chapter FOURTEEN.

Changmin's shop looks like a bomb went off in it. Everything has been taken off the shelves and pulled away from the walls so we can clean. I'm standing on a stool behind the counter and handing big jars of jawbreakers and rock candy down to Taeyeon.

"How many is that?" Baekhyun asks from the other side of the counter.

Sehun tries to answer, but it just comes out sounding something like "Elve". He gives up and uses his fingers, holding up both hands then two fingers.

"Twelve," Taeyeon says, as if the rest of us are mathematically impaired. Sehun pushes another marshmallow in his mouth, wedging it inside his right cheek. He closes his eyes for a moment then shakes his head. He goes into the back and thankfully lets the door bump shut behind him. He comes out after a moment, wiping his mouth with a paper towel.

"You win", he says to Baekhyun, who is grinning like mad. Baekhyun managed to wedge thirteen marshmallows into his mouth before calling it quits.

"Finally," Baekhyun says. "The great Oh Sehun goes down." Sehun shakes his head and smiles. Baekhyun laughs and rubs his hands together. "I spent five years getting lapped by you. Finally vengeance is mine." He pushes back through the door into the kitchen, where Changmin is standing over the stove, stirring pots of chocolate. We hear him announce his win to him, then Changmin laughing.

Taeyeon, Baekhyun, and I have been here since right after breakfast. When Sehun showed up, I introduced him to Baekhyun, who shook his hand very seriously. They managed to get out a couple of fake how-do-you-dos before they both started laughing. Sehun said they used to swim together. Baekhyun amended that.

"Sehun is a swimmer. What I do is more like sustained non-drowning."

"Come on," Sehun said. "You weren't that bad." Baekhyun just looked at him.

Sehun started to argue, but finally smiled and nodded. "Um. You did your best?" Sehun said, smirking.

Baekhyun laughed. "That's exactly what Coach said just before he cut me from the team." This made Sehun smile. After that it seemed like every sentence they uttered for the next hour started with: "Hey, remember that time" Following the hundredth swim team/Boy Scouts/Little League walk down memory lane, I tuned them out. There's only so much guy bonding I can take.

Changmin put Taeyeon and me in charge of the front of the shop, while he enlisted Baekhyun to help in the kitchen. At first I was a little put out that Baekhyun got to work in the kitchen, but Changmin explained that he was working on a surprise and didn't want me to see it until it was finished. Taeyeon and I have been dusting and wiping and arranging and throwing out for nearly five hours. If this were my mom's shop, we would have been done hours ago. Her style is very minimalist. Less is more. Changmin's style is, as Taeyeon says, "Early Pack Rat." Every spare bit of wall space is covered with reclaimed street signs and vintage metal plaques advertising everything from seltzer water to motor oil. He has dozens of old tin toys lined up on a shelf above the menu board. One of his old surfboards is suspended from the ceiling above the taffy and caramel bins. He's hung all of his old rock climbing equipment from hooks over the barrels of hard candies.

So far we've managed to dust everything and wipe down every flat surface. For the last hour, before we were interrupted by the World Marshmallow Championships, we've been hauling bags of hard candy from the back storeroom and filling all of the barrels. They're almost spilling over.

Having Taeyeon around does keep things interesting. So far she's asked me to tell her, in detail, everything I can remember about my very brief conversation with Kim Jong In. He called last night right after Taeyeon, Sulli, and Sehun had left. He had to make it fast because his dad was having him go to some dinner party. I was wiped out and half asleep as he was talking, but he didn't seem to mind that I had little to say.

"Did you ask him about the gifts in your locker?" Taeyeon asks. I shake my head. "What about the balloons at your house?" she presses, referring to the ones that were tied to my front door sometime Friday night. I hadn't even noticed them when I stumbled out of the house on my way to the meet.

I shake my head again. "I really don't think it's him," I say.

"It has to be him," she says, as if that settles it. I pour the bag of star mints into the bin, watching them tumble over each other.

"You like him though, right?" Taeyeon says.

"He's nice,"I say, and it's true, but he's nice sort of like yogurt is nice or a brand-new pencil is nice.

"That's good," Taeyeon says, sounding distracted. She's watching Sehun fill one of the big apothecary jars on the counter with silver M&M's. Jan has them in any color you can imagine. Hot pink is the most popular followed by baby pink, purple, lavender, and silver. I always feel sort of bad for the brown ones. No one ever wants them.

