“Tae-Hyun!”

I mentally groan. This was the umpteenth time she has called me, getting louder with every yell, but I stayed exactly where I was, not moving an inch from my bed. My hair is disheveled from the tosses and turns I made while trying to fall asleep last night but truth is, I didn’t sleep at all. I didn’t even get one minute of shed-eye and now my mother, with her annoying high-pitched voice, is calling for me.

There was no point in getting up. Today, we would be going on a seven-day vacation with the dreadful Zhang family. Well, I don’t hate all of them... I change my mind. I abhor all of them. I hated the son because he was so ing annoying and I hated his parents because they gave birth to that disgusting creature. And why is it that I, the “outsider”, have to participate in this “relaxing” vacation when I would be shunned the moment he appears?

“Tae-Hyun, if you don’t come down here in 30 seconds, you are grounded!” Mother threatensn from downstairs. She’s most likely with Father and the Zhangs right now. Perfect.

“Go yourself!” I finally yell answer back. There was a moment of silence and I knew I won. I sigh in relief and turn my body over so that my face was pushed into my pillow and from my neck down were now the ones touching the bed.

I heard footsteps, then my door being opened, and then felt the side of my bed weighing down. A hand ran up and down my back soothingly. Then, I immediately knew who it was. The hand was far too big for my mom’s and the fingers were an inch longer than my dad’s. Let’s just say the covers weren’t covering my body and that I knew this person from head to toe.

“Stop touching me, you ing ert,” I hiss. He stopped his movements but never took his hand away.

“I was just trying to wake you up,” he sang innocently. I turn around and slap his hand away, throwing daggers at him.

Sitting on the side of my bed was the person that the whole world loves. He was just oh so perfect and handsome and talented and, OMG, y~ Yeah, no. He’s retarded, ugly, non-talented, and definitely not y. That ing Zhang Yixing.

“Well I don’t need your help,” I snap. “Now get out of my ing room.” I kick him off of my bed and shove him out my door but his skinny, yet strong, body prevented me from doing so.

Right when he was at the borderline of my room to the rest of the house, he swiftly put his hands on either side of my door and balked.

“, get out,” I order.

“We’re leaving in ten minutes. Are you even ready yet?” He pushes me back like I was weak and puny, like he didn’t have to try at all.

I step back, not wanting to initiate any type of skin contact with him for any longer. “Why the would you care?” I threw my hands up in aggravation then put both my hands on my waist. “Why the hell do I even have to go when you’re going? All they want to do is hang out with you.” My face scrunches up in disgust.

“Awe, come on, baby, don’t be like that.” He pouts. I felt my anger rise up inside of me. My right eye starts twitching like it always does when I’m about to lose my mind.

“Don’t. Ever. Call. Me. That. Again!” I huff and puff in rage. “You ing bastard,” I spit as my hands became fists. I charge at him.

He quickly caught my punches and kicked my door shut. He then turns us both around and pushes me against the closed door. He traps me in between his legs. He leans in close to my ear and whispers, “Calm down, sweetheart, you don’t want to do that.” Now he showed his true self.

“I would if you weren’t such a phony,” I strike back.

“It’s not my fault that I was born perfect,” he chucklesin a low octave. “And why is it that you never call me by my name? It’s always bastard, or ert, or , or idiot, or man-, or Mr. Know-It-all, or Mr. Show-Off, Douche or something like that. Maybe if you were nicer to me, I would be nice to you like I am with everyone else,” he offers as his face retreats.

“Maybe if you never came into my life, this wouldn’t have ever happened.” I point to the black luggage lying flat on the ground. “Why don’t you go first and take my luggage downstairs,” I harshly suggest.

He brightly smiles like he achieved breaking through my walls. Haha, no. He moves the luggage upright, pulling out the handle, and begins walking towards the door. He opens it and stepped foot out of my little property and privacy. “Oh, and Tae-Hyun?” He turns his head to look at me, his eyes shining and a mischievous smirk plastered on his lips. “Our parents are riding with each other. You’ll be riding with me... in my car,” he laughs evilly while walking away.

My eyes widen and my jaw dropps to the floor. “What!?!?!”

