The first time Seulgi met Joohyun, it had been raining heavily.

It was a warm, cloudy afternoon in May, when the season was slowly rolling away from the comfort of Spring and gradually entering the maelstrom of Summer.

Seulgi had never really liked Summer.

The heat, the humidity, and the giant bugs were all too much for her.

But, as she stood on the doorstep to the Bae family’s house, one hand tightly clutching to her father’s and the other one nervously plucking at the hem of her yellow raincoat, she found out that maybe, Summer wasn’t going to be so bad.

That maybe, it would even be a little fun.

“Hi! Good afternoon, Mrs. Bae. I am Dr. Kang, the new head of neurosurgeons in the general hospital. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Seulgi looked up from her father’s waist height to see a woman in her late 30s, wearing a light brown sweater and a long, low ponytail that made her look very pretty despite the tiredness bagging underneath her eyes.

The woman seemed lost by her father’s introduction only for a fraction of second, before recognition dawned on her and her tired, brown eyes widened freshly.

“Oh! Dr. Kang! It’s a pleasure to finally meet you too. The entire town and the hospital staffs have been looking forward to meeting you. Please, come inside. It’s raining very hard outside.”

The woman shook her father’s hand and led them inside, where soon, Seulgi was faced with a warm, homey living room that was painted in cream color.

The house was a lot smaller than the new beach house her father had gotten for them recently, but somehow, it felt very comfy and cozy.

Maybe it was the worn-in couches, the delicious-smelling homemade cooking sitting on the kitchen counter, and the random funny doodles hanging askew on the walls.

Seulgi wondered who had doodled that many bunnies with pink and white crayons.

She liked doodling too, although her doodles usually varied.

“I’m sorry for visiting without notice, Mrs. Bae. My family has just moved in to the beach house up north and I figure that it will be nice for me to greet a few townsfolks before I start working in the hospital next week. I’m excited to get to know the community.”

The pretty lady – Mrs. Bae – whom Seulgi’s father had told her worked as one of the head nurses in the town’s hospital, gave them a warm smile. “It’s not a problem, Doctor. We are very thankful to have you here. It’s been really difficult for us to find a neurosurgeon who wants to practice in such a small town like this. You are godsend to us.”

A light chuckle emitted from her dad. “Thank you. I wish to be of help too for everyone. This is my daughter, by the way, Seulgi. She has been really worried about moving in to a new town, so I decide to take her around.” He looked down at her and tugged her hand gently. “Seulgi, come on, give Mrs. Bae your greetings. Don’t be shy.”

Seulgi’s cheeks flushed as she blinked up at her. “H-hi, Mrs. Bae. It’s nice to meet you, I’m…Seulgi, and you are…um…very pretty.” Seulgi felt her face heat up even more at her own ramble. She had never been good at talking to people, let alone to new people.

Mrs. Bae paused for a moment with a surprised look before breaking into a soft laugh. Then, she crouched to be on eye-level with her. “Why, thank you, Seulgi. That’s very sweet of you. You are very pretty yourself. How old are you?”

“Um…I’m eight…” Seulgi murmured, looking down at her yellow sneakers and fidgeting with the hem of her raincoat again before peeking up. “I’m in third grade elementary.”

“Oh, you are the same age as my daughter. Are you going to attend the school down the road too? The one not far from here?”

Seulgi nodded.

At least that was what her dad had told her and what she had been crying about weeks ago when she had first found out that they were moving from Busan to Sokcho.

She still kind of wanted to cry now too, thinking of all the new kids at school she would have to try befriending again from scratch. It was terrifying.

“That’s great, Seulgi. I think you will be classmates with her once the Summer break ends and school starts again. Her name is Joo –”

“Mom? Is our lunch ready? I’m staaaaaarving, come on.”

Quick steps thundered down the staircase behind them, and Seulgi lifted her eyes to see who had caused such startling noises.

She was met with a girl around her height, wearing a pink bunny shirt and having twin ponytails in matching rubber bands.

The girl stopped short on the last step of the stair and gaped a bit, seemingly surprised by having guests. Her large, brown eyes blinked a few times before she clamped shut and looked at her mom with curiosity.

Seulgi thought, at that moment, that they looked like carbon copies.

The girl was very pretty too.

“Joohyun, come downstairs and greet our guests. This is Dr. Kang, the new neurosurgeon in our town and his daughter, Seulgi. They have just moved in to the beach house up north. Seulgi, Dr. Kang, this is my daughter I have just told you about, Joohyun.”

The girl – Joohyun – cleared readily and walked down the stairs with notably more grace than she had just a second earlier. “Hi, Dr. Kang! Hi, Seulgi! It’s nice to meet you. I hope you like the town.” She remained at her mother’s side but smiled up at them gamely, not clinging to her for dear life like Seulgi had been to her dad.

Her voice was smooth and bold too, not sounding the slightest bit of awkward like Seulgi’s.

“Hi, Joohyun! It’s nice to meet you. Your mother said you will be classmates with Seulgi once the Summer break is over. Do you think you can take care of her for me at school? She is a bit shy sometimes.” Seulgi’s dad chuckled and her hair softly.

Joohyun looked up at him with a bright grin and even brighter eyes as if she had just been given a mission made for her. “Of course, Dr. Kang! You don’t have to worry about that. I happen to be my class president! I’ll show her around and introduce her to everyone.”

Her large brown eyes shifted from her dad to Seulgi then, and Seulgi felt her insides churn with a mix of anxiousness and…hope? because those eyes looked really excited – and Seulgi didn’t do well with people who were too…boisterous – but they also looked kind and not pushy.

