‘’I’m forgiven already right?’’ Were the very first words Jung Daehyun spoke, or rather whispered, to me on this ridiculously sunny day. It was Saturday the 24^th of May, exactly a week after the spider incident, the weather indeed as pleasant as Jea had predicted it would be.

We were standing in somewhat of a circle, the majority of us intently watching how both Jea and Himchan were preparing the grill right in the middle of us. Chaerin and Yongguk were in the house, apparently preparing something in the kitchen and I believe that Youngjae had ultimately decided to join them as well, for I couldn’t spot the said male around anymore. Daehyun, who I had previously noticed staring at me, had successfully, and not to mention sneakily, managed to stand next to me and it was probably therefore that I wasn’t all too surprised with him suddenly speaking to me.

Seconds passed before I finally looked up to meet eyes with his. Or his black sunglasses rather. I tried to look neutral before I gave him a small smile that looked very much forced – intending to make him believe I was still mad.

‘’Seriously Aerin? No words, just that smile? Are you still going to ignore me like that?’’ He whispered again, this time near my ear. His breath tickled against my neck and I tried my hardest to suppress an upcoming giggle – something that failed ultimately. The sound of my little laughs were quickly muted once I realized the fair closeness of his body to mine. The proximity immediately made my body tense and heat, the smell of his always present intriguing cologne not helping to take away, at least, some of that tension.

‘’I’m not ignoring you,’’ I spoke once I recovered, ‘’I’m talking to you now, aren’t I?’’ My countenance held somewhat of a more genuine smile than it had done before, but that quickly changed as I automatically frowned, squinting my eyes as I tried to adjust my face to the sun’s brightness. The sun shone merciless today and it was quite painful to frown the entire time I had been looking up to meet eyes with Daehyun’s, although that had only been for a brief moment. I sighed as I used one of my hands as a shield for my eyes, cursing for not bringing my sunglasses along. Somehow I always managed to forget about them.

‘’Thank the heavens,’’ he smiled toothy, seemingly relieved, as he took his black sunglasses off. It was amazing how the simple movement made it seem as if he was shooting a commercial. I was once again reminded of how awfully attractive Jung Daehyun was.

Daehyun’s hand then proceeded to reach for my head and before I could even grasp what he was trying to do he had managed to successfully put his black glasses on my face. Flustered with the sudden action, I opted to protest but he didn’t even let me as he swiftly stepped away already, almost as if he knew that I would say that the gesture wasn’t exactly necessary. I watched him with arched brows as he walked towards the barbecue, ultimately helping Jea and Himchan prepare the object they had been fumbling with the entire time we had stood here.

It was hard for me to suppress the cheesy grin that threatened to show itself on my face. His glasses were a bit too big, but that didn’t do the gesture less justice. Gestures such as this one made me realize that Jung Daehyun was as ever charming as he could be, sometimes, annoying. He was a conflicting mess to me, because, at times, he could be a total ; a dangerously good looking jerk – just as he had been last week. But on the same time he could be so considerate, sweet and attentive. Captivating. The mixture was as much annoyingly confusing as it was something I, secretly, appreciated because it was typically him. It made him, him. And, maybe, that was exactly what I liked so much about him. I didn’t know. I didn’t know why I liked Jung Daehyun so much as I did. What he had, that no one else seemed to have. It could have been the way he looked. Or perhaps, it was how amusing and charming he often, if not always, was. Maybe it was the attention he gave me. I simply didn’t know.

‘’Jea what is this?’’ A loud familiar voice suddenly ran into my train of thoughts, or rather admirations, about the male only a couple steps in front of me. I turned my head and watched a clearly amused Chaerin step into the backyard, on her heel followed by Youngjae. In her one hand she held a big water gun and in the other she held a plastic package containing small balloons. I assumed they were water balloons.

‘’Chaerin! You ruined the surprise!’’ Jea pouted as she immediately ran up to Chaerin, leaving Daehyun and Himchan to struggle with the grill themselves. She grabbed the object from Chaerin’s hand before she gently caressed the item as if it was her baby. The sight made me laugh and I shook my head in amusement.

