Jinhee smiled as everyone looked at her strangely for getting into a two thousand dollar car while she was in a nine thousand dollar dress. Doojoon had left when he caught a glimpse of Dongwoon’s familiar car. While she wouldn't choose to keep this kind of thing a secret, she understood that he would like to keep his social status private. She wasnt' going to mess with that.

“Who were you talking to?” Dongwoon asked when she buckled her seatbelt in.

“The second son of the Yoon family.” She answered nonchalantly.

“You two seemed close.”

“We sat through an hour and half dinner next to each other, I should hope we looked like we could get along after that.” She chuckled.

“You look nice.” He said finally.

“Thank you, so do you.”

He glanced at his jeans and sweater, and back up at her skeptically.

“I think you always look good.” She shrugged, still smiling.

“Same here.” He shrugged, copying her, smiling.

“I’m sorry, but I’m just going to take off my shoes. My feet really hurt. I tried to endure it but I can’t.” Jinhee laughed, kicking them off and massaging her feet.

“Why do you wear those? You’d look just as pretty in a low heel.”

“I have to because I’m short, and my reputation needs someone that doesn’t look quite as much like a baby as I do.”

“I’m sure you’d have rocked it just fine barefoot.”

“I’m sure too. I’m also sure my mother would have an aneurism if I went anywhere in public barefoot.” Jinhee joked.

He laughed and agreed.

They made it to the gate, and finally, she remembered something.

“Yesterday, how did you guys get past the gate?”

“Uhhh….” He stared at her wide eyed for a moment.

“What did you do?”

“You see…. We just got the code from someone.” He smiled awkwardly.

She narrowed her eyes, not fooled, but pretended to let it go. They made it to her house and before she could get out by herself, he ran over to open the door for her.

“You’re dressed like a princess, so you should get treated like one.” He smiled. She smiled and blushed, getting out of the car with his help. He put on her shoes for her and everything short of carrying her to the door.

She wasn’t sure how to deal with his mood swings. There were times he refused to talk to her, barely acknowledging her existence in the room, other times, it was like this and he was treating her with care and tender attention. She shook her head and told herself to just accept it and relish in moments like these when they happened.

“Jinhee!” Their friends smiled as she entered the living room where everyone was doing some sort of weekend assignment.

“You look so pretty!”

“Wow! You’re just like a princess!”

“I can’t believe you’re our friend!”

They all exclaimed various things at her appearance, but she hadn’t forgotten the question that was on her mind since the gate.

“How did you guys get past the gate the other day?”

“Oh, Dongwoon pulled up behind a car being driven by some girl going through the gate. He ran up to her window and flirted with her—I mean someone was kind enough to tell us the code and Dongwoon was in no way involved.” Yoseob said, but immediately changed his answer when he looked over Jinhee’s shoulder at Dongwoon giving him the signal to shut up. “I just got my stories mixed up with another time.” He laughed awkwardly.

“So you were thinking of another time Dongwoon flirted with someone to get access to something?” She cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Yes! I mean no! I don’t know!”

“I see. I understand.” She nodded curtly and walked forward. “I’m going to get changed and come back down to help you guys with the assignments.” Her voice was a bit sharper than she intended.

“You idiot.” Dongwoon glared at the smaller boy.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know that was a secret! Why would you hide that from her in the first place? She doesn’t seem like the type that would care if you had to talk someone into giving you something. She can do the same thing.” He pouted and whined.

“Whatever.” Dongwoon grumbled and sat back down in his place with his homework.

“Don’t do things you don’t want her to hear about, and she won’t hear about it.” Junhyung reasoned, smirking beside him.

“Shut it.” He glared over at him. “You’re the one who told me to go do it in the first place.”

“I hate to quote a cliché, but if I told you to jump off a cliff –” He was shut up by his cousin smacking his face with a couch pillow.

“I don’t see what the problem is,” Hyunseung rolled his eyes. “So you flirt to get what you want, a lot of people do that.”

“Would you like it if Haneul found out you flirt with that coffee shop girl to get free cupcakes?” Junhyung scoffed.

“No!”

“Precisely.”

“Oh, so you like Jinhee?” Jiwon turned to him, understanding the situation a lot clearer than before.

“What?!” Dongwoon jumped up in surprise. “What are you talking about?”

“Why didn’t you ask her out? Or do you like platonic love?” So Eun laughed.

“Just tell her how you feel.”

“Yeah, and get her flowers, girls like flowers.”

“Should we rent out a space for you guys?”

“Wear a nice suit or something.”

“Buy her a goat. She’d love a goat. Or better yet, buy her ten.” Everyone stared at Hyunseung peculiarly.

“Anywho…” Jiwon got back to the subject at hand, “You should really tell her that you like her before she gets serious with this other guy. Just saying.”

“I don’t like Jinhee,” He huffed defensively.

“Well I’m sorry for making you stay here then!” Jinhee appeared, clad in her silk pajamas and had pulled her curled hair in a ponytail for the time being.

