The Wise Monkey's POV:

The days when Soojin meets one of the Ateez are really amusing to me. Yes, my current work involves making them bond and I the final result I'm anticipating is a strong, stable relationship of her with a guy( after the whole questioning after Joshua showed up, I'm confirming it's one of these guys; that's how Fate have wanted it to be). But the meetings still makes me happy. Either because I genuinely think it's cute, or I'm just in the hope the faster this all happens the faster I can leave. Think about it, you've been on this journey with me, right? We got to see Daisy with Ateez a lot, and that's solely because she was their neighbour and they weren't busy celebrities like they're in the real world right now. Now, it's just very hard to see them meet up, and painstakingly frustrating to wait to see any interaction. You might or might not relate with me.

Today is one of those days where a meeting happens. Soojin and Jongho are meeting. They've been chatting with each other on phones more than Soojin anticipated they would, surprisingly. You'd expect Soojin to ghost on you, but this time that didn't happen. Maybe it's her Atiny heart and her love for her idol that made her not give into ignoring the texts.

While Jongho was very happy to see her giving positive responses to his digital approach, seeing her bring down her walls bit by bit, he was painfully cautious. He wouldn't stretch too far with the casual-ness, made sure his hyungs, who took the news excitedly well, did not rush to text her too yet. The boy was very careful of what he asked of her. And this time, he wished from her to show him around the Italian Restaurant and the houses and all the familiar places from the other 'dream' world. Soojin didn't think anything illegitimate of the request; Escpecially didn't think of it as the boy's plan to make an advance on their relationship to an actual, consentful friendship.

On this day off from university, she's standing under the sun, waiting for the arrival of the maknae of Ateez.

A car pulls up and the window rolls down.

"Annyeong, Soojin noona," Jongho says with a cute smile. "Get in."

She quietly gets in and the car drives away from the spot, seemingly avoiding possible fans who could recognize the young man. Soojin was all nerves and jitters having to wait for Jongho's vehicle to park itself in front of her. And it's not because of Jongho, no( she's glad she's seemingly better at unintentionally fangirling over the boys in front of them), it's because of the fear of getting spotted with a celebrity. She hates attention on her.

Jongho spares a glance at Soojin who's head is covered in mouth mask, glasses, cap and her unbound hair falling on both sides. She wasn't ever the type that let her hair down often. "You looked nervous getting in," Jongho says.

"Of course I was, it was scary."

"Scary?" Jongho asks.

"You aren't a commoner Jongho. And I want no pictures of myself on the internet."

"Sorry," he says. "Aside from that issue, I want to hope I didn't bother you too much."

"Don't be. Like I said, I had a day off today, so it's cool."

"But you don't like leaving the comfort of your home," Jongho teases.

"You're right. It's actually a bother," she says and Jongho pouts.

"But you agreed to come," he says.

"It was a valid wish. You deserve to know all this after what you guys went through."

Jongho wants to correct her, he doesn't like the way she didn't include herself in that misery; if anything, he knows she had it the worse with absolutely no clue about dream and reality, a comatose to top it all off. But he settles for a playful,

"It isn't because you wished to meet me again so desperately," he cutely says, turning to her and intentionally and exaggeratedly making his eyes flutter and lips pout.

Soojin's body freezes, her default expressionless face on display. But internally she's freaking out, cooing madly, barely fighting against the urge to 'cuddle the bear and kiss the top of his head'.

"Sorry," Jongho embarrassedly says worried he stretched his plays too far.

Soojin recovers from her trance and shakes her head in dismissal. "Stop apologizing, boy. You do that too much. Life's no fun that way."

"OKAY!... Your wish is my command, noona." He chimes and gives his signature gummy smile before fixing his eyes on the road again.

And Soojin desperately wishes she had the courage to say out loud how cute the boy is.

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Soojin's POV:

Jongho and I are now heading to Joshua oppa's restaurant after parking the car in the nearby parking spot. I had to make this decision of being vulnerably out with him in public. It's just that he kinda made a sad face when I advised us not being openly roaming around and I couldn't bare to see that. It must be hard living knowing the fact you can't freely do anything in public without the media's eyes lingering, and it must be sadder when people you wish to hang out with confirms and admits being scared of the same.

