Nine months had passed since the Ice Cream Shack closed for the season, and this time, the islanders thought it might finally have shut down for good. Since the owner passed away, leaving his young nephew, a recluse who few Paradise residents had ever actually seen, as the only heir, all odds seemed against the wooden hut ever opening again. But overnight one mid-September eve, a sign was slapped up on the front door, reading simply: "Closed for Renovations."

To most people in the real world, this might have come as a sign of imminent change, a beacon of light that the shabby hut might soon get a facelift and actually see some business once it opened again the summer after. But the people of Paradise knew better; the new owner had never even visited the Ice Cream Shack before, so who could expect him to actually run the place now that he was the only member of his family left? Thus, for months to come, no one was seen in or around the Shack again. Of course, that wasn't unusual for the business, which always closed once summer passed and autumn's seasonal chill kicked in again. But there wasn't a single hint of renovation either, aside from a sunny day near the end of spring when a local company replaced, of all things, the building's windowsills.

Not even Seo Haemi, who had been working around the place for almost as long as she could remember, ever really expected it would open again. Having known the previous owner nearly her entire life, she was particularly devastated when he passed—and even more surprised when she received a letter in early May asking her to help out by hiring new staff for the upcoming summer season. Happy to oblige, Haemi set to work putting out "Help Wanted" ads around the island and conducting interviews in place of the mysterious new owner she had yet to meet. Not surprisingly, there weren't too many hopefuls—only a small handful of high school and college students here and there who apparently didn't have many other job options as every other business on the island had already filled up for the season. A short application process later, and the business was restocked with some fresh, some returning employees. Jeong Yoreum, a quiet girl who was the only one out of last year's crew to even consider coming back, helped Haemi train the new workers, and the next thing anyone knew, the not-so-grand reopening was upon them.

Needless to say, it came as the surprise of the century (to the one or two people who actually took the time to glance at the place as they passed it by) when the first day of June, a hot, breezy Saturday, finally rolled around and the renovation sign was overturned, revealing an "Open for Business" message beneath.

Maybe, just maybe, things were finally looking up for the Ice Cream Shack.

But probably not.

WOW. SO LIKE. I didn't plan to start the story out with a short, pointless prologue, but I've been slaving over this chapter for days now??? and it just might actually be driving me insane. I also just accidentally erased and saved over part of the chapter, too, so like... idk I'm finally at this point where I realized the way I originally planned to write this isn't going to work out at all and I'm gonna have to rethink the first chapter. -_-

Which brings me to another point!

My original plan was that EXO (the love interest half, at least) were all friends who laze around at the Shack all day. I was going to introduce them to the girls basically... more or less all at the same time when I started this back in January, which is why I didn't actually ask in the app "how did you meet your love interest?" So, to make things easier on myself, I might/probably will change a few of the first meetings if I can't figure out how to make them fit into what I have planned.

I didn't expect it to be this hard to figure out how to start this off and introduce the characters, like- I'm already really bad at introducing characters, but for some reason, I just can't think of how to get the ball rolling on this one! I wish I could just cut away a few weeks to when they're all already friends, but that wouldn't really work either...