Jaera is four.

Everyone is fawning and cooing over her younger brother, no one paying attention to her. She decides to walk out the door onto the sidewalk where brightly coloured cars are passing by. She can still hear them making baby noises and she can hear them not care about her.

She spots an ice cream stall across the street and being a little girl, that's all she can see. But what she doesn't see, is a car practically zooming towards her.

Something (or someone?) hits Jaera hard and both of them land on the ground with a loud thud. The car speeds past them, never slowing down.

The figure gets up slowly and helps her stand carefully. It's a boy about her age with cute brown hair, cute brown eyes and a cute smile donning his face. He worriedly holds her hand and gives her a once over to check if she's okay.

He smiles at her and it tugs at her heart; but she doesn't know why. She's only four after all.

"Are you alwight?" he asks. "Where's your eomma?"

She doesn't answer, preferring to stare at the ground in silence. He seems to understand, though. He squeezes her hand softly and shoots her a small smile. He reaches to the back of his neck to unclasp a necklace.

Suddenly, someone calls for him and he quickly puts his necklace around her neck.

"Bye!" he shouts as he runs off to his mother. "Don't be sad, okay?"

After that, she never really takes the necklace off. It's not that fancy, just adorning a plain 'J' charm, but she still loves it. No one really questions it because her name starts with the letter J too, but she wears it under her shirt so no one will have to.

Jaera never forgets the brown-eyed, brown-haired boy. (And she hopes he never forgets about her.)

Jaera is six.

Her parents have stopped pampering her younger brother, Jihyuk, seeing as he's already three.

This time, they're in front of that exact same store on the sidewalk. And instead of her, Jihyuk is the one who spots the ice cream stall and his eyes widen in wonder and curiosity. Their mother is too busy on the phone to notice.

She's too frozen to move or say anything so she squeezes her eyes shut, but she can still picture it; the exact same thing that happened to her years ago. Though this time, there's no brown-eyed, brown-haired angel to save him. Jaera reaches a hand to her necklace and holds it, desperately praying for a certain angel to help him.

Time seems to slow to a halt, but she doesn't hear any screams, any thuds, or any screeches of brakes. She slowly opens her eyes only to find Jihyuk safe and sound back on the sidewalk beside her. This time, there is a lady clutching him by the shoulders, probably helping to balance him.

Before she can say anything, her mother bounds over, finally noticing the commotion. She fusses over him and dusts dirt off his clothes before properly thanking the lady.

"Oh, it's alright. You know how little boys are," the lady laughs, and Jaera can't help but feel like she's seen it somewhere before. "In fact, my little boy Junmyeonnie is a big bundle of trouble too!"

Suddenly, a small boy, or Junmyeon, runs over to the lady. "Eomma! Were you talking about me?" he pouts. "I thought you told me it was rude!"

Junmyeon's mother chuckles endearingly and ruffles his hair. "Just saying how naughty you are!" she adds.

The adults turn back to their own conversation and Jaera is once again feeling neglected. That is, until a certain brown-eyed, brown-haired boy speaks to her.

"Annyeonghaseyo! I'm Kim Junmyeon!" he gives a short bow with an innocent grin.

"Park Jaera." she answers while tipping her head shyly.

"I like your dress!"

"I don't."

"Why? It has puppies on it! I love puppies!"

"Don't be a pabo."

Junmyeon gasps. "You said the 'p' word!" he exclaims in shock.

Jaera rolls her eyes at him and of course, it only escalates from there. She wishes her mother would just end the conversation and hurry up already. But to her chagrin, her mother announces, "We're going to have brunch with Mrs Kim tomorrow!"

She crosses her arms as she glares into space. Junmyeon is just so annoying.

But a small part of her tells her that there might be a possibility of Junmyeon being her brown-eyed, brown-haired angel as she toys with the 'J' charm necklace.

Of course, things don't go her way. What was supposed to be a fun, relaxing summer turns into a distressing one when her mother announces perkily that they are going to spend the summer with the Kims. Jaera is not that surprised, really. Their mothers had been spending time together way too often.

