“Took you long enough.” Soonyoung pronounces, watching Jihoon park his bike next to his on the bike stand outside an ice-cream shop on the pier. Jihoon had taken his sweet time to get there; trailing Soonyoung from a distance. He’d truly enjoyed the bicycle ride from the boardwalk to the pier; the remnants of a satisfied smile still adorn his face.

“Mm.”

“I think I aged ten years waiting for you, grandpa.” Soonyoung laughs, dismantling the camera from Jihoon’s bike handle, checking it. There’s no time for Soonyoung to review the footage; but there’s still enough battery to go on for a few more hours before it dies again.

Jihoon simply rolls his eyes. “So. What is there to do here, Soonie?”

“I’m glad you asked, Hoonie!” Soonyoung immediately changes into his tour guide self, filming the both of them. “You see, we had a race from the boardwalk earlier, and grandpa Hoonie here was the last to come…so he’s gonna treat me some ice-cream!” Soonyoung bounces excitedly, shaking the camera. Jihoon just sighs in defeat, though he smiles at Soonyoung’s childish request.

“You want ice-cream.”

“Yep. And you’re buying.”  Soonyoung opens the door to the ice-cream parlour. The interior has an old-timey concept, with a huge jukebox in the corner, gaudy booths, and an employee wearing a striped shirt manning the ice-cream station. “Ooh, the deco is nice. Vintage.” Soonyoung pans the camera around for a 360-degree view of the place. “I feel like I’ve been transported to the swingin’ fifties.” Soonyoung does a little twist.

“You speak English better than I do, so you order.” Jihoon complains, trailing after Soonyoung. He’s less confident in his English-speaking skills, but he does understand basic conversations. On the other hand, Soonyoung’s a seasoned conversationalist, having communicated with many people in English, thanks to his travels.

“This is your chance to shine! Go for it!” Soonyoung cheers for him, hopping like mad.

Jihoon’s already palpitating at the prospect of speaking to a stranger in a foreign language; so he wants to get this over with. “Hurry. What do you want?”

Soonyoung, of course, has to take his time and look at all the selections available. He fusses over the variety of flavours – it’s not just your basic chocolate/vanilla/strawberry – marvelling over the exotic choices with the catchy names, such as mango tango, berry bubblegum, tangy tangerine, even wasabi…

“I want everything!” He bounces like an excited five-year-old.    

Jihoon gives Soonyoung a death stare, but Soonyoung’s too busy ogling over the different flavours to notice.

“A cone of wasabi for my friend, please.” Jihoon mutters in Korean, loud enough for Soonyoung to hear. He grins mischievously as Soonyoung whirls around with a horrified look on his face. When Soonyoung realises that his best friend was only teasing him, he goes back to what he was doing, pressing his face up against the glass case of ice-cream, much to the horror of the employee waiting for them to make an order.

“Can I have two scoops on a cone? Wait, make that three.” Soonyoung asks the girl behind the counter, who nods back impatiently.

Soonyoung takes another five minutes to inspect each of the forty flavours offered, from one end of the glass case to the other; while Jihoon watches him, thinking that Soonyoung’s biggest worry in life is choosing ice-cream flavours - how carefree. Jihoon feels that his self-confidence is dwindling by the moment; he wants to hop on his bike and ride away, rather than face that girl behind the counter, ordering whatever Soonyoung wants (probably a twisted and complicated concoction, judging from his indecision to pick flavours). 

After a few minutes of perusing, and mumbling to himself, Soonyoung loudly announces to the whole place: “I have made my decision.” Jihoon half-expects the other customers to stand up and clap for him, like they do in the movies, but real life isn’t as dramatic because everyone ignores him.

“Three scoops. Rocky road, marshmallow bubblegum and the tropical fruit mix. Hoonie will order for me.” Soonyoung grins, letting Jihoon step up to the counter.

“Are you ready to order, sir?” The girl behind the counter asks with a bored tone.

“Uh, yes.” Jihoon recites Soonyoung’s order exactly as he’d said it earlier, then adding his own order; “And one scoop of vanilla, on a cone.”

“Alright then. That’s it?” The employee asks, and Jihoon nods for confirmation. He internally sighs with relief, glad that it’s almost over.

“Wait, I forgot about toppings!” Soonyoung exclaims, eyeing the bowls of colourful toppings on the counter.

“You’re not getting any toppings.” Jihoon says. “Too much sugar.” Normal Soonyoung is already a handful to handle; and sugar-induced Soonyoung is almost impossible to control. Jihoon knows, he’s been there a couple of times. High school had been the most colourful years of his life thanks to little packets of Skittles that Soonyoung snacked on in maths class.

The ice-cream girl hurries to make their orders; and the exchange is complete as the cash register goes ka-ching. Jihoon’s surprised that he has to pay an atrocious amount of money just for ice-cream; but hey, it’s not every day that you have ice-cream with your best friend on the Santa Monica pier.

“I scream, you scream, gimme gimme that ice cream.” Soonyoung chants happily as he receives his towering ice-cream cone; zooming it onto the camera. He almost tips the cone over when trying to adjust the camera to get a good angle, and Jihoon almost goes ballistic.

“Do not drop anything.” Jihoon warns in his scariest voice, and quickly thanks their server. He drags Soonyoung out of the place, making sure that Soonyoung’s cone is still intact – he paid a lot of money for that, and he doesn’t want to see even a drop of it on the floor.

“I’ve got the best ice-cream combo; and all Hoonie got is boring vanilla.” Soonyoung tells the camera. There’s a smidge of rocky road on his nose.

“Vanilla’s not boring.” Jihoon defends himself, his cone. “I just don’t like sweet things.” The creamy taste of the ice-cream melts in his mouth, a refreshing contrast against the hot weather. He takes the camera from Soonyoung, who’s trying to eat his ice-cream. “Tell us about your ice-cream, Soonie.”

Soonyoung eagerly describes his cone as Jihoon films him. They wander around the pier, finishing up their cones, soaking up the general atmosphere. Soonyoung reminisces their childhood, especially the ice-cream related episodes; recalling how Jihoon would always stick with his customary vanilla cone, while Soonyoung goes for the wild flavours. Jihoon remembers hot summer afternoons and the ice-cream man, and Soonyoung would