‘’Awesome!’’ Both Jongup and Zelo exclaimed before they quickly made their way towards Jea, admiring the toy with sparkling eyes, proving that they were, indeed, the youngest present – even though I secretly felt excited thinking about playing with a water gun too.

‘’What were you planning to do with that?’’ Himchan looked up from what he had been doing. His brows were slightly raised, an expression he often had on whenever he would be talking with his younger sibling

‘’A water fight?!’’ Zelo shouted excitedly, turning towards Jea who he hadn’t given the opportunity to answer Himchan’s question herself.

‘’That was the plan,’’ Jea nodded, obviously just as excited as Zelo was.

‘’And let me guess, you get to be the only one to have that water gun?’’ Himchan said, dusting his hands off as he was apparently done with preparing the huge grill. The large bag originally containing the charcoal was nearly empty after all and I guess that it would only take minutes before the thing would start to flame as I watched Daehyun lit the fire.

‘’No, I bought three of them. The other two are in the living room,’’ Jea retorted with her usual roll of the eyes.

‘’And yet here we are with… nine,’’ Himchan came back sassily, making a few of us laugh at the way the rolled his eyes dramatically. I guess it ran in the family.

Jea ignored the comment with a careless shrug before she parted her lips to speak once more, this time directed to all of us: ‘’Honestly, you guys don’t have to look at me so sheepishly…’’ she laughed as she walked around the yard, her cute red dress gracefully dancing along with her movements,‘’…I know this idea is brilliant and entertaining. No need to thank me for coming up it with it. You guys are all welcome.’’ She then halted in front of her outdoor tap and opened it as she proceeded to fill the gun with water.

‘’It is quite a brilliant and fun idea,’’ Chaerin agreed firmly, ‘’especially because I feel so sticky and hot. But how are we going to do this? Someone has to watch the grill right? And who is going to have the water guns, there are only three of them?’’

‘’What about we make teams of three and give each team one water gun? The rest can have the balloons? That’s fair right?’’ Daehyun thought along.

‘’Someone still has to watch the grill, though. So that would make us with eight?’’ Jongup remarked cleverly, earning him a acknowledging pat from Zelo.

‘’I’ll grill the meat. I don’t feel like soaking myself today,’’ Himchan shrugged carelessly, solving the problem just like that.  

‘’I’ll help you, for the same reason,’’ Yongguk, who I hadn’t even noticed present in the back yard for so long, excluded himself from the game. I watched Chaerin in order to gauge her response, but she kept silent – something that was a bit unlike herself. It made me wonder whether there was still something going on between the two of them. The chat session of last week had made me feel a bit anxious about their relationship. I knew that there probably wasn’t something going on, after all this didn’t say anything, but yet I couldn’t help but to desperately wish that things were one hundred percent fine between them.

‘’Okay so that makes us seven,’’ Jea thought out loud, ‘’let’s do… Chaerin and me. Zelo, Jongup and Youngjae and… Daehyun and Aerin?’’ There was this certain glint in her eye as our names left together and in that moment I knew that she was using one of her planning and setting up schemes.

‘’Fine,’’ Daehyun agreed immediately. My heart leaped at the confirmation, suddenly making me realize what the proposal meant. I instantly became a bit nervous, knowing that Daehyun and I would be alone.

‘’Wasn’t Aerin furious with you last week?’’ Youngjae suddenly recalled, his brows raised suspiciously yet amused.

‘’Yeah wasn’t she?’’ Chaerin decided to join in as well. A faint smug smile tugged on her lips and I couldn’t help but to roll my eyes inwardly.

‘’We are cool again,’’ Daehyun answered coolly before turning to look at me expectedly.

I allowed a silence to engulf us before I eventually decided to speak: ‘’Yeah…’’ I purposely said doubtfully, making some of the guys chuckle. All but Daehyun as he turned to me in disbelieve. I only smiled sheepishly as I took off his sunglasses and returned them to him without him insisting for me to keep them on. Something I had honestly expected him to do.