"So what's left?" Sehun asks when he's finished refilling all of the jars.

I look around at the shop. "We need to clear some of the tables out to make room for the cameras and then someone needs to fix the Valentine's display." We all look over at the front window, which Changmin has decorated for the upcoming holiday. It looks bad. Nearly all of the candy is gone and even cupid, who used to float serenely in the window, looks like he's taken a beating. Changmin said a busload of tourists hit the shop late yesterday, cleaning him out of just about everything.

"I'll do the tables," Sehun says.

"I'll help," Taeyeon offers. She makes big eyes at me before walking over to where Sehun is already lifting one of the tables and carrying it toward the back. If Baekhyun noticed any difference in Taeyeon since Sehun arrived, he hasn't given any indication of it. I'm pretty sure you'd have to be blind not to notice though. If Taeyeon says one more thing about Sehun's muscles, his hair, his shirt, his voice, or his eyes, I may just have to see how many marshmallows I can cram into .

My phone moos at me from my back pocket. I might have to ask Sehun to change it this time. I read the text from Sulli.


There in 10

-S


I push my phone back in my pocket and look around. There's still so much to do, but Mom made me promise to finish early tonight. I have a big week in front of me with swim practice and school and the Food Network visit and the Umlaut thing. Mom said she wants me home "at a decent hour."

I start working on the Valentine's display. I fix cupid's wings so that he hangs straight again. I fluff the pink clouds hanging in the window. Yes, they are real cotton candy. Changmin does nothing halfway. I restock all the candy, making sure there are plenty of Consternation Hearts. They're selling really well. Changmin ordered another container of boxes and those are already half gone. I notice the jar of Changmin's Fortune Hearts is nearly empty too. I walk toward the kitchen to retrieve more from the walk-in. I try to push the door open, but it's blocked.

"Wait!" Changmin says. I wait. And wait.

"Changmin, I have to-"

"Okay," he says. "Come in." I push the door open. Everyone is huddled around the island. I lean over Taeyeon's shoulder to see what they're all looking at.

"Ta-da," Changmin says.

"It's a ring pop," I say, seeing the band of plastic supporting the oversized hunk of jewel-shaped candy.

"Not just any ring pop," Changmin says. "Look." He holds one out to me. I take it and look at it. "Put it on," Changmin says. I slide it onto my finger. Immediately it lights up, making the gem glow.

"Cool," I say.

"Wait for it," Changmin says. I watch the ring as it starts to shift from the clear gem I put on my finger to a light pink color. Baekhyun clicks the lights off, pitching the kitchen into darkness. The rings are the only lights in the room. I can see Baekhyun's green one bobbing near the back door and Sehun's and Taeyeon's matching orange ones near the stove, and then a purple one appears where Changmin is standing. Baekhyun flips the lights back on. Even though they were only off for a moment, the sudden light is too bright in my eyes, making me squint. "These are cool, Changmin," I say, studying mine again.

"Cool?" Baekhyun asks, as if I just called them stupid.

"Um, supercool?" I say.

"These could revolutionize the confectionary industry." I raise my eyebrows, but Changmin just smiles.

"They're cool, but how are colored ring pops going to revolutionize anything? Even if they do light up?" I ask.

"They're not just colored. They're mood ring pops," Baekhyun says.

I look at my ring again, which is slowly shifting to blue. "So what do all the colors mean?" I ask.

"Well, that's the tricky part," Baekhyun says. "We need to test them." He grabs a pad of paper from the desk and looks at Taeyeon.

"Describe your mood."

"Happy. I guess." Baekhyun writes that on the pad and looks at Sehun.

"Happy," he says, but already his ring is changing to yellow. "Sort of."

"Sort of happy," Baekhyun says, writing that down.

"This doesn't seem very scientific," I say.

Baekhyun points at Changmin. "Stressed," he says. We all look at his ring, which is careening past purple and headed toward black.

"Soo Rin," Baekhyun says. My ring keeps shifting from pink to purple to green and back again. "Confused," Baekhyun says, writing that down. I frown at him.

"And I'm," He tilts his head to one side and looks up at the ceiling. "Focused." I snort, but luckily a herd of cows starts making a racket from my pocket, keeping me from saying anything I might regret.

I look at my phone. Another text from Sulli: HELLO?

