"Wait, what?" Lili spluttered. "Are you serious?"

"Of course. Why would I lie to you?" Soyoung daintily pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "But we're not close."

"Why not?" Lili asked hesitantly.

"Our parents divorced when we were very young," Soyoung explained very matter-of-factly, her voice devoid of emotion. "He went with our mother while I went with our father. We moved but came back when my father's company transferred him back. Youngjae and I didn't have much time to get close so it's not like I missed him or anything."

Lili surreptitiously cast a sympathetic glance at her new friend. "You didn't? Not even a little?"

Soyoung opened to confirm it but then she stopped herself and thought. "Well...there is one thing..."

"Soyoung, where are we--"

"Shh." She placed a finger on her lips. "Be quiet so we don't disturb him."

Soyoung inched open the door to the roof and snuck in, motioning for Lili to follow.

You are my playground, playground, playground
In your heart, will I find that dream that I lost as a child?
You are my playground, playground, playground
I’ll find a love that is better than the one in my fantasies
You are my playground

A satisfied smile graced Soyoung's face.

"This is what you missed?" Lili whispered, happy to see her friend's content expression.

Soyoung nodded. "His singing. He's loved to sing forever. He used to sing me to sleep sometimes. I missed that."

Suddenly, Youngjae's voice cut off. "Lili? Soyoung?" he said incredulously as he approached the two girls. "Why are you two hiding here?"

"Um--" Lili began, but Soyoung immediately turned and ran away.

"Wait!" Youngjae called after her, but it was too late. He turned to Lili with a dejected sigh and mumbled sadly, "She hates me."

"She doesn't," Lili refuted immediately.

Youngjae didn't acknowledge her comment. He continued, almost to himself, "She hates me for not choosing to go with her. I should have gone with her...but I couldn't give up my dream of becoming a singer. And I couldn't just leave Mom alone." He exhaled huffily.

"Well," Lili said hesitantly, "I can't say for sure she doesn't hate you but I do know that she loves your singing. So you should never give that up."

Youngjae stared at his feet silently. Lili felt awkward. She didn't know how to comfort him but she didn't want to leave either, in case Youngjae decided to casually step off the roof - he wouldn't really do that, would he? Lili thought to herself.

"Um, so what was that song you were singing?" she asked quickly, trying to divert his attention. "It's beautiful."

He glanced at her and cracked the tiniest smile. "Thanks. It's called 'Playground'."

"'Playground'," Lili repeated softly. "Is it one of your songs? I mean, GOT7's?"

He nodded. "Yeah but the others don't like it much."

"Why not?" Lili frowned. "I like it much better than that arrogant song you guys performed."

He chuckled a little and Lili felt a small surge of triumph at making him laugh. "They like dance songs more because they're more fun to perform. Also half the group are rappers, and this song doesn't have any rap."

"Hm. Well I still like it better," Lili muttered and this time Youngjae laughed aloud.

"You're cute," he grinned at her.

Lili blushed and suddenly noticed how close they were standing. She took a step back and cleared . "So. Will you teach me the song?"

"You want to learn it? Why?" Youngjae raised an eyebrow.

Lili smiled and shrugged. "No reason really. I just like pretty music."

"So when are you gonna sing for me?" Youngjae asked, leaning against the piano. He had been helping Lili practice the song, though she had made precious few mistakes. "When you asked me to teach you the song, I thought you wanted to learn how to sing it."

"Hey, hey, off the piano," she ordered, shooing him away and theatrically blowing germs off the instrument. "As long as I can play it, I can sing it."

"Without lyrics?"

"I'll just write them down somewhere. I have a good memory. When I hear something once, I don't usually forget it," Lili mentioned nonchalantly.

"Seriously?!" Youngjae's eyes nearly popped out of his head in awe. "That's awesome!"

Lili smiled at his reaction. "Most of the time, yes. But when you'd rather forget something someone said, it's a pain."

Youngjae noted the flash of sorrow on her face. "Has someone been rude to you? Need me to beat them up?"

Lili smiled again but shook her head. "It was a long time ago. Also it's a girl."

"There's a first for everything," he declared.

"Also she lives in America."

Youngjae opened his mouth for a speedy retort but her words registered and he simply said, "Oh."

"Yeah. But thanks. You know," she said in a new tone of voice, "you're actually very sweet. It's much different from my first impression of you."

"First imp--oh." Youngjae ducked his head a little shyly. "Sorry about that. It's just, when Yugyeom and I are together, we become crazier, but separately we're pretty quiet. He's actually very mature for his age."

"Really?" Lili found it hard to believe but she supposed it was because she hadn't spent time alone with the other boy yet.

"Really really. In fact--"

"Lili? Are you--oh."

Youngjae and Lili turned to see Soyoung standing at the door to the music room.

"Soyoung, hey! Youngjae's teaching me how to play a song. Come join us!" Lili beckoned.

Soyoung glanced at her hopeful brother before murmuring, "Never mind. See you later."

Youngjae's face fell very noticeably. Slightly panicking, Lili called, "Wait! Soyoung--"

"You better be here, Youngjae, or I'll--whoa!" a new voice said as Soyoung stomped away and promptly crashed into someone. She looked up and was dismayed to find Junior's face staring back at her.

"Oh, it's you," he said. Soyoung firmly pushed him away and strode away with dignity.

"Junior! Stop her!" Lili shouted desperately.

Junior glanced between the two girls before shrugging and jogging after Soyoung, grabbing her arm and pulling her back.

"Park Jinyoung, take your hand off of me or I will--"

"What?" he interrupted with a smirk. "What will you do?"

She replied with a demure smirk of her own. "I'll reveal that you're still a ."

Junior froze, his eyes wide. Half his charm came from the belief that he was an experienced playboy. He glared at her and hissed, "Where did you hear that?"

Soyoung chuckled darkly. "I have my sources. Now let me go or you will regret it."

With a muttered curse, Junior dropped her arm like it burnt. She smiled and left triumphantly.

"Junior!" Lili had finally caught up to them but Soyoung had escaped quickly. "You let her go!"

He merely shrugged.

"It's okay, Lili," Youngjae said sadly behind her. "I expected this."

Lili shook her head. "No, this is terrible! But it's okay, because I have a plan and it is going to work. It's going to work so well that by the end of it she'll have a brother complex."

A/N: Yes, I'm finally updating! Right after, I'll proabbly post the next chapter too, unless I feel it's too short to post. :D

For any BTS fans, I'm currently writing a short story about J-Hope called "Airplanes." It's angsty, if you like that kinda thing. :D I also have one about V called "Because of You."

Also, for all you EXO fans (and there are manyyyy) I just opened an EXO collection called "Snapshot." There's only one chapter right now but it's open to requests! :D

Anyway, enjoy!

skyblaze208, OUT!

© Copyright 2014 by skyblaze208