‘’Alright! Let’s fill the balloons!’’ Jea beamed excitedly, ‘’Let’s play!’’

‘’In all honestly… you’re still mad at me, aren’t you?’’ Daehyun asked as we strolled through an alley, not too far away from the door leading to the Kim’s back yard. The others had moved quickly already, but Daehyun and I were taking it easy for some reason. Perhaps because he wanted to talk rather than to run.

‘’I’m not,’’ I told him seriously.

‘’Then why are you acting like this?’’

‘’How?’’

He rubbed his neck sheepishly. ‘’So distant.’’

‘’I’m only joking Daehyun. We’re cool.’’

‘’Oh,’’ was the only thing he said. I took notice of his small, relieved, smile as I briefly glanced over him and shook my head in amusement before I motioned for him to give me the water gun he was holding so that he could take my balloons. I only got an arrogant arched brow from him in response however.

‘’Really? Are you going to keep the water gun all for yourself? Such a gentlemen you are,’’ I snorted. We were slowly jogging through the maze of alleys connecting the neighborhood houses by now. I didn’t know where we were heading exactly, but I guess that Daehyun knew. Apparently he had already taken the title of team captain even though this was barely a game requiring such a title. After all, the only goal was to get each other soaked.

‘’Let a man handle the big guns,’’ he smirked cockily, earning a roll of the eyes from me.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead, annoyed by the heat and decided not to respond to Daehyun’s words of just now. Instead I opted to talk about something else: ‘’Alright, so how are we going to do this. How will we know where the others are?’’ I asked as I absent-mindedly kept jogging, at first not noticing that Daehyun stood still for some reason. I turned around in order to face him once I took notice of the increasing gap between us and noticed him watching me mischievously as he raised his gun slightly. I knew very well what this meant. I shook my head sternly as an indirect warning to stop whatever he was intending to do, but I was under the impression that I couldn’t look as stern as I often wanted to.  

‘’Don’t do it Jung Daehyun,’’ I voiced out with the straightest face I could make. Of course he didn’t listen however and so he raised the water gun daringly before aiming it on me. He laughed whole-heartedly by now and ultimately shot the big toy, the water hitting me on one of my bare legs, the droplets eventually dripping into my high ankle sneakers. I groaned at the sudden cold feeling and looked at Daehyun with narrowed eyes.

‘’! Aren’t we a team?’’ I shouted in disbelieve, my playful side resurface simultaneously. He sure was going to get it now. Daehyun looked a bit taken aback from my loud volume, or cursing, and I could see him ponder whether he had made me mad. I wasn’t one to become mad easily and I hated how much Daehyun would now often look as if he had to treat me with delicate care only because he thought I could burst out in anger whenever I was actually joking around. I only got really mad last week and that was because he was fooling around with something I didn’t like, or better yet hated. The way he would now look so worried whenever he had done something slightly mischievous made it seem as if he believed that I couldn’t take jokes well, something that wasn’t the case at all.

‘’That’s it, Jung Daehyun’’ I said, releasing the breath I didn’t know I held. I threw all the water balloons I had with me towards him, but none of them actually hit him. Something that got me quite frustrated.

‘’You throw like a girl,’’ he laughed amused. His smile was wide and perfect, making me forgot about my intentions - of hitting him - for a split second. Jung Daehyun was so memorizing at times.

‘’That’s because I am,’’ I clarified.

‘’Oh, are you?’’

I narrowed my eyes at him. Then, a sudden evil idea popped up from the back of my mind. A, unfamiliar, smirk appeared on my face as I watched Daehyun briefly and I didn’t take too long to contemplate about the idea as I, instead, dashed away from him – not caring that we were supposed to be a team. It took me a mere  minute to ran towards Jea’s backyard again and I was surprised that Daehyun hadn’t caught up with me once I looked behind me to see whether he was on my tail. I figured that he was taking it easy and therefore walking, rather than running. I fanned myself once I came to halt in Jea’s yard and was met with Himchan and Yongguk intently watching the progress of the meat before they looked up to meet eyes with me.

