Author's Note: Happy 11.12.13 everyone! Wow, there are so many 'holidays' this week, I'm getting overwhelmed! On Monday, it was Veteran's Day here in America, but it was also Pepero Day in Korea! And on top of that, Pledis uploaded a new trailer for their LIKE 17 SHOW 3! I could not control myself when people started telling me that my voice was used in the trailer – even today I still can't believe it hahaha! Anyway, I had originally planned on updating this yesterday for all of you, but since it was a Monday and I was drowning in make-up work that I had to finish, I couldn't. So in exchange for your time, I decided to make the chapter a little longer for you guys so I hope you enjoy reading! ((also I apologize for any capitalization/punctuation errors. My shift key is not working so I'm still waiting to get it fixed))

“Psst! Seunggwan, are you awake?” Jinki called from outside of Seunggwan's hanok, or at least, she hoped it was his. He said he was two rooms down, so it was his fault if she was waking up somebody else. When no one came out, she tried again, “Hey Seunggwan, my next best guess is that you're sleeping?”

Right as Jinki finished her sentence, a bed-headed Seunggwan slipped out of the flimsy sliding door in black sweatpants and a slim fitted navy long-sleeved shirt. His face showed immediate regret of not putting on a sweater or something the moment the breeze ran across his cheeks, tinting them a bright pink. Jinki on the other hand, all dressed up and ready for the day, waved hi to Seunggwan and greeted him a quick “Good morning”. Today she decided to try and be more of a regular teenage girl so her outfit consisted of black leggings, a deep purple hoodie with a grey turtleneck underneath, and grey boots with purple socks poking through the top. Around her neck was a white knit scarf which she wrapped so that it covered the bottom half of her face.

“Jinki, what are you doing up so early?” Seunggwan managed to say while his teeth slightly chattering, “Shouldn't you be sleeping or something?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Jinki kicked a pebble off to the side and watched it bounce down unpaved streets, “What's the fun in sleeping on school trips? Besides, I'm hungry and I need you to make me food,”

Seunggwan couldn't believe what he was hearing. The teachers had specifically sent a letter to each of the students saying that they were to bring extra food in case they were to get hungry. There were certain designated times when they would get full meals, but even then the food was limited. Every hanok had a functional mini-kitchen and a table-top stove which was great for heating up instant noodles. Of course, those were the more modern additions to the hanok. There was still the old over-fire kind of cooking that Seunggwan preferred to use whenever he went to visit his grandparents in Jeju-do. Heck, even if one didn't know how to boil it in a pot, they had the option to just add hot water because there was a tea kettle. Surely Jinki would have brought something to eat considering that she's the richest kid in the grade?

“Why don't you make it yourself?” Seunggwan half-whined, half-complained, “I have better things to do right now,”

“Because I don't know how to,”

And no, Jinki wasn't exaggerating when she said this. See, we take the smallest things for granted sometimes. If we're ever hungry, we just have to pop it in the microwave, or simply add water to it and let it cool. But Jinki? No, Jinki never had any of that. There was a lack of Korean cuisine in the Jin household for one, and for two, the private chefs her parents hired were from France and Italy respectively. 'Instant' anything was pretty much extinct in their kitchen. Everything was made to-order. None of that freeze-dried, pre-cooked, packaged stuff. Seunggwan stared at her in disbelief; at this point, he thought she was kidding. But looking at her again, he realized that maybe she really didn't know how to use the kitchen appliances.

“You really are useless aren't you?” Seunggwan asked her, astonished, “Wait here. Just let me get dressed and I'll make you something,”

It didn't take long for Seunggwan to heat up a small, steaming pot of beef flavored ramen with egg drizzled in. The pot was big enough for the two of them, and since there was a lack of spare bowls lying around, the next best option was to eat from the pot. Now, Jinki was completely grossed out by this. Another thing that they never did at home was share food. Each one of them had their own table set distinguished by their outer rim colors. Her eyes widened at Seunggwan as he started eating without hesitation. The only time he actually stopped was when he noticed when Jinki just sat there with her chopsticks in her hand.