“Hi, Seulgi! I’m Joohyun. I like the bear on your raincoat. It’s very cute. Do you think you want to draw it with me sometimes? I like drawing animals.” Joohyun gave her a small, easy grin of camaraderie.

Now Seulgi knew who had doodled all the bunnies on the walls.

“H-hi, Joohyun. Thanks…um…I like drawing, too...Do you like drawing all animals? Or do you just like bunnies…? So far I, um…only see a lot of bunnies here.”

Joohyun’s grin widened impossibly at her response and she stretched her hand to grasp her wrist. Seulgi nearly yelped as she was tugged away without warning.

“Come with me upstairs! I’ll show you all my other doodles. You can add on them too if you want. I have crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, anything you want.”

Seulgi looked behind her shoulder at her dad for help, but he only grinned at her and gave her an encouraging nod as she was pulled away by Joohyun.

Well, she supposed she had to make a new friend in the town sooner or later…

And Joohyun didn’t seem like a bad person to start with.

If anything, she seemed genuinely excited as she pulled out drawing papers for Seulgi in her room and shared all her coloring equipment, not minding Seulgi’s awkwardness.

Maybe, if Joohyun kept thinking that it was okay for her to be a little…quiet, they would get along just fine.

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As time showed it three months later, Seulgi and Joohyun did get along well.

Seulgi was happy to find out that they had a lot of common interests aside from drawing; like building Lego bricks together for hours, piecing giant puzzles that were bigger than both of them combined, and giggling at adult movies they didn’t really understand.

It seemed like Joohyun was just as much as a homebody as her, although, she was much more outgoing. They spent nearly all Summer playing in Joohyun’s bedroom, and Seulgi couldn’t complain about any of it because she had always preferred to play indoor than to run screaming outside too.

Playing outdoor seemed…dangerous to do.

Seulgi had seen her friends in Busan trip over their feet because they didn’t watch where they were running to and then they fell on their faces.

One of them had even lost a tooth because of it.

Seulgi would die before she bled herself and had to be taken to her father’s hospital to get an injection of – something, anything – to fix her broken body part.

Needles were her worst fear, exceeding even her fear of monsters. And that was saying a lot because Seulgi was terrified of monsters.

“Why don’t you wanna watch this movie with me? It’s not even a scary monster movie. It’s a cartoon monster movie.” Joohyun whined her protest.

It was a warm, late afternoon in August, one of their last few days of Summer break before school was going to start.

They were splayed foolishly like starfishes on the floor of Joohyun’s bedroom, trying to absorb as much coolness as they could from the faded ceramics because the Summer heat was just too much and Joohyun’s aircon wasn’t really working.

Still, Seulgi didn’t mind being there – in Joohyun’s house – and not in her own house that had a fully functioning aircon, because somehow, it had become a habit for her to play in Joohyun’s house whenever she finished lunch at her own home.

“I don’t like monsters…” Seulgi whined back, her rejection a tad weaker than the first two tries but still unrelenting. “I don’t wanna get nightmares. Isn’t that about monsters scaring children to get, um, energy out of their screaming or something? That’s bad, Joohyun.”

Joohyun only giggled while putting the ‘Monster, Inc.’ DVD away. “Yeah, but it’s not scary! It’s a children movie, Seulgi. Our movie, unlike that other movie we saw the other day that included a lot of kissy faces.”

At the memory of the action movie that had included a lot of…physical activities that they both didn’t really understand, they both broke into secret giggles again.

“Your mom is going to be so angry if she knows you have that kind of movie.”

“She will never find it.” Joohyun smirked smugly and sat up on the floor. “I have my ways of hiding them. Besides, it’s not like she only gets mad at me for watching that kind of movie. She gets mad at me for watching anything, really. Well, at least anything that has real people in it and not cartoon.”

Seulgi watched her as she threw her hands up frustratedly.

“That’s weird. My mom and dad let me watch a lot of things. We have a home theatre in our house and we have movie night together whenever dad comes back from work.”

Joohyun’s jaw slacked open. “You have a home theatre in your house? As in, a real mini theatre with the huge widescreen and speakers and all?”

Seulgi nodded.

“And you have never invited me to your house? I thought we are friends! Why are we still playing here, in my crappy little room?”

Seulgi giggled at her dramatics. “Quit calling it like that. I like playing here. It’s nice.”

“You are saying that while you are sweating through your shirt.” Joohyun pointed a finger at her drenched shirt with a disbelieving look. “We don’t even have proper aircons here. It’s driving me nuts sometimes, really.”

Seulgi wanted to ask why they didn’t have it, but her father had taught her that it would be impolite to ask anyone why they didn’t have something, so she didn’t.

Joohyun turned to look at her again a moment later, eyes bright with excitement. “But really, can I play in your house sometimes? I want to see your home theatre! I like watching movies. I love them, really.”

She sighed dreamily and sprawled back on the floor, earning a giggle from Seulgi. “Why do you like them so much?”

Joohyun shrugged, rolling to lie on her stomach to face her. “I just think that it’s fascinating how all these people act. It’s kind of cool to see someone transform into a whole different person and try on so many lives. I think it’s a difficult and amazing thing to be able to do.”

Seulgi was still trying to digest it when Joohyun’s face bloomed with a secretive grin. “Actually, it’s my dream to do that one day. To be an actress, I mean.”

Seulgi’s mouth formed a big O as everything settled. Now she knew why Joohyun had pi