Caratland [Seventeen FF]

-5-

I woke up by the sunlight, since I forgot to cover the windows with the jealousies. I looked at the clock, which said 9AM. Work would start at 10AM so I took the time to get my things from the harbour.

The hallways were so quiet. Not even the facility manager was there as if no one else had his room in that hallway.

The island aka caratland was so big that they even organized buses, which drove the customers and the staff to their places. There were 5 different stations: the station at the amusement park, the station at the hotel, the station at the food court, the station at the golf court and the station at the harbour. Actually there was just one bus driving around, but for 5 stations you didn't have to wait that long.

At the harbour I still saw no one. Caratland would open at 12AM, so it was obvious that there weren't any customers, but I couldn't see any workers beside the hotelier and the bus driver as well.

I got my things and went back to the hotel where I took a shower and changed my clothes. Then I installed some things from my luggage into the dresser and went to the amusement park.

Luckily there was Chan. He was cleaning the carousel and smiled when he saw me.
"Good morning, Soonyoung", he greeted me.
"Hi, Chan", I greeted back. "Do you know where the other ones are?", I then asked.
"Oh yeah, they were still in- Uhm, I mean I don't know", Chan said, but stopped in the middle. He wasn't the best at lying, but I decided to not question it. Maybe he had a good reason even though it made me curious. For some reason there was a big mystery around caratland that I really wanted to discover.

At the game stand I could see Jihoon, already organizing some things.
"Hey, Jihoon", I greeted him smiling.
"Hi", he replied rather unbothered.
"What did you do yesterday after I went to sleep?", I asked, hoping he would tell me something.
"Nothing", he responded. "Can you check if everything is in tact at the can throwing stand?", he changed the topic.
"Yeah, of course", I sighed, walking over to the stand. Honestly I didn't expect something from Jihoon. The only one, who would tell me something was Chan so I needed to stick around him.

The day passed normally. Customers coming in and doing their thing, Jihoon and me guiding them. He didn't smile the whole time, while I did the opposite.

After we closed the stand, we did the other things that were necessary to do. Jihoon still didn't want to tell me what they did yesterday.
"Did you bump into the CEO yet?", Jihoon asked me as we organized the coins.
"The CEO?", I questioned.
"Guess not", he murmured.
"Why? Do you need to warn me about something?", I kept questioning.
"Actually there's something-", he started, thinking, which words he should use. "No, forget what I said", he shrugged it off. I sighed.
"Okay."

Like last night the others went somewhere. I thought I should go with them. Maybe I'm making a fuss over nothing and they really did nothing. Like yesterday Seokmin led the others to the waffle stand. Only Mingyu, Seungkwan, Hansol, Jisoo, Minghao and Junhui took one. I chose the bubble tea since I was curious how it would taste here.
"And, how was your first work day?", Jisoo asked me. He was sitting on my left, while Chan sat next to me on the right.
"Not that bad. There wasn't much to do since the customers knew what they wanted", I answered.
"And how was the work with Jihoon?", he asked.
"Well, he's quiet", I replied honestly, making Jisoo laugh.

"You took mine!", Minghao suddenly shouted.
"I didn't. Calm down, you crazy raccoon", Junhui shook his head.
"Are you mocking my mullets again?", Minghao asked shocked.
"Gosh, you're so tiring. Always picking fights over nothing", Junhui exclaimed.
"And you're always acting like the smart one. You're annoying, too!", Minghao argumented.
"Just sit down and eat your waffle", Junhui sighed, grabbing Minghao's wrist and pulling him down next to him. Minghao got flustered over the sudden move and blushed a little. He quickly bit into his waffle so no one notices, even though everyone did.
"Ignore them. Like I said: they always fight, but actually like each others presence", Chan said.

"So, you're going back to the hotel, right?", Chan asked me after we finished the waffles.
"I guess. There's not much to do here anyway, right?", I asked him back.
"You could think like that...", he murmured. "I could think like that..." What's that supposed to mean?

"I think I stay here this time", Jihoon said to Seokmin. I was overhearing their conversation on the way back to the amusement park.
"You always stay. You're so boring", Seokmin joked.
"And you're addicted", Jihoon countered. Seokmin stopped laughing.
"Why are you working here anyway?", Seokmin hissed and went to Jisoo and Seungkwan. What where they talking about?

"See you later at the hotel then", I bid goodbye to Chan.
"Yeah, at the hotel...", he awkwardly smiled. For some reason he seemed nervous. Actually I wasn't going to go back to the hotel. I planned to follow them since it seemed like their secret was addictive. Somewhat sounds like drugs. But they're not actually taking drugs, right?
"Soonyoung, you're going back to the hotel too, right?", Jihoon suddenly asked me.
"Uhm, yeah", I replied.
"Let's go together then", he said.
"Then see you two later", Chan bid happily goodbye to us.

Damnit. When I thought a plan would go smoothly...