L.Joe closed the front door behind him. “I’m home,” he mumbled and went straight up to his room. He threw his bags beside his bed and changed into a more comfortable outfit. He ruffled his hair, still wondering about the tall guy Yura was with, the way she smiled at him made L.Joe want to be as tall as him, because maybe that way she’ll smile at him the way she did to him. He tossed the thought to the side and grabbed his wrinkled permission form out of his backpack, and made his way down.

He slowly and quietly walked over to his dad and placed form beside his dad’s laptop, his dad glanced up at L.Joe from his work and down at the paper. He read a few lines and sighed. “All you do is dribble balls and shoot them into hoops. Basketball today, basketball tomorrow, basketball every day. When do you study?” his dad nagged on as he signed his signature at the bottom of the form. “When will you put the ball down and study for once?”

Instead of replying, L.Joe just looked at his dad and walked away with the thing he needed, he hated how his dad always asks him to study all the time when he never did that to his sister. It’s not like he never studies, he does, just not when his dad is around. He threw himself onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling, he felt calm and free for a second, nothing was bothering him, it was just him and himself. But, the silence was destroyed when his phone suddenly started to vibrate beside him, he turned, laying on his stomach. “Noona” displayed on the screen. “Hello?” he answered.

“L.Joe, tell mom and dad that I’m going home for dinner,” she said. L.Joe closed his eyes and sighed quietly. “Why couldn’t you just call the house and tell them?”

“Is dad home?”

“Yes.”

“You think he’s going to let me?”

“No. But, still, he’s going to ask me why you called me instead of the house, and I’m running out of reasons.”

His sister groaned from the other side. “I’ll buy you whatever you want, just do whatever you can for me for the last time, please?”

L.Joe wanted to tell her that she said “for the last time” last time already, but he knew if he did she would probably get angry. “Alright, fine,” he agreed. “Thank you, my sweet little brother. We can go shopping together, on Sunday maybe, and I’ll buy you whatever you want, no price limit,” his sister said with cheer in her voice.

L. Joe chucked and hung up, he stayed on his phone, going on to different apps. He wasn’t thinking about anything until he came across a picture Hyuna posted with Yura, a smile automatically formed on his face, he sat and stared at his phone, even though there is two people in the picture, but all he could see was Yura with a strand of hair falling into her eyes and smiling into the camera as if she was smiling at him.

He didn’t know long he was staring at his phone but his cheeks were sore from holding the smile in place. He finally made his finger scroll pass the photo, but nothing was interesting anymore, he wanted to scroll back up and look at her smiling him. Kim Hyuna. He thought and went to his contacts, and called her. He put his phone on speaker and waited for her to pick up. Since the photo proved that they were close friends, she might know a bit more about Yura than him. After three rings, Hyuna picked up with a tired voice, “What do you want?”

“Whoa, that was harsh,” he said.

“I was sleeping and you woke me up.”

L.Joe looked at the time, it wasn’t even close to normal kindergarteners’ bedtime, but he still apologized for waking her up. “Anyways, are you close to Yura?” She answered with a quiet “mm-hmm”. “Do you know anything about her?”

Hyuna paused for a few seconds. “Well, I know she’s nice, she’s a good basketball player, she’s… I don’t know. What do you mean by ‘anything’?”

“Like her family.”

“We never talked about our families. What the heck, L.Joe? Are you stalking her?” There was half a second of silence between them then Hyuna screamed, “YOU’RE STALKING HER?”

“I never said that!” he screamed back, causing his mom to ask/scream if he was fine from downstairs, he switched the speaker off and put his phone beside his ears.

“Why are you asking about her then?” she asked. “I’m just curious,” he half whispered.

“You? Curious about a girl?” The questioning tone allowed L.Joe to picture Hyuna raising her eyebrows.

He didn’t say a word and sat up, he didn’t know what to say and was starting to regret calling her. It was only silence for thirty seconds, but it felt more than that. “You…like her?” Hyuna asked carefully. L.Joe opened his mouth but nothing came out, within a day, two people had found out he likes someone, who could it be next?

