“Loosen up, will you.” A pair of smiley eyes peered up at Sooyoung, giggling at the unnaturally tense expression holding up Sooyoung’s face. Sunny gives a quick jab at her arm, hard enough to break the stare-off the taller girl had with a distant pillar and Sooyoung, a little dramatically, pulled back as if she’s just been hit with something harder than a small fist. “Keep that look up and people will think you’re constipated.”

 

“Great. I thought I wasn’t making it obvious enough.” She mutters bitterly, her shoulders slumping forward in defeat and her bottom lip naturally pushing out into a pout. “Why are we here anyway? Don’t get me wrong, I like shopping as much as the next girl but you..” she eyes Sunny up and down, not even bothering to hide that act. The light pastel match-up of her skirt, blouse, and shoes does match nicely with the cute image she had, Sooyoung thought idly. Still, Sunny didn’t seem like the type to choose going out over playing her stack of games, and judging by her scores the thought doesn’t even seem that far off from the truth. “.. personality-wise, don’t seem like the type… No offence.”

 

Sunny’s smile doesn’t dissipate in the least, neither does it grow. Sooyoung represses a shudder at how she managed to keep her expression that way. She could be a good actress if she tried it out. “I will take offence on that. Already prejudging me, hum, Sooyoungie. At least compliment me first before saying mean stuff.” Sunny rebuts chirpily.

 

Would definitely make a great actress.

 

“I wasn’t trying to be mean.” Sooyoung mutters under her breath. She expels a long breath of air through her nose and lets her eyes wander around the interior of the mall. There were a few boutiques that quickly caught her eyes, the one’s she usually frequented with Yoona and Hyoyeon, and she had to remind herself that she wasn’t there for pleasure. The quicker they got this over with the faster she could return to her daily life.

 

She throws her hands up in the air, pretending to be stretching out her back while subtly scrutinizing the place for a certain ‘pest problem’. The boy was relentless, Sooyoung would give him that. The Seonyoung guy just didn’t know when to quit. He wasn’t even sticking out long enough for Sunny to get her opinion in, even managing to talk over Sunny trying to let him down easily. At least, it was what Sunny claimed. The only reason Sooyoung believed what Sunny said was that she had seen first-hand the ridiculous amount of unopened letters stacked at one side of Sunny’s locker, all from the same sender.

 

It was ridiculous, pitiful, and quite cowardly. Had she not been somehow dragged into Sunny’s dilemma she probably would have laughed about the whole thing.

 

“Alright then, where do you want to go?” Please don’t say a gaming centre, she mentally added.

 

“Hm.. I think..” Sunny crinkles her nose, eyes squinting as she surveys the boutiques lining the sides. Her lips pull back into a wider smile, leaving her sentence hanging as she feet moves towards a store that caught her interest. Sooyoung breathes a sigh of relief when the short blond enters through the huge double doors of Uniqlo.

 

Hanging back, she mentally praises God, Buddha, Allah, Zeus, and whoever was listening as she casually walks in. Giddily she makes a break down centre, eying a greyish-blue cardigan that was just her style. She lifts one side of the cardigan, marvelling at the softness of the material. “I might actually enjoy this a bit.”

 

“Sooyoung?”

 

Or not.

 

Sooyoung stiffly turns on her spot, a strained smile plastered on her face.

 

“Fany- oh…” Sooyoung staggered back at the four pairs of curious eyes, plus one disinterested one, looking straight at her. She braced herself at the oncoming tackle in the form of an over-excited Tiffany wrapping her arms around her in a near death-like hug and forcing the air out of her lungs. She kept on a smile, fondly patting the top of Tiffany’s head as the brunette pulled back to let the others greet her in a lot less bone crushing way.

 

“We’re so glad to see you! How’ve you been? Where are the others?”

 

“They’re.. busy… I think.” She cocked her head to the side, unsure of what 2/5 of the trouble makers were up to when she was forced into the “date”. Hyoyeon might’ve mentioned super gluing doors around the hall, or was it to a specific room? Hell, maybe she was out running from the police. Yoona was most-likely following her crush around like a puppy or preparing for a drama. Sooyoung doesn’t really care for the two after they ditched her when she kindly asked them for help on the whole Sunny matter.

 

Speaking of the devil. Sooyoung’s lips pursed when she spots the blond coming up from behind the group. Hoping that her years of acting would come to her aid she shoots the smiling blond a warning look, quickly switching to the group to hopefully heard them away before anyone of them picks up the internal screaming happing in her head.

 

“S’youngie, aren’t you going to introduce me?” The four pairs of eyes collectively resettled to the bright blonde girl that materialised right beside her and Sooyoung had to mentally remind herself not to actually scream out her frustrations or make a break for the closest exit.

 

“Right…” She spares a quick ‘seriously?’ look at the ‘innocently’ smiling face. “Guys, this is Sunny. Sunny, these are my friends. They’re from the school of the Blue Knights.” Sooyoung sighs in defeat, shoulder slumping forward. She makes a vague hand gesture towards Tiffany, who was closest to her. “This loud, violent one’s Tiffany.”

