The alarm beeped endlessly, disrupting the peaceful silence of the room and causing groans from the couple previously sleeping on the bed.

Barely opening her puffy eyes from the lack of sleep, Solar tried to disentangle herself from Moonbyul’s limbs enough to reach out to her phone and turn off the annoying sound.

“What the hell is that?” Moonbyul frowned and hid her face against the pillow trying to get back to sleep. Before the alarm interrupted it, she was dreaming about playing with a small corgy puppy. It was a nice and cute harmless dream and she wanted to go back to it.

“My alarm.” Solar mumbled before face planting on the pillow next to Moonbyul. She had set it the previous night before falling asleep and now she was regretting her choice. Definitely not enough hours of sleep.

“Why…?” The sudden movement from Solar had left her feeling chilly and as soon as Solar fell down on the bed again, she looked for some body heat. She whined childishly until Solar realized her intention and lifted her arm so Moonbyul could tuck herself in.

“I don’t want my parents to catch us so I put the alarm to go back to my room.” Solar explained, questioning her own decision.

Moonbyul snorted, amused at the explanation.

“What happened to being rebellious?” She yelped when a finger poked her side harshly, but she laughed nonetheless.

“Shush, my mother can be scary, ok?” Solar excused herself embarrassed. For more effect, she pouted as well. It was true though.

“That’s something I can’t deny.” Moonbyul conceded. In any other circumstances she probably wouldn’t dare going against Jiyoung’s wishes. “But do you have to go right now?” She was too comfortable to let go of Solar that soon.

Solar shook her head, “Not yet, I can stay for a little while.”

Moonbyul hummed approvingly. She would make the most of that time.

Absent-mindedly, Solar Moonbyul’s back as she knew she loved it whenever they cuddled. She could sense how the younger girl was falling asleep again, and she had to fight the urge of doing the same, especially when she was in such a relaxing and comforting embrace.

Alas, everything good usually came to an end, and so did their short cuddle session. Still, sneaking out in the middle of the night had been worth it. She assumed she would probably do the same that night.

Carefully to avoid rousing Moonbyul from sleep, she moved away from her and left the bed. In silence, she took a last glance at Moonbyul before leaving the room, softly closing the door behind her.

Breakfast was a quiet affair and went by quickly. Moonbyul expected more jabs and passive-aggressive comments similar to the ones they got during dinner the previous night, but Jinyoung had a sudden emergency at work and had to leave the house. On the other hand, Yungho was a man of few words. He was polite enough and asked Moonbyul if she had slept well, but he focused on reading the newspaper after that. Still, she caught him taking quick glances at them here and there with a pensive look on his face.

After showering and getting ready, they went on their way to the friends’ reunion Minji had invited them to. Yonghee, who drove the car, seemed suspiciously happy to be going, and Yongsun couldn’t let the chance to sister pass. After all it was usually the opposite.

She was ready for revenge.

“So… you look awfully cheerful today.” Solar started with a smug expression and a mischievous glint in her eyes. Next to her, Moonbyul couldn’t help but snicker. She liked seeing how the Kim sisters bickered with each other.

“I have no idea of what you mean.” Yonghee tried to play dumb, but the way her cheeks reddened betrayed her.

“Oh, c’mon! You can’t fool me. You can’t even fool Byul and she’s known you since yesterday. Spill the beans!”

Yonghee rolled her eyes, but she ended up giving in and her annoyed expression soon changed into a bashful one. Apparently she hung out with Sunghoon and his friends a couple weeks ago and she had kept in contact with one of them since then. Both had been busy with work, so this was the second time they were going to see each other.

“He is called Yonghwa. He is tall, handsome, funny and he has great manners!” Yonghee gushed about him excitedly.

“Sounds like he is the whole package.” Solar grinned, happy for her sister. Meanwhile, Moonbyul couldn’t help but wonder why so many names in that town started with ‘Yong’.

It took them around 20 minutes through unpaved roads to get to their destination on the outskirts of the town.

Now that she had seen the wealth of the Kim family, Moonbyul expected something similar for Solar’s extended family. And well, she wasn’t disappointed once they arrived and crossed the open gate that led to the house.

The house was nothing but luxurious, although it couldn’t be called a mansion either. Still, everything about it screamed money. Especially the big garden surrounding the house. At first sight, Moonbyul saw a pool and what seemed to be a decent-sized hot tub next to it.

