The summer nights started to drift away with each passing day, as well as the heat. A perk of the neighborhood was that it was always relatively quiet and serene in their neighborhood. It was always relaxing and subtle in the neighborhood, in fact often times they were the loudest ones. Sunny, Hyunah and Jessica had arrived home at the same time and walked up to the door to find a scarf on the door handle.

“Who left their scarf on the door?” Hyunah asked. “Why would someone wear a scarf in the summer?”

“I don’t know. Tiffany is home. Maybe it’s hers,” Sunny said.

Hyunah opened the door to find the place dimly lit. Just as she was opening the door further and walked inside, Jessica grabbed Hyunah and pulled back outside. Jessica closed the door and locked it and said they should go out for dinner, with a chuckle.

“Why? What’s wrong? Did you see anything Hyunah?” Sunny asked.

“I couldn’t really see anything, unnie pulled me out, but it looked like there were candles,” Hyunah said.

“Haha, alright guys, let’s go. I’ll drive. My treat!” Jessica said. They all loaded into her older Acura TL and drove out.

“Isn’t that Taeyeon’s car?” Sunny asked. They drove past a Honda Civic parked in the street.

“Is she there with a man? Not on my chair! That’s my chair, what if they use my bed?!” Hyunah said. “Oh! It’s not a guy, it’s Taeyeon huh?! Tiffany is with Taeyeon alone?! With candles, no lights... but why the scarf?”

“Hyunah, calm down. You’re just over analyzing things. We’ll get dinner and come home a little later. No big deal.” Jessica said.  

She took them to a Korean restaurant and of course treated them. Jessica was careful to stir away any conversation topics regarding Tiffany, Taeyeon, scarves and candles. They spent a good two hours out before deciding heading back. Each girl had an ice cream cone from Marble Slab and took their time being out. It was still a school night so she hoped none of the girls had too much homework, but being a good friend she had to give Tiffany her alone time, and more importantly protect the situation. Jessica didn’t know how to address the situation of Tiffany sleeping with Taeyeon to two other girls. Particularly Hyunah, a girl who had been popular and well liked by so many boys at home, the notion of girl on girl relationship under the same roof may shock her. When they returned home Tiffany was alone, and no one bother to talk to her or mentioned about it. Jessica had bought silence via ice cream.

********************

As busy with work as she had been, she still had time to go through Hyomin’s photos to check the quality of her work. Like any great artist or scientist, Hyomin always wanted to make sure her work was appreciated and reassurance that she was still great. Hyomin had been plenty pleased with her own work; after all she was a rocket scientist in the photography world, self-proclaimed of course. There were plenty photos to go through. There were photos of herself, Jiyeon and Hyomin’s new friends which were very interesting.

“Oh more photos of Sunny eh Hyomin? Cute! Where was that, highland village? Oh, tennis! You don’t do a lot of action photos! Who is that, playing tennis with Sunny?” Soyeon commented.

“That is Jessica. One of Sunny’s roommates. She’s very pretty and very good at tennis.  She beat Sunny. I think, she did, the scoring system is still something I’m not used it,” Hyomin answered pulling up a chair next to Soyeon to look at the photos with her. Of course Soyeon wasn’t looking at all the photos that Hyomin took, only a few selected photos that had been touched up.

“Jessica? Jessica Jung?” Soyeon asked with a hint of curiosity and excitement.

“Um, I think so. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, she and I used to be in music camp together in Korea when we were little. Really little, I doubt she remembers me. I didn’t know she’d be that pretty all grown up. Wow! Hyomin, you took photos of Sunny without a shirt on?!”

“WHAT?!?!” Jiyeon shouted and jumped off the couch to have a look. “Why is she playing only a sports bra?! Why did you even take that photo?!”

“It’s only a sports bra, she’s completely clothed otherwise. You see girls dressed like that in the gym all the time. What’s the big deal?” Hyomin stated in her defense.

“A tennis court is not a gym. Did you ask her to take it off?” Jiyeon asked.

“Well, um... I may have suggested… or um... maybe asked...” Hyomin answered with caution.

“ert!” Jiyeon screamed.

Hyomin spent a good portion of the rest of the evening fending off attacks from Jiyeon while Soyeon just kept going through the photos on the computer.

******************************

August has a tendency to be the hottest month of the year, let alone summer. With the Labor Day Weekend coming up, it seemed more opportune of a time than any for a little fun-cation. Tiffany had suggested that they go to the Six Flags theme park. It had roller coasters and was a water park all in one. Jessica had protested that during the 3-day weekend of Labor Day, it would be crowded and pack. Tiffany answered that they would go on Friday, since she didn’t have class on Fridays so it would be no problem. It was decided that at the end of the week, they would all go to the theme park.

