Summer had finally come to an end and today was my last day of work. During these three months, I had drastically changed in a good way. I had made new friends, met new people and become a new, mature, more fun and outgoing person. Working with Chen had been a great experience and he had become a really good friend of mine. We were now so close he had come over to the Kim’s residence several times and my father, Mr. and Mrs. Kim and Min Ho loved him. 

Chen had taken me to his trainee classes sometimes and I had helped him practice. He was actually an amazing and talented singer and he was really good at dancing. Thanks to him I had met a variety of new people. I had befriended some of his trainee friends and I had even befriended some idols at the coffee shop. The two of us had hung out with them a lot during the summer and it had all been more than I had hoped for summer.

Okay, enough of Chen and back to me now. The changes that I had were both physical and mental. The mental changes were little, but at least now I didn’t look down on myself and call myself dumb or take myself for granted like I used to. The physical changes though, were huge in comparison. During mid-summer I had cut my long hair to a upper-back length haircut and just a week ago I had shortened it down to a shoulder length and coloured it blonde with side bangs. I lowkey looked like Han Ye Seul with her recent blonde hairdo. This had actually been a running joke with the new found crew.

Another physical change was my height, I was now a tad taller which I think had to do with my drastic weight loss that was caused by literally running around every single day with Chen and his friends. I loved the way I looked before but now I felt way more comfortable and confident in my skin. Besides my looks maturing I thought it had to do with me just being happy all the time.

“We’re closing soon”, Chen came to the stand where I was at.

“I can’t believe it’s over”, I said. “It feels like I came here the first time yesterday.”

“I know”, he agreed. “Time flew by so fast.”

“Aren’t you guys coming?” Lay and Kris, who were Chen’s trainee friends and also my friends since two months ago, walked to us.

“We have to wait five minutes”, I said. “They’re still eating.” We all turned to the only table that was occupied. Chang Min from DBSK was having coffee with Shinee’s Tae Min and Super Junior’s Kyu Hyun. They were apparently having a maknae date.

“Hello sunbae”, Kris and Lay bowed to the three of them. It always made me smile whenever I saw trainees paying respect to their seniors. The maknae trio looked at us.

“Aren’t you guys going to practice?” Kyu Hyun asked.

“We’ve finished our schedules for today”, Kris answered.

“Can I have more coffee Ji Eun ah”, Chang Min asked me.

“We have to close in 4 minutes hyung”, Chen complained. I was going to take the coffee to Chang Min, but he beat me to it.

“I called Ji Eun”, Chang Min said when Chen put more coffee in his cup.

“I work here too sunbae”, Chen said. He started taking all of their plates. “We have to close so you need to go to the coffee shop next door.”

“Fine”, Chang Min stood up. “Bye, Go Ji Eun.”

“I’ll see you around some other time”, Tae Min said. Kyu Hyun waved and they left.

“Jerks”, Chen said when they were gone. Kris and Lay were laughing. 

The reason Chen was behaving like this to his sunbaes was due to a game they played a month ago and Chen held a grudge against all of them because he believed they cheated. No one really blamed him for holding a grudge either because they had indeed cheated and I was also guilty for cheating, but he was still very nice to me. 

I closed the stand and started putting things back inside while Chen was cleaning outside. After washing the remaining dishes, I took our stuff and closed the door to the coffee shop. It was 9 pm and we had opened way past our closing time.

“Here”, I gave Chen his things. “Where are we going tonight?”

“We’re meeting up with the others at the usual place”, Lay answered. “Then we’re going somewhere fun.”

“Awesome”, I said. ”But you guys won’t be taking me to a strangers pool again, right?”

“Of course not”, Kris smirked. I looked suspiciously at him. Kris was the most dangerous out of all of Chen’s friends because he had the craziest ideas. “It’s going to be safe. We won’t be chased off by cops like last time.”

“That’s good cause I don’t think my legs will be able to run like that ever again”, I smiled remembering when we were chased around the streets at night by cops.

Kris had tricked us all into entering “his” house and swimming in “his” pool when it was actually someone else’s house and pool. A neighbour had seen us entering the house and called the cops. By the time we heard the sirens, we had all run for our lives. Don't think it was that easy to run away because they had chased us good.