I hear the knocking at the front door. "It's my mom," I say, slipping my ring off and laying it on the counter. I walk to the front and let her and Sulli in. They are each carrying a huge flower arrangement. One is all roses: pink and red and orange and white. The other is a huge arrangement of tulips and gerbera daisies.

"Wow," I say, stepping back to let them by. The back door opens and everyone spills out of the kitchen. My mom puts the flowers she's carrying on the counter and looks around. Sulli is grinning like crazy.

"It looks great," my mom says, smiling around at the shop and then at Changmin. My mom and Changmin have only seen each other half a dozen times and always for about ten seconds when she's picking me up or he's dropping me off. "It's so warm and friendly in here and well-” She pauses. "Amazing."

"Thank you," Changmin says. He's quiet for a moment. "The flowers are beautiful."

"Oh," my mother says. "The flowers are for you. For your show."

I walk over to where Taeyeon and Sulli are standing, leaving Changmin and my mother talking about why roses don't have scents anymore. I've already heard that discussion about a thousand times. Sulli is smiling at my mom and Changmin.

"What?" I ask, elbowing her.

"Nothing," she says, but she keeps grinning, reminding me a little too much of Taeyeon when she's devising some scheme.

Taeyeon clears . "You guys should come to my house to get ready for the Umlaut event."

"She means so she can supervise us as we're getting ready," Sulli says to me.

"What are you going to wear?" Taeyeon asks me.

"I don't know," I say. The truth is I haven't had time to think of much other than candy and homework and swimming. "I'll figure it out."

Taeyeon stares at me for almost a full minute. I shift under her gaze, wondering what I've said this time that has her looking at me like I'm from some other planet. One apparently without fancy art openings and posh fund-raisers. "I'll take care of it," she says. "All you have to do is be at my house by six."

I look around to be sure no one else is listening. "Have you told Sehun?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "I want it to be a surprise," she says. I know for a fact that Sehun hates surprises, but before I can say anything I hear my mother's phone ringing. She takes it out and looks at it. She smiles apologetically at Changmin before turning to answer it. "Is everything okay?" she asks into the phone.

I start to tell Taeyeon again that she should give Sehun the heads up about the Umlaut thing, but the look on my mother's face makes me pause. "How high?" my mother asks. She looks over at me. "I'll be right there." She hangs up. To Changmin she says, "I'm sorry. That was my sitter. It seems my other two children are sick. Both with fevers."

"Oh no," Changmin says. "Poor little guys."

"I'll get my coat," I say. I head into the back and grab my jacket from the hook. My mother is still talking to Changmin when I come back.

"No, no. I'm a ginger ale girl when I'm sick," my mother says. I walk over. "So is Soo Rin."

"And I would have picked you as a Sprite person," Changmin says, smiling at me. He picks up a bag from the counter and drops two of his new ring pops into it. He hands it to my mother. "For when they feel better."

"I'm sure they'll love them," she says. "Thank you."

"Break a leg tomorrow," I tell Changmin as he holds the door open for us.

He smiles at me. "Hopefully not literally." He stands watching us as we climb into the car. He waves as we pull away and closes the door behind him. I can see inside the shop where everyone is back to work moving and arranging and straightening.

"He's a nice man," my mother says, pulling out onto the street.

"He is nice," I say. I glance over at my mother. She reaches across and squeezes my hand. I squeeze back. We ride in silence all the way home, but it's a good quiet. Peaceful.

I push open the front door and notice two things immediately. First, the bunch of balloons that were delivered to my house is now down to just one balloon. There were a dozen, six orange and six yellow. My two favorite colors. The other thing I notice is that the house is quiet, eerily quiet.

Mrs. Jo meets us in the hall, actually looking better than usual. "They're both sleeping," she says."I just checked on them." She keeps talking to my mother about their temperatures and who ate what and who threw up when. I walk through the living room and open one of the windows. The air from outside wafts through, making the house smell a bit better and making my last balloon bob in the breeze.

"Soo Rin," Mrs. Jo says from the door. "I'm sorry about your balloons," she says. "They were well—, I was able to save one of them." I smile in thanks. One is more than I would have guessed. My mother closes the door behind her and then heads upstairs. I follow her up and peek into Minseok and Hyoyeon's room. They are both sacked out in their beds. They always look so little when they're asleep. More so when they are sick and asleep. Minseok rolls over and reaches a hand out to me. I take it. It's hot against my skin.