‘’What are you doing?’’ Himchan questioned as he watched me grab one of their buckets. Yongguk looked up interested and studied me intently as I smiled deviously at the brilliant idea that I was about to execute. I headed towards the outdoor tap and filled the entire bucket with water. Himchan’s brows raised charismatically but he didn’t question my moves further. Yongguk didn’t either. Instead, they watched me as I carried the bucket with a little bit of difficulty.

Oh, Jung Daehyun was going to get it now.

My steps were firm and my two hands were gripping the bucket’s handle tightly. When I went around the first corner I spotted Daehyun absent-mindedly heading towards my direction. At first he didn’t even notice me as his gaze was focused on the pavement rather than anything else. It was only when his eyes landed on my sneakers - the same ones he owned - that he looked up.

‘’There you are,’’ he sighed. Almost in relief if you were to ask me. This was going to go easier than expected, because, at first I hadn’t thought that I would be able to walk towards him without him immediately running away from me. I guess that it was my luck that he wasn’t paying attention to the bucket I was carrying.

‘’Aer—‘’ he said when he finally took notice of the amount of water in my hand.

‘’I told you…’’ I said as I struggled to get even closer, ‘’… not to do it.’’ Daehyun didn’t move an inch, something I had honestly expected him to do. Especially since it was obvious what my intention was.

With all the power I had, I swung the bucket in his direction, throwing the water over Daehyun entirely. Within second he was completely soaked. From his shoulder to his Nike shoes. The empty bucket fell on the ground and I laughed as I watched Daehyun clench his fists. It seemed to take hours before I could finally bring myself to stop the hysterical laughter escaping my mouth and that was only because I took notice of something that was more attractive than it was laugh worthy; I stared  at his white t-shirt. Completely hugging his body, revealing a lot.

‘’Do you like what you see?’’ Daehyun groaned once I hadn’t taken it upon myself to say anything. I couldn’t make out whether he was amused or angry with me by now.

He cursed under his breath and suddenly took his shirt off without any shame whatsoever. He then quickly wrung the water out of the white fabric and I could only stare as he did so. He was leaving quite an amount of water on the floor by now and I immediately felt guilty for the joke, but on the same time I thanked the heavens for this sight. I bit my lips as he put his shirt on again.

‘’I give you three seconds to run,’’ he warned, kicking one of his shoes out in an attempt to get rid of the water in it.

I didn’t dwell too long on his warning as my feet moved before I even took notice of it. I started to run as  fast as my heart was probably beating. A comforting mixture of adrenaline excitement and perhaps a bit of, good, anxiety ran through my veins and I couldn’t help but to find the situation amusing and thrilling for some reason.

Feeling like I had ran for hours I tiredly dropped myself against a random bricked wall at some point. My throat felt dry and I panted heavily which wasn’t crazy considering I had been running for a good couple of minutes – in this suffocating heat.

Just when I wondered whether I had shaken off Daehyun I noticed him coming around the corner, my heart instantly beating faster. I should’ve known that he would catch up to me. It amazed me how he were even able to find me. Just like it amazed me that I hadn’t encountered any of the others yet. How far could they possibly have gone?

‘’I’m sorry! We’re even now right?’’ I said as soon as I noticed Daehyun aiming the water gun at me once again. He shook his head seconds before I felt the cold water hit my legs, making me shriek in a typical girl manner. Apparently satisfied, he closed some of the distance between us, intending to splash me from an even closer point. I, however, had no intention in letting him continue to do that and therefore ran away from him once again. I was sure that, by now, we were looking very much like two little kids chasing each other childishly.

