TRACK 09 #2
He smiles at her fondly before stepping aside to let us inside.
Locking the door behind us, we follow him over to his desk of monitors.
We stay on the appropriate side of the desk, but she follows him to the other side as he takes his seat back.
Throwing her arms around his shoulders, she gives him a squeeze and he beams up at her.
I want to say I'm not getting those feelings that Jae-un had at the restaurant, but I'd be lying.
The man is old enough to be twice our age, maybe even a little older.
Round in the belly and thinning grey hair.
I've always been one to respect my elders, but my stomach doesn't like watching her touch him without at least an introduction first.
"I hope you don't mind me bringing company tonight," she says to him, moving to the side of the desk to lean on it.
He scoffs, "Of course I don't. I'm glad to see that you've finally made some friends."
"Well, that's not nice," she teases. "I happen to have a lot of friends."
"None that you ever brought around or even went out with like this," he states.
"If you're trying to embarrass me, old man, I'm just going to have to take a certain bag of food back outside with us when we leave," she says.
He chuckles. "Fine, fine."
"These are my friends," she says, introducing us. I don't like being called her friend, but it's more for our sake than hers obviously. I'm just glad Dav En keeps his mouth closed and doesn't correct her. "This is my omma's nephew, Park Do-yun."
We all bow to him with proper etiquette before she asks him. "How's your omma doing, by the way?"
"She's better," he answers a little sadly. "We're still praying for a full recovery from her hip surgery. Her mind still isn't what it used to be. I thought she was going to launch me out the window the other day because she didn't recognize me at first."
My pretty girl's expression drops to one of empathy. "I'll stop by and see her this week. Bring her some of her favorite rice cakes."
"She'd like that," he replies with a soft smile.
She throws her hands up. "Speaking of food. We brought you the good stuff."
Yeon sets the bag on the desk in front of him, and he immediately starts taking the things out sniffing them like he's starving. "You sure do know how to bribe an old man."
She laughs. "Omma always said the way to a man's heart is through his stomach."
"She wasn't wrong," he chuckles. Reaching down he fiddles with something on the monitors before they call cut to static.
He slides a key across the desk to her. "For extra security.
I might be an old man, but your friend's faces are all over the city.
This way you know there won't be any way for me to turn the cameras back on.”
"You are the best," she tells him, slipping the key into her small purse that's slung across her chest.
"Remember that when you bring my omma sweets," he teases, already digging into his food.
We leave him to it as we follow her down a long empty hallway. They wait until we've stepped into an elevator and moving up before Dav En and In Se finally crack.
"Where are we?"
"What are we doing?"
She spins around to face us in the small amount of space with all of us crowded into the tiny elevator. "It's a surprise. You're about to see."
A wide grin takes over my face at how excited she is, plus I happened to see a brochure on the desk downstairs. I wouldn't dare take away her surprise by telling the rest of them.
"I want you to have the full experience, so we've got to start at the top," she explains.
When the doors ding open, she steps out and we follow along like ducklings. Leading us over to a big photo backdrop she says, "Welcome to the aquarium."
"Hey," In Se says, "I've been here before, but not in a long time. Never came in through the back door either."
She laughs. "You've never seen it like this, though. Trust me. First things first, I need to get your picture. Masks off."
Holding out a hand to Dav En, he hands over his phone as we all get in place in front of the scene.
She takes two quick shots and gets ready to hand his phone back when Seong beats me to telling her to get in a picture.
The edges of my lips pull up for reasons I shouldn't be happy about.
She flips the camera around and puts her back to us throwing up a V and capturing all nine of us in one.
Giving his phone back, we walk over to the podium next to the escalators. She reaches into it and pulls out green paper bracelets, proceeding to put one on all of our wrists, not leaving herself out this time.
She takes money out of her purse and drops it into the donation box as she explains, "For the bracelets. Okay, who's ready?"
In Se does a little clap and Dav En raises his voice but drops it when we all shush him.
Then we go single file down the escalator.
The further down we go, the darker the walls get until we're at the bottom and it seriously appears like we're at the bottom of the ocean.
It all adds into the illusion as we step into a dome-type room surrounded on all sides by water and deep-sea creatures.
The only lights in the room come from the tanks, making it look like we're underwater. Several of my members ohh and ahh over the sharks and fish as they move toward the glass. I hang back toward the door with Liz, wrapping my arms around her middle from the back.
I nuzzle my face into the side of her head. "We've never come here before."