“Everybody’s here?” Mr. Lee’s voice broke into my senses. I snapped out and straightened up as the others answered “neh” in a chorus.

 

“I’ve already seen the reports and I’m very impressed. The sales went up to 65%. Why don’t we give ourselves a round of applause?”

 

I joined in with the others and clapped my hands. When the cheering died down, Mr. Lee propped up again and clapped the back of Mr. Kwon enthusiastically. “But of course, we should applause Jiyong for doing an excellent job!”

 

Mr. Kwon smiled and bowed to everyone as they clapped for him. Contrary to what I did a while ago, I didn’t join with them this time and much to my dismay, he caught me pouting. Instead of frowning and giving me a dangerous glare, I saw him smiled boyishly at me. It made me gasp. That smile is so Ji’s boyish smile.

 

“Now, for the good news,” Mr. Lee continued, stalling. This made everyone silent as they wait in anticipation. Mr. Lee looked at everyone first and smiled. “I’ll be closing the café for a week,” he paused as a collective gasp filled the room, “so that you can all take a break and have a one-week vacation.”

 

The others started bursting into excited conversations. I heard Bommie, Minkki and Dae talked about the perfect timing since they’ll be also having a three-day school holiday.

 

“So, where are you going?” Eun Mi asked.

 

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll just stay in the apartment.”

 

“Who’s staying at the apartment?” the voice of CL-roo emerged.

 

I smiled at her. “That would be me,” I said.

 

“Oh, come on, unnie. Have some break, will you?”

 

“I don’t have any place to go,” I answered.

 

“That’s solved!” CL-roo winked.

 

“What do you mean?” I asked.

 

“You’re coming with me and Jingyo oppa in our rest house!”

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I burst out. I glanced at Mr. Kwon and I saw the smug look on his face. I think I got a pretty good idea as to what will happen to my one-week vacation if I come with them and if you can even call that a vacation.

 

A waiting disaster is about to unfold!

 

911, be on watch 24/7!

 

 

CL’s POV

 

“I can’t come.”

 

Those words kept on echoing in my head. Aish! Why is she so stubborn?

 

“What’s with that face?” Jingyo oppa asked.

 

“Dara unnie is so stubborn!” I answered irritably. “Change direction, oppa.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I want to talk to unnie again,” I grimly said. Unnie was really quick in escaping from me a while ago. Huh! She can’t expect me to just let her escape like that, can she?

 

I gave oppa the direction going to unnie’s apartment. As we arrived, I told oppa to stay put in the car. I rang the doorbell for a few times before it opened. I heard unnie groaned as she saw me.

 

“CL-roo, what are you doing here?”

 

“I want to talk to you,” I said.

 

“Err, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she mumbled.

 

“Why?” I asked, tearing up. “I know you don’t owe me anything, unnie. But I’m your friend, right?”

 

“Of course you are!” she answered defensively.

 

“Are you just going to throw two years of our friendship? I never asked for anything, unnie and this would be the first time I’ll be asking a favor from you. You know that for me, you’re not just a friend but a sister. You love me, right?” I asked in my most pitiful voice. I don’t know if this will work, but I have to try.

 

“Of course I do!” she exclaimed.

 

“But you don’t want to spend the one-week vacation with me!” I dramatically added.

 

“It’s not like that, it’s just-“

 

“I guess you don’t care about me that much,” I mumbled and bowed my head. “Oh well, I guess I have to accept the fact that you don’t want to spend time with me as much as I do with you. But always remember that you’ll always be a sister-“

 

“Okay, okay, fine! I’m coming! Enough with the drama, it’s creeping me out!” she burst out.

 

“Are you sure?” I asked, head still bowed. Ah, this was easier than I thought.

 

“Neh,” she answered forcefully.

 

“You’re not backing out, are you?” I asked again, just to make sure.

 

“No, I won’t.”

 

“Do you promise?” I looked at her.