 

“Yah!” Sooyoung jolted back quick enough to dodge a slap coming her way. She grinned impishly at the narrowed eyes and threw her a teasing wink before moving her sights to the stone-faced Taeyeon.

 

“The stupid looking one is Taeyeon.”

 

“Pleased to meet you.” Taeyeon greeted back, ignoring the jab at her blank face. Sooyoung supposed she was just glad not to have her height called out for the nth time. Being surrounded with three other short girls was not something Sooyoung wanted to be in the middle of when she puts emphasis on the vast difference of their height. She’ll return to poking fun of Taeyeon’s pocket sized fun when she was far enough away from getting beaten by munchkins.

 

“You’ve already met Yuri.”

 

“Hiya, Sunny!” Yuri chirped, giving a little wave of her hand. This time Sunny was all too happy to return an exaggerated wave of her own.

 

“And then, there’s Jessica.” Her brows scrunch unsurely at the addition hanging close by Jessica’s side, looking none the more interested at the introduction as she was too busy looking at something else. “Unfortunately, I don’t know who the clone is.”

 

Jessica grins as she pulls the distracted Yuri clone right to her side. “She’s my little sister, Krystal.”

 

“Not so little. I’m as tall as you, you know.” Krystal corrects.

 

“Wait, she’s your sister?” Sooyoung repeats, looking between the clone, to Jessica, then to Yuri. “How?” she unabashedly points Yuri’s way. “You look more like her.”

 

“Oh, I’m the love child between unnie and- Ow! Unnie!”

 

“Don’t mind her. She’s being a brat.” Jessica smiles tightly, pinching the top part of the Yuri-clone’s ear.

 

“I am not. I’m just calling it as I- Ah! Unnie, it really hurts now!” The younger girl cries, urgently tapping and slapping the hand twisting her reddening ear.

 

“Don’t mind them.” Tiffany steps in between the two sisters and Sunny, offering the blond girl one of her dazzling smiles. Her hand instinctively stretches out in greeting, something Sunny is quick to pick up on and happily responds to. “It’s nice to meet a new face. How long have you been friends with our Sooyoungie?”

 

“Oh, a while.” Sunny responds brightly. She side-eyes Sooyoung, making the taller girl grit her teeth and keep to her silence. “We met through a mutual friend. I don’t know if you know her, Hyoyeon.”

 

“Oh, we are very well acquainted with that choding. I hope our friends weren’t too much of a bother to you.” Tiffany apologises. Sooyoung groans and mentally cusses both girls out.

 

“I’m not that bad.” She mutters under her breath.

 

“Sunny-ssi, do you like shopping?”

 

“I have my moments.”

 

“Perfect!” Tiffany chirps, stepping up to Sunny’s side, half dragging a slightly reluctant Jessica. “You can come with us then. Sooyoung too. Taeyeon and Yuri over there whine too much after a while. Trust me, they have a weak game when it comes to this.”

 

“I complain too, you know.” Jessica voices out but is completely ignored save for the snickering Krystal.

 

“Sooyoung, you coming?”

 

“I’ll catch up. I just hang with these two for a bit.” She bids the four girls, eagerly shooing them away, elated at the thought of getting rid of Sunny for a few minutes.

 

Tiffany shrugs, tugging both Jessica and Sunny by their arms. “Suit yourself.”

 

Sooyoung waves them off cheerily, pointedly ignoring the looks Sunny was shooting her as she’s dragged away. The Yuri clone looks between the two groups for a moment, hesitating whether she should follow her sister or stay. It isn’t until Yuri gently urges her to follow her sister did the younger lazily trail after the rapidly disappearing trio.

 

“Are you sure you’re not related?” Sooyoung asks, gesturing towards the aisle the others had disappeared into. “She seems to listen to you well.”

 

Yuri rolls her eyes. “I’m pretty sure, Soo. I’ve just had an.. exchange of words with her yesterday. She’s a good kid, even though she doesn’t act like one. And trust me when I say she’s a Jung through and through.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“You’ll see, Soo. You’ll see.” Taeyeon answers, clapping a hand over Sooyoung’s back. “And you know my penchant for shopping…” Yuri chortles, throwing an arm over the shorter girl.

 

Sooyoung rolls her eyes but follows the cousins as they walk away from the entrance of the store to the food court close by. “Honestly, how are we even friends? You girls know I love shopping.”

 

“I never said I didn’t like shopping. I just don’t like shopping with Tiffany. She turns shopping into a nightmare.” Taeyeon groans. Yuri vigorously nods her head in agreement as she looked through the food stalls that caught her attention.

 

“One time she offered to help me look for new clothes since I couldn’t fit in a few of my old ones. We went when the sun was still high up, by the time I managed to convince her to go back the sun had set… and I only got two shirts and a pair of pants out of it.” Yuri pauses, looking Sooyoung dead in the eyes with the straightest face she could muster. “It was horrible. I had callouses over my callouses and I think I had chaffing from putting on all sorts of stuff.”

 

“I don’t know how she has all this energy. I can’t even get her to give that much effort in a final project.”

 

“Really?” Sooyoung hums. “She’s not that bad with me.”

