“NOONA! AHHH! NOONA!” I looked up at the familiar voice calling my name. My head fervently searched left and right then spotted Haru standing beside Hansol on the sidewalk, holding his knee to his face. And may I add: a bloody knee.

“OH MY GOD!” I exclaimed as I ran straight to Hansol who was just staring at the bleeding gusher. I immediately dug into the Hello Kitty backpack on my back for the First Aid kit. “What happened??”

“Oppa pushed me so I pushed him back!” Haru tattle-tailed as she pointed at Hansol. He stuck out his lower lip, trying to hold back his tears.

“Then stop casting spells on me!” The injured boy winced as I cleaned his wound with antibacterial wipes.

I looked at Haru. “You. Stop casting spells on your brother. You know he’s afraid of that…” I looked at Hansol. “And you: you know better then to push your sister, let alone a girl.” I looked at Haru again. “And you again: If someone says stop, then stop so neither of you…” I now pointed at both of them. “Will get hurt? Arasso?”

“Neh Noona…” The both of them said together in unison. I bandaged up Hansol’s wound and stood him up. “All right you two… now say sorry to each other and give a family hug, all right?” The twins nodded sullenly doing as they were told. They didn’t really give each other a “hug” per say, but I mean they did bump into each others chest then rebounded back within seconds.

“KAI OPPA!” Haru ran right past the both of us as Hansol and I turn around to see Kai standing there with arms wide open. He picked her up in his arms with ease giving her a kiss on the forhead.

“How’s my little princess doing, huh?” He asked her as her cheeks started to turn pink. The little girl giggled and placed a hand on his face.

“Oppa. I’m not JUST a princess anymore! Omma said I can be a wizard princess!”

Hansol gave a loud groan. I covered my mouth from the laugh that was about to escape. Kai took in all her words with enthusiasm.

“Chincha?? Whoaaa daebakkk!” He played along. Kai looked at Hansol who was now holding onto my hand beside me. “What about you little guy? Are you a wizard as well as a knight, too?”

The little guy shook his head. “Ani. I’m just a knight!” He pointed a finger at himself. ”Hyung! I defended myself today!”

“Apparently, not well enough…” I pointed at the bandage on his knee with my eyes. “Plus, not in the right way either.” Kai silently mouthed to me asking if Haru had pushed Hansol and I just nodded in reply. Kai placed Haru down on her feet then took Hansol’s other free hand in his.

“Look, for all the hard work you both have been doing for being a knight and a wizard princess…” He looked between the two kids. “How about I treat you two to some ice cream??” The kids cheered. I gave Kai the “they shouldn’t be having sweets before dinner” look, but he just shrugged as the kids dragged us along to the ice cream truck. As promised, he bought us all ice cream and it immediately made the little spat the twins had before disappear. They were now playing around with each other as if the pushing thing never happened.

“Unnie is going to KILL me…” I scooped a spoon of ice cream onto my tiny wooden stick. “Yah. Kim Jongin. You know how they shouldn’t be having sweets before dinner anyways…”

Kai shrugged as he took a stick of his ice cream into his mouth. “What? It’s not the first time its happened.”

“Yeah, but since Unnie knows about Sehun and I its going to make this situation worse then it already is and—“

Kai held up the stick of ice cream in the middle of my sentence. “Stop.”

“What?”

“Your sister knows about what?”

“Well, Sehun & I of course.” I suddenly stopped midway in my action of feeding myself some ice cream. I slowly looked up from my cup and saw Kai’s body set in stone. He was looking straight at me as if a meteor had hit the ground behind me and he could only sit there in complete shock.

“Sehun. Your boyfriend?” His eyes suddenly darted to his ice cream. He took a huge chunk of ‘brain freeze’ sized ice cream and put it straight into his mouth. I could tell he was refraining himself from saying more about the situation.

“Uhm, yeah… I told her about us.” I took a dallop of my own ice cream onto my wooden spoon. “Now that Sehun—Oppa—is here in South Korea, I thought it would be the right time to tell her.” 

“So, h-h-has she m-met him y-y-yet?” Kai asked through chattering teeth, his brain freze now totally taking effect. I watched as he started jerking his head in awkward directions going through the motions.

“Well, not yet…I just told her about him yesterday, but she’ll definitely want to meet him.” Lie. Soo Yeon was furious with him even WITHOUT meeting him. She said that if he ever shows his face in front of her, she will beat him pulp. She was even squeezing orange juice at the time and damn, it looked pretty convincing… Scarily convincing.

“I want to meet him again.” Kai finally looked up at me with some sort of confidence in his eyes.

“Meet who?” I voiced like an owl.

“Santa Clause that’s who.” Kai mimicked my animal voice back. I reached across and gave him playful slap on the cheek. When I did though, Kai winced and put his hand immediately on the place where I slapped him. When he rubbed off the pain, he lifted his hand off his face revealing an ugly looking bruise.

“Omo! Kai!” I stood up reaching across to take his face in my hands. I began twisting it here and there to get a better look at it under the sunlight. “Mianhe! Mianhe! I didn’t know I slapped that hard! I just—“

“It’s not your fault” Kai winced again as my hand accidentally applied pressure on the bruise. I pulled away quickly making sure not to make contact with his face, and putting him in more pain.

“What did you get yourself into now?” I placed the Hello Kitty backpack on the table and looked inside for the first aid kit once more.

“Just a little spat with some hoodlums crossing our territory. That’s all.” I shook my head as I found the cream I was looking for in the little box. I stood up and walked over to Kai, pushing him over with my body as I sat down next to him.