"Junmyeon is going to be there and he's your age, Jaera." her mother coos, in hopes of calming her.

Jaera doesn't dare go against her mother so she keeps shut.

And that is how she ends up in a nice beach house with a beautiful view of the ocean, stopping to stare for a while as she lugs her heavy suitcase along. Junmyeon appears and accompanies her staring at the view.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Junmyeon says and Jaera can't help but agree. "C'mon, let me take your suitcase to your room."

He lugs her suitcase up with great difficulty, but he tries to hide it because he's a big boy now. With a huff, he opens the door to Jaera's room and settles the suitcase in.

Her eyes sparkle in wonder as she looks around. Her room and Jihyuk's are on either side of Junmyeon's. It looks luxurious; pretty wallpaper and pretty patterns, complete with a row of plushies on the bed. She gives an approving nod and turns to open the curtains.

"This room has a pretty view too!" Junmyeon tells her, trying to keep the peace.

Unfortunately for him, the peace is broken when she sarcastically answers, "You falling out the window would make the view prettier."

The assaulted look on his face makes her bite back a chuckle and she prides herself on her high-quality insults.

"Now, now, Jaera! Eomma told me you're only six! I'm seven, so that makes me your oppa! You should respect me, dongsaeng-ah!"

Jaera shoots him a withering look.

He sighs. "Eomma and I are going down to the ocean. You wanna come?"

"Okay," she mumbles. "It's boring here anyway."

He turns to leave while she puts on her swimsuit and ties up her hair. Once she gets down, she spots him building a sandcastle by himself while the mothers watch him with Jihyuk sleeping next to his mother.

She sits beside him with a plop. "Junmyeon-ah, let me help!"

"If you're here to say naughty things, then go away, Jaera."

"I won't Junmyeon-ah." she says cheekily.

The frown on his face won't go away so Jaera reassures him, "Let's do this together, oppa."

The ghost of a smile on his face lets her know that he likes being called oppa. She grins slyly, tucking this piece of information into a small part of her mind to save for future use.

But of course, this is Jaera and Junmyeon. Their sandcastle building doesn't go on without bickering and sand splashing. However, when she glances towards their mothers, she sees them laughing and whispering, but she isn't really sure why.

They spend their days on the beach with fun and mischief and they pass by in a blur. On the last day of summer, Junmyeon enters her room quietly. Her head is buried in a book about wizards and philosopher stones so she can't be bothered to look up until he clears his throat.

"We're leaving now, Jaera. Eomma asked me to say bye before we leave."

"Oh." she gets up from her bed and puts the book aside. "Annyeong, oppa."

He smiles at the term and she feels proud to be able to elict such an emotion from him by just calling him oppa.

"Annyeong, Jaera!" and that's all he says before shuffling out the door.

They spend their next few summers together and this time, Jaera is twelve while Junmyeon is 13.

They maintain a balanced relationship, between hatred and friendship; they've got a frenemy thing going on. She splashes water on him, he knocks down her sandcastle, but at the end of the day, they read together and watch the sunset side by side.

"You know," Junmyeon begins one day. "You're not that bad actually."

Jaera laughs sarcastically. "Very funny, Junmyeon. I know your type; the type of guy who think he's better than everyone else because they're better looking, the type of guy who shuns girls like me in your school."

"Girls like you?"

"I'm not exactly popular, oppa." and she sees his face soften at the sound of the word 'oppa'.

"Then what are you?" he asks curiously.

"I'll just generally end up as my old ugly self."

"But I think you're pretty!"

A blush rises to her cheeks as she responds, "Yah! Stop saying things you don't mean!"

"I do mean it!" he says with a pout. "You're really really pretty."

She doesn't answer, preferring to look away as she hides the colour on her cheeks.

On the last day, he enters her room.

"Leaving already?" she asks.

