"Waaaaahhhh! That was fun! So guys, what should be our next ride?" Mingyu asked as he was busy cracking his hands, making some small sounds in the process.

"How about the pirate ship ride?" Inha suddenly chirped in and pointed out. "You suggested that earlier, right Mingyu?"

It was already 4 o'clock on my wristwatch as I chose not to pay any attention to the rest of my friend's conversation. I was distracted staring at other people but I knew they were already discussing what should be the next ride that we were going to try.

Some minutes later, when I finally chose to listen to them talking, I immediately regretted my dumb decision of not listening to them way up to the start.

They settled at the pirate ship ride... What am I supposed to do now?!

Based on personal experience, I really hated trying the pirate ship ride. I have experienced multiple cases of dizziness, spacing out, and even light vomiting in one situation.

I tried to tell the others about my 'condition' but I felt I lost time as they already cued to begin walking their way there.

As I slowly lost hope and tried to convince myself quietly that it will be okay, that's when one particular person thought that it will be the perfect moment and decided to pop up and talk with me.

"Why didn't you tell them?"

While I began to walk right behind them in silence, a familiar deep voice spoke beside me as my head automatically shot up to see who it was.

It was Jeonghan, expectedly.

He kept casually looking straight forward towards his path while he spoke, so I did the same thing and diverted my gaze in the same direction.

Was I that obvious back there?

"What? What do you mean?" I replied, trying my best to pretend not to know what he was talking about.

I heard him scoff resentfully as he just decided to continue talking. "That you don't like pirate ship rides? Are you really just going to let them force you to do what you don't want?" He said in a cold tone as I just sighed.

"What do you mean 'them'? Didn't you also agree about trying the pirate ship ride? And plus, how did you even know I didn't like—"

"Well, did you once hear me speak or at least hear a word from my mouth earlier?" He cut me off as I just indirectly raised an eyebrow because of him.

"Um... no?" I hesitated but answered anyway.

"Mhm, did you see me once agree or at least give a nod to one of them?" The older male asked again, while he waited for my answer.

"U-Uhh... also no?" I answered once again, not sure about my response.

Before I can ask him about what he was trying to do, he suddenly chose to bend his waist and lower his upper body at my level. I instantly stopped my tracks when I realized how his face was so close to mine.

I instinctively blushed and quickly backed away, obviously with an innocent attempt to add a little distance between us.

"Well, because you answered all of my questions right, I will give you a chance to escape the supposed fate you almost faced today." He grinned widely and stood back more firmly.

"How about the both of us try the carousel instead? How does that sound?"

I was stuck thinking about how to respond to him. I was also distracted again from his ability to change his emotions like a snap of a finger. I was busy forming the right words and the right sentences— That again, we didn't both notice that our friends also stopped walking and stared at us for a deserving minute.

Well, until Jeonghan eventually noticed and broke the ice.

"Mingyu, how about you all go on and try the pirate ship while Hayoon and I try the carousel? You wouldn't mind right?" Jeonghan gladly said and smiled. "And after we're done, we can just all meet again at the food court. How does that sound?"

"Huh? you said we're going in groups—"

"Oh really? We wouldn't mind at all!" Mingyu replied as he did the same thing that Jeonghan did to me to his girlfriend. "Me, Inha and Wonwoo will go there maybe at 4:40 PM, and also maybe we can just—"

"I'm coming with them." Wonwoo suddenly stepped in from nowhere, making us flinch a little.

"What?" Jeonghan spoke up with irritation in his voice after almost when we were going to leave.

"What I mean to say is, I'm coming with you two."

...

HAYOON | AT THE CAROUSEL

It took us around 5 minutes for the three of us to arrive at the carousel because we just found out that it was really far from where we originally stood. I can tell that the air between all of us was very awkward and I can definitely smell some bit of hatred from the two boys.

We quickly fell in line as soon as we arrived and from just a small inspection, I can see that our line was mostly filled with some parents with their child and also a few couples too. I continued on to stare at the people ahead of us like always before the three of us got our turn.

'Why does this look like one of those scenes in those crush movies I used to watch...' I thought out of the blue.

All of us went on again to find the horses we like and just chose the three horses that were nailed right beside each other. The same two boys made me sit in the middle while Wonwoo chose the horse on the right as Jeonghan on the left. We waited for the carousel to start meanwhile I already held tight onto the pole.

And then, the ride started.

"Wow, this is actually not boring as I originally thought when I was a kid. This is actually very relaxing." Wonwoo said to me as we just went up and down sitting at our horses.

"I know," I returned him a smile. "it was actually Jeonghan's idea."

Wonwoo just smiled at me and went back to looking straight ahead. "Oh really? That's good to know."

"Hahaha— Hey Wonwoo, what actually led you to join me and Hayoon?" Jeonghan looked in our direction and imitated the same smile that just faded from Wonwoo's face.

"Did you join us because you were scared to ride the pirate ship? I didn't think that a big and brave cop like you can skip a very big ride that definitely fits you." Jeonghan commented as he swayed his head left and right, playing with the joyful tune that was playing.

Wonwoo was caught off-guard for some time until he decided to shake his head at his comment and focused his eyes on something else. "Why? Weren't you the same person who had this idea in the first place? It's not my fault that I need to be with Hayoon at all times,"

"not like you."

Jeonghan just continued to sway his head as he hummed his response. "Hahaha, that's funny. Don't sound too cocky officer if you don't want to regret it~ Okay?~"

I sensed the tension and heat that was surrounding us and gathered all my courage to try to cool things off. They didn't spare me a single glance when I talked but I knew they were both listening to me, they were both paying attention.

I was trying to prove a point when I unwittingly let go from the pole I was holding onto— Making me suddenly lose my balance and almost land in my face.

"HAYOON!—" They both said in unison.

I was going to fall over at Jeonghan's side (my left side) when thanks to his fast reflexes, he was able to catch me and hold into my arm securely to halt me from falling.

I also instantly looked over at my right when I felt another firm grip grasping onto the upper part of my whole arm, also helping me not to fall.

They quickly pulled me back to my seat and when I thought it was done, none of the boys decided to let go of at least one of my arms.

But they instead kept their grip.

Even though I was already sitting at my seat safely, they didn't bother to release me and just carried on staring at each other...

like it was a competition that neither one of them wanted to lose.