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"One week has gone by and we still have not stepped on the Eiffel Tower and I think that's very toxic of you guys."

"What did we even do?", Hyunjin's exasperated voice was followed by Felix's as they walked out of the park, trying to find a place to have lunch and plans for the afternoon.

"Lost my schedule. I gave it to Jisung for 5 minutes and now we don't have plans, and I can only redoo them at home at night!", Felix whined again, his boyfriend hand in hand with him, sunglasses on imply staring at the city ahead. "Homophobic bitch."

Jisung snorted, pulling Chuu a bit to him as he answered, as the girl seemed to get lost in details around her and go after them, forgetting she was with other people.

"You're annoying."

"Thank you."

"Are we choosing a place or what?", Changbin asked, turning slightly to check the taller's mood and squeezing his hand. "We can still get something done today. A museum or-"

"No.", Hyunjin and Jisung both spoke at the same time.

"We covered 3 museums in a quarter of this trip we can't do them all now!"

"You seriously hate museums that much?"

Jisung laughed at Hyunjin's eye roll.

"No, I don't want to go to a closed space today."

"Oh yes!" Chuu backed up, finally seeming to concentrate on the group. "It's such a good day and I was sick for two whole days! You know where we should go?", she smiled at the boys. "We should do the usual night walk but in the afternoon after lunch! Yves said it was really pretty to see the artists in the daylight and we could stay at home today at night and sleep!"

"We do need to sleep more.", Changbin said, nodding.

"You have enough sleep."

"Felix, I love you, but I woke up at 6am today to see a butterfly exhibition." Felix glared at the shorter, who sighed. "And I loved it, but we do need sleep. Jisung stayed with Chuu last night but we haven't stopped at home yet since we got here. We have another 3 weeks, babe."

The Australian grumbled something under his breath, and his shoulders fell.

"Alright alright, we do the walk now, I also want to check out the street art in the daylight anyway. Now let's chose what we are eating for lunch!"

"Here we go.", Hyunjin slapped his forehead as Felix kept talking.

"What do you guys feel like eating?"

Changbin hummed, turning around to the row of restaurants they had passed by.

"That one seemed to have good pizzas-"

"No, pizza again?"

Chuu giggled and held Jisung's hand stronger.

"I bet 10 minutes till they finally stop arguing."

Jisung rolled his eyes, mind half absent as the girl of his dreams felt like a ghost next to him.

"20, 25, who knows."

What was he doing with his life?

————-

The streets felt calmer in the daylight, less mysterious, like the river held more secrets when the moon was up in the sky. Boats filled with tourists filled the blue water, the bars closed, seemed to give the bridges more space to breathe in between, the sound of the accordion played by an old man close to them sweetened the walk of most of the couples in sight.

Jisung chuckled as Chuu ran in front of him, smiling at everyone, the old lady selling artesanal hair brushes, the kid with a kite, the lady dancing on her right.

"She's so energetic today.", Hyunjin commented by his side with a small smile in his lips. "You'll lose her in the crowds if she keeps going this fast."

"It's fine, she will come back.", he shrugged.

"Always comes back to you, hm? That's pretty, like you're destined."

Jisung cleared his throat, not understanding what he didn't like about that statement, and kind of hating himself for feeling that way. "What? Since when are you a romantic?" He arched his eyebrow, nudging the taller's shoulder with a smile to hide his thoughts.

His bestfriend shrugged, eyes in the road.

"It's the city of love. Who knows what this place does to us?"

That was true.

Who knew?

"Guys, isn't that your friend? The ice cream van one?", Felix pointed at a small park hidden in sight, in between streets. "And some other friends?"

"Oh, Chan is there Yes! Let's go greet them! He said he knows some Korean people here in Paris, told us to go talk to them sometime-"

"Maybe we should let them be, right? I mean, they're a group of friends and we just know Chan."

Jisung knew that was a lie. He could see Seungmin's red hair in the distance, which meant, probably, that Minho was also somewhere in the crowd of tourists and locals.

"Don't be silly, come on. Chuu!", Hyunjin motioned her to follow, and the girl gave him a thumbs up, taking a small run towards them.

"Where are we going?"

"Meet some people.", Hyunjin smiled, exited as he waved at Chan, who had spotted them a bit before they got to them. "Hey there!"

"You guys have finally appeared during the daylight! I was starting to think you were vampires of something.", Chan joked, and pointed at the bench where two more boys sat down. "This is Seungmin and Innie, Jeongin but no one calls him that here."

Hyunjin nodded, smiling at the two, frowning a bit as he realized the red haired didn't pay any attention to him, simply staring in another direction like he was waiting for someone.

