BOTH Mingyu and I swivel our heads at the direction of the ever-so-familiar voice, his face lighting up as he usually would every time he meets one of his 'brothers'.
"Hansol! What'seu uppeu?" He exclaims in broken english, giving the other boy a hard pat in the back.
"Just decided to get some break from school with my boy Dong Jun over here." Vernon answers, slinging one arm around the brunette standing quietly beside him. "By the way, please never speak english ever again."
"Excuse me?" Mingyu says, looking rather offended. "I english very well more than YOU!"
"Just... Don't."
As the two agents continue bickering and whatnot, I use the opportunity to introduce myself to the new boy rather than stand there awkwardly doing nothing.
"Hi, I'm Soo Jung." I say, extending my hand towards him and offering him a smile. "Or Crystal, you can call me whatever."
"Dong Jun," The guy replies, shaking my hand and smiling as well. "Is that guy your..?"
"Agent?" I ask, thinking that he knows about all these stuff.
"Um, agent?" Dong Jun furrows his eyebrows together, obviously confused. "Is that a new slang for 'boyfriend'?"
"Oh my," I mutter, face-palming myself. I completely forgot that Vernon chose not to tell his AC about all this agent business. "No, no. He's not my boyfriend."
He hums in response, and the both of us turn to the other two boys who are still bickering about.
"Do they usually argue this often?"
I shrug, not knowing the answer to that question. "Don't know, I only met Mingyu a couple of days ago."
"So what're you two doing here?" Vernon asks, suddenly joining our conversation and wriggling his eyebrows suggestively at Mingyu and I.
My cheeks go flush, whereas Mingyu wraps his one arm around my shoulders—which, to be fair, isn't really helping anything at all because his action simply made the other two raise their eyebrows.
"It's her birthday today." He simply states, shrugging. "I'm taking her out."
"We can see that." Vernon retorts, rolling his eyes before turning to me. "Happy birthday, though. But don't hanging out with him on your special day simply ruins it?"
"Yah, are you asking for a fight?"
"Bring it on, Ming-ew."
"Hey, hey." I interrupt, breaking the two apart. "Will the both of you calm down? Let's just enjoy the carnival together, okay?"
"But—"
"Please?" I look up at the tall boy and smile, hoping that it's enough to persuade him.
"I—fine." He mumbles, looking rather conflicted and embarrassed.
"Alright, alright." Vernon grins, resting his arm on Dong Jun's shoulder. "So where do you want to go, birthday girl?"
"How about the roller coaster?" I suggest, grinning from ear to ear.
The three boys blink hard as if they hadn't heard me right, while I stand there awkwardly waiting for their replies.
"The roller coaster." Vernon repeats, seeming a little surprised at what I said. "You want to ride the roller coaster."
"Um, yes? Is something wrong?"
"No, no. Not at all. The roller coaster is good." He says, shaking his head frantically. "It's just that we thought you'd be the carousel type of girl. Guess we thought wrong."
"You did." I scrunch up my nose, playfully scowling at them. "Now let's go, I still want to ride everything else."
✧ ✦ ✧
AFTER the roller coaster ride, our little group went around the carnival to ride the other available rides and play all the games set up under the tents. We laughed and ate until we couldn't even move, and towards the end of the night, we decided to go on the ferris wheel before calling it a day.
"Okay, so who's riding with who?" Mingyu asks, both hands behind his head as he leisurely walks with us to queue for the ride.
"Rock-paper-scissors?" Dong Jun says, shrugging a shoulder.
We all nod in unison, and start doing it until we are in groups of two. In the end, I get partnered up with Mingyu so all the rounds of rock-paper-scissors were no use, really.
"Of course you two would end up riding together." Vernon says, making a face.
"Yah, what'd you say?" Mingyu asks, looking prepared to argue with Vernon some more.
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"Nothing!" The first boy says, shoving Mingyu and I in an empty cart that's just arrived. The both of us nearly tripped on each other upon entering, and we glared back at Vernon the moment the door closes behind us. "Have fun!" He shouts, overeagerly waving his arms at us.
Huffing, I sit down in my seat. Mingyu does, too, as he curses under his breath and mutters something about killing Vernon when we get off this ride later on.
As we go up higher, I can see the city lights adorning the land surrounding us. Distant sounds of rumbling cars and people chattering can be heard, but the ethereal view before us distracts me from the business of Seoul.
"Pretty, huh?" Mingyu comments, puncturing the bubble of silence that surrounded us.
I nod, still staring at the city. "They are."
"Hey," He says, making me avert my gaze towards him. "I have a present for you."
"A present?" I ask, incredulous. "You've given me so much already, though. I feel guilty enough."
Mingyu chuckles, voice deep and rich like caramel. "Turn around." He instructs, and I oblige even though the butterflies in my stomach are threatening to break out once again.
I hear rustling then, and not long later, I feel something cold around my neck and Mingyu's warm fingers on the back of it. I look down to see a silver necklace with a pretty diamond pendant hanging from it, and I can't help but let my jaws slack open in awe.
"Do you like it?" He softly asks, soothing my hair down.
I turn to him slowly, not wanting him to see how red my face is. "I do. Thank you so much, Mingyu. For everything."
He flashes me his typical million-dollar smile, and in that moment I swear that the city lights' got nothing on him.