“Come here.” I pulled his face towards me, holding it still with one hand and dipping the other hand in the jar. “What is with guys and trying to prove themselves with the use of violence?” I placed the cream on Kai’s bruised jaw and gently began to rub it. He closed his eyes wincing here and there.

“Because…” Kai winced back, but I kept a tight grip on his face. “Sometimes its just the quickest and easiest situation you know?”

“Actually, no, I don’t know” I turned his head away from me applying more cream. “But apparently, Hansol knows.”

“In my defense, he's trying to be manlier, you know?? Fights build character and strength!”

“Not when they’re against his sister!” I pointed out, pulling both my hands away from him, finally done with my work. “And what if he ends up doing this to other kids, huh? Then what?”

“If he’s really good then maybe I can bring him to my gym!” Kai started punching his fists at the air beside my shoulders. “Maybe I can train him to be an MMA fighter and—“

“OW!” I winced as Kai’s shoulder punch made contact with my actual shoulder. It didn’t really hurt, but it certainly surprised me. Then again, maybe I could use this little playful lie as payback. “KIM JONGIN!”

“Aish! Soo Jung-ah! Are you okay??” He scooted closer to me and pulling my good arm towards him. “Did I bruise you?” Kai began to bend over to lift the sleeve of my t-shirt to inspect the un-bruised area I had.  

“Hey!” I slapped his hand away before he could figure out the truth. “ert much??”

Kai looked up at me. “No! I’m just trying to take care of you pabo!” He sat up and knocked me on the head. I placed my other hand on the place he hit me and frowned.

“Ouch! What’s with you, huh!?” I started to hit him backtrying to fight a smile. My hits turned into tickling him on the spots I knew his body reacted to the most.

“Hahahahaha--YAH!!--hahahahaha—WHAT THE HECK?!” Kai tried to push my hand away, but was failing miserably. “What happened to no violence?!”

I continued poking his waist as he was still thrashing around. “Who ever said tickling was violence?” I poked harder getting even louder laughter from him. “You know, these tickle spots were made so that people can ‘hurt’ each other without actual pain; only smiles and laughter. Just like how all conflicts should end.” I finally stopped tickling Kai and he leaned forward taking deep breaths from all the laughing he had done. “You should teach Hansol that!”

“Fine. Fine. Whatever.” Kai looked up at me. “Tickling isn’t exactly an ideal move to use in the ring, but if it works…”

“KAI!” I tried to aim my hands at his sides again, but he caught them quickly. I fought him, so I could get to his tickle spots, but he was too strong.

“Aren’t you on the strong side today?” He teased me as he pushed forward, his face inches from mine. We both laughed and in that moment, our eyes met and oh…oh…whoa…when were they so…brown? Not only that, but since when did Kai start smelling so…nice? Or the fact that his breathe smelled of chocolate and mint? I just—wow, what? Breath? How was I THIS close to him and--

**RING RING RING**

Both of us jerked away from each other immediately. I checked the pocket of my jeans as Kai did as well, and it turned out that my phone was the one being contacted. I excused myself from the table, standing to walk away to answer my cell phone.

“Hello?” I answered. I started to wipe off little bullets of sweat that were running down the side of my face. Phew…hot day it was…Yes…oh, very hot.

“Tomorrow night, be ready at 7pm. We’re going out on a date, don’t worry about your job, I took care of it.” Before I could tell him anything, he hung up as well, leaving me hanging. I furiously tapped my phone screen in anger. What right did he have calling me out on dates like that? I mean, shouldn’t I have a say on date nights? Besides, what was Unnie going to say about this (if she was even going to talk to me…) And what about Kai??

I paused myself, hitting my head with my phone. Yah, Soo Jung-ah! Snap out of this Kai thing you’re processing in your mind! Don’t you remember that you have Amber and the rest of EXO to worry about? Not just Kai! I turned around, seeing Kai playing with the twins come into view. He looked so…good playing with the kids. Almost a natural…You know, I always have a thing for guys who play with kids. It just shows them how much of a father they could become and—

I covered my mouth as if I were saying these things out loud. SOO-JUNG stop this nonsense right away! Thinking of Kai as a father…. Saying you have a thing for the “fatherly” types. I wiped away the sweat that had come from the heat of the moment Kai & I shared together. The moment where our mouths were THIS close to touching and if it wasn’t for Sehun, I would probably be enjoying that kiss we were supposed to share together and—

I punched my head repeatedly as I leaned my back against the tree, slowly sliding down to the ground. “Pabo. Pabo. Pabo.” I hit myself with each word I said. “Get your head on straight! This is Kim Jongin you are talking about. The Casanova Kai. The Hoodlum Kai. The father Kai… Yet, my Kim Jongin…

“Yah! Soo Jung! The heat must be driving you mad!” I stood up fighting off that sudden weird feeling I was starting to get. “Get yourself together. Yes. Get yourself TOGETHER.” I turned around once more to walk towards the trio when my heart stopped: Kai was giving Haru a piggyback as he playfully wrestled with Hansol. His eye smile. The sweat glistening off his exposed collarbone. That playful fatherly act I loved so much on a guy… I placed a hand on my heart and it was beating like wild drums. Yes…Yes this must be the effects of the summer heat. Nothing but the summer heat…

Author's Note

Oh hey there wonderl beautiful people that still take the time to read the Author's Note! (: Sorry I haven't been updating this as much with the edited version, because I've been busy with school & editing Ride or Die (shameless advertising, yes I knowww haha). I have a beta reader for this story now (christineyu527) so hopefully she & I can work together to get through editing this story. 

Okay, well...until next time my wonderful, beautiful people :D <333 Don't forget to comment/upvote!