Why am I spending my ing week with him and, worst yet, why the hell am I in a five-hour car ride with Zhang ing Yixing!?!

I grab my black and red “Dope” snapback hat and situate it on my head. The hat matches my black baseball jacket. I wore a wifebeater under the jacket. Yeah, that’s right, I wear wifebeaters. Why do people even call them that? It’s just a sleeveless shirt. Anyway, I then wore light jeans and black converses. My once best friend, Suho, said that I was in that “box” of black, that I think black only matches with white and those are the only colors I wear. He’s probably right.

I feel like I’m the only girl that wears jackets during the summer. I like to consider myself special.

I adjust my hair one more time so that it was evenly split in half from the back and rested on my chest perfectly, but nothing is ever perfect unless we were talking about that man- named Zhang Yixing. I took off my hat, ran a hand through my hair quickly and stop my hand at the end of my bangs. I then situate the snapback hat on my head again. 

I look at myself in the mirror. Satisfied, I slipped my Samsung Galaxy S3 into my right back pocket. I open my door and took my first steps outside of my room for the first time in three days. I close the door behind me and leisurely walk down the stairs. It was when I made it to the bottom that I realize that I still haven’t had breakfast. I walk to the kitchen but my mother held me back.

“We are leaving now. You can have something to eat when we arrive at Haeundae Beach,” she says.

“But that’s a five-hour drive,” I scoff in disbelief.

“Exactly; consider it a... punishment.” My jaw drops.

“Punishment? How is letting your daughter starve a punishment? That’s just ing cruel.” She starts laughing while the others followed except for over there who was staring me down. “Go die in a hole, ,” I hiss. They stop laughing immediately and Mother’s visage turns dark with anger. She’s definitely embarrassed.

I swung open the front door and pace outside, I could feel all of them watching me. I stop in front of Lay’s orange Lamborghini Aventador. “This jerk,” I murmur as I graze my eyes over it. Damn, this car is amazing. I turn around. “Well are we going or not?”

Lay took out his car keys from his pocket and walks over to me while the others hesitantly join. Lay unlocks the door and I jump right in, plopping down on the passenger’s seat recklessly and carelessly slams the car door shut. “Hey! Take it easy!” Lay barks as he carefully sat down in the driver’s seat and cautiously shuts the car door, complete opposite of me.

“Whatever,” I mumble. “Let’s just get this week over with.”

“Why are you so mean to your mom?” He asks as he put on his seatbelt and adjusts the car mirrors.

“I don’t know,” I sarcastically answer and roll my eyes. “Maybe because she doesn’t acknowledge me as her daughter, or maybe it’s because she makes me do ridiculous things like going on these vacations with you people, or maybe, just maybe, because pressures me to try to become like you,” my voice drops in disappointment at the last few words.

It was silent after that, the feeling of guilt polluting the air. Then my stomach growls. I crack a smile. “Hey, dickface, let’s go get some McDonalds,” I suggest, more like demand.

“Why should we? It is your punishment for treating your mom that way,” he shrugs as we pass by McDonalds.

“You douche ,” I groan. His evil laugh lingers in the air. “You know what? Just drop me off here.” I point to the street connecting to the flea market. So much for being a rich girl.

“No can do, Tae-Hyun.”

“Do it or I’ll break your car window,” I snap.

He flinches then he smiles cheekily. “If you do that, I’ll kiss you.” My right eye starts twitching.

“Oh my god, I’ll stab you before you even try to,” I threaten. “I’ve been talking to you for too long. Don’t talk to me the rest of this car ride.” I slouch into my seat. I take out my phone and earbuds which were both in my pocket. I put both buds in both of my ears. I press on the music app and press play, turning up the volume so that I can’t hear anything but music at all.

“Versace, Versace,” I mutter along with the song. I love American Hip-Hop and Rap. It’s almost the only thing I listen to, except for some k-pop. I could see in the corner of my eye his mouth moving as if he was talking but, as usual, I can’t hear him.

Then, I felt really comfortable all of the sudden. My eyelids droop low and my breathing evens out. I tilt my head so that I was looking out the window. I yawned. Then my eyes completely shut and I wander off to dreamland.

