The Crystal by Jones M (the chimp paradox .txt) 📕

sleeping?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. Hours ago, when we had arrived at the hotel suite, most of the boys headed to their rooms.

“I feel well-rested,” he replied as he walked around my room. He came to a sudden stop before turning to face me.

“Do you want to go out?” he asked. My eyebrows shot up in surprise. 

Of all the things I expected him to say, that was the least. Was he asking me out? Like, going on a date?

Zane understood my reaction because his eyes widened in shock.

“Oh, sorry! I meant that we have a music video to shoot. Would you want to come with us, or will you be okay staying in the hotel?”

Ooh! That was something we had not done. I was curious to find out how music videos were made. 

Okay, in the BTS videos uploaded on the internet, they would show parts of the process, but I wanted to witness all of it.

“I’m coming,” I replied without a second thought. Zane gave me a pleased smile before walking out of the room. I took a change of clothes and headed straight into the bathroom of my mini suite. I even applied a light amount of makeup. Once I was ready, I headed to the boys.

At the moment, we were only four. That included Logan, Zane, Ethan and me. I was astonished that they were all awake, but then I recalled that we were going to a video shoot. 

“There you are!” said Logan with an overdramatic exasperated expression. “We have been waiting for you for five hours!”

I squinted my eyebrows at him in confusion.

“It’s only been twenty minutes.”

He maintained his expression. “It felt like three hundred.”

I rolled my eyes at him, finally realizing he was joking. The others just chuckled.

“So, Emery, this is the plan. We are going to the Big Ben where Harry, Selena and Liam will meet us. There is a bus that will be waiting for us. Our crew will be with us to help shoot the video,” Zane explained.

“I don’t get it,” I said.

Big Ben?

Then it clicked.

“Your music video will include that clock tower-building I saw in the animated Peter Pan movie?”

“Yes, and other spots in London. We’ll also be meeting our fans,” Ethan continued.

Oh, crap. If my memory served me correct, during the last time I faced their fans, I was chased around like a chicken afraid of losing its head. Would it be worth it, just to know how music videos were created?

Yes.

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Selena, Liam and Harry were outside the Big Ben when Zane, Ethan, Logan and I arrived. Some of the crew I recognized from the boys’ tour was also there. They helped set up the cameras while Selena and I stayed behind the scenes.

Apparently, the boys were shooting the music video for One Thing.

My curiosity was misplaced earlier about what would transpire. It did not even take an hour until I was bored with everything around me. Selena was bored too, and so we spent most of the time talking to each other.

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It took the whole day to shoot the music video! Even though it was nice to see the boys meet their fans, I was still cautious about an unexpected celebrity chase. At that time, the admirers were calmer but more prone to having heart attacks on the spot. When the crew had shot every scene for the video, night had already strolled in.

“Your fans are crazy,” Selena said as we walked towards our hotel suite. “I can’t believe some of them chased after us while we were on the bus!”

The boys replied with guffaws.  

Parts of the video shoot included filming the boys greeting their fans while they were on a red bus. Selena and I remained hidden, and we found it funny to see their admirers run after them. All the while, they boys waved at them with plastered smiles on their faces.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I said. “Honestly, I expected your admirers to attack you.”

Logan snorted.

“They couldn’t because we had security around. Aren’t you glad you had fun with us today?”

I shrugged in reply.

No, I did not have fun. I had to stand and sit a lot to watch the video-making process.

“So, what do we do?”

“We could get something to eat. I haven’t eaten anything the whole day,” Ethan said. Thinking about it, Ethan was right. I couldn’t believe I forgot about lunch!

The boys and the crew were so busy that they hardly had time to take a break for lunch. It was a surprise we had all been able to move with empty stomachs.

“We could get something from Nandos,” Logan said as we approached our hotel suite door.

“Where?” Selena voiced out my thoughts. Logan rolled his eyes.

