’t discussed it yet!” “Then do it right now!” Hee-jin urged while tossing the phone back.

We’re free! Where shall we meet and what time should we meet?

“I replied,” Dia said. For a few minutes they waited, but Myungsoo didn’t reply. “He must be working again,” Dia said. “Somehow, you seem a lot happier than yesterday. Is it because he finally replied to your picture spam?” Dia blushed a bit and nodded. “I guess. But we have to hurry, Nick especially said he would show us around the whole day, since he was free, so we shouldn’t make him wait.” “He can wait. He doesn’t even want to show us around.” “Maybe so, but he did take us to the best spots of Seoul. And no more spicy food since that one time.” Hee-jin shrugged. “That’s true. But he’s still kind of annoying.” Dia smiled, “He definitely is.”
After spending a whole day with Nick he was getting on their nerves. Somehow his tasteless jokes were only manageable for a few hours. “Let’s go to a club. I told you I’d show you all the hotspots, and you need to see the nightlife as well. You are already leaving to Japan on Tuesday, so this is your only chance,” Nick convinced them. They danced all through the night and only when they had arrived back at their hotel in the middle of the night Dia noticed she had a received message.

We’ll pick you up at 9 a.m. It’s pretty big. We know your hotel. L.

“Nine is so early. It gives us about 4 hours of sleep,” Hee-jin sighed. “But of course you have to say it’s okay.” “Texting him at this time? But, I can’t ignore it either. He send it like 5 hours ago.”

We’ll be waiting.

They had gone to bed right after that, but of course were very tired the next day. “Let’s sleep in on Monday,” Dia suggested as they were waiting for the idols to arrive. At exactly nine they appeared in front of them, once again wearing sunglasses and face masks. The sunglasses looked a lot less out of place during the day than they had during the night. “Hi,” Sungyeol said smiling. “So, you girls like aquariums?” They both nodded. “Such a cliché date place, just like a drama,” he continued. “Not a date,” Myungsoo interrupted. This made Sungyeol smile wider. “So shy,” he whispered to the girls.

They were wandering through the aquarium, both girls enjoying and pointing to all kinds of different fish they saw. And then, all of a sudden Dia noticed that Hee-jin and Sungyeol were gone. Myungsoo didn’t seem to have noticed either. “Have you seen Hee-jin, and Sungyeol-oppa.” “Sungyeol-sshi. And aren’t they around here somewhere?” Myungsoo looked around, as did Dia. “How did we lose them? Weren’t they just here?”

“You must be thirsty after two hours surrounded by water,” Sungyeol had said to Hee-jin. When she had nodded, he had taken her to a café inside the aquarium. There they could get something to drink while still being surrounded by fish. “Why didn’t you ask the others to come?” Hee-jin asked the handsome boy in front of her. “Really? And ruin the chance to spend some quality time with you?” He laughed softly, and apologised. “That was too cheesy right? But I’m pretty sure L-ie wanted some time alone with her, even if he would never admit it.” “You’re so kind. I’m sure Dia doesn’t mind either.”

“They wouldn’t have gone off without us, right?” Dia asked. Myungsoo shook his head. “I don’t think so. Did they continue because we took too long?” “We better look for them then!” Dia said. Myungsoo nodded. The continued the route through the aquarium, this time quicker than before. After a while Dia stopped. “They couldn’t have gotten this far ahead, right? Not if they are actually looking at the fish.” “I guess not. Did we miss them?” “Maybe… Let’s watch the fish and see if they appear.” They both decided to just wait for the others to show up, while watching the fish tank they had just passed and pointed out interesting and pretty fish to the other.

“They’re not coming, are they?” Dia asked after 30 minutes. “Maybe they got lost? Sungyeol-ie is pretty bad at directions and it is really big here,” Myungsoo suggested. “Hee-jin also gets lost easily, even if she carries a map around.” Dia was really getting worried now. “We should look for them,” Myungsoo said. “Agreed. Should we split up?” The minute Dia suggested this, she regretted it. “We would cover more ground that way, but if you get lost, it would be even worse. You should stay with me,” Myungsoo said and started to walk. “Yah! Oppa! Don’t say something like that and just walk away!” Dia said, a tad annoyed, but glad he couldn’t see she was blushing.

