It seemed to Sora that her period lasted an especially long time this month – or maybe that was because it was especially annoying when she wanted to hang out with Jongdae – but eventually it ended, as it always did, and she became less crabby – only marginally so, according to Dami.

Monday found her lounging by the pool with her two best girlfriends, Amber and Krystal. Both were immigrants from America, and the three of them spoke English together almost as often as they spoke Korean.

“So I heard your boy-toy is back in town,” Krystal, ever the flirt, teased. They were sprawled across three lawn chairs at the public pool, pushed close together with Krystal in the middle.

Amber pushed her sunglasses down her nose. “I didn’t know Jongdae was back in town!”

Sora groaned. It was lucky that the pool wasn’t very crowded, or she might have beat up her loud-mouthed friends. “He is not my boy-toy,” she insisted hotly.

Krystal giggled girlishly. “Oh, that’s right. You only wish he was your boy-toy because you’re too much of a coward to tell him that you like him.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Sora insisted. “He’s like my brother, or my cousin. Even if I did like him – and I’m not saying that I do – it could never work between us.” And then she got up huffily and went into the pool. It was freezing, but she needed to escape her friends’ teasing.

Though Krystal stayed where she was, soaking up some sun beneath her fashionable floppy sunhat, Amber came to join Sora in the pool. She was even more of a tomboy than Sora was, so sunbathing wasn’t really high on her to-do list.

“Don’t take her so seriously,” Amber advised, sitting down on the edge of the pool and dipping her feet in. She shivered from the cold. “She’s just teasing.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sora grumbled, wrinkling her nose. Then she sighed. “He’s got a girlfriend, you know.”

Amber looked suitably surprised. “Who? Jongdae?”

Sora nodded.

“Well, hot damn. That’s unexpected.”

Sora shot her a dirty look. “It was bound to happen sometime.”

“Yeah, and it could’ve happened to you,” Amber pointed out. “Look, I’m not being pushy or anything,” she hurried on when it became obvious Sora was going to retort hotly. “I’m just laying down the facts. You guys have a good relationship already, and the best basis for a romantic relationship is a solid friendship. You guys already know so much about each other. And you sell yourself short, Sora. You’re cute in your own way.”

“Was that a compliment?” Sora demanded dryly.

Amber ignored her. “All I’m saying is that, if Jongdae and this so-called girlfriend break up, I think you should make a move. Or do something. It’s better than living your life without knowing what could’ve been. And if it doesn’t work out, you’re both mature enough to move on with your lives and not let it affect your friendship.”

Sora grumbled a bit under her breath. Amber had valid points, certainly, but the honest truth was that, even if Jongdae and his girlfriend did break up, Sora would never have enough courage to confess to him.

Krystal waved them over then. “Hey!” she called loudly in English, causing some of the nearby mothers to glare at her. “Donghwan got invited to a paint party this weekend! You guys down?”

“Hell yeah!” Amber shouted back. She glanced at Sora. “You want to go, don’t you?”

Sora nodded. Any party their friend Donghwan went to was sure to be killer.

The three of them were excitedly discussing the upcoming paint party as they headed back to Sora’s apartment to grab some lunch and while away the afternoon with variety shows on television. Krystal was wondering whether to wear something white or something already brightly colored when they bumped into Jongdae waiting for the elevator.

“Hey there,” he grinned, holding the elevator doors open for them to crowd in with him. “If it isn’t the trio of misfits.” He’d been calling them that for years, mostly because of Krystal and Amber’s American heritage. “What are you lot up to?”

“We’re just heading up to get some food,” Amber explained, running her fingers through her short, damp hair.

Krystal suddenly grinned. “You know, we’re going to this really awesome paint party on Friday. You should come with us. It’ll be a blast.”

Sora sort of wanted to strangle her best friend, but she couldn’t with Jongdae as a witness. The CCTV cameras didn’t help either.

Jongdae seemed to think about it seriously. “A paint party, you say? That sounds like a lot of fun, but I already agreed to hang out with Jongin and Sehun.” Jongin and Sehun had been Jongdae’s best friends in high school; now that they had all graduated, they only really got to hang out when they all came home for school vacations.

“Bring them along, too,” Krystal said quickly. It was no secret that she liked Jongdae’s dark, sensual friend Jongin. “The more the merrier!”

Jongdae nodded as they reached the seventh floor and everyone got off. “Sounds like a plan.” So they waved goodbye and parted ways.

“Aren’t you angry with me for inviting Jongdae?” Krystal asked worriedly as the door swung shut behind them.