Sunny had been hanging out with Hyomin on campus on regular basis now. They would have lunch together; go to the library and what not. Sunny would help Hyomin with her business classes from time to time. Today Sunny had asked Hyomin to come to the rec center with her. Hyomin wasn’t all too thrilled, she had recently joined Sunny and Tiffany on a 5k run for charity had been exhausted by it.

“Hyomin! Are you ready? It’s gonna be great” Sunny said grabbing Hyomin’s hand and leading her to the rock wall. “I always wanted to do this more often, I’ve only done it once. So I thought that this be fun.”

“Oh yes! Me too! I never actually been in here though, I didn’t know we had one” Hyomin answered, hiding her mixed feelings of the giant wall.

The two girls presented their student IDs and got strapped in to harnesses for the climb. They would both start on the easiest wall first. They had 45 feet to go up, but on the ‘easy’ wall, with bigger and more plentiful grab points, it wouldn’t be a problem. There were professionals handling their belay, so no need to worry about falling.

“Gosh, with all your whining, I’d think you were Hyunah,” Sunny laughed.

“Not funny. She’s twenty times worst than me! Hundred times worst.” Hyomin retaliated in defense.

“Hey silly! Use your whole hand, palms, not your fingers! It’ll be easier.

Sunny had reached the top first, and the two made their way down. Sunny suggested they tried the intermediate one, which was a bit more challenging but they succeeded. This time Sunny let Hyomin make it to the top first. On the advanced wall however, neither girl held back. Though they both had struggles on the advanced wall, Sunny was ahead of Hyomin by a mere few feet. Sunny reached first though, in a breakaway. Hyomin had looked up and accidentally saw Sunny’s underwear through her shorts.

Sunny always had athletic shorts and t-shirts with her for use at the rec. Sunny shorts were a dark navy blue and normally one couldn’t see the undergarments, even if the shorts are short. Hyomin’s proximity to Sunny, and the sparse spacing of the grip points forced Sunny to reach out and stretch her short legs to try and make her way up. Only Hyomin was in position to see, only Hyomin could tell that Sunny had on lime green underwear and after catching that glimpse Hyomin had slipped and few a few feet behind.

“That was fun huh? Are you okay, you fell a bit back there,” Sunny asked patting Hyomin on the back.

“I’m okay. It was nothing. Advanced is a bit tough, just lost my footing.” Hyomin answered with a forced smile.

“I told you not to use your fingers. It’s okay, we should do this more often. It’s a workout while having fun,” Sunny cheered.

Sunny offered to get her smoothies before she had to drive Jiyeon home but Hyomin declined. She lied about a text message from Jiyeon saying she was ready to go. She hugged Sunny bye and promised to call her later in the evening.

***************

“OMG! OMG! OMG! Okay, what’s going on here. I seen girls’ underwear before. I’ve been in a changing room, I mean Jiyeon is always walking around in underwear. Oh, I can’t tell Jiyeon about this. She’ll freak. I’m freaking! Oh frick! Frick on a stick with a brick!” Hyomin said to herself out loud sitting in her parked car. She frantically beat at her steering wheel and shock in her seat.

“Argh! Why would that bother me. Am I a peeping tom, err jane? I’m not a ert am I?! Crap!!! If Jiyeon finds out, I’ll never hear the end of this. Focus... no, don’t focus! I should not think about what I saw. Fricking lime... wait! no limes! You looked at her chest didn’t you. Freak... Why did we have to go rock climbing, it’s an all out pass to look at her .”

Her semi-break down was interrupted by a tap on the window which totally scared her. It was just Jiyeon, who got into the car after Hyomin unlocked the doors. She drove them home, and tried to be at peace with her racing mind but Jiyeon didn’t help.

“Can we stop by Sonic’s unnie? I’d like a cherry limeade. Been craving it.” Jiyeon asked.

“Sonic’s? Sure, why not. Hehe, Cherry Limeade cool. You like limes? I didn’t know that,” Hyomin said.

“Uh, I don’t know what’s wrong with you, I always get cherry limeade. Did you take something? I told you those white people with brownies in the square are not to be trusted! I won’t pass judgment on you if they tricked you into doing some drugs, as long as we go to Sonic’s,” Jiyeon directed rather unsympathetically in her sarcastic way.

After their early dinner, Hyomin went to Soyeon’s room in hopes of getting some advice. Soyeon was more than eager to help; she closed her notebooks and folders, packed away her stuff and turned off the TV. Soyeon, being the eldest was given the luxury of having a TV in her room. She patted the empty next to her on the bed inviting Hyomin to have a seat next to her.