Nobody has recognized him yet. That or they just didn't want to bother him.

"We're here," I tell him and he faces the beautiful edifice I once owned in the parallel universe. He had never been here back when we were in that world, but I did show the guys many pictures in my phone.

"Woah! The building looks just like how you showed us in the pictures. Only the name and aesthetics are different. This is amazing," he says.

"Yeah." And I was so busy turn by turn looking at both his multiple expressions and the top of building itself that I didn't notice when Joshua oppa approached both of us.

"Really?" I hear oppa say. "I had to really confirm it was you. You look like you're going to get involved in some shady business." He laughed.

"Wow, hello to you too, oppa," I say with a bored face expressing the sarcasm.

"Finally you planned to come visit my restaurant. Ah, I'm so thankful," he says. I think he didn't yet notice I'm not alone.

"Ahh, poor you, then. You'd have to keep waiting for a few more days, I'm not here to visit. We were just passing by," I point at Jongho and me. "and we have more important places to visit for now. Sorry, not sorry."

He suddenly becomes all formal and faces Jongho. "Oh, hello. I'm Joshua Hong, her friend," he bows first and then goes for his usual handshake.

"Hello," Jongho says shaking his hand with him. "I'm one of her friends too."

Joshua oppa subtly quirks a brow that lasts not even a fraction of a second. "Oh? Ohh.." he awkwardly goes and I can see his confusion. He then comes to my side and whispers near my ear. "So I see there are stuff that Sooyoung doesn't know about you. Is it a date?" he leans back from me with a teasing smile.

"No, it's not. And even if it was, then know this that your American habit of suspiciously leaning in to whisper into a girl's ear all friendly and casually wouldn't be well appreciated by men here. Unfortunately, people here are not that open-minded."

I then turn to Jongho who's busy staring at the building ahead with a stoic face. I hope he didn't listen; unlike oppa, I didn't bother to exactly whisper.

"Is he really a friend?" Joshua oppa whispers again. "You didn't have any until yesterday, or I thought so."

"I'll explain when I'll actually visit your restaurant. Bye for now. Go back in, come on." I turn him around towards the entrance of the building and give him a push.

"Okay, okay," he chuckles and walks away.

"Jongho," I call the boy.

"Hmm~"

"You want to leave to the next destination then?"

"Yeah, let's go," he says and grabs my arm gently to walk two steps before he frees it again. It's like the old times again.

"So," he begins. "He seemed like a close friend. Not intending to offend you but I just assumed you didn't have friends."

"None taken. You were right, I didn't have friends. He's a fairly new one."

"Really?" he asks and I nod.

And it looked like he wanted to say something for a split second but he doesn't and we just walk in a weird silence.

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The Wise Monkey's POV:

Now Jongho wasn't pleased to see Soojin being all casual and friendly with another guy, to be blunt. He doesn't realize that he's jealous yet, but he is, nothing can fool my eyes.

He can't digest the fact that he or his teammates who had been once thick friends with the girl are struggling to ease her into calling them friends again when the new guy easily flaunts the term with liberty in front of the girl and the world. And this, Jongho agrees. But his jealousy is far from being just one dimensional. Like I said, he just doesn't fully admit it yet. And ironically, he intentionally tried to subtly flirt with Soojin whenever he could these past days and is fully aware of that.

Humans are complex, what else do I say.

The both of them are now opening their respective ice-cream cones as they nearly reach the houses they once owned inside my magic world. The cold dessert was picked on their way from the nearby convenience store of this residential locality they knew too well. After parking the car by the store, they decided to walk to this place.

"You used to walk all the way up and down this hill once," Jongho says as he takes a bite of his ice-cream.

"Those were terrible times," she replies, reminiscing the difficulties of her past. "But thanks to you, I now, suddenly in this real world, know how to drive."

"And was that why you were staring at me while I was driving the whole time?" Jongho openly asks.

"Yeah, and I'm not embarrassed," she says. Oh, but she is embarrassed though. "I just wanted to freely feel that nostalgia."

"Ohhh... but if you didn't admit to that I was gonna say you did it because I was too handsome to resist."

"Okay, maybe that too," Soojin says and takes Jongho aback by shock.