“Some restaurant Trevor mentioned to us. He said we should try their food, and so I thought we should.”

“Sure, but if it sucks, Harry will have to cook us food,” I threatened.

“Hey! How will it be my fault?” Harry asked with a frown. Logan just chuckled before nodding.

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“What should we do now?” Liam asked. Logan had already placed an order for our meals, and so we were waiting for the food to be delivered. We had showered and changed into more comfortable clothes, especially since most of us planned to go to bed after dinner.

“We could play games,” Ethan answered with a mischievous smile. “How about ‘never have I ever’ ?”

“Ethan, some of us don’t drink,” Liam replied. The blonde-haired boy frowned in disappointment.

“I have an idea!” Harry said with a smile. “Truth or dare.”

I felt queasy when he proposed that. I had never played the game, but I had enough knowledge to know it would include doing embarrassing things.

“No, thank you,” I denied the proposal just as I was turning to walk towards my room.

“Why not?” Harry asked with a frown. Before I replied, I saw a spark in his eyes as they widened.

“You’ve never played it before, have you?” he asked. I shrugged in reply, instigating that it did not matter.

“You should play with us! Think of the awful things we can do to each other!” Logan said with a cheeky smile.

“And that is why I never played the game,” I answered for them. The boys released a humph of disbelief.

“Come on, Emery! As your cousin, I should tell you that you only live once,” Selena advised. I groaned at the words of wisdom she said.

“Alright. I’ll play the stupid game,” I gave in. Everyone else in the room cheered for me. Then we situated ourselves in the entertainment room of the hotel.

We didn’t know who would pick who, and so I suggested the inclusion of a glass bottle. We all agreed, and so we sat on the floor in the form of a circle with the bottle in the middle.

“Okay. I’ll go first,” Harry said as he was about to pick the glass bottle. However, Liam’s hands shot out and grabbed his.

“No way. We do not want a repeat of last time,” he said.

“What happened last time?” Selena and I inquired at the same time.

“You do not want to know,” the boys replied together. I hated to think of what had happed 'last time', and so I shrugged it off.

Liam spun the bottle. We all watched it until it pointed towards Harry. The curly-haired boy looked slightly frightened.

A smirk took over Liam’s features. I had no idea he could do that!

“Truth or dare, Harry?” he asked. Harry shifted from side to side, contemplating on which to pick.

“Dare,” he replied. His eyes widened as if shocked by what had he picked.

“I dare you to…” Liam’s smirk remained as he trailed off, looking around the room. “…shout on the balcony that you are bananas about bras.”

“No!” Harry screamed in horror. His cheeks turned a bright red, and the rest of us tried to hide our laughs.

“You could do that or…” Liam trailed off again. “…kiss Logan.”

“WHAT?” Logan and Harry asked at the same time. Liam just shrugged with a smirk.

Harry sighed as he stood from the floor. We all turned our heads to face him.

“Shout it for everyone to hear!” Liam added as the curly-haired boy opened the balcony doors. He disappeared as he walked towards the balcony.

Moments later, we heard him scream “I am bananas about bras!”

The rest of us couldn’t hold it in anymore. We all ended in fits of laughter. Harry came back with a furious expression, but that just fueled our laughter.

“You will pay for this,” Harry swore. Liam just shrugged. Once the laughter subsided, Harry spun the bottle. It landed on Ethan. The boy with blonde hair sat straight as he stared at Harry.

“Truth or dare, Ethan?” he asked.

“Truth!” he shouted the answer so fast. Harry blinked in surprise at the fast reply before he continued.

“Okay… Did you fantasize about Selena in your dreams last night?”

My eyes widened in shock as I stared at Ethan. Selena looked at the blonde with a look of surprise as well. Ethan’s cheeks turned red like a fire truck.

“It was not what you think. She was sucking—I mean giving me a wonderful taste of fudge—I mean lollipops—I mean pizza,” Ethan stuttered his reply.