Despite my effort to run away from him again, he unfortunately were able to catch up with me. Within seconds he was so close that I was practically trapped, unable to move away from him – he made sure of this. Because the two of us had been laughing, giggling splashing each other with water so childishly I hadn’t really taken notice of the position we were in. The confronting position we were in. After all, I was being trapped between him and the wall behind me. Both of Daehyun’s hands were on either sides of my head. One flat against the wall, the other holding the water gun. the atmosphere changed noticeably once we both realized how close our faces actually were.

There was a silence before I noticed his lips part to say something. ‘’Aerin,’’ he spoke huskily, causing little shivers to run down my spine. My back felt cool against the cold bricked wall and I simply couldn’t bring myself to respond to him. I felt numb and weak – like a little lamb surrendering to a mighty lion. The atmosphere felt heavy and we simply stared at each other for seconds that felt like an eternity.

‘’Hmm?’’ I finally brought myself to respond meekly, or hum rather, as my eyes focused on his perfect plump lips for a tad too long. My throat became drier than it had already been and my heart was about to jump out of my chest from nervousness and anticipation. I noticed him inching closer and closer - almost comparable to that one time I went over to his house, though this was even closer - and I wondered if this was the moment in which we were to kiss. In the movies, whenever some guy would come as incredibly close as Daehyun was right now, it was always like that after all. I wanted him to kiss me to be honest. I wanted to kiss Jung Daehyun. After everything that had happened today I wanted it really really badly.

‘’Why don’t you just kiss m—‘’ he began to dare.

It was as if it was the only thing I needed to hear from him. The sentence I didn’t even let him finish. The sentence that encouraged me to go over that edge. To jump. Or in this case, to lean in. To allow my walls to crumble and to give my all. I had dreamed about kissing Jung Daehyun. I had fantasized about kissing Jung Daehyun and now I was finally going to do it. No holding back.

I cupped both his cheeks before I slightly leaned in and almost desperately pressed my lips against his, hearing a loud thud once the colorful toy he had been holding came in contact with the pavement as he let go of it. The kiss was somehow clumsy. It wasn’t all too smooth. It was awkwardly done. It had been way too needy and it sure as hell wasn’t as perfectly timed as it always seemed in movies or stories, but it felt so good nonetheless. So good.

That was until I actually realized what I had been doing and immediately pulled away with half embarrassed eyes. The kiss, or peck rather, had lasted for five seconds, maybe even less, and I leaned back against the wall as I lowered my head and bit on my lip, conscious with the impulsive action of just now. This wasn’t very much like how I had imagined my first kiss to be. I would never have thought that it would be in some alley with a soaked Jung Daehyun. Instead, I had fantasized about it being in front of my door, as a goodbye of our first official date. A perfect magical slow well timed kiss just like it often happened in dramas or movies. This wasn’t an unrealistic drama however. This was real life and in real life, amateurish, first kisses were rarely perfect – they could only feel like it.

Daehyun didn’t say anything, but only stared at me as his signature smirk began to tug on the same lips that had been in contact with mine just now. Seconds later I felt his fingers caress my cheek and I held in my breath as I felt his one hand gently cup my chin, urging me to look up to him. He pulled my face closer to his and ultimately allowed our lips to lock once more. His eyes were closed and he seemed almost in absolute peace as his perfect lips slowly and tenderly moved against mine. In that brief moment I had no idea what to do. Hundreds of random questions and worries suddenly whirled through my already clouded mind.

Was I, for example, supposed to keep my eyes open and watch him?

Or should I have to close them as well?

How do you even kiss?

What if I was a terrible kisser?

Where should I let my hands?

Was my breath okay?

We were so close to each other. So close that I had no doubt that he could see all my pimples and flaws if he were to open his eyes. But after a split second of panicking in what I should do, the questions and worries magically vanished as quickly as they had come. In that split second I realized that I should, for once, just give in to him. And I did, as I finally closed my eyes and responded to his kiss. I didn’t know what I was doing exactly but I was doing something. Something that felt so incredibly nice. I felt Daehyun smile in satisfaction between the kiss, briefly pausing our moment, before we continued kissing each other as if we were lovers, hungry for each other. My lips were the only part of my body I seemed able to move as my hands hung paralyzed next to my body, not sure where to let them. It was only seconds later that I felt Daehyun’s hands gently reach for mine. Almost as if he knew that I didn’t know what to do with them. The gesture made my legs go weak and I felt so giddy that I wasn’t sure how long I could continue before passing out in complete happiness and bliss.