“Aren't you going to eat?” Seunggwan asked, mouth full of noodles, “I woke up early to make this for you and you're not even eating. I feel slightly offended by this,”

“No, it's not that I don't want to eat it...” Jinki looked down at the steaming pot in front of her, silently wishing that she wasn't such a germaphobe, “I'm just not comfortable with the whole 'sharing food' thing,”

Sighing, Seunggwan set his chopsticks down while he chewed the remainder of food that was still in his mouth. If Jinki wans't going to eat it, then he was going to have to find a way to get her to eat it even if his dignity would be put on the line. There were already so many cases where he had to sacrifice his face for the sake of Jinki keeping hers. Hell, he'd never even gotten a single thank you for his actions. Anyway, the bottom line was that he wasn't going to finish all that food by himself. She woke him up so he could make it, and the least she could do was eat it. It was pretty risky of her to do that too especially since she knew that Chan, Hansol and him were rooming together. Seunggwan was aware of her germophobic nature (from that cockroach episode last night) so he knew that getting her to eat wasn't going to be easy. Crawling over to her side of the table on his knees, Seunggwan sat down on the mat next to Jinki. She raised her eyebrows up at him, confused, “What are you doing?”

“Why? It's not like I'm carrying a disease or anything,” he joked with a rather blunt, unenthusiastic tone, earning his a blank expression back. Sighing, Seunggwan picked up her chopsticks and picked up a few noddles from the pot, cutting them alongside the side so they were easier to manage. Jinki watched him every move, wondering where he was going with this. With his hand hovering underneath the noodles he had picked up, he held it out to Jinki, gesturing her to eat, “Here, open,”

“Are you feeding me?” Jinki asked, nose wrinkling at the thought.

“If that's the only way I'll get you to eat...” Seunggwan cooed, “Then yes. I'm feeding you,”

It didn't take long for the two of them to finish eating, especially since there were only two of them and most of the eating was done by Jinki. Once they were done cleaning up, they agreed to meet again at her room before heading out. Seunggwan was in and out of the room to change before Hansol and Chan had any time to even stir in their sleep. When he returned, Jinki was already sitting down on the front steps, scrolling through her phone on who-knows-what website. It was pretty much just the two of them who were out wandering other than the villages because most of the students were still asleep, wasting precious daylight, while others were out

“So where do you want to start earning volunteer hours?” Jinki skipped alongside Seunggwan as they made their way through the entrance gate of the village, “There are plenty of things we can do around here, right?”

“Well I had already asked yesterday if it was okay for me to give Grandpa Pyo's dog a wash,” Seunggwan responded, slipping his hands into the big front pocket of his hoodie, “You want to come with me?”

Before she could say anything, they were greeted by an older couple out on a morning walk, holding hands with the same passionate love they had shared for many years. The elders brought a smile to Jinki's face, making her think about her own future and what it would have in store for her. Would she have a happy marriage like theirs? Or would she be miserable like her Aunt Hong from her mother's side? You could never really know what your future holds. Returning her attention to Seunggwan, she nodded her head slowly. She wasn't entire sure about the whole 'washing dogs' thing as she was with everything else, because her parents had never allowed her to play with dogs. They always told her that dogs carried fleas, and could jump on her – which, if you think about it, was actually a really scary thought for someone as tall as her.

“Uh, yeah sure. Why not?” she said nervously, looking up at him, “You'll be there with me anyway, right?

After hearing that, Seunggwan couldn't help but feel warm inside, the same way he did last night when Jinki had hugged him. She reminded him a lot of himself when he was still a little kid in the country; lost, confused, not knowing where to go. It was amazing how he saw a lot of himself in her even though they grew up in completely different backgrounds. Simply nodding in response, Seunggwan decided to quickly change the topic before it got any more personal. He hated it when things got too close between the two of them. It made his goal of getting her together with Chan rather far and blurred. Scanning over her clothes, he raised an eyebrow up at her, “Wow, Jinki. No business attire today? That's different,”

“Oh this?” Jinki asked, gesturing to the burnt red knit sweater she wore over black leggings and a black turtleneck, “I wanted to try something more...trendy? Is that the word?”

“Well it looks nice on you,” Seunggwan awkwardly complimented, turning his head slightly away from her so that she wouldn't think that he was starting to like her or anything – because he totally wasn't.

On the other hand, Jinki was too busy fussing around with her hair because the wind was blowing strands out of her ponytail to even notice. No matter how many Youtube videos she watched of people putting their hair in the cutest hairstyles she could ever imagine, she could never replicate the steps on her own head. And as always, Seunggwan noticed her struggle. Stopping in his tracks, he pulled Jinki in front of him, her back turned to him, and pulled out the hairtie securing the rest of her hair in place. Her eyes widened; what was he doing? She felt his soft fingers gently running through her hair, gathering every strand into one high ponytail. Jinki had to admit, it was a really nice experience. There was slight tugging as he expertly tied her hair up into a messy bun, but it didn't really bother her. Within seconds, Seunggwan resumed walking.

“What was that for?' Jinki questioned his kind act, “I didn't know you could do girls' hair!”

