"Heejoon, there's someone here to see you," Mom calls up the stairs. It's Saturday afternoon and I'm sprawled out on my bed, paging through the latest issue of Teen People and daydreaming about Lee Sungyeol (I still can't believe he knows my name). I throw down the magazine and jog down the stairs.

It's probably Inyoung. She seemed kind of peeved that I turned down her offer to hang out this weekend. She's probably stopping by to see if I've changed my mind. But when I reach the bottom of the stairs I realize I'm totally mistaken. It's not Inyoung after all. In fact, it's...

I gasp.

Lee Sungyeol!

My knees buckle when I see him standing in the entrance hall. "Hey Sungyeol!" I say, in what I hope is a friendly, laid-back tone. "What are you doing here?"

"Tiffany invited me. She's parking the car. She'll be in in a minute," he says, smiling brightly. "She wanted to surprise your cousin and asked me to come along."

"My cousin?" I repeat.

"Chunji," he says.

A second later Tiffany appears in the doorway behind Sungyeol. "Hi Heejoon," she says, looking bored. "Where's Chunji. He's home, right?"

"Yeah, hold on. I'll go get him." I'm stil in a state of shock. What are they doing here? Two weeks ago it would have been inconceivable that two of Cop-a-Feel's most popular kids would be in my house. Yet here they are.

I dash up the stairs and knock on Chanhee's door. He doesn't answer, so I push the door open slightly and peek inside. No wonder he didn't hear. His back is to me and he's swaying back and forth, dancing awkwardly to the music on his iPod.

"Chunji," I say tentatively.

He keeps on dancing, shaking his head from side to side. He opens his mouth and sings a few lines from a Coldplay song. His voice is surprisingly amazing! He should totally audition for any entertainment company.

I place my hand over my mouth, stifling a giggle. I can't believe how silly he looks! I never would have imagined that suave guys like Chanhee have goofy moments, too. I always though people like him were born cool and that they never, ever faltered. I guess he is human, after all.

He closes his eyes and spins around twice, teetering back and forth as he goes. On his third spin he opens his eyes and catches sight of me. He's so startled he nearly topples over backward.

"Heejoon!" he cries, ripping the earphones off. He quickly turns off his iPod. "Oh my God! How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to catch most of your routine." I giggle.

His face turns a dozen shades of red. "Oh, no! I can get a little crazy when I listen to music sometimes," he groans. "I was dancing and everything, wasn't I?"

I nod.

"How completely embarrassing."

"No, it's cool. It was kind of... funny." I almost say "cute" but stop myself just in time.

"Our little secret?" he asks hopefully.

"You can count on it."

"Thanks, Heejoon." He looks genuinely relieved.

"Anyway, we have some visitors downstairs."

"We do?"

"Yeah, Tiffany Hwang and Lee Sungyeol are here."

Chanhee runs his fingers through his dark hair, smoothing it into place. "I didn't know you invited them over."

"I didn't," I tell him, as we make our way out of the guest room and into the hall. "They just kind of showed up."

We head downstairs and into the living room, where Tiffany is sprawled out on the love seat. "Come join me, Chunji," she says, patting the empty space beside her. "I brought you a surprise."

I eye her suspiciously. She'd better not be giving him food. I don't mean to be paranoid, but the Ex-Lax incident springs to mind.

Chanhee takes a seat next to her. "A present?" he asks, looking confused. "It's not my birthday or anything..."

"Consider it a welcome gift," she coos, pulling out a bag. "Sort of. I'd really rather give you something a little more exciting. But we can work on that later."

I roll my eyes. Can she be any ier?

Sungyeol's just kind of standing around. "Have you got anything to drink?" he asks. "I'm parched."

"Oh, sorry!" I say. "I'm being way rude. Tiffany, Chunji, can I get you guys anything?"

"I'm fine," Tiffany says, not taking her eyes off Chanhee.

"I'm good, too. Thanks, Heejoon." Chanhee reaches inside the bag and pulls out a notebook. "Oh... thanks!" he says, looking a little bewildered. "Is it a journal?"

"No, silly, it's a German notebook. These are all my notes from Mrs. Lee's German class. When I talked to you on the phone the other night, you sounded so stressful about German class. I wanted to help out."

I feel my breath catch. They talked on the phone? I knew Chanhee wanted her to call him—I sent the message on MySpace, after all—I just didn't realize Tiffany followed through.

"This way you can get caught up in no time. And I'd be happy to tutor you, if you want," Tiffany offers.

"That would be great, thanks!" Chanhee looks really happy about Tiffany's gift.

Sungyeol's still standing by my side. "I'd love a glass of Coke, if you've got it."

"Right, sorry," I say, drawing my attention away from Chanhee and Tiffany. I head into the kitchen to get Sungyeol a drink. He follows me.

"You have a nice house," he says, as I get out a glass and fill it with ice. "I didn't realize you lived over here. We're practically neighbors."

"Really?" I ask, pouring him some soda. "Where do you live?"

"On Bennett Lane."

I blink. "Bennett Lane? Wow, that's a really great neighborhood."

"Yeah, my dad does well," Sungyeol says, taking the glass from my hands.

We stand there awkwardly. Our conversation seems to have run out of steam.

"You wanna go over some newspaper ideas?" he asks finally.

"We could do that," I agree. I start to walk back toward the living room.

Sungyeol plops down at the kitchen table. "How about in here," he says. It's more of a statement than a question. "Give Tiffany and your cousin some alone time."

"Alone time?" I ask. "What is this, an episode of The Bachelor?"

"Something like that." He laughs. "Tiffany's really into the guy and you can tell he's way into her."

My eyes open wide. "You can?"

Sungyeol nods. "Definitely. The way he looks at her... the boy's got it bad." He pauses. "Your cousin's really fitting in, Joonie. With a girl like Tiffany by his side, he'll be cool in no time."

"I guess," I say. I can't help feeling a little uncomfortable with my dream guy her in the kitchen and my mortal enemy hanging out in the other room.

"Good deal," he says, flashing me his can't-miss smile.

He keeps calling me Joonie. I wonder if that means anything? Nicknames are a form of endearment, right? I decide to go with the moment, to not second guess myself and see where it leads. Sungyeol keeps looking at me, holding my gaze like we're great friends or... possibly more.

A guy like Lee Sungyeol would never be interested in me. But with the way he keeps acting, I can't help but wonder. We gossip about the newpaper staff and go over assignments for a while. The conversation is totally natural—Sungyeol's an easy guy to talk to. I can see why he's so popular.

"Thanks for the MySpace add," I tell him, making conversation.

"Sure thing!" he says, flashing me a huge grin. "Your profile rocks, by the way."

I blush at the unexpected compliment. "Thanks."

We work on newspaper ideas for a while longer. Sungyeol's an incredibly talented writer, and it's pretty great hanging out with him. He's so smart when it comes to journalism; bouncing ideas around with him has really helped me.

- - -

We head back into the living room an hour later and find Chanhee and Tiffany hunched over the German textbook. Their heads are so close they're practically touching. Chanhee looks like he's having an awesome time, like he's soaking up every minute that he's with Tiffany. I get a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I push it away.

Despite having so much fun, I find myself wishing I'd spent the afternoon with Chanhee instead of Sungyeol.

Oh, God, what's happening to me! I can't like him. It's stupid, impractical, ridiculous. Chanhee's my "cousin." He's out of my league. He probably wouldn't even give a girl like me the time of day, if it weren't for this whole my-dad-protecting-him thing.

Much as it pains me to admit it, I know I'm right.

- - -

새해 복 많이 받으세요 여러분!!!! ^^

Happy New Year everyone!!!! ^^