 

“Neh.”

 

I smiled widely at her and threw myself to her. I locked her in a tight hug as I thanked her over and over again. “Ah, you’re really the best unnie in the world!” I said. She gave a forced smile at me and I can’t help but laugh. “Pick you up tomorrow at 8 am, okay?”

 

“Wait, the others are coming, right?” she asked. I just gave her a smile. I ran back to oppa’s car a while later with a wide smile on my face.

 

“Unnie’s coming!” I sang.

 

“You looked so happy,” he noticed.

 

“I am,” I smiled. “Ah, it was with no sweat!”

 

“Why do you want her to go with us, anyways?”

 

I just smiled at him. “Eyes on the road oppa.”

 

Well, I can’t really tell him that I want them to get close, can I? I’m pretty sure both of them would go berserk if I did. But I want this. Since I’m an only child, I’ve always dreamt of having a sister or a brother. I consider Dara unnie as my sister already and I want her to be in good terms with oppa. And I thought that this vacation would be the best answer for it. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the two important people in your life get along well and approve each other?

 

 

AUTHOR’s POV

 

Sunday - 7:45 am

 

Dara was all prepared. Her things, clothes are all packed up. Her bags were sitting beside her. She yawned out loudly as she waited for the clock to strike 8.

 

8:15 am

 

The doorbell rang. Dara stood up grumpily and stomped her feet as she opened the door forcefully. “You’re late!” she barked.

 

CL smiled at her cheekily. “Sorry about that. We got caught with traffic.”

 

“This early? Where is he anyways?”

 

“In the car,” CL answered.

 

What a gentleman, Dara remarked to herself as she carried her bags to the car with CL helping her.

 

Upon seeing them, Jiyong stepped down off his car and helped CL with the bags. He took the bags out of CL’s hands and carried them to the trunk. As he did, CL went inside the car already. Dara put her bags down, expecting him to put them in the trunk, too.

 

“What are you still doing?” he asked. Dara frowned at him, not understanding what he’s asking. “Are you going to leave those behind?” he asked, pointing at the bags beside her.

 

“No, I’m bringing them with-“

 

“Then why don’t you put them here already?”

 

Dara pouted as she grabbed her bags and carried them into the trunk.

 

“You’re so childish,” she heard him mumble. She threw him a glare and stuck her tongue out at him.

 

11:00 am

 

“I’m hungry!” Dara suddenly said as she was lounging at the backseat since CL was sitting in the passenger’s seat. The girl at the passenger seat chuckled as she heard Dara.

 

“Oppa, let’s drop by a convenience store and feed Ssantokki before she goes berserk.”

 

After dropping by the convenience store, Dara was happily eating at the backseat. “Where are the others, by the way?” she asked.

 

“They’ll follow,” CL answered.

 

“Oh,” Dara mumbled mindlessly as she continued eating. She grabbed for her drinks. “Oops!” she exclaimed as some of the drink and a portion of the sauce of her food spilled on the car’s floor. “Sorry, Mr. Kwon, I spilled on your car. Err, I didn’t mean it,” she apologized in a not-so-sorry tone.

 

“Oh, no, don’t worry unnie. Oppa doesn’t mind,” CL said, oblivious to the smug tone of Dara. As the guy glanced at the girl at the backseat through the mirror, the girl smiled smugly at him.

 

1:00 pm

 

They finally arrived at the Lees' resthouse. Dara looked around and smiled. If you want privacy, this would be the place you’d go. There were no houses nearby though she saw some along the way, but the distance between the houses were too great. The place remind her so much of her home though she tries not to remember it too vividly. There were a few trees around but as for the whole surrounding, it was green everywhere. A well-moaned grass carpeted the ground beautifully with stone steps alternatively placed on it, leading to the house. The house was obviously made of imported materials. A metal swing can be found sitting in the terrace overlooking the entrance, a few hanging plants can be seen just above the rails.

