The house was feeling more crowded than ever with everyone being home together. There was no need to worry about working or renovating more stuff by this point. While things remained peaceful for the time being, everyone continued their chores around the town. The newbies finally settled in their new homes at either the other motel or homes in a different neighborhood. They soon began helping around as well, doing their best to repay what the leaders did for them. In the meantime, most kids revisited the arcade, roller skating rink, basketball court and skate park, while everyone else made use of the other buildings. Others continued making more weapons at the police station, painting tons of murals at the small elementary school, and controlling the giant television in the plaza to project random commercials around the world, just to catch up on things. The town became more like a vibrant city, which brought back the feeling of home for everyone. A lot of kids were skating around the neighborhoods and riding around with bikes and skateboards on the roads since there wasn’t any need to use cars. Overall, things improved within weeks as they anticipated more arrivals, in case other kids heard the girls’ message outside the wall. Speaking of which, Soojin and Soeun were downstairs making pasta for breakfast while Monday and Jiyoon snored in the living room. Though pretty soon, the delicious scent attracted everyone into the kitchen for another delightful meal. Like always, the girls talked about the day that lied ahead of them. Other than that, nothing else was brought before the group split up to do their own thing, Zoa staying in the house alone. Monday and Jiyoon were going to the motor garage, Jihan and Jaehee went to do laundry, and lastly, Soojin and Soeun had another picnic at the beach. This time, however, the younger girl brought along a bike in case they wanted to explore around.

Soojin squealed the whole way as Soeun pedaled down a path, the adrenaline kicking in. She sped away with the older girl tightly clinging around her waist, laughing at how fun this date was already. It felt as though they were flying towards their destination, soon reaching the sandy beach at last. The two then settled under the shade of a large tree and ate their food. After a few hours, Soeun suddenly got up to get something in the distance, but told Soojin to close her eyes for the surprise. “Ok, you can open them now.” 

She immediately gasped at the large bouquet of roses before her, nearly moved to tears. “These are so beautiful! Thank you, Soeunnie.” Soojin embraced the younger girl tightly. “I’ll definitely plant these in our back garden.

“I’m glad you like them.” She responded shyly.

“I really enjoyed this date, it was nice like last time, maybe even better.” 

“I thought the same.” Soeun said honestly. “Are there any other places you want to visit after this?” 

“Hm…not really, I’m fine with anything.” 

“Oh, alright. Then, wanna ride around the beach?” 

“Sure!” After placing everything in the basket, Soojin hopped onto the bike behind Soeun, clinging onto her once again as she pedaled off, the waves occasionally splashing at them. They laughed while a cool wind breezed by, making their date all the more joyful. Soeun raced through some large stones and rocks, which was where the girls decided to take a short break to discover seashells. At one point, Soojin found a hermit crab sleeping, nearly disturbing its sleep. Another hour passed, so they agreed to go home at last. In conclusion, this was another successful date.

Night time arrived in what felt like mere hours. Lots of kids gathered at the skating rink once more, socializing amongst each other while others gathered around for some sort of dance competition. The girls didn’t seem too interested in it and were hanging backstage while idly playing some instruments. Everyone constantly teased the two obvious lovebirds, though in all seriousness, were very glad they enjoyed the date this morning. Monday and Jiyoon were harmonizing while Zoa played her ukulele for them, with the addition of Jaehee helping record the samples for future tracks. Maybe one day they’ll release an album of their own. Soeun and Soojin enjoyed this, even occasionally joining in on the singing for once. They were pleasantly surprised that Soeun could sing so well, effortlessly hitting a note at one point, which really led them to convince her to join their band. Of course, she was hesitant at first, but promised to consider that possibility. Soeun then decided to take a small break and head to the bathroom, thus exiting out. A while later, while on her way back, the referee for the dance competition announced something that caught her attention.

“And the winner is Park Jisung!!” The crowd cheered.

Raising an eyebrow, Soeun carefully squeezed into the crowd to watch her craphead of a cousin battle against yet another opponent. Last thing she expected to see was Yedam being the other craphead. But in all honesty, she rooted for Jisung on this round. The rules were rather simple: one person went first, then the next dancer followed up. But when there’s freestyle, which is random at times, both of them would have to impress the crowd, so the winner was determined by their reactions. After the usual rock-paper-scissors match, Yedam danced first, doing the typical b-boy moves, somewhat attracting a few attention and acknowledgement. Jisung decided to play his own game and did the same thing, except being quicker and having greater fluidity, displaying years of experience beforehand, intriguing everyone and earning cheers all around. Yedam huffed in irritation, then pulled off some hip hop moves, gaining slightly more cheers than before. But even then, Jisung continued to have more support by easily executing difficult dance techniques that even professionals struggled with. Eventually, the announcer declared another round of freestyle. Yedam didn’t give up just yet and performed like no other, actually earning himself a decent crowd who cheered him on. Even with all this though, everyone knew Jisung was going to breeze through this. He outshined his opponent, turning up the intensity getting far more encores than Yedam. Soon enough, the announcer stopped them both to declare the winner, but that didn’t take him too long.

“Park Jisung, yet again!” 

His opponent slumped at the loss, but honestly agreed that the older dancer truly earned his rep around here. Yedam rejoined his friends, who applauded him for trying his best. Though shortly after as the clapping slowly died down, one person was still ‘applauding’. “Would you care for a battle with me?” 

