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“Liar liar, pants on fire~ I thought you said the bench grossed you out!”

Hyoyeon looked in the direction of the voice and found the boy from the potluck leaning against the glass doors with a very self-satisfied smirk on his face. Her hands clenched into a fist again – maybe she could get away with punching him today; her dad was at work.

“Hey hey! Easy there tiger..” the boy raised his hands, catching sight of the angry glint in the young girl’s eyes. “I’m just kidding around. Ever heard of a joke?”

“I’ve heard of a joker before and looking at your face, I now know what one looks like.”

“You’re mean!”

“You’re rude!”

It had been two weeks since they had run into each other… it would be a lie to say that Hyoyeon hadn’t wondered about who he was and if she’d run into him again. But it was just morbid curiosity.. it’s not like she had sat on the bench on 5 different days wondering if he’d show again. Nope, no way!

All of a sudden she felt her skin tingle. She looked around but there was no breeze.

There was only the boy there looking at her with an expression she couldn’t read. It made her feel self conscious and Hyoyeon hated feeling self-conscious so she stood up in a rush all ready to bolt when he stopped her. “Wait” he tugged the sleeve of her cover-up, “what’s your name?”

“Why should I tell you?” she spoke, her voice still laden with attitude.

He had to let out a laugh. He had never met any girl as tiny but as feisty as her. “Ok, we’ll play it your way. I’ll just keep calling you grandma tiger then –“

“Hyoyeon. The name’s Hyoyeon.”

With that, she turned to leave again.

“Don’t you wanna ask me my name, Hyoyeon?”

“Nope. Don’t care,” she stuck her tongue out and left him behind.

“Hyukjae! The great Lee Hyukjaeee! Try forgetting that!”

When she was safely behind the door of her apartment, she let out a little giggle.

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For the next week however, she kept running into him everywhere – the convenience store, the park in front of their apartment complex and even at the mall once. Hyoyeon was meeting with her friends who were all going away to a Summer Camp two hours away. She was the only one staying behind because their housekeeper ‘eemo’ had gone back to her hometown and she didn’t want to leave her father on his own – he was so clumsy he’d probably burn the house down.

As the big noisy group of 9 took over the food court, Hyoyeon caught sight of the boy out of the corner of her eye. Had it really gotten to the point where she recognized him just from his backview? So weird!

He was standing by the water fountain alone, just eating his burger – he’d said he just moved in a couple of weeks ago so he probably has no friends here… suddenly she felt a little guilty. ‘Maybe I should’ve been nicer.’ He looked lonely even though the arrogant damn-care aura was still evident.

“Hyoyeon eonnie, who are you looking at?” Seohyun always noticed everything.

“Do you know that boy?” It was the ever curious Yoona.

“Which boy?” - Jessica

“Ohh.. he’s not bad!” Tiffany spoke in a sing-song voice.

“WHEN did you meet him? And how come we weren’t there? We’re always together!” the loudest one was Sooyoung as usual so Hyoyeon hurriedly covered , “shut up you guys! I don’t know him. Way to go from A to Z.”

“Then why were you staring at him?” Future prosecutor Yuri’s interrogation began.

‘Think fast Hyoyeon.’ Her eyes flitted around for a second before she shrugged nonchalantly. “I wasn’t I was just looking to see if there was anyone at the water fountain. I want some water.”

“But you have a drink right here.”

“And it’s not water.”

“Ok ok, you guys let’s give her the benefit of the doubt!” Taeyeon, the oldest, decided to give Hyoyeon an out but she had her own suspicions.

“It wouldn’t be a bad thing though, Hyo” Sunny mused, “it would be fun if you had a boyfriend again.”

“Because the last one went so well!” she replied dryly.

“Get over it missy, that was when we were in fifth grade!” Sooyoung laughed at her. “Anyway I really wish you were coming to Summer Camp with us, there are going to be so many boys.”

“No thanks,” she stuck her tongue out.

“Hyooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, promise me you won’t spend your entire summer cooped up in your apartment!” Tiffany urged. “Really, it’s not too late to change your mind! Daddy can probably get you a spot too.”

“Thanks guys but you know my appa.” They nodded their heads understandingly.

“Ok enough of this, are we here to shop or what?” Sunny stood up, taking the lead, and the rest followed.

As they gathered all the shopping bags they had already accumulated, Hyoyeon stole a peek in his direction again but he was gone.

*************************************************************************************

With the summer in full swing and all her friends away, Hyoyeon had a lot of time on her hands. She read, watched movies, worked her way through her mother’s recipe book and took dance lessons. She also spent a fair bit daydreaming and napping on the terrace. One day she decided to add something new to her routine – jogs in the park every evening.

Hyoyeon was a natural born athlete and with a lot of energy to spend and none of her girls around to help her out, jogging seemed like a good solution. Except she was sorely out of practise – so after her first run around the park perimeter, she collapsed on a bench nearby.

“Hello Hyoyeon.”

Hearing her name unexpectedly she snapped her head to the right and found… the boy. He had an mp3 player in his hands, hood pulled over his head, slightly slouching against the back of the bench.

‘What do I do? Say hi? But it’s not like we’re friends. But I can’t just say nothing….’ After a couple of minutes, she finally settled on something to say “You!”

He laughed, “I told you my name was Hyukjae.”

She gave him a look that said ‘and why should that matter to me?’ All the while, a part of her was telling her to be nice, but his presence just seemed to bring out her feisty side.

With a shrug, he went back to his mp3 player.

After that day, another thing was added to her daily routine – running into him at the park.

It took three days for her to finally call him by name, “Hello Hyukjae.”

He hid his smirk under his hoodie.

The next day,

“What are you listening to? Is it any good?”

“H.O.T! Only the best band ever! Want to hear?” she looked at the earphone he was offering hesitantly, “er.. I’m okay.”

He shrugged again and went back to his mp3 player.

A few days later,

“You like sports, huh?”

“Just running.”

“I love soccer.” She caught him looking wistfully at a group of boys scrimmaging on the far end of the park.

Hyoyeon was a natural fixer-nurturer. When one of her friends looked sad she usually hugged them or gave them a pat on the back because she couldn’t stand seeing them that way. She felt a little something like that right now, just a little – ‘Wait, do I think of him as a friend now?’ They weren’t arguing anymore and she had had two things that resembled conversations with him…

While she was lost in her own thoughts, Hyukjae stood up abruptly, picked up his Gatorade bottle and turned in the direction of their building.

“Leaving?” the words slipped out before she could stop them.

His eyes were wide in surprise too and then slowly they grew smaller as his cheeks stretched upwards, “Uh yeah, bye.”

Hyoyeon wished the ground would swallow her – now he was going to think she cared or something - so she didn’t catch his amused grin.

“See you tomorrow, Hyorreng.”

“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?”

But he was already halfway across the park, chuckling to himself.

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A/N : this is all still flashback because I thought i should explain how they became friends. There's not enough drama but it will appear soon enough. its only supposed to be a short story so hope i can finish this by christmas :) comment

and i was listening to this song while writing the chapter.