PRESENT-DAY

    Jinsoul sat in her room switching between tuning her guitar and trying to find tabs online to practice with. She had just picked up an interest in playing guitar, but she had always been musically inclined because of her father, so it came to her pretty easily. Just as she had found the one she was looking for, she heard a voice calling from downstairs.

    “Soulie! Will you come down for a minute, please?” her mother called.

    Jinsoul reluctantly put her guitar down and stood up from her bed. She was still wearing her sleep clothes, an oversized black shirt and running shorts. She attempted to flatten the blonde cowlick that had formed on the side of her head as she looked in the mirror, but it just sprang back every time she removed her hand. Accepting her fate, she shrugged and opened the door to her room.

    “Coming!” she shouted.

    As she made her way down the stairs, she could hear her parents talking in hushed tones to each other. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it sounded serious. 

    “Hi, baby! Come here, we want to talk to you about something,” Jinsoul’s mother said as she came into view from the stairs.

    She patted the seat next to her on the couch. Jinsoul’s father was standing by the window, to the left of the couch. Jinsoul looked at him with confusion, and her father just gave an assuring smile and gestured to the couch. Jinsoul took a seat and looked between the two of them, waiting for someone to speak up.

    “So,” her mother cleared . “We were just speaking to your grandparents and they said they are planning on selling your Aunt Duri’s house.”

    “Oh… well, I guess it's just been sitting there since she died, right?” Jinsoul asked.

    “Yes, that’s right. Your grandparents asked us to get the house ready to sell. I have an idea for this to be a sort of project for you, if you’re interested. You and your friends could work together to fix up the house. We already have people working on the infrastructure things, but I think it would be fun for you to work on making the house look presentable. You’re almost a college graduate, and we think it’s important for you to learn to handle a project like this. 

And it doesn’t all have to be work, I want you and your friends to take the time to relax and have fun while you’re there, too! That’s why I want you to stay there for the summer. And we’ll pay all of you for your time. What do you think?”

    Jinsoul’s eyes widened and her smile grew as her mother spoke. She had been almost dreading having to be at home all summer. As much as she loved her parents, they weren’t up for doing anything other than bowling or the occasional movie these days. This was exactly what she needed to make it an unforgettable summer.

    “That sounds great! I think my friends and I can make that house look brand new by the time we’re done with it!” Jinsoul hugged her mother around the neck from excitement.

    Jinsoul’s mother patted her on the back and laughed at her daughter’s sudden affection. 

    “You can comfortably fit about six people in the house, so invite whoever you’d like and make sure they understand the work involved.”

    “Okay! I think I know just who to ask. Thank you!”

    Jinsoul leapt from the couch and bound up the stairs back towards her room. Her parents beamed at her as she left. Back in her room, Jinsoul quickly drafted a text to Jungeun asking her to call as soon as she could. Mere seconds after sending the text, her phone rang.

    “Hello?”

    “What up, ?”

    “Jungeun, guess what we’re doing this summer?”

    “Uhhh… robbing a bank? ing es?”

    Jinsoul rolled her eyes at her ridiculous best friend. She had known Jungeun since elementary school, meaning they had seen each other through several phases of their lives and still stuck around. That’s the ultimate test in Jinsoul’s book. 

    “No, and maybe.”

    “But that’s not what you meant.”

    “Correct. My parents just told me that my grandparents want to sell my Aunt Duri’s old house, and they want us to fix it up for them. My mom even said she’d pay us.”

    “So… we’d be working for them?”

    “Basically, but she wants us to have fun while we’re there, too.”

    “How much fun can we possibly have at an old abandoned house?”

    “Did I mention it’s a lake house?”

    Jinsoul waited for a response, but received none. The line had gone silent. She looked at her phone to check if the call had dropped, but as she pulled away she heard a faraway voice on the line.

    “YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS! YEAH!”

    Jinsoul burst into a fit of laughter. She was always dramatic about stuff, but this was the most excited Jinsoul remembered Jungeun ever being. Eventually Jungeun’s voice came back to the line.

    “I’m sorry, I’m back. So how many people are you inviting? And who?”

    “Well I was thinking Haseul and Jiwoo for sure, and maybe Kahei and Sooyoung?”

    “Kahei, yes, invite her,” Jungeun’s voice deepened at the mention of Kahei.

    “Please behave yourself; you know how she gets when you flirt with her.”

    “Who, me? I’m always behaving myself!”

    Jinsoul made a face of disbelief to no one and remained silent for a few seconds before Jungeun spoke up again.

    “Okay, you’re right. I will… try.”