"Oh, look at you all dumbfounded and flustered," Soojin mocks and laughs.

"T-This is a change," Jongho says. "I like this change. I'm sure the hyungs will appreciate it too."

"Yeah, I finally and officially can't resist being a fangirl. I put up the tough act way too long."

'Are we finally back to friends now?' Jongho just so desperately wanted to ask, but he was scared. And knowing Soojin or the old Daisy, if she ever makes up her mind that she wants to be friends, she will verbally express it for sure. Miscommunication isn't something the girl tolerated. And so, Jongho opts to wait for the day that happens.

He looks around and his eyes widen in excitement and amazement. "Wow, the houses look just the same."

They are both standing on the same path that separated both the houses on each side of it, Daisy's and AZ Fellaz's.

"It's giving me goosebumps," he says.

"When I first saw that this actually existed, I almost teared up due to overstimulation of emotions," Soojin says taking a bite of her ice-cream.

"I miss this place," the boy admits. "I loved living here, in our house, and this locality. And I loved hanging out at yours, which is an even better and posh-looking house. The best feature was the outdoor kitchen."

"Yeah, we had the best time eating out there."

"Yeah, eating the food you made. I loved your food. You were very generous with it," he laughed. "We always felt bad about eating at yours, you had to serve eight of us and we only had to serve one extra when you ate at ours. It wasn't a fair barter."

"And yet you guys never showed any relaxation on swallowing up all the food I made." They both laughed out loud, all merry and carefree like the old times.

Soojin walks to the huge trash container on the side. "Noticed this yet?" she says to the boy. " It's amusing how even this container is the exact one from our world. This is where we both often met." She flashes a gentle smile at the memory.

"Ugh, I absolutely hated getting up early even though I didn't mind taking the trash out."

"But you always took it out. Was that assigned to you by collective decision?"

"Nope. Whoever was awake had to do that."

"And when you hate getting up early you still woke up because?"

"You can guess that, can't you?" Jongho boldly says.

"Yeah, it makes sense now. I must have been really dense then to not have noticed."

Jongho's eyes are on the girl, processing all her words and expressions. "Wow..." he mutters quietly.

"What?"

"It's a change. You didn't ignore what I said or be defensive or something like I anticipated. Good change."

"Thank you, I'm working on it," Soojin chuckles.

"I'm glad," Jongho says and they go back into silence, but a comfortable one this time.

A/N:

Okay, so I got sick after I last updated. The whole family was sick for like 10 days or more. And then, when I was well, I started writing again. But then dad who got well too, but still sat at home(bcos he wasn't fully physically well earlier but now it's just the lockdown) started to work from home. And since his job is a desk job that requires continuous typing on a computer from morning to evening, he was working on the laptop all day. The only time it was free to use for me was during the night( i don't work well at night).

So it had been barely 200 words of writing per day and on most days none. But then I decided I had enough and fished out our old, dusty, a decade old and half dead HP Pavilion g6 laptop and hoped it still worked and didn't electrocute me like during that time 2 yrs ago when we decided we should get a new one.

So I charged this old laptop and was feeling very nostalgic and kinda happy(to use it again and to finally start writing again properly). (I'm a phone and laptop addict.)

But this bitch didn't turn on, like the power button wouldn't even light up. After trying so many things, it finally did. I opened it too find some annoying black spots of dead pixels on the screen(even tried to fix it after watching youtube vids but nothing worked). Like I expected, it's half dead. The battery needs a replacement(it doesnt stay awake unless there's a continuous power supply charging it throughout, oof the electricity bills), display's all dead pixels, audio is half dead( sounds like battery-less Chucky doll that speaks incoherent words and sounds creepy af), had a hard time starting wattpad on this.

(look at the display of this screen lmao, its covered in black lines and dots)

But in the end it worked out somehow. I wrote my first short story and my first wattpad ff on this laptop so it felt nice to work on this again. And bcos of this I could post these chaps again. And since my dad is staying home for a few more days, I'll have to make use of this to write the next few chaps as well.

Anyway, thanxx 4 being patient with me. Bie...

P.S. I hope that these 4 chaps were at least tolerable cuz as a writer, I am very disappointed in these chaps.