“Rise and shine!” Ivanna says, pulling the covers off of me.

I groan and hide my head under my pillow. “Idunwannagetup,” I mumble sleepily.

“You’ve got a fun day ahead of you, Rubi!” Ivanna replies enthusiastically. Finally, she shoves me off my bed. I topple onto the ground.

“Was that really necessary?” I scowl reproachfully. Ivanna winks and points to the bathroom.

An hour later, I’m dressed in a sweater and a pair of jeans. My sweater is warm, cozy, and fuzzy.

Unfortunately, this makes me want to go back to sleep even more.

“What are we doing?” I ask Ivanna confusedly.

“Sightseeing!” Ivanna announces.

“With Father?” I say.

“No, silly. You’re going to go with a few other boys. I think you’ll like them,” she grins.

I’m too tired to feel curious in the slightest bit.

Finally, Ivanna and I arrive at a big clock tower, which I recognize to be Big Ben. “Ah, look they’re already here!” Ivanna claps her hands, and points to 12 boys standing around near Big Ben, their handsome looks attracting stares from squealing passerby.

It’s EXO.

EXO!

I would have clapped my hands, squealed, and sprinted over to them if I wasn’t so darn sleepy. Stupid jet lag. Getting in the way of fangirling over my favorite group ever.

EXO walk over to us. “We meet again,” Sehun smiles, holding out his hand. I grin and shake his hand, slowly melting as I stare into Sehun's warm brown eyes. Oh my gosh, Sehun’s so cute. And his hand’s so warm…asdsdlfjldkfvkej-

“Hey, Rubi. Do you remember me?” I snap out of my gaze. Kai’s smirking at me, his eyebrows raised.

I shoot him a glare. “Nope, I have no idea who you are.” I tell him sarcastically. He snorts.

“Have fun, Rubi!” Ivanna says. “Take care of her, boys!” Ivanna struts away.

I look around. All 12 members of EXO are here, radiating coolness. I feel a little flutter of nervousness inside my chest. What if I'm not cool for them? What if I look like a loser to them? I scratch my head. I never thought I'd be having self-confidence issues on the day I was supposed to hang out with my favorite group. 

“Okay, everyone, let’s go!” Luhan announces, clapping his hands, and we all follow him.

We first start off our little sightseeing tour at Big Ben. We take a bunch of goofy pictures and Chanyeol starts cracking jokes about giant monster clock towers. When Chen tries to take a serious picture of Lay standing in front of Big Ben, I sneak up behind him and make a goofy face behind his shoulder. It was totally worth it... even if he chased me around a Dippin’ Dots cart for 10 minutes.

Little by little, I feel myself lose all the nervous tension I had. I thought that I had to act special or something in front of EXO; however, I soon learn that these 12 guys are pretty down-to-Earth themselves (except for Kai, who’s as conceited and agitating as ever). But oh well. 

“I’m telling you,” I tell Baekhyun emphatically, as we're walking back from Buckingham Palace. “Eyeliner is too hard to put on.”

“It’s not!” Baekhyun exclaims. “All you have to do is apply the right color with a firm hand!”

“Hyungs, I’m hungry!” Tao whines.

“Let’s go eat some burgers!” I suggest.

“I say we eat fried chicken!” Kai counters.

"Burgers!” I say.

“Chicken!” Kai retaliates.

“Burgers!”

“Chicken!”

“STOP!” Xiumin screams. Kai and I fall silent. “We’re eating fish and chips.”

Kai and I exchange glances and shrug.