 

“I’ll just go look for the caretaker,” CL said, making Dara stopped her viewing of the surroundings.

 

 

DARA’s POV

 

CL jumped off her way to look for the caretaker, leaving me alone with the manager.

 

“Get your bags,” he ordered. I looked at him darkly but followed anyways. I saw him took out his bags first, probably the others belonged to CL-roo. He started heading towards the terrace. I pulled off my bags and carried them with difficulty. Much to may dismay, I tripped and fell to the ground.

 

“Oh!” I exclaimed. I heard him scowl and went back to me. Why is it that everytime he’s around I tend to be more clumsy? I’m not usually like this. Reckless and careless, yes. But clumsy?

 

“Why are you so clumsy? Don’t you have eyes or you’re simply stupid not to look where you’re going?” he said, putting his bags down and was about to help me up when I pushed his hands away.

 

“I can manage!” I snapped, standing up.

 

“I can manage, she says”, he mocked, looking irritated. “I can’t believe you saved Chaerin when you’re this clumsy,” he added.

 

I squinted my eyes at him. “My bags are not really that easy to carry and I’m tired! I’ve been traveling for how many hours already!”

 

“You complain too much. You shouldn’t have come then.”

 

“Huh! So what? So you can do whatever you want to CL-roo? No way! You’ll never touch her ‘til I’m here! I won’t let you!”

 

“Oh, really? Sorry to break your bubble, but you’ll be outta here before you even see me trying to do something with Chaerin”.

 

My eyes grew wide as he roamed his eyes up on me. “CL-roo!” I wailed. “Mr. Kwon is ordering me to carry his bags for him!”

 

“Why you-” he started but was cut-off by CL.

 

“Oppa, what-?”

 

“I was just fooling around, Chaerin,” Mr. Kwon turned to CL-roo.

 

“Oh,” CL mumbled. “Unnie, come, I’m gonna tour you around and oppa, please carry unnie’s bags,” she finished. She started dragging me towards the house. I turned my head silently and stuck out my tongue at him.

 

“The caretaker, Mr. Jang usually goes here once a week, every Sunday to be exact,” CL-roo started. We toured the house with her pointing some objects to me and where they were bought. All of these were proofs as to how the Lees travel around the world regularly.

 

After touring me around, she showed me to my room. It wasn’t that grand but neither it was ordinary. There’s just something elegant at the way the room looked with the way the light was casted in the room, not too bright yet not too dim. There was a small bedside table along with the built-in cabinet at the left side of the bed, which I noticed could fit two people noting how thin I was. Opposite the bed at the other corner was a door which probably leads to the bathroom. And not too far from the bathroom’s door sits a 20-inch TV.

 

“It’s too girly,” I voiced out as I finally noticed the light pink painted walls. Beside me, I heard CL chuckled.

 

“I knew you would say something like that but at least the bedsheets are white.”

 

“I guess that’s a relief,” I said, wrinkling my nose, making her chuckle again.

 

“Oh, do you like to take a shower already? You must be exhausted,” she said.

 

“I’d love to. But my bags aren’t here yet.”

 

“Oh, yes of course. I’ll just ask Jingyo oppa to carry the bags here.”

 

“Oh, no, I’ll go get them myself.”

 

“Unnie, it’s alright. Oppa won’t mind,” she said and left me alone standing.

 

I don’t think so, I thought. I looked around then decided to drop myself on the bed. I closed my eyes. After a while, the door banged open and lo and behold, Mr. Kwon emerged from it with my bags and a very not-so-good expression on his face. I looked over his shoulders, looking for CL-roo but she was nowhere in sight. “Where’s CL-roo?” I asked. He looked at me first then dropped my bags near the door.

 

“She’s talking to Mr. Jang,” he answered in a controlled voice.

 

“Oh, err, maybe I should go down. . .” I mumbled and started heading towards the door when he suddenly blocked the doorway.