𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐬 | niki

21 | breaking the tension

The group and I left the hotel after twenty minutes of bickering and attempting to freshen ourselves up. We took the bus and have finally arrived at the Westfield Shopping Centre, the biggest mall in the UK.

Hana and I excitedly rush inside with the boys trying to catch up from behind us, as we make our way to one of the many clothes shops that they have here.

The boys stop us before we can enter.

"Jake and Niki should go with the girls, I really want to visit the game store." Heeseung suggests.

"I think that's a brilliant idea." Sunghoon nods, already walking away from the girly clothes shop with Jay.

"Fantastic suggestion Heeseung." Jungwon adds.

"We'll meet you guys by the fountain over there." Sunoo says and Niki and Jake reach out for them but the rest of the boys sprint away, leaving us four to ourselves.

Hana drags Jake in by his jacket and I casually walk in, with Niki following on from behind.

This is not what I had planned.

Hana has already managed to disappear with Jake and I fight the urge to scream, before pretending to act as if Niki isn't there as I search through some of the clothes on the racks.

"This would look great on you." Niki suddenly says and I turn around for him to place a frog hat on top of my head, adjusting it so it sits nicely on my head before letting out a low chuckle.

I take it off angrily and look around to find a pig hat which I reach up to put on his head, but he's way too tall... so as I'm trying, he grabs my wrist that's reaching out for his head, and I stumble forwards into him.

His hand around my waist stabilises me and we both freeze for a moment, before I quickly straighten myself and put the pig hat back where it belongs.

I turn away from him and pat my face, trying to stop it from burning red after my little mishap with Niki.

Out of nowhere, Hana finally returns, dragging Jake with her still which makes me laugh. She holds two dresses in her hands and looks at me excitedly.

"Nari we've got to try these dresses on." She tells me as she passes me the black sparkly one and takes the blue one for herself.

"Oh my, you girls are going to take forever." Jake groans.

"Jake, I think we should leave." Niki suggests and I'm almost about to nod in total agreement but that wouldn't look so great in front of the other two who may suspect something is up.

"She's forcing me to stay Niki. You can't leave me." Jake cries, making me laugh as we head over to the changing rooms.

Niki and Jake sit outside our changing cubicles on the stools, waiting for us to be done.

I slip into the beautiful black dress, when I hear Hana shouting out something.

"Sim Jaeyun! Get your ass here right now and help me zip this dress up."

I laugh at how assertive she is with him, and the confidence she's grown around him. Before she used to be super nervous, but now she's her usual bold self that I know and love.

As I put my arms into the dress, I realise that I'm going to struggle zipping the dress up also, and freeze, looking at myself in the mirror.

"Hana! I need some help with the zip." I call out and I hear faint muttering before the curtain opens and closes.

As I look in the mirror, I find that it most certainly is not Hana who came to help, but instead Niki, who's stands there, gazing down at me, and most specifically my exposed back that needs to be covered.

No words are shared between us, and he gently moves my hair to the front, his fingers grazing against my skin which sends a shiver down my spine.

He reaches for the zip and slowly pulls it up so my back is finally covered. I let out a breath and turn around to face him, and he seems nervous.

His tongue rolls across this inside of his cheek and his eyes can't stay still. He looks elsewhere and then back at me.

"You look good." Is all he says, clearing his throat in awkwardness.

He leaves the changing room and I follow him out, and Hana leaves hers at the same time. I look over at her and we both gasp at the same time, gazing at each other in awe.

"Oh my god, we look so hot right now." She gasps and turns towards the boys. "Don't we?"

The two of them glance at each other and then nod at the same time, Niki scratching the back of his neck and Jake loosening the collar of his shirt.

A smirk forms on my face as I look at Niki and our eyes meet, a small smile forming on his face also.

My heart skips a beat.

***

Everyone regrouped by the fountain, Hana and I leaving the clothes shop without buying the dresses, seen as though there's no occasion to wear them for yet.

The boys on the other hand, they irresponsibly bought a bunch of games from the game store, flexing them all to Niki and Jake who didn't get a chance to have a look.

"Bro what, you better share these with me." Jake says to Heeseung, looking at his games in awe.

Niki and Sunoo also begin to fight over a game and I have to practically pull Niki off of Sunoo, the rest of them laughing, leaving me to sort the two of them out by myself.

"Niki, stop it." I look up at him seriously, and he looks down at me with a cold expression, before a smirk forms on his face.

I look away almost immediately.

"Let's go and get icecream rolls from Pan n Ice!" Jungwon suggests and I make my way over to him in excitement, all of us agreeing as we walk to the stall.

We queue up to order, and somehow I manage to stand beside Heeseung, who lets me go in front of him to order first. I smile at him for his kindness and order what I want, before he pulls out his card and taps the reader. I look up at him in shock and he gives me a wink.

I blink. "You didn't have to do that Heeseung." I say to him as our ice creams are getting made at the same time and he crosses his arms.

"I'm a gentleman Nari. You'll see more of this sort of stuff from me, especially for you." He smirks and all of a sudden Niki appears out of no where, butting into our conversation as he stands in the middle of us.

"Heeseung flirts with everyone." He states and I look up at him confused, before I make eye contact with Heeseung and we both start laughing at Niki's obvious jealousy.

I dare to even look at Niki however, and don't even think about pretending that we're on good terms. I only speak to him when it's necessary.

We all receive our ice creams in a tub and eat them as we stroll around.

Sunghoon falls into step beside me, eating his ice cream also when he says, "got any good places you want to recommend Nari?"

"Oh yeah, I promised you didn't I?" I say looking up at the boy before thinking deeply about what else there's to do at the mall. "Oh my god, Sunghoon."

"What happened!?"

"They have an arcade, we NEED to go on the bumper cars." I say to him and he gasps.

"That is an amazing idea." He smiles, looking cute and excited. "Everyone! We're going to the bumper cars next."

"Oh I'm so down for that." Heeseung rubs his hands together. "You're all getting smoked."

"We all know who's the best driver anyway." Jake shrugs coolly.

"Me and Nari though?" Hana scoffs, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. "You don't know what's coming." She threatens them, and I raise my brows also, attempting to look scary and the boys laugh at us.

"Sure, sure." Niki nods and I pull a face at him, sticking my tongue out which makes him chuckle.

I'm so ready for this.