At the same time Sungyeol and Hee-jin had already left the café and, as the others expected, had gotten lost in the maze of fish tanks. “Didn’t we just pass this tank? With all the sharks?” Hee-jin commented. “Aren’t there sharks in every tank? It’s all fish, right? But we didn’t walk that far, did we?” Sungyeol commented. “I don’t think so. Are we lost?” Hee-jin said, once again looking at the map of the aquarium they had gotten when entering the venue. “From the café, we went here, then we should be… here… I think.” She pointed at the map to show it to Sungyeol. “Do you think they have moved? I bet they didn’t even notice we were missing, too happy to be together. How can we ever find them again?” Sungyeol pondered. “I’m sure we can do it,” Hee-jin said positively.

“There’s no signal here, so I can’t text Hee-jin,” Dia announced as she caught up to Myungsoo. “What do you think would be the best way to find them?” She looked at him expectantly, hoping he would have a good idea. “I… I don’t know. Let’s just walk around and look everywhere. And don’t get lost,” he suggested.

“Ottoke,” Sungyeol said as they turned another corner. “Why can’t we find them. Isn’t there anything that could help us?” “Nothing. It’s not like we have been here before,” Hee-jin sighed. Running around the fish tanks trying to find the others was not how she had imagined spending her afternoon. Sure, the time they had spent in the café had been fun, but this was too much, especially after having hardly slept. “Wait. I know something. Here,” She pointed at a spot on her map. “Puffer fish. Maybe that’s where Dia is. She loves them.”

At that exact same moment, Dia stopped. “Oppa, how about, well, is there a tank with puffer fish?” Myungsoo looked surprised. “Wae?” “Puffer Fish. I like them and Hee-jin knows, so they might try to go there. We can wait for them there, if there is anything like that.” Myungsoo studied the Korean map he had been holding. “These, right?” he then asked, showing her a picture of a puffer fish. Dia nodded. “Let’s go there!”

An hour later, Hee-jin and Sungyeol arrived at the puffer fish tank. Dia and Myungsoo had been there for about fifty minutes, but Dia didn’t mind at all. She loved watching the cute puffers swim around and Myungsoo enjoyed watching her get all excited. “Where did you go?” Myungsoo asked them when he noticed them. “Lost,” Sungyeol said and winked, causing Myungsoo to glare at him. “We have been looking all over for you!” Dia told her friend. “You have? Sorry! But, did you enjoy you’re alone time with L?” Hee-jin whispered. “Alone time? Wait, did you do it on purpose? Tell me first! We have only been looking for the two of you!” Dia pouted, slightly sad she had missed such a great opportunity.

When they arrived at the hotel that night, both girls were tired from running around all day and fell asleep right away. The next morning, Dia texted Myungsoo again.

I had fun yesterday, thanks! I’m leaving to Japan tomorrow, at 10 in the morning.

She only received a reply the next morning as they were heading toward the airport. It made her smile enough to have Hee-jin ask her what she received. “A message from Myungsoo. He says he’s coming.” “Coming? Coming where?” “I… I don’t know. It’s just said: I’ll be there. L.”

Nick was at the airport waiting for them. “You’re late! You’d think I am the one who’s getting on a plane instead of the two of you.” “Thanks for coming to see us off, Nick,” Dia said with a smile, ignoring his complaints. “Let’s check in!” she turned to Hee-jin and off they went, leaving Nick to stand there.

When they returned, Nick had been joined by Myungsoo. Neither of them was looking very happy. “Oppa!” Dia smiled as she saw him. “You really did come!” “Of course,” he replied, almost smiling. “Thanks for spending time with us while we were here, both of you,” Dia then thanked them. “Yes, we really appreciate it,” Hee-jin agreed. “Don’t mention it. Good luck finding a job in Japan,” Nick said. “I had fun too,” Myungsoo added. “See you soon,” Nick smiled at both girls and smirked at Myungsoo, before first hugging Dia and then Hee-jin. Both girls were caught off guard by this gesture, as was Myungsoo. Hee-jin poked Dia, who then shyly asked: “You want a good-bye hug too?” Myungsoo just nodded and hugged her.