"Nice to meet you! This is Jisung, you already know him.", Chan nodded and the youngest boy followed, registering their names. "The love birds are Felix and Changbin, and this is Chuu."

"Nice to meet you too! What brings you here today?"

"Just taking a stroll, some friend Chuu made told her the streets here were pretty as well, so since we walked the streets near the river already we decided to come and see this part."

"Ah yes, Paris has beautiful streets, not only at night, in fact. Ah, there you are!", Chan turned around as Seungmin got up frantically, running to the recent arrival and taking the ice cream off his hand.

"You have got to be kidding me, Seungmin!"

"I wanted an ice cream so bad, oh my god."

The brown haired sighed, running a hand through his strands and letting out a frustrated whimper.

"I was in line 20 minutes for that."

"And I thank you for such.", Seungmin grinned, running as the older pretended to follow him. He hid behind the group of people he barely knew, griping slightly and pushing Hyunjin a bit in front. "Oh, sorry."

"No worries."Hyunjin threw a hand back, trying to help him stabilize himself, when he noticed the look on his bestfriend's face.

Jisung looked scared for his life, like he wanted to run away as fast as he could, hide in some place and never leave again, but he also looked stuck, like he could not bear to live at all.

"Minho, leave him alone. You're buying ice cream to other vendors anyway, you deserved to lose it."

"You're the one not working today.", Minho shrugged, eyes scanning the other 5 people, seeming to only then realize they were there. "Who are these?"

"Oh, right. This is Hyunjin and Jisung, I told you about them, we met a week ago, and these are their friends who are here on Holliday with them!"

Minho's eyes lingered a bit too long in Jisung, a small smile that could be seen as nice to other people on his face, but Jisung could see behind the mask. He tried to move, to talk, but Seungmin was faster, and he mind was too clouted to react at the moment.

"We know Jisung, me and Minho. We met before while he was painting. Quite a few times, actually.", he left Hyunjin's side, sitting next to IN on the bench again, not minding it as the younger boy stole his stolen ice cream.

"Really? You didn't tell us you made friends!", Chuu grabbed his arm slightly, pouting a bit, and Jisung could swear he saw Minho roll his eyes.

"That surprises me, you're terrible at making friends."

"He is, right?", she agreed, teaming up with Hyunjin again, making Jisung finally step out of his transe and react.

"Auch?"

"You seem like good friends to him.", Seungmin commented, sarcasm rolling out of his tongue like a natural gift.

"I'm his girlfriend, and Hyunjin is his bestfriend."

"Attacked by those closer to you, what a shame."

"Oh, Wait, I need to go get water, I'm almost dying." Chan jumped from the back of the garden bench, looking around. "Anyone wants to come?"

Jisung hated the hands that got up. Chuu was fast to abandon his side at the thought of a fresh water bottle, and so did Hyunjin. Seungmin got up to go somewhere else and IN decided to go with them because he was bored. The kid hadn't spoken a lot yet, which made Jisung wonder what else was there to him.

He couldn't think about it much, though, as he stood with Minho seconds later, Felix and Changbin being the clingy couple they were at the bench the others were at before as the two kept staring in front.

Jisung felt his whole body tense, there were shivers up his spine everytime Minho's hand accidentally touched his, and he was not sure wether he could go closer or push away. The tips of his fingers trembled and his throat was dry.

He should have gone and got some water too.

"So, your friends seem cool."

Okay, answering is easy, right?

"U-ugm, yea, I g-guess."

Wrong.

He caught the older smirking by the corner of his eyes and immediately sighed, trying not to be too obvious.

"Is Hyunjin okay? Being the only single guy in the middle of your little trip?"

"I-oh he's doing well, I guess. M-maybe he'll find someone for him here."

Minho crossed his arms humming.

"True, this is the city of love after all. Most people believe you can find your real soulmate in these streets." Jisung could feel the trap coming, he could feel it in the way Minho leaned closer, still staring in front at the big wall Jisung had been observing for ages. Words in languages he could not even identify in different handwritings, attracting all the attention of the tourists. "It's the city of the lovers and the healing hearts."

He could feel the trap as Minho slipped something into his jacket pocket, his breath close enough to his ear to make the younger's little hairs go up on his neck. He would be feeling the weight of it torturing him for the rest of the afternoon until they finally got home, where he had to wait until Chuu was in the shower to finally take it out, swallowing dry as he read an address there.

He fell asleep that night, with a guilty smile on his face, happy and sad, afraid and exited, confused like he had never been.

He had read the words "I love you" in a hundred different languages, written by a hundred different people in a dirty wall lost in the middle of the city of love, in black, white, all the colors he could think of, but the one that caught his attention the most was like the address on that paper.

Written in the brightest shade of red.

—————

Shit is getting serious :)

Alexa play Starlost by Straykids