“It must be all the 'My Boyfriend Does My Hair' videos that I watch,” he joked, suddenly taking it back when he realized how weird it sounded, “I mean, I'm not your boyfriend nor do I have a girlfriend to practice on. I just like watching them, you know?”

Jinki laughed at how tense he got whenever the topic switched over to anything related to romance. She found it cute...in a Bu Seunggwan kind of way.

“Okay Jinki, are you ready?”

“I've been preparing myself for this day since I was born,”

In front of them stood their target, a full-grown black and white bearded collie, Kiyowo. The two teens were decked out in bright blue aprons, pink dish gloves, large goggles that took up half of their face, and character printed sleeve protectors. On the chair opposite them held their jackets, and other precious belongings to prevent them from getting wet. Seunggwan had tied his bangs up with an extra hairtie Jinki had on her wrist into the infamous apple style, while hers was still in the messy bun Seunggwan had tied it in earlier. Jinki couldn't help but giggle at Seunggwan's newly exposed forehead. It was weird seeing him with his hair like that especially since his fringe took up more than half of his face.

“Alright then,” Seunggwan said with a slight nod of his head, “Let's go!”

In a matter of minutes, Kiyowo's thick, shaggy coat was bogged down by the stream of water hitting the topcoat. Droplets slid off the top, barely penetrating the topcoat enough to get the undercoat wet. As Seunggwan treat his fingers through the tangly fur, Jinki tried her best to not accidentally spray water at the older boy. Unfortunately for him, Jinki's hand-eye coordination when it came to video games was nothing compared to her lack of it in reality. The smell of strawberry fields filled the air as Seunggwan started to wash Kiyowo's fur with shampoo after Jinki turned the hose off to join him. Kiyowo was surprisingly behaved for a dog being washed at such an early hour, but Seunggwan didn't bother noting it out to prevent any jinxes from happening. Foamy bubbles began to build up on their hands and arms as they scrubbed, getting all over their clothes and hair.

Peeking from behind Kiyowo's great body, Seunggwan grinned when he saw Jinki's sudsy state, “Hey Jinki, is Kiyowo the one taking a bath, or you?”

Her pants were darker than ever before because of the water crawling up the threads, while bubbles clung onto the rest of her body. But oddly, with that dimpled smile lighting up her expression, it didn't seem like Jinki even cared. Her eyes shone with curiosity and excitement for her first time ever washing a dog. It wasn't half as bad as she expected it to be! Her hands expertly kneaded the shampoo into his fur, reaching into the bottom most coat as if she had bathed millions of dogs in her lifetime. Her eyes met Seunggwan's genuine chocolate ones when she looked up to respond, making her forget the smart-aleck thing she was going to say to him. Slowly, a rosy scarlet color spread over Jinki's cheeks, making her face take on an almost childlike appearance. She wondered why Seunggwan was staring at her with the look of...affection, almost. Quickly, she turned her head away, embarrassed by her reaction.

“K-Kiyowo of course!” Jinki stumbled over her words a little, trying to forget her eye contact with Seunggwan, “And besides, I could probably say the same for you!”

Seunggwan was just as bad as she was right now, if not more. There were foam patches around his shoulders, and even in his hair! Jinki giggled at how Seunggwan closely resembled a puppy being given a bath himself. Most of the boys, especially during the autumn and winter season, would sport more wavy/curly hairstyles and dye their hair lighter colors. Of course, Seunggwan didn't fall short of that trend with a reddish-brown shade, but the difference in his hair color wasn't as noticeable like their now-blonde seniors Lee Jihoon, and Jeon Wonwoo. Now it was Jinki's turn to do the staring. Seunggwan wasn't bothered by this, but just to snap her back into reality, he figured that he might as well just talk about whatever to keep things interesting. Focusing his attention to Kiyowo, he switched into his 'baby talk' mode, “Kiyowo is a really good boy, aren't you? Yes you are! If only my dogs were as good as you!”

Upon hearing this, Jinki's ears perked up, “Wait, Seunggwan you have dogs?”

“Yeah, I do,” he responded, not taking his eyes away from Kiyowo's gaze, “Two of them. Why?”

“Oh my gosh, why didn't you tell me?” she cried out, flicking a few suds his direction so he could feel her wrath, “I could have gotten to play with dogs a long time ago!”

As he dodged the suds, a slight smirk appeared on his face. Seunggwan really loved to play around with Jinki; she always took everything seriously, but responded so childishly. Jinki stuck her bottom lip out in a pout, hoping that she could guilt trick Seunggwan into apologizing, even though she already knew she was getting her hopes up too high. He was too smart to fall for anything she threw at him, which kind of all the fun out of everything. Nonetheless, she continued to pull that face until finally, he began to feel uncomfortable.