If it wasn’t for Chen grabbing my hand and pulling me away with him, I might have been put in jail. Afterwards we had all yelled at Kris and he had apologised like he always did and we all got over it. Also when I said all, it wasn’t just the four of us present, but there were more trainees that you were going to know soon enough.

We finally arrived at our usual hang out place, a restaurant downtown, where the others were waiting. We were a group of 6 people: Chen, Kris, Lay, Chan Yeol, Baek Hyun and I. They all had known each other for a long time while I had started hanging out with them two months ago. When Chen introduced me to them, I knew that once summer ended we were all going to go back to our usual lives while maintaining contact but not like during the summer.

“You guys made it!” Chan Yeol hugged everyone. He was always happy and the one person that boosted up everyone’s mood. “It’s great that we’re meeting up like this one last time on the last day of summer.”

“Yup”, I nodded. “So are you guys going to tell me what we’re doing tonight?”

“We’re going to watch fireworks”, Baek Hyun answered. “But that's all I know.” We all turned heads to Kris, because he had planned it all. He was always the one planning and getting us in trouble.

“I’m telling you later”, he winked at me. “I promise it’s going to be fun.”

And so we went to see the beautiful fireworks. As we were sitting there watching, flashbacks of the entire summer went through my mind.

“What are you thinking about?” Chen asked.

“How amazing summer was”, I answered.

“You have to admit it was all thanks to me right?” He held my hand and I nodded. “I had an awesome summer too. And it was thanks to you.” I looked at Chen and a smile lit up both of our faces. Yes, Chen had surprisingly that effect on me. He always managed to make me smile, even when I was on my saddest mood.

“You two lovebirds are making the rest of us jealous”, Baek Hyun said making me blush. Chen and I were close friends but at times it did feel like there was more between us than it should be in a friendship. 

“Ji Eun is blushing”, Lay nudge my shoulder. “You’re so cute.”

Kris who had missed the entire thing, came back from wherever he had gone to.

“It’s time for my surprise guys”, he said. “Let’s go.”

We all got up and followed Mr. Kris for about an hour until we arrived in front of the Jamwon outdoor swimming pool close to the Han River.

“Tada”, he sang.

The place was empty since it was late, but that was the best part. We could swim without other people around to bother us.

“You should have taken us here instead of that house”, Chen said. “It’s awesome.” He started undressing and the guys and I followed his lead. When we were all in our underwear and ready to jump, Kris stopped us.

“Why?” Chan Yeol asked.

“Did you think the last day of summer vacation would be so easy?” He asked. “We’re going to skinny dip.” What?

“No”, I shook my head. “There’s no way I’m going to swim around a bunch of guys.”

“I agree with miss Go”, Chen said.

“Oh come on!” Kris looked at the other three boys who hadn’t said a thing. “We’re in underwear already. Why not just take it all off?”

“You’re crazy”, Lay said and jumped into the water. Chan Yeol and Baek Hyun exchanged looks before grabbing Kris and jumping into the pool.

“Ya!” Kris yelled. ”You want to die?” While I was laughing, Chen lifted me up and threw me in the water as he jumped in.

“Chen!” I yelled when the cold water touched my skin. I finally got used to the temperature and looked around for him, but he lifted me up again from under the water and I laughed when he put me back in the water and tickled me.

“Canonball”, Kris yelled. He ran far from the pool at full speed and dived in splashing water on everyone. “Woohoo!”

“Ji Eun ah!” Baek Hyun and Lay called. ”Do you want to play Shark attack?”

“Sure why not?” I said. ”But I don't want to be the shark.”

“I will be the shark”, Chen offered.

“The winner will dare you to do something”, Kris said. 

The game officially began. We were all outside of the pool while Chen was in eyes closed. When we jumped in, he opened his eyes and started swimming after us.

The first one out was Lay. Then I was tagged and lost. Chan Yeol was third followed by Baek Hyun and the winner ended up being Kris. He always won all the games we played and I had no idea how.

“Okay”, Chen said. “Give me my dare.”

