“It’s like there’s a boulder attached to every single strand of my hair. I feel horrible,” complained Kevin, finishing another glass of water. His cousin poured him some fresh orange juice and he drank it one gulp. “What the hell did I even drink yesterday? ”

Jessica chuckled. “Enough to make you look super disgusting right now. And what is,” she sniffed his shirt, “which girl did you even manage to pull in that state!? I smell Glow by J.Lo.”

Kevin picked at his shirt and smelt it, his face surprised. “Oh my God, you don’t… you don’t think she’s here do you?” he whispered quietly. Jessica shrugged. “. What did I do!” He ran to his room and checked, returning to the kitchen soon after looking relieved. “No girl. All is good.”

 “I was going to ask if you could drop me off, but I guess the request is out of the question.”

Kevin groaned. “Oh crap. I totally forgot! Wait, what time do you have to be there?”

She glanced at her watch. “An hour.”

 “I’ll get AJ to pick us up and we can drop you off.”

 “Oh, don’t trouble him. I’m sure he’s feeling just as peachy as you are right now,” she said with a grin. “What would your mother say if she knew.”

Kevin’s eyes widened. “Oh no. Oh no no! Jessica, you can’t. She’d kill me. No, worse. She’d skin me alive and then rip my limbs apart one by one and then kill me.” Jessica laughed and slapped him across the head. “Owww! Head. Throbbing head!”

 “Serves you right! I already told you to cut down on the alcohol and it’s your fault for not listening,” nagged Jessica, her hands busily making sandwiches. She placed them on to a plate for her cousin. “Here, get a little something in you and then wash up and get some rest.”

 “Wow, since when did you become Mother Goose?” he asked whilst chomping on his food.

 “Since I entered adulthood and don’t talk with your mouth full please. It’s gross seeing all that mass of food.” She reached for her day planner and carefully read through it. Today was the first day of her internship and it felt like the first day of school. “I hope the other interns are nice. I don’t know how to deal with unaccommodating people.”

Kevin sighed, clearing up his plate. “There’s always going to be at least one y person and that one person is going to be number one on everyone’s blacklist. It’s like an unassigned job that naturally came along with them.” He looked at Jessica and shook his head. “You are never going to survive unless you release the maliciousness in you.”

 “I am malicious. I’ve improved over the years, thank you very much,” huffed Jessica.

 “Mmhmm, you better start moving. You’re going to be caught in traffic and turn up late and no one likes a tardy,” said Kevin, grabbing her bag and pushing her towards the door. “I’ll make dinner tonight, alright?”

 “Thanks Kev. Wish me luck!” She crossed her fingers, looking hopeful. He gave her a quick hug.

 “Good luck! And remember, pull out the ‘ please!’ where possible!”

***

 “And you backed out as soon as you saw him?”

Yeeun laughed and clapped her hands, embarrassed. “He was clearly a workaholic. I mean, why would you bring out your work papers to a blind date? He didn’t even blink an eye when a hot woman walked past him.”

 “You’re still keeping an eye out for girls?” asked Onew with a knowing smirk.

 “Always have and always will. Competition is high these days.” She picked at her sandwich, picking out the olives. “And I still don’t like olives. Anyway, I told my mum from then on that if anyone wanted to find me a guy, I’d leave it to my older sister.” Onew let out a chuckle. The two shared eye contact and a smile came upon Yeeun’s face. “It’s been a long time since we hung out like this.”

Onew caught the reminiscent tone in her voice and responded with a curt nod. Yeeun glanced at him. They had met when they were fifteen. Seeing him now, the young, playful Jinki had grown up; he was no more the boy that she could play football with or Street Fighter down at the games arcade, (which would go on for hours had their parents not called them to come home).They had shared a lot of wonderful and memorable times together.

***

 “Jinki! Race you to the gate! Loser has to buy ice cream!” Yeeun had a head start and ran, laughing along the way. Behind her she could hear the shouts of a boy, getting closer by the second.

 “Park Yeeun, you don’t play fair! You can’t start running when you want to!”

She managed to quickly turn back and stuck her tongue out. “There are no rules to the game! Don’t be a sore loser!” Throwing her bag down, she halted just before the school gate. Onew arrived seconds later and she beamed at him, proud. “You know my favourite flavour, so I’ll wait for a sweet treat after school.”

 “Fine but you better finish it,” came the reply. That was Onew, always generous and never one to nit-pick. “Come on, let’s get to class. You don’t need another telling off.”

 “Don’t remind me. I had to clear out Mr. Song’s filing cabinet and you know how much of a hoarder he is.” She quickly hid herself behind Onew, tugging at his backpack. “It’s Siwan. Im Siwan! Hide me, hide me!” Onew remained still, whilst Yeeun busily shuffled behind him. She peeked over his shoulder. “Why is he so gorgeous? How did such a beautiful human being come to Earth? How how how?” Coming out from hiding she stared after her crush. Onew walked off in the direction of their class.

 “We can discuss that with Sunye in class. Now hurry up, we’re going to be late.” Yeeun trailed after him, still in a daze.

 “I wonder what it would be like if I was his girlfriend.”

Truer words couldn’t have been said, because a few months later, Park Yeeun was dating Im Siwan. And that was the changing start to Onew and Yeeun’s friendship.