Hyuna giggled and offered L.Joe some help. He sighed but agreed, because why not? “But don’t just go up to her and tell her that I like her.”

Hyuna let out a loud laugh. “I won’t, I’m not stupid.”

As soon as he hung up, he got up from his bed and headed down for dinner. The scent of the dishes his mom cooked, floated around the house, he sat down and started eating right away. Even though the food in the dorm cafeteria wasn’t bad, he still prefers his mom’s food than the aunties’ that work there. His parents asked him about school as they ate, but his mouth was full of food, so all he did was nodding and shaking his head. “Eat slowly,” his mom said. He nodded and looked up, seeing the empty seat across from him reminded him of something. He swallowed down the food in his mouth. “Noona texted me that she wouldn’t be coming home for dinner.” It was a half lie. His mom asked where she was going, and as a professional of making up random reasons, L.Joe replied right away. “She didn’t tell me where but she told me all the staffs are having a meeting and then a dinner together.”

“She always come home late,” his dad said. “Well, she is a stylist, works for singers. You can’t make her come home when she’s in the middle of putting on someone’s makeup or in the middle of…” His mom went on.

L.Joe quickly finished his dinner and escaped as soon as possible, because he didn’t want to listen to the exact same conversation his parents always talk about when his sister doesn’t come home for dinner. He placed his dirty dish into the sink and went back to his room, he stared at his still packed bags beside his bed and sighed. I’ll unpack it later. He thought before leaving his room again to take a shower.

//

Yura laid on her bed on her stomach, she could feel her eyes slowly closing up, but she opened them right away because it was still too early to sleep. She grabbed a book out of her bag and flipped to a random page thinking maybe studying could keep her up, but it clearly didn’t work, her head was on her textbook two seconds later.

Three quiet knocks on her door woke her up, she blinked her eyes and slowly sat up as her dad came in. He sat at the end of her bed, Yura looked at him blankly and looked around her bed for her phone to check the time. Junhong budged into her room without even knocking the door, he had a towel hung around his neck and his hair was dripping wet, he walked over to her desk and sat down with water dripping down onto the pillow behind him. Yura’s face twitched in annoyance. “Oppa, your hair.” She grumbled and pointed at her pillow. Her brother whispered sorry then wrapped his short hair into the towel.

Her dad cleared his throat and clapped his hands together. “So, what’s tomorrow?” he asked with a warm smile. Yura looked over at her brother hoping that he would know what tomorrow is, because she had no clue. Their dad looked at his two children with disappointments all over his face, he shook his head and sighed. Yura shrugged at her brother, and he shook his head and shrugged as well. All Yura could think of were people’s birthday, but none of them were tomorrow.

“Come one, kids. You’re supposed to know this,” their dad held out his hand. Yura blinked at her dad, giving him a clueless face. “Junhong, you should know, right?” Yura turned and waited for her brother to say something to make their disappointed dad feel better. He opened his mouth then closed them and shook his head.

“Okay, one hint, your mother and I.”

Yura placed her forehead into her palm, she wasn’t in the mood of guessing, all she wants to do was take a shower and sleep. Her brother all the sudden clapped his hands together, he had a confident smile on his face. “Anniversary. 20^th anniversary.” His dad nodded his head as his hope slowly came back. “That’s my son,” he said and pulled out a piece of wrinkly piece of paper, “I have a surprise for your mother, well, not really, it’s just making brunch for her. But, here’s are some ingredients I want you guys to buy for me tomorrow first thing in the morning.”

“How early do we have to get up?” Junhong asked as he scanned the list of ingredients in front of him. “Around nine?” Mr. Choi answered. “Your mom wakes up at around ten-thirty.”

The siblings nodded in agreement. They said goodnight to each other and left Yura’s room, she stretched her arms out in front of her and grabbed her pajamas from her closet, and headed to the bathroom for a shower.

//

The next morning, Yura woke up right at ten feeling the sun shining warmly through the window. She quickly changed into a cozy outfit and brushed her teeth, she usually wouldn’t brush her teeth right away, but she had no choice today. She quietly went down the stairs and found her brother sitting on the tall chair beside the counter, already ready to leave. Her dad handed them some money and waved goodbye to them.

