All of Us

Weekend comes. Junghyun told Haneul last night that he couldn’t go back home because of work and he wanted to visit his grandparents who live in Busan. Haneul has been thinking since last night to go to Busan with Hareum.

Meanwhile, Minhyun will go home for a while to visit his family as well as Dowoon. Because they live in the Gyeongsang Province, they decide to go home together. They don’t know Haneul wants to visit there until they have this conversation in the morning.

“Where are you guys going?” Haneul asks as he sees both Minhyun and Dowoon are nicely dressed. He’s asking them while he’s eating. He’s the first in having breakfast and the other follows behind. Hareum just wakes up and with her sleepy face, she walks into the kitchen.

“Morning,” she says and yawns and takes her seat beside Dowoon whom is sitting across Haneul. Sungwoo and Chaera are coming later with a fresh face and they sit in the same line as Haneul. Mr. Kang already on the dining table with the newspaper on and a black coffee served hot for him. Hareum smells a fresh soap, a smell just like when you’re out from bathroom from beside her. She sniffs and Dowoon takes a step back. She looks at Dowoon. “Where are you going?”

“Back home for a while,” Minhyun says. “We’ll be back tomorrow,” and Dowoon nods, confirming Minhyun. Hareum nods and takes a scoop of rice into her bowl.

“Oh yeah, you guys are from Gyeonsang Province, right?” Haneul asks and both of them nod. “Just come with me! I’ll go there after this.”

“Oh, really, hyung?” Dowoon asks and eats his rice.

“Yeah, I’m just going for a walk,” he says and he looks to Hareum. “Hareum-a, will you accompany your brother there?”

She looks to Haneul and she hates the sudden idea. “Suddenly??” and Haneul just simply nods with his mischievous smile. She reacts with a grunt. “I hate the idea,” and she continues eating.

“Ya! Just accompany me! I’ll treat you, okay?” Haneul tries to bribe her and makes her come. The motive behind it is to make her meet Junghyun, but he wants to get explanation from his friend first. “Please,” he whines like a baby.

“Ew,” Hareum is disgusted and the others as well as it’s their first time seeing such a terrifying action like that. It makes the boarders want to punch him but they can’t since he’s not their older brother. They hope Hareum punches him right away. He keeps whining. “Shut up!” Hareum shouts and they flinch as they’re shocked and surprised with her loud voice, Mr. Kang avoids Hareum’s scary eyes by raising his newspaper a bit to cover his eyes. Mrs. Kang whom is in front of the stove, almost throws the bean sprouts away. “Don’t whine like that or I won’t accompany you!” she threats him right away and Haneul stops with a chuckle. “Ew!” she doesn’t want to look at him and the boarders are just changing glances.

“So, the four of you are going to Gyeongsang?” Mrs. Kang asks and glances to Haneul as her son nods. “Okay, then. Chaera and Sungwoo, you can go with us for grocery shopping,” and Chaera is frozen as she hears this. Sungwoo’s jaw is dropped a bit. Mrs. Kang hums happily, it’s like she just gave the best idea. Dowoon, Hareum and Minhyun look to Chaera and Sungwoo whom are flabbergasted by this idea. And Hareum blurts out laughter right away and it makes Chaera glares at her.

“Sorry,” she says and smiles teasingly. Chaera sighs and continues to eat. Sungwoo is eating slowly. He doesn’t know how to react to this. He doesn’t know if he should be happy or he should be careful if Chaera suddenly explodes.

After breakfast is done, each of them is doing their activities from taking a shower, putting on some nice clothes, settling their things, wearing make-up and slowly preparing for the grocery shopping. Well, that’s Chaera. She doesn’t want to go but since Mrs. Kang says that and she doesn’t have anything to do today, what can she say? She can’t refuse the owner of the house.

Haneul and the kids are leaving first and the grocery team leaves later. They decide to take a train because there’s just one car available for going to the supermarket. “Why suddenly you want me to accompany you?” Hareum asks, she’s still a bit annoyed. “Yeonsoo unnie can go with you there,” and both Minhyun and Dowoon just listen to their conversation. There’s a girl name, Minhyun thinks. It erases his thought of Haneul that has a feeling for Chaera but exactly he’s not. But, maybe he is. It can happen to like two girls at the same time. Ey, what are you thinking, Minhyun-a? He shakes his head to get rid of his weird thoughts.