***

And now at twenty-five, they had become adults, holding their own jobs, going through life. Ten years had whizzed by so fast.

 “Do you remember Im Siwan?” she asked.

Onew grinned slightly. “How could I not? That was one of the main topics to our everyday conversations. Do you remember when Jonghyun made up that song about him? What was it called again?”

 “Oh yeah! The… the Living Mannequin!” said Yeeun laughing. “Jonghyun and Sunye would always tease me about him.”

 “But they stopped when you and he became an item.  Suddenly the fun of singing that song was… meaningless,” said Onew with a chuckle. Yeeun’s laughter dwindled when she heard Onew’s words. “Those two were always the funny ones in our group.”

 “They were, weren’t they? And the most musically talented too. I can’t believe Sunye’s actually doing musicals!” Yeeun pondered a bit before asking her next question. “Hey, Onew. What did you think of Siwan?”

 “What?” Onew was puzzled at the sudden question.

 “What did you think of him? I mean, if I wasn’t your friend, would you have approved of him?”

 “Well,” started Onew. “I mean, he was a nice guy. To approve or not, I can’t really say. We never really got to get to know each other.” The ending sentence hit Yeeun hard, whether Onew intentionally or unintentionally meant it. He never got to know Siwan because that was when she drifted away from Onew and things had changed. Since then she had regretted ever doing so.

***

 “Remember, your arms. Your arms need to move with you,” directed Minho towards Krystal who was warming up. Krystal nodded and kept her focus. “Don’t worry, as long as you get through the heats, you’ll be fine.” He laid his hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

 “I know.” Krystal’s name was called out and she proceeded to her lane. Two heats later, she had made it to the finals. Although she had beaten out others, this last race would determine her placing.

 Minho saw the girl’s tensed face. “Calm down, Soojung.” It was the first time he had sounded sincere. They had had difficult and testing training sessions but today, all that was put aside and they had come together today as support. “You’ve made it this far, you can get through the next one.”

 “I don’t know. The other athletes’ times are a lot faster than mine.”

 “Krystal Jung!” The two athletes turned and saw Doojoon in the stands, waving his arms. “You can do it, babe!” Krystal broke out into a weak smile.

Minho patted her back supportively. “Go for it. I’ll be waiting at the end.”

***

  “To our wonderful team, I would like to extend my utmost gratitude. We have achieved one of the best records that this school has ever had,” said Coach Kim. “I could not be happier and more proud than I am at this moment. If anyone deserves praise it is not I, but the athletes themselves, for their hard work, their perseverance and the effort that they have put in. A round of applause!” The hall was filled with the sound of hands clapping and shouts of joy.

 Krystal was caught in a huddle that consisted of Suzy, Taemin and Doojoon. “Krystal Jung! Krystal Jung!” chanted Suzy. “We love our Krystal Jung! Kry-stal Ju-ung!” Suzy backed out and pulled Krystal along with her. “Come on, let’s dance!”

 Krystal kept an eye out on the dance floor, looking for Minho. After winning the race she didn’t manage to say thank you to the one person who had helped her win it. And then she spotted him, by the doors. “Suzy, I’m gonna go to the toilet real quick!” She danced her way out and made her way over to him. “Hi!”

 Minho stared at her in surprise. “Hey,” he greeted back. “Congrats by the way.”

 “Yeah, I never got to say thank you.” She smiled at him sincerely. “Thanks for everything, really, I mean it.” She brought her hand up for a high-five which was returned. “You’re a pain in the , Choi Minho, but a great training partner.”

 “Thank you, Krystal Jung.” He jerked his head, pointing towards the door. “Wanna get a breather?”

***

Lizzy saw Minho and Krystal leaving the hall together. Her eagle eyes roamed around and she found her prey.

 “If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought you were avoiding me,” she said with a sneer.  Doojoon let out a tired sigh.

 “If I didn’t know any better, you seem to be in places you shouldn’t be at,” replied Doojoon starkly. “You don’t even attend this school.”

 “I’m doing a report, remember? Your girlfriend has yet to answer my questions. And now that this competition is over, I’m sure we’ll be scheduling a date sometime soon. Don't worry.”

 “That sounds great, now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head outside.” She quickly stood in his way, preventing him from leaving. “Do you have something else to say, or what?” Krystal and Minho were still not back from outside. She shook her head and remained still. “Then, could you please move out so I can leave?”

***

 “… at least now I can focus a lot more on my classes. I swear, these professors have nothing better to do than hackle me constantly,” said Krystal.

“Tell me about it. Coach Kim has had to cover my so many times, to the point where my teachers gave up even asking.” The two shared a laugh as they talked. Minho turned to his side, shoulder against the pillar. Her dark hair waved slightly in the wind, framing her pale face. He shifted a little closer to her, the latter noticing the sudden movement.

 “What are you doing?” said Krystal softly, looking up. She knew he was coming closer but she didn’t budge. Minho gazed down, his hand reaching out to tuck the strand of hair that was blocking her face.

 “I really want to kiss you,” murmured Minho. Krystal’s eyes widened not quite expecting the straightforward answer from him. His face was getting nearer by the second, with his forehead finally set on hers. Her breath hitched.

 “But you can’t,” she whispered.

He bit back his lip, trying hard to restrain himself. “I know.” But I don’t know how much longer I can take till I will. 

***