five days | kim seungmin

04 | times square

the whole bus ride to times square, chaeyoung and dahyun were either gossiping about me, or flirting with felix. thankfully, i could block them out by talking to somi.

"unnie," she called.

"yeah?"

"do you like music?" she pulled out a pair of earbuds from her bag.

"yeah, i love music."

somi plugged the earbuds into her phone and played a song. she held out one earbud to me. i took it and put it into my ear.

my face lit up. "i love wanna one!"

somi giggled. "me too, who's your favorite member?"

"bae jinyoung. he's so good at singing, oh my god. you?"

"daehwi! he's so cute, i bet we would be best friends if i knew him personally," she grinned.

"i think so too. he's the same age as you, right?" i said.

she laughed again, nodding.

we spent the rest of the ride listening to kpop, screaming about how much we loved each song.

☆☆☆

"we have arrived in times square!" mr. yoon spoke into the mic. "as you can see, it's very crowded here... so be careful not to get lost. we're first going to eat lunch at shake shack. sound good?"

"YEAH!" jisung yelled.

"i wanted fried chicken..." i heard felix mutter.

i stood by somi as we lined up to walk to shake shack.

the workers didn't look flustered when a bunch of koreans walked into their shop, since it was already planned. they had set up meals for all of us on the tables.

i found my mom in the middle of the crowd.

"do you want to sit with your new friends? i'm fine with chatting with the parents here," my mom said.

i nodded, then left to sit with somi.

i was about to pick my hamburger up when chaeyoung and dahyun sat next to me.

"girl, you need a full makeover if you ever want a chance with hyunjinie," dahyun said.

"i don't-"

"shh. i know you do. maybe we'll give you a makeover, if you come over to our hotel room," chaeyoung pinched my cheek.

i swatted her hand away from my face.

my god. let me eat my hamburger in peace.

"would you like to have the pleasure of eating with the gorgeous hwang hyunjin sitting in front of you?" jisung said as he and hyunjin sat across from me.

i ignored him and ate my lunch.

somi started, "excuse you, minjoo unnie doesn't-"

i nudged her in the arm. i shook my head, signaling for her to leave it. somi glared at jisung, then continued to eat.

we all had to share the fries, so the box of fries was in the middle of the table.

i reached for one at the same time seungmin did, and my hand accidentally bumped into his.

"oh! sorry," i apologized.

"it's fine," he said, giving a small smile.

chan snorted.

☆☆☆

mr. yoon gave us three hours of free time after lunch to explore times square. somi and i decided to go shopping.

"unnie, take me with you," somi's little sister, evelyn, begged.

"no. you don't even know how to shop," somi rejected.

evelyn pouted.

"let her go with you," somi's mom insisted.

"fine," somi was frustrated.

"take care of her, and don't get lost!" somi's dad said.

"okay, bye," somi's eyes were already scanning all of the stores.

i waved at my mom before somi pulled me and evelyn towards a store.

we stopped in front of a very crowded shop. i looked up at the sign and gasped.

"line friends? they have bt21 stuff here!"

"yeah! i love bt21!" me and evelyn followed somi inside.

there were so many cute bt21 things. i wanted to buy all of it, but i was too broke.

"unnie, i have to go to the bathroom," evelyn complained.

somi groaned. "okay, let's go find the bathroom. minjoo unnie, you can continue looking around. we'll be right back," she pulled evelyn along with her.

i nodded and picked up a chimmy plushie that had fallen on the ground.

"minjoo-yah, does that plushie remind you of me?" hyunjin appeared out of nowhere.

how did he find out what my name was? oh. duh, he heard somi call me before.

"hwang hyunjin, will you stop interfering with whatever i'm doing? i never said i liked you, either. go mind your own business," i wished that would shut him up.

but of course not. he just laughed at my words. "oh, look. you already know my full name. how much research have you done about me?"

"i heard jisung say your name, dumb-"

"whatever. doesn't matter. you love me anyways."

i was so ready to hit him in the face with the plushie i was holding.

"hyunjin-ah, leave her alone."

i turned. seungmin?

"kim seungmin, stop trying to go for minjoo. she already loves me," hyunjin winked.

"hwang hyunjin, get away befo-"

"woah there. no need to get violent. fine, i'll leave. but you have no chance with her," hyunjin patted seungmin on the shoulder a little too hard before leaving.

seungmin just stood there, staring at the floor.