“She’s practicing for the next performance. She can’t,” Haneul lies. Well, but the truth Yeonsoo is having a practice today is right. But he’s not telling her yet about his crazy idea for now. So, the Fantastic Four continues their journey.

Mrs. Kang hurries everyone in the house and Chaera is the quickest to respond to her. Well, a natural female instinct, maybe. Sungwoo offers Mr. Kang, “Let me drive, sir.”

Mr. Kang looks at him. “Oh, you can drive?” and Sungwoo nods with a smile. “Okay, okay,” he smiles. “Here,” he gives Sungwoo the car key and Sungwoo goes to the car right away to start the engine. Chaera just finds out that Sungwoo can drive that day. Mr. Kang sits in the front and the women on the back.

“Everybody’s ready?” Sungwoo says and checks if they already wear their seatbelts. “Okay,” and he starts to hit the gas.

“You guys aren’t going back home?” Mrs. Kang asks them. “Visiting your parents once in a while.”

“I still want to be in here, maybe on the next holiday,” Sungwoo says.

“I know that feeling,” Mr. Kang says. “Feeling of freedom from your own parents,” he glances at Sungwoo with a smile. “Am I right?” he smiles proudly as he thinks his guess is right and Sungwoo just chuckles.

“But your parents will miss you guys very much,” Mrs. Kang reminds them and they nod. “Don’t forget to call them,” she gives her motherly advice to them while looking to Chaera and Mrs. Kang holds Chaera’s hand since they got on to the car. Chaera isn’t uncomfortable with that, but she’s awkward. She tries to take it as she holds her mother’s hand. She still needs time to adapt with the parents. “I’m glad I can go with you guys. It’s like I’m going with Haneul and Hareum,” she says and smiles, looking out of the window. “Chaera-ya,” she looks at her and Chaera looks at her back. “You have a little sister, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she says.

“And Sungwoo, you have an older sister, right?” Mrs. Kang asks once again.

“Yes, ma’am,” Sungwoo answers while turning the stir.

Mrs. Kang starts asking small things to them. “How old is your sister now, Chaera-ya?”

“She’s 2 years younger than me,” Chaera tells her and she nods. “She’s currently in university too, taking management,” she shortly explains her sister’s situation right now.

“I have a sister too. We used to like borrow each other’s clothes because we were using the same size and there was a time she got annoyed and threw the clothes away,” suddenly Mrs. Kang tells her about her family. Chaera smally chuckles but she experiences almost the same thing. She thinks sisters are like that, so it makes her wonder how brother and sister interact with each other. “I used to want to have a brother. Did you have that thought as well?”

“Yes, ma’am. I still think about it sometimes. It’s like my imagination to be picked up by my older brother, or he suddenly buys me drink or shows that he’s care, something like that,” Chaera says and Mrs. Kang laughs listening to this. Chaera just shyly chuckles.

“I didn’t know you have that thought, Chaera-ya,” Sungwoo comments.

“Yeah,” and Chaera just shortly answers. She forgets that Sungwoo is in the car and he has that time to listen to her story. She just brought that up so she could talk with Mrs. Kang, not for him to know her story. Sungwoo seems notice that she doesn’t want him to respond and he just smirks.

“I didn’t want to have any sister,” Mr. Kang suddenly says. “Because having a brother was annoyed me the most back then,” and he laughs a little by himself.

“But now you’re thankful he’s there for you, right?” Mrs. Kang says to her husband. “That’s why having sibling is fun. You have someone to play with, to talk with, to tease,” and Chaera nods. “You get teased a lot by your older sister, don’t you, Sungwoo-ya?” Mrs. Kang teasingly says.

“Yes, ma’am. I get tired of it a lot,” Sungwoo tells his story and Mrs. Kang chuckles. Chaera chuckles. “Don’t you laugh at me, Chaera-ya!” Sungwoo complains and the parents are chuckling. “Oh, ma’am, sir!”