    Jinsoul shook her head.

    “Alright tiger, I’m gonna hang up so I can invite the others now. I’ll text you the details soon. Get excited, er!!”

    “Already there, ho!”

*** 

    “Okay that’s one small green tea latte and one small hot chocolate,” Jiwoo said to the couple standing across the counter from her. “Anything else I can get for you?” 

    The couple shook their heads and proceeded to pay for their drinks while Jiwoo wrote the orders in shorthand on two cups and placed them on the bar. Haseul took the cups and mechanically made the orders. She worked silently, all the while wishing she were somewhere, anywhere, but here. Thankfully Jiwoo had the same shift today and they had made plans to hang out after work. 

            “One green tea latte, one hot chocolate!” Haseul shouted as she placed the cups on the counter in front of her. 

            A young couple took their cups and nodded in thanks to Haseul and Jiwoo.

            “Have a great day!” Jiwoo said while giving a small wave. 

            Haseul couldn’t help but smile to herself as she cleaned the bar. Jiwoo always made work shifts go by faster with her chipper attitude. 

            “Haseul. Jiwoo. Break time,” the owner said appearing from the back. “And make it quick while there are no customers here. If you’re not back in exactly 15 minutes, that time is coming out of your paycheck. The timer starts now so get going.”

            Haseul practically threw herself into a chair in the back room and leaned her head back with her eyes closed.

            “I hate this place.”

            “You say that every day, Seulie.”

            “Yeah, because it’s true. The amount of self restraint I need to have to not strangle that is exhausting.”

            “He hasn’t been so bad today!”

            Haseul straightened up to look at Jiwoo pointedly.

            “It’s hard to be mean to you, you’re a ray of sunshine.”

            “I know,” Jiwoo batted her eyelashes at the compliment.

            Haseul just rolled her eyes at her and pulled her phone out of her apron. 

    “Hey, did you see this text from Jinsoul?”

    Jiwoo checked her phone and found a new text in the group chat between Jinsoul, Haseul, and herself.

    “Not yet,” she replied as she opened the message.

    The two read the message in silence before looking at each other, an ambiguous expression on both of their faces. Haseul was the first to speak up.

    “What do you think?”

    “Well, we’ll probably be getting paid more than we do here, knowing Jinsoul’s mom, and even if we aren’t a lake house sounds like it would be a lot more fun than this.”

    “That’s what I was thinking, too. I just want to be as far away from this cafe as possible,” Haseul said, her eyes widening at the image of literally running away from the establishment. “We should quit today.”

            She looked at Jiwoo with a devious smile. Jiwoo blinked a few times, seeming to slowly process what Haseul just said. 

           “Think about it,” Haseul said. “We can literally walk out of this place right now and never look back.”

            Haseul could sense Jiwoo’s internal struggle from the way her eyes darted from side to side as she weighed her options. Haseul hadn’t known Jiwoo for that long; they met during freshman orientation and were now about to start their senior year. They got along so well during orientation that they decided to become roommates and eventually wound up becoming best friends. By now, Haseul felt like she knew more about Jiwoo than Jiwoo knew about herself. Finally Jiwoo spoke up.

            “Okay,” she whispered.

            “Okay?” Haseul nodded as she spoke, hoping Jiwoo would nod back to show that she was committed.

            “Let’s do it,” Jiwoo said more confidently. 

            “Yes,” Haseul pumped her fist in the air in victory. “You ready?”

             “Ready,” Jiwoo said as she slipped her cap off and started to untie her apron.

             Haseul walked out first, taking big strides toward the front and taking her own cap off her head. Jiwoo kept up easily, her legs much longer than Haseul’s. As soon as she was around the corner from facing their owner, Haseul turned to Jiwoo with a determined look on her face. Jiwoo looked nervous, but nodded in assurance.

            Haseul took a deep breath and turned the corner. The owner was making a drink at the bar and turned to look at them.

            “Good, you’re back. This young woman wants a cappucci—”

            “We’re quitting,” Haseul interrupted him as she tossed her cap into the trash can next to her. 

            The owner simply raised an eyebrow at her and looked to Jiwoo.

            “Both of you?”

           Jiwoo stammered and fidgeted with her cap, clearly panicking at being put on the spot.

           “Both of us,” Haseul said as she stepped in front of Jiwoo. 

            She took Jiwoo’s cap and tossed it into the trash as well. Haseul proceeded to remove her apron and stuff it into a blender at the bar. While making eye contact with the owner, Haseul turned the knob to the highest setting and turned it on. One of the ties of the apron was sticking out of the top and spinning wildly. She could hear the woman at the counter gasp as the smell of smoke emanated from the blender. After a few seconds, Haseul turned the blender off but it was too late. The smoke had triggered the smoke detector, causing the fire alarm to blare and the sprinkler system to turn on, soaking them all. The owner’s face turned a bright crimson.