Setting his hands down on his lap, Seunggwan's shoulders dropped as he let out a long sigh. He knew exactly where she was going with this, and once again, she won him over with that stupid pouting face of hers. Seriously, it had never worked on him before. Why only now is it affecting him to the point where he's actually changing his mind for her? Jinki was no doubt the most troublesome person he had ever dealt with in his life. Grabbing a handful of suds, Seunggwan plopped a clump into her hair, grinning when her eyes widened in shock, “Fine, if you really want then you can come over,”

“Can I really?!”

Returning from a stop-over at Jinki's house so she could drop off her bags and change out of her clothes, the high-class girl found herself standing in front of a nice, two-story house. It wasn't too small, but it wasn't as big as her property either. There was a mini-yard in the front, and barely any room in the back for a backyard, but overall the brunt brown house itself didn't disappoint. In a way, she could describe it as a more modern version of the typical Asian sloping roofed house. Soft orangey-yellow glows came from the first floor windows, indicating hat someone was home. The porch light was also on to make sure that Seunggwan wouldn't trip over himself trying to get to the front door in the evening. Before dragging his bags up the porch, Seunggwan gestured for Jinki to go ahead of him since he was still carrying his bag from the weekend long trip. They were dropped off at school an hour ago, but as aforementioned, took a detour at Jinki's house to check in with the butler-of-the-hour and with the Shin siblings.

“So, are your parents home today?” Jinki glanced at the light coming from a window that seemed to be leading into the kitchen, trying to make small talk.

Seunggwan dug his keys from his front jacket pocket, “I'm not sure if both of them are home or if it's just dad, or mom. But don't worry, they're not crazy or anything. I've had a bunch of friends come over before,”

Once the door was unlocked, Seunggwan turned back to Jinki and asked if she had prepared herself to meet his dogs. He was worried that she might get scared of them and run off, which wouldn't really be good on his part because she might stop talking to him. Yeah, that's how drastic she could be. After convincing him that, yes, everything was going to be okay, Seunggwan sighed and hesitantly opened the front door for her. They slipped inside into a warm orange hallway, with a set of stairs over to the left. A cream closet door was positioned to their right. It was a rather small hallway, but Jinki could see that as they went down, there were many entrances to other rooms. Sure, it wasn't totally open-concept like hers, but it felt...comfortable. Closing the door behind them, Seunggwan sort of pushed himself back against a wall so that he wasn't invading Jinki's personal space (not like he could do anything about it anyway because there really was not a lot of room for them).

“Well, here you go!” Seunggwan held his arms out as if he were presenting something at an auction, “The small, but efficient, Bu Residence!”

Jinki's eyes wandered around the room, astonished at how neat everything was; unfortunately for Seunggwan, he didn't know whether or not she was speechless because of how low-class his house may have been or if she really was awed by his home. She wasn't really making it clear with her facial expressions. Although there were a lot of picture frames hanging on the wall, Jinki thought it fit well with the whole 'homely' concept of the house. It was a welcoming and comforting atmosphere – something that she lacked in her bland, empty house. Before she could even finish taking the furnishings of the house in, her thoughts were interrupted by barking in the distance.

'Looks like they heard the door,” Seunggwan smiled to himself, eager to reunite with his beloved friends.

In a matter of seconds, Jinki saw the biggest dog she had ever seen turning the corner with another smaller, curly haired pooch running ahead of him by a few steps. The bigger one was a gigantic fur ball that made the house shake with each thump of each paw. It was a huge brown and white Saint Bernard, that the moment it stood on its hind legs to prop it's front paws up on Seunggwan, it literally towered over both their heads. Jinki was amazed at the size of the Saint Bernard, unable to believe that it was so remarkably huge. Seunggwan greeted the dog as, Beethoven – so he was a male. On the other hand, the tinier one stayed at her feet, sniffing her boots like there was no tomorrow. Jinki caught a glimpse of the nametag: Dixie, so a female. While Seunggwan was busy with Beethoven, she sat down and started to baby talk Dixie, introducing herself too.

“Jinki, I'd like you to meet Beethoven,” Seunggwan proudly introduced his family to her, impressing her with his best quality English pronunciation, “That princess over there is Dixie,”

“I see you've met the dogs already,” a woman's voice came from behind Beethoven, “It's so nice to meet another one of Seunggwan's friends!”