_____________________________________________________________

I push myself back and forth on the swings. Something clicked in my mind. I look down at my body, then at my hands. Everything was smaller, as if I was transformed into my 13-year-old self. A dream, I conclud. A flashback was most likely, but I don’t remember this one. Odd, I usually remember.

Then I was pushed, from behind, to the ground, off the swings. “Ow,” I cry. My hair swung in front of my face and I place my hands in front of me so that I would land on my palms and knees.  Tears formed in my eyes. I push myself up from the ground and turn around to look at the perpetrator.

Once I saw him, I chok out in tears. “Why did you do that? You’re so mean,” I cry, tears cascading down my face from the pain. His eyes widen in shock, like he didn’t mean to do that. I look down, only to see that my knees were bleeding.

“Tae-Hyun, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to,” he apologizes. He rushes over to me and held me up by my arms. “Does it hurt?”

“What do you think!?” I scold.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I-I didn’t mean to!” he stutters back. 

“Yixing,” I whine as my voice softens. “It hurts.” Yixing, since when did I call him by his name?

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs as he brought my scrappy hand up to his face. He opens my scratched palm and held it up to his lips. Then, his other hand lands on my waist and pulls me close to him. I stood, frozen, watching him as he did what he did. What did he do exactly?

He kissed my palm.

_____________________________________________________________

My eyes shot open. Then, I whip my head to the left. My eyes widen and I gasp.

He held my hand up to his face while he focused on the road in front of us. His fingers were intertwined with mine and he brushes his lips over the back of my hand.

“What are you doing,” I gasp as I withdraw my hand. He seemed as stunned as I was but then broke into his devilish smile.

“Just trying to wake you up,” he grins.

“Can’t you wake me up differentl-” He shushes me as he reaches for something in the backseat. His arm reappeared with a bag in his hands: McDonalds.

I snatch it right away. I open the bag, grabbing the Chicken Nuggets and Barbeque Sauce. The bag was pretty much empty now except for the French Fries and extra Barbeque Sauce. I open the Chicken Nugget box and the Barbeque Sauce and began eating. “God, I’m so hungry,” I murmur.

“Shouldn’t you be thanking me?” he speaks up. 

“No,” I sneer. “I don’t remember the last time you did something that actually deserved to be thanked for.”

“So saving your life by giving you something to eat doesn’t deserve to be thanked for?” He asks, never taking his eyes off of the road. What a safe driver, I think as I roll my eyes.

“I could survive another hour,” I fought back. It was six in the evening right now. I could've wait another hour.

“Then give it back.” He tries snatching the box of Chicken Nuggets from me.

“No,” I whine and he withdrew his hand. I dip the first Nugget into the BBQ sauce and shove it in my mouth; the inviting thing called food gave me an impeccable feeling in my mouth. I reach down into the bag and took out four French fries. I adjust the French fries so that one was separate from the rest. I brought it up to his mouth. “There’s your thanks.”

He smiles before opening his mouth willingly. “Ah, I like it when you feed me, baby,” he says as he chews on the French fry.

“I hope you choke on it,” I jinx. He laughs.

“Maybe another day, sweetheart,” he promises as he turns the steering wheel.

The car fills with silence except for the sound me chomping down on food. And within an hour, we arrive.

“Ah, finally!” I stretch. I grab the McDonalds bag full of trash now and threw it away while Lay grabs our luggage.

The Zhangs and my parents had sealed off the beach for a whole week just for them (and Lay) and got themselves a beach house. I ignore the detail of the beach house and just rush inside. My parents already told me which room I was in. Unfortunately though, it was across the hall from Lay’s.

I pace inside of my temporary room and shut my door. I locked it actually. I place my luggage near the wall and open it. I grab my pajamas and took out my phone, throwing it on my bed. I took a quick shower then blow dried my hair. I could hear our parent’s laughter mixed with Lay’s but I knew they didn’t want me around so I decide to go to sleep since I was already tired.

I pick up my phone and place it on the lamp stand. I then turn off the lights and plop down on the bed. I toss and turn until I was comfortable. I bet that I’d sleep better tonight than the last. My eyes drooped low like earlier until they completely close.

Tomorrow is when the real begins.

Damn. Some long chapter I got there.... 

Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter!

Look forward to the next one, mkay? 

-Viv