Boisterous cheers erupted once the cargo arrived in town as everyone crowded around. The new kids were still taking time to adjust, though they didn’t take up much space. Tonight however, it was needless to worry because all they wanted to do was celebrate this victory. From successfully breaking into a camp to hijacking two semis, who would’ve thought the girls could pull that off? A while later, everyone worked together to sort out the rations inside their supermarket. At the moment, there weren’t any currencies involved, so the way distribution worked was kids lined up and got what was needed.The friendly environment truly helped bring them all together. 

After the girls’ success, tonight called for a celebration so what better way to do that than hold yet another concert? Jiyoon, Monday and Zoa quickly set up their equipment back in the roller skating rink, but this time, the trio decided to finally try out the DJ booth that they’d renovated not too long ago. The sound was still a little subpar, but that seemed to be the trend these days, thus, they simply shrugged before wheeling it out on stage. Everyone was already hanging out around the rink, many talking amongst their friend group, some doing acrobatic stunts, and others mindlessly surfing the internet. Monday her mic to get all of their attention, causing the kids to flood the skating rink and crowd in front of the stage. She asked if they were ready to party, earning cheers and applause as Jiyoon cranked up her guitar. Afterwards, Zoa switched on her booth, then tested out a sequential beat that everyone seemed to like. To the trio’s astonishment, the kids screamed even more. The band just covered whatever songs they could think of at that point, since they didn’t really need to hype their audience up. Either way, the night was extremely fun as celebration carried on like no other. And well…maybe it was too much fun. Next morning arrived before anyone expected. While the other girls had already gone home, the trio somehow managed to sleep through the whole evening on stage. Jiyoon cuddled with her guitar, thinking it was a person. Monday snored away in dreamland as her arm and leg dangled by the edge, while Zoa simply created a makeshift bed on the DJ booth. Thankfully, they weren’t alone since the roller skating rink held many who had passed out. They slept soundly on desks and the floor, not exactly ideal but the weariness really caught up by the middle of the night.

Soojin wasn’t all too surprised when she came back inside to find her sister and friends, but never did she expect to see them still on stage. After giggling and taking some pictures, she finally woke the trio up. “I can’t believe you guys had been here this whole time. I knew there had to be a reason you weren’t in your rooms.” 

“Ugh…what time is it?” Monday drowsily asked. 

“Almost 9am.”

“Oh hey, that’s not too bad. I used to sleep past one all the time.” Jiyoon chuckled as Soojin rolled her eyes. 

“Come on, I made everyone breakfast at home.” 

“Don’t tell me we have to walk back….” 

“You have to if you want to try some fluffy pancakes.” 

They all looked at each other, then back at her as Zoa responded. “Say less.” 

The trek back to their house wasn’t too hard, though they still clung onto each other so as to not fall over. Soon enough, the girls arrived at the front door and Monday yawned while Soojin led them into the kitchen. “These pancakes better be worth…….” 

The sentence trailed off and her eyes grew wide in shock. Jiyoon and Zoa, on the other, couldn’t help but gasp when they saw the delicious breakfast. Soojin merely laughed at their reactions. “The restock really did us all a favor. Now we can have fancy homemade breakfast for days.”

“This is awesome!” Monday exclaimed, hurriedly taking a seat to dig in. “You’re truly the best chef there is, unnie.” She complimented, making the older girl slightly blush. 

“Thanks, but I had help.” Soojin smiled at Soeun, who returned the gesture before they both joined their friends.

“I’m so glad you guys are finally home, it’d been so lonely since you left for that mission.” Jihan said. 

“Aw, but we were only gone for a day.” Jiyoon responded as Jaehee pouted. 

“Still though…it felt like our parents left to go to work, so it was just us two at home.” Neither her or Jihan noticed, but everyone immediately froze upon hearing that sentence. Soeun nearly choked on her orange juice before desperately looking at the others. What the hell were they going to do if they asked about that night?

“U-uh, don’t worry too much. We’re home now a-and—maybe we can have another movie night?” Zoa quickly blurted out, which easily led the two kids away from the topic. 

“Sure! I’d be fine with anything as long as we all get to hang out.” Jihan smiled while having a mouth full of pancakes. 