"Yep." he pulls her into a warm hug. It's nice and warm and fuzzy and Jaera concludes that she really likes hugs.

"Yah! It's as if you won't see me for another ten years!"

"It's okay," he says as he plants a wet kiss on her forehead. "See you next summer!"

Jaera falls back onto her bed as she watches him leave, never once turning back and she sighs, waiting for the next summer to come around.

Jaera is 17.

"Eomma! We've been going to that beach house since I was six! Can't I hang out with my friends and boyfriend instead?" she groans, running her hand through her hair.

"No!" her mother answers sharply. "You can go 'hang out' with Junmyeon! You've been friends since you were little! Do not ruin our summer plans, Jaera."

Jaera sighs in frustration. Suddenly, he phone rings and she hurries to answer.

"Kai."

After hearing his response, she stiffens. "You know what? Fine! See if I care! I don't need you, Kim Jongin!"

She presses the end call button on her phone harshly before turning to her mother, who was watching the exchange silently. Her mother remains silent and watches her daughter stomp up the stairs and slam the door.

It isn't even ten minutes before Jaera reappears downstairs. "When are we leaving?" she asks innocently.

Her mother just smiles back.

And as always, the beach house looks exactly the same as it did 10 years ago, except for a few renovations here and there. (The Kims are rich after all)

The two mothers embrace each other in a hug and Junmyeon hangs around in the background. However, he immediately grins when he sees her.

"Park Jaera! You've grown up so prettily!"

She rolls her eyes. It's only been a year since they last saw each other. Her eyes wander to his hair, now dyed a platinum blonde. She reaches out to touch it, to see if it's real. But now he's a lot taller than he was before so it's a bit difficult. Before she can ruffle it, a small figure comes running towards them.

"Hyung!" Jihyuk wraps Junmyeon in a bone-crushing hug. "Whoah! You look daebak!"

Junmyeon laughs and ruffles the younger's hair. "Annyeong Jihyuk! Wow, you've grown a lot already!"

Jihyuk puffs out his chest. Jaera takes this as her cue to leave, so she trudges into the beach house, only to have Junmyeon trailing after her.

"Jaera! Wait up!"

Their relationship is still the same, both still frenemies (but now leaning towards the friends side).

She overhears her mother conversing with Mrs Kim in the kitchen one day. "Jaera recently broke up with her boyfriend. Good thing too, he was such a bad influence on her; taking her to parties, coming home late at night. Ugh."

"Junmyeon hasn't had a girlfriend for years now. He always tells me that he's waiting for 'the one'."

Her mother sighs. "How long will it take them?"

"You have to let them heal first, though we can speed things up a little..."

"Maybe if you told Junmyeon about Jaera's breakup," her mother muses. "He does like being a hero."

Jaera leans back on the wall, heart racing. Would they really? Half of her doesn't want him to know, while the other half strangely does. She ponders on the prospect of dating him; he's actually handsome, caring and perfect boyfriend material. However, it still doesn't stop the pang in her heart when she thinks of dating and is reminded of Kim Jongin.

So she doesn't stop them, and she doesn't let anyone know what she's heard either. She rushes into her bedroom and buries her head into her pillow, screaming in frustration. Does she like him? Does he like her? She is genuinely curious of how everything will pan out.

She can't sleep at night and wakes up early the next morning to watch the sunrise. She stops in her tracks to savour the morning breeze.

Then, she realises that someone is standing behind her. She whips her head around, and Junmyeon stares back, unfazed.

"Oppa."

"You didn't tell me you broke up with your boyfriend, Jaera." there's a hint of hurt in his voice and she can't help but feel the tiniest bit guilty.

"It's not something I'd like to announce to the world." she mumbles. "It wasn't a bad breakup anyway."

"You've been dating for almost a year. I'd say it was a bad breakup." he responds frankly.

She doesn't know how to respond to that, so she starts a new conversation. "Why did you dye your hair blonde?"

"Can't I?" he asks. "I just wanted to try something new. You know,