MINSUL
"Are you sure she doesn't need a ride?" Yeon says to Kyung as the third person to ask since we left the studio.
I roll my eyes at them as I give my head a quick shake.
First it was Yoon Ji and then In Se. Now, they've got Yeon worried about her, too.
Try as I may to fight it, they're starting to wear me down with the rest of them.
So, even though I act like I don't care, I wait impatiently for Kyung's answer for the third time.
Kyung gives his own small head shake as he glances down at his phone. "She hasn't replied yet, which means she's probably still there."
"It's going to be dark soon," Yoon Ji states, looking out the window.
I do the same and scoff at him. "There's a few hours of daylight left."
"Yeah, but it might be dark by the time she's ready to leave," Yeon argues.
"We should just swing by there to check," Jae-un says, getting on board with his overprotectiveness.
Dav En glances at Kyung worriedly, the latter smiling with another quick shake of his head.
Seong Su knocks on the small window between the front and back of the van. When the driver slides it open, Seong Su tells him, "Small change of plans. We need to go to..."
He pauses, raising his eyebrows at Kyung who recites the name of the kid's home she volunteers at.
It's a surprisingly short drive from the studio. When we stop, Kyung moves to get out, but so does In Se and Jae-un.
"Stay here," he tells them. "They don't need us invading their space just to pick her up."
"Stay," Seong Su repeats.
They all sit back with pouts on their faces, and I can't help but chuckle at them, knowing I can get away with it.
We watch Kyung knock and talk to an older woman.
She points him around the side of the building.
Yoon Ji and In Se look at each other before jumping out of the van before Seong Su can call them back.
He sighs with a shake of his head at the roof right before Dav En and Jae-un jump out behind them.
The three of us left glance at each other, and I shrug at Yeon and we climb out, too, waiting for Seong Su.
There's no way he'll stay behind by himself.
Especially if there's a risk that our members will do something embarrassing.
We catch up to Kyung who doesn't seem the least bit surprised to see us.
Honestly, I don't think much would surprise him right now since his focus is on a game of football.
Less the game. More the pretty girl running back and forth on the field.
When I say pretty, I mean, even in the workout shorts over her leggings and hair up in a ponytail, she's still beautiful.
It takes her a few minutes to notice us, but when she does, she calls for a break and jogs over to us.
"What are you guys doing here?" she asks with a smile and slightly out of breath.
"Just checking to see if you need a ride home," Kyung replies.
At almost the same time Yoon Ji cuts in, "Can I play?"
She finishes her hard chug of water before she says, "Sure, we're uneven right now anyway, but we were almost done."
The boys standing off to the side grabbing their own water protest loudly.
Holding up her hands with a quick laugh, she says, "Hey, I said yes. We're not quitting yet."
Yoon Ji strips off his top layer shirt, leaving him in his black tank top and sweatpants.
I'm off to the side, but I can still see her eyes tracking his muscles as he does it.
I have to clench my teeth to keep from laughing.
Coming to her senses and likely remembering where she is or that more than Yoon Ji and his arms exist, she blinks a few times as she looks down and her cheeks turn pink from more than the physical exertion.
"Okay," she says, calling them all together. "Split into your teams."
She points Yoon Ji at the other team with a wink. It's been so long since I played a game, I almost want to tell them I want to. But her saying that they're even now stops me.
As it starts we watch the boys go at it while her and Yoon Ji hang back.
The ball starts moving toward his goal, looking like her team is going to score first when he swoops in and kicks it right out from under one of the boys.
Unfortunately for him, Liz is there waiting for it.
Before she even has a chance to move with it, Yoon Ji is on her.
They get into a foot wrestling match with the ball caught in the middle.
One second, I'm enjoying the show and the next I'm cursing Yoon Ji under my breath.
He might be all sweet and nice, but when it comes to competition, especially something he's good at, he will do whatever it takes to win.
Apparently, including shoving an elbow into Liz, sending her crashing down to her back.
Several of our members yell at him, but he doesn't notice.
It gets him the ball, and he starts racing it down the field.
One of the boys helps Liz to her feet, but she doesn't waste a second.
As soon as she's vertical, she takes off after Yoon Ji, and holy speed, the girl can run.
She catches him easily as he's having to weave around other players.
He rears back and kicks the ball toward the goal.
Only, he doesn't see what we do. She dives at the last minute, and the ball he's kicked full force smacks her dead center in the sternum.
She'd turned her head and shut her eyes at impact, probably thinking it might catch her in the face.
So when it doesn't she cuts a look back at a stunned Yoon Ji as she lands on her feet and sticks her tongue out at him, grinning and whipping around him to go after the ball.
His mouth dropped open the second he realized what just happened and he hasn't closed it since. Slowly turning to find her racing back down the field, his expression is still one of shock.