“It’s quite easy actually”, Kris grinned. “I dare you to kiss Ji Eun.” The guys whistled and applauded, while my heart was racing and my face was turning red.

Chen got out of the pool without complaining and walked straight to me.

“Go Chen!” Lay cheered. ”Do it like a man.”

The more he was closing in on me, the more nervous I got. He smiled before leaning in. I closed my eyes waiting for the kiss, with maybe too much anticipation.

“You kids need to leave this property immediately”, someone said. I opened my eyes and saw two male cops looking at us with menace. “This is not a playground and also, don’t you have school tomorrow?.”

“That’s the main reason we came here”, Kris sarcastically answered. Lay pulled him away from the cops before his cockiness would cause another misunderstanding.

“Take the lady home safely”, the other cop said to Chen who was protectively  standing in front of me. Chen gave me my clothes.

“Will do sir”, he said. We quickly got dressed and hurried to the closest bus stop.

“This was fun”, Kris said. “How about we do it again some other time?”

“How about no?” Chan Yeol said. ”We always get chased away by cops whenever you suggest we do something.”

“It’s not my fault they’re so good at finding me”, Kris smiled. We all laughed before it was time to hug and say goodbye.

“Thank you guys”, I waved. “I’ll miss you all.”

“We’ll miss you”, Baek Hyun said as Chen and I hopped on the empty bus that would get us home.

“You’re drenched”, he said.

“So are you”, I looked at him.

“Come here”, he pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arms around me. “I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

I leaned my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. About an hour or plus later we got off at our neighbourhood. Chen and I stood at the that separated our way home.

”About earlier”, he smiled. I could see his eyes twinkling at me. ”We didn’t get the chance but now that we are alone…” He held my hands and I couldn’t help but smile as he slowly pulled me towards him. ”My goodnight kiss.” I shortened the space between us, put my weight on my toes and kissed him. I felt Chen's smile as I shifted my weight back evenly. Chen kissed me again.

No, Chen and I weren’t together. We were just really close and we also happened to enjoy each other’s company now and then in more ways than one. It started four weeks ago when Chen had initiated a kiss when we where at a party and then it had escalated from there.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow?” He asked after unwillingly pulling away.

“See ya”, I hugged him goodbye and made my way home.

When I entered the house, I remembered I hadn’t spoken about the family for a while now. Well, there was nothing much to say. Mr. Kim hadn’t changed very much except his hair was now really grey. My father's restaurant had become way more popular and unfortunately he was still single and Mrs. Kim was still Mrs. Kim. Min Ho and I were closer than ever, especially since Kai wasn’t here.

Speaking of Kai, he was probably on his way here by now for school tomorrow. I had tried hard not to think about him during summer, which I succeeded at when Chen was around. But once Chen was gone Kai would resurface my mind and make me depressed. Ever since the dinner he had been on my mind way more than usual. I couldn’t help but grow more furious when thinking of him. The things he had done to me before were nothing compared to what he did this summer.

Although I thought Kai and I had established some type of friendship, it appeared it wasn’t the case. Mr. Handsome would call home every once in a while to speak with everyone; everyone but me. Not once had he called me or asked about me during his vacation and it hurt me so much I wanted to punch him in the face as soon as I would see him. No matter what had happened, I thought at the least we were cordial to each other. He could have at least called me and asked how I was. That’s what a normal person would do. But of course as you read I wrote normal, and Kai was anything but.

You’d think I would have gotten over him by now with everything he had done, but I was still hopelessly and madly in love with him. I didn’t understand how it was even possible after everything but one thing I knew was that I had missed him a lot. I had missed talking to him and hearing his voice. I missed the way he always looked at me without saying anything, the way he smelled when his arms were around me. And most definitely, after kissing him I had craved for his lips every single day.

In conclusion I was more in love with Kai than I had been before and it ing .

That’s why I had decided that this school year was going to be different. I was going to  try and not focus on Kai and let things happen naturally. With my new found determination, I took off my shoes and walked upstairs. The light was on in the mini living room. Had Min Ho forgetten to turn it off? I was about to turn off the light, when I heard a noise behind and turned around. My eyes widened and I just stared at the person behind me.

Kai was back!