Yura smiled down at the familiar street, it felt nice walking on the street that she once walked on every single day, it brought back memories. There was no conversations between the two of them as they walk down the street, it was just birds chirping and cars passing by, a calm Saturday morning. Yura looked around at the stores along the street, she caught a little wooden sign sticking out from the building. She smiled at the flower shp[ and pulled her brother’s arm. “Oppa, can we buy mom some flowers?” He glanced over at the store and thought for a few seconds before heading in.

Yura inhale the scent of different fresh flowers and gazed at all the colourful flowers that surrounded them. “Should we just buy some roses?” her brother suggested. Yura turned around and shook her head. “Mom doesn’t like them. She likes those calla lilies.” Her brother nodded and followed her over to the counter to order the flowers, and requested to pick the flowers up later.

//

L.Joe walked out of the front door and pulled his hood over his head, he walked down the street repeating the few things his mom just ordered him to buy, even though he was frustrated and didn’t want to wake up, he had no choice but to do what his mom had told him to. He felt the heat his hood absorbed from the bright sun above, but he didn't want to pull his hood off and expose his messy bed hair to the world.

It didn’t take him long to get to the closest grocery store, he wondered around the aisles looking for things he had been repeating over and over again in his head. He was done finding all the items after less than three minutes, he turned to walk towards the cashier, but a tall figure caught his eyes, he looked over to the person next to the tall guy. His spun around and went back into the aisle he came out of, he could feel his heart pounding in a smooth yet fast pace. Yura with that guy again. He thought and popped his head out, but they weren't there anymore, he walked the way he assumed the two of them went and pulled his hood lower just in case Yura sees him and recognizes him.

He wondered around the store like a stalker and soon he found them again, he walked slightly behind them, keeping a safe distance in between. He followed them to the cashier and went to the lineup next to theirs, he tried to listen to their conversations, but the sound of the scanner beeping, plastic bags rustling, and the distance made it hard to even hear anything.

He casually followed Yura and the too-tall guy out into the burning hot weather, he could hear Yura’s loud laugh here and there, which made him curious about what they were talking about. He wanted to walk closer but his guts kept him back, he looked at the tall figure and wondered who he was.

His eyes widened when Yura hooked her arm onto the guy’s and pushed him into a flower shop, he quickly hid behind a wall with only his eyes peeking out. He waited for a few minutes until Yura came out with a bouquet in her hand. It’s just flowers. He thought, trying to ignore the fact that his heart broke a little.

“Smell it! They smell good!” Yura said quite loudly and held the flowers high up. L.Joe gripped onto the plastic bag tighter, her voice and her smile, they made his heart flutter. Right now he didn’t care who she was looking or who she was talking to, he was just thankful to hear her voice and see her smile, and wishes he was able to see and hear this every single morning.

//

After the brunch, Yura’s parents went out to enjoy their own time. Yura lied on the couch, staring at the TV screen while it replay some drama she didn’t really know, she had an burst of energy in her chest but somehow she wasn’t feeling like going out to release them. She switched from channels to channels, not knowing what to watch.

After a few minutes, her head was hanging off the couch looking at the TV upside down and her legs up on the couch, she didn’t even bother to change her position when her brother came rushing down the stairs. “Yura!” he called and slowly jogged into the room, he let out a small laugh at Yura’s weird position. “Yongguk hyung, Himchan hyung, Daehyun hy－”

“All of them?” Yura cut him off before he could finish saying the five people’s name.

“Yeah, they’re all coming over.”

Yura sat back into normal position and sighed, she finally had a reason for herself to leave the house, it wasn’t because she didn’t like her brother’s friends, it was just because she needed to go waste some energy. She already know what she was going to do while walking up the stairs to her room. She changed into a pair of shorts and a random shirt, she tied her hair into a pony tail and walked back downstairs. “I’m going out for a run!” she yelled loudly over the music that were playing in her ears from the front door, and slipped her feet into her runners.