Everyone gasped and turned to her in shock and fear.

“J-Jinhee!”

“Hey guys!” Doojoon came in smiling, until he noticed the tense atmosphere. “Should I come back and make another entrance at another time?”

“No. Stay. I need to talk to you.” Jinhee grabbed his backpack and threw it on the couch, then grabbed his hand and dragged him to her room.

“Since when do they talk?” Ki Bum looked at them, confused.

“Did she look like she was about to cry to you?” Jiwon asked So Eun, who numbly nodded.

“She’s been showing more emotions lately. I don’t know how to take it.” She mumbled in response.

“You made her cry.” Junhyung roughly shoved his cousin over.

“I seriously don’t understand the relationship between you two.” Everyone looked at Dongwoon with various negative emotions on their faces. He sighed and left to her backyard to think.

“What’s wrong?” Doojoon asked when she slammed her door shut. “What happened? Are you crying?!”

She angrily wiped at her face. “My stupid face won’t stop leaking!”

“Don’t do that.” He took her hand and brought her over to her vanity where there were tissues. He sat her down patiently and wiped her face for her as she cried. “I’ll wait, so you tell me when you’re ready.” She leaned forward and hugged him, still crying.

“I knew he didn’t like me, but to hear it hurt more than I expected it to. Now I can’t stop crying, even though I really should have known. I feel so stupid. This is all so stupid.”

It was times like these, when Jinhee acted as small as she was, that he remembered she was really just a high school girl. He picked her up with ease and brought her over to the bed with him. He sat down with her in his lap.

He wiped her tears, “Dongwoon said he didn’t like you? With his own mouth?”

“Yes. I left the room to get changed, I come back and he’s saying he doesn’t like me. Seriously? Saying that in my own house?”

“Do you know why he said that?”

“Unless he had a gun to his head, there’s no good explanation for saying that to our group in my living room!”

“You’re right.” He nodded and held her closer to him. “I’m sorry. Just keep crying until you’re done. It’s okay to cry.”

“It’s weakness.” She mumbled weakly into his shirt, still crying.

“I think it’s strong to admit you’re hurting. You’re the strongest person I know, not just because of the fact that I’m sure you can kick my if you wanted, which definitely adds onto your strength.”

That got a chuckle out of her. “Sorry for dragging you into this.”

“It’s okay. Call it repayment for you keeping my secret all this time. Do you want me to ask Dongwoon why he did something so stupid?”

“No. After this, I’m just going to forget about it, and move on with my life the best I can without clinging onto Dongwoon. But I might still try to cling on to him, I’m going to need your help with that…”

“Well, you’re kind of seeing that guy Lee Jong Hyun now, aren’t you?”

“Kind of. He’s nice. But I know, no matter if it was now, or ten years from now, I’d save Dongwoon over him if they were drowning.”

“You’re small, why are you trying to save anyone anyway?”

“Again with my size.” She rolled her eyes.

He looked down and saw that she finally stopped crying. He picked her up again and sat her down on her vanity once more. “Where’s your makeup removal stuff?”

“How do you even know what that is?”

“My mom and older girl family members used to, still do, get lazy and make me do this kind of stuff for them.” He smiled and dug around in her drawers. She smiled softly and pulled open the right drawer for him. He nodded and grabbed a cotton ball and the eye makeup remover. “We definitely need to get this panda make up off. It was pretty before, but now you look like a raccoon.” He teased.

“I think it’s a good look for me.” She joked.

“Maybe if it were some awesome color like purple, but I think the black is too gothic for you. Purple circles around your eyes and orange lips, now that’s where it’s at.” He nodded seriously with his best gay guy impression.

“Hey, you okay?” Junhyung asked hesitantly from the doorway.

“Yeah, I think we’re good now.” Doojoon smiled over to him, using a face wipe to get all of the other crap off her face. “You have a fist sized face.” He laughed at her. 

Junhyung looked at the two curiously, but said nothing. He just waited and watched for a while.

“When did you two become close?” He finally asked when Doojoon getting a wet towel to wipe off any remnants on her face.

“It just kind of happened.” She answered carelessly. “Why? Are you worried your role as my big brother is going to be taken from you?”

“Dongwoon didn’t mean that he didn’t like you.” He said seriously, ignoring her joke.

“Then what else does one mean when they say ‘I don’t like Jinhee’ out loud, very clearly, so others can hear them? There aren’t that many interpretations of it. In fact, there’s only one interpretation.”

“Don’t take everything you hear as a base fact.”

“I’m not going to look deeper into a statement like ‘I don’t like Jinhee.’”

“Stop making her think about it. Right now, she’s tired, and she’s had some champagne. Just let it go for the moment.” Doojoon came back and rubbed her face with the towel. “I know you don’t want to have problems like this existing between your cousin and your little sister, but this just isn’t the time.”