“You’re cute when you’re teased, Sungwoo-ya,” Mrs. Kang says with a teasing smile. “That’s why your sister likes to tease you,” and Chaera chuckles once again. Sungwoo just smiles as he’s happy that everybody’s happy.

Later they arrive at the supermarket and they get off from the car. Chaera takes a shopping cart and pushes it, but Sungwoo takes control. “Let me,” he says and puts his hands on the cart. Chaera is confused. “Just accompany Mrs. Kang,” he suggests as he nods his head to Mrs. Kang. Chaera looks at the married couple and since his reason is logical, she goes to them and walks beside Mrs. Kang. She notices Chaera and links her hand into Chaera’s arm. Chaera is surprised but she’s glad that she doesn’t overreact with it.

As usual, the mother takes place in grocery shopping and the father just looks around. Well, even though there’s an opposite but this household just like any regular household. It’s one of Mrs. Kang decision to build a family atmosphere for the boarders and treat them as her own kids so they can live here comfortably, and another thing it’s because she feel responsible for these kids who live apart from their family. It’s like she’s their mother substitute. She wishes them to live longer with them because the house is livelier than before. 

…

The Fantastic Four eat on the way and they have a nice nap. They arrive and get out from the train. Minhyun and Dowoon are familiar with the place. They part ways from the main station and now, Hareum just has Haneul to lean on in this unfamiliar place. Even though she’s been here more than three times, she still isn’t familiar enough. Haneul is good at memorizing ways better than her. “So, where are we going?” Hareum asks and Haneul is just looking at his phone. She glances at his phone. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing,” he avoids her by taking a step aside and Hareum just shrugs, she doesn’t care too if he doesn’t show it to her. He leads the way to go outside and call a taxi.

“Where are we going?” Hareum asks again as they get on the taxi.

“You’ll see it later,” Haneul says. The taxi goes to the Haeundae beach after minutes and they get off right away after Haneul paid the fare.

“A beach?” Hareum is confused. So this is why Haneul told her to dress simple and not too formal because they will simply just have a short visit to Gyeongsang Province. They choose a place for them to sit and relax facing the sea. As usual, Haeundae is filled with people. The beach never goes quiet. Unfortunately they didn’t bring an umbrella, but they did bring their hat and cap so Hareum wears her hat right away.

As she sits down, relaxing herself and Haneul is still standing up and suddenly making a call. What is he doing? She just looks around and hopes if there’s a nice view to see, like a man with great body. “Oh, Junghyun-a!” he says and Hareum widens her eyes at him. What? Him? Haneul glances at her and Hareum lowers her head right away, pretends to sleep but she hears what he said clearly. “I’m here at Haeundae,” he says and Hareum quickly stands up and walks away. She goes to every place she can go to right now. “Oh, okay. See you later!” Haneul hangs up and he turns his body to check Hareum if she’s there. “Oh, where is she?” he looks around and he finds her walking already far from their place. “Hareum-a!” he calls her loud and she doesn’t bother herself to look at him.

She goes to the nearest café as possible and gets herself a seat. She grows nervous. Why did he call him? How can it come across his mind? Ah! Then she remembers that Junghyun is working in Busan and of course as his best friend, his brother called him and told him the good news. But this is bad. She decides to hide herself for a while.

Haneul doesn’t think that Hareum would go away so fast like that. So, there’s a thing between them? He begins to think. But, what he did back then was to make sure if there was any strange reaction from Hareum. He didn’t witness her reaction, but somehow it made it all clear how she walked fast and didn’t look back at him. Somehow. Junghyun said that he would come and Haneul would use this chance to have a real talk.

Junghyun didn’t think that Haneul will visit here. He just said that it’s a small visit, he won’t stay any longer than one day even though Junghyun said that he would drive Haneul back to Seoul because he wanted to go home as well. Junghyun goes to the beach right away after visiting his grandparents’ house. He drives as fast as he could and safely.

Once he gets there, he calls Haneul right away. He answers. “Oh, where are you?” Junghyun asks as he’s searching for a familiar face in the crowd. “I just arrived.”