Jae-un pulls his attention to us when he yells at him, "Be careful, Yoon Ji. You hurt her."
He points at a spot on his own elbow, making us all look down the field to where she's passing to one of the players on her team to score.
Sure enough, even from here, we can see a massive red scrape on her forearm up to her elbow.
Yoon Ji nods before taking off running down the field.
Her team is celebrating their goal as Yoon Ji tries to pull her away.
She goes chest to chest with him, saying something we can't hear.
It looks like she's giving him an earful, too.
Then she pokes his chest gently and laughs, sprinting back down our way.
He grins as he turns to watch her before taking off after her.
Dav En calls out to her, likely to check and see if she's okay, as she gets close, but she doesn't hear him.
It's back and forth for a good ten minutes or so watching them run one way then the other.
Yoon Ji doesn't give her any slack, but she returns the favor all the same.
Her team scores again, and then Yoon Ji does as one of the boys passes the ball to him.
On their next move down our way, Yoon Ji gets the ball, and Liz wastes no time taking him on for it.
They battle like earlier until she does this quick backwards kick with a hop backwards, bouncing the ball up off her toes, then her knee, and literally punching it with her forehead, sending it flying to one of the boys on her team.
She doesn't even notice Yoon Ji's shocked expression this time as she races after her team, who scores again when they get to the goal.
"Okay, okay," she calls out. "Time to call it quits."
The boys protest, but it's not as loud as it was the first time.
"You can come back tomorrow," one of them tells the others.
They all agree that's what they're going to do. All but one of them grabs their things off the grass and heads toward the side of the house as Dav En, Yeon, Kyung, and Jae-un surround Liz, gently checking her arm.
"I'm fine," she assures them.
"Noona?" the remaining boy calls out. He looks to be about sixteen or so and the only one who didn't have a bag of any sort to pick up, carrying the ball instead.
He speaks in English when she turns to him. "Thanks for helping me. They even said they want to come back tomorrow."
She walks over to him as we all start a slow progression back to the house. "I told you that it would work out. You've just got to find common ground."
I don't know what it is, but I like the way she speaks her native tongue. More than I've ever liked hearing it before. Does that mean something?
His head drops so that he's facing the ground when he asks, "What about the other thing?"
"Remember what I told you?" she asks him.
Whipping his head up, he looks at her with a smile. "You miss one hundred percent of the shots that you don't take."
"Exactly," she replies proudly. Thumbing a finger back at us, she adds, "If these nerds can bag a girl, so can you."
His eyes flick back to us before looking forward again as he laughs.
In Se, Kyung, and Dav En laugh with him.
As we make it to the front of the house, she says that her stuff is inside, and she'll be back in a few minutes. Seong Su tells us to load back up in the van while we wait for her. We all comply easily except Yoon Ji, who says he's giving her the middle seat in the back and waits outside.
After a minute or so, she's jogging out of the house with her bag slung over her shoulder like she's worried about making us wait on her.
I can't help but watch her. When I catch myself doing it, I look around inside the van and see that my other six members are doing the same.
Yoon Ji ushers her in the back next to Dav En.
She's barely even planted her butt in the seat before Yoon Ji hops in behind her, leaning down in the cramped space of the van and kissing her. Hard.
Dav En sits with his mouth halfway open enjoying the show just as the rest of everyone catches on to what's happening.
Seong Su mutters, "Oh my god. Hurry up and shut the door."
It doesn't matter. By the time it's closed, Yoon Ji is taking his seat with a satisfied expression while our pretty girl next to him sits dazed. She glances down for a few seconds before looking up and ignoring all the eyes on her and trying to avoid hers at the same time.
I'm sitting with Yeon and Seong Su in the seat that faces the back, against the driver's window.
So, the three of us are literal witnesses to everything that goes down in the back of the van.
I can't help but look over when she leans forward to Kyung who's directly in front of her and wraps her arms around him.
He's looking down at his phone, seemingly unfazed by what just happened behind him.
She doesn't look at his phone like most women probably would.
Like girlfriends I've had before would've.
Liz simply wraps her arms around him and closes her eyes, pressing her lips against his cheek.
Closing his own eyes as he leans into it, he smiles as she whispers something in his ear.
In Se, sitting next to him, must overhear at least part of it, because his head jerks toward them as he starts grinning.
She looks at him and bites in his direction.
He smiles even wider, and I start laughing.
Yeon covers his mouth, but his shoulders shake, betraying him.
Poor clueless Jae-un leans around Kyung to try and see what we're laughing at, but the action is over.
Liz is already sitting back in her seat and leaning her head back in what appears to be exhaustion.
Seong Su clears his throat slightly. "We need to think about what we're going to have for dinner."
"Chicken," Yoon Ji and Liz say at the same time, making me laugh again.