“Soyeon, what do you do if you just met someone recently, and you been hanging out with them a little lately, and you think you might like them but don’t know how to go about it?” Hyomin asked, laying her head on Soyeon’s shoulder.

“What?! You’re asking me? You’ve had boyfriends before, you been on dates. You know what to do!”

“I know, it’s just this person is different. I don’t know if they like me either. Usually it’s so easy to tell, but I think I like them. It’s quite exhausting to think about, and today something happened that got me questioning my feelings for the person. A super freak accident really, I just don’t know...”

“Well why don’t you make a date then? Go on a date and tell the person that you like them and see what happen. If they respond negatively you be like ‘hehe, just kidding’ and keep the friendship.”

“You really think that will work?”

“Sure, why not? I have a lot of friends! No one just sparks my interest, but I tell you, he must be great if he has you coming to me for advice. So make a date, but proactive! This is America, woman power! Go Go Go!” Soyeon cheered.

Hyomin hugged and thanked Soyeon and left to her room to make a phone call. Sunny answered the phone and Hyomin had asked Sunny to see a movie with her. Hyomin said she would pick Sunny up from her house in the afternoon after her last class. Tuesdays were short days for Sunny anyways and she didn’t have to take Hyunah home so it was perfect. Sunny told Hyomin she would skip tennis practice for a movie. Hyomin hanged up and though seated on her bed, she jumped up and down in excitement.

*****************

Sunny came home through the door and put down her things and went to the other dry erase board and wrote on it that she would be out with Hyomin and wouldn’t be at practice. She debated whether or not she should change clothes. She took a look at herself in the mirror and thought she looked fine. It was still summer so Sunny never really let go of wearing shorts and a polo. She had just as many pairs of shorts as Jessica, if not more. Within a few minutes the doorbell rang, Hyomin had arrived.

The two left for the movies and opted to see ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’, catching an afternoon show means an unpacked theatre. It would be just over two hours before they’d be free. Previews took forever, but were sometimes fun.

**********

“Sunny’s not coming to practice? Why not?” Tiffany asked.

“She’s out with Hyomin right now. I’m more than positive that she won’t be home for dinner. Where is Hyunah?” Jessica replied.

“She wasn’t interesting in watching practice, so she’s in the rec center working out. I’d call her when we’re done here.”

Tiffany introduced herself to the team, as well as introduced them to the coach. It was only a club team, but they had a coach, who was actually the department chair for Kinesiology and Human Performance. He was a good guy, who had played varsity college NCAA tennis and even coached NCAA tennis before coming to this school. They were fortunate to have him; he helped the team out with practice, equipment and other various things. He did it for fun, he was asked to coach the school’s NCAA team but declined. He just rather teach and do his department chair things.

Tennis practice was usually just informal hitting; coach said he would do drills next week when more people showed up more regularly to practice. Practice was voluntarily and optional, the team dues for $45 for the semester. Jessica and Tiffany had been hitting before coach asked Tiffany to play a challenge match with one of the other returning girls. Tiffany had been with tennis since her freshman year. Jessica noticed Taeyeon at practice, but just watching Tiffany. Tiffany played two matches, won one and lost one. They decided they had enough of practice and opted to go home.

“Argh! Man, I should have won! It was pretty close. That’s so disheartening. Do you want to get Subway for dinner? Or a salad?” Tiffany said.

“It doesn’t matter to me, should you go get dinner and I’ll go get Hyunah?” Jessica asked.

Tiffany agreed and the trio all arrived home to find Sunny still out and Tiffany still a bit sore about the match she lost. It was in tiebreaker. When Tiffany gets pouty, it could last a while and usually was Jessica’s job to handle the situation.

“You just don’t attack on the right opportunities. You’re a little nice and pass up winners.” Jessica said at the dinner table. “You haven’t practiced in a while, and just rusty. I mean your shots were a bit all over the place. You’re forgetting to through the ball. I mean seriously, I think you should switch to a semi-western grip. Your eastern forehand isn’t working against those tougher girls. You can’t counter-punch everyone.”

Tiffany just shrugged eating her dinner. Tiffany wasn’t a terrible tennis player, she been playing longer than Sunny or Jessica, in fact it was Tiffany who introduced them to tennis. Sunny and Jessica similar form and style of play came about because the two started and advanced at the same time and always played together. Tiffany was extremely jealous on how they got so good, so quickly. Tiffany had struggled when she started as a child, her older sister was a start at it though. Tiffany’s sister had played NCAA tennis for Stanford,  and was not attending law school. Tiffany’s skills never matched up to her sister, but in the world of recreational tennis, she could kick plenty of decent .

