ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧
─◌✰್ 𝗇𝗎𝗆𝖻𝖾𝗋 𝗈𝗇𝖾 𝗁𝖺𝗇𝖽𝗌𝗈𝗆𝖾 𝗌𝗎𝗉𝖾𝗋𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗋

matchatess okay wtf that's just rude i'm not annoying
> catdad_lee i didn't mention your name did i? 😏
> mymymy @catdad_lee okay then who ARE you talking about??

changaroo97 the fish was bomb though
> bin.there.done.that are we just gonna ignore the caption-
> ryerye @bin.there.done.that @catdad_lee well i'm not screw you lino
> ramenoodlaska @ryerye @catdad_lee yeah that's bitch behavior

huats.up you're right, channie and binnie are annoying huh
> bin.there.done.that hey that's just mean!
> changaroo97 @huats.up dang i didn't expect that from you hua 😔
> ryerye @huats.up @changaroo97 hahah good one hua

"Okay Genius, whats your plan?" You leaned forward on the log, the hint of a smile lifting your lips.

Changbin's eyes drifted down to your mouth for a split second, before racing back up to your face, grinning goofily. "Cmon, you don't think my ideas can be good?"

You shrugged, smiling expectantly. "I'll believe it when I hear it."

Changbin nudged you with his broad shoulder. "So, how about this. Instead of using those loser clients' dogs, we use our own dogs!"

"What do you mean?" You frowned. "Like, train Junjie and Jiao?"

Changbin nodded. "I mean, don't lie to me and tell me they don't need it. Remember when Junjie stole your phone while you were FaceTiming me? I've never seen the inside of a dog's mouth that close before. We could put all the dogs through the same training that you were going to put the clients dogs through. Maybe your boss could try and find some shelters or other sponsors?"

You rolled your eyes. "Ha ha, I'm a terrible dog mom. If the others are down, I'll call Se Ri - my boss - and see what she thinks. If we were to train our own dogs and not paying customers, there would need to be money from somewhere. But... yeah, it could work."

"And...?" Changbin pushed. "It wasn't such a terrible idea, was it?"

You grinned, sliding your fingers over towards his. "Yeah, you're right. Maybe you do have some good ideas."

Changbin's pinky linked with yours, but he acted like nothing had happened. Your heart rate tripled, and you froze. Gazing into your eyes, he said, "Good enough for me to stick around?"

You sighed quietly, avoiding his question. Your mind had already switched back to the one concern you'd still been holding onto. "D-do you think they're going to hate me for ruining this trip? For failing?"

Changbin frowned, his hand coming to envelope yours. His palm was rough, calloused from all the weightlifting he did. "Hua, what the hell are you talking about? For one, you didn't fail, you could never fail. And two, these are your friends you're talking about. They love you. They're all here to support you no matter what happens." He squeezed your hand once.

You laughed nervously, steering away from the emotional conversation."Uh, we should go back to the group and talk to them about the plan. Some of them have dogs too." You jumped to your feet, your hand slipping out of his.

"Yeah, sure, we'd have our work cut out for us if we have to train Kkami," Changbin snickered, but his throat bobbed at your movement.

You laughed, shooting him a smile, trying to play your nerves off as excitement. "You know I can handle anything, right?"

"That's you, Superwoman," Changbin winked. Your cheeks immediately started to warm, and you attempted to push it down.

But when you turned around, you missed the hurt in his eyes.

"Hua, get your bikini on right now!" Tessa called as the two of you exited the woods and walked back into the clearing. "We're all ready to fail at fishing!"

"Okay, okay I will!" you said breathlessly, coming to stand next to your friends. "But first, I have to talk to all of you."

"What's up, Hua?" Han and the others who were on cabin-cleaning duty had just gotten finished, and were heading towards you.

You opened your mouth to speak, but no words came out. Your heart immediately started to pick up again, and you instinctively looked at Changbin. You weren't sure why, or what you were asking for, but when he gave you the tiniest smile and a thumbs-up, you felt like you could breath again.

"None of the clients are coming," you finally said. "They all canceled."

"What??" Robin exclaimed first. "What do you mean, they all canceled?"

"And last minute?" Renee wrinkled her nose. "That's so low-class."

"So... what happens now?" Alaska asked. "Do we have to go home? Do you guys have to go home??"

"You guys can't leave already!" Han gasped. "You just got here!"

"Yeah, we literally just cleaned all those cabins," Seungmin agreed.

You shook your head quickly. "No! Well, I hope not. Changbin came up with a great plan, and I'm going to run it by my boss. But since it involves all of you too, I wanted to ask you first."

"What is this genius plan?" Chan asked, eyebrows raised.

"Well, we were thinking that instead of the clients' dogs, we could train our dogs instead. And if I contacted my boss, we could potentially get some sponsors to publicize and sponsor the event and bring more customers to our office. But I wouldn't want to do this if you guys didn't feel comfortable."

Hyunjin shrugged. "I would love to get some free training for Kkami."

