It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in April. The sun beat down on Ara and her mother as they sat in the car, waiting for the traffic to subdue. The air conditioner blasted through as the cold air lightly breezed through her dark hair. Her mother tapped her fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the soft music playing quietly in the background.

"Where should we go first, Ara? Should we shop first or eat first?" She asked with curious eyes. Ara played with her phone as they sat in the car, aware of her mother's questions but not aware enough to reply back right away. "Ara!" She jumped at the loud voice and shot her head in her mother's direction.

"Jeez, mom. Let's go shopping first. I need a new phone case." As the traffic started to clear, they were finally able to make their way to Myungdong and begin their shopping rendezvous.

The day began as it normally should have, the two walking around stores and pointing out clothes that they liked. It was just like any other day that they would spend together. Mother and daughter joined at the hip, giggling at anything and everything. It was just like any other normal day. But unlike any other normal day, this day took a turn for the worst.

They were by a water fountain when it happened, Ara was walking while admiring her new phone case until she realized her mother wasn't by her side anymore. She turned around and saw her, fallen on the ground and gasping for air. 

"Ara? I'm home!" Ara's thoughts were interrupted by the familiar sound of Kyungsoo's voice. She jolted up from her bed and excitedly scurried to meet Kyungsoo by the front door.

"Soo oppa!" They both grinned at each other, happy to see one another.

"I missed you today." He happily said while shuffling to change into her pink slippers. For some reason, the two liked wearing each other's slippers instead of their own. She wore his slightly bigger blue slippers, liking the extra room it gave. 

"Same here, I started watching a new drama but it didn't feel right watching without you. So I recorded it so that we could watch together." She grinned while they walked to the living room together. "Just you and I watching dramas and pigging out on ramyun. It sounds perfect." Ara eagerly smiled at her brother, only for Kyungsoo to apologetically shake his head.

"Sorry, Ara. But I bumped into an old friend at the cafe today. We were trainees together before I had to leave the company. I couldn't really keep in touch afterwards but somehow-- I don't really remember how--  he found out I ran a cafe. So he visited! And then we kinda promised to hang out after I finished work so he's going to come over soon, in like ten minutes?" Kyungsoo explained nervously as he struggled with his words. With taking cafe of the cafe and their apartment, Kyungsoo was normally very busy. The few days he was free usually involved him running errands or sleeping. This left very little time for him to have quality time with Ara.

"Oh.. Okay, it's fine." Ara quietly murmured. She quietly walked away, waiting for Kyungsoo to stop her out of guilt.

"Ara, come on. Don't be like thaaat." Kyungsoo whined, overridden with guilt. "Ara! Fine, fine, fine. I pinky promise that the next time I'm free, we can start that new drama and finally hang out." Holding out his pinky, he waited for Ara to turn around and seal the promise.

"I knew I could make you guilty enough to pinky promise to hang out with me." She quickly turned around with a big smile on her face and linked their pinkies before he could change his mind. Kyungsoo's jaw dropped, surprised she had the gall to manipulate him like that. Without a moment's hesitation, Kyungsoo reached out and tickled Ara's sides. The two laughed together as Ara wrestled for escape even though her attempts were useless. They continued laughing and wrestling until a loud ding dong stopped them in their tracks. 

Ara wordlessly hurried to her room before Kyungsoo could say anything. He watched her with a small frown and shook his head. He then made his way to the door to invite his guest inside. Upon opening the door, Kyungsoo was greeted with a cartoon chicken plastered on a paper box. The warm smell of fried chicken wafted through the air. 

"Kai, get this chicken out of my face." Kyungsoo laughed and lightly pushed the box of chicken away. The chicken no longer blocked the sight of Kai's smiling face. They both laughed and gave each other a quick hug. Kyungsoo led Kai into the apartment while taking some of the food from him.

"Do you really live in this huge apartment by yourself, hyung? It's even bigger than the dorm. And we have five people living there." Kai glanced around in curiousity, wondering how Kyungsoo could afford this apartment all by himself.

"Well, it used to be my entire family living here but since my parents passed away it's just me and my sister. I can't really bring myself to move out either" Kyungsoo explained, guilty that he had to lie to his friend. More like you had no choice but to stay, he thought with a frown. Kyungsoo sat down on the couch and placed the food on the coffee table while Kai explored the apartment a little more. 

"And what about your sister? Does she still live with you? I remember how close you guys were." Kai called out from the kitchen as he looked around.

"Umm.. what do I even say about Ara.." Kyungsoo whispered under his breath so that Kai wouldn't hear. Explaining his sister's situation was always really difficult. After all, telling your friend that your sister had social anxiety and never left the house would never be easy. 

"What did you say, hyung?"

"Oh, um, yeah. Ara still lives with me. She takes classes at Seoul University and sometimes helps with the cafe." He nodded while smiling guiltily. Technically, I'm not lying. She does take online classes and helps me with some paperwork for the cafe, he consoled himself in his thoughts, happy that he got through the questions without too much struggle. Kai plopped down on the couch next to Kyungsoo, grabbing a piece of chicken as well as another for Kyungsoo.

"So, where is she? I thought if she lived with you she would come out to introduce herself but I haven't seen her yet."

"She's in her room... Um, she's just really t-tired." Kyungsoo stammered. "So how is SM going?" He quickly changed the subject, hoping that Kai's curiousity was satisfied. Once Kai began to talk about SM, Kyungsoo quietly let out a sigh of relief. At this rate, I'm going to get anxiety too. 

A/N: So that was the first chapter! At the moment, it's not very interesting since it's only the beginning but once the story starts to pick up I know it'll get much more fun! Although I don't have very many (or any) readers at the moment, I still want to write and hope that there will be more readers as well!