❝𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗥𝗜𝗩𝗔𝗟𝗦 ━━ 𝗝.𝗝𝗞

38 | Into the unknown

So he presses the doorbell.

Minhee opens the door and Jeongguk immediately starts rethinking his decision. "Umm...did the cockroach's family come back for revenge?"

Minhee blinks at him, dumbfounded. She crosses her arms in front of her, "I am sure you are not here to know that."

Jeongguk sighs, just say it. "Are you free now?"

"Depends, for what."

"You know...just to explore..." he vaguely gestures in the air, "It's our first time here so..."

"You want to explore the city." Minhee says and then points towards herself, "With me. Why?"

Jeongguk sighs. "Are you in or not?"

"Not until you tell me why." Minhee shrugs, leaning on the half-opened door, "Who knows you plan to take me to the Seine and drown me?"

"Honestly," Jeongguk folds his arms in front of him. "I have better ideas to kill you and that's not even an option. Anyway, are you in?"

A beat of silence.

Minhee huffs, nodding. "I will be out in five."

"Ha, very funny."

...

"Why are we taking the bus?" Minhee says, "We could just take a taxi. The bus takes longer anyway."

Jeongguk chuckles, "I am teaching you how to save money, Ms Yoon. Get used to public transport while we are here."

"I have enough to pay for a taxi ride, you are here too!"

"Do you know the taxi fares here?" Jeongguk puts his hands in his jacket's pockets. "They are literally nine times the bus fare, I ain't paying for that to save a few minutes."

Minhee mentally counts the total amount of money she has in her handbag. With Jeongguk scolding her about keeping all the cards and money in one place, this time she's made sure to slip in a few euros anywhere she can.

The bus arrives and it's crowded. Jeongguk tells her that the place they are going is a huge tourist attraction and Minhee replies, which place here is not? And it's not wrong to assume that even the streets that smell like dog pee have thousands of people walking around and clicking 'Instagram-esque' pictures.

"Mont-mar-t-re..." Minhee whispers, reading the board and then looks up the flight of stairs that lead up to the hill. "Is this the place where we can see that white dome thingy?"

"I am going to enrol you with my secretary for pronunciation classes or something. You guys are awful."

"Shut up."

"Sacré-Coeur Basilica," Jeongguk tells her, answering her question from before. "It's the highest point in the city."

"And that explains the stairs..." Minhee whispers, already dreading the idea of climbing all of those up. "Can we not go?"

Jeongguk gives her a disapproving look. "Seriously, why did you come if you didn't want to do anything. Just stay in your hotel and sleep until you have to get ready for your show."

"But those are too many stairs," she points towards the entrance. Jeongguk rolls his eyes, "So who is making you climb those? We'll take the funicular."

The funicular is an inclined transport system that leads you up the hill— Minhee calls it BTS (Broken Transport System) because it looks like the cable cars are coaches of the train that's been broken from the normal Paris metro. From up high, Minhee can see the whole city in one view and it's mind-boggling when she realises that she's here with Jeongguk.