 

Taeyeon and Yuri share a brief look, collectively shaking their heads. “Like minds.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“What are you to muttering about?”

 

“Nothing. Oh! Who wants a shake. I know I do.” Taeyeon squeaks, slipping under Yuri’s arm to make her escape. Yuri is quick to react though, grabbing Taeyeon by the back of her shirt and pulling her back. She had other ideas.

 

“Anyway Soo, is this the date you’ve been talking about?”

 

Sooyoung’s face scrunches as she grumbles. “It’s not a date.”

 

“Sooyoung, you’re dating?” Wide-eyed, and momentarily forgetting just having been chocked by her own shirt, Taeyeon looks up to Sooyoung for answers.

 

“Did you not hear what I just said?” Brows drawing together Sooyoung gently flicks a finger against Taeyeon’s forehead.

 

“She’s supposed to be dating that Sunny girl. And she’s really nice and cute.”

 

“Am I like a wall or something?”

 

“Sooyoung! Why didn’t you tell me? We don’t see each other for a while and you go get yourself a girlfriend.”

 

“I told you…” Sooyoung repeated, gritting her teeth tightly. “We’re not dating. She is most definitely not my girlfriend. I am doing this as a..” she breathes in deeply, eyes quivering as she mentally searches through her data bank for a proper word “favour for her.”

 

“Sure looks like a date.” Yuri snorts.

 

Sooyoung narrows her eyes at the troublemaker. Two can play at this game. “What about you then, miss-I-should-have-kissed-her?”

 

Taeyeon’s eyes bulged as she looked between the two glowering at each other. “Kissed who?”

 

“No one.” Yuri snaps, glaring darkly at Sooyoung to shut her trap.

 

“Don’t know. She wouldn’t tell. She was too busy pacing a hole through our rug and muttering about how this girl wanted to kiss her while she chickened out to actually give us a name.”

 

Taeyeon takes a few seconds internalising the new information. While she’s too busy mulling over the facts Yuri lunges at Sooyoung to try and clamp a hand over . Sooyoung does her best to push Yuri away, a gleam in her eyes as she throws a bit more information for Taeyeon to gobble up. “Yeah, just a few days ago. She was a total mess and she just wouldn’t shut up about it. I think she said something about them going to the movies or something that day.”

 

Something flickers in Taeyeon’s eyes, the lines making a connection in her brain, and she gasps loudly and gapes at her cousin. She points a finger at her, seems to think it was too rude and pulls her finger back only to slap the same hand over as she begins jumping in her spot. “, Yuri! Jessica tried to kiss you?”

 

It was Sooyoung’s turn to gasp as she finally shoves Yuri away. She rethinks her decision and goes to grab Yuri by the collar of her shirt, wrangling her. “It was Jessica?!”

 

“I’m pretty sure this is assault.” Yuri groans, tugging at Sooyoung’s hands to loosen their hold on her.

 

“Yah!” Sooyoung let’s go of one hand to go in for a hard slap at Yuri’s shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell us it was Jessica?”

 

“Would it have made a difference?” Yuri groans, flinching back when Sooyoung’s hand rises for another slap.

 

“Hell yeah!”

 

“You chickened out?” Taeyeon grabs at the back of Yuri’s shirt, pulling downward that the collar was beginning to stretch and give out a slight ripping sound. Yuri’s cries for her poor shirt but is ignored as giddiness bubbles up in Taeyeon’s thoughts. “So, you wanted to kiss her too?”

 

“Seriously, Tiffany is rubbing off on you.” Yuri groans, untangling Taeyeon's grip on the soft material of her shirt. “When have you been this nosy?”

 

“So why didn’t you kiss her?” Sooyoung prods her side, making Yuri finch back and groan at the slight pain at the assault.

 

“I don’t know. I panicked?”

 

“Well, have you kissed her since? Or at least talked to her about it?”

 

“I didn’t have time. Krystal goes everywhere she goes.”

 

“Not during school time.” Taeyeon shoves her arm. “You had half of the day to talk to her!”

 

“It’s complicated! I’m still not completely sure she likes me that much…”

 

“How is it complicated? And of course, she likes you! Are you that dense?! She’s been trying to get a reaction out of you and push you to confess and she even tried to kiss you?” Taeyeon groans, digging her fingers through her hair as she looks to her cousin with disbelief. “How stupid are you?”

 

Yuri’s mouth opens in retaliation. Her drawn brows slowly unwinding as Taeyeon’s word really began to soak into her brain. “Wait.. how do you know all that?”

 

“Oh my God…” Sooyoung slaps a hand over her forehead and staggers back onto the table. “I don’t see you guys in a while and this happens? What else happened? Taeyeon got a date?”

 

Taeyeon blanches as she turns her head away guiltily.

 

Yuri doesn’t give it much thought before spitting out an answer. “Multiple.”

 

“What?! WITH WHO?!”

 

Yuri throws a look at the panicked face of her cousin. She clamps a hand over Taeyeon’s shoulder, the shorter girl tensing at the grip and the betrayed look Sooyoung was directing at her. “If I go down, you go down with me.”