"Hi," I say softly.

"Hi," he whispers. "I feel yucky."

"I know," I say, sitting on the edge of his bed. I take the cold pack that Mrs. Jo gave him and hold it on his forehead.

"Sorry about the balloons," Minseok says.

"Did you pop them?" I ask, knowing they like to run around and torment each other with the threat of the sudden, loud noise of a popping balloon.

Minseok shakes his head and the cold pack slips over one eye. I push it back up onto his forehead. "We let them go," he says.

"Did they go high?"

He smiles at me and nods. "Where do you think they'll land?"

I pretend to think. "France," I say.

"Really?"

I shrug. "Maybe," I say. Minseok closes his eyes. When his breathing deepens, I start to stand up, but his hand grabs at mine again.

"Soo Rin, don't hate Valentine's Day," he says. I sigh and look down at him. His eyes are still closed. "I'll be your Valentine."

"I'd like that," I say, tears springing to my eyes. I wait another moment then walk to the hallway, where my mother is standing. She takes my hand and squeezes it. "They can be very sweet," I say.

She laughs softly. "Yeah, when they're running fevers."

"Well it's better than nothing," I say, smiling. Mom pulls the door slightly closed to keep the light from the hall out of their room. I yawn, covering my mouth with my hand.

Mom pushes me toward my room. "Now you," she says. "Bed."

"Yes, ma'am." She swats me lightly on the shoulder as I pass. I lie on my bed completely clothed, too exhausted to change into my pajamas. I feel like I could sleep for a hundred years. Unfortunately I only get to sleep for an hour before the sound of throwing up and crying wakes me. I stumble out to the hall, my eyes still half-closed.

My mother is holding Minseok's head over the toilet.

"Mommy!" Hyoyeon calls from the bedroom. I walk in. "Soo Rin, I feel-" But she doesn't finish. She just bursts into tears. I pick her up out of bed and walk with her to my mother's bathroom. I stay with her while she gets sick. By the time we get everything cleaned up and Minseok and Hyoyeon back in bed, I'm wide awake. I take a shower and pull on my pajamas. As I pass my desk, a slip of paper flutters to the ground. I pick it up. It's my father's number. I tuck it under the edge of the paperweight and climb back into bed. I will myself to sleep, but it seems the more you need to sleep, the less you can. I push back the covers and grab my sweatshirt. I slide open my window and climb out onto the roof, careful not to make too much noise. Even so, I hear Sehun's window slide open and then him stepping across the space between our houses.

"Stay upwind from me," I say. "I may be infected."

"How are they?" he asks.

"Yucky," I say, stealing their word.

Sehun nods. "How are you?"

I take a deep breath. "I'm good," I say. Sehun is quiet. He knows me well enough to know that good is never good. "You seem to be getting along with Taeyeon," I say.

Sehun doesn't say anything for a few moments. "Taeyeon is nice," he says finally. I try to read his tone of voice, but I can't. I look out over our neighborhood. Blue lights flicker in some of the windows. People watching television. A car alarm goes off a few streets away; then it's gone as quickly as it began.

"Do you ever wish you could know what other people's lives are like?" I ask.

"I don't know if you can ever know," Sehun says.

"But if you could," I say.

Sehun is quiet for a long moment. "No," he says finally.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Because that would go both ways," he says. "Other people would be able to see inside your life too." I think about all the things I wouldn't want anyone to know about me.

"Yeah," I say. "I guess you're right." We sit for a long while, just watching the blinking lights in front of us. Looking up I spot a star twinkling in the otherwise dark sky. "First star," I say. Sehun doesn't respond. "What did you wish for?" I prompt. He's quiet for so long, I don't think he's going to answer.

"I'm not sure I believe in wishes," he says.

"What?" I ask with mock horror in my voice. "You're the king of wishes. "I figure that will get a smile out of him, but he's quiet again.

"I'm going to—” Then without saying anything else, Sehun gets up and walks back across the roof and climbs in through his window. I sit still, my chin on my knees. I feel an ache in my chest, but even if someone offered me a million dollars, I'm not sure I could say exactly why.

author's note. 

Hello my wonderful dearies! I'm finally back!

After such an intense 2 months break period because of my own exam preparations, I'm finally set free once again.^^ I'll definitely be updating more frequent, hopefully I 'll be able to make up the updates I owe you guys.