She stretched in front of the door and started jogging around the quiet neighbour. She didn’t care how hot it was or how sweaty she will be after, all she wants to was run around and waste all the energy she has, because she wants to feel exhausted and dead when she gets home.

Yura stopped and breathed heavily after running for more than an hour, she pulled out her phone, the time said it was late, but the sun was still shining which made her feel like staying out for awhile. She walked down the street she used to walk down every day to school, it reminded her how she used to run and let Hyojin scream for her to wait for her from behind, and how she would stop for two seconds and continue running away. She smiled and shook her head, and continued walking.

//

L.Joe got off the bus and walked to his street after playing basketball with a few of his gym friends. He gulped down the rest of the water that was left in his water bottle and swung his keys in the air, he hated when people swing their keys because they might accidentally hit someone, but then, he was one of the people that does it. He whipped the sweats off of his forehead and pull out his phone, and instead of taking the short way home, he went the long way. He never wanted to go home early, since there is nothing fun to do, he would stay out as long as possible.

He walked down the street, enjoying his peaceful time alone, but a person turned into the street at the front, he wanted to yell at the person in his head for ruining his time of being alone, but the longer he studied the back, the more familiar it looked. He smiled, there was something he really liked about living in this neighbourhood, it was her, because she lives so close, they could almost see each other everywhere. Finally. He thought. Finally alone.

He speed walked to her and tapped her on the shoulder, she turned around with a shock expression on her face. They stood there and stared at each other, and broke away from each other at the same time. Yura bit onto her bottom lip, she tried to stop the heat from rising up to her face but gave up as soon as she felt her face heat up as if she just ran another lap around the neighbour. L.Joe cleared his throat and purposely avoid looking at her. “So, where’re you going?”

Yura shrugged. “I’m just walking around.” L.Joe nodded. “You want to go to the park down there?” L.Joe pointed down the street and looked at her. She had a smile on her face, and it was smiling at him, he quickly turned away and scratched the back of his neck. “Sure,” Yura agreed. He looked at her from the corner of his eyes and nodded awkwardly.

For some reason, the confident he had all the sudden disappeared, as well as the time where he practiced talking to her in his room, and now all he could feel was awkward.

Yura looked straight ahead but constantly glanced over at him from the corner of her eyes. Walking beside L.Joe wasn’t something she would be able to do every day, because even seeing him for more than two minutes was hard. She dug her nails into her palm and kept a straight face on as they walk down the street.

“So, how’s your weekend?” L.Joe asked, not making the atmosphere worst or better. Yura replied with a simple ‘good’. L.Joe rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and took a deep breath, pulling all the tiny little pieces of courage together. “Um…I saw you this morning at the grocery store,” he said quietly.

Yura turned around and said the first thing that popped into her head. “Why didn’t you say ‘hi’?” She didn’t know what else to say and it was also just a nice way to reply.

“Well, you were with someone, so I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Oh, yeah, my dad wanted me and my brother to go buy some groceries.”

“Oh, your brother,” he said and nodded. He turned away and smiled. He’s her brother L.Joe, her brother. He said to himself, feeling embarrased to feel jealous towards their relationship. “I have a sister, but she’s twenty-something already and always come home late.”

“Lucky, I always wanted a sister, a younger one though, so I can play with her, take her around, dress her up…” L.Joe looked at her as she continue on. The way she always has a smile on her face made him feel happy, and happy was the only word he could think of. He could watch and listen to her all day long and never get tired of it.

They arrived at the park’s playground, where a few children climbed up and down and chasing each other. They went over to the swings and sat down, Yura drew circles with her feet in the sand, she looked over at L.Joe’s feet and up to his head. He was dressed up just like what he was, a basketball lover, and the jersey he was wearing made her jealous. “I like your jersey,” she complimented.

L.Joe turned his head and looked at her, their eyes didn’t meet because hers were sparkling at the clothes he was wearing. He smiled. “Thanks.”

She pouted and looked away. “I always wanted one, but my mom always say it’s just a piece of thin, expensive cloth.”

L.Joe chuckled and pulled out his phone.

Noona, are we still ganna go shopping tomorrow?