Aww! He had a dream about being fed delicious foods. By my cousin.

Is that normal?

Harry’s eyebrows shot up and down as a smirk took over his features. The others seemed uncomfortable. Selena and Ethan were still blushing.

Wait. Was there something I was missing?

The game went on. Liam was dared to suck his toe, and Ethan exposed another embarrassing truth of him mastur—I mean master baking with me. 

I had no idea what that meant. 

Selena was dared to apply a lot of makeup. Her face looked like a baked cake gone wrong. Then Zane was asked if he had a huge wiener, and he replied with a shrug. I wondered what it was with the boys and food-related stuff. It was a good thing I wasn’t chosen yet.

“Emery,” Selena called out my name.

Oh crap!

“Truth or dare?”

I thought over the options given. If I chose truth, I would have to expose some humiliating secret about my life. 

Trust me, they were many. 

But if I chose dare, I would have to do something embarrassing. At least the dare would die down immediately after.

“Dare,” I replied. Selena had smirked before she said, “I dare you to make out with Zane.”

The rest of the boys oohed at the words spoken. I immediately regretted picking ‘dare’. I should have gone with ‘truth’ to avoid the mess of feelings that followed after. I was immediately a nervous mess.

Zane had shot up when he heard his name. His eyes widened with the alarm of hearing what Selena had said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Zane stated. “It will be like forcing ourselves towards each other.”

I nodded in agreement to what he said.

“We don’t mind,” Selena said and earned nods of agreement from the others. “Besides, Emery has never had her first kiss.”

“Selena!” I shouted at her as my cheeks began to heat up.

“She has been itching to get kissed since high school,” she continued, completely ignoring me. I sighed as I bowed my head to face the floor. At that moment, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me.

“I don’t know,” Zane replied. “Shouldn’t her first kiss be with someone special?”

Selena rolled her eyes before turning to face me.

“Emery, would you mind if he kissed you?”

Um, yes. I would mind!

“What kind of a question is that? Of course I would mind! I don’t know how to kiss!”

“That is why him kissing you is the dare. Let him get rid of the kinks you have. At least you will know what to do when you’re with a guy,” Selena explained.

I sighed as I thought about it. It didn’t take that long.

“Eh, okay.”

“WHAT?” the rest of the boys asked in disbelief.

“Emery, you are sure you don’t mind?” Zane asked with a concerned expression.

“I’m sure,” I confirmed. "It's not like anything will change."

The room remained silent as everyone watched, expecting the dare to unfold. My eyes turned to Zane. He was still in shock. I hesitantly crawled towards him. All the while, his eyes were trained on me.

I had no idea why, but I felt my nervousness increase. 

“Just for a while,” Selena added.

"Are you sure you want to do this? It is your first kiss." Zane stated with a worried expression. At that moment, I was glad he was being nice about what has happening. It showed me that he cared.

And that was all I needed to go through with the dare.

"I'm sure," I said with a small smile.

Zane hesitated for a moment.

"Just kiss already!" Logan yelled in the background. I rolled my eyes just as Zane lowly chuckled. Once again, there was silence as everyone waited for the kiss. Zane then closed his eyes as he leaned in. I hesitated for a moment.

Okay. What did Sebastien from The Little Mermaid say?

“You’re going to pucker your lips, like this.”

I envisioned the scene in the movie, almost laughing with Zane’s lips approaching mine.

Oh, right.

I moved my lips to meet his. I had no idea of what would happen, and I was shocked by the feelings that came when my lips touched his. 

The kiss lasted for a millisecond; it was a peck. It seemed so innocent, so delicate. Zane and I were about to part, with no awkwardness between us, when Selena said, “That was not a kiss! That was a peck! Give her a real kiss! Or are you inexperienced too, Zane?”

A look of determination crossed over Zane’s face. Something shfited in his eyes as I felt his arms wrap around my torso. I was brought closer to him with my legs