[CONTENTID1] SECOND PRANK [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

From now on, conversations in English will be made bold to save any confusion :)

Jaehwa leaned back on her arms, her legs folded, as she watched me play around with my phone settings. I finally linked myself to the school’s private internet (courtesy of JB’s connections with hackers at MEGA) and went on the app I needed.

“Is it working?” Jaehwa asked from behind me. I walked over to her as my phone rang and sat down next to her. We had our backs facing the edge of the roof, the sunset like a beautiful painting behind us. 

“Yeah, it’s ringing,” I replied as I fixed my blue beanie. She fiddled with her cap and puffed out her cheeks, swishing her saliva from one side to the other. I huffed out a breath, my patience quickly waning. Finally, he answered. “Took you long enough, .”

“Yo, calm your ,” Aron laughed, then waved two fingers at the camera in greetings.

“I was busy. Ah, you must be Jaehwa. Nice to meet my girl’s girl.” Jaehwa remained silent, flashing me confused looks.

“She doesn’t speak English,” I told him and he made a prolonged ‘ah’ sound. I switched to Korean, “Looks like we’ll be using our mother tongue tonight.” Obviously being Korean, Aron spoke the language but it had been years and his accent had changed. More so than mine. “Aron, this is Im Jaehwa. Jaehwa, meet Aron Kwak.”

“Annyeong,” she said, tittering awkwardly as she waved her hand. This was my first time seeing Jaehwa be anything other than y and/or confident. “It’s nice to meet you, Aron Kwak-ssi.”

“No need for honourifics,” he replied lightheartedly. He then pointed at me, “Serena Oh, making friends. This is a new one.”

I snorted, “Are you kidding me? Everyone loves me here. I’m the Queen Bee.” 

Jaehwa laughed and shook her head, “Yeah, right. People are only interested because you must be richer than them if you lived in America for five years. But that interest kinda dropped when you claimed me as your friend.”

“My Tonic doesn’t keep friends very well,” Aron told her, pouting at me. “It’s a shame. I don’t even know why I’m still talking to her…maybe it’s pity.”

“Same here,” Jaehwa agreed, patting my head. “Plus, she’s cute. It’s like abandoning a puppy at the side of a road, y’know?”

“Alright, alright, shut up,” I grumbled, making them both laugh. “Enough of this ganging up on me. What is this, Call of Duty, where you can just enable friendly fire? No.”

“Is she always this nerdy?” Jaehwa asked.

Aron blew out a breath and looked up in thought, “Ah….yes. Always.”

“Whatever, you love it,” I scoffed, flicking my hair.

“No,” he pointed at me and squinted his eyes in attempted iness, “I love you.”

“Babe.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Your idiot.”

I rolled my eyes and Jaehwa laughed at us, “You two are like a bickering couple. It’s as cute as it is disgusting to watch.” I spluttered out a laugh, jokingly elbowing her. “So, Aron, do you have a Korean name as well?”

“Yeah, Youngmin,” he replied, then made a face,“but I only go by Aron.”

“When did you move to America?” she asked whilst fixing her cap again.

Aron looked up in thought, pursing his lips, "Ah…I must’ve been, what,  six years old? Seven?”

I shook my head, “No, , you were five.” I rolled my eyes then turned to Jaehwa, “He lived in Los Angeles for four years before moving to New York for three years. Then he moved back to California and he settled into Malibu.”

“Been here ever since I was twelve,” he added.

“Wait, how old are you?” she asked.

“Eighteen. I’ve already graduated since the education system is different in America.” He looked off to the side of the camera and a grin spread across his face. “Yo, Kev! Come ‘ere, you little .” A ball flew into view but Aron easily dodged it. He threw his head back and laughed. “Come ‘ere, say hi to Serena.”

“Serena? As in, Serena Oh?” 

“Yeee,” Aron drawled. Kevin Woo, a friend of Aron’s who was two years older than us, appeared at his side. I’d met him numerous times whilst in America, though we weren’t that close since he’d been a senior when I was a sophomore. The only reason he and Aron were friends was because they were on the football team together. 

“Hey, Serena,” Kevin said with a wave.

“Long time no see.”

“Indeed, Kevin Woo,” I agreed, waving back. 

As mentioned before, I’d never been close to Kevin so I didn’t really feel the need to ask about his life, or anything regarding him for that matter. Jaehwa leaned into me.

“I have no idea what’s going on…” she whispered. I laughed and made another mental note to teach her a thing or two on English — hopefully I wouldn’t forget again. “Tell them to speak Korean.”

“Jaehwa, that’s kind of…ignorant,” I told her, hiding the smile from my face. “What if Kevin doesn’t speak Korean?”

She paused for a moment and looked up. Then, she looked back at me and shrugged, “He can learn.” I laughed again and shook my head at her. She turned to face the camera again. “Kevin Yoo, do you speak Korean?”

“Woo,” he replied, and then: “But yeah, I speak Korean. Nice to meet you…?”

“Im Jaehwa,” she filled in and he nodded. “Nice to meet you two, Kevin-ssi.” He chuckled and Aron draped an arm over his shoulders.

“It’s been god knows how many years since someone’s used honourifics with me,” he divulged, pursing his lips. “Not sure how I feel about it.” Aron yawned dramatically.

“Well, as boring as this conversation is, I think we should part ways,” he declared. My eyelids drooped down as I stared at him blankly. He grinned and shrugged apologetically, even if it was feigned. “Sorry, babe, I made plans with Kev before you called. Chat later, yeah?”

“ you.”

He laughed, “Nice meeting you, Jae. I can call you Jae, right? Cool. Bye.” He didn’t wait for her response before the call ended and my screen returned to the recent calls. I locked it and turned to Jaehwa.

“So that was my friend,” I said and she snorted a laugh. “I would say he isn’t usually like that but…he is.” I shrugged. “He’s one of those love ‘em or leave ‘em type of guys, you feel me?”

“Very much so,” she replied.

We were both silent for a few moments. I was the one to break that silence.

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