"Yeah, he needs it." Alaska wrinkled her nose. "The amount of times he's woken me up in the middle of the night, just because my bed creaked once is insane."

"Well, Berry is always up for some training," Chan said enthusiastically. "She loves treats."

"Same with Bbama!" Han grinned. "He already loves the woods, so it would be a lot of fun!"

You smiled. "Then its settled! If my boss agrees, then we'll get to stay and just train our dogs instead!"

"This is gonna be even better than working with the clients' dogs," Riley declared.

"I didn't really want to work with them anyway." Seungmin frowned. "Rich people are weird."

Lanhua laughed. "Okay, they're not all bad. They keep me employed. But again, thank you guys for helping me out. This whole event has... not gone the way I wanted it to. So thank you."

"Hua, we'd do literally anything for you!" Mya smiled.

"We weren't going to give up at the first sign of trouble," Jeongin assured you.

"Besides, it's a good vacation!" Minho smirked.

"Minho, shut up," Tessa frowned. "You can literally take a vacation whenever the hell you want, until your show starts."

"Yeah, they're really nice about time off!" Mya agreed. "I can't wait to start, I can't believe it's only two months away!"

"When does practice start again?" Seungmin asked. "Immediately after our trip, right?"

"Of course they worked around Minho's schedule," Tessa laughed. "He's their "Number One Handome Superstar."

Minho glowered, his cheeks red. "Stop saying that, that's not how they said it."

"Okay but seriously, we want the gossip on the rest of the cast," Alaska leaned in. "If there is any, of course."

As your friends started ranking the actors they would want to see dressed in a leotard, you turned around, pulling your phone out of your pocket, and dialed Se Ri's number.

"Hi Se Ri," you started, trying to keep your voice and thoughts under control. You hadn't scripted exactly what you were going to say. Hopefully she would understand just how important this trip was to you, and agree.

"Lanhua, what's up?" Se Ri's taut voice came through the speaker.

"Well, this event is really important to me," you said. "And my friends and I came up with a few ideas about how to keep it going."

"Continue," Se Ri nudged you.

"We were thinking that since we don't have any clients, we could train the dogs we have here. Our dogs. And... if there's any possibility we could get in contact with some of the local shelters around here, maybe they'd be willing to sponsor us, you know, in exchange for some publicity for their business. What do you think?" you paused, heart thudding as you waited for her response. You really, really didn't want to go home after all this.

"I absolutely love it," Se Ri said immediately, and your chest filled with air as relief flooded over you. "We didn't want the event to end like this either, and I think it's great that you took the initiative to come up with some ideas to save it. Our office is in contact with some of the vets and shelters near you, so I will talk to them right now to see if we can sort something out. I will keep you posted."

"Okay!" You tried to hide your excitement, but couldn't keep a goofy grin off your face. "That's amazing! Thank you, Se Ri."

"You're welcome. And Lanhua?" Se Ri asked.

"Yes?" you swallowed.

"Make sure to have some fun while you're out there. I know how... hard you work. Hang out with your friends, take a breather. I know this is work, but you deserve down time too."

"Oh, thank you Se Ri," you paused, unsure of what to say. "I will. That means a lot."

As you said goodbye to your boss and hung up the phone, your confused thoughts were interrupted by your friends behind you.

"Hua, Hua!" Tessa waved her hand repeatedly, until you turned around.

"Could you be any more annoying?" Minho rolled his eyes, and Tessa glared.

Ignoring him, she continued. "We're gonna go put our swimsuits on underneath our clothes before we go fishing! We might go swimming afterwards. You're still coming, right?"

You nodded, letting a huge smile spread across your face. "Yeah, of course."

"How'd the call go?" Changbin demanded, eyes narrowed in interest.

"I-it went well," you stuttered, feeling your face heat up. "More than well, actually. My boss is fully on board with our idea. And she's going to contact the shelters nearby to help out. So... it sounds like this trip isn't over yet."

Everyone cheered, the girls running over and giving you a huge group hug. Even the guys joined in, squishing you in the middle of a warm, albeit smelly, huddle.

Changbin somehow ended up standing right next to you, his face directly in line with yours. A huge, proud smile graced his lips as he gazed at you, a foreign expression coating his gorgeous face. And even as the rest of your friends crowded around you, congratulating you and giving you hugs and back pats, all you could do was stare back at him, with what was sure to be a hopelessly giddy look.

"So, what's going to happen next?" Renee asked breathlessly as everyone finally disentangled themselves from each other.

You shrugged, stilll unable to break eye contact with Changbin. "We're going to have a good time."

And you were hoping to spend at least some of that time with Changbin.

laska's note —
not the most exciting chapter in the entire world, but the trip is still on!! we knew that changbin could come up with a good idea in the end 🤪 and lanhua is lowly starting to realize just how strongly she feels for changbin, which is exciting! and the next chapter is going to be at the lake, and it's a chapter i'm incredibly excited about! 🤭 let me know what you think is gonna happen in the coming chapters!

𝖭𝖤𝖷𝖳 𝖴𝖯：
𝟬𝟵 - 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗺
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