Damn, they should have gone during summer instead.

Yonghee parked the car next to the other ones which were already there. The plan was to organize a barbecue that lasted the entire day, and some people were already there to help even though it was early for lunch yet. They could have arrived later as well but the least time they spent in Solar’s home the better.

“Hey guys! We are here on the backyard!” They were busy starting at their surroundings when Minji’s voice interrupted them. She looked at them through one of the house’s windows, but she pointed out to the other side.

Circling the house they arrived to the back of it, where the main terrain was. Moonbyul decided that calling it ‘backyard’ was an understatement.

Where the porch’s marble floor tiles ended, a path of paving stones led through the grass to another tiled zone where the grill was situated. There were chairs and a few tables distributed all over the place, organized to avoid gathering all the people in the same place.

Sunghoon was there cleaning the grill, and helping next to him was a cute woman. Moonbyul recognized her as Haneul, soon to be Sunghoon’s wife. Solar had showed her a picture on their way to the house.

After introducing Moonbyul to Haneul officially, Minji ordered them around for a while. They were there to help after all.

“, I was supposed to get more beer and wine bottles for later.” Minji frowned and looked through the portable freezers they had taken out to the porch so the guest had an easy access to the drinks and didn’t have to go back and forth to the kitchen constantly. She bit her lip and grabbed her phone. “I’ll ask a friend to buy them on their way here…”

Gently but quickly, Solar stopped her from making the call. Why bother someone when they could help?

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll go.” She looked at Moonbyul, who nodded in agreement.

“Are you sure? You guys have been working non-stop already.”

“Very sure! Just give us the list.”

After getting the list and a hug each one, they grabbed the car keys from Yonghee and want on their way. They found Solar’s sister talking animatedly with Jonghwa and giggling, so Moonbyul decided she would drive instead.

They went back to the town to find the nearest store where they could find the drinks they needed, and apparently everybody had decided to organize parties the same day, because the place was full and the queue endless.

Moonbyul groaned for the nth time and head-butted Solar’s shoulder when 10 minutes had passed and they still were at the end of the queue.

Solar patted her head and smiled amusedly at her childish antics.

“We should have let Minji call her friend.” Moonbyul whined, sulking and still in the same position. “I could be in that hot-tub right now.”

“It’s cold and you don’t have any swimwear.” Solar retorted nonchalantly. She didn’t mind waiting.

Looking up, Moonbyul pouted at Solar.

“Way to kill my vibe. But there’s a hammock too! A nice, swinging hammock hung between two beautiful trees. It’s been calling my name since we got there, and I don’t need to wear a bikini for that.”

Solar snorted, staring back at her.

“You are ridiculous.”

“I’m just saying, lounging in the hammock with a nice cold beer in your hand… What more could you ask for?”

“Okay, okay, I get it. You have wet dreams about hammocks. Can’t say I’m surprised, you have always been weird.” Solar with a smirk on her face. She expected to get a funny reaction from Moonbyul. Maybe some embarrassment as well, but instead she got a smirk to match hers and a playful glint on her eyes.

“Well, there are many ways to have fun on a hammock with the right company.” Pressing herself against Solar even more, she made sure to whisper low enough so no one but Solar could hear her words. “Want to find out?”

The blush on Solar’s face was more than worth the smack she got as a reply.

By the time they got back the house was now almost full. They even had to park the car outside the gate and walk to the house, but at least it would be easier to leave whenever they decided to.

They walked straight to the kitchen to leave the alcohol there as the portable freezers didn’t have any space left in that moment. Once the bottles and cans where on its place, Solar took a minute to breath in. They had entered the house through the back door and they hadn’t meet anybody, but they were about to go outside and that meant dealing with her past classmates.

Sensing her hesitation, Moonbyul grabbed her hand and squeezed it to get her attention. Once she got Solar to look at her, she pointed out to the exterior with her head.

“How do you want to do it?” She toyed with Solar’s fingers in a familiar gesture and attempt to help calming her down. “We can lay low if you want, I’m sure Yonghee and your cousins won’t question it.”

Letting her gaze fall down to their hands, Solar thought about it. They had to pretend in front of her family and mostly her parents, but she could say Moonbyul was just a friend in front of her classmates and her cousins would take it as if she wasn’t comfortable sharing more than that.

But was that what she really wanted?

Making up her mind, she gripped Moonbyul’s hand harder.

“Byul.”

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