3. sour victory

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YUNHEE

"YOU LOSE!" I shout in glee as Jake falls to his knees in agony. The trip to the mall was successful because for the first time in our history of arcade racing, I finally beat Jake.

"Come on, Yunnie, you're better than this," Jake says, sugarcoating it with my nickname.

"No can do. You're wearing that elephant beanie to class tomorrow," I say proudly. "Everyone needs to know you lost. It's a pretty big personal achievement for me!"

"You don't aim that high, do you?"

"Shut up. Anyways, since I'm feeling nice ice cream is on me. Wait here," I say, getting out of the arcade and walking to the elevator.

The doors open, revealing Niki, Jungwon and Sunoo. The lift was balls deep in shopping bags. Just what on earth did these boys have so much to buy?

"Oh hi Yunhee, this is a surprise! What brings you here?" Sunoo politely greets me.

"I'm here to commit arson," I say, and the three of them stiffen for a second. "I'm joking, obviously. I'm roaming around here with Jake." They breathe a sigh of relief. No way they're that gullible?

Suddenly, the lift stops to a halt. I press the open button but it doesn't budge so I resort to the red emergency button with a little bell printed on it. We weren't inside a glass elevator, so no one outside could see us.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygodicantdothis," Niki says in panic, unknowingly clinging onto me as his once cool demeanor crumbles down in a matter of seconds.

"You guys are cute," I chuckle.

"Yeah, no. Niki is the devil's spawn. He's acting way too sweet with you to not let me think he has a crush on you," Jungwon says, suspiciously eyeing the youngest. He hides himself behind me as if he wasn't like, three times my size.

"I'm bored, what are we going to do?" Sunoo says, huffing with a pout on his face.

"Yeah, it looks like this is going to take a while," I reply, considering that we were still inside after half an hour.

"Since there's nothing else, why don't we do a shopping haul? I can blackmail Niki with his interesting choice of underwear," Jungwon says slyly.

"You wouldn't do that!" Niki gasps.

"I think you are the real menace here, Yang Jungwon," I snicker as they all join me.

HEESEUNG

I was busy daydreaming about Park Seojoon, a.k.a. the hottest actor in the world while I was trying to get a little bit of work done, when my phone suddenly began blowing up with messages.

hee's baebees 🍼

jakey wakey 🤓
GUYS
I NEED HELP
YUNHEES MISSING
YOU GUYS ARE COMING TO THE MALL RIGHT
HELP ME SEARCH FOR HER
IM WORRIED AS FUCK

I stop in my tracks. Yunhee was missing?

hoonie🧊
UHM A BIT MORE CONTEXT PLEASE???

me
IM ON MY WAY

jaywhypee👺
gosh guys chill
she's a grown up she can handle herself
don't get worked up over such things

me
stop being your problematic self here and just help out will you??
where are the kids by the way they haven't come online

I hurriedly throw on a coat and sprint out of the doors, almost forgetting my car keys in the rush. I was mostly worried because that girl had zero survival instincts. I guess being book smart isn't everything.

I meet up with Jake in the mall while Sunghoon also rushes in. Jay was on his tail a few metres behind him, lazily dragging out his footsteps with a bored expression on his face.

"Thank goodness you're here! I wouldn't be able to finish searching the whole place alone. You go this way, while you go-" Jake immediately rambles on as he spots us, when suddenly the lift doors in front of us pry open. I had just noticed that there were a bunch of workmen around it ever since we entered. The scene before us was one to behold : Niki, pale as a sheet hugging Yunhee, Jungwon, on her lap sleeping like an infant, and Sunoo, sitting against the walls of the elevator with a dazed expression wearing a Calvin Klein shopping bag on his head. She looked pretty tired by the lot.

We watch as they slowly get up, stretching their arms out and thanking the engineers before stepping out and seeing us standing there. Once it processes in my head, I yell out for them.

"MY BABIES! I WAS SO WORRIED!" I say, opening my arms.

Unexpectedly, Yunhee returns the favour, hugging me instead of the three boys I had intended to embrace. I give her a confused look.

"I realized you were going to hug the boys after I opened my arms. Just play along," she desperately whispers in my ear.

"Alright then, I guess you're my two months younger baby for now," I chuckle as I hug her back. Everyone joins in one by one except for Jay.

"Come on Jay, we know you were worried," Jake sighs, motioning him to get into the group hug. He waves his hands dismissively.

"Ah fine, whatever. I'm only doing this for Jungwon," he says, finally wrapping his arms around us awkwardly.

"We feel so loved right now," Niki says sarcastically.

"Yeah, the favoritism is totally not off the charts," Sunoo also passes a comment.

"Aw Jay, I'm really flattered by that. Here, I have something for you." Jungwon breaks away and stuffs his hand into his pocket, only to bring it out with his middle finger pointed at him.

"You know what, forget I said anything at all."

YUNHEE

"One chocolate Frappuccino for Mr. Lee!" I shout the order from the counter. I was working at a café where Sunghoon also part timed.

"Can you go give this to the girl there? She's been eyeing me like a creep," Juyeon tells me, handing me a steaming hot cup of latte.

"It must be so tiring being eye candy for all these ladies without a break," I fake empathize with him as I take the cup from his hands, earning a playful nudge on my shoulder.

"Here you go, Miss." I place the latte on the table and I knew instantly when I took a glance at her face that she was not pleased to see me. It's no secret that all the dumb hormonal teenagers in the area gather here to sit and stare at the male employees, spending all their hard earned money on overpriced coffee for a longer peek. So naturally, being served by the only female employee is quite a bummer. I don't blame her. She groans in annoyance.

"Women supporting women, they say," I mutter under my breath.

"What was that?" She clicks her tongue.

"Oh, I was just saying how feminism is really thriving today," I say with exaggerated sweetness, spewing some random bull I read in the newspaper on the way to the café this morning.

"Tsk, you can't even make a simple latte right." I swear, it was taking everything in me to not punch the daylights out of her artificially perfect face. The cup didn't even move an inch from where I had placed it!

"I'm terribly sorry about that, Miss. I'll let our barista right there know that you're not satisfied with the quality of his service," I say, pointing at Sunghoon as I turn to walk over to him. He eyes me in puzzlement and I simply respond with a wink.

"Wait!" She says, finally bringing the cup of latte to her lips for real this time and taking a teeny tiny sip. "It's not that bad, I guess." I nod, getting out of the radius of her repulsively intoxicating perfume.

"Where's the self respect?"

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