Right then and there, Soojin nearly had a panic attack because she instinctively grabbed Soeun’s hand in the speed of light. The younger girl returned the contact, silently thanking Zoa, who subtly nodded in return. Monday and Jiyoon sighed in relief, momentarily glancing at each other before finishing their breakfast. A few minutes later when everyone was almost done, Jaehee spoke up once again. “Oh! I forgot to tell you guys this.” 

“What is it?” Zoa asked.

“This guy, um…what was his name?” 

“I think it was Yedam.” Jihan answered for her. 

“Wait, that same guy who cheated at the pinball game the other day?” Jiyoon raised an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, him.” This was certainly a sudden turn of events. 

Soeun frowned deeply. “What did he do?” 

“He actually came to our doorsteps yesterday afternoon,” Jaehee continued, “and said that he wanted to see Soojin unnie.” 

“Yeah. I don’t know, he was being kinda weird about it.”

“Mhm, very adamant, too.” 

Now everyone’s attention was on Soojin. “Do you know him?” Monday questioned, feeling quite confused. 

“Not really, but…while Soeun and I were hanging out at the carnival one day, he just came up to me and said I was ‘too cute to be alone’ or something.” The girls instantly grimaced. 

“What the heck??” Jiyoon was rather mortified. “He clearly does not know how to get girls to like him.” 

“He asked for my name and then proceeded to declare us friends after that. It got even weirder when his buddies crowded behind him.” 

“That’s really strange.” Zoa snarled thinking how someone could just talk like that to her sister. “If he ever does anything else, please let us know.” 

“Thank you guys. Soeun was there to save me from talking to him any longer.” 

“Oooh, knight in shining armor, huh?” Monday playfully teased to lighten up the mood, which worked since the girls immediately laughed, even Soeun herself. 

“I’m assuming you wanted to punch him square in the face to impress the damsel in distress?” Jiyoon smirked, unintentionally rhyming. 

“I still do.” She shrugged before getting up and washing her plate at the sink.

Later in the day, the girls decided to head towards the crowded arcade for fun, even more so when they saw Lucy and May fighting zombies together before cheering them on. Ever since the place had been renovated, it practically grew ten times festive just after weeks. Many had tried the trampolines, bot fights, the ‘shopping cart race’ and definitely more. Everything else was just classic arcade games from the 80s and 90s, which they didn’t really complain about since the fun was still there. The kids worked together to reprogram some consoles so now instead of the usual two players, there were now four to five at most. Thanks to Ruann’s past missions, a huge projector came quite handy. It displayed an enormous screen for everyone to see the players either battle against each other on competitive puzzle games, or teaming up to shoot aliens and zombies. Other than that, the arcade was the best place for having fun with friends, as well as easing stress. Soeun, May, Jihan and Jiyoon all teamed up to power through some epic boss fight, taking down every villain standing in their way. It was funny how invested they were since the girls couldn’t help but shout whenever they got injured or killed in the game. Ruann, May and Lucy, as well as a crowd of kids, were amused by this and ended up watching the whole time as the girls played. After every boss fight wins, the kids would erupt in a cheers and applause, which motivated them to continue. Soojin, Jaehee and Zoa were sitting in a safe distance, feeling quite astonished their friends attracted lots of attention. Honestly at this point, it was to be expected since they were getting quite popular around town. The three talked amongst each other, bringing up whatever topic interested them, before continuing to watch their friends beat the game.

“You think maybe we could try some games out for ourselves?” Soojin asked while looking around. “Oh, maybe the trampolines?”

“It’s been hogged for days now. Many kids just seem to like it I guess.” Jaehee responded while pouting, having hoped that one day, she and the girls would be able to have fun with those, but the universe really wasn’t on their side for that. 

“Well, there’s the counter that serves drinks and food, wanna go get some?” They both nodded at Zoa’s suggestion before heading there all together. Low and behold…there sure were some interesting things on the menu. But whoever came up with this was rather creative with it in an amusing way. Soojin settled for a drink called Blueberry Sea Salt Wave, basically a smoothie that was lightly seasoned with white chocolate and sea salt, while Jaehee chose something called ‘Fish Guts’ for funsies, which was just sushi and sashimi. And lastly, Zoa picked ‘Supernova’, an egg dish with habanero pepper.