Haneul looks to the parking lot direction and searches for Junghyun. “Oh!” he sees him and waves. “I’m waving at you, 12 o’clock,” and Junghyun notices him and hangs up the phone right away. Haneul is smiling as he finds his friend but he doesn’t forget his real intention here.

“What’s up?” Junghyun says and they share a brotherly hug. “You come here alone?” he asks with an anticipation.

“Yep,” Haneul lies and Junghyun just nods, being all normal in front of him.

“No Yeonsoo here?” he asks once again and Haneul shakes his head, confirming. “You want to escape from her already?” Junghyun teases him with that signature evil smile and his teeth showing, Haneul gives him an air kick right away and Junghyun avoids it fast. He laughs and Haneul just clicks his tongue. “Well, why do you come here?”

“To talk,” Haneul says. “There are a lot of things I want to talk about,” and Junghyun listens to him and just nods. He becomes quiet because he senses that Haneul wants to talk about Hareum again to him. “Well, let’s go. Take me to a famous restaurant here.”

“This way.”

And Hareum doesn’t get any notification from Haneul about this. She takes a sip of her drink then she gets a text from Haneul. He says, “I don’t know where you are, but stay close to the beach. I’m going to meet Junghyun for a while. Wait for me,” and Hareum doesn’t reply because she doesn't want to.

Junghyun leads Haneul to a western restaurant that is famous for its burger and famous around the foreigners, so Haneul is a bit surprised to find many foreigners here. “It’ll be my treat,” Junghyun says and Haneul nods. He orders right away without hesitating. After that, Junghyun carefully observes his friend and asks naturally, “So, what do you want to tell me about?”

“Hm…” he says and taps his fingers, the other hand supports his head. “Well, I met Junho and talked,” he starts. He sees Junghyun is paying attention carefully and he waits for Junghyun’s response. “You don’t want to ask?” Haneul says.

“You talked about the confession 2 years ago with him?” Junghyun takes a guess and Haneul nods with a chuckle. Junghyun doesn’t know what kind of expression he should show. “So, is it related with Hareum?” he asks as he remembers Haneul told him that he had a problem with Hareum.

“Nothing, they’re fine,” Haneul tells him and Junghyun nods, but inside he’s nervous. It’s like the next topic will be about him. “It just… it makes me realize something that I shouldn’t get involved in her love life,” he says. “That thought was kind of shocking to me at first, but Yeonsoo said the same thing. I try to not get involved,” he explains and Junghyun just nods. Haneul glances at him. Then their food comes. “Oh, thank you,” he thanks the waiter and before he continues, they start to eat. He stops for a while to have his first bite because Junghyun is doing that. “But,” he says while cutting his burger. “I want to talk another thing.”

“What is that?” Junghyun asks while eating and looks at Haneul who’s looking back at him, like he’s observing him. Junghyun seems his guess is right.

“I got the information from Junho that you have a feeling for Hareum. Am I right?” and Junghyun wipes his mouth, clears his throat and looks to Haneul. He smirks, feels that what Junho said was right. “Look, Junghyun-a,” Haneul continues. “I come here just to tell you that… you know how I strongly disagree with the idea that my sister has a boyfriend whom is my friend.”

“Haneul-a.”

Junghyun tries to cut his words, but Haneul says it faster. “Look, I don’t know if you want to deny it or accept it. I don’t know if Junho was lying or you are. But,” Haneul stares at his friend seriously and Junghyun just could stay silent, listen to him well. “You know what? Yeonsoo and Chaera, the boarder, asked me to imagine if Hareum or you have a feeling toward each other. They even asked me to imagine if you’re dating each other. So, I did. It was strange but I realized that I’ve never imagined her dating my friends other than you,” and Junghyun just smirks without looking at him. “I’m serious, Junghyun-a,” and he looks to Haneul again. “It’s like I can trust her to you.”

“I’m just like you, her older brother,” Junghyun says with a smile and Haneul smirks and shakes his head.

“How many times you have to deny it?” Haneul says and smirks, but at the same time he sco