Summer was coming to an end, Sungmin realized regretfully. All she had really done was catch up on much-needed sleep, attend ballet classes, and hang out with friends, like any other teenager. She had gotten a bit taller, but not enough to call it a growth spurt; she figured she'd be petite the rest of her life. Kyuhyun, on the other hand, had grown about 3 inches during the 3 months. He could easily look down at the top of her head, and she had to look up at him to see his face. This amused him to no end, of course, and he now more than ever.

Eunhyuk and Donghae had known their feelings and each other's feelings for each other and them forever, but they had just recently gotten together. Sungmin figured it was about time.

Kyuhyun and she shared the same circle of friends, who were apparently looked upon as the 'beautiful, intelligent, but super-nice kids.' Most of them were those from her childhood, but they had met and added some people along the way.

She was on-off dieting, not really yo-yo or binging. It was mandatory to stay slender for ballet and for her own self-esteem. She loathed to think she was one of those shallow girls who cared only about their appearance, but it was coded in her brain. I can stop myself.. but I don't know if I even want to.

She thought about all this as she sat on the old swinging bench on her porch, looking out at the setting sun. School was starting in two weeks' time; she was going to be a junior. She shuddered at the thought of senior high. At least her best friends would be with her.

Kyuhyun crossed the street and saw Sungmin on the porch barefoot, in her loose frayed shorts, tank top, and long, straight black hair. A stark contrast from Seohyun, with her lacy skirts and blouses, bows in her wavy brown hair. He wondered why he compared them and mentally smacked himself in the face.

"Min-ah." Sungmin saw him cross the street already and didn't look up. "Sup, Kyu." 

"Why the long face?" he pulled on her chin, attempting to make her laugh. "Stop it," she smacked his hand away and Kyuhyun felt triumphant upon seeing her crack a smile. "I just don't want summer to end."

"..Well, when school starts you can see the rest of the gang again, every day." 

"Yeah.." 

They sat in a comfortable silence, something that came naturally with their 17 or so years of friendship. 

"Hey Kyu, do you like anyone?" Kyuhyun waggled his eyebrows. "Do you like me?"

Sungmin snorted and shoved him, rocking the swing, and ignored his whine. "Why would I like you, you doofus." ..Yes, I probably do.

"Because I'm y and smart."

"You're neither." He gave her an indignified look but she didn't say anything, picking chips of turquoise nail polish off of her toes.

"I don't know, sometimes I think I like Seohyun but.. I don't know.." And sometimes, I think I might like you. Sungmin laughed, "Good, because she obviously likes you too."

"But I heard she was pining after Yonghwa?" 

"You can always change that if you want to. You've known her since we were in kindergarten, Yonghwa moved into town like a year ago, and they're both super shy so they just started talking." 

Kyuhyun contemplated. "I don't know if I like her enough to start a relationship with her. What if I don't really like her, and I just end up leading her on?" Sungmin looked at him and he continued, "Sure, we were friends for like ten years but I never responded to her in a way that might make her think, maybe he does like me.. I wouldn't do that, Min." She looked back to the sky. "Yeah, that's true."

More silence.

"Minnie, do you like someone?" She was almost surprised to hear him use that name again; he kind of dropped it sometime before middle school. Maybe it was a 'we're alone so it doesn't matter' kind of thing.

"Yeah. I think I do."

Kyuhyun turned towards her in a split second. "You do?!"

"I think so." She mumbled into her now pulled-up knees. She traced the wood grain and Kyuhyun remembered when she had done the same thing years ago on the very same bench, giving herself a splinter in the process.

"..Who?"

"This guy.. who doesn't really like me like that. You know him.  Nobody knows about it except my mom," she said, and they both laughed. Heechul was an expert at figuring people out. "But she probably told my dad too," she grimaced.

"Minnie-min, time to come inside!" Speak of the devil.

They both burst into laughter and Heechul came out on the porch. "Oh, hey Kyuhyun. You wanna stay for dinner? I'll just phone your mom." Kyuhyun smiled gratefully. "Sure, Mrs. Han. But she probably already knows where I am," he admittedly sheepishly, and Heechul gave him a knowing look before going to prepare dinner.

"Dinner's ready in twenty minutes!" she called from the kitchen. "Neh!" the two teens chorused, before racing upstairs to Sungmin's room.

Kyuhyun flopped on the bed and Sungmin sat at her window seat. Kyuhyun sat up and looked around the room. "It's so pink in here I can feel my masculinity draining away."

"You didn't have any to begin with. And, my room's been the same since the dawn of time."

Sen- Sungmin's siamese- hopped up onto the bed, closely followed by Hyaku. Kyuhyun let them curl on his lap, long-used to the familiar bundles of fur. 

They talked about random things, this and that, and Kyuhyun marveled at how they never ran out of things to talk about. When Yesung called them down to dinner- Kyuhyun ignored the turtles sitting on his shoulders, already long-used to that too- he realized something.

She never told me who she liked..

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a/n: yes we zoomed forward another 2 years, things should finally stop here now. They're 17 and omg emotions and hormones so yeah. The story really finally starts here.