Sora shook her head. “I wish you hadn’t caught me off guard with it, but I’m not angry that you invited him. In fact, I probably would have invited him myself if you hadn’t. You seem to think that I have this tragic, unrequited love going on but I don’t. Jongdae is my friend and that’s that. I like hanging out with him.”

Krystal just laughed and rolled her eyes.

The party was taking place in Hongdae, so Sora, Krystal, and Amber went together by subway. They recognized several of their friends and many acquaintances from school as they made their way to the underground club where the paint party was being held.

It was already crowded when they arrived, the dance floor crammed with people writhing and bouncing to the steady techno beat blasting through the speakers. There was paint everywhere. Some of the men and women who worked there were manning big water guns of paint, shooting it out over the crowd without a care. There were also mini water guns being passed among the crowd, and every twenty minutes or so huge buckets of paint would be thrown over the railings of the second floor.

Krystal’s face automatically split into a wide grin. “Now this is a party,” she approved happily. She linked her arms through Sora’s and Amber’s and led the way out onto the dance floor.

By the time Jongdae and his friends found them, they were already drenched in paint and would have been nearly unrecognizable if Jongdae and Sora hadn’t been so close.

“You look like you got mauled by a rainbow,” he teased, picking at a piece of her hair that was currently thick with hot pink paint.

She didn’t pull away, liking the idea of him touching her even if it was in this familial sort of way. “And you are embarrassingly clean,” she retorted. “Don’t you know that this is a paint party? And here you are all clean and white.” She grabbed a glob of paint that was clinging to the back of Amber’s shirt and wiped it across the front of his white v-necked t-shirt. “There,” she declared happily. “Now you fit in more and you’re not as much of an embarrassment.”

“Embarrassment?” Jongdae repeated incredulously, grinning despite himself. “I’ll show you who’s an embarrassment!” And with that, he grabbed her round the middle and threw her over his shoulder, going in search of some paint to throw her in.

Sora really enjoyed hanging out with Jongdae in laid-back settings like this. She liked it even more when Amber and Krystal busied themselves dancing with Jongin and Sehun, giving her and Jongdae some time alone. She liked it best when they were alone, because she could just have fun and not worry about what her friends were thinking about her crush.

After Jongdae made sure that she was so covered in paint that even her own mother wouldn’t be able to recognize her, they found a single empty chair in a corner, into which Jongdae pushed Sora, and shared a bottle of water Jongdae had bought from the bar.

“What a party,” he crowed, leaning against the wall beside her, close enough that his arm was brushing her shoulder.

“Yeah,” she echoed, letting her head rest comfortably on his arm. This was why she liked Jongdae so much, she thought to herself. They were comfortable with each other; they were happy. She wished it could always stay this way.

“My parents are going out of town next weekend, you know,” Jongdae said suddenly. “They’re going to visit my grandparents in Daejeon. They won’t be back until Sunday night, so I was thinking of throwing a party.”

“Won’t Jonghyun rat you out?” Sora demanded. She liked Jongdae’s brother, but the between them was enough that they had never really gotten that close.

Jongdae shook his head with a little laugh, passing the bottle of water back to her. There was paint smeared on the outside of it, obscuring the label. “I already asked for permission, and my parents are cool with it as long as it doesn’t get out of hand and as long as the house is cleaned up by the time they get back. And Jonghyun is using the opportunity to stay with his girlfriend. She doesn’t live with her parents, so she’s got a bit more freedom than we do.”

Sora asked the question before she could stop herself. “Why aren’t you going to spend time with your girlfriend then?” She wished she hadn’t said it the second the words left her lips.

Jongdae shrugged. “She lives in Busan. And I’ll see her again when I go back to school. Besides, I don’t think her parents would approve very much if I showed up on their doorstep.”

“Probably not,” Sora agreed, but she found herself thinking how relieved she was that he wouldn’t be going to see his girlfriend over the weekend.

“Anyway, so I’m going to throw a party,” Jongdae continued. “Nothing big, just a small get together of friends I haven’t seen since high school. But you should come.”

Sora felt pleased to have been included. She knew that she would be younger than almost everyone else at the party, but most of Jongdae’s friends were used to seeing her follow him around while he was in high school, so they probably wouldn’t be all that surprised that she was still doing it. “Okay,” she agreed. “That sounds fun.”

Jongdae flashed her a smile and ruffled her paint-smeared hair. “Great. It wouldn’t be the same without you.”