To Soojin’s surprise, the waiter was Jisung, who had others help him make the dishes and beverages. “Order up!” He shouted behind before assisting them in the back. Only minutes later, he comes back with a tray full of delicious dishes and so forth.

“Did you come up with these yourself?” Jaehee asked, still starstruck by the dishes. 

“Yeah! My friends helped me, too.” 

“You must’ve been a culinary arts student before.” Zoa remarked while recalling certain parts of the designs from cooking shows. Jisung blushed at the compliments, shyly rubbing his neck. 

“I was, actually. I hope you guys will enjoy, we put a lot into these.”

After saying their thanks, the two kids dug in, gasping at the delicious taste. As they remained distracted, Soojin quickly stopped Jisung to talk. “Wait, can I ask you a few questions? If you’re not too busy.” 

“Yeah, sure. What’s up?” 

“What’s your relationship to Soeun?” She asked out of curiosity, then slightly frowned when Jisung scowled upon hearing her name. 

“I hate to say it, but she’s my cousin. We stopped talking years ago after she made me trip and fall during one of our dance competitions.” 

“How did that happen?” 

“I found her handkerchief under my shoe. I should’ve known she would’ve done crap like that. We never got along as kids anyways.”

“So, how do you know Soeun did that?” 

“That hoped I would fail the dance competition and didn’t even need to make that anymore obvious.” Jisung shook his head while recalling the memories, which only made Soojin more confused. 

“When exactly was this competition?” 

“Last year.” 

“Hm…well, that’s still pretty recent. I’m sure she wouldn’t have done that on purpose as far as I know.” 

“Of course she did! Once you truly get to know her, she’s the devil.” 

“Maybe it was just a misunderstanding, if you would consider it? Did she explain anything about that incident?” 

“Or rather, came up with some bull lie and said it fell out of her pocket. Yeah, right.” Jisung then flung a towel over his shoulder. “Sorry, but if you’ll excuse me now, I have to get back to work.”

He left shortly after without waiting for her to say anything else, leaving her there pondering how to bring this up to Soeun later. With music filling the whole place, Zoa and Jaehee didn’t hear their conversation, mindlessly scrolling through their phones for any updates in the media. Soojin sighed while taking small bites. She’d somehow lost her appetite within minutes after her conversation with Jisung. Knowing Soeun, she didn’t want to believe anything bad he said about her, so much so that even just thinking the younger girl could be evil made her feel lightheaded. Taking a deep breath, Soojin decided to go to the bathroom and told the two kids she’ll be back soon. Once inside a stall, she sat there for several moments while scrolling through her phone, hoping it would serve as an adequate distraction. The news these days had grown boring and less interesting to sit through. Social media didn’t take the cake either, many users simply complaining about their lives having little rainbows and sunshine, longing for some form of happiness. Soojin could only chuckle at the terrible acting skills on display from clips she watched online. She didn’t realize how long she’d been staying inside after receiving a text message from Zoa, asking where the older girl was. Soojin quickly left the bathroom to rejoin them, until someone grabbed her elbow to stop her.

“Hey there! Aren’t you that girl Yedam wanted to talk to yesterday?” A tall boy asked her, smirking. His expression was unreadable, but she was nonetheless creeped out. 

“What are you—”

“Yo, Yedam!” When he called that guy over, Soojin’s heart dropped before yanking her arm away from the boy’s grasp. 

In no time, Yedam arrived in her presence, followed by the rest of his group. “Hi! I’ve been looking for you.” 

“W-what do you want…?” 

“Just wanna talk. And—listen, about the other day in the carnival, I didn’t mean to seem like some weirdo hittin’ on ya.” He smiled while ‘apologizing’, which didn’t make it seem sincere. “But hey! I also heard you’re a Blue just like me. Now we can totally become closer friends. Wanna come hang out with us? We won’t bite at all, cutie.” 

“Yeah. You can stay for as long as you like.” One of his friends said.

Yedam rolled his eyes. “Shut the hell up, Yoshi.”

“No. And please don’t call me ‘cutie’.” As Soojin turned around to walk away, Yedam quickly stopped her by hastily grabbing her hand. She gasped fearfully at the sudden contact, instinctively trying to let go, but Yedam only gripped tighter.