There was no way that she could have been Seunggwan's mom. Unintentionally, Jinki's mouth dropped when she saw how fair and light his mom's complexion was. Her facial features were that of a porcelain doll that you would be terrified to even take out of the box because of how perfect it was. Her eyes were beautifully curved, and reminded Jinki about how she always was jealous of Seunggwan's doe-like eyes. And even her smile could light up en entire room! Getting up, Jinki respectfully bowed and introduced herself. It didn't really take long for them to get situated and exchange greetings since they'd done it hundreds of times throughout their life. Clapping her hands excitedly, Mrs. Bu grinned widely at Jinki, “I'm so excited! This is the first time Seunggwan's ever brought a girl into the house!”

“Mom!” Seunggwan suddenly interrupted, “What are you talking about? I bring girls here all the time!”

“Yeah...no he doesn't. The only people he's ever brought here are Chan and Hansol,” his mom countered, earning a stifled laugh from Jinki, “Anyway, I think it's time Seunggwan takes you around for the Tour. I'll be in the kitchen if you need me!”

Her sing-song voice trailed off as she exited the hallway leaving the two of them alone with the dogs. Seunggwan on the other hand still couldn't get over how his mom could actually say such a thing! Now what's Jinki going to do? Use that kind of information for blackmail? Who knows what that evil witch would be up to by now! Turning around, he saw Jinki admiring his mom's glass collection on one of the wall shelves that was (luckily) not too high for her to look at. It didn't seem like she was even fazed by the whole 'first girl into the house thing'. Maybe, just maybe it didn't matter at all to her? Weird. Clearing his throat, he caught her attention, “So, should I get started now or...?”

“Yeah, sure!” Jinki piped up, immediately stepping closer to Seunggwan with her hands held together at her back like she was a polite kindergarten kid, “Take the lead, Seunggwan!”

They toured the more obvious parts of the house: living room, entertainment room, dining room, kitchen, and the office. Each room they visited, Seunggwan felt the need to tell her, “I know it's not as big as the one you have at home but...” and she would always cut him off with, “Bigger isn't always better, you know!” Jinki was growing to like his house more and more; in fact, she could almost picture herself living in there! Every room, although smaller and more furnished than her home, was cozy, and held a family friendly atmosphere. The tones in the walls were earthy relaxing colors that completely contrasted her houses' strikingly white walls. The last room Seunggwan took her into was the family room. Once they got there, Seunggwan flicked the lights on and stepped aside, “And last but not least, the family room,”

For the Bu's, the family room served as a place where all of them could hang out after a hard day's work at the office, or at school. They pretty much spent every evening there just lounging around. There were dark wood display shelves in every corner of the room, each one holding something different; one books, one awards, one collectibles, and another one held more pictures. The closest shelf to them was the one with pictures, and as they passed by it, Jinki decided to take a peek. Her eyebrows raised at a rather peculiar picture of a young boy and girl. Stopping, she stood up on her tiptoes to get a better look at it.

There was a boy with hair as dark as fireplace ash, tucked underneath a yellow rain hat that was adorned with tiny little droplets hanging off the brim or sliding down the plastic top. He wore a vibrant blue raincoat with matching blue rainboots. The boy's eyes disappeared when he smiled because of how chubby his cheeks were. But there was no mistaking it. Jinki knew that smile couldn't belong to anyone else but Seunggwan. Her eyes skimmed over to the girl sitting next to him. Her fringe was poking from underneath the same yellow rainhat that the boy was wearing, and she was also wearing the pink version of the raincoat he was wearing. They were holding hands as they ran towards the photographer, probably to go back home after playing in the playground. It was a happy scene, and in the back of her mind, it was as if she could see the scene playing in her head.

“What are you looking at?” Seunggwan's voice interrupted her thoughts.

Surprised, Jinki set herself back down on her heels, and looked up at him, “Oh um, I was just looking at a picture. This one. That's you right?”

The corner's of Seunggwan's mouth tugged upwards into a slight smile as he glanced at the picture she was pointing to. It seemed too that the scene was replaying in his mind. Of course, why wouldn't it? It was his childhood memory after all. There was a sense of longing that Jinki could see in his eyes, even though he didn't show it from his expression. Was there something important in that picture? Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Jinki asked, “So who's the girl in the picture? You seem to really miss her,”

“Oh, it's nothing,” he replied bluntly, setting the picture frame face-down, “She's no one,”

All of a sudden, the happy-go-lucky Seunggwan disappeared, being taken over by a more shifty persona. His eyes were no longer warm like before, but now they seemed dull and lifeless. Weren't they just full of cheerful memories before? Jinki's interest was peaking every second now just because Seunggwan didn't want to reveal the identity of the girl in the picture to her. Sliding his hands in his pockets, Seunggwan spun on his heel and continued walking, “Let's go shall we? I think my mom's calling,”