Junhyung sighed and nodded. He turned to leave, “Just don’t hate Dongwoon.” And he shut the door.

“As if I could.” She mumbled into the towel on her face.

Doojoon looked at the small girl and sighed. He put on his brightest smile when he removed the towel. “Face lotion time!”

“That too?!”

“Of course!”

“You’re scary.” They both laughed.

“Now you no longer look like a panda or like you’ve been crying. All back to being pretty and Jinhee-like.” He smiled and pinched her cheeks. “Should I carry you back to the living room with the others now?”

“Piggy back?”

“Sure.”

She grinned and hopped onto the chair to get onto his back happily. “I haven’t had a piggy back ride in a long time.”

“Oh, when was the last time?”

“The night of the day we took our high school entrance exams. By the way, just noting this out loud, you’re really strong.”

“Thanks. It’s from many years of soccer playing and exercising.”

“Ah, so you like soccer. Jiwon loves soccer.” Jinhee nodded.

“I know.” He nodded, still smiling. “Though her favorite player is Messi. I can’t support her non-patriotism, but I can accept her arguments for him being one of the bests in the league.”

“I like Lee Keun Ho.” Jinhee giggled.

“I like Lee Yong Rae right now. He plays very passionately.”

“Did you want to be a soccer player?”

“Yeah, but my mom told me it was an unlikely dream. I’m just going to be the spare for the heir for now.”

“You still have some freedom though, which I envy. Granted I want to take over the company, I still wonder what it would have been like if I was born to a normal family. What other interests would I have? Would I have pursued science? Would bugs have been more than just a hobby to me? Questions like those y’know?”

“I know.” He nodded.

“You guys are surprisingly cute together.” The group looked at them, shocked, when he had on her on his back comfortably.

“Thanks?” Jinhee chuckled. “Where’s Dongwoon?” She asked a maid.

“He is in the backyard, young mistress, should I call him in?”

“No, I’ll go to him.” She said and Doojoon set her down gently.

She found him sitting on the swinging benches at the far end of the pool. He saw her, but made no move to show he was going to do anything about it. She made her way over to him in the dim lighting from the lights they installed at the bottom and sides of the pool. She sighed and sat down beside him.

“Sorry for getting mad at you again.” She said after a moment of silence. He looked over at her, confused. “I get mad at you for making new friends, and I get mad at you for honestly saying how you feel. It’s not right. I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t mean that I didn’t like you – I don’t hate you, I just…”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain it to me. We’re just friends, sorta kinda.”

“I… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. You haven’t done anything wrong. Let’s go back inside, I’m sure you, like the others, need to get a lot of work done.” They both got up and walked back to the house together.

“Don’t tell me you already found time to have finished your own assignments.” He smiled thinly.

“I did them in class. You, on the other hand, with Doojoon, were snoring away.” She teased.

“I do not snore!”

The group in the house was watching them eagerly from the windows. They ran back to the living room and pretended to be studying very hard.

Jinhee and Dongwoon weren’t fooled – Yoseob was reading his textbook upside down, and KiKwang, Hyunseung, and So Eun all accidentally switched seats. Ki Bum was in Jin Gyo’s seat, trying to solve his harder homework problems to no avail.

“Go back to your proper seats so we can get started.” Jinhee smiled at them.

“Sorry.” The mumbled and all went back to their seats.

Author's Note

Happy Father's Day to all of you who may or may not be reading/enjoying my story. I should probably be with my family in the living room, but as it is Father's Day, my father is there. I said I had things to take care of for my summer classes to get out of spending time with him. I can hear him being his usually rude self, and I'm glad I'm not in the same room with him. We might come ot fisticuffs again if I were. I'm not as tactful as my sisters or mother. I have no tolerance for stupidity, which he has in truck loads. In case you can't tell, my relationship with my father isn't ideal, and you'll see in my future stories, though not this one, that my daddy issues permeate through my characters and general writing style

I should also be writing my paper due tonight, but I'm so irritated that he's here, and that I just had to submit myself to sitting with the family for Father's day lunch/dinner. My sister has a five month old son (cutest thing in the world), and my dad asked what his Zodiac sign was. My nephew is a baby dragon. Then he proceeds to ask all of us, his three legitimate daughters (among many illegitimate children he's fathered), what our signs were. We grit our teeth and smiled as we answered him our signs for him to know. He laughed, clearly this is the first time he's ever cared about our births. He wasn't even there when I was born. He was gambling and getting drunk. I was born on father's day the year I was born, so it was his day, no baby was going to ruin it.

Sorry for my bitter words. I have issues I'm working with. I hope all of you aren't as dysfunctional as I am. I genuinely hope that, because it really otherwise.

So here I am, writing an update because I''ll snap if I don't keep myself busy.

Question of the Day:

How did you spend Father's Day?

Random Question of the Day:

How tall are you?

Once again, thanks for reading, please do comment and subscribe. It makes me happy when I read comments, good or bad, it means you're actively reading my work.