“Come on, don’t be shy. Please ignore him and the others, you can just focus on me.”

“Hey, what’s going on?” A familiar voice behind them caught their attention. Soojin was in utter relief upon seeing Zoa. “Can you let go of my sister, please?” 

“‘Sister’? You both look nothing alike.” Yedam joked while chuckling, causing his group to laugh along. This only raised more tensions.

“Don’t make her repeat herself.” Another voice spoke up, but everyone knew who that belonged to. “Are you going to let her go? Or should I do it for you?” Soeun menacingly glared at the boy as he instantly released Soojin’s hand, allowing her to back away behind her. 

“Uh…l-look, I didn’t mean any trouble….” He easily cowered under her scowl. 

“Do some stupid like this again, I’ll make sure you regret it.” Then, without another word, the girls turned around to rejoin their friends as he stood there shellshocked. 

Everyone else carefully approached behind him as Yoshi uttered. “Welp, that went well, don’t you think? She’s quite feisty in my opinion.” 

“Whatever. I’m gonna make her mine someday.”

For the remainder of the afternoon and night, it continued to remain festive as always. Everyone had a blast at the carnival with the random food vendors, roller coasters and other rides. Or, almost everyone. Soeun was sour during the group’s adventure around the area and even then, neither of them could ease her moodiness. Except maybe one person. Soojin clung to her arm for the entire time, every once in a while getting the younger girl’s attention. When they finally split up into their own groups, Soojin was determined to make Soeun happy. They both went on rides again and tried more food along the way, which definitely made her less sour. Afterwards, the two went on the ferris wheel like last time, holding hands as they sat down. Short conversations started and ended fairly quickly, but neither of them minded, instead enjoying the peaceful silence while Soojin leaned against Soeun’s shoulder. Soon enough, their cart had reached the highest level on the ferris wheel, allowing the two to see their town adorned by gorgeous lights.

“How are you feeling now, grumpy?” Soojin softly asked as the younger girl chuckled. 

“Less grumpier than before, thanks for asking.” 

“Did my charms do the trick?” She jokingly flipped her hair back with a hand and winked. 

Soeun scoffed, smiling. “You’re so cheesy.”

“But you like it!” 

“Yeah…really though, thanks. I think I need it after today.”

Soojin intertwined her hand with Soeun’s. “You saved me again…thanks for that, too.” 

“Of course.” 

“I was kind of surprised Zoa was there as well. I’ll be sure to thank her tomorrow.”

“Gonna make us more of those amazing breakfasts?”

“You know me.” Soojin giggled before sadly smiling. “When um….”

Soeun quickly noticed the mood change. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just—when that guy said Zoa and I didn’t look alike, it sort of brought back the memories.”

“Oh…I’m sorry, that must’ve been really sudden.”

“Yeah. People would always assume we were just friends o-or…even dating. I despise every comment saying that, it just hurts for some reason.”

“Hey, hey it’s ok. They just don’t know what it’s like to have different kinds of siblings. No matter what people say, you and Zoa are the exact definition of what a family is and should be. You’re probably the closest sisters I’ve ever met, and maybe the others could say the same thing.”

She smiled softly as her heart soared. “That means a lot, Soeunnie…thank you so much.”

“Not at all, Soojin.” Before neither of them knew it, they both slowly leaned in, eyes looking down at each other’s lips. And just when the two were about to kiss, the moment was interrupted when their cart’s door opened, which meant it was time to leave. They chuckled while doing so, still holding hands. “Well that didn’t end as I hoped it would.” This made Soojin burst out laughing.

“It’s ok, maybe another time.”

“Oh? ‘Another time’, you say?” 

“Yes, Park Soeun, another time.”

“Then I must assume you want to go on another date?” 

“Sure! We all don’t have to work for a while, so this week should be free.”

“Sounds nice. Wanna head home for a movie night?” 

“Mhm! But,” Soojin stopped them from walking anymore, “one more thing.” She then leaned in to peck her cheek. “Now we can go home.”

“Ah, just a sec.” 

“Hm? What is it?”

Soeun simply smiled. “One more thing.” Then returned the favor, kissing Soojin’s cheek as well. The older girl lightly gasped, still remaining surprised afterwards. “Now we can go home.” And for once today, Soeun was finally happy.