“I guess Sunny’s not coming home for dinner then eh?”

“No, she won’t be around, but she’s safe and you know how she is. When she gets hungry she’ll find something to eat,” Jessica responded.

*********

“That movie was interesting huh?” Hyomin asked, as they walked out.

“It was interesting, but kind of weird.” Sunny said.

“Would you like dinner? My treat?” Hyomin asked, almost too quickly.

Sunny had said yes and they got into the car. By the time the movie ended, it was dinner time and Sunny had received a text from Jessica telling her to be safe. Sunny asked Hyomin where they were going, but Hyomin just said it was a place that served good food and had great service at a very low price. Hyomin pulled up to a condo apartment complex, which Hyomin said was her home. All the short weeks that Sunny had known Hyomin, she’d yet to been to her home. Hyomin stated she lived on the third floor.

“Hey, I’m home! What’s for dinner?” Hyomin announced coming through the door and walk through the kitchen. Sunny followed.

“Still working on it, it’s a surprise!” Soyeon said without looking up.

“Unnie, you’re actually home!” Jiyeon said. “AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

Jiyeon had a habit of taking off her clothes and throwing them in a corner of the room when she came home, and there were often times she would just be in her underwear until her nightly shower before bed. Jiyeon was shocked and surprised to see Sunny standing next to Hyomin and she ran to her room.

“Advance warning next time! GAWR!!!! You know I usually don’t wear clothes when  I come home! Hello Sunny! Hyomin we’ll talk about this later!” Jiyeon yelled from her room and then returned later with a tshirt and pj pants. “Sunny it’s so nice to see, I apologized you had to see me that way. Caught me by surprise. Heh.”

Soyeon looked up to see Sunny, the girl she had seen so much of in the photos on the computer screen. Soyeon introduced herself to Sunny, it was finally nice to meet the girl she heard so much about. Sunny shook hands with Soyeon and even bowed. Soyeon commented on how nice and polite Sunny was.

“We don’t very often have guests over for dinner. So it’s kind of exciting for us.” Soyeon said while Jiyeon was setting the table.

“Soyeon watches Food Network a lot and gets a lot of recipes from TV. So we eat a lot of different things, and it’s all very good,” Hyomin proudly said to Sunny.

“Yes, today I thought we try something from Alton Brown.” Soyeon said, outwardly pleased with her creation.

Sunny found the meal to be very good, plus there was meat so she was happy. Jiyeon and Soyeon did talk and ask some questions and conversations with Sunny. It was quite similar to what Jessica, Tiffany and Hyunah had done to Hyomin at her house. They asked what was she studying in school, where she was in Korea, her family, all sorts of other things.  

Sunny was happy to answer questions and engage in conversation. Soyeon had taken great interest in Sunny, it was clear that she enjoyed near company and friends. Soyeon had known Jessica and asked Sunny to say hi for her. After dinner, Hyomin showed Sunny to her room. Soyeon joked about keeping the door open and to play nice. Hyomin showed Sunny her desk which had all sorts of cameras. Hyomin even opted for a photo. Afterwards, Sunny took a photo with Soyeon and Jiyeon before saying goodbye and thanking them for the meal. Hyomin told her roommates she’ll be back after she drops off Sunny.

“Your roommates are great people. I enjoyed dinner with them.”  Sunny said while on their ride back to Sunny’s.

“I’m glad, I’m sorry about Jiyeon. She’s young and can hold her anger for a long time. If you ever come over, let me know so I will make sure she’s clothed.” Hyomin joked.

“It was okay, I totally understand that. She’s cute and nice, and Soyeon is really nice and pretty. A great cook too.”

After a while on the road, Hyomin had memorized the turns to get through Sunny’s neighborhood and pulled up front of Sunny’s house. Sunny undid her seatbelt and was making her way out of the car when Hyomin reached out and grabbed Sunny’s left arm. Sunny stopped and looked at Hyomin.

“Hehe. Um Sunny, can we talk a bit? You’re not in a hurry are you?” Hyomin asked, rather seemingly nervous.

“Oh no, that’s fine. We can talk. Do you want to come inside to talk? Oh, I have something I want to tell you too actually.”

“It’s alright, I think it’s better if we stay in the car. You have something you want to tell me? Is it bad?” Hyomin now worried.

“No it’s good, really good actually. Okay, this Friday, I am inviting you to come with me and mine to Six Flags. You’ll need a swimsuit too. I’m not taking no for an answer because I already paid for your ticket.” Sunny quipped in rather great excitement.