His kisses felt close to countless days in heaven and at some point I felt like I was going to die from a lack of oxygen combined with an overdose of Jung Daehyun’s perfect lips. I gently wrenched my hands out of his before I carefully brought them up to his wet chest and slowly pushed him away, allowing myself to breathe. We watched each other closely the moment our lips detached, none of us knowing what to say. Or at least, I didn’t know what to.

‘’Your breath is not bad,’’ he worded first, a teasing smile apparent, referring to our first ‘date’ in Serendipity where I had told him about my bad morning breath. His signature smirk appeared right after he had spoken those words and he wasted no time as he closed the distance between the two of us again - not even giving me the chance to vocally defend myself - and inched forward to capture my lips again. I closed my eyes almost immediately this time, responding to the third time his lips were on mine. Hoping, or better yet praying, that this wouldn’t be the last.

It was funny how quickly I got familiar with his kissing. How I got familiar with his gentle touches that never got inappropriate. He gently caressed my face before he grabbed my hand again and slowly entwined our fingers together, all the while showering me with his kisses. I loved it. I loved feeling loved by Daehyun. In that moment there were no doubts about whether he truly felt the same as I did. In that moment I didn’t even consider going through the options of him only doing this because he liked to have fun with me. In this moment I didn’t even seem to care about it at all – as stupid as that could have been, I didn’t. The butterflies in my stomach wouldn’t calm down and right in that moment I realized that I truly loved Jung Daehyun. Despite it all, I did. Madly. Sincerely. Deeply.

‘’Aerin,’’ he attempted to speak in between our heating kiss, ‘’I think… I think I l—‘’

‘’Woaw! This sure is a shocker. Never have I thought to find the two of you making out in here.’’ An unexpected voice spoke in as much shock as amusement. In a reflex, I pushed Daehyun away from me and lowered my red turning head in embarrassment as I tried to avoid watching the person who caught us in the middle of the act. This situation was without doubt awkwardness at its finest and I cursed the universe for the interruption as I took the sight of Daehyun’s best friend, and my classmate, in.

‘’Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your moment, but most of us were basically out of balloons and the barbecue is ready, so yeah… game over. Come on, you guys,’’ Youngjae chuckled while he shook his head in amusement and disappeared just around the corner seconds later.

I breathed out, feeling embarrassed about everything that had happened – or actually Youngjae seeing us. I momentarily watched Daehyun who was still looking in the direction Youngjae had disappeared to. He then turned to look directly at me. I couldn’t describe how I felt when I noticed how he watched me with his signature cheeky smile, only further proving that nothing could embarrass him.

‘’Hey are you guys not going to follow after me? Aren’t you done yet?’’ Youngjae exclaimed impatiently as he suddenly stood at the exact same spot he stood just earlier, ‘’Jung Daehyun the barbecue is ready. BARBECUE! FOOD!’’

‘’I get it. I’m coming after you,’’ Daehyun replied with a roll of the eyes, all the while watching me intently. Youngjae sighed dramatically before he left our sight again. I hoped that he would do so permanently this time. I wondered if I could ever bring myself to even look at the said male during our future classes.

‘’Let’s go,’’ Daehyun suddenly urged after a moment of silence. He stepped closer to me and I honestly couldn’t bring myself to move despite his request to do so. I had the feeling my legs could give out at any moment and so I only watched him, probably with big eyes, as I stood quite dumbfounded and still in shock, reliving everything that had happened just now. That was until Daehyun added another shock moment to the list as he quickly, and cheekily, pecked my lips before he smiled like a little mischievous boy and ran in the direction Youngjae had left to.

Leaving me against that wall like a love struck idiot.

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