    “GET OUT!” he shouted.

    Haseul grabbed Jiwoo’s hand and dragged her out of the shop and down the street. As soon as they were a safe distance away, she turned to Jiwoo to see if she was okay. 

           Jiwoo was in a mild state of shock, staring at Haseul with wide eyes and a tinge of fear behind them. Haseul felt a wave of regret flow through her. Maybe Jiwoo wasn’t ready for this. Why did she have to be so impulsive? 

           “Are you okay?” she asked gently.

            Jiwoo managed a small nod. She was still staring at Haseul, but Haseul could see Jiwoo start to relax. She looked down at the apron still around her neck and slipped it over her head. She looked at it in her hands for a moment before tossing it into a nearby street trash can. She looked at Haseul once more, this time with pride. They both burst into laughter.

           “I’m so glad you did that,” Jiwoo finally said. Let’s get out of here before the authorities arrive.”

            Haseul led the way to her car. Once they were on the road, Haseul remembered why they quit in the first place.

           “So the lake house, are you excited?”

            “Oh, yeah,” Jiwoo perked up. “I hope we can go tubing while we’re out there!”           

             “I just hope no one gets on my nerves while we’re in the middle of nowhere. I’m not sure how Jinsoul’s family will handle a death in their newly remodeled home.” 

    “Yeah,” Jiwoo snorted. “That’d put a damper on the property for sure.”

*** 

    Kahei laid in the parlor of her estate scrolling through Instagram on her phone. She was mindlessly tapping through Stories when Jungeun’s came up. Jungeun had taken a selfie video and was jumping up and down on her bed screaming profanities and seeming very excited about something, but the caption on the video was very vague. The next part of Jungeun’s Story was a selfie where she looked directly into the camera with piercing brown eyes. Kahei stared into Jungeun’s eyes through her phone screen for several seconds before she pried her eyes away and locked her phone. Jungeun always made her feel in a daze.

    Kahei felt her phone vibrate. It was Jinsoul trying to FaceTime her.

    “Hey, Kahei!” Jinsoul said as soon as she was visible.

    “Hey, Jinsoul. Nice to see you!”

    “You too! It’s been a while. Is this a bad time?” 

            “Not at all! What’s up?”

            “What are your plans for the rest of the summer?”

    “Not much,” Kahei said. “Just hanging out alone at home, probably. Why?”

    “Well, my parents told me today that my aunt’s old abandoned lake house is going to be resold and my mom gave me the task of enlisting friends to go up there and fix it up! She said she would pay all of us for our time, and I think we could have fun in between being amateur construction workers. What do you think?”

    “Hmm,” Kahei looked around the room pensively. She had never been with friends for longer than a weekend, much less weeks of summer all alone. 

    “Who else is going?”

    “Oh it’s me, Jungeun, Haseul, Jiwoo, and I haven’t heard from Sooyoung but I invited her too. And you, obviously, if you say yes.”

    Kahei had stopped listening halfway through the list. The image of Jungeun on the beach, laying out to tan, playing in the water, walking with her hand-in-hand under the moonlight…

    “Kahei? You still with me?”

    “Huh? Yes! Yes, sorry. I think that could be fun! I don’t think my parents will care if I leave for the summer. They’re never here, anyway. Count me in!”

    “Yay! Okay great. I’ll text you once I get more info on it. I can’t wait! Talk to you later?”

    “Yeah, talk soon. Bye!” Kahei hung up.

    Oh. My. God.

***

    Jinsoul texted Sooyoung at the same time as Jiwoo and Haseul, but three hours later still had yet to receive a response. Jiwoo and Haseul responded within an hour with a lengthy snapchat about how they dramatically quit their jobs, complete with re-enactments and sound effects. She was about to send a follow-up text to Sooyoung when she saw the typing bubble appear. 

        Sooyoung: Sorry, just remembered to reply to this.

    “Well that’s lucky,” Jinsoul thought to herself.

        Sooyoung: I’d love to come! I don’t have a lot of experience with remodeling         homes, though. I hope that’s okay.

        Jinsoul: Totally okay! None of us have any experience, we’re just gonna wing it. No judgment allowed!

        Sooyoung: Haha, okay then. I look forward to it! Let me know when and where to be and I’ll be there.

        Jinsoul: Will do! See you soon, Sooyoung!