“Oh? Six Flags? The theme park with the water park too?”

“Yes, that’s the one. You can invite Jiyeon and Soyeon too. That would be fun! Wait, what did you want to tell me?”

“Um, oh here. I printed out some pictures for you. I thought you should have them,” Hyomin said handing an envelope to Sunny who accepted it with a smile and thanks. “Sunny, are we friends?”

“Huh? What? Of course we’re friends. Why would you ask that? Do you think I’d spend my time with someone who wasn’t my friend? I like you Hyomin, of course we’re friends.” Sunny answered with a smile.

“You like me?” Hyomin asked.

“Of course I like you, you think I’d spend my time with you and invite you in my house if I didn’t like you? Like what, four times now? Why are you being so silly?”

“Sunny, I like you.” Hyomin said, awkwardly. Sunny had a strange look on her face and just smiled.

“I know you do, that’s why we’re friends. I like you, you like me. We like each other. Are you sure you’re a college student?” Sunny asked.

“That’s right. Because we’re friends.” Hyomin laughed. “Okay I’ll ask Jiyeon and Soyeon if they want to come. Thanks for hanging out with me today Sunny, I’ll see you huh?”

“Of course. I had so much fun. I’ll you tomorrow okay? Good night.” Sunny said and got out of the car.

Hyomin waved by and drove away, but stopped after a few feet and reversed back to the front of Sunny’s house. Hyomin got out and walked up to the sidewalk where Sunny was standing waiting for her. Sunny had a nervous smile, and was internally questioning if things were alright.

“Sunny, I’m sorry. I forgot to ask about the details for Friday.” Hyomin said, hesitantly.

“Oh, well they open at 930 in the morning so we were going to be there around 9. Is everything okay Hyomin?” Sunny responded with concern.

“Oh yes, thank you. Everything is fine.” Hyomin said and turned around to walk back to her car, but stopped and turned back towards Sunny.

“Actually no. Everything isn’t fine. I want to tell you something, and it’s driving me nuts. Okay, Sunny, yesterday on the rock wall, when you were climbing, I saw what you were wearing under your shorts.”

“Haha. Really? ert. Is that all? It’s okay Hyomin, I forgive you. Next time I’ll wear pants, or just let you climb ahead.” Sunny laughed off.

“No Sunny, I really like you.” Hyomin said, with even more distressed than earlier.

“I know, we talked about this in the car, just moments ago even.”

Not sure what to do, Hyomin stepped closer to Sunny and put her hands onto Sunny’s body and leaned in to give Sunny a quick kiss on the lips. Afterwards, Hyomin almost pulled back immediately.

“Sunny, I like you.” Hyomin said. There was a pause, Sunny just stood there dumbfounded and seemingly dazed. “Sunny? Please say something? Sunny?”

“I’d never been kissed before...” Sunny said breaking out of her daze, but still apparently in shock.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. Oh my gosh. It’s just I like you, and didn’t know what do. I mean do you like me? I mean I love being your friend, but somewhere I just found myself liking you. Oh man, I should stop talking. Sunny...” Hyomin nervously ranted.

“Umm... Hyomin... I’m not sure what to say right now...” Sunny softly said.

“You don’t like me do you?” Hyomin said, looking a bit upset, teary almost. “I’m so sorry... I’ll get going...”

“Wait!” Sunny said chasing after Hyomin. They stopped at the driver side door. “I’ll still see you tomorrow right? Same time as usual for lunch?”

When in doubt how to handle a situation, Sunny picked up a little something from Jessica called ‘plausible deniability.’ When stuck, she would just pretend as if things were normal and bring the situation from awkward to damn near confusing and hopefully a solution could be found later. Of course, Sunny was still quite a novice in such tactics.

“What? I don’t get it. You want to see me tomorrow? But you don’t like me...”

“I never said that... you just assumed... will I see you tomorrow?” Sunny asked.

“Yeah, of course. Just like always.” Hyomin answered, her teariness abating a bit, slowly getting into her car.

“Hyomin, thank you for today. Really, it was great.” Sunny said in her most serene and sincere voice, and gave Hyomin a hug. She even got on her tip toes to give Hyomin a peck on the forehead. Hyomin got into her car and rolled down the window.

“Sunny. I really like you...”

“I know Hyomin, I’ll see you tomorrow. Promise.”

“Goodnight Sunny.”

“Goodnight Hyomin.”

Hyomin drove off leaving Sunny standing in the street watching the Kia zoom away. Sunny walked back towards the house and she didn’t notice the blinds from Jessica’s window snapped back to place.