He never grew so angry in his life. “You!”

“I'm not really asking for much, but if you're up for a challenge….” Soeun smirked while tempting.

“Would you like to challenge her to another dance off, Jisung?”

“F-fine! You better not pull some cheating moves again, .” This confused Soeun.

“The hell are you babbling about, weirdo?" 

"No, no, no you're not gonna play dumb with me like that." 

"The next dancer to take on champion Park Jisung: Park Soeun!!" Immediately after hearing her name, the girls quickly drew back the curtains in shock. All of them stood on stage to watch this go down.

She rolled her eyes at her cousin before joining the circle, now they were to decide who's going first. Soeun skipped the rock-paper-scissors match and just let Jisung have the first turn. He looked forward to humiliating her, so without wasting anymore time, he busted out all kinds of impressive techniques, gaining thunderous applause from the crowd. When finished, everyone waited for Soeun’s turn, but never did they expect her to match Jisung's skills so easily. After she was done, people realized the threat she posed for Jisung. Their feud continued on much longer than the last match because everyone was so enamored by the two, even the announcer forgot to start the freestyle part. No one knew who would win afterwards, so the decision had to be made at the end. That being said, things were getting quite tense as neither of them backed down, their unwillingness to stand down ever prominent. Soon enough, it’d been at least twenty minutes into this match with everyone still amazed. Eventually, the announcer came back to reality, starting the freestyle dancing. Jisung immediately performed rigorously, constantly popping and locking, as if he were a robot in disguise. He did all kinds of moves that almost outshined his opponent like before. However, Soeun still managed to snatch that spotlight. She flowed with the beat, pulling off acrobatic moves with ease, something Jisung forgot she could do. In other words, he was doomed and didn’t even realize it. Now that everyone’s attention was on Soeun, she continued applying her combination of dance moves and acrobatics that made the audience erupt in boisterous applause. She wasn’t just moving with the music, she was the music. Jisung felt desperate to win and wanted to beat his rival, but then an abrupt slip up made him lose balance. A loud thud made Soeun stop dancing to look behind, thus halting the cheering as well. She immediately offered a hand to help Jisung up, but all he did was glare in response, slapping it away before speed walking right out of the rink. The announcer didn’t really say anything further and just shrugged.

“And the new champion is Park Soeun!!”

The kids immediately cheered on for her without a second thought as she still stood there shocked at what had just happened. Soeun knew her relationship with Jisung was terrible, but in all honesty, she had genuinely forgotten what had gone wrong in the past. Their parents constantly pitted them against each other, but it was always in good fun. Then, somewhere around high school, things got ugly. Soeun’s thoughts were interrupted by Soojin’s tight embrace, followed by the rest of the girls crowding around. She chuckled at how much they complimented her, blushing under the immense attention. No one else wanted to participate in the dance battle, thus the competition had to end there and led to more celebrations with a concert. Jihan and Jaehee joined the trio for their performance, singing on stage like the crackheads they were, just having fun. Pretty soon, Ruann, May and Lucy hopped on the platform with them. As the girls sang their hearts out, Soojin and Soeun were sitting and laughing in the distance. Who would’ve thought they would be such dorks on stage? When Monday’s effortless only served to have the audience go even crazier. Her chemistry with Jiyoon totally took the show as well since they harmonized like they’d performed together for years. Soojin rested her head on Soeun’s shoulder as the two leaned their backs on the wall. Despite the thunderous music, she somehow tuned that out and felt peaceful just being here with loved ones. After months of imprisonment, Soojin couldn’t ask for anything more than this. 

Meanwhile, outside of the roller skating rink, the temperature unexpectedly dipped. Jisung trekked towards the exit of the carnival as both hands were stuffed in his pants’ pockets. He’d been in a salty mood after losing to Soeun again, which brought back the absolutely humiliating memories from last year. Everyone had laughed and pointed fingers at him, all for a single screw up. He was so angry, being unable to think properly so all of the blame was just placed on his cousin. Jisung was thoroughly sure that the whole incident happened because of her, no questions asked. But then he’d thought back to his conversation with Soojin last night while in the arcade. Either way, misunderstanding or not, Jisung just couldn’t let that go. Though…did he really ever let Soeun explain herself and overreacted? He instantly shook his head.

“No. She caused it, so it’s all her fault.” Maybe one day Jisung would know the truth, be it tomorrow or later. The boy had just reached the exit when a hand on his shoulder unexpectedly stopped him. 

“Hey, remember me?” 

“U-uh…you’re that Yedam guy, right?” Jisung raised an eyebrow, confused as to what he wanted with him. 

“That’s me. I see your rival is Park Soeun?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Well then it’s settled, Park Jisung, we have a common enemy that needs to be brought down a peg or ten.” 

“Wait, what do you have against her?” 

“She has something that I want. Or, someone.”

“…ok? What do you propose then?” 

“I want to challenge her to a dance battle, but maybe give her a little surprise?”

Jisung pondered on, before realizing what Yedam meant and smirked. “Ahh, I see. Sabotage, huh?” 

“You read my mind, Park Jisung. Let’s go plan some more.” He swung